MEDINA – This picture taken in 1913 shows, in the foreground, the top of the aqueduct in the bottom of the canal in which the Oak Orchard Creek flows through. This is just before the water tumbles over Medina Falls.
This photo is looking west into the Erie Canal Basin at Medina when the last enlargement to this historic waterway was under construction. The building with a smoke stack in the middle ground in the A.L. Swett Electric Light and Power Co. Behind the stack is the tower of the Bancroft House. It was a hotel and is now the NAPA store. In the distance to the left appears the steeple of the First Baptist Church.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 10 July 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – Deborah Brundage, director of the Cobblestone Society Museum, holds one of 21 historic photos from the Erie Canal that are part of a new exhibit at the museum, 14393 Ridge Rd., just east of Route 98.
GAINES – The photos show laborers in the bottom of the canal, working to deepen and widen the waterway back in 1913.
The state moved to upgrade the canal, which was in decline 100 years ago. It was a massive effort to excavate and widen. The Orleans County History Department has many photographs of the work from a century ago.
They have been enlarged and professionally displayed in a new exhibit at the Cobblestone Society Museum. The 21 pictures will be displayed after this summer at Hoag Library in Albion.
“The canal is part of our local history,” said Deborah Brundage, director of the Cobblestone Society Museum. “The canal opened up the region for development and let farmers sell their crops more easily.”
The historic images show construction on the canal, boats using the waterway, and residents enjoying life in a canal town.
One of the historic images shows a family crossing a pedestrian bridge over the canal in Medina.
One picture shows a group trying to cross a pedestrian bridge in Medina. Another picture shows a woman standing in front of the Canal Culvert in Ridgeway.
Albion eighth-graders researched the images and wrote the labels that will describe the images. The museum will have a reception for the exhibit at 3 p.m. on July 20.
The Erie Canalway Corridor provided a $7,000 grant to create the display, and offer programming about the canal.
The Cobblestone Church will host four free lectures about local canal history. Those events are at 2 p.m. on Saturdays.
The lectures include the following:
Jeff Donahue, director of the Holland Land Office Museum in Batavia, on Saturday will discuss “Joseph Ellicott and the Holland Land Office Purchase.”
Gretchen Murray Sepik on July 20 will portray Erie Canal Sal and sign copies of her book about the theatrical character, a cook on a canal boat.
Orleans County Historian Bill Lattin will give an overview of the canal and its impact locally on Aug. 3.
Gaines Town Historian Dee Robinson will discuss life on a canal boat, “from a female perspective” during an Aug. 10 lecture.
Hoag Library Director Susan Rudnicky, who is also president of the Cobblestone Museum board, wrote the grant for the canal exhibit and programs.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 7 July 2013 at 12:00 am
Orleans County is sprinkled with numerous cast-iron and bronze markers, giving a glimpse into local historical events, notable residents and buildings.
Yesterday, the county dedicated its newest marker in memory of William McAllister and his wife, who were Albion’s first settlers in 1811. They built a log cabin on the site where the County Clerk’s Building now stands next to the courthouse.
The Clerk’s Building is also home to first the historical marker that was put up in Orleans County. The marker was dedicated 100 years ago, in May 1913. The alumni of the Phipps Union Seminary, a school for girls, had the marker put on a sandstone wall next to the front steps of the building.
Phipps Union Seminary was established in 1833 and operated until about 1870. The school was torn down to make way for the Clerk’s Building, which was constructed in 1882-1883.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 6 July 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – Orleans County Legislature Chairman David Callard unveils a marker in honor of Albion’s pioneer residents.
ALBION – Long before there was a lush lawn and some of Orleans County’s most treasured buildings, the Courthouse Square was wilderness.
In 1811, William McAllister and his wife arrived in Albion and began the daunting task of settling the area. Mr. McAllister chopped down trees and cleared a spot for a log cabin where the County Clerks’ Building stands today.
His wife likely made his clothes, prepared the meals, and even concocted medicine for her husband. That was the role of the pioneer wives from two centuries ago, said Dee Robinson, town of Gaines historian.
“It was her job to keep him healthy to carry on the settlement,” Robinson said this afternoon during a dedication ceremony for a marker in honor of Mr. and Mrs. McAllister.
Many markers in other communities honor pioneer residents, listing the names of men, where they came from and what their job was locally. But Robinson said the new marker in Albion is unusual in recognizing McAllister - and his wife, whose first name is not known.
“When we look as pioneers, remember there was always a woman behind the man,” she said.
Orleans County Historian Bill Lattin talks about Donna Rodden and the former Albion mayor’s efforts to preserve local history. Rodden’s daughter, Chris Capurso, is second from back right.
Mr. McAllister purchased 368 acres from the Holland Land Company in 1810. That was land on the east side of the village. The couple arrived in 1811, all alone.
Mrs. McAllister would die in 1812, and her husband would then move out of the area. She was buried near where the County Clerk’s Building stands today. That building was constructed in 1882-1883.
Her skeletal remains were discovered in 1957, when the county was doing a project at that building.
When the marker was unveiled today on the lawn of the Clerk’s Building, County Legislature Chairman David Callard lifted the cover to show the new marker. It features a log cabin logo.
Callard marveled at how quickly the area changed after the first settlers arrived. The Erie Canal opened a couple blocks away in 1825. Albion became a boomtown from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s, with quarrying and farming major industries.
Most of the buildings that went up in that era – the Courthouse, churches and downtown business district – remain.
“You can see what’s happened in 200 years with people working together for the common good,” Callard said during the dedication ceremony attended by about 50 people.
State Assemblyman Steve Hawley presented a proclamation in honor of the McAllisters and their grit in the community’s beginning.
Al Capurso and his son Dan performed three songs as a tribute to the pioneering spirit of Mr. and Mrs. McAllister, the community’s first settlers in 1811.
The Capurso family in Albion paid for the marker and organized the dedication ceremony to honor those early settlers. Al Capurso and his son Dan performed three songs in their honor: “Whole world round,” “See the sky about to rain,” and “After the storm.”
Al’s wife Chris is daughter of the late Donna Rodden, a former Albion mayor who was influential in getting the Courthouse Square listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
“She recognized the importance of our local history and heritage and passed it on to the next generation,” said County Historian Bill Lattin.
He has worked to have many of the local historical markers placed in Albion and around the county.
“These few lines are just the tip of the ice berg,” Lattin said about the markers. “Volumes could be written about each one.”
Many of the markers note the contributions of prominent residents or provide a short vignette about a church or other significant public building. Lattin is pleased to see a marker for the first folks who chose Albion to live.
“It highlights the earliest aspect of our local history,” he said.
The Capurso family poses in front of the historical marker not long after it was unveiled this afternoon.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 6 July 2013 at 12:00 am
Courtesy of Tom Taber/Library of Congress
LEADERS OF THE BATTERY: Tom Taber restored and colorized this photograph from May 3, 1863 of the leaders of the 17th New York Light Artillery. The photograph was taken at Camp Barry, Washington, D.C. The group includes, from left: an unidentified Camp Barry officer who wasn’t in the 17th NY; 1st Lieut. Irving Meade Thompson of Albion; 2nd Lieut. Edwin Joel Barber of Lyndonville; Capt. George Tobey Anthony of Medina; 1st Lieut. Hiram Edwards Sickels of Albion; and 2nd Lieut. Hiram D. Smith of Medina.
ALBION – As nation reflects on the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and continues to celebrate the July Fourth holiday, I thought it was a good time to highlight the efforts of Tom Taber, an Albion man who worked dutifully for 15 years to track down stories about Orleans County men who fought in the war.
Taber’s book, The “Orleans Battery” – A History of the 17th New York Light Artillery in the War of Rebellion, details the service of 240 men from Orleans County who served in the war. The book came out last year and is available in local bookstores.
The Orleans Battery includes biographical sketches on nearly every soldier in the 17th. Taber also found 60 photographs of the soldiers that he included in the 320-page book.
He found a black-and-white image of the officers in the 17th through the Library of Congress. Taber restored the image, filling in cracks in the old negative. He used Photoshop to meticulously restore the image.
“There are problems all over with these old negatives,” Taber said. “There is stuff stuck on them and cracks.”
He uses the Photoshop computer program to fill in the cracks and recreate a scene. It takes numerous hours of research and painstaking detail.
Although the book came out a year ago, Taber has kept working to highlight the service of the local group of soldiers. After initially restoring the image of the officers in black-and-white, Taber has added color to the historic photograph taken at Camp Barry, Washington, D.C.
“My goal is to make it look like you’re sitting next to the photographer when he took the picture 150 years ago,” Taber said.
He added skin tones, dark blue coats and hats, lighter-colored pants and numerous other details.
“I want people to look like they did,” he said.
Taber, who retired in 2005 as a training coordinator at the county’s Job Development Agency, feels like he has adopted the soldiers from the 17th. Many returned from the war and led distinguished lives.
The leader of the local group of soldiers, Capt. George Anthony of Medina, would later move to Kansas and become governor of that state.
While hunting down images of soldiers from the 17th, Taber came across a scene from Appomattox Court House. A group of people includes soldiers and civilians by the famed red building where the Confederate Army surrendered.
Taber has been working on the restoration and “colorization” of the photograph. He studies the contrast from the sun and works to shade in intensity of color in trees and on the ground.
The Library for Congress image that doesn’t give the precise date of when it was taken. Taber said it could be the day of the surrender on April 9, 1865 or it may be a few days before or after.
The surrender at Appomattox ended a war with 620,000 deaths, including about 500 soldiers from Orleans County.
Tom Taber has restored and added color to this photo in April 1865 at Appomattox Court House, Virginia.
GAINES – The accompanying photo dating back around 80 years recently was given to the Orleans County Department of History by Dan Hatch. Here we see officers of the Gaines Grange posed in front of the Gaines Congregational Church in the 1930s.
The women in the picture, from left to right, include: Elinor Cooper, Sarah Bacon, Octavia Mather (chaplain), Kate Crowley, Alice Hatch (secretary), Alma Appleton and Wilhelmina Taylor.
The men in the photo include, from left: William Grinelle (trustee), Charles Thompson (trustee), Fred Derisley, Winton Hatch (master), Ronald Spinks, Lewis Reed and William Crowley (trustee).
The Gaines Grange 1147 was formed on Nov. 30, 1908. In May 1909, 40 people were initiated into membership. In the spring of 1915 they purchased Thurber’s Hotel next to the Congregational Church and transformed it into a Grange Hall. The third floor was fixed up for a dance hall with a superb hard floor being installed at the time. This was considered one of the best dance floors around at the time and one of the largest Grange Halls in the region.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 30 June 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – The Ingersoll Memorial Fountain is still going strong in Mount Albion 99 years after it was dedicated in the historic cemetery. The sandstone chapel is in the background.
ALBION – I’m glad they didn’t do it on the cheap nearly 100 years ago. The Ingersoll Memorial Fountain in Mount Albion is the Cadillac of fountains.
It has endured for nearly a century. It’s visible from Route 31 and is one of the three most iconic structures in the cemetery, with the front sandstone arch and the Civil War Memorial – Mount Albion Tower – also enduring landmarks.
I don’t know the full story behind the Ingersoll family. Nehemiah Ingersoll was an early prominent resident in Albion. There were only a few settlers in 1812, but when it was announced the canal would pass through here, entrepreneurs started to buy up land.
Photo by Tom Rivers
Ingersoll purchased much of the land near the planned intersection of the canal and Oak Orchard Road, the main north-south route through the area in 1822, according to a Wikipedia entry about Albion. Ingersoll’s land was soon subdivided, and the village, then known as Newport, began to grow.
I’d like to see Albion put up another fountain, and not just the cheapest one on the market. An Ingersoll-type fountain on the bank of the canal would be an attraction and would give our canal bank and downtown a big lift, while also drawing some customers for the downtown businesses.
I think the fountain should be built in honor of the 15 people who died in a Sept. 28, 1859 bridge collapse. I wrote about that part of our history about a week ago. You can read about it by clicking here.
Those 15 people died while watching a wire walker. I think Nik Wallenda could be talked into doing an event in Albion, to help the community dedicate a fountain in their memory.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 28 June 2013 at 12:00 am
ALBION – Before the Village of Albion Joint Municipal Industrial Pollution Control Facility was built about four decades ago on Densmore Street, the village had a smaller sewer facility on Densmore, west of the current facility.
Matt Ballard shared this photo of the sewer plant. The photograph was taken in May 1933 by Frank Nayman, then a laborer for the Village of Albion. The image was shot from the northeast corner of the facility looking southwest.
The row of houses along the left of the image are the back end of homes located along Moore, Joseph and Knapp streets. In the distance, three church steeples – the Presbyterian Church, St. Mary’s Assumption and the Baptist Church – are visible.
Ballard says it is an interesting photograph showing the mix of technology at the time, including the automobile and horses.
If you want to share a historic local photo, please email it to tom@orleanshub.com or drop it off at the Lake Country Pennysaver, 170 North Main St., Albion.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 23 June 2013 at 12:00 am
15 died in Albion in 1859 while watching a wire walker
Wikipedia photo
Nik Wallenda should add the Erie Canal to a growing list of famed sites that he has crossed on a high wire.
A year ago he conquered Niagara Falls, walking across the raging river on a high wire. Tonight, Nik Wallenda will attempt to clear the Grand Canyon while suspended 1,500 feet above the Colorado River Gorge.
I wish him well. Nik is an inspirational person, full of daring and courage.
I want him to come to Albion to do the longest wire walk on water. He could add the Erie Canal to his list of famed attractions that he faced down.
The calm canal is hardly the Niagara Falls or the Grand Canyon. The man-made waterway, which opened in 1825, isn’t a deep descent into the abyss. But the canal would lend itself to a long line of spectators. We could put stakes in the canal to hold the wire and Wallenda could walk a mile or more above the water, ending the walk at the Main Street lift bridge. I think he could start the walk by the Gaines Basin canal bridge and head east to the village. We could pack tens of thousands of people along the way.
Nik Wallenda should come walk the Erie Canal in Albion, ending at the journey at the Main Street lift bridge, where tragedy struck 154 years ago.
This isn’t just a crowd-pleasing initiative.
A Wallenda walk would bring a positive to a community that is home to one of the worst canal tragedies ever. It involves a wire walk from Sept. 28, 1859.
There was a bit of a wire-walking frenzy back then. Jean Francois Gravelet, “The Great Blondin,” walked across the Falls on a tight rope on June 30, 1859. A bunch of copycats sprang up, including one in Albion three months later during the county fair. The wooden Main Street bridge was packed with 250 people and five horses to watch a wire walker cross the canal just west of the bridge.
The wire walker didn’t get far before the bridge gave out from the weight of all the people and the horses. At least 15 people died, many of them children and young adults.
This tragedy wasn’t noted in the community until 2002, when the Orleans County Historical Association put a marker just west of the canal. The marker didn’t have enough room for the names of the people who died that day.
This historical marker acknowledges a horrific day in Albion’s history.
I think there should be a bigger memorial, with the names of the victims from this horrific accident. This was Albion’s most tragic day ever.
I’d like Nik to come and help us dedicate a fitting memorial to these folks. I think a nice fountain between the two lift bridges could serve as a memorial and a much-needed beautification project along the canal. If the fountain was between the lift bridges, it would also be visible from Platt Street, providing additional aesthetic benefit to the village and local residents.
The names of the people who died could be listed on a big sandstone slab or perhaps on a memorial sandstone walkway that could go around the fountain.
I put word out to Nik’s team about this project last summer, and he was reportedly “intrigued.” I haven’t pestered him because I knew he was focused on the Grand Canyon.
A memorial fountain would be highly visible from land and water along the canal bank at the end of Platt Street. The sign should be removed to make way for a fountain and memorial site for the victims of the 1859 bridge collapse.
I think now is the time for Albion community to try to entice him here, to help us pay our respects to people in a sad chapter of our history. Nik would be a part of Albion’s rebirth, helping a community that honors its heritage.
I’d like one of the local businesses or perhaps the Village Office to create a giant invitation for Nik. Let’s have hundreds, maybe thousands, of people sign it and we’ll get it to him. As a community we also need to commit ourselves to a fitting memorial for these people from Sept. 28, 1859.
Here are some of their names:
Perry G. Cole, aged 19, Barre.
Augusta Martin, aged 18, Carlton.
Mrs. Ann Viele, aged 36, Gaines.
Edwin Stillson, aged 16, Barre
Joseph Code, aged 18, Albion
Lydia Harris, aged 11, Albion
Thomas Handy, aged 66, Yates
Sarah Thomas, aged 10, Carlton
Harry Henry, aged 22
Ransom S. Murdock, aged 17, Carlton
Adelbert Wilcox, aged 17, West Kendall
Sophia Pratt, aged 18, Toledo, Ohio
Thomas Aulchin, aged 50, Paris, C.W.
Jane Lavery, Albion
(To read news accounts of the tragedy, click here.)
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 17 June 2013 at 12:00 am
FANCHER – In August 1949, the Fancher community gathered to dedicate a monument on the triangle along the Route 31 curve.
The memorial honored 10 soldiers from the Fancher community who died in World War II. The monument includes a plaque noting the ultimate sacrifice by John Christopher, Joseph Christopher, Cosmo Coccitti, John Kettle, Jr., Leonard Licursi, Martin Licursi, Richard Merritt, Camille Nenni, Floyd Valentine and Richard Vendetta.
I’ve driven by this monument hundreds of times. I was happy about a decade ago when the four electric clocks were repaired. This evening I stopped to find out the meaning behind the memorial.
It didn’t realize it was dedicated to WWII veterans, or that the small community of Fancher had lost so many in the war.
Click here for a link to an article in The Holley Standard from Aug. 11, 1949, previewing the dedication of the monument.
