BUFFALO, N.Y. — This is a story about the birth of Buffalo. “I think every community in America has a man who really helped found the city” says Dr. Thomas Rosenthal, a local author, and Emeritus Professor of Family Medicine at University at Buffalo. Rosenthal recently published his latest book “Cyrenius Chapin: Buffalo’s First Physician and War of 1812 Hero. “He was more than a physician. He was a cantankerous fellow who believed his ideas strongly and had a lot of energy. he must have only slept about 4 hours a night.”
Chapin was born in Massachusetts and in 1803, moved west. He purchased land in what was then known as the Village of New Amsterdam from the Holland Land Company. “He brought with him his experience as a doctor. He was apprentice-trained. So he had something to support himself. I think what he saw here in Western New York was a potential for a great little community.” He bought up a great chunk of that community. His home stood in the area of Swan and Washington, right where the ballpark stands today. “His first offer was to actually buy what today would have been all of downtown. But he ended up with just one lot and built a home built an office and stayed there the rest of his life.”
In those early days, his medical background wasn’t the only thing he brought to the table. He also took on a role of community leadership. Cyrenius was also an officer in the New York State Militia.” And he was an officer of conscience, which he showed during the War of 1812. “General George McClure, who was then commanding the American Forces at Fort George decided that he had to burn the Village of Newark, what we know as Niagara-On-The-Lake today.”…