Our county and its people : a descriptive work on Erie County, New York, Volume I, Part 40

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 40

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The first town meeting for the town of Collins was held on June 9, 1821, a few weeks after the formation of the county. There was then no post-office in the town, but in 1822 one was established at Taylor's Hollow, and a mail route opened through Eden to that point. The office was named Angola and Jacob Taylor was appointed postmaster, a position which he held until as late as 1840. This office was subse- quently abandoned and the name given to one in the town of Evans. The mail route ended there until 1824, when it was extended to Ald- rich's Mills (site of Gowanda), where a new post-office was opened with the name West Lodi; it was located on the south side of the creek. The hamlet that soon gathered here on both sides of the creek began. to be known as Lodi. Within eight years after the establishment of the first post-office in the town, four others were opened in the old town of Collins: Collins, at Kerr's Corners (now North Collins); An- gola, at Taylor's Hollow; Collins Center, and Zoar. The last men- tioned office was in the southeast part of the town on Cattaraugus Creek, where a bridge and a mill had been built. Jehial Hill was postmaster between 1830 and 1840; the office was long ago abandoned.

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The old tavern at Collins Center, opened in 1816 by Nathan King, and subsequently closed, was reopened in 1830 by John Adams, who conducted it a few years and then transformed it into a store. An earlier store had been opened there by Samuel Lake, about 1827, and the next merchant was John C. Adams and another was Chauncey Bigelow. Dr. Israel Condon was the first physician, settling there about 1830; others were Dr. Alexander Bruce and Dr. W. A. Sibley. The post-office was established in 1826, with John C. Adams post- master; he was succeeded by Chauncey Bigelow, and he by Dr. Bruce.

The Aldrich families, who built the mills on the site of Gowanda, and from whom the place was called Aldrich's Mills, became embar- rassed in business and about 1823 Ralph Plumb bought their property and soon afterwards built and occupied a store on the north side of the creek, which was the first one in the village; it was Mr. Plumb, without doubt, who selected the name Lodi for the hamlet, and it was so called more than twenty years. About 1824 the post-office was opened, as before mentioned, with the name Lodi, but it was soon changed to West Lodi. When the village was incorporated, in 1847, the name Gowanda was given to it. H. N. Hooker opened a store on the north side about 1836 and continued it nearly twenty years. Mr. Plumb built a carding and fulling mill above the old grist mill before 1840, and in 1835 James Lock established a foundry which he called the Lodi furnace; it passed to Ashbel R. Sellew in 1841, who en- larged it and manufactured stoves and plows. The first hotel in the village within this town was the Eagle tavern, built in 1824 by a Mr. Vosburg. Later business interests of the town are properly noticed in the Gazetteer. The Presbyterian society in Gowanda was organized and its edifice built as early as 1826; the building was burned in 1843 and the present one erected. Methodists were early laboring in this field and in 1834 a church was built about three-fourths of a mile west of the Center; in 1840 it was moved to the Center and has since been enlarged and improved.

The town of North Collins was not formed until 1852, at which time it was quite fully settled, but business interests, outside of agriculture, were then and still are unimportant. In about 1822, or 1823, a mail route was opened from Hamburg southward and a post-office with the name Collins was established at what is now the village of North Col- lins. There was a tavern at that point and soon afterward Chester Rose opened a small store in the bar-room of the hotel. The hamlet

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that gathered there was long known as Rose's Corners and was the only business center in the town. With a change of merchants the name of the place became Kerr's Corners; the firm of storekeepers was now John and Alexander Kerr. In 1829 John Sherman and his brother opened a store and remained in company until 1833, when the latter withdrew. Most of the early settlers in the western part of the town belonged to the Society of Friends, and they built a meeting house about 1825. In 1828 a faction called the Hicksites withdrew from the society and built their own church. Between 1835 and 1840 a con- siderable number of German families settled on the high lands of the town and constitute a useful citizenship. This town is one that be- came noted in early years for the excellence of its dairy products and in later times has produced large quantities of excellent cheese.

In the winter of 1823-4 the first post office was established in the town of Lancaster, before mentioned as bearing the name Cayuga Creek; it was located a little south of the site of the village of Lancas- ter, and Thomas Gross was the first postmaster. Population now in- creased more rapidly in the town. A line of stages was established about 1827, with the name of the Pioneer Line, which passed through this town from Buffalo, and James Clark, who had been keeping a small tavern a little west of the Johnson school house, enlarged it and gave it the name of the stage line-Pioneer House. After the Ogden Com- pany's purchase the southern part of Lancaster, which was included in it, was rapidly settled, and about 1830 a large accession of Germans came in and they soon built a Lutheran church. Upon the formation of the town in 1833, the name of the post-office of Cayuga Creek was changed to Lancaster and has so remained.

The town of Cheektowaga is almost wholly settled by Germans, who principally came in after the Ogden Company's purchase, and few of the original pioneers of American birth remain. Among them, be- sides Alexander Hitchcock, the first supervisor, were Jesse Vaughan, Israel N. Ely, James N. Green, Elnathan Bennett, Amos Robinson, John B. Campbell, John A. Dole, John Hitchcock, Matthew Campbell, Nelson Warner, Samuel Warner, Caleb Coatsworth, Amos Richardson, James Hitchcock, Joseph Rowley, and many others. Among the Ger- man names found in early years were Matthew Vandusen, John Moyer, Jacob Kraise, Henry Deckhart, Jacob Kolo, Michael Escherich, Will- iam Schunerman, Philip Greiner, and others.

In common with the other towns of the county, which were directly

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affected by the sale to the Ogden Company, Marilla received accessions soon after the company placed the land in the market. The purchase in this town included all of the present town east of what is called the Two-rod road and a tract a mile wide at the south end of the remain- ing portion. Soon after the land sale mentioned, two roads were laid out, running north and south through the newly-opened region. One extended north from the site of Porterville, across the site of Marilla village and northward into Alden. It was on the border of the Indian lands and it was expected that they would give half the land necessary for a road of the usual width, or that more land would soon be purchased by the authorities, and the road was therefore laid out two rods in width; it remained so for several years and was given its peculiar name on that account. The second highway ran parallel to this one and about a mile farther east. In the spring of 1827 Jesse Bartoo bought and settled on the farm owned in later years by Isaac M. Watson, in the south part of the town. This he soon sold and located on another farm near the hamlet of Porterville. In the same year George W. and Jeremiah Carpenter bought a tract of land on the Four-rod road, east of the site of Marilla village, and Jeremiah built a log house and occu- pied it in January, 1828.

Prominent settlers in the town of Marilla between 1830 and 1840 were Joseph Carpenter, and Ira and Justus B. Gates, who located on the site of Marilla village about 1830; the Gates brothers built a saw mill, which was probably the first one in the town. In 1830 Rodney Day, Cyrus Finney, John L. Chesbro and Horace Clark settled in the town. In 1832 Jesse Bartoo built a saw mill at what is now Porterville, and a little later erected a grist mill there; the place was long known as Bartoo's Mills. In the spring of 1833 Thomas Kelsey settled on the farm occupied in later years by his sister, and there soon afterward built a saw mill. In the same year there came into the town Joseph Flood, Archibald Porter, Samuel Stewart, Nathan White, John Brewer, Simeon Thomas and Ephraim Kelsey. To the west and southwest of Bartoo's Mills, Willard Hatch, Elias Hatch, Leonard Hatch, Fordyce Ball and others were early settlers, while on the Two rod road, south of Marilla village, there were Elias Mason, Daniel Nettleton, Ezra Clark, Dudley Dennison, John M. Bauder, Walter Markham, Zerah Parker and others. At the village the saw mill built by the Gates brothers passed to James Clark and later to Copeland Carpenter, and was afterwards made into a cheese factory. Joseph and Jeremiah

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Carpenter built the second mill in 1838, which they soon sold to James Chadderden.

Progress in the town of Amherst and village of Williamsville was slow for many years after the formation of Erie county. There was no change in the original area of the town until 1839, when the southern part was set off to Cheektowaga, leaving Amherst as at the present time. After the building of the dam across Tonawanda Creek near its mouth, about 1825, that stream overflowed its banks, rendering much of the adjacent land worthless for cultivation. In later years these tracts were greatly improved by drainage. The northern section of the town is largely settled by Germans, who have labored industriously to make that region return compensating crops. In Williamsville the old mill property, which had been idle for some time, was purchased in 1826 or 1827 by Oziel Smith, who improved it; he also built the Eagle House in 1832. The tannery was in operation in 1825 and long afterwards by John Hutchinson, and previous to 1825 water lime works were established, the first in Western New York, and lime was sup- plied for building the canal locks at Lockport; this business soon passed to Mr. Smith's possession. Henry Lehn kept a store there from 1825 to 1856, and his son John was a later merchant. John Reist built a grist mill about 1840, and in the same year the old stone school house was erected. About the year 1837 John Schenck opened a store at Snyderville and took Michael Snyder as partner. Several churches were organized in the town during the period under consideration. Among them was the Reformed Mennonites, organized in 1834, and who built a stone church the same year. The Catholics built a church in 1836 and the Baptist society was formed in 1840. At Eggertsville a small hamlet gathered and an Evangelical Lutheran society was formed in 1838 and a church built the same year.

The territory of the town of Elma was wholly included in the Buffalo Creek Reservation and consequently was not settled until compara- tively recent years; there was scarcely an indication of village growth until after 1850. The land sale of 1826, which has called for such fre- quent mention, brought the region into market and settlement soon followed. The sale included a strip in the south part of the town one mile wide by six miles long, which took the name of the Mile Strip, and there all the first settlements were made. Among them were Ly- man Chandler and Willard Fairbanks (1829-30), and Wilder Hatch, Hiram Pettingill, Taber Earl, Martin Taber and Luther Adams a little

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later. In 1828 Taber Earl built and opened a frame hotel on the road from Aurora to Buffalo, which soon passed to possession of Samuel Harris. Martin Taber built another frame hotel about 1830 opposite the one just mentioned, which was conducted many years. About 1832 a Mr. Estabrook built a saw mill, the first in the town, on the site of the later Bullis mill. In 1835 or 1836 Leonard Hatch, before men- tioned as a resident in the town of Marilla, and Robert Mckean, of Aurora, secured from Seneca White, an Indian chief, authority to build a saw mill on Buffalo Creek on the site of East Elma village. Mckean transferred his interest to Joseph Riley and the mill was built in 1836. Nearly all of the business interests and the several hamlets in this town came into existence later than 1840. In 1840 Zebina Lee, with the consent of the Indians, took up his residence in a log cabin on a farm near the site of Spring Brook. In May, 1842, when the Indians gave up the remainder of the reservation to the Ogden Company, other parts of the town attracted settlers and were soon fully occupied, as de- scribed in the Gazetteer of Towns herein.

The most important feature of change in the town of Clarence be- tween the date of the formation of the county and 1840, as far as related to the agricultural districts, was the influx of German farmers into the northern part of the town. So numerous was this immigration that almost the entire section was soon occupied by families of this nation- ality, whose judicious methods and persistent industry have made it famous for large and excellent crops. Wheat has always been exten- sively raised. The hamlets of Clarence Hollow, Clarence Center and Harris Hill received some accessions during the period under consid- eration. Orsamus Warren, father of the late James D. Warren, of Buffalo, was long a prominent business man in Clarence Hollow; he had a partner at one period and the firm of O. Warren & Co. was well and favorably known. They were succeeded in 1850 by Henry K. Van Tine. The hamlet of Clarence Center, where Robert McKillip owned most of the land in early years, had its inception in the settle- ment of David Van Tine about 1829; he opened the first store and for some years the place was called Van Tine's Corners. When the post- office was opened in 1847 the name was changed to Clarence Center and Mr. Van Tine was the first postmaster. He was succeeded by Robert Purcell and later John Eshleman held the office. William Riegle was a merchant as early as 1835. Harris Hill, which received its name from the pioneer, Asa Harris, has always been an unimportant hamlet,

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excepting for a brief period just after the close of the war of 1812, as before related. The post-office there was not opened until 1847. A German Evangelical church was built there in 1833, and the Presbyte- rians built their first church at Clarence Hollow in 1836 and rebuilt it in 1879. A Mennonite church was built in 1829 two miles north of Harris Hill under direction of John Lapp. The Methodist society at Clarence Hollow was organized in 1833, and built a stone church in the next year; it was burned in 1872 and the present church erected.

The most prominent settler in the town of Sardinia in the early years covered by this chapter was Dr. Bela H. Colegrove. He was then a young man and located in 1820 at what became known as Colegrove's Corners and later as Sardinia village. Dr. Colegrove was a thoroughly educated physician, the first one in this town, and attained a very high reputation as a surgeon. He was supervisor of the town several years and in 1822 was a member of assembly. In the following year Chauncey Hastings settled near by and soon built a store which made the nucleus of the hamlet. About two years later he erected a hotel and was mer- chant and tavern-keeper for twenty-five years or more. Soon after the settlement of these two men George S. and Thomas Collins built a carding and fulling mill south of the village and in later years estab- lished a woolen factory there. A grist mill and a tannery were built about 1835 by W. W. Cornwell; the mill passed to Bolander Brothers and the tannery to George Martin. Horace Clark had a saw mill in early years which was later owned by J. S. Symonds. The first house of worship in Sardinia village was built in 1825 by a Baptist society. A Methodist society was probably organized before 1840, and built a church in 1842.

Beyond the first settlements before described there was little marked change in the town of Tonawanda until the building of the Erie Canal. In the year 1823 Samuel Wilkeson and Dr. Ebenezer Johnson, of Buf- falo, began the construction of a dam near the mouth of Tonawanda Creek, for the purpose of raising the water and using the creek for the canal from its mouth along the northern border of the present town of Tonawanda and the greater part of Amherst. At that time, or a little earlier, Peter Taylor was keeping a tavern in a log house near the creek crossing. Wilkeson and Johnson also built a toll bridge across the creek and opened a store on the north side in Niagara county. During the year 1823 a Buffalo company was formed, in which Albert H. Tracy, Charles Townsend and others were interested, a large tract

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of land was purchased and the village of Tonawanda was laid out. While the canal was in progress, during the succeeding two years, there was much business activity there; but after its completion in 1825 the temporary excitement subsided and progress was slow for many years. Urial Driggs opened the first store of much account in 1827 and continued in business more than half a century. Joseph Bush was an early merchant, after having served as clerk in the store of Wilkeson & Johnson. Roswell Driggs kept one of the first hotels. A post-office was opened soon after 1823 and Joseph Bush was the first postmaster. Henry P. Smith was the pioneer lumber dealer, and as early as 1840 John Simpson had established saw mills and planing mills. John T. Bush, who had studied law in Buffalo under Henry K. Smith, began practice in Tonawanda in 1836, and in the following year his brother, William T. Bush, opened an office there. Both became prominent in their profession and in politics. Dr. Jesse F. Locke was the first resi- dent physician in Tonawanda, locating in the village about 1838 and continuing until his death in 1860. The later development of business interests is noticed farther on. A Methodist church had been organized but no church edifice had been erected; indeed church building through- out Erie county down to this time had been very backward, and it is quite certain there was none in the county prior to 1827, excepting the Friends' meeting house at East Hamburg. In 1827 the Baptists and Presbyterians of Aurora joined in erecting a frame church, and the Methodists built one there at about the same time.1

In the State legislation of this period is found an act passed April 23, 1829, incorporating the Ellicott's Creek Slack Water Navigation Com- pany, with $5,000 capital stock. The incorporators were Samuel Bud- long, Ebenezer Mix, Oziel Smith, and associates. The company was authorized to maintain slack water navigation in the creek named, by means of locks or dams, from Williamsville to its junction with Tona- wanda Creek.

1 The history of the towns in the county succeeding the period considered in this chapter is resumed and concluded in the Gazetteer of Towns in a later chapter.

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

CHAPTER XXIII.

1840 TO THE CIVIL WAR.

Slow Increase in Population as a Consequence of the Financial Crisis-Receipts of Grain-Railroad Communication Eastward-Completion of the Ogden Purchase -Bank of Attica Removed to Buffalo-Beginning and Development of the Elevator System-The First Propeller-Era of Prosperity-Buffalo Board of Trade-Disas- trous Gale-University of Buffalo-Erie County Workhouse-Plank Roads-Growth of Roman Catholic Churches-First Gaslight Company-Buffalo City Water Works Company-Buffalo Police Department-Census of 1850-General Prosperity Through- out the County-The German Element-The Ebenezer Society-Changes in Towns -Railroads-Lumber and Coal Trade-Shipbuilding-Banks-Increase in Area of Buffalo-Financial Crisis of 1857.

The year 1840 found Erie county with a population of 62,465, and the city of Buffalo with 18,213. One of the consequences of the finan- cial crisis through which the country had just passed is discernible in the relatively small increase in the number of inhabitants in the county from 1835 to 1840 as indicated by these figures. The increase in the city was a little less than ten per cent., and in the county at large only ten and one-fifth per cent. This is the only instance where the census shows a greater increase in the country districts than in the city in any similar period. While another five years were to pass before Erie county fully recovered from the prevailing hard times and entered upon a decade of remarkable prosperity, still there were conspicuous evidences of growth and advancement before that era was reached. For example, the receipts of grain at this port, in bushels, in 1840 were 1,075,988-almost double the quantity received in 1836, while in 1845 the quantity was 1,848,040 bushels, or approximating double that of 1840. At the same time there were received in 1840, by lake, 597, - 642 barrels of flour, against 139,178 barrels in 1836; in 1845 the quan- tity had increased to 746,750 barrels. These figures are significant and although they indicate the growth of only one commercial factor, it will be correctly inferred that other branches of business felt the beneficial influence of rapidly increasing lake commerce.

The first railroad communication eastward from Buffalo was pro-

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FROM' 1840 TO THE CIVIL WAR.

vided by the Buffalo and Attica line, which was constructed in 1842 and opened for traffic January 8, 1843. This company was organized prior to 1836, but its operations were postponed by the financial panic of that time. Auburn and Syracuse had been connected by rail since 1838, and Utica with Syracuse since 1839, while in August, 1841, a road was opened from Auburn to Rochester. These were the early- formed links in the great New York Central consolidation of 1853, and greatly facilitated travel and freight transportation to and from the east. Westward travel was still by boat in summer and by stage in winter. This fact inured to the benefit of Buffalo, for passengers were usually detained in the city for a meal or a day, and sometimes, when the roads were bad and weather severe in fall or spring, for several days.

In 1842 was made the final agreement by the Ogden company, per- mitting the Seneca Indians to retain the Cattaraugus and Allegany Reservations, subject to the company's pre-emption right, while the Indians gave up the Buffalo Creek and Tonawanda tracts, upon receipt of their proportionate value, as fully detailed in Chapter I of this volume. The lands thus thrown into possession of the company were promptly surveyed, divided among the members and placed in market. It will be remembered that the old towns still extended to the center of the reservation, so that this newly-opened territory belonged to Black Rock, Cheektowaga, Lancaster and Alden on the north, and to Hamburg, Aurora and Wales on the south. Settlers now began to occupy the territory of Elma and that part of Marilla not included in the previous sales of land by the Indians; but in most of the territory under consideration settlement was slow until after the return of gen- eral prosperity about 1845.

The Bank of Attica, established in that village in 1836, was removed to Buffalo in 1842, mainly through the efforts of Elbridge G. Spaulding,1

1 Elbridge Gerry Spaulding was born in Cayuga county, N. Y., February 24, 1809, and after ob- taining a good English education began studying law at the age of twenty years in Batavia. He settled in Buffalo in 1834 and two years later was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court and in 1839 as counselor of the Supreme Court and Court of Chancery. In partnership with George R. Babcock, and later with Heman B. Potter, he attained a high position at the bar. In 1846 he in- duced the late John B. Ganson to leave Canandaigua and settle in Buffalo, and the firm of Spauld- ing & Ganson was formed, which existed four years, when Mr. Spaulding retired from his profes- sion. In 1852, under a special act of the Legislature, Mr. Spaulding secured the removal of the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank from Batavia to Buffalo and was elected its president, a position which he filled until his death. He was chosen to fill many high official positions; he was city clerk of Buffalo in 1836; was alderman in 1841 and elected mayor in 1847 by the local Whig party. In 1848 he was elected to the Assembly and in the following year was chosen to represent his dis-

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who was son-in-law of Gaius B. Rich, the owner of. the bank. Mr. Spaulding's action was based wholly upon his faith in the future great- ness of Buffalo, a faith which grew stronger throughout his life. The bank was first located in Spaulding's Exchange (still standing), where it remained until 1861. It was reorganized and incorporated under the State laws in 1850, with capital of $160,000, which sum was increased on June 1, 1856, to $200, 000 and again on October 24, 1856, to $250,000.

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Our county and its people : a descriptive work on Erie County, New York, Volume I, Part 40

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

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