Unlocking History

By 1900, Buffalo was the 8th largest city in the United States,   and  the Black American population of Buffalo had risen to 100,000, yet only two hundred units of new housing had been built. They were essentially stuffed into the small east side area. The disturbances began on the West Side on the evening of Monday, June 26, when a police attempt to break up a fight, escalated into a confrontation between a crowd of hundred increasingly agitated onlookers and the police.  The next afternoon, riots rocked the East side of Buffalo.  Groups of angry residents took to the streets.   They stopped traffic, set fires, stoned cars, broke store windows, looted  neighborhood  establishments, assaulted local merchants, and pelted responding police officers.  In one night (June 28th) of violence over 40 people were hurt and 14 suffered gunshot wounds. Buffalo police made 21 arrests. For the rest of the week, arson, vandalism, looting,...

Henry Wells Henry Wells was born in 1805 in Thetford, Vermont. As a child, Henry worked on a farm and attended school in Fayette. In 1836, Wells became a freight agent on the Erie Canal.    In 1841 the firm of Pomeroy & Company was formed by George E. Pomeroy, Henry Wells and Crawford Livingston. They competed with the United States Post Office by carrying mail at less than the government rate. The government itself was compelled to reduce its rates twice in 1845 and 1851.   William George Fargo William George Fargo was born in Pompey, New York. From the age of thirteen he supported himself for schooling by working as a clerk in grocery stores. He became a freight agent for the Auburn & Syracuse railway company in 1841.   On April 1, 1845, Wells & Company's Western Express was established by Wells, Fargo and Daniel Dunning. Service was offered at first as far as Detroit, rapidly expanding to Chicago, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. In 1...