Our County and Its People: A Descriptive Work on Erie County, New York (Volume 1), Part 31

Author: Truman C. White
Publication date: 1898
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1017

USA > New York > Erie County > Our County and Its People: A Descriptive Work on Erie County, New York (Volume 1) > Part 31

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

2 The following vessels were enrolled and licensed in the Buffalo district as indicated:

Enrolled. Name.

Owner's Name.

Master's Name.

Built.

No. 1, 1817, Sloop Hannah,

Oliver Coit,

James Beard,

Seth Tucker,

Huron, O., 1816.

" 4, 1817,

Sch'r Experiment,

James Hale,

Orlando Keyes,

Black Rock, 1813.

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Black Rock, 1816. Grand River, 1814.

* 2, 1817, Brig Huron,

* 3, 1817, Schooner Aurora,

Townsend & Coit, Jonathan Sidway, Samuel Wilkeson,

Copyrighted 1897 by Bliss Bros., Photographers, Buffalo, N. Y. RT. REV. WILLIAM D. WALKER, DD., LL. D., D. C. L.

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FROM 1815 TO 1820.

boat, Troyer, came into port with the pioneer cargo of breadstuff from the West; it was flour from Cuyahoga. That was the beginning of the marvelous eastward tide of grain and flour transportation that flows on as resistless as the tides of the ocean. It was, however, many years before this feature of lake commerce assumed importance. The prin- cipal article of eastward freight down to the organization of Erie county was furs. In the summer of 1817 a vessel brought down the most valuable cargo ever shipped; it comprised 594 packages of beaver, otter, muskrat, bear and buffalo skins, of which 322 belonged to John Jacob Astor. The whole was worth more than $150,000. That was only eighty years ago-a period almost within the memory of living men. This fact is difficult of comprehension when one looks out upon the almost count- less fleets of vessels of every description that now trouble the waters of the lakes, or reads the bewildering array of figures that tell us of the immense freightage east and west by water. Moreover, it is only eighty

Enrolled.

Name.

Built.

No. 5, 1817, " 1, 1818,

Schooner Rachel, Brig Union,

Owner's Name. Robert Eaton, Jonathan Sidway, Elihu Pease,

Master's Name. Robert Eaton, James Beard,

Sandusky, 1815. Huron, O., 1814.

" 2, 1818,

Sch'r Experiment, Thomas Warren,

Warren Dinglay, Hawley Reed,

Two-Mile Creek, 1818.

" 4, 1818,

Schooner Wasp,

Francis Hibberd.

Huron, O., 1817.

" 5, 1818, Schooner Packet,

Gardner Cady, Buffalo, 1817.

" 7, 1818, Schooner Wasp,

Francis Hibberd,

Huron, O., 1817.

" 8, 1818,

Schooner Rachel,

Robert Eaton, Erie district, 1815.

" 1, 1819,

Schooner Wolf,

Henry T. Guest.

Danbury, O., 1817.

" 2, 1819,

Schooner Aurora,

Samuel Wilkeson,

Zephaniah Perkins,

Huron, 1816

** 3, 1819, Sch'r Experiment, William A. Lynde,

Simeon Fox,

Black Rock, 1813.

" 4, 1819,

Nautilus.

John B. Pells, Charles H. Averill, George J. Adkins,

Sandusky, 1818.

Enrollments of the following vessels are supposed to have been burned:

Enrolled.

Name.

Owner's Name.

1817.

Schooner Michigan.

Sheldon Thompson.

1817 ...

Erie.

Walter Norton,

William Miller,

1818.

Humming Bird.

H. & E. Thompson.

1818.

Kingbird.

Israel Loomis, Seth Stanley.

1819

Steamer Walk-in-the-Water.

Josephus B. Stewart,

Job Fish.

1819

. Sloop Independence

William Walters.

1819.

Dolphin

A. Williams.

The Buffalo Gazette of March 17, 1818, gives the following list of shipping then owned in Buffalo: Schooner Michigan, 132 tons burden; brig Union, 104 tons; schconer Erie, m tons; sloop Hannah, 43 tons; schooner General Scott, 21 tons. Total, 377 tons.

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Black Rock, 1813.

" 3, 1818,

Schooner Libert,

Hawley Reed, John Crane, Gardner Cady, Francis Hibberd, Robert Eaton, Henry T. Guest,

Sheldon Chapin.

Sheldon Thompson.

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

years since a new factor that was to create stupendous changes in com- mercial affairs was introduced on Lake Erie.

In November, 1817, a few men of means came from New York to - Black Rock and employed workmen to begin the construction of the first steamboat above Niagara Falls. The work progressed rapidly in the following spring and the vessel was launched on the 28th of May, in the presence of a vast crowd of people. The boat was named Walk-in-the-Water and she was ready about the middle of August for her trial trip into the lake; but her owners were grievously disappointed, after several days of effort, to learn that her engines had not sufficient power to force the vessel up the swift current of the river. It was a repetition of La Salle's experience with the Griffin a hundred and fifty years earlier. But a way was found out of the difficulty. The owners of the boat applied to Sheldon Thompson for a loan of ten or twelve yoke of oxen1 which were used by him in hauling sailing vessels up the river, and on August 23, with all steam up in the boiler and the oxen pulling at the end of a long cable, the swift current was overcome and the boat entered the smooth water of the lake. This pioneer steamboat' was built by Adam and Noah Brown, of New York; her boilers were made at Black Rock. John C. Calhoun was her first engineer. She was prudently fitted with two masts and sails, and her first captain was Job Fish, a former North River steamboat officer. The steam boat was destined for only a short existence, as she was wrecked off the lighthouse on Nobember 1, 1821. Her owners immediately began the construction of another vessel at Buffalo, near the foot of Indiana street, which was named the Superior and was launched April 13, 1822.

The spirit of rivalry between Buffalo and Black Rock was conspic- uously exhibited in connection with the building of this boat. The agent sent on by the New York men was instructed to build the steam- er at Buffalo, unless he found the harbor facilities insufficient. He first visited Black Rock and the citizens of that village soon convinced him that there was not much of a harbor at Buffalo. He came to the latter village to have the papers drawn for the construction of the vessel at Black Rock. But he encountered men in Buffalo who had faith in her harbor and that here was an opportunity to test its efficiency which they

1 The sailors called these oxen the "horn breeze."

? The Niagara Patriot of August 18, 1818, contained the following announcement : "The new and elegant steamboat Walk-in-the-Water will be ready for sailing the present week and we learn will take a short excursion previous to her regular trip to Detroit."

1 1

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TERRACE, MARKET AND LIBERTY POLE.

The Market House, the building with the Belfry on the right, was the first Municipal Structure of any importance erected in the city. The Building with verandas, partly shown on the left, is the Mansion Hotel.

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FROM 1815 TO 1820.

could not afford to ignore. Judge Wilkeson called upon the agent at his hotel with authority from his friends to secure the building of the boat at all hazards. The agent explained that his selection of Black Rock was based chiefly upon fear that the Buffalo harbor would be filled with ice until late in the spring, as he had been informed would be the case. Judge Wilkeson then proposed to supply him with necessary timber at a quarter less than Black Rock prices, and give a bond with ample security for the payment to the owners of $150 for each day that the steamer was detained in the harbor beyond the 1st of May. This proposition was accepted and the bond was signed by most of the re- sponsible men of the village. It may be added here, though out of its chronological order, that the steamboat passed safely out of the harbor before May 1, but only after a large amount of labor had been performed on the pier and in the channel; this labor was largely paid for by sub- scriptions of the citizens of the village.

Meanwhile a project, which was to exert a powerful influence upon the commerce of the lakes and transportation eastward and return from Erie county, had begun to take practical shape. From the early years of the century attention had been drawn to the feasibility of connect- ing the waters of Lake Erie with the Hudson River by a great canal. The subject was introduced in one of its features by Gouverneur Morris as early as 1803, and in 1807 Jesse Hawley wrote a series of articles over the signature, " Hercules," for the Ontario Messenger, published at Canandaigua, in which he described some of the European canals and set forth the advantages which would follow the construction of a water- way from the great lakes to tide water. One of the routes proposed was the old one by way of the Mohawk River, Oneida Lake, the Os- wego River and Lake Ontario. Consideration of this route was ulti- mately abandoned in favor of the one adopted. The Erie Canal had a practical forerunner in the improvements made by the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, incorporated in 1792. This company, by constructing a canal and locks around Little Falls in the Mohawk, and other improvements, opened water communication westward to Lake Ontario. Its improvements and rights finally passed to the State. In 1808 Joshua Forman, of Onondaga county, was elected to the As- sembly, pledged to advocate the canal project. He introduced a reso- lution in that body providing for the appointment of a joint commission of the Senate and Assembly to consider the subject of " a canal between the Hudson River and Lake Erie," and make a vigorous speech in its

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE,

favor; the resolution was adopted and was the first legislation on the subject. On recommendation of this committee another resolution was adopted directing the surveyor-general to survey the " usual route" (the one above mentioned), and such other routes as he thought ad- . visable. It was at that time hoped and believed that the national gov- ernment would undertake or materially aid the work. Under a small appropriation made by the Legislature James Geddes, of Onondaga, explored the old route. . In 1810 Gouverneur Morris, Stephen Van Rensselaer, De Witt Clinton, Simeon De Witt, William North, Thomas Eddy and Peter B. Porter were appointed by the Legislature as com- missioners to further explore the proposed routes. This was done dur- ing the summer of that year and upon their report the next Legislature approved the route finally chosen. After the failure of repeated efforts to obtain aid from the general government, the Legislature, in June, 1812, authorized the borrowing of $5,000,000 with which to construct the canal, but the oncoming war stopped all progress of the work, and in 1814 the act was repealed. The project was revived at the close of the war and in April, 1816, the Legislature appointed a new commis- sion, consisting of De Witt Clinton, Stephen Van Rensselaer, Joseph Ellicott, Samuel Young and Myron Holley, who made further surveys and estimates and reported to the Legislature. The act finally author- izing the work passed the Legislature April 15, 1817, and on July 4 of that year practical work was commenced at Rome, N. Y. By that time the undertaking had become a prominent factor in politics, and in the fall of 1817 De Witt Clinton was elected governor on the issue by a large majority, which was significant of the general feeling through- out the State in favor of the canal. In Erie county Clinton received 737 votes, and Tompkins 310. The middle section of the great water- way from Utica to Montezuma was the first to be constructed and was finished in July, 1820; the eastern section was completed in October, 1823. The western section was not finished until a still later date, as noticed farther on.

The construction of the Erie Canal, and especially what point should be made its western terminus, awakened intense interest and caused active agitation throughout Erie county and adjoining territory. In the minds of many men of good judgment, and especially of those living in rural districts, the whole project was visionary and destined to failure; they did not believe such a continuous waterway through a diversified region could be maintained, and that if it could, it would

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FROM 1815 TO 1820.

not prove profitable as an avenue of transportation. Among the com- mon masses of people it was an object of scorn and ridicule. In Buf- falo and Black Rock the majority of thoughtful persons were in its favor; but each of these villages insisted upon its vast superiority as the canal terminus and the question was long in doubt. Black Rock had a sort of harbor and most of the vessels of the lake landed there. Buffalo had none. The advocates of the former village were led by Peter B. Porter, who possessed powerful influence, and for a con- siderable period it seemed that Black Rock was destined to be the canal terminus and the future commercial emporium. The village re- ceived a decided impetus and its growth was for a time more rapid than that of Buffalo. It was clear to the leading men of the latter place that this condition of affairs should not be permitted to continue, and measures were adopted for the construction of a harbor.

Various plans were discussed for raising money for the work, among them a lottery, the formation of an incorporated company, and a petition for government aid. What was called the Buffalo Harbor Company was organized, as a result of the agitation, in the spring of 1819, which originally comprised nine of the leading men of the place; to these was afterwards added the name of Samuel Wilkeson,' to whom more than to any other one person was due the construction of the first harbor. The nine men were Jonas Harrison, Ebenezer Walden, Heman B. Potter, John G. Camp, Oliver Forward, A. H. Tracy, Ebenezer Johnson, E. F. Norton and Charles Townsend. The company applied to the Legislature for aid and on April 17, 1819, an act was passed under which the State agreed to loan the company $12,000, provided its payment was secured by individual bonds and mortgages of mem- bers of the company for twice the amount of the loan If the harbor

' Samuel Wilkeson was born in Carlisle, Pa., in 1781, and was a son of John Wilkeson, who was a brave lieutenant in the Revolutionary war. The son's boyhood was spent on a farm, and after his father's death he married and removed to Ohio, where he cleared a farm for himself. Disliking the slow progress he was making he engaged in other business -building boats, mer- cantile operations, and transportation business on the lakes. He soon became the master of vessels and during the war of 1812 carried on important operations in connection with the army, which brought him to Black Rock and Buffalo. In the spring of 1814 he settled in the latter vil- lage and opened a store on the corner of Main and Niagara streets. He became an enthusiastic advocate of the canal and finally joined with nine others in constructing the first Buffalo harbor. A large part of the labor devolved upon him and much of the financial responsibility. He in 1822 presented strong arguments before the canal commissioners in favor of making Buffalo the canal terminus and was victorious over Peter B. Porter, who advocated the claims of Black Rock. He was appointed first judge of Erie county in February, 1821, immediately after the erection of the county; was elected to the State Senate in 1824, and in 1896 was elected mayor of Buffalo. He was a man of strong character, inflexible will and high integrity.

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

when finished proved acceptable to the State authorities, the bonds were to be canceled; otherwise the company would have to pay the bonds and seek reimbursement through the collection of tolls. The company declined to accept this proposition, with the exception of Charles Townsend (with whom was associated his partner, George Coit), and Oliver Forward. In this emergency Samuel Wilkeson, towards the last of 1819, joined with these men and they accepted the offer of the State. The money was received from the State and in the spring of 1820 work was begun. William Peacock was employed to survey Buffalo Creek ' with reference to its use as part of the harbor, and a superintendent was employed, who was soon discharged for in- capacity and Mr. Wilkeson was compelled to take immediate charge of the work.

The work of harbor construction was pushed ahead with energy, the plan adopted being the building of a pier of hewn timber filled with stone. This pier was made up of cribs, three of which were sunken the first day of the work. Many unforeseen difficulties were met and over- come, caused mainly by storms and rough water. When the piers had reached a point thirty rods into the lake, the bases of the cribs were enlarged, greatly increasing the cost. When work closed the first season, fifty rods of pier had been constructed and filled with stone, and a considerable portion of the fund still remained unexpended ; but the more difficult part of the work, and possibly the most expen- sive, still remained undone. At that time Buffalo Creek entered the lake about sixty rods north of its present entrance, the creek running some distance parallel with the lake shore, and about tweny rods from it. Across this point of sand a new channel had to be cut, and this part of the work was begun in the spring. Without going into details which are unnecessary, it may be stated that the channel was formed by the construction of a dam across the creek, raising the water to

1 After William Peacock had completed his survey of the creek he made a favorable report and advised the construction of a stone pier extending into the lake 900 feet, which would give a depth of thirteen feet of water; this, he estimated, would cost $12,787. It is now claimed by men of experience that such a pier would cost half a million dollars. In opposition to Mr. Pea- cock's report and to the Buffalo harbor plans as a whole, a correspondent of the Albany Argus, of February 19, 1819, ridiculed Buffalo Creek as a harbor, stating that "two schooners can barely pass each other there," and proceeding to demonstrate the feasibility of constructing a mile wall with a lock of four feet lift at Black Rock, to overcome the current at the rapids. He would sell State lands to pay the cost of this work. A bridge was to be constructed from Grand Island to the "city of Erie," which he foresaw would spring up on the site of Black Rock. This was only one of the numerous projects advocated by citizens of the rival villages by which they hoped to secure the commercial prize.

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FROM 1815 TO 1820.

nearly the height of the intercepting bank. A break was then made at the end of the dam and the imprisoned water rushed through it, carry- ing away a large portion of the sand and gravel. The dam was then extended farther and the operation repeated. At the same time con- tracts were made for timber, which was prepared in the winter, and pre- parations were made for farther extension of the pier.

When the new channel for the creek was open, the dam (which con- sisted of two rows of piles six feet apart, the space between filled with stone and brush) was extended forty-six rods from the east bank of the creek, forming a permanent shore for the north side of the new chan- nel. When the company was about to begin work on the pier it was ascertained that if the line was continued in the direction already taken, it would have to be carried much farther into the lake than had been antici- pated. With funds running low this was an embarrassing fact, and it was resolved to apply to the people of the village for aid' The continu- ous line of pier was then abandoned and a second pier line two hundred feet long was constructed several rods south and west of the one already built, but extending in the same general direction. This pier would form the western terminus of the harbor and was to be connected with the other by two lines of piles eight feet apart. In due time the work was completed and the first artificial harbor of that character on the lakes was an accomplished fact.

This liberal and enterprising action by a few prominent men of Erie county for the establishment of a harbor is sufficient evidence of the deep interest felt here, both in the canal project as a whole and in the advantages to be secured by having a safe port for the young lake com- merce; but, on the other hand, it is doubtful if any man in the county at that time foresaw the stupendous future importance to this region of the great waterway with Buffalo as its western terminus and of the harbor then begun. That the canal, if ever completed, would be suc- cessful many persons hoped, but very many more doubted. Certain it is that the student of the local history of that period cannot too strongly

1 For the purpose of securing aid, scrip was issued entitling the bearer to a share in the har- bor, and about $1,000 was disposed of, thus raising a little money and considerable goods. The holders of this scrip were never compensated, as no tolls were ever collected by the company, as was provided in case the State did not accept the completed harbor. In the spring of 1822 an act passed the Legislature providing for the payment to two companies of $12,000 for the con- struction of harbors at Buffalo and at Black Rock. This act limited all appropriation for the Buffalo harbor to the loan already made, and cut off all hope of remuneration by the State for money expended above the amount of the original loan ; while the company could not retain the harbor as private property and impose tolls, without driving business to a rival port.

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

magnify the importance of those three events which crowded so closely upon each other-the launching of the first steamboat, the construction of the first harbor, and the preliminary work on the Erie Canal.

It has been made clear in the few preceding pages of this chapter that the period between the close of the war and the erection of Erie county in 1821 was an important one in local history. This fact is ap- parent also in further evidences of progress and development in the various towns of the county, which demand brief notice. Immigra- tion, which had been almost wholly stopped by the war, soon revived when peace was restored and the farmer's cottage, the country store and the rural tavern began to make their appearance on every hand. In the spring of 1820 a new mail route was established from Buffalo to Olean, and three new post-offices were opened in this county-one at Smithville (or Smith's Mills), now Hamburg; one at Boston (then known as Torrey's Corners); and one at Springville. In the same year the first daily mail was established between Buffalo and Albany.

Agricultural operations throughout the county at the time of its formation had assumed considerable importance. Undet encourage- ment of certain appropriations made by the State for the purpose of advancing agricultural interests, the Niagara County Agricultural Society was organized in 1820, with its headquarters in Buffalo. Dr. Cyrenius Chapin was its first president; Joseph M. Moulton, treasurer; Reuben B. Heacock, secretary; Heman B. Potter, auditor. All of these men were from Buffalo. The vice-presidents were Arthur Humphrey, Asher Saxton, Ebenezer Goodrich, Ebenezer Walden and James Cronk. A board of town managers was appointed consisting of three members from each town. An act of Legislature was passed March 24, 1820, giving this county $135 in addition to its proportion of $10,000 appropriated by the State at an earlier date, "for the promo- tion of agriculture and family domestic manufactures." The payment of this sum was upon condition that the counties of Niagara and Catta- raugus should form an agricultural society. The original society en- joyed considerable success for several years, when, for various reasons, it passed out of existence and its successor was not organized until 1841.

Improvement in the town of Alden began immediately after the close of the war. Seth Estabrooks, in 1816, displayed a small stock of groceries and other household necessaries for sale in a log building on the Mercer road a little south of the main road. Gen. William Warren

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FROM 1815 TO 1820.

built another frame tavern at the east end of Willink (East Aurora) village, while his younger brother, Asa, removed from Aurora to Eden, settling about two miles eastward from Eden Center, where he built a grist mill and saw mill and became a prominent citizen. At about the same time Erastus Torrey and his younger brothers settled at what is now called Boston Corners; the place was long known as Torrey's Cor- ners. Considerable settlement was made in the town of Lancaster be- fore. 1821 and a Presbyterian church was organized there in 1818.

The town of Hamburg, during the period under consideration, in- creased in population more, perhaps, than any other in the county. Judge Zenas Barker purchased what was early known as the Titus tavern, at the bend of the lake, but did not keep it long; a post-office was, however, established there and on his account was given the name Barkersville. Lewis T. White settled in the town in 1817, and others of that period along the lake were Bird & Foster, successors of Judge Barker at Bay View, Jacob A. Barker, Daniel Brayman, Caleb Pierce, Lansing and Seymour Whittacer, and the Shepard, Amsdell, Barnard, Jackson, Van Namee, Hicks, Camp, Beach, Abbott, Goodrich and Ingersoll families. Most or all of these lived along the Lake Shore road. This was a very popular thoroughfare from east to west and abounded in road taverns. With the incoming of business men with names differing from those of earlier settlers, the growing villages at Wright's Corners and Smith's Mills gradually became known as Ab- bott's Corners and White's Corners respectively. At the time of the formation of Erie county there were two post-offices in Hamburg: Smithville at White's Corners, and Barkersville, before mentioned. In 1820 or 1821 another was opened in what is now East Hamburg, then in the old town of Hamburg; no other town in Erie county had more than one, excepting Buffalo. For some unknown reason these were all discontinued in the next year and a new one with the name Hamburg opened at Abbott's Corners. In East Hamburg, too, there was mate- rial progress before the formation of the county. Until the close of the war there was little in the Potter's Corners neighborhood to distin- ·guish it from the surrounding territory, but very soon afterward James Reynolds opened the first store near the Friends' meeting house and a few years later removed to Potter's Corners. He was succeeded by William Cromwell, who was in business in 1819. In 1820 David Eddy built a house, in which his sons-in-law, Lewis Arnold and Theodore Hawkins, afterwards kept a tavern. The name of Abbott's Corners

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Our County and Its People: A Descriptive Work on Erie County, New York (Volume 1), Part 31

Author: Truman C. White Publication date: 1898 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1017

Author: Truman C. White
Publication date: 1898
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1017