History of Lockport, (Niagara County) New York United States of America

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Local History Notes:

LOCKPORT, a flourishing post-village, capital of Niagara county, New York, on the Erie canal, and on the Rochester, Lockport, and Niagara Falls railroad, 31 miles N. N. E. from Buffalo, and 260 miles W. by N. from Albany. Lat. 43? 11' N., Ion. 78? 46' W. It is situated at the point on the canal where the water descends from the level of Lake Erie to the Genesee level, by ten double combined locks of massive masonry, in the best style of workmanship. The abundant hydraulic power obtained by this means constitutes one of the chief sources of the prosperity of Lockport. This power will be greatly augmented by the completion of the Erie canal enlargement to Buffalo, which is now far advanced. In the construction of this great work, a barrier of solid limestone has been excavated from the head of the locks, about 3 miles southward, from 25 to 40 feet in depth, and 62 feet in width, with an additional space of 15 feet for a towpath. Water, in any desirable quantity, may be drawn from the Erie level, and returned to the canal, 60 feet below, without detriment to the navigation. Large quarries of the finest limestone and of sandstone flagging are worked at this place, furnishing constant employment to several hundred men. Lockport has 6 flouring mills, 3 of which are of the first class, 11 saw mills, 5 iron foundries, 1 cotton factory, 1 woollen factory, 4 banks, and several printing offices which issue newspapers. It has 6 primary public schools and 1 Union school: the latter is a large and substantial stone building, in which from four to six hundred children, after leaving the primary schools, are instructed in all the branches of a liberal education. There are 13 churches in Lockport, viz. 2 Episcopal, 2 Presbyterian, 1 Methodist, 1 Baptist, 1 Lutheran, 1 Universalist, 1 Catholic, and several others. A direct railroad, 22 miles long, has been opened from this place to Buffalo. The Rochester, Lockport, and Niagara railroad crosses the canal by a viaduct 500 feet in length, and 60 feet above the water. This road was completed in June, 1852, and is designed to connect with the Great Western railway through Canada West to Detroit, by a suspension bridge ever the Niagara river. 1 1/2 miles below the falls. Lockport is the largest unincorporated town in the state. Population in 1852, from 12,000 to 14,000.

Biographies:

Helen (Stuart) Campbell, author was born in Lockport, N. Y., July 4, 1839, daughter of Homer H. Stuart. The family removed to New York city in her infancy, where she afterwards chiefly lived. She received a seminary education. At an early age she commenced writing children's stories. She was deeply interested in the problem of reducing the labor of housekeeping and cooking, and of alleviating the miseries of the poor and ignorant. In 1877 she wrote The Problem of the Poor, and later Mrs. Herndon's Income (1885), in which she embodied her conclusions on these subjects. In 1886, she was appointed by the New York Tribune to investigate the condition of wage-earning women in New York, the results appearing in the Tribnne, in a series of papers entitled, Prisoners of Poverty, which led to legislative enactments for the amelioration of the condition of women wage-earners in the metropolis. Mrs. Campbell's Prisoners of Poverty Abroad was written after some eighteen months' study of the condition of wage-earners in England, France, Italy, and Germany. She was literary editor of The Continent, from 1881 to 1884. Besides several volumes published between 1864 and 1880 her books include: The Easiest Way in Housekeeping and Cooking (1881); The Problem of the Poor (1882); The American Girl's Home-Book of Work and Play (1883); Under Green Apple Boughs (1883); The What-to-do Club (1884); Miss Melinda's Opportunity (1886); Prisoners of Poverty Abroad (1889); Roger Brookley's Probation (1890); In Foreign Kitchens (1892); Darkness and Daylight (1892); Some Passages in the Practice of Dr. Martha Scarborough (1893); John Ballantyne, American (1893); Women Wage-Earners (1893); Household Economics (1896); Work; an Anthology (1897); Ballantyne (1901).

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Daniel Webster Flagler, soldier, was born in Lockport, N.Y., June 24, 1835; son of Sylvester and Abigail (Remington) Flagler; grandson of James Flagler, and great, great-grandson of Simon Flagler, who emigrated from Holland and settled in Dutchess county, N.Y., in 1735. Daniel W. was graduated at the U.S. military academy June 24, 1861. He was promoted brevet 2d lieutenant and 2d lieutenant of ordnance the same day, 1st lieutenant, Aug. 3, 1861, and captain, March 3, 1863. He served during the civil war, 1861-66; in drilling volunteers at Washington, D.C., July 1-15, 1861; in the Manassas campaign and in the defences of Washington, July and August, 1861; as assistant ordnance officer at the Allegheny arsenal, on foundry duty at Fort Pitt, Pittsburg, Pa., and inspecting ordnance for fitting out the Mississippi river flotilla, August to December, 1861; as chief of ordnance to General Burnside's expedition to North Carolina, December, 1861, to August, 1862; in charge of transportation of siege-train across country from Newbern to Fort Macon, North Carolina, and of construction of approaches and batteries in front of Fort Macon, March and April, 1862; in the Maryland campaign (Army of the Potomac) as assistant ordnance officer and aide-de-camp, September and October, 1862; as chief ordnance officer, November, 1862, to November, 1863; in hospital, October and November, 1863; on inspection duty at the West Point foundry, N.Y., November, 1863, to May, 1864; assistant to the chief of ordnance, U.S.A., Washington, D.C., May, 1864, to June, 1865; inspector of arms, Army of the Potomac, February, 1865, and in charge of Tredegar iron works, Richmond, Va., from May, 1865. He participated in the battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861; the battle and capture of Roanoke Island, Feb. 7 and 8, 1862; the battle of Newbern, N.C., March 14, 1862; and was in command of mortar batteries in the bombardment of Fort Macon, resulting in the capture, April 26, 1862. He was transferred to the Army of the Potomac to meet the emergency resulting from Pope's defeat; engaged in the battles of South Mountain, Md., Sept. 14, 1862; Antietam, Md., Sept. 17, 1862; Fredericksburg, Va., Dec. 13, 1862: Chancellorsville, Va., May 2-4, 1863, and Gettysburg, Pa., July 1-3, 1863. He was brevetted captain, March 14, 1862, for gallant service at the battle of Newbern, N.C.; major, April 26, 1862, for gallant service at the siege of Fort Macon, N.C., and lieutenant-colonel, March 13, 1865, for distinguished services in the field during the civil war. After the close of the war he was employed on a tour of inspection of western arsenals, with the chief of ordnance, U.S.A., May, 1865; in charge of receiving arms from disbanded volunteers from Delaware and Pennsylvania, at Wilmington, Del., and Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pa., May and June, 1865; on special ordnance inspection duty in Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama, June to September, 1865; assistant ordnance officer, Watervliet arsenal, N.Y., October to December, 1865; in command of Augusta arsenal and powder works, Ga., June, 1866, to May, 1871, having charge also of Confederate ordnance establishments, depots and stores, and of the disposal of the same, at Atlanta, Macon, Athens and Savannah, Ga., January, 1866, to January, 1869; on special ordnance inspection duty at Fort Fisher, N.C., December, 1866; Selma, Ala., February, 1869, and Fort Fickens, Fla., February, 1871; in command of the Rock Island armory and arsenal, June, 1871, to May, 1886; member of board on heavy gun carriages at New York, January to March, 1873; special inspection of Fort Union arsenal, New Mexico, with a view of breaking up the same, September, 1880; on board at Indianapolis, Ind., in regard to the removal of the Indianapolis arsenal, January, 1883; on ordnance inspection duty at San Antonio, Texas, Fort Lowell, Ariz., and Benicia, Cal., February and March, 1883; in command of the Frankford arsenal, Pa., May 31, 1886, to November, 1889; president of the board on site for gun factory, March 22 to May 14, 1887; president of the beard of comparative merits of Morse and service reloading cartridges, March 3 to May 1, 1888; on special duty to select site and make plans for Columbia arsenal, Tenn., May 29 to June 30, 1888; president of the board for testing rifled cannon and projectiles in 1889, and in command of Watertown arsenal, Mass., from Nov. 29, 1889, to 1891. He was promoted major June 23, 1874; lieutenant-colonel Aug. 23, 1881, and colonel Sept. 15, 1890, and was appointed brigadier-general and chief of ordnance, Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 1891, holding the position until his death. He was married Sept. 13, 1865, to Mary McCalla, daughter of Gen. Clement Alexander Finley, U.S.A.; they had one daughter, Elisabeth Moore; and one son, Clement Alexander Finley Flagler, who was graduated from the U.S. military academy in 1889, was promoted 2d lieutenant, corps of engineers, Aug. 12, 1890, 1st lieutenant, Jan. 26, 1895, and captain, Oct. 26, 1898. General Flagler died at Old Point Comfort, Va, March 29, 1899.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

David Wright Judd, editor, was born in Lockport, N.Y., Sept. 1, 1838; son of Ozias Judd. He was graduated at Williams college, Mass., in 1860, and became connected with the staff of the New York Times. When the civil war broke out in 1861 he accompanied the 22d regiment, N.Y.S.M., to the front as war correspondent. He was taken prisoner at Harper's Ferry and at Chancellorville, but escaped both times, and was commissioned captain in the 1st New York cavalry. He resigned in 1864, and returned to New York city, where he was on the editorial staff of the Commercial Advertiser, 1864-71. He then became editor and proprietor of the Hearth and Home, and in 1883 was elected president of the Orange Judd Publishing company, and took charge of the editorial department of the American Agriculturist. He was elected to the New York assembly as a Republican in 1871; was a quarantine commissioner at New York, 1873-88; a director of the National Rifle association, and a member of the Union League and Republican clubs. He is the author of: Two Years' Campaigning in Virginia and Maryland (1864); The Educational Cyclop?dia (1874); The Life and Writings of Frank Forester (1882). He died in New York city, Feb. 6, 1888.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Richard Crowley, representative, was born in Lockport, N.Y., Dec. 14, 1836; son of Andrew and .Margaret (Barry) Crowley. He attended the public schools of his native town and was admitted to the bar in 1860. In 1865 he was appointed city attorney; served in the state senate, 1866-70; and on March 23, 1871, was appointed U.S. district attorney for the northern district of New York. He resigned March 3, 1879, to take his seat as a representative in the 46th congress, to which he had been elected as a Republican. He was re-elected to the 47th and was an unsuccessful candidate for election to the 51st congress. He was appointed by Governor Morton in January, 1896, state agent of war claims of the state against the United State, growing out of the civil war, to which was afterward added the war claims of the state against the United States incident to the war with Spain, 1898.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor