May 21, 1965
Friday, nice day, 68. I washed, wrote to Marilyn, did some ironing. Went to Cobleskill at night for kids auditions, mother and Margaret went with us and Laura too. David home from Buffalo while we were at Cobleskill.
Comment: Not sure who Margaret is and not sure what they are auditioning for. Wayne, Carol and Sue sang at the 1964 World's Fair.....the picture is of Buffalo in 1813, I worked at the Ford's Buffalo Stamping Plant starting in 1965 and here is more than you ever want to know about the origin of the city name: From Wikipedia: The City of Buffalo, formerly known as Buffalo Creek, received its name from the creek that flows through it. However, the origin of the creek's name is unclear, with several unproven theories existing. Early French explorers reported the abundance of buffalo on the Eastern shore of Lake Erie, but their presence on the banks of Buffalo Creek is still a matter of debate, although American Bison did range into western NY state at one time. Neither the Native American name Teyohoseroron (the Place of the Basswoods) nor the French name Riviere aux Chevaux (River of Horses) survived, so the current name likely dates to the British occupation which began with the capture of Fort Niagara in 1759.
Another theory holds that a
Seneca Indian lived there, either whose name meant buffalo, or who had the physical characteristics of a buffalo, and was translated as such by the English settlers. The stream where he lived became Buffalo's Creek. Unlike other nearby creeks such as Scajaquada Creek and Smoke's Creek which were named after actual historic figures, there is no known reference to any Native American named Buffalo. Also given credence by local historians at one time was the possibility that an interpreter mistranslated the Native American word for "
beaver" as "buffalo," the words being very similar, at a treaty-signing at present-day
Rome, New York in 1784. The theory assumes that because there were beaver here, the creek was probably called Beaver Creek rather than Buffalo Creek.
Buffalo panorama circa 1911
Another theory holds that the name is an
anglicized form of the
French name
Beau Fleuve (beautiful river), which was supposedly an exclamation uttered by
Louis Hennepin when he first saw the Niagara River. This is a relatively recently proposed theory (1909) and is unlikely, as no period sources contain this quote. The earliest known name origin theory is an anecdote told to Captain Daniel Dobbins by Cornelius Winney in 1795 and also found with variations in Sheldon Ball's History of Buffalo (1825) and other sources, about a party of hunters whose guide shoots a horse and passes it off as bison meat, thereafter the origin of the term "buffaloed."
Despite many years of speculation and garbling of previous debate, more recently available sources indicate that the name Buffalo Creek was in common use on the Niagara Frontier by 1764, as
John Montresor referenced 'Buffalo Creek' in his journal of that year.
[3] The name may have originated with an English speaking person sometime between 1759 and 1764, possibly after seeing animal bones, thought to be bison but possibly elk or moose or domesticated cattle, at the salt lick called Sour Springs located at the head of navigation about
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