"Buffalo" a Buffalo Travel Page by TRimer

A brief history:

The Village of Buffalo was originally surveyed and laid out for the Holland Land Company in 1804 by Joseph Ellicott. The Holland Land Company had purchased Western New York bounding on the Genessee River to the east, Lake Ontario to the North, the Niagara River and Lake Erie to the west and Pennsylvania to the south.

The village grew relatively slowly until the war of 1812 when Buffalo became a "Military Resort." According to the 1832 City Directory "In December, 1813, the place was entered by the British and Indians, and every building but two was burnt." Many citizens were taken as captives to Montreal and most of the rest fled to avoid capture.

The rebuilding of Buffalo was a painstaking process due to several factors, not the smallest of which was a lack of convienient transportation from the remote markets. Modest attempts at rejuvenation were made once peace was declared, but it was not until westward progress of the Erie Canal, then known as "The Grand Canal," in approximately 1819, brightened the city's prospects and encourged further settlement. A western destination for the canal had not been determined and Buffalo sorely wanted to be chosen over Black Rock.

The Village of Buffalo was incorporated in 1822.

In 1825 both the reciept of federal monies in compensation for the 1813 destructions and the completion of the Erie Canal to Buffalo helped to ensure the needed future expansion of this small village.

Buffalo now had an excellent harbor for the many wharves storehouses and supporting facilities which quickly sprang up. The Grand Canal had brought great prosperity to the small community which then began to grow in leaps and bounds.

Because of the navigable Great Lake Erie and "Clinton's Ditch" Buffalo became the largest grain handling port in the world. Buffalo truly was the gateway to the west.

By 1832 Buffalo had banks and insurance companies, gaudy houses and even a water works project to take over for "Water John" who had been trundling a horse cart with potable water around town for years. There were even a few local breweries which was the beginning of a local brewing tradition which was to endure until 1972.

Buffalo had a very bright future indeed, far too bright to remain a mere village. April 20th, 1832 Governor Enos T. Throop approved the charter of the City of Buffalo.