Program

NYS Historic

Subject

People

Location

205 W Buffalo St, Warsaw, NY 14569, USA

Lat/Long

42.74056, -78.139215

Grant Recipient

Warsaw Historical Society and The Gates House Museum

Horace Thayer was born on June 29, 1811. Horace Thayer was a lithographer and publisher based in New York City but frequently moved between New York and Warsaw in the decades between 1850 and 1870. In October of 1853, Thayer purchased 156 acres of farmland in Warsaw, just off Buffalo St. At this time, neither Maple or Wyoming Streets existed.

On February 22, 1860 the Wyoming County Mirror reported that Thayer had sold about 60 acres of the land “below the new road” to a Mr. Jenks. The deed for the land sale shows a map with a road labeled “New Road to Wyoming”, likely referring to Wyoming Village. This new road aligns with later maps showing Wyoming Street in the same location as this new road. The home listed under Thayer on the 1853 village map also changed hands, and by an 1861 map it was listed under H. B. Jenks.

In 1861 Thayer published a Village of Warsaw map through his publishing company located at 18 Beekman St. in New York City. Both Wyoming and Maple Streets are present on this map, and at that time Thayer’s future home on Maple Street was listed under the name N. Bronson.

On July 20^th, 1864 the Wyoming County Mirror announced that the Bronson house on Maple Street was sold to Horace Thayer. This is confirmed by an 1866 map listing the home under the name H. Thayer.

Horace Thayer passed away on March 15^th 1875 under tragic circumstances, falling into the Tonawanda creek and drowning (Courier & Republic, March 19, 1857).