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Cornell University Library 1993.THE ORIGIN OF
THE NAME OF BUFFALO.
READ BEFORE THE BUFFALO HISTORICAL SOCIETY, APRIL 7, 1863.
BY WILLIAM KETCHUM, ESQ.
As preliminary to the introduction of the subject which is
to engage our attention at this time, it may be well for us to
settle, so far as we can, the time or period when the present
name of our city became the popular one, and was introduced
into general use. This is a more difficult matter than at first
might be supposed.
It is well known that when the agents of the “ Holland Com-
pany” first surveyed the land upon which our city stands, into
village lots, in 1801-2, they gave it the name of “ New Amster-
dam.” But there is no evidence that this name enjoyed popu-
lar favor or was in general use. The Company continued to
use it in their conveyances of lots until 1811 or T2, when it
was dropped, and the name of Buffalo substituted.
“Buffalo Creek” had been’ the name by which this locality
was known and designated, from a period certainly as early as
1784; as it is used in the treaty made with the Six Nations
at Fort Stanwix in that year. It is probable it was known by
that name much earlier than this, perhaps from the first settle-
ment by the Senecas; which it is likely did not take place untili8
THE ORIGIN OF
after Sullivan’s Expedition in 1779. The name is mentioned
in the “ Narrative of the Captivity of the Gilbert Family,”
prisoners among the Senecas in 1780 or ’82. It is also called
“ Buffalo Creek” in a treaty held with the “ Six Nations” in
1789, and again in the treaty at Canandaigua in 1794.
By an act of the Legislature of this State, passed March 19th,
1802, a treaty was authorized to be held with the Indians for the
purchase of the “ Mile Strip ” on the Niagara river, from “ Buf-
faloes Creek” to the Steadman Farm; and on April 6th, 1803,
an act was passed by the Legislature of this State, guaranteeing
to the Indians of the Six Nations the right “to pass and repass,
upon any turnpike road which may hereafter be established
from the town of Canandaigua to Buffalo Creek or its vicinity.”
In 1805, Congress established a collection district, to be
called the “District of Buffalo Creek;” the collector of said dis-
trict to reside at “Buffalo Creek.” Erastus Granger was the
first resident Collector of Customs. General Irvine, of Penn-
sylvania, had been appointed the first Surveyor of Customs,
when this place was included in the District of Presque Isle,
now Erie.
The name “Buffalo,” which was evidently derived from the
name of the creek, was used to designate the settlement here,
quite early. In a letter of General Irvine to General Wash-
ington in 1788, this place is spoken of as “Buffalo.” I have
found no other record of the name as early as this, and was
led for that reason to doubt the correctness of the copy of
the letter as given in the Historical Magazine of February,
1863; and I wrote to Dr. W. H. Irvine, who furnished it for
publication. The following is his answer:
“It is now some forty odd years since I made the copy of the letter to
which you refer, and I cannot say that I committed no error in transcribing
from the original; but I think I must have made a literal copy. I certainly
could not have manufactured the remarks in which the word ‘ Buffalo ’ oc-
curs.”
General Irvine, from his having commanded the WesternTHE NAME OF BUFFALO. -	19
Department from 1781 to 1783, and engaged in the defense of
the frontier, must have been familiar with all the names of
localities in Western New York; and you will note the expres-
sion is, “from Buffalo to Presque Isle,”—the latter being the
name of the present city of Erie. Presque Isle was then in
the State of New York, and Mr. Irvine adds:
“And to bis (Gen. Irvine’s) address our state is indebted for the acquisition
of ‘ The Triangle,’ or Erie county.”
Mr. B. W. Pratt, now living, with whom I have recently con-
versed on the subject, and whose recollections seem to be very
clear and distinct, says, that when his father, Mr. Samuel Pratt,,
returned to Vermont from a visit to this place in 1803, he
called it Buffalo. They were to remove to “Buffalo,” and did
so, arriving here in 1804.
Our legislative records show that as early as 1772, the state,
then a colony, was divided into counties, and the whole western
part of the state was included in “Tryon county,” after Gov-
ernor Tyron, the last of the Royal Governors.
In 1784 the name was changed to “Montgomery county,”
after General Richard Montgomery ; and in 1801 the County
of Ontario was organized. The boundary extended west to
the state line ; and all that part of the county west of the
Genesee river was organized into a town, by the name of
“ Northampton,”—a pretty extensive town, truly.
In 1802, the County of Ontario was again divided, and the
County of Genesee erected; and in 1808 the County of Niagara
was established, the court-house and jail to be built “ at Buf-
falo, or New Amsterdam.”
By the same act, the village of Buffalo was included in the
town of Willink, which bounded west on the Cattaraugus
creek. In 1808 the town of Buffalo was erected, extending
easterly to what is known as the “transit line,” and in 1813
the village of Buffalo received its first charter.
I have been perhaps needlessly particular in mentioning all
these changes in the names and boundaries of the towns and20
THE ORIGIN OF
counties in Western New York, as they are, all matters, of rec-
ord. -But,’as facts, they .are not familiar even to those, most
conversant with our early, history; and they serve better than
almost everything else, to show the great, change and rapid
improvement which have taken place within the recollection
of some who are now living. I trust I shall be excused, there-
fore, for referring to them in this place, and at this time.
Professor Timothy Dwight, who visited Buffalo in 1804,;
speaks of the then population thus:
“The inhabitants are a casual collection of adventurers, and have the
usual character of such adventurers, thus collected, when remote from regular ,
society. We saw about as many Indians in this village as white people.”
A misapprehension prevails to some extent in regard to the
Indian names as applied to this locality, which had better be
explained before entering upon the main question, as it may
serve to disencumber the subject before us, of what has embar-
rassed the minds of some who have supposed they discovered
what appeared to be mistakes or contradictions.
The Indians applied the name “Te-osah-way,” or in our
language, “ Place of Basswood,” to their settlement or village;
and “Tick-e-ack-gou-ga-ha-unda” or “ Buffalo creek,” to the
stream only.
The supposed discrepancy between “Te-osah-way” and
“Te-hos-ororon ” consists in the fact that the former is the
Seneca, and the latter the Mohawk pronunciation of the same
word:	So a\so in regard to what has been suggested to be a
mistake of the scribe, or interpreter, in using the name “ Buf-
falo creek” instead of “Beaver creek” in the treaty with the
Six Nations at Fort Stanwix in 1784, and in other public rec-
ords, between that time and 1790, when Corn Planter is said
to have, on one occasion, called it “ Beaver creek.”
It is much more reasonable to suppose that the mistake was
made in the interpretation of Corn Planter’s speech, for the
reason that the name of the beaver and the, buffalo, in the Sen-
eca tongue, have precisely the same termination; and might,21
THE * NAME OF BUFFALO.
by an unskillful or inattentive interpreter; be mistaken one for
the; other;- for “Buffalo ■’ is “ Tick-e-ack-gou; ” “ Beaver ” is
“ Ack-gou-e-ack-gou.” Here, undoubtedly, was the mistake;
and not in the treaties and other public records, where the
name “ Buffalo creek ” is uniformly used. I never heard the
name “Beaver creek ” applied to this stream, in an intercourse
of more than twenty-five years with the Senecas.
In the Inaugural Address of the Hon. President of this Soci-
ety, last year, the origin of the name our city bears, was made
the subject of discussion; and doubts were expressed in regard
to the theory entertained that it was derived from the supposed
fact, that the buffalo or American bison, formerly visited this
locality. These doubts were expressed in the following lan-
guage:*
“ I have never seen any reliable statement that the buffalo, in his wild
state* was ever found in Western New York. I believe that his native hajmt
was in the great prairies of the West, and nowhere else on this Continent."
In an article which appeared in the Historical Magazine for
December, 1862, remarking upon these observations, the writer
cites a number of authorities to show that the buffalo not only
once lived in the western part of this state, in Ohio, Ken-
tucky and Virginia, but ranged over nearly the whole of the
North American Continent. Another writer, in the January
number of the same magazine, throws doubt upon all the
authorities quoted by the December correspondent, and agrees
with Mr. Fillmore, and says:
** From all my reading, I had concluded that the bison was not found in
the lake region, and was never as far west (east) as New York (state.)”
It is, perhaps, not surprising that the general reader of the
early “French Relations ” should find very little to instruct
or enlighten either in matters of Science or Natural History.
The mission of the early Jesuit writers was of a different char-
acter, and embraced far different objects; and if we find oc-
casional errors of fact, and sometimes more than discrepancies
*See Address, ante, p. 3.22
THE ORIGIN OF
of statement in regard to their peculiar purposes and pursuits,
it should not go to invalidate their statements in regard to
matters of entire indifference. It will not escape the attentive
reader of these early writers, that there existed a feeling, to
say the least of it, of rivalry between the Franciscans, who
were the very earliest missionaries to the New World, and the
Jesuits, who followed them, and ultimately supplanted them
altogether. Nor should it be forgotten that the self-denying
labors of these men were made available by the French gov-
ernment for political purposes; and that their influence was a
real “ power in the State.”
The question as to the origin of the name of our city engaged
the public attention at a former period of our history. Nearly
twenty years ago an anonymous communication* appeared in
the Commercial Advertiser, then edited by the late Dr. Foote.
The following is a copy:
“ Mr. Editor :—I understand the Indian name of Buffalo creek is To-
se-o-way. Will some of your Indian philological correspondents give us the
meaning of the word ? I should be happy, also, to know the origin of the
present name of our city.	“Q.”
The inquiry thus made called out several replies in the papers
then published; all anonymous. One in the Daily Pilot was as
follows:
‘ ‘ The name of the Big Buffalo creek, and the point of land where our
city is built, in the Seneca tongue, is Do-yo-wa, pronounced Do-sh-wa, sig-
nifying ‘the Place of Bass-wood,’ on account of the great quantity of that
tree in the vicinity. Sometimes it is pronounced Da-sha-ho,—D taking the
sound of T. You are, undoubtedly, familiar with the anecdotef relating to
the ‘ buffalo meat ’ from which the name of the city arises.
“ O-GE-MA. ” X
iknother communication, dated “ Buffalo Creek Reservation,”
appeared in the Commercial Advertiser at the same time, which
is as follows:
*N®w known to be by O. H. Marshall, Esq.
t See, for a version of this anecdote, Inaugural Address, ante^ p. 4, and the letter of
Rev. Asher Wright,/^/, p. 37.
4 A. J. Sheldon, Esq.THE NAME OF BUFFALO.
23
“In reply to the inquiries of your correspondent ‘ Q,’ in your paper of
June 26th, permit me to say that the old Indians tell us that the banks of
the Buffalo creek, for some distance from its mouth, were anciently lined
with bass-wood trees ; hence the name Ti-yu-syo-wa (with the last vowel na-
salized) which means ‘ at the place of bass-woods; or, as our venerable ex-
President (Van Buren) has it, at ‘ Lindenwald.’ As to the origin of the
name ‘ Buffalo,’ I am as much in the dark as your correspondent.
“ Ga-i-wi-yu.”*
Another communication to the Commercial Advertiser was
published at about the same date, from which the following is
an extract:
‘ ‘ Taking it for granted that the inquiry as to the origin and meaning of
the name ‘ Tu-shu-way ’ was made with a desire for information, I cheerfully
'Contribute what little I possess, to throw light upon the early history of our
city; connected as it is with the history of a noble race, fast sinking into ob-
livion; and whose unwritten history lingers only in the recollection of a few
survivors of the once-powerful ‘ Six Nations.’ Although the different tribes
composing that great confederacy spoke different dialects, it is evident they
sprang from the same original source. Hence it is not unlikely that the
names of places given by former tribes, may have been retained by the Sen-
ecas, and thus their original signification lost.
‘ ‘ The occupation or settlement of Buffalo by the Senecas is of compara-
tively recent date. The Indian tradition is, that the Eries, a powerful and
warlike nation, who resided upon the south shore of our lakes, with other
confederate tribes, here and on the Eighteen Mile and, perhaps, Cattaraugus
creeks, were overthrown by a numerous war party of the Six Nations, in a
great battle fought at, or near, the outlet of the Honeoye lake, in (now) On-
tario county. The flight of the Eries and their allies immediately followed.
They were pursued by the victorious warriors of the Six Nations, for five
months, and were driven beyond the Mississippi.
‘ ‘ The occupation of this locality by the Senecas followed these events.
When they arrived here, they found huts, or houses, covered with bass-wood
bark. This tree has the peculiarity of being easily peeled, at all seasons of
the year, and the wood was used for canoes- and on these accounts it assumed
an importance in the eyes of the aboriginal settler, equal to that of a stone
quarry or an extensive pinery to the pioneers of our early settlements in more
civilized life. This, to them, important characteristic was seized upon, and,
probably, stood prominent among the inducements to immigrate hither.
*Rev. Asher Wright.24
THE ORIQIN OF
“ The name ‘ Te-osah-way ' is a compound word, significant of this fact-
It is not literally ‘ osahy' bass-woody’ nor ‘ cush-nahy ‘dark,’, as some con-
tend, but * Te-osah-way,’ that is, ‘ where bass-wood is,’ or, ‘ the place of bass-
wood' ,	.
‘ ‘ The Senecas were conversant with the fact that the buffalo formerly vis-
ited the fait licky' or spring (on the bank, of the creek) in this vicinity;,
and hence they called Buffalo creek ‘ Tick-e-ack-gou-ga-ha-unday and Buffalo
village ‘Tick-e-ack-gou-ga.' But ‘ Te-osah-way' was the earlier designation,,
and, probably, originated in the name I have suggested.
“ Ki-eu-wa-na.” *
A communication from “Q,” the author of the original in-
quiry, appeared in the Commercial Advertiser soon after the
publication of the foregoing, from which I make the following
extracts:
“ Mr. Editor:—I have been much interested in the respective attempts
of my brothers O-ge-ma, Ki-eu-wa-na and Ga-i-wi-u, to throw light, in
answer to my inquiry, upon the meaning of the Indian name of Buffalo creek,
written by me To-se-o-way; that being the designation upon Joseph and
Benjamin Ellicott’s map of the Holland Purchase, published in 1800.
“Although my brothers do not quite agree in their orthography, there
seems to be no essential difference between them. The word, as written by
Ga-i-wi-u, is ‘ Ti-yu-syo-wa,’ which orthography I prefer to that of Tu-shu-
way, or Do-yo-wa. The former, when properly pronounced, has the sono-
rous and musical peculiarities of the Seneca tongue. O-ge-ma and Ki-eu-
wa-na, who are independent witnesses, have undoubtedly arrived at tlie true
meaning of the word, which has reference to the bass-woods which formerly
lined the banks of the creek. The primitive meaning is, ‘ among the bass-
woods.’
“O-ge-ma and Ki-eu-wa-na differ in their explanation of the origin of
the name of Buffalo. The former has made too large draughts upon fiction
to entitle his legend to credit; and thereby throws doubt upon the existence
of any such ‘ chronicle ’ as he refers to. The statement of Ki-eu-WA-na is
more plausible, showing that our creek and the neighboring Indian village
were named by the Indians after the buffalos, which formerly frequented the
well-known ‘lick’ on its banks.
“ History establishes the fact that these animals formerly ranged as far
east as the St. Lawrence.	“ Q.”
This last statement of “ Q ” is, undoubtedly, a mistake, into-
* The Author.THE NAME OF BUFFALO.
25
which . he has been Jed, as others have been,, by reading the
journal, of Father Le Moine, of a journey he made from Que-
bec, to the village of the Onondagas, in 1654, in which he speaks
of a herd of wild cows that he saw on the banks of the River
St. Lawrence, above the rapids, five or six hundred in one drove;
but they were, undoubtedly, moose or elk. For on his return
voyage he says,.under date of September 4th (of the same year):
“Traveling through vast prairies, we saw, in divers quarters, immense herds
of wild bulls and cows. Their horns resemble, in some respects, the antlers
of the stag.”
Of course, they were either elk or moose. In another place
he says:
“ Droves of twenty cows plunged into the water, as if to meet us. Some
were killed, for the sake of amusement, with the blows of an axe.”
Perhaps it is no more surprising that the moose were once so
plenty, where now they are unknown, than that buffalos should
have once roamed over the spot where we now dwell, and left
their bones as the only memorial of their presence, mingled
with those of other animals about the salt lick (near the sulphur
spring) in our immediate vicinity.
But, as has been already observed, doubts have been enter-
tained and expressed, as to the truth or probability of the state-
ments upon which the theory as to the origin of the name of
our city rested, from the supposed improbability of the tradition
of the Indians on that subject. These doubts are predicated
upon the insufficiency of the “ evidence that the buffalo in his
wild state was ever found in Western New York;” the views
presented being, first, that none of the early visitors to this re-
gion, who have left a record of their travels, saw them; and,
second, that the great prairies of the West being their “ native
haunts,” they were never found in this region. Let us examine
these two classes of objections in a spirit of candor, and see
whether they are entitled to the weight given them by those
who have, examined the subject with equal candor and patience.
In regard to the first class of objections, if it is intended to2 6
THE ORIGIN OF
assume that there is no recorded evidence of the fact that buf-
falos were seen here by those who made the record, it is, un-
doubtedly, true; but it by no means follows that there is no
“reliable” evidence of the fact.
The nature of the case precludes the possibility of such testi-
mony; and if we show that we have the best evidence that the
nature of the case admits of, and that it all concurs in estab-
lishing the truth of the Indian tradition, that the buffalo, in his
wild state, visited the salt lick upon the banks of our creek, then
the statement of our oldest Indian residents, made in 1820, is
entitled to rank as “ reliable testimony.”
I consulted the oldest men of the Senecas, living in 1820, as
to their own knowledge and belief on the subject. They had no
doubt of the fact, though none of them pretended to have seen
them here. They assured me that within their own recollec-
tion the bones of the buffalo, with those of other herbivorous
animals which had been killed by the wolves, panthers and
other carnivorous beasts that resorted hither in pursuit of their
prey, were found at the salt lick. When asked as to the period
when buffalos were seen here, they fixed the time, in round
numbers, at one hundred years before that time, which would
be in 1720. It is not probable that the buffalo ranged as far
east as this, long after the introduction and general use of fire-
arms among the Iroquois or Six Nations, which was prob-
ably prior to this date; and as they only visited this locality at
particular seasons of the year, and being a very shy animal,
particularly when solitary or not in herds, they would be easily
frightened away, perhaps not to return, even temporarily.
The Indians began to obtain fire-arms as early as 1650 or ’6o,
as we find it was made a subject of complaint by the French
government in Canada, that the English or Dutch, in New
York, were furnishing arms and ammunition to the Iroquois;
which enabled them to carry on a destructive war against the
western nations who claimed French protection. It could not
be expected, therefore, that the first Europeans who visitedTHE NAME OL BUFFALO.
27
here would find the buffalo. He had previously been driven
from this locality, which may never have been his permanent
residence. It is admitted, I believe, that within the recollection
of persons now living, the buffalo has “ been seen in his wild
state,” in Ohio, probably within less than two hundred miles
of this city. Mr. Thomas Moorehead, a resident of Zanesville,
writes thus, under date of February 13th, 1863:
‘ ‘ Capt. Ross, who has lived here fifty-five years, says that Ebenezer and
James Ryan often talked with him of having killed buffalos on the branch
of Will’s creek, which is still called the ‘ Buffalo Fork,’ twenty miles east of
Zanesville. The Ryans were Indian fighters, and this must have been before
Wayne’s treaty. Buffalo ‘beats’ are frequent on the ridges between this
place and Marietta; at least there are several of those beats.”
In view of these facts, it would be extraordinary indeed, if,
in the ,absence of civilization or any natural obstacles to oppose
or hinder his progress, the buffalo should not range as far east
as this, and even farther; for there is nothing in the nature of
the country or its climate to prevent this, as we shall abundantly
show. Early travelers, almost without exception, speak of the
buffalo as being abundant on the south shore of Lake Erie.
The journey of La Salle from the Illinois river to Quebec
in the winter of 1680, must have carried him through what are
now the states of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Western Virginia,
and a part of Pennsylvania and Western New York. But he
evidently kept to the south of the shore of Lake Erie. He
gives a list of the animals that inhabited the region through
which he passed. He says:
‘‘The mountains are covered with bears, stags, wild goats, turkey-cocks
and wolves, who are so fierce as hardly to be frightened at our guns. The
wild bulls are grown somewhat scarce, since the Illinois have been at war
with their neighbors (the Iroquois), for now all parties are continually a-hunt-
ing of them.”
La Hontan, who accompanied an expedition of the Illinois
against the Iroquois, in 1687-8, coasted down the south shore
of Lake Erie. He says:28
THE ORIGIN QF
.. ‘‘ The Lake Erie,is justly distinguished with-the iljustriousname of Conti
—-a French governor-—for assuredly it is the finest, lake upon earth. You
may judge of the goodness of the climate from the latitude of the countries
which surround it. I cannot express what vast quantities of deer and turkeys
ate to be fotirid in those woods, and in the vast meadows that lie upon the
south side of the lake. At the bottom of the lake (fond du lac) we find wild
beeves, upon the banks of two . rivers that disembogue into it without cata-
racts or rapid currents. The banks of the lake are commonly frequented by
none but warriors, whether the Iroquois, the Illinois, or the Omiamies, &c.,
and it is veiy dangerous to stop there. By this means it comes to pass that
stags, roebucks and turkeys run in great bodies up and down the shore all
round the lake.
‘ ‘ In former times the Errieronoris and the Andastagueronons lived upon
the confines of the lake, but they were exterminated by the Iroquois, as well
as other nations marked upon the map.”
Charlevoix, who made the journey from Quebec to the Mis-
sissippi in 1721, following nearly the route of La Salle in 1679,
in describing the journey across Lake Ontario, says:
“We intended to go into the Riviere Aux Bceufs (Buffalo river), but we
found the stream shut up by the sands, which often happens to the little
rivers that empty into the lakes. About two in the afternoon, we entered
into the River Niagara, formed by the great fall, which I shall mention pres-
ently.”
After describing the passage up the river to a point beyond
which they could not go with their boat, and their visit on foot
to the falls, and passage up the river to the rapids at what is
now Black Rock, he proceeds:
“ I departed on the 27th of May, 1721, from the entrance of the Lake
Erie. The route is to keep the north coast. Lake Erie is a hundred leagues
long from east to west; its breadth from north to south is about thirty. The
name it bears is that of a nation of the Huron language, settled on its bor-
ders, and which the Iroquois have entirely destroyed. Erie means cat; and
the Eries are named in some of the ‘ Relations,' the ‘ Nation of the Cat.’
“ The 28th I went nineteen leagues, and found myself over against the
great (grand) river, which comes from the east in 42 deg. 15 min. The first
of June, being Whit-Sunday, after going up a pretty river almost an hour,
which comes from a great way, and runs between two fine meadows, we
made a portage of about sixty paces, to escape going round a point whichTHE NAME OF BUFFALO.
2 9
advances,fifteen leagues, into the lake. They -call • it. ‘ Long Point.’.It is
very sandy, and produces ,naturally, many vines.,, At eyery place where, I,
landed, I was enchanted with the beauty and variety of the landscape,
bounded by the finest forests in the world. Besides this, water-fowl swarmed
everywhere.
“ I cannot say there is such a plenty of game in the woods, but I know
that on the south side of the lake,' there are vast 'herds of wild cattle. . On the
fourth (of June) we were stopped a good part of the day on a point which
runs three leagues north and south, which they call Point Pelee.* There are
many bears in this country; and last winter they killed on Point Pele6 alone
above four hundred
After describing his journey to Mackinac and to the mouth
of the St. Joseph river, near the southern extremity of Lake
Michigan, where the French had previously established a post
and built a fort, he passed up that river to a point where it
bends farthest to the south (South1 Bend.) They carried their
canoes over a short portage to the head waters of the Kan-
kakee, a confluent of the Illinois, and passed down that tcyrtu-
ous stream through extensive flat prairies, until they entered
the Illinois river. He says:
“ The meadows here extend beyond the sight, in which the buffaloes go
in herds of two or three hundred. Everywhere we met with paths that are
as beaten as they can be in the most populous countries, yet nothing passes
through them but buffaloes.”
Thus far we have the evidence of the early French travelers.
They establish the fact of the existence of the buffalo upon the
south shore of Lake Erie down to about 1721.
We will now proceed to examine the evidence derived from
other sources, subsequent to the period last named.
I have already produced evidence of the presence of the
buffalo in the south-eastern part of Ohio, in the vicinity of
Zanesville, to the period of the first settlement of that state,
about the close of the war of the Revolution. Mr. Thomas
Ashe, in a letter dated at Erie, Pa., after he had made a minute
* This was a great crossing place for several kinds of animals, as well as wild turkeys,
passing from island to island, on the ice, in winter, and by flight or swimming in the summer.3°
THE ORIGIN OF
examination of the head waters of the Allegany and Monon-
gahela rivers, in 1806, gives the following statement of an old
man, one of the first settlers in that country, who built a log
house (hut) upon the borders of a salt spring (lick):
“He informed me that for several seasons the buffaloes paid him their
visits with the utmost regularity. They traveled in single files, always fol-
lowing each other at equal distances, forming droves on their arrival, of
about three hundred each. The first and second year, so unacquainted were
these poor brutes with the use of this man’s house, or its nature, that in a
few hours they rubbed the house completely down, taking delight in turning
the logs off with their horns; while he had some difficulty to escape being
trampled under their feet, or crushed in his own ruins. At that period he
supposed there could not be less than ten thousand in the neighborhood of
the spring. They sought for no manner of food, but only bathed and drank,
three or four times a day, and rolled in the earth (mud) or reposed with their
flanks distended, in the adjacent shades; and on the fifth or sixth day, sep-
arated into distinct droves, bathed, drank and departed in single files, accord-
ing to the exact order of their arrival. They all rolled successively in the
same 'hole, and each thus carried away a coat of mud to preserve the mois-
ture of the skin; which when hardened and baked in the sun, would resist
the stings of millions of insects that otherwise would persecute these peaceful
travelers, to madness, or even to deatl\.
“ In the first and second years, this old man, with some companions, killed
six or seven hundred of these noble creatures, merely for the sake of their
skins, which, to them, were only worth two shillings each; and after this
work of death, they were obliged to leave the place till the following season,
or till the wolves, bears, panthers, eagles, rooks, &c., had devoured the car-
casses, and abandoned the place for other prey. In the two following years
the same persons killed great numbers out of the first droves that arrived,
skinned them, and left their bodies exposed to the sun and air. But they
soon had reason to repent of this; for the remaining droves as they came up in
succession, stopped, gazed on the mangled and putrid bodies, sorrowfully
moaned or furiously lowed aloud, and returned instantly to the wilderness in
an unusual run, without tasting their favorite spring, or licking the impreg-
nated earth, which was also once their most agreeable occupation. Nor did
they, or any of their*race, ever visit the neighborhood again.”
There are numerous salt springs, or “ licks,” both in the
eastern part of Ohio and in Western Pennsylvania; and Dr.
W. H. Irvine informs me that some of the oil springs wereTHE NAME OF BUFFALO.
31
“deer licks.” It was in the vicinity of one of these springs, in
Western Pennsylvania, probably not over one hundred miles
from this city, that this old man's cabin was located. If he
was seventy-five years old when he made this statement to Mr.
Ashe in 1806, we may fix the date of the exodus of the buffalo
at about the year 1755.
Dr. S. P. Hildreth, who now resides at Marietta, Ohio, writes
me under date of February 25th, 1863, as follows:
“ There is no doubt of their (the buffalos) traversing the whole state of
Ohio easterly into Pennsylvania, and the northern portion of New York, in
the early stages of our history, or as late as the year 1750. I came to Mari-
etta in 1806. I have seen many of the old inhabitants who have killed them,
and eaten of their flesh. The flesh of the fat cow buffalo was considered to
be better than that of domestic cattle. Near the vicinity of salt springs their
paths or roads were very distinct and plain, after I came to Ohio; and to this
day, on the hills, are large patches of ground, destitute of bushes or trees,
where they used to congregate, to stamp off the flies, digging the surface into
deep hollows called ‘buffalo stamps.’ The forests here were very open, and
filled with rich pea-vines, and buffalo clover, a variety between the white and
red kinds of our day.”
Mr. Albert Gallatin, when a young man, was employed as a
surveyor in Western Virginia, and made the question of the
eastern range of the buffalo a subject of investigation and
study. He has given the result of this investigation in an arti-
cle furnished for publication in the transactions of the Ameri-
can Ethnological Society, vol. ii., p. 50. In his introduction
he says:
“ Colonies of the buffalos had traversed the Mississippi, and were at one
time abundant in the forest country between the lakes and the Tennessee
river, south of which I do not believe they were ever seen. The name of
‘ Buffalo creek ’ between Pittsburg and Wheeling proves that they had spread
thus far eastwardly, when that country was first visited by the Anglo-Ameri-
cans.
“ In my time, 1784-5, they were abundant on the south side of the Ohio,
between the Great and Little Kanawha. I have, during eight months, lived
principally on their flesh. The American settlements have, of course, de-
stroyed them, and not one is now seen east of the Mississippi. They had
also, at a former period, penetrated east of the Allegany mountains. But I3?
THE ORIGIN OF
have been mistaken in supposing that they were to be seen only on the head1
waters of the Roanoke or, Cape Fear. rivers., It appears by the publication,
of the Westover papers, that as late as the year 1728 they were found by Col.
Bird on the borders of Virginia and North Carolina, and also farther north,
in what, if I am not mistaken, is now called Southampton county, in about
latitude thirty-seven degrees and ldngitude seventy-seven degrees. The fre-
quent name of ‘ Buffalo creek’ indicates their former range.”
In a letter written to me in March last, by John H. James,
Esq., of Urbana, Ohio, this suggestion is made. He says:
“1 have had occasion to discover that all our early hunters, and those best
acquainted with the Indians, never gave an Indian name of any stream, but
always a translation of it; hence our numerous ‘ Deer creeks,’ ‘ Buck creeks,’
‘ Beaver creeks,’ &c., all of which had been called so by the Indians. Your
stream would naturally have its name in the same manner.”
There are abundant authorities that might be quoted to show
that the buffalo was found not only in Ohio, Pennsylvania,
Kentucky and other adjoining states, but also in our own state.
Thomas Morton, one of the early settlers of New England, in
his “New English Canaan,” published in 1632, says:
“ They (the Indians) have also made description of great herds of well
grown beasts that live about the parts of this lake Erocoise (now Lake On-
tario), such'as the Christian world, until this discovery, hath not been made
acquainted with. These beasts are of the bigness of a cowe, their flesh being
very good food, their hides good leather, their fleeces very useful, being a
kind of woolle, and the salvages do make garments thereof.”
We have already mentioned that Charlevoix speaks of the
Riviere aux Boeufs (Buffalo creek) now “Oak Orchard creek,”
a few miles east of the entrance to the Niagara on Lake On-
tario, in 1721. Its name was undoubtedly derived in the same
way as our own Buffalo creek, but it had not the same means of
perpetuating it by being the location of an aboriginal city; and
had it not been for this early record, it would not now be known
that it ever bore the name, since it is not known to the present
inhabitants of that locality, as I have taken some pains to
ascertain.THE NAME OF BUFFALO.
oo
Doctor Richardson, in his Fauna Boreali Americana, a com-
pendious history of the former range of the buffalo, or Ameri-
can bison, says:
“At the period when Europeans began to form settlements in North
America, this animal was occasionally met with on the Atlantic coast; but
even then it appears to have been rare to the eastward of the Apalachian
mountains, for Lawson has thought it to be a fact worth recording that two
were killed in one year on the Appomattox, a branch of the James river; and
Warden mentions that at no distant date, herds of them existed in the west-
ern parts of Pennsylvania, and as late as 1766 they were pretty numerous in
Kentucky. Great Slave lake was at one time the northern boundary of their
range (in the fur region) ; but of late years, according to the testimony of
the natives, they have taken possession of the limestone district, on the north
side of that lake, and have wandered to the vicinity of the Great Marten
lake, in latitude sixty-three or sixty-four degrees-.
‘ ‘ So far as I have been able to ascertain, the limestone and sandstone for-
mations lying between the Rocky mountain ridge and the lower eastern
chain of primitive rocks, are the only districts in the fur countries visited by
the bison.
“ In these comparatively level tracts, there is much prairie land, on which
they find good grass in the summer; and also many marshes overgrown with
bulrushes and carices, which supply them with winter food. Salt springs
and lakes also abound on the confines of the limestone, and there are several
well-known salt springs where bison are sure to be found at all seasons of the
year."
Dr. Richardson accompanied the expedition of Capt. Back,
in search of Capt. Ross, in'1832, as naturalist, and had superior
opportunities to inform himself in regard to what he wrote of.
He adds:
‘ ‘ The bisons are truly a wandering race, their motives of restlessness being
either disturbance from hunters, or change of pasture.”
And he might have added,—search of salt licks or springs.
‘ ‘ They are less wary when they are in herds, and will then often follow
their leaders, regardless of, or trampling down the hunter, posted in their
way.”
In the Natural History of the State of New York, published34
THE ORIGIN OF
under an act of the Legislature, Mr. DeKay speaks of the buf-
falo as a native of this state, but “long since extirpated.”
In the Documentary History, published by the same authority,
we find, in a memoir of the Indians of Canada, by M. de Vau-
dreuil, under date of 1718, that it is said:
“ Buffaloes abound on the south shore of Lake Erie, but not on the north..’r
Again:
“ Thirty leagues up the Miamie river, at a place called La Glaize, buffa-
loes are always found.”
He also speaks of the “Riviere aux Bceufs” on Lake On-
tario, in this state, which was mentioned by Charlevoix.
It is hardly necessary to accumulate testimony on this branch
of our subject, which might be done almost indefinitely. It will
be readily seen, that any argument, built upon the hypothesis
that the buffalo, in his wild state, was never found in Western
New York, or that he would not voluntarily live, even tempo-
rarily, in a climate like ours, or that his native haunt was con-
fined to the great prairies of the West, will be found untenable.
That he ranged over a vast extent of country when undisturbed,
and no natural obstacles were in his way, is proved by all his-
tory and observation.
All accounts agree in representing the buffalo to be a great
traveler. Notwithstanding his enormous and apparently un-
wieldy body, and comparatively small limbs, he has wonderful
powers of endurance, and a speed nearly equal to that of an
ordinary horse. Says Irving:
“Of all animals, a buffalo, when closely pressed by a hunter, has an aspect
the most diabolical. His two short black horns curve out of a huge frontlet
of shaggy hair, his mouth is open, his tongue parched and drawn up into a
half crescent, his eyes glow like coals of fire, his tail is erect, tufted, and
whisking about in the air ; he is a perfect picture of mingled rage and
terror.”	v
Godman says:
“ They have been seen in herds of three, four and five thousand, blacken-
ing the plains as far as the eye could view. Some travelers are of the opinionTHE NAME OF BUFFALO.
35
that they have seen as many as eight or ten thousand in the same herd. The
buffalo was formerly found throughout the whole territory of the United
States, with the exception of that part east of the Hudson river and Lake
Champlain, and of narrow strips on the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico.”
These are, by no means, all the evidences going to sustain the
Indian tradition, that the buffalo, in his native state, was once
a visitor, at least, in this locality. That he was ever seerl here
by white men, is not at all probable, for the reason suggested,,
that he had been before they came, as he has been since, driven
from all his ancient haunts, by advancing civilization; the repre-
sentative of that civilization being fire-arms in the hands of the
Iroquois; and the only memorial he left here was his bleaching
bones around the “salt lick,” on the banks of “Buffalo creek.”
But the buffalos, like their contemporaries, the aboriginal in-
habitants of this Continent, are a doomed race ! They have
been driven little by little from all their ancient haunts or homes;,
even their bones have decayed out of our sight, and it is even,
now questioned whether there was ever a buffalo here! But
when the last of his race shall have sunk down in silence and
solitude, in the inaccessible gorges of the Rocky mountains, or in
the far-off cold, sterile regions of the North, here shall flourish*
in all its life, its activity and its beauty, a monument, to perpetu-
ate his memory and his name, and carry it down the rapid stream,
of time, through all the generations of men who shall inhabit
The City of Buffalo.CORRESPONDENCE ON
THE NAME OF BUFFALO.
[LETTER FROM THE REV. ASHER WRIGHT.*]
Cattaraugus Reservation, April 30th, 1855.
My Dear Friend :
Your letter has remained till now unanswered, because having just re-
turned from Albany, it was necessary for me to devote a little time to bring-
ing up the arrears of my business before I could devote myself to friends. I
have but a few moments at command this afternoon, still I will reply briefly
to your inquiries.
The Indian name of the creek has no connection with the English. It
indicates that at some time it was remarkable for the bass-wood trees along
its banks. Oo-sah is the Seneca name of the bass-wood, and they called the
creek and the tract near its mouth “ Ti-yoos-yo-wa,” i. e., at the place which
abounds with bass-woods. This, at length, became shortened to “ Do-syo-
wa,” the present name for the Creek, City and Reservation.
As to the origin of “ Buffalo,” I have heard a story of which I will state
the principal points, but without at all vouching for its correctness, except to
say that some one has so far endorsed it as to insert it in a book; the title of
the book, however, I have forgotten.
It is stated that, in an early day, while the present city was not yet entitled
to rank as a village, some travelers from “down east” (probably from New
York, city), finding themselves so far away in the woods, naturally enough
concluded that they must be in the vicinity of the buffalo, and began to feel
a strong hankering of appetite for buffalo venison. They inquired of ‘ ‘ mine
host,” or some of his retainers, if the buffalo were not often seen in this re-
* Of the Seneca Mission. Corresponding member of the Society. Died, April 13th,1875.
CORRESPONDENCE ON
gion, and were told that, though not as abundant as formerly, still they were
seen not unfrequently. This intelligence sharpened their appetites, and they
jresolved on a buffalo hunt at once; but finally concluded to leave the fatigu-
ing portion of the enterprise to be performed by men more competent for
the business, who were despatched at once in pursuit of the so much coveted
game. In due season they returned, with the report that they had failed to
capture the old ones, but had succeeded in taking a nice suckling, which was
joyful news to the party, and they immediately required it to be served up;
and feasted upon it with great complacency, declaring that it had the finest
relish of any meat they had ever tasted.
In due time they returned home with high anticipations of being lionized
by all their acquaintances in consequence of their good fortune; but unluckily
it leaked out, somehow, that the hunters, failing to find a buffalo calf, and
determined not to disappoint them by returning empty handed, had shot a
Buffalo colt, the progeny of an old mare, that they happened to fall in with at
.a sufficient distance in the forest, and they had actually been gratifying their
palates a la Cossack, upon horse-flesh, while they supposed they were regaling
themselves upon young buffalo. It was sufficient, ever afterward, to say
** Buffalo,” to recall to every one of them a very vivid recollection of the lo-
cality; and the joke having got into the possession of two or three mischief-
loving tattlers, caused the name to be perpetuated in commemoration of the
happy verdancy of the Gothamites.
This is substantially the story as I saw or heard it several years ago; but
whether it hands down to us an actual occurrence, or was manufactured for
the sport of it, I have no means of knowing.. My paper is full, so I will
close for the present by subscribing myself
Affectionately and respectfully yours,
A. Wright.
[LETTERS FROM NATHANIEL T. STRONG.*]
Irving, N. Y., July ioth, 1863.
Dear Sir :
I have noticed, from time to time, a discussion in the newspapers, on the
subject of the name of Buffalo,—that is, why the City of the Lakes is named
■“ Buffalo.”
The discussion, so far as I have seen, had not arrived at a satisfactory con-
clusion. It has taken a wide range and is distinguished for much ability
and research.
* Or Hon-non-de-tih, a Seneca chief, and Corresponding member. Died Jan. 4, 1872.THE NAME OF BUFFALO.
39
I will, also, say a few things in connection with the subject, in a simple
way. I know the prevailing idea has been, that the name “ Buffalo ” orig-
inated with the aborigines of the country, and that they probably gave
that name, in their language, from some local cause or circumstances. Some
have suggested, that the name was derived from the numerous herds of the
buffalo or the “American bison,” which roamed on the south shore of Lake
Erie. The tradition of the Indians is to the effect that countless numbers
of buffalo, many years ago, annually visited this region of country, in the
months of June, July and August. The valleys and bottom lands were
thickly covered with bulrushes which the buffalo were very fond of, and which
were so thick that it is said a man could scarcely get through them.
As to the question whether the buffalo migrated so far north and east as
the foot of Lake Erie, the evidence in favor of it is too strong to admit of
.any doubt. The “ footprints” of the buffalo are still visible in some locali-
ties, as also the marks of the bear’s tusks on the bark of the ancient trees
which now stand in our woods, and could easily be deciphered by the old
hunters. The nature and habits of the animal, too, all go to prove the fact,
that the buffalo, early in the summer, came north and east, and in the later
season receded to the south and west.
But the simple fact, that the buffalo annually roved, in countless num-
bers, along the southern shore of Lake Erie, is, to my mind, no evidence
that the foot of the lake derived its name from that circumstance, any more
than that of any other point where those animals were the most numerous, at
every season of the year. They were equally so, doubtless, along the'shore
of the lake. I am of the opinion, therefore, that the name of Buffalo has no
•connection whatever with the animal of that name. The period when those
.animals resorted to this section of the country is too remote for the English
to have given the translation of the De-gi-yah-goh (“ Buffalo,” in English),
or to have ascertained the peculiar circumstances connected with the animal,
in the naming of “ Buffalo creek,” when it first was known by that name.
When La Salle visited Buffalo in 1679, he found the Senecas near there,
•one hundred and odd years before Buffalo was settled by the whites. The
Seneca Indians, in giving names to lakes, rivers, creeks, &c., generally had
reference to some permanent and natural characteristic of the locality. From
my knowledge of the Seneca language, the Seneca name Dos-sko-wa, is de-
rived from a compound word O-oh-sa, bass-wood, and De-ya-oh, a cluster;
hence, De-ya-ok-sa-ok is the original Seneca word, now spelt and pronounced
E>as-sho-waf whether from a gradual change in the pronunciation of the
word, or for beauty merely, I cannot say. The meaning is, that bass-wood
clusters along the banks or edges of the creek.
The north branch of the Buffalo creek, above Sulphur springs, is called by40
CORRESPONDENCE ON
the Senecas, “ Ga-gah-doh-ga” meaning “White-oak” creek, because, for-
merly, scarcely any other than white-oak trees grew there. The middle
branch, passing by Jack Berrytown’s, retains the name Das-sho-wa. The
east branch, passing through the old Onondaga village, is called Ga-an-na-
da-dah, or the creek “ that has slate-stone bottom.” Where these branches
united, some four or five miles from its mouth, following the meanderings of
the creek, the banks were full of bass-wood trees, and the trunks of the trees
were clustered with the second growth of bass-wood, so dense that when in
leaf one could scarcely see the creek. Hence the Senecas called the creek
De-ya-ooh-sa-oh. This, doubtless, is the true origin of the Seneca name of
the creek.
From whence then came the name of Buffalo? The Indian account is
substantially this: that many years ago, De-gi-yah-goh (in English, Buffalo),
a Seneca Indian of the wolf clan, built a bark cabin on the bank of the Buf-
falo creek, and lived there many years until his death. His occupation was
that of a fisherman. A fisherman, in ancient times, with the Senecas, was
an important person from the fact that the Indians, in the fishing season,
almost wholly subsisted on fish, and De-gi-yah-goh was the chief fisherman
of the Nation. The theory then is, that when the white pioneers came to
that creek, they doubtless entered into the bark cabin of De-gi-yah-goh, and
learned from him his name;—and the pioneers translated and gave the name
to “ Buffalo creek,” after the Seneca fisherman whose bark cabin stood upon
its banks.
In like manner, at a more recent date, Old Smoke, the father of the
Seneca chief Young King, gave name to “ Smoke’s creek,” near which he
lived. Nothing, however, now remains to tell of his former residence,, except
a few ancient apple trees. I have often seen the trees from the cars of the
Lake Shore railroad. They stand a sad memorial of the untoward fate of
my race. Smoke’s name was Ga-ya-gua-doh, meaning the “ smoke has dis-
appeared,” or the “ smoke is lost.” I might multiply instances of this kind,
in the giving of names to certain localities of the country, but I must close.
I have written this hastily.
I am very respectfully yours, &c.,
N. T. Strong.
To G. H. Salisbury, Esq.,
Cor. Sec. Buffalo Historical Society.THE NAME OF BUFFALO.
41
Irving, N. Y., Aug. 13th, 1863.
Dear Sir:
I have read the paper you have prepared and read before the ‘ ‘ Buffalo*
Historical Society” in April last; and which you were kind enough to send
to me.
I shall notice only your two principal points; I agree with you as to the
first branch of the historical fact you have labored to prove, and I think with
success; that is, as to the fact that the buffalo did range on the south shore
of Lake Erie as far east as the foot of the lake; how much farther, I am not
now prepared to say.
The old Indians of the present day believe this fact, as though they had
seen the buffalo themselves in this section of the country. My father used
to tell me that the Indians were in the habit of hunting the buffalo down the.
Allegany river in a certain season of the year; they went sometimes below
Pittsburgh, although they found the buffalo above. The buffalo crossed the
Allegany and Ohio at .that time of the year in large droves, and as many as.
were desirable were easily killed. The description of the animal, his habits,
and actions, by Mr. Ashe, in your paper, corresponds precisely with the facts
related by my father, as he received them from the hunters. As to the sec-
ond branch of your article I have anxiously sought to inform myself more,
fully; but I confess I have failed to reconcile my previous views with those
you have so ably advanced.
My difficulties are, first, who among the Indians at that time could have
possessed sufficient intelligence to communicate to an intelligent European
interested in the traditional history of the country, as to the range and haunts,
of the buffalo in the vicinity of the now Buffalo creek, about the year 1775,
or even before that period? On this point I have a very strong doubt; the
lapse of time between the visits of the buffalo and the naming of the city of
Buffalo is too considerable. If the tradition of the Seneca fathers had been
communicated to the whites, why was no record made by them ? If the com-
munication had been made to intelligent men, some record would have been
preserved to this day. If no communication was ever made by the Indians
to any European, that, of course, precludes the possibility of knowing any-
thing in a reliable form. All is conjectural—even the twilight of tradition
fails to give any light on the subject. Most men of that day were in the pur-
suit of adventure; the claims of history were not thought of; other subjects
engrossed men’s minds. It is said that, in olden time, the buffalo congregated
annually in great numbers, at The Lick or Salt Spring near Buffalo creek*
hence the stream is called the “Buffalo creek.” This is very plausible.42
CORRESPONDENCE.
But you will observe that the Indians gave names to the more prominent
and permanent features of nature, and according to the Seneca Indian cus-
tom either Salt, O-ji-ka-toh in Seneca; Spring, O-do-sote in Seneca; Lick,
0-shoh,in Seneca; would be the natural and prominent features that would
attach themselves to the creek; the buffalo here being merely incidental.
The Indian idea of name is, that nature proclaims its own name, as illus-
trated in the birds of the air, even to the smallest of the species: the Indian
only repeats it.
I have been trying in vain to find a river, creek, lake, or mountain that
now bears the name of any herbivorous animal in our state.
I have never heard anyone say among the Indians, that at any time “ Buf-
falo creek” was called in Seneca by that name. I have never heard any-
body say, that at any time it was called “ Beaver creek,” Na-ga-nia-goh.
That “ Buffalo creek ” was not popular with the more intelligent classes
at the time Mr. Ellicott laid out the village of New Amsterdam is evident.
If it had beent he doubtless would have named it Buffalo at once.
The analogous cases you have drawn from other localities merit some
consideration; but in the absence of all local authority, they hardly apply to
•our case. We must look at this practically. From all the facts and circum-
stances, I think it is due to the truth of history to say that it is the Indian
“Buffalo” to whom the creek and finally the city owes its name. Little
fame will the poor Indian reap from it; but to the animal buffalo from which
doubtless he derived his name, the millions in all time to come will award
that honor. So then, if you have failed to establish by traditional or histor-
ical authorities the position you have assumed, you will have a reason to
know, that it is as though you had.
I am very respectfully, yours, &c.,
N. T. Strong.
To Hon. Wm. Ketchum,
Buffalo, N. V.