Out of the Ashes

1814-1825

In Out of the Ashes, the second volume of the series Main Street: The History of Buffalo, Buffalo grows from a frontier outpost to the Great Lakes port of the Erie Canal. The book focuses on two stories: the resistance of the Seneca Nation to displacement by white settlers and the construction of the Erie Canal. The great orator Red Jacket led the fight of the Native Americans against the Ogden Company's attempt to remove the Seneca from the Buffalo Creek Reservation (now South Buffalo). The book uncovers the witty and incisive speeches of Red Jacket in council with the rapacious land speculators. In the same era, Buffalo's "Kremlinites"--business men opposed to Resident Agent Joseph Ellicott of the Holland Land Company--built the first artificial harbor on the Great Lakes to lure the canal projectors to make Buffalo the endpoint on Lake Erie. A lengthy war of words between Buffalo and Black Rock--difficult to comprehend today--culminated with Buffalo as the Erie Canal's port on the Great Lakes.