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 Canal, 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, Essex 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 assistant 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 assassinated on Sept. 6. He died at the home of John A. Milburn, the president of the exposition.
President McKinley's assassin 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 spacious 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 Tecumseh 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 assisted 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.