Albion’s newly named canal park adds monument to bridge collapse victims from 1859
Site also includes bench and lamppost made from repurposed steel from lift bridge
Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – Albion eighth-graders sing “Low Bridge, Everybody Down” as part of today’s dedication ceremony for the Erie Canal Park, a site across from the Albion fire hall on Platt Street. The students are joined by a miniature donkey and mule.
The village Department of Public Works cleared part of the land in the spring and has made other improvements to the park by the Erie Canal, between to the two lift bridges.
Today’s dedication also included the unveiling of a monument to the 15 people killed in the Sept. 28, 1859 bridge collapse. There was a crowd of 250 people, plus five horses, on the bridge that day 165 years ago. The people gathered to see a wirewalker on a tight rope over the canal.
The bridge would tumble into the canal, killing 15 people.
The park includes a lamppost and a bench made from repurposed steel from the Main Street lift bridge when it was originally constructed in 1913. The bridge is getting a major overhaul and is expected to reopen to traffic on Dec. 19 following just over two years of construction.
Bill Schutt, left, is the artist from Batavia who made the lamppost, which will be solar powered. A Go Art! grant paid for Schutt to make the lamppost. Schutt said the lamppost was made in an art deco style from the 1930s and ’40s. He said he enjoys making art from recycled materials.
Albion Mayor Angel Javier Jr. is next to Schutt and Deputy Mayor Joyce Riley is on the bench that was made by employees in the sewer plant, the Joint Pollution Control Facility. Village employees Ric Albright, Kyle Piccirilli and William Malone worked on the bench, which also includes a time capsule to be opened on Sept. 28, 2059.
Albion students who were part of today’s celebration join in the photo.
The village worked with community volunteers to make the Erie Canal Park more enticing to boaters and residents.
Tim Archer, an Albion teacher, served as the emcee for today’s program. Albion students have painted a mural about the canal on the Albion fire hall, put in an interpretive panel about the Erie Canal and its impact on Albion, and also helped secure a historical marker noting Marquis de LaFayette’s tour along the Erie Canal which included a stop in Albion on June 6-7, 1825.
David Oakley (left), owner of Bridgen Memorials, and Dave Strickland, the stone cutter at Bridgen, were instrumental in creating the monument.
They are shown on a side with 15 handprints from local community members to represent the 15 people who died in the bridge collapse.
The side includes a silhouette of Charles Blondin, the famous wire walker who crossed Niagara Falls and who inspired George Williams to try walking on a tightrope in Albion.
The outline of the bridge shows the Squire Whipple bowstring iron truss bridge that crashed into the canal 165 years ago. The bridge was 60 feet long, about half the length of the current lift bridge over the canal.
Those who perished in the bridge collapse include:
- Perry G. Cole, 19, of Barre
- Augusta Martin, 18, of Carlton
- Ann Viele, 36, of Gaines
- Edwin Stillson, 16, of Barre
- Joseph Code, 18, of Albion
- Lydia Harris, 11, of Albion
- Thomas Handy, 66, of Yates
- Sarah Thomas, 10, of Carlton
- William Henry, 22, of Saratoga County
- Ransom S. Murdock, 17, of Carlton
- Adelbert Wilcox, 17, of West Kendall
- Sophia Pratt, 18, of Toledo, Ohio
- Thomas Aulchin, 50, of Paris (Canada)
- Jane Lavery, 16, of Albion
- Charles Rosevelt, 21, of Sandy Creek
The handprints used in the memorial are from people close in age to the victims. Those handprints include Dr. Tom Madejski, 64; Tom Rivers, 50; Aaron Flanagan, 17; Gideon Pask, 16; Nick Andrews, 19; Zack Baron, 16; Mollie Radzinski, 35; Cameron Ecker, 21; Nicholas Baxter, 16; Reuben Rivers, 19; Rosemary Kirby, 9; Phoebe Kirby, 14; Graham Kirby, 10; Cordelia Rivers, 13; and Al Hand, 17.
The Albion Rotary Club led the effort to have the monument erected, and received financial contributions from the Albion Betterment Committee, Albion Merchants Association, the local DAR chapter, Mitchell Family Cremations & Funerals, and an anonymous donor.
Tim Archer, right, interviews middle school students Thailer Seibert, left, and Blake Doty who portrayed hoggees, who were kids who worked with canal boats. Hoggees typically led mule teams that pulled the canal boats.
The miniature donkey and mule that were part of today’s festivities came from Painted Sky Ranch in Brockport.
Sophie Kozody and Hailey Styer portray two of the bridge collapse victims, Jane Lavery and Lydia Harris. In recent years, Albion students worked with Mount Albion Cemetery to have headstones in the cemetery for the two girls. Harris didn’t have a head stone and Lavery’s had broken into pieces.
The site by the canal was never formally named a park until Aug. 14, when the Village Board gave it the name, “Erie Canal Park.”
