Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: The Making Of The Buffalo And Erie Road

Previous: Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: The State Of Greater Western New York In 1825

At the turn of the 19^th century, a dense forest covered the southwest corner of New York State—what is now Chautauqua County. A rough trail that followed the Lake Erie shore represented the only visible evidence of human occupation. Except for what appeared to be remnants of a chimney right on the lake.¹ The trail was brutal. Settlers journeying to Connecticut’s lands in the future state of Ohio preferred to take the water route over Lake Erie from Black Rock, just off Buffalo Creek.²

That chimney might well have been the ruins of what Sir William Johnson described as a French “baking place.”³ During the French and Indian War, France had designs on using the mouth of the Chautauqua Creek (a.k.a. “Barcelona”) as the start of a portage between Lake Erie and Chautauqua Lake. This provided a connection to the Allegheny River and ultimately to the Ohio River. The Marquis Duquesne, Governor General of New France, decided against this in the summer of 1753, opting instead to use a portage beginning at the harbor of Presqu’isle (now called Erie, Pennsylvania).⁴

In October of that same year, Duquesne decided to hedge his bets and build the portage from Barcelona to Mayville at the head of Chautauqua Lake. (Of course, he didn’t use those names at the time.) Shortly after beginning construction of this “Portage Road,” British intelligence became aware of its existence.

The French had been holding British soldier Stephen Coffen prisoner for some time before agreeing to have him travel with a group that eventually built the road. He escaped immediately after. In his deposition to Sir William Johnson, Coffen testified, “the 30^th [of October] arrived at Chadakoin, where they staid four days, during which Mons Peon with 200 Men, cut a Waggon Road over the carrying place from Lake Erie to Lake Chadakoin, being 15 Miles, viewed the situation which proved to their liking.”⁵

If the British were skeptical of Coffen’s account, they needn’t be for long. By coincidence, they had sent a team to observe French activity in the Chautauqua area. Lieutenant-Governor James De Lancey wrote to the Lords of Trade saying Coffen’s “deposition is fully confirmed by intelligence we have received several ways.”⁶

One man in that scouting party, Samuel Shattuck, then only 13, would afterwards tell the story of his life as a spy in the French and Indian War. Shattuck later served in the Revolutionary War (fighting at such venues as Bunker Hill, Bennington, Yorktown, etc.). Once his military duties ended, Shattuck went back to the place of his birth in Deerfield, Massachusetts. Ultimately, however, he returned to live at the site of his noteworthy act of surveillance (the Town of Portland in Chautauqua County) in November 1823.⁷

After the Revolutionary War, George Washington recognized the strategic significance of the “Old French Road,” (as the old Portage Road has been referred to). In a Letter to General Irvine dated October 31, 1788, Washington wrote, “If the Chataughque Lake, at the head of Canewango River, approximates Lake Erie as nearly as is laid down in the draught you have sent me it presents a very short Portage indeed between the two and an access to all those above the latter.”⁸

Yet, Portage Road remained unused. Vegetation slowly devoured it. In fact, an old Indian trail it crossed in what is now the Village of Westfield saw more use as the 18^th century gave way to the 19^th.

Remember that land claim conflict New York had with Connecticut? Though these two states resolved their issue, Connecticut continued to claim lands in present day northeast Ohio. Called the “Connecticut Reserve” or the “Western Reserve,” (and sometimes the “Connecticut Fire Lands,” or “New Connecticut”),⁹ the Connecticut Land Company bought the rights to settle this land from the state of Connecticut.

There were two ways to get from Connecticut to the Western Reserve. The southern path passed through Pennsylvania (and Pittsburgh). The northern route went through Buffalo. From Buffalo, travelers had two choices, hugging the shore of Lake Erie either on land or on water (preferably in the form of ice).¹⁰

It is the land route that interests us here. This was the Indian path that following along the geological landform called the “Portage Escarpment.” As Indian paths go, it was a major thoroughfare. Alas, what was good for the Seneca and their Confederacy allies wasn’t too kind to New England settlers (and, in particular, their wagons).

The Connecticut Land Company was hot to settle its Western Reserve. The state incentivized settlers. To address the sorry state of the rugged trail from Buffalo to Erie, the Company hired General Edward Paine in 1801 to assemble a team to cut through the nearly impassable path. He got as far south from Buffalo as the old Portage Road before others eventually extended “Paine’s Road” to the Pennsylvania state line.¹¹

Paine didn’t survey the route. Also, he didn’t erect any bridges. Still, after its completion in 1802, it became the primary road used by settlers of the Connecticut Reserve.¹² In his memoir, one such settler—Reverend Joseph Badger—pokes fun at Paine (from whom the town of Painesville, Ohio gets its name). One night while traveling on the trail in October 1801, Badger noted “At evening General Payne (sic) and two or three hands came in from pretending to cut and open a road through from Buffalo to Pennsylvania line.”¹³

While the Connecticut Reserve was getting its fair share of settlers, nothing was happening in the southwestern corner of New York State. Badger observed, “from Buffalo to Pennsylvania line, seventy miles, there being no cabin on the route, we cut our path by day, pitched our tent by night, ‘and slept safely in the woods.’”¹⁴

Things were about to change. In the spring of 1802, James McMahan bought and cleared a plot of land near the present village of Westfield where he built a modest dwelling.¹⁵ Edward McHenry came immediately after and constructed a tavern at the “Cross Roads.”¹⁶

If you haven’t figured this out by now, this would have been the intersection of Paine’s Road and the old Portage Road. McHenry had an entrepreneur’s flair as he built the tavern to entertain all those Connecticut Yankees emigrating over Paine’s Road in route to the Western Reserve. Quickly, though, we see settlers coming to what would eventually become Chautauqua County.¹⁷

(In 1802, it was still part of Ontario County as Genesee County was not fully organized and detached from Ontario County until March 1803. Chautauqua County, while created from Genesee County in 1808, was initially attached to Niagara County and not detached until February 1811.)¹⁸ Confused? The Western New York merry-go-round of counties could merit its own book!

The horrid condition of Paine’s Road called for action. Joseph Ellicott, the man in charge of seeing people settle in Western New York’s Holland Land Purchase, wasn’t pleased. He had long sought to build a road from Buffalo to Erie. When he proposed to the proprietors of the Holland Land Company that he approach Connecticut about jointly building the road from Buffalo to Erie, the Company rebuffed him.¹⁹

Seeing the debacle of Paine’s “road” enabled Ellicott to finally convince his bosses to build the road. James McMahan had the honors of surveying the route.²⁰ It was completed in 1805, where it met with a Pennsylvania road being cleared by David Ellicott at the state line.²¹ Surveyors didn’t measure the roads on either side (along the lake shore and the ridge) until later.

The road was known as the “Erie Road,” “Ellicott Road,”²² as well as the “Buffalo and Erie Road” and the “Main Road.” ²³ Initially, New York State assigned it “Route 18” before changing it to “Route 5.”²⁴ In 1927, the Federal government labeled it “U.S. Route 20,” which it remains to this day.²⁵ Oddly enough, the current Route 5 along the lake shore was originally designated “20A.”²⁶

The mail service initially used Paine’s Road to travel between Erie and Buffalo. It later switched to the road surveyed by McMahan. At first, residents of Chautauqua County had to pick up their mail in either Erie or Buffalo, for there was no post office in their county. When it came time to build the County’s first post office, where did they build it? Why, at the Cross Roads in Westfield, of course.²⁷

Or not.

You see, when Lafayette’s secretary wrote the journal of their trip, he makes no mention of “Westfield.” Why? Because there was no Westfield in 1825. It was called Portland. The Town of Westfield wasn’t formed until 1829, four years after Lafayette’s visit.²⁸

And it would be the first stop by the Nation’s Guest in Western New York.

Next Week: Special Delivery To Westfield, A Fitting First

¹ William Bell letter, Westfield Republican, Wednesday, April 5, 1871
² Upton, Harriet Taylor, History of the Western Reserve, Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1910, p.40
³ Stone, William Leete, The Life and Times of Sir William Johnson, Bart, Volume II, Munsell, Albany, 1865, p.469
⁴ Broadhead, John Romeyn, Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York, Vol X, E.B. O’Callaghan, ed, Weed, Parsons & Co, 1858, p.255
⁵ Broadhead, John Romeyn, Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York, Vol VI, E.B. O’Callaghan, ed, Weed, Parsons & Co, 1855, p.837
⁶ Broadhead, Vol VI, p.834
⁷ Taylor, Horace Clefton, Historical Sketches of the Town of Portland, W. McKinstry & Son, Printers, Fredonia, NY, 1873, p.403
⁸ “George Washington Papers, Series 2, Letterbooks 1754-1799,” Library of Congress, https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/mss/mgw/mgw2/015/015.pdf [retrieved April 24, 2024]
⁹ Taylor, p.81
¹⁰ Upton, p.17, 21
¹¹ Taylor, p.81
¹² Ibid., p. 82
¹³ Badger, Joseph, A Memoir of Rev Joseph Badger, ed. by Henry Noble Day, Sawyer, Ingersoll and Company, Hudson, Ohio, 1851 p.32
¹⁴ Ibid., p.39
¹⁵ Warren, Emory F., Historical Sketches of Chautauque County, J. Warren Fletcher, Jamestown, NY, 1846 p.36
¹⁶ Young, Andrew W., History of Chautauqua County, Printing House of Matthews & Warren, Buffalo, NY, 1875, p. 74
¹⁷ Ibid.
¹⁸ “New York: Consolidated Chronology of State and County Boundaries.” New York Atlas of Historical County Boundaries, Copyright The Newberry Library 2008, [retrieved November 23, 2023]
¹⁹ Evans, Paul Demund, The Holland Land Company, Buffalo Historical Society, Buffalo, NY 1924, p.280
²⁰ Edson, Obed (Historian), History of Chautauqua County New York, Georgia Drew Merrill, Editor, W.A Fergusson & Co, Boston, Mass, 1894, p.175
²¹ Evans, p.96
²² Taylor, p.82
²³ Edson, p.611
²⁴ Tables Giving Detailed Information and Present State of all State and County Highways – 1915, J.B. Lyon Company, Printers, Albany, 1916, p. 278
²⁵ Dunkirk Evening Observer, Friday, May 20, 1927, p.11
²⁶ Dunkirk Evening Observer, Saturday, March 5, 1932, p.7
²⁷ Taylor, p.93-93
²⁸ Warren, p.96