Through The Mayors' Eyes: Buffalo, New York 1832-2005
by
Michael F. Rizzo
Edited by Genevieve M. Kenyon
Foreword by Frank A. Sedita III
Published by Old House History at Smashwords
Copyright 2010 Michael F. Rizzo
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
All portrait illustrations are courtesy City of Buffalo Arts Commission, except: Orlando Allen - Glimpses of life in the village of Buffalo. Read before the Society April 16, 1877, by Orlando Allen; Samuel Wilkeson, Joseph Masten - History of the City of Buffalo and Erie County, H. Perry Smith; Marcus Drake - Our Police, and Our City, Mark S. Hubbell; Frank X. Schwab – Buffalo Times – 9-13-1933; Frederick Stevens – Buffalo Times – 8-17-1919; Josiah Trowbridge – Buffalo Times – 3-2-1919; Harmon S. Cutting – 1870 U.S. Census; James Wadsworth – 1850 U.S. Census; Pierre Barker – 1840 U.S. Census;
Grave site photos by author, except: James Adam – Buffalo Times 8-14-21:35; Grover Cleveland © Benton J. Nelson, www.presidentsgraves.com
Front cover photo: Severance, Frank H. The Picture Book of Earlier Buffalo. Buffalo: Buffalo Historical Society, 1912.
This book is for all the history teachers I ever had.
I never appreciated you until I was an adult.
1, 3 Dr. Ebenezer Johnson
4,6 Hiram Pratt
13, 15 Joseph G. Masten
19,21 Hiram Barton
22 Eli Cook
29, 33, 40 Alexander Brush
53 Joseph Mruk
55, 57 Frank A. Sedita
Michael F. Rizzo has written an excellent and comprehensive book which is entitled “Through the Mayors’ Eyes Buffalo, New York 1832-2005.” It is probably the only book of its kind summarizing the life and performance of each and every mayor of the City of Buffalo from the very beginning of Buffalo’s history as a village to the present day.
But the book is much more than a summary of each Mayor’s life and performance because it narrates in detail the history of the City of Buffalo from 1832 to the present date.
“The more things change, the more they stay the same” is a principle that is aptly demonstrated throughout the book because from 1832 to the present each mayor faced questions of redevelopment of the city, its business climate, its financial problems and the ability to raise taxes; questions of privatizing functions or publicly undertaking functions; questions of police enforcement and corruption; and questions of race relations.
We learn that Buffalo continuously faced and conquered financial problems and of the continuous debate that existed with regard to the proper form of governance and administration.
I found fascinating the personal history of each mayor and how each mayor adapted to govern a diverse city.
The book, although lengthy, is a quick read and is a lesson in how each and every mayor dealt with the political and social realities of his time.
Michael F. Rizzo is to be congratulated.
Frank A. Sedita, III
This book was a labor of love, and has been 15 years in the making. It was originally planned for a 1992 release, but the eventual size scared all the local publishers I had contacted. So, I placed it on the Internet in the hopes that it would be of use to someone.
In early 2005, my wife suggested I have a couple copies printed for myself. What it turned into was a four-month overhaul and update, including much text, photographs, edits, and finally formatting for what you now hold in your hand.
There have been 54 different men to occupy the seat of mayor of Buffalo, New York. The term lengths have been as short as one week, and as long as 16 years.
In the 1800s most of the men were transplants, having moved here as adults to become entrepreneurs in this growing, western town. They were doctors, attorneys, business owners. They were involved in one of the worlds greatest engineering feats – the Erie Canal; they employed thousands of men in their various businesses. Many lived on the East Side, some on the West Side, and early on, they lived in what is now downtown proper.
As for ethnicity, the early men were mostly of European descent, with New England roots. As time went on the different ethnicities that moved to the city started to filter into City Hall. There have been Polish, German, and Italian men as mayor.
These men founded libraries, banks, museums, and other cultural institutions, as well as served on the boards of many different organizations. They helped establish schools, hospitals, served as judges, went on to higher political offices, including President of the United States.
There are a couple fallacies I'd like to clarify: Millard Fillmore was a great Buffalonian, who served as President of the United States, but he was never mayor of Buffalo. Teddy Roosevelt and William McKinley, forever tied to Buffalo, were never mayors, nor residents. And Grover Cleveland, one of our favorite native sons, was not native, and after serving for two terms as President of the United States, never returned.
Politically, they were as diverse as any group, with Whigs, Democrats, Loco Focos, Liberals, Republicans, and many other parties. And like any humans, there have been some with faults, including corruption, bad decisions, and other misguided adventures. Sometimes it was appointees, and sometimes the mayors demonstrated poor judgment.
This was my first major work, and as such, there may be a misquote or incorrect fact, although most of the text was written by the men who the book is about. It has been through multiple edits, but, the total compilation may not be the ultimate history book on Buffalo. In the end, it is really a compilation of biographies and the text of hundreds of speeches and newspaper articles.
I'd like to thank a few people who helped along the way: the staffs at E.H. Butler Library at Buffalo State College, Lockwood Library at University at Buffalo, the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, Central branch, and the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society; the Buffalo Arts Commission, including Ben Bidell, and past commissioners David Granville and David Moore; Jen Kenyon, who offered to provide one of the final edits of the book; Judge Frank Sedita Jr.; Frank Sedita III; and Mike Vogel, who tried to help get this published in 1997, by writing a Buffalo News article about my exploits.
I'd also like to thank my family, who, through thick or thin are always there for you. My Mother, who always wanted to see this completed. And to my beautiful wife Deanna for loving me no matter what I venture into.
This book lays out the history of Buffalo as told by the men who lived it, breathed it, created it. It's really a fascinating look at the growth of a small city in 1832, through the boom years to a powerful industrial city, and its ungraceful decline afterwards. It's my city, and this is my contribution to its history. I hope you enjoy it.
Michael F. Rizzo, michaelfrizzo.com, June 2005
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Section I
1832 – 1881
“The Village Becomes a City”
***
Dr. Ebenezer Johnson - 1832-1833, 1834-1835
Ebenezer Johnson was born in New England on November 7, 1786, the second of 13 children. He studied medicine in Cherry Valley, New York with Dr. Joseph White, a well-known physician of the time.
In 1810 he came to Buffalo, carrying a letter of introduction from Hezekiah Granger to Judge Erastus Granger.
Erie County was non-existent, with Buffalo being part of what was known as Niagara County. The population at the turn of the century was about 12 men and their families. Johnson fully intended to start his own practice. Unbeknownst to him, Dr. Cyrenius Chapin already had a monopoly on the market in Buffalo. Dr. Johnson knew he couldn’t compete without capital, so he applied to Joseph Ellicott, the Buffalo agent of the Holland Land Company, for a loan. He planned on starting his own practice and charging less for prescriptions and medical services than Dr. Chapin did.
It cannot be told with any certainty whether he received the needed financial help from Ellicott, but it is believed that he didn’t. It is known that he began a medical practice and eventually opened a drug store to accompany his practice. He was very successful at his practice and continued working at it until the War of 1812 erupted.
In 1812, in anticipation of the British invasion, a law was passed by Congress to establish an army of 25,000 men. About a year later a group calling themselves “Democratic Republicans” was formed. Ebenezer Johnson found his way into this militia which was being prepared for war by securing enough officers. He accepted a position and was appointed “surgeon’s mate,” or assistant surgeon. He abandoned his medical practice during this time to serve his country. During the time he was gone, on December 30, 1813, the village of Buffalo was burned by the British.
On his return to the town, believed to be at the end of the war, he engaged in the drug business, presumably his drug store. It is reported that he was elected Surrogate of Erie County in 1815. Since Erie County was not yet created, we can assume it was actually Niagara County.
On April 5, 1816, Buffalo was incorporated as a village formed from parts of Clarence, Tonawanda, Grand Island, Amherst, Cheektowaga, and West Seneca. The structure of the village government included trustees, clerk, treasurer, and collector. In 1821, Erie County was officially formed, taking most of Niagara County with it. At that time, The Medical Society of Erie County was created. The Society had 25 physicians in its original membership, including Cyrenius Chapin and Ebenezer Johnson. Some of the 25 were originally part of the Niagara County medical society.
In 1819, Johnson was an original member of the Buffalo Harbor Company. In 1822, he was elected as a village trustee. He held that position again in 1825.
From 1823 on, Johnson had many business dealings including banking and associations with H. H. Sizer, Philander Hodge, his nephew Mortimer F. Johnson, and Judge Samuel Wilkeson. Together with Judge Wilkeson, they bought property throughout the city. The firm of Johnson & Wilkeson worked on a project that was associated with the building of the canal in Tonawanda and had a dam built at the mouth of Tonawanda creek. In addition, they played an important part in developing the canal-forwarding trade.
Dr. Johnson was again elected in 1828, as the Erie County Surrogate.
In 1829, the Jubilee Waterworks company began to extend its service to Buffalo. The company had been incorporated in 1827, laying log pipes from the Jubilee spring on Delaware Avenue near Ferry Street, which was outside the city limits at the time.
In the late 1820s, a group of seven or eight flour mills sprang up at the foot of Ferry Street and on Amherst Street. The year 1827 saw the formation of the Buffalo Hydraulic Association. It built the Hydraulic canal, tapping the Buffalo river near Gardenville, and brought the water to the junction of Seneca and Swan Streets. By 1832, about six mills were in operation at this location and a village of 500 had grown around them.
The year 1832 saw great changes occur in Buffalo. The population was 10,119, up from 8,668 in 1830 and the village had grown to the proportions of a city. It was time for a change. The state Legislature acted to create the “City of Buffalo” corporation and the city was broke up into five wards. All males who were 21 years of age and met residence requirements were qualified to vote. The inhabitants of each ward could elect two aldermen for a one year term.
Mayoral Term
On May 28, 1832, the first election in Buffalo took place. Under the first city charter, the Common Council had the power to elect the mayor. Dr. Ebenezer Johnson was elected the first mayor of Buffalo with a salary of $250 per year. At the time of his election, Dr. Johnson was one of the wealthiest citizens in Buffalo. His political affiliation was Democrat-Republican.
Besides the mayor, the Common Council had the power to appoint “a city clerk, treasurer, city attorney, street commissioner, collector of taxes, clerk of the markets, police constables, pound masters, porters, carriers, cartmen, packers, beadles, bellmen, sextons, criers, scavengers, measurers, surveyors, weighers, and gaugers.” The Council also was given the power to “raise not more than $8,000 per year for lighting streets, maintaining a night watch, making and repairing roads and bridges,” and any other city expenses.
The Mayor presided over the Common Council proceedings.
There was less than 80 rods of sidewalk in Buffalo, and no pavement at this time.
His first year as mayor was a busy one. Besides his duties as mayor, Johnson also held the honorable position of President of the Buffalo Literary and Scientific Academy.
The summer of that year brought sorrow and misfortune to the city, Asiatic cholera had developed in cities along the St. Lawrence River and it was sure to hit Buffalo. The medical profession had no idea how to battle this disease. Mayor Johnson created the first Board of Health and immediately addressed the problem. He established the first hospital, the McHose House, in an abandoned tavern between Niagara Street and Prospect Avenue, for the care of cholera patients. He urged the citizens to purify their drinking water with brandy. Regardless, 184 cases were reported, with 80 dying at the height of the epidemic.
“His devoted labors and untiring energy in the emergency earned for Dr. Johnson the respect and admiration of all” the citizens of Buffalo.
The first meeting of the new Board of Aldermen was held on June 4, 1832. Mayor Johnson made appointments to the following committees: Finance; Fire and Water; Streets, Alleys, Canals and Ferries; Police; and Wharves and Public Lands.
Johnson served as mayor from May 1832 to March 1833. The new elections were held each March 8. On March 8, 1833, a new board of Aldermen was elected. A total of 2,805 votes were taken in the city. The new board met at nine o’clock on March 12 to organize the Common Council. At this meeting Ebenezer Johnson was re-elected Mayor of Buffalo. Aldermen Philander Bennett (4th Ward) and John G. Camp (2nd Ward) were appointed “to wait upon Mayor Johnson and inform him thereof, and receive his pleasure relative hereto.”
Although Mayor Johnson was honored, he declined a second term, saying in a letter sent to the Council later that day:
At the organization of our city government last spring, the kindness and courtesy of the board then elected, was in like manner extended to me, and I entered upon the duties assigned. Those duties I discharged, I trust assiduously; and if not to the satisfaction of all, some latitude, I hope, may be allowed me to plead, in extenuation, inexperience and the extraordinary character of many of the official demands upon me, some of which at least, arising from causes which we may fondly hope, Heaven will, in future, avert.
...Allow me respectfully to decline the station your kindness has assigned me.
The Council thanked the Mayor, especially for saving many from the Asiatic Cholera.
Ebenezer Johnson did accept his re-election in 1834, serving a second and final term ending in 1835.
During this period, the city contained six churches, two banks, two markets, 16 district and private schools and three engine houses.” Also, the city’s first daily newspaper, the Western Star, began publication, not long after becoming just the Star. In addition, the city was now able to raise $14,000 per year for expenses, up from the original $8,000 during his first term.
Personal Life
Dr. Ebenezer Johnson was well known throughout the city. “He was a man perfectly honest and straightforward in all his dealings with men.” He would frequently say, “To do this is clearly my duty, and when my duty is clear it is peremptory.” He never let his conscience rule over his better judgment. He helped to bring many enterprises into Buffalo during the years he lived here.
On January 25, 1811 Ebenezer Johnson married Sally M. Johnson. They were married in Cherry Valley, New York by Dr. White, possibly the same one who he had studied medicine with. They had three children. Mrs. Johnson died in June 1834. Eighteen months later, on December 7, 1835, he married Lucy E. Lord, sister of Dr. John C. Lord, who had married his daughter Mary. They had three children together.
Dr. Johnson owned a parcel of land on Delaware Street, from Chippewa to Tupper, to the State Reservation line, to the South Village of Black Rock. At this time Black Rock and Buffalo were separate villages, fighting one another for trade and commerce. His land was about 25 acres total. The property he owned was surrounded by a high fence and he allowed wild animals to live freely within its limits. His home, known as “Johnson Cottage,” or just “the Cottage,” and was a well known place for socializing. “Garden parties were given frequently during the summer months.” Included on the well-cultivated lawns, were fruit orchards, vegetable gardens, flower beds, and elm trees.
“In February 1836, a very elegant ball was given in the Cottage. It was notable for having engraved invitations, a fine band of music and a table that fairly groaned with good things to eat. Dancing was kept up until long after midnight, and people came in considerable numbers from adjacent towns to enjoy the hospitality of the first mayor of Buffalo.” A few years later, his property was divided and sold.
The year 1833 was the beginning of the speculation years. For several years land prices rose and many people got rich, including Mayor Johnson, who had made many purchases with Judge Wilkeson. Unfortunately, by 1836, the market bottomed out, and many people who had purchased on credit, were bankrupt. The town was in dire consequences, and many individuals lost their entire fortunes. Dr. Johnson was one of them. On July 21, 1837 he advertised his cottage for lease for a term of five or ten years. “All furniture and personal property is offered for sale with the lease of the house” the ad stated.
He decided to leave Buffalo and go to Tellico Plains, Tennessee, where he owned an iron ore mine with his brother, Elisha Johnson, who was a former mayor of Rochester, New York. Tellico Plains was his last stop. He died there on September 23, 1849, at 63 years of age. There was some confusion as to the actual date of his death and burial spot, but this is the actual date. His body was laid to rest in Tellico Plains.
Dr. Ebenezer Johnson was a man that any city would be glad to have at its helm.
“In his person were united in a rare degree those characteristics of mental and physical energy, which, in a larger sphere of action, would have gained the admiration of a nation.”
***
Major Andre Andrews - 1833-1834
Major Andre Andrews, Major being his given name that was taken from the British soldier Major John Andre, who, with Benedict Arnold, was hanged for treason during the American Revolution, was the second mayor of Buffalo. History says that Major Andrews did not like his name, and usually signed it M.A. Andrews.
Andrews was born in Cornwall, Connecticut on July 8, 1792. He studied law and became a lawyer, practicing in Middletown, Connecticut before moving to Buffalo around 1820. Of all the mayors who served full terms, his history is one of the most incomplete. All his relatives moved out of the Buffalo area, many back to New England, leaving little knowledge of the city’s second mayor.
His main interest in Buffalo was most likely real estate. He arrived at a time when the city was growing and the possibility of becoming rich must have fueled his reasoning. The first known purchases he made were for lots 202 and 203, which was bound by Genesee and Huron Streets, in 1821, and paid $200 for them. He also purchased lots 120 to 132, less 122 to 126, paying $25 an acre. In total, he had 79 acres of land and on this property he built his home.
Managing his massive land purchases tended to keep him from his law practice. In 1821, he joined the Erie County Bar Association. In addition, he found time to dabble in politics before becoming mayor. In 1824, Andrews was a Presidential elector. In 1826, he was elected to his first political position as a Trustee of the Village of Buffalo. He held this position again in 1827. In 1829, he campaigned unsuccessfully, for a seat on the New York Assembly.
In 1827, Andrews was one of several men appointed to a committee by the citizens of Buffalo to determine “if it was feasible to have a military school established in Buffalo.” The Buffalo Military and Scientific Academy may be it.
Andrews vast real estate holdings caused him to write anonymous articles against the Holland Land Company in the Buffalo Republican newspaper in 1829. Joseph Ellicott, the company land agent, told company officials he was the “Agrarius” writing these articles.
On May 16, 1830, the first Bank of Buffalo was formed. Andrews was a founding member, along with Benjamin Rathbun, Hiram Pratt, and William Ketchum, the latter two serving in the mayor’s office also. The bank was forced to suspend operations on September 6, 1831 and resumed operations in 1836. Apparently the rise and fall of the bank was due to the Rathbun brothers. They created a real estate boon and eventual collapse, which contributed to the bank’s closing.
Under Mayor Johnson, in 1832, Andrews held several offices. He was on the Streets, Alleys, Canals and Ferries committee, and the Police committee. He was a member of the Electoral College that same year, casting his vote for Andrew Jackson for President. As an alderman, “he resisted efforts of the pro-temperance members of the council to raise the rates of liquor licenses for taverns and grocery stores.”
Mayoral Term
After Ebenezer Johnson declined a second term as mayor, the Common Council voted Major Andre Andrews as Buffalo’s second mayor. Aldermen John G. Camp and George B. Webster were “to wait upon the new mayor-elect and inform him of his election, who, after a brief period, inducted the mayor to the council room where he took the oath of office.”
Mayor Andrews was quite pleased, and told the council this: “Gentlemen – I accept the appointment you have conferred upon me with emotions of gratitude, but with a great degree of diffidence – not so much in consequence of the responsible duties devolving upon me as from a distrust of my qualifications to perform those duties in the highly satisfactory manner of the gentleman who has preceded me.” He continued to praise the work of Ebenezer Johnson.
His first duty of office was to “recommend the propriety of fixing the salaries of the street commissioner and city surveyor.”
At the next meeting of the council the various committees were announced. The council still was allowed to raise only $8,000 per year. Mayor Andrews salary was $250 per year.
Some of the petitions brought before the mayor during his term included having “the sidewalk on the east side of Main Street above Chippewa Street reformed.” This was “in the country” at that time. Also petitioned was “to raise the level of Main Street at Crow Street” - now Exchange Street. Josiah Trowbridge, a later mayor, “wished the ordinance prohibiting swine from running at large be enforced.”
Judges were appointed for the Erie County court from Alden and Black Rock and three school commissioners were appointed.
Mayor Andrews was “impelled to improve Buffalo as fast as was possible.”
Personal Life
Major Andre Andrews “will not be particularly remembered as a lawyer,” as his real estate holdings occupied much of his time. The mansion in which he lived in 1833 “would give one very little idea of its beauty. The material was wood, from the virginal forests, the bark being left on the joist and underneath the flooring...It was painted white with green blinds and it sat in the midst of an old-fashioned flower garden, New England style, fenced in with white pickets.”
While practicing law in Middletown, Connecticut Andrews married Sarah Mehitabel Hosmer, granddaughter of General Samuel Holden Parsons, one of George Washington’s generals. Together they had eight children, and eight grandchildren.
In 1834, cholera returned, though not as deadly as the first wave in 1832. In August, their daughter Harriet died from the disease. On August 16, Mrs. Andrews also died from the disease. And on August 18, 1834, “after a short but severe illness, the Hon. M. A. Andrews, former mayor of this city” died from cholera. “Appropriate resolutions were passed by the Common Council and also by members of the bar.” Andrews is said to be buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery, but no known records exist.
***
Hiram Pratt - 1835-1836, 1839-1840
While on his way to and from Detroit on a fur-buying trip in 1802-1803, Captain Samuel Pratt was strongly impressed with the commercial advantages of the little log village at the foot of Lake Erie, and he determined to locate there and engage in the fur trade. In September 1804, Captain Pratt made good on his promise and arrived in Buffalo, with several wagons, a coach, and the Pratt clan.
Hiram Pratt, the fifth of eight children Captain Pratt had, was born in Westminster, Vermont on June 28, 1800. His father was an esteemed citizen of Buffalo, which provided opportunities to the young Pratt. Dr. Cyrenius Chapin, (Ebenezer Johnson’s competition), had lost a son at a early age and felt a strong attachment to Hiram. Dr. Chapin owned a house on Swan Street and “begged Captain Pratt to allow Hiram to live with him.”
On December 30, 1813 as the British began torching Buffalo, Dr. Chapin was called to military duty. He told Hiram to take his two little daughters to safety at his farm in Hamburg. The three children walked through the deep snow eventually reaching their destination, ten miles away.
Dr. Chapin had a strong desire for Hiram to follow him into the medical profession. Hiram’s mother, Esther Wells, also thought this to be a laudable profession. Unfortunately, Hiram did not feel the same way. “I cannot bear it; I cannot be a Doctor, and I won’t be a Doctor.” Those were the words he told his mother, and the subject was dropped.
Hiram was born to be “a merchant prince and banker” and would prove to be “one of the most enterprising citizens of Buffalo.” He “was interested in everything that would advance the interests of the place.” His career “was not so long as it was brilliant and successful.” He “had loyal friends and bitter enemies.”
Pratt was involved in several businesses during his early years. In 1818, Dr. Chapin offered Hiram and (future mayor) Orlando Allen an opportunity to run his newly acquired general store. They did and built an extraordinary business together.
Hiram became a partner in a warehouse and forwarding business with Asa B. Meech in 1824.
In 1827, he was an agent for the Farmers Fire Insurance and Loan Company. When the original Bank of Buffalo was formed in 1830, he was both a founder and the cashier. He was also an exchange merchant for the Canandaigua branch of Utica Bank. Pratt was the originator of the Frontier Mills, which contributed much to the development of Black Rock.
In 1831, Pratt retired from the firm of Pratt, Allen & Company to assume the position of president of the Bank of Buffalo.
He was a leading Great Lakes shipbuilder. His firm of Pratt & Taylor built some of the earliest steamers to sail the Great Lakes, including the Governor Marcy, the Ohio, and the Daniel Webster, one of the largest on the lakes. The Daniel Webster was an unnamed ship at the time Daniel Webster made a political stop in Buffalo in 1833. He attended the launching while in town and they thereby named the steamer after him.
One of Hiram Pratt’s greatest disasters was the Delaware and North Street Burying Ground. This was opened around 1832 at the corner of Delaware Avenue and North Street, where the Hotel Lenox, and the residence of Robert K. Root are. The trustees of this property included Pratt, Lewis F. Allen, George B. Webster, Russell H. Heywood, and Heman B. Potter. This rundown burying ground received much criticism. This led to it finally being closed and the bodies moved.
In 1828 and 1829, Pratt served as a Trustee of the village of Buffalo.
The summer of 1834 saw the firm of Pratt & Taylor suffer a disastrous fire.
Mayoral Term
In 1835 the population of Buffalo was 15,661. March ten of that year saw the Common Council appoint Hiram Pratt as Mayor of the city. His political affiliation was the same as many of the Buffalonians of the 1830s – Whig.
There was a rift between the council and Pratt immediately after his appointment. At this time the mayor presided over the Common Council. The council was split on its decision for police constable so Pratt cast the deciding vote, which was ruled illegal by the city attorney. The Council then reconsidered the vote and cast a majority vote for the other candidate.
In later 1835, a minority report favored amending the city charter to make the position of mayor elective. Also during this time, one of Mayor Pratt’s great endeavors was to purchase land to be used for a wholesale market. This would later become the Elk Street Market, a place where the likes of Swift, Jacob Dold, Christian Klinck, Danahy, and many other meat purveyors would sell their wares to the public.
On March 5, 1839, General Heman B. Potter was elected mayor by the Common Council. General Potter respectfully declined, and after several ballots the Council voted six to four in favor of Hiram Pratt. The Common Council, during this second term, was comprised of seven Whig aldermen out of ten. Together they sought to improve the city by levying taxes on many projects, including “education, parks, the militia, and fire protection.” The opposition party took exception to this and attacked the mayor and the council. In addition, Mayor Pratt sought “more rigid economy in managing the finances of the City.” The amount of taxes the city was allowed to collect from the citizens was raised from $8,000 to $14,000 per year.
The City was booming. The summer of 1839 saw 17 steamers in Buffalo Harbor at one time. They included the Constitution, Clinton, Chautauqua, and Robert Fulton.
During the summer of 1839 six new school buildings were erected and competent teachers hired. There was some opposition to the work because of the high cost, but for the most part it was welcomed.
In 1839, a Recorder’s Court was created for the City of Buffalo. The Governor appointed the Recorder for a four year term.
One major event took place during Pratt’s second term. In January 1840 the New York State legislature passed a law requiring all mayors in New York to be elected directly by the people. His second term was the end of an era.
Personal Life
On February 22, 1836, at seven P.M., a meeting for the “founding of a Young Men’s Association, for mutual improvement in literature and science” was held at the Court House. Mayor Hiram Pratt presided over the meeting, in which a constitution was adopted, based on that of the Albany Y.M.A. The citizens were all feeling wealthy at this time and a subscription amounting to $6,700 was raised.
Many books were purchased and “the surviving collections of the old Buffalo Library and Lyceum were turned in.” By year end over 2,700 volumes lined the shelves of the Y.M.A. Library. In addition, there were “44 weekly, ten monthly and six quarterly publications” available. After the Civil War the Y.M.A. would be merged with the Grosvenor Library, the Fine Arts Academy, the Buffalo Historical Society, and the Society of Natural Sciences.
Hiram Pratt, “in accordance with the rules of romance,” should have married one of Dr. Chapin’s daughters he helped save. Instead, he married Maria Fowle on November 3, 1825. They had three daughters. The Pratts were members of the First Presbyterian Church. Chief Red Jacket was a frequent visitor to the Pratt household.
Mayor Pratt suffered great financial depression during the years 1836-38. Much of it can be contributed to Benjamin Rathbun. Rathbun was the wealthiest citizen in Buffalo, worth over $3,000,000. He controlled the construction industry, building hundreds of properties, including 110 Franklin Street, still standing in 2005. In one year he built 99 buildings worth $500,000, including businesses, dwellings, a jail, and a theater. He employed 2,500 men and had his brother, Lyman, running the financial side of the business. When it became apparent that many notes he had borrowed money on were forgeries, he was arrested. All the parties who held notes out in his name called them due. Rathbun’s estate was sold, but the profits did not cover the notes. The citizens who co-signed the notes were then obligated to pay them. Many of the city’s most wealthy people were found to have signatures on forged notes, including Ebenezer Johnson, Pratt, and more. After two trials Rathbun was found guilty and spent nearly five years in prison. In 1957, a document was found that would have exonerated Benjamin, the original deposition signed by his brother Lyman, who was ultimately responsible.
The Rathbun episode and the financial panic of 1836-37 created a great financial depression for Mayor Pratt, causing him to lose his entire estate.
He never fully recovered from the emotional strain he incurred. He was “traveling for his health” on his way to Saratoga, New York, when he died in Utica on April 27, 1840. His body was returned to Buffalo and the funeral held May 1. There are several disputes in the history books as to his date of death, but this appears to be the correct one. His body was laid to rest in Forest Lawn Cemetery, Section 1 W Pt 37.
It appears only one announcement was made of his death, in the Buffalo Daily Republican. The Common Council passed resolutions of regret and the council and current mayor, Sheldon Thompson, attended the funeral.
Hiram Pratt owned a large area of land on Porter Avenue, bounded by Seventh and Connecticut Streets, and Porter and Prospect avenues. In 1835 he built a “fine Medina stone mansion” that he never occupied. Instead, his family continued to live in their house which stood at the corner of Swan and Center Streets.
One of Hiram Pratt’s greatest gifts to the city of Buffalo is Prospect Park. For unknown reasons, this park was never dedicated to the memory of the man who once owned the property it stands on.
***
Samuel Wilkeson - 1836-1837
Many of the stories written about Samuel Wilkeson begin with, or have in their title, the words “Urbem Condidit”. These are the words enscribed onto his tombstone, and although this may give a fair description of what Mr. Wilkeson stood for, there was much about the man that you cannot perceive in a few short pages. “He was a natural leader of men and would have filled with credit and honor the most exalted stations of government and authority.”
Samuel Wilkeson was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on June 1, 1781 of immigrant parents from Northern Ireland. Around 1784, the family moved to Washington County, near Pittsburgh, to live on land the government granted his father John, for service during the Revolutionary War. Here his early education was confined to a few months’ winter schooling in a log school-house.
Around 1802 he married Jane Oram, who’s father served under George Washington’s army during the revolution. They moved to Mahoning, Ohio, near Youngstown. Here Samuel took his ax, “cut down the forest,” built a farm and a grist mill, which was the first in the area. After several years of farming he grew bored, and moved to Pittsburgh to begin shipping salt from the Onondaga salt mines to the Ohio valley for General James O’Hara. Salt was an important part of the pioneer lives and this proved to be a lucrative business.
Sometime between 1807 and 1810 he moved his family to Portland, New York, near Westfield in Chautauqua County. During this time he engaged in shipbuilding but continued the salt trade. In 1812, during one salt trip, he was stopped by General William Henry Harrison who was commanding the American troops during the War of 1812. Wilkeson was asked to build a fleet of ships, similar to the one he was using, for the Army. It is assumed that the ships were built in a short time, and used in the invasion of Canada. Wilkeson apparently joined the Chautauqua militia and headed to Buffalo to help defend the village.
Even though the battle at Buffalo was lost and the city destroyed by the British, Samuel Wilkeson was attracted to it. When he returned home he “loaded an open boat with his wife, four children, and the lumber to build a house” and headed to start anew in Buffalo. Almost immediately he opened a general store on Niagara Street near Main. In 1815, he opened a meat market.
Peace was declared in 1814, and in 1815 many of the troops disbanded and stayed on in Buffalo. Social and civic conditions became “unsettled to a degree that threatened the total disruption of law and order.” It was at this time that Wilkeson was selected by the people to become the village’s first Justice of the peace. Up to this time he “probably never opened a law book,” yet he proved his court “would yield to nothing but absolute integrity in every department of the public peace and morality.”
Wilkeson was chosen as a village trustee, serving the years of 1816, 1817, and 1819-1821.
Judge Wilkeson acquired partners for many of his business ventures and in 1816 or 1817 was “part owner or complete owner...of the Experiment and Aurora” lake transport vessels.
The Erie Canal had begun to cross New York and the fight for the western end of it had begun. Black Rock and Buffalo both wanted to be the terminus. An act was passed by the State Legislature on April 10, 1818 authorizing a survey to be done of Buffalo Creek. The first Buffalo Harbor Company was born. Among it’s members were future mayors Ebenezer Johnson and Ebenezer Walden, Charles Townsend, George Coit, and Oliver Forward. One year later, on April 17, 1819, a loan of $12,000 was approved to these “gentlemen and their associates” for a term of 12 years. The catch was that it was “to be secured on bond and mortgage to double that amount and applied to the construction of the harbor which the State had reserved the right to take when completed.”
The year of 1819 was a period of financial depression and many of the associates of the Harbor Company were affected. Buffalo was in peril of losing the loan and the canal terminus. Samuel Wilkeson “had declined being on the original company,” since the formation of the company came as his wife Jane was dying. But, after meeting his second wife, Sarah St. John, his spirits lifted, and he offered his assistance to the company.
During the winter of 1820, Charles Townsend, Oliver Forward, and Wilkeson each gave his “several bond and mortgage for $8,000” to secure the state loan. “An experienced harbor builder was accordingly employed” and in early spring 1820, work began. It did not take long to realize that this man was not experienced in working on a project where the finances were so limited.
No one could be found with the experience of managing such a project. The other members of the Harbor Company were not experienced enough. Wilkeson, though lacking in the knowledge to build a harbor, was persuaded by the other members to take command of the project. With much already invested in it, he agreed. The first day he had the boarding house and sleeping room completed. Wilkeson took personal charge of all aspects of the project: “clerical work, supervision of the laborers and checking of supplies.” He measured every load of stone, since the workmen would throw some overboard instead of hauling it from the barge to shore.
The building of Buffalo Harbor was a tremendous task. It was perilous work, and included “its partial destruction at various times.” At one point when the laborers threatened to walk off the job, the three men who backed the project with their fortunes “took off their coats and hats, waded waist deep into muddy Buffalo Creek, and threw up temporary bulkheads. Watching them, the workmen relented and resumed construction.”
“A raise of two dollars a month in the salary of the men was the antidote offered for rainy weather.” The men then worked rain or shine. After 221 days, the Sabbath off, through the “constancy and courage with which their repeated disasters were at last overcome,” the harbor was completed; the first work of its kind ever constructed on the Great Lakes.
In the summer of 1820, a commission studying the possibilities for the western terminus of the Erie Canal was “busily investigating the data.” Governor DeWitt Clinton, Ebenezer Johnson, Wilkeson, and several others were involved in this process. Wilkeson successfully argued that Buffalo should be the terminus for the canal with their harbor in full construction.
In February 1821, Wilkeson was appointed First Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He held this position until 1824. On April 2, 1821, all the land south from the center of Tonawanda Creek became Erie County, leaving the rest as Niagara County. Buffalo was now the seat of Erie, as it had been in Niagara.
In the early 1820s he went into partnership with Ebenezer Johnson “for shipping and real estate development.” Wilkeson purchased much of his property before the real estate boom hit the city in the 1830s. He “was there first, and got out before the slower thinkers.” In 1823 he purchased a sizable tract of land on which now sits City Hall. This is where he built his house, which until 1915 was occupied by descendants of him. Also, in 1823, in connection with others, he purchased a sizable tract of land near the mouth of Tonawanda Creek. He “built a general store there and laid out the first real estate subdivision in that area.”
In 1822, he was elected to the New York Assembly and in 1824 was elected to the state Senate. During his campaign he was called by his opponent, Colonel Robert Fleming, the “most greedy monopolist in the western part of the state.” It was not understood by this man what Samuel Wilkeson did for Buffalo. All of the “lucrative monopolies” certainly helped him, but they also aided the city’s expansion. Two of these included toll bridges across Buffalo Creek and Tonawanda creek. For each, he had charters guaranteed for 20 years.
During 1824 Wilkeson was appointed Postmaster of Millport, which was questioned by some parties.
The Erie Canal was finally connected to Buffalo Harbor in 1825. A special boat was built for the maiden voyage from Lake Erie to the Atlantic Ocean. The morning of October 26, 1825 a committee boarded the boat for the historic journey. Included were Governor Clinton and Wilkeson. A festive ceremony was had immediately following the trip, and the entire town of Buffalo attended.
In 1826, he was elected a directorate of the Bank of Niagara in Buffalo.
He never relented in his bid to make Buffalo a superior town. He also realized that by having the Erie Canal end in Buffalo did not guarantee trade to the village. Here is where his vision really shines through. Mr. Wilkeson began many businesses that could use the canal and bring trade to the area. He continued his lake shipping, but found that by manufacturing goods here he could attract much more. In 1828, he purchased the Arcole Iron Furnace in Madison, Ohio. This was done more for Buffalo than for Madison. He “arranged for the heavy stoves to be made at the Arcole Furnace” in Ohio and shipped to Buffalo to be mounted in the Beals, Mayhew plant he co-owned with said gentlemen. In 1829, the first steam boiler was built in Buffalo by a man working for “Wilkeson, Beals & Company.” In 1845, a furnace that was built by Wilkeson and Company was the first in the United States which “successfully smeltered iron with raw bituminous coal.”
In 1830, he dissolved his shipping interests with James Barton to concentrate on his growing manufacturing interests. He had foundries or factories in several areas of the city, including on Ohio Street, Perry Street, and South Park.
His many business endeavors included: “merchant, warehouseman, vessel owner and lake forwarder.” He invested in silk plantations in Florida as another way he hoped could benefit Buffalo, going so far as sending his daughter and son-in-law Mortimer Johnson, nephew of Ebenezer, to speed the work up. He constantly was looking for ways to utilize the port he created. He was concerned when several out-of-town manufacturers were reluctant to move their facilities to Buffalo. This prompted him to “work hard for the construction of an expanded penitentiary” and to regulate the “prostitutes in the area.”
Mayoral Term
In 1836, Samuel Wilkeson was elected mayor of Buffalo. One of his main concerns was “enforcing the laws and strengthening the city’s police force.” The police department became a “terror to evildoers.” He “never shrunk from the exposure of any corruption in high or low places, whatever danger might be incurred, or whatever hostilities aroused.”
Mayor Wilkeson did encounter one of the worst bouts of depression to ever hit the city. In 1836, the nation went speculation crazy. There is no definite answer as to what started it, but many suffered from it. As everyone knows there are many people who would like to get rich without the pain and struggles that usually accompany it. In 1836 it was no different. “Banks sprang up” everywhere.
Hosts of desperate speculators, who by the “hocus pocus best known to skilled financiers, could manage to galvanize such monetary institutions into legal existence, with capital stock all paid in promissory notes ... enabled them to operate on a grand scale.”
A real estate boon wound its way through the young city. People everywhere were feeling exceptionally wealthy and real estate was being bought quite frequently. Prices were driven up way beyond their worth. Even ordinary men felt the chance to become wealthy. In July 1836 President Jackson required that a “specie” alone could be used in payment. This caused the great roof of credit to collapse, leaving thousands penniless. In nine days it was over.
The town collapsed. “Fortunes disappeared in a night, mortgages were foreclosed on every hand.” Property which sold for “$30 or $50 a foot, would not bring that much per acre.” Banks failed everywhere, and paper money was worthless.
This entire episode unfolded during the end of 1836 and the gloom and disparity continued until the end of his term. The man who did so much for the city could do nothing to stop this backlash.
But the speculation days were also good for the city. There was now 52 miles of pavement in the city, and “the sewage system was well inaugurated on some of the prominent streets.” “Innumerable stores, warehouses and mammoth hotels” were erected; canals were dug, railroads built, “ships and steamboats put afloat.”
Personal Life
After Mr. Wilkeson left office, he did some business traveling. The year of 1837 shows him in St. Augustine, Georgia. His sons were running most of his businesses in Buffalo, and he was not needed as often. Although he was a very sarcastic, stern man, it is easy to see in his letters to his sons that he was also a very loving man. He constantly sent letters to them, only receiving an occasional reply. He would scold them for not replying, but would always send a letter again the following week.
Around the time of his election as mayor, he interested himself in America’s slavery problems. The American Colonization Society was an organization that wanted to “remove free colored men with their own consent...to a country where all their energies could be called into action and have full scope.” President Millard Fillmore was another advocate of colonization. Wilkeson felt that if the slaves were immediately emancipated “the union of the states would be broken, the Negroes in the south would be exterminated by the whites, and an armed struggle for the control of the Federal government would ensue between the North and South.” As history shows, these were some of the events that led to the Civil War.
The American Colonization Society wanted to colonize the blacks in Liberia on the west coast of Africa. Wilkeson was invited to become General Agent of the society in 1838, and accepted. He moved to their headquarters in Washington, D.C., and for two years tried to get the society out of financial trouble. He edited their newspaper, “African Repository”, “governed the colony of Liberia, instituted commerce with it from...ports in Baltimore and Philadelphia, and shipped large numbers of the colonists to the new republic.”
Wilkeson was not very religious until the 1830s. He was an elder in the Presbyterian church and was “excellent in counsel and prompt in his performance of the duties.” He was married three times, each wife passing away. His first, Jane Oram, was the mother of his seven children. He then married Sarah St. John and after her death, Mary Peters.
On July 7, 1848 he died at the age of 67 on his way to visit his daughter who was now living in Tellico Plains, Tennessee. It is believed her husband, Mortimer, was working for Ebenezer and Elisa Johnson at their iron ore mine. He was alone and dying among strangers when he said, “Where matters it where one dies?” His body was brought back to Buffalo and remains in Forest Lawn Cemetery, Section K Lot 1.
Samuel Wilkeson is one of the greatest men ever to live in Buffalo. It was more than an honor for this city to have a man who “in former ages...might have led armies to victory...founded a dynasty” as mayor.
The Latin phrase “Urbem Condidit” mentioned earlier was thought to have meant “he built the city by building it’s harbor” when in actuality it is perceived as including the “concept of establishing firmly the society and the peoples who are to inhabit the buildings.” If there was one man who “deserves above all to be remembered...and have his name...connected with the history of the city...that one is Samuel Wilkeson.”
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Dr. Josiah Trowbridge - 1837
Josiah Trowbridge was born in Framingham, Massachusetts on September 29, 1785, the third of four children. His father, Captain John Trowbridge, was a local office holder and veteran of the American Revolution.
Josiah worked on his father’s farm until he was 14. He then went to work at his older brother’s store before deciding upon a career in medicine. He prepared for the medical profession by studying with Drs. Willard and Kitteridge.
In 1808 or 1809 he was licensed to practice and began work in Weathersfield, Vermont. In 1811, Buffalo welcomed her fourth physician and surgeon. Dr. Trowbridge rode into town on horseback with his boyhood companion and lawyer, Jesse Walker. He found there was no house available and was advised to “try Fort Erie.” His friend left town and he made his home across the border in Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada.
Trowbridge was a firm believer in America and visited frequently. When it became apparent that there would be a war with Great Britain, he moved to Buffalo. Although “not a friend to the war,” he said, he joined the Buffalo Light Artillery Company and tended to the wounded during the first assault on Black Rock.
He was fond of hunting and found several others able to join him one day during the war. Lieutenant Dudley of the U.S. Navy, Trowbridge, and several others went to Strawberry Island to shoot some duck. Unbeknownst to them, they were spotted by the British, and a group of 14 British soldiers landed on the island. Shortly thereafter, Trowbridge and the others were taken prisoner and sent to Fort George. After two days Trowbridge and F.B. Merrill were set free, the soldiers remaining prisoners.
During the burning of the village on December 31, 1813, Trowbridge was one of the last to leave, helping to secure the safety of the women and children.
Research shows that only about 1,000 British soldiers were across the river and could have easily been defeated, but apparently many of the citizens of Buffalo were quite cowardly.
Around October 20, 1813, the Doctor was to serve as vice-chairman of the committee “charged with entertaining General Harrison and Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry.” At about two o’clock, the crew of about 80 was treated to a public dinner at Pomery’s Eagle Tavern.
On June 15, 1813, a petition for a warrant to create a lodge of Freemasons was sent to the Grand Lodge. Josiah was one of the many men who signed this petition.
After the war, Trowbridge made his home in Buffalo. The only political experience Trowbridge ever had was his election as the first Village of Buffalo Treasurer in 1816. He held the position again in 1817. Twice he applied for positions in office, once for collectorship of customs, and the other for the post office.
On February 10, 1817, he was “secretary of the meeting held at the house of Elias Ransom to organize the Episcopal Society of St. Paul’s Church.” “He was one of its first vestrymen, for 11 years, and was warden for six years.”
In 1819, he was librarian of the Niagara County Medical Society. In addition, he was a charter member of the Medical Society of Erie County in 1821.
Trowbridge was elected Supervisor of Buffalo in 1823, 1825, and 1827. He served as a side judge for a short time. He was also a commissioner for the finishing of the “Old Court House” which stood on the site of the 1919 public library.
At one time he was appointed to a committee to see if it was feasible to build a military school in Buffalo. Later on he was president of the Buffalo Military Scientific and Literary Academy.
In the early 1830s housing was in great demand as the population grew. Trowbridge erected the United States Hotel on Terrace Street. The suites consisted of two to six rooms. They were occupied by many of the newcomers, as they waited for housing to be built by Benjamin Rathbun. Dr. Trowbridge himself boarded there for many years.
Trowbridge was elected president of the Buffalo Lyceum in 1832.
In 1833, he was given the honorary degree of “Doctor of Medicine” by the Regents of the University.
When 1836 came around and the economy collapsed, Trowbridge was among the many of Buffalo’s early pioneers who suffered. He had left his medical practice to tend to his private interests, including the property he owned, and lending his name and money among his “supposed friends.”
Mayoral Term
The fallout from the speculation craze of 1836 was still being felt throughout the city in early 1837. After more than 130 ballots, the Common Council were finally unanimous in their choice of Dr. Josiah Trowbridge for mayor. He accepted the office of Mayor on March 14, 1837.
Allow me to tender my sincere thanks for the honor which you have conferred upon me, by electing me to the mayoralty of this city.
I regret that your choice should not have fallen upon some person better qualified than myself to discharge the arduous and responsible duties of the office. If, however, honesty of purpose and zeal to promote the best interests of this city can in any degree supply the want of other qualities, rest assured they will thus far be supplied.
I accept the appointment, relying with confidence upon your aid and assistance in the discharge of my duties and also upon your forbearance towards any errors which I may inadvertently commit.
His political affiliation at this time was Whig. Earlier in life he was a Federalist and later in life a Republican.
Amendments to the city charter were passed in 1837 providing several new positions in the city, including superintendent of schools and the office of police justice. They were filled by Common Council appointment. In addition, “regulating the grade of the railroad within city limits, establishing a workhouse,” and other changes were made to perfect the city government. A company was formed to build a road from Buffalo to Williamsville, which was completed within several years.
Early in his term he “succeeded in raising city taxes to support the newly established city schools.” On June 3, 1837, Mayor Trowbridge asked “to have an ordinance passed for more effectual prevention of gambling now existing in the city and for punishment of which the present laws were then inadequate.”
In the winter of 1837 Canadian discontent with the English government brought about what has been called the Patriot War. Locally, many Buffalonians felt sympathetic towards the Canadian plight. They thought Canada was destined to be the “Northern Texas” and their liberty from “Colonial misrule must be won by valor.” The Canadians were trying to stir up Americans from “Vermont to Michigan” into helping them.
Mayor Trowbridge, whose “advice was always eagerly solicited,” and whose suggestions were “accepted as equivalent to law,” made his voice heard throughout this ordeal. He saw “law and order being put at defiance by dreamers. In no part of the country was the excitement more intense or opposition to the authorities more violent.”