First Years in America
4
The passenger manifest says that his destination is Buffalo.
Buffalo, New York
Upon the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, Buffalo became the western end of the 524-mile waterway starting at New York City. At the time, Buffalo had a population of about 2,400 people. In 1853, Buffalo annexed Black Rock, which had been Buffalo’s fierce rival for the canal terminus. During the 19th century, thousands of pioneers going to the western United States debarked from canal boats to continue their journey out of Buffalo by lake or rail transport. During their stopover, many experienced the pleasures and dangers of Buffalo’s notorious Canal district.
German immigrants became one of Buffalo’s most prosperous ethnic groups in the areas of brewing, flour milling, meat-packing industries, banking and politics.
On April 18, 1853 the Weltbürger merged with the Buffalo Democrat under the firm of Brunck, Held & Company. The Weltbürger became a weekly supplement of the Democrat.
Originally built in Buffalo, New York in 1825 as the “portal to the west,” the Erie Canal Harbor served as the terminus for the passage of goods and passengers from the East Coast across the Great Lakes for much of the 19th century. More importantly for Buffalo, the commercial activity fueled by the harbor helped transform the city into a thriving metropolis. Buffalo’s notorious Canal Street was a short distance from the canal terminus.
The residential neighborhoods surrounding Downtown Buffalo are noted for their history and diversity. Buffalo’s Fruit Belt section was founded in 1839, named for the orchards planted by German immigrants
By 1900, the Buffalo’s Germans, now making up more than half of the city’s population, had left their East Side enclave and assumed a major role in the life of the city. The whole fiber of the city had become German.
By the 1840s German-Americans made up one-third of Buffalo’s population and were the largest foreign-born group in the city.
Unlike the Irish, German immigrants to Buffalo settled inland from the waterfront in an East Side area known as the “Fruit Belt” because of its street names.
1850 42,261 32.0%
1860 81,129 92.0%
Horse and Buggy Care and Maintenance
Grandmother, Martha (Cordes) Kirmse, said that my great grandfather, Julius Kirmse, Julius’s passage was paid by a doctor from New York. Julius worked off his debt by maintaining the doctor’s horse and buggy so that it was ready for any immediate house call the doctor needed to make.
Grandmother Kirmse said that his passage to America was paid for by a medical doctor who was visiting from America and was visiting a neighbor. To work off the debt, Julius
Horse health care feeding grooming shoeing exercising.preventing hoof care, shoeing lameness respiratory problems
A horse and buggy (in American English) or horse and carriage (in British English and American English) refers to a light, simple, two-person carriage , drawn usually by one or sometimes by two horses.
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