community, and continued to serve until 1809, when it was amended and
the borough limits were enlarged. The town was yet merely a borough when
the War of 1812 came on, and Senator James A. Bayard, the first of four
Bayards to represent Delaware in the United States Senate, helped with
his own hands to build a fort almost upon the site of Fort Christina. A
city charter came in 1832. The mayor was elected for three years by the
city council, and the first mayor chosen was Richard H. Bayard.
Wilmington as the intellectual centre of the State was naturally also
the home of radical thought. Quaker sentiment had sunk deep into the
community. An anti-slavery society was organized early. A great meeting
at the Town Hall in 1820 adopted resolutions against the extension
of slavery into the territories. Sam Townsend, a picturesque and
characteristic figure in the mid-century politics of the State, was
amazed and horrified to find that his brother, home after a week’s visit
to Wilmington, had returned with a tincture of abolitionism. Sam and his
neighbors labored with the erring one, but could not meet his arguments
against holding one’s fellow-men in bondage until Sam bethought him to
deny the humanity of the negro, and thus snatched the brother as a brand
from the burning.
[Illustration: CITY HALL.]
Wilmington was a station on the “underground railroad,” and Thomas
Garrett, a Quaker of Pennsylvanian birth, was the station-master—a man
of prudence but of dauntless courage, who, left penniless at sixty by
reason of a fine imposed upon him for violation of the Fugitive Slave
Law, declared upon the court-house steps in his peculiar lisp: “I did it;
I’m glad I did it; and I’d do it again.” The Civil War came too soon for
him, he said, for he had hoped to help away three thousand slaves, and
had stopped at two thousand seven hundred.
[Illustration: NEWCASTLE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.]
The conflict found Wilmington a little city of rough-cobbled streets, the
metropolis of a small surrounding territory, visited daily by country
folk, who drove twelve or fifteen miles,—came “to town,” as the phrase
went,—and having made their purchases, drove home, whipping in dread past
“Folly Woods,” since the days of Sandy Flash a place of evil reputation.
The firing upon Fort Sumter stirred the community to its depths, and
the city lost no time in sending to the front more than her quota of
volunteers. Flags fluttered out all over the city. Barbers made haste
to add to their poles a third stripe, a blue one, in token of loyalty.
Amid all the enthusiasm it was a time of acrid bitterness, for Delaware
was a border State with citizens holding openly or secretly opinions of
many shades other than that recognized as true blue. There were reported
sullen threats of incendiarism on the part of the disaffected; there were
many arrests of the disloyal, and stubborn but entirely conscientious
men, who would not take the oath of allegiance and were imprisoned or
publicly shamed. It was no time for a nice weighing of motives, and
the fires of the war-time hatreds were nearly a generation in cooling.
The city came out of the war chastened by sorrow and pained by bitter
contention, but ready for a newer and broader life. She has since grown
to 70,000 people. Her boundaries have been extended to the Delaware; her
factories have vastly increased in volume and variety. Miles of territory
have been covered with new homes. Water-works, sewers and parks have been
created. New Castle, the old Dutch capital of New Amstel, has yielded up
the court-house to Wilmington, but has held on to the whipping-post,
as perhaps not quite in keeping with the modern mood of the city. But
in spite of growth and change the old Quaker spirit, the ineradicable
instinct of sobriety and decency, remains along with the Swedish and
Dutch names two and a half centuries ago. When the hush of evening falls
upon the city and the crowds have melted from the sidewalks, then in the
dusk of the deserted streets one may easily imagine the distinguished
William Shipley and the gracious Elizabeth, the grin of broad-faced
Dutchmen fresh from the harrowing of Swen Schute, the spectral figures
of tow-haired Swedish farmers, or the grave, black-clad form of Pastor
Torkillius with solemn eyes bent upon wondering peasant lads and lasses.
[Illustration: SEAL OF THE CITY OF WILMINGTON.]
[Illustration]
BUFFALO
“THE QUEEN CITY OF THE LAKES”
BY ROWLAND B. MAHANY
Few cities of the United States have a history more picturesque than
Buffalo, or more typical of the forces that have made the Republic
great. At the time of the adoption of the Federal constitution, in
1787, not a single white settler dwelt on the site of what is now the
Queen of the Lakes; and it was not until after the second presidency of
Washington, that Joseph Ellicott, the founder of Buffalo, laid out the
plan of the town, which he called New Amsterdam. Ellicott was a man of
great ability, force and foresight, and with prophetic vision he saw
the future importance of the city, which is now the fourth commercial
entrepôt of the world. He had been the assistant of his brother, Andrew
Ellicott, the first Surveyor General of the United States; and the
two brothers, together with General Washington,—himself an engineer by
profession,—had collaborated with Captain Pierre Charles L’Enfant the
plan of the National Capital. With the beautiful design of Washington
City fresh in his mind, Joseph Ellicott gave to the village of New
Amsterdam a similar system of radiating broad avenues, embracing in the
territory they enclosed rectangular systems of streets. The avenues were
99 feet in width and the streets 66 feet. The surveys were begun in 1798
and completed in 1805. Indirectly, therefore, Buffalo is indebted to
President Washington for some of its topographical features.
[Illustration: JOSEPH ELLICOTT.
FOUNDER OF BUFFALO.]
The early history of the village is not unlike that of most of our
inland cities which have grown from conditions common to the Canadian and
to the western frontier; and differs, perhaps, chiefly in this regard,
that owing to the natural advantages of the town’s situation and its
proximity to the great cataract of Niagara Falls, its annals are rich
with instances of exploration, of war and of romance; for adventure and
enterprise met here at the beginning of the century.
The period when the Mohawks, the Eries, the Hurons, the Tuscaroras, the
Neuters (so called because they were a peaceful tribe) and the Senecas
were the sole possessors of this region was succeeded by the epoch of
the French traders, whose business was in turn absorbed by their Dutch
competitors. These gave way to the alert descendants of New England,
who yielded back again the supremacy to a group of Dutch capitalists,
composing the Holland Land Company, whose first agent was Joseph Ellicott.
The primitive scenery of Buffalo must have been almost incomparable in
its beauty. The wooded hills, the fertile plains, the superb river and
the mighty lake enchanted alike the savage and the civilized beholder.
Even now, when commerce has invaded the loveliness of the prospect by
investing one of the greatest harbors in the world with a fortress of
elevators and crowding it with a forest of masts, artists and tourists
unite in saying that the Buffalo sunsets are not rivalled anywhere save
by those on the Bay of Naples.
In 1806, the first schoolhouse was built on the corner of Swan and
Pearl streets,—the humble pioneer of an educational system that now
embraces sixty modern grammar schools, three collegiate High Schools,
and innumerable independent and private institutions of learning.
Notable among these latter is the Le Couteulx Asylum for the instruction
of the deaf and dumb. This beneficent institution owes its origin to
the liberality of the Le Couteulx family. Louis Stephen Le Couteulx
de Caumont, a Norman-French gentleman of station and culture, was the
founder of the family in Buffalo. He came to New Amsterdam in 1804.
On February 10, 1810, the “Town of Buffaloe” was created by an act of the
legislature. This was the name originally given to the settlement by the
Senecas, and there is little doubt that it was derived from the visits of
the bison to the neighboring salt-licks. However that may be, the village
of New Amsterdam was merged in 1810 into the town of Buffalo.
[Illustration: LAFAYETTE SQUARE.]
With the disappearance of the Dutch appellation of the town, vanished
also the Dutch nomenclature of the streets. Van Staphorst and Willink
Avenues were connected and called Main Street; Stadinzky Avenue, a
name suggestive of the Polish element that later was to swell in such
numbers the population of the city, became Church Street; Niagara Street
succeeded Schimmelpennick Avenue; and Vollenhoven Avenue was changed into
Erie Street.
The origin of some of Buffalo’s thoroughfares is interesting and amusing.
Utica Street was formerly a lane on the old Hodge farm, and led from
the Cold Spring region to the Elmwood Avenue district. The people using
it, however, were very careless about closing the gates, and this so
irritated Mr. Hodge that he locked the gates and closed the lane. An
indignation meeting was called in the little schoolhouse at Cold Spring.
The schoolmaster was the chief speaker, and unless tradition does
violence to his grammar, the principal part of his speech consisted of
the declaration that “them Hodges is maintainin’ a ‘pent-up Uticky.’”
When Mr. Hodge heard of the meeting, he relented and offered to give the
people the lane on condition that the town government would lay out a
street. The offer was accepted and the new thoroughfare was called Utica
Street in commemoration of the schoolmaster’s speech.
The inevitable newspaper appeared on the 3d of October, 1811, when
the Buffalo _Gazette_ issued its first number. The _Gazette_ was the
forerunner of journals which to-day recognize as their only competitors
the Metropolitan press.
On the 26th of June, 1812, the tidings of war with Great Britain reached
Buffalo, and on August 13th the first gun of the struggle is said to
have been fired by the battery at Black Rock, then a rival, now a
suburb, of Buffalo. The excitement was intense; for all recognized that
the growing town, because of its frontier situation, was sure to be
one of the theatres of hostilities. Nor was this a mistaken idea, as
subsequent events proved. Immediately after the declaration of war, the
British soldiers from the Canadian garrison at Fort Erie, directly across
the river from Buffalo, made an incursion, and captured the schooner
_Connecticut_, at anchor in the Buffalo Creek. This humiliation, however,
was more than wiped out by the daring exploit of Lieutenant Jesse D.
Elliott, U. S. N., who, on October 9, 1812, crossed the river, and boldly
attacked two vessels lying under the guns of Fort Erie. One of these, the
_Detroit_, of six guns, had been captured by the British at the surrender
of that town; the other was the _Caledonia_, of two guns. With a loss
of two killed and five wounded, Elliott’s force captured both vessels
and took prisoners, officers and men, to the number of seventy-one.
Forty-seven American prisoners taken by the British at the River Raisin,
were released by Elliott. The _Detroit_ was carried down the stream when
the cables were cut, and ran aground on Squaw Island. The British opened
a lively cannonading from the Canadian shore and attempted to recapture
the vessel, but were driven off by the Americans, who, unable to float
it, burned it to the water’s edge. For his brilliant coup, Lieutenant
Elliott was voted a sword of honor by Congress.
[Illustration: A GLIMPSE OF BUFFALO HARBOR.]
One great advantage the British possessed early in the war was their
superiority on the Lakes. The _Queen Charlotte_, of twenty-two guns, the
_Hunter_, of twelve guns, and a small armed schooner patrolled the Erie
coast-line in the neighborhood of Buffalo, and kept the inhabitants of
the region in a constant state of fear and excitement. To remedy this
disadvantage, the Government, in the spring of 1813, sent Captain Oliver
Hazard Perry to fit out a war fleet at Erie, Pennsylvania. He arrived in
Buffalo in March, and thence proceeded to his destination. The Government
had purchased a number of merchant craft, and these he immediately began
converting into men-of-war. Some new vessels also were built. Five
gunboats were fitted out at Buffalo on Scajaquada Creek. On September 10,
1813, Perry, with an inferior force, both in the number of men and guns,
gave battle to the British and captured or destroyed their entire fleet.
This victory was not only the most notable of the war, but is one of the
most conspicuous in our naval history. In the midst of the battle Perry’s
ship was sunk, and he left it in an open boat, and, under the fire of
the enemy, went to another vessel of his fleet, whence he directed the
operations that rendered the battle of Lake Erie an illustrious triumph
for American arms.
In a few months, however, the exultation of Buffalo’s citizens was turned
into mourning through the burning of the town by the British. On the 29th
of December, General Riall, with twelve hundred men, regulars, militia
and Indians, landed below Scajaquada Creek, and owing to the confusion
which prevailed in the councils of the local military commanders,
captured the town with little difficulty. The inhabitants had fled,
and every dwelling, with one or two exceptions, was given over to the
flames. Mrs. St. John and two of her daughters remained to protect their
house, and owing to the chivalry of Colonel Elliott, the commander of
the Indians, neither the ladies nor their household possessions were
molested. Mrs. Joshua Lovejoy, who also remained in her home, where the
Tifft House now stands, was imprudent enough to have an altercation with
the Indians, and was slain by one of them. Her house was burned, and her
dead body with it.
On the withdrawal of the British, the citizens returned from their
flight, bringing back with them such household goods as they had gathered
together on their hasty departure, and forthwith the rebuilding of
Buffalo commenced. The American loss in the engagement preceding the
capture of the town was heavy. Between forty and fifty of our troops were
killed, as many more wounded, and about ninety prisoners were carried
off by the victors. From all these reverses the people of the little
town measurably recovered in the succeeding five or six months. On April
10, 1814, Brigadier-General Winfield Scott came to Buffalo, and shortly
after, Major-General Brown arrived. The preparations for an advance on
the Canadian position were pushed forward as rapidly as possible, and
on July 3d the movement began. Three brigades,—two of regulars, one of
volunteers,—accompanied by a few Indians, crossed the river, and captured
Fort Erie. Thence proceeding down the Canadian bank, they engaged the
enemy at Chippewa on July 5th, and won a decisive victory.
The Americans wore temporary uniforms of gray, and it was in honor of the
conspicuous gallantry displayed by our troops in this conflict that gray
was adopted as the uniform for the West Point cadets.
[Illustration: ST. PAUL’S CHURCH.]
The volunteer brigade was commanded by General Peter B. Porter, for many
years a member of Congress from Erie County, and afterwards Secretary
of War for a brief period under John Quincy Adams. General Porter
distinguished himself also in the battle of Lundy’s Lane, and throughout
the war gained such reputation for valor, skill and eloquence, that to
him has been assigned the credit of being the pioneer in organizing the
volunteer system of the American Army.
During all this war the famous Seneca chief, Red Jacket, took an active
part in behalf of the Americans, and though he had little love for the
white men on either side of the controversy, still his influence was
cast in favor of those who were the neighbors and friends of his people.
Innumerable anecdotes are told of the wisdom, oratory and dignity of the
great sachem, and a later generation has raised in Forest Lawn Cemetery
an imposing statue to his memory.
After the battle of Chippewa, General Riall, the British commander,
retreated to Queenstown, and thence to Fort George, the Americans in
pursuit. The British, however, were reinforced and General Brown decided
to return to Fort Erie. Riall, in turn, pursued. On July 25th the
contending forces met near Lundy’s Lane, and one of the most fiercely
fought battles of the war followed. The conflict began a little before
nightfall, and raged until nearly ten o’clock, when the Americans held
undisputed possession of the field. General Riall and one hundred and
sixty-eight prisoners were captured. Both General Brown and General Scott
were wounded, as was also Captain Worth, afterwards famous in the Mexican
War.
The command of the American forces then devolved upon General Ripley,
who took up his position at Fort Erie and was there besieged by
Lieutenant-General Drummond. On August 3d, the British directed a
savage onslaught against the Fort, but were driven back with loss. They
continued, however, to invest the American position. On September 17th,
General Porter headed an attack on the besieging force, and such was
the gallantry of the American volunteers that the British veterans were
dispersed. General Napier, the English military historian, cites this
sortie as one of the few in all history that at a single stroke compelled
the raising of a siege. The Governor brevetted Porter a major-general,
and Congress voted him a gold medal.
With this exploit at Fort Erie, the War of 1812 was practically over, so
far as the interests of Buffalo were concerned. When the American troops
retired from Fort Erie, they blew it up, and its ruins are one of the
picturesque features of the region about Buffalo.
The commercial greatness of the city is indissolubly associated with the
Erie Canal. In 1807-8 Jesse Hawley of Geneva wrote a series of articles
in the _Ontario Messenger_. In these he advocated the construction of
a grand canal connecting Lake Erie with the Atlantic Ocean. This idea
found favor with Joseph Ellicott, DeWitt Clinton, Gouverneur Morris, and
Peter B. Porter, and so strong did the sentiment for the project become,
that in 1816 a bill passed the Assembly, directing that the work of
construction be commenced. The Senate, however, decided that additional
surveys should be made. The work of preparation was inaugurated July 14,
1817; and on the 9th of August, 1823, the work of actual construction
began in Erie County by the breaking of ground for the canal, near the
place where is now the Commercial Street bridge in Buffalo. The great
waterway was completed on October 25, 1825, and the first boat, _Seneca
Chief_, started on its voyage from Buffalo to the Hudson. DeWitt
Clinton, then the Governor of the State and chief promoter of the canal,
graced the ceremonies with his presence.
[Illustration: MILLARD FILLMORE.]
In this connection, it is interesting to observe that, in 1819, the
question whether Buffalo or Black Rock should be the western terminus of
the canal was settled in favor of the former through the public spirit
and enterprise of Charles Townsend, Samuel Wilkeson, Oliver Forward
and George Coit. These men gave each a bond of $8,000 for the purpose
of securing a loan of $12,000 from the State to construct a harbor,
the State reserving the right to accept or reject, as it pleased, the
completed work. From this time on, Judge Wilkeson devoted his immense
energies and great executive ability to the interests of Buffalo in
connection with the canal, and to him may justly be ascribed the credit
of being the founder of her lake commerce. It was altogether appropriate,
therefore, that, on the opening of the canal, he should have been given
the honor of pouring into the lake the water brought from the ocean, an
event described as the Wedding of the Atlantic and Lake Erie. It recalled
the marriage in old time of Venice and the Adriatic.
Near where LaSalle, in 1679, built his little sailing vessel, the
_Griffin_, three New York capitalists completed on May 28, 1818, the
first steamboat that plied the waters of Lake Erie. This was fittingly
named, after the Wyandot chieftain, _Walk-in-the-Water_. The little
vessel was lost three years later, but it marked the beginning of steam
navigation on the Lakes—since grown to such perfection as to rival the
navigation of the sea.
The influence of the Erie Canal has been incomparably great, not merely
in the rise of one city, but, in a larger sense, in the development of
the State and the nation. The commercial forces which it generated have
aided in building up the wealth of the Middle West, and the impetus
of the resultant enterprise has finally reached every industry of
the continent. To the canal, more than to any other factor, Buffalo
owes its growth and importance. The little hamlet founded by Joseph
Ellicott now has a population of 390,000. The city’s coal receipts in
1898 were 2,455,191 tons; its lumber receipts, 189,075,938 feet; its
grain receipts, 267,395,434 bushels. It has a harbor enclosed by a new
breakwater nearly four miles in length, and costing over $2,000,000.
The coal interests have constructed the greatest trestles in the world.
Forty-one elevators, with a capacity of 20,920,000 bushels, line the
harbor. There are 3500 manufactories. The park system comprises thousands
of acres, with seventeen miles of park driveways. Twenty-six railroads
enter the city, with 250 passenger trains daily, and have nearly 700
miles of trackage within the city limits. The electric power from Niagara
Falls is delivered at Buffalo in practically unlimited quantities. There
are 24 banks, and 184 churches. The city has 116 miles of street paved
with stone, 6 miles paved with brick, and 225 miles with asphalt, or
more asphalt than any other city in the world, not excepting Paris,
Washington, or London. Two public libraries contain more than 180,000
volumes. In handling flour and wheat, Buffalo is the first city in the
world. Its fresh-fish industry aggregates an annual distribution of
15,000,000 pounds. Buffalo’s horse market is the most important in the
country; and in cattle and hogs, the trade of the city is second only to
that of Chicago. The sheep market is the largest in the United States.
[Illustration: BEACON ON OLD BREAKWATER.]
The climate of Buffalo, with the exception of high winds during certain
portions of the winter, is probably as delightful as that enjoyed by any
city on the globe. In summer, the temperature is nearly always moderate,
and when other cities suffer from extreme heat, the people of Buffalo are
blessed with the conditions common to late summer in other regions.
The residence portion of the city is celebrated for its beauty. The
avenues are wide, the dwellings elegant and commodious, the lawn effects
charming, and the trees superb.
[Illustration: DELAWARE AVENUE, SHOWING BISHOP QUIGLEY’S HOUSE.]