Volume 6 • Number 3

WINTER 2007

$4.95

Train Delivers Immigrants to the Poorhouse Cameras Capture Civil War Soldiers Oneidas Sell Land for Pittance, Peace and Protection Murder and More Revealed in Westchester Trial Daughters Go Onstage for Families

SPECIAL SECTION: 2005–2006 Annual Report of the Archives Partnership Trust | page 33 16

THE

BY MICHELLE HENRY AND PAMELA A. BROWN

Hopes were high in western in the mid- nineteenth century when the New York and Erie Railroad came through. But the train brought what none of its backers—or its passengers—bargained on.

Erie Railroad Engine 144, 1867

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he New York and Erie Railroad delivering immigrants, many Sisters Clara and was first proposed in 1829, to of whom had no means of Ireta Schwartz compete with the Erie Canal support or conveyance to a immigrated from (which had opened in 1825) further destination. Between to by giving western rail shippers 1838 and 1867, records show Chautauqua T a direct route to the market that Chautauqua County’s poor County. and port of New York. The farm and Superintendent of route began on the banks of the Poor provided relief for the Hudson River at Piermont, over 35,000 immigrants; by crossed New York’s Southern the fall of 1851, an “Emigrant PATTERSON LIBRARY, WESTFIELD, NEW YORK Tier counties, and terminated Train” had been added to at Dunkirk, a natural harbor the New York and Erie’s daily on Lake Erie in Chautauqua schedule, and a steady stream County. The 483-mile-long of immigrant paupers began railroad took nineteen years arriving in Dunkirk. and $24 million to construct. It was the longest in the world In Support of Immigrants at the time, and was consid- Prior to 1847, there were no ered a marvel of engineering. federal or state regulations On May 15, 1851, the administering the flow of to administer aid to, and ease first train arrived in Dunkirk. immigrants into the United abuses against, immigrants. Aboard were Millard Fillmore, States. But that year, the New The commissioners were President of the United York State Legislature passed directed to reimburse Overseers States, his entire cabinet, and several measures to address the (or Superintendents) of the Secretary of State Daniel growing number of immigrants Poor in each of New York’s Webster—who, accompanied arriving at , the by a bottle of whiskey, had busiest port in the country. A strapped a rocking chair onto “commutation fee” of $1.50 NEW YORK STATE LIBRARY/MANUSCRIPTS AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS Secretary of State Daniel Webster, accompanied a flatbed car for the seventeen- a head, later raised to $2.50, hour journey so he could was to be collected on all by a bottle of whiskey, strapped a rocking enjoy the countryside. persons landing at the port of Residents of western New New York; this fee would be chair onto a flatbed car for the seventeen-hour York and the Great Lakes applied for the relief of immi- journey so he could enjoy the countryside. region anticipated great grants unable to support economic prosperity with the themselves within their first five opening of the New York and years of residence because of Erie Railroad, and land specu- sickness, unemployment, or counties for providing relief to lators snatched up property other causes. That same law immigrants. Overseers were around Dunkirk harbor. provided for the establishment given discretionary authority However, instead of bringing of a six-member Board of to expend $10 for one poor prosperity, the railroad began Commissioners (of Emigration) person or family requiring

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construction and after the western destination but often completion of the NY & E had to wait two to five days Railroad, the county was for their boat to leave, due to flooded with foreign paupers. scheduling or bad weather. If The number of poor relieved they had no means to obtain in 1850 was 431 and by food or lodging, these people 1855 the number had steadily were forced either to beg or to increased to 2,952—an appeal to the Superintendent increase of nearly seven fold of the Poor for relief. within five years. This increase The county’s Board of was nearly all by emigration Supervisors wrote that it would and for temporary relief.” be “a flagrant wrong” to take 1852 was also the first these paupers to the poor farm year that Chautauqua County for two or three days and then presented claims for reimburse- hire teams to convey them

ment to the Commissioners PATTERSON LIBRARY, WESTFIELD, NEW YORK of Emigration. Each claim had to be sworn by the immigrant, and included his or her name, age, occupation, last place of residence, foreign port of CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY ARCHIVES CHAUTAUQUA embarkation, name of vessel In this document, the Board of only temporary relief. The law and commander, date of Commissioners agrees to reimburse arrival in New York, date of towns, cities, and counties for stipulated that immigrants expenses incurred for the care of seeking relief would be trans- relief, and the amount of relief. destitute immigrants. ported to county poor farms The Superintendent of the German immigrant Karl Henk within two hours of their Poor also had to swear to arrival in the U.S. and imme- the necessity for the relief back to Dunkirk. Chautauqua diately given labor to perform. and the cause of the recipient’s County’s poor farm was located The value of the labor would pauperism. Only two other in Dewittville, twenty-five miles be deducted from the net counties in New York State, uphill from Dunkirk, and such cost of relief. Kings and Albany, were transportation was neither cost The annual reports of submitting claims as large as effective nor practical, since Chautauqua County’s Super- Chautauqua’s. But many of during the winter months the intendent of the Poor to the Chautauqua’s claims were roads were frequently impass- county’s Board of Supervisors denied, on grounds of missing able for several days. Rather, information or not reporting the county requested that the promptly. commissioners’ rules be modi- fied or rescinded––but the Prior to 1847, there were no federal “A Flagrant Wrong” request was repeatedly denied. or state regulations administering the flow The county argued that since In the 1854 Board of the law of 1847 gave Overseers Supervisors’ annual report is of immigrants into the . of the Poor discretionary the following account: “[O]n authority to expend $10 for the 25th of November last, the those requiring temporary ship Michael Angelo arrived in relate the changes to the relief, such people could not New York, and within twelve county that occurred with the legally be sent to the poor days thereafter, 67 of her opening of the New York and farm. Many of the immigrants passengers were, at the com- Erie Railroad. The report for arriving in Dunkirk by train mencement of winter, without 1852 states that “[d]uring the had boat tickets for a more money, means or friends,

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Many immigrants ended up spending time at Chautauqua County’s JACK ERICSON Poor Farm, about twenty-five miles from the train station.

thrown upon our county for families did indeed arrive in relief. Many of them stated to Chautauqua County with an us that they were poor, and immediate need for relief. The had no money or property in Charles Peters family arrived Baden [Germany], their former in New York from Germany home; that their passage to on September 6, 1857. Just America was paid, by whom four days later, the family of they did not know, and that eight—Charles, fifty years old when arriving in New York, and crippled; wife Frederica; they were furnished with and six children aged four to railroad tickets to Dunkirk by twenty—applied for relief in a still mysterious arrangement. Chautauqua County. Andreas Representations were made and John Miswea, ages eleven to them that when they and eight respectively, arrived arrived here their every want at Castle Garden (the first would be supplied; that immigrant receiving center in Dunkirk was the goodly place New York) on August 21, 1856

where all could find employ- from Poland. On September CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY ARCHIVES ment, friends, and every 24, they were admitted to the needful thing. Many of them Chautauqua County poor had to be sent to the Poor farm with the following infor- Farm for a winter’s support, mation: “The family is search- and some of them remain ing for them through the there still; for others we have German Society. The parents obtained employment where are in Milwaukee. The boys’ This 1857 register lists they are supporting themselves, passage was paid from New missioners continued to be immigrants who were admitted and several of the children York through to Milwaukee denied because of technicalities. to the county’s poor farm. have been bound out to good but in the hurry of starting In 1858, Chautauqua County’s places. We report the above they got in separate [train] cars Board of Supervisors passed facts, as they seem to prove which is why the children were a resolution authorizing the the truth of the statement put out at Dunkirk.” The Superintendent of the Poor to that the poor houses of Europe commissioners instructed the compel the Commissioners of were being emptied into our county to pay for the boys’ Emigration to audit all legal cities and villages.” passage to Milwaukee and accounts. With this authority, include it on the next voucher a representative of the county Claims Paid—and Denied for reimbursement. went to New York City and Records from the county’s But many of the county’s demanded a settlement of poor farm indicate that many claims submitted to the com- six years’ claims. The commis-

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NEW YORK STATE LIBRARY/MANUSCRIPTS AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS A Permanent Debt THE ARCHIVES The deputy was appointed and CONNECTION began working in Dunkirk, but when the bill for his services dministrative and was presented to the commis- financial records for the sioners, they refused to pay. A Commissioners of Emigration After two years, the deputy’s no longer exist. However, bill surpassed $2,300, and the their annual reports submit- $447 owed for previous services ted to the state legislature was still unpaid. In 1868, the show in detail the immigra- commissioners met, repealed tion of well over two million their earlier agreement, and Europeans into the port of offered the county $1,000 to New York from May 1847 “call it square.” Once again to December 1869. These the county threatened legal action, and in 1869 two county reports are found in Immigra- supervisors went to New York tion and the Commissioners City and threatened to stay of Emigration of the State of The handwriting on the back New York by Friedrich Kapp sioners agreed to pay the there until the claims were of this photograph describes (The Nation Press, 1870). accrued claims they had been settled. Their persistence this as the first train to travel resulted in payment of $2,150 The ledgers maintained repudiating. The agreement over the Erie and Central New against more than $5,600 in by Chautauqua County’s was made in writing, but was York Railroad. claims. The unpaid balance Superintendent of the Poor never fulfilled. was assumed by Chautauqua provide a wonderfully By 1861, these repudiated County taxpayers. detailed account of immigrant claims amounted to about By 1876, the Superintendent families and individuals who $4,000, yet requests for action of the Poor no longer kept traveled to and through to the commissioners went separate accounts for immigrant Chautauqua County. The unanswered. In 1866, the paupers, since the additional original ledgers are held by problem was referred to State paperwork was not cost effec- the Chautauqua County Senator Walter L. Sessions tive as long as claims continued Archives. Information from from the Village of Panama to be denied. Chautauqua the ledgers was extracted in Chautauqua County, who County was due over $5,000 by the Chautauqua County introduced a bill compelling from the Commissioners of Genealogical Society and the commissioners, under Emigration, but nothing had published as a three-volume penalties, to pay claims for been received since 1873. Later set that is available at most services. But the commissioners in 1876, the United States libraries in the county. sent an emissary to negotiate Supreme Court ruled that the Many of the historical with Sessions for a stay of commutation money for documents used the term legislative proceedings and to immigrants was unconstitutional “emigrant,” rather than strike a deal: if his legislation and therefore void, thus closing “immigrant,” which is the were withdrawn, the commis- the funding source for the accepted contemporary spell- sioners would agree to make Commissioners of Emigration— ing and usage. The original a special rule in favor of and for Chautauqua County. spelling has been retained Chautauqua County, pay for The debt was never paid. in all quoted material, while one Deputy Superintendent Despite its best hopes for the modern “immigrant” is of the Poor to be stationed prosperity, neither the county used elsewhere. at Dunkirk specifically for nor its immigrants ultimately immigrants’ relief, and pay benefited from the New York claims for services back to and Erie Railroad and its 1865, totaling $447.50. “Emigrant Train.” ■

NEW YORK archives • WINTER 2007