Buffalo
Buffalo names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 2 of them are described by more than one encyclopedia.
Buffalo city and county-seat of Erie co.
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
city and county-seat of Erie co., N. Y., second city in population and importance in New York. It is built at the E. end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara river, 20 miles above the Falls. It is the W. terminus of the Erie canal, and has a navigable water front of 8 miles, with numerous piers, breakwaters, basins and canals, giving it one of the finest harbors on the lakes and making it a great commercial center. The city is connected by several steamship lines with the chief lake ports, and by ferries with Victoria and Fort Erie, on the Canadian side. The International Bridge, costing $1,500,000 and completed in 1873, connects Buffalo with these towns. Area, 42 square miles; pop. (1890) 255,664; (1900) 352,387; 10) 423,715; 1920) 506,775. (1910) Topography.- Buffalo is situated on an elevated plain, 50 feet above the lake and 600 feet above sea-level. From this plain the ground slopes gradually to the lake. It is bordered on three sides by water, the Niagara river, Lake Erie, and Buffalo river. Buffalo river is navigable for 2 miles, and two canals pass between the river and the lake. The city is noted for its wide and beautiful streets, and the abundance of shrubbery and trees decorating them. The principal streets are Main, Niagara, Delaware, Broadway, and Linwood and Elmwood avenues, 120 feet wide, and all over 5 miles in length. Municipal Improvements. - The city owns an extensive waterworks system, costing $9,000,000. The water is distributed through 600 miles of mains. The sewerage system has about 525 miles of pipe, and the sewage is carried off, by means of a tunnel, into the Niagara river. The city is lighted by gas and electricity. Much natural gas, piped from Pennsylvania and Canada, is used for heating and manufacturing There are more than 225 purposes. 1 miles of street railways and a steam belt-line connects with the suburbs. Public Parks. --Buffalo has an extensive park system. There are several attractive parks and squares in the business portions of the city, among them Lafayette, Niagara, and Franklin. Lafayette square contains the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, erected at a cost of $50,000, and the Buffalo Library. A portion of the Niagara river front rises in an abrupt bluff and is known as The Front. It affords a grand view in all directions and is the site of Fort Porter, where several companies of United States troops are stationed. The Parade Ground is one of the principal parks and contains 50 acres of land. Notable Buildings. - The principal public buildings are the Federal Building, containing the Postoffice and Custom House, a large building of freestone; the State Arsenal; the Board of Trade Building; the Old and New Armories; Grosvenor Library; Normal School; two public high schools; Erie County and Buffalo Savings Banks; the Erie County Penitentiary; and the City and County Hall. The latter is of granite with a tower 245 feet high, situated in Franklin street, completed in 1880 at a cost of about $1,400,000. Besides these, there is the Buffalo Library, in Lafayette Square, containing a circulating library of 77,000 volumes, and, in the same building, are the Buffalo Historical Society, the Buffalo Fine Arts Society and School of Arts, and the Society of National Sciences. The State Insane Asylum has a plot of 203 acres and adjoins the Buffalo Park. Other notable structures are the numerous grain elevators. Buffalo is one of the greatest grain shipping cities of the United States and contains some of the largest grain elevators in the world. The first elevator in the world was built at Buffalo in 1843. Commerce.- Buffalo has had an astonishing industrial growth. Its location at the eastern terminus of transportation on the Great Lakes has made it an important station on the highway connecting the growing West with the eastern seaboard It is one of the world's greatest ports, and despite the fact that navigation on the Great Lakes is limited to about eight months of the year, the city stands eighth in tonnage among the ports of the world. Clearances are issued to 10,000 vessels annually. The grain receipts in 1919 totaled 93,627,867 bushels. Receipts of coal over water routes were 69,805 tons; copper, 52,501 tons; pig iron, 2,650 tons; merchandise, 113,937 113,937 tons: stone flux, 960,- 337 tons; iron ore, 4,837,981 ton tons; lumber, 16,374,708 feet. In addition to the foregoing, there is the tremendous tonnage of the railroads, operating twelve months in the year instead of eight, but for which only fragmentary statistics are available, it being impossible to obtain from the railroads the record which would make such a computation possible. Additional great quantities of grain are received by rail, together with an enormous coal tonnage and miscellaneous freight amounting to millions of tons. Buffalo is also one of the country's most important live-stock markets, receipts for 1919 including 9,522 cars of cattle, 7,993 of hogs, 3,156 of sheep, 773 of horses, and 4,535 mixed cars. The importance of the city as a killing and packing center is seen in the comparison of the foregoing figures with the shipment from Buffalo for the same period, which amounted to 5,582 cars of cattle and 3,223 hogs. The stockyards are the second largest in the world. It is the first sheep market in the country and the second horse market. It is also the world's largest lumber market. Manufactures. As a manufacturing center, Buffalo ranks ninth among the cities of the United States. It is known as the "City of Diverse Industries," producing in quantities 58 per cent. of all the different lines of goods recognized by the U. S. Census Bureau. It is one of the most extensive producers of pig iron in the world, having over 20 large blast furnaces with a combined annual capacity of between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000 tons. It has the largest dye plant in the country. It produces one-third of the nation's linseed oil. There are 2,500 manufacturing plants employing 75,000 men and women. The principal industries are steel, pig iron, coke, flour, tanning, wall board, linseed oil, dyes, automobiles, rubber, benzol, cereals, lumber, copper, brass, leather, soap, and packing products. Banking. There are sixteen banks, with a combined capital of $18,300,000, and surplus and profits amounting to $20,332,427, with total deposits of $245,- 766,717. The savings-banks deposits, Jan. 1, 1920, were $126,247,413. The bank clearances for 1919 were $1,655,- 366,659. There are 27 savings and loan associations. Education. There are 66 public schools, with an enrolment of 65,265 pupils, and 62 parochial schools, with an average attendance of 30,000. There are 5 high schools, 4 vocational schools, 1 training school, 1 normal school of prae tice, and 1 opportunity school. There are 2,700 teachers and employees. In addi- 2,700 tion, there are many night and vacation schools. Higher education is afforded by the University of Buffalo, Canisius College, and Holy Angels Academy. The public library has 400,000 volumes, and 4,500 pamphlets, and over 130,000 individual borrowers made use of its circulating department in 1919. The Grosvenor Library has 136,000 volumes. Other institutions are the Buffalo Historical Society, the Society of Natural Sciences, and the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy. The city has the largest night school attendance of any city of its size in the world. are soon afterward burned by the British, in 1813. It was rebuilt in 1815; but its progress was slow until the completion of the Erie canal in 1825. It became a city in 1832 and since then it has been very prosperous. During 1901 the Pan- American Exposition was held in Buffalo. Here on September 6, Pres. Mc- Kinley was assassinated. The exposition was a brilliant affair , but not successful financially. Churches. There are 260 churches in Buffalo, many of them with beautiful structures. Noteworthy edifices Trinity (Protestant Episcopal) , the First Presbyterian , and St. Joseph's Cathedral (Roman Catholic), which has the largest carillon in the United States and the third largest in the world . Hospitals and charitable institutions are the viz., the Asiatic buffalo (bubalus) Buffalo State Hospital, Children's Hospital, Erie Hospital, General Hospital, Homeopathic Hospital, Lexington Heights Hospital, Providence Retreat , Riverside Hospital, and Women's Hospital; the Home for the Friendless, Orphan Asylum, St. Vincent's Orphanage for Girls, Church Home for Aged Women, St. Mary's Asylum for Widows and Foundlings, Home for Erring Women, State Asylum for the Insane, Fitch Institute , and St. Mary's Institution for Deaf Mutes. was Finances. The funded debt of the city, June 30, 1920, was $45,034,719 . The total assessed realty valuation $608,175,115. The ratio of assessed valuation to market value was 100 per cent. There is an excellent police force numbering 800, and a fire department numbering 915. The total number of city employees including laborers was 7,865. There are more than 600 miles of paved streets. The mileage of street railways was 223.40 and the passengers carried annually were 191,200,048. There are 610 miles of water mains and 568 miles of sewers. The birth rate per 1,000 was 26.70 and the death rate 15.30. Government. The city is under the commission form of government, which went into operation Jan. 1, 1916. The commission consists of the mayor and four councilmen, and in these all executive, administrative and legislative power is vested. The term of office of each member is four years. The government of the city is divided into five major departments , designated as the Department of Public Safety; Department of Finance and Accounts; Department of Public Works; Department of Parks and Public Buildings , and Department of Public Affairs. The Mayor in 1920 was George S. Buck. History. The site of Buffalo was first visited by the French , under La Salle, in 1679. In 1687 a settlement was made by Baron La Honton and Fort Supposé was erected. It was held by the British as Fort Erie during 1783-1784, and was incorporated as the village of Buffalo and
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
the principal lake port of western New York . It is situated on Lake Erie, at the western terminus of the Erie Canal , and is the point of departure from the Great Lakes for the Mohawk Valley. There are 250 passenger trains a day, and nobody knows how many freights. Western produce on its way to New York City leaves Lake Erie at this point. Immense elevators and docks are prepared to receive grain, coal, iron ore, and lumber from train or boat. One hundred and fifty million bushels of grain and 14,000,000 barrels of flour are an ordinary year's business in these two staples. The greatest coal dock and the largest grain elevator in the world are here. In fact, the grain elevator is a Buffalo invention to save men from carrying grain in sacks or hoisting it with tackle. The traffic of Lake Superior is largely with Buffalo. Heavy freight, such as coal and salt, nails and sugar, destined for Minnesota, Manitoba, the Dakotas, or the region westward, takes boat at Buffalo. The mouth of a small creek has been enlarged by breakwaters and canals at an expense of millions of dollars to accommodate the traffic. Niagara Falls are only twenty miles away, and furnish electric power for manufacturing purposes. Natural gas reaches the city through mains from the gas fields. There are numerous manufactures. Statistics of meatpacking, hardware, linseed oil, beer, sash and doors, ready-made clothing, flour, furniture, soap, candy, and leather run into millions. There are $45,000,000 on deposit in savings banks . The first white child was born here in 1797. The town was laid out in 1804. The village was destroyed by the British in the War of 1812. The census of 1900 gave a population of 352,387, ranking eighth in the Union. In 1909 the population had passed the 400,000 mark.
Buffalo an animal of the ox kind
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
an animal of the ox kind, native to Africa and southern Asia. It has no hump on its shoulder. The name has been applied unfortunately to the American bison, for an account of which the reader is referred to an article under that name. There are three distinct species of true buffaloes. A chestnut colored species ranges throughout central and western Africa. A bluish black, nearly hairless species, known as the cape buffalo, ranges from South Africa to Abyssinia. Its enormous horns are joined at the base. They lop down and backward towards the ears, but curve forward and inward over the forehead again, making a complete shield of defense for the head. This animal is attended regularly by the buffalo bird, which lives on parasites picked from the thick hide of the buffalo, for which it renders compensation by sounding the alarm if an enemy, that is to say, a lion or a man, is seen in the vicinity. If the buffalo should be asleep and not heed the cry of its little sentinel, the faithful bird, it is said, thrusts its bill down and picks its host's ear, and thus awakens it, when they dash off together to a place of safety. The third species is the black buffalo of India. It has long, triangular horns, which curve backward toward its shoulders. These horns are much flattened, and are surrounded with wrinkles, much like those of an ox. In its native home in the jungles it is considered a dangerous animal, as it has an ugly habit of charging upon hunters with the utmost recklessness. It has been widely domesticated, however. It is used by the peasants of Egypt and India much as domestic cattle are used with us. The buffalo is the principal beast of burden in the Philippines, also. It is used to plow, to draw carts, and for a great variety of similar purposes. The buffalo is able to work in swampy ground, where horses and ordinary oxen cannot travel. If allowed to bathe occasionally in mud and water, it is able to endure an unusual degree of heat. It lives on the coarsest forage. The buffalo cow yields milk. Both the cow and the ox are valuable for food and for their hides. The Asiatic buffalo is as indispensable to the peasant farmers in swampy grounds, where horses and ordinary oxen cannot travel. If allowed to bathe occasionally in mud and water, it is able to endure an unusual degree of heat. It lives on the coarsest forage. The buffalo cow yields milk. Both the cow and the ox are valuable for food and for their hides. The Asiatic buffalo is as indispensable to the peasant farmers in swampy lands of tropical countries as the reindeer, the yak, and the camel are to other localities. Travelers in the Philippines say that the the buffalo is to the Filipino peasant what the mule is to the southern darkey. The buffalo drags the peasant's wooden plow through the mire of the rice swamps, lives on the roughest forage, yields milk for the family, is fondled by the children, and is a patient domestic companion. White people are regarded with distrust. The white man who comes around a turn in the road, and is discovered by buffaloes wallowing with their calves in a pond or stream, must be on the lookout lest he be charged at full speed by the alarmed animals. DISTRIBUTION OF DOMESTIC BUFFALOES. Hungary 133,000 Bulgaria 431,487 Italy 19,362 Roumania 43,475 Servia 7,710 British India 15,134,501 Cochin China 241,750 Dutch East India 2,633,533 Formosa 226,620 Philippine Islands 640,871 Asiatic Russia 338,042 Siam 1,444,478 Egypt 300,000 total 21,294,000
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a name often applied to two distinct bovine genera or sub-genera with the Cape buffalo; and the American buffalo, better named bison. The genus or sub-genus bubalus has the usual bovine characteristics , and, whatever be its exact limits in strict zoological classification, remains, for practical purposes , a large, clumsy ox. The horns rise from the posterior side corners of the skull, are usually thickened out of proportion at the base, and irregularly ridged, though smooth toward the points; the forehead is short and arched; the covering of hair is comparatively sparse. The common or Asiatic buffalo (B. buffelus) has beautifully twisted horns, thick and broad at the base , rough on to the middle, somewhat triangular in section. The horns lie back on the shoulders when the animal walks or runs, with its muzzle projecting characteristically forward. The hair is short and scanty , almost bristly, slightly longer on head, shoulders and front of neck, and all but black in color. The bare, brown, polished hide is, however , the more striking feature. The animal measures about 7 feet in length, and stands about 4 feet high at the shoulder . It is a native of the East Indies, has been domesticated in India, and thence introduced into Egypt, Greece, Italy, Hungary, etc. The buffalo is a very powerful animal, much more powerful than the ox, and capable of dragging or carrying a far heavier load. The female yields a much greater quantity of milk than a cow, and of excellent quality. It is from buffalo milk that the ghee or semi-fluid butter of India is made. The hide is greatly valued for its strength and durability, but the flesh is decidedly inferior to that of the ox. The Cape buffalo (bos caffer) is generally regarded as species. The horns are very large; they spread horizontally over the top of the head, and are then bent down laterally, and turned upward at the point. The head is carried, as by the common buffalo, with projecting muzzle and reclining horns, but the bases of the horns nearly meet on the forehead, where they are from 8 to 10 inches broad. The a distinct length of a full-grown Cape buffalo is about 8 feet from the root of the horns to the tail, and the height is 5½ feet. This animal is regarded as more formidable than any other in south Africa. The buffalo is still found in large herds in the marshy wooded regions of central and south Africa. It grazes chiefly in the evening, and lies in woods and thickets during the day. It will readily act on the aggressive, and has never been domesticated. The flesh, though coarse, is palatable. For the American buffalo, see BISON. BUFFALO BERRY (shepherdia argentea), a shrub of the oleaster family, a native of the United States and Canada, with lanceolate, silvery leaves and close clusters of bright red acid berries about the size of currants, which are made into preserves and used in various ways. BUFFALO BILL. See CODY, WILLIAM FREDERICK. BUFFALO GRASS (tripsăcum dactyloides), a strong growing North American grass, so called from forming a large part of the food of the buffalo, and said to have excellent fattening properties; called also gama grass.
Buffalo American. See Bison Gayal or East Indian ox
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
American. See Bison Gayal or East Indian ox. the buffalo family Yak. Buffalo
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's wrote this in 1921 Buffalo was booming — 506,775 people, the western terminus of the Erie Canal, the world's largest lumber market and a port ranked eighth on earth in tonnage. The city kept growing to a peak of about 580,000 in 1950, then lost roughly half its population as the grain and steel trades collapsed; the Bethlehem Steel plant at Lackawanna shut in 1983, and the St. Lawrence Seaway, opened in 1959, let ocean ships bypass the Great Lakes transfer point that had made Buffalo rich. Today it holds around 278,000 residents and is still New York's second-largest city, but the giant concrete grain elevators Collier's boasted of are mostly silent, preserved as landmarks of industrial architecture rather than working commerce.
Written for this edition, 2026.