Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2013, All Rights Reserved U.S. Data Repository Please read U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the US Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ ========================================================================= U.S. Data Repository NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ========================================================================= Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== Buffalo Cemeteries, An Account of the Burial Places of Buffalo From the Earliest Times Read Before the Buffalo Historical Society, February 4, 1879 by WILLIAM HODGE Pub. Bigelow Brothers, Buffalo, N.Y.; 1879 [3-4] THE JOHNSTON BURYING GROUND ------- Captain WILLIAM JOHNSTON, a British officer, retired on half pay, once owned a tract of about forty acres of land in what is now the business center of Buffalo. It was bounded on the north by Seneca street, west by Washington street, south by Little Buffalo Creek, and east by a line which would include the forty acres; the said line running parallel with Washington street. As this place, even then, was the center of business attraction, residents meeting there for conversation, very naturally the settle- ment increased about JOHNSTON'S; and finally he laid out a small burial ground a few rods square on his homestead, at the corner of Crow (now Exchange) and Washington streets. The place was afterwards owned by the late Gen. LUCIUS STORRS, and since known as the "SHELDON place;" and when the Washington Block was built in 1873-4, several skeletons were dug up by the laborers exca- vating for cellars. The street is now a number of feet below the original surface of the soil; and the removal of the earth for cellars rendered it necessary to excavate below the bottom of the deepest graves. As these skeletons were found on the east side, of the SHELDON lot, there is every reason to believe (and tradition deepens the impres- sion) that more are interred on the next lot east, which is now occu- pied by the paint shop of J. JOSEPHS. The house was built by Mr. JOSEPH D. HOYT, and afterwards passed into the hands of Mr. Waters, formerly of the firm of KIMBERLY & WATERS, ship chandlers, &c. But there has been an ever-changing tide of occupants in the house. People of every color and nationality have lived here; and some of such bad repute that it would not be surpris- ing in the least if the original tenants of this ossuary had their numbers increased by the sudden taking off of unsuspecting persons decoyed there for purposes of plunder and murder. When the building is removed, and the lot excavated for larger cellars, it will not be unexpected if a dozen or more skeletons of different sizes are found on the north end of that and the adjacent lot, now occupied by the old cabinet shop of OLIVER POMEROY, which was erected in 1832. It is understood that CAPT. JOHNSTON was buried in his own cemetery in 1807. The first tenant was an infant son of the Captain and burials did not cease there till several years after the establishment of a village burial place on lots 108, 109, 111, 112, since called Frank- lin Square, where now stands the massive city and county building. =========================================================================== If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access the more of our information about Erie County, N.Y., by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/ny/erie/ ===========================================================================