Buffalo 1832-1840 (original) (raw)

1832

Buffalo 1832 Directory Alphabetial list of households (WNY Geneology)

Buffalo 1832 Directory (Distantcousin.com)

Online Buffalo City Directories - LINKS (BuffaloResearch.com)

Henry Priebe, The City of Buffalo 1832 - A City is Born

Henry Priebe, The City of Buffalo - 1832 to 1840 Essay

Buffalo incorporated as a city on April 20.

4 .5 square miles, with a population of 10,000. The northern border is North Street.

Virtually every aspect of daily life in the city is closely supervised by the Common Council (the mayor is appointed by the council and has powers similar to a village justice of the peace), including the management and control of finances of all property, real and personal.

• Original city charter

Buffalo first mayor, Dr. Ebenezer Johnson, is elected for a one-year term. Under the first city charter, the Common Council has the power to elect the mayor. Salary: $250. per year. Before the election, Johnson is one of Buffalo's wealthiest citizens. Johnson Park will be named after him.

In June, a cholera epidemic breaks out. City spokesmen (among them the physician and first mayor of Buffalo, Dr. Ebenezer Johnson) say it is caused by Irish immigrants in Quebec who had brought the dread disease with them from the old country. The Common Council's first action is to quarantine the city. All traffic - lake and canal boats, stages and coaches - is stopped immediately.

A man might be in apparent good health in the morning and in his grave the same night. The death carts patrol the streets, and when there is an indication of a death in a house , the driver would shout, "Bring out your dead." Bodies are not permitted to remain unburied over an hour or two, if it is possible to obtain carriers or a sexton to bury them.

By July,over 120 Buffalonians die from the epidemic.

Another epidemic will occur in 1849, and the worst in1854.

• Cholera Epidemics in Buffalo, NY

Cemeteries: When Buffalo incorporates, the city established cemeteries beyond the northern boundary of the city, Guideboard Road, which the city fathers appropriately name North Street .

The principal cemeteries:

• The Franklin Street Cemetery, the site of the present Old Erie County Building.
• North Street Cemetery
• Potters' Field for the indigent on the site of an old Indian burial ground bounded by North St.., Best St., Michigan, and Cemetery St. (Masten St. ). Present day site of Pilgrim Housing and City Honors School.
• East North Street Cemetery
  • Forest Lawn Cemetery on the Web
  • Kopp, Katherine M. City of Buffalo Cemeteries... Description of cemeteries

In November, a fire destroys 60 buildings in the heart of the city.

The Williamsville-Buffalo Road (later to become Main Street) is paved and to recoup the cost, a toll house is built at the present intersection of Kensington Avenue and Main Street.