The Batt Home

The Batt Home – 303 Goundry Street

Frank X. Batt had this home built for his family of 13 children. Batt owned a shingle mill. Beautiful quartered oak trims the interior of the home. The Pallotine Fathers used it for many years prior to founding the Infant Jesus Shrine on Niagara Falls Boulevard. Frank Batt was born in Cheektowaga on November 29, 1849. He spent his boyhood years there and went to work for the Amherst Spring grist mill in Williamsville in 1865. He came to North Tonawanda in the spring of 1868 and worked in timber mills for some years. In 1874 he returned to Williamsville where he became involved with the Batt Brewing Company and was plant superintendent for three years. He married Roxanna Stark in 1874 and they had five sons and eight daughters.

Returning to North Tonawanda in the fall of 1877, with his father, he engaged in a shingle business with the J. S. Bliss & Co. mill on Sweeney Street. The mill burned in 1892, and for that time, Frank Batt retired from active business. He later became cashier of the Lumber Exchange Bank, and in the spring of 1897, opened an extensive hardware store on Webster Street. He operated this business for about five years, selling it to the Knapp-Cramer Company. He was prominent in public affairs in North Tonawanda, serving as Village Trustee for four years. He served on the Board of Water Commissioners for many years. When the Ascension Roman Catholic Church Society was officially incorporated on November 5, 1887, Frank X. Batt was one of the incorporating trustees. In 1907, Mr. Batt and James S. Thompson purchased a large tract of timber lands in Northern Canada from the Canadian government. Mr. Batt's parents were John and Catherine (Ackert) Batt, both natives of Alsace, Germany. His grandfather, Joseph Batt, came to America in 1836.

---transcribed from the February 28, 1878 , Tonawanda Herald, and the September 7, 1904, Evening News, by Douglas G. Batt