USA > New York > Erie County > Our county and its people : a descriptive work on Erie County, New York, Volume I > Part 30
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE,
esee county, through Attica to the village of Buffalo. But, with all the effort that could be brought to bear, and all the time and money that could be expended, the public roads continued in bad condition many years; every town had its numerous road districts, each with its overseer, and the settlers were called upon to contribute their labor or money in annual attempts to place the highways in such condition that produce and merchandise could be transported over them.
The Indians on the reservations suffered with their white neighbors from the effects of the war and of the cold summer, and their condition received attention from benevolent persons, foremost among whom was the schoolmaster, Jabez B. Hyde, who made a public appeal for aid. The annuities due the Indians were, of course, greatly reduced in prac- tical value by the high prices of provisions, while the game upon which they had formerly depended was rapidly driven away by increasing set- tlement. They cut and carried a little wood to Buffalo for sale, and some of them obtained a little credit at the stores, paying their debts punctually. The Presbyterian Synod of Geneva responded with a con- tribution, and in 1817 the Onondagas received about six dollars each and the Senecas, numbering 700, about $2.50 each, a part of which came from their annuity.
The year 1818 saw the erection of four new towns in what is now Erie county, and the extinction of the old town of Willink, described in Chapter I. On April 10, 1818, Amherst was erected from Buffalo and comprised the present Amherst and Cheektowaga. On the 15th of the same month, in response to a petition sent to the Legislature, Willink, the formation of which dated back to 1804, was annihilated by law. At the same time Holland was erected, comprising the present Holland and Colden; and by the same act Wales was formed from township 9, range 5, with the nominal addition of half the reservation land opposite; and, finally, the act erected Aurora from the remainder of old Willink, including township 9, range 9, and the adjoining res- ervation land.
The local political field at this time was, of course, occupied by the opposing factions of the Federal and the Democratic (or, as they were soon termed, the Democratic Republican) parties. In 1818 Nathaniel Allen, from the eastern part of the county, was the congressional candidate of the regular Republican convention, with Albert H. Tracy, the rising young Buffalo lawyer. Isaac Phelps, jr., was renominated to the Assembly, with Philo Orton, of Chautauqua county. Now arose
261
FROM 1815 TO 1820.
a warm political war of factions, a large part of the party opposing the nominees. The cause of this action is now difficult to discover, and neither is it important, but what was called the "Kremlin Junta," consisting of Mr. Tracy, Dr. John E. Marshall, James Sheldon, and a few others of Buffalo, came in for a large share of denunciation. This so-called junta took its name from the Kremlin block, in which its secret deliberations were supposed to be held. Ex Congressman Archi- bald S. Clarke was leader of the opposing faction. Soon an independ- ent convention nominated Judge Elias Osborn, of Clarence, for the Assembly, against Mr. Phelps, but seemed unable to settle upon con- gressional candidates. The old members, John C. Spencer and Ben- jamin Ellicott, declined a renomination, but were supported by many of the anti-Kremlin party. The Patriot (formerly the Gazette) was the organ of the Clarke Osborn faction, while the Journal upheld Tracy and Phelps. This contest, which doubtless had very little in . fluence upon the affairs of the county or district, was conducted with intense activity and the newspaper columns were burdened with vituperation. At the election in April Mr. Tracy was chosen by a large majority and Mr. Phelps by twenty-three.
In close relation with the political life of the time were the local militia organizations, around and within which lingered the military spirit that had been aroused by the war. In 1818 Brig .- Gen. William Warren was appointed major-general of the 24th Division, and Col. Ezra Nott was made brigadier in his stead. Elihu Rice was Nott's brigade major; Earl Sawyer, quartermaster; and Edward Paine was quartermaster of another brigade. By the date in question four regi- ments of infantry had been organized within the limits of the present county, and a recent law gave each one a colonel, a lieutenant-colonel, and one major. North of the reservation was the 17th Regiment with the following field officers: James Cronk, colonel; Calvin Fillmore, lieutenant-colonel; Arunah Hibbard, major. The 170th Regiment, from the towns of Willink (or Aurora, Wales, Holland and Colden), had the following officers: Sumner Warren, colonel; Lyman Blackmar, lieutenant-colonel: Abner Currier, major. Of the 48th Regiment, located farther west, Charles Johnson was colonel; Asa Warren, lieu- tenant-colonel; Silas Whiting, major. The 181st Regiment, the last of the four, was situated farther south, with Frederick Richmond, colonel: Truman White, lieutenant colonel; Benjamin Fay, major. Besides these troops there were the 12th Regiment of cavalry and the
262
OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
7th Regiment of artillery, both of which had a representation from this county.
During the period from about 1815 to the date of the organization of Erie county, the Presbyterians, which denomination included the Congregationalists in most departments of religious work, were in the lead in this county; but the Methodists were the more active and aggressive, and under the enthusiastic labors of Rev. Glezen Fillmore they soon attained prominence in numbers and church property. The name of Father Spencer has been mentioned in preceding pages as conspicuous in religious labor; south of the reservation his influence was large and zeal untiring. During the year 1817, as learned par- tially from the current press of the time, a revival in religious af- fairs spread over the county. A Buffalo paper noticed the admission of eight new members into the Presbyterian church on a certain Sun- day evening, and a correspondent congratulated the public that "through this section of this lately heathen country the spirit of the Lord and the spirit of the gospel are extending far and wide." The same writer dwelt upon similar results of religious work in "the towns of Willink, Hamburg and Eden, where lately the spirits of the evil one enchained the hearts of many." A Presbyterian church was organized in 1818, on the site of Lancaster village, with the name of Cayuga Creek church; it began with thirteen members and increased during that year to thirty-one.
St. Paul's Episcopal church was organized on the 10th of February, 1817, by Rev. Samuel Johnston, a missionary for the district west of the Genesee River. The first wardens of this, the mother parish of the city and county, were Erastus Granger and Isaac Q. Leake; vestry- men, Samuel Tupper, Sheldon Thompson, Elias Ransom, John G. Camp, Henry M. Campbell, John S. Larned, Jonas Harrison and Dr. Josiah Trowbridge. In 1819 a frame church was erected on the lot donated by the Holland Land Company, at the intersection of Erie, Pearl and Church streets.1
1 St. Paul's parish was served by missionaries until September, 1829, when Rev. William Shel- ton, the first rector who received no support from the missionary fund, began a period of minis- try to the church which extended over fifty-one years. In 1820 the Holland Land Company gave the parish 100 acres of land near Lower Black Rock, the proceeds of the sale of which were de- voted to the purchase of the lot on Pearl street on which the rectory was erected in 1846. In 1851 the first church edifice was replaced by the beautiful stone structure, which was dedicated Octo- ber 22 of that year; the building was not wholly finished until 1870. Grace church was organized August 10, 1824, but erected no edifice until 1859-60. St. Mark's church, built in 1876, originated from this parish. Trinity church was organized October 12, 1836, with Capt. Samuel L. Russell,
RT. REV. WILLIAM HEATHCOTE DELANCEY, D. D., LL.D., D.C.L.
1
RT. REV. A. CLEVELAND COXE.
263
FROM 1815 TO 1820.
In 1818, while there was still not a church building within the limits of the county, the- energetic Rev. Glezen Fillmore, who had then preached in the vicinity about nine years, was regularly ordained by the Methodists and appointed to a circuit comprising Buffalo and Black Rock with a large surrounding district. When he thereupon proceeded to Buffalo to begin his labor he found only four of his own brethren to greet him. The Presbyterians were holding services in the court house and the Episcopalians in a school house. Mr. Fillmore occupied the latter building a few times, when that privilege was denied him and he determined to build a church. A lot was leased on Franklin street and on December 8, 1818, a small frame edifice was begun. Mr. Fill- more's salary was only $75 a year, but he became responsible for every- thing in connection with building the church. A benevolent Methodist of New York city sent $120 which he had collected and Joseph Ellicott gave him $300. On the 27th of January, 1819, the church was ded- icated. From this humble beginning Methodism in Erie county made
U. S. A., and Henry Daw, wardens. Rev. Cicero Stevens Hawks, the first rector, was succeeded in 1844 by Rev. Edward Ingersoll, D. D., who remained with the church until his death in 1883. The parish was reorganized July 14, 1884. It absorbed Christ church, an offshoot in 1868 of St. John's. Christ church purchased the site on which Trinity church stands for $40,000, and in 1869- 71 erected the present chapel. It went out of existence, and on April 14, 1879, was reorganized, the first rector being Rev. A. Sidney Dealey. After the consolidation Trinity church erected the present handsome edifice. This is the wealthiest parish in the diocese, its property being valued at $310,000; St. Paul's comes next with a valuation of $274,000. St. John's church was or- ganized February 19, 1845, and built an edifice in 1846-48. St. James church was incorporated April 17, 1854, and in 1883-84 a new edifice was erected on the site of their first structure. The parish was reorganized Easter Monday, 1896. St. Jude's Mission, an offshoot of St. James, was formed and a chapel built in 1896-97. The Church of the Ascension, organized April 9, 1855, owes its greatest prosperity to Rev. John M. Henderson, its rector for many years; under him a new church was built in 1872-73. St. Luke's church was incorporated July 20, 1857. St. Mary's church on the Hill was organized April 1, 1872, and All Saints church on Easter Monday, 1879. Other churches and missions of this denomination in the city are: Church of the Good Shepherd (Inger- soll Memorial), organized in April, 1888; St. Barnabas church, April 22, 1895; St. Thomas's church, reorganized Easter Tuesday, 1896; St. Andrew's church; St. Bartholomew's, St. Matthew's, St. Peter's, St. Stephen's, and St. John's Missions; Holy Innocents Chapel at the Church Home; St. Clement's church; and St. Philip's church (colored), which was organized about 1863.
The Episcopal churches of the county, outside the city, are St. Matthias, East Aurora, organ- ized February 14, 1869; Trinity, Lancaster, formed about 1880; St. Paul's Mission, Springville, or- ganized in September, 1891; Trinity Mission, Hamburg; St. Mark's Mission, Orchard Park; St. James's Mission, Tonawanda. The first convocation of the Archdeaconry of Buffalo, which com- prises the counties of Erie, Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Niagara and Wyoming, was held in Trinity chapel, Buffalo, June 13, 1895, the archdeacon being Rev. Francis Lobdell, D.D., LL.D., rector of Trinity church. There are twenty-five congregations in Erie county (nineteen being in the city), with a combined membership of 3,351 families, or 5,940 communicants, of which 3,142 families or 5,633 communicants are in Buffalo. The entire value of church property is $1,122,316, all but $22,116 being in the city. The twenty-five parishes have 419 Sunday school teachers and 4,052 pupils; the total offerings for parochial, diocesan and general purposes aggre- gate about $103,000 annually.
264
OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
rapid advancement and churches multiplied in Buffalo and all of the outer towns.1
Soon after the close of the war there appeared incipient evidences of · the later commercial importance of Lake Erie, which far-seeing men were convinced must involve and influence to a large degree the devel- opment and prosperity of the county lying at the foot of a vast system of uninterrupted navigation. The first commercial intelligence of a public character and local interest is found in the Gazette of August 15, 1815, which stated that during the previous week there entered a boat from Detroit loaded with fish and wool; the sloop Commodore Perry, with peltries. Cleared, sloop Fiddler, Cuyahoga, with salt and pork. Salt was the most important product shipped. westward in early years, it being brought from Salina by way of Lake Ontario. Other goods sent west in the early years were whisky, dry goods, household goods, naval stores, groceries, hardware, mill-irons, farm tools, etc. Coming down were furs, fish, building stone, household goods, with more or less of miscellaneous articles. About half the vessels came down in ballast. Nearly all were schooners, with a few sloops. The lake marine of 1816 was composed of the schooners Dolphin, Diligence, Erie, Pomfret, Weasel, Widow's Son, Merry Calvin, Firefly, Paulina, Mink, Merchant, Pilot, Rachel, Michigan, Neptune, Hercules, Croghan, Tiger, Aurora, Experiment, Black Snake, Ranger, Fiddler and Cham- pion ; and sloops Venus, American Eagle, Perseverance, Nightingale, and Black River Packet.2 About the middle of July, 1817, the open
1 Methodism in Buffalo and Erie county is now one of the strongest Protestant religious de- nominations. Erie county constitutes the Buffalo District of the Genesee Conference. In this district there are, as shown by the last minutes of the conference, sixty churches, twenty-five of which are in the city of Buffalo, and thirty-one parsonages. The church property is valued at $750,150 for the whole district, and at $601,400 for Buffalo. The value of the parsonage property is $103,750. The church membership in Buffalo is 5,327, and in the whole county, 7,714. The Sunday schools of the district have a membership of 10,021, of which number 6,552 are in Buffalo. The re- port of the presiding elder of this district makes a comparison of Buffalo in 1883 (which was the ycar of the organization of the Methodist Episcopal Union), when the population was 185,000, and the city had ten Methodist churches, with the year 1896, when the number of churches has increased to twenty-five, and the membership from 2,356 to the number above stated. In the same period the value of church property increased from $369,640 to the sum above stated. The church main- tains a Deaconess Home in Buffalo, in which were nine deaconesses during 1896, who labored in the care of the sick, ministering to the poor, assisting pastors, and otherwise performing charitable work.
2 The following vessels were enrolled and licensed in the Buffalo district as indicated:
Enrolled. Name. Owner's Name. Townsend & Coit, Oliver Coit, " 2, 1817, Brig Huron, Jonathan Sidway, Seth Tucker, Schooner Aurora, James Beard, Sch'r Experiment, Samuel Wilkeson, James Hale, Orlando Keyes, Master's Name. Built. No. 1, 1817, Sloop Hannah,
Black Rock, 1816.
Grand River, 1814.
Huron, O., 1816.
3, 1817, 4, 1817,
Black Rock, 1813.
Copyrighted 1897 by Bliss Bros., Photographers, Buffalo, N. Y. RT. REV. WILLIAM D. WALKER, DD., LL. D., D. C. L.
FROM 1815 TO 1820.
265
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. No. 5, 1817, " 1, 1818,
Name. Schooner Rachel, Brig Union,
Owner's Name. Robert Eaton, Jonathan Sidway, Elihu Pease, Thomas Warren, Hawley Reed, John Crane, Gardner Cady,
Master's Name. Robert Eaton, James Beard,
Built.
Sandusky, 1815. Huron, O., 1814.
Black Rock, 1813.
" 3, 1818,
Two-Mile Creek, 1818.
4, 1818,
Francis Hibberd,
Huron, O., 1817.
5, 1818,
Schooner Packet, Schooner Wasp, Schooner Rachel, Schooner Wolf, Schooner Aurora,
Francis Hibberd,
Francis Hibberd,
Huron, O., 1817.
8, 1818,
Robert Eaton,
Robert Eaton,
Erie district, 1815.
" 1, 1819,
Henry T. Guest,
Henry T. Guest,
Danbury, O., 1817.
" 2, 1819,
Samuel Wilkeson, Sheldon Chapin.
Zephaniah Perkins,
Huron, 1816
·4 3, 1819, Sch'r Experiment, William A. Lynde,
Simeon Fox,
Black Rock, 1813.
4, 1819,
Nautilus,
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.
66
Erie ..
Walter Norton,
William Miller,
Sheldon Thompson.
1818.
Humming Bird.
H. & E. Thompson.
1818.
Kingbird
Israel Loomis, Seth Stanley.
1819
Steamer Walk-in-the-Water.
Josephus B. Stewart,
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, 77 tons; sloop Hannah, 43 tons; schooner General Scott, 21 tons. Total, 377 tons.
34
2, 1818,
Sch'r Experiment, Schooner Libert, Schooner Wasp,
Warren Dinglay, Hawley Reed,
Gardner Cady,
Buffalo, 1817.
" 7, 1818,
John B. Pells,
Job Fish.
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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 steamboat2 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 steamboat 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."
2 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,"
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.
267
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.
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