Niagara County Archives

Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: Fort Niagara And The Man-Made Wonder Of Lockport

By Chris Carosa on June 11, 2024

The Erie Canal overtakes the Niagara Escarpment at the Five Flights in Lockport. Source: History of Niagara County, Sanford & Co, New York, p.164

Monday, June 6, 1825, began bright and early all across Niagara County. Excitement, anticipation, and the coming relief following a job well done swirled in the mnds of many. For the young, it presented a chance to build memories that would last a lifetime (whether or not they are true). For the old, the day meant the culmination of a grand adventure in coordination, dedication, and ultimately respect for an older generation. For that older generation, their thoughts delighted in remembering the glories of their past.

So, yes, Monday, June 6, 1825, began bright and early.

At Fort Niagara, Major Alexander Ramsay Thompson, with his officers and their wives, rose Continue Reading “Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: Fort Niagara And The Man-Made Wonder Of Lockport”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Alfred Barritt, Ames Chapter No. 88, Asher B. Saxton, Cambria, Erie Canal, Five Flights, Fort Niagara, Harriet Howell Cook, John Gould, Kelsey's Tavern, Lafayette, Lemonade, Lewiston, Lockport, Lockport Lodge No. 73, Lower Mountain Road, Major Alexander Ramsay Thompson, New France, Niagara County, Niagara Escarpment, Niagara River, Parkhurst Whitney, Red Tavern, Revolutionary War, Ridge Road, Route 425, Royal Arch Masons, Stephen Van Rensselaer, Thomas Kelsey, William C. Bouck, William Howell

Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: Peter B. Porter’s Home Sweet Home

By Chris Carosa on May 28, 2024

Previous: Regal Reception In Buffalo’s Blossoming Queen City

Residence of General Peter B. Porter, overlooking the Niagara River, near Ferry Street (Black Rock). Built 1816. Many years residence of Hon. Lewis F. Allen, and for a short time of his nephew, Grover Cleveland. Torn down in 1911. Source: Hill, Henry Wayland, Municipality of Buffalo New York A History 1720-1923, Volume I, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, New York, 1923, p. 100a

Peter Buell Porter woke up early that morning. Yesterday, despite all its pomp and circumstance, was just a prelude to today. For it was on this day, Sunday, June 5^th, 1825, the General would host the General. General Porter would soon entertain General Lafayette for breakfast at his Black Rock house.

For nearly a quarter of a century, Peter Porter had lived in the Greater Western New York Region. During the last fifteen years, he had fought—both literally and figuratively—for his beloved home of Black Rock.

Born in Litchfield, Connecticut in 1773, Peter B. Porter graduated from Yale College before studying law in his hometown with Judge Reeves (who, incidentally, was the brother-in-law of Aaron Burr)². He couldn’t, however, resist the lure of “the far famed ‘Genesee Country’ — of its fertile soil, its genial climate, of its beautiful lakes and rivers.” In 1793, he and a Continue Reading “Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: Peter B. Porter’s Home Sweet Home”

Posted in History, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Aaron Burr, Augustus Porter, Battle of Queenston Heights, Black Rock, Buffalo, burning of Buffalo, Canandaigua, Erie Canal, Erie County, General Porter, Genesee Country, John Breckinridge, Lafayette, Lake Erie, Letitia Grayson, Niagara County, Niagara River, Ontario County, Peter B. Porter, War of 1812, William C. Bouck, Yale

Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: Regal Reception In Buffalo’s Blossoming Queen City

By Chris Carosa on May 21, 2024

Previous: Rebuilt Buffalo

Our County and Its People, Volume I, edited by Truman C. White, The Boston History Company, 1898, p. 282

Thousands crowded the shore near Buffalo’s new harbor. Oliver Forward couldn’t help but gloat. It had been a slugfest. Whether Joseph Ellicott or Peter B. Porter, it seemed like those who could help his struggling village didn’t. But he and his friends succeeded. And now, just as the clock struck noon, the Nation’s Guest – General Lafayette – appeared on Lake Erie’s horizon.

The big show was about to begin.

But the impetus for it almost didn’t. There almost wasn’t a harbor. And without a harbor, there would be no canal. And without a canal, well, Peter Porter would have been the one Continue Reading “Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: Regal Reception In Buffalo’s Blossoming Queen City”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Black Rock, Buffalo, Buffalo Creek, Buffalo Harbor, Capt. Rathbun, Capt. Vosburgh, Charles Townsend, Col. Storrs, Cyrenius Chapin, Ebenezer Walden, Elijah Risley, Erie Canal, Erie County, Fort Stanwix, George Coit, George Washington La Fayette, H.B. Potter, Holland Company, Holland Land Company, Joseph Ellicott, Lafayette, Lake Erie, Le Couteulx, Levasseur, M.M. Dox, Mayville, Niagara County, Niagara River, Oliver Forward, Paul Busti, Peter B. Porter, Red Jacket, Samuel Wilkeson, Superior, W.C. Bouck, William Peacock

Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: Rebuilt Buffalo

By Chris Carosa on May 21, 2024

Previous: To The Dunkirk Dinghy By The Dawn’s Early Light

Taylor, C.B., A Centennial History of the United States, 1876, p305

Cyrenius Chapin stood where no sane man dare stand. He knew exactly what he was doing. He also knew it was all McClure’s fault.

Nonetheless, there he was. He measured his pace as he approached the British line. Despite the noise and excitement about him, he could hear his feet crunch through the snow. Or maybe he imagined his cold ears picking up the sound.

Certainly, he could feel his feet crush the white blanket as he made his way up Schimmelpenninck Avenue (it didn’t get the name Niagara Street until July 12, 1826¹). The excitement of the night and now early morning kept his blood flowing to his extremities. His medical training taught him that would help prevent the onset of frostbite.

Cyrenius fully understood the consequences of his actions. With the cannon behind him Continue Reading “Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: Rebuilt Buffalo”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged British, Buffalo, Buffalo Creek, burning of Buffalo, D.C., Dr. Chapin, Ebenezer Walden, Eli Hart, Erie County, erie county fair, first school, Fort Erie, Fort Niagara, General McClure, General Tousard, George McClure, Holland Land Company, Holland Land Purchase, Joseph Ellicott, Lafayette, Louis Stephen Le Couteulx, Newark, Niagara County, Niagara County Agricultural Society, Niagara River, Niagara Street, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Oliver Forward, Pearl Street, Schimmelpenninck Avenue, Sir George Prevost, Sir Gordon Drummond, Swan Street, Timothy Dwight, War of 1812, Washington, Zena W. Barker

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

By Chris Carosa on April 30, 2024

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 Continue Reading “Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: The Making Of The Buffalo And Erie Road”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Allegheny River, Barcelona, Black Rock, Buffalo, Buffalo and Erie Road, Buffalo Creek, Chautauqua County, Chautauqua Creek, Chautauqua Lake, Connecticut, Connecticut Fire Lands, Connecticut Land Company, Connecticut Reserve, Cross Roads, David Ellicott, Edward McHenry, Edward Paine, Ellicott Road, Erie, Erie Road, France, French and Indian War, Genesee County, George Washington, Holland Land Company, Holland Land Purchase, Iroquois Confederacy, James De Lancey, James McMahan, Joseph Badger, Joseph Ellicott, Lafayette, Lake Erie, Main Road, Marquis Duquesne, Mayville, New Connecticut, New England, New France, Niagara County, Ohio River, Old French Road, Ontario County, Paine's Road, Pittsburgh, Portage Escarpment, Portage Road, Portland, Presqu'isle, Route 18, Route 20, Route 5, Samuel Shattuck, Seneca, settlers, Sir William Johnson, Stephen Coffen, Western Reserve, Westfield

It’s Your Party And You Would Cry Too If It Happened To You. Don’t Let It Happen!

By Chris Carosa on March 1, 2022

Do you think you own your house? Better think again.

You almost lost it in this year’s New York State budget. You see, the state budget process is a very tricky – as in devious – tool. Unscrupulous politics have learned how to use it to enact legislation without even enacting it.

It’s an easy way to introduce controversial policies without the tediousness of actually having to vote on a specific law. Of course, those same conniving officials will quickly say, “Well, the budget IS voted on,” but that’s not the same thing as voting for a bill that only addresses the matter they’re trying to slip through via the budget process.

And about that process. You already know it only takes three people to craft the budget. It’s not an open forum. It’s a behind-closed-doors smoke-filled-meeting sort of thing. Just because we’ve changed governors doesn’t really change the process. Indeed, given the Continue Reading “It’s Your Party And You Would Cry Too If It Happened To You. Don’t Let It Happen!”

Posted in The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Albany, American Dream, home rule, homework, Livingston County, local rule, mandate, New York City, Niagara County, Orleans County, Vladimir Putin, zoning

I’ll Have One for the Road and Two for the Sea

By Chris Carosa on May 7, 2013

And let me the canakin clink, clink,
And let me the canakin clink.
A soldier’s a man;
A life’s but a span;
Why, then, let a soldier drink.
– Othello

The reason James Fenimore Cooper strode into Hustler’s Tavern has disappeared into the hazy mists of history. By 1821, his life had been less than pristine. Kicked out of

Yale after three years as a trouble-maker (he blew up a classmate’s door), the son of a (probably embarrassed) Congressman who founded the City of Cooperstown did what any other lost teenager trying to find himself did in the early eighteenth century – he joined the Merchant Marine.¹

Perhaps he remembered his earlier, albeit brief, stay in the Niagara Frontier just before the War of 1812.² Serving mostly overseas, he saw some of his best crewmates taken from their ships and forced to serve aboard British warships against Napoleonic France. Like the rest of America, he detested Continue Reading “I’ll Have One for the Road and Two for the Sea”

Posted in Western New York State of Mind Tagged 50 Hidden Gems, Arsenic and Old Lace, Artpark, Betsy Flanagan, Betty Flanagan, British, Buffalo, Buffalo Philharmonic, Canada, Catherine Hustler, Chabert Joncaire, Chautauqua Institution, Cicely Tyson, Cocktail, Earl W. Bridges, Erie Canal, Erie Tribe, French, French and Indian War, George Washington, Hopewellian India Burial Mound, Huron, Hustler's Tavern, James Coco, James Fenimore Cooper, Jay Treaty, Joseph O. Kesselring, Lewiston, Mile Strip, Newark, Niagara County, Niagara River, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Oak Hill Mansion, Omega, Owen Morrell, Precaution, Queenston-Lewiston Suspension Bridge, Seneca Tribe, Sergeant Hollister, Starkweather Sisters, The Spy, Thomas Hustler, Treaty of Hartford, War of 1812

Seeds of a New Movement

By Chris Carosa on November 8, 2012

The Erie Canal made Buffalo. Joseph Dart made Buffalo memorable.

Through Joseph Ellicott and the establishment of Greater Western New York west of the Genesee River, we’ve seen the importance of the canal from before it was even drawn up. We’ve witnessed how its opening paved the way for the creation of America’s first tourist destination – Niagara Falls. We’ll discover in a few chapters how it allowed our region to become ground zero for Continue Reading “Seeds of a New Movement”

Posted in Western New York State of Mind Tagged 50 Hidden Gems, American Elevator, Anthony Trollope, Bruno Taut, Buffalo, Buffalo Harbor, Buffalo River, Caroline Gilman, Charles-Edouard Jenneret-Gris, Cheerios, Chief Red Jacket, City Ship Canal, Concrete Central, DL&W train shed, Electric Elevator, Erich Mendelsohn, Erie Canal, Erie County, Fuhrmann Boulevard, Ganson Street, General Mills Elevator, GLF Elevator, grain elevator, Great Northern Elevator, Joseph Dart, Joseph Ellicott, Kellogg "A", Lake & Rail Elevator, Le Corbusier, Mahlon King, Monroe County, Mushroom House, Nathanial Hawthorne, Niagara County, Niagara Falls, Perot Elevator, Reyner Banham, Rochester, Rudyard Kipling, Samuel M. Welch, Skyway, St. Mary's Cement Elevator, Standard Elevator, Timothy Tielman, Walter Curt Behrendt, Walter Gropius, Washburn-Crosby Elevator, Wollenberg Elevator

“Low Bridge, Everybody Down”

By Chris Carosa on October 23, 2012

By the time Thomas S. Allen wrote The Erie Canal Song (as the song is most commonly referred to) in 1905,¹ the famous canal had already been in operation for 80 years. Allen chose the title Low Bridge, Everybody Down because the canal had just ditched the mules for steam power and he wanted to pay homage to the animal so critical to canal operations.² That Allen celebrates the mule Sal tells us he’s commemorating a then not-too-distant past. Incidentally, the title wasn’t the only thing about the song that changed over the years, including, ironically, the word “years.” The original lyrics were “fifteen years on the Erie Canal” and refers to the length of the partnership between Sal and his owner, while the new lyrics are “fifteen miles on the Erie Canal,” referring to how Continue Reading ““Low Bridge, Everybody Down””

Posted in Western New York State of Mind Tagged 15 miles on the Erie Canal, 50 Hidden Gems, Birsill Holly, cuesta, Flight of Five Locks, Genesee Falls, Hydraulic Tunnel, Joseph Ellicott, Lafayette, Lockport, Lockport Cave and Underground Boat Ride, Mesozoic, Monroe County, Nathan Roberts, Niagara County, Niagara Escarpment, Niagara Falls, Rochester, The Erie Canal Song, Thomas S. Allen, Upside-Down Bridge, Watertown

Back at the Old Pizza Stand

By Chris Carosa on September 20, 2012

In the opening scene of 1962’s The Music Man, Harold Hill, con man extraordinaire, unexpectedly bumps into his old friend and accomplice Marcellus Washburn. Marcellus has since married a “nice comfortable girl” and settled down in the idyllic Midwestern town of River City (“Gone legitimate, huh? I knew you’d come to no good,” laments Hill). When he asks Harold if he’s still pitching steam automobiles, Hill shakes his head “No” and says, “I’m back at the old stand” whereupon he pantomimes conducting a band.

I can’t say Hamburg had the stubbornness of River City, Iowa, (after all, Hamburg is the “Town that Friendship built”), but I can attest to an idyllic feeling growing up off South Park when it had only two lanes. And like the magical concluding scene of The Music Man, my brother and I (and maybe even my mother and father, too), couldn’t wait to Continue Reading “Back at the Old Pizza Stand”

Posted in Western New York State of Mind Tagged 50 Hidden Gems, Big Tree Fireman's Carnival, Boston Church, Buffalo, Buffalo Courier, Double Ferris Wheel, Erie County, Erie County Agricultural County, erie county fair, hamburg, Hamburg Fair, Hamburg Raceway, Hamburgh, Hell Drivers, I-Got-It!, Ilio DiPaolo, Ingham Avenue, James E. Strates Shows, Joey Chitwood, Lackawanna, Lake-Erie Italian Club, Lancaster, Mr. Krabs, New York State Fair, Niagara County, Niagara County Agricultural Society, Orange County, Orchard Park, Pan-American Exposition, Ridge Road, Robert McPherson, Sky Way, Springville, West Seneca