By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo
The mouth of Buffalo Creek, circa 1800. Joseph Hodge’s log cabin home and tavern was not far from this spot.
Joseph Hodge, known to many of his 1790s Buffalo compatriots as “Black Joe,” was just as likely the first non-indigenous man to live in Buffalo as any of the other small handful of white men whose names have been handed down through history as “the first Buffalonians.”
When the first European explorers and fur traders traversed up Buffalo Creek, they met the Seneca people, who had lived in this part of the world for generations. Before them, the Erie people lived along the shores of Lake Erie for hundreds of years.
Hodge was thought to have been an escaped slave who was first captured by and then lived with the Seneca people. Hodge married a Seneca woman and fluently spoke the Seneca language. Many trappers, traders and explorers who traveled through Western New York credited him in their journals with his ability as an interpreter of language – but just as importantly custom and culture.
Just as many of those first Europeans dismissed the Senecas as savage, several also dismissed their guide by not even recording his name, only recording that he was “a Negro.”
During the first half of the 19th century, the Village of Buffaloe grew from a couple of log cabins into a town, and then a city. Starting around 1850, Buffalo’s population doubled every 10 years through the end of the century. People began taking the history of the city seriously; writing down the names and events of the previous 60 years.
One of the first comprehensive histories of Buffalo was written by the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, then the city’s leading newspaper, for inclusion in its annual City Directory. The Seneca history is written only as a backdrop to the glory of who had a hand in creating a modern city where the Niagara River meets Lake Erie. It’s a comprehensive history, but it’s rather thick, syrupy and overly exalting.
“In the Eastern Hemisphere, after rude and warlike hordes had occupied them, centuries were required to populate countries; and hamlets swelling by slow, natural increase, and by the accretions of sluggish commerce, grew into cities as infants grow to manhood, and became great only as they became venerable,” opened “Sketch of the History of Buffalo.”
These high-falutin’ bloviations continued for another page before Buffalo was even mentioned.
“Buffalo affords of the most prominent of the many illustrations of these truths presented by our country.” According to the history, among the handful of the earliest Buffalonians, as observed in 1796, was “Black Joe.” A surveyor’s notes list a man named “Winne was associated … with Joe in keeping an Indian store.”
Later histories go on to describe that store as being owned by the Dutchman Cornelius Winne – who was assisted by Hodge with its operation. Those same histories acknowledge Winne as Buffalo’s first white settler and Hodge as Buffalo’s “first colored settler, who made his appearance here about the same time as Winne did.”
White people writing white history didn’t much care whether the white man or the black man was first – it was apples and oranges.
Different accounts describe Hodge’s business, but liquor was an important component of his trading. There’s some evidence, as presented by Buffalo brewery historian Stephen Powell, that he also kept a tavern in his home – which would make him not only possibly the first Buffalonian, but also, almost certainly, Buffalo’s first bartender.
Hodge’s home was described as along Little Buffalo Creek – which eventually became the Hamburg Canal before it was covered over completely. A small early tavern was built on the spot, and then the larger Mansion House was built there. The ground where Hodge lived is now covered by the I-190 overpass between the Explore & More Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Children’s Museum near the old Memorial Auditorium site and the Seneca One tower.
As Buffalo became more populated, Hodge moved south. In various writings, he was mentioned as living – or at least being in – Cattaraugus both before and after his time in Buffalo. There is a historical marker at the Hanover Boat Launch at Sunset Bay remembering Hodge.
He would have been a friend of great Seneca leaders such as Farmer’s Brother and Red Jacket, as well as many of those of European heritage who sought their favor. There’s no proof of Hodge having any role in the War of 1812, but at least one account says his son was killed during the war, fighting on the side of the Americans. His daughter was said to have married the first white settler of Cattaraugus County.
Whether Joseph Hodge was the first or second non-Native American to live in present-day Buffalo is a question that cannot be answered. But what is perfectly clear is that “Black Joe” was not only a pioneering Buffalonian, but also the great link between Buffalo’s Seneca people and Seneca history and the European people and modern history that followed the growing settlement of Buffalo.
There’s also little doubt that Hodge was a pioneer in the great Buffalo tradition of welcoming visitors with a friendly drink.
