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 [6-7] THE COLD SPRING BURYING GROUND ------- Long prior to that time, on the hill opposite "Cold Spring," on farm lot number 59, now the southwest corner of Delaware and Ferry streets, there was a grave-yard like that of Captain JOHNSTON. I well remember being present at burials there when a boy. One was that of a child of Mr. SETH GRANGER, who lived on the farm; another child of a Mr. CASKEY. These took place before the war of 1812. Hither after- wards, gallant Job HOYSINGTON'S mutilated remains were brought, when the fervid suns of the spring, after the burning of Buffalo, melted the snowy shroud by which he was first covered. The death of HOYSINGTON occurred as follows: On the morning of December 30, 1813, he took his rifle and went to meet the British as they came marching up the river near the Grand Battery. He, with Capt. HULL'S Buffalonians, stood their ground well; but the three thousand and odd of new levies fled precipitately and left a few hundred to face as many Indians, and over a thousand disciplined British regu- lars. For a brief period they contested the field; but, seeing they were flanked, they retreated. HOYSINGTON lingered, withdrew a little, stopped, and said: " I will have one more shot at them," and that was the last that was known of him till the following spring, when his remains were found beside a log not far from the late FREDERICK GRIDLEY'S residence on North street, one or two blocks west of the Normal school building. A bullet had perforated, and tomahawk had cleft, his skull; while his scalp was torn from his bleeding head as a trophy of savage conquest, and token of British inhumanity. His faith- ful rifle lay empty by his side, and no doubt his death was avenged ere it occurred. His remains were interred in this rural cemetery, and there they remained till 1850, when most of the bones of the nearly one hundred persons buried there, were exhumed, placed in boxes, and removed to a secure place in "Forest Lawn." Among these relics, the skull of the mighty marksman was at once recognized by the injuries it had received, and many noticed it; but during the confusion incident to a removal, some one surreptitiously carried off this relic of JOB HOYSINGTON. It is doubtless in the possession of some curiosity mon- ger of the city, but "who has it?" has often been asked in vain. This ground was never formally granted for a cemetery, but by the consent of the owner was used for that purpose by the few families residing in the neighborhood. In the grading and widening of Ferry street, in 1876, at the corner we are speaking of, there were some bones, but no entire skeletons, plowed up. Having learned that there was no one appointed by the proper authorities of our city to look after these relics of early settlers and soldiers, who seem to have had none on the face of the earth to care for them, I took pains to collect from time to time all that were found, carried them to Forest Lawn, and had them buried with the others that had been taken there. =========================================================================== 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/ ===========================================================================