Part 16

In 1806, the first schoolhouse was built on the corner of Swan and Pearl streets,—the humble pioneer of an educational system that now embraces sixty modern grammar schools, three collegiate High Schools, and innumerable independent and private institutions of learning. Notable among these latter is the Le Couteulx Asylum for the instruction of the deaf and dumb. This beneficent institution owes its origin to the liberality of the Le Couteulx family. Louis Stephen Le Couteulx de Caumont, a Norman-French gentleman of station and culture, was the founder of the family in Buffalo. He came to New Amsterdam in 1804.

On February 10, 1810, the “Town of Buffaloe” was created by an act of the legislature. This was the name originally given to the settlement by the Senecas, and there is little doubt that it was derived from the visits of the bison to the neighboring salt-licks. However that may be, the village of New Amsterdam was merged in 1810 into the town of Buffalo.

With the disappearance of the Dutch appellation of the town, vanished also the Dutch nomenclature of the streets. Van Staphorst and Willink Avenues were connected and called Main Street; Stadinzky Avenue, a name suggestive of the Polish element that later was to swell in such numbers the population of the city, became Church Street; Niagara Street succeeded Schimmelpennick Avenue; and Vollenhoven Avenue was changed into Erie Street.

The origin of some of Buffalo’s thoroughfares is interesting and amusing. Utica Street was formerly a lane on the old Hodge farm, and led from the Cold Spring region to the Elmwood Avenue district. The people using it, however, were very careless about closing the gates, and this so irritated Mr. Hodge that he locked the gates and closed the lane. An indignation meeting was called in the little schoolhouse at Cold Spring. The schoolmaster was the chief speaker, and unless tradition does violence to his grammar, the principal part of his speech consisted of the declaration that “them Hodges is maintainin’ a ‘pent-up Uticky.’” When Mr. Hodge heard of the meeting, he relented and offered to give the people the lane on condition that the town government would lay out a street. The offer was accepted and the new thoroughfare was called Utica Street in commemoration of the schoolmaster’s speech.

The inevitable newspaper appeared on the 3d of October, 1811, when the Buffalo _Gazette_ issued its first number. The _Gazette_ was the forerunner of journals which to-day recognize as their only competitors the Metropolitan press.

On the 26th of June, 1812, the tidings of war with Great Britain reached Buffalo, and on August 13th the first gun of the struggle is said to have been fired by the battery at Black Rock, then a rival, now a suburb, of Buffalo. The excitement was intense; for all recognized that the growing town, because of its frontier situation, was sure to be one of the theatres of hostilities. Nor was this a mistaken idea, as subsequent events proved. Immediately after the declaration of war, the British soldiers from the Canadian garrison at Fort Erie, directly across the river from Buffalo, made an incursion, and captured the schooner _Connecticut_, at anchor in the Buffalo Creek. This humiliation, however, was more than wiped out by the daring exploit of Lieutenant Jesse D. Elliott, U. S. N., who, on October 9, 1812, crossed the river, and boldly attacked two vessels lying under the guns of Fort Erie. One of these, the _Detroit_, of six guns, had been captured by the British at the surrender of that town; the other was the _Caledonia_, of two guns. With a loss of two killed and five wounded, Elliott’s force captured both vessels and took prisoners, officers and men, to the number of seventy-one. Forty-seven American prisoners taken by the British at the River Raisin, were released by Elliott. The _Detroit_ was carried down the stream when the cables were cut, and ran aground on Squaw Island. The British opened a lively cannonading from the Canadian shore and attempted to recapture the vessel, but were driven off by the Americans, who, unable to float it, burned it to the water’s edge. For his brilliant coup, Lieutenant Elliott was voted a sword of honor by Congress.

One great advantage the British possessed early in the war was their superiority on the Lakes. The _Queen Charlotte_, of twenty-two guns, the _Hunter_, of twelve guns, and a small armed schooner patrolled the Erie coast-line in the neighborhood of Buffalo, and kept the inhabitants of the region in a constant state of fear and excitement. To remedy this disadvantage, the Government, in the spring of 1813, sent Captain Oliver Hazard Perry to fit out a war fleet at Erie, Pennsylvania. He arrived in Buffalo in March, and thence proceeded to his destination. The Government had purchased a number of merchant craft, and these he immediately began converting into men-of-war. Some new vessels also were built. Five gunboats were fitted out at Buffalo on Scajaquada Creek. On September 10, 1813, Perry, with an inferior force, both in the number of men and guns, gave battle to the British and captured or destroyed their entire fleet. This victory was not only the most notable of the war, but is one of the most conspicuous in our naval history. In the midst of the battle Perry’s ship was sunk, and he left it in an open boat, and, under the fire of the enemy, went to another vessel of his fleet, whence he directed the operations that rendered the battle of Lake Erie an illustrious triumph for American arms.

In a few months, however, the exultation of Buffalo’s citizens was turned into mourning through the burning of the town by the British. On the 29th of December, General Riall, with twelve hundred men, regulars, militia and Indians, landed below Scajaquada Creek, and owing to the confusion which prevailed in the councils of the local military commanders, captured the town with little difficulty. The inhabitants had fled, and every dwelling, with one or two exceptions, was given over to the flames. Mrs. St. John and two of her daughters remained to protect their house, and owing to the chivalry of Colonel Elliott, the commander of the Indians, neither the ladies nor their household possessions were molested. Mrs. Joshua Lovejoy, who also remained in her home, where the Tifft House now stands, was imprudent enough to have an altercation with the Indians, and was slain by one of them. Her house was burned, and her dead body with it.

On the withdrawal of the British, the citizens returned from their flight, bringing back with them such household goods as they had gathered together on their hasty departure, and forthwith the rebuilding of Buffalo commenced. The American loss in the engagement preceding the capture of the town was heavy. Between forty and fifty of our troops were killed, as many more wounded, and about ninety prisoners were carried off by the victors. From all these reverses the people of the little town measurably recovered in the succeeding five or six months. On April 10, 1814, Brigadier-General Winfield Scott came to Buffalo, and shortly after, Major-General Brown arrived. The preparations for an advance on the Canadian position were pushed forward as rapidly as possible, and on July 3d the movement began. Three brigades,—two of regulars, one of volunteers,—accompanied by a few Indians, crossed the river, and captured Fort Erie. Thence proceeding down the Canadian bank, they engaged the enemy at Chippewa on July 5th, and won a decisive victory.

The Americans wore temporary uniforms of gray, and it was in honor of the conspicuous gallantry displayed by our troops in this conflict that gray was adopted as the uniform for the West Point cadets.

The volunteer brigade was commanded by General Peter B. Porter, for many years a member of Congress from Erie County, and afterwards Secretary of War for a brief period under John Quincy Adams. General Porter distinguished himself also in the battle of Lundy’s Lane, and throughout the war gained such reputation for valor, skill and eloquence, that to him has been assigned the credit of being the pioneer in organizing the volunteer system of the American Army.

During all this war the famous Seneca chief, Red Jacket, took an active part in behalf of the Americans, and though he had little love for the white men on either side of the controversy, still his influence was cast in favor of those who were the neighbors and friends of his people. Innumerable anecdotes are told of the wisdom, oratory and dignity of the great sachem, and a later generation has raised in Forest Lawn Cemetery an imposing statue to his memory.

After the battle of Chippewa, General Riall, the British commander, retreated to Queenstown, and thence to Fort George, the Americans in pursuit. The British, however, were reinforced and General Brown decided to return to Fort Erie. Riall, in turn, pursued. On July 25th the contending forces met near Lundy’s Lane, and one of the most fiercely fought battles of the war followed. The conflict began a little before nightfall, and raged until nearly ten o’clock, when the Americans held undisputed possession of the field. General Riall and one hundred and sixty-eight prisoners were captured. Both General Brown and General Scott were wounded, as was also Captain Worth, afterwards famous in the Mexican War.

The command of the American forces then devolved upon General Ripley, who took up his position at Fort Erie and was there besieged by Lieutenant-General Drummond. On August 3d, the British directed a savage onslaught against the Fort, but were driven back with loss. They continued, however, to invest the American position. On September 17th, General Porter headed an attack on the besieging force, and such was the gallantry of the American volunteers that the British veterans were dispersed. General Napier, the English military historian, cites this sortie as one of the few in all history that at a single stroke compelled the raising of a siege. The Governor brevetted Porter a major-general, and Congress voted him a gold medal.

With this exploit at Fort Erie, the War of 1812 was practically over, so far as the interests of Buffalo were concerned. When the American troops retired from Fort Erie, they blew it up, and its ruins are one of the picturesque features of the region about Buffalo.

The commercial greatness of the city is indissolubly associated with the Erie Canal. In 1807-8 Jesse Hawley of Geneva wrote a series of articles in the _Ontario Messenger_. In these he advocated the construction of a grand canal connecting Lake Erie with the Atlantic Ocean. This idea found favor with Joseph Ellicott, DeWitt Clinton, Gouverneur Morris, and Peter B. Porter, and so strong did the sentiment for the project become, that in 1816 a bill passed the Assembly, directing that the work of construction be commenced. The Senate, however, decided that additional surveys should be made. The work of preparation was inaugurated July 14, 1817; and on the 9th of August, 1823, the work of actual construction began in Erie County by the breaking of ground for the canal, near the place where is now the Commercial Street bridge in Buffalo. The great waterway was completed on October 25, 1825, and the first boat, _Seneca Chief_, started on its voyage from Buffalo to the Hudson. DeWitt Clinton, then the Governor of the State and chief promoter of the canal, graced the ceremonies with his presence.

In this connection, it is interesting to observe that, in 1819, the question whether Buffalo or Black Rock should be the western terminus of the canal was settled in favor of the former through the public spirit and enterprise of Charles Townsend, Samuel Wilkeson, Oliver Forward and George Coit. These men gave each a bond of $8,000 for the purpose of securing a loan of $12,000 from the State to construct a harbor, the State reserving the right to accept or reject, as it pleased, the completed work. From this time on, Judge Wilkeson devoted his immense energies and great executive ability to the interests of Buffalo in connection with the canal, and to him may justly be ascribed the credit of being the founder of her lake commerce. It was altogether appropriate, therefore, that, on the opening of the canal, he should have been given the honor of pouring into the lake the water brought from the ocean, an event described as the Wedding of the Atlantic and Lake Erie. It recalled the marriage in old time of Venice and the Adriatic.

Near where LaSalle, in 1679, built his little sailing vessel, the _Griffin_, three New York capitalists completed on May 28, 1818, the first steamboat that plied the waters of Lake Erie. This was fittingly named, after the Wyandot chieftain, _Walk-in-the-Water_. The little vessel was lost three years later, but it marked the beginning of steam navigation on the Lakes—since grown to such perfection as to rival the navigation of the sea.

The influence of the Erie Canal has been incomparably great, not merely in the rise of one city, but, in a larger sense, in the development of the State and the nation. The commercial forces which it generated have aided in building up the wealth of the Middle West, and the impetus of the resultant enterprise has finally reached every industry of the continent. To the canal, more than to any other factor, Buffalo owes its growth and importance. The little hamlet founded by Joseph Ellicott now has a population of 390,000. The city’s coal receipts in 1898 were 2,455,191 tons; its lumber receipts, 189,075,938 feet; its grain receipts, 267,395,434 bushels. It has a harbor enclosed by a new breakwater nearly four miles in length, and costing over $2,000,000. The coal interests have constructed the greatest trestles in the world. Forty-one elevators, with a capacity of 20,920,000 bushels, line the harbor. There are 3500 manufactories. The park system comprises thousands of acres, with seventeen miles of park driveways. Twenty-six railroads enter the city, with 250 passenger trains daily, and have nearly 700 miles of trackage within the city limits. The electric power from Niagara Falls is delivered at Buffalo in practically unlimited quantities. There are 24 banks, and 184 churches. The city has 116 miles of street paved with stone, 6 miles paved with brick, and 225 miles with asphalt, or more asphalt than any other city in the world, not excepting Paris, Washington, or London. Two public libraries contain more than 180,000 volumes. In handling flour and wheat, Buffalo is the first city in the world. Its fresh-fish industry aggregates an annual distribution of 15,000,000 pounds. Buffalo’s horse market is the most important in the country; and in cattle and hogs, the trade of the city is second only to that of Chicago. The sheep market is the largest in the United States.

The climate of Buffalo, with the exception of high winds during certain portions of the winter, is probably as delightful as that enjoyed by any city on the globe. In summer, the temperature is nearly always moderate, and when other cities suffer from extreme heat, the people of Buffalo are blessed with the conditions common to late summer in other regions.

The residence portion of the city is celebrated for its beauty. The avenues are wide, the dwellings elegant and commodious, the lawn effects charming, and the trees superb.

Buffalo is entering upon what might be termed its metropolitan period. New forces, new ideas, are building splendid superstructures on the foundations established by the generation now passing away. From the time of the city’s incorporation, in 1832, the bench and the bar, the medical and the clerical professions, have been especially rich with the names of those who have left a lasting impress upon the thought of the city, the state and the nation. The political life and the business progress have been dignified by men of intellect and character. Such names as the Right Reverend Arthur Cleveland Coxe, Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Western New York; the Right Reverend Stephen Vincent Ryan, Roman Catholic Bishop of Buffalo; John Ganson, one of the giants of the legal profession; Millard Fillmore, a former President of the United States; Doctors George N. Burwell and John Cronyn, cultured physicians of the old school; William I. Williams, the pioneer of Buffalo’s unrivalled paved streets; the Reverend Doctor William Shelton, rector of St. Paul’s Church; the Reverend Doctor John Lord, perhaps the most famous of Buffalo’s Presbyterian divines; James M. Smith, Justice of the Supreme Court, recall types of men whose ability, integrity and civic worth would contribute to advance civilization in any community.

During the Civil War, Buffalo did its patriotic share towards the preservation of the Union. The names of William F. Rogers, Michael Wiedrich, James P. McMahon, Daniel D. Bidwell, Edward P. Chapin, John Wilkeson and William Richardson are cherished by the people of Buffalo and Erie County as typical of the soldiers who, in regiment after regiment, enlisted there for the war.

In legislation, also, the city contributed its part to the successful prosecution of the struggle. On December 30, 1861, Mr. E. G. Spaulding, member of Congress from Buffalo, introduced the bill which afterwards became famous as the Legal-Tender Act, whereby the Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to issue $50,000,000 in Treasury notes, payable on demand, in denominations of not less than $5, these to be the legal tender for all debts, public and private, and exchangeable for the bonds of the Government at par.

Nearly every element of American progress has entered into the growth of this beautiful city. Its development has been brilliant in enterprise, luminous in education, rich in romance, splendid in achievement, and noble in patriotism. In a word, Buffalo has kept pace with the Great Republic.

PITTSBURGH

THE INDUSTRIAL CITY

BY SAMUEL HARDEN CHURCH

George Washington, the Father of his Country, is equally the Father of Pittsburgh, for he came thither in November, 1753, and established the location of the now imperial city by choosing it as the best place for a fort. Washington was then twenty-one years old. He had by that time written his precocious one hundred and ten maxims of civility and good behavior; had declined to be a midshipman in the British Navy; had made his only sea-voyage to Barbadoes; had surveyed the estates of Lord Fairfax, going for months into the forest without fear of savage Indians or wild beasts, and was now a major of Virginia militia. In pursuance of the claim of Virginia that she owned that part of Pennsylvania in which Pittsburgh is situated, Washington came there as the agent of Governor Dinwiddie to treat with the Indians. With an eye alert for the dangers of the wilderness, and with Christopher Gist beside him, the young Virginian pushed his cautious way to “The Point” of land where the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers forms the Ohio. That, he declared, with clear military instinct, was the best site for a fort; and he rejected the promontory two miles below, which the Indians had recommended for that purpose.

As early as 1728 a daring hunter or trader found the Indians at the head waters of the Ohio,—among them the Delawares, Shawanese, Mohicans and Iroquois,—whither they tracked the bear from their village of Logstown, seventeen miles down the river. They also employed the country roundabout as a highway for their march to battle against other tribes, and against each other. At that time France and England were disputing for the new continent. France, by right of her discovery of the Mississippi, claimed all the lands drained by that river and its tributaries,—a contention which would naturally plant her banner upon the summit of the Alleghany Mountains.[26] England, on the other hand, claimed everything from ocean-shore to ocean-shore. This situation produced war, and Pittsburgh became the strategic key of the great Middle West. The French made early endeavors to win the allegiance of the Indians, and they felt encouraged to press their friendly overtures because they usually came among the red men for trading or exploration, while the English invariably seized and occupied their lands. In 1731 some French settlers did attempt to build a group of houses at Pittsburgh, but the Indians compelled them to go away. The next year the Governor of Pennsylvania summoned two Indian chiefs from Pittsburgh to say why they had been going to see the French Governor at Montreal; and they gave answer that he had sent for them only to express the hope that both English and French traders might meet at Pittsburgh and carry on trade amicably. The Governor of Pennsylvania sought to induce the tribes to draw themselves farther east, where they might be made to feel the hand of authority, but Sassoonan, their chief, forbade them to stir. An Iroquois chief who joined his entreaties to those of the Governor was soon afterward killed by some Shawanese braves, but they were forced to flee into Virginia to escape the vengeance of his tribe.

Louis Celeron, a French officer, made an exploration of the country contiguous to Pittsburgh in 1747, and formally enjoined the Governor of Pennsylvania not to occupy the ground, as France claimed its sovereignty. A year later the Ohio Company was formed, with a charter ceding an immense tract of land for sale and development, including Pittsburgh. This corporation built some storehouses at Logstown to facilitate their trade with the Indians, which were captured by the French, together with skins and commodities valued at £20,000; and the purposes of the Company were never accomplished.

As soon as Washington’s advice as to the location of the fort was received, Captain William Trent was dispatched to Pittsburgh with a force of soldiers and workmen, packhorses and materials, and he began in all haste to erect a stronghold. The French had already built forts on the northern lakes, and they now sent Captain Contrecœur down the Allegheny with one thousand French, Canadians and Indians, and eighteen pieces of cannon, in a flotilla of sixty bateaux and three hundred canoes. Trent had planted himself in Pittsburgh on February 17, 1754,—a date important because it marks the first permanent white settlement there. But his work had been retarded alike by the small number of his men and the severity of the winter; and when Contrecœur arrived in April, the young subaltern who commanded in Trent’s absence surrendered the unfinished works, and was permitted to march away with his thirty-three men. The French completed the fort and named it Duquesne, in honor of the Governor of Canada; and they held possession of it for four years.

Immediately on the loss of this fort, Virginia sent a force under Washington to retake it. Washington surprised a French detachment near Great Meadows, and killed their commander, Jumonville. When a larger expedition came against him, he put up a stockade near the site of Uniontown, naming it Fort Necessity, which he was compelled to yield on terms of marching away with the honors of war.