Our county and its people : a descriptive work on Erie County, New York, Volume I, Part 36

Author: White, Truman C
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: [Boston] : Boston History Co.
Number of Pages: 1014


USA > New York > Erie County > Our county and its people : a descriptive work on Erie County, New York, Volume I > Part 36


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131 and 132, M. A. Andrews, March 19, 1828.


133 and 134, James Rough, Oct. 9, 1812.


135, Jabez Goodell, Nov. 11, 1834.


136, Jabez Goodell, June 14 1817.


137, Jabez Goodell, July 22, 1825.


138, James and Henry Campbell, June 22, 1815,


139, Eli Hart, April 1, 1815.


140, Amos Tefft, Oct. 23, 1815.


141, Matilda Sharp, July 26, 1814.


142, Philo Andrews, April 16, 1810.


143, Henry Lake, March 16, 1810.


144, Samuel Helm, Dec. 22, 1809.


145, Jabez Goodell, April 8, 1816.


146, Jabez Goodell, July 22, 182°. 147, Jabez Goodell, Dec. 1, 1823. 148, Silas A. Fobes, Nov. 8, 1834.


149, James Sweeney, Aug. 23, 1825.


150 and 151, Walter M. Seymour, Dec. 1, 1827.


By comparison with the accompanying maps the reader may locate the situation of all of these lots.


313


FROM 1832 TO 1840.


CHAPTER XXI.


1832-1840.


An Unwelcome Visitor-The Asiatic Cholera-Measures to Combat the Pestilence -Cases and Deaths-Recovery from Effects of the Scourge-Increasing Commercial Operations-The First Railroad in Erie County-Beginning of a Speculative Era- Plenty of Money-Extensive Real Estate Sales-Prices Greatly Inflated-Benjamin Rathbun and His Ruin-A Financial Crash-Slow Recovery from Its Effects-Presi- dential Election -- Comparative Pictures of Buffalo-The First Steam Railroad- Found- ing of the Young Men's Association-Its Later History-Buffalo Library-Plan to Build up Black Rock-Harbor Maps-The Patriot War-Farther Opposition to the Holland Land Company-Promotion of New Towns.


It was in the year 1832, when the young city of Buffalo was just en- tering upon a brief period of exciting municipal history and the outer towns were sharing in the general business activity of the time, that a most unwelcome visitor came across the Atlantic, entered the seaboard cities, crept along the Hudson and St. Lawrence Rivers, followed the Erie Canal westward, and fell like a scourge upon the inhabitants of Erie county, particularly upon those of the city and villages along the river and lake shores. It was the advent of the Asiatic cholera-then, as it is now, a mysterious and deadly malady, baffling to physicians and terrorizing to every community in which it gains a foothold. The modern sanitary measures of a preventive character, which are to some extent effectual in warding off such a pestilence, were then unknown, and the disease swept across the country leaving a trail of death.


The first public mention of the cholera made in Buffalo was the fol. lowing which appeared in the Patriot of July 19, 1832:


CHOLERA .- This dread disease has crossed the Atlantic and is now raging at Que- bec and Montreal. At Albany and the villages in the northern part of the State bordering on Canada, measures have been taken to prevent the spreading of this desolating pestilence.


The Common Councill of this city have appointed a Board of Health; and regula- tions will be immediately adopted, not only to preserve the general health of the city, but to guard against the entrance of the cholera.


The Board of Health here referred to consisted of Ebenezer Johnson


40


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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.


(the mayor), R. W. Haskins, Lewis F. Allen and William Ketchum. Joseph Clary was substituted for Mr. Ketchum a little later. The first bulletin of the board was issued June 16, in which was set forth the approaching danger, with instructions of a sanitary and hygienic na- ture. During the week ending July 7 the malady made its appearance in New York and Albany, and it soon started westward along the canal, and came across the frontier from Canada. The disease made its first appearance in Buffalo on the 16th of July, attacking a person who was reported by the Board of Health as " an Irish laborer, an habitual drunkard;" he died in eight hours after the attack. On the following day there were two cases, the first of which was another laborer who died in eleven hours. On the 24th six new cases were reported and one death; on the 25th there were six cases and two deaths. By this time the previous anxiety of a large part of the community was changed to actual terror; many fled from the city to the country and business affairs were neglected. The Board of Health established a temporary hospital in a brick building then known as the M'Hose house, on Niagara street, to which were taken many cases where there was hope of recovery. Dr. John E. Marshall was city physician, and Loren Pierce undertaker; both of these men labored fearlessly to mitigate suf- fering. For the week ending July 30 the number of cases was sixty-two, with thirteen deaths. In the mean time there were three cases in Hamburg, one of them resulting in the death of Alanson Whittaker, who was then postmaster at Hamburg-on-the-Lake. For the week ending August 6 the number of new cases was twenty-eight, with four- teen deaths. The increasing rate of mortality of this week over the previous one was a new source of terror, which was still farther aug- mented in the next week, ending August 13, in which the number of new cases was twenty-six and of deaths sixteen. In the following week, ending August 20, there were only thirteen new cases, but there were ten fatalities; in the next week, ending August 27, there were twenty- eight new cases and eighteen deaths; in the week ending September 3, thirty six new cases and fifteen deaths; in the week ending September 10, there were only eleven new cases and eleven deaths. Up to this time the total of cases was 232 and of deaths 106. From that date the disease rapidly declined to an average of one a day and soon wholly disappeared. The total number of cases was about 250 and of deaths about 120. The disease spread to a limited extent into towns adjacent to the city, but did not penetrate beyond. Dr. Jared Parker is recorded


315


1


FROM 1832 TO 1840.


as having had forty cases at Clarence Hollow, of which only one was fatal. To the arduous, unselfish, and in many instances heroic labor of the Board of Health, the city physician, and the undertaker, must be ascribed the small number of cases of the disease in proportion to the population and in comparison with other cities of similar size, and comparative early extinction of the pestilence. Mr. Haskins was the well known printer and publisher, a man of great activity and energy. In this trying time he exhibited undoubted heroism; traveled in haste about the city, attended to the removel of many cases to the hospital, and in some instances carried stricken persons on his own shoulders down the stairs of squalid tenements. Mr. Allen was a man of sound judgment, excellent executive ability and undoubted courage, and served through the epidemic with unflagging zeal. Mr. Pierce, the undertaker, was the direct opposite of Mr. Haskins in everything but courage; while no less faithful and unselfish in the performance of his arduous tasks, he went about them with the calm deliberation for which he was noted. The counsel of Dr. Johnson was of the greatest value to the board, and all of these officials labored harmoniously and effectively together.


In the latter part of July it was decided to close what was then called the public burying ground, which included the site of the present City and County Building ;1 this was accordingly done, and nine acres were purchased of William Hodge, on farm lot 30, a portion of which was set apart for Catholics. This burial ground was given the name of the potter's field. In 1833-34 Sylvester Matthews and Birdseye Wilcox acquired twelve acres adjoining this potter's · field and established a cemetery which was in use under their management until 1853, when the lot owners formed the Buffalo Cemetery Association and purchased the ground, and greatly improved it.2


1 The burial ground here alluded to included lots 108, 109, 110 and 111, and was obtained on a contract from the Holland Company in the year 1804. The first burial there was of the body of John Cochrane, a traveler from Connecticut, who died at Barker's tavern. There in March, 1815, Farmer's Brother was also buried. The actual title to the ground was not secured until 1821, when it became the property of the village, and lots were assigned to the inhabitants by the trustees. After the cholera had disappeared burials almost ceased here, the last one being under a special permit for the interment of the body of the wife of Samuel Wilkeson.


2 Besides these early burial grounds, numerous others were established before a beginning was made at what is now Forest Lawn. For example, when the survey was made of the original vil- lage of South Black Rock in 1804-5. lots 41 and 42 were appropriated by the State for burial pur- poses; this tract was not much used. When the village of Black Rock was incorporated these two lots, which were somewhat low and wet, were exchanged for lot 88 on higher ground. This be- came known as the Black Rock burying ground; it was bounded by Jersey, Pennsylvania and


316


OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.


With the disappearance of the cholera the people of Erie county again turned their faces forward and in the absorbing activities of life the epidemic with its daily burden of death soon became a memory


Fourteenth streets and the "mile-strip." When North street was opened through the tract a small triangle was left on the south side and within the limits of the old Buffalo city; this triangle was used as a potter's field for the paupers who died at the poor house. Burials were finally discon- tinued on this ground and it was donated to the Charity Foundation of the Episcopal church. When Forest Lawn was established many of the dead were removed thither.


Some years prior to the war of 1812 there was a small burial ground on farm lot 59, now the southwest corner of Delaware and Ferry streets. Several of the victims of the war, among them brave Job Hoysington, were buried there.


What was known as the Bidwell farm was situated on the Gulf road, now Delavan avenue. Interments were made in a small tract on that farm from 1811 to about 1825.


About 1830 Lewis F. Allen bought of Judge Ebenezer Walden five acres of land on the south- west corner of Delaware avenue and North street, and a cemetery association was formed by the following persons: Lewis F. Allen, George B. Webster, Russell H. Heywood, Heman B. Potter and Hiran Pratt as trustees. Burials were made here for a time, but the ground ultimately passed to the Forest Lawn Association and the bodies were removed.


The following burial grounds are associated with churches and most of them are now in use: Cemetery of St. John's church, Pine Hill and Pine Ridge roads, opened in 1859. Holy Rest Cem- etery, Pine Hill, opened in 1859. Zion Church Cemetery, opened about 1859. Concordia Cemetery, opened in 1859. St. Matthew's Church Cemetery, Clinton street, opened in 1875. Black Rock Ger- man Methodist Cemetery, Bird street, opened in 1870. St. Louis Cemetery, Edward street, opened in 1830, discontinued in 1832. New St. Louis Cemetery, opened in 1832 and closed in 1859. St. Mary's Cemetery, corner of Johnson and North streets, opened in 1845 and closed in 1860. St. Francis Xavier Cemetery (Black Rock), opened in 1850. St. Joseph's Cemetery, near the alms house, opened in 1850. Holy Cross Cemetery, Limestone Hill, opened in 1855. United German and French Catholic Cemetery, opened in 1859. Buffalo Private Cemetery, junction of North, Best and Masten streets, with a branch at Pine Hill. Evangelical Association Cemetery, Walden avenue. Holy Mother of the Rosary Cemetery, Walden Avenue. Reed's Cemetery, Limestone Hill, and Reser- vation Cemetery, near old Indian church, both closed. St. Adelbert's Cemetery, Pine Hill. St. John's Cemetery, Military Road. St. Stanislaus Cemetery, Pine Hill. There are also five Jewish cemeteries, all at Pine Hill, viz .: Beth Jacob, Beth El, Beth Zion, Mount Hope, and Howard Free Cemetery.


The original Forest Lawn Cemetery consisted of about eighty acres, which was a part of the Granger farm, and was purchased by Charles E. Clark for $150 an acre. Improvements were be- gun in 1850 and the ground was dedicated August 18 of that year. As a result of growing senti- ment that the city should have a cemetery founded upon the broad basis of public good, and which should not be a source of private profit, a meeting was held November 19, 1864, which wasattend- ed by about twenty leading citizens of the city. An organization was there effected with the title, Buffalo City Cemetery, and twelve trustees were elected as follows: Dexter P. Rumsey, De Witt C. Weed, George Truscott, Sidney Shepard, Lewis F. Allen, Oliver G. Steele, Everard Palmer, Henry Martin, O. H. Marshall, Francis H. Root, Russell H. Heywood and George How- ard. At a later meeting Everard Palmer was chosen president; Oliver G. Steele, vice-president; De Witt C. Reed, secretary and treasurer. Within a short time there was purchased by the asso- ciation the Swartz farm, sixty-seven and one-half acres; Moffat Grove, twenty-two and one-half acres; Watson tract, eleven acres; part of Granger farm, twenty-seven acres; Forest Lawn prop- erty, seventy-five acres; total 203 acres. Bonds were issued and money thus raised to pay for these lands. The dedication ceremonies of this now beautiful burial place were held September 28, 1866. Since that time improvement has gone forward in the cemetery in all directions, until at the present time there are few more attractive burial places in the country. Additional purchases have been made until the cemetery comprises over 240 acres; this is without incumbrance, is the absolute property of the association, in which every lot owner and his heirs has an inalienable title and an assurance that his lot will be perpetually cared for by the association.


Lakeside Cemetery, comprising about 250 acres, is situated near Athol Springs in the town of Hamburg, and was opened in 1895.


317


FROM 1832 TO 1840.


only. The Anti-Masonic movement had now passed its zenith. In the fall of 1832 (the year of Jackson's second election as president) Millard Fillmore was elected to Congress from the Thirtieth District, and William Mills and Horace Clark, the two Erie county members of assembly, were re-elected. Mr. Fillmore was then only thirty-two years old and had rapidly risen to an honorable official station within the nine years since he began the practice of law.


Erie county was beginning to profit to an annually increasing ex- tent from the tide of immigration that was rolling westward, the ship- ment by canal of the large quantities of goods and merchandise of all kinds that accompanied the influx of population, and the constantly gaining shipments of grain from the West that found its way into the boats of the canal at Buffalo. Crowds of immigrants, Yankees, Ger- mans and Irish, pressed on westward, most of them at that time pass- ing on beyond the bounds of Erie county, but a considerable number, particularly of the Germans, stopping here to join their countrymen who had preceded them.


Canal commerce which, from the opening of the waterway to about 1830, was in its primitive stage,1 was rapidly extended during the five or six years after the disappearance of the cholera. In 1832-3 the for- warding and commission merchants of Buffalo and the lines they rep- resented were as follows: Townsend, Coit & Co., and Thompson & Co., Troy and Erie line; Joy & Webster, Pilot line; Pratt, Taylor & Co., Washington line; Richard Sears, James L. Barton, Western line; Smith & Macy, New York and Ohio line; Baker & Holt, Merchants' line; Norton & Carlisle, Hudson and Erie line; Augustus Eaton, Clin- ton line. In 1835 all the wheat, corn and flour received at this port was equivalent to 543,815 bushels. The rapid increase in succeeding years will be found in tables of statistics in a later chapter.


It was at about the time under consideration that President Jackson began his historical warfare on the United States Bank. In the fall of 1833 he withdrew from that institution the deposit of national funds, amounting to about $10,000,000, and the bank was finally closed with far-reaching consequences, both financial and political. The New York Legislature, then strongly Democratic, passed a resolution early


1 James L. Barton, who formed a partnership in the forwarding business with Samuel Wilke- son in 1827, which continued about two years, read a paper before the Historical Society in 1866, in which he stated that, while the firm had a large line of boats on the canal and vessels on the lake, yet freight was so scarce that it was frequently difficult to secure a full boat load, although the boats were small. A few tons would be shipped for Albany, and at Rochester, then the cen- ter of a prolific grain-growing district, the boats would be further laden.


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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.


in 1834 endorsing the president's course. Numerous State banks were chartered, frequently under insufficient guarantees, and the national funds were deposited with them. It was argued that the placing of a vast sum of money in widely separated State banks would be of great benefit to all business interests, through the facility with which loans would be granted. While this was doubtless true, there was at the same time founded an immense credit system and an era of speculation opened which was soon to bring disaster to the whole country.


Money soon became plenty and business of every kind was abnor- mally active. No new enterprise could be brought forward that did not find men ready to put their means and their credit into it. Local works of a public character were inaugurated which gave employment to many persons and contributed to the general feeling of hopefulness. For example, the Buffalo Patriot of February 7, 1832, made the an- nouncement that a "ship canal 80 feet wide and 13 feet deep, across from the harbor, near the outlet of Buffalo creek, to the canal, a dis- tance of 700 yards, was commenced last week, under the superin- tendence of Maj. John G. Camp, and to be completed during the en- suing season. Also, a boat canal, commencing at the Big Buffalo creek, extending to the Little Buffalo creek, a distance of 1,600 feet."


Another local newspaper made the following statement early in 1833 :


No former year since the destruction of Buffalo by the British troops has witnessed so many and such permanent and valuable improvements, as the present. Our com- merce on the lakes is increasing beyond all former example, and the enterprise from merchants finds increased activity and zeal in these new stimulants to exertion.


The first railroad of any kind in Erie county was built in 1833. As an avenue of transportation and travel it was not of great importance, for it extended only from Buffalo to Black Rock and the cars were drawn by horses; but its construction was significant of the rising tide of investment and speculation. The road was completed in December : its cost was about $15,000.' The county clerk's office also was erected in the same year, as more fully described in another place. Prices of all commodities and of real estate began to advance in 1833, and during the succeeding two years a speculative fever seized upon the people, unexampled in its intensity and its universality before or since. Ex-


1 The old and spirited rivalry that formerly existed between Buffalo and Black Rock had by this time almost wholly disappeared. At the launching of a new steamer, the General Porter, on November 23, 1833, the following toast was given by Dr. Chapin : "Buffalo and Black Rock-one and indivisible ; may their citizens continue to be united in enterprise and deeds of benevolence as long as Lake Erie bears a wave."


319


FROM 1832 TO 1840.


travagance and luxury took the place of prudence and economy, and everybody was blind to the oncoming consequences. Erie county, and especially the city of Buffalo, offered a bountiful field to the sanguine speculator; indeed, all along the lakes lands were acquired, villages laid out and cities projected where common business sanity should have shown they could never have the slightest foundation, except upon paper. In no other city in the country, perhaps, did the real estate speculative mania attain such wide-spread strength as in Buffalo. The causes for this are not difficult to determine. Outside of the busi- ness growth of a legitimate character before mentioned, the popula- tion of the city increased between 1830 and 1835 from 8,653 to 15,661, or 81 per cent., while in the county at large the growth was from 35,- 719 to 57,594, or 61 per cent. Moreover, far-seeing men were already foretelling the future greatness of the city-a greatness that was to be almost thrust upon her by virtue of her situation and other material advantages.


Land sales became active in and around Buffalo in 1834-35 and the transactions soon represented an enormous sum. In an editorial the Daily Star of December 30, 1835, stated that "there is very little abate- ment of this business in the city, in consequence of the temporary pressure in the money market. In fact real estate seems to be the only article which commands money." The editorial continued upon the subject of recent sales and gradually rising values, and mentioned large investments that had been made in the few previous weeks by men from New York. A few days later the fact was published of the sale by Col. O. H. Dibble of one undivided one-half of his land " ad- joining the South Channel," for $200,000, of which sum he was paid $14,000 in cash. That was the largest sale of land that had then been made in the city. On the 11th of February notice was published of the purchase by Samuel Johnson of thirty-four acres " near the upper end of Main street," at $6,000 an acre advance over what it was sold for in the preceding summer. These are only examples of hundreds of similar operations involving smaller amounts, but all of the same gen- eral character. It has been estimated that during this speculative period more than 25,000 conveyances of land were made here, a large portion of which were for city property; and that the entire amount in- volved in the transactions was nearly or quite $25,000,000. Building . operations advanced in sympathy with the general business tone of the community, and during the years 1835 and 1836 it is estimated that the new structures erected cost nearly $3,000,000. At that time Buffalo


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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.


was either blessed or cursed by the citizenship of Benjamin Rathbun, a man whose type has been frequently reproduced in this country in later years. He had successfully conducted the Eagle tavern a number of years, and when the era of flush times dawned he stepped into the front ranks of the most daring speculators, and there he remained until the final crash. He built the American Hotel; he erected a large store building on the east side of Main street, where he carried on a large business; he made contracts of every description involving large sums and soon had thousands of men directly or indirectly in his employ. He laid the foundation of an immense hotel and exchange which was to occupy the square bounded by Main, North Division, South Divi- sion and Washington streets, which was to have a rotunda 260 feet high ; and he bought and sold land not alone in Buffalo, but through- out a wide section of territory. It may readily be imagined what an influence for good or evil such a man might exert at such a time.


Early in 1836 the beginning of the end was felt in more or less pressure in the money market. Higher rates of interest began to pre- vail, and soon those who could actually command funds and were so in- clined reaped a harvest of usury. From three to five per cent. a month was paid, and even at those figures there was an unusual demand. This condition is explained by the fact that hundreds of otherwise sane people were led into borrowing money at enormous rates of interest, in the hope that by its use they could realize a share of the great profits that were being made by their neighbors; and thus almost the whole community-capitalists, merchants, manufacturers, lawyers, doctors, and even ministers, were led into the whirpool.


But the ominous pressure of 1836 did not deter Benjamin Rathbun in the slightest degree from carrying on his ambitious schemes. He bought land and laid out a grand city at Niagara Falls, announcing an auction sale of lots for August 2. A crowd of bidders assembled and in the forenoon numerous sales were made. Rathbun was on hand, enthusiastic, beaming and confident as ever; yet at that very day he knew that his forgeries for large sums had been discovered and that he would soon be placed under arrest. David E. Evans discovered in Philadelphia that Rathbun had used his name as endorser on notes for a large amount. Returning to Buffalo Mr. Evans confronted the specu- lator, who thereupon confessed his crime and acknowledged that the paper bearing Mr. Evans's name was only a fraction of what had been forged. An assignment of Rathbun's estate was made for the benefit




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