Hamburg High School - Echoes Yearbook (Hamburg, NY)

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THE MGNARGH 1928 HAMBURG ACADEMY, 1868 HAMBURG HIGH SCHOOL, 1928

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-lu 'I' CONTENTS fi? History of Our Town and School Administration Classes Organizations Athletics Advertisements

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THE MONARCH 1928 9 f A Story of the Development of Our Town and School In 1803 an Indian who had come to the edge of Eighteen Mile Creek to drink, noticing muddy streaks in the ordinarily clear water, peered upstream and saw a family' of pioneer settlers fording the stream on a rude cart drawn by oxen. This was the family of john Cummins, the first settler in Hamburg. In 1804 there were several other families at the present site of Hamburg. The winter of 1804 was very bitter and food was scarce. Charles johnson, a sturdy pioneer, volunteered to go on snowshoes to the Indian village of Seneca to buy corn. Dragging a rude sled, he set out. He purchased 340 pounds but on the return trip the snow became so deep that the sled sank too deep into it to be drawn and the pioneer was forced to divide the load, leave onefhalf and carry the remainder on his back. Life was far from easy in pioneer days. The Indians, however, were very friendly for records show that they helped erect the homes and mills of the settlers. They were of the Erie tribe, sometimes called the Neutral Nation. Often they engaged in athletic contests with the whites. The opinion seems to exist that Hamburg was founded as a German settlement. This, however, is not so. The town was founded by a group of New England emi' grants. The name--Hamburger-was given the settlement after the old, wellfknown and wellfloved hyrnn, Hamburg, and not after Hamburg, Germany. This section was so heavily wooded with tall pines that the Hrst clearing was done with no little difficulty. The trees were so tall and so close together that be' fore they would fall, the tops had to be cut off and the branches removed. A series of disasters occurred from 1804 to 1825 but the community grew in spite of various setbacks. The first town meeting was held on April Sth, 1814. David Eddy was elected supervisor. Among the things voted were the following: 1. No hogs shall be hereafter allowed to runaround loose within the village limits. 2. A bounty shall be paid for the death of every panther or wolf providing it is killed by a Hamburg resident. 3. The town shall be divided into school districts and a special committee of over' seers, three in number, shall be elected, In 1820 Thomas White erected a general store and because of this the town was known for the next fifty years as White's Corners. An interesting event happened in 1869. Edwin Walker, brother of the late editor of the Erie County Independent, built a homefmade bicycle from some secf tions of gas pipe and two very large old buggy wheels. He painted his creation red and white. This was the first bicycle in Hamburg and the first on record with mud guards. At the county fair he challenged two Buffalo smart Alecksn to a race in which he won, much to the delight of his cheering fellow villagers. After this he raced many times with no little success. During the Civil War Hamburg was one of the important stations on the Unf derground Railroad. The Meatyard homestead on the Scranton Road was the last station at which the negroes stopped before crossing Lake Erie. The present occupant of this house, although a very small boy in 1865, remembers vividly the negroes who were brought under the cover of darkness to his father's home, from where they were transported to ports along the lake secretly. Interest in education was manifested very early. In 1814 every citizen was obliged to send a cord of stove wood or pay a quarter for the education of each child he had in school. At the school meeting that year the muniticent sum of