Guest Speaker Series: Joe Buscaglia, “Williamsville in the War of 1812”

The Holland Land Office Museum is proud to announce the first presentation of our 2026 Guest Speaker Series on Thursday, February 19th at 7 pm. Joe Buscaglia of Buffalo will present on his research of the War of 1812 encampment in Williamsville, the Cantonment. This presentation explores the forgotten history of Cantonment Williams Ville, a major War of 1812 encampment in the Village of Williamsville. Drawing on letters, legal records, and early land‑ownership, it reveals how U.S. Infantry troops built huts on private property, leading to lawsuits from landowner Jonas Williams. The research also identifies the area in the Village of the Cantonment and a previously unknown War of 1812 burial ground connected to the site the lost Cantonment Burial Ground. Together, these findings restore an important but long‑overlooked chapter of the region’s wartime past.
Admission is by suggested donation, please contact the museum at 585-343-4727 or hollandlandoffice@gmail.com if you would like to attend.
Thank you to Tompkins Community Bank and the Batavia Rotary Club for sponsoring in part the Guest Speaker Series.
“This project is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by GO ART!.”
“GO ART! acknowledges that the land on which this project takes place is the ancestral territory of the Seneca Nation, one of the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. GO ART! recognizes the historical and ongoing presence of Indigenous peoples in Western New York and honors their enduring relationship to this land.”