History of Buffalo

Origin of name

It is a well known fact that the City of Buffalo received its name from the creek of the same name, however, there are several unproven theories as to the origin of the name of the creek. Early French explorers reported the abundance of Buffalo on the south shore of Lake Erie but their presence on the banks of Buffalo Creek is still a matter of debate, so the origin of the name of the creek is still uncertain. Neither the Native American name (”Place of the Basswoods”) or the French name (”River of Horses”) survived so the current name likely dates to the British occupation which began with the capture of Fort Niagara in 1759.

The first known appearance of the name was in 1764 in the Journal of British military engineer John Montressor who explored Buffalo Creek before choosing the site of Fort Erie on the opposite side of the Niagara River. Another claim is that the creek is named after a Native American, who once lived in that area. The argument that the name is an anglicized form of the name Beau Fleuve (beautiful river), which was supposedly an exclamation uttered by Louis Hennipin when he first saw the stream, is the least likely explanation.

Early history of Buffalo

Most of western New York was granted by Charles II of England to the Duke of York (later known as James II of England), but the first European settlement in what is now Erie County was by the French, at the mouth of Buffalo Creek in 1758. Its buildings were destroyed a year later by the evacuating French after the British captured Fort Niagara. The British took control of the entire region in 1763, at the conclusion of the French and Indian War.

The first permanent settlers in present day Buffalo were Cornelius Winney and “Black Joe” Hodges, who set up a log cabin store there in 1789 for trading with the Native American community. Dutch investors purchased the area as part of the Holland Land Purchase. Starting in 1801, parcels were sold through the Holland Land Company’s office in Batavia, New York. The settlement was initially called Lake Erie, then Buffalo Creek, soon shortened to Buffalo. Holland Land Company agent Joseph Ellicott christened it New Amsterdam, but the name did not catch on. In 1808, Niagara County, New York was established with Buffalo as its county seat. Erie County, New York was formed out of Niagara County in 1821, retaining Buffalo as the county seat.

The 19th century

Joseph Ellicott, a principal agent of the Holland Land Company, designed in 1804 a radial street and grid system that branches out from downtown like bicycle spokes, and is one of only three radial street patterns in the US. In 1810 the Town of Buffalo was formed from the western part of the Town of Clarence. On December 30, 1813, during the War of 1812, British troops and their Native American allies captured first the village of Black Rock, and then the rest of Buffalo and burned most of both to the ground. Buffalo gradually rebuilt itself and by 1816 had a new courthouse. In 1818 the eastern part of the town was lost to form the Town of Amherst.

Upon the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, Buffalo became the western end of the 524-mile waterway starting at New York City. At the time Buffalo had a population of about 2,400 people; with the increased commerce of the canal, the population boomed and Buffalo incorporated as a city in 1832. In 1853, Buffalo annexed Black Rock, which had been Buffalo’s fierce rival for the canal terminus. During the 19th century, thousands of pioneers to western United States debarked from canal boats to continue their journey out of Buffalo by lake or rail travel. During their stopover, many experienced the pleasures and dangers of Buffalo’s notorious Canal Street district.

Buffalo was a terminus of the Underground Railroad, an informal series of safe houses for Africans escaping slavery in the mid-19th century. Buffalonians helped many fugitives cross the Niagara River to Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada and freedom.

The presidential connection

Several U.S. presidents have connections with Buffalo. Millard Fillmore took up permanent residence in Buffalo in 1822 before he became America’s 13th president. He was also the first chancellor of the University of Buffalo, now known as SUNY University at Buffalo. Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th President of the United States, lived in Buffalo from 1854 until 1882, and served as Buffalo’s mayor from 1882-1883. William McKinley was shot by Leon Czolgosz on September 6, 1901 at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, and died in Buffalo on the 14th. Theodore Roosevelt was then sworn in on September 14th, 1901 at the Ansley Wilcox Mansion, now the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site, becoming one of the few presidents to be sworn in outside of Washington, D.C..

The 20th century

At the turn of the century, Buffalo was a growing city with a burgeoning economy. Immigrants came from Ireland, Italy, Germany, and Poland to work in the steel and grain mills which had taken advantage of the city’s critical location at the junction of the Great Lakes and the Erie Canal. Hydroelectric power harnessed from nearby Niagara Falls made Buffalo the first American city to have widespread electric lighting, yielding it yet another nickname, the “City of Lights.” Electricity was used to dramatic effect at the Pan-American Exposition in 1901. The Pan-American was also notable for being the scene of the aforementioned assassination of President William McKinley.

The opening of the Peace Bridge linking Buffalo with Fort Erie, Ontario on 7 August 1927 was an occasion for significant celebrations. Those in attendance included Edward, Prince of Wales (later to become Edward VIII of the United Kingdom), his brother Prince Albert George (later George VI), British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, Canada’s Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, US Vice President Charles G. Dawes, and New York governor Alfred E. Smith.

Buffalo ’s City Hall, an Art Deco masterpiece, was dedicated on July 1, 1932. It was the city’s tallest building until 1970.

The city’s importance declined in the late 20th Century for several reasons, perhaps the most devastating being the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1957. Goods which had previously passed through Buffalo could now bypass it using a series of canals and locks, reaching the ocean via the St. Lawrence River. Another major toll was suburban migration, a national trend at the time. The city, which boasted over half a million people at its peak, has seen its population decline by some 50 percent, as industries shut down and people left the Rust Belt for the employment opportunities of the South and West. The county of Erie has lost population in every census year since 1970. The city also has the dubious distinction of being one of the only American cities to have had fewer people in the year 2000 than in 1900.

There is a myth, propagated by a local newspaper following one of the Buffalo Bills’ four straight Super Bowl losses in the 1990s, that Buffalo suffers from the “Curse of McKinley” — that the city has been cursed by bad luck since President McKinley’s 1901 assassination and this explains why neither the Buffalo Bills or Sabres have been able to win a league championship. This myth doesn’t explain the city’s booming economy in the earlier part of the 20th century and why teams in America’s two other assassination-hosting cities, Washington, DC and Dallas, TX have both enjoyed major league championships.

The 21st Century

On July 3, 2003, at the climax of a fiscal crisis, Buffalo was taken over by the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority[4]. After a period of severe financial stress, Erie County, where Buffalo resides, followed the city in to insolvency and since July 12, 2005 operates under a Fiscal Stability Authority[5]. Both Authorities were established by New York State. In November of 2005, Byron Brown was elected Mayor of Buffalo. He is the first African-American to hold this office.