Buffalo Rising Online

Great work here, always love to hear about the beginnings of Buffalo. As a post script, Mayor Andrews was voted in by the Common Council due to the first mayor, Ebenezer Johnson (yup, Johnson Park - and it's the 170th birthday of the park, as well) declining his re-election to a second term stating,

"At the organization of our city government last spring, the kindness and courtesy of the board then elected, was in like manner extended to me, and I entered upon the duties assigned. Those duties I discharged, I trust assiduously; and if not to the satisfaction of all, some latitude, I hope, may be allowed me to plead, in extenuation, inexperience and the extraordinary character of many of the official demands upon me, some of which at least, arising from causes which we may fondly hope, Heaven will, in future, avert.

"...Allow me respectfully to decline the station your kindness has assigned me."

The Council thanked the Mayor, especially for saving many from the Asiatic Cholera. (Mike Rizzo)

Ebenezer Johnson did accept his re-election in 1834, serving a second and final term ending in 1835, due to Andrews' death. Andrews suffered not only his death in the epidemic, but his was preceeded by his daughter Harriet and his wife Sarah. During his career in politics, he was on the Streets, Alleys, Canals and Ferries committee, and the Police committee. Sort of like the Commish of Public Works. Previous to his public life, he was a founding member of the first Bank of Buffalo, along with Benjamin Rathbun , Hiram Pratt , and William Ketchum.

However, our first mayor was Johnson, and back then the population was a whopping 10,000+. His salary was $250 annually and he was considered one of the wealthiest persons in Buffalo. Mayor Johnson heeded the cholera epidemic and created the first Board of Health and immediately took to the problem. He established the first hospital, the McHose House , in an abandoned tavern between Niagara Street and Prospect Avenue, for the care of cholera patients. His warehouse that was used for his drugstore, has recently been renovated in a former abandoned property on Johnson Park that we worked on to get the bank cited in Housing Court. They had to reduce the asking price and someone with a vision was able to purchase the property and make the rehab work. But, I digress.

Although Johnson was known "as a man perfectly honest and straightforward in all his dealings with men," when he died in Tellico Plains, TN, his will went into probate and two wives, one in Tellico Plains and one in Buffalo, vied for the estate.

He built 69 Johnson Park for his daughter Mary as a wedding present, but she never received it as she and Dr. John Lord eloped. Her likeness appears as a stained glass window on the lake side of the Historical Society's library, while Dr. Lord's bust is seen if you look directly above the entry door to the library. Mayor Johnson eventually married his son-in-law's sister Lucy after the death of his first wife, Sally. 69 Johnson Park is the best example of period home as it still, to this day, has working gas lights and has been perfectly restored with all the colors, plaster ceiling medallions, and even draperies copied from the era.

In an area that is currently the home of Buffalo Optical and Reprocraft on Delaware Avenue, along with the parking lot facing S. Elmwood, (across from the new Uniland bulding) his 24 room mansion once stood. He donated it to the Female Academy of Buffalo (now Buff Sem) in 1837, the same time that he deeded his land to the city to create the first park, and left for Tellico Plains, TN, a bankrupt man due to a market crash in 1836.

I know he was a schmuck, having two wives and all, but I thank him for our first park and for what he did as mayor. Amazing that most politicians always get wrapped up in adultery-type scandals, eh?