Niagara Falls 



1872 as the Western Reserve, in the State of Ohio, but at that time 

 Por,er constituting a part of the great Northwestern Territory. His 



first impressions of this locality were decidedly favorable; and 

 taking into consideration its position on what was then, and 

 seemed likely to continue to be, the great thoroughfare from east 

 to west, with the vast water power, that, as settlement progressed, 

 must become highly valuable, he could not but regard it as a 

 point worthy of attention, whenever the land, then the property 

 of the State, should be opened for sale and improvement 



In 1805, the State of New York first offered these lands along 

 the Niagara River for sale, and Augustus Porter and Peter B. 

 Porter, and Benjamin Barton and Joseph Annin jointly, pur- 

 chased largely of the lands at Lewiston, Niagara Falls, and 

 Black Rock, and elsewhere along the River. 



Augustus Porter settled first at Niagara Falls, and shortly 

 after, Benjamin Barton at Lewiston, and Peter B. Porter at 

 Black Rock. In the summer of 1805, Augustus Porter built, 

 on the joint property at Niagara Falls, a saw-mill and black- 

 smith shop, preparatory to other improvements; and in 1806 

 removed with his family from Canandaigua, to a dwelling then 

 standing near old Fort Schlosser. The journey from Canandaigua 

 to Niagara then required three or four days, and from Albany 

 eight or ten days. During the War of 1812, government mes- 

 sages were transmitted by express riders, by the most direct 

 route to Washington. But until 1815, we had only a weekly 

 mail carried on horseback. And until 1 8 1 8 the mail stages were 

 five days between Albany and Buffalo. 



No erections or improvements of any kind had been made in 

 the vicinity of the Falls, from the time of the English surrender 

 of the country to 1 805 ; and what had been previously made by 

 the French and English were then in ruins, except the dwelling 

 house referred to. That house had been built under the English 

 rule, and had been occupied for many years by John Steadman, 

 who afterward claimed a large tract of land along the Niagara 

 River, embracing the Falls, by a pretended Indian title, under 



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