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Cornell University Library 1993.“ Urbetn condidit.”
“ He built the city by building its harbor.’
SAMUEL WILKESON.
PAPER READ BEFORE THE SOCIETY, 1871.
BY THE REV. JOHN C. _LORD, D. D.
The persecutions of the Presbyterians of Scotland during the
dynasty of the Stuarts form a familiar page of history. Poetry
and romance have combined to popularize the theme and have
kept the monuments of the persecuted Covenanters fair and freshly
engraven, performing in another way the office that Walter Scott
assigns to Old Mortality.
During all these persecutions, protracted with more or less
severity, through the reigns of three British monarchs, there was
a constant emigration of the non-conforming Presbyterians
across the channel that separates Scotland from Ireland.
Strange to say, their persecutions ceased as they crossed the
narrow sea, and the harassed Covenanters found peace and reli-
gious freedom in Ireland, though under the same government.
The secret of this forbearance is perhaps discoverable in the
fact that the center and south of Ireland were inhabited by
Romish non-Conformists with whom all the Stuarts sympathized,
and it was probably deemed inexpedient to execute with vigor
the statutes against schism, the enforcement of which was deso-
lating Scotland.
The emigration to Ireland seems to have attracted little
attention; there the Scotch colonies grew and flourished—a
5572
SAMUEL WILKESON.
peculiar community—reclaiming the wastes, subduing the stub-
born soil and building towns and cities on the coast, worship-
ing God after the Presbyterian model, and singing the grand old
psalms of the Scottish Church with none to molest them or
make them afraid.
They prospered until their exodus was almost forgotten, until
their children held Ireland dear as their native land. Like all
prosperous communities circumscribed by the sea, they soon
overflowed and a second emigration commenced to the British
Colonies of North America.
When the war of the American Revolution broke out the
Scotch-Irish were found everywhere on the side of liberty.
The Mecklenberg, N. C., convention and bill of rights—the
precursor and perhaps the model of our Declaration of Inde-
pendence—had a Scotch-Irish origin.
The peculiarities of the Covenanters, somewhat harsh and
stern, were modified by both emigrations. The exodus from
Scotland to Ireland and from Ireland to North America, gave
them an elasticity, a breadth of thought, an adaptedness to new
political conditions and a gift of leadership wanting to their
ancestors. Like the transfer of a hardy northern plant to a more
genial clime, where a before unknown growth anc^ fruitage fol-
low, was the exodus of the Scotch Presbyterians—first to Ireland
and next to North America. Many of them ranked among the
foremost men of the Republic, and without the “ Blarney Stone ”
of ‘'Plymouth Rock,’7 they moulded, in proportion to their
numbers, the destinies of the nation, in a degree not inferior to
that of the Puritans who settled New England. Among our
patriots, statesmen and orators, they hold a distinguished place;
many of them have been eminent jurists. At least two Presi-
dents were of North-of-Ireland descent, and, generally, it may
be said that no more stable, intelligent and moral population
can be found in the, United States than the descendants of the
Scotch-Irish Presbyterian colonists.
Of this noble stock was the subject of our present memoir,
the late Samuel Wilkeson, who once told me that his first remem-
brance of public worship was a Presbyterian service in the then
wilderness of Western Pennsylvania, the congregation sitting on
logs, while the preacher’s pulpit was a stump.SAMUEL WILKESON.
73
Western Pennsylvania was largely settled by Scotch-Irish,
and two-thirds of the business signs of the city of Pittsburg to-
day indicate the Scottish origin of the population. They con-
stituted and now constitute a majority of the people of that large
section, where, immediately after the Revolution, raged the so-
called Whiskey Insurrection, which gave Washington so much
anxiety and led to the first call of United States troops to sustain
the Government against open revolt. This is the only dark spot
upon the escutcheon of our Scotch-Irish population, and it grew
out of a question of taxation. They were and are a sober and
religious people, and the fact of their taking up arms against the
Government which they had so recently helped to establish,
seems at first view altogether unaccountable. But it must be
remembered that the chief export of Western Pennsylvania at
that time was whiskey; grain would not bear exportation in any
other shape, and that chief staple was the product of its distilla-
tion. Besides, they were themselves accustomed to the moderate
use of the article—I say moderate, for they deemed drunkenness
a sin, though it was before the temperance reformation—and a
Scotchman having prescribed for himself what he deemed a safe
and reasonable allowance, was not likely to exceed it. “ Old
Monongahela ” was known over the continent as the best liquor
of the kind in the world, and Western Pennsylvania found great
profit in its fame. The honesty of the population prevented its
being either watered or drugged, and age gave it a flavor uni-
versally esteemed. To illustrate its fame I may be allowed to
relate an anecdote of the early days of Buffalo.
Major Miller, the ancestor of many residents of this city,
kept a public house between Buffalo and Batavia at which the
witty Counsellor Root was a habitual caller on his frequent
journeys to Batavia to attend court. On one such occasion,
Major Miller informed the Counsellor that he had just tapped a
barrel of extra Old Monongahela, such as the said Counsellor
had never before tasted. He, by no means reluctant to try so
wonderful an article, after tasting it held the glass to his ear.
“ Mr. Root,” said the astonished Major, “ why do you put
the glass to your ear ? 7 ’74
SAMUEL WILKE SON.
44 Major/’ replied the Counsellor, 44 do you call this Old
Monongahela ? I can hear the sound of the flails in it that
thrashed out the rye.”
The large tax upon whiskey, their chief article of commerce,
the Western Pennsylvanians esteemed unjust and unconstitu-
tional, and having made up their minds to resist it, with charac-
teristic courage—not to say obstinacy—put themselves in a
state of armed revolt. I need not say how a bloody arbitrament
was avoided by the wisdom of Washington and the sober second
thought of a sagacious and God-fearing population.
Whether the ancestors of Judge Wilkeson were concerned in
the Whiskey Insurrection I can not say, but if the fathers were
like the son, and had made up their minds that the tax was un-
just, they were men to stand to that opinion with arms in hand.
Perhaps this Presbyterian revolt may find a counterpart in Shay’s
Rebellion in Massachusetts—a Puritan outbreak.
Among the names of the early settlers of this city, none is
more prominent than that of Samuel Wilkeson. No man in that
band of hardy pioneers who laid the foundations of Buffalo, was
more distinguished for great ability and indomitable energy,
than the subject of this paper. His individuality, both physical
and mental, was perhaps more marked than that of any other of our
older citizens. Judge Wilkeson had a commanding presence ;
he was tall, erect and dignified in deportment, with a counte-
nance indicating his characteristic firmness and energy. He was
said to resemble General Jackson, who was of the same Scotch-
Irish origin. He was apparently a stern man, yet this impres-
sion was soon lost, when his wonderful conversational powers
were called into play.
He had a certain grim humor. One of the first anecdotes I
heard of him after coming to reside in Buffalo was to the effect
that, at a time when money was scarce, certain accounts being
presented to him in his office in the Kremlin Block, the payment
of which was rather importunately pressed, he looked at the bills
and then at the creditors, and turning to one of his sons, said in
a peremptory tone :
44 Eli, go sell a lot."SAMUEL WILKESON.
75
On another occasion, in the early navigation by steam on
Lake Erie, he was at the head of the dinner-table—I think of
the old steamboat Superior on her passage to Detroit—and ob-
serving the unmannerly rush and clamor of a company of young
men at the lower end of the table, he rose with great gravity,
and with stentorian voice exclaimed :
“Ladies and gentlemen, have the kindness to wait until
these famished young men lower down are sufficiently helped ! ”
For the following details of the early*life of Judge Wilkeson,
I am indebted to a member of his family.
He was born at Carlisle in Pennsylvania, June i, 1781. He
was the son of John Wilkeson, who was of Scotch-Irish descent,
and who emigrated from near Londonderry, in the north of
Ireland, to the banks of the Brandywine, in the State of Dela-
ware, previous to the breaking out of the War of the Revolution.
John Wilkeson served throughout that war as an officer in the
army, and 'at its close removed from Carlisle,! Pennsylvania,
where he had sought a refuge for his wife and children, to West
Pennsylvania. There he settled in the wilderness and cleared a
farm, granted to him for his military services, in Washington
County, near Pittsburg.
The subject of this notice was then three years old when
taken across the mountains, and passed his youth in the midst of
the hardships incident to settlements on the frontiers. His
early education was confined to a few months’ winter schooling,
often interrupted by the troubles of that time.
While yet a young man, he married the daughter of Capt.
William Oram, a retired Revolutionary officer, of the same
descent, and in 1802 removed to what is now the county of
Mahoning, in Ohio, near Youngstown. That great Common-
wealth was then yet a territory, and there with his axe he cut
down the forest and opened 3, farm and built a grist mill, the
first in the vicinity.
In 1810 he removed to Portland, now Barcelona, near West-
field, New York, and in connection with parties in Pittsburg,
engaged in shipping Onondaga salt to the Ohio valley. This
salt was carried across the portage from Lake Erie to the Chau-
tauque Lake, after its long and tedious course from the salt76
SAMUEL WILKE SON.
springs of New York to Oswego, then through Lake Ontario to
Lewiston, and across the Niagara portage to Schlosser, and then
by the river to Black Rock, and by the lake to Portland. When
it reached Chautauque Lake the salt was taken on boats which
descended the streams to the Ohio River. The competition of
the Kanawha salt works destroyed this trade, and in 1813, in a
keel-boat of his own construction, he set out for Detroit to dis-
pose of his remaining stock of salt. Stress of weather drove him
into Grand River, Ohio, and while there he undertook the con-
struction of a large number of boats, which were urgently re-
quired for the transportation of the army of General Harrison
into Canada. The boats were built in a wonderfully short time,
when the army crossed the lake and won the battle of the
Thames.
Judge Wilkeson came to Buffalo in the spring of 1814 to re-
side. He had prepared a ready-made house, which he brought
with him in an open boat, and it was erected on Main Street, on
the Kremlin triangle, near Niagara Street. Twice, before he be-
came a resident of Buffalo, he had come as a soldier to defend
the town, and he was here when it was burned; at which time
the captain of his company of volunteers was killed. On one
occasion he stood beside the late Judge Walden when both were
firing at a British force which had crossed the river at Black
Rock.
He had become familiar with iron smelting in Ohio, in his
youth, having lived near the first blast furnace, at Poland, Ohio,
which was built in that State. Eaton's furnace used muc h of the
timber which he cut from his farm and made into charcoal for
its use. Thus he came to have a love for* iron-making and iron-
working, which led him to enter into the business at an early day,
both in this city and in Ohio, inducing his sons to engage in the
same business. He was a vessel owner immediately after the
war, and as soon as the canal was finished, entered into com-
merce.
My first personal knowledge of Judge Wilkeson was in the
year 1825, when the Erie Canal was completed. He had been
largely engaged in business with the late Ebenezer Johnson, after-
wards the first Mayor of this city. Their place of business wasSAMUEL WILKESON.
77
originally in the Kremlin Block, and Henry H. Sizer was their
principal clerk.* Johnson & Wilkeson did a general business,
selling all sorts of goods, besides being engaged in a shipping
and forwarding business.
Townsend & Coit, Pratt & Allen, Johnson & Wilkeson,
Hart & Lay, T. & M. Weed, and John Scott were among the
leading business men of that time. The office of Love & Tracy,
(where I was a law student), was near the place of business of
Johnson & Wilkeson, who soon, however, left the Kremlin and
confined their business to the dock. Not long afterward the
firm was dissolved and Dr. Johnson went into the banking busi-
ness.
At the celebration of the completion of the Erie Canal, to
Judge Wilkeson was assigned the chief place in the festivities of
the occasion. He officiated in the commingling of the brine of
the Atlantic with the virgin waters of Erie and her sister seas.
He was foremost among the representatives of Buffalo in the first
boat that went through to the Hudson, while General Porter and
the delegation of Black Rock, then a rival village, went neck
and neck in the same voyage to the Capital of the State. The
reason of this prominence of Judge Wilkeson on this occasion
may be learned from a brief history of the early incidents con-
nected with the Buffalo harbor which appeared many years since
in the Commercial Advertiser of this city, from the pen of Judge
Wilkeson:
But a harbor we were resolved to have. Application was accordingly
made to the Legislature for a survey of the creek, and an act was passed on the
ioth of April, 1818, authorizing the survey and directing the Supervisors of
the County of Niagara to pay $3 a day to the surveyor, and to assess the amount
upon the County.
The survey was made by the present Hon. William Peacock during the
summer of that year, gratuitously. Then came the important question, where
to get the money to build the harbor ?
At that day no one thought of looking to Congress for appropriations, and
there was no encouragement to apply to the Legislature of the State. The
citizens could not raise the means, however willing they might have been. A
public meeting was called and an agent (the Hon. Charles Townsend) was
appointed to proceed to Albany and obtain a loan. Jonas Harrison, Ebenezer
*Samuel A. Bigelow was also one of their clerks. See the paper by Albert Bige-
low in this volume.—Ed.78
SAMUEL WILKESON.
Walden, Heman B. Potter, J. G. Camp, Oliver Forward, Albert H. Tracy,
Ebenezer Johnson, Ebenezer F. Norton and Charles Townsend were the appli-
cants. Judge Townsend, after a protracted effort, succeeded, and an act was
parsed April 17, 1819, authorizing a loan to the above persons and their asso-
ciates, of 112,000 for twelve years, to be secured on bond and mortgage, and
applied to the construction of a harbor, which the State had reserved a right to
take when completed, and to cancel the securities.
The year 1819 was one of general financial embarrassment, and nowhere
was the pressure or want of money more sensibly felt than in the lake coun-
try. It had no market and its produce was of little value. Some of the asso-
ciates became embarrassed and others discouraged. The summer passed
away, and finally all refused to execute the required securities except Judge
Townsend and Judge Forward.
Thus matters stood in December, 1819. Unless the condition of the loan
should be complied with the appropriation would be lost, and another might
not easily be obtained, for the project of a harbor at Black Rock, and the ter-
mination of the canal at that place, was advocated by influential men, and the
practicability of making a harbor at the mouth of Buffalo Creek, was seriously
questioned.
At this crisis Judge Wilkeson, with Messrs. Townsend and Forward,
agreed to make the necessary securities. This was perfected during the win-
ter of 1820.
Speaking of the failure of the superintendent first appointed,
who was removed—
no one could be found experienced in managing men who would undertake the
superintendence. Mr. Townsend was an invalid and consequently unable to
perform the duty. Mr. Forward was wanting in the practical experience that
was necessary. Mr. Wilkeson had never seen a harbor, and was engaged in
business that required his unremitting attention. But, rather than the effort
should be abandoned, he finally consented to undertake the superintendence,
and proceeded immediately to mark out a spot for the erection of a shanty on
the beach between the creek and the lake, hired a few laborers, and gave the
necessary orders for lumber, cooking utensils and provisions. The boarding
house and sleeping room were completed that same day. Neither clerk nor
other assistant, not even a carpenter to lay out the work, was employed for the
first two months to aid him in the work, who, besides directing all the labor,
making contracts, receiving materials, etc., labored in the water with the men,
as much exposed as themselves, and conformed to the rules prescribed to
them, of commencing work at daylight and continuing until dark, allowing half
an hour for breakfast and an hour for dinner. Beside the labors of the day he
was often detained until late at night waiting the arrival of boats, to measure
their loads of stone and to see them delivered in the pier, as without this
vigilance, some of the boatmen would unload their stone into the lake, which
was easier than to deposit it in the pier.SAMUEL WILKE SON.
79
After recording the perils of the work, its partial destruction
at various times, and the constancy and courage with which their
repeated disasters were at last overcome, he says :
Thus was completed the first work of the kind ever constructed on the
Lakes. It had occupied two hundred and twenty-one working days in build-
ing—the laborers always rested on the Sabbath—and it extended into the lake
about eighty rods, to twelve feet of water. It was begun, carried on and
completed principally by three private individuals, some of whom mortgaged
their whole real estate to raise the means for making an improvement in
which they had but a common interest. And now, although but twenty years
have elapsed, these sacrifices and efforts and even the fact that such a work
ever existed, are unknown to most of the citizens of Buffalo, who have only
seen the magnificent stone pier erected at a cost of over $200,000. But should
the names of those who projected and constructed the first pier be remem-
bered, for a few years, yet the subordinate actors, by whose faithful labors the
drudgery of this work was accomplished, must remain unknown even to those
who enjoy the immediate fruits of their labor in wealth and luxury.
We have seen that Judge Wilkeson became a resident of this
city about the close of the War of 1812, when it was but an in-
considerable frontier village, having been engaged in the partial
defence of Buffalo, which was attempted at the time the town
was invaded and destroyed by the British. To no man, living
or dead, is Buffalo so much indebted for its rapid growth and
present position as the Queen City of the great inland seas of the
North. Indeed it may be questioned whether this city would
have been anything more than a mere dependency upon a
neighboring village, had the footsteps of Judge Wilkeson been
directed to another quarter. Although a deep interest was felt
by all the citizens here to secure the advantages of the natural
position of Buffalo, though a law was obtained in 1818 authoriz-
ing a survey of a harbor and a loan in 1819 of $12,000 to build
it, yet without the courage and energy of Samuel Wilkeson with
his peculiar qualifications, without his devoted, personal super-
intendence of the work which made Buffalo the terminus of the
Erie Canal, the project to human view must have been aban-
doned.
No disparagement is intended of the efforts and sacrifices
made by others. Among the dead are Charles Townsend and
Oliver Forward, who signed with him that bond which pledged80
SAMUEL WILKESON.
their private fortunes to the repayment of the hazardous loan
which laid the corner-stone of this growing city. There were
many others who, to the extent of their means and influence,
aided in this great work. But where was the man that could
make a harbor with $12,000? Where the man that would baffle
the winds and shut up the waves in the necessary bounds and stay
the devastating sweep of the fearful storms which annually career
over the lakes, with this insignificant sum—a work which subse-
quently cost the General Government $200,000 ? Who else had
the physical courage to labor with his men shoulder deep in the
water, from sunrise to sunset? Who here had the same control
over others, or could induce a gang of laborers to endure the
exhausting toils of an undertaking, the recorded perils of which
are really startling. Without a leader possessing the combined
physical and mental energy of Judge Wilkeson, without a man
of untiring energy and courage to devote his whole powers of
body and soul to the enterprise, it must have failed. If there be
a citizen among that early band of enterprising men who laid the
foundations of Buffalo, who was pre-eminent among others in his
efforts, who deserves above all to be remembered, and to have
his name indissolubly connected with the history of the city of
his adoption by a record of his life, or by monumental honors,
that one is Samuel'Wilkeson. Who has forgotten the conflict
he sustained against one of the strongest men in the State in be-
half of Buffalo ? Who has not heard of the war between rival
towns, a war of conflicting interests, in which Judge Wilkeson
was victor against principalities and powers?
’ But the detail of these things, or the particulars of the political
life of Judge Wilkeson, will not be expected within the limits of
this paper. It will be enough to say that between the years 1820
and 1830 he was appointed first judge of this county, was elected
Member of the Assembly, and at the expiration of his term was
sent from the Eighth District to the Senate of this State.
He was one of the first citizens chosen to fill the office of
Mayor after the' incorporation of this city, and performed his
duties with his characteristic intrepidity and zeal, infusing his
energy into the administration of its affairs, and making its
police, for a time, the terror of evil doers.SAMUEL W1LKES0N.
81
It is not too much to say that he filled all these stations with
distinguished ability and with continually increasing reputation
to himself and advantage to his constituents.
Soon after the close of his political career, he became con.
nected with the American Colonization Society, and acted for
several years as agent and manager of the affairs of this benevo-
lent institution without compensation.
His papers show the extensive knowledge he had acquired of
the geography of Africa, and of the moral and physical condition
of its population, and the profound interest he felt in the eleva-
tion of its barbarous and degraded tribes, an interest that was
not diminished by his retirement from his official connection
with the cause as years and infirmities increased, but continued to
the end of his life.
He was eminently fearless in the expression of his opinions,
and never shrunk from the exposure of any corruption in high or
low places, whatever danger might be incurred, or whatever hos-
tilities aroused.
He was distinguished for the influence he exerted over other
minds. He was a natural leader of men and would have filled
with credit and honor the most exalted stations of government
and authority. He had an extraordinary faculty of impressing
his opinions upon others and leading them to conclusions which
seemed their own, but were really his. There was a vigor of
thought and action about Judge Wilkeson that naturally sub-
jected to his influence those who came within his sphere, like
the strong current of a rapid river, drawing within its control,
carrying with its flow and impelling with its motion the objects
that would otherwise have remained inert and stationary. He
communicated his energy to other men and gave impulse and
movement to other minds by the vigor of his own. In former
ages and under other circumstances he might have led armies to
victory, or headed a revolution against tyranny, or founded a
dynasty, for he had all the essential elements of the old hero race,
who were made rulers and kings because they were “ mighty
men of valor, ” who were elevated by common consent, as the
ancient Goths bore their elective monarchs aloft on their
shields, an acknowledgment and sign of a superiority, not of
accident, but of intellect and courage.82
SAMUEL WILKESON.
Judge Wilkeson was entirely free from that common error of
little minds of attempting to maintain an apparent consistency
of opinion at the expense either of veracity or integrity. Not-
withstanding his inflexibility of purpose and iron will, he was
ready to be corrected and open to conviction. Any view that
he had taken, any course that he had adopted, which afterwards
appeared erroneous, he readily and openly abandoned. An illus-
tration of this trait may be found in the following fact:
A few months after he had made a public profession of reli-
gion, Judge Wilkeson was appointed upon a committee of con-
ference to promote a certain measure of moral and religious
character. He made some suggestion in regard to the matter, or
advised some plan, which was thought by a much younger mem-
ber of the committee to be imbued with the spirit of worldly
rather than divine wisdom, which he frankly stated. The Judge
immediately replied :
“ Those who have practised upon the suggestions of expe-
diency until they are old are likely to be misled by them, and
you, my young friend, can not understand how much a man
long trained in the maxims of the world, has to contend with”
—a noble reply to a just reproof.
To that pretended consistency which implies either an in-
capability of error or of progress, he made no pretension, and
those who do pretend to it seem to forget that the assumption
clothes them with the attributes of God in the one case by sup-
posing them infallible, or makes them in the other fools, by deny-
ing them the power or the disposition to correct their errors, or
increase their knowledge. It is not consistency, but cowardice,
that leads a class of men to cleave to their ancient errors and
adhere to their mistaken opinions.
The true man can no more be bound by them, than could
Samson by the cords of the Philistines. He goes where truth
leads, if he goes alone, unmoved by the snarling of that envious
crew who invariably dog the heels of all who rise above their
own inferior and contemptible standard. That Judge Wilkeson
was not liable to be warped by the strong views he took of his
own side of a question, or that he was incapable of prejudice is
not intended by these remarks, but that he could bear reproof,SAMUEL WILKESON.
83
and when convinced of an error was ready to acknowledge his
mistake and retrace his steps.
Judge Wilkeson possessed unusual conversational powers,
and we venture to affirm that few men were ever in his com-
pany, even for a brief period, without receiving the impres-
sion that he was an extraordinary person, and retaining a lively
recollection of his appearance and address.
No one has traveled with him, or spent half an hour at a
public table in his society, who was not convinced that he was
enjoying the conversation of a man of splendid intellect, of
varied knowledge and acute observation. With what prompt
and withering rebuke he has reproved improprieties and purse-
proud insolence and brawling infidelity and profanity in public
places, there are living witnesses, who will never forget the
power of his eye, the sternness of his look and the severity of his
sarcasm.
Let those of you who remember Judge Wilkeson think for a
moment and consider whether you have known any individual
among your acquaintances who generally resembles him. Can
you recall any person who would remind you of his appearance,
manner or address, or whose mental characteristics are suffi-
ciently similar to sustain a comparison ? He was a man sui
generis in almost every respect, and although he may have had
equals in capacity, yet he possessed those peculiarities of mind
and manner which attract universal attention and prevent all
idea of resemblance.
No man could be more affectionate and indulgent in his
family than Judge Wilkeson. Whatever impression he may have
made upon casual acquaintances by a certain apparent severity of
manner, those who knew him best can testify that as a friend,
as a husband, as a father, his conduct was characterized by a
kindness and affection rarely equalled.
He was thrice married to women of superior talents and
character.
Almost all the great moral enterprises of the day had his
countenance and aid, and numerous instances might be given of
his readiness in every good work, and of his liberal contributions
for the various objects of benevolence.84
SAMUEL WILKESON.
As an elder in the Presbyterian Church he was excellent in
counsel and prompt in his performance of the duties of
his office, so far as his advancing age would permit, and
notwithstanding his multiplied sorrows and increasing infirmi-
ties, laboring under a form of disease which subjected him
to the most excruciating pain, and which would have utterly
incapacitated most men from active exertion or warm interest in
the external affairs of the church, he continued to manifest the
deepest concern in its prosperity, by personal efforts and
pecuniary contributions. A strong rod was broken and withered
in our Presbyterian Zion when Samuel Wilkeson died.
Of the death of our departed friend and brother while on the
way to visit a daughter residing in the State of Tennessee, a
stranger (Dr. McCall, a resident of that State,) who was called
to his death-bed, gave the following statement through the col-
umns of the New York Journal of Commerce :
On arriving at Kingston, Roane Co., Tennessee, at 9 p. m., of the 7th
inst.,* I was requested to see a dying stranger, Judge Samuel Wilkeson, of
Buffalo, New York. As an enterprising citizen, whose conduct had been
marked with great benevolence, I had heard of him. He had a daughter with
him, on their way to visit his married daughter at Tellico Plains, forty miles
from this place. The latter arrived to attend his funeral at 6 o’clock this
evening, the 9th. Bronchial erysipelas of two years’ standing had caused
gouty and rheumatic neuralgia in the lumbar and sciatic nerve with other con-
stitutional derangement.
He was conscious of his approaching dissolution and met it with the most
perfect calmness and submission. On asking for water he found that he could
not swallow it, and turning over he said he would “ drink of the springs of
living waters.” Intently examining his benumbed limbs with his hands and
piercing black eyes, he said submissively and assentingly, “Well! Well!”
Having failed of words to express himself, his brain was actively thinking for
twelve or fourteen hours, when its powers suddenly sinking, he passed from
life, like one quietly reposing in sleep, not moving one muscle, nor suffering
any distress. Truly his seemed to be the death of the Christian, necessary for
passing the screen that conceals future life from our view. He was an active
promoter of the Colonization cause years ago, and long had been an exem-
plary member of the Presbyterian Church. His form and appearance strikingly
resembled Gen. Jackson. He was 67 years of age.
This is the record of the attendant physician concerning the
last hours of Samuel Wilkeson.
*July, 1848.—Ed.“THE HARBOR-MAKER OF BUFFALO:
85
One thing very characteristic of the man was said by him on
his death-bed. Reference being made to the hardship of his
case, dying among strangers and far from home, “ What matters
it,” replied he, “ where one dies? ”
The lofty spirit of the dying Christian rose above the sad
circumstances of his case, and what to him was the point of his
departure, whose eye was fixed upon the gates of the Eternal
City, who was about to enter upon another and a better life ?
Twenty-three years have elapsed since the death of Judge
Wilkeson, but his works do follow him, and shall while this fair
city holds her place at the foot of Lake Erie, and while her har-
bor is filled with the ships of those inland seas, which constitute
the Mediterranean of the New World. If this imperfect memoir
shall help to conserve the memory of this eminent man, pre-
served as it will be in the archives of the Historical Society of
Buffalo, I shall have accomplished the design which I proposed
in the preparation of this paper.
“THE HARBOR-MAKER OF BUFFALO.”
Reminiscences of Judge Samuel Wilkeson, by Samuel A.
Bigelow, his Early Clerk and Associate.
RECORDED BY THE REV. ALBERT BIGELOW.
The late Rev. Albert Bigelow, a former Secretary ol the Buffalo Historical
Society, left a MS. narrative which combines reminiscences of his father,
Samuel A. Bigelow, and of Judge Samuel Wilkeson, for whom Mr. Bigelow,
on arriving in Buffalo in August, 1815, became clerk. From this MS., cour-
teously placed at the disposal of the editor of the present volume of Publica-
tion's, by Mrs. Albert Bigelow, now of Harrisburg, Pa., the following extracts
have been made, being deemed especially worthy of preservation in connec-
tion with the foregoing memoir of Judge Wilkeson by Dr. Lord.—Editor.
When Dr. Lord read his paper upon the late Judge Wilkeson
—and others gave their recollections of him—my father, being
unable to hear what was communicated, could not at that time
add his own reminiscences or remarks:86
SAMUEL WILKESON.
I afterwards read to him the Secretary’s report of the state-
ments made and his additional facts and observations so inter-
ested me that I took pains to preserve them in writing, in order
that if opportunity offered, they might be added to those
which the Society had already received.
I have thought it, also, no more than a filial duty to connect
my father’s name with that of Judge Wilkeson somewhat more
closely than was done in the mere allusion made on the occa-
sion referred to, at least, so far as necessary, in order to show his
fitness to furnish these additional memorabilia. I shall not, per-
haps, overstep the bounds of propriety, even in the presence of
some of the gentlemen thus familiarly referred to, if I say that so
intimate were the relations of my father with Judge Wilkeson and
his family, that one of the daughters, Mrs. Stagg, remarked more
than once that “Sam” as he was called among them, “brought
up Pa’s boys.” It is pleasant to know that they have done so
good justice to their “ bringing up.” And just here it will not
be unseemly, in the freedom of communication in this Society,
to relate what Mr. Gibson T. Williams* will perhaps remember to
have stated, showing how much, with all Judge Wilkeson’s well-
known self-reliance and strength of opinion and will, he yet re-
lied upon my father’s judgment, first as clerk and afterwards as
partner in business. Mr. Williams having some proposition to
make to Judge Wilkeson, he replied at once. “ I’ll talk it over
with Bigelow and give you an answer at such a time.”
It is correctly written in the Secretary’s report that my father
was Mr. Wilkeson’s first clerk. In August, 1815, he being then
less than 18 years of age, was on his way westward from Geneseo
seeking his fortune, and he had concluded to take Buffalo in his
way, as he had heard that it was a well-to-do young village.
Footing it hitherward via LeRoy village and Batavia, when yet
some miles away, he came across Moses Baker, who was driving in
some sheep for Wilkeson and Folsom’s market. This was loca-
ted, by the way, in front of the present site of the First Presby-
terian Church.f The night of August 25, 1815, they “put up”
with Mr., afterwards Deacon, Jabez Goodell, in his log tavern
♦Died April 14,1891.—Ed.
fNow occupied by the Erie County Savings Bank building.—Ed.“THE HARBOR-MAKER OF BUFFALO
87
with a framed hall and office in front of it, about where the
Goodell dwelling was afterwards built. Next morning, August
26th, they came into the village, and that day Mr. Baker intro-
duced the stranger lad—who knew not another soul in the place
or region—to Mr. Wilkeson. Being out of my father’s hearing,
let me say that I think it was quite in keeping with other things we
know of Judge Wilkeson’s judgment and understanding of men,
and insight of character, that he immediately, that very day,
took that lad into his employ as clerk in the store situated
(I may just note) where now is the drug store next to the lower
corner of the Kremlin Block, and then the only building on the
Kremlin triangle. I do not think he ever regretted the confi-
dence he then placed in him.
I do not intend to give a history of my father’s association
with Judge Wilkeson. But you can easily understand that he
is naturally sensitive as to the rendering of due honor to the
Judge in regard to his efforts towards opening our harbor and
securing the western terminus of the Erie Canal for Buffalo. In
connection with this he is not satisfied that any doubt should be
thrown upon the agency of DeWitt Clinton in this matter.
In the Secretary’s report of remarks supplementing Dr. Lord’s
paper, Mr. Lewis F. Allen is recorded as saying, in effect, that
it was an accident, and not the strenuous efforts of Judge Wilke-
son and Mr. Clinton that brought the Erie Canal to Buffalo. As
I read this my father quickly remarked :
“ I never heard such a thing as that said before. I should
like to find out what that ‘accident’ was.”
Mr. Allen, I think it was, also remarked that what Mr. Clin-
ton did do in the matter was not from public spirit or a wish to
favor Buffalo, but as a bid for the Governor’s chair. As to this
my father replied, when I read it:
“ Clinton was not Governor till 1824, yet four years before
that, in 1820, he was actively engaged personally on the ground,
in measures towards the settlement of the then great question in
favor of Buffalo, while long before that, as well as after, Mr.
Wilkeson planned and negotiated and worked faithfully, and did
what no accident or series of accidents could ever have accom-
plished.”SB
SAMUEL WILKESON.
Let it be remembered that in 1818, by the efforts of Mr.
Wilkeson, with help of others, the so-called “ Experiment Pier ’ ’
was sunk by way of testing the availability of Buffalo Creek for
harbor purposes, and Mr. Wilkeson, Ebenezer Johnson, Oliver
Forward, and Townsend & Coit, borrowed of the State of New
York $12,000 with which to build this pier. Isaac Smith had
the contract for building it. This was discharged by the State
when it assumed the contract for building the harbor.*
Then in the spring of 1820, the enterprise of Mr. Wilkeson
insured the success of the following undertaking. The very prac-
tical question came up, where shall the steamboat Superior be
built? Brown of New York was to build the boat and was on
the ground receiving overtures from Black Rock and Buffalo as
candidates for the honor and profit of this enterprise. It is even
related that Judge Wilkeson had reason to believe that after
Brown had agreed to take Buffalo as his building place he showed
signs of backing down and that Judge Wilkeson broke in upon a-
conference of Brown and Black Rockians—the story is that he
actually broke in the door of the room where the conference was
taking place—and held Brown firmly up to his previous engage-
ment. At any rate it was unquestionably the fact that Brown
hesitated about building at Buffalo because, on account of a bar
that often formed at the creek’s mouth, he doubted if he could
get the boat out of the creek if she was built within it. But
Judge Wilkeson, Ebenezer Johnson, Elijah Efner and others,
gave their personal bonds to Brown to pay him #50 per dayf for
every day the boat should be detained in the harbor by low water
on the bar after she was ready to go out, if he would build her here.
This settled the matter, and then the citizens—Judge Wilkeson be-
ing foremost among them—made the memorable subscription of
nearly $2,000 to furnish funds for clearing away the harbor bar
in season for the departure of the Superior, and when the boat
was ready the harbor was ready too.
♦Incident confirming the date of the work : Samuel A. Bigelow was building the
warehouse for Wilkeson and went over the creek for timber. Middaugh was then
over there, charged by Joseph Ellicott with guarding the timber. The work of build-
ing the pier was then going on. They were drawing bushes, etc., to fill in the pier.
Middaugh forbade Bigelow getting the timber. Bigelow said “Ellicott will be here
within a week and it will be all right,” and Middaugh said no more.—A. B.
fMr. Inglehart says $150. Cf. ante, p. 62.—Ed.“THE HARBOR-MAKER OF BUFFALO:
89
Of the labors of Judge Wilkeson—with head and hands—nay
with his whole body and all his remarkable powers, my father has
a very vivid recollection—and of how he would be found himself
waist deep in the water directing and urging on the work.
As to the dredge: There was then no convenient steam dredge
with great iron scoop to sail about and dig up and drain off and
load in and carry away the alluvium from the bottom of the
channel. But “ Where there is a will there is a way” and a
dredge that “ did the business ” was made as follows :
A log ten or twelve feet long was split through the middle
and smoothed down, making an edge. This edge was covered
with heavy sheet iron, doubled sharp over it and spiked. A
tongue about fourteen feet long was inserted. This log-scoop
was rigged at the stern of a scow. On the deck was a capstan
with a hawser, made fast to a capstan on shore with a horse to
turn it. The scow would be floated to the further side of the
creek, and the dredge, weighted to make it heavy, dropped to
the bottom. The scow would be floated back and made fast to
a post, then the horse would turn the capstan, thus dragging the
dredge across the creek, bringing it up as nearly as possible to
the boat. In this manner the bottom of the creek was scraped
crosswise.
In the summer of the same year (1820), four years before Mr.
Clinton became Governor, a commission to locate the terminus
of the Erie Canal was on the ground—and on the water too,
busily investigating the data for decision. That commission
consisted of DeWitt Clinton, ---------- Thomas,* chief engineer,
Samuel Wilkeson, Ebenezer Johnson, Thomas F. Sherwood and
Thomas C. Love. Among my father’s most distinct recollec-
*This was David Thomas (born 1776, died 1859), of Quaker family, a man of
repute in his day as civil engineer, botanist and Journalist, especially on agricultural
and other economic subjects. His home was ht Aurora, Cayuga Co., N. Y., when in
1805 he was appointed chief engineer of the Erie Canal west of Rochester. Subse-
quently he became principal engineer on the Welland Canal. Four years before the
visit referred to in the text—in May, 1816—he and Jonathan Swan, a merchant of
Aurora, visited Buffalo on their way to explore the “ Wabash Lands,” now included in
the State of Indiana. Mr. Thomas found Buffalo to consist “of more than one hun-
dred houses ; many are frame, several are brick, and a considerable number are large
and elegant.” He observed the “black sills of former buildings,” burned by the
British in 1813. The brief but interesting record of that visit, with many notes of value
on the country traversed, are found in his now scarce book, “ Travels through the
Western Country,” etc., Auburn, 1819.—Ed.90
SAMUEL WILKESON.
tions is that of the expedition of these commissioners in a yawl
boat, making soundings in reference to the practicability of a
pier from Bird Island to the head of Squaw Island. On this
occasion Thomas F. Sherwood hove the lead and Mr. Bigelow,
Mr. Wilkeson’s clerk, as clerk of the Board of Commissioners,
made the record of the soundings.
Among reminiscences of Judge Wilkeson as a store-keeper is
the following :	One day some soldiers were in the grocery wear-
ing their long overcoats. One of these undertook to turn a penny
by laying in supplies on his own account and slyly abstracted a cod-
fish from the pile, and drew it under his capacious surtout. But
alas, the keen eye of Mr. Wilkeson had noted the operation.
The soldier stood about in a careless way for a while, but pres-
ently Mr. Wilkeson, having approached him by degrees, on a
sudden drew open the fellow’s overcoat, seized the codfish with
both hands and dealt him a blow over the head with the unwar-
like weapon which felled him to the floor, and taught him that,
at least within range of such a keen eye, “ Honesty is the best
policy.”
At another time an Indian was in the store half drunk, and
being refused more liquor by Mr. Wilkeson, became angry, and
having in hand a musket with a bayonet, he, as the saying now is,
“went for him” in “charge bayonet ” style. But Mr. Wilke-
son was too quick for him, and dodged the bayonet, which
stuck tight in a board ceiling—so tight that it could not be
drawn out. Mr. Wilkeson on the instant seized a sword he had
at hand, and with the back of it dealt the Indian a blow over
the forehead, cutting a gash and flooring him. He got up, toqk
a bee line for the door, and disappeared. He was gone several
days. When he came back he cautiously put his head into the
door and asked for his musket; but Mr. Wilkeson bade him be-
gone. How long his probation continued my father does not
recollect—long enough, we may be assured, to give him a thor-
oughly wholesome fear of attacking such a store-keeper.
In connection with Judge Wilkeson’s harbor labors, my
father recalls one of his characteristically energetic expressions.
One Jefferson was trying to split a log and had hard work
to do it. Mr. Wilkeson coming along, Jefferson asked him,“THE HARBOR-MAKER OF BUFFALO:
91
“ Who shall I get to help me split this log?” Mr. Wilkeson,
too full of work and too self-reliant to give patient hearing to a
question like that, as quick as the lightning flash itself shouted
out, “ Get thunder and lightning to help you,” and on he went,
leaving Jefferson to engage these elements or not, according to his
ability.