Niagara County
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The list of Sheriffs of Niagara County beginning in 1821 is a long one.
Inasmuch as the sheriff is the senior law enforcement officer in the
county, it might be of interest to look back over the past 153 years and
see who filled that important office. Some of the incumbents had rather
exciting and in one case fatal occupancy of the office. The first
officers of Niagara County as now constituted were named in the
Legislative Act of April 2, 1821 when the Old Niagara County was divided
into two counties, Niagara, north of the Tonawanda Creek, and Erie south
of that creek.
The first sheriff was Lothrop Cooke of Lewiston.
Although he served in that capacity only until the November election he
was appointed deputy sheriff by his elected successor Almon H. Millard
and he continued to perform most of the active duties of the office for
Sheriff Millard. The activities of the sheriff in that period from 1821
to 1825 when this section of the canal was under construction were
particularly arduous and in many cases extremely hazardous. With 1,200
Irish workers on this section of the canal and with whiskey so cheap it
was passed around to the canal workers every two hours during the
12-hour work day, and readily obtainable when they were off the job,
there were many calls for Sheriff Millard.
Invariable he sent Deputy Cooke to quell the quarrels which frequently
developed into riots so serious that women and children were locked in
their log cabins. With the exception of once when a company of Militia
from Batavia was sent for, Deputy Sheriff Cooke, a one-legged giant of
marvelous strength and nerve, together with great tact, succeeded
single-handed in restoring order. Many and varied are the spectacular
exploits of this man. Some years ago I devoted one whole article to his
law enforcement activities. Sheriff Almon H. Millard came to this area
in 1820 and purchased 700 acres of land lying west of the present
Prospect St. Shortly after he built the first frame house in the village
a little west of what is now the southwest corner of Prospect St., and
West Ave. In 1880 this house called "Millard's White House" was moved
south to 26 Bacon St., and there it stands today, somewhat changed but
substantially as Sheriff Millard built it in late 1820 or 1821.
In the fall of 1824 Eli Bruce was elected sheriff to succeed A. H.
Millard. He had arrived in Niagara County by Ridge Road Stage Coach in
1816. He stopped over for some weeks at Ezra Warren's Tavern at Warren's
Corners. Having spent all his money in traveling from his home in
Massachusetts, he worked some two months for Ezra Warren to recuperate
his funds and then took the stage to Lewiston. Surprisingly enough, he
was a college graduate and soon had a job as school teacher in Lewiston.
In 1823 he became much interested in a recently discovered Indian
ossuary and a nearby village site on Eliakim Hammond's farm. This was on
the escarpment above the Lower Mountain Rd. and the Blackman Rd. It was
the largest ossuary ever discovered in Niagara County.
Mr. Bruce had a short but spectacular career as sheriff. He was the
first Sheriff to occupy the newly completed combined jail, courthouse
and sheriff's quarters in 1825. In Sept. 1826 the celebrated Morgan
Affair took place and Bruce, a member of Lockport Lodge 73, F&AM, with
the purest motives, became implicated to such an extent that Gov. DeWitt
Clinton, himself the leading Mason in the state, removed Bruce from
office. He stated at the time that it was the most regrettable act he
had ever been compelled to perform.
The governor appointed John
Phillips of Youngstown to fill out the unexpired term of Bruce. Sheriff
Phillips served from 1827 to 1830 without any spectacular events so far
as we have learned.
In 1830 Hiram McNeil assumed the office of
sheriff. He came to Cambria about 1815 when the county was largely a
wilderness. He became very popular and in 1836 was appointed county
judge. From 1838 to 1840 he served as supervisor from Cambria. His term
as sheriff began during the peak of Anti-Masonic excitement when in
Niagara County as elsewhere in Western New York the Anti-Masonic
Political party controlled nearly every public office. We have no record
of any exciting events connected with his term as sheriff. He died in
May, 1861, at the age of 66 and is buried in Molyneaux Cemetery.
The next sheriff was George Reynale, 1833-36, after whom Reynale's Basin
was named. He had settled there as soon as the canal was completed. He
erected a frame structure on the north bank of the canal and opened a
grocery store. He soon bought staves and other products and shipped them
to eastern markets via the canal. Later he broadened his activities to
include a steam saw mill on the canal in East Lockport. The chief
product of this s saw mill was planks for steamships. By 1847 the mill
was equipped with facilities for sawing "the Lockport marble or
variegated limestone."
Mr. Reynale was prominent in Whig politics
and served as postmaster of the first Post Office in Royalton located at
Reynale's Basin. About 1861 he was appointed Postmaster of Lockport
having taken up his residence in this place about 1853. The Lockport
Daily Courier of June 16, 1853 describes a boat built by H. F. Cady of
Market St. for Reynales and Mead to be used for shipping lumber to or
from Great Lake ports. In 1854 the same paper states that a raft load of
valuable lumber belonging to this firm while being towed across the
upper Niagara broke loose and drifted over the falls.
During George Reynale's Incumbency the court rooms, jail and sheriff's
residence were still in the one building erected in 1825. There were
only four cells in this jail and one of them being the dungeon it left
only three for ordinary criminals. Often these three cells were so
overtaxed there could be no privacy and men of prominence who
unfortunately had been arrested for debts were incarcerated with drunks,
thieves and other criminals.
On July 27, 1836 three prisoners
escaped. A reward of $125 was offered by Sheriff Reynale for their
capture. The Niagara Democrat on July 29 states that - "The condition of
the jail is so bad that no exertions of those having it in charge can
guard against the escape of prisoners."
Inasmuch as the recently
abandoned jail is being razed and considerable erroneous information has
been published, I should like to state that this brick jail was not
completed until 1892 and is in no way "historic." It is our third jail
and stands almost exactly where the 1825 structure described above, was
built. The old stone walls still seen west and north of the Sheriff's
late residence are the remains of the second jail completed in 1842.
This jail and the 1825 jail were the scenes of several historic events.
Contributor: Unknown.
Source: Lockport N.Y., Union-Sun & Journal, Friday, August 4, 1961
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This page was last updated 08/12/2022