The Greatest Highway in the World Part 10

The demonstrations of the famous Fox sisters began in the following way: in 1847 the Fox family moved to a house near Rochester believed to be haunted, from which tenant after tenant had moved out, alarmed by mysterious rappings. The Foxes did not hear these sounds until 1848, and then Kate, hardly more than a child, began questioning the rappings, and having opened what seemed to be intelligent communication, suggested the use of the alphabet. That was the beginning of what spiritualists call the "science of materialization." The exhibitions consisted of the usual phenomena, table turning, spirit rapping and the moving of large bodies by invisible means. The two young women gave public seances throughout the country, arousing an interest that spread to England. In 1888 Margaret made a confession of imposture which she later retracted. Claiming to be the wife of Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, the Arctic explorer, she published a book of his letters under the "Love Life of Dr. Kane." He had met her between voyages of exploration, fallen in love with her, and in one of the published letters addressed her as "my wife," but even she admits that there never was a formal wedding. He died at Havana in 1857.]

Modern spiritualism is generally dated from the "demonstrations"

produced by the Fox Sisters. These exhibitions consisted of the usual spiritualistic phenomena: table turning, spirit rapping and the moving of large bodies by invisible means. The sisters gave public seances through the country, and interest in spiritualism spread to England. In 1888 Margaret made a confession of imposture, which she later retracted. She claimed to be the wife of Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, the Arctic explorer, and published a book of his letters under the t.i.tle of the "Love Life of Dr.

Kane." Kane had begun his career as an explorer when he was appointed surgeon and naturalist for the Grinnell expedition in 1850, which set out to search for Sir John Franklin, who was lost somewhere in the North. After spending 16 fruitless months of search, they returned, but Kane fitted out a new expedition of which he was given command, and spent two winters in polar exploration and collection of scientific data. The voyage lasted years and brought him fame. It was between these voyages that he met Margaret Fox, and in one of the published letters he addressed her as "my wife," though there seems never to have been a formal wedding. He died in 1857 at Havana.

Rochester is an attractive city, with a park system comprising 1,649 acres. The largest parks are the Durand-Eastman, the Genesee Valley, Seneca, Maplewood and Highland. The Durand-Eastman Park occupies a beautiful tract of wooded ground on Lake Ontario.

The University of Rochester, founded 1851 as a Baptist inst.i.tution, but now non-sectarian, occupies a tract of 24 acres on University Ave. in the eastern part of the city. Notable men who have been connected with the university include Henry Augustus Ward, professor of natural history from 1860 to 1875; Martin Brewer Anderson, president from 1854 to 1888, and David Jayne Hill, president from 1888 to 1896.

David Jayne Hill was born at Plainfield, N.J., June 16, 1850.

After obtaining his first degree at the University of Bucknell, Pa., he studied for his A.M. in Berlin and Paris. He was president of the University of Rochester from 1888 to 1896, then spent 3 years in the study of the public law of Europe. As one peculiarly fitted by education and training for a diplomatic career, he was minister first to Switzerland (1903-1905), then to the Netherlands (1905) and from 1908 to 1911 amba.s.sador to Germany. His numerous writings cover a wide field in biography, rhetoric, diplomacy, history and philosophy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Falls of the Genesee River at Rochester About 1850

(_From a print in the N.Y. Public Library_)

For many years Rochester was the most important flour milling centre in the country, owing to the valuable water power furnished by the falls and the fertility of the wheat fields of the Genesee Valley.]

Rochester Theological Seminary prepares students for the ministry of the Baptist Church, and has no organic connection with the university.

The Mechanics' Inst.i.tute, founded in 1885 by Henry Lomb of the Bausch-Lomb Optical Co., is an unusually successful school of trades and handicrafts. It occupies a large building, the gift of George Eastman of the Eastman Kodak Co.

For many years Rochester was the most important flour milling centre in the country, owing to the valuable water furnished by the falls and the fertility of the wheat fields of the Genesee Valley. Flour milling is no longer so important an industry here--Minneapolis having taken first rank in this respect--but Rochester ranks high among the great manufacturing cities of the country. Its total output is valued at more than $250,000,000 annually. It leads the world in the manufacture of cameras, lenses, and photographic materials, and it is one of the princ.i.p.al cities of the country in the distribution of seeds, bulbs and plants, and in the manufacture of clothing and shoes. Other important products are machinery of various kinds, lubricating oil, candied fruits, syrups and confectionery clothing, tobacco and cigars, enameled tanks and filing devices.

403 M. BATAVIA, Pop. 13,541. (Train 51 pa.s.ses 4:45p; No. 3, 6:18p; No.

41, 10:45p; No. 25, 11:04p; No. 19, 3:03a. Eastbound: No. 6 pa.s.ses 12:17a; No. 26, 1:12a; No. 16, 5:32a; No. 22, 8:04a.)

Batavia, situated on Tonawanda Creek, was laid out in 1801 by Joseph Ellicott (1760-1826), the engineer who had been engaged in surveying the land known as the "Holland Purchase" of which Batavia was a part.

The so-called "Holland Purchase" comprised nearly all the land in Western N.Y. west of the Genesee River. Its history is a.s.sociated with Robert Morris (1734-1806), the Revolutionary merchant and banker whose financial a.s.sistance had been invaluable to the Colonies during the War of Independence. Morris acquired the Holland Purchase from the Indians in 1791, after having obtained permission from the State of Ma.s.s. which then claimed sovereignty over this territory. The following year, however, he began to be involved in financial misfortunes and was compelled to sell this property to a group of Dutch capitalists, who undertook to dispose of the land to settlers. It thus became known as the Holland Purchase, and the Holland Land Office in Batavia was one of the centers from which the operations of the Dutch Land company were directed. The slow development of Morris's other property and the failure of a London bank in which he had funds invested, finally drove him into bankruptcy, and he was confined in a debtor's prison for more than three years (1798-1801). The old Holland Land Office was dedicated as a memorial to Robert Morris in 1894.

Here lived William Morgan whose supposed murder in 1826 by Freemasons led to the organization of the Anti-Masonic party. Batavia was the home of Dean Richmond (1804-1866), a capitalist, successful s.h.i.+pper and wholesale dealer in farm produce, who became vice-president (1853-1864) and later president (1864-1866) of the New York Central Lines. He was likewise a prominent leader of the Democratic party in N.Y. State. In 1899 his widow, Mary E. Richmond, erected here in memory of a son a library which contains about 15,000 volumes.

Among the education inst.i.tutions here are the N.Y. State School for the Blind and St. Joseph's Academy (Roman Catholic). The historical museum in the old Holland Land Office* contains a good collection of early state relics. The two old guns in front were cast in the N.Y. State a.r.s.enal, which manufactured arms for use in the War of 1812.

Among the manufactures are harvesters, ploughs, threshers and other agricultural implements, firearms, rubber tires, shoes, sh.e.l.l goods, paper-boxes, and inside woodwork.

We now approach Buffalo, beyond which our route closely parallels Lake Erie. We thus get our first view of one of America's great inland seas in this part of the route, although at certain points between Syracuse and Buffalo (notably at Rochester) our train has pa.s.sed only a few miles south of Lake Ontario.

The five Great Lakes--Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario--lie between the U.S. and Canada and form the headwaters of the St. Lawrence River system. They cover an area of 94,000 Sq. M. The Great Lakes date back to Glacial period or before, but it is probable that a "warping" of the earth's crust and a consequent reversal of drainage areas have been among the most potent causes of the formation of these great inland seas. Some of the most salient facts about the Great Lakes are given in the following table:

The Great Lakes

Superior Michigan Huron Erie Ontario Greatest Length (M.) 360 307 206 241 193 Greatest Breadth (M.) 160 118 101 57 53 Deepest Soundings (Ft.) 1,012 870 750 210 738 Area (Sq. M.) 32,060 22,336 22,978 9,968 7,243 Above sea level (Ft.) 602 581 581 572 246 U.S. sh.o.r.e line (M.) 735 1,200 470 350 230

The population of the states and provinces bordering on the Great Lakes is estimated to be 50,000,000 or more. In Pennsylvania and Ohio, south of Lake Erie, there are large coal fields.

Surrounding Lake Michigan and west of Lake Superior are vast grain growing plains, and the prairies of the Canadian northwest are constantly increasing the area and quant.i.ty of wheat grown; while both north and south of Lake Superior are the most extensive iron mines in the world, from which approximately 55,000,000 tons of ore are s.h.i.+pped annually. The Great Lakes provide a natural highway for the s.h.i.+pment of all these products.

BUFFALO TO CLEVELAND

439 M. BUFFALO, Pop. 506,775. (Train 51 arrives 5:30p; No. 3, pa.s.ses 7:15p; No. 41, 11:45p; No. 25, 11:51p; No. 19, 3:55a. Eastbound: No. 6 pa.s.ses 11:31p; No. 26, 12:27a; No. 16, 4:35a; No. 22, 7:15a.)

French trappers and Jesuit missionaries were the first white men to visit the site of Buffalo, and near here, on the east bank of the Niagara River at the mouth of Cayuga Creek, La Salle in 1679 built the "Griffin," with which he sailed up the Great Lakes to Green Bay, Wis. He also built Ft. Conti at the mouth of the river, but this was burned in the following year. Seven years later the marquis of Denonville in behalf of the French built here another fort, the predecessor of the various fortifications in this locality which were subsequently called Ft. Niagara.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Port of Buffalo on Lake Erie, 1815]

Although the neighborhood was the scene of various operations during the War of Independence, not a single white settler was living on the site of the present city when the federal const.i.tution was adopted in 1787, and the town was not laid out till after the second presidency of Was.h.i.+ngton. In 1801 Joseph Ellicott, sometimes called the "Father of Buffalo," plotted the site for a town, calling it New Amsterdam but the name of Buffalo Creek or Buffalo proved more popular. Ellicott was the agent of a group of Dutch capitalists called the Holland Land Co., who purchased a large tract of land for speculative purposes in the neighborhood of Buffalo (1792).

At an early period (1784) the present site of the city of Buffalo had come to be known as the "Buffalo Creek region," either from the herds of buffalo or bison, which, according to Indian tradition, had frequented the salt licks of the creek, or more probably for some Indian chief.

During the War of 1812 Buffalo was a frontier town, and, owing to its position on Lake Erie, very close to an important theater of operations.

The first gun of the war is said to have been fired on Aug. 13, by a battery at Black Rock, then a rival, now a suburb of Buffalo, and shortly afterwards British soldiers from the Canadian garrison at Ft.

Erie (directly across the Niagara River from Buffalo) made a raid into Buffalo harbour and captured the schooner "Connecticut." The Americans replied with a brilliant exploit in which Lieut. Jesse D. Elliott (1782-1845) crossed the river and captured the "Detroit" and the "Caledonia" under the guns of Ft. Erie.

The ruins of Ft. Erie are among the most picturesque features of the region about Buffalo. The fort was captured in 1814 by an American force under Gen. Winfield Scott, and was held by the Americans till the end of the war, despite the efforts of a British besieging force to dislodge them. At the close of hostilities the Americans blew up the fort.

In the following spring (1812) five of the gunboats used by Capt. Perry at the Battle of Lake Erie were fitted out in the harbour at Buffalo.

Perry's victory, however, did not save the little settlement from an attack in Dec. of that year in which Gen. Sir Phineas Riall and a force of 1,200 British and Indians captured the town and almost completely destroyed it. After the war the town was rebuilt, and grew rapidly.

In 1818, near where La Salle in 1679 built his little sailing vessel, the "Griffin," a group of N.Y. capitalists completed the "Walk-in-the-Water," the first steamboat on the Great Lakes. The completion of the Erie Ca.n.a.l, seven years later, with Buffalo as its western terminus, greatly increased the city's importance. At Buffalo in 1848 met the Free Soil convention that nominated Martin Van Buren for the presidency and Charles Francis Adams for the vice-presidency.

Grover Cleveland lived in Buffalo from 1855 until 1884, when he was elected president.

Stephen Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) was born, fifth in a family of nine children, in the town of Caldwell, Ess.e.x County, N.J. He came of good colonial stock, but the death of his father prevented his receiving a college education. About 1855 he drifted westward with $25 in his pocket, and not long afterward began to read law in a law office in Buffalo, where he was admitted to the bar in 1859. He was a.s.sistant district attorney of Erie County, of which Buffalo is the chief city, in 1863, was elected sheriff on the Democratic ticket in 1869, and mayor of Buffalo in 1881, although the city was normally Republican. As mayor he attracted wide attention by his independence and business-like methods--qualities which distinguished his entire career. After his election as governor in the following year, the Democratic party chose him as their candidate against James G.

Blaine. He was the first Democrat to be elected president for 24 years. His administration was marked by firmness and justice; he stood staunchly by the new civil service law, and during his first term vetoed 413 bills, more than two-thirds of which were private pension bills. He vigorously attacked the high tariff laws then in effect, but the administration tariff bill was blocked by his Republican opponents. In 1888 Cleveland was defeated for re-election by Benjamin Harrison, but in 1892 he was again nominated and defeated President Harrison by a large majority. The most important event of his second administration was the repeal of the silver legislation which had been a growing menace for 15 years. The panic of 1893 was accompanied by an outbreak of labor troubles, the most serious of which was the Pullman strike at Chicago (1894). When Gov. Altgeld of Illinois failed to act, President Cleveland sent troops to Chicago to clear the way for mail trains, and the strike was settled within a week. He also acted decisively in the Venezuela affair, with the result that Great Britain agreed to arbitrate on terms which safeguarded the national dignity on both sides. At the end of his term, Cleveland retired to Princeton, N.J.

The Pan-American Exposition in celebration of the progress of the Western Hemisphere in the 19th century, was held here May 1-Nov. 2, 1901. It was during a reception in the Temple of Music on the Exposition grounds that President McKinley was a.s.sa.s.sinated on Sept. 6. He died at the home of John A. Milburn, the president of the exposition.

President McKinley's a.s.sa.s.sin was Leon Czolgosz, a young man of Polish parentage, who shot the president with a revolver at close range. For a while it was thought that the president would recover, but he collapsed and died on Sept. 14, 1901. Czolgosz professed to belong to the school of anarchists who believe in violence. He was executed in October, 1901.

Buffalo today has broad and s.p.a.cious streets and a park system (1,229 acres) of unusual beauty. The largest park is Delaware Park (362 acres), on the north side of the city. This park is adjoined on the south by the Forest Lawn Cemetery which contains monuments to Millard Fillmore and the Indian chief "Red Jacket."

Millard Fillmore (1800-1874), 13th president of the U.S., was born in East Aurora, a little village 14 M. from Buffalo, and practiced law in Buffalo. He served several terms as member of Congress and in 1848 was elected vice-president on the Whig ticket, with Zachery Taylor as president. President Taylor died July 9, 1850, and on the next day Fillmore took the oath of office as his successor. He favored the "Compromise Measures,"

designed to pacify the South, and signed the Fugitive Slave Law.

In 1852 he was an unsuccessful candidate for nomination for the presidency at the Whig National Convention.

Red Jacket (1751-1830) was a famous Seneca chief and friend of the whites. He was faithful to the whites when approached by Tec.u.mseh and the "Prophet" in their scheme to combine all of the Indians from Canada to Florida in a great Confederacy. In the War of 1812, he a.s.sisted the Americans. By many he was considered the greatest orator of his race.

To the west of the park are the grounds of the Buffalo State Hospital for the Insane. Overlooking the lake on a cliff 60 ft. high, is the park known as "The Front," the site of Ft. Porter, which has a garrison of U.S. Soldiers.

The University of Buffalo, organized in 1845, has about 1,000 students and comprises schools of medicine, law, dentistry and pharmacy. Other educational inst.i.tutions of Buffalo are the Canisius College, a Roman Catholic (Jesuit) inst.i.tution for men, and the Martin Luther Seminary, a Theological seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Buffalo has several fine public buildings, including the Albright Art Gallery (white marble), the Buffalo Historical Society Building (in Delaware Park), the Public Library (valued at $1,000,000), and the City Hall and County Building ($1,500,000). Since 1914 Buffalo has been under the commission form of government.

Almost equidistant from Chicago and N.Y.C., the city of Buffalo, by reason of its favorable location in respect to lake transportation and its position on the princ.i.p.al northern trade route between the East and the West, has become one of the important commercial and industrial centres in the Union. Originally, the harbour was only the shallow mouth of the Buffalo River, but it has been greatly enlarged and improved by extensive federal work. The Welland Ca.n.a.l, about 25 M. west of Buffalo, connects Lake Erie with the St. Lawrence River. The annual tonnage of the port of Buffalo is upwards of 20,000,000 tons. The total export trade is close to $100,000,000. Besides being the first port in the country in handling horses, sheep, cattle and hogs, it receives immense quant.i.ties of lumber, pig iron and ore and has more than a score of huge grain elevators with a capacity of about 30,000,000 bushels.

In the manufacturing field it has two great advantages: a supply of natural gas and almost unlimited electric power from Niagara Falls. Its total annual output is valued at approximately $400,000,000, and its manufactures include meat packing, foundry and machine shop products, flour, steel, linseed oil, railroad cars, clothing, chemicals, furniture, automobiles, jewelry, confectionery and tobacco.