Tonawanda Island, article and transcription (Buffalo Courier, 1887-10-09).jpg

Tonawanda Island, article and transcription (Buffalo Courier, 1887-10-09).jpg

TONAWANDA ISLAND.

Its Origin and Early Occupants, Both Red and White.

The Famous Murder of One of Its Owners. His Successor's Elegant Mansion, now in Ruins.

The Popular Name of One of Its Occupants—White—Webster's Visit.

“Ni-ga-we-nah-ha-ba,” signifying "small island," is the name the Senecas gave to Tonawanda Island, which has since been known as White's Island and Wilkeson Island. Over forty years ago N. P. Willis drew this graceful pen-sketch of the little island:

"I observe a spot advertised for sale that I have always looked upon as the most beautiful and attractive property in this country, an island cradled by the Niagara, and in itself the best cradle nature would possibly form for the family of a luxurious exclusive. It is about eleven miles above the falls, an arrow-shot from the American shore, with Grand Island between it and the Canadas and contains a hundred acres of land, charmingly wooded and varied, which have been turned into a paradise by one of the most refined gentlemen of this country. A beautiful villa crowns it, and bath-houses and all appliances to luxury are there fenced in by the bright water about to rush over Niagara. The island is called Tonawanda, a delicious word for the name of home. One sighs to think that a little money could buy such a paradise for one's own."

Tonawanda Island was once part of the main land, forming a peninsula jutting out sharply into the river, with Tonawanda creek running diagonally across it and emptying into what is now the west channel. The action of the great floods of ice in winter and spring, with the strong current, gradually forced a new channel through this peninsula, cutting off the creek and forming a fresh waterway known as Tonawanda harbor. Evidence of this is the low ground crossing the island in direct line with Tonawanda creek. Here the soil is quicksand to a depth of twelve feet, having high banks of gravel on each side with different strata, indicating beach lines, thus proving that the low strip of land was once the bed of a stream now filled up with sand. In the autumn of 1833 Stephen White of Salem, Mass., Lewis F. Allen of Buffalo and other gentlemen bought 16,000 acres of land on Grand Island, or nearly the entire island, which contains some 17,381 acres. The purchase included Tonawanda, Cayuga, and Beaver Islands. A mill for sawing timber was erected on Grand Island.

"When I took possession of Tonawanda Island in the autumn of 1833," said Lewis F. Allen in a recent conversation, "it was heavily wooded in native forest, excepting five acres in cultivation at the head of the island, where was a log cabin in which I found a family named Carney. Judging by the appearance of the premises, some one had occupied this cabin for many years. A fine wild grove of trees stood on the upper or south end of the island. A clean, pebbly shore tapered into the water, and it was in its wild state a beautiful place and wonderfully rich in its growth of native trees, shrubbery, flowering and other native plants. A learned botanist, one day, passing over and through the island and its borders, told me it was the richest in its botany of any place he had ever seen of like territory or indeed of any spot he knew."

The island had been an occasional camping ground of the Senecas before their final settlement of the region. Philip Kenjockey claimed to have been born there while his father's family, then living on the Genesee, were on one of their annual hunting expeditions. "When we bought the island," continued Mr. Allen, "an Indian burial mound, many feet high, stood a little distance to the south of the cabin, and near it was a fine white Doyenne (Vigalieuse) pear tree, which bore excellent fruit."

Harper’s Magazine, Volume XX. (May, 1860) has an article upon "Ancient Monuments in the United States," at the head of which is a view of the mound on Tonawanda Island. E. G. Squier, the author of the article and a distinguished writer on antiquities whose works have been published by the Smithsonian Institute, excavated the mound, which he says was originally fifteen feet high. Fragments of human bones and pottery and Indian relics, but not in great quantity, were found. It is supposed that they were deposited by members of a tribe of the Neuter nation, or Kakquahs, the original inhabitants of this region, dispossessed by the Iroquois.

"We shall endeavor," says one of the present owners of the island in speaking of the mound, "to keep the inroads of business from encroaching upon the interesting relic, which at the apparent age of many of the trees near its apex, would indicate, must have been raised many hundred years ago."

James Carney, an octogenarian of Tonawanda, whose father is referred to by Mr. Allen, says that the first white man who lived on the island was John P. Martin, who occupied a board shanty there in 1818. He also says that his father, Edward Carney, went there in 1816 and remained nine years, and that afterwards another member of the family, Samuel Carney, occupied the cabin. "The island," says James Carney, "was at this time owned by New York State, which in 1825, at Albany, sold it to Samuel Leggett." Those familiar with Maj. Noah's great and often described scheme of founding on Grand Island, opposite Tonawanda, a city of refuge for the Jews, will recognize in the name of Samuel Leggett the friend whom Maj. Noah induced to buy the land on which to rear his proposed city of Ararat.

Daniel Webster's eloquent argument on the trial of John Francis Knapp for the murder of Joseph White of Salem is famous among the brilliant efforts of the statesman's life. The description of the murder in the old man's bed-chamber is one of the most thrilling, realistic pictures that Webster's vivid imagination and his eloquence ever painted. Yet who in recalling Stephen White, the owner of Tonawanda, or White's Island, thinks of associating him with the Salem murder case, than which more extraordinary crime never occurred in this country? Nor is it equaled in strange interest by any trial in the French "Causes Celebres" or the English "State Trials." It will be remembered that Joseph White, a wealthy retired merchant of Salem, aged eighty-two, was found murdered in his bed in his Mansion on the morning of April 7, 1830.

The perpetrator of such an atrocious crime in the most populous and central part of Salem, and in the most compactly built street, and under circumstances indicating the utmost coolness, deliberation, and audacity aroused the whole community. All citizens were led to fear that the same fate might await them in the helpless hours of slumber, and for days persons passing through the streets might hear the continual sound of the hammer, while carpenters and smiths were fixing bolts to doors and fastenings to windows.

The mystery which surrounded the murder seemed impenetrable, but gradually, through a course of circumstances—for information as to which those unfamiliar with the history of the case should turn to Daniel Webster’s collected writings—Richard Crowninshield was arrested as the actual assassin, and Joseph J. Knapp, Jr., and John Francis Knapp as his accomplices. Richard Crowninshield hanged himself in jail, and the execution of John Francis Knapp and Joseph J. Knapp, Jr. closed the tragedy, the former having in vain tried by pseudonymous letters to direct public suspicion towards the Hon. Stephen White, who was Joseph White’s nephew and legatee.

The Hon. Stephen White, who thus fell heir to the large estate, had always lived near the sea. He loved the water and the delights of a country home. Having, as just stated, become with Mr. Allen and others joint possessor of Tonawanda Island, he wished to buy out the rest and become its sole owner. "We accordingly let him have it," said Mr. Allen, "at the same rate we had paid for the entire purchase, namely, about $10 an acre." One can readily infer too, having become so notorious in connection with the Salem murder case, that the idea of a lodge on a secluded island in the beautiful Niagara appealed to him with irresistible force. Mr. White chose the upper end of the island, having a fine, breezy elevation above the surface of the river, for the site of his house "Beachwater." The house was begun in 1837 and is said to have been finished in a year. It cost $15,000, at that period a large and unusual sum for a private residence. While in progress parties from Buffalo were made up for a trip to the island to view the wonderful house. Mr. White spared no expense to make the house substantial. The wood work was bought and fashioned in Boston and shipped from there in a completed state, the inside finish being all heavy black walnut and cherry. The brick walls were two feet thick. The timbers were very heavy and every part of the building was of like solidity and elegance. Marble mantels were imported from Italy and are said to have been the first Italian marble used in this part of the country. Mr. White's daughter married Fletcher Webster, Daniel Webster's son, and a large wedding reception was afterwards held in the mansion, at which were present many notable men and women.

Stephen White was a man of generous hospitality and of wide and distinguished social connection, and thus it came to pass that no house in this region has entertained a greater number of distinguished visitors. Webster street in Tonawanda village was doubtless named for Daniel Webster, who was a frequent guest of Mr. White's. Mr. Theodores S. Fassett has in his possession a letter written by Mr. White in 1839 inviting a friend, Mr. William Vandervoort of Tonawanda, to call that day at "Beachwater" and meet Governor William L. Marcy, author of the famous phrase, "To the victors belong the spoils," usually attributed to Jackson.

Mr. White occupied his mansion on Tonawanda, or as he preferred to call it, White's Island, more or less until 1862, when he moved to New York city, where he died "I think in the summer of that year or in '63," said Mr. Allen.

Mr. William Wilkeson bought Tonawanda Island for $12,000 of Stephen White's widow, who received it from her husband, whose second wife she was, as a marriage bond. She was a large, handsome woman, the widow of a ship captain named Mathews. Her mother kept a boardinghouse at Corlears Hook, then upper New York. Mr. Wilkeson owned the island fifteen years, calling it Wilkeson Island. When he took it, about twenty-five acres had been cleared. He extended this to some sixty acres, virtually clearing the whole, but leaving a thick screen of trees around the edge so that from any point on the river or mainland the island still looked like a forest. It was Mr. Wilkeson's pride to say that he had planted on the island every shade tree that would grow in our climate. He had fine fruit orchards and an extensive vineyard. Some forty or fifty bottles of choice wine made from the grapes of this famous vineyard are stored away in the wine cellar of one of the older residents of Buffalo and are said to improve with age. Sometimes in ploughing traces of the former possessors of the soil would be turned up in the shape of flint arrow heads. A good sized cannon ball, found in the orchard, is in the possession of Mr. John Wilkeson. How it came to be on the island is something of a mystery, since no battle is known to have been fought there. This year in excavating and grading the high ground many human bones and skulls were upturned. They were so far decayed that they crumbled instantly on exposure to the air. Another cannon ball was also dug up two or three feet below the surface. Mr. Wilkeson bored a well, presumably in the hope of finding salt. At a depth of 130 feet he abandoned the search, and the well today is filled with water to the surface. Gas strong enough to ignite now forces its way through the water from a depth of 400 feet.

Unlike Mr. White, Mr. Wilkeson did not make the island his summer home. He used to spend two or three days at a time in the mansion, however, and spared no labor or expense to beautify the land. One day meeting Mr. Wilkeson in Tonawanda, Urial Briggs said: "Well, Mr. Wilkeson, what are you doing now with your island?"

"Well, I don't hardly know what I am doing," replied Mr. Wilkeson.

"Well, I guess you're spending a good deal of money on it," said Briggs.

"That's just what I bought it for," replied Mr. Wilkeson.

Perceiving in 1886 the commercial advantage of owning an island with 12,000 feet of available water front on a great harbor, Mr. James R. Smith and Mr. Theodore S. Fassett jointly bought Wilkeson Island, the price paid being $45,000. They have since invested fully as much more in improvements. To accommodate present tenants 5,000 feet of water front has been docked, and to meet future requirements the owners will continue docking around the island at least 5,000 feet further. Twenty acres at the upper end of the island, on which stands the mansion, will be left for residence purposes, in its natural state, and certainly no finer outlook or more beautiful site for a villa is to be found in this neighborhood. The mansion is now the home of Mr. and Mrs. Theodore S. Fassett, who have renovated it and thoroughly restored its decaying beauties.

Smith & Fassett secured from the state and United States charters for a railroad and highway bridge. Under these charters, the New York Central & Hudson River railroad, appreciating the business facilities to be developed, built a substantial bridge to the island and have laid railroad tracks to the several lumber yards and factories there. Among these, as mentioned in The Courier of last Sunday, is the box factory of E. H. Barnes of New York, the largest devoted to box making in the world. The sagacity of the New York Central railroad has given it the lead in securing the large amount of business that will inevitably take shape on this nearly 100 acres of land with but two miles of water front. According to the provisions of the charter, however, all other roads are allowed the use of the railroad bridge on equal terms of toll. The Tonawanda city water works are on the island, pumping water from the west channel, which is pure and free from all village drainage, and with their Holly system furnishing fire protection that is unequaled by any other system. The shape of the island is remarkably adapted for lumber yards, giving straight stretches of dock frontage with 450 to 500 feet of area in depth, a combination which is rarely found in districts devoted to lumber.

"From time to time," says one of the present owners of the island, "as we have ordered the felling of grand old trees to make room for the more practical objects of our investment, I have felt a tinge of remorse. But if, for the profit and enjoyment of those trading in our market, we are enabled to combine business advantages with the beautiful in nature, I shall not permanently regret transforming Tonawanda Island, cradled in the mighty Niagara, from a sylvan retreat to a scene of traffic, with its railroads and bridges, its docks, factories and lumber-yards, giving employment to many hundreds of men."

1887-10-09