The Honorable Elbridge Gerry Spaulding (1809-1897), builder of Spaulding's Exchange, an imposing brick office and retail structure located at Main Street and the Terrace intersecting Commercial Street on the West, was widely known as "Father of the Greenback." A lawyer, financier and statesman who ranks after President's Millard Fillmore and Grover Cleveland as Buffalo's third most prominent nineteenth century figure on the national scene, he was born at Summer Hill, Cayuga County, N.Y. on February 24, 1809 and died in Buffalo, May 5, 1897. His birthdate followed by only twelve days that of Abraham Lincoln, with whom he became closely associated during the Civil War years when Spaulding served in Congress. Often called Buffalo's "grand old man," he resided here for more than 63 years, having moved to the bustling new city from Attica in 1834, following a boyhood in Alexander and law apprenticeship in Batavia.
To read more of Chas Viele;s story, see page 33 of the Spring 2002 Heritage Magazine. Subscribe now!
As
a child I was fascinated by my father's work as a photographer. It's been
more than 50 years, yet I still have vivid memories of him, seated at his
desk, carefully coloring a black and white photograph. The desk was covered
with his tools: tubes of oil paints, brushes, cotton balls and Q-tips. A small,
rectangular glass plat served as a palette on which he mixed and blended the
colors until he got just the right hues for skin tones or hair shades. When
necessary, a magnifying glass provided a more exact view of the intricacies
in the folds of a ruffled blouse or the detail of the iris of an eye. To my
child's eye the resulting portraits were small works of art and my father
was an artist.
To read more of Barbara Seals Nevergold's story, see page 38 of the Spring 2002 Heritage Magazine. Subscribe now!
Lackawanna
Local Hero - The Life and Times of Colonel Jean-Baptiste Weber
The 1880 Erie County Atlas contains an illustration of the estate of Colonel J.B. Weber, "Shamokin." It was the home of a man who lived an incredibly varied and exemplary life of public service. He was a Civil War veteran, commander of U.S. Colored Troops, Erie County Sheriff, two-term U.S. Congressman, U.S. Commissioner of Immigration at Ellis Island, and locally a successful propronent of the extension of the Olmsted Park System and the creation of the Steel City, Lackawanna.
The Introduction to J.B. Weber's 1927 autobiography was written by a neighbor who was three years old when he saw the young Colonel come home fromt the Civil War. Typically of Weber, they were still friends. "As a rule," Mr. Green wrote, "American life is fluid and changeful. John Weber's rut began, and apparently will end, in Buffalo."
To read more of Denise O'Meara's feature, see page 50 of the Spring 2002 Heritage Magazine. Subscribe now!
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