Emerald Thread: The Irish in Buffalo

by Timothy Bohen

Overview

Timothy Bohen's enlightening book tells the story of the Irish in Buffalo, beginning with some of the poorest, most wretched immigrants to wash up on American shores. Despite fierce bigotry from the Protestant establishment, they continued emigrating from Ireland to make Western New York their home. Within the few generations, these hardworking determined immigrants transformed the city and staked their claim in the American Dream.

Emerald Thread showcases hundreds of remarkable men and women who made an impact on the city and nation. The lively cast of characters ranges from Irish Erie Canal diggers to Mayor Jimmy Griffin, Tim Russert, General "Wild Bill" Donovan and NHL star Patrick Kane. Non-native Buffalonians connected to the Queen City are also profiled, including Buffalo Bills legend Jim Kelly.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780988691216
Publisher:	Bohane Books, LLC
Publication date:	10/28/2024
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Timothy Bohen is the author of Against the Grain: The History of Buffalo's First Ward. He has appeared on C-SPAN and in two PBS productions. Many of his Irish ancestors settled in Buffalo, some as early as 1849. Tim and his wife live in Buffalo's Elmwood Village.

Read an Excerpt

PIONEERS AND CANAL BUILDERS

Samuel Wilkeson—A King Among Men

While walking through the northwestern section of Buffalo's Forest Lawn Cemetery, visitors cannot miss a prominent pink obelisk on a hill next to a tall flagpole, surrounded by a black, wrought iron fence. Tourists often gather at the site, some taking photographs, for this is former U.S. President Millard Fillmore's final resting spot. He was the 13th president of the United States, and historians rate Fillmore's performance as mediocre at best. As a founder of numerous institutions in Buffalo, however, he was remarkable.

There are no crowds on the hill north of Fillmore's, in section K, just an occasional squirrel darting around. On that hill stands a nondescript granite obelisk, one side bearing the Latin inscription: Urbem Condidit—"He Built the City." This monument is the final resting place of Samuel Wilkeson, the "Father of Buffalo." Were it not for Wilkeson's efforts in building Buffalo's harbor, the city's history may have been drastically different. We begin our story about the Irish in Buffalo with him.

Samuel Wilkeson, born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1781, was the son of two immigrants from the north of Ireland who had settled in the United States in 1760. They were Scots Irish, part of the first wave of immigrants from Ireland who arrived in America before the start of the American Revolutionary War in 1775. John Wilkeson, Samuel's father, was forced to emigrate from Ireland because of a scarcity of farmland to divide among himself and his brothers. Over the next century and a half, thousands more Irish immigrants from the south and west of the Emerald Isle fled for the same reason. In addition to a shortage of land, the Scots Irish, usually Presbyterians, also fled Ireland because of religious discrimination from policies implemented by the British who ruled over Ireland at the time.

In the spring of 1784, when young Samuel was a small child, his parents, along with twenty other pioneering Scots-Irish families, traveled over the Allegheny Mountains on pack horses with all of their worldly possessions. After settling in the wilderness of western Pennsylvania, south of Pittsburgh, the Wilkesons erected a log cabin, plowed the virgin land, and began farming corn, potatoes, and flax.[i] While establishing their homesteads, these new settlers also contended with natural hardships, lack of supplies, and Native American raiding parties.[ii]

As a child, young Wilkeson attended school for a mere two weeks before starting work on the family farm. At age twenty-one, equipped with the lessons of resilience and hard work, Wilkeson set out on his own. He married Jane Oram, daughter of a Scots-Irish immigrant, and they eventually had six children—many of whom would later leave an imprint on Buffalo and beyond. Wilkeson built a farm and grist mill in southwestern Ohio, but the restless and ambitious son of immigrants was yearning for more. Around 1807, he moved his family to Chautauqua County, New York, and built a fleet of keel boats. With his vessels, he transported nails, glass, and bar iron on rivers from Pittsburgh to Lake Erie and then up the lake to the fledgling village of Buffalo. From there, he returned to Pittsburgh with boats loaded with salt.

One year after the start of the War of 1812 with Great Britain, U.S. General William Henry Harrison, a future president of the United States, commissioned Wilkeson to build a fleet of ships in northern Ohio to assist him with his impending invasion of Canada. The previous contractor had failed to deliver the needed boats, so Harrison implored Wilkeson to finish the job quickly. After hiring a team of carpenters to assist him, he built the fleet to specifications on time and did not disappoint the future president. Looking for another adventure, he immediately joined the Chautauqua militia and hurried to Buffalo to battle the British. Ultimately, it was a losing cause for the Americans: the British burned Buffalo to the ground. When Wilkeson and a companion returned to the charred village a few days later, they found nothing living except a cat prowling among the ruins. He returned home, however, satisfied that he had personally "slain a few of the enemy."[iii]

In April 1814, while the war against Britain was still raging, Wilkeson moved his family to Buffalo because his instincts told him this was the place to make his fortune. After loading a lake boat with the framing and roof for a store, as well as materials for a house, the Wilkesons relocated to the small village on the eastern end of Lake Erie. He constructed his shop at the corner of Main and Niagara Streets in Buffalo and his residence nearby. After the war ended in 1815, unemployed American soldiers from the campaign encamped unlawfully in Buffalo, becoming a menace to the local citizens. Desperate to deter the lawbreakers, the villagers unanimously elected the tall, stern Wilkeson as justice of the peace. He quickly restored order, forging his reputation as a natural leader and a man of action. In one biographical sketch, the author used Old Testament language to describe Wilkeson's actions: he was a "terror to evil-doers," and "utterly fearless...he smote the rascals and ruffians brought before him."[iv]

Wilkeson Builds a Harbor

Within a few years, Wilkeson participated in another Buffalo battle. This one, however, did not involve fighting the British. When the construction of the Erie Canal commenced in 1817, the New York State Canal Commission had not yet decided on the Canal's western terminus. The villages of Buffalo and Black Rock soon emerged as the two contenders. Based on the outcome of this contest, massive fortunes would be won or lost. The Holland Land Company, which owned land in both villages, did not own the area at the water's edge, so they had no incentive to develop a harbor in either place. The Dutch investors were also indifferent about which village won and understood that they would prosper handsomely—by selling high-priced lots—in either municipality.

In the early years of this battle, it looked like Black Rock had the upper hand. They had a more well-known advocate and champion in General Peter B. Porter and a rudimentary harbor protected from the lake winds because of Bird Island and Squaw Island (now called Unity Island). Black Rock also had a one-hundred-foot black rock outcropping, which could serve as a wharf and a place for boats to dock.[v] Buffalo had a silt-filled Buffalo Creek where it joined Lake Erie, and strong lake currents made navigation challenging. The creek was only waist-high in some parts and was not deep enough to accommodate tall sailing ships. In addition, a dense forest of elms, sycamores, black walnuts, basswoods, and oaks lined the banks of the waterway. Much of this forest had to be razed. Adjacent to the forest was a mosquito-infested swamp that terminated at the tall cliffs, or bluffs (since demolished), separating the village from the lake. Creating a harbor in Buffalo would be an arduous undertaking in the best of conditions, and near impossible when the village leaders discovered that no Buffalo residents had any harbor-building experience. Tools and heavy equipment were also scarce. Despite these shortcomings, however, Buffalo had Wilkeson as their champion.

Since there was also no federal money to build a harbor, a small group of Buffalonians went to Albany to secure a loan. Government finances were paltry at this time because of the costly War of 1812. Still, New York State offered a $12,000 loan to be paid back in twelve years, secured by a bond and a mortgage. In December 1819, seven of the nine original supporters backed out of the deal, fearing the plan would fail. Not part of the original group of financiers, Samuel Wilkeson came forward and pledged his support to the two remaining bondholders, Charles Townsend and Oliver Forward. The three men agreed to cover the state loan with their personal property as collateral. If the canal leaders chose Buffalo as the Lake Erie terminus, the state would forgive the loan; if they selected Black Rock, the three men had ten years to pay it off. This agreement was a risky proposition for the 39-year-old Wilkeson. But it was also the chance of a lifetime.

In May 1820, the three financiers were ready to begin the harbor construction. It would soon become clear, however, that securing the financing was the easy part of this project. While Wilkeson's partners offered financial resources, they had nothing to contribute to the construction phase. Townsend apparently had a disability, and Forward had no experience supervising such a project. Neither did Wilkeson, but it did not stop this dynamo from volunteering to be the superintendent. William Peacock, a Holland Land Company engineer, had already surveyed the harbor two years before and had recommended building a 1,000-foot pier into the lake. So, at least Wilkeson had a starting point. To construct the dock, Wilkeson needed to hire some workers. Struggling to find enough men willing to do the job, he offered $2 a month more than the prevailing wage. Employment at the higher rate included the stipulation that they would work six days a week from morning to night, regardless of the weather.

After erecting a boarding house for the laborers, the building of the harbor required two primary operations. First, they had to construct the pier that Peacock proposed, which served a dual purpose. It would allow larger lake vessels to dock and unload their goods in deeper water, avoiding the shallow water closer to shore. Also, the pier would limit sand accumulating at the mouth of the Buffalo Creek. In the first year of construction, they erected a 900-foot-long timber pier that extended from the mouth of the creek into Lake Erie. This project was no small feat because Buffalo had no pile driver available. So the industrious Wilkeson assembled one using a cast-iron mortar shell that had been leftover from the recent war. A blind horse, trained to walk in a circle, was used to power the pile driver, which required one hundred strokes of the mortar shell to drive each pile into the creek bed. The men then constructed stone-filled timber cribs to keep the pier supports from washing away during the frequent lake storms. After finishing this arduous task, they anxiously waited to observe whether the pier would survive a Western New York winter. Fortunately, it did.

The second challenge involved deepening the creek so boats would not become lodged on the sand bar. To do this, Wilkeson and his men constructed a dam, which had two purposes, in the spring of 1821. First, the dam would raise the water level by three feet and, when released, would create enough force, in theory, to straighten the angle of the mouth of the creek. This enhancement was necessary so boats did not have to make sharp turns entering the lake. The second purpose of the dam was to trap the melted winter ice and spring rains which, when released, would dredge a deeper channel.

Once the workers assembled the dam, they released water several times, which slowly reoriented the water's path and cleared the channel. Before they could complete the process, however, Buffalo's weather wreaked havoc. On one relatively calm day, a rare and violent lake tidal wave emerged without warning, and Wilkeson's workers barely escaped with their lives. While no one was hurt, the wave destroyed a significant portion of the dam, threatening to collapse the entire structure. The Scots-Irish leader quickly galvanized his workers and recruited a sizeable contingent of villagers to aid in the dam repair project. If the dam had collapsed, it could have jeopardized the entire harbor project. Wilkeson inspired and led his men, many of whom worked waist-deep in the powerful creek current while battling torrential rains. After twelve straight hours, including some in the dark, the exhausted men finally made the necessary repairs, preserving the dam's integrity. Even though the rains continued overnight, fortune was on Wilkeson's side. A strong northeast wind lowered the lake level and replenished the dam's water level. When the water was released, it washed out 20,000 cubic feet of gravel.[vi] This event created the desired channel: five feet deep, ninety feet wide, and large enough to accommodate several lake boats daily. Wilkeson and his men had persevered and created the first man-made harbor on the Great Lakes. The Buffalo Creek, later enlarged and renamed the Buffalo River, would never be the same. Neither would Buffalo.

The Western Terminus

The harbor was now complete, but there was still no guarantee that the canal commissioners would choose Buffalo as the Canal's Lake Erie terminus. Between 1819 and 1821, various state canal board members and engineers arrived in Western New York, reviewed the two villages, and made preliminary recommendations. Some recommended Black Rock, some Buffalo. Citizens in each village were on edge, eagerly awaiting the final decision. Wilkeson traveled to Albany to plead Buffalo's case with fellow Irish descendant Governor DeWitt Clinton, with whom he met a dozen times. One can only wonder what assurances, if any, Clinton gave to Buffalo's canal champion. Wilkeson knew that the decision wasn't solely Clinton's. But he also knew his politicking could only help his case.

In June of 1822, the canal commissioners arrived at Benjamin Rathbun's Eagle Tavern on Main Street in Buffalo to meet with the leaders of each village to make their decision. In a small room in the tavern, Wilkeson argued in favor of Buffalo. Utilizing maps of the waterways and an extensive knowledge of winds, waves, and currents, he made a compelling case that they should choose Buffalo. He also regaled them with the harrowing tales of building the harbor despite harsh weather conditions and setbacks.

Although a skilled debater, Wilkeson faced a tough competitor. The esteemed General Porter presented Black Rock's advantages to the commissioners. After careful deliberation, the canal board and five engineers made their final choice for the western terminus: Buffalo won. This decision had monumental consequences. As a result, instead of becoming a grand city, Black Rock became just another stop on the canal—and the villagers' aspirations of wealth and prestige evaporated. The embittered General Porter eventually moved to Niagara Falls. In 1853, Black Rock was quietly annexed y the city of Buffalo and relegated to a mere neighborhood. Buffalo, by contrast, became one of America's wealthiest nineteenth-century cities, the sixth-largest port in the world and, by 1900, the eighth-largest city in the United States. Wilkeson, of course, became a legend.

Politician, Businessman, and Colonization Agent

Wilkeson excelled at almost every challenge he encountered. In addition to successfully building the harbor and winning the terminus battle, he served Buffalo in various political and government roles. As previously mentioned, he served as justice of the peace, Erie County's first judge, a New York State assemblyman, and a New York State senator. In 1836, his fellow citizens elected him the fifth mayor of Buffalo. All the while, he simultaneously managed several commercial enterprises. He owned a fleet of vessels, a freight-forwarding business, a small cotton textile mill, warehouses, Buffalo's first iron foundry, and a company that manufactured steam engines and stoves.

If there is one cloud over Wilkeson's legacy, it is his involvement with the American Colonization Society (ACS), which his close friend Millard Fillmore also supported. Founded in 1816, the purpose of the ACS was to facilitate the passage of free American Blacks to Liberia to create a permanent settlement in West Africa. In 1838, Wilkeson relocated to Washington, D.C., to become the general agent for the ACS and editor of its newspaper, the African Repository. The following year, Wilkeson edited a 90-page booklet, A Concise History of the American Colonies in Liberia, which he used to paint a positive assessment of the conditions of Blacks in the colony and raise funds for his organization.[vii] Wilkeson also established commercial links between Liberia and the American cities of Baltimore and Philadelphia, overseeing the recruitment of southern Blacks to be transported to Liberia.[viii]

Wilkeson claimed to be deeply moved by the condition of enslaved people and reportedly haunted by fears that white southerners would "exterminate" the freed Blacks.[ix] In his mind and the minds of many others of his time, it would be better to send the Blacks back to Africa where, in his words, they would have hope to see "their race rise."[x] However, he was also opposed to abolition because he feared it would fracture the union between the states. Instead of a wholesale freeing of the slaves, Wilkeson advocated for gradual emancipation, coupled with the ACS scheme to send the freed slaves back to Africa.[xi] However, most free Blacks did not want to return to Africa, and several prominent Black leaders, like Frederick Douglass, condemned the ACS as "diabolical." Douglass's biographer asserted that nothing raised the orator's ire like enthusiasm for returning Blacks to Africa.[xii] In Douglass's view, the organization's real motive was just to remove Blacks from society, which would lead to the "extermination" of his people.[xiii]

Historians should undoubtedly judge Wilkeson's efforts with the ACS based on the context of the era in which he lived. A more thorough examination of his writings for the African Repository and local newspapers of the time is needed to understand his true motivations.[xiv]

Wilkeson's Legacy

In the 1820s, Wilkeson and his wife built a beautiful mansion on Niagara Square, and it stood for almost a century as a monument to one of Buffalo's most remarkable citizens. (When it was torn down in 1915, the stately house was replaced by a "new necessity of the times"—a gas station.) In July of 1848, Wilkeson traveled to Tennessee to visit his daughter—but fell ill on the way. He did not survive his journey. Nor did he live to see the Civil War that he feared would erupt—but eight of his grandsons fought for the Union Army when it commenced. Two of them died in battle. After his death, his friends and contemporaries ascribed to him superhuman qualities, elevating him to a mythical status. Other male peers in Buffalo were praised, but not with the reverence reserved for Wilkeson.

So, did Samuel Wilkeson build the city? Some historians would argue that Joseph Ellicott, the surveyor and land agent for the Holland Land Company, built the city. By 1804, Ellicott surveyed and laid out the village of Buffalo. His radial street design, modeled after Pierre L'Enfant's design of Washington, DC, is still intact today. Others could make the case that Millard Fillmore is the "Father of Buffalo." His influence is significant: a founding member of the University of Buffalo, the Buffalo Historical Society, Buffalo General Hospital, the Buffalo Club, and a contributor to the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy. However, it was Samuel Wilkeson who established the foundation and the structure of Buffalo by building its harbor and winning the battle for the terminus of the Erie Canal. Wilkeson's efforts, not Ellicott's or Fillmore's, made Buffalo the Queen City of the Great Lakes. His epitaph, "He Built the City," engraved on his memorial stone in Forest Lawn Cemetery, rings true.

Wilkeson was a "king among men." He grew up in the wilderness with no training in manners or formal education. He became a successful farmer, soldier, merchant, forwarding agent, harbor builder, judge, state senator, mayor, ship owner, foundry owner and head of a national organization. He was a natural leader with iron resolve who could inspire others to accomplish seemingly impossible tasks. To steal a line from the late Irish poet Seamus Heaney, Wilkeson was "a natural force masquerading as a human being."[xv]

In 2013, the city of Buffalo built a popular new waterfront park named Wilkeson Pointe in his honor. Other reminders of Buffalo's builder include a large bas-relief sculpture of him on the South Elmwood Avenue side of Buffalo's City Hall, and a student housing complex at the University at Buffalo named Wilkeson Quadrangle. Samuel Wilkeson was just one of many Irish Americans to shape Buffalo. Other Irish Protestants—such as William H. Glenny and John B. Manning—made fortunes in Buffalo and contributed to its civic life. By Wilkeson's death, Irish Catholics were settling en masse in Buffalo. They would make an even more significant contribution to the city.

[i] Samuel Wilkeson, "Recollections of the West and the First Building of Buffalo Harbor," Publications of the Buffalo Historical Society, vol. 5, (1902) 148-150.

[ii] Roughly thirty years prior to the Wilkesons' journey, in 1755, another Scots Irish family, the Jemisons, settled in central Pennsylvania and were captured by a small party of Shawnee Indians. The entire family was killed except for their twelve-year-old daughter, Mary Jemison, who was eventually taken to western New York (south of Rochester) by her Seneca Indian husband. Her storied life was retold in the Narrative of the Life of Mary Jemison (1824). Jemison spent her last two years in Buffalo, where she died at age 90, and is considered one of the first permanent Irish residents in western New York.

[iii] H. Perry Smith, ed., History of Buffalo and Erie County, Vol 1, (D. Mason & Company, 1884), 685.

[iv] Ibid.

[v] Peter L. Bernstein, Wedding of the Waters, (W.W. Norton & Co., 2006), 287.

[vi] Wilma Laux, The Village of Buffalo: 1900-1832, Vol III, Buffalo and Erie Historical Society, (1960), 13.

[vii] Wilkeson's book A Concise History of the American Colonies in Liberia (1839) can be read on www.loc.gov.

[viii] Smith, History of Buffalo and Erie County, Vol 1, 688.

[ix] Smith, History of Buffalo and Erie County, Vol 1, 688.

[x] Ibid.

[xi] Ibid.

[xii] David W. Blight, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom (2018), 238.

[xiii] Ibid, 239.

[xiv] Wilkeson would probably be disappointed to see that 37% of the Blacks in the Buffalo-Niagara area are living in poverty compared to just about 10% of whites.[xiv].

[xv] Poet Seamus Heaney about David Hammond, in On Seamus Heaney (2020), Roy Foster,13.