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22 4 HISTORY OF BUFFALO GRAIN : TRADE. © -Buffalo is the natural grain outlet of the great lakes. Other ports have an elevator or two to receive some of the golden harvest which is shipped REAR ELEVATION SHOWING FLOATING STEAMER TO CANAL BOAT, TAE MarINE REVIEW Lake Michigan, as well as the only one that year. It was not till the following year that a bulk shipment was made from Chicago; the brig Os- ceola bringing down 1,678 bus. of wheat to Durfee & Kingman, millers at Black \ ELEVATOR TRANSFERRING GRAIN FROM "by water from the great northwest, Rock. The schooner General Harri- "but they are only used for local mar- son loaded 3,000 bus. of wheat at Chi- "kets. The grain which finds its way to the Buffalo elevators is sent to all 'parts of the world. The modern lake -leviathans potir their stores into the Buffalo elevators and cars or canal boats continue it on its way to the seaboard. Figuratively speaking, the crop is so great, there is always a golden stream reaching from the northwest to Buffalo. _ According to old records, Buffalo was a grain-receiving port as early as 1828. The business, however, at that time was purely local, the grain being consigned to New York millers and shipped from Ohio ports. Levi Allen, an old Buffalo captain, is authority for the statement that he brought down 6,000 bus. of wheat in the United States in 1828.' This was considered a big load and the methods of unloading were then so crude, it took five days to take out the cargo. This was con- sidered good time, too. The New York millers were in the habit of going up to Ohio ports in the first half of the nineteenth century, but it is related that the old steamer Great: Western put into Buffalo in 1838 with thirty-nine bags of wheat con- signed by a Chicago grain shipper to an Otsego miller. 'So far as is known, this was the initial shipment from cago in 1840 for Buffalo. The Gazelle 'in 1841 that Joseph Dart, by all right the pioneer in his line, began the erec- tion of the Dart elevator on the spot where the Bennett elevator now stands. His determination was to erect his structure and use steam pow- er and the conveyor principle invented fifty years before by Oliver Evans. In the face of many obstacles and pre- dictions of failure, he began the con- struction of the world's and Buffalo's first elevator, marking a new era'in the business of transporting grain from western granaries to eastern markets. This elevator was completed in .1842. Mahlon Kingman, a forwarding mer- chant at Buffalo, and probably a mem- ber of the firm of Durfee & Kingman, who had tried a horsepower elevator and failed, laughed at Dart's attempt to improve.on old methods, saying, "Trishmen's backs are the cheapest ele- vators." He did not mean disrespect to the sons of Erin, but rather paid tribute to their industry and explained in six words the unbelievably crude manner grain was unloaded in the old days. He, as well as others, took out . his grain from the holds of the old- time schooners by sending it up lad- ders' on the backs of men or hoisting it in barrels, and then putting it in baskets and having men lined up to carry it into the warehouses. The grain, ten or fifteen bushels at a time, was weighed by means of a hopper and scales swung over the hatches. SIDE ELEVATION OF FLOATING ELEVATOR ELEVATING GRAIN FROM STEAMER ' IRON KING TO CANAL BOAT. and Erie loaded 3,000 and 2,000. bus. of wheat the same year. These are said to be the first full cargoes. Buffalo's grain traffic really dates from 1841, notwithstanding the fact that about 2,000,000 bus. of wheat had been received up till that year. It was With fair weather, 2,000 bus. could be taken out in this way in a day. Marine men generally and the public at large owe a debt first of: all to Joseph Dart and then to Oliver Evans, though Joseph Dart, himself, modest- ly concedes full credit to Evans, say-