USA > New York > Erie County > Buffalo > Thomas' Buffalo city directory for 1864 > Part 3
USA > New York > Erie County > Buffalo > Thomas' Buffalo city directory for 1864 > Part 3
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62
But England claims never to lose common sense. Go read of her South Sea mania in 1720. The whole nation was affected, from the throne to the cottage. The idea was to get gold and silver by going round Cape Horn to Peru and Mexico. The scheme was called the Earl of Oxford's masterpiece. Spain, powerful then, never allowed them to do a thing towards realizing their idea; but knaves blew it up into the most magnifi- cent bubble, and for four or five years the South Sea mania and its mighty Company swelled with gigantic pretensions; it would shoulder the whole national debt of £31,- 000,000 sterling-it would pour riches into every house; it swelled, AND THEN it burst; and English Common Sense was seen, with foolish and enraged look, staring at the float- ing vapors! The mania of speculation here was not so strange, -there was foundation
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THOMAS' BUFFALO CITY DIRECTORY.
to stand upon. From the opening of the canal in 1825, there was a rush of western emigration through Buffalo-each year it grew greater than before; the canal was crowded; hotels all full; warehouses groaned under their burdens; vessels and steamers could not be built fast enough for the demands of business. I was here in the autumn of 1835, and one morning I was at the dock, with many other strangers, gazing upon the mighty heaving western tide. There was a pile of goods and furniture all along on Joy & Webster's wharf, more than twenty feet high, and upon the top of it sat as many as a dozen Senecas, men and women; they too, with the rest of us, gazing with astonishment at this sudden flood of life sweeping over them, coming they knew not whence, and going they knew not whither. It was marvellous! Land was wanted, land to stand upon- land to speculate with; land was gold. And then it seemed that all the opening West was to come with its harvest contributions floating right to Buffalo. Railroads then were not much thought of for carrying freight; to this point came the Lake-from this went the Canal-and here might be the New York of the West; and so it would have been, but for the coming of railroads to compete with vessels for the carrying trade. It was not strange that the men here made a great mistake, got will with hope, and that some were hoisted upon their bubbles to get very bad falls; but generally there was some basis to speculation, it was not all idea and dream; there were real facts enough to make sensible men hope prodigiously. It may seem very wise to look back and laugh at the old builders and business men of Buffalo, but they were wiser than Solomon, compared with Scotland, France, and England, when their ravings came.
I love to think what those men of Buffalo in 1835, in their great hope, meant to do here. The merchants were to have an Exchange filling Clarendon Square, and with a towering dome two hundred and twenty-five feet above the pavement. Com. Perry was to have a monument of white marble in front of the churches, one hundred feet high, with graceful carving, armorial bearings, and emblematic statues. Education was to have the University of Western New York with magnificent endowment, and the foremost men of the country in its various departments. Nor were the good intents all on paper merely ; one of the wildest of the hopers did actually start a free public school for sixty scholars, children of the poor, and kept it open and flourishing for several years. I honor men who, if they do get crazed by enterprise and too much hope, show them- selves large-minded and nobly generous, grateful to patriots, munificent to education, mindful of the poor, and anxious to bestow trne riches and quickened life upon posterity ! With the mind's eye, behold our city's physiognomy, as the great hopers meant it should be, with the beautiful Perry monument, and the University of Western New York with its grand buildings on North street, rivalling Harvard or Yale, and society graced and improved by its teachers and students; and with a commerce on the Lake, that might require a Merchants' Exchange as large and high as was dreamed of. Despite the ridicule upon those builders' failure, the future may fulfill their expectation more nearly than we think.
In regard to faces, association does wonders; the old adage comes true-handsome is, that handsome does; even homely features may get so blent with truth, love, and noble- ness, that to the mind's eye they are beautiful The kind, good woman, though with no line of grace or beauty in form or face, who has left home and friends, and for the sake of mercy gone to the hospitals, becomes beautiful as an angel to the sick soldier, as she
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THE PHYSIOGNOMY OF BUFFALO.
bends over him with a mother's tenderness, striving to relieve his anguish; and just so it is with cities' faces. There is little Calais, in France: to my mind it has always worn a halo of glory, ever since in my old school book I read how Edward III. of England was about to put the city to fire and sword, but consented to spare the inhabitants, and their homes and children, if six of the principal men of the city would volunteer to come bare-headed and bare-footed, with halters about their necks, to be hanged in view of his besieging, victorious army ; and the martyr heroes came, Enstace De St. Pierre at their head. Such nobleness has given interest and beauty to Calais for all these five hundred years! The old pilgrims of 1620 gave a glory to the unromantic shores and barren hills of Plymouth, and travellers will not cease to go to that shrine of lofty self-sacrifice to truth and freedom, to gaze upon the brave, heroic face of that landscape. And, alas ! how the face of a city that is fair enough to the outward sight, may to the mind's eye get a look of deformity, that will make outward comeliness as nothing. There is New York, imperial city, at the gates of the world's commerce, the waters gathering around her as if anxious to bear her freighted keels; but, O, that hard, meanly cruel scowl upon her face, wronght there by riot against law, and savage massacre of weak, unof- fending men, women, and children, because God had made them with a dark skin! And, let the truth be told, our own city got an ugly mark, a stain not readily washed out, by just the beginning of similar riot and bloodshed. Sin destroys beauty !
Look far away towards the sunset-to the golden horn of the West, where San Francisco, Queen of the Pacific, sits beside the sea. She has been noble. Though so far away, and tempted to stand aloof in selfish isolation, she has felt the laboring heart-beat of the Union and of liberty, and while bearing her share of public burden, she has sent hundreds of thousands to the Sanitary Commission. With generous loyalty she turns toward us, and stretches out her arms to help. To the mind's eye, how noble and fair the face of that young Pacific Queen! Handsome is, that handsome does.
The builders of our city have done their work, and on the whole have done it well They have made for us a dwelling-place with open, finely-formed features, and their ear- nest, generous spirit gives a handsome expression. But Buffalo is not finished: genera- tions yet to come are still to be builders, and every one of us, in public or private life, is giving expression more and more, good or bad, to our city's face.
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THE
HISTORY OF OUR LAKE COMMERCE :
A PAPER
READ BEFORE THE BUFFALO HISTORICAL SOCIETY, JAN. 4, 1864.
BY E. P. DORR, ESQ.
MR. PRESIDENT, AND GENTLEMEN OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY :
You have honored me with an invitation to. read a paper before you, on the Com- merce and Navigation of the Northwestern Lakes. Other persons, members of your society, might have done the subject more credit, and you more honor. In my poor way, I will endeavor to do my best; and if I succeed in giving pleasure to the passing hour, and interesting you in my subject, I shall be more than satisfied.
The subject is a large one; in abler hands than mine, it might be elaborated to almost any extent, without exhausting the subject or tiring the listener. Commerce, the world over, has always been the greatest developer of all that tends to elevate man to the highest degree of social, political and pecuniary eminence and enjoyment; and here upon our beautiful chain of lakes and rivers, with its five thousand miles of con- tinuous navigable lake coast-a distance that would cross the Atlantic and back by the nearest route-how magically has it done all this. We look to the Eastern seaboard, and to the Old World across the sea, for the great commercial emporiums of "King Commerce," without considering that here at home, right in our midst, has grown up a commerce, within the lifetime of most of us, that is second to none in the world in point of magnitude and all that makes people great and powerful. It has grown up as though touched by the wand of the enchanter, bidding it come forth ou the instant, and the suddenness of its coming has taken the wonder of it from before our eyes. We get accustomed to it as a matter of course, and the magnitude of the effect of the great commerce of the lakes upon the development of the country adjacent and tributary to them, that has been forced upon us in such gigantic proportions, is mingled with and lost sight of in the great events that have transpired upon this continent, and through- out the civilized world, in the last quarter of a century.
It is not my intention to go back to the history of the early navigation of the lakes. I have understood from our Secretary that Captain Augustus Walker has prepared a paper embracing all that; and, although I have never seen it, nor heard it read, I have no doubt, from the ability of the writer, that he has done the subject full justice; and I have no wish, even had I the material and ability, to intrude upon his domain. There are but two or three points antecedent to my coming to this city, connected with the early history of lake commerce, that I wish to touch upon; and I think, considering
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THOMAS' BUFFALO CITY DIRECTORY.
the importance attached to them, you will cheerfully bear with me in so doing. I have recently examined the records of our Custom House, and have discovered many things that to me are new and interesting, but that to many of you were probably known before. I find that Buffalo was made a Port of Entry, by act of Congress, on the third day of March, 1805. With your permission I will read from my special copy: ACT OF MARCH 3, 1805.
" AN ACT to establish the district of Genesee, of Buffalo Creek, and Miami, and to alter the Port of Entry of the Dis- trict of Erie."
" S. 2. That all the shores, rivers and waters heretofore belonging to the District of Niagara, which empty into Lake Erie or into the River Niagara, above the Falls of Niagara, shall, from and after the 31st day of March next. be a district, to be called the District of Buffalo Creek, of which Buffalo Creek shall be the sole Port of Entry, and a Collector for said District shall be appointed, to reside at Butlalo Creek."
OLIVER FORWARD was the first Collector.
ENROLLED AND LICENSED VESSELS IN THE DISTRICT OF BUFFALO CREEK. FOR THE YEARS 1817, 1818, AND 1819.
Enrolled. Names of Vessels. Owners' Names. Masters' Names. When and Where
Built. Tons.
No. 2. 1817. Brig Huron. Jonathan Sidway. Jaines Beard. Grand River, O., 1814. 104 31
" And altered from a schooner to a Hermaphradite brig the year following, and again altered in her build at Black Rock, in the County of Niagara, State of New York, in the year 1516."
No 1. 1817. Sloop Haunah. Chas. Townsend, Gen. Colt Oliver Coit.
and Oliver Coit
No. 3. Schooner Aurora. Samuel Wilkeson. Seth Tucker. Huron, O., 1$16. 31 62
No. 4. Sch. Experiment. James Hale. Orlando Keves. Black Rock. 1813. 29 65
" As appears by Certificate of Enrollment, granted to said vessel at the Port of Buffalo Creek, 17th May, 1617 "
No. 5. « Sch. Rachel. Robert Eaton, of l'aines- Robert Eaton. Sandusky, O., 1815. 35 08
(Temporary.) ville, O.
" Surrendered, and an Enrollment and License granted to J. Sidway, and R. B. Heacock, September 11. 1819."
No. 1. 1818. Brig Union." Jonathan Sidway and Ell- James Beard. bu Pease.
Huron, O., 1814. 96 13
No. 2. " Sch. Experiment. Thos. Warren, of Painfret, Warren Dinglay.
Black Rock, 1813. 29 65
No. 3. Sch. Liberty. Hawley Reed, of Buffalo. Hawley Reed. Two Mile Creek. in the Town of Buffalo N. Y., in 1818, by Hawley Reed. 23 77
No. 4. 4 Sch. Wasp.
John Crane, of Perkins, O. Francis Hubbard.
Huron, O., 1817. 17 49
(Temporary.)
No. 5. 1815. Sch. Packet. Gardiner Cady, of Buffalo, Gardner Cady. N Y.
(Permanent )
No. 7. 1818. Sch. Wasp. Francis llibbard, of Buffalo, Francis Hibbard. N. Y. (Temporary. ) Robert Eaton, of Paines- Robert Eaton.
Huron. O., 1817. 17 49
No. 8. 1818. Sch. Rachel.
(Temporary.) ville, 0),
No. 1. 1819.1 Sch. Wolf.
Henry T. Guest, of Buffalo, Henry T. Guest. N. Y. Samuel Wilkeson and Shel- Tepbanish Perkins. dion Chapin.
Huron, O., 1816. 81 63
No. 3. " t Sch. Experiment
W'm. A. Lynde, and Joun B. Simeon Fox.
Black Rock, 1813. 29 65
No. 4. " + Sch. Naulius.
Chas. H. Averill, of Buffalo. Geo. J. Adkins.
Sandusky, O., 1818. 24 44
The enrollments of the following named vessels are supposed to have been burned. The statement annexed is compiled from the original Licenses:
1817. Sch. Michigan.
Sheldon Thompson & Wal. ter Norton, Buttalo.
132 36
Sch. Erie.
77 41
1818. Sch. Humbird.
Wmn. Miller and Sheldon Thompson. Hiram and Ebenezer Thomp- son. Israel Loomis and Seth Stanley, Dunkirk.
12 00
.. Sch. Kingbird.
14 00
1819.t Steamer Walk-in- the-Water. Job Fish, Buffalo.
338 60
" + Sloop Independ'ce. Wm. Wallace, Fredonia.
5 00
" 1 Sloop Dolphin. A. Williams, of Pomfret.
14 50
1,185 54
She was
. Brig I'nion-Tonnage 96 31-95 tons, built In 1814-was the first merchant brig built upon the Lakes. subsequently laid up for the reason, as alleged, of being too large for doing business.
t The first entry of Lake Imports cannot be found. The entries were not recorded in a book; and copy of the vensol's manifest was all the record made.
In 1517. 7 vessels were enrolled, with an aggregate registered tonnage of.
459 31 Tons.
In 1818. 9
256 63 ..
In 1819, 7
472 55
1.188 54-95 4
Compiled by Capt. E. P. Dorr, Buffalo, N. Y., from the original records, in the month of December, 1863.
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Chau. Co., N. Y.
Buffalo, N. Y., 1817. 10 87
Dist. of Erie, State of 35 08 Ohio, 1815. Danbury, O., 1817. 28 59
No. 2. " 1 Sch. Aurora.
Pells, of Dunkirk. N. Y.
Josepbus B. Stewart and
Black Rock, 1816. 48 73
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HISTORY OF OUR LAKE COMMERCE.
The first vessel that ever took out what is termed a "Sea Register " at the Buffalo Custom House was the schooner Messenger, of 353 tons, James M. Averill Master, ou the 13th day of August, 1859, bound from Buffalo to Cadiz, Spain, direct, with a cargo of staves. She made the passage, Buffalo to Cadiz, via the St. Lawrence River, in forty-two days.
Warren Bryant was Collector, and William F. Best, Deputy Collector.
This being the first " sea register " granted here, a special form was sent from Washington for that purpose, and a form for the crew list, copies of which-fac simile copies on parchment-I now present to the Society, in the name of Captain James M. Averill, who is present.
Most of you heard Mr. Brown's interesting paper, the other night, of the voyage of the " Republican," made the same year, but earlier, and the troubles her master en- countered, on account of not having a clean "bill of health," certified to by a Spanish official on this side. Capt. Averill informs me that he had his bill of health certified to at Quebec, by the British Consul; and, on his arrival at Cadiz, on presenting his papers to the officials, he was asked why he did not, in the absence of a Spanish officer at Quebec, have the Mayor of the city sigu them. He answered that it did not occur to him. He was permitted to discharge his vessel after three days' quarantine, the result, I have no doubt, of Mr. Brown's, energetic measures, taken a few months before, in a similar case, in his official position as Consol at Tangiers.
Thus, we find that in 1819 we had seven vessels, including the steamer " Walk-in- the-Water," enrolled in the District of Buffalo Creek, of an aggregate tonnage of 472 tons; and while mentioning the name of the steamer " Walk-in-the-Water," I will, with your permission, give you a few facts that I have gathered concerning her, from some of our citizens yet living, and from the records of the Custom House. Many of the facts may not be new to most of you, but they will bear repeating, and should be placed upon the record of history ; for, as far as I can learn, this steamer was not only the pioneer of steam navigation upon the lakes (the Savannah crossing the ocean, I think, after- wards) but was the pioneer of rough-water steam navigation upon this continent-and I might perhaps add, the Old World-thus demonstrating that the exposition of science and the march of great improvement is not confined to the old-settled countries, but is often developed, as shown in our own history, here upon the lakes, and particularly in this case, by the necessities and energies of the new one and its people. May we not trace the hand of the great and good Father above us in this early demonstration of the great commercial power we now wield, and in feeding the millions, as we do, with the products of our shores.
In the construction of this steamer, how little thought its originators and builders of the great work they were inaugurating by thus laying the foundation of the splendid fleet of steamers, afterwards constructed here upon the lakes, outrivalling those of any other country in beauty of model, construction, finish, and fleetness, bearing the emigrant and people from the great countries beyond us, across the sea, to the natural farms, the great prairies of the West. Many of these steamers, including the largest and best, were built in our own city.
The steamer Walk-in-the-Water was the first steamer built and used upon the lakes. She was built at Black Rock, in 1819, near the little ravine or gully, opposite or a little
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THOMAS' BUFFALO CITY DIRECTORY.
below the head of Squaw Island. Adam and Noah Brown, of New York, were the master builders; Peter Loundsberry was the carpenter-foreman or superintendent. She had no guards, except at the wheels; no bulwarks aft, and no upper deck; was 388 60-95 tous burthen; her engine was what is termed a low-pressure square cross-head one, and, with her machinery, was built in New York, and drawn from Albany here on broad-wheeled wagons, with from five to eight horses attached to each. Her boilers were built at Black Rock, Harry Daw, our worthy fellow-citizen, assisting in their construction; and he was the master blacksmith in furnishing the iron work for her. John C. Calhoun, a Scotchman, was her first engineer. She was rigged with two masts and sails, and ran from Black Rock to Detroit and the Upper Lakes Her first license was dated May 7th, 1819. It is recorded at the Custom House, evidently by a Scotchman, as "number twa."
The Custom House Registry, or book of enrollments, for that year cannot be found -supposed to have been burned.
In the first license the names of Josephus B. Stewart and Job Fish appear. Job Fish was master.
A second license was taken out September 6th, the same year. Joseph B. Stuart (evidently the same name, though differently spelled in former license,) John Davis and George Coit are named in this second license. John Davis is named as master. Capt. Job Fish, who first commanded her, was a prominent steamboat captain from the North River. He was brought here to command this boat against the wishes of some of the owners, they thinking that a lake man should command her. Captain John Davis, an accomplished lake navigator and sailor, was her pilot and sailing master. The first year she ran, on a passage to Detroit, she was caught in a heavy southwest gale of wind, a little below Erie, and for some time was exposed to imminent peril of being lost, but finally succeeded in getting back into Niagara River for shelter, when Captain Job Fish packed up his baggage and returned to Albany, for smoother water to sail on. Captain John Davis, who was asked to take charge of her by the crew and passengers during this gale of wind, owing to the incompetency of Captain Job Fish, was, as a reward for his good conduct, appointed to command her. I presume this was the cause of the change of license the same year. The "Walk-in-the-Water " was wrecked and lost on the first day of November, 1821. She was bound from Black Rock to Detroit at the time. During a heavy gale of wind from the southwest, as she could make no head against it, she ran back, arriving at the foot of our bay in the night, too dark to see the way into Niagara River. There was no light at the river entrance then. She was anchored in the bay, with four or five anchors, with hempen cables, chain cables not then being in use. She dragged ashore a little before daylight and became a total loss, on the beach, outside, nearly opposite the foot of Main street. Capt. Levi Allen was on board of her when she went ashore. Jedediah Rogers commanded her, and Capt. Wmn. Miller was her pilot and sailing master. Her machinery was taken out and saved, and the hull abandoned. Not to be overcome by this disaster, the same owners immediately laid down that fall, and built during the winter of 1821-22, the steamer " Superior." She was built near the foot of what is now Indiana street, in Buffalo, on this or the north side of Buffalo Creek. The machinery of the "Walk-in-the-Water" was put in the "Superior," Captain Levi Allen assisting that winter in taking it out of the " Walk-
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HISTORY OF OUR LAKE COMMERCE.
in-the-Water " and putting it in the "Superior." She commenced running in June or July of 1822. She ran successfully for several years as a steamer, when her machinery was taken out and she was rigged into a ship, by Captain Harry Whittaker, who com- manded her. She was eventually lost on Lake Michigan, at Michigan City, Indiana. The engine and machinery of the "Superior " was put into the steamer "Charles Townsend," and ended its career in propelling a boat, with that steamer. Her cylinder, I am told, is now at "Shepard's Foundry," in this city, and in daily use, as I am informed. I have also been informed that part of one of her shafts is now in the pos- session of the Young Men's Association of the city of Detroit. Measures have been taken to get a piece of this shaft, if possible, for this society. For this information I am indebted to Harry Daw, Esq.
The first high-pressure steamer built and used upon the lakes was the " Pioneer." She was built at Black Rock, at the same place, as I understand, as the " Walk-in-the- Water." Her machinery was built at Pittsburg, Pa, and drawn here by horses and wagons, by way of Erie. From this time forward, steamers came into common use, in limited numbers, upon the lakes.
Among the pioneer masters of vessels upon the lakes, I would mention Captains Fish, Rogers, Bunker and Sherman (who were imported here to sail steamers, and did not stay long.)
Captain Daniel Dobbins (father of our townsman, Captain D. P. Dobbins,) who commanded a vessel upon the lakes in 1803, and who distinguished himself in command of one of the gunboats (the " Ohio") of Perry's fleet, during the war of 1812-15.
The vessel that he commanded in 1816 was the schooner " Washington," and, on a voyage to Green Bay in that year, as a Government transport, with troops to establish Fort Howard there, Captain Dobbins discovered and anchored in " Washington Harbor," at the entrance of Green Bay-the first vessel that ever entered it. In honor of that event, he named the island " Washington Island," a name it bears to this day. Some other islands in the vicinity he named for United States army officers who were on board : " Boyer's Bluff," "Chambers " and "Green" Islands were so named. I had this account from Captain Dobbins, Sen., himself, some years ago.
Captain James Ruff, was also a compeer and friend of Captain Dobbins, and was one of the most distinguished and capable of lake masters.
Captain Stephen Champlin, who also commanded one of the gunboats, and distin- guished himself at the battle of Lake Erie.
Captain Knapp, who for many years commanded a Revenue Cutter upon the Lakes.
Captain Chelsea Blake, who was with General Scott at Chippewa and Lundy's Lane, distinguishing himself very much as a brave and heroic man, and who for many years commanded some of the finest steamers upon the lakes. Of his noble and character- istic impulse of character many of you can testify.
And then there were Captains Walter Norton, Thomas Wilkins, Cliff Belden, Geo. Miles, John White, Wm. T. Pease, James M. Averill, Charles Burnett, Ned Burke, John Burnham, John Stewart, Robert Wagstaff, John Flecharty, Simeon Fox, Wessel and Harry Whittaker, Joseph Caskie, David Druayee, Levi and Archibald Allen, William Dickson, Lester Cotton, G. Appleby, Morris Tyler, Sam. Chase, Augustus Walker, Jno. and James Shook, Norman and Alvin Patterson, Charles and Ben. Stannard, Charles
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