This charming “Merry Christmas” postcard was mailed to Miss Hattie Ball in Lyndonville in 1903. (Ball-McCombs Card Collection)  

By Catherine Cooper, Orleans County Historian

“Illuminating Orleans” – Volume 5, No. 43

Who could better provide a glimpse into life in days gone by other than a County Historian?

Joseph B. Achilles served in that position from 1944-1957. Here are some of his observations about life in Albion in the late 1890s.

Reminiscences of Main Street

“Shopping for the ladies in those days was a comparatively simple matter. You went to Upper Landauer’s, now a grill, where Moritz Landauer sold you Sattinetts, Cassimeres, Velveteens etc., or to Lower Landauer’s where Simon Landauer, his brother, showed you the same patterns in the recently streamlined store, now operated by his grandson. That dignified and friendly competition has no counterpart in the savage merchandising of today, and you did not require a metal name plate and a number to open a charge account, and you did not have to pay before the end of the month either.”

Joseph B. Achilles, Orleans County Historian, 1944-1957

“The residents of “Ruffled Shirt Hill”, as Upper Main Street was called, turned out on Sunday morning in fine equipages, some even ran to part time coachmen and the ladies sported those small black silk parasols to protect complexions that would drive Elizabeth Arden green with envy.

Sunday morning in those days meant church, not a hangover. You dined at the Albion House about 1:30 p.m. and the check was about $.75, not $7.50. Meals like those are definitely a matter of history.

Short drives in the afternoon and a light lunch in the evening closed Sunday for our grandfathers and if the surrey with the fringe on top didn’t get you here or there very quickly, at least the finance company was not interested in it, and you could cross the street in front of it without someone collecting your insurance.

People were born, lived and usually died in their own homes. The maternity ward and the pulmotor* squad and funeral home were still in the future, and a doctor was called when you needed him and not just when you wanted him, and home remedies took care of most of the troubles of those days.

And, if the toll of years or the lack of Sulfa* or Penicillin closed your earthly account, George Brown and the Black Team took you for a quiet ride in the plumed hearse out the Avenue to Mt. Albion for a long rest in the only surroundings that seem to have defied the changes that Time has made in the Albion of those other days.”

*surrey: a four-wheeled open horse-drawn carriage

*pulmotor: an early device for artificial respiration

*Sulfa: antibiotics

The West Barre Church as it appeared in 1940.

  By Catherine Cooper, Orleans County Historian

“Illuminating Orleans” – Volume 5, No. 42

WEST BARRE – Mildred Anne Paine, who grew up in the cobblestone house on Pine Hill Road in the Town of Barre, spent over forty years of her adult life as a missionary in Japan. Hers is a remarkable story.

Born on July 25, 1893, Mildred was the third of five children of Emory and Martha Waterman Paine. Emory was a farmer in Barre. Mildred’s great-grandfather, Elisha Wright, an early pioneer, was one of the organizers of the West Barre Methodist Episcopal Church, as it was then referred to, in the 1830s. (An historic marker on Eagle Harbor Road highlights the location of Wright’s home.)

Mildred received her early education at Schoolhouse #6, a one-room cobblestone structure close to her home. She later attended Genesee Wesleyan Seminary in Lima, NY and Oberlin College, Ohio. She then taught at West Barre and Shelby schoolhouses for several years.

Mildred Anne Paine, 1893-1988

In 1919, at the age of 26, she was commissioned by the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society as a missionary to Japan. The Society, which had been established in 1869, sponsored and sent women to establish schools and spread the word of Christ.

Mildred studied Japanese for one year and worked at the Japanese city of Kagoshima in southern Kyushu for five years. She wrote:

“The strange Japanese culture and baffling language were my environment at the Tokyo Language School and in Kagoshima until 1926.”

She returned to the U.S. in 1927 and studied for a Master’s degree at Boston College.

In 1928, she was assigned to rebuild an important Methodist sponsored Welfare Center in Tokyo. It had been destroyed by an earthquake in 1923. The center, named “Ai Kei Gakuen” (Garden Radiating Love and Grace) was located in a slum. Many residents were ragpickers, while scores were homeless or destitute. Mildred was associated with the Center for 33 years, during which time thousands were enrolled in the orphanage, schools, and clinics which she established.

In an interview with the Democrat and Chronicle while on a rare visit home in 1934, Mildred explained that their missionary work could not be overt:

“If we made any attempt to coerce the people towards the religion, the Buddhists and Shintoists would at once take their children away. If we live our faith, and the people find there is something in Christianity that these other religions do not have, then is the time to explain. Once they become our friends, then we can discuss any subject freely with them.”

She commented that life there was far from monotonous, but full of thrilling adventures and “underground currents.”

With the outbreak of WWII, Mildred was interned in September 1942. Her sister, Helen Parsons Frey, recounted that “The soldiers who came to arrest her shot their guns inside of her house. All of her dishes were broken – except one plate. She found the plate when she returned after her internment.”

Fortunately, Mildred experienced “very fair” treatment at the camp. She was also fortunate to be among the 1,300 repatriates who boarded the M.S. Gripsholm, a Swedish cruise ship which had been chartered by the U.S. government to transport civilians and POWs caught behind enemy lines.

Mildred enjoyed time with her brother Cuyler following  her return to the U.S. in 1963. He died in 1965.

The six-week return voyage began in Mormuago, a small harbor in Portuguese India, on October 19, 1943 and included stops in Port Elizabeth, South Africa and Rio de Janeiro. On her arrival in New York on December 1, 1943, Mildred was greeted by her sister, Helen (Howard Parsons) and by Rev. Jesse Young, and his wife Ruth, who later served at the West Barre Church from 1955-57.

Mildred spent several months with Helen, Howard and their family at the family home on Pine Hill Road. She returned to Japan after the war and remained there until 1962. She was awarded two honors by the Japanese government: a citation from the Welfare Ministry of Japan in 1958, for her “devotion to children, boys and youth welfare” and in 1960, the 4th Class of the Imperial Order of the Sacred Treasure from the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare in recognition of her social work at Ai Kei Gakuen.

Upon her return to the U.S. in 1963, she was involved in counseling and promotional work for the Wesleyan Service Guild. Following a stroke in 1967, she went to live at the United Methodist Retirement Home in Asheville, N.C., where she died on September 7, 1988, at the age of 95. She is buried in the family plot in the West Barre Cemetery.

A collection of Mildred’s personal papers, including 23 diaries, correspondence and photographs is held by the General Commission on Archives and History, an online mission of the United Methodist Church. This collection covers the years 1957-1974. Sadly, the material from 1926-1943, which would have chronicled her first impressions and early experiences, is missing.  Most likely, it was destroyed at the time of her arrest.

Mildred’s brother, Cuyler and sister, Ruth continued the family involvement with the West Barre Church. In later years, her younger sister, Clara Otis, joined Mildred in Japan to assist her missionary work. Continuing the family tradition, her niece, Esther, and husband George Heustis spent forty-three years as missionaries in Brazil.

Mildred’s sister Helen served in the Youth Ministry in New York City along with her husband, Marvin Frey. Marvin wrote over 300 hymns and is the subject of an historic marker at the West Barre Cemetery.

Many thanks to Adrienne Daniels, Town of Barre Historian, and Karen Markle of the West Barre Church for their generous assistance.

By Catherine Cooper, Orleans County Historian

“Illuminating Orleans” – Volume 5, No. 41

This song, “Make Orleans County Dry,” was discovered in  notebook from the pages of a birthday book for the W.C.T.U. in Gaines.

GAINES – A rousing song was found nestled in the pages of the Gaines W.C.T.U. (Woman’s Christian Temperance Union) Birthday Book, a modest notebook with handwritten entries of members’ birthdays for each month of the year and another of the quiet gems in the Orleans County Dept. of History’s local history collection.

This is what gladdens the heart of a local historian! A quintessential piece of local history. The power of a single sheet of paper to evoke another era and a totally different sensibility.

Come comrades to the rescue, help make Orleans County dry,

In this glorious cause of temperance help to lift the standard high

And this shall be our slogan until victory draweth nigh,

Make Orleans County dry.

This composition directly connects a larger, national movement with its interpretation at the local level. What could be more local than a listing of the ten towns of Orleans?

The issue that galvanized the anonymous poet was the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, organized in Cleveland, Ohio in 1874 to combat the influence of alcohol on families and society.

Women of every rank and class could attest to the domestic abuse and impoverishment which resulted from the consumption of alcohol. Members pledged to abstain from all alcoholic beverages and opium and to encourage others to do likewise.

Earnest and committed women galvanized this movement. Locally, an early reference to a Temperance meeting appears in the February 4, 1874, issue of the Orleans Republican, when Rev. Mr. Hoyt spoke at the Free Will Baptist Church in East Gaines.

In June 1885, the temperance organizations in Orleans County were invited to a July 4th Temperance Basket Picnic at the grove property of Mr. C.J. Lewis. The Knowlesville Woman’s Christian Temperance Union furnished tea and coffee, ice cream and lemonade as well as confections, all at reasonable prices.

The semi-annual convention of the Orleans County Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was held in Albion in January 1890. The Millville Woman’s Temperance Union advertised their monthly meeting in 1895.

“Making Orleans County Dry” was a serious proposition. By 1908, the towns of Barre, Gaines and Yates had “voted dry” – well in advance of the 18th Amendment which introduced Prohibition in 1920. According to the Medina Daily Journal, nine towns were “dry” by June 1916, a statistic which helps date our song. We would venture to say that it was composed 1914-1916.

We cannot but smile at the anonymous poet’s rhymes, especially in the third verse.

Ten towns are in our county, six of which have closed their gates.

Barre, Carlton, Gaines and Kendall, Murray and the town of Yates,

Against the legalized saloon, which for the young awaits,

Make Orleans County dry.

His composition lends itself easily to the tune of Battle Hymn of the Republic. Appropriately enough, and continuing the tradition, the words of the Battle Hymn were set to the melody of John Brown’s Body, an abolitionist song.

Press Release, Orleans County Historical Association

Dennis Carr

GAINES – The Orleans County Historical Association (OCHA) invites the public to their annual luncheon meeting and program at Tavern on the Ridge on December 6th at 12:30 p.m.

Dennis Carr, a founding member of the Friends of Mt. Hope Cemetery, will be the guest speaker.

“We are fortunate to have Dennis as this year’s guest speaker,” said Sue Starkweather Miller, OCHA Trustee. “He will discuss The Arrest and Trial of Susan B. Anthony: Strategy, Tactics, and the Struggle to Vote. Dennis is an expert on this topic and has led tours for many years at Mt. Hope Cemetery, where Susan B. Anthony is buried.”

With the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, and its plain language implication that women, as citizens, had the right to vote, master strategist Susan B. Anthony decided to test the Constitution.

She, her sister Mary, and fourteen other Rochester women registered, and then voted in the 1872 federal election, resulting in Anthony’s arrest, trial, and conviction. The registrars and elections inspectors, the women who supported her by voting, the judge who issued the warrant, the arresting deputy U.S. marshal, and her attorneys are all permanent residents of Mount Hope Cemetery.

Front page news across the country, this real-life Rochester drama, gave Susan B. Anthony the deserved reputation as the most effective advocate and leader of the woman suffrage movement.

Lunch is $30 per person.  Menu choices are vegetable lasagna, cottage pie or winter salad with chicken breast.  Relish tray, beverage and dessert are included.  To make your reservations, call Orleans County Historian Catherine Cooper at 585-589-4174. You can pay at the door or send a check with your lunch choice to OCHA, 3286 Gaines Basin Road, Albion, NY 14411.

OCHA’s mission is to preserve, restore, and maintain what is significant to the history and antiquity of Orleans County, NY.

George E. Smith of Albion wrote and mailed a monthly newsletter to soldiers who were part of a Sunday School Class at the United Methodist Church.

By Catherine Cooper, Orleans County Historian

“Illuminating Orleans” – Volume 5, No. 40

This card was sent to George E. Smith of Albion in response to his monthly correspondence with servicemen during World War II.

ALBION – During World War II, George E. Smith wrote and mailed a monthly newsletter to the servicemen members of the Woods Brothers Men’s Class of the United Methodist Church in Albion.

His daughter, Aloha (Smith) Vick, compiled the correspondence into several albums which were recently donated to the Orleans County Dept. of History by his granddaughter, June (Vick) Schuck.

From Paris, France, Dec. 1944:

“Each month I look forward to receiving the Woods Brotherhood News and I appreciate very much your sending it to me. It always seems good to hear where the other boys are stationed and all about the church activities at home.”

Naturally, the albums make compelling reading. The newsletters provided seasonal information about the weather as well as tidbits of information regarding those who served. Mailed to far flung parts of the globe, this “news” helped service men feel remembered and connected.

George E. Smith wrote a total of thirty-eight issues of the Woods Brotherhood News. The final issue, the “Peace Issue” was written on Sept. 19, 1945.

Recipients of the Newsletters were very appreciative. Their return letters invariably began with expressions of gratitude. Several commented that fellow servicemen envied this correspondence and wished their churches had done likewise.

From: Somewhere in New Guinea, Dec. 1944, J.K. Shipman BKR 1/C USN:

“Your very nice Christmas greeting came yesterday, right on the proper day. I don’t see how you managed to judge the exact day to mail it.”

From Somewhere in Egypt, Nov. 1942, Gil Pritchard:

“Probably at this time, more than any other, I have come to realize how much I enjoy your letters. It may be because of the distance we are from you, or it may be because we are no longer in the States practicing but we are now playing for keeps.”

Portion of a Woods Brothers Newsletter, February 1943

Even though letters were censored, they provide compelling details:

From France, August 1944, A.M. Webber, “Lonnie”

(He operated a water-purifying unit)

Several days last week, we purified about thirty-thousand gallons of water per day. That was a lot of water to put through our small units. Of course, we worked 20 hours a day to do it.

At the present time, we are pretty close to the front line and we have lots of artillery around us. In fact, that is all they do all day and all night is shell the Germans. It is hard to sleep. There’s so much noise. The last two nites we have been shelled by the enemy. In fact, last nite, they landed a shell about 70 feet away from our foxhole and shrapnel went everywhere. We really felt the concussion from that shell, although none of us were hit because we were all in our fox holes.

I guess our boys over here are really going fast. Of course, we really have more equipment. However, the Germans are no pushover. I don’t think it will last much longer now. I would say about three months more and it will be over here.”

News from a proud new father:

Somewhere in Dutch New Guinea, Jan. 1945, Sgt. Louis Massaro, Jan. 1944:

“It may interest you to know that while I was on the boat coming over here, a baby boy was born, my son, named Thomas Charles Massaro. So you see, I have yet to see my son. My wife and son are both doing good, the last I’ve heard from them.”

P.S. Give my regards to the rest of the Brotherhood class and tell the people back home, our friends, that War is Hell.”

Newsletter writer, George E. Smith, grew up on Smith Road in Shelby. He was a state agriculturalist, and an active Mason as well as a member of the United Methodist Church. Incidentally, this is the anniversary of his death: he was killed in an accident on November 15, 1950, in Sodus, New York, when the car in which he was a passenger collided with a train.

‘Continuity doesn’t mean that no change occurs, but that what does change remains recognizable and connected to the past.’ – Adrienne Kirby

A photo from the early 1900s, showing the front of what is now the Tavern on the Ridge, the former Village Inn.

By Adrienne Kirby, Town of Gaines Historian

GAINES – The Bicentennial of Orleans County is a singular point in time to reflect on our roots. As historian, it is part and parcel of my job description.

Occasionally, I am asked to provide a letter of support for historical endeavors in Gaines. Several years ago, the Cobblestone Society asked for a letter to support their efforts to place the hamlet of Childs on the National Historic Register. As I thought about the importance and significance of Childs and of how I would express that to someone who had never seen it, I realized that what I had written was a bit of an “Ode to Childs” in prose.

In the spirit of the County Legislature, which encouraged the citizens of Orleans County to “commemorate the worthwhile endeavors of their predecessors and look forward to the future of this fine county with optimism,” in their Proclamation for the Bicentennial, I present my reflection on Childs, NY.

Our two hundred year old home sits on a rise that slightly elevates it above most of the other buildings in Childs. One of my favorite aspects of our house is the view from my son’s second story bedroom window at night. From there, I can look over the rooftops of my neighbors to the east and see the heart of Childs.

From this angle, the Tavern on the Ridge is barely visible, largely in shadow. The traffic light indicates the crossroads hidden by the silhouettes of houses crowded up against the southwest corner. A portion of Crosby’s signage glows, adding further illumination to the Cobblestone Church, its bell tower a stunning stark white against a black evening sky. This scene is almost magical on a snowy winter’s night; it is so still and peaceful.

A notable aspect of Childs is its continuity. Continuity doesn’t mean that no change occurs, but that what does change remains recognizable and connected to the past. Architecturally speaking, some buildings have been repurposed from their original intent. Others have had some minor exterior cosmetic changes made over the last sixty years in the name of energy efficiency or ease of maintenance. But by and large, these buildings would be easily recognized by their former inhabitants. The convenience store building, a mere fifteen years old, can also lay claim to continuing Child’s history; there has almost always been a general store on that corner, selling food and sundry goods.

A photo from 1964 shows spectators gathered across the road from the H&A Superette to view the addition of the restored tower to the Cobblestone Church.

The buildings in Childs take center stage, and yet there are trees, too, that serve as landmarks and contribute to the sense of continuity here. Driving in from the east, the lone pine in the front yard of the Visitor’s Center signals one’s approach to Childs long before the road sign does.

Coming from the south, a beautiful sycamore just north of the intersection, nearly three times taller than the corner store, crowns the horizon. The oversize leaves and fragrant blossoms of the catalpa tree at the Vagg house add to the sense of place.

These particular trees and others, have been here nearly a hundred years or more. I know of an instance in which a neighbor successfully negotiated with the town to prevent an old maple from being cut down. The trees are as much a part of Child’s heritage as its buildings.

Two hundred years ago, most of Child’s citizens were farmers. Agriculture remains a primary industry in the Town of Gaines. Almost every backyard of the some dozen families of this hamlet looks out onto a field. In 1890, these fields probably produced beans. In the 1950s, there were surely tomatoes growing. Now, we tend to see wheat or soybeans.

Agriculture has yet another impact here. Unlike many other livelihoods and professions now, farmers don’t move every few years. Because they are dependent upon the land, they understand the value of a particular place. Farmers helped found the Cobblestone Society in order to save the cobblestone church, as well as the schoolhouse. They continue to be significant contributors to large scale community projects.

The National Register of Historic Places highlights what is unique and worth preserving for a national audience. A successful application from the Cobblestone Society to place the hamlet of Childs on the Register will affirm and make known to the whole country what we who live here have long known and appreciated.

The Cobblestone Church, Ward House and Schoolhouse have been designated National Historic Landmarks for several decades, the only buildings in Orleans County to have that honor. But in March of this year, all of Childs was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, giving our bit of Western New York a well-deserved national spotlight, highlighting how the past and the present can live side by side. It is a source of pride to those of us, who, in the words of the Legislature, “acknowledge the advantage of living here.”

By Catherine Cooper, Orleans County Historian

“Illuminating Orleans” – Volume 5, No. 39

Photos from Orleans County Department of History: A World War II Blue Star Service Flag is shown from the First United Methodist Church of Albion.

ALBION – A World War II Blue Star Service Flag was recently donated to the Orleans County Dept. of History.

It is large, 8 feet by 12 feet with a red border. The center is white and contains twelve rows of blue stars. Each star has a name underneath, written on heavy paper and stitched on to the cloth background.

The flag dates to World War II. The names represent the members of the First United Methodist Church of Albion Sunday School as well as members of the church who “had entered our country’s service.”

The flag was dedicated on October 11, 1942, and was displayed prominently in the church sanctuary. It contains 72 stars. Seventy-two sons from this one congregation in Albion off in the war, a lot of worry for their families.

Mercifully, there is just one Gold Star. It is for Pvt. James A. Brundish Jr., who was killed in action on the Italian front on June 16, 1944. He was the son of James and Irene Brundish. The family lived at 117 Chamberlain St. in Albion. According to his registration card, James was 5’10”, 150 lbs., had brown hair and blue eyes. He worked at Loblaw’s Grocery Store. He enlisted at the age of 18 and was killed 14 months later. He is buried at the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery in Louisville, Ky.

Two families had four sons in the service: the Massaro brothers: Anthony, Louis, Thomas and Joseph and the Vick brothers: Arnold, Howard, Charles and Harold, while the three Woodruff brothers: Clayton, Raymond and Gerald were also enlisted.

This poignant reminder of bravery was donated by June V. Schuck of Albion. Her grandfather was one of the Vick brothers mentioned. June also donated several volumes of newsletters sent to service members and their responses, which we will share next week.

List of the World War II Service Members from the First United Methodist Church of Albion

• Lyman J. Clark
• William Kast
• Noran Bibby
• Harold Vick
• James A. Beckwith
• Arnold C. Garrison
• Earl Whitbeck
• Charles McOmber
• Clayton Woodruff
• Raymond Woodruff
• Gerald Woodruff
• Arthur Brundish
• Lewis Grimes
• Harold E. Frank, Jr.
• George A. Brace
• Robert Swartz
• Francis Dunn
• Charles T. Milliken
• Earl Filer
• John Shipman
• Robert Lee
• Charles Carr
• Robert Sanford
• Leonard Garrity
• James C. Lewis
• Earl F. Bacon
• John O. Ellis
• Charles A. Vick
• Lyman Stetson
• Gilbert Pritchard
• William Campbell
• Donald Bloom
• Gordon Swartz
• 

  A star on the flag is for Harold Knapp.

  Robert Moore

• Fr??? Howe
• George Clark
• Albert Miles
• Harold Winer
• Edward Brundish
• Claude Shenton
• Lloyd Cornwell
• Robert Bloom
• Ronald J. Bartlett
• Alonzo M. Webber
• Roy Rutledge
• Herman Brockway
• Clark Miller, Jr.
• Arnold N. Vick
• Claude Marshall
• Howard J. Vick
• Everett Young
• Charles A. Vick
• Thomas F. Hazard
• John Waldo
• Rexford C. Briggs
• Richard C. Bloom
• Clyde Nixon
• William A. Marsh
• Harold C. Knapp
• Hubert Richey
• Arnold Jensen
• Horace J. Holliday
• Louis Massaro
• William Wolfe
• Milton Bibby
• Frederick Brace
• Laverne Wiers
• Wesley Campbell
• John Weeks
• Joseph Massaro
• Gerald Eddy
• Thomas Massaro

Photographs courtesy of Tom Wenhold: A quince tree in full glory on Route 18 in the Town of Yates.

By Catherine Cooper, Orleans County Historian

“Illuminating Orleans” – Volume 5, No. 38

How was your quince harvest this year? Did you make a quince pie or a batch of quince marmalade?

Quince trees were cultivated in Orleans County orchards for many years but have become less common.

The October 6, 1847, Orleans Republican carried an ad from the N. Spicer & Son Nursery at Kendall Corners advertising quince trees for sale.

A fruit orchard “near the Knowlesville depot” which was offered for sale in March 1875, included a quince orchard of 100 trees.

The quince crop of 1883 was unusually large. About 4,000 barrels shipped from Albion at $3.50 per barrel.

In the 1970s, the Brown farm in Waterport grew 55 acres of quince, “the largest acreage of quince on one farm in the U.S.” according to a Journal-Register article.

A ripening quince in sunlight.

A quince resembles a cross between an apple and a pear and emits a lemony aroma. The fruit is hard even when ripe and cannot be eaten out of hand when picked, but must be stewed, candied or jellied to make it palatable. It turns a lovely rosy hue when cooked. It has a high pectin content and was used to make jelly and marmalade. It is high in Vitamin C and antioxidants.

Here is a recipe for a Quince Pie from the “Queen of the Household” cookbook published in 1891: Pare, slice and stew 6 quinces till soft, then press through a sieve. Add to this 1-pint milk and 4 well beaten eggs. Sweeten to taste. Bake in a bottom crust ¾ hour in a moderate oven.

Another recipe in the book is for “Quince Cheese,” which is quince marmalade boiled down very thick. “It will turn out as firm as cheese and can be cut into slices.” No doubt this was the origin of the “slices of quince” mentioned in that wonderful nonsense poem by Edward Lear, “The Owl and the Pussycat.”

“They dined on mince and slices of quince

  Which they ate with a runcible spoon.”

Construction of Route 18 started in 1920s in Orleans County

Photos by Tom Rivers: Roosevelt Highway at the Yates-Carlton town line is shown on Saturday.

By Catherine Cooper, Orleans County Historian

“Illuminating Orleans” – Volume 5, No. 37

A recent drive along Route 18 prompted the question: Which Roosevelt is the Roosevelt Highway named for?

As is often the case with a seemingly simple question, it led to many layers of discovery. It transpires that this is a road of many names. It was originally known as St. John’s Road, most likely from St. John’s Lutheran Church in the Countyline hamlet. It is now generally referred to as Route 18. In addition to being part of the Roosevelt Highway, it is also designated as the Great Lakes Seaway Trail.

This gas station operated from 1930 to 1943. Arpeako was a hot dog brand.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt would seem to be the obvious choice for the road name because of his association with efforts to stimulate the economy during the Depression. Also, he was a friend of Orleans County Judge Bernard Ryan. Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt visited the Ryans on two occasions.

But the honor goes to Theodore Roosevelt.

Shortly after his death in January 1919, a civic group in Minnesota proposed the construction of the Theodore Roosevelt International Highway, an automobile trail across the north of the country, from Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon. The name was later changed to Roosevelt Memorial Highway, though Roosevelt Highway is the most common usage.

The first reference to the road in the Orleans County newspapers was in a July 3, 1919, edition of the Lyndonville Enterprise. The North County Notes correspondent wrote: “Preparing to make the new Roosevelt Highway attractive, D.E. Kenyon and John Beckwith are giving their buildings a new coat of paint.” We detect a note of humor there.

The Olcott Beach to Somerset section of the Roosevelt Highway was completed in 1923. It traversed the famous fruit belt of Niagara County was described as “one of the finest drives in Western New York”.

In November of 1923, a 10-year plan for road development proposed a continuation of the Roosevelt Highway through Orleans and Monroe counties, on through Oswego to St. Lawrence County.

Roosevelt Highway at the Hard Road intersection is an area in the Kuckville hamlet in the town of Carlton.

The Orleans County Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution in March 1926 requesting the state highway department prepare plans for the improvement of county roads, including the Roosevelt Highway, a distance of 25 miles, connecting Monroe County through Hilton to Rochester and west through Niagara County to the Niagara Frontier.

W.J. Gallagher of Medina was awarded the contract to construct a concrete road from Countyline Corners to Kuckville, a 10-mile stretch which would include three small bridges as well as a bridge at Kuckville, “the longest highway bridge built in the county.” The cost to the county was $215,600, total cost was $678,000. “When finished it is expected to make a scenic and historic route between the Genesee and Niagara rivers, running at times along the southern shore of LO.”

The route was based on an east-west trail formed by Native Americans and early settlers, because of its proximity to the lake. The Medina Daily Journal of 21 August 1929 noted that several log houses were still in existence along the route but by then were being were used as farm buildings.

Soon “desirable summer home sites” such as these lots at Sunset Beach “reached by good auto roads” were being advertised. Nineteen people purchased lots the first week they were placed on the market.

Incidentally, there’s still a short section of road named St. John’s Road in the Town of Yates. It runs from Power Line Road to East Lake Shore Road.

Medina Tribune ad., May 1930

Photos from Orleans County Department of History Collection – “Transportation Options”

By Catherine Cooper, Orleans County Historian

“Illuminating Orleans” – Volume 5, No. 36

The photo at top shows a lady, wearing the hat and ankle-length skirt of the era, walking along a path. Powerline poles, adorned with glass insulators, line the route.

An automobile approaches. Spooked by this noisy charging machine, the horses have to be led by their drivers. This photograph perfectly captures the old and the new, that brief time when the pivot was tilting from the horse-drawn era to the age of electric power and automobiles.

Road conditions such as those photographed above and directly below led to the formation of the Good Roads Movement in the 1880s. Rural and suburban roads were mostly dirt: muddy and soft when it rained, dusty when dry.

The campaign to improve the roads was initiated by bicyclists who were enjoying the freedom of the roads for the first time. The advent of the automobile further highlighted the problem of muddy roads, as rutted roads damaged vehicles.

“Stuck in the Mud” Burrows Collection, Orleans County Dept. of History Collection

The Good Roads Movement was not without controversy. Who would be responsible for the cost of improving roads? In New York State, some people argued that infrastructure investment had focused too much on the canal and the railroads to the detriment of rural roads. Others argued that the canal and the railroads were far more efficient in transporting goods, so why bother with investing in roads?

Much of the debate focused on whether the condition of the roads impacted farmers. Proponents argued that farmers were socially isolated and hampered in getting access to markets.

Farmers resented the imposition of an extra tax. They also felt that the tax would be used to improve roads other than the roads they needed. This debate was aired in the newspapers right through the 1920s. The Lyndonville Enterprise, for example, ran regular columns of syndicated posts on Good Roads.

In New York State, the issue of payment for road improvements was first addressed by the Higbie-Armstrong* Good Roads Act of 1898 which established cost-sharing between municipalities, counties and the state for the construction of main roads.

The Federal Aid Road Act of 1916 provided matching federal funds for road paving conducted by the states and in 1921, the Federal Aid Highway Act provided funding for paving up to 7% of roads in each state.

Lynn & Bea Burrows on a happier motoring outing. (Burrows Collection)

*Senator William W. Armstrong, who co-sponsored the 1898 Good Roads legislation, spent his early years in Albion. Educated locally, he became a lawyer and was clerk of the Orleans County Board of Supervisors in 1886 and 1887. He later moved to Rochester where he was elected State Senator from 1899-1908.  He died in 1944 and is buried in Mount Albion Cemetery.

Photo by Tom Rivers: This group passes under the lift bridge in Eagle Harbor on Friday. They are aboard a replica of the Seneca Chief. This boat is 73 feet long and is making a commemorative journey along the canal in hoor the canal’s 200th anniversary. The boat was built as a replica of the original Seneca Chief that carried Gov. DeWitt Clinton on the maiden voyage on the completed canal in 1825.

By Catherine Cooper, Orleans County Historian

“Illuminating Orleans” – Volume 5, No. 34

“View on the Erie Canal” – The New York Public Library Digital Collections from 1832.

The commemorative journey of the Seneca Chief along the Erie Canal has attracted a great deal of attention. The boat left Buffalo on Wednesday and is on a 33-day tour that ends Oct. 26 in New York City.

On the original trip, the boat was hauled by “four fully caparisoned grey horses.” That would have been quite a sight! For this voyage, the horses have been replaced by a 33-foot-long tugboat, the C.L. Churchill.

We have mentioned the novel Rome Haul by Walter D. Edmonds in a previous column. It portrays a realistic view of life in the early years of the canal. The sight of the Seneca Chief brought this passage to mind. Here Dan Harrow remembers the opening of the canal and that first voyage:

“We’d talked about the canal. It didn’t seem it would ever get to us. They’d surveyed in ’19 (1819) and the route would come close to my place….Then, first thing we knowed, in ’23, men commenced working on the route between Black Rock and Lockport…..

 “I remember, two springs after that, how me and Ellen sat on the big stoop in June. A warm afternoon. The word come the water would come in from Erie. And after a while we seen it come. Brown and muddy, very slow, so’s not to rip the banks. It went by us in a little creek. We watched it rise all day. At night it was still getting up. Brown and muddy. We didn’t have no supper. We didn’t want it. We’d listen to the water eddy down below all night. In the morning it had come off blue in the sun — pretty near that color.”

“Tolls was taken on the first of October. It had been a fine farming summer. I’d had more money in than I’d expected for a single year. Then on the twenty-sixth the opening come.”

“It was a masterful event. The leaves had turned late that year, and there was still color to the woods. “They had put cannon — you know how —all along the canal and down the Hudson. There was an old ten-pounder mounted on my rise of ground, its snout pointing west, and there was one of McDonough’s sailors there to touch it off.

“The neighbors came next morning early. Ellen and the women had gotten up a big feast. The men sat on the porch, looking down the canal to the lake. I had some Jamaica and Golden Medford for them — it was a brisk morning. Cool from frost at night, but no wind at all. The smoke from our pipes hung under the roof. The children played round — noisy. The cook smells came out to us.

“The sailor, Benjy Wright, sat on the cannon’s butt… About nine o’clock Benjy cut him a hard plug with his sailor knife. He lighted his match and we stood waiting. Then a cannon sounded down by Buffalo. And Benjy touched the match to the fuse and in a minute the old gun bucked and roared, and a glass broke in the window of the parlor….Then we sat down and watched Benjy load up the cannon. And an hour and forty minutes later there was a cannon faint to eastward of us. And our gun bucked and shot again and we heard a gun boom in Buffalo. But with that sound from the eastward of us we knowed that New York knowed. The sound of it told us that.

“All to once we knowed there was other people back east who knowed about us. We were in a country as big as half the world, but with that shot it all come closer together. We weren’t alone.

“For a while there was silence.

“Clinton’s boat come along a while later when we were eating dinner. The food got burnt somehow. But we cheered him by and his four grey matched horses, and he waved to us. And we cheered the other boats.

“But nights now me and my wife hear the boats once in a while —a horn, maybe — or, when it’s still, the clink of a trace chain. Or we see the night lanterns. The railroads come in time. But here it didn’t make so much difference.”

Rome Haul by Walter D. Edmonds in 1929 is available through your local library.

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.

Don Cook, a photographer for The Journal-Register in Medina, captured this image of the demolition of the Hojack bridge on Sept. 11, 1995.

By Catherine Cooper, Orleans County Historian

“Illuminating Orleans” – Volume 5, No. 32

CARLTON – Our recent column on the history of the Hojack Railroad evoked many memories, particularly of teenage hair-raising exploits on the landmark trestle bridge at Waterport.

Built to convey the trains of the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg Railroad trains across the Oak Orchard River gorge, the actual dimensions of this impressive structure are unclear. According to one source, it was 500 feet long, 10 feet wide and 200 feet above the river, while another site describes it as having been 800 feet from bank to bank and 90 feet high.

This photograph gives a sense of the scale of the bridge.

At any rate, the railroad line was discontinued in 1978, and the infrastructure soon fell into disrepair. In November 1993, citing missing railroad ties and concerns for the safety of the public as well as of emergency personnel presented by the condition of the bridge, the Town of Carlton went on record to request action from Penn Central.

As it transpired, the title to the bridge was owned by Charles Pelleschi, an avid angler from Summerhill, Pa. He had purchased some vacant railroad property adjacent to Park Avenue, in the Town of Carlton from Penn-Central, with the intention of building a second home there. Much to his surprise, the deed to the land included the bridge.

Mr. Pelleschi decided to have the bridge removed on account of its deteriorating condition. It was dismantled in the fall of 1995 by Jack Weakland of Hastings, Pa. The steel from the bridge was sold to a New York City company and the landmark was no more.

However, it lingers in the memories of many and was captured in this pen and ink drawing by Arthur Barnes.

This artwork of the Trestle in Waterport was done by Arthur Barnes.

Rail line was popular leading to post offices, hamlets and businesses

By Catherine Cooper, Orleans County Historian

“Illuminating Orleans” – Volume 5, No. 31

Photo from Orleans County Department of History: A Hojack goods train crosses the Trestle Bridge over the Oak Orchard Creek in Carlton.

KENDALL – “Without looking out a window, you could generally tell what the weather was or what it was going to be simply by the sounds of the Hojack’s whistles. On clear days, they’d be sharp and abrupt. But on rainy days, they’d give out long, mournful cries, especially at night.”  (Doris Behnke Crego, Requiem for a Railroad)

In the 1980s, William Aeberli of Rochester, interviewed older Kendall area residents about their recollections of the Hojack and compiled them in a series of articles entitled “Requiem for a Railroad.”

“The Hojack” was the name used to refer to the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg Railroad (R.W. & O. R.) which ran from Oswego to Niagara Falls from 1876 to 1978.

It served the northern third of Orleans County where industrious farmers of English, German and Norwegian descent harvested high yields from soil that was particularly suited to fruit cultivation. Prior to the advent of the Hojack, the Erie Canal and later the New York Central Railroad shipped produce from the farms north of the Ridge.

The Hojack served eight station points in Orleans County: Morton (East Kendall), Kendall, West Kendall, Brice Station (Kent), Carlton Station, Ashwood (Carlyon), Lyndonville and Millers.

Hamlets soon evolved at these stations. Storage and processing facilities for fruit and vegetables were built adjacent to the stops: Kendall Cold Storage; Morton Canning Company; A.S. Hice in Ashwood; W.G. Dailey in Kent; Bahrenburg & Beckwith in Carlton Station and Kendall. General stores and churches soon followed. Since the Hojack carried mail, post offices were established: Carlyon in 1876, Carlton in 1877, Kent in 1899, Millers in 1882 and Morton in 1894.

In 1888, eight passenger trains ran daily. By 1908, this was reduced to four daily passenger trains, and in 1933, passenger and mail service was discontinued. Automobiles and truck transportation superseded the railroads. But apart from the convenience of passenger service, the primary benefit of the Hojack was the transportation of goods – fruit and produce to market, deliveries of coal and ice to supply the cold storage facilities.

The Kendall Station was active. The following establishments were located on either side of the railroad: Bahrenburg and Beckwith’s was a cooperage and a storage facility; the Greece Lumber Company which also dealt in grain; the three-story structure at W.V. Newcomb’s which had bins to hold grain, beans, or peas; Robert Burke’s which sold chemicals and fertilizers as well as coal; Carr, Eggleston & Ritz, an evaporated fruit and cider business.

Seasonal laborers and transient workers camped in Crandall’s Woods just across the railroad tracks. The location was referred to as “Hobo Alley.”  An old boxcar was moved there to provide shelter.

Doris Behnke Creg, who grew up in Kendall in the 1920s, observed:

“We figured the Hojack was simply a natural part of the neighborhood, we took the railroad for granted. Who might have thought that someday the railroad would disappear?”