The harrowing 1861 trip of the Maid of the Mist through the deadly whirlpool and lower rapids made a lasting impression on Thomas McKnight. McKnight was an eyewitness who told the story to a newspaper reporter in 1914.
A native of County Clare in Ireland, McKnight came to this country with his family when he was 12 years old. He migrated to Niagara Falls in 1854, and worked in various jobs, including construction and the hotel business.
When he told of his experiences in May of 1914, he was 72 years old and lived in the Cosmopolitan Hotel on Niagara Street. The hotel was operated by one of his sons, George McKnight, who was also a Democratic committeeman.
Regarding the Maid of the Mist trip, he said, "Well, I saw that adventure with my own eyes."
He said the boat was owned by a Mr. Buchanan. Despite a brisk business, "the boat did not pay and finally the owner had to mortgage her."
McKnight added, "The sheriff got after the boat to seize her and sell the craft to satisfy the mortgage."
The owner had negotiated a sale of the boat, but it was contingent on delivering the boat to Toronto, which meant sailing it to Lake Ontario through the lower rapids before the sheriff could grab her.
"The boat stood out from her North End landing," McKnight recounted, "and headed through the swift drift straight into the middle of the rapids. She was in the hands of three men who never knew what fear meant."
The boat was sailed by Captain Joel Robinson, a veteran river man, and crewmen James Jones and James McIntyre. McKnight said, "The boat plowed through the rapids and was wrenched and tossed by the great waves that at times sank her almost from sight, but she got through all right."
The crew made it to Lewiston, then sailed on across the lake to Toronto, "where she was safe from confiscation by any American official."
"In the trip," McKnight said, "the only accident occurred when the boat passed under the old suspension bridge. The guy cables of the bridge caught her smokestack and over it went."
McKnight said the captain's son Rufus was an engineer on the New York Central who "was killed in an accident on the road about 30 years ago. His sons are still living here. The family for years lived in the New York Central house in the rear of where the Waverly House now stands on Second Street."
McKnight also remembered a local transportation entrepreneur named Abraham Davy.
"When I first came to this city," McKnight said, "I was walking one day from Lewiston to the Falls when along came Abraham Davy, driving his team and public carriage. He offered me a ride into town and I accepted."
McKnight said that was the first time he met Davy, who "was a hackman here for 75 years if a day."
Another conveyance between Lewiston and Niagara Falls, he said, was a stagecoach line operated by George H. Hamlin. Hamlin "had a big livery stable on Falls Street about where the Oak cafe is now situated. The route between this city and Lewiston lay over the old Plank Road."
McKnight noted the city "was a pretty small place when I arrived here in 1854. There were only about 250 or 300 houses scattered about."
He said he was working at the Monteagle Hotel in the North End when Blondin made his tightrope trips across the gorge: "I was there when he carried his agent, Harry Colcord across on his back."
McKnight also told of one of the early private educational facilities of Niagara Falls, the old academy at Niagara and 10th Streets.
He said, "It was an institution of real instruction and many boys and girls went there, including my own daughter who died. It was conducted by Miss Nardin.
"The Falls academy was bought by the Nardin sisters from Albert Porter some 40 years ago. They sold it in about 1890 or 1891 to Dr. Clark for $20,000. It burned down 10 to 15 years ago and the ruins were removed. Residences now line 10th Street on the site which the Academy occupied."
Another job McKnight had was helping Charles B. Gaskill draw stone for the foundation of the Gaskill flour mill, the first one constructed in the village.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | February 27 2007 |