Buffalo's Forgotten Tycoon: Fingy Conners

Ignited by the Erie Canal's great success, Buffalo grew from 8700 inhabitants in 1830 to 573,000 by 1930. Like any boomtown, growth created fabulous wealth, and in Buffalo it was mostly conservative Protestant business leaders upon whom the riches flowed. The names we recognize today; Albright, Knox, Rumsey and Goodyear, conjure up images of 19th century capitalists and fabulous mansions along Delaware Avenue. Suprisingly, the most prolific and certainly most colorful tycoon of teh day remains a relative unknown. he was a flamboyant, uneducated, two-fisted drinker and brawling Irish Catholic. He had a penchant for flashy clothes, colorful language, big diamonds and cold beer.

William J. "Fingy" Conners, born in 1857, did not rise out of the privileged business class of the booming city, but rather from the waterfront slums of the old First Ward. As a youth, he lost his thumb but gained his nickname...

To read more of Thomas Grover's story, see page 8 of the Summer 2007 Heritage Magazine.

Eye of the Master

Was Western New York's own Joseph Vincent McCarthy the greatest major league baseball manager of all time? ...

Marse Joe McCarthy managed the New York Yankees from 1931 to 1946, steering them to eight American League pennants and to seven world championships. He also won a pennant for the Chicago Cubs in 1929, becoming the first manager to win pennants for teams in both leagues, a distinction that would hold for nearly sixty years...

To view the rest of this story by Robert L. O'Brian, see page 20 in the Summer 2007 Heritage Magazine. Subscribe now!

 

Buffalo in 1837: A First Hand Account

...Years ago I came into the possession of a description of America in 1837 written by an English sea captain during his extensive tour...

The descriptions of Buffalo and of Niagara Falls are at times imposing, touching and hilarious - it seems nothing ever changes... So it is with a sense of both pride and whimsy I share with you the observations of one Capt. Frederick Marryat, C.B. as recorded in his Diary of America,with Remarks on its Institution, published by Baudry's European Library and its Collection of Ancient and Modern British Authors, Vol. CCLII. 3, Quai Malaquais, near the Pont des Arts, 1839.

To read more of this story with commentary by Andrew R. Graham, see page 30 of the Summer 2007 Heritage Magazine.

 

 

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