Historian reflects on some big September moments in local history
Photo by Tom Rivers: The arch leads into Mount Albion Cemetery. The historic site was dedicated on Sept. 7, 1843.
By Catherine Cooper, Orleans County Historian
“Illuminating Orleans” – Volume 5, No. 33
It is always intriguing to find out “what happened on this date in history.”
In 1976, the Orleans Bicentennial Corp. produced a calendar with this theme, 365 tidbits of local history. Who could resist such a treasure?
Looking at the month of September, we find that it is bookended by tragedies:
On Saturday, September 1, 1951, State Trooper Sgt. Harry Adams of Medina was killed in the line of duty. He was struck and killed by an intoxicated driver while directing traffic at the scene of an accident on Sawyer Road in the Town of Carlton,
On September 28, 1859, tragedy struck in Albion when fifteen people drowned in the Canal. They were among a crowd of 250 who had assembled on the bridge to watch a tight-rope walker cross the canal when the span gave way.
September 13, 1826, was the date that William Morgan, who had threatened to publish the secrets of the Freemasons, was abducted from jail in Canandaigua and was never seen or heard from again.
The reference to the birth of the Bushnell sextuplets is by far the most intriguing entry:
Alberto Bushnell, a resident of the Orleans County Home for over thirty years, celebrated his birthday on September 8. So too did three of his siblings. They were the surviving members of sextuplets born on September 8, 1866, a rare event at any time but even more unusual then.
Concerned that the children would be viewed as “freaks” or that they would be castigated for bearing a litter, parents James and Jennie Bushnell downplayed the multiple births to the point where some confusion arose as to where exactly the birth occurred. The paper trail appears to point to Chicago, though there are also claims that they were born in Medina and in Lockport.
Two of the sextuplets died in infancy. The family moved back to Western New York following the destruction of their home in the Great Fire of Chicago in 1871. They lived in Medina briefly and subsequently moved to Lockport, to Buffalo, and to Phelps (Ontario County) but were back in Orleans County by 1892. James, the father, worked as a bookkeeper for a quarry. He died in Albion in 1904. Norbert lived in Gaines, worked as a salesman, and died in 1934.
Alice graduated from Albion High School in 1889 and was employed as a clerk at Landauer’s in Albion. She won a year’s study at the Boston Conservatory of Music, which she financed by selling subscriptions to the Ladies Home Journal. Upon her return to Albion, she taught piano full-time. She later married and moved to Arizona.
The siblings never publicized their unusual birth story. The birth of the Dionne quintuplets in 1934 renewed interest in multiple births. Ripley’s “Believe it or Not” researchers contacted the Bushnell siblings and invited them to New York for an all-expense paid trip. Orleans County Commissioner of Welfare, J.L. Derrick, accompanied Alberto to New York. Sibling Alinca Parker of Perry also traveled for the recording which took place on June 28, 1938.
Alberto, who was a member of the Howard Bible class of the United Methodist Church, died in Albion in 1940. He is buried with his parents in the family plot in Cold Springs Cemetery in Lockport.
Other entries of interest in the month of September:
Mount Albion Cemetery was dedicated on Sept. 7, 1843.
A school attendance law that went into effect on Sept. 2, 1909, mandated that all children aged 7-14 must attend school. Students aged 14-16 were also obliged to attend, unless they were employed.
