Detail of panoramic photo below of the brig Niagara moored beside the Buffalo Yacht Club, September 2, 1913. Photo source: Library of Congress
On September 10, 1813, the U.S. Fleet on Lake Erie, commanded by 28-year-old Oliver Hazard Perry, defeated the
British squadron off Put-in-Bay near Sandusky, Ohio. The actions of this 9-vessel fleet were instrumental in defeating
the British in the war by giving control of Lake Erie to the Americans. As a result, Commodore Perry and his relief flagship,
the
U.S. Brig Niagara, were written into the young history of the United States.
Detail of panoramic photo below of the brig Niagara moored beside the Buffalo Yacht Club, September 2, 1913. Photo source: Library of Congress
In 1913, the Niagara was reconstructed with the original keel and a few timbers and towed to larger cities from Chicago to Buffalo.
Buffalo had a Perry Centennial Commission, chaired by William J. Conners, that made extensive plans to celebrate the arrival
of
the 123-foot-long Niagara on September 2; events were also scheduled for the next 4 days. Of her arrival, the Buffalo Evening
News said, "As the Niagara passed Fort Porter and the Front, a national salute of 13 guns was fired. Thus the voyage continued
until an excellent view was had of her by the assembled multitude. The whistles screamed, the bells rang and the populace
shouted its welcome, noisy but the genuine American greeting, which only those of the United States seem to know how to
give as vent to their patriotic and civic feelings."
The Buffalo Yacht Club was responsible for clearing the waterway and escorting the Niagara to its berth beside the Yacht Club.
Over the next several days, thousands of visitors boarded the ship. There was a large military parade, a parade of veteran and
volunteer fire companies, a fireworks display at Riverside Park, yacht races, and motorboat races off Grand Island. There was
even a "hydro-aeroplane" exhibition which towed a woman wearing a parachute over the harbor .
The statue honoring Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, The Front, c. 1920. Photo source: private collection
The New York State Perry Victory Centennial Committee continued to work for erection of a statue in Buffalo to commemorate
the naval hero. It was sculpted by Charles H. Niehaus (who also created the Lincoln statue for the Buffalo Historical Society in
1902) and installed at the Front in 1916. Buffalo
also remembered Perry by naming a boulevard, a street, and a public housing
project after him.
The same view in 2006.
The nine-foot figure reflects Perry's youthful visage at the time of his heroic actions. He reported his
victory in the Battle of Lake Erie by writing to his superiors, "We have met the enemy, and he is ours."
Oliver Hazard Perry
would not live to old age. He died at sea on his birthday in 1819, at age 34, of yellow fever.
Note: the U.S. Brig Niagara, now in its 4th incarnation, is on view at the Erie Maritime Museum in Erie, PA.