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Digital file copyright by Cornell University
Library 1994.JUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.
FROM THE BEST EXISTING LIKENESS, AN UNFINISHED OIL PAINTING IN THE POSSESSION
of the Buffalo Historical Society.HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
JUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.
PREFACED WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH BY HIS
SON, THE LATE SAMUEL WILKESON, JR.*
On that panel of the square of granite covering the
grave of Samuel Wilkeson, which faces the harbor of Buf-
falo, is chiselled the epitaph “urbem condidit/’
He built the city of Buffalo by building its harbor.
The Erie Canal was under construction—a water channel
to connect Lake Erie with the Atlantic oce&n and make New
York the market of the lake basin and the upper Mississippi
valley. The point at which the canal should receive the
waters of the lakes was of triple consequence—to commerce,
to rival terminal interests and to State politics. The govern-
* In 1842 and 1843, Judge Samuel Wilkeson wrote for . the American
Pioneer of Cincinnati, a series of articles, giving his recollections of pioneer
experiences in Western Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio; of the Whiskey
Insurrection, of the events and motives of which movement he had intimate
personal knowledge; of early lake and river traffic; and especially of the
building of Buffalo harbor, of which work he was the chief promoter. The
American Pioneer, never widely circulated, was a short-lived periodical, and
is now rarely to be found. Judge Wilkeson was so conspicuous a figure in
the early history of Buffalo, his work was so potential for the city’s com-
mercial development, that it is a duty to record as fully as possible what he
did for the public welfare. No better record of that work can be found than
in his own graphic narrative, written 60 years ago. Many biographical sketches
and tributes to his memory have been printed, one of the most worthy being
that by the Rev. Dr. John C. Lord, printed in Vol. IV. of the Buffalo His-
torical Society Publications. No published biography of him, however, so well
presents the real man, as the sketch prepared by his son, the late Samuel
Wilkeson, Jr., and presented by him.to the Buffalo Historical Society in 1885.
That sketch, printed herewith, forms the most fitting introduction to the his-
torical writings of his father, “The Harbor-Maker of Buffalo.”136
THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
ment of the State wanted the best connection; the people of
Black Rock wanted the canal to enter the Niagara River
somewhat below the head of that deep, but rapid, revolving
current. Buffalo claimed that the only possibility of a large
and good harbor at the foot of the lakes was in Buffalo
Creek. Outside of these contestants, two active and one pas-
sive, reposed the Holland Land Company, indifferent
through territorial exclusion from the water front by the
State’s reservation of the mile-wide strip of land on the
Niagara River, and on the lake shore to Genesee Street.
Yet those foreign speculators in American land nursed in
imagination a New Amsterdam where Black Rock now is,
and would probably have built it there had they owned the
ground. As it was, they kept their hands away from every
effort to make Buffalo the terminus of the canal, arguing
that wherever the canal terminated, at Black Rock or Buf-
falo, one of their town plats behind either terminus would
surely enrich them. The building of the harbor saved the
Holland Land Company’s Buffalo town plat for its proprie-
tors and gave speedy sale to all their lands in the county of
Erie. The Company never gave a dollar to the perilous
enterprise.
The writer is one of the few men living who looked on
the work of making this inland seaport. As if it were only
yesterday he can remember being perched on his father’s
shoulders as he waded across the mouth of Buffalo Creek
in superintendence of the crib-laying, and being startled by
the bugle-tone power of the magnetic voice which gave com-
mands to his men as he walked. It was a ford only waist-
deep to the tall man. Ships holding one hundred thousand
bushels of grain move under great sail* where .he carelessly
* The reader will bear in mind, of this and some other - statements in this
paper, that they were made in 1885. Even then, sails had practically disap-
peared from lake vessels, save for steadying purposes on steam-propelled craft,
and to assist the steersman on vessels itf a tow. The lake marine has lost much
of its picturesqueness; steamers and their tows are now mere aquatic freight
trains; and such has been the increase in size and carrying capacity of modern
lake vessels that even the hundred thousand bushels that Mr. Wilkeson cited
for the maximum of achievement, has now become too commonplace to excite
comment. The evolution of the freight carriers of the lakes is still in progress;
but to emphasize the contrast which Mr. Wilkeson sought to make, it may be re-JUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.	137
carried a child. And, as it were yesterday’s sight, the \yriter
recalls the large timber trees which fringed the lake north
and south of the creek, and the great elms, sycamores, black-
walnuts, basswoods and oaks, which threw shadows over the
silent water-way, and east of Main Street became a forest
on both its banks—a forest and swamp dense with trees and
all vegetable growth, extending from the bend of Niagara
River, around by what is now the Terrace and Exchange
Street, then the edge of a bluff which was once the wall of
the lake; a swamp through which, south of the Mansion
House, Main Street had been cut and corduroyed with im-
mense logs, painful to travel ; a swamp which, west of the
Terrace, and north and south of Court Street, was terrible
to the writer, then a little child, as a black fastness alive with
serpents, turtles and frogs, to disappear in which the family’s
cow was wickedly prone, and where oft she hid herself to
enjoy the small tragedy of the child’s tearful wandering in
search of her on the edge of the cat-tail-fringed ooze which
he dared not enter.
The man who turned the severe work on the harbor into
a joyous battle by wading the creek and laboring among his
men in the water up to his waist, doubling their effectiveness
with electric words and a judgment unerring and quick as
lightning—that man changed the swamps into a populous
and beautiful city. He built the harbor of Buffalo—“urbem
condidit.” The harbor made the Buffalo Creek the western
terminus of the Erie Canal. That made Buffalo the outlet
of commerce of the vast region commercially dependent on
the great lakes.
Samuel Wilkeson was of Scotch Covenanter stock and
of Scotch-Irish descent. Men of the name died fighting for
-corded here that the steamer J. W. Gates has entered Buffalo harbor with a
cargo of 258,152 bushels of wheat (in 1900); the S. J. Murphy has brought in
at one time 269,000 bushels of corn; at another time, 302,200 bushels of barley;
and the H. S. Holden has steamed in over that ford, once “only waist-deep to
the tall man,” laden with 362,000 bushels of oats. A type of the steel steamer
of the lakes, A. D. 1902, is the J. J. Hill, 478 feet long, 52 feet beam, 30 feet
depth, and a gross tonnage of 6025. Harbor evolution has struggled to keep
pace with steamer evolution. Changes come so fast and along lines often so
utterly unforeseen, that it is as idle as it is inviting to speculate on the future
of the lake carrying trade. .138	THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
religious freedom at Bothwell Bridge in 1679. The final
defeat of the Covenanters exiled the family to the north of
Ireland. They took with them their love of battle and de-
votion to Protestant liberty. Six Wilkesons were killed in
the siege of Derry. The soldier survivors received their
distributive portions of land in the Pale. Within less than
a century the increase of the family exceeded the supporting-
power of its land. Emigration was the relief. John Wilke-
son and his wife, Mary Robinson, came to America in 1760
and settled in Delaware. The shadow of the war of the
Revolution was creeping over the land, and this couple wel-
comed the coming struggle with the British monarchy. The
war broke out. John Wilkeson hastened into the army with
a lieutenant’s commission and fought till peace was declared.
What was left of his regiment was camped at Carlisle, Pa.r
where the subject of this sketch, literally a military product,
was born in 1781. When the army wTas disbanded, John
Wilkeson went with his family to Washington County, in
Western Pennsylvania, and, under a soldier’s warrant,
chopped a farm out of the wilderness. His son in his very
childhood was held face to face with the battle of life on the
American timbered frontier, and had his character formed
and tempered in that severest but manliest of schools. His
education commenced in the nearest log school-house and
ended in just two weeks. Labor on his father’s farm in the
wilderness until he was 21 years old must have been per-
formed in a heavy conflict with his sense of power, his am-
bitious aspirations and his marvelous imagination.
Soon after his father’s death he married and went to
Southeastern Ohio, and opened another farm for himself
in another wilderness. As he was logging and burning one
flight at eleven o’clock, a sense of the slowness and distance
of reward for his terrible toil stopped his work.' Before he
resumed it, he had planned a change, of employment, and
was a builder of keel-boats, and a merchant and a trans-
porter, who loaded with glass, nails, bar iron and other com-
modities in Pittsburg, and carried them by the Allegheny
and Connewango Rivers, Chautauqua Lake, Lake Erie and
the Niagara River to Black Rock and Buffalo, and loadedJUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.
139
back with Onondaga salt brought up Lake Ontario. With
him to determine wasTo do. Soon he was master of vessels.
The first of them he built with his own hands from timber
trees growing on the river bank, with no other tools than an
ax, a wedge, a saw, an auger and a hammer. Not an iron
spike nor a nail was used in their construction. He varied
his traffic by the inland route with voyages to points up
Lake Erie. The beginning of the superb commerce of the
3,000 ton vessels that now enter the harbor of Buffalo was
in these open boats, and salt was their principal freight.
This lake trade, however, was soon destroyed by war, the
second that the British waged against this country—that
of 1812.
The American army under General Harrison lay at
Maumee, delayed in its advance to invade Canada by the
failure of a contractor to provide transportation by boats.
In this emergency Wilkeson was sent for and appealed to by
the commander-in-chief, to give his army transportation.
He consented. Quickly gathering a force of axemen and
carpenters, he hastened to the Grand River in Northern
Ohio and attacked the timber growing on its banks, sawed,
hewed, rived, framed and planked, and in a wonderfully
short time, completed the transports and delivered them at
Maumee within the conditions of his contract as to time.
His family was at Portland, in Chautauqua County. The
British army was in march across the Niagara River from
the Canadian side. Armed with a rifle he hurried to Buffalo
with his regiment to get into the expected fight to check or
defeat the foe. The battle was fought north of Black Rock
and near the Conjockada [Scajaquada] Creek. Our militia
was overmatched by Wellington’s veterans in numbers as
well as effectiveness. We were beaten. Buffalo was cap-
tured and burned. Wilkeson walked home to Chautauqua
to his family, with the comforting knowledge that the rifle
he carried on his shoulder had been deadly to not a few of
the enemy.
While the war was yet in progress, in the spring of 1814,
he loaded a lake boat at Portland with the frames and cover-
ing of a store and dwelling house, and, embarking his140
THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
family, sailed to Buffalo to settle there permanently and do
business as a merchant. The store was erected on the corner
of Main and Niagara streets and* the dwelling on the north*
side of Main, south of Genesee.
Peace was proclaimed on the 14th of December, 1814.
Our army passed^ the winter in cantonment, at what was
popularly called “Sandy Town,” below the bluff at the
Front, and between a range of high sand dunes which then
bordered the lake and the present line of the Erie Canal. In
the spring of 1815, Buffalo as the nearest town naturally at-
tracted and held a large number of the most lawless of the
soldiers. As terrible in peace as in war, they instantly be-
came a disturbing and dangerous social element, against
which the citizens sought a summary remedy. They found
it in persuading Samuel Wilkeson to accept the then im-
portant judicial office of Justice of the Peace, to which they
unanimously elected him. His discharge of the duties of a
criminal magistrate is one of Buffalo’s living traditions. He
was a terror to evil-doers. Naturally a lawyer, impetuous,
utterly fearless, hating wrong and loving right, looking in
an instant through men as through glass, he smote the ras-
cals and ruffians brought before him with terrible quickness
and the utmost reach of the law. The dangerous he threw
into jail; the turbulent and petit-larcenous he frightened
out of town with a voice and look which few men could en-
dure; and lie had a way, too, that was perhaps extra-
judicial, but was certainly effective, of discouraging young
adventurers in the law from espousing the cause of scoun-
drels. He swept Buffalo clean of the lees of the war, and
to the end of his term of office gave his court the reputation
of a tribunal in which right was sure to prevail, wrong was
sure to be punished, and in which judgment was swift and
final. Public opinion never reversed his judgments.
In 1819 he was a leading advocate of the construction of
the Erie Canal. ’Twas December. The failure of the “As-
sociation” of citizens to comply with the law which author-
* The west side. The Rev. John C. Lord’s sketch of him says the house
“was erected on Main Street, on the Kremlin triangle, near Niagara Street.”—
See Buffalo Historical Society Publications, Vol. IV., p. 76.JUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.
141
ized the State to loan to the Village of Buffalo $12,000 with
which to build a harbor, on the security of a bond in double
the amount, threatened the enterprise with ruin by the loss
of the loan through a lapse of the law. The times following
the war were exceedingly hard. Money was scarce. Every
member of the Harbor Association became discouraged, and,
with the exception of Charles Townsend and Oliver
Forward, refused to execute the required security. ’Twas
Buffalo’s crisis. Judge Wilkeson stepped to the front and,
with Townsend and Forward, agreed to give the State an
approved bond in the penal sum of $25,000. The harbor
loan was saved. In due time a superintendent who had some
reputation as a harbor builder was employed, and the work
was begun. Mr. Townsend, who was charged with the
finances of the enterprise, soon made up his mind that under
this superintendent’s management the money would not pro-
vide a harbor. The obligors on the bond had a conference.
The putative harbor-builder was dismissed. Neither Town-
send nor Forward was adapted by previous experience or
habit of life to such work. Wilkeson had never seen an
artificial harbor and had a valuable mercantile business
which required his personal attention. But his two asso-
ciates on the large bond were determined that he, and no one
else, should build that harbor, and they finally prevailed on
him to abandon his business and take charge of the con-
struction. The next morning at daylight he was on the
ground. The great structure was completed in 221 working
days.
The Canal Commissioners met in Buffalo in the summer
of 1822 to decide finally where the Erie Canal should termin-
ate. The meeting was held in a small room in Benjamin
Rathbun’s Eagle tavern on Main Street, near Court. Samuel
Wilkeson presented the claim of Buffalo and argued it,
using a map which he had made of the lower part of the lake,
the creek and Niagara River, and drawing with prodigious
effect on his thorough, knowledge of the action of the winds,
currents and. waves on all the water connected with both the
proposed termini. General Peter B. Porter pleaded for
Black Rock. Canal Commissioner De Witt Clinton ju-142	THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
dicially summed up the case, and in the name and authority
of the State, decided it in favor of Buffalo.
The canal was completed from the Hudson River to
Lake Erie on the 26th of October, 1825. It had been previ-
ously arranged that the great event should be properly cele-
brated. A beautiful and swift packet-boat, built of Lake
Erie red cedar and named “Seneca Chief,” lay moored at
the crossing of Commercial Street, ready to make the first
passage through the entire length of the canal to tide-water.
A new cask, filled with water from Lake Erie, was in her
store room to be used in a marriage ceremony to take place
in the harbor of New York, by which the inland lakes and
the sea should be united forever. On the morning of that
day, October 26th, the citizens of Buffalo formed in pro-
cession and escorted the Canal Commissioners, De Witt
Clinton and Myron Holley, with other public men to the
“first boat” which had been expressly built for the round
trip. A committee of Buffalo's foremost citizens, of which
Samuel Wilkeson was chairman, embarked with Clinton on
the “Seneca Chief' and in the bay of New York mingled the
fresh water of the inland seas with that of the Atlantic. On
the return of the “Seneca Chief'' to Buffalo, she brought a
cask of sea water, which with suitable ceremonies was
mingled with the waters of Erie.
Buffalo was then yet on the border, and the necessity
existed for a bold and thorough man on the bench of the
Common Pleas Court of Erie County, which, after the dis-
bandment of the army, had demanded of Wilkeson to serve
as Justice of the Peace. He was appointed First Judge of
the Erie Common Pleas in February, 1821. He had prob-
ably never held in his hand an elementary work on law. In
not any technical sense was he a lawyer, but in every sense
he was a judge. His instantaneous insight, his comprehen-
sive common sense, dignity, intolerant honesty and wise im-
perativeness carried him with complete credit through a
three years’ term. Then, in 1824, he was elected to the State
Senate and served in that body and in the Court for the
Correction of Errors for six years. In 1836 he was elected
Mayor of Buffalo.JUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.	143
During all this representative service, these labors for
the community of which he was a part, he had prosecuted
various kinds of business with sagacity and energy. He
was a merchant; a forwarder on the lakes; he built a sec-
tion of the Erie Canal; was a warehouse man and the owner
of vessels; built the first iron foundry erected in Buffalo;
-started in the town its now immense business of manufactur-
ing steam engines, stoves and hollow-ware. This was an
outcome of a previous purchase of a charcoal blast-furnace,
in Lake County, Ohio, in the management of which he es-
tablished his sons, and the erection and operation afterwards
of a furnace in Mahoning County, in the same State, the
first in this country to “blow in” on raw bituminous coal and
smelt iron with that fuel uncoked.
His interest in politics and his conscientiousness and hu-
manity carried him earnestly into the discussions of the
problems of American slavery. The tidal wave of abolition
was forming. He opposed it. He felt that if the doctrine
of unconditional and immediate emancipation of the slaves
should obtain, the union of the States would be broken, the
negroes in the South would be exterminated by the whites,
and an armed struggle for the control of the Federal Gov-
ernment would ensue between the North and South. To
save the Union and to save the South, he favored a system
of gradual and compensated emancipation. Fearing that a
system of slavery could not and would not tolerate the pres-
ence of free negroes, he advocated the colonization of the
blacks on the west coast of Africa. The control of the
American Colonization Society was surrendered to him. He
removed to Washington, the headquarters of the Society,
and for two years edited its organ, the African Repository,
governed the Colony of Liberia, instituted commerce with it
from the ports of Baltimore and Philadelphia, gathered col-
onists wherever he could in the South and shipped them to
the new Republic. But the flood that was to uproot human
bondage in America and to overwhelm the slave oligarchy in
a disastrous civil war, was not to be averted. Sentiment in
the slave states, as well as in the free, finally rejected coloni-
zation as a remedy and it was abandoned.144	THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
Judge Wilkeson was tbrice married. His first wife, the
mother of all his children, was Jane Oram, daughter of
James Oram, a Scotch-Irish emigrant who came to this,
country with John Wilkeson, and with him went into the.
Revolutionary army and fought through the war as a cap-
tain. Of their six children, Elizabeth, John, Eli, William,
Louise and Samuel, the eldest and youngest, John and
Samuel, are now living.* His second wife was Sarah St.
John, of Buffalo, a woman of uncommon intellect and char-
acter. His third was Mary Peters, of New Haven, Conn.,,
eminent as an educator of girls. A simple malady, con-
tracted at the first Chicago land sale, mistreated by many
physicians, was at last transferred and confirmed into an in-
curable disease of one of the nobler organs. While he was
yet young—for he was organized to live to be a century
old—he died in July, 1848, in his 67th year, in a tavern in
the Tennessee mountains, through which he was journey-
ing to visit his youngest daughter.
This man was a king among men. ’Twas native to him
to seize situations that required treatment and give orders.
Men obeyed him without loss of self-respect. His right to
command was conceded. He moved masses of men and did
not excite jealousy. His knowledge of what was best to do
was intuitive. He never had to come to a conclusion of mind
by logical steps or by waiting. It is doubtful if he ever lost
an opportunity. His knowledge was prodigious. His im-
agination was extraordinarily rich. His humor was fine.
Through all his life men considered it a privilege to hear
him talk. The graphic art with words was his. The great
magnetic force of the man flashed over the wires of his talk,
filling, kindling and lifting his listeners. Had he esteemed
himself much and been fond of applause, he would have been
an irresistible orator. But an audience made him bashful.
He was incorruptibly honest. His scorn of what was dis-
honorable or mean was grand. He had a dignity that all
men respected and felt was becoming. - His courage was
chivalric and complete. And way down in the lion heart of
* Samuel Wilkeson, Jr., the author of this sketch of his father, died Dec. 2y
1889; his eldest brother, John, died April 4, 1894.JUDGE SAMUEL WILKES ON.	145
the man was a soft nest in which his children were held and
his friends found warmth and sympathy. When a northwest
gale swept down the lake and shrieked and moaned through
the house, his crooning of one of Burns’ ballads always
shook his voice and made the tears tremble on his lids.
The cannonade against Fort Sumter which opened the
slaveholders’ rebellion, was not heard by this veteran as he
lay in his grave in Forest Lawn. Eight of his grandsons
heard it and went into the Union Army, three of them under
age, two seventeen years old, the other sixteen. Not one of
the eight served on a general’s staff, was in the department
of transportation or supplies, or ever placed on detail duty.
Each and all were in the line and at the front. John Wilkes
Wilkeson, oldest son of John, was killed in the sudden and
bloody battle of the Seven Pines, in command of Com-
pany K, of the ioo N. Y. Infantry. , He was shot in the
front. He was pure as he was brave, and true, steadfast and
gentle. Bayard Wilkeson, the oldest son of Samuel, was
killed in the first day’s fighting at Gettysburg, commanding
Battery G, of the 4th U. S. Artillery, aged only 19 years,
1 month and 15 days. An infant in the language of the law,
he was so thorough a soldier and so good a commander that
his Battery had the post of honor in the Eleventh Corps, the
right of the line of march./RECOLLECTIONS OF THE WEST
AND THE FIRST BUILDING OF
BUFFALO HARBOR.
HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
JUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.
I.
Removal to Western Pennsylvania.
The present happy population of our country, enjoying
not only peace, but all the necessaries and conveniences of
life, can form no just conception of the poverty and priva-
tions endured by the early settlers of the West.
The Revolutionary War had withdrawn much of the
labor of the country from agriculture and manufactures.
There was no commerce, no money. The country at large
could not furnish even necessary clothing. Hard as was the
fate of the soldier while starving, freezing, and-fighting for
independence, still the prospective was cheering to him; he
never doubted that his service would be rewarded, and be
remembered with gratitude by his country. But when dis-
charged, he received his pay in Continental money, worth
but a few cents on the dollar, and, returning poor to his
family, found them as destitute as himself. The pride and
parade of the camp which had excited and sustained him,
were now gone—there was none to relieve or assist him.
Some sunk under their discouragements. Brave men, who
never shrank from danger in their country’s defence, and
who cheerfully endured all the hardships incident to the148
THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
soldier’s life, had not the courage to contend with poverty,
nor the resolution to exchange the excitements of war for
that diligent pursuit of personal labor which was requisite
for the support of their families. Many, however, resolved
on crossing the mountains, and becoming farmers in the
West:	The difficulties to be encountered in effecting this
resolution, were many and great. The journey was full of
peril, especially to women and children, poorly provided
with even the most common necessaries.
It may interest some of my readers, who have never felt
what privation or suffering is, to know by what expedients
the pioneers of the West were enabled to remove their fam-
ilies across the mountains. I have often, when a boy, list-
ened to the recital made by the mothers who were com-
panions in these sufferings, and who at every meeting in
after life would recur to them with tears.
My father’s family was one of 20 that emigrated from
Carlisle, and the neighboring country, to Western Pennsyl-
vania, in the spring of 1784, Our arrangements for the
journey would, with little variation, be descriptive of those
of the whole caravan. Our family consisted of my father,,
mother, and three children (the eldest one five, the youngest
less than one year old), and a bound boy of 14. The road
to be traveled in crossing the mountains, was scarcely, if at
all, practicable for wagons. Pack horses were the only
means of transportation then, and for years after. We were
provided with three horses, on one of which my mother rode,
carrying her infant, with all the table furniture and cooking
utensils. On another were packed the stores of provisions,
the plough irons, and other agricultural tools. The third
horse was rigged out with a pack-saddle, and two large
creels, made of hickory withes in the fashion of a crate, one
over each side, in which were stowed the beds and bedding,
and the wearing apparel of the family. In the center of
these creels there was an aperture prepared for myself and
sister, and the top was well secured by lacing, to keep us in
our places, so that only our heads appeared above. Each
family was supplied with one or more cows, an indispensable
provision for the journey. Their milk furnished the morn-JUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.	149
ing and evening meal for the children, and the surplus was
carried in canteens for use during the day.
Thus equipped, the company set out on their journey.
Many of the men being unacquainted with the management
of horses, or the business of packing, little progress was
made the first day or two. When the caravan reached the
mountains, the road was found to be hardly passable for
loaded horses. In many places the path lay along the edge
of a precipice, where, if the horse had stumbled, or lost his
balance, he would have been precipitated several hundred
feet below. The path was crossed by many streams raised
by the melting snow and spring rains, and running with
rapid current in deep ravines. Most of these had to be
forded, as there were no bridges, and but few ferries. For
many successive days, hairbreadth escapes were continually
occurring; sometimes horses falling, at others carried away
by the current, and the women and children with difficulty
saved from drowning. Sometimes in ascending steep ac-
clivities, the lashing of the creels would give way, both creels
and children tumble to the ground, and roll down the steep,
until arrested by some traveler of the company. In crossing
streams, or passing places of more than ordinary difficulty
in the road, mothers were often separated from some of their
children for many hours.
The journey was made in April when the nights were
cold. The men who had been inured to the hardships of
war, could with cheerfulness endure the fatigues of the jour-
ney. It was the mothers who suffered; they could not, after
the toils of the day, enjoy the rest they so much needed at
night. The wants of their suffering children must be at-
tended to. After preparing their simple meal, they lay down
with scanty covering in a miserable cabin, or as it sometimes
happened, in the open air, and often unrefreshed, were
obliged to rise early to encounter the fatigues and dangers of
another day.
As the company approached the Monongahela, they be-
gan to separate. Some settled down near to friends and ac-
quaintances who had preceded them. About half the com-
pany crossed the Monongahela, and settled on Chartier’s150
THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
Creek, a few miles south of Pittsburgh, in a hilly country,
well watered and heavily timbered. Settlers’ ri'ghts to land
were obtained on easy terms. My father exchanged one of
his horses for a tract (bounded by certain brooks and
marked trees) which was found on being surveyed several
years after, to contain about 200 acres. The new-comers
aided each other in building cabins, which were made of
round logs with a slight covering of clapboards. The build-
ing of chimneys and laying of floors, were postponed to a
future day. As soon as the families were all under shelter,
the timber was girdled and the necessary clearing made for
planting corn, potatoes, and a small patch of flax. Some of
the party were dispatched for seed. Corn was obtained at
Pittsburgh, but potatoes could not be procured short of
Ligonier valley, distant three days’ journey. The season
was favorable for clearing, and by unremitted labor, often
continued through a part of the night, the women laboring
with their husbands in burning brush and logs, their plant-
ing was seasonably secured.
But while families and neighbors were cheering each
other on with the prospect of an abundant crop, one of the
settlements was attacked by the Indians and all of them were
thrown into the greatest alarm. This was a calamity which
had not been anticipated. It had been confidently believed
that peace with Great Britain would secure peace with her
Indian allies. The very name of Indian chilled the blood of
the late emigrants, but there was no retreat. If they desired
to recross the mountains they had not the provisions or
means, and nothing but poverty and suffering to expect
should they regain their former homes. They resolved to
stay. The frontier settlements were kept in continual alarm.
Murders were frequent, and many were taken prisoners.
These were more generally children, who were taken to De-
troit (which in violation of the treaty, continued to be occu-
pied by the British), where they were sold. The Indians often
penetrated the settlement several miles, especially when the
stealing of horses was a part of their object. Their depreda-
tion effected, they retreated precipitately across the Ohio.
The settlers for many miles from the Ohio, during six
rJUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.
151
months of the year lived in daily fear of the Indians. Block-
houses were provided in several neighborhoods for the pro-
tection of the women and children, while the men carried on
their farming operations, some standing guard while the
others labored. The frequent calls on the settlers to pursue
marauding parties, or perform tours of militia duty, greatly
interrupted their attention to their crops and families, and
increased the anxieties and sufferings of the women. The
Government could grant no relief. It had neither money
nor credit. Indeed there was little but the name in the old
Confederation.
The State of Pennsylvania was unable to keep up a mili-
tary force for the defence of her frontier.. She had gener-
ously exhausted her resources in the struggle for national
independence. Her legislature however, passed an act
granting a bounty of $100 on Indian scalps. But an incident
occurred which led to the repeal of this law before the ter-
mination of the war. A party of Indian spies having entered
a wigwam on French Creek, supposed to be untenanted, dis-
covered while breakfasting, an Indian extended on a piece
of bark overhead. They took him prisoner, but reflecting
that there was no bounty on prisoners, they shot him under
circumstances which brought the party into disgrace, and the
scalp-bounty law into disrepute.
The settlement was guarded, and in fact preserved from
utter dispersion by a few brave men. Brave is a term not
sufficiently expressive of the daring boldness of the Bradys,
Sprouts, Poes, Lesnets, Weltzells, Crawfords, Williamsons,
Pauls, Harrisons and Zaneses, who for years encountered
unheard-of privations in the defence of the border settle-
ments, and often carried the war successfully into the In-
dian country.
n.
Difficulties of Early Settlers.
Beside their exposure to Indian depredations and mas-
sacres, the emigrants had other trials to endure, which at152	THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
the present day can not be appreciated. One of the most
vexatious was, the running away of their horses. As soon
as the fly season commenced the horses seemed resolved on
leaving the country, and recrossing the mountains. The
river was no barrier. They swam the Monongahela, and often
proceeded 150 miles before they were taken up. During the
husband’s absence in pursuit of his horses his wife was
necessarily left alone with her children in their unfinished
cabin, surrounded by forests in which the howl of the wolf
was heard from every hill. If want of provisions, or other
causes made a visit to a neighbor’s necessary, she must
either take her children with her through the woods, or leave
them unprotected under the most fearful apprehension that
some mischief might befall them before her return. As
bread and meat were scarce, milk was the principal depend-
ence for the support of the family. One cow of each family
was provided with a bell, which, if good, could be heard
from half a mile to a mile. The woman left alone, on getting
up in the morning, instead of lacing her corsets, and adjust-
ing her curls, placed herself in the most favorable position
for listening to her cow-bell, which she knew as well as she
did the voice of her child, and considered it fortunate if she
heard it even at a distance. By her nice and never failing
discrimination of sounds, she could detect her own, even
among a clamor of many other bells; thus manifesting a
nicety of ear which, with cultivation, might have been envied
by the best musicians of the present day. If her children
were small, she tied them in bed, to prevent their wandering,
and to guard them from danger from fire and snakes, and,
guided by the tinkling of the bell, made her way through the
tall weeds, and across the ravines until she found the object
of her search. Happy on her return to find her children un-
harmed, and regardless of a thorough wetting from the dew,
she hastened to prepare their breakfast of milk boiled with
a little meal or hominy, or in the protracted absence of her
husband, it was often reduced to milk alone. Occasionally
venison and turkeys were obtained from hunters. Those set-
tlers who were provided with rifles could, with little loss of
time, supply their families with fresh meat, but with the newJUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.	153
^settlers rifles were scarce. They were more accustomed to
the musket.
It may seem to some, that these people, whose hardships
and poverty I have been describing, must have been de-
graded, or they would have been better provided with the
means of comfortable living. * But they who would come to
this conclusion, must be ignorant of the condition of our
■country at the close of the Revolution. The poverty of the
disbanded soldier was not the consequence of idleness, dis-
sipation or vice. The times were in fault, not the man. The
money which he had received for his services in the army,
proved to be nearly worthless. But, instead of brooding
over this injustice, or seeking to redress his wrongs by
means which would disturb the public peace, and demolish
the temple of liberty which he had labored to erect, he nobly
resolved to bear his misfortunes, and brave the dangers and
hardships of emigration.
A more intelligent, virtuous, and resolute class of men
never settled any country, than the first settlers of Western
Pennsylvania; and the women who shared their sufferings
and sacrifices were no less worthy. Very many of the set-
tlers in what are now Washington and Allegheny counties
were professors of religion of the strictest sect of Seceders.
I well remember hearing them, when a boy, rail at Watts’s
psalms, and other like heresies. At a very early period of
the settlement, a distinguished minister of that denomina-
tion, Mr. Henderson, was settled near Canonsburg. It was
common for families to ride from io to 15 miles to meeting.
The young people regularly walked five or six miles, and in
summer carried their stockings and shoes, if they had any,
in their hands, both going and returning. I believe that no
churches, or houses of worship, were erected in the country
until about 1790. Even in winter the meetings were held in
the open air. A grove was selected, which partially sheltered
the congregation from the weather. There a log pulpit was
erected, and logs furnished the audience with seats. Among
the men who attended public worship in winter, ten were
obliged to substitute a blanket or coverlet for a great-coat,
where one enjoyed the luxury of that article. So great was154
THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
the destitution of comfortable clothing, that when the first
Court of Common Pleas was held in Catfish, now Washing-
ton, Pa., a highly respectable citizen, whose presence was re-
quired as a magistrate, could not attend court without first
borrowing a pair of leather breeches from an equally re-
spectable neighbor, who was summoned on the .grand jury.
The latter lent them, and having no others* had to stay at
home. This scarcity of clothing will not seem surprising
when we consider the condition of the country at that time,
and that most of these settlers brought but a scanty supply
of clothing and bedding with them. Their stock could not
be replenished until flax was grown, and made into cloth.
Those who are reared in contact with the ledgers, the
claims, the lawsuits, and the bankruptcies of this contentious
age, can form but a faint idea of real pioneer hospitality, in
which half of the scanty supply of a needy family was often
cheerfully served up to relieve the necessity of the still more
needy traveler or emigrant family. From feelings and acts
of this kind, as from seeds, has sprung much of the systema-
tized benevolence in which many of our enlightened citizens
are engaged.
The labor of all the settlers was greatly interrupted by
the Indian war. Although the older settlers had some sheep
yet their increase was slow, as the country abounded in
wolves. It was therefore the work of time to secure a supply
of wool. Deerskin was a .substitute for cloth for men and
boys, but not women and girls, although they were some-
times compelled to resort to it. The women had to spin, and
generally to weave all the cloth for their families, and when
the wife was feeble, and had a large family, her utmost
efforts could not enable her to provide them with anything-
like comfortable clothing. The wonder is, and I shall never
cease to wonder, that they did not sink under their burthens.
Their patient endurance of these accumulated hardships did
not arise from a slavish servility, or insensibility to their
rights and comforts. They justly appreciated their situation
and nobly encountered the difficulties which could not be
avoided. Possessing all the affections of the wife, the ten-
derness of the mother and the sympathies of the woman*JUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.	155
their tears flowed freely for others’ griefs, while they bore
their own with a fortitude which none but a woman could
exercise. The entire education of her children devolved on
the mother, and notwithstanding the difficulties to be en-
countered, she did not allow them to grow up wholly without
instruction; but amidst all her numerous cares taught them
to read, and instructed them in the principles of Christianity.
To accomplish this, under the circumstances, was no easy
task. The exciting influences which surrounded them, made
the boys restless under restraint. Familiarized as they were
to hardships from the cradle, and daily listening to stories of
Indian massacres and depredations, and to the heroic ex-
ploits of some neighboring pioneer, who had taken an In-
dian scalp, or by some darings effort saved his own, ignorant
of the sports and toys with which children in other circum-
stances are wont to be amused, no wonder they desired to
emulate the soldier, or engage in the scarcely less exciting
adventures of the hunter.. Yet even many of these boys were
subdued by the faithfulness of the mother, who labored to
bring them up in the fear of God.
If the reader would reflect upon the difference between
the difficulties of emigration at that early day, and those of
the present, he must cast his eyes upon the rugged mountain
steeps, then an almost unbroken and trackless wilderness,
haunted by all sorts of wild and fierce beasts, and poisonous
reptiles. He must then observe that civilization has since
crossed them by the smooth waters of canals, or the gentle
and even ascents of turnpikes and railroads, and strewed
them thick with the comforts of life; he may then have a
faint idea of the difference of the journey; and as to the
difference of living after removal then and now, let him con-
sider that then almost every article of convenience and sub-
sistence must be brought with them, or rather, could neither
be brought nor procured, and must necessarily be erased from
the vocabulary of house-keeping; let him think what has
since been done by the power of steam in ascending almost
to the very sources of the many ramifications of our various
rivers, carrying all the necessaries.and many of the luxuries
of life, and depositing them at points easy of access to almost.156	THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
every new settler, and he will see that if settling is now dif-
ficult, it was distressing then. When he further reflects upon
the abundant and overflowing products of the West, com-
pared with the absence of agriculture, arts, and manufac-
tures, in those early days, and now that not only our largest
rivers and gigantic lakes, but the ocean itself, by the power
of increased science, are all converted into mere ferries, he
will at once conclude that the emigrants to Liberia, New
Holland, Oregon, or California can know nothing of priva-
tion compared with the pioneers of the West. Our country
now abounds in everything, and commerce extends over the
world. If poverty or suffering exist, benevolence seeks it
out, and relieves it, whether it be far off or near, whether in
•Greece or the islands of the sea.
III.
Early Commerce of the West.
When our emigrants had struggled through the first
summer, and the Indians had returned to their homes, the
leading men set about supplying the settlement with salt and
iron. These indispensable articles could only be obtained
east of the mountains at some point accessible by wagons
from a seaport. Winchester and Chambersburgh were salt
depots. One man and one or more boys were selected from
each neighborhood to take charge of the horses, which the
settlers turned into the common concern. Each horse was
provided with a packsaddle, a halter, a lash rope, to secure
the load, and sufficient feed for 20 days, a part of which was
left on the mountains for a return supply. The owner of
each horse provided the means of purchasing his own salt.
A substitute for cash was found in skins, fur and ginseng,
all of which were in demand east of the mountains. With
these articles and a supply of provisions for the journey,
they set out after selecting a captain for the company. Not-
withstanding the fatigues to be endured (the entire returnJUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.
157'
journey having to be performed on foot) no office was ever
sought with more importunity than was this by the boys who
were old enough to be selected on this expedition. Not only
salt, but merchandise for the supply of the country west of
the mountains, was principally carried on pack-horses, until
after 1788.
Packing continued to be an important business in Ken-
tucky until 1795. The merchants of that state, for mutual
convenience and protection, each provided with as many
horses and drivers as his business required, repaired to the
place of rendezvous, organized themselves, appointed of-
ficers, and adopted regulations for their government. Every
man was well armed, provisioned and furnished with camp>
equipage. The expedition was conducted on military prin-
ciples. The time and place of stopping and starting were
settled by the officers, and sentries always watched at night.
The company of merchants carried to the East furs, peltries,
ginseng, flax, linen, cloth, and specie (the latter obtained
from New Orleans in exchange for tobacco, corn and whis-
key). These articles found a ready sale in Philadelphia or
Baltimore for dry goods, groceries, and hardware, including
bar-iron and copper for stills. These caravans would trans-
port many tons of goods, arid when arranged by experienced
hands, the goods could be delivered without injury in Ken-
tucky. It was necessary to balance the loads with great care
in order to preserve the backs of the horses from injury. If
well broke to packing, they could travel 25 miles a day.
After the final peace with the Indians, this mode of trans-
portation ceased; and the packers, who had been the lions*
of the day, were succeeded by still greater lions, the keel
boatmen, who will be noticed hereafter.
Emigration continued to Western Pennsylvania. Even-
the most exposed districts increased in population, and many
of the emigrants of 1785 and 1786 were what was then con-
sidered rich. They introduced into the country large stocks
of cattle, sheep and hogs, cleared large farms, built grist and
saw-mills, and gave employment to many poor settlers. But
notwithstanding the brightening prospects, the healthy cli-
mate and good soil, many of the settlers became restless and'.158 '	THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
dissatisfied with their location, which they believed inferior
to. Kentucky or some other country still farther off in the
West. Numbers sold their improvements in the fall of 1786
and prepared for descending the Ohio with their families
in the spring. The various hardships which they had en-
countered in providing a home for their families seemed to
increase their enterprise and to inspire them with a desire
of new adventures. Their anticipated home was as much
exposed to the tomahawk as the one which they were about
to leave; beside the hazard of descending the river 500 miles
in a flat-boat was very great. The capture of the boats and
destruction of whole families frequently occurred. But these
dangers did not lessen the tide of emigration which set down
the river from 1786 to ’95.
Few of the emigrants were well to live. They had sold
their land in Pennsylvania for a small sum which they re-
ceived in barter, generally in copper for stills, which was in
great demand. A good still of 100 gallons would purchase
200 acres of land within ten miles of Pittsburgh, and in
Kentucky could be exchanged for a much larger tract. The
erection of mills gave a great stimulus to the industry of the
settlers of Western Pennsylvania. New Orleans furnished
a good market for all the flour, bacon, and whiskey which
the upper country could furnish, and those who in 1784, had
suffered for want of provisions, in 1790 became exporters.
The trade to New Orleans, like every enterprise of the
day, was attended with great hardship and hazard. The
right bank of the Ohio for hundreds of miles was alive with
hostile Indians. The voyage was performed in flat-boats,
and occupied from four to six months. Several neighbors
united their means in building the boat, and in getting up the
voyage; some giving their labor, and others furnishing ma-
terials. Each put on board his own produce at his own
risk, and one of the owners always accompanied the boat as
captain or supercargo. A boat of ordinary size required
about six hands, each of whom generally received $60 a trip
on his arrival at New Orleans. They returned either by sea
to Baltimore, where they would be within 300 miles of home,
or more generally through the wilderness, a distance of aboutJUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.	159
2,000 miles. A large number of these boatmen were brought
together at New Orleans. Their journey home could not be
made in small parties, as they carried large quantities of
specie, and the road was infested by robbers. The outlaws
and fugitives from justice from the states resorted to this
road. Some precautionary arrangements were necessary.
The boatmen who preferred returning through the wilder-
ness, organized and selected their officers. These companies
sometimes numbered several hundred, -and a greater propor-
tion of them were armed. They were provided with mules
to carry the specie and provisions, and some spare ones for
the sick. Those who were able purchased mules, or Indian
ponies for their use, but few could afford to ride. As the
journey was usually performed after the sickly season com-
menced, and the first 600 or 700 miles was through a flat,
unhealthy country, with bad water, the spare mules were
early loaded with the sick. There was a general anxiety to
hasten through this region of malaria. Officers would give
up their horses to the sick,' companions would carry them
forward as long as their strength enabled them; but al-
though every thing was done for their relief, which could be
done without retarding the progress of their journey, many
died on the way, or were left to the care of the Indian or
hunter who had settled on the road. Many who survived an
attack of fever, and reached the healthy country of Tennes-
see, were long recovering sufficient strength to resume their
journey home.
One would suppose that men would be reluctant to en-
gage in a service which exposed them to so great suffering
and mortality, without extraordinary compensation, but such
were the love of adventure, and recklessness of danger
which characterized the young of the West, that there was
no lack of hands to man the boats, although their number
increased from 25 to 50 per cent, yearly. The fact that some
of these boatmen would return with 50 Spanish dollars,
which was a large sum at that day, was no small incentive
to others, who perhaps had never had a dollar of their own.160	THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
IV.
To St. Clair's Defeat.
The New Orleans trade gave new life to the country. It:
furnished specie for paying taxes, and purchasing suck
necessaries as could not be obtained for barter. Pittsburgh,
profited greatly by this trade. Although but a small village,
composed principally of log houses, yet it was then, as now,
the central point of business for the country west of the
mountains. The produce of the country was here exchanged,
for goods, chiefly obtained from Philadelphia. This was.
also the place of embarkation for all the military and mer-
cantile expeditions, as well as emigrants, for the lower coun-
try, and the resort of boat-builders, boatmen and pilots for
the river. Being a military post, a considerable amount of
Government money was annually expended here. These ad-
vantages made it a favorable location for merchants and me-
chanics, who found a ready demand for their iron, leather,
hats, etc. The character of the citizens for sobriety and
good morals was such, that farmers in the neighborhood,
sought to apprentice their sons to the mechanics of Pitts-
burgh ; and these hardy boys from the country rarely be-
came dissipated, but grew up orderly and industrious, thus
perpetuating the character for purity of morals, which the
place still enjoys. Pittsburgh owes much of this reputation
to John Wilkins, a magistrate under whose administration
every violation of the law was promptly punished. Even the
lawless boatmen stood in awe of him.
The subject- of education was sadly neglected both in
Pittsburgh and the surrounding country. The first settlers
were mostly Scotch and Irish, who, though sober, indus-
trious and enterprising, prompt to relieve the distressed, and
generous to assist the needy, yet had little taste for public
improvements, and rarely contributed voluntarily for the
promotion of any public object. They even paid their road
tax grudgingly. They built no bridges, and would leave a
tree accidentally fallen across the road, to lie there until it
. rotted. Their neglect of providing the means of education*JUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.	161
for their children was however their great error. While
struggling with adversity and combating the Indians, the
establishment of schools in many of the frontier settlements
was out of the question; but after peace with the Indians
had been effected, and provisions became abundant, there
was no apology for neglecting the subject of education.
Their school houses, when they were induced to build any,
were of the cheapest and most uninviting kind, built of logs,
open, low and smoky, lighted with one, or at most two win-
dows of greased paper. The schoolmaster was hired at the
lowest wages, and generally one who could get no other em-
ployment, and whose chief qualification was knowing how to
use the rod. From such means of instruction little benefit
could .be expected. The boys of that day were brought up
under circumstances which early inspired them with a wild,
adventurous spirit, and gave them a premature ability for
usefulness in the field. They very naturally preferred joining
the men at their labor to being confined in the house to the
study of Dillworth’s' Spelling Book, or John Rogers’ Primer,
the only school books I ever saw when a child. The scarcity
of books was a great hindrance to those who had a taste for
study. If a boy resolved to apply his leisure moments to
reading, he was perhaps limited to Young’s Night Thoughts,
Hervey’s Meditations, and Knox’s History of the Church
of Scotland. In the absence of other means of improvement,
debating clubs were formed in some neighborhoods, which
boys in their teens would attend, once a week, from a dis-
tance of several miles. These meetings were encouraged by
the parents, who frequently attended. Some of the mem-
bers rose to high places in after life, and no doubt much of
their success was owing to the stimulus which their minds
received -from those youthful associations. There was a
feeble effort made in Pittsburgh and Washington [Pa.] to
provide the means of education, and a successful one at
Cannonsburgh, by a few enlightened men, at the head of
whom was the Rev. Mr. McMullen. A college was early
established, which has continued to be an eminently useful
institution.
The General Government made but feeble efforts to pro-162	THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
tect the frontier settlements on the Ohio until after the adop-
tion of the new Constitution. Only a few companies of
regular troops were stationed there. In 1791 the Govern-
ment, yielding to the pressing importunities of the West,
appointed Gen. Harmar to the command of the Western
posts, preparatory to a campaign against the Indians. A
draft was made on the militia of Western Pennsylvania and
Kentucky for 1,200 men, who repaired to Fort Washington,
where they were joined by 300 regulars, and marched into
the Indian country. The Indians refused battle to the main
body, but defeated one detachment of several hundred men
on the Scioto, and routed with great slaughter, a still larger
detachment on the Au Glaize. A large proportion of the
killed were of course militia. Both Kentucky and W.estern
Pennsylvania were filled with mourning. The Indians,
elated with their success, renewed their attacks on the fron-
tier with increased force and ferocity. Meetings were called
to devise means for defending the settlements. The policy
of employing regular officers to command militia was de-
nounced ; and petitions were extensively circulated, praying
the President to employ militia only in defence of the fron-
tier, and offering to embody immediately a sufficient force to
carry the war into the Indian country. The President did
not favor the prayer of the petitioners, but increased the
regular army on the frontier, and appointed General St.
Clair to the command. Energetic measures were adopted to
furnish him with arms, stores, etc., for an early campaign,
but the difficulties and delays incident to furnishing an army
so far removed from military depots, with cannon, ammuni-
tion, provisions, and the means of transportation, were so
great that much time was lost before General St. Clair was
able to move his army from Fort Washington, and then it
was said to be in obedience to express orders, and against
his own judgment, as he was provided neither with sufficient
force, nor the means of transportation. Fie was attacked
and most signally defeated. The killed and mortally
wounded were over 700. The cannon, camp equipage and
baggage of the army fell into the hands of the Indians. The163
JUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.
disastrous failure of this campaign increased the growing
dissatisfaction of the settlers in Western Pennsylvania to
the administration of the General Government.
V.
The Whiskey Insurrection.
The Federal Constitution, which had recently been
adopted, was not generally approved of in this section of the
country. Many believed that the new government would
usurp the power of the states, destroy the liberties of the
people, and end in a consolidated aristocracy, if not in a
monarchy. It was even alleged by many that the reason why
General Washington had refused to entrust the defence of
the frontiers to the people themselves, was his desire to in-
crease the regular army, that it might be ultimately used for
destroying their liberties. The defeat of Gen. St. Clair's
army exposed the whole range of the frontier settlements on
the Ohio to the fury of the Indians. The several settlements
made the best arrangements in their power for their defence.
The Government took measures for recruiting, as soon as
possible, the western army. Gen. Wayne, a favorite with the
western people, was appointed to the command: but a
factious opposition in Congress to the military and financial
plans of the Administration, delayed the equipment of the
army for nearly two years. While Gen. Wayne was pre-
paring to penetrate the Indian country in the summer of
1794, the attention of the Indians was drawn to their own
defence, and the frontiers were relieved from their attacks.
But Western Pennsylvania, although relieved from war,
seemed to have no relish for peace. Having been some time
engaged in resisting the revenue laws, her opposition was
now increased to insurrection.
The seeds of party had been early sown and had taken
deep root in the western counties. Every act of the General
Government which manifested a spirit of conciliation to-
wards the British (who were charged with inciting the In-164
THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
dians to war on the frontier), was regarded with marked
disapprobation. The Irish population which prevailed in the
country, generally sympathized with the French and felt the
most lively interest in the French Revolution, and the highest
respect for their agents in this country. The neutral policy
which was adopted in relation to France and England was
unpopular. Democratic societies were formed in every part
of the country, the measures of the Government denounced,
and especially the act of laying a duty on distilled spirits.
This temper of disaffection was inflamed by the extensive
circulation of newspapers, the organs of the French party,
and of speeches of members of Congress in the French in-
terest and opposed to the Administration. The ordinary
means of counteracting the influence of these mischievous
publications were limited. The newspapers which defended
the policy of the Government had little circulation in the
West, and the friends of the Administration neglected, until
it was too late, to disabuse the public mind.
The resistance to the excise law, from its first enactment,
had been so decided and general, that the President desiring
to remove its most objectionable features, recommended to
Congress a modification of the act. This was done. The
concession, however, served only to increase the opposition.
Every expedient was adopted to avoid the payment of the
duties. In order to allay opposition, as far as possible, Gen.*
John Neville, a man of the most deserved popularity,-was
appointed collector for Western Pennsylvania. He accepted
the appointment from a sense of duty to his country. He
was one of the few men of great wealth who put his all at
hazard for independence. At his own expense he raised and
equipped a company of soldiers, marched them to Boston,
and placed them with his son under the command of Gen.
Washington. He was brother-in-law to the distinguished.
Gen. Morgan, and father-in-law to Majors Craig and Kirk-
patrick, officers highly respected in the western country. Be-
sides Gen. Neville’s claims as a soldier and patriot, he had
contributed greatly to relieve the sufferings of the settlers
in his vicinity. He divided his last loaf with the needy; and
in a season of more than ordinary scarcity, as soon as hisJUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.	165
wheat was sufficiently matured to be converted into food, he
opened his fields to those who were suffering with hunger.
If any man could have executed this odious law, Gen.
Neville was that man. He entered upon the duties of his
office, and appointed his deputies from among the most
popular citizens.
The first attempts, however, to enforce the law were re-
sisted. One or more deputies were tarred and feathered,
others were compelled to give up their appointments to avoid
like treatment. The opposers of the law, having proceeded to
open acts of resistance, now assumed a bolder attitude. An
assembly of several hundred men proceeded in the night to
Gen. Neville’s house, and demanded the surrender of his
commission, but, finding him prepared for defence, they at-
tempted no violence. He had not doubted that there was
sufficient patriotism in the country to enable the civil au-
thorities to protect him in the discharge of his duty, but in
this he was mistaken. The magistrates were powerless.
Their authority was set at defiance. Although a large ma-
jority of the disaffected never dreamed of carrying their
opposition to the measures of Government to open resistance,
yet they had aided to create a tempest which they could
neither direct nor allay.
The population received a large increase yearly of Irish
emigrants, who had been obliged to leave their own country
on account of opposition to its government ; besides which
there was a large floating population who had found em-
ployment in guarding the frontiers, and who had nothing
to lose by insurrection. Both of these classes joined the in-
surgent party and even forced them to adopt more extreme
measures than they had at first contemplated. They at
length proceeded so far as to form an organized resistance
to the law. Meetings were held, and officers appointed in
the most excited districts. Several hundred men volunteered
to take Gen. Neville into immediate custody. His friends in
Pittsburgh, being apprised of these movements, advised that
measures should be adopted for his protection. But they
were greatly mistaken in relation to the amount of force
which would be requisite.166
THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
Maj. Kirkpatrick, with only a dozen soldiers from the
garrison at Pittsburgh, repaired to Gen. Neville’s house,
which was that very evening (July 15th, 1794) surrounded
by about 500 men. The General, yielding to the importunity
of his friends, had on the approach of the insurgents with-
drawn from his house accompanied by his servant. The
assailants demanded that the General and his papers should
be given up to them. On being refused a fire was com-
menced which continued some time until Major McFarland,
an influential citizen who was one of the assailants, was shot.
Gen. Neville’s house was situated on an elevated plane which
overlooked the surrounding country. A range of negro
houses was on one side, and barns and stables on the other.
These were fired by the assailants, and when the flames were
about to communicate with the dwelling-house the party
within surrendered. The soldiers were dismissed. The son
of Gen. Neville, who came up during the attack, was taken
prisoner, but with Maj. Kirkpatrick, was released on condi-
tion of leaving the country.
This violent outrage produced a strong sensation. It
was in the season of harvest, when the people of the sur-
rounding country were collected in groups to aid each other
in cutting their grain. During the day it became known
that preparations were making to take Gen. Neville. As he
could call to his aid nearly a hundred of his faithful slaves,
who had learned the use of arms in the Indian war, it was
believed that he would defend himself. Few if any of the
immediate neighbors of the General were engaged in the at-
tack, but instead of going to his defence, they collected from
a distance of several miles around, and selected the most
favorable positions in the neighborhood for listening to, or
seeing the anticipated attack.
At about ten o’clock in the evening I witnessed the com-
mencement of the fire, at a distance of two miles, and saw
the flames ascend from the burning houses until the actors
in the scene became visible in the increasing light. It was a
painful sight, especially to those who had experienced the
hospitality of the only fine mansion in the country, to see it
destroyed by a lawless mob, and its inmates exposed to theirJUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.
167
fury. Even those who were opposed to the measures of the
Administration, and had countenanced resistance to the exe-
cution of the excise law, were overwhelmed at this appalling
commencement of open insurrection. Meetings were pro-
posed by the friends of order for the purpose of concerting
measures for their own security, but so much time was lost
in deliberation, that the insurgents became too strong to be
resisted. Men of property and influence who had become
compromised in the destruction of Gen. Neville’s house,
exerted themselves to involve the whole country in open re-
sistance to the laws.' Several officers of the Government, and
others whose influence was feared, were forced to leave the
country. The mail was robbed and the names of the writers
of several letters found in it, were added to the list of the
proscribed. Those who were thus expelled from their coun-
try, dared not take the usual road across the mountains, but
were compelled to proceed by a dangerous and circuitous
route through the wilderness. .
The insurgents seemed resolved that there should be no
neutrals in the country. Immediately after the first outbreak
they called a general meeting at Braddock’s Field to decide
upon the measures which should be further taken in relation
to the excise. Some 7,000 or 8,000 assembled, and an attorney
from Washington named Bradford, assumed the command.
He was a blustering demagogue, and destitute of the cour-
age and decision necessary to direct an insurrection. The
leaders had no plan digested for future action, nor could this
extraordinary assemblage, whose grotesque appearance it
would require a Falstaff to describe, tell for what purpose
they had come together. A committee was appointed to de-
liberate. Hugh Henry Breckenridge, a distinguished lawyer
of Pittsburgh, who filled a large space in the country, and
was known as an opposer of some of the measures of the
Administration, and therefore presumed to be in favor of
resistance, was appointed on this committee. Possessing
great power of persuasion, he succeeded in preventing the
committee from recommending energetic measures and
urged moderation until the effect of the past resistance
should be known. The report of the commitfee merely168	THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
recommended the holding of a meeting by delegates from the
several towns in the country at Parkinson’s ferry a few
weeks ensuing.
On receiving this report much dissatisfaction was mani-
fested. The assembly however dispersed, 2,000 or 3,000 men
only marching in a body to Pittsburgh. A portion of these
proposed to burn the place, but the kindness of the citi-
zens in supplying them with provisions, and the influence of
the more respectable of their associates, induced them to
leave the village unharmed. They contented themselves
with burning the mansion of Maj. Kirkpatrick in the vicin-
ity. In the meantime, the country was in a state of great
alarm. Parties of the most reckless of the insurgents, freed
from all restraints of law, paraded the country, and threat-
ened destruction to all tones and aristocrats (epithets ap-
plied to all who did not join them). In face of all these
dangers, however, many of the towns sent as delegates,
friends of law, and supporters of the Administration.
VI.
The Whiskey Insurrection, Concluded.
The President, desirous to avoid the use of force, had
appointed three commissioners to repair to the western
country, and offer pardon to all offenders who would return
to their, duty, and submit to the laws. These commissioners
arrived about the time of the meeting of the convention.
Some of the delegates to the convention were men of dis-
tinguished ability ; at their head was Albert Gallatin. Al-
though a foreigner, who could with difficulty make himself
understood in English, yet he presented with great force the
folly of past resistance, and the ruinous consequences to the
country of the continuance of the insurrection. He urged
that the Government was bound to vindicate the laws, and
that it would surely send an overwhelming force against
them, unless the proposed amnesty was accepted. Mr. Gal-JUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.
169
latin placed the subject in a new light, and showed the in-
surrection to be a much more serious affair than it had
before appeared. The ardor of the most reckless was mod-
erated. A conference was had with the Government com-
missioners, and the question whether the country should
submit or not, was earnestly discussed. A strong disposi-
tion was manifested to accept the terms proposed. The
acts of violence which had already been committed, made
some of the leaders tremble in view of what might follow.
The machinery of the so-called democratic clubs was found
not to work so well iq this country as in Paris, and Lynch
law, executed by a set of desperadoes, was proved to be a
poor exchange for the protection of law regularly admin-
istered. .
Many who had been seduced from their allegiance re-
pented of their folly, and would gladly have retraced their
steps, but this it was not easy to do. They dreaded the ven-
geance of their associates. “The Sons of Liberty,” as the
insurgents styled themselves, could not bear traitors, and
those who forsook their party were exposed to they knew
not what acts of violence and outrage. For notwithstanding
the returning good sense of many, there were others who
still entertained such deep prejudices against the Adminis-
tration, and had imbibed such wild notions of liberty, that
they desired the separation of the West from the Union.
They were deceived by exaggerated accounts of the disaf-
fection which prevailed throughout Pennsylvania, Kentucky,
and West. Virginia. It had been represented from these
places, that if Western Pennsylvania would successfully re-
sist for a few months their cause would be espoused by a
party so strong as to set the General Government at defiance.
Although the convention was in favor of submission, yet as
their constituents had not delegated to them the power of
settling that question, it was concluded to refer it back to the
people, who in town meetings should decide it for them-
selves.
Early in September the gratifying news was received
that Gen. Wayne had gained a signal victory over the com-
bined force of the Indians on the Maumee. It not only170
THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
removed the dissatisfaction to which the great delays at-
tending the campaign had given rise, but it was the best
possible illustration of the benefits to be derived from the
protection of the General Government, which had been
greatly underrated. As a permanent peace with the Indians
was now considered certain, this increased the desire for
tranquility at home. The citizens convened in town meetings
to consider, the terms of submission proposed by the com-
missioners of the Government, printed copies of which had
been distributed through the country. In some townships
the meetings failed entirely, in others they were interrupted
and dispersed before having accomplished any business.
But in a large majority of the townships the attendance was
general, good order was preserved, and the submission
papers very generally signed. These results inspired the
friends of Government with courage and greatly dispirited
the insurgents. By the first of October tranquility and good
order were in a great measure restored.
But as there were still malcontents in the country who
resisted the execution of the revenue laws, the Government
marched forward the army which it had for some time been
organizing, consisting of about 14,000 militia from Virginia,
Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. An unusual
quantity of rain having fallen during the autumn, the army
suffered greatly on their march, particularly several regi-
ments composed of mechanics, merchants and others from
the cities who were not inured to such hardships. They be-
came so disheartened, that if the passes of the mountains
had been disputed by only a thousand resolute insurgents,
the army might have been greatly embarrassed, if not de-
feated. But they met no resistance, either in the mountains
or the infected districts. Bradford and a few others who
had most to fear fled to the Spanish country on the
Mississippi; other equally guilty but less notorious offend-
ers sought security in sequestered settlements. “Not a dog
wagged his tongue” against the army which advanced to
Pittsburgh and took up their quarters. Gen. Hamilton,
Secretary of the Treasury, represented the Government, and
his quarters were soon thronged with informers, and thoseJUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.
171
who had suffered from the insurgents, and sought compen-
sation.
A kind of inquisitorial court was opened in which testi-
mony was taken against individuals denounced for treason-
able acts or expressions. Many of the informers, influenced
by prejudice or malice, implicated those who had been guilty
of no offence against the Government. After a few days
spent in these “star chamber” . proceedings, the dragoons
were put in requisition, and the officers furnished with the
names of the offenders, proceeded with guides, of whom
there was no lack, to arrest them. Such of the proscribed as
apprehended no danger, were soon taken, and, without any
intimation of the offence with which they stood charged, or
time for preparation, .about 300 were carried to Pittsburgh.
Here many found acquaintances, and influential friends, who
interposed in their behalf, and obtained their immediate re-
lease. Others, less fortunate, were sent to Philadelphia for
trial, where they were imprisoned for ten or twelve months
without even indictments being found against them. But
few of the really guilty were taken, while many who had
committed no offence against the law, but unfortunately had
fallen under the displeasure of an informer, suffered the
punishment due only to the guilty. The following may
serve as an instance:
A lieutenant of the army, while it was halting at Pitts-
burgh, visited his uncle in the vicinity, and accompanied him
to a husking party, where on using the term rebel, as ap-
plicable to the citizens generally, he was rebuked by a re-
spectable old gentleman of the party. The officer replied
‘insolently, upon which a young man (for young men in that
day always felt bound to protect the aged), interposed and
would have treated him with the severity he deserved, had
not my father begged him off. The officer returned to
Pittsburgh, and the next day, both of those who had of-
fended him at the husking, were arrested. The young man
found friends who procured his liberation, but the old man,
notwithstanding efforts were made for his release, was im-
prisoned for more than six months. I believe that but a
single individual was tried. This was one of the mail rob-172	THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
bers, who was convicted of treason, and sentenced to be
hung, but was finally pardoned.
The army remained at Pittsburgh only long enough to
recruit from fatigue and receive their pay. Many of them,
disgusted with a soldier’s life, obtained their discharge, and
either settled in the country, or purchased horses on which
to return home. -A few battalions only of the army were
retained in the country through the winter; the remainder
resumed their march and recrossed the mountains.
In order more effectually to eradicate the insurrection-
ary spirit which had disturbed the country, a regiment of
dragoons was enlisted from such citizens as were well af-
fected toward the Government, and stationed in several set-
tlements. A detachment of this force was kept constantly
in motion. Sometimes they accompanied the excise officers,
who visited every distillery in the country. Some of them
being situated in deep ravines, remote from traveled roads,
had escaped the notice of the excise officers before the in-
surrection, but they wei^e now brought to light, as there were
informers enough to disclose all delinquencies.
The excise law did not impose a duty per gallon, but a
specific sum computed on the capacity of the still for each
month that it was licensed to run. Distillers everywhere
submitted to this law, although their opinions of its justice
or policy might not have undergone any great change.
Those who had worked their stills secretly, or in open dis-
regard of the law, were now obliged either to pay up, or
secure all arrearages, before they could obtain a license:
During the winter many of the most desperate of the agita-
tors left the country. In the spring the military was with-
drawn and business resumed its wonted course.
The insurrection for a time threatened the most disas-
trous consequences, and if it had not been promptly crushed
might have subverted the Government. Yet it was not with-
out its advantages. Its suppression tested the patriotism of
the people, and their attachment to the Constitution, points
on which there had been much doubt, both at home and
abroad. The practical experiment of raising a large army
by draft, of militia, from several states, and marching themJUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.	173
in an inclement season, under great privations, several hun-
dred miles to suppress a revolt, was a most gratifying evi-
dence that the Government was founded in the affections of
the people, and that, however they might differ about the
mode of its administration, yet the Government itself was to
be sustained.
Nor was it the Government alone that profited by the
insurrection. The rapid growth of the country west of the'
mountains may be dated from that period. Although the
country had for years abounded in stock and provisions, yet
there was no home market where either could be sold for
cash. There was little money in circulation and of course
little stimulus to industry. The price of a cow in barter was
about $5, and of a good horse from $10 to $20. Wheat
was about 30 cents a bushel. But the army created a de-
mand for both provisions and horses, which increased their
value from 100 to 300 per cent. Nearly $1,000,000 of
Government money was paid out in the country. Had
Western Pennsylvania been compelled to refund this
amount, as the penalty of her revolt, she would still have
been a gainer. A large accession of settlers from the army
greatly increased the price of land, money became plenty,
and a cash home market was established.
But the prosperity which resulted from the insurrection
did not wipe away its reproach. The character of the people
suffered greatly, and the more so as the actual causes of this
insurrection were misunderstood and misrepresented. It
has generally been believed that the Western people were so
devoid of patriotism, and so insensible to the blessings of a.
free government, that they refused to be taxed for its sup-
port ; and that they regarded whiskey so necessary an article
of consumption as to be unwilling to have its price enhanced
by a duty. These opinions do them great injustice. Ah
though the citizens generally were in the habit of drinking
whiskey, yet strange as it may appear at this day, they were
not drunkards, The custom of the country was to furnish
whiskey in harvest; and at all collections of neighbors to
aid each other in log-rollings, raising cabins or husking corn,
whiskey was indispensable. The prevailing forms of hos-174	THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
pitality could not be carried out without it. If one neighbor
called on another to make a visit or do an errand, the bottle
and a cup of water were invariably presented him, after be-
ing first tasted by the host, who drank to the health of his
guest. Women treated their visitors with whiskey made
palatable with sugar, milk and spices. It was used as a
medicine in several diseases, and proved an unfailing remedy
in some. Among laborers the bottle was passed around, and
there was always some kind-hearted man to see that the little
boys were not forgotten. Morning bitters were generally
used, and a dram before meals. But this common use of
liquor was not limited to Western Pennsylvania, it prevailed
in all the new settlements, if not over the United States.
There was nothing, at that day, disreputable in either
drinking or making whiskey. Distilling was esteemed as
moral and respectable as any other business. It was early
commenced and extensively carried on in Western Pennsyl-
vania. There was neither home nor foreign market for rye,
the principal grain then raised in that part of the country,
and which was a profitable and sure crop. The grain would
not bear packing across the mountains.; a horse could not
carry more than four bushels of it, but could carry the
product of 24 bushels when converted into high wines, which
found a market east of the mountains, and could be used in
the purchase of salt, goods, etc. The settlers at an early day
calculated that the whiskey trade would become a great
source of wealth to the country, when the right way to New
Orleans should have been settled and that market fully
opened to their produce. Monongahela whiskey was reputed
to be superior to any in the United States, and had the pref-
erence in every market. There was very naturally a general
disposition to engage in distilling, as the only business which
promised sure gain; and the people of Western Pennsyl-
vania regarded a tax on whiskey in the same light as the
citizens of Ohio would now regard a United States tax on
lard, pork or flour.
There were many aggravating circumstances calculated
to render the whiskey tax odious, and to array the western
people in hostility to the Government. For years they hadJUDGE SAMUEL ‘ WILKESON.
175
suffered unspeakable hardships and privations; the Govern-
ment had neither protected the frontiers from Indian mas-
sacres, nor paid the militia service of the settlers, and the
Western posts had been suffered to remain in possession of
the British, contrary to the treaty of peace. Thus exposed,
and deprived of the advantages of peace, which were en-
joyed by the rest of the United States, destitute of money
and the means of procuring it, a direct tax appeared to them
unjust and oppressive. Unjust, because they had ncf re-
ceived that protection which every, government owes to its
citizens; oppressive, because the. tax was levied on the
scanty product of their agricultural labor, and was required
to be paid in specie, or its equivalent, which could not be
furnished. Whether these opinions were well founded or
not, it is doubtful whether even the law-abiding descendants
of the Pilgrims would have quietly submitted to the law
under just such circumstances. The settlers cultivated their
land for years at the peril of their lives. Like the Jews
under Nehemiah, their weapons of defence were never laid
aside; and when by extraordinary efforts they were enabled
to raise a little more grain than their immediate wants re-
quired, they were met with a law restraining them in the
liberty of doing what they pleased with the surplus.
The policy of laying a direct tax on the products of labor,
found few advocates in the western country, and many
violent opposers. It was contended that a tax on whiskey
was but the commencement of a system of taxation as odious
and oppressive as that of the British Government, which had
given rise to the War of the Revolution, and that, if the
system were carried out, independence would prove but an
€mpty name. It was argued that if rye could not be con-
verted .into whiskey without a license from Government,
wool could not be converted into a hat, nor a hide into boots
without its special permission; and that it was against
just such assumptions of power that the American people
had rebelled, and had continued for seven years to pour out
their blood freely rather than submit to the evils and de-
grading consequences of British taxation. They had fought
for liberty, and not for a change of masters ; and while the176	THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
wounds they had received in battling against tyrants were-
scarcely yet healed, it is not astonishing that they should re-
gard with abhorrence the swarm of Government officers
which everywhere beset them, spying into their domestic af-
fairs, and demanding, with official arrogance, more than a
tithe of their hard labor. This was too much to be borne by
men who were imbued with the wild spirit of liberty which
then pervaded our country. Whatever might have been the
necessities of Government, or however defensible the prin-
ciple of direct taxation, a more critical time to make the ex-
periment could not have been selected. Our whole country
was agitated with political discussions. The political
volcano which had broken out in France, and was sweepings
over Europe like a sea of lava, threatening to overwhelm in
its fury all forms of government, cast its frightful. glare
across the Atlantic, and so perverted the political vision as to
make law appear like tyranny, and anarchy like liberty.
VII.
Channel of Trade—Western Boatmen.
The prosperity and security resulting to the people from
the suppression of the insurrection, were increased by a
treaty concluded at Greenville* with the combined Indian
tribes, who had made war on our frontiers. This treaty was
hailed with joy by all the settlers. The Ohio frontiers had
long suffered all the horrors of Indian war; many children
had lost their parents, many widows mourned their mur-
dered husbands, and many mothers their lost children, some
of whom had been for years in captivity among the Indians,
and some sold to the'French or English and held in bondage
in Canada. Provision was made in the treaty for restoration
of these captives. But it was not the frontiers alone which
were to profit by a lasting peace with the Indians. Great
* The treaty of Greenville, O., signed Aug. 3, 1795, between Gen. Wayne-
and ten of the Northwest tribes, ceded to the United States about two thirds o£
the present State of Ohio.JUDGE SAMUEL WILICESON.	177
national interests were promoted by it. The frontier posts,
Mackinaw, Detroit, Niagara, and Oswego, which the British
had continued to occupy in violation of the treaty of peace,
were soon after surrendered. The British no longer pos-
sessed the power of exciting the Indians to war, and of fur-
nishing them supplies, which, it was alleged, they had been
in the practice of doing.
The occupation of these posts by the American army,
opened new fields of enterprise. The garrisons were to be
supplied with provisions, ordnance and military stores.
These could only be transported by vessels on the lakes,
which had to be built, fitted out, and manned. This gave
profitable employ to a large number of laborers.
Among others, whose attention was drawn to this new
field of enterprise opened on the lakes, was Gen. James
O’Hara, a distinguished citizen of Pittsburgh.. He entered
into a contract with the Government to supply Oswego with
provisions, which could then be furnished from Pittsburgh
cheaper than from the settlements on the Mohawk. Gen.
O’Hara was a far-sighted calculator; he had obtained cor-
rect information in relation to the manufacture of salt at
Salina, and in his contract for provisioning the garrison, he
had in view the supplying of the western country with salt
from Onondaga. This was a project which few men would
have thought of, and fewer undertaken. The means of
transportation had to be created on the whole line, boats and
teams had to be provided to get the salt from the works to
Oswego, a vessel built to transport it to the landing below
the falls, wagons procured to carry it to Schlosser; then
boats constructed to carry it to Black Rock; there another
vessel was required to transport it to Erie. The road to the
head of French Creek had to be improved, and the salt car-
ried in wagons across the portage, and finally boats provided
to float it to Pittsburgh. It required no ordinary sagacity
and perseverance to give success to this speculation. Gen.
O’Hara, however, could execute as well as plan. He packed
his flour and provisions in barrels suitable for salt. These
were reserved in his contract. . Arrangements were made
with the manufacturers, and the necessary advances paid, to178	THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
secure a supply of salt. Two vessels were built, one on Lake
Erie and one on Lake Ontario, and the means of transporta-
tion on all the various sections of the line were secured. The
plan fully succeeded, and salt of a pretty fair quality was
delivered at Pittsburgh, and sold at four dollars per bushel ;
just half the price of the salt obtained by packing across the
mountains.' The vocation of the packers was gone. The
trade opened by this man, whose success was equal to his
merits, and who led the way in every great enterprise of the
day, was extensively prosecuted by others. A large amount
of capital was invested in the salt trade, and the means of
transportation so greatly increased that in a few years Pitts-
burgh market was supplied with Onondaga salt at twelve
dollars per barrel of five bushels.
Much of the surplus produce of the country bordering on
the lower Ohio and its branches, which rapidly increased
after the permanent peace with the Indians, could find no
other market than Pittsburgh. This rendered an ascending
navigation indispensable to the prosperity of the country,
and led to the introduction of keel-boats. These boats were
long and narrow, sharp at bow and stern, and of light draft.
They were provided with running-boards, extending from
bow to stern, on each side of the boat. The space between
the running-boards was enclosed and roofed with boards
or shingles. These boats would carry from 20 to 40 tons
of freight, well protected from the weather, and required
from six to ten men, besides the captain, who steered the
boat, to propel them up stream. Each man was provided
with a pole with a heavy socket. The crew, divided equally
on each side, set their poles near the head of the boat, and
bringing the end of the pole to their shoulders, with their
bodies bent, walked slowly down the running-board to the
stern, returning at a quick pace to the bow for a new set.
In ascending rapids, the greatest effort of the whole crew
was required, so that only one at a time could shift his pole.
This ascending of rapids was attended with great danger,
especially if the channel was rocky. The slightest error in
pushing or steering the boat exposed her to be thrown across
the current, .arid to be brought sidewise in contact with rocksJUDGE SAMUEL WILKES ON.	179
which would destroy her. Or, if she escaped, injury the
crew would have lost caste who had let their boat swing in
the rapids. A boatman who could not boast that he had
never swung nor backed in a shoot, was regarded with con-
tempt, and never trusted with the head pole, the place of
honor among the keel-boatmen. It required much practice
to become a first-rate boatman, and none would be taken,
even on trial, who did not possess great muscular power.
VIII.
The Life of the Keel-Boatmen.
Hard and fatiguing as was the life of a boatman, it was
rare that any of the class exchanged his vocation. There
was a charm in the excesses, the fightings and the frolics
which the boatmen anticipated at the end of their voyage,
which cheered them on. Such an effeminate expression as
“I am tired/' never escaped the mouth of a boatman. After
the labors of the day, he went to rest highly stimulated with
whiskey, rose from his hard bed with the first dawn of day,
and with a large draught of bitters reanimated his exhausted
powers and was ready to obey the order, “Stand to your
poles and set off.” As the boats were laid to for the night in
an eddy, a part of the crew could give them headway on
starting in the morning, while the others struck up a tune on
their fiddles, and commenced their day's work with music to
scare away the devil and secure good luck. The boatmen, as
a class, were masters of the fiddle, and the music, heard
through the distance from these boats, was more sweet and
animating than any I have ever heard since. When the boats
stopped for the night at or near a settlement, a dance was
got up, if possible, which all the boatmen would attend, leav-
ing the cook to watch the boat, and woe betide him if he was
not found watching when they returned. Those inhabitants
who shunned their acquaintance or did not receive them
with a hearty welcome were sure to suffer for it either in
person or property. Respectable families, therefore, who180
THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
could not join in their revels and participate in their ex-
cesses, were careful not to settle where they would be ex-
posed to their visits. The families on or near the banks of
the river accessible to the boatmen, were generally the hard-
est of characters.
As the use of the pole required a much greater exer-
cise of the muscles of the body than the ordinary or per-
haps any other manual labor, these men acquired incredible
strength and hardiness, which they sought opportunities of
displaying. Fist-fighting was their pastime. The man who
boasted that he had never been whipped, had attained to a
dangerous eminence among his fellows, and was bound to
give fight to whoever disputed his superiority. The keel-
boatmen regarded the flat-boatmen and raftsmen with great
contempt, and declared perpetual war against them. Where-
ever they met, a battle would ensue. They had their laws,
which were strictly observed. If the crew of a flat-boat or a
raft were to be whipped, an equal number of keel-boatmen
volunteered or were detailed for the service; and if they,
were worsted in the fight none interfered for their relief.
They were great sticklers for fair play. They often com-
mitted great excesses in the villages where their voyages
terminated, breaking furniture, demolishing bars and tav-
erns, and pulling down fences, sheds, and signs. One of
their favorite amusements was sweeping the streets in dark
evenings. This was done with a long rope extended across
the street; a party of men having hold of each end moved
forward quickly, tripping up and capsizing whatever hap-
pened to be within the scope of the rope. Men, women and
children, horses, carts and cattle were overturned. The
mischief accomplished, the actors would retreat to their boats
and conceal their rope, while those of their comrades who
had not engaged in the sweep remained behind to enjoy the
sport.
The branches'of the Ohio, such as the Cumberland, the
Kentucky, the Scioto, etc., could be ascended only in the
spring and fall, in consequence of low water; the freighting
on these rivers was therefore limited to a short period, and
this brought many hundreds of the boatmen together.JUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.	181
These assemblages would sometimes set the civil authorities
at defiance for days together. Their riotous and lawless con-
duct was carried to such a length that sober men began to
regard them with apprehension, fearing that if their num-
bers increased with the increase of transportation on the
western rivers, they would endanger the peace of the coun-
try. But intemperate, profane and riotous as they were,
they had some redeeming qualities. They were trustworthy.
Money uncounted was safe in their hands, and if freight was
damaged by accident or carelessness, they never hesitated to
make full compensation for the damage. Although they
would not hesitate to rob a hen-rocst, yet they would expose
themselves to any fatigue to preserve a cargo from injury,
and would not pilfer an article connected with their freight.
They always espoused the cause of the weaker party, and
would take up the quarrels of an old man whether he was
right or wrong.
As they were scarcely ever sober, of course they were
short-lived; but their ranks were easily recruited from the
young men who had been brought up in the frontier settle-
ments, many of whom had acquired a restless and lawless
spirit, which made them unwilling to submit to the restraints
of society and eager to associate in some exciting and peril-
ous enterprise. The transportation by keel-boats, although
expensive and tedious, was as much superior to horse-
packing as steamboats are to keel-boats. In packing it re-
quired one man and five horses td transport half a ton, say
20 miles per day. With a keel-boat, ascending the river,
each man could push forward from two to three tons in a
favorable state of the water, with nearly the same speed as
the packer. Everybody was satisfied with the keel-boat.
No one expected or thought of a more expeditious mode of
transportation. The whole business arrangementsf of the
country were conformed to it, and but for the application of
steam to navigation, “Mike Fink” (immortalized by Morgan
Neville), would not have been the “last of the boatmen.”
They might have continued for centuries, blighting the
moral destinies of millions. But the first steamboat that
ascended the Ohio, sounded their death-knell.182	THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
IX.
Land Speculations.
After tranquility had been restored to Western Pennsyl-
vania, the state lost no time in surveying that portion of her
territory which lay northwest of the Ohio and Allegheny
rivers ; but she adopted a plan for encouraging the settle-
ment of these lands, which resulted in great injustice to the
settlers, and gave rise to long, protracted and ruinous litiga-
tion. For a small sum, the Legislature granted to a number
of rich speculators, associated under the style of the “Popu-
lation Company/' the right of locating a large portion of
the country surveyed, extending from the Allegheny and
Ohio rivers to the lake, and westward to the territorial (now
Ohio) line. The company intended that their purchase
should cover all the choice lands within these limits. It was
conditioned in their grant, that by a given day the company
should cause certain improvements to be made on each tract
of 400 acres which they had selected. Among these im-
provements was the erection of a cabin, which should be
tenanted by an able-bodied settler, who should continue to
reside on said tract, and clear, fence and cultivate a certain
portion of it.
The company expected that settlers would gladly em-
brace the opportunity of settling on their lands on receiving
a clear deed of 150 or 200 acres, and that the half or more of
each tract which they reserved to themselves, would sell for
a high price when the country became well improved.
The Legislature, in order to effect the settlement of those
parts of the surveyed territory which should not have been
selected by the Population Company, passed an act granting
400 acres to every settler who should enter upon and
improve the same within a specified time. It did not re-
quire great sagacity to prefer the terms offered by the state
to those offered by the company. The settlement duties to
be performed were the same, and when complied with the
settler could, by paying a small sum to the state, have a deed
of 400 acres; whereas those who settled under the company
would have but 150, or at most 200 acres.JUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.	183
As the territory to be settled was contiguous to Pitts-
burgh, where necessaries could be obtained, settlers flocked
to it by companies, and all the good tracts, not located by the
Population Company, were soon taken up.
Causes of difficulty and litigation commenced with the
settlement. Two persons would often enter on the same lot,
one claiming under the state and the other under the com-
pany, and neither would yield his claim. They either tested
their rights by a fight on the spot, or resorted to litigation.
Sometimes these collisions were owing to mistakes occa-
sioned by the lines of lots located by the company not being
sufficiently marked, and sometimes from a determination on
the part of settlers under the state to secure the best lands by
possession, and put the company at defiance. The company
did not succeed as well as they expected in settling their
lands. The law under which they claimed was unpopular,
and many disregarded it. When the time allowed the com-
pany for settlement. had expired, it was supposed that all
their unsettled locations reverted to the state, and were fairly
open to settlers. They were therefore taken up and im-
proved.
But the company, who had taken the precaution to have
a proviso in their first contract with the state, which granted
them an extension of time if the settlement should be inter-
rupted by Indian hostilities, alleged that their settlement had
been thus interrupted, that some surveyor or settler had
either been killed or his life endangered by Indians. The
settlers denied this, alleging on their part that the company
had hired some vagabonds to personify Indians and get up
an alarm to enable them to effect their purpose. Settlers on
the company’s land were in some places maltreated, threat-
ened with violence, and compelled to relinquish their con-
tracts with the company and join the popular party.
The company resorted to law and brought suits in eject-
ment. Some of the settlers, relying on maintaining forcible
possession, neglected the suits, and judgment was rendered
against many by default. In some cases families were ousted
in an inclement season of the year; but the settlers made
common cause with the sufferers, contributed to their relief,184
THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
and restored them to their possessions. Suits were at first
brought in the state court, but when these were defended,
the company had little chance of a fair trial, as their cause
was unpopular, and juries generally favored, the settlers.
The company at length resorted to the District Court of the
United States, which was then held in Philadelphia. The
settlers objected to the jurisdiction, but as some members of
the company were citizens of other states the suits were sus-
tained. This decision was fatal to the settlers, few of whom
were able to fee foreign counsel, or even to attend court on
court at Philadelphia, much less to send their witnesses
there. But the company, composed of rich and influential
‘individuals, and able to secure the best legal talent, as a
matter of course succeeded. Many of the litigant settlers
who had lost their suits, quit the country to avoid paying
the costs; others, unable to purchase their farms, or dis-
gusted with a country where they had spent so many yiears
under the painful uncertainty of litigation, and believing
themselves grievously oppressed, resolved to -seek some other
home. The territory was depopulated as rapidly as it had
been settled. Whole neighborhoods were deserted, and the
improved lands again became a fore’st.
Many of these emigrants found a home in New Connec-
ticut, as the Western Reserve was then called. This district
of country was surveyed and brought into market a short
time after the Pennsylvania district adjoining it. On the
Reserve there were no questionable titles—there was no land
to be given away. The settler could not even obtain a con-
tract without paying down some part of the purchase money.
The hunting, trapping, ragged loafer found no resting-place
there. The policy pursued by the State of Connecticut in
bringing the Reserve into market, the low prices and liberal
terms at which the land was sold, and the encouragement
given to settlers by aiding them to open roads and erect pub-
lic buildings, were eminently wise; and our country presents
no better example of a heavy forest converted—in so short a
time, and to so great an extent—into well-cultivated farms,
occupied by intelligent, moral and enterprising people.
But rapid improvements in the West were not limited toJUDGE SAMUEL WILKES ON.
185
the Reserve. Every avenue to the great valley of the Ohio
was thronged with emigrants from the East and the South*
The Indians, having been forced to relinquish the hunting
grounds which they had occupied for ages, withdrew to their
reservations; and scarcely had the fires gone out in their
deserted wigwams, before their places were occupied by the
abodes of civilization and refinement.
X.
Beginning of Buffalo Harbor.
The war which had swept over the Niagara frontier, had
impoverished the inhabitants of the little place that has since
grown into the City of the Lakes. Their property had been
destroyed—they were embarrassed by debts contracted in
rebuilding their houses which had been burned by the
enemy; they were without capital to prosecute to advantage
mechanical or mercantile employments; without a harbor,
or any means of participating in the lake trade, and were
suffering, with the country at large, all the evils of a de-
ranged currency. In the midst of these. accumulated em-
barrassments, the construction of the Erie Canal was begun,
and promised help. However distant might be the time of
its completion, Buffalo was to be its terminating point; and
when the canal was completed, our village would become a
city. But no craft larger than a canoe could enter Buffalo
Creek. All forwarding business was done at Black Rock,
and the three or four small vessels that were owned in Buf-
falo, received and discharged their cargoes at that place. A
harbor was then indispensably necessary at the terminus of
the canal; and unless one could be constructed at Buffalo
before the western section of the canal was located, it might
terminate at Black Rock. This was the more to be appre-
hended, as an opinion prevailed, that harbors could not
be made on the lakes, at the mouths of the rivers. But a
harbor we were resolved to have. Application was accord-
ingly made to the Legislature for a survey of the creek, and186	THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
an act was passed on the ioth of April, 1818, authorizing the
survey, and directing the supervisors of the county of Niag-
ara to pay three dollars a day to the surveyor, and to assess
the amount upon the county. The survey was made by the
present Hon. William Peacock, during the summer of that
year, gratuitously.* Then came the important question,
where to get the money to build this harbor ? At that day
no one thought of looking to Congress for appropriations,
and there was no encouragement to apply to the Legislature
of the State. The citizens could not raise the means, how-
ever willing they might have been.
A public meeting was called, and an agent (the Hon.
Charles Townsend) was appointed to proceed to Albany
and obtain a loan. Jonas Harrison, Ebenezer Walden, H. B.
Potter, J. G. Camp, O. Forward, A. H. Tracy, E. Johnson,
E. F. Norton and Charles Townsend, were the applicants.
Judge Townsend, after a protracted effort, succeeded, and
* Mr. Peacock’s work stimulated the advocates of rival localities. In the
Albany Argus of Feb. 19, 1819, appeared a communication, signed “Projector,’*
in which a project for a city of “Erie” at the head of Grand Island is thus
developed:
“There has lately been laid on the tables of the Legislature a report by
William Peacock, Esq., on a plan and place of a harbor for the east end of
Lake Erie. ... In this harbor must meet all the numerous vessels of the
upper lakes, and the almost countless boats of the Erie Canal. Above all things,
the harbor ought to be a capacious one. Buffalo Creek! Where two schooners
can but just pass each other—this can never be the place.
“In the report of the Canal Commissioners of 1817, page 6, the expense of
making the canal from Buffalo Creek for three miles (to wit, to the lower end
of Black Rock rapids) is estimated at $68,118, and in the same page a wall or
mound in the river for one mile is put at between $15,000 and $16,000. But a
wall of a mile in length, made parallel to the shore, having a lock of four feet
lift at the lower end, will completely overcome the Black Rock rapid, and let
the lake vessels into a harbor below, in every respect the very thing it ought to
be—capacious as is the vast design for which it is wanted. Now where shall
stand the city at which these lake vessels shall meet? The upper end of Grand
Island is a beautiful, highly elevated, healthy situation. This island is the
property of the state. The above work being done the lake vessels and canal
boats may pass all around it. A bridge thrown over to the island, and the
future city of Erie, laid out there, the sum raised from the sale of lots in one
year would defray all the expense of the mound, lock and bridge. The re-
mainder of the island would be vastly enhanced in value, and the mill privileges
near the lock would be worth half the cost of the mound.”
This plan, which was by no means chimerical, was ridiculed, as was to be
expected, by H. A. Salisbury in his Niagara Patriot; and no doubt by all other
residents of Buffalo, zealously loyal to their own local interests.JUDGE 'SAMUEL WILKESON.
187
an act was passed, April 17th, 1819, authorizing a loan to
the above-mentioned persons and their associates, of $12,000,
for 12 years, to be secured on bond and mortgage to double
.that amount, and applied to the construction of a harbor,
which the State had reserved the right to take when com-
pleted, and to cancel the securities.
The year 1819 was one of general financial embarrass-
ment, and nowhere was the pressure or want of money more
sensibly felt than in the lake country. It had no market, and
its produce was of little value. Some of the associates be-
came embarrassed and others discouraged. The summer
passed away, and finally all refused to execute the required
securities, except Judge Townsend and Judge Forward.
Thus matters stood in December, 1819. Unless the condi-
tion of the loan should be complied with, the appropriation
would be lost, and another might not easily be obtained; for
the project of a harbor at Black Rock, and the termination
of the canal at that place* were advocated by influential men,
and the practicability of making a harbor at the mouth of
Buffalo Creek was seriously questioned.
At this crisis Judge Wilkeson, who had declined* being
on the original company, came forward, and with Messrs.
Townsend and Forward, agreed to make the necessary f
security. This was perfected during the winter of 1820—
each individual giving his several bond and mortgage for
$8,000. The money thus loaned was received in the spring.
By an arrangement between the parties, it was to be dis-
bursed by Judge Townsend. An experienced harbor-builder
was to be obtained to superintend the work. One was en-
gaged who had acquired reputation in improving the navi-
gation of some river down East. He was to receive $50 per
month. Under his advice a contract was made for 100 cords
of flint stone from the Plains, at $5 per cord, and 400 hem-
lock piles, from 20 to 26 feet long, at 31 cents each. While
the stone and piles were being delivered, the superintendent,
with several carpenters, was employed in building a pile-
driving machine and scow. An agent was dispatched to the
nearest furnace (which was in Portage County, Ohio), to
provide the hammer and machinery.188	THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
Mr. Townsend with much solicitude continued to watch
the movements of the superintendent for a few weeks,
making himself fully acquainted with his plans and manage-
ment. He became satisfied that the superintendent, if not
incompetent, was not such an economist as our limited means
required, and that if we retained him, the money would be
spent without getting a harbor. The Judge was decided,
that it was better to abandon the work than to pursue it
under the then existing arrangements. His associates con-
curring, the superintendent was discharged—but no substi-
tute could be obtained. West Point engineers were scarce
at that time, and if one could have been found, $12,000
would have been but a small sum in his hands. The situa-
tion of the company was embarrassing. Private property
had been mortgaged to raise the money—nearly $1,000 of it
had been spent, in preparations to commence a work that
neither of the. associates knew how to execute, nor could any
one be found, experienced in managing men, who would un-
dertake the superintendence. Mr. Townsend was an invalid
and consequently unable to perform the duty. Mr. Forward
was wanting in the practical experience that was necessary.
Mr. Wilkeson had never seen a harbor, and was engaged
in business that, required his unremitted attention. But
rather than the effort should be abandoned, he finally con-
sented to undertake the superintendence, and proceeded im-
mediately to mark out a spot for the erection of a shanty on
the beach, between the creek and the lake; hired a few la-
borers, gave the necessary orders for lumber, cooking uten-
sils and provisions. The boarding-house and sleeping-room
were completed that same day.
XI.
The First Season's Work.
Having abandoned his own private business, Mr. Wilke-
son called his men out to work the next morning by day-JUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.
189
light—without suitable tools, without boats, teams or scows.
Neither the plan of the work nor its precise location were
settled. But the harbor was commenced.*
Two plans had been proposed for the work: one by
driving parallel lines of piles, and filling up the intermediate
space with brush and stone; and the other by a pier of hewn
timber, filled with stone. The latter plan was adopted, and
the location of the pier having been settled, the number of
laborers was increased, and contracts immediately made for
suitable timber and stone, to be delivered as fast as they
might be required. In the meantime the timber intended for
piles, was used in the construction of cribs, three of which
were put down the first day.
The first two days after commencing the work, the lake
was calm; but the succeeding night a heavy swell set in,
and the waves acting on the outside of the cribs forced the
sand and gravel from under them, sinking the ends of some,
the sides of others and throwing them out of line, the whole
presenting the most discouraging appearance. Fortunately
a little brush had been accidentally thrown on the windward
side of one of the piers, which became covered with sand,
and preserved this pier from the fate of others. Profiting
by this discovery, every crib srfbsequently put down was
placed on a thick bed of brush, extending several feet to the
windward of it.
But other unforeseen difficulties were soon experienced.
The cribs could be put down only when the lake was per-
fectly smooth. However fine the weather, the swell raised
by an ordinary sailing breeze suspended the work in the
water. To obviate this difficulty, -the cribs (which after the
first week were formed of large square timber), were put up
and completed on shore. The timbers were secured by ties
six feet apart, made to fit so tight as to require to be driven
* The exact date is not stated. Judge Wilkeson’s narrative shows it to have
been some time prior to May 20th, 1820. The earliest step towards opening the
mouth of Buffalo Creek appears to have been a meeting held at Pomeroy’s
tavern, Nov. 15, 1816, but no immediate work seems to have been done. Until
Judge Wilkeson and his associates opened the channel, sailing vessels, unless of
very light draft, had to lie half a mile or more off the port, or drop down
below the Black Rock rapids to find anchorage.190	THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
home with a sledge, and were bored with a two-inch auger
ready for the trunnels, which were two feet long, and made
of the best oak or hickory. The timbers were marked and
numbered, so that when required for use, they could be
taken apart, floated out to their place, and put together in an
hour, even in ten feet of water, and secured with stone the
same day.
The manner of constructing the pier is thus particularly
described, as it so effectually secured the timbers together,
that when the west end of the pier was undermined by the
high winds §of the creek and turned over, so that the side be-
came the top, not a stick was separated. After the preva-
lence of a west wind for several days, the water became
smooth, but it rained severely and the workmen justly
claimed exemption from labor. To be interrupted by swells
in fair weather, and by the rain when the lake was smooth,
would never answer. Every day’s experience admonished
the company of the necessity of economizing their means,
and it was already feared that the funds provided would
prove insufficient for the object to be accomplished. A new
contract was, therefore, made with the workmen, by which
their wages were raised $2 a month, in consideration of their
working in rainy days; aifd from that time until the harbor
was completed, the work was prosecuted without regard to
the weather. This arrangement however, did not much in-
crease the exposure either of the men engaged on the work
or of those employed in delivering stone, which was prin-
cipally obtained on the reefs under water. In loading the
scows with brush on the beach of the lake, and in moving
timbers from the beach to the pier, the men were forced to
be in the water, in order to perform their work in the least
possible time.
Neither clerk nor other assistant, not even a carpenter
to lay out the work, was employed for the first two months,
to aid the superintendent; who besides directing all the
labor, making contracts, receiving materials, etc., labored in
the water with the men, as much exposed as themselves, and
conformed to the rules prescribed to them of commencing
work at daylight^ and continuing until dark, allowing halfJUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.	191
an hour for breakfast, and an hour for dinner. Besides the
labors of the day, he was often detained until late at night
waiting the arrival of boats, to measure their loads of stone,
and to see them delivered in the pier, as without this vigil-
ance some of the boatmen would unload their stone into the
lake, which was easier than to deposit it in the pier.
After the pier was extended about 30 rods into the lake,
and settled as well as the limited time would allow, a car-
penter was employed at $r per day to superintend the raising
of the pier, from the surface of the water to its full height.
This was done by securing the timber in the manner already
described. As the work advanced into deep water, the bases
of the cribs were enlarged, and the cost of the work alarm-
ingly increased. It was resolved to suspend operations for
that year, on reaching seven and a half feet of water.
On the 7th of September, after the timber work was
completed, and while the pier was but partially filled with
stone, two small vessels came under its lee, and made fast.
Towards evening, appearances indicated a storm, and while
the superintendent and captains were deliberating whether
the vessels might not endanger the pier, and perhaps carry
away that part to which they were fastened, the gale com-
menced, rendering it impossible to remove the vessels other-
wise than by casting them loose, and letting them go on the
beach. This was proposed by the superintendent, and agreed
to by the captains, on condition that the safety of the pier
should appear to be endangered by the vessels. Both the
pier and the vessels, however, remained uninjured through
the storm, which was regarded as no mean test of the utility
and. permanency of the works. The pier, which at this time
extended 50 rods into the lake, was in a few days filled with
stone, and the operations upon it suspended for the season.
It may not be out of place here to name; the captains of
the two first vessels which found shelter in Buffalo harbor:
Austin and Fox. The former was an old Point Judith fish-
erman, who after spending most of his life on the ocean,
removed to the Vermilion River and settled on a farm; but
yielding to his yearning for the water, he built a small vessel,
of which he was captain, and his sons the crew, and engaged192
THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
in the lake trade. He was a shrewd, observing man, had
seen and examined many artificial harbors, and his advice
contributed much to the correct location and permanent con-
struction of Buffalo harbor. Fox, long known as a success-
ful captain on the lakes, took a deep interest in the construc-
tion of the work, and during the three years that it was in
progress, frequently aided by volunteering his own labor
and that of his crews. Trifling as this circumstance may ap-
pear, it gave at the time no small encouragement, and has
been gratefully remembered.
XII.
Progress—and Catastrophe. ♦
Although the pier had been successfully extended 900
feet, and was believed to be sufficiently strong to resist the
force of the waves, still it was but an experiment. The situa-
tion was the most exposed on the lake, and no similar work
had been constructed. Should the whole, of any consider-
able part of the work be destroyed by the gales of wind, or
by ice, the fund remaining would be insufficient to repair the
damage, and extend the work to the requisite distance to
make a harbor. Should the experiment on the pier prove
never so successful, a most difficult part of the plan for
forming a harbor was yet to be executed, and the more dif-
ficult because the expense would depend on contingencies
which the company could not control.
Buffalo Creek, in 1820, entered the lake about 60 rods
north of its present mouth, running for some distance nearly
parallel with the shore. A new channel had to be made
across the point of sand, which separates the creek from the
lake. This point was about 20 rods wide, and elevated about
seven feet above the lake. It was proposed to remove the
sand by scrapers to the level of low water, dam the mouth
of the creek by brush and stone, and trust to the action of aJUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.	193
spring flood to form a straight channel in a line with, and
near to, the pier. The scraping was commenced in Novem-
ber, by the voluntary labor of several of the citizens; but
instead of finding the point composed of fine sand, as had
been expected, when a few feet of the top was removed, a
heavy compact body of coarse gravel and small stones was
found, which, if removed by the current of the creek, in-
stead of being carried into deep water in the lake, would be
deposited to the leeward of the pier, in the place our channel
must be, and whence there was neither money nor machinery
to remove it. The scraping was therefore given up, and the
subject of forming a new channel, proving a very serious
one, laid over for further consideration, in the expectation
that some plan could be devised to overcome the seemingly
insurmountable difficulty.
The company had the satisfaction to see the fall gales
pass away without doing any damage to the pier, not even
removing a single timber, and it was loaded with so great a
body of ice, that no apprehension was entertained of damage
from the breaking up of the lake in the spring. Favorable
contracts were made during the winter for square timber,
and ties to complete the pier; and as it was sufficiently ex-
tended to protect the pile-driving scow, and as the use of this
machine would be important in farther prosecuting the work,
it was determined to finish it. A hammer and gearing, how-
ever, were wanting. These had been contracted for in Ohio,
but, owing to a misunderstanding, had not been received.
The iron gearing could be dispensed with, and a good sub-
stitute for a hammer was found in a United States mortar,
used during the last war, bi\t which had lost one of its
trunnions. After breaking off the other, two holes were
bored through the end for the staple by which to hoist it.
The ends of the staple projecting into the chamber were
bent, and the chamber itself filled with metal. Similar holes
were bored on each side, and two bars of iron between two
and three inches square firmly secured to act as guides. The
hollow part being filled with a hard piece of wood, cut off
even with the end, it proved to be an excellent hammer of
about 2,000 pounds weight. The machinery to raise the194
THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
hammer was of the cheapest and simplest kind, and worked
by a single horse.*
Before attempting the further extension of the pier, it
was resolved to attempt the formation of the new channel.
About the 20th of May, laborers were engaged, and the pile-
driver put in Operation. Two rows of piles six feet apart
were driven across the creek, in a line with the right bank
of the intended channel, and the space between these rows of
piles was filled with fine brush, straw, damaged hay, shav-
ings, etc. This material was pressed down by drift logs,
which were hoisted into their places by the use of the pile-
driver. On the upper side of the work, a body of sand was
placed, making a cheap and tolerably tight dam, by which
the creek could be raised about three feet. Then by breaking
the bank at the west end of the dam, a current was formed
sufficiently strong to remove about 15 feet of the adjoining
bank to the depth of eight feet. The success of the first ex-
periment was most gratifying. The dam was extended
across the new-made channel, and connected with the bank,
with the least possible delay, and every dam full of water let
off removed hundreds of yards of gravel, and deposited it
not only entirely out of the way, but at the same time filled
up the old channel.
While this plan was in successful operation, and when
the new channel had been pushed to within a few feet of the
lake, and the strongest hopes were entertained, that by the
same process the sand and gravel even under the shoal water
of the lake could be removed, and the channel extended to
the end of the pier, and the harbor rendered immediately
available, the work was arrested by one of the most extraor-
dinary rises of the lake perhaps- ever witnessed. About
seven o’clock in the morning, the lake being entirely calm,
the water suddenly rose, and by a single swell swept away
the logs that secured the materials in the dam, broke away
* This old mortar, which for many years stood in the sidewalk at the corner
of Main and Dayton streets, was long owned by A. P. Yaw, and later by George
R. Potter, from whose family it passed into the custody of the Buffalo His-
torical Society, which placed it, suitably inscribed, in Lafayette Square, facing
the Public Library, where it may now be seen, one of the city’s most interesting
relics.JUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.
195
the dam on the east side, wholly destroyed the west end
which was made of plank, and left the whole a total wreck.
A more discouraging scene can scarcely be imagined.
The pile-driving scow, without which the damage could not
be repaired, narrowly escaped destruction. The blind horse
which worked the pile-driver, was thrown from his platform
on the scow, and swimming in his accustomed circle, came
near drowning. All the lumber, timber, piles prepared for
use, with the boats, scows, and every floating article within
the range of the swell, were swept from their places and
driven up the creek. It was afterwards ascertained that an
extraordinary vein of wind had crossed the lake a few miles
above this place, and proceeding eastward, prostrated the
timber in its course, and marked its way with fearful de-
struction. This was supposed to have caused the swell re-
ferred to.
XIII.
Nature helps make a New Channel.
After securing the scows, boats and lumber which had
been put afloat, the condition of the dam was examined.
About 30 feet of the east end was entirely gone, and the in-
jury to other parts was greater than was at first anticipated.
Before the examination was completed a northeast, wind
commenced blowing, accompanied by a heavy rain, and ap-
pearances indicated its continuance. Although a flood had
been wished for, to aid in deepening and widening the new
channel, yet the disastrous accident which had just occurred,
destroyed the only means of controling it, and turning it to
account. A freshet then, might open the old channel, or
perhaps enlarge the new one in a wrong direction, and even
tindermine the pier. It was, therefore, resolved to repair
the damage if possible. The pile-driver was put in operation
to restore the breach at the east end of the dam, and the men
set to work to collect materials; but the rain increasing,
and the weather being uncommonly cold, it was soon dis-196	THE. HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
covered that without a large additional force the dam could
not be so far repaired as to resist the flood, which might be
expected within 24 hours. The recent disaster and the im-
portance of immediate help was communicated to the citi-
zens, a large number of whom, notwithstanding the rain fell
in torrents, repaired to the dam. They were distributed in
parties, some getting brush, others collecting logs, some
placing the materials in the dam, while others aided in work-
ing the pile-driver. Their labor was continued during the
day except a few minutes’ relaxation for dinner, which con-
sisted of bread and beer, and was taken standing in the rain.
Without this help of the citizens, it would have been im-
possible to make the necessary repairs on the dam; with it
and by continuing the labor of the harbor workmen by torch-
light until late at night, all was done that human effort could
do to prepare for the flood. The men retired to rest, after
having been exposed to the rain, cold and water, for more
than 12 hours. Besides securing the dam, a few piles had
been driven in the lake across the line of the proposed
channel in about five feet of water, against which several
large sycamore logs were secured by chains, and loaded with
stone. This was done with the view of protecting the pier,
and turning the current, and with it the sand and gravel,
down the lake out of the way of the harbor.
The rain having continued through the night, in the
morning the flood was magnificent. The strong northeast
wind which had prevailed for nearly 24 hours had lowered
the lake two or three feet, and added much to the effect of
the water in forming a new channel. The barrier erected ,
had produced the desired effect; the gravel removed out of
the new channel was carried down the lake, and. in fact the
whole operation was so favorable, that it seemed as though
Providence had directed this flood in aid of the great work
in forming a harbor. The breaking up of the dam had dis-
heartened the men, and their extraordinary efforts to repair
the damage had exhausted them; but a day’s rest, and wit-
nessing the triumphant success of the plan for opening a
channel, restored them to cheerfulness. The doubts and
fears that were entertained of ultimate success in making aJUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.
197 •
harbor, were dissipated. When the freshet had subsided, it
was found that the average width of the new channel was
about 90 feet at the bottom, and for the first 12 rods it was
as deep as the creek, and nowhere less than five feet, fur-
nishing a straight channel. The quantity of sand and gravel
that had been removed by the agency of the water in 24
hours, was nearly or quite 20,000 yards, to remove which by
artificial means would have required a greater amount of
money than all the harbor fund.
From this time, small vessels could enter and depart
from Buffalo harbor without interruption, and the entry of
two or three small vessels in a day, excited more interest
then, than the arrival of a hundred large vessels and boats
would now.
Much yet remained to be done. The lines of piles in ex-
tension of a dam were continued, and filled up with brush
and stone, intended to form a permanent margin for the
north bank of Buffalo Greek. This work was extended 46
rods from the east bank of the creek, the dam was strength-
ened, the number of men increased, and the preparations
made for recommencing the pier. On a careful examination
and measurement of the water, it was found that the pier,
if extended in the direction of that already built, would re-
quire to be carried much further than had been anticipated.
The calculation of the company as to the length of the pier,
had been predicated on the survey of Mr. Peacock,' and the
fact was not known to them, that the water had fallen after
the time that survey was made. This discovery was the
more embarrassing, as the company had become satisfied
that they would be unable with the fund provided, to com-
plete the pier, even to the extent at first contemplated, and it
had been resolved to apply to the citizens for aid, which was
subsequently done. Scrip was issued, entitling the bearer
to a pro rata interest in the harbor. Over $1,000 of this
scrip was disposed of, for a small part of which cash was
received, but the greater part was received in goods, etc.
However small this sum may appear at this day, it was then
deemed very liberal, and it gave Judge Townsend, who198	THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
negotiated this matter, no little trouble to raise even that
amount.
For the sums thus advanced, no consideration was ever
received by the holders of this scrip, and perhaps some of
them, to whom no explanation has been made, may have
felt themselves aggrieved. For the satisfaction of such, it
may be well here to state how this business was closed. The
act of the Legislature creating the Buffalo Harbor Company,
and making the loan, provided that if the Legislature did
not . accept the harbor, it should be, and remain, the property
of the company, and that the Canal Commissioners should
settle the rate of tolls to be paid by all boats and vessels en-
tering it. The issue of the scrip was predicated on this pro-
vision; and it was believed that if, the state accepted the
harbor, they would willingly pay the extra cost of its con-
struction, over and above the loan of the $12,000 (which
was to be cancelled). This no doubt would have been done
but for the provision of a law passed in the spring of 1822,
entitled “An act for encouraging the construction of harbors
at Buffalo and Black Rock.” This act provided to pay the
two harbor companies, Buffalo and Black Rock, each $12,000
on completing their harbors, thus limiting the sum to the
amount already loaned to the Buffalo Harbor Company, and
cutting off all hope of remuneration from the state, for any
amount that might be expended beyond that sum.
The object to be attained by this singular law, is con-
nected with the history of another subject, which may yet
be given to the public, and which will disclose the reason
why the Canal Commissioners declined to accept the harbor
for the state. The company could not retain the harbor
as private property, and impose tolls on vessels entering
it, without driving the business to a rival port. Applica-
tion was, therefore, made in the spring of 1825 to the Legis-
lature, which passed a resolution to cancel the bonds and
mortgages given to secure the loan, but refused to allow the
claim for the additional sum expended; which sum included
not only the money received for the scrip, but several hun-
dred dollars advanced by Townsend, Forward and Wilke-
son, besides contributions by other individuals.JUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON,
199
XIV.
The First Lake Harbor—Two Characters.
After ascertaining the distance to which it would be
necessary to extend the pier, and estimating the cost of com-
pleting it, the continuous line was abandoned, and it was re-
solved to lay down a pier 200 feet long, several rods south
and west of the pier already built, but in the same direction.
This pier would form, the western termination of the harbor,
and was to be connected with the other by two lines of piles
eight feet apart. As these lines of piles would be at right
angles with the course of the waves, it was believed the
work would be sufficiently permanent, and would furnish a
good and cheap substitute for a pier. Both pile-driving and
pier work were commenced, and prosecuted with a vigor
and economy suited to the scanty funds of the company.
It was found much more difficult to erect piers in 10 or
12 feet of water, than in the more shallow water in which
they were put down the preceding year. In attempting to put
down the first crib which was to form the eastern end of the
block; in about 10 feet of water, the current was found so
strong that it was impossible to keep the brush in line on
which to place the crib. To obviate this difficulty, piles were
driven 10 feet apart on the north line of the proposed pier.
This not only secured the brush, but served as a guide in
putting down the cribs, which for this block were 40 feet
long, 20 feet wide at the bottomland 18 at the surface of
the water. In addition to the plan adopted for strengthening
the cribs the preceding year, braces of oak timber, three by
six inches, and extending from the bottom to the top of the
crib, were let into the timbers composing the windward side
of each crib, and secured by spikes, as the crib was put
down. The quantity of brush was also increased. Two
large scow loads were used as a bed for each crib. These,
besides securing the crib from being undermined, aided by
their elasticity in resisting the force of the swells.
A slight rise in the creek about the middle of July, en-
couraged a hope that by a temporary contraction of the200	THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
channel, it might be deepened. About 50 of the citizens
volunteered their aid for a day, and a foot of additional
depth was gained.
One difficulty attending the pier work was that of pro-
curing a supply of stone. About 20 cords were required
for each crib, but little of which could be put in until the
crib was all put together, and this quantity could not always
be obtained at the time it was wanted. The loose stone
easily raised from the reefs near the harbor, had already
been used, and now stone had to be brought from the
Canada shore. Boats were scarce, the price paid for stone
was so low (only about $3 per cord), and the quantity re-
quired so small, that there was no encouragement to build
suitable boats, and those used were the frailest kind, and
liable every day to fail.
The pile work proved to be a tedious and difficult job.
An average of 100 strokes of the hammer were required for
each pile. The interruption from the swells made it. neces-
sary to work at night during calm weather. The pile work
was at length completed, but when secured in the best
manner that could be devised, was a very imperfect barrier
to the swell, and a very poor substitute for a pier. The
swells during gales of wind had removed some of the stones
out of the first"pier; these were recovered, the pier filled up,
and covered by ties six inches apart let into the top timbers,
and secured by trunnels. The outer pier was also filled with
some stone and covered in the same way, and 50 cords of
stone were deposited on the windward side for its greater
security.
Thus was completed the first work of the kind ever con-
structed on the lakes. It had occupied 221 working days in
building (the laborers always resting on the Sabbath), and
extended into the lake about 80 rods to 12 feet of water. It
was begun, carried on and completed principally by three
private individuals, some of whom mortgaged the whole of
their real estate to raise the means for making an improve-
ment in which they had but a common interest. And now,
although but 20 years have elapsed, these sacrifices and ef-
forts, and even the fact that such a work ever existed, areJUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.	.	201
unknown to most of the citizens of Buffalo, who have only
seen the magnificent stone pier erected at a cost of over
$200,000. But should the names of those who projected and
constructed the first pier be remembered, for a few years,
yet the subordinate actors by whose faithful labors the
drudgery of this work was accomplished, must remain un-
known even to those who enjoy the immediate fruits of their
labor in wealth and luxury. Their names would be inserted
here, but that the time-book being kept with pencil, and
having been frequently wet, has become in part illegible.
Simon and Clark Burdock and Charles,^Ayres, deserve
special notice, and should either of these men, or any of the
others engaged on the work, wish to take passage on the
lake, it is hoped that any steamboat captain hailing from
Buffalo, would give them a free passage. There is a debt
of gratitude due to the laborers on Buffalo harbor for their
extraordinary faithfulness. They were all farmers, or sons
of farmers from the adjoining country, whose necessity for
money brought them from their homes. Some of them en-
gaged at the commencement of the work, and were never
absent from it a day until it was finished; and such were
their steady habits, that but one case of intoxication oc-
curred, and not a single instance in which a jar or misunder-
standing proceeded to blows. The laborers either indi-
vidually or as a company never shrunk from exposure, nor
hesitated to turn out at night when required, and their work
was performed with such faithfulness that not a single tim-
ber was lost from the pier.
The company were equally fortunate in their boatmen.
The two stone contractors contributed much to the success-
ful prosecution and completion of the harbor, often running
their boats at night when stone was required; and in more
than one instance, their extraordinary exertions preserved
portions of the work from destruction, and saved the com-
pany from great loss. Sloan and Olmstead were the names
of these hard-weather men—and those only who have ex-
perienced the difficulties of making improvements in a new
country, with means and facilities wholly inadequate to the202
THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
object to be accomplished, can justly appreciate the worth
of such men.
James Sloan was first known as a salt boatman on Niag-
ara River in 1807 or ’8*; was a hand on board the boat Inde-
pendence, and had only left her the day before she, with all
on board, was carried over the Niagara falls.t He was a lake
boatman until some time after the commencement of the
war. He volunteered in various hazardous expeditions
was one of the party who cut out the brig Adams at Fort
Erie. He commanded the ammunition boat during the siege
of that fort, and had several marvelous escapes from shot
and rockets. After the war he removed to the West, but
returned shortly before the commencement of the Buffalo*
harbor, and took as deep interest in the progress of the work
as if it had been his own private business. He has been rich
and poor several times, and has endured more fatigue and
performed more labor than most men of his age. Few per-
sons know so much of men and things generally as he does,,
and no one is more liberal, benevolent and honest.
N. K. Olmstead, though quite a different character from
Sloan, was a man of unusual muscular power and remark-
able courage and resolution. He was a citizen of Buffalo*
before the war. His property had been burnt by the British,
and when peace was concluded between the two Govern-
ments, not considering himself a party to the treaty, he de-
termined to make reprisals. In pursuance of this determina-
tion, he soon managed to get a contract to transport, from
Chippewa to Fort Erie, British army stores, among which
were several kegs of specie. He brought his load to the
American side of the river,, and hid the goods and money,
waiting a favorable opportunity to remove then?. The boat-
men stole a part, and the vigilance of the officers who made
pursuit recovered most of the balance. Olmstead retired
from the frontier for a time, but in 1819 returned to Buffalo.
When the harbor was commenced, he engaged as a stone-
* Certainly not prior to 1808, and apparently not before 1810. See Capt-
Sloan’s own reminiscences, in this volume.
f In 1810. In crossing to Chippewa with a load of salt, she filled and sunk,,
her captain and two of the crew being carried over the falls. A third man:
clung to an oar and was rescued by a small boat from Chippewa.JUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.	203
boatman, and in the varied and severe labor required upon
the work, perhaps no man in the country could have equaled
him. After stones became scarce upon the reef, all the
other boats resorted to the Canada shore, where they were
abundant.
Olmstead soon ventured to go over. The first few trips
he carried a loaded pistol and a fish spear, but not being
molested his apprehensions ceased. He was admonished not
to risk himself, but he continued his trips, and perhaps
would not have been noticed but for his resisting a demand
made by the deputy collector for a clearance fee of 50 cents
each load. Soon afterwards he was seized and hurried on
board a large boat, which immediately put out for Chip-
pewa. It was not deemed necessary to confine him. There
was a small skiff in tow with a paddle in it. Olmstead re-
solved to possess himself of it, and make for the American
shore, resolved to risk going over the falls rather than re-
main a prisoner. When taken he had concealed his jack-
knife in his shoe, which he got ready for use, and when the
boat was near Chippewa sprang on board the skiff, cut the
fast, and pushed his skiff into the current. Using his paddle,
he directed his course to the American shore. By extra-
ordinary efforts he made one of the Grass islands, where he
rested, got out of the skiff and towed it up the river as fast
as he could wade, expecting that a boat would put out from
the American side for his relief; but none appearing, and
discovering one putting out from the Chippewa side in pur-
suit, he took to his skiff, and succeeded in landing in Porter’s
mill-race, at the falls. The next morning he resumed his
work upon the harbor, to the no small gratification of the
workmen, with all of whom he was a great favorite.
XV.
Another Crisis.
The pier was completed, and the creek carried by a new
and straight, although shallow, channel into the lake. The204	THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
fact that the pier built in 1820 had endured the storms of one
winter uninjured, encouraged the company to believe that
the outer pier, although more exposed, would, by being
better secured, prove strong enough to resist the swells, and
in future protect the channel from the moving sands which
had yearly barred it up.
It was expected that the spring freshet would so widen
and deepen the channel as to permit the lake vessels and even
the Walk-in-the-Water (the only steamboat on the lake), to
enter safely. This boat had been built at Black Rock, and
run to that place, not ever touching at Buffalo; and the very
prospect of having a steamboat arrive and depart from Buf-
falo, was highly encouraging. But while anticipating these
benefits, the Walk-in-the-Water was driven on shore a short
distance above Buffalo, while on her last trip, in 1821, and
bilged. The engine, boilers and furniture were saved, and
there was no doubt that the steamboat company would build
a new boat, as they had purchased from Fulton’s heirs the
right to navigate by steam that portion of Lake Erie lying
within the state, which right was then deemed valid. The
citizens of Buffalo, without loss of time, addressed the di-
rectors of the company, presenting the advantages that
would accrue to them by building their boat at Buffalo. The
company, immediately on learning of their loss, made a con-
tract with Noah Brown & Brothers, of New York, to build
a boat at Buffalo, if it could be constructed as cheaply there
as at the Rock, and if there could be certainty of getting the
boat out of the creek.
Brown came on early in January, passing on to Black
Rock without even reporting himself in Buffalo, nor was
his arrival known here until he had agreed to build his boat
at the Rock, and engaged the ship-carpenters of that place
to furnish the timber. The Black Rock contractors, gratified
with their success, agreed to accommodate Brown by meet-
ing him at the Mansion House in Buffalo in the evening to
execute the contract, which was to be drawn by an attorney
in Buffalo, an acquaintance of Brown’s. The gentlemen
with their securities were punctual in their attendance.
As soon as it was known in Buffalo that the boat wasJUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.
205
to be built at the Rock, the citizens assembled in the bar-
room of the Mansion House, and after spending a few
minutes in giving vent to their indignation, it was resolved
•to have an immediate interview, with Brown (who was in
his parlor), and know why Buffalo had been thus slighted.
Perhaps he might yet be induced to change his mind, if the
contract were not already signed.
The landlord undertook to ascertain this fact and re-
ported that it was not yet executed. A delegate to wait on
Brown was chosen with little ceremony—there was no time
to give specific instructions. “Get the boat built here, and
we will be bound by your agreement.” The delegate had
never seen Brown, and on entering his parlor, had to intro-
duce himself. Tliis done he proceeded :
“Mr. Brown, why do you not build your boat at Buffalo,
pursuant to the wishes of the company ?”
“Why, sir, I arrived in your village while your people
were sleeping, and being obliged to limit my stay here to one
day, I thought to improve the early part of the morning by
commencing my inquiries at Black Rock, and consulting the
ship-carpenters residing there, who had aided in building the
Walk-in-the-Water. While there I was told that your har-
bor is all a humbug, and that if I were to build the boat in
Buffalo Creek, she could not be got into the lake in the
spring, and perhaps never. Besides, the carpenters refused
to deliver the timber at Buffalo. Considering the question
of where the boat should be built as settled, I proceeded to
contract for timber to be delivered, and shall commence
building the boat immediately at the Rock.”
“Mr.; Brown, our neighbors have done us great injury,
although they, no doubt, honestly believe what they have
said to you about our harbor. Under the circumstances, I
feel justified in making you a proposition, which will enable
you to comply with the wishes of the steamboat company,
and do justice to Buffalo, without exposing yourself to loss
or blame. The citizens of Buffalo will deliver suitable tim-
ber at a quarter less than it will cost you at the Rock, and
execute a judgment bond to pay to the steamboat company206
THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
$150 for every day’s detention of the boat in the ereek after
the first of May.”
“I accept the proposition. When will the papers be made
out ?”
“To-morrow morning. And if you wish it, a satisfactory
sum of money shall now be placed in your hands, to be for-
feited if the contract and bond are not executed.”
“This, sir, I do not require. I shall leave at 10 o’clock
this evening, and my friend Moulton will prepare the neces-
sary papers and see them executed.”
The judgment bond was signed by nearly all the re-
sponsible citizens, and the contract for the timber taken by
Wm. A. Carpenter, at the reduced price agreed on. To
comply with this contract both as to time and the quality of
timber, required no little energy and ^ood management, but
the contractor executed it to the satisfaction of all concerned.
Buffalo having completed a harbor, and established a
ship-yard, began to assume new life. Brighter prospects
opened, and it only remained to secure the termination of
the canal at this place, of which there was a fair prospect.
David Thomas, an engineer, in the employ of the Canal
Board, had been occupied the preceding summer in making
surveys preparatory to a location of the canal from the lake
to the mountain ridge. He had spent some time in examin-
ing the Niagara River, and Buffalo Creek and harbor. He
was known to be opposed to the plan of terminating the
. canal in an artificial basin at the Rock, and it was presumed
that he would report decidedly in favor of terminating the
canal in Buffalo Creek. This encouraged the citizens to
send an agent to Albany to represent to the president of the
Canal Board, DeWitt Clinton, the fact that a harbor had
been completed, and to urge the immediate extension of the
canal to Buffalo. This subject was considered by the board,
and the canal report of that year, 1823, contained their de-
cision in favor of Buffalo.
Although this decision was not unexpected, yet it oc-
casioned great rejoicing to the citizens, who, burnt out and
impoverished by the war, and disappointed in their just ex-
pectations of remuneration from the Government, had forJUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.
207
3^ears been battling manfully with adversity, cheered on by
hopes which were now about to be realized.
While congratulating themselves on the prospect of still
better times, the expected flood came, and removing a large
body of sand and gravel, opened a wide and deep channel
from the creek to the lake. But unfortunately a heavy bank
of ice resting on the bottom of the lake, and rising several
feet above its surface, had been formed during the winter,
•extending from the west end of the pier to the shore. This
ice-bank arrested the current of the creek, forming an eddy
alongside of the pier, into which the sand and gravel re-
moved by the flood were deposited, filling up the channel for
the distance of over 300 feet, and leaving a little more than
three feet of water where, before the freshet, there was an
average of four and a half feet. This disaster was more
vexatious, as it might have been prevented by a few hours
of well-directed, labor in opening even a small passage
through the bank of ice. It was attempted to open a chan-
nel through the ice by blasting, but this proving ineffectual,
no other means were tried, and it was now feared that the
predictions of our Black Rock neighbors were about to be
realized.
This obstruction of the harbor produced not only dis-
couragement but consternation. A judgment bond had been
executed, which was a lien upon a large portion of the real
estate of the village for the payment of $150 per day, from
and after the 1st of May, until the channel could be suf-
ficiently opened to let the steamboat pass into the lake. The
payment of this sum, which for the summer would amount
to at least $24,000, could only be avoided by removing the
deposit. To form a channel even eight rods wide and nine
feet deep would require the removal of not less than 6,000
yards of gravel, for which work there was neither an ex-
cavator, nor time, skill or money to procure one. The
superintendent of the harbor was absent. As soon as the
news of the disaster reached him he hastened home, and
arriving about the middle of March, a meeting of the citi-
zens concerned was called. It was resolved immediately to
attempt the opening of the channel, and a subscription was208	THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
proposed to defray the expense which was estimated at
$1,600. The subscription went heavily; only about $300
were obtained. Although all were deeply interested, some
believed that the duty of removing the obstruction devolved
on the harbor company, others had no confidence in the plan
of operations proposed, and with many who would cheer-
fully have contributed, it was difficult to raise money. But
without waiting to see how the means was to be provided,
preparations were made for commencing the work next
morning.
XVI.
Fruition—And an Excursion.
About 25 laborers were immediately collected, the pile-
driver prepared for use, and a line of piles driven, 200 feet
from the pier, on the north side of that part of the channel
which was obstructed. Two harbor-scows were made fast
to these piles, and a platform of timber and plank extended
over them. Four capstans were set-up. in these scows about
20 feet apart, and each rising a sufficient distance above the
platform to receive four bars, eight feet long. While this
was in preparation, scrapers were formed of a single oak
plank, eight feet long and 20 inches wide, the lower edge
bevelled and faced with a thin bar of iron. ♦They were fin-
ished like the common scrapers used by the farmers in im-
proving and smoothing the roads, with the addition of iron
braces, and a rod of iron through the scraper near the lower
edge, which passed through the pole or scantling by which
it was drawn. On the. upper end of the brace was a screw
to regulate the scraper, which was loaded with iron to sink
it, and connected by a strong rope with the windlass. A
rope attached to the back part of the scraper, and extending
to the pier, completed the simple machinery with which it
was proposed to remove the gravel. Two men stationed on
the pier could, by the small ropes, pull back the four scrapers-
as fast as they could be drawn home by the men at the four
windlasses, each of which was worked by four men at theJUDGE SAMUEL WILKES ON.	209
levers, and one to handle the rope. The men could work
dry, but the labor was excessively exhausting. The experi-
ment succeeded admirably, and other capstans were pre-
pared for use. The weather the first three days proved
favorable, and the heavy unbroken body of ice which cov-
ered the lake, prevented all interruptions from the waves.
The progress made in removing the sand was most en-
couraging, and there appeared no doubt that by increasing
the scrapers the channel could be opened before the ist of
May. But to effect this the work must be continued every
working, day without regard to the weather. Piles were put
down, and a raft of timber substituted for scows on which
to erect more capstans. Saturday night came and the work-
men were dismissed until Monday morning. During the
night a heavy gale set in, and increased >in violence until
about noon on the Sabbath when the ice began to break up,
and the lake to rise. Soon the ice was in motion, and driv-
ing in from the lake, was carried up the creek with such
for£e as to destroy the scows and all the fixtures. The pile-
driver, being securely fastened by strong rigging to the
piles, it was hoped would remain safe, but the fasts gave
way, and it was driving towards shore where it could
scarcely escape destruction. As the breaking up of the ice
would make it impossible to work the capstan on rafts, put
in motion by the swell to which they would be exposed,
scaffolds raised out of the way of the water must be sub-
stituted, and these could not possibly be built without piles.
It was, therefore, all-important to save the pile-driver. It
was saved by the extraordinary exertions of two individuals
who (making their way to it by the aid of two boards each,
which they pushed forward alternately over the floating ice
agitated by the swells), succeeded in fastening it with a
* hawser to a pile near which it was floating. This was not
done without imminent hazard to the men, who, several
times losing their position on the board," came near being
crushed by the moving mass of ice.
The scow being secured, the anxious and disheartened
citizens and workmen retired to their homes.
Any community less inured to disappointments and ad-210-	the historical writings of
versity would now have given up in despair. The very
elements seemed to have conspired against them. The gale
was frightful, and in the afternoon was accompanied by a
heavy fall of snow; the water was high, and ice driving
with violence on to the flats.
Monday morning the wind had subsided, but the weather
was cold and still stormy. A general meeting of the citizens'
was convened, to whom the superintendent stated the extent
of the damage, the probable time it would take to repair it,
the amount of funds requisite to complete the work, and his
entire confidence in ultimate success. He, however^ refused
to resume the work until sufficient funds were provided. As
the liability to pay $150 a day would soon attach, the im-
portance of a united and speedy effort was more sensibly
felt. The meeting was fully attended, not only by those who
were liable on the bond, but by many young mechanics and
others. Dr. Johnson, John G. Camp and Dr. Chapin, were
chosen a committee to obtain and collect subscriptions.
The following is a list of the names and sums subscribed:
Ebenezer Johnson, in	Moses Baker, in labor or
goods at cash price,... .$110.00		blacksmith work, 	$ 50.00	
Sylvester Mathews, in		John Root,			25.00
bread,		25.00	Jabez Goodell, in labor,	
James Reed, 					12.50	provisions, &c, 			25,00
Elisha Williams, in labor		H. M. Campbell, in hats	
or goods, by H. B. Pot-		or labor, 				25.00
ter, 			50.00	Hart & Cunningham, in	
Wm. Mason, in beef, .. .	5.00	goods		50.00
Joseph Stocking, 		25.00	Sheldon Chapin, in goods,	50.00
S. G. Austin,		12.50	J. D. Hoyt, in boots and	
G. & T. Weed, (including		shoes,				50.00
subscription a few days		A. James, in goods, .....	
since) donated,		20.00	P. G. Jenks,		5-00
O. Newberry, 		20.00	R. B. Heacock & Co,	
Ezekiel Folsom, in meat		horse $15, goods $35, ..	50.00
from the market,		12.50	Thomas Quigly, in labor,	12.50
Samuel Wilkeson,		100.00	Timothy Page, 		5.00
Townsend & Coit		100.00	Thomas More, 				2.00
H. B. Potter, cash $50,		Martin Daley, in labor,..	6.25
brick $25, 			75.00	A. Bryant, in goods and	
E. F. Norton,			50.00	clothing, 		50.00JUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.
211
H. R. Seymour, .........$
Nathaniel Vosburgh, in
saddlery, ...........
F. B. Merrill, in labor, . .
John E. Marshall, ......
D. M. Day,...............
Thomas C. Love,.........
John G. Camp, in cash
and labor,........... .
William Ketchum, $20
cash, $30 in hats,...
John A. Lazell,.........
Lucius Gold, in labor, ...
Samuel A. Bigelow, in
goods or labor,......
Wm. Folsom, in labor, ..
Selden Davis, ..........
William Hodge, in labor
or materials, .........
Velorus Hodge, in work
or materials, .........
Benjamin Hodge, in lum-
ber, ...................
William Long, a ' certain
brown cow with a white
head, to be appraised
by commissioners of
Harbor Association, . .
Roswell Rosford, in prod-
uce or provisions, ....
The subscriptions amounted to $1,361.25, exclusive of
the cow and pork, the whole of which was paid except $110.
The provisions and goods were paid to the workmen without
loss, but on much of the other property (which was sold at
auction), there was an average loss of about 37per cent.
The means being secured to prosecute the work, the
laborers were called together, and the afternoon of Monday
was spent in collecting from the wreck, scrapers, capstans,
rigging, etc., and preparing to resume the work. The
weather was as uncomfortable as it well could be. Indeed,
from the commencement of the gale until the middle of
April, there were but two days without snow or rain.
50.00
12.50
25.00
25.00
12.50
25.00
50.00
50.00
25.00
50.00
25.00
25.00
5.00
25.00
5-oo
5.00
5.00
W. W. Chapin, m team
work, ..................$ 10.00
Z. Platt, .................. 6.25
E. Walden, in goods, .. . 100.00
J. Guiteau, in labor or
cash, ................... 12.50
Cyrenius Chapin,......... 100.oo
James Demarest, in sad-
dlery, ................... 5.00
D. Henion, 100 lbs. of
pork when called for,. .
W. T. Miller, in fresh
meat at market in Buf-
falo village, ............. 50.00
Zachariah Griffin, 10 bar-
rels of lime to be de-
livered in Buffalo, ....	6.25
Alvin Dodge; in team
work and manual labor, 10.00
H. A. Salisbury, in prod-
uce and hats,..........:.	12.50
Hiram Pratt, in goods, ..	25.00
Erastus Gilbert, in shoes
and boots,..............  25.00
Erastus Gilbert, bbl. of
pork, ................... 10.00
Erastus Gilbert, cash,?...	2.50
Oliver Coit, one crow-bar
$3, cash $5, ............. 8.00
Joseph Dart, Jr., in hats, 10.00
Benjamin Caryl, in pork, 25.00212	THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
Tuesday morning two rows of piles were put down, on
which to erect platforms in place of scows and rafts, which
had been destroyed. These platforms were raised several
feet above the water to protect the workmen from the spray
of the swells which broke against the piles. Six scrapers
were got in motion during the day, and notwithstanding the
laborers were exposed to a heavy rain, rapid progress was
made in removing the sand. Although the heavy swells,
which continued to roll in from the lake, rendered it dif-
ficult to keep the empty scrapers in line, yet they carried the
sand, removed from the channel, towards the shore, and
prevented its accumulation.
The necessity of improving all the time was such, that
the laborers were required to breakfast in season to appear
on the beach by sunrise ready to be carried out to the plat-
forms. Cooked provisions were taken with them for dinner,
which each man ate when he pleased, standing in the storm.
They continued their work without returning to the shore
until dark. The labor was so hard, and the exposure so
great, that it was difficult to obtain the necessary help; in-.
deed it would have been impossible but for the labor fur-
nished by the citizens, many of whom sent their hired men
for a day or more until their places could be supplied.
The excavation commenced near the outer end of the
pier, and progressed towards the shore, deepening the chan-
nel to eight feet. By the 15th of April much more than half
of the work was accomplished, and every doubt as to the
practicability of completing it removed.
The steamboat was rapidly advancing to completion.
The builder (who from the first had despaired of seeing the
channel opened by the means resorted to) on examining the
work and measuring the water in the yet obstructed part of
the channel, pronounced the whole scraping process useless,
and proposed that the channel of the creek should be con-
fined by planks, extending from the shore into deep water,
believing that the water thus confined would produce a cur-
rent which would soon do what the scrapers could never do
—open a good channel. These opinions and plans, com-
municated to the citizens, created a feverish excitement,JUDGE SAMUEL WILKESON.
213
which the superintendent had no opportunity to allay, as he
was confined to the work.
The committee which had been charged with the duty of
raising the fund for carrying on the work, deemed them-
selves entitled to direct its expenditure. A majority of them
(influenced by the boat-builder) insisted on the immediate
construction of the board fence (for such in fact it was),
which he had suggested. Piles supplying the place of posts,
and planks sharpened at one end and driven into the sand,
the upper end spiked to a rail, were to form the whole of this
proposed structure. And such was the confidence in its suc-
cess, that it was with difficulty the committee could be pre-
vailed on to let the scraping be continued.
The board work was put down in two days, and proved,
as was anticipated by the superintendent, to be totally use-
less. A heavier swell than usual setting in, broke it up and
removed it out of the way. The scraping then was relied
on as the only hope of opening a passage for the boat, which
would be ready in a few days to leave the creek.
Although the weather became good the latter part of
April, and the work was prosecuted with the utmost dili-
gence, yet the 1st of May came while there was still a few
rods of the channel, in which only about six and a half feet
of water had been gained. As considerable work yet re-
mained to be done on the boat, and no loss or inconvenience
could accrue to the owners in allowing a few days to deepen
the channel, yet no time could be obtained. The boat, was
put in motion, and fortunately the pilot, Captain Miller,
having made himself acquainted'with what channel there
was, ran her out into the lake without difficulty. The bond
was cancelled! The boat was, however, light; and when
fully loaded would require much more water. The scrap-
ing was, therefore, continued.
When the boat was finished, the citizens were invited to
take an excursion on the lake. It was feared that if the boat
should be deeply loaded with passengers, she would ground
in the new-made channel. Although this would be a trifling
occurrence in itself, yet circumstances had recently occurred
which led them to regard the experiment with the deepest214
THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS OF
anxiety. An act had passed a few days before, authorizing
the canal board to contract for the construction of a harbor
at Black Rock, which if completed* might secure the termin-
ation of the canal at that place, and supercede Buffalo har-
bor. The subject was to be acted on by the canal board in a
few days, and even so trifling an incident as the ground-
ing of a steamboat might influence their decision, and de-
prive Buffalo of the fruits of all her toils and exertions in
building a harbor.
An effort was, therefore, made either to postpone the
steamboat excursion, or limit the number of passengers, but
in vain. Neither the captain, nor a majority of the citizens,
could appreciate the solicitude of the few. The whole vil-
lage crowded on board, and the boat grounded. This was
the more mortifying, as many of our Black Rock friends
were on board, who had always predicted our failure. But
after a few minutes’ delay in landing some of the people on
the pier, the boat moved forward, went alongside of the pier,
took on the passengers, and proceeded up the lake, with
bugles sounding and banners flying.
Note.—The name of George Coit, Judge Wilkeson explains in a note, was
omitted merely by oversight from the list of those who shared in the expense
and responsibilities of the harbor undertaking.
It is natural that there should have been strong personal and' political
animosities engendered by the issues of Judge Wilkeson’s day. Elijah D. Efner
has related-the political differences by which he lost the friendship of Judge
Wilkeson, “to account for his omitting my name in all his ‘Harbor Reports,’
notwithstanding I was the largest individual subscriber to indemnify the stock-
holders of the steamboat Superior for any loss they might sustain on account of
not getting the boat out of Buffalo Creek, after it was built, if they would con-
sent to build it here instead of# Black Rock. The boat was built here, and we,
the subscribers to the bond, were assessed pro rata to open the channel, in ad-
dition to which I gave my own services, working in the water up to my waist,
as laborers could not be obtained. I put this on paper, because the old .citizens
who were witnesses to what I state are fast passing away.”—The Adventures
and Enterprises of Elijah D. Efner, Buffalo Historical Society Publications,
Vol. IV., p. 42.
In the spring of 1820 Buffalo’s newspaper, the Niagara Patriot, was an ar-
dent supporter of Daniel D. Tompkins for Governor. Judge Wilkeson was a
Clintonian; which induced the Patriot to permit one “Slocumb” to publish the
following humorous skit in its columns (April 25, 1820) :	“Judge Wilkeson is
now fitting out a small schooner he has, to be ready in case Gov. Clinton loses
his election, to start up the lake—probably to make a settlement on the ground
where Tecumseh was killed. His ship’s officers, we understand, are selected—
J. Sheldon acts as boatswain, Crary as cook (an old occupation), and J. W.
Moulton as cabin boy. Success to them.” But Clinton was elected, no doubt
to the chagrin of the Patriot and the satisfaction of Judge Wilkeson and his
friends.
♦