“I stood watching the crowds and looking out at the waves which were coming in choppier and higher every minute, a savage wind was blowing. Suddenly I saw the raft on which I had noticed a dozen people, two or three women, half a dozen men and some children, had broken its moorings and was about a quarter of a mile out in the lake. Folks were running frantically about, pointing to the raft and calling for help. On the beach lay five or six men, unconscious from trying to breast the waves. They had wanted to launch a boat but could not in that sea.
“I called for the loan of a bathing suit. Nobody would give me one. They said I would surely drown….
This is the story of Archie Farrell, Pat’s great grandfather, the champion saver of lives of Buffalo at the turn of the 20th century.
City’s Champion Saver of Lives
Archie Farrell Ends 34 Year Service as Fireman by Retirement
It’s great to be a hero and not to know it.
There’s Archie Farrell, 76 Gelston street, who has saved so many lives he has lost count.
Somebody’s drowning or being run over.
Farrell with athlete strength and emergency nerve is there. Before the other spectators can get their thinking tanks working somebody’s rescued.
34 Years of Service
Archie Farrell is leaving the fire department tomorrow after 34 years of service, 16 of them on the water tower. There’s a rumble of talk about a two-acre farm out Fredonia way and a settling down.
Can you imagine Farrell, like the old fire horses snuffing smoke, settling down on two acres of land with a… [unreadable]
Archie Farrell, champion life saver and all-around athlete, retires from the Fire Department tomorrow after 34 years of up-and-at-it.
He has driven High Pressure company’s water tower for 16 years, has scared death away from so many folks along the water … he forgets to count ‘em. Lowe… shows Farrell floating across t… Niagara, wearing all this clothe… including a pair of heavy shoes wi… American flags waving from the toes.
… [unreadable] Neither did the handsome … [unreadable] presented at the dinner the high pressure company gave him at the Crescent hall Thursday night fit the two-acre proposition.
Worked From Boyhood
No, it’s wanderlust with life-saving on the side for Archie Farrell.
Farrell was born at Ferry and Niagara streets in the old McTigue place. His father was a retail coal dealer with a family of nine children.
Everybody worked, including father and the boy Archie was put into the business at ten years. He carried a bushel of coal into cellars at eleven. He began to swim the Niagara when he was ten. He went to school in Barton street, which school was later merged with Holy Angels parochial school. But never a day’s lessons did Archie Farrell have after he was eleven. It was work, work, work all through the Black Rock district, where Dad J. H. Farrell sold coal.
Floated Across River
After work you Archie would eat his dinner and take a turn in the river.
He attributes his success in saving lives to his versatility in swimming. He learned to breast the swift current with his clothes on, to float on his back with arms at side and feet together.
The picture here, shows him with a cigar in his mouth and two American flags waving from the toes of his heavy shoes. This feat hailed him as the first swimmer to float across the Niagara with street clothes on. He started at Fort Erie boat landing on a Fourth of July, under the auspices of the West Side Rowing club and finished near the Birth Island pier.
I went over to High Pressure company quarter in Staats street to hear about a few of the folks who owe their lives to Fireman Farrell.
Rescue on Ice
Archie Farrell, broad shouldered chap, looking 20 years younger than he is, couldn’t tell how many people he had scared Death away from.
Some of the fellows standing around tried to help him out.
“There was that boy you pulled out from under the ice at the foot of Porter avenue, remember the name? … [unreadable]
… [unreadable]
“And that saloon-keeper?”
“Oh yes,” said Farrell, “he lived at 1100 Genesee street, fell overboard. I happened to see him and picked him up.”
Horse Runs Away
“I remember one case that wasn’t on the water. A young fellow named Roberts was driving a laundry wagon. He had a young bay colt not exactly city-broke I take it. The colt got frightened at the hitching block they used to carry. His hind foot stuck the iron someway and away his dashed off dragging Roberts who was tangled in the lines down Herkimer to Breckenridge.
“Three men ran out and got in the way of the cold but sidestepped when he pawed the air. I was just coming from home—in Gelston street. I managed to grab the bridle, held on and jerked the cold to a stop in front of an oncoming street car. My pull was so violent that he sprawled over on his side throwing Roberts to the left. Neither were hurt. The horse was making straight for the canal, not more than a rod away when he was stopped. [stet]
Balloon Ascension
A little girl 11 years old was playing on a houseboat – the Alexander Sioan – at the foot at Auburn avenue. Her parents were living on the boat for the summer. The child went too near the edge, lost her balance and fell into the harbor. Farrell, fishing nearby reached her as she was going down for the second time.
The most graphic, near tragedy in which Farrell played the stellar role, culminated at Woodlawn beach Aug. 15, 1897. The ascension was crowd-drawing—a balloon ascension.
A dozen people had been watching the balloon from a raft moored by ropes to the shore.
I asked Farrell for the story.
Raft Breaks Loose
“I stood watching the crowds and looking out at the waves which were coming in choppier and higher every minute, a savage wind was blowing. Suddenly I saw the raft on which I had noticed a dozen people, two or three women, half a dozen men and some children, had broken its moorings and was about a quarter of a mile out in the lake. Folks were running frantically about, pointing to the raft and calling for help. On the beach lay five or six men, unconscious from trying to breast the waves. They had wanted to launch a boat but could not in that sea.
“I called for the loan of a bathing suit. Nobody would give me one. They said I would surely drown.
Paddled to Shore
“Then I stripped to my skin and started out. I managed to reach the raft and brought Mrs. MecLeoe of Albany street to shore. She was unconscious when I swam out again to the raft. There was only one thing I saw to do. I told everybody to get to one side of the raft, put their feet in the water and with me on the other we’d paddle to shore. There was Mrs. Frank Williams, Gorenflo the cigar man, and I forgot the others.
“Somehow we came through.
“When we got to shore, several teachers who were camping nearby came out and covered me with blankets.
“Well, the fireman’s club. The Dauntless, gave me a banquet at …[unreadable] sent a petition to Washington which resulted in the United States Government life-saving medal.
Death Valley Rescue
This was conveyed by our late Congressman D. S. Alexander from the Treasury department through Secretary of the Treasury Lyman J. Cage who wrote the following letter:
“The evidence shows that your self-imposed task was bravely done and under circumstances which demanded not only much physical strength and great courage, but a commendable promptness and sound judgment, to all of which highly praiseworthy qualities the accompanying medal is designed to bear testimony.”
Archie Farrell took a vacation trip west through the desert, and the life-saving mania followed him even in Death Valley where he found a man dying of thirst.
There was water in Archie’s radiator and a seat in the car and again it was his fortune to cheat Death of another victim.
Farrell is not only the most expert swimmer and the greatest life-saver along the water front, but he will win a hundred-yard dash, kill a handball with the best of them, and two years ago at the firemen’s outing he walked away with nearly all the prizes from catching the usual greased pig and three-legged race to Samsonian tests of strength.
Tomorrow he leaves the fire department, goes out of the new building for which the city paid $200,000, leaves the boys all feeling choky, leaves behind him 34 years of on-the-job work.
…[unreadable]
This is my grandfather! I received for Xmas a painting of Grandpa Farrell’s house in West Falls painted by my father so many years ago! I would walk among the bushes and pick off fresh raspberries with him! Such beautiful memories!
How wonderful that you found this post online, cousin Lee Ann. 🙂