A Voice Long Dead Comes Alive!

The settlement and growth of western New York as seen by a man who lived it.

From 1814 naval action on Lake Champlain through pioneer life on the Niagara Frontier, from the building of the Erie Canal to the coming of the railroads, from the beginnings of farming in Erie County to the transformation of the county shoreline by vacation cottages and camps—Joseph Bennett witnessed it all. Businessman, builder, farmer, public servant, family man, deacon of his church, canal worker in Lockport, early resident of both Williamsville and Evans, Joseph Bennett, along with the men and women of his time, laid the foundations of modern civilization in western New York state. His journal, spanning virtually an entire century, is filled with details of life in the Buffalo area and beyond: transportation, commerce, farming, shipwreck, murder, birth, death—details of the process, going on throughout America, of turning wilderness into farms, villages, and cities. This book, building on Bennett’s journal, tells a smooth-flowing and highly readable tale of Bennett’s life and times. It is a “must-read” not only for western New Yorkers, but for anyone looking for an engaging view of life in exuberant nineteenth-century America.

Take a step back in time. Let Joseph Bennett tell you how it all began.

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Excerpt from Preface

Bennett’s life, launched in August 1803, would stretch from Lewis and Clark’s exploration of the west to the Wright Brothers’ experiments with flying machines, from the War of 1812 to the war against Spain, from the presidency of Jefferson to that of McKinley, from America as wilderness to America as budding world power.

Young Joseph found himself within earshot of the 1814 naval engagement between American and British forces on Lake Champlain. He arrived in the village of Buffalo less than a decade after its burning by the British. As a young man he participated in the building of the Erie Canal and the Pennsylvania canal system. He was in Buffalo when Lincoln passed through en route to his destiny in Washington. He served as assemblyman in Albany, and was a frequently reelected town supervisor. He was active all his life in church affairs. Bennett headed up the mid-nineteenth century equivalent of Erie County Social Services, and served as chairman of the Erie County Board of Supervisors, roughly equivalent to the County Executive of today. On his property he founded a business that gave people great pleasure, that provided financial security for himself and his descendants, and that outlived him by many years.

The story that follows is in fact a story, not an annotation of Bennett’s jottings. It is the story of the development of western New York and early America as seen through the prism of Bennett’s experience. It is not a bare timeline of Joseph Bennett’s days, but rather a tale of how Bennett’s days fit into the tide of life around him in his town, county, region, state, and nation. It is, principally, the story of how this man participated in the growing of America, and, in particular, the growing of New York State’s Niagara Frontier.