Buffalo History Highlights

Metro Buffalo History Highlights
Buffalo, New York

On August 7, 1679, Rene Robert Cavalier de LaSalle, 35, launches the Griffon near the mouth of Scajaquada Creek; built along the Niagara River near Cayuga Creek in present-day Niagara Falls, it was the first known Lake Erie ship, but would sink in Lake Michigan September 18, 1679
In 1804, orders were issued for construction of the first lighthouse on the Great Lakes, to be located at the mouth of the Niagara River at Lake Ontario
1818 - "Walk-in-the-Water," the first lower Great Lakes steamship, was launched at Black Rock; its maiden voyage took place Aug. 23 1818; the "Frontenac", the first Great Lakes steamship, was launched Sept. 7, 1816, but only sailed on Lake Ontario
Barcelona Harbor:
In 1821, William A. Hart drilled the First natural gas well in the US is in Fredonia,
1825 - Buffalo named Western terminus of the Erie Canal which opened up the Midwest to population and helped New York City grow - "Gateway to the West"
In the 1830s & '40s, the first African-American novelist, William Wells Brown, lived here
In 1830, the Lighthouse at Barcelona Harbor south of Fredonia on Lake Erie became the first lighthouse to be operated by natural gas; the 35 foot high stone structure had 11 burners, with a log supply pipeline, and operated for 29 years
In 1843, Wells-Fargo Express began operating, the first express railroad service between Buffalo and Albany, with a fare of eleven dollars and 50 cents for a trip made in 25 hours
In 1850 William Fargo and Henry Wells founded the American Express Co. in 1850 and the Pony Express in 1851. Fargo was mayor of Buffalo during the Civil war.
In 1847, Village of Lockport establishes the first union school district in the US, as the state legislature passes an act organizing the seven common schools in the city into one district
In 1838, Buffalo became the first city in New York State to establish a free school system; the Common Council divided the city into fifteen school districts, and Oliver G. Steele is chosen schools superintendent
In 1840, First timber dry dock in the US is built in Buffalo, to service Great Lakes ships
In 1841, Joseph Dart invented the steam-powered grain elevator which transformed the grain industry
In 1850, the first practical roll top desk is built, invented by Abner Cutler
In 1854, Frank Hastings Hamilton, doctor from Buffalo, announces the first successful skin graft, onto a patient with a severe leg injury caused by a heavy stone; he had first proposed skin grafting in 1847
In 1854, the first paper samples made from wood pulp are demonstrated in Buffalo, as inventor John Beardsley shows three samples made from basswood to the editor of the Buffalo "Democrat"
In 1855, the first railway suspension bridge in the world opens, over the Niagara Gorge; the 825 foot long double-deck bridge was built by John A. Roebling over a four year period for $450,000 and it was the prototype for future bridges, including his Brooklyn Bridge
In the 1860's, Albert J. Myer settled here and developed his system for recording and transmitting national weather data - the first real weatherman! His remains are buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in a huge mausoleum topped by a great granite globe with an equator line, in a high-ground corner near the on-ramp from northbound Delaware to the 198 East. It's easily visible driving by. Brigadier General Albert J. Myer

(Also a physician and surgeon) developed the Wigwag System that eventually grew into the I.S. Army Signal Corps.
In 1861, J. S. Noyes created the first practical cargo barge by removing the mast and deck from an old schooner; the invention would revolutionize Great Lakes shipping, and help make Tonawanda and North Tonawanda into a world leading lumber port
In 1862, Congress authorized the first issuance of "greenbacks" or paper currency during the Civil War; the legislation was proposed by Congressman Elbridge Gerry Spaulding on Dec. 30, 1861
In 1865, the First National Bank of Attica becomes the first national bank to fail in the US; it would be put into receivership until Jan 2 1867
In 1876, the Olmsted & Vaux-designed park and parkway system was the first for an American city
In 1877, Buffalo was the first city to form a Charity Organization Society, was formed in Buffalo to consolidate efforts to aid the needy by sixty separate but overlapping relief societies; it was the first such organization in the country, serving as a model for other US cities
In 1877, Buffalo Starch Factory ranked third in world production
In 1881 Maria Love founded the first day care center in the US. .
In 1884, the Ball(R) Jar was first introduced in 1884 by the Ball Brothers Glass
Manufacturing Company in Buffalo, NY. See Jarden Celebrates 125th Anniversary of Ball(R) Jars on The Martha Stewart Show
In 1885, the first Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) in the US is established in Buffalo
In 1885, the first state park in New York, the Niagara State Reservation, was dedicated in Niagara Falls in noontime ceremonies, with an estimated 750 thousand people in attendance. The park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux.
In 1886, Adam Meldrum and Anderson became the first commercial business in the US to use alternating current generated electric lights
In 1887, International League owners, meeting in Buffalo, agree to "approve no more contracts with colored men", the first documentation of racial segregation in professional baseball, a situation that would last until 1946 in the IL and 1947 in the major leagues
In 1887, Charlotte Williams is appointed as a manager of the State Insane Asylum in Buffalo; first time a woman had been appointed to such a high ranking position
By 1890, Tonawanda was the leading lumber port of the world. (John Percy, "The Erie Canal: From Lockport to Buffalo")
In 1890, William Kemmler (aka John Hart) of Buffalo was first man to die in the electric chair at Auburn State Prison, after an ax murder of his common law wife, Matilda Ziegler. The chair, nicknamed "Old Sparky", was invented by Buffalo dentist Dr. Alfred Southwick
In 1891, the New York Central Railroad begins operating the Empire State Express between New York City and Buffalo, the first regularly scheduled high speed train
In 1894, the City of Buffalo enacted the first dog licensing law in the nation
In 1895, the Niagara Falls Power Company begins generating its first commercial power, for the first aluminum produced by a new electrolytic process by the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, later Alcoa, in Niagara Falls NY; Alcoa's plant would operate until Feb. 28 1949
In 1896, Ellicott Square Building was largest office building in the world
On November 16,1896, the first electricity is transmitted from Niagara Falls to Buffalo, at 12:01AM (so the Sabbath Sun Nov. 15th would not be disturbed); all of it is allocated to the Buffalo Street Railway Company for streetcar operation, the first streetcar system in a large city to be electrified
In 1896, the first movie theater in Toronto, Robinson's Musee at 81 Yonge Street, is opened by M. S. Robinson of Buffalo, one day before the first planned motion picture demonstration at the Toronto Industrial Exhibition (forerunner of the CNE)
On October 19, 1896, Mitchel H. Mark (1868-1918) and his brother Moe Mark, hat dealers and movie exhibition pioneers, opened Vitascope Theater, the first purpose-built and permanent motion picture theater in the world at Ellicott Square in Buffalo. Mitchel Mark is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery.
In 1898, the New York State Legislature appropriates ten thousand dollars for the country's first cancer-only laboratory, the NY State Pathological Laboratory for the Study of Cancer at UB; Dr. Roswell Park is the first director, and the center now bears his name
In 1898, the first automobile insurance policy is issued, by the Travelers Insurance Company of Hartford CT, to Dr. Truman J. Martin of Buffalo for $11.05, protecting his auto against damages caused by frightened horses
In 1901, Buffalo was the 8th largest city in the US in terms of population
In 1901, Buffalo had 60 millionaires, more per capita than any city in the US.
In 1901, Buffalo boasted more than 200 miles of asphalt paved roads, which were more than any other city in the world. (Source: BECHS "A Guide to the Pan-Am Grounds")
1901 - Instant coffee first served here at Pan American Expo, 1901
In 1901, Larkin Soap Co. was the largest in the world
In 1901 Pratt and Lambert varnish company was the largest in the world when it moved to Buffalo
In 1902, Willis Carrier, a new employee at the Buffalo Forge Co., invented the air conditioner
In 1910, the greatest grain port in the world
In 1910, second largest milling center in the world (Minneapolis was first)
1911 - In the first half of the 20th Century, second largest railroad terminus in US (Chicago was first). Source: 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
In 1914, Concrete Central grain elevator was the largest in the world
In 1915, Col. Francis Ward Pumping Station at the foot of Porter Ave. was the largest pumping station in the country.
By 1917, during WW1, The Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company was the largest aircraft manufacturer in the world. (Source: Business First, "Buffalo Century") The 2050 Elmwood Ave. plant (now M. Wile and Home Depot) was the largest manufacturing airplane plant in the world.
In 1926, Buffalo Municipal Airport in the Town of Cheektowaga was built years before New York and other larger cities have airfields of their own.
In 1942, Bell Aircraft manufactured the first American jet plane in the world. See National Museum of the US Air Force, First American Jet Plane

(online June 2013). The P-59 was built in utmost secret on the upper floor of the old Ford (later Trico, now Tri-Main) plant on Main Street. It was then shipped to California by rail disguised by a false prop fastened to its nose, and successfully flown.
During WW2, Bethlehem-Lackawanna Steel became the world's largest steelmaking operation.
During WW2, William "Wild Bill" Donovan became the director of the OSS (the forerunner of the CIA). He was a graduate o St.. Joseph's Collegiate Institute.
In 1943, Curtiss-Wright Corporation develops a research laboratory across the road from the Buffalo airport. It has a pioneer high velocity wind tunnel and a large altitude chamber. It later becomes known as Calspan and invents crash dummies. They were named Thin Man and Half-Pint (child version).
In 1959, Wilson Greatbatch invented the internal pacemaker.
In 1964, Teressa Bellissimo, an owner of the Anchor Bar, concocted the world's first chicken wings recipe. Buffalo has never recovered.
In 1972 the first openly gay person to address a national political convention (Democratic, 1972): author and retired librarian Madeline Davis
In 1977 Tonawanda's John Nepomucene Neumann, was canonized June 19 1977 as the first US male saint. He was born in Prachatice Bohemia; died Jan 5 1860, age 48, in Philadelphia PA.
In 1993, Buffalo was the first city in the United States to host Summer World University Games, an international amateur athletic competition second to only the Summer Olympics.

Misc. - People

Direct mail advertising campaign invented here by Father Nelson Baker
Louise Blanchard Bethune was the first female architect to become a member of the American Institute of Architects (and the WAA); considered the nation's first "professional" female architect because she was the first woman admitted to the AIA and the first woman architect to open her own practice. Born 1856; died Dec 18 1913, age 57, in Buffalo.
Buffalo Astronomical Observatory. The largest achromatic refracting telescope in the world, 16 inches clear aperture, 21 feet focal length, with a magnifying power of 2,000, erected in a three story addition to his home at 1327 Main Street at the corner of Riley by Dr. William Sanford Van Duzee about 1863. This instrument was supposed to go to the University of Virginia in 1861 but remained in New York City due to the outbreak of the Civil War where Dr. Van Duzee purchased it. (Buffalo Morning Express, January 13, 1864)
US Presidents Grover Cleveland and Millard Fillmore lived in Buffalo when they were elected (Fillmore VP). Pres. McKinley assassinated in Buffalo; Theodore Roosevelt inaugurated in Buffalo
From 1920 to 1960, Catherine Cornell was one of the foremost actresses of the American stage.
Frances Folsom Cleveland was one of the most popular First Ladies in American history. She married Grover Cleveland in the first White House wedding. Their daughter, Ruth, had a candy bar named after her.
Anna Katherine Green wrote the first detective novel by a woman and the first American detective novel, although The Leavenworth Case was published before she moved to Buffalo.
1860 birthplace of Herman Hollerith, called "Father of the Information Age," inventor of the punch card and one of the founders of IBM
Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood, attorney, was first woman to practice law before the US Supreme Court (Mar 3 1879) and the first woman candidate for US president (National Equal Rights Party 1884, 1888). Born 1830 in Royalton NY in Niagara County; died May 19, 1917, age 86
Mabel Dodge Luhan, author and patron of the arts, grew up in Buffalo and wrote a 4-volume autobiography
Lockport: Birdsill Holly (b. 1802; died 1893, age 91), hydraulic engineer, inventor, held more patents than anyone except Thomas Edison. He installed the first fire hydrant system in the US in 1863 in Lockport.

Misc. - Companies

Curtiss-Wright Corporation developed a research laboratory across the road from the Buffalo airport that boasted a pioneer high velocity wind tunnel and a large altitude chamber. The laboratory was donated to Cornell University after the war and named Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory Cornell invents in-flight simulators, specially modified aircraft that can be programmed to feel like other aircraft that may not even exist. Wind tunnels are developed to test scale model planes in development. The lab is later sold to Calspan
Jacob Schoellkopf's National Aniline and Chemical Company, the largest dye plant in the country, increased in size during WW1 as coal dyes were used increasingly for the manufacture of high explosives and poison gases.
.The Spencer-Kellogg Co. was the largest maker of linseed oil products in the United States
The Urban Company was the first flour milling company in the United States to be powered by electricity.

Thanks to Mark Wozniak for submitting a number of entries

See also: Activities for Elementary & Secondary Classes Studying Buffalo History and Buffalo Architecture