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. =========================================================================== A Memoir of the Late William Hodge, Sen. Bigelow Bros., Buffalo, N.Y. - 1885 (28-30) BUFFALO VILLAGE FAMILIES IN 1806 ------- The following descriptive list was furnished to me, from memory, in 1856, by my uncle, LORIN HODGE, late of Jefferson, Ohio, who came to Buffalo in 1806. This list comprises certainly the heads of most of the families at that time forming the population of Buffalo Village. 1. — ZENAS BARKER was an inn-keeper. He occupied a double log house located about six rods west of Main street, on the bluff (now the Terrace) facing south. 2. - JOHN CROW, an inn-keeper, occupied a log house on the south side of CROW (now Exchange) street, so named after him, and between Main and Washington streets, near Washington. The latter street extended then only as far south as CROW. 3. - ERASTUS GRANGER had his office in one end of CROW'S log tavern, he being Collector of the Port of Buffalo. 4. - JOSHUA GILLET was a merchant, and had his store east of BARKER'S tavern on the corner of Main street and the (Terrace) bluff. 5. - VINCENT GRANT, a merchant, was located on the west side of Main street, near Seneca. 6. - LOUIS STEPHEN LECOUTEULX kept a drug-store opposite JOHN CROW'S tavern, on the north side of CROW street. He was at that time Town Clerk. There are numbers yet living who remember this polite Frenchman. He was a true gentleman in every sense of the word, and highly educated, but a refugee from France, obliged to leave his country or lose his head. He was indeed "of the old school." To the end of his life he continued to wear large silver shoe - and knee- buckles with long stockings and short breeches, —his queue, wound tastefully and neatly with a ribbon, displaying itself from under his hat, pendent at the back of his head. 7, 8. — MAYBEE and JOHNSON were merchants. Their store adjoined that of M. LECOUTEULX on the east. They dealt in Indian goods. Mr. JOHNSON had an Indian wife, and was of Tory memory. 9. - CAPT. SAMUEL PRATT was a merchant. His store was west of, and next to, CROW'S tavern, and his dwelling adjoined it, still farther west, standing on the corner of Main and CROW streets, where the Mansion House now is. 10. - WILLIAM HULL, a silversmith, had his store on the east side of Main street, between CROW and Seneca. 11. - DAVID REESE, a blacksmith for the Indians, had his dwelling on the southeast corner of Washington and Seneca streets, and his shop opposite, on the northeast corner, now occupied by the United States Custom House and Postoffice building. 12. - WILLIAM ROBBINS had a blacksmith-shop near VINCENT GRANT'S store, on the west side of Main street. His dwelling house was built of hewn logs, and stood in the rear, that is, west of his shop. 13. - Doctor CYRENIUS CHAPIN lived on Main street, near the "Square," and "in the bushes" as it was then called, the lot where the CHAPIN block and WEED block now stand, on SWAN street, north side, between Main and Pearl. 14, 15. - MICHAEL MIDDAUGH and his son-in-law, EZEKIEL LANE, lived on Main street, near Little Buffalo Creek, on the south end of SAMUEL PRATT'S lot. 16. - BLACK JOE lived in a small log shanty, situated "on the flat" near Little Buffalo Creek, on the east side of Main street, near MIDDAUGH'S. The shanty was covered with bark. Joe kept a low class groggery. He had a white woman for a wife (Mr. KETCHUM says in his history of Buffalo, an Indian woman). He left the place in 1807, for Malden, Canada (Mr. KETCHUM says he "moved to Cattaraugus Creek"). 17. — A Mr. MANN was at this time living here, whose exact location is not remembered. He married a daughter of Mr. LANE, a granddaughter of Mr. MIDDAUGH. 18. - JOHN DESPAR, a Frenchman, was a baker. His house and bake- shop stood on the east side of Washington street, between Crow and Seneca. He supplied most of the inhabitants with their bread and cakes. In 1815 or thereabouts, he bought a farm-lot on the south side of the "Cayuga Road," now Best street, and on the east side of Jefferson street. Genesee street, when laid out at a later date, crossed this farm near the south end. This place he made his home, having become dissipated and quit his business. He afterwards sold the farm to Mr. WILLIAM SMITH, who was the first person to supply the residents of the village with milk as a regular dairyman. His bargain was that SMITH should pay him two hundred dollar a year, as long as he and his wife lived, he giving for this consideration a deed of the farm. DESPAR and his wife both died within two years after this sale to SMITH. ===========================================================================