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 [18-20] WILLIAMSVILLE ------ In this connection it would not be right to omit a notice of the soldiers' burial place at Williamsville. —About six thousand of our army raised during the first year of the war of 1812-15 and sent on to protect our frontier at Buffalo, went into winter quarters at Williamsville village, eleven miles north of Buffalo. Their encampment at that place was just north of the main road, and contiguous to the village, on the extensive premises then owned by the enterprising merchant and mill- ing firm of JUBA STORRS & Co. This ground continued to be occupied by our soldiers more or less during the war. Sickness as is usual in camp prevailed among them; and some two or three hundred died and were buried on the grounds adjacent. Since then the village has spread, covering the ground where they were buried, and long since not a vestige of a grave was left to be seen. There has been no one to look after or care for their bones when exhumed, as they often were, in excavating cellars or making improvements such as are necessary in a growing village. There were quite extensive barracks built on the bank of the Eleven Mile Creek, a very healthy, eligible place; it being retired from the immediate scenes of conflict and about one mile above the village. It continued to be our General Hospital for sick and wounded soldiers during this war. During the three years of the conflict, many of our soldiers died, and were buried at the side of a field near by. The ground that con- tains their remains comprises about half an acre, lying on the south- westerly side of a public road; the Eleven Mile Creek running parallel and adjoining. Two of our townsmen, Col. JOHN BLISS and JOHN B. EVANS, feeling an interest that this ground should never be disturbed or encroached upon, procured the title by a warranty deed from the owners, JOHN HASKEL and wife, to themselves, dated August 6th, 1851, and duly recorded. They have both since deceased, leaving the title in their heirs. The number of our own soldiers buried on this ground supposed to be three hundred or more; and in one retired corner lie nearly one hundred of our enemies who were wounded, taken prisoners and died. Many of the latter were captured at the desperate sortie the British made on Fort Erie August 14, 1814, and the blowing up of the magazine. There were several hundred prisoners taken at this encounter; many of them were wounded most horribly, having been blown up when the maga- zine exploded. On the second day after the sortie, I saw a number of wagon loads of those blackened and maimed British soldiers as they stopped in front of my father's house on their way to the hospital. Recently with one of the oldest residents of the town, Hon. T. A. HOPKINS, I visited this burying place. There was not a slab or monu- ment of any kind to be seen to designate the graves. Only the uneven hillocks marked the spot that contains the bones of our unhonored dead. This ground is a little elevated from the surrounding land and road adjoining. On the border of two sides stand ten sugar maple trees, from one and one-fourth to two feet in diameter ; all but one in a fine healthy condition. I have no doubt they were planted by there the comrades of those whose bones now occupy this ground. The tenth tree is in a state of decay, and like many of the human race is beginning to die at the top. It is known only to a few living witnesses that this spot of ground contains the graves of some of our dead soldiers. Our Government ought to erect at this beautiful retired place a suitable monument to their memory and provide for removing thither the skeletons of others, when found in excavating in the village. =========================================================================== 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/ ===========================================================================