3rd Quarter Issue: Page 1 1902 Niagara Street Buffalo, NY 14207 July-September 2017

Black Rock Riverside IN THIS ISSUE

Grant Amherst What’s been happening at BRHS Page 1 West Hertel Was there really a Black Rock? Page 2 The Burgess Gun Company Pages 3-4

Whats been happening at BRHS al canal music was supplied by Rush the Growler. by Doreen DeBoth, Chair On July 4, 1817, We are proud to report that our attendance dra- Governor matically increased thIs quarter. Groups included DeWitt Clinton student teachers from , school broke ground to begin the construc- groups and most recently, regional teachers taking tion of the Erie the Waterfront History Course. As 2017 marks the (left to right) Dave Franczyk, Mark Schroeder, Joseph Golombek Jr. and Doug Kohler Canal in Rome, New 200th anniversary of the first shovel in the ground York. Initially, to dig the Erie two burgeoning villages competed to be the western Canal, we com- terminus of the canal - Black Rock and Buffalo. memorated this important Samuel Wilkeson, a founding member of the Buffalo event during Harbor Company, led the effort to widen and deepen the month of Buffalo Creek to make it navigable and to create a Sponsored by the Buffalo Teachers Center, they June with exhib- harbor at its mouth. Buffalo was out of the range of were led by Social Studies teacher Richard Pyszczek its and a de- British cannons on the Canadian Shore (which was bate. Both were fun, entertaining and educational. important given the recent War with Great Britain) Discover Amherst Street #20 included our Erie and higher water levels meant the canal would feed Canal exhibit, parade, and coloring for all ages us- better in Buffalo. ing our new Coloring book. , a member of the Erie Canal Com- Buffalo VS Black mission, proposed that Black Rock would be better as Rock, a debate over it had a large, natural harbor which would be easy to who should get the expand and for years it had been the center of east- western terminus of west trade that was used even by the merchants in the Erie Canal was Buffalo. Black Rock also provided an escape from the held at the Buffalo turbulent winds and swells coming across . It History Museum. also would shorten the canal a few miles, lowering construction costs. Samuel Wilkeson, mayor, judge, and Canal-dressed marchers in parade. In the end, Buffalo won over Black Rock and grew into builder of Buffalo the “Queen City of the .” Harbor was portrayed by David A. Franczyk, Fillmore District Councilmember and Peter Buell Porter, con- gressman, soldier and statesman was portrayed by Joseph Golombek Jr., North District Councilmember, DeWitt Clinton, State, por- trayed by Mark J.F. Schroeder, City Comptroller mod- erated the event. Erie County Historian, Douglas Kohler introduced the historical figures and tradition- 2

Was There Really A Black Rock? ercial center, and dock of the Black Rock Ferry that took passengers to and from . The By Warren Glover region downstream of the rock, protected by its This is the question that is most frequently asked at mass from the swift 25-knot current flowing the museum and elsewhere. The answer is yes! south to north, served as a naturally protected The Black Rock harbor. section in north- western Buffalo, The first mention of the Black Rock in recorded New York was history existed as the marked site on a calfskin named after an map drawn by one of the later Haudenosaunee actual natural nations settling on the in the rock outgrowth sixteenth century to demarcate one of their on the eastern settlement boundaries on the eastern shore of shore of the the lower . It was also mentioned Niagara River. It is part of a rocky ledge that pro- on survey maps as part of early land plots truded about 200 feet into the Niagara River by settled by squatters in self-built log cabins along about 100 feet wide and stood 5 feet above the wa- the same shore in the later eighteenth century. terline. The rock is composed of chert, a micro- The Black Rock was also noted as part of shore- chrystalline quartz limestone of a black/gray color line land plots surveyed by in the and was part of a vast dolomite limestone ridge early nineteenth century, when land in this area along the Niagara escarpment. The rock was unal- had been bought in bulk and was being subdi- terably changed when large northernmost pieces vided into smaller Buffalo village plots for sale were blasted away by black powder dynamite as to early white settlers in this section on a rec- part of the construction of the western terminus of tangular street grid. The radiating street pattern the Erie Canal which had reached this area in 1823. existed only in the downtown area.

All this rock had to be removed by hand mainly by When the Erie Canal was completed in 1825, Irish laborers using pick and shovel to lay the bed of the wedding of the waters took place. New York the Erie Governor DeWitt Clinton rode a ceremonial Canal in in packet boat, the Seneca Chief down the entire 1823. length of the newly finished waterway from the Then, the Buffalo harbor to Albany, then down the Hud- excavation son River to . of the ca- nal bed The Niagara section of the NYS Thruway produced (Interstate 190) was installed in 1959, replacing broken the Erie Canal along its shoreline path while us- rock used ing the same bed as the excavated canal. for filling in the uneven shoreline and some quarries inland as well as in fence and exterior wall building construction.

The rock on the inner bend of the river formed a natural eddy, where boats could anchor in the early nineteenth century to ride out storm winds. It had also been a fishing ground for the Seneca and their Black Rock residual wall along the I-190 photo by Mark Kubiniec predessors, a commercial center and 3

Today remaining strata can be seen along the I-190 During this time Burgess made both folding shot- going north. Pass under the Peace Bridge, and guns and a non-folding takedown sporting version about 100 yards past the Massachusetts Pumping of the gun with Station, you will see it on the right. 28″ and 30″ bar- Early photos: http://www.buffaloah.com/h/br/sev/index.html rels. In addition, http://www.buffaloah.com/h/br/sev/index.html a very small number of pump -action rifles us- Shotguns Along the Beltline: ing the same The Burgess Gun Co. mechanism By Doreen DeBoth (although not folding) were made in .30-30 and .45-70 calibers. A lot of activity is The shotguns are fairly rare today, with folding presently taking models particularly hard to find – and the rifles place along Chan- are extremely scarce. dler Street, an in- dustrial corridor Colt purchased the patent for a lever-action rifle that housed many from an inventor named R.L. Brewer, but more large factories in- importantly, it obtained the patents and enlisted cluding Buffalo the talents of Burgess, who was relatively an ob- Weaving & Belting and Linde Aire. One not so well scure firearms inventor at that time. known enterprise is the Burgess Gun Company that was located at Military and Chandler at the Beltline The Colt rifle from 1894 to 1899. was not the first Andrew Burgess is lever action perhaps the most Burgess created. In prolific firearm in- 1878 he had ventors the world joined forces with has ever known, Eli Whitney Jr. of the with 894 Burgess Whitney Arms Com- patents. His most pany to produce the short-lived Burgess famous firearm was Repeating Rifle, a lever action that was plagued by the folding shot- feeding problems. But this may have been the gun, the first shotgun specifically designed to be a Burgess gun that got the attention of the Colt Pa- fighting weapon instead of a tent Firearms Company. sporting arm. Patented in January of 1893, it first ap- The rifle that Burgess subsequently designed and peared on the market in licensed to Colt appeared similar to the Winches- 1894. It featured a 20″ bar- ter 1873 with its tubular magazine, exposed ham- rel, 6-round tube magazine mer, and stock and fore-end configurations. under the barrel, and unload- But the Burgess had a more graceful, smooth- ed weight of just over 6 pounds (2.7kg). This com- sided receiver without side plates and utilized a pact configuration was specifically intended for use different lever and toggle-link locking system. By by messengers, bank guards, police, cavalry troops, virtue of its solid, one-piece construction, the Bur- and others who could exploit the handiness of a gess receiver, although slightly shorter than the compact shotgun. The size was complemented by Model ’73, was stronger. the gun’s folding mechanism. 4 Andrew Burgess was multi-dimensional and divided his career be- tween photography and firearms. He was a skilled photographer whose family-owned farm in Dres- den, New York, bordered the home- 1902 Niagara Street Buffalo stead of famed Civil War photogra- New York, 14207 Museum Hours: pher Mathew Brady. Burgess ended up working with Brady and photo- For any inquiries please contact us at graphically documented Reconstruc- [email protected] tion in the post-Civil War South–as well as, it is rumored, documenting Find us online! the execution of the French- www.blackrockhistoricalsociety.com installed Emperor Ferdinand Maxi- milian in Mexico. Later, Burgess

photographed the Franco-Prussian Andrew Burgess War before returning to the in 1871. Prophetically, that year Burgess was granted a patent for an improvement on the Peabody rifle. The BRHS Seeks Volunteers In 1871, he married Eudora Tiffany, heiress to the Tiffany jewelry empire, whose father subsequently financed many of Burgess’s fire- Your expertise, interest and/or love arms inventions. In that year, Burgess established a gun manufac- of history are good reasons to vol- turing factory in Owego, New York, near the Susquehanna River, unteer. where he put many of his ideas to work. Students, seniors and

everyone in-between are welcome In the early 1880’s, there was plenty of completion between gun to volunteer in manufacturers with cost-cutting, backstabbing and maneuvering various areas of interest: office/computer, education, out- that went on. By 1883, Winchester realized it had better do some- reach, maintenance, etc. thing to curtail sales of the Burgess, and probably wasn’t happy You can strengthen your when it learned that Buffalo Bill Cody had been presented with an community, learn about preserva- elaborate gold- and silver-plated Burgess rifle engraved with his tion, and meet new people. Every name and "with Compliments of Colt’s Co." volunteer can make a difference. To volunteer, contact us via email In 1899, Burgess decided to retire, and sold his company and facto- on our website or ry to the Winchester company. They promptly repurposed what call 716-510-4007. tooling and machinery they could, scrapped the rest, and shut down the factory. However, he continued patenting inventions until 1906, even though he was in failing health. He died in St. Augustine, Artifact Donations Florida, in 1908. .http://buffaloah.com/a/archs/ebg/bldgsList.html If you think you may have items Forgotten Weapons.com or photos that tell the story of http://texashideout.tripod.com/burgess /iroquoisarmscollectors.org/iroquoisarmscollectors/home/burgess-gun-co our area. you can bring them to the museum, or we will gladly Current Exhibit Next On The Calendar pick them up Stop in and see the Erie Thursday August 31 2017 (call 716-510-4007). Canal Exhibit with a special 4-6:30pm Hoyt Lake- Delaware Park, collection of musical instru- Buffalo Police Department Delta with ex- ments of that era. hibits, coloring and games for kids Fall Speakers Series to be announced