THE TWIN CITIES: A History of Tonawanda and North Tonawanda Mrs. Elias Root (1925).htm
Dublin Core
Title
Description
Chapters
i. Introduction
- Early History
- Indian Migrations Traced in Frontier Area
- French explorers gambled for big stakes on the frontier
- La Salle and French Grab Frontier, Indian Lore Told (4/30)*
- French, English and Indians Battle for Niagara Frontier (5/1)*
- Bloody Devil's Hole Massacre Recounted in Frontier Lore (5/3)*
- Tuscarora Indians Purchase Present Site of Reservation
- Treaty with Great Britian Deeds Fort Niagara to the U. S. (5/6)*
- Spectacle of Mighty Niagara Awed Early Visitors (5/7)*
- Daredevils of Niagara Falls Described in Frontier Lore (5/8)*
- Falls Proved Lively Subject for Early Writers, Artists (5/9)*
- Early Travelers Bypassed Tonawanda Because of Forests
- Early Real Estate Deals Open Up Infant Tonawandas
- First Land in Tonas. Sold for 5c
- Woman's daring Saved Home as British Sacked Tonawanda
- Grand Island Timber Used for Early Boston Clippers
- Kid’s Utopia: Three-Month School Year in Early Tona.
- Goundry, Sweeney Offered NT Area to Buyers in 1824
- Village of Tona Mapped, Erie Canal Pushed Through
- 330 Homes in Tonas. in 1866; Lumber Boom Hits Village
- Martinsville Settled, Rails Laid to Twin Cities
Introduction
MRS. ELIAS ROOT’S ACCOUNT OF DRAMATIC PAST NORTH TONAWANDA AND FRONTIER
Romantic ‘Only’ History of NT Starts in NEWS Today
The NEWS of The Tonawandas today begins in serial form as a part of preparation for the gala celebration in August of North Tonawanda’s 50th anniversary as a city, the only authentic history of North Tonawanda ever compiled. (The “History of the City of Tonawanda” by the late George Millener, was printed exclusively by The NEWS in 1938.)
The North Side’s history was written by the late Mrs. Elias Root, (nee Carrie Boughton) one of the community’s most prominent civic leaders and lady-citizens, founder of the Civic Club, to the forefront in affairs of the historic First Methodist church, and leader of the campaign which gave Sweeney Park to the city. A plaque at the park commemorates her activity. She was the mother of City Attorney Fred Root.
Mrs. Root, who was born in nearby Pekin, lived during her childhood at Victor, N. Y., near Rochester, and attended the Lima, N. Y., Female Academy. Upon her marriage to Mr. Root, who read law in a Lockport law office, she came to North Tonawanda, and began her enterprising and enlightened work for civic betterment.
She compiled her history of North Tonawanda as part of an extensive history of the entire Niagara Frontier, gleaned from old letters, hearsay from old inhabitants and personal observation.
What a glamorous, romantic, historic field she had!
Home of the ancient and prehistoric Mound Builders, and later the stamping ground of the Senecas, most warlike of all the Iroquois Indians.
Tramped by the early French explorers and missionaries — the “wood-runners”, voyageurs, cavalier and fur-traders — including La Salle, Father Marquette, the amazing French-Italian adventurer “Toni of the Iron Hand,” and the builders of world-known Fort Niagara.
Scene of stirring times in the War of 1812, when the Military Road was a-swarm with militia and military supplies as Gen. Augustus Porter prepared for an invasion of Canada.
The out-lying settlement of the Tonawandas, seized and burned by British troops as they advanced to burn the hardly larger village of Buffalo, while the settlers buried their valuables and fled into the forest to dodge the swarms of hostile Indians under bloodthirsty Joseph Brant and Red Jacket.
Scene of martyrdom of the great French Jesuit fathers at the hands of the Indians, with a shrine erected near Silver Creek as a present-day reminder of their suffering and martyrdom upon that very site.
Fenian Invasion
The Fenian invasion of Canada, when desperate Irish patriots paddled over the river intent upon seizing Canada.
The Civil War, when Copperheads and Southern sympathizers based in Canada, plotted to cross the river near the Twin Cities, seize Buffalo and establish a Fifth Column to aid the Confederacy. Site of the end-station of the Civil War’s great “road to freedom,” the “Underground Railway,” over which thousands of negroes found their way to Canada and liberty from the lash. Much of this is told in the splendid history compiled by Mrs. Root. Its opening installment begins today:
THE TWIN CITIES
A History of Tonawanda and North Tonawanda
1. Early History
Tonawanda in Erie County and its Twin City, North Tonawanda, in Niagara County, both of New York State, have a history so full of interest that it will well repay every resident of either place to pause and look back over the past centuries and especially of the one just closing, before starting the new era of industrial development and regional planning, which seems likely within the next century to stretch one continuous city from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario.
The real history of this region, so devoid of hills and other impediments to the growth of a huge city, begins with its geological formation. Geologists tell us that this level tract of land forming the western part of the state of New York was once the end of an Archaean Ocean.
While the eastern part of the state was elevated into mountains, this part remained undisturbed. The red sandstone bottom was caused by its Niagara limestone, which is to a great degree a compound of shells, coral and the bodies of small animals and plants, which through the centuries have sunk to the bottom and become fossilized.
Lake Ontario, which was formed after the recession of this ocean, apparently once extended to the escarpment at Lewiston, Pekin and so on east, forming what is now called its Mountain Ridge.
Lewiston Ridge Was Lake Shore
The ridge between the mountain ridge and the lake, now marked by the Million Dollar Highway, is supposed to have been a second shore of the lake caused by other sudden recession of its waters. A later and further recession has left the shore of the lake where it now is. The extreme fertility of the soil between this mountain ridge and the lake, which makes possible such rich farm lands and fruit growth, is evidently due to the fact that these areas were under water for a long time and were receiving the drainage of the Niagara River.
The extreme fertility of the soil on these lowlands was well known to the Indians at least 200 years ago. Quite an area between Lewiston and the lake and for some distance east was at that time devoid of trees.
The Indian women were accustomed to take their children with them to this spot where they erected their tents and spent the summer raising their crops for Winter, returning in Autumn to their tribal location.
Just when the last recession of the lake took place is not known, but it seems to have been after the time of the mound builders, who are supposed to have left this region about the 12th century.
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2. Another Gripping Chapter Of Frontier Lore Related
Another installment of Mrs. Elias Root’s complete and dramatic history of North Tonawanda and the Niagara Frontier appears today in The NEWS of the Tonawandas. Mrs. Root’s carefully compiled story is the only history embracing North Tonawanda ever written.
This race has been called the “Alleghens”, and it is claimed that the Allegheny Mountains derived their name from them.
So far as legends and relics can inform us, these Mound Builders were the first inhabitants of the Niagara Frontier. They existed during the Stone Age and were co-existent with the Mammoths. Being more civilized than the Indians, and being mine and metal workers, they were gradually driven by the latter to the south and west.
Volumes have been written about these mysterious people who had no written language, but whose wonderful structures are common to the Middle West and spread along the banks of the Great Lakes.
Moundbuilders’ “Forts”
In the early part of this century, several of these structures were still in existence in this vicinity. Frank Severance relates that near the city of Lockport, at the head of a deep gorge, now almost closed up by an embankment of the New York Central Railroad, was a circular raised work or fort whose walls were then plainly visible. From this fort was a covered way leading to a spring of water in a fissure of the rock some 60 feet down the declivity.
In the Town of Hartland, on the Castle Farm, was a circular fortification with an opening for ingress and egress. The early white settlers found trees growing on its embankments as large as any in the surrounding forests. Earthenware of ancient make, arrowheads, and other relics were found in and about the place.
In 1883, there was discovered on a farm in Cambria a rut 24 feet square and four and a half feet deep which contained the bones of 4,200 persons. Large forest trees were growing over this sepulcher. Whether this was a tribal burying place or the scene of a great battle is not known.
Just outside the south side of Lockport, in early days, there was an irregular space on which were 100 circular pits 12 to 15 feet in diameter with an average depth of four feet.
The excavated matter around them consisted of sand, which is found only in a stratum beneath the surface at a depth of from three to six feet. Large oak trees were growing on these embankments, but every vestige of trees and embankments has been swept away.
String of Defenses
There was a large double fort with a town between on the present site of Batavia on Tonawanda Creek in the early days, and there was a string of forts from there to Cattaraugus Creek to the Pennsylvania line, a distance of 50 miles, with from a mile to two miles between them, and farther south is another chain parallel with them.
There is one structure of the mound builders that is still preserved. It is located on the escarpment, or the original bank of the lake, about three miles east of the Niagara Gorge at Lewiston.
Immediately after crossing a little ravine, and rising to the level of the plains, one enters the fields and rock fortress of Kienuka.
Lewiston Relics
An Indian mound near the ferry ravine at Lewiston was probably constructed by the Mound Builders, although it was used later as a burial ground by the Indians.
These "works of art" may be viewed as connecting links of a great chain, which extends beyond the confines of our state and becomes more magnificent and curious as we recede from the Northern Lakes and from the Ohio River into the great valley of the Mississippi, thence to the Gulf of Mexico, through Texas, New Mexico, and South America.
The advent of the Indian to this country is also a mystery. Their language being akin to that of the Mongols, it is possible that they may have crossed from Asia by way of the Aleutian Islands and Bering Strait.
Another theory of their advent to this country is that they were a small remnant that survived the sinking of Atlantis and found their way to these shores.
3. Indian Migrations Traced In Niagara Frontier Area
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Third installment of Mrs. Elias Root’s carefully compiled and complete history of North Tonawanda and the Niagara Frontier appears in The NEWS today. This chapter deals with Indian migrations which brought early tribes to this area.
The latter theory seems highly improbable and is not borne out by statements made by Professor Arthur Parker of Albany, State archeologist, who is of Indian descent, his grandfather having held a sub-sachemship in the Iroquois Confederacy. In an address delivered by him at the dedication of the Boulder Monument on the site of the historic DeNonville-Seneca battle field in 1913 (reference to which will be made later) he gives this statement concerning the distribution of the six nations in New York State:
“The Iroquois, who ruled here and ruled well, belonged to the Huron-Iroquois linguistic stock said to have migrated from some Western source, passed through the Mississippi valley and gathered around the Detroit River. Offshoots were constantly splitting off from the main branch as they found suitable place for settlement. Among these may be mentioned the Cherokee.
Marching Eastward
The marching horde at its rendezvous on the Detroit seems to have divided again. One large division passed over the river, while the remainder stayed on the south bank. Both branches, however, continued their journeys eastward along the shores of Lakes Erie and Ontario. The Iroquois along the south shore later became known as the Eries, the Andastic and the Senecas, although there were also other small bands.
The Northern migrants coursing along the shores of the lakes eventually reaching the St. Lawrence valley, where they were surrounded by the Algonquins and made a captive people. But the fierce love of liberty, the recollection of past glory and the blood of brave ancestry would not long allow the Iroquois to remain a subject people.
Iroquois Escape
By a well directed blow at a well chosen time, they obtained their freedom and fled to the territory which we now know as Northern and Central New York.
Pushing their way westward to the Genesee and beyond they met their brother tribes from whom they had been separated years before.
The Laurentian Iroquois, as they have come to be called, were divided into three bands, originally, perhaps, two. The Mohawks constituted one band, the Onondagas another and the Oneidas the third, may have been an offshoot of the Mohawks.
The Cayugas were members of their tribes that had clung to the southern shores and were a large division and in close alliance with the Eries and influenced more or less by the Andastic and neutrals.”
Local Tribes
The latter tribe was situated on both sides of the Niagara River. The Tuscaroras were said to have been originally one of the tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy, but they later wandered away to North Carolina, probably over what is known as the Catawga Trail which led from Central New York south through Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia.
In this final settlement, the Mohawks occupied the valley of the Mohawk River, the Cayugas, Oneidas and Canandaguas the vicinity of the five finger lakes, while the Senecas took the territory west of the Genesee River.
4. French Explorers Gambled For Big Stakes on Frontier
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This is the fourth installment of the history of the Niagara Frontier and North Tonawanda by Mrs. Elias Root.
Advent of the French
This Niagara frontier with its wonder waterfall was known all over the country by the Indians. While the English and Dutch explored the Eastern part of the state, the French were the first whites to penetrate to this part of New York. Crossing the ocean from their native France they came down the St. Lawrence to Lake Ontario. In small boats they skirted the south shore of the lake until they reached the outlet of the Niagara River which they ascended as far as Lewiston. Leaving their boats there, they made their way around the Falls by land and soon learned from the Indians of the other great lakes and the Mississippi River. They decided that it would be a fine idea to establish a fur trade with the Indians and eventually make the country a “New France.”
The first adventurers into this Indian country embraced three classes: the explorers, the fur traders and the missionaries, who were sent out to preach Christianity to the natives. These latter men had hearts of iron. They took their lives in their hands for they planned to make their homes among the natives. The Hurons in western Canada responded more sympathetically to this innovation but their treatment among some of the other
Earliest Book
The earliest book about this frontier is Champlain’s “Des Sauvages” (The Savages). Lee Carbot in a book called “New France” which was published in 1603 relates that Jacques Cartier made a trip to the St. Lawrence in 1535 and then heard of the big falls but did not see them. Champlain, from whom the lake was named, had an interpreter named Etienne Bruli who visited this section. He may have seen them but if so it was not recorded.
The title of Les Carbot’s book indicates that as early as 1609 the French had intended to capture the whole country for France and they named Lake Ontario “Lake Louis” from their French king.
In 1626 Joseph de la Roche Daillon, a priest, came here and visited the falls. He is said to be the first white man to set foot in Niagara county. He explored the lake to its west end.
In 1642 two missionaries, Father L’Allimont and Father Ragueneau left the Huron nation where they had been teaching Christianity and came to teach along the Niagara frontier and at Lewiston but their reception was not cordial and their treatment eventually so inhumane that they were compelled to return to the Huron country. They crossed the river to Canada where they started their long journey on foot and in the dead of winter. One of them died on the way but the other succeeded in reaching his destination.
If space permitted a volume might be written about these brave missionaries of the cross who endured untold hardships, risked their lives and in some cases suffered martyrdom in order to carry Christianity to the natives.
In 1657 Sanson called the falls Niagara and from that time on no fewer than ten different spellings of the word occur.
The French traders were called Coureurs des Bois and it was their constant ambition to secure for France all the fur trade of the Indians. As early as 1549 Father Raqueneau speaks of Lake Erie being formed by the waters of the “Mer Douce” (Lake Huron) and of its discharging its waters into a third called Lake Ontario through a river or straits. One old map has the Niagara River named “The Straits.”
Just after this period the Seneca tribe of Indians, located west of the Genesee River made war on the Indians along the frontier and either killed or captured all of them, but although this occurred in 1651 they did not occupy the newly conquered territory for years.
The destruction of the Algonquin seemed a doubly sad event, first because, as their name indicated, they had stood as a barrier between two hostile tribes for many years and secondly because of the adoration of the big river.
They had literally made it their duty. Annually they offered to it their crops, results of the chase trophies from war-like expeditions and even human sacrifices.
In the book called “The Niagara Region in History” by Severance the statement is made that “Each spring the fairest maiden was sent out over the falls in a white canoe filled with blossoms and fruit.” The honor of being chosen for this sacrifice was so great that it was eagerly sought for.
The custom continued until one chieftain, whose daughter had been chosen for the honor, decided that he could not live without her and so followed her over the brink in another boat. The tribe felt that they could not afford to lose any more chiefs, so discontinued the practice.
8. Tuscarora Indians Purchase Present Site of Reservation
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In 1779, Washington sent an exhibition against the Senecas. Their villages were all burned and they also joined the other tribes at Niagara.
The British not being able to supply them, the Mohawks in 1780 moved to Canada, but the Senecas refused to go. They preferred to settle on Tonawanda and Buffalo creeks, claiming the land through conquests 18 years before. As the British made no objection, this was done. The Senecas afterward became allies of the United States and helped in the War of 1812.
It was at this time that the Tuscaroras were given a square mile of land by the Senecas at their present reservation near Lewiston, where they moved in 1780. Subsequently the Holland Land Co. gave them two more square miles and the tribe later purchased four thousand acres more of the land for $17,720.
This tribe, originally a part of the Iroquois Confederacy, but who separated from it a short time before the advent of the whites went to live in North Carolina had now been driven out of their homes through the activities of the Revolutionary war. Their return added one more to the five nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. A part of this tribe was not satisfied with these arrangements and returned to North Carolina, but the Tuscaroras have always been loyal to the United States and those who remained became the first settlers in this county.
Forests Cleared
This territory, at first dense forest, has been gradually cleared away and made into farms. A map of 1852 shows that the greater part of the tract was still forest, there being some clearings along the top of the Ridge road and also a considerable portion of the western end of the reservation.
“Indian Hill” was a mission and farm. There was a little Indian church and school house, the church standing by itself on the north side of the road, the other buildings on the south side. Attorney E. Root was born at Pekin only a few miles from the reservation and remembers these buildings, as well as a man named Rockwood who was missionary there and preached in the little church.
An unusual woman, Miss Anna Peck, spent years there teaching in the little school house and seldom left except to attend church at Pekin. She was highly esteemed among the Indians.
At that time, about 1850, the Indian women still wore blankets as their main article of dress and the custom continued until the '70s when they finally yielded to white influence and donned the white women's dress.
Cornell Coach
The Rockwood mission and farm was one or two miles north of the present council house and school. Some of the Indians have received a good degree of education in other schools. One of them, Mr. Pleasant by name, taught in one of the churches there. Mr. Root thinks the original church was burned, but, at least two more churches, the Baptist and Presbyterian, have since been built. The son of Mr. Pleasant attended school at Carlisle and became an athlete whose fame won him a position as instructor of Cornell teams.
Another Indian boy attended school at Lockport and finally earned the title of Dr. Johnson (M.D.). Some relics of the ancient times are still preserved by the Indians, one of these being an old Bible with English text on one page and Indian on the opposite page.
Fifty years ago, the Indian women were regularly seen sitting about the paths around the Falls with big baskets of bead work, but now this work is scarcely seen there any more, even in the stores.
An item recorded at about this time in a diary kept by Mr. Root in his boyhood, concerns an immense flock of passenger pigeons which was a mile long and that flew overhead in March in 1860.
The present state of the Tuscarora Tribe has been ably described by the author of the historical article in The NEWS heretofore referred to.
13. Early Travelers By-Passed Tonas. Because of Forests
In this chapter of the local history, prepared by the late Mrs. Elias Root, an account is presented of the great events which passed the Tonawandas by because nothing was located where the Twin Cities now stand but impassable forests.
For fully 200 years after the first white man set foot in Niagara County, Tonawanda was simply a point in the interminable forest pressing close to the Niagara River banks.
The only thing to distinguish this point from others was the fact that a small unnamed island stood opposite the mouth of two creeks which flowed into the river at this point.
All the stirring events that transpired at the lower end of this noted river made no impression on this lonely spot. The passing of the Indians from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie with furs and merchandise of every description was the only indication of human life. Even the Griffon, built only five miles from here by LaSalle passed here on its first and only voyage, but, while envious and malicious eyes of savages along the banks may have peered at it from among the trees, no white man was here to wave a greeting as it passed by, never to return.
No Land Trips
The spot where Buffalo now stands was originally called the “Place of the Basswoods,” and if a traveller wished to make a trip From Fort Niagara to this point on Lake Erie, he avoided a land trip for two reasons. First, he would be obliged to wade two or three extensive streams whether he took the eastern or western bank of the river, for there were no bridges at that time; secondly, the forests were full of wild animals and snakes, with only Indian trails for roads.
The only practical way to make the journey was by boat, with a portage from the foot of the rapids below the Falls to the river above the cataract. Many people noted in science, literature, military service, and in statesmanship passed by this way but, without a bridge to cross the streams or even a tavern to furnish food or rest, the place was passed by.
Among the noted people who have visited this region, not including writers already mentioned, are the following: George Francis Train, George William Curtis, Anthony Trollope, Prince Maximilian, the Earl of Carlisle, Professors Huxley and Tyndall, Henry James, Edward Arnold, Henry Irving, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Charles A. Dana, George Ticknor, E. C. Stedman, James T. Field, Charles Dickens, Walt Whitman, the Marquis of Lorne, Catherine Sedgwick, Thoreau, and Emerson.
Mrs. Frances Wright made a trip to this region from the eastern part of the state and was entertained on the way at the home of the Wadsworths in Genesee Valley, from which family is descended our former Senator.
After steamboats were invented, a man named Flint came down the lakes from the west in a pioneer steamer called “Walk-in-the-Water.”
In 1825, Maitland had a country seat at Stamford near the Whirlpool and LaFayette on a trip to this country was entertained there. President Monroe also joined the endless number which passed this way with the great cataract for their objective.
Tonawanda was not on the map when the greater part of these travellers passed through.
As late as 1792, there was not a white settler between the Genesee and Niagara Rivers.
Many changes in boundaries were made by the state before the present towns of Wheatfield and Tonawanda were formed.
14. Early Real Estate Deals Open Up Infant Tonawandas
The early development of the Tonawandas is covered in this chapter of the exciting history of the Twin Cities prepared by the late Mrs. Elias Root.
The completion of the canal was of untold value to New York and did a great deal toward making it the Empire State. All the merchandise that had been shipped from New York and Albany up the Mohawk, by various portages to Oswego, up Lake Ontario, thru the Niagara River by portages around the Falls, and then on to Lake Erie was now shipped by canal. Of course the passage was slow, horses having been used until about 1900 to draw the boats, but an immense amount of transferring of baggage was eliminated.
But after the first excitement incident to building this end of the waterway had subsided, the town failed to benefit much by it, by virtue of the fact that the greater part of the merchandise passed through to Buffalo and the West.
There was not as much need of the portage at the Falls as heretofore, still the Canadian trade demanded it and although the warehouses at Lewiston had been burned, the firm of Porter Barton & Co. received a commission from the government to run the portage with the understanding that they would build a new warehouse, which they did, and carried on a rushing business there for years. But in spite of the canal and in spite of the realtors, the growth of the Tonawandas was very slow.
Early Landowners
A map showing the transfers of real estate along Ellicott Creek was
about this time indicates that James A. Burrows, A. H. Tracy, William Williams, Charles Townsend and George Cort (Buffalo men) purchased about 300 acres at the junction of the creek with the river and laid out village lots and streets. But in 1827, Tonawanda had only a postoffice, Joseph Brush, Postmaster, a bridge across the creek, a few log houses and two small stores. During the building of the canal Wilkinson and Johnson conducted a store on the south side and later Joseph Brush, after acting as a clerk for this firm for several years, opened one of his own.
Since he was Postmaster for many years, he probably ran the post office in connection with the store which he conducted for 40 years. In 1827, Will Driggs, son of Roswell Driggs, an earlier saloon keeper, built the first store of any account which he kept for 50 years. John Long built a house on the north side of Ellicott Creek at its junction with Tonawanda Creek and there was a tavern run by Peter Taylor at the mouth of the creek. There was also the little log schoolhouse on Niagara street.
First Boom
On the north side was the tavern on the creek run by Ganett Van Slyke whose daughters ran a rope ferry across the creek. There were several log houses on this side.
By an act of legislature in 1825, William Williams was authorized to run a ferry from the south side of Tonawanda Creek to Grand Island and by this same act James Sweeney was authorized to run one from the north side to the same place where the village of White Haven had already been started.
In 1850, the village of Tonawanda experienced its first boom, but the quarter of a century from the opening of the canal to that time was characterized mainly by the opening up of Grand and Tonawanda Islands to the lumber interests as previously mentioned, the building of saw and grist mills and the building of railroads.
15. First Land Sold in Tonas. Brought 25 Cents an Acre
Early real estate transactions in the Tonawandas are described in this chapter of the authentic local history prepared by the late Mrs. Elias Root.
The first man who is recorded to have built a house in Tonawanda was an Indian trader named Toudry. The Holland Land Company bought all of this part of the State from the government and about 1801 began selling their holdings to private speculators and as farm lots.
Their sales the first year were: 40 lots, the second 56, and the third 230. Land was sold to the first settlers at 25 cents an acre and sales were reported as slow because in Ohio and in other points more remote it could be bought for six cents. One man claimed that he could have bought the whole site of Buffalo for less than $75.
A man named Huntington of Rome, N.Y., bought from the Holland Land Company a section on which a part of Tonawanda was built, and prepared to sell to settlers for $2 an acre. At this time and for many years thereafter, Tonawanda was a part of Niagara County. As recorded elsewhere in this history, Erie and Niagara Counties were not separated until 1821.
First Landowners
Several men bought tracts outside the village limits in 1805 and 1804 – Alex Logan, John King, John Hershey, Emanuel Winters, Joseph Hayward, Oliver Standard, John Cunningham, Josiah Guthrie, Ebenizer Coon, Thomas Honam and Joseph Hersey.
Other than the aforesaid Toudry, whose location is unknown, the first man to settle within the corporate limits was Robert Van Slyke Bridges. Henry Anguish came soon after and bought a piece of land about a mile down the river when he opened a tavern in 1811. Frederick Buck also came about this time and James Burba in 1810.
On the North Side, George Van Slyke came in 1802 and in 1809 George N. Burgen located on the premises where Vincent and Kock later had their office (somewhat South of the iron works). In 1810, Joshua Pettit opened a log tavern in the same vicinity.
Garrett Van Slyke had a tavern on the North Side of Tonawanda Creek and other settlers were John Harvey, Jacob Storm, William Scott, and Walter and Joseph Field. A family named Francis also had a house on the North Side. Robert Simson took up a farm on Ellicott Creek about a mile east of the river and built a log house. Mr. Simson became one of the most active settlers here. He had at that time one son, John. His ancestors were people of distinction who had immigrated from Scotland.
Simson Family
Robert Simson was born August 3, 1758, and on March 26, 1778, married Jane Adams by whom he had 11 children. He served seven years in the Revolutionary War under Washington. His ancestors were wealthy and he inherited considerable property which was loaned to the government.
The government replaced his money with Continental script which was eventually redeemed but not during his lifetime. In 1816 he freed all his slaves. His only son, Robert, was born in November 1782. This son traveled through western New York in 1810 and in 1811 moved his family here on a tract of land still owned by his descendants about a mile east of the village of Tonawanda on Ellicott Creek. He was a fine singer and full of life and on April 8, 1802, married Lydia Moffitt who was of Welsh descent. He was captain of the guardhouse which was built at the approach of war.
Editor’s Note: Copies of two early maps attached to the author’s manuscript show many names of interest to their descendants today. The following bought land in Tonawanda on the river in Tonawanda between 1809 and 1833: Enos St. John, John Foster, Henry Anguish, George Coit, Charles Townsend, William Williams, A.H. Tracy, and James A. Burrows. On Ellicott Creek between 1822 and 1837 these men purchased land: William Williams, William Vandervoort, John Grove, Robert Simson, Amos W. Broughton, and Charles E. Dudley.
Between 1814 and 1837 the following purchased land between Ellicott and Tonawanda Creeks: Jacob B. Gilbert, Arthur Power, James Haggart, Charles E. Dudley, James Carney, William Williams, Charles F. Clark, and Horatio Shamway.
Tonawanda Island was bought in 1841 by Samuel Leggett.
North Tonawanda land bought between 1812 and 1849 was purchased along the river beginning at Tonawanda Creek by the following men: William James, William Mynders, James Emott, Augustus Porter, John Bruen, Matthias Bruen, and Christian Hershey. Zebulon Ketchum and others already mentioned purchased land nearby but not on the river.
16. Woman’s Daring Saved Home As British Sacked Tonawanda
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The burning of Tonawanda is described in this chapter in the complete history of the Twin Cities compiled by the late Mrs. Elias Root.
At the outbreak of war in 1812, several hundred Indians who were allies of the British appeared on Grand Island opposite Tonawanda.
As there were only 16 soldiers in the guard house, the citizens lent them what uniforms they had. The soldiers marched along the shore in their uniforms. The soldiers marched along the shore in their uniforms then turned their coats wrong side out and marched out again giving the Indians the effect of a much larger force. The ruse worked and the Indians disappeared.
At this time there were only a few houses scattered here and there and Garrett VanSlyke kept a tavern on the north side of the creek across which was a pontoon bridge, although the only road to Buffalo was along the beach. A road had been roughed out but never finished.
In the year 1813 of the war, after an American officer (who held an English fort opposite Ft. Niagara) had ruthlessly set fire to the small village of Newark near the fort, the British retaliated. There being no American town to burn, they captured Fort Niagara and then ordered every house on the American side of the river to be burned. The men along the frontiers were practically all in the war, and when this news came they made hasty preparations to remove their families from the scene of war.
Valuables Hidden
The log houses in those days contained little except cooking utensils and beds, but Mrs. J. H. DeGraff, grand-daughter of Mr. Simson, related that when an officer came to take the women away from here to Williamson, her grandmother, Mrs. Simson, sunk her big kettles in the creek, put her Bible in a bag of oats which she buried in the ground and was then loaded onto a stone boat with what food and clothing she had on hand, and taken east to the Genesee country with the other women of the frontier.
In order to save Buffalo, the pontoon bridge across the creek was burned but the British crossed the river to Canada and proceeded to Black Rock by land, and eventually Buffalo suffered the same fate as all the other towns along the frontier.
Everything in Tonawanda which was located near the river was burned except one dwelling owned by the Francis family. Mrs. Francis was ill in bed at the time the destruction of homes began. Hearing the men starting the fire, she waited until they were gone, then dragged herself down and put the fire out. She then returned and heard a second party of men firing the house. She arose and put it out again. A third attempt was made to burn it but after that the British did not return and this house was saved. The home of Robert Simson being so far from the river escaped.
Although the settlers who owned land eventually returned and rebuilt their houses, still, with the burning of mills as well as houses, it is easy to understand why the growth of the place from this time on was very slow.
The story is told that for some time the only grist mill was in the vicinity of Lewiston and that to accomplish the grinding of their wheat into flour, two women would take one or two sacks of wheat in a boat and row with it as far as possible to reach a grist mill. It is difficult to tell where a mill would have been located at that time for even the mills on 18-mile creek at Olcott were burned. Col. Porter declares that outside of Ft. Niagara, there is only one structure still standing as a memento of this holocaust, and that is the stone chimney of the barracks connected with Ft. Schlossen above the Falls.
17. Grand Island Timber Used For Early Boston Clippers
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Early plans for the development of Grand Island are described in this exciting chapter in the authentic local history written by the late Mrs. Elias Root.
Grand Island, called by the Indians “Owamninga” had been ceded to the United States by Great Britain and in 1814, together with Strawberry, Snake, Squaw and Bird Islands, was purchased from the Seneca Indians for $1,000 and an annuity of $500. But soon squatters appeared on both sides of Grand Island and boldly started cutting timber which they made into staves for barrels and delivered to Chippewa.
The government sent an officer to remonstrate with them, but they put him in his boat and shoved him off minus his oars. He was eventually rescued but the squatters continued their depredations on the forest which covered the island.
The government finally got officers from Black Rock, who routed them all out and burned their shanties. In 1824, the state had the island surveyed into land tracts.
Noah’s Plans
It was in this year that a Jew named Mordecai Manuel Noah came here from New York and conceived the idea of making Grand Island into a Jewish paradise. He purchased a tract of land and put up a monument 14-feet high at a point opposite the mouth of Tonawanda Creek where he intended building a town. This monument had a base of brick. The upper part was painted white and bore this inscription: “Ararat, A City of Refuge for the Jews, Founded by Mordecai M. Noah in the month Tigri 5586, Sept., 1825, and in the 50th year of American independence.”
There was great excitement over this statement, but Mr. Noah returned to New York and nothing more was heard of this monument. It was later learned that the Rabbi at the head of the Jewish nation in Europe failed to give his sanction to this scheme. The original cornerstone of the monument is now in the Historical Building in Buffalo.
The State in 1833 sold Grand Island to the E. Boston Co., which erected on the site of the Jewish City of Ararat the village of Whitehaven, named for Mr. Stephen White who was doing business on Tonawanda Island for that company.
Huge Saw Mill
Mr. White then was running on Grand Island a steam grist and saw mill, said to have been at that time the largest in the world, being 150 feet square, with room for 15 gangs of saws. There was also a building there that was used for church and school besides houses for its workmen. Fortunately, a picture painted in watercolors of this set of buildings is still in existence. It is owned by Mrs. Lyman Stanley, daughter of Col. Payne.
In an early map of this place, Whitehaven appears as a village on Grand Island when the words Tonawanda Postoffice describes all there was of these two cities. Whitehaven, however, failed to develop and only remains in the name of Whitehaven Cemetery on the road not far from Edgewater.
The object of the E. Boston Co. was to remove the heavy oak timber on Tonawanda and Grand Island to be sent to Boston for ship building. Various parts of the ships were cut out here from patterns and sent ready for use. With this effective mill it is no wonder that the island of Tonawanda was soon stripped of trees.
Grand Island was heavily timbered until 1833 and contained bear, wolves, deer, raccoons, squirrels, duck and other game and many Seneca and Tonawanda Indians came here to hunt as the greater number of wild animals had been scared away from the mainland by the excitement of the war of 1812. After continuing their business until 1840, the E. Boston Co. suspended.
18. Kid’s Utopia: Three-Month School Year in Early Tona.
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Tonawanda in the early 1800’s is described in this chapter of the local history prepared by the late Mrs. Elias Root and published for the first time by The NEWS.
In the spring of 1816, the first school house was built along Tonawanda Creek. It was a little log hut, where later stood Fred Diedrick’s grocery store. Ephraim Kelsey was the first teacher for the first three years keeping school only three months of the year, then later for five months. The first saw mill was built in 1819.
It was not until 1835 that the first school district was formed, the first trustees of this district being James Sweeney, James Dowell and Loyal E. Edwards.
Rope Ferry Used
The next year a new school house was built on Canal Street and in 1844 another on Adam. The bridge over the creek, burned during the war, had evidently not been replaced as late as 1823, for Joseph Bush relates that there were then two taverns, one on each side of Tonawanda Creek. The one on the north side had been and perhaps was then kept by Garrett VanSlyke. The latter was the proprietor of a rope ferry and his daughters were in the habit of drawing boats over the stream in this way.
In March, 1817, Stephen Jacobs bought a farm of 196 acres, two miles down the river, from Judge Augustus Porter of Niagara Falls for $8 an acre. Up to this time there were a few log houses on the north side, but in 1823 Judge Wilkinson and Dr. Johnson of Buffalo took contracts for building a dam at the mouth of the creek and three-fourths of a mile of the canal at this end. They employed a large force of men and a village of shanties at once sprang up at the mouth of the creek. These men built a toll bridge across the creek and opened a store on the North Side.
During the year Albert A. Tracy, Charles Townsend and other Buffalonians formed a company, bought land and laid out the Village of Tonawanda. While the completion of the Canal was in progress there was a great deal of business at the new village. Though actual work on the canal had been commenced in 1821, nothing was done on this section until 1823. The Tonawanda Post Office was established in 1823.
19. Goundry, Sweeney Offered NT Area to Buyers in 1824
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Real estate transactions, which resulted in the development of the Tonawandas, are described in this chapter of the history of the Twin Cities compiled by the late Mrs. Elias Root. Her data was carefully taken from early maps and documents of the area.
James Sweeney purchased farm lots 81 and 82 on June 14, 1824. He subsequently conveyed one-third interest to his brother Colonel John Sweeney, and one-third to George Goundry who was an uncle of the latter’s first wife.
William Vandervoort, a brother-in-law of James Sweeney purchased farm lot 80 on June 7, 1826. These three lots comprise three-quarters of the old corporate limits of North Tonawanda which was bounded by the river on the west, Tonawanda Creek on the south, the mile line on the east and Wheatfield on the north.
At this time and for some years after North Tonawanda was called “Niagara.” Niagara Falls was just called “Manchester,” and at an early date Buffalo was “New Amsterdam.”
“Niagara” Prospectus
In 1824 James and George Sweeney and George Goundry (for whom Goundry street was named) issued pamphlets advertising “Niagara” as “a village 12 miles from Buffalo, 8 miles from the Falls and 16 from Lockport. A line of stages passes through from Buffalo to Lewiston daily and another from Buffalo to Lockport every other day. A bare inspection of Vance’s or Lay’s map of this village will show the advantageous position of the village for homes. Building lots are now offered for sale to actual settlers. A map of the village may be seen by application to James Sweeney at Buffalo or to James Goundry at the land office at Geneva. The title is indisputable and good warranty deeds will be executed to purchasers. (signed) George Goundry, James Sweeney, John Sweeney, Proprietors, July 6, 1824.”
Mr. Huntington of Rome who bought the land of the Holland Land Company for the site of Tonawanda, transferred his title to his son-in-law, William Winters, who at this time came on to develop the same. These men became the first “realtors” of the vicinity. Of course they were anticipating the opening of the canal. The first work done on this section of the canal was by Judge Samuel Wilkeson and Ebenezer Johnson who built the dam across the creek in 1823. Work was begun the same year in Buffalo but it was not until 1825 that the entire work was completed.
20. Village of Tona. Mapped, Erie Canal Pushed Through
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The carefully compiled history of the Twin Cities written by the late Mrs. Elias Root in 1925 and now published for the first time by The NEWS, continues today with an account of the construction of the Erie Canal.
As the year of the writing of this history brings the centennial of the completion of the Canal, it seems best to recall the history of the waterway.
They employed a large force of men for the work on the canal and a village of shanties at once sprang up at the mouth of the creek. These men built a toll bridge across the creek and opened a store on the other side. During the year, Albert A. Tracy, Charles Townsend, and other Buffalonians formed a company, bought land, and laid out the Village of Tonawanda.
The completion of the Erie was a great event not only on the Niagara Frontier but all over the State and probably no other public event was ever celebrated with as much enthusiasm as the opening of the canal.
We quote from the TONAWANDA DAILY NEWS of January 27, 1925, "After the Civil War, the canal was enlarged to a width of 56 feet, at the bottom and a depth of seven feet, giving a water capacity of over three times the former measure, 76 tons, and at a cost of 30 million dollars. It was made free to the state in 1882 and as late as 1890, statistics from New York indicate that 1/9 of all the grain and flour had been shipped there over this canal."
Later the State decided to enlarge the canal still further to accommodate barges of 1,000 tons capacity.
There is no question that the earlier years of the canal constituted the period of its greatest usefulness for two reasons. First, it shortened the distance from the New York port to the Great Lakes by many miles as all travel and shipping and merchandise had previously been through the Mohawk and Oswego Rivers and Lake Ontario. Second, there were at that time no railroads in competition with it but now with the railroads combined with the increasing truck automobiling it is a question whether the immense outlay on the recent enlargements will ever be warranted.
21. 330 Homes in Tona. in 1866; Lumber Boom Hits Village
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A carefully documented list of the early lumber dealers in the boomtown that was Tonawanda in the 1800s is contained in this chapter of local history prepared by the late Mrs. Elias Root and printed for the first time by The NEWS.
Even with the completion of the new canal, the growth of the village from 1825 to 1850 was very slow. Its natural location with quantities of timber on every hand and thousands of acres along the shores of the upper lakes and Canada to draw from, indicated at a very early date that lumbering was destined to be for many years the leading industry.
An early map indicates how exclusively the lumber trade in all its branches was carried on after 1825. This map was made in 1866 and at that time the village contained only 330 homes, although North Tonawanda had been set off in 1852 and it is uncertain whether this number includes the town of North Tonawanda.
Loggers Cleared Land
Had it not been for the pioneer lumbermen, the farming of the land would have been impossible or at least greatly delayed as the great acreage of logs from the prospective farms must of necessity be cut down before the ground could be tilled. Beside those already mentioned, John Simson had built a sawmill and a planning mill as early as 1840.
The first man to start the lumber business here was Henry P. Smith. The export company of J. H. DeGraff and Co. was formed. J. S. Thompson began the manufacture of shingles in 1881 and turned out 200,000 daily. Emanuel Hensler, S. P. Bliss, and others were also among the first to engage in the business.
Early Firms
Afterward, important lumber firms were A. B. Williams, Ellicott Creek, offices at Fremont and Young streets; Eastern Lumber Co., owning 28 acres adjoining Ellicott Creek; Fassett & Billinger, lumber forwarders; P. W. Schribner, wholesale lumber yard on the river above Tonawanda Creek; George E. Hill, planing mill at the foot of Tonawanda street; Scanlon Bush & Co., rafters; E. Hewitt and R. E. Fowler, shingle mills; Gratwick, Smith & Mitchel; Dodge & Bliss; DeGraff & Pison & Sons; Bennett Co.; Peter Misner; Lockman & Wood.
Fassett & Co. bought Tonawanda Island and made it into a city of lumber.
J. M. Chapman, James Morris & Co., built miles of dock and by 1884 had hundreds of acres covered with lumber from Michigan and Canada. J. Balt engaged in the shingle business during the war and afterward J. S. Bliss took it. J. A. Bliss carried on the shingle business for many years, but he closed out in 1882.
22. Martinsville Is Settled; Rails Laid to Twin Cities
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The authentic history of the Twin Cities, compiled by the late Mrs. Elias Root, concludes with this installment. The NEWS has printed, for the first time anywhere, the carefully prepared document which Mrs. Root completed in 1925.
The Town of Tonawanda, which first included Grand Island, was taken from Buffalo in 1840. It was about this time that a number of German neighborhoods and villages were established by several Lutheran congregations that had emigrated from Prussia. In 1843, they founded Martinsville, named in honor of Martin Luther; the New Berlin for the people of Bergtholz in Germany; St. Johnsburg, an offshoot of Bergtholz, and New Walmore, also founded in 1843, named for Walmore in Prussia.
A distillery was put up where the Bennett Lumber Company is now located (in River road, North Tonawanda). This afterward burned and later, during the Civil War, a shingle mill run by J. S. Bliss and Company on Tonawanda Creek, below Webster street, was turned into a distillery to meet the demands of the government. Whisky was made here and large numbers of pigs were driven from the South to feed on the refuse from these places. These distilleries made the neighborhood notorious.
A brewery was also built on the river where the present Brewery Building stands, which was later replaced by the present structure. After the war, Batt, who was now in the mill of Bliss and Company, threw out the distillery and made the place into a shingle and lumber mill.
The Hook and Ladder Company was organized in 1871 and quarters in a steam fire engine were added. This was bought the next year.
In 1884 horses were used for the first time. A gas company was organized and streets were lighted with gas lamps. The Tonawanda City waterworks company was incorporated. At this time the New York Central Railroad was building a swing bridge, passenger station, and double track road in Tonawanda. The Bell Telephone Company was organized in 1880 and the waterworks system was in operation in 1887 on the South side. The Electric Light Company started in 1890 and the same year sewer systems were adopted and several streets were paved. Up to this time Webster street had required stepping blocks to cross the road through mud in Spring.
The first indication of a railroad in this vicinity was published in a petition circulated by Mr. Cooke, which was about the time the place was laid out. The merchants were desirous of a railroad and the petition had a respectable hearing before the canal was completed to the top of the hill and placed the port under a windlass.
The first horse car was from Tonawanda to Buffalo in 1834.
Buffalo to Black Rock in 1834. In 1832 the Buffalo and Erie Company was chartered, and built the first railroad from Buffalo to Tonawanda in 1836. One month after this the line was pushed through to the Falls. The next year the three miles from Black Rock to Buffalo were completed. The road from Buffalo to Lockport was completed in 1851-52, and in 1852-53, the Canandaigua to the Falls on the Peanut road was built. The material for the roadbed was taken from the gravel pit.
The first streetcar line from Tonawanda to Buffalo was laid about 1895. The first rails laid for the steam roads were made of wood with an iron band across the top where there was the greatest wear from the wheels. The engines were run with wood and there were then extensive wood sheds built for the purpose. The "trains" consisted of the engine, coal or rather wood car, and one or two coaches, each of which would seat eight people.
About 1854 the New York Central leased these roads and equipped them with better rails of rolling stock.