1
200
16
-
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c44e554a1cb1cd5a0d5c364eccbeeeb2
https://nthistory.com/files/original/9b22eecec13ed1a0d1f6fa142841aa66.pdf
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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
Ancient monuments in the United States, illustration and article (E. G. Squier, Harper's Monthly Magazine, May 1860).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1860-05
beechwater
illustration
tonawandaisland
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/325e0d8e28517c8c0605c67354b3c445.jpg
099c1f84cb4454b3425bb8fc42a36cad
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>
Learning Aid
An interpretive graphic, often an annotated graphic or map.
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
Beechwater on postcard (c1900).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1900
beechwater
tonawandaisland
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/ebf26b1e57c09593aec122ffa4998724.jpg
ebb6689a0ecf87991adb048eac06e00f
https://nthistory.com/files/original/87981ae1eea1f47b8cd1b5406875b76f.jpg
39e8972c78613555e5a85e6692011de1
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
International Paper Company
Description
An account of the resource
(1898-1975?) The International Paper occupied the northern edge of Tonawanda Island for over 50 years, processing lumber for use in magazines and stationery. Organized in 1898 and uniting disparate interests across New York and New England, the company in 1931 purchased the paper mill that had been established by the Tonawanda Paper Company on Tonawanda Island in 1924. Many residents still recall the distinctive odor of the factory, and its green treatment wells still stand conspicuously on Tonawanda Island's eastern shore.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<ul>
<li><em><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=O9g8BQAAQBAJ&dq">Tonawanda and North Tonawanda 1940-1960</a>,</em> page 10, Historical Society of the Tonawandas</li>
<li><a href="https://theniagarabranch.wordpress.com/international-paper-north-tonawanda/">International Paper North Tonawanda, The Niagara Branch blog. </a>Acccessed January, 2017.</li>
</ul>
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
International Paper Co., pulp wood pile, photo (1936-09).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1936-09
factory
tonawandaisland
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/d6892ec5863bb84b6fbd9a8b38ab158a.jpg
34e76f8858902a4e1295508171df7033
https://nthistory.com/files/original/42869165e53ec22c5e2b5365e7ddb4ca.jpg
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/c48597e6aafc016f98babf3ecbcf3b1c.jpg
d5252e3e7ad38a78904445c0af89f5be
https://nthistory.com/files/original/c6ed7e1d7e05673276567591e81ed396.jpg
afb0009ca28ca93bd87a35c08b19ecc4
https://nthistory.com/files/original/a6e328a386c959b8b020d5fcce1c4826.jpg
a8d33832d8b856ec361d4bfffeaa20d9
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
International Paper Company
Description
An account of the resource
(1898-1975?) The International Paper occupied the northern edge of Tonawanda Island for over 50 years, processing lumber for use in magazines and stationery. Organized in 1898 and uniting disparate interests across New York and New England, the company in 1931 purchased the paper mill that had been established by the Tonawanda Paper Company on Tonawanda Island in 1924. Many residents still recall the distinctive odor of the factory, and its green treatment wells still stand conspicuously on Tonawanda Island's eastern shore.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<ul>
<li><em><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=O9g8BQAAQBAJ&dq">Tonawanda and North Tonawanda 1940-1960</a>,</em> page 10, Historical Society of the Tonawandas</li>
<li><a href="https://theniagarabranch.wordpress.com/international-paper-north-tonawanda/">International Paper North Tonawanda, The Niagara Branch blog. </a>Acccessed January, 2017.</li>
</ul>
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
Tonawanda International Paper, booklet excerpts (c.1956).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1956
factory
tonawandaisland
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/ebad7b6842b1a7557752e26d303ad4ff.jpg
65bba3a24e68e9ab58b2ec28c581b7df
https://nthistory.com/files/original/225792fac830cf60c2431c718e5dbe66.jpg
aecd7407fff43f09f5f6f1d7bde89db4
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
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Birdseye View of the Twin Cities Harbor and Lumber District, postcard (c1910).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1910
bridge
lumber
tonawandaisland
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/ba0a4f489a3e8080d4d8fd1ecac2142a.jpg
42aaaba2579b3e74af17e736dc8982dc
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
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Swing bridge to Tonawanda Island, photo (c.1930).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1930
bridge
tonawandaisland
-
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
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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
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Title
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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
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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
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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
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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/f8364c97e06200d0f96cf3137f641b01.jpg
68a8706c2cd9328dbc0cf19ccc81f4ef
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
International Paper Company
Description
An account of the resource
(1898-1975?) The International Paper occupied the northern edge of Tonawanda Island for over 50 years, processing lumber for use in magazines and stationery. Organized in 1898 and uniting disparate interests across New York and New England, the company in 1931 purchased the paper mill that had been established by the Tonawanda Paper Company on Tonawanda Island in 1924. Many residents still recall the distinctive odor of the factory, and its green treatment wells still stand conspicuously on Tonawanda Island's eastern shore.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<ul>
<li><em><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=O9g8BQAAQBAJ&dq">Tonawanda and North Tonawanda 1940-1960</a>,</em> page 10, Historical Society of the Tonawandas</li>
<li><a href="https://theniagarabranch.wordpress.com/international-paper-north-tonawanda/">International Paper North Tonawanda, The Niagara Branch blog. </a>Acccessed January, 2017.</li>
</ul>
Photo
A photographic depiction of a person or place.
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Title
A name given to the resource
International Paper Company, Tonawanda Island, photo 2 (c1970).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1970
factory
tonawandaisland
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/d87b6138d47c8ee269cb91a78f9a7003.jpg
ef7ba4161b26b77cb2d94507e8a64615
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
International Paper Company
Description
An account of the resource
(1898-1975?) The International Paper occupied the northern edge of Tonawanda Island for over 50 years, processing lumber for use in magazines and stationery. Organized in 1898 and uniting disparate interests across New York and New England, the company in 1931 purchased the paper mill that had been established by the Tonawanda Paper Company on Tonawanda Island in 1924. Many residents still recall the distinctive odor of the factory, and its green treatment wells still stand conspicuously on Tonawanda Island's eastern shore.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<ul>
<li><em><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=O9g8BQAAQBAJ&dq">Tonawanda and North Tonawanda 1940-1960</a>,</em> page 10, Historical Society of the Tonawandas</li>
<li><a href="https://theniagarabranch.wordpress.com/international-paper-north-tonawanda/">International Paper North Tonawanda, The Niagara Branch blog. </a>Acccessed January, 2017.</li>
</ul>
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
International Paper Company, Tonawanda Island, photo (c1970).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1970
factory
tonawandaisland
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/be5fecefd4fe5f933f1d42b29bc63ae4.jpg
4ffca5c2eb3c7244507239de1725421f
Dublin Core
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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.
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Title
A name given to the resource
Swing bridge with train, photo from article (Tonawanda News, 1961-02-08).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1961-02-08
bridge
tonawandaisland
train
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/cd20abb8fe24de2761541ef5c8159441.jpg
359f378624ba183a124e38ccc1ed5e11
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
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Title
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No More Swinging, swing bridge controls, photo (Tonawanda News, 1972-05-05).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1972-05-05
bridge
tonawandaisland
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/e8d3641e1a6da01e0bf637cb43f9c189.jpg
bbc57698f5e91c6678c31b5d7ae87433
Dublin Core
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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/cdd5bd8dcb78ebb622bfe18325d2fc68.jpg
8c0d4b7c868a42852fd6de815928fc1c
https://nthistory.com/files/original/98af3e7fe030b82fbc1456f06e6d3292.jpg
6968cea0d4329cb8d43d37b92b71a15c
https://nthistory.com/files/original/fd91d98cb4839fa0ae527810f6251934.jpg
ad656f8b383af2707462e9ad3ca60fbd
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>
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 Island - Lumber District, postcard (c1908).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1908
lumber
tonawandaisland
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/36dc89eb643efd4a331be128ed6cb7d4.jpg
77a7d2050a767a8921d31ac9b33e10f3
https://nthistory.com/files/original/01a0ff19fc907dfe083c3c9a0dd1e732.jpg
e9c6abf070ff445cb246f67c86cdd475
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, or White's Island, illustrated article (Gleason's Pictorial Drawing Room Companion, 1853).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1853
boat
lumber
tonawandaisland