1
200
16
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/ba913912de40dcb9c72a58ecb114aecc.jpeg
953b41d2c7e49888e734ffec8c227ae4
https://nthistory.com/files/original/59f78b27295cbed814a9bf485ac23a0e.jpeg
ae83b4ba0cba558648400a214a3e3ed6
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Tonawanda Iron and Steel
Description
An account of the resource
You wouldn't know it from the site today, but the massive plant of the Tonawanda Iron and Steel Company once occupied all the land along the Niagara River from Wheatfield Street to present-day Fisherman's Park. <br /><br />Iron is first produced on this site in 1872 by the Niagara Furnace Company. After about a year, production stops. In 1889, Tonawanda Iron & Steel buys and modernizes the plant. President McKinley fires up its mighty Furnace B with great ceremony and the flip of a switch from his home in Ohio in 1895. <br /><br />The iron plant draws workers to the area, many Hungarian and Polish, who settle in a village called "<a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/83">Ironton</a>," just north of North Tonawanda proper. <br /><br />Somewhere around 1912 poor management and a poor economy stop the furnaces again. The plant lies unused until purchased by Tonawanda Iron Corp. in 1922.<br /><br />By 2017, the site has been cleared and converted into a small medical park and Fisherman's Park.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
"Tonawanda Iron Corp., Is One of Largest Manufacturers of Pig Iron." Tonawanda News, 1929 (in this collection).
Postcard
A pictorial representation of a place or entity, intended to be written upon and mailed.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Tonawanda Iron Works, postcard (1909).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1909
avenues
boat
ironton
river
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/9a6024e82d3c44508de551c849e61a14.jpeg
50a9cae3955735f986fb21baec367ed4
Letters and Letterhead
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Calkins and Co. Planing Mill, Tonawanda, envelope (1889).jpeg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1889
factory
river
tonawanda
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/5658d19fc65b7573f5ff8a3287cc27b7.jpg
282d6b87e2bdef97bc7622741485ae88
https://nthistory.com/files/original/3dba7c157f765d79e0c6551b8bec2924.jpg
8d8de36561c74d3411e1bdf251aacb93
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Erie Canal
Description
An account of the resource
The Erie Canal in North Tonawanda followed the existing Tonawanda Creek from Pendleton. The first work done locally was the 1823 construction of a wooden dam near present-day Gateway Park to raise the level of the creek four feet. In 1918 this dam was removed when the length of the Erie was re-engineered to become the Erie Barge Canal. The Tonawanda and Buffalo portions of the canal were abandoned at that time, making North Tonawanda the canal's new western terminus. In 1923 Tonawanda began filling in the old canal. The work was not yet complete in 1929.
Photo
A photographic depiction of a person or place.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Erie Canal lock at Tonawanda, photo (Tonawanda and North Tonawanda, Images of America, Volume 1).jpg
Description
An account of the resource
Locking into the Niagara River. See also <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1717">Erie Canal lock into the Niagara River</a>.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Tonawanda and North Tonawanda, Images of America, Volume 1.
canal
lock
river
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/6ffdd0b990049aa0707348b68bdc9f1f.jpg
0134641471c68fd6f986a5f9dc080e67
Illustration
An abstracted line drawing or depiction.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Map of the Village of Tonawanda, illustration detail (1857).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1857
creek
map
river
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/e1ef849b731f4412b34aaf655ea98c9a.jpg
4d65fef129fe8299c72472479a9985d8
https://nthistory.com/files/original/e5e03dbd91ebdb4e353a2ffc5b0da22a.jpg
95920466d59c811dcb0e2ae1ae1d5ded
https://nthistory.com/files/original/1fa4bf8e8c8dc6b09b0489f449753be5.jpg
a9176f3ff413af3b88fc5296e7a9c161
https://nthistory.com/files/original/8560fc801bdd1d3929767b5c516b18eb.jpg
7e8e8f18d5c3a4681c1e3ae5d19967f0
https://nthistory.com/files/original/56e916c9bdfd71c1e1680b5196421984.jpg
a49b97722981d4f7fc77a03677f92150
https://nthistory.com/files/original/a92e9396c443c521884a49d19123da42.jpg
e58e87d6db1689e4aba07f0d5f113eb6
https://nthistory.com/files/original/774ed2752704061be38f9b8ce7ebf55a.jpg
fed5bdadcbb74ef561766051f3419af4
https://nthistory.com/files/original/366e8e75fea8ad1c8c26830d08fff058.jpg
3f735064761fc4fe2cd8f8b523bc49d2
https://nthistory.com/files/original/bee257d7f3655b0b99bcdbc5f887e349.jpg
fa613a81c4b3cab774a6d59bef546fa2
https://nthistory.com/files/original/afec807295d1e55d6c932b205f60de2f.jpg
86c8d79d420577f569b94f16d5deedbc
https://nthistory.com/files/original/08cb21c3d80517f18c4ab3e1cdf33080.jpg
ddec084b6e922f85779bef685909e54a
https://nthistory.com/files/original/b95fa633b08d898718005a6be242db86.jpg
0221191e818d7a94e95ed4ac8cb3cbc7
https://nthistory.com/files/original/3913a878257c039f02bc4f181d53b9e4.jpg
d427c1ba485b38ff095508e7f8467a9e
https://nthistory.com/files/original/07cd5012ef2571ecdc9caacaa44051a4.jpg
b91e43eb0b631716815a4996a5cc77ee
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Boathouse Park, Weatherbest Slip
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" alt="Boathouse Park" src="http://nthistory.com/custom/cover/124.jpg" /> <span class="cover-caption">PHOTO: Dennis Reed Jr.</span> Around the junction of Tonawanda Creek and the "Little River" three small slips cut into the land. The slips were dug in the 1870s to accommodate Great Lakes and other vessels necessary to North Tonawanda's world-class lumber industry (<a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2668">Buffalo <i>News</i></a>, 2006). Great piles of lumber towered around them.<br /><br />That lumber industry, as residents know, eventually moves elsewhere. By the 1950s* dozens of private boathouses occupy the area. The city owns the property; the boaters own the structures, pay taxes on them, and lease the land annually.<br /><br />In 1965 the city of North Tonawanda sells the land to the boathouse owners at their request, only to have the sale almost immediately deemed illegal by Mayor Durkee, and nullified. Still, the annual lease continues.<br /><br />In the 1970s the boathouse residents' status becomes contentious when the county health department threatens to fine the city steeply for the <em>effluvium</em> the boathouse residents are releasing into the Little River. The city threatens to evict tenants, to stop renewing leases, and—at the nadir of the clash—to turn off water service to the area. After all, the city argues, the lease does not permit use of the boathouses as living quarters. The park residents' right to enjoy the waterfront property at the exclusion of all other city residents is also called into question.<br /><br />One mayor wants to evict the tenants and turn the area into a carousel park. In the 1980s developer Wilbur Holler wants to turn the area into townhouses. None of these plans is successful. In 2008 a row of boathouses is demolished, as they are built over a city sewer. But in 2021 the community appears to be all but intractable.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: 0.8em;">*It is unclear how long the structures have been there; </span><a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2688" style="font-size: 0.8em;">a similar slip at Gratwick</a><span style="font-size: 0.8em;"> (since demolished for the wastewater plant) appears to have had boathouses since at least 1905.</span>
Photo
A photographic depiction of a person or place.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Boathouse Park, photos (Dennis Reed Jr, 2021-05-03).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2021-05-03
boathouse
river
village
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/6b69da81aad625da66f52473d5d22ac1.jpg
4e6997881d3516653913b546d9e1b27c
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Swing Bridges
Description
An account of the resource
Apr 21 1883 "An act to incorporate the Tonawanda Island Bridge Company, for the purpose of constructing and operating a bridge from Tonawanda island to North Tonawanda [passed]" - <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=IYJZAAAAYAAJ">Gen Statutes of State of New York</a><br /><br />"March 2, 1885 - Petition was received from H. M. Dodge & Co., asking permission to construct and maintain a swing bridge across Tonawanda Harbor, landing in Erie County to be at or near foot of Clay Street" - Tonawanda News, 1941-11-07. According to a Tonawanda News article, the southern bridge hadn't been used since the 1940s, when the Continental Can company closed.
Photo
A photographic depiction of a person or place.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
North swing bridge in operation (c1970).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1970
river
swingbridge
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/fce501025f5a8b95431bc0d4239c6277.jpg
000b2906f1dac20d4f9555886517d31a
https://nthistory.com/files/original/a940b91c579a163457b9ceaa6aa878ef.jpg
8f6a3cb5d6568ae12cdbe77acfd7acbd
https://nthistory.com/files/original/ba45afb84cae8ae25d6dc16056b20395.jpg
6c7e88de883f16c774eaaca5575fb80d
https://nthistory.com/files/original/bcd1ee32c3415a4fb3b2d0f0c5bde663.jpg
67e063c08e6f34ec0190c46901e46dbf
https://nthistory.com/files/original/9e030feac404320411b326ac997b264f.jpg
3f6c9070b10b984e829e3f16ad449d62
https://nthistory.com/files/original/3687fad671ecc1ada3f9658217181466.jpg
3028e801dda3b055a105a82bddeb173f
https://nthistory.com/files/original/f4ab0a9602c4afe481ed2f7ca8c55660.jpg
509a1f82525557fe9ba960d2a58af303
https://nthistory.com/files/original/22a8f3334eea644af9b36b64f92a80f4.jpg
b2cdb5ae1f08eb8b41fdd0b4c56154fb
https://nthistory.com/files/original/fc1629a27063a63dba3f2332266164df.jpg
18a54f8ff735fa0e7a3a55503e672a96
https://nthistory.com/files/original/c29dfb233e014b8210c61adac530d927.jpg
05d5f0f7eea14185c22319df839538e3
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Lumber Business of the Tonawandas
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/48.jpg" alt="Map of the Lumber District of the Tonawandas, 1893" /><span class="cover-caption">In the heyday of the Tonawandas' lumber years, practically every available inch of the Niagara riverfront and Tonawanda Island is covered in lumber (shown as lettered, colored portions in the map above). <a href="http://nthistory.com/items/show/1848">1893 Sanborn Insurance map</a>.</span> In the mid-to-late 19th century, vast forests of Midwest timber are cut, dressed and shipped by water to the exploding towns and cities of the east, largely through the Tonawandas. The villages' advantageous location (between the Great Lakes and the Erie Canal) and the natural harbor afforded by Tonawanda Island make it one of the largest lumber ports in the country by 1890. A lock allows small craft to jump between the Niagara River and the Erie Canal via the non-canalized portion of Tonawanda Creek.<br /><br />Scores of lumber comanies spring up here, and their yards vaccum up almost every available inch of real estate along the Niagara River, Tonawanda Creek, and Tonawanda Island. Docks are built over the water, and millions of feet of lumber stored in great blocks are stacked to the sky. They are brought here largely on lake vessels from Lake Erie, where they are moved onto canal boats by lumbershovers and stevedores and hauled by canal boat captains (along with other goods) to points east.<br /><br />The big business means big money, and conflict between the laborers and employers sometimes turns deadly. Articles in this collection describe the lumbershovers strikes of 1892 and 1893, the first of which resulted in the death of a police officer, and both of which required the National Guard to be deployed. A separate collection, "<a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/136">Murder at the Docks</a>," digs into the 1895 double murder of canal boat captain Lorenzo Phillips and his son Charles as the captain attempted to haul a load of lumber from P. W. Scribner's Tonawanda dock in defiance of a boatmen's union agreement.<br /><br />As the forests of the midwest were depleted and shipping routes and technology changed, the lumber heyday of the Tonawandas receded into the past.
Book
An extensive textual resource.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Gratwick, Smith and Fryer Lumber Co., promotional booklet (1880).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1880
Description
An account of the resource
This illustrated booklet details the business of the Gratwick, Smith and Fryer Lumber Company, showing how they were able to be successful by controlling all phases of lumber cutting, transporting and refining for market. Their Tonawanda dock, yards and planing mills would fuel the growth of the village of Gratwick, named for them. <br /><br /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_William_H._Gratwick">SS William Gratwick at Wikipedia.</a>
boat
lumber
river
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/8d9a21863f3e808157dabb84b6aeb434.jpg
4ec61fc0a0329d8d01079b32f977706b
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Tonawanda Iron and Steel
Description
An account of the resource
You wouldn't know it from the site today, but the massive plant of the Tonawanda Iron and Steel Company once occupied all the land along the Niagara River from Wheatfield Street to present-day Fisherman's Park. <br /><br />Iron is first produced on this site in 1872 by the Niagara Furnace Company. After about a year, production stops. In 1889, Tonawanda Iron & Steel buys and modernizes the plant. President McKinley fires up its mighty Furnace B with great ceremony and the flip of a switch from his home in Ohio in 1895. <br /><br />The iron plant draws workers to the area, many Hungarian and Polish, who settle in a village called "<a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/83">Ironton</a>," just north of North Tonawanda proper. <br /><br />Somewhere around 1912 poor management and a poor economy stop the furnaces again. The plant lies unused until purchased by Tonawanda Iron Corp. in 1922.<br /><br />By 2017, the site has been cleared and converted into a small medical park and Fisherman's Park.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
"Tonawanda Iron Corp., Is One of Largest Manufacturers of Pig Iron." Tonawanda News, 1929 (in this collection).
Photo
A photographic depiction of a person or place.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Tonawanda Iron and Steel, photos (Greater Buffalo & Niagara frontier, Buffalo Chamber of Commerce, 1914).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1914
factory
river
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/e19e30cc5f6b26da99b75995225d98ff.jpg
db445307e4cdce8275770deacbfba220
https://nthistory.com/files/original/dddd8267ba34bc2e9801e48d14bedf65.jpg
9a5a4db8ad68ee54579207696834d553
https://nthistory.com/files/original/fdd792c439e563dabeb21b9fb3229379.jpeg
0147c9fc4ac8defc00196b877a3f022d
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Erie Canal
Description
An account of the resource
The Erie Canal in North Tonawanda followed the existing Tonawanda Creek from Pendleton. The first work done locally was the 1823 construction of a wooden dam near present-day Gateway Park to raise the level of the creek four feet. In 1918 this dam was removed when the length of the Erie was re-engineered to become the Erie Barge Canal. The Tonawanda and Buffalo portions of the canal were abandoned at that time, making North Tonawanda the canal's new western terminus. In 1923 Tonawanda began filling in the old canal. The work was not yet complete in 1929.
Photo
A photographic depiction of a person or place.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Erie Canal lock into the Niagara River, Tonawanda.jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1890
Description
An account of the resource
The lock in this first (c. 1890) photo allowed canal boats to pass from the canal in Tonawanda over into the Niagara River. The non-canal part of the Tonawanda Creek is straight ahead, leading into the Niagara River. Notice the tugboats waiting on the far side of the lock. They could tow canal boats through the river to be loaded up with lumber on Tonawanda Island, or at another dock along the river, and return them to lock back into the canal. In other photos, a weather tower can be seen at right, hung with flags that alerted boaters to the weather conditions outside the safe confines of the canal walls. Today, if you walk alongside Urban Paint on Niagara Street in Tonawanda, in its parking lot you can see a little sign commemorating the lock.
canal
lock
map
river
swingbridge
tonawanda
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/515cbd44fd02cb33ecca0e17149cfe84.jpg
cf928e47b91403cd0a7d4e18a3c118de
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Lumber Business of the Tonawandas
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/48.jpg" alt="Map of the Lumber District of the Tonawandas, 1893" /><span class="cover-caption">In the heyday of the Tonawandas' lumber years, practically every available inch of the Niagara riverfront and Tonawanda Island is covered in lumber (shown as lettered, colored portions in the map above). <a href="http://nthistory.com/items/show/1848">1893 Sanborn Insurance map</a>.</span> In the mid-to-late 19th century, vast forests of Midwest timber are cut, dressed and shipped by water to the exploding towns and cities of the east, largely through the Tonawandas. The villages' advantageous location (between the Great Lakes and the Erie Canal) and the natural harbor afforded by Tonawanda Island make it one of the largest lumber ports in the country by 1890. A lock allows small craft to jump between the Niagara River and the Erie Canal via the non-canalized portion of Tonawanda Creek.<br /><br />Scores of lumber comanies spring up here, and their yards vaccum up almost every available inch of real estate along the Niagara River, Tonawanda Creek, and Tonawanda Island. Docks are built over the water, and millions of feet of lumber stored in great blocks are stacked to the sky. They are brought here largely on lake vessels from Lake Erie, where they are moved onto canal boats by lumbershovers and stevedores and hauled by canal boat captains (along with other goods) to points east.<br /><br />The big business means big money, and conflict between the laborers and employers sometimes turns deadly. Articles in this collection describe the lumbershovers strikes of 1892 and 1893, the first of which resulted in the death of a police officer, and both of which required the National Guard to be deployed. A separate collection, "<a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/136">Murder at the Docks</a>," digs into the 1895 double murder of canal boat captain Lorenzo Phillips and his son Charles as the captain attempted to haul a load of lumber from P. W. Scribner's Tonawanda dock in defiance of a boatmen's union agreement.<br /><br />As the forests of the midwest were depleted and shipping routes and technology changed, the lumber heyday of the Tonawandas receded into the past.
Postcard
A pictorial representation of a place or entity, intended to be written upon and mailed.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Harbor View, postcard (c1905).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1905
river
tonawandaisland
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/a298b12d49dc9b48af671f01403beaa2.jpg
2b61b656797d090313757fb172ebb61e
https://nthistory.com/files/original/85096703cea73466d54b216ff059c564.jpg
2eaae6ec0858ecfc436845cdd66e7041
https://nthistory.com/files/original/c689a7459435964ed3cfdb370f2cc2bc.jpg
5111a444d4d29147721204d119d710a3
https://nthistory.com/files/original/87d0fd9202dad8082792beb5c20655d2.jpg
4b992ab25509d142e059269d7f4423a8
https://nthistory.com/files/original/ffc0f88516c711d342edb1999ba61156.jpg
c3a7d74dbaf19559d00f28a85e0e1983
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Tonawanda Iron and Steel
Description
An account of the resource
You wouldn't know it from the site today, but the massive plant of the Tonawanda Iron and Steel Company once occupied all the land along the Niagara River from Wheatfield Street to present-day Fisherman's Park. <br /><br />Iron is first produced on this site in 1872 by the Niagara Furnace Company. After about a year, production stops. In 1889, Tonawanda Iron & Steel buys and modernizes the plant. President McKinley fires up its mighty Furnace B with great ceremony and the flip of a switch from his home in Ohio in 1895. <br /><br />The iron plant draws workers to the area, many Hungarian and Polish, who settle in a village called "<a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/83">Ironton</a>," just north of North Tonawanda proper. <br /><br />Somewhere around 1912 poor management and a poor economy stop the furnaces again. The plant lies unused until purchased by Tonawanda Iron Corp. in 1922.<br /><br />By 2017, the site has been cleared and converted into a small medical park and Fisherman's Park.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
"Tonawanda Iron Corp., Is One of Largest Manufacturers of Pig Iron." Tonawanda News, 1929 (in this collection).
Postcard
A pictorial representation of a place or entity, intended to be written upon and mailed.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Tonawanda Iron and Steel, SS Jupiter, postcard (c1910).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1910
factory
iron
ironton
lumber
river
tonawandaisland
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/b118aa3c277078e58455b56b02bbb8cf.jpg
8ceadc5e02e71227127507f4f94aa194
https://nthistory.com/files/original/f2052b4426ed378ec7cf11ea39f95295.jpeg
7149b2bfda60f49f1e9e8565d09c4e48
https://nthistory.com/files/original/beefdfa23e19379d2f818e6b2b23bb29.jpeg
3cca6b04ec8640e25364bb4adac29e7f
https://nthistory.com/files/original/2a3c47977a86942a34d1d13758183d69.jpeg
40419a240c2eebd017c487cfe590ae2f
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Lumber Business of the Tonawandas
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/48.jpg" alt="Map of the Lumber District of the Tonawandas, 1893" /><span class="cover-caption">In the heyday of the Tonawandas' lumber years, practically every available inch of the Niagara riverfront and Tonawanda Island is covered in lumber (shown as lettered, colored portions in the map above). <a href="http://nthistory.com/items/show/1848">1893 Sanborn Insurance map</a>.</span> In the mid-to-late 19th century, vast forests of Midwest timber are cut, dressed and shipped by water to the exploding towns and cities of the east, largely through the Tonawandas. The villages' advantageous location (between the Great Lakes and the Erie Canal) and the natural harbor afforded by Tonawanda Island make it one of the largest lumber ports in the country by 1890. A lock allows small craft to jump between the Niagara River and the Erie Canal via the non-canalized portion of Tonawanda Creek.<br /><br />Scores of lumber comanies spring up here, and their yards vaccum up almost every available inch of real estate along the Niagara River, Tonawanda Creek, and Tonawanda Island. Docks are built over the water, and millions of feet of lumber stored in great blocks are stacked to the sky. They are brought here largely on lake vessels from Lake Erie, where they are moved onto canal boats by lumbershovers and stevedores and hauled by canal boat captains (along with other goods) to points east.<br /><br />The big business means big money, and conflict between the laborers and employers sometimes turns deadly. Articles in this collection describe the lumbershovers strikes of 1892 and 1893, the first of which resulted in the death of a police officer, and both of which required the National Guard to be deployed. A separate collection, "<a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/136">Murder at the Docks</a>," digs into the 1895 double murder of canal boat captain Lorenzo Phillips and his son Charles as the captain attempted to haul a load of lumber from P. W. Scribner's Tonawanda dock in defiance of a boatmen's union agreement.<br /><br />As the forests of the midwest were depleted and shipping routes and technology changed, the lumber heyday of the Tonawandas receded into the past.
Postcard
A pictorial representation of a place or entity, intended to be written upon and mailed.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Lumber District, postcard (1919).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1919
Description
An account of the resource
A view from the southern portion of a lumber-bedecked Tonawanda Island across the "Little (Niagara) River" onto a lumber-bedecked North Tonawanda.
boat
bridge
collection
lumber
river
swingbridge
tonawandaisland
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/d304a012c43f13ee7db05b0e36566f9e.JPG
d52d426fb6d41a84aba310330b1ff251
Photo
A photographic depiction of a person or place.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Men camping by Niagara River, stereogram detail (c1870s, RJ Clench).JPG
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1870
clench
person
recreation
river
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/db40985125036d5aec12a8600eaa0bc1.jpg
0a96718e06dfbaf91309a0e665a3433f
Photo
A photographic depiction of a person or place.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Whitehall Ferry from end of [Grand Island] state road to Tonawanda, photo (c1925).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1925
grandisland
river
tonawanda
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/e8d3641e1a6da01e0bf637cb43f9c189.jpg
bbc57698f5e91c6678c31b5d7ae87433
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Tonawanda Island
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" alt="1853 illustration of Tonawanda Island, showing the Beechwater residence, and a ferry The Saratoga plying the waters of the Niagara River." src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/55e.jpg" /><span class="cover-caption">1860 illustration showing the southern tip of Tonawanda Island. The lavish Beechwater residence and a smaller building are seen to the left of a mysterious mound (Harper's Monthly Magazine, May 1860) </span><span>This small island in the Niagara River is today home to the N.T. (Water) Pumping Station, Taylor Devices, a booming feral cat population and (we expect) a very few skillful mice. But a mysterious structure at the south end of the island drew some of the earliest widespread attention to our area.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Burial mound left by Native Americans. Or giants.</strong><br /><br />Early European explorers notice a roughly 15 foot-high mound of earth near the southeastern end of the island. One explorer dates the peculiarity to the Native American Squawkie Hill phase (100-400 A.D.), which "included a religious aspect involving the burial of high-status individuals" (John Percy).<br /><br />Indeed, human remains are discovered within, though there is little consensus on who (or what) they were. In 1853, <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/557"><em>Gleason's Pictorial</em> reports</a> that resident Mrs. White (more on the Whites below) personally unearthed "the skull and bones of a human body, supposed to be an Indian chief...not...less than eight feet in stature." (The article adds vaguely that "Many other curiosities are found on the island.") An 1860 article in <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2980"><em>Harper's</em> tells</a> of "several heaps of bones, each comprising three or four skeletons" found just under a circle of stones with indications of fire. Modern mysteriophile Mason Winfield poi</span><span class="text_exposed_show">nts to sensational accounts in frontier newspapers claiming at least two "very bizarre skulls" were excavated from the enclosure, with a "portentous, protruding lower jaw and canine forehead," and buried in a way inconsistent with the traditions of the locals. The skeletons are not confined to the great mound, either. Yet more human remains are found while digging the foundations for the Beechwater mansion, the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2326"><em>Tonawanda News</em> reports</a> in 1906.<br /><br />Across the Little River, on the mainland, <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1565">evidence of</a> a Native American armory is discovered, with numerous broken flints and arrows.<br /></span><br /><br /><strong>Carney's Island? Not so fast!</strong><br /><br />The island's first European inhabitant arrives as early as 1791, one <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1070">Edward Carney</a>, who hopes to "squat" his way into possession of the island. The property's value skyrockets however when <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2352">Mordecai Noah's plan</a> to turn nearby Grand Island into a refuge for the world's displaced Jews gets underway around 1825, and the land is purchased at auction from the state by Samuel Leggate of New York City (<a href="https://www.lockportjournal.com/news/lifestyles/niagara-discoveries-tonawanda-island-stephen-white-and-his-magnificent-mansion/article_657aa96e-c9eb-54ca-8237-dc7dcc2e0afb.html"><em>Lockport Union-Sun & Journal</em></a>). <br /><br /><strong>White's Island and the Beechwater mansion</strong><br /><br />The plan to make Grand Island into a refuge for Jews, we know, fails, and the next speculators to turn their eyes to our little island are the moneyed men of the East Boston Timber Company in 1833. They are likewise most interested in the much larger prize of Grand Island, and harvest its white oak to build ships in New England. President Stephen White purchases Tonawanda Island as a headquarters and residence, and it becomes known as "White's Island."
<blockquote>To cement his claim, White built a magnificent mansion at the southern end of the island. “Beechwater,” as White called it, was designed by Boston architect Samuel Perkins in 1835 for $18,000. The interior contained cherry, black walnut and marble embellishments (<a href="https://www.lockportjournal.com/news/lifestyles/niagara-discoveries-tonawanda-island-stephen-white-and-his-magnificent-mansion/article_657aa96e-c9eb-54ca-8237-dc7dcc2e0afb.html"><em>Lockport Union-Sun & Journal)</em></a></blockquote>
The Beechwater mansion <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1565">boasts</a> "chimney pieces from Italy," surrounding pleasure grounds with "choice fruits, ornamental shrubbery and graveled walks," and was called the finest residence in Western New York at the time. Famous American lawyer and politician Daniel Webster (after whom Webster Street is named) <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2326">visits Beechwater</a> on several occasions. Webster's son Fletcher is married to White's daughter Caroline there in 1836. <br /><br />Further plans of the East Boston Timber Company are thwarted by a poor economy. By 1840 the white oak of Grand Island has been cut down and floated away to New England. Stephen White dies, and his widow stays on. It appears Beechwater was offered as a summer resort for a time. <br /><br /><br /><strong>Lumber and industrial era</strong><br /><br />William Wilkeson purchases the property from the family in 1869, planting orchards and vineyards. In 1881, William Wilkeson sells the property to Smith, Fassett & Company, one of the many lumber concerns flocking to the Tonawandas. The natural harbor of the Little River make the island and opposite shore perfect for stacking, processing and shipping immense quantities of lumber, and North Tonawanda has become a major lumber market.<br /><br />Beechwater, Stephen White's mansion, coexists for a while with the great square piles of wood coming and going around it. Although said to still be largely structurally sound, the mansion is <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2326">torn down in 1906</a>, as the "demand for lumber yardage makes its razing imperative." It had long been rumored to be haunted. Its fireplace, we believe, is preserved and cared for by the Historical Society of the Tonawandas.<br /><br />Later significant occupants o Tonawanda Island include the International Paper Company and the R. T. Jones Lumber company.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.lockportjournal.com/news/lifestyles/niagara-discoveries-tonawanda-island-stephen-white-and-his-magnificent-mansion/article_657aa96e-c9eb-54ca-8237-dc7dcc2e0afb.html">NIAGARA DISCOVERIES: <em>Tonawanda Island, Stephen White and His Magnificent Mansion,</em> Ann Marie Linnabery</a></li>
<li><a href="https://archive.org/details/pioneerhistoryof00turne/page/n6">Pioneer History of the Holland Purchase of Western New York, 1849</a></li>
<li>Percy, John. <a href="https://www.wnyheritage.org/product/buffalo-niagara_connections_a_new_regional_history_of_the_niagar/index.html"><em>Buffalo-Niagara Connections: A New Regional History of the Niagara Link</em>.</a> Western New York Heritage Inc. 2001</li>
</ul>
Relation
A related resource
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/92">International Paper Company</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/48">Lumber Scenes</a></li>
</ul>
Illustration
An abstracted line drawing or depiction.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Tonawanda Island opposite Tonawanda, etching (Amos W. Sangster, 1886).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1886
river
tonawandaisland
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/6a55dbeafe1ef2fb8735de2ae8191d82.jpg
917724626d4527b8b4065d1b2c41bb1e
https://nthistory.com/files/original/aea7fdcd4457066149db62e7d5630b4f.jpg
64e1aec1dd72684762be2e06d17ed289
https://nthistory.com/files/original/af4f52acd7543ccd0ff40980f84880c1.jpg
ce51d6fa342f03c2600f5cbb30a9fc30
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Tonawanda Iron and Steel
Description
An account of the resource
You wouldn't know it from the site today, but the massive plant of the Tonawanda Iron and Steel Company once occupied all the land along the Niagara River from Wheatfield Street to present-day Fisherman's Park. <br /><br />Iron is first produced on this site in 1872 by the Niagara Furnace Company. After about a year, production stops. In 1889, Tonawanda Iron & Steel buys and modernizes the plant. President McKinley fires up its mighty Furnace B with great ceremony and the flip of a switch from his home in Ohio in 1895. <br /><br />The iron plant draws workers to the area, many Hungarian and Polish, who settle in a village called "<a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/83">Ironton</a>," just north of North Tonawanda proper. <br /><br />Somewhere around 1912 poor management and a poor economy stop the furnaces again. The plant lies unused until purchased by Tonawanda Iron Corp. in 1922.<br /><br />By 2017, the site has been cleared and converted into a small medical park and Fisherman's Park.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
"Tonawanda Iron Corp., Is One of Largest Manufacturers of Pig Iron." Tonawanda News, 1929 (in this collection).
Postcard
A pictorial representation of a place or entity, intended to be written upon and mailed.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Tonawanda Iron and Steel Works, postcard (1912).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1912
factory
iron
ironton
river