John Despar, a Frenchman who moved to the village of Buffalo in that year, purchased a ½ acre portion of the Holland Land Company’s outer lot 93. This lot was located at present day Washington Street between present day Seneca and Exchange streets. He built his residence and a bakery on the lot as shown in the sketch of Buffalo by Juba Storrs, drawn in April 1813. Despar had a contract to supply bread to the Native Americans living on the nearby reservation, as well as the local U. S. Army barracks. When Buffalo was attacked and burned by the British on December 30, 1813, accounts indicate his bakery was not spared; however, it is highly unlikely that his large brick baking oven and chimney were destroyed. In any event, Despar sold his property to Thomas Tunnicliff in 1815 and moved to a 149-acre farm he purchased on High Street near Delaware Avenue. 

As early as the mid-16th century, the Tunnicliff family was quite wealthy with large land holdings and an estate house in Derbyshire, England. John Tunnicliff, Jr., a descendant of that family, was a watchmaker who came to this country during the Revolutionary War and settled in Albany. He continued his trade as of watchmaking while raising a large family. Tunnicliff apparently also had a knowledge of brewing as he bought and sold brewing hops as a side business. At the war’s end he purchased a large copper camp-kettle (5 ft. in diameter) confiscated by the Continental Army following General Burgoyne’s surrender to General Gates in 1777 at the Battle of Saratoga. The kettle was sold at auction to Tunnicliff after the Revolutionary War ended. 

One of John Jr.’s sons, Thomas, moved to Buffalo in 1815 or sometime before. According to contemporary newspaper accounts, he married Harriett Bennet on October 31, 1815. Thomas then purchased John Despar’s lot on Washington Street that same year and began brewing beer no later than 1817, making him Buffalo’s first brewer. We may never know for sure, but we can speculate that with all the lots available in Buffalo after the British destruction, Tunnicliff purchased Despar’s lot because the brick baking oven and chimney were still intact. Boiling wort for brewing and baking bread required a similar oven and chimney. We can also venture a guess as to whether Tunnicliff used General Burgoyne’s confiscated camp kettle for boiling wort in the brewing process. It would have made for a serviceable brew kettle. Thomas Tunnicliff died in 1825 at the age of 46. His wife continued to own the property until 1833 and remained a resident of Buffalo for many years.

After his death, brewing on the Tunnicliff’s lot ceased for only a short while. By the mid-1830s, a man by the name of Sidney Burr was running a brewery on the Tunnicliff lot. Whether he reopened Tunnicliff’s operation or simply built a new one at the same location is unclear, but the 1837 and 1839 Buffalo City Directories listed Burr as a “Grocer and Small Beer Manufactory.”

Sidney Burr had migrated from Connecticut in 1779 and had arrived in Buffalo with his wife Hannah sometime prior to 1824. From 1824 until 1828, Burr entered into the tin and sheet ironware business (tin cups, bowls and plates) with John B. Flagg at 19 Cheapside (lower Main Street). In 1827, they started selling groceries in addition to their utensil business. The following year, the partnership was dissolved, and Burr was listed in the Buffalo directory at Seneca Street below Washington. Burr’s property was on part of the Rees lot, along Seneca, and extended onto the Tunnicliff lot. Burr then began a grocery and cider vinegar business on that site. Around 1835 Burr built a cider mill, soda plant and bottling works behind his store at 21 East Seneca Street (later renumbered 35). Without refrigeration, brewing was not possible in Buffalo’s warm summer weather. Because of this Burr later had cellars dug to store his brewed drinks into the summer, along with lake ice and sawdust.

Burr also imported kegs of beer, porter and ale from as far away as London and Philadelphia via the Erie Canal. He bottled his beverages for sale to the many inhabitants of Buffalo who were made wealthy by the opening of the canal. Only the wealthy could afford bottled beverages at the time. Most people drank whiskey and beer at saloons or took growlers (small pails) of beer home. 

Research indicates that Sidney Burr was the first beverage bottler in Buffalo. He bottled cider, beer, porter, ale, lemon beer and root beer. Later he purchased a mineral spring near Buffalo and bottled mineral water. Burr used stoneware bottles in his early years as “Burr & Co.” Later, operating as “Burr & Waters,” stoneware and glass bottles were both used. Shipping records indicate Burr purchased large quantities of bottles that were then shipped in barrels packed with straw to Buffalo by lake steamer or sailing brig. 

In 1837, Levi J. Waters joined Burr as an employee and later became his business partner in 1839. In the 1839 Buffalo City Directory they are listed as “Burr & Waters, beer, cider, vinegar & porter, vaults East Seneca below Washington.” Burr & Waters had five employees working for them by 1840. Unfortunately, in July 1846 a fire completely destroyed their brewery, cider mill and soda factory. The buildings were all insured and quickly rebuilt, however. 

Burr & Waters remained in business until 1854 when they sold the business to Willard Smith and John Howell. Howell previously was hired as a clerk at Burr & Waters sometime before 1852. The business continued to operate at the same location, bering renamed “Howell & Smith” that same year.

In 1865, Smith left the firm and the name was changed to “John Howell.” The business remained at the same location but was renumbered from 35 East Seneca to 57 Seneca Street. In 1870, John Howell discontinued brewing and moved his business nearby to 7-19 Center Street, where he only sold bottled mineral water, cider and vinegar. John Howell’s son, Edgar W., joined the firm in 1881 and the company name was changed to “John Howell & Son.” John’s other son, George W., also joined the firm at a later date. 

John Howell retired in 1889 and the firm name was changed to “John Howell’s Sons.” At this time the firm was only selling bottled mineral water and other carbonated beverages. About 1893 the firm entered into an agreement to become the local agents for Crystal Mineral Water. John Howell’s Sons continued in business until 1911 when it again changed names, this time to the Vartray Water Company.

From the first brewers in the early 1800s to the craft brewers of today, beer-making has always had a place in Buffalo’s history. In all corners of the city, the evidence of its fermenting past, present and future remain. And with newfound research, such as the new information that has been uncovered concerning Thomas Tunnicliff, there’s no telling what might still be left to uncover.