Buffalo Rising Online

Unless someone can come up with some documentation for it, the "beau fleuve" theory should be considered just an urban myth. A few things ARE certain: (1) the City of Buffalo took its name from the Village of Buffalo that preceded it, and; (2) the Village took its name from Buffalo Creek (for this reason alone the "beau fleuve" idea is flawed, since it assumes that this applied to the Niagara; Buffalo Creek was known to the French as Riviere au Cheavaux). While the evidence that buffalo lived in the immediate area is scanty, it is clear that buffalo were not limited to the plains and that there were woodland bison throughout what is now the eastern US, and that the Iroquois languages had a word for "buffalo." Also, while it is true that one of the first references to Buffalo Creek is in the 1784 Treaty of Ft. Stanwix, there is an least one earlier reference, on a map that , while undated, was made several years earlier. That Buffalo Creek was used as a boundary description in the 1784 Treaty suggests that the name was by then well accepted and so must have been in use before then. The theory that "a solitary Seneca who lived on the banks of the Buffalo Creek was called by the Indian word for buffalo" seems to be the best account. In any event, the "beau fleuve" idea should be put to rest. I'm of the view that unless BCVB can come up with something more than local myth, it should drop this from its web site. Sources: "History of the Buffalo Creek Reservation," Publications of the Buffalo Historical Society, vol. XXIV, p. 63 (1920); "Aboriginal Place Names of New York," New York State Museum (1907); "Centennial History of Erie County, New York," Crisfield Johnson (1876).

From Buffalo's Delaware Avenue, Mansions and Families, by Edward T Dunn: "In 1804 the village of NEW AMSTERDAM, named out of deference to (Joseph) Ellicot's employers...Villagers ignored Ellicot's designation preferring Buffalo Creek after the Seneca village on the stream of the same name. Then they dropped 'Creek' ."

Of additional interest, Dunn goes on to say that: "The plan for the streets radiating from the square (now City Hall) was copied from the survey of Washington of which (Ellicott) had been a part. Most of the streets were named for Indian tribes, including the Delawares, who had some connection to the area, or for the officials of the (Holland) land company. Batavia is Latin for Holland."