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Cornell University Library 1993.FOUNDING OF
THE CITY OF ARARAT
ON GRAND ISLAND-BY MORDECAI M. NOAH.
READ BEFORE THE SOCIETY, MARCH 5, 1866.
BY HON. LEWIS F. ALLEN.
Grand Island lies in the Niagara river, County of Erie, and
State of New York. Its south end is about four miles below
the mouth of Lake Erie, to the north, and its north end is
about the same distance above the Niagara Falls. Its ex-
treme mean length is a trifle over eight miles; its extreme
breadth is a little over six miles—but that width extends only
a small distance—the average being probably four and a half
miles; containing in its whole area, by survey, 17,381 acres.
It is a body of good agricultural land, and until about the
year 1834, with the exception of ten or twelve hundred acres,
was covered with a heavy growth of timber. Its situation
along the shore of the river is exceedingly pleasant and com-
manding, elevated six to thirty feet above the water; and along
its various coasts embraces many picturesque views of the city
of Buffalo, the villages of Tonawanda and Niagara Falls, and the
adjacent Canadian and American shores. At its southwestern
extremity lies, separated by the small arm of Beaver creek
about one hundred feet in width, Beaver Island, containing
forty acres. At its northwestern extremity, is a small inlet of3°6
FOUNDING OF
•deep water, called Burnt Ship bay, in which are two sunken
hulks of vessels, said, by tradition (and no doubt truly), to be
■driven in there from Chippewa by the British forces and de-
stroyed by their French commanders, in the French-and-Eng-
lish Canadian war of the year 1755. In very low water the
timber heads of one of these vessels may be seen a few inches
above the surface. Separated by this bay, a narrow marsh,
and an insignificant streamlet of only a few feet in width, lies
Buckhorn Island, containing, by survey, one hundred and
forty-six and one-half acres. No other islands are immediately
contiguous to Grand Island.
Spafford’s Gazetteer, printed in the year 1824, relates that
the State of New York, by a treaty held with the Seneca In-
dians at Buffalo, September 12, 1815, purchased of that tribe,
Grand and several other small islands in the Niagara river.
For Grand Island, this authority does not give the price paid
by the State. My impression is, that I have: seen in some other
work that eleven thousand dollars was the consideration; and
for the other small islands, Bpdfford states that the considera-
tion was one thousand dollars and an annuity of five hundred
dollars.	•
Immediately after its purchase by the State, numerous squat-
ters flocked on to Grand Island, and built cabins along its
shores on both sides—on the west, or Canadian side, mostly—
for the purpose of cutting, and working into staves, the valua-
ble white-oak timber which abounded there, for the Montreal
and Quebec markets. From those cities the staves were
shipped, mainly, to the British West India Islands. The staves
were taken from Grand Island in scow-boats to Chippewa,
thence wagoned around the Falls to Lewiston, and there put
on board sail-vessels for Montreal and Quebec.
At the time the State of New York purchased Grand Island,
the territorial titles of the lake and river islands between the
United States and Canada were undetermined, and so they re-
mained until the year 1822, when all the islands in the NiagaraTHE CITY OF ARARAT.
307
river, excepting Navy Island, opposite the foot of Grand
Island, were declared by the boundary commissioners, ap-
pointed by the governments of the United States and Great
Britain, to belong to the United States, and consequently they
came under the jurisdiction of the State of New York. Up to
the year 1819, the squatters held undisputed possession of the
land, amenable to neither New York nor Canadian law; setting
up a sort of government of their own, wherein they settled
their own disputes, if they had any, but defying the authority
of either jurisdiction on the opposite shores. In a foot-note
to the Field Notes of the survey of the island made in the
months of October and November, in the year 1824, by Silas
D. Kellogg and James Tanner, after describing Lot No. 18, on
the east, or American bank of the river, the surveyors remark:
“ On this lot stands the remains of a log cabin, in which the renowned
Mr. Clarke used to reside. While it was undetermined to which government
the island belonged, this man came on, and became generalissimo and the
director of an independent judiciary, whose laws and customs were enforced
and practiced like those of the King of the Outlaws.”
This Mr. Clarke—“Governor” he used to be called when
administering squatter-law on the islands—I knew very well in
the year 1835. He then lived at Pendleton, in Niagara county,
on the Erie canal, where he had the reputation of a good citizen.
I asked him about his residence and administration at Grand
Island. He evidently disliked to talk upon the subject, and
waived it at every attempt I made to get a history of the affair,
but acknowledged the fact of living there, and being somewhat
a conspicuous man among the people. He was then perhaps
fifty years of age, but whether now living or not, I am unable
to say. So annoying had the squatters on the island become
to the neighboring shores, by their frequent acts of outlawry,
and their depredations on the valuable timber of the island,
that the New York State authorities took summary measures
to remove them. An instance was related, that when a sheriff
or constable, armed with a civil process, had landed there to3°8
FOUNDING 01
arrest one of the squatters, several of them assembled, and
treated both the officer and his authority with contempt; took
his oars or paddles out of his boat, and set him adrift down
the river, where he floated for some distance, until some one,
touched by his distress, put out with another boat and took
him over to the American shore.
Immediately after this, in the year 1819, Sheriff Cronk, of
this county (then Niagara), was clothed with a requisition from
the State authorities, to call out a company of the militia in
and about Buffalo, to make a descent on the island,, and rid it
of the squatters. Colonel Benjamin Hodge (still living with
us) then having the requisite military command, with a suffi-
cient number of armed men, and accompanied by the sheriff,
took boats from the “ Seeley Tavern,” about three miles below
Black Rock, on the river shore—landed on the island-—made
its entire circuit—drove off every squatter, either on to the
Canadian or American shores, and burned every dwelling and
other building to the ground. Thus was established the au-
thority and law of the State over Grand Island. A portion of
these squatters, however, immediately returned; but, as they
ceased cutting timber and held themselves amenable to the
law, they were not again molested by State authority. They
rebuilt their cabins, cultivated their little patches of clearing,
and remained peaceable citizens, taking a little timber “ on the
sly,” only; keeping a few cattle and pigs, and eking out a
poor, but, to them, quite satisfactory subsistence.
Grand Island, in those early days of the Niagara frontier, in
its grand and deep solitude, was a charming place for those
who loved to range the woods, or float on the quiet pellucid
waters of the noble river encircling it. From head to foot,
along the shores, or in the deepest wilderness, on a still day,
the roar of the Falls below was always heard, and along its
westerly shore their ascending spray was always in sight. Men
of thought and reflection loved occasionally to camp for days
on its shores, and fish and hunt, as the mood for either recre-THE CITY OF ARARAT.
3°9
ation impelled them; and no wonder that the “ loafing,” desul-
tory habits of the squatters found there a congenial dwelling-
place. There were the serene sky, the clear waters, the vener-
able trees—all in quiet summer beauty, inviting to repose, to
listlessness and laziness, so congenial to squatter and roving
life. Who can blame the vagabonds for loving to live and
harbor there!
The woods abounded with deer; occasionally a bear, a wolf,
or other large game worthy a hunter’s elevated ambition, was
found. Great numbers of raccoons, squirrels, and other small
furry quadrupeds inhabited the woods, while myriads of ducks
and other game-birds thronged the shores and waters in their
proper .season. The Indians from the Seneca and Tonawanda
reservations, held annual hunts of days or weeks upon the
island, and carried away canoe-loads of the choicest venison.
The fishing, too, was magnificent. Tons of the finest muske-
longe, yellow pike, sturgeon, black bass, pickerel, mullet and
smaller fish were hauled up to the shore in seines in their sea-
sons, or drawn out by the hook and line of an adroit angler.
The hook-and-line fishing of the Niagara was nowhere excelled.
No wonder such a paradise of hunters and sportsmen was
sought and lived upon by those to whose habits steady labor
was irksome. The warm, sunny nooks of “the clearings”
produced every annual garden-fruit and vegetable of the cli-
mate. Melons and other choice delicacies abounded with
every one who had the industry to plant and cultivate them.
Hunting parties would go down from Black Rock and Buffalo,
for a week’s recreation, and “drive” the woods for deer, while
“ ’coons,” squirrels, ducks, and other game were the continuous
incidental trophies of their sport. So passed, for several years,
the squatter and camp life of Grand Island.
In the year 1824, the State ordered a survey of the land into
farm lots, and in that year a party was fitted out for the pur-
pose. A part of the work was done under the supervision of
Silas D. Kellogg, in that year. But Mr. Kellogg sickened and3io
FOUNDING OF
l
died before the work was completed; and, early in the nexl
year, James Tanner was commissioned, and finished the work.
In this year (1825) an eventful history was about to open
on the Niagara frontier. Those members of our Society who
then lived here, in the relation of their reminiscences of that
period, have been prone to mark it as an eventful year in
three striking incidents relating to the history of Buffalo, viz:
the visit of General La Fayette, the completion and opening of
the Erie canal, and “the hanging of the three Thayers.” They
might have added to it another memorable occurrence, not
only to Buffalo, but to the Niagara frontier. Following the
survey of Grand Island into farm-lots, for settlement, of which
the State authorities gave notice in the public newspapers, an
idea occurred to the late Major Mordecai Manuel Noah, a
distinguished Israelite, of the city of New York, then editor of
a prominent political journal, called The National Advocate,
that Grand Island would make a suitable asylum for the Jews
of all nations, whereon they could establish a great city, and
become emancipated from the oppression bearing so heavily
upon them in foreign countries.
To understand this matter thoroughly, it is necessary to go
somewhat into particulars. I knew Major Noah well. Physi-
cally, he was a man of large muscular frame, rotund person, a
benignant face, and most portly bearing. Although a native
of the United States, the lineaments of his race were impressed
upon his features with unmistakable character; and if the blood
of the elder Patriarchs or David or Solomon flowed not in
his veins, then both chronology and genealogy must be at fault.
He was a Jew, thorough and accomplished. His manners
were genial, his heart kind, and his generous sympathies em-
braced all Israel, even to the end of the earth. He was
learned, too, not only in the Jewish and civil law, but in the
ways of the world at large, and particularly in the faith and
politics of “Saint Tammany ” and “the Bucktail Party” of the
State, of which his newspaper was the organ and chief ex-THE CIT Y OF AFAR A T.	311
pounder in the city of New York. He was a Counselor at Law
in our courts, had been Consul-General for the United States at
the Kingdom of Tunis, on the coast of Barbary,—at the time
he held it, a most responsible trust. Although a visionary,—as
some would call him—and an enthusiast in his enterprises, he
had won many friends among the Gentiles, who had adopted
him into their political associations. He had warm attach-
ments and few hates, and if the sharpness of his political
attacks created, for the time, a personal rancor in the breasts of
his opponents, his genial, frank, childlike ingenuousness healed
it all at the first opportunity. He was a pundit in Hebrew law,
traditions and customs. “To the manner born,” he was loyal
to his religion; and no argument or sophistry could swerve
him from his fidelity, or uproot his hereditary faith. My friend
and neighbor, William A. Bird, Esq., has related to me the
following anecdote: Many years ago, when his mother, the late
Mrs. Eunice Porter Bird Pawling, resided at Troy, New York, a
society was formed, auxiliary to one organized in the city of New
York, for the purpose of christianizing the Jews in all parts of the
world. Mrs. Pawling, an energetic doer of good works, in the
then infant city of her residence, was applied to for her co-
operation in that novel benefaction. She had her own doubts,
both of its utility and success, of which results have proved the
correctness. But, determined to act understanding^, she wrote
a letter to Mkjor Noah, asking his views on so important a
subject. He replied in a letter, elaborately setting forth, the
principles, the faith, and the policy of the Jewish people, their
ancient hereditary traditions, their venerable history, their hope
of a coming Messiah; and concluded by expressing the proba-
bility that the modern Gentiles would sooner be converted to
the Jewish faith, than that the Jews would be converted to
theirs.
Major Noah—as I observed, a visionary, somewhat, and an
enthusiast altogether—made two grand mistakes in his plan.
In the first place, he had no power or authority over his people;312
FOUNDING OF
and, in the next, he was utterly mistaken in their aptitude for
the new calling he proposed them to fulfill. But he went on.
He induced his friend, the late Samuel Leggett, of New York,
to make a purchase of twenty-five hundred and fifty-five acres,
partly at the head of Grand Island, and partly at its center, oppo-
site Tonawanda, at the entrance of the Erie canal into the Niag-
ara river. Either or both of those localities were favorable for
building a city. These two tracts he thought sufficient for a set-
tlement of his Jewish brethren; which, if successful, would result
in all the lands of the island falling into their hands. Nor, on a
fairly supposititious ground—presuming the Jews, in business
affairs, to be like the Gentiles—were his theories so much mis-
taken. The canal, opening a new avenue to the great western
world, from Lake Erie to the ultima thule of civilization at that
day, was about to be completed. The Lakes had no extensive
commerce. Capital was unknown as a commercial power in
Western New York. The Jews had untold wealth, ready to be
converted into active and profitable investment. Tonawanda,
in common with Black Rock and Buffalo, with a perfect and
capacious natural harbor, was one of the western termini of the
Erie canal, and at the foot of the commerce of the western
lakes. With sufficient steam-power, every sail craft and steam-
boat on the Lakes could reach Grand Island and Tonawanda,
discharge into, and take on their cargoes from canal-boats, and
by their ample means thus command the western trade. Buffalo
and Black Rock, although up to that time the chief recipients
of the lake commerce, lacking moneyed capital, would not be
able to compete with the energy and abundant resources of
the proposed commercial cities to be established on Grand
Island and at Tonawanda, and they must yield to the rivalry
of the Jews.* Such was Major Noah’s theory, and such his
plans. Mr. Leggett’s co-operation, with abundant means for
the land purchase, he had already secured. Through the col-
umns of his own widely circulating National Advocate he
promulgated his plan, and by the time the sale of the GrandTHE CITY OF A FA EAT.
3*3
Island lots was to be made at the State Land Office in Albany,
other parties of capitalists had concluded to take a venture in
the speculation.
The sale took place. Mr. Leggett purchased one thousand
and twenty acres at the head of the island, at the cost of seven
thousand two hundred dollars, and fifteen hundred and thirty
five acres along the river in a compact body, above, opposite,
and below Tonawanda, at the price of nine thousand seven
hundred and eighty-five dollars; being about fifty per cent,
above the average of what the whole body of land sold at per
acre,—that is to say: the whole seventeen thousand three hun-
dred and eighty-one acres sold for seventy-six thousand two
hundred and thirty dollars; being an average, including Mr.
Leggett’s purchase, of about four dollars and thirty-eight cents
per acre.
Next to Leggett, Messrs. John B. Yates and Archibald Mc-
Intyre, then proprietors, by purchase from the State, of the
vast system of lotteries, embracing those for the benefit of
Union College, and other elemosynary purposes—gambling in
lotteries for the benefit of colleges and churches was thought
to be a moral instrument in those days—purchased through
other parties a large amount of the land, and “Peter Smith, of
Peterboro” (living, however, at Schenectady,—and the most
extensive land speculator in the state,—father of the present
Gerrit Smith) took a large share of the remainder. To sum
up, briefly, the result of the sale of the Grand Island lands:
Leggett and Yates and McIntyre complied with the stipulated
terms of the sale, paid over to the State their one-eighth of the
purchase-money, and gave their bonds for the remainder;
while Smith—wary in land-purchasing practice, when the State
of New York was the seller—did no such thing. He paid his
one-eighth of the purchase-money down, as did the others, but
neglected to give his bond for payment of the balance. The con-
sequence was, when the eclat of Noah’s Ararat subsided, and
his scheme proved a failure, the land went down in value, and314
FOUNDING OF
Smith forfeited his first payment, and the lots fell back to the
State. But on a lower re-appraisal by the State some years
afterwards, Smith again bought at less than half the price at
which he originally purchased, made his one-eighth payment
again, and gave his bond as required; thus pocketing, by his
future sale of the property, over twenty thousand dollars in the
transaction!
All this, however, aside from Mr. Leggett’s purchase for the
benefit of Major Noah, has nothing to do with our main his-
tory, and is only given as an occurrence of the times.
Major Noah, now secure in the possession of a nucleus for
his coveted “City of Refuge for the jews,” addressed himself
to its foundation and dedication. He had heralded his inten-
tions through the columns of his National Advocate. His co-
temporaries of the press ridiculed his scheme, and predicted
its failure; yet, true to his original purpose, he determined to
carry it through. Wise Jews around him shook their heads in
doubt of his ability to effect his plans, and withheld from him
their support. But, nothing daunted, he ventured it unaided,
and almost alone. By the aid of an indomitable friend, and
equally enthusiastic co-laborer, Mr. A. B. Siexas, of New York,
he made due preparations; and, late in the month of August,
in the year 1825, with robes of office and insignia of rank
securely packed, they left the city of New York for Buffalo.
He was a stranger in our then little village of twenty-five hun-
dred people, and could rely for countenance and aid only on
his old friend, the late Isaac S. Smith, then residing here, whom
he had knpwn abroad while in his consulate at Tunis. In Mr.
Smith, however, he found a ready assistant in his plans. Major
Noah, with his friend Siexas, arrived in Buffalo in the last days
of August. He had got prepared a stone which was to be “ the
chief of the corner,” with proper inscription and of ample
dimensions for the occasion. This stone was obtained from
the Cleveland, Ohio, sandstone quarries. The inscription, writ-
ten by Major Noah, was cut by the late Seth Chapin of Buffalo.THE CITY OF ARARAT.
31S
As, on examination when arriving here, he could not well
get to Grand Island to locate and establish his city, it was con-
cluded to lay the corner-stone in the Episcopal church of the
village, then under the rectorship of the Rev. Addison Searle.
As this strange and remarkable proceeding, and the novel act of
laying a foundation for a Jewish city, with its imposing rites
and formulae, its regal pomp and Jewish ceremony, in a Chris-
tian Episcopal church, with the aid of its authorized rector,
may strike the present generation with surprise, a word or two
may be said of the transaction.
The Rev. Mr. Searle was, at that time, the officiating cler-
gyman in the little church of St. Paul’s, in the village of Buf-
falo, and had been placed there as a missionary by the late
wise and excellent Bishop Hobart. He held a government
commission as chaplain of the United States, and had been
granted a some years’ furlough from active duty. He had
been on foreign cruises,—had coasted the Mediterranean, and
spent months in the chief cities of its classic shores, and visited
the beautiful Greek Island of Scio, a few weeks after the burn-
ing of its towns and the massacre of its people by the Turks,
in 1822. He was an accomplished and genial man, of com-
manding person and portly mien; his manners were bland, and
his address courtly. Whether he had made the acquaintance
of Major Noah abroad or in New York, or whether he first
met him on this occasion at Buffalo, I know not; but their in-
tercourse here was cordial and friendly.
On the second day of September, 1825, the imposing cere-
mony of laying the corner-stone of the city of Ararat, to be
built on Grand Island, took place; and, as a full account of
the doings of the day, written by Major Noah himself, was
published at the time in The Buffalo Patriot, Extra, I take
the liberty of repeating them from that paper:
“It was known, at the sale of that beautiful and valuable tract called
Grand Island, a few miles below this port, in the Niagara river, that it was
purchased, in part, by the friends of Major Noah of New York, avowedly to316
FOUNDING OF
offer it as an asylum for his brethren of the Jewish persuasion, who, in the
other parts of the world, are much oppressed; and it was likewise known
that it was intended to erect upon the island a city called Ararat. We
are gratified to perceive, by the documents in this day’s Extra, that coupled
with this colonization is a Declaration of Independence, and the revival of
the Jewish government under the protection of the United States,—after the
dispersion of that ancient and wealthy people for nearly two thousand years,—
and the appointment of Mr. Noah as first Judge. It was intended, pursuant
to the public notice, to celebrate the event on the island; and a flag-staff was
erected for the Grand Standard of Israel, and other arrangements made; but
it was. discovered that a sufficient number of boats could not be procured in
time to convey all those to the island who were desirous 'of witnessing the
ceremony, and the celebration took place this day in the village, which was
both interesting and impressive. At dawn of day, a salute was fired in
front of the Court House, and from the terrace facing the lake. At ten
o’clock, the masonic and military companies assembled in front of the
Lodge, and at eleven the line of procession was formed as follows:
ORDER OF PROCESSION.
Grand Marshal, Col. Potter, on horseback.
Music.
Military.
Citizens.
Civil Officers.
United States Officers.
State Officers in Uniform.
President and Trustees of the Corporation.
Tyler.
Stewards.
Entered Apprentices.
Fellow Crafts.
Master Masons.
Senior and Junior Deacons.
Secretary and Treasurer.
Senior and Junior Wardens.
Masters of Lodges.
Past Masters.
Rev. Clergy.
Stewards, with corn, wine and oil.
( Principal Architect,
Globe, s with square, level
(	and plumb.
Bible.
Square and Compass, borne by a Master Mason.
The Judge of Israel,
In black, wearing the judicial robes of crimson silk, trimmed with
ermine and a richly embossed golden medal suspended
from the neck.
A Master Mason.
Royal Arch Masons.
Knights Templar.
| Globe.THE CITY OF ARARAT.
317
‘ ‘ On arriving at the church door, the troops opened to the right and left
and the procession entered the aisles, the band playing the Grand March
from Judas Maccabeus. The full-toned organ- commenced its swelling
notes, performing the Jubilate. On the communion-table lay the corner-
stone, with the following inscription (the Hebrew is from Deut., vi., 4):
ARARAT,
A City of Refuge for the Jews,
Founded by Mordecai Manuel Noah, in the Month Tizri
Sept. 1825 & in the 50th year of American Independence.
“ On the stone lay the silver cups with wine, corn and oil.
“ The ceremonies commenced by the Morning Service, read emphatically
by the Rev. Mr. Searle of the Episcopal church. “Before Jehovah’s awful
Throne,” was sung by the choir to the tune of Old Hundred.—Morning
Prayer.—First Lesson from Jeremiah, xxxi.—Second Lesson, Zeph. iii. 8.
PsalmsTor the occasion, xcvii., xcviii., xcix., c.; Ps. cxxvii. in verse.—Ante-
Communion Service.—Psalm in Hebrew.—Benediction.
“ Mr. Noah rose and pronounced a discourse, or rather delivered a speech,
announcing the re-organization of the Jewish government, and going through
a detail of many points of intense interest, to which a crowded auditory lis-
tened with profound attention. At the conclusion of the ceremonies, the
procession returned to the Lodge, and the Masonic brethren and the Military
repaired to the Eagle Tavern and partook of refreshments. The church
was filled with ladies, and the whole ceremony was impressive and unique.
A grand salute of twenty-four guns was fired by the Artillery, and the band
played a number of patriotic airs.
“We learn that a vast concourse assembled at Tonawanda, expecting that
the ceremonies would be at Grand Island. Many of them came’ up in car-
riages, in time to hear the Inaugural speech. • The following is the Procla-
mation, which will be read with great attention and interest. A finer day and
more general satisfaction has not been known on any similar occasion.
PROCLAMATION TO THE JEWS.
‘ ‘ Whereas, it has pleased Almighty God to manifest to his chosen people
the approach of that period, when, in fulfillment of the promises made to
the race of Jacob, and as a reward for their pious constancy and triumphant
fidelity, they are to be gathered from the four quarters of the globe, and to
resume their rank and character among the governments of the earth:
And, Whereas, the peace which now prevails among civilized nations, the
progress of learning throughout the world, and the general spirit of liberality
and toleration which exists, together with other changes favorable to light
and to liberty, mark, in an especial manner, the approach of that time, when
‘peace on earth and good will to man,’ are to prevail with a benign and
extended influence, and the ancient people of God, the first to proclaim his3i8
FOUNDING OF
unity and omnipotence, are to be restored to their inheritance, and enjoy
the rights o'f a sovereign, independent people:	Therefore, I, Mordecai
Manuel Noah, Citizen of the United States of America, late Consul of said
States for the City and Kingdom of Tunis, High Sheriff of New York, Coun-
selor at Law, and, by the grace of God, Governor and'Judge of Israel, have
issued this my Proclamation, announcing to the Jews throughout the world,
that an asylum is prepared and hereby offered to them, where they can enjoy
that peace, comfort and happiness, which have been denied them through
the intolerance and misgovernment of former ages. An asylum in a free
and powerful country, where ample protection is secured to their persons,
their property, and religious rights; an asylum in a country remarkable for
its vast resources, the richness of its soil, and the salubrity of its climate;
where industry is encouraged, education promoted, and good faith rewarded.
‘A land of milk and honey,’ where Israel may repose in peace, under his
4 vine and fig tree;’ and where our people may so familiarize themselves
with the science of government and the lights of learning and civilization,
as may qualify them for that great and final restoration to their ancient heri-
tage, which the times so powerfully indicate.
“ The asylum referred to is in the State of New York; the greatest State in
the American confederacy. New York contains forty-three thousand two
hundred and fourteen square miles; divided into fifty-five counties, and hav-
ing six hundred and eighty-seven post-towns and cities, containing one mil-
lion five hundred thousand inhabitants, together with six million acres of
cultivated land, improvements in agriculture and manufactures, in trade and
commerce, which include a valuation of three hundred millions of dollars of
taxable property. One hundred and fifty thousand militia, armed and
equipped; a constitution founded upon an equality of rights, having no test-
oaths, and recognizing no religious distinctions, and seven thousand free-
schools and colleges, affording the blessings of education to four hundred
thousand children. Such is the great and increasing State to which the emi-
gration of the Jews is directed.
“ The desired spot in the State of New7 York to which I hereby invite my
beloved people throughout the world, in common with those of every reli-
gious denomination, is called Grand Island, and on which I shall lay the
foundation of a City of Refuge, to be called ARARAT.
“ Grand Island in the Niagara river, is bounded by Ontario on the north,
and Erie on the south, and within a few7 miles of each of those great com-
mercial lakes. The island is nearly twelve miles in length, and varying
from three to seven miles in breadth, and contains upwards of seventeen
thousand acres of remarkably rich and fertile land. Lake Erie is about two
hundred and seventy miles in length, and borders on the States of NewTHE CITY OF ARARAT.
319
York, Pennsylvania and Ohio; and, westwardly, by the possessions of our
friends and neighbors, the British subjects of Upper Canada. This splendid
lake unites itself, by means of navigable rivers, with Lakes St. Clair, Huron,
Michigan and Superior, embracing a lake shore of nearly three thousand
miles; and by short canals those vast sheets of water will be connected with
the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, thereby establishing a great and valuable
internal trade to New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. Lake Ontario, on
the north, is one hundred and ninety miles in length, and empties into the
St. Lawrence; which, passing through the Province of Lower Canada, carries
the commerce of Quebec and Montreal to the Atlantic Ocean.
“ Thus fortified to the right and left by the extensive commercial resources
of the Great Lakes and their tributary streams, within four miles of the
sublime Falls of Niagara, affording the greatest water-power in the world
for manufacturing purposes,—directly opposite the mouth of the Grand
Canal of three hundred and sixty miles inland navigation to the Hudson
river and city of New York,—having the fur trade of Upper Canada to the
west, and also of the great territories towards the Rocky Mountains and the
Pacific Ocean; likewise the trade of the Western States of America,—Grand
Island may be considered as surrounded by every commercial, manufacturing
and agricultural advantage, and from its location is pre-eminently calculated
to become, in time, the greatest trading and commercial depot in the new
and better world. To men of worth and industry it has every substantial
attraction: the capitalist will be enabled to employ his resources with un-
doubted profit, and the merchant cannot fail to reap the reward of enterprise
in a great and growing republic; but to the industrious mechanic, manufac-
turer and agriculturist, it holds forth great and improving advantages.
“ Deprived, as our people have been for centuries, of a right in the soil, they
will learn, with peculiar satisfaction, that here they can till the land, reap the
harvest, and raise the flocks which are unquestionably their own; and, in the
full and unmolested enjoyment of their religious rights, and of every civil
immunity, together with peace and plenty, they can lift up their voice in
gratitude to Him who sustained our fathers in the wilderness, and brought
us in triumph out of the land of Egypt; who assigned to us the safe-keeping
of his oracles, who proclaimed us his people, and who has ever walked before
us like a ‘ cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. ’
“In His name do I revive, renew and re-establish the government of the
Jewish Nation, under the auspices and protection of the constitution and
laws of the United States of America; confirming and perpetuating all our
rights and privileges,—our name, our rank, and our power among the nations
of the earth,—as they existed and were recognized under the government of
the Judges. And I hereby enjoin it upon all our pious and venerable Rabbis,320
FOUNDING OF
our Presidents and Elders of Synagogues, Chiefs of Colleges, and brethren
in authority throughout the world, to circulate and make known this my
Proclamation, and give to it full publicity, credence and effect.
“ It is my will that a census of the Jews throughout the world be taken,
and returns of persons, together with their age and occupation, be registered in
the archives of the Synagogues where they are accustomed to worship, desig-
nating such, in particular, as have been and are distinguished in the useful
arts, in science, or in knowledge.
“Those of our people who, from age, local attachment, or from any other
cause, prefer remaining in the several parts of the world which they now
respectively inhabit, and who are treated with liberality by the public author-
ities, are permitted to do so, and are specially recommended to be faithful
to the governments which protect them. It is, however, expected, that they
will aid and encourage the emigration of the young and enterprising, and
endeavor to send to this country such, as will add to our national strength
and character, by their industry, honor and patriotism.
“Those Jews who are in the military employment of the different sover-
eigns of Europe, are enjoined to keep in their ranks until further orders, and
conduct themselves with bravery and fidelity.
“I command that a strict neutrality be observed in the pending wars
between the Greeks and the Turks, enjoined by considerations of safety to-
wards a numerous population of Jews now under the oppressive dominion of
the Ottoman Porte.
“ The annual gifts which, for many centuries, have been afforded to our
pious brethren in our Holy City of Jerusalem (to which may God speedily
restore us), are to continue with unabated liberality; our seminaries of learn-
ing and institutions of charity in every part of the world are to be in-
creased, in order that wisdom and virtue may permanently prevail among
the chosen people.
“ I abolish forever polygamy among the Jews, which, without religious war-
rant, still exists in Asia and Africa. I prohibit marriages or giving Kedu-
chim without both parties are of a suitable age, and can read and write the
language of the country which they respectively inhabit, and which I trust
will ensure for their offspring the blessings of education, and, probably, the
lights of science.
“ Prayers shall forever be said in the Hebrew language; but it it is recom-
mended that occasional discourses on the principles of the Jewish faith and
the doctrines of morality generally, be delivered in the language of the coun-
try; together with such reforms, which, without departing from the ancient,
faith, may add greater solemnity to our worship.
“ The Caraite and Samaritan Jews, together with the black Jews of IndiaTHE CITY OF ARARA T.
321
and Africa, and likewise those in Cochin China, and the sect on the coast of
Malabar, are entitled to an equality of rights and religious privileges, as are
all who may partake of the great Covenant, and obey and respect the Mosai-
cal laws.
“ The Indians of the American continent, in their admitted Asiatic origin,—
in their worship of one God,—in their dialect and language,—in their sacri-
fices, marriages, divorces, burials, fastings, purifications, punishments, cities of
refuge, division of tribes,—in their High Priests;—in their wars and in
their victories, being, in all probability, the descendants of the lost tribes of
Israel, which were carried captive by the King of Assyria, measures will be
adopted to make them sensible of their origin, to cultivate their minds, soften
their condition and finally re-unite them with their brethren the chosen people.
“ A capitation tax of three shekels in silver, per annum, or one Spanish
dollar, is hereby levied upon each Jew throughout the world, to be collected
by the Treasurers of the different congregations, for the purpose of defray-
ing the various expenses of re-organizing the government, of aiding emi-
grants in the purchase of agricultural implements, providing for their imme-
diate wants and comforts, and assisting their families in making their first
settlements; together with such free-will offerings as may be generously
made in the furtherance of the laudable objects connected with the restor-
ation off the people and the glory of the Jewish nation. A Judge of Israel
shall be chosen once in every four years by the Consistory at Paris, at which
time proxies from every congregation shall be received.
“ I do hereby name as Commissioners, the most learned and pious Abra-
ham de Cologna, Knight of the Iron Crown of Lombardy, Grand Rabbi of the
Jews, and President of the Consistory at Paris; likewise the Grand Rabbi
Andrade of Bordeaux; and also our learned and esteemed Grand Rabbis of
the German and Portugal Jews, in London, Rabbis Herschell and Mendola;
together with the Honorable Aaron Nunez Cardoza, of Gibraltar, Abraham
Busnac, of Leghorn, Benjamin Gradis, of Bordeaux, Dr. E. Gans and Pro-
fessor Zuntz, of Berlin, and Dr. Leo Woolf of Hamburgh; to aid and assist
in carrying into effect the provisions of this my proclamation, with powers
to appoint the necessary agents in the several parts of the world, and to estab-
lish Emigration societies, in order that the Jews may be concentrated and
capacitated to act as a distinct body, having at the head of each kingdom
or republic such presiding officers as I shall upon their recommendation
appoint. Instructions to these my Commissioners shall be forthwith trans-
mitted; and a more enlarged and general view of plan, motives and objects
will be detailed in the address to the nation. The Consistory at Paris is
hereby authorized and empowered to name three discreet persons of com322
FOUNDING OF
petent abilities, to visit the United States, and make such report to the
nation as the actual condition of this country shall warrant.
“ I do appoint Roshodes Adar, February 7th, 1826, to be observed with suit-
able demonstrations as a day of Thanksgiving to the Lord God of Israel, for
the manifold blessings and signal protection which he has deigned to extend
to his people, and in order that on that great occasion our prayers may be
offered for the continuance of his divine mercy and the fulfillment of all the
promises and pledges made to the race of Jacob.
“I recommend peace and union among us; charity and good-will to all;
toleration and liberality to our brethren of every religious denomination, en-
joined by the mild and just precepts of our holy religion; honor and good
faith in the fulfillment of all our contracts; together with temperance,
economy and industry in our habits.
“ I humbly intreat to be remembered in your prayers; and, lastly and most
earnestly, I do enjoin you to ‘ Keep the charge of the Lord thy God, to walk
in his ways, to keep his statutes and his commandments and his judgments
and his testimonies, as it is written in the laws of Moses, that thou mayest
prosper in all thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thyself.’
“ Given at Buffalo, in the State of New York, this second day of Tizri, in
the year of the World, 5586, corresponding with the fifteenth day of Septem-
ber, 1825, and in the fiftieth year of American Independence.
“ By the Judge,
“A. B. Siexas,
Secretary pro tern.”
The day succeeding the ceremonies,—the “corn and wine
and oil,” and “the Proclamation,”—the newly constituted Judge
in Israel issued another address (also printed in the Buffalo
Patriot, Pxtra), setting forth the design of the new city, and
invoking the aid and countenance of his brethren abroad, in
contributing of their substance and influence to its uprising
and population. Thus, with due benediction, ended the cere-
monial—the first of its kind known in this country—of the cor-
ner-stone of an anticipated Hebrew, or any other city, being
laid on the communion-table of a Christian church!
The ceremonial, with its procession, “masonic and military,”
its pomp and magnificence, passed away. Major Noah, a day
or two afterwards, departed for his home in New York; the
“corner-stone” was taken from the audience-chamber of theTHE CITY OF ARARAT.
323
church, and deposited against its rear wall, outside; and the
great prospective city of Ararat, with its splendid predictions
and promises, vanished, “and, like an insubstantial pageant
faded,—left not a rack behind.”
This was, in fact, the whole affair. The foreign Rabbis de-
nounced Noah and his entire scheme. He had levied taxes
of sundry “shekels” on all the Jewish tribes of the world; as-
sumed supreme jurisdiction over their emigration to America,
and sought to control their destinies afterwards. But, having
no confidence in his plans or financial management, the Ameri-
can Jews, even, repudiated his proceedings; and, after a storm
of ridicule heaped on his presumptuous head, the whole thing
died away, and passed among the other thousand-and-one ab-
surdities of other character which had preceded it. Noah,
however, with his ever-ready wit, and newspaper at hand, re-
plied to all the jeers and flings in good humor, and lost done of
the prestige of his character and position, either politically or
morally. He was known to be eccentric in many things, and
this was put down as the climax of his eccentricities. Poor in
money, always, he had no influence in financial circles, yet he
was a “power” in the State. Some years after his Ararat
affair he held the office of Judge in one of the criminal city
courts of New York, with decided acceptance to the public,—
married a wealthy Jewess of high respectability,—reared a
family, and died some ten or a dozen years ago in New York,
lamented by those who best knew him, as a kind and generous
man.
The subsequent history of the corner-stone which we have
described, is imperfectly known. It is generally supposed, by
those who have heard of the matter at all, that Ararat was
actually founded on Grand Island, opposite Tonawanda; and,
some thirty years ago, accounts were frequently published by
tourists and in the newspapers, that the stone aforesaid stood,
encased in a monument, on the actual spot selected by Noah
for the building of his city. That the stone did so stand, in a32 4
FOUNDING OF
brick monument at Grand Island, opposite Tonawanda, but
not on the site of any city, past or present, is a fact; and
it came about in this wise: In the summer of the year 1827,
having become a resident of Buffalo in April of that year, I
saw the stone leaning against the rear underpinning of the
little church of St. Paul, next to Pearl street. It had stood
there from the time it was removed at its consecration in 1825.
When it was removed from the wall of the church, I cannot
say. In the year 1833, I made a purchase of Messrs. Samuel
Leggett, of New York, Yates and McIntyre, of Albany, and
Peter Smith, of Schenectady, and a few other parties, on behalf
of a company of gentlemen in Boston, Massachusetts, with
whom I had an interest, of the lands they held on Grand Island;
amounting in all to about sixteen thousand acres. The aver-
age price paid for it was a little more than five dollars per
acre. The principal object of the purchase was the valuable
white-oak ship-timber abounding there, which it was intended
to cut and convey to the Boston ship-yards.
A clearing and settlement was made on the island, opposite
Tonawanda. Several houses were built, and a steam-mill for
sawing the timber into plank, erected. A few months after the
purchase, in the year 1834, being one day at the house of
General Peter B. Porter, at Black Rock, I saw Major Noah’s
corner-stone lying in his lawn near the river front of his dwell-
ing. In answer to my question, how it came there, he said,
that being in New York some few years previous, and meeting
Major Noah, with whom he had been long acquainted, he told
him that his corner-stone of Ararat was standing behind St.
Paul’s church in Buffalo. Noah then requested him to take
care of it, and place it in some secure spot, as he wished to
have it preserved where it would not excite comment; for he
had heard quite enough about it. In compliance with the re-
quest, General Porter took the stone, and placed it in his own
grounds. Taking a fancy to the stone, I asked General Porter
to give it to me, assuring him that I would take it to GrandTHE CITY OF ARARAT.
325
Island, and give it an honorable position. He complied with
my . request, and I removed it to the new settlement on the
island. A decent architectural structure of brick was erected,
standing about fourteen feet high and six feet square. A niche
was made in the front, facing the river, in which the stone was
placed; and a comely roof, as a top finish, put over it. A steam
passenger-boat was running for several years, daily, through
the summer, between Buffalo and the Falls of Niagara, touching
each way at Whitehaven, the little Grand Island settlement;
and many people went on shore to see the monument, which
told a false history. Artists and tourists sketched the homely
little structure, and copied the inscription on the stone; and the
next year a Guide Book to the Falls of Niagara, issued in
Buffalo by a young man named Ferris, I believe, had the
monument, with the “ Corner-stone of the Jewish City of Ara-
rat,” well engraved and described, conspicuous in its pages.
That, of course, was sufficient authority for the general belief
that the City of Ararat was founded on that spot by Mordecai
Manuel Noah.
The mill was taken down about the year 1850; and the
monument becoming time-worn and dilapidated, was taken
down also. We had no Historical Society in Buffalo then, and
although the stone was my property, I had become careless of
its possession; and, soon afterwards, Mr. Wallace Baxter, who
owned a farm a couple of miles above Whitehaven on the
river shore, took the stone and carried it to his place. By this
removal, the farm of Mr. Baxter—taking the stone as authority
—became as much the site of Ararat as Whitehaven had been.
In the year 1864, the late Mr. Charles H. Waite, of this city,
opened a watering-place—“Sheenwater”—on the opposite, or
Canadian side of the island, and Mr. Baxter carried the stone
over there for the delectation of the visitors who congregated
to that resort,—thus establishing another locality of the re-
nowned Ararat. Mr. Waite’s house having burned a few months
after the stone was removed there, he carefully placed it in an326
FOUNDING OF
out-house on the premises, where it remained until the last
summer, when I obtained his leave to take it again into my
possession, which I did, and deposited it on my farm at the
head of Grand Island, one of the original tracts of land which
Mr. Leggett had purchased for Major Noah. There, too, had
the traveling public seen it, might have been located another
site for the Hebrew city. A short time afterwards I had the
stone taken to my premises on Niagara street, in this city; the
same to which General Porter, then owning them, had re-
moved it, previous to the year 1834. A few weeks later it
was again—and, I trust, finally—removed, and, on the second
day of January, in the year 1866, deposited in the official
room of the Buffalo Historical Society, where it is duly hon-
ored with a conspicuous position against its eastern wall;
leaving the Hebrew “City of Ararat” a myth—never having
existence, save in the prurient imagination of its projector, a
record of which the tablet bears.
Like the dove which went out from the ark of his great
patriarchal progenitor, the stone of the later Noah has come
back to its domicil, not in the ark, but to the city which, in
its embryo existence, first gave it shelter and protection; and,
we trust,—unlike the dove,—to again go out no more. Just
forty years from its exodus from the communion-table of the
church of St. Paul, like the Children of ancient Israel, has
this eventful stone—meantime crossing, not the parted waters
of the .Red Sea, but the transparent waters of the Niagara,
resting by the wayside, and traveling through the wilderness
in circuitous wanderings—found its home in the rooms of the
Buffalo Historical Society.
Thus ends the strange, eventful history of Major Noah, his
Hebrew city and its corner-stone. Although that portion of
the public, away from Buffalo, who ever heard anything of this
modern Ararat, have believed, since the year 1825, that Major
Noah actually purchased Grand Island, and founded his city,
and laid his corner-stone upon it, the fact is, that he neverTHE CITY OF A TARA T,
327
owned an acre of its land, nor founded the city, nor laid a
corner-stone there. Nor have I been able, after diligent in-
quiry, to ascertain that he ever set foot on the island. 1 have
heard sundry traditions, lately, of his going there at the time
he visited Buffalo in the year 1825. All these were contradic-
tory, and partially guess-work; no one, so far as I have ascer-
tained, ever saw him there. Thus, that point may be con-
sidered as definitely settled.
The story of “Ararat” will hardly be complete without the
account of a queer old Irishman named Denison, who, with his
family, about the year 1820, had “squatted” on one of Mr.
Leggett’s lots, on the head of Grand Island, near the mouth of
Beaver creek,—now comprising a part of the pleasant grounds
of “Falconwood,”—which I laid out on the river shore as a
watering-place, some years ago, and since disposed of to a
company of gentlemen in this city.
When Major Noah came to Buffalo to found his city, the old
gentleman hearing of it, and supposing he really owned the
latod, came up to Buffalo to see him. He told the Major that
he lived on his land, and that he had invented a “perpetual
motion;” and if he would let him occupy it for his lifetime, he
would give him the right to use his invaluable mechanical
power, which, beyond all doubt, would make his, the Major’s,
fortune. Noah good-naturedly told him that he then had no
time to investigate the merits of his discovery, but that he
might continue to stay on the land, and when he had time to
look into it, he would determine the matter. So it rested, and
the credulous old man supposed, and so claimed, that from
that time the land was to be his own.
When I took possession of the island lands, as agent of the
new proprietors, I told Denison that he must give me posses-
sion of the ground he occupied; that I had no wish to drive
him off forcibly, but would let him remain, without payment of
rent, until he could find a home elsewhere within a reasonable
time. But he was disposed to do no such thing. He had32S
THE CITY OF A FA EAT.
made a contract with Major Noah for his “perpetual motion,”
but was willing to allow me the same privilege that he had ex-
tended to him, and insisted on its performance! Being some-
what skeptical as to the utility of his “motion,” I declined the
proposition, but, to gratify him, would look at it. With a great
deal of circumlocution in its description, t he produced a little
section of a piece of wood about four inches in diameter, cir-
cular in form, flat on its sides, about one inch thick on one
disc, and tapering to a quarter of an inch thick on the opposite
disc, and a hole of half an inch thick through the center,
through which he ran a stick on which it could revolve.
Then he put the thick side of the disc vertically into a dish
of water, and holding on to each end of the stick or jour-
nal, the block forthwith revolved half way round out of
the water, and letting the thin edge take its place when it
stopped—the thin edge in the water, and the thick one out.
That was his “perpetual motion!” He declared his discovery
complete; nor would he give it up, but insisted on retaining
the land. After waiting a year or more, he would listen to no
terms, and a suit of ejectment was commenced against him in
the Supreme Court. The late Thomas T. Sherwood defended
him, brought his “motion” into court, talked to the jury as
though he believed in it, and insisted on the fulfillment of the.
“contract,” as he pleased to call it. It is needless to say that
Denison lost his suit, and obstinately refused to leave the place
until the sheriff forcibly put him out of possession,—at an ex-
pense to the plaintiff of nearly two hundred dollars.
As no patent for that notable invention was ever obtained,
and some of the present proprietors of Falcon wood are exten-
sively engaged in manufacturing, where motive power is costly
to them, I will, at any time they wish it, with great pleasure,
give them a model of the discovery.