There will be tons of archaeology included as part of my forthcoming two-volume 1,300 page, ninth book, titled, America's Great Awakening and Migration: The Red Earthenware of Western New York, although one archaeology site that I find fascinating is some pottery collected at the site of the eighteenth century trading post, known as Fort Niagara, along the Ontario River near Youngstown, New York.
Fort Niagara, also known as Old Fort Niagara, was a fortification originally built by New France to protect its interests in North America, specifically for the control of access between the Niagara River and Lake Ontario, the easternmost of the Great Lakes. The fort is on the river's eastern bank at its mouth on Lake Ontario.
The British took over the fort in 1759 during the French and Indian War. Although, the United States ceded the fort after it gained independence in the American Revolutionary War, where the British stayed until 1796. The transfer of ownership to the United States came after signing of the Jay Treaty in 1794 that reaffirmed and implemented the legal border with British Canada. The treaty went into effect on February 29, 1796.
The treaty was negotiated by John Jay (1745-1829), who was also a negotiator of the earlier Paris Treaty, and gained several of the primary American goals. This included a British withdrawal from forts in the Northwest Territory that Britain had refused to relinquish under the terms of the Treaty of Paris.
The Post-1800 Period at Fort Niagara
With the outbreak of the War of 1812 Fort Niagara found itself on the front lines of the conflict. In October and November 1812 Fort Niagara traded artillery fire with Fort George in furious but indecisive bombardments. Fire was again exchanged in May 1813, when U.S. troops successfully captured Fort George. By the end of the year however, American troops abandoned the Canadian shore and burned the town of Newark. The British reoccupied the ruins of Fort George and on the night of December 18-19, 1813 secretly crossed the river and captured Fort Niagara. The Fort remained in British hands until the end of the war.
In the 1820s the completion of the Erie and Welland Canals rendered the Niagara portage obsolete and Fort Niagara’s strategic value quickly declined. The garrison was withdrawn and only a caretaker watched over the Fort’s venerable buildings and walls. The Fort was regarrisoned from 1828 to 1832 but then once again deactivated until a new border crisis in 1837 prompted Congress to authorize improvements to the Fort. By the time these improvements were completed in 1843, the crisis had passed and Fort Niagara was once again only sporadically garrisoned.
During the American Civil War, the Fort once again saw improvements as the Union worried about a British alliance with the Confederacy. Construction of new concrete and brick revetments began in 1863 but was not completed until after the war ended. The Fort’s artillery casemates were never armed and the new defenses were obsolete by the time of their completion. As an anticlimax, border tensions once again escalated in 1866 as rebels known as Fenians sought Irish liberation through the conquest of Canada.
The post-Civil War years witnessed a significant change in Fort Niagara. A garrison that arrived in 1865 found the Fort’s living quarters antiquated and virtually uninhabitable. Construction soon began on modern buildings situated outside the old fortifications. This was the beginning of “New” Fort Niagara, the area occupied by modern Fort Niagara State Park.
Continuous changes to New Fort Niagara allowed the post to survive well into the twentieth century. A 1,000 yard rifle range was constructed in 1885 and the Fort became increasingly useful for training purposes. Troops were prepared for the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the Philippine Insurrection of 1899-1901. The post also served as an officers training camp during World War One.
Some Archaeology Collected at the Site of Fort Niagara
Nevertheless, archaeology collected at the site of Fort Niagara over the last decade by Buffalo State's archaeology program has recovered some objects of interest; in fact, some sherds are adorned with a mocha style decoration that certainly resemble production in England, although the decorative technique and the glaze colors also resemble a nineteenth century red earthenware pitcher that is owned by the LeRoy, New York Historical Society. There are a small group of these pitchers known today, which are believed to have been made in the Western New York region, but the potter has not been identified.
Some other artifacts collected at the site may have originated in Ontario, Canada in the 1800s, but there was also a lot of red earthenware production in Erie County, New York in the nineteenth century, including a number of migrant German potters, who worked in the Buffalo area: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2025/01/a-group-of-potteries-operated-by.html.
Furthermore, the German migrant potter, Carl Mehwaldt (1808-1887) was also operating a red earthenware business just to the south of the Fort, along the Niagara River in the village of Bergholz, New York during the 1850s-1880s period.
For more information about Mehwaldt - see a feature story I wrote for the October 15, 2021 issue of Antiques & Auction News, titled, Carl Mehwaldt: A Pioneer German-American Potter And 19th-Century Immigrant - Redware From Western New York State: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2021/10/print-version-of-new-published-research.html.
Also see another feature story I wrote for the December 16, 2022 issue of Antiques And The Arts Weekly, titled, Unique Red Earthenware Rediscovered In Western New York: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2022/12/new-published-story-unique-red.html.
Note: Looking ahead - the LeRoy, New York Historical Society is planning to hold a Western New York redware exhibit in 2025, which will coincide with the publication of my two-volume Western New York book. There may be other events, too, so stay tuned for more details!
Red Earthenware Artifacts Recovered at the Site of Fort Niagara in WNY
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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