Historian’s column: Evocative photos from yesteryear in Albion show a variety of businesses

Enterprises included road sprinkler to quell dust, coal yard along canal, bean-sorting operation

By Catherine Cooper, Orleans County Historian

“Illuminating Orleans” – Volume 6, No. 29

ALBION – This column features a sampling of evocative photographs of times gone by in Albion.

The top photograph dates to 1910 when the canal area adjacent to the swing bridge in Albion was being enlarged.

Ralph Vick, Maurice Schwartz and Don Campbell are seen here standing on the old canal bank which was dredged that summer. A fleet of boats ferrying a cargo of lumber waits its turn. The bridge swung from the center of the canal so that boats could pass on either side.

This 1905 photo shows coal being unloaded from a canal boat at John Howard’s Coal Yard at the foot of Clinton St., Albion. Hard, dusty work. Several men on the canal boat shoveled coal into the large bucket which was hoisted by pulley to the top of the large chute and then emptied into the coal barn.

Later, the coal was loaded onto wagons and delivered to area businesses and homes. Coal was the primary source of fuel for power and heat. John Howard’s was one of five coal yards located by the canal in the early 1900s.

This eye-catching photo shows a group of about 50 female workers who worked during the winter months at the M. W. Tilden warehouse located at the north end of West Academy Street. in Albion. The workers hand sorted beans on a conveyor belt and removed imperfect beans, stones and debris. Rejected beans, known as “poor beans” were sold to farmers who cooked them to feed swine.

The photograph was taken in 1911, around the time the warehouse was purchased by the state for the canal widening project. As it transpired, that area was not used in the widening project.

Unpaved municipal streets became very dusty during the summer. Sprinkling water on road surfaces helped quell the dust. The Village of Albion contracted with Shourds Bros., then located on the north end of Platt St., to provide this service which was included in property taxes.

If a property owner was delinquent in payment of taxes, the street area in front of that property was not sprinkled. Shourds Bros. also sprinkled the racetrack at the Orleans County Fairgrounds before and after every race and as otherwise needed.

A water tank can be seen in the center of the photograph. A large wooden tank is being filled. The tank sits on a wagon which was pulled by a team of horses.