Albion’s park dedication on Saturday includes monument to bridge collapse victims from 1859
Erie Canal Park also will include lamppost, bench made from old steel from lift bridge
Photo by Tom Rivers: Employees at Brigden Memorials today at about 11 a.m. move a 1,200-pound granite monument to the Erie Canal Park. The monument is in remembrance of 15 people killed on Sept. 28, 1859 when the Main Street bridge collapsed. They were among 250 on the bridge watching a tightrope walker attempt to cross the Erie Canal. The Brigden employees include David Strickland, Ken Strickland, Frank Abbott and Dustin Goetze.
ALBION – The public is welcome to attend a dedication at noon on Saturday for the Erie Canal Park. The program will include the unveiling of a monument to the 15 people killed in the Sept. 28, 1859 bridge collapse.
The park also includes a lamppost and a bench made from old steel from the Main Street lift bridge, which is currently undergoing a major rehabilitation. That bridge is expected to reopen to traffic on Dec. 19.
Bill Schutt, an artist from Batavia, created the lamppost, with the village using a grant from GO Art! for the project. The Village Pollution Control Center employees (Rick Albright, Kyle Piccirilli and Michael Malone) made the bench that includes a cylinder that will be a time capsule to be opened on Sept. 28 2059.
The Albion Rotary Club led the effort to have a monument for the 15 people killed in the bridge collapse, which included several children. Brigden Memorials in Albion made the monument at a discount, doing the design, engraving and installation at no charge.
One side of the monument describes the tragic day of Sept. 28, 1859 when a crowd gathered to watch a tightrope walker. At the time Albion was hosting the county fair.
George Williams of Brockport attempted to walk across the canal on a tightrope. He didn’t get too far before the bridge collapsed.
The monument lists the 15 people who died in the tragedy:
- Perry G. Cole, 19, of Barre
- Augusta Martin, 18, of Carlton
- Mrs. 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 other side of the monument includes a silhouette of Charles Blondin, who started the wirewalking craze by crossing Niagara Falls on June 30, 1859, walking 1,100 feet on a tightrope. Blondin would walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope about 300 times in his career, including blindfolded, pushing a wheelbarrow and carrying his manager on his back.
The monument has 15 handprints of Albion community members to represent the 15 victims from the bridge collapse. The handprints are people about the same age as those who perished. The monument also shows the bridge in Albion at the time of the collapse, a 60-foot-long Squire Whipple bowstring iron truss bridge.
The program on Saturday includes two re-enactors, Sophie and Mallory Kozody, who are portraying Jane Lavery and Lydia Harris. Sophie is an eighth-grader and her sister is a senior.
Two mules also are expected to be part of the atmosphere on Saturday, and chocolates with a tugboat theme will also be available.
The Cobblestone Museum also will be selling Erie Canal books created by Albion students.
