St. Patrick's Day in Buffalo

St. Patrick's Day in Buffalo

By Stephen Powell -2004

When it came to drinking in Buffalo, two day's each year were infamous for it, the Fourth of July and St. Patrick's Day.

NEW TEMPERANCE HOUSE!
NOS.84 AND 87 MAIN STREET, CORNER OF SCOTT STREET, ACROSS FROM THE MANSION HOUSE, AND FIRST BLOCK BELOW MAIN STREET BRIDGE, BUFFALO, N.Y.9

In Ireland, St. Patrick's Day is and was a serious religious holiday. Things were different in America However. Here the religious meaning of St.Patrick's day started to fade as our cultural melting pot did its job. Gradually more people of all cultures celebrated this once exclusively Irish tradition. Like it still is today, the St. Patrick's Day festivities in the mid 1800's was a day when everyone could be Irish for a day. It was all this revelry that started some Temperance and Prohibition movements. An early temperance activist was Bishop Timon, who tried to get his parishioners to take a pledge of "Peace sobriety and friendship" just before the March 17th holiday. Sounding similar to former first lady Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No To Drugs" campaign of the 1980's. Most of Timon’s efforts were not very effective in curbing the tide of drunkenness that this day brought.
The origins of temperance movements in America date back to colonial times. They had started to gain increasing recognition in Buffalo in the 1850's. There were some 500 taverns and gaming houses in Buffalo by 1850 according to the Ladies Temperance Union.7 This disproportionately large number of taverns also meant that crime and disorderliness was sure to be big issue. The Temperance activists were not imaging the social troubles caused by excessive indulgence and according to the Buffalo Daily Courier of January 7, 1856 there were:8
... 2,243 arrests for the year, 1,792 of which " are chargeable to drunkenness and disorderly conduct," some 106 more than the city's first police chief, Samuel W. Bangall, had attributed to liquor in 1854.
For those who did not drink or partake in the "evil" vices a "Temperance House" was available for them to stay in while visiting Buffalo:

This photo (at right) was taken on March 16, 1936 of members of Union workers from the grain employees Local, No. 1286 marching in the St. Patricks day parade. Photo is from the Courier-Express. Two days later Buffalo was hit with the greatest snowfall ever up to that time.

Another advertisement that appeared more than once in the Buffalo "Morning Express", of Saturday, March 16, 1850 which read:
"Ladies' Temperance Movements"
Their pledge was as follows:
We agree that we will not use intoxicating liquor as a beverage, nor traffic in them, nor provide them for others; and that we will in all sustainable ways, discontinue their use in the community.

It seemed that alcohol was everywhere in Buffalo. The city was filled with saloons and brothels, which contributed to it’s somewhat wild lawless reputation.

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