Many more hot days in 2020 compared to 1883

Courtesy of Department of History: This diary offered a daily record of weather in Medina in 1883.

Illuminating Orleans, V1, No. 4      
By Catherine Cooper, Orleans County Historian

At the beginning of a new year, it is not unusual for people to resolve to keep diaries or lists. Our subject this week is an example of such, from the collection at the Medina Historical Society Museum. It is a sturdy tan note-book, with a plain cover. The first page contains the following inscription which describes its purpose:

“A Weather Record kept at Medina, Orleans County, NY, from Jan. 1st 1883 to  “

The columns of the pages of this ledger type note-book were labeled to indicate the Year, Date Temperature, Time, Wind and Weather. The temperature for each day was neatly recorded at three times every day: Sunrise, 1 p.m. and Sunset.

The prevailing wind direction was noted, as well as the general weather condition, whether Cloudy, Clear, Rain, Snow, Sleet, or Fog. There are occasional notations in tiny handwriting: “a very windy day and night” or “3 or 4 inches of snow in night”

The destructive windstorm of 1885 is noted: “1885, Jan. 26, A terrible windy night, 50 chimneys reported blown down in the village”

There are notations about fires:

“1883, Feb. 10, about 5 am, fire broke out in the pail factory of Johnson & Wigley on East Center St., the fire went into the adjoining building known as the Union Mills, owned and occupied by S. C. Hoag, both buildings nearly all burnt up, with contents.”

“1883, Nov. 1, Fire alarm at 9:45 pm, fire discovered in Mrs. Alford’s barn, in the alley between Park Ave. and Center St., burnt down, with J.C. Davis barn adjoining & Pat Horan & A.M. Barry barns on the north side. The next adjoining shed was Newell’s, which to stop the fire he ordered pulled down & the fire was stopped, thus preventing a spread of the fire, as a strong SW wind was blowing, a terrible fire would have been the result”

These descriptions highlight the destruction that could ensue from a single fire, at a time when many buildings and most barns were of wooden construction.

And how do the summer temperatures compare with ours?

In 2020, we had one 93-degree day in May, one 90-degree day in June, and in July eight consecutive days of 90 degrees or higher, as well as the hottest day in 63 years at 98 degrees.

In the summer of 1883, there was one 90-degree day, 15 days with a temperature between 80 and 84, and 3 days with a temperature between 85 and 89.

In the summer of 1885, there was no 90-degree or higher day, 21 days with a temperature between 80 and 84 and 2 days with a temperature between 85 and 89.

We are so accustomed to having detailed weather information right at hand, on our phones. Local newspapers in the 1880’s were weekly and did not include weather forecasts. But, by 1882, Pool’s Signal Service Barometer, “the Best in the World” was advertised regularly. It could be ordered “on receipt of $1, or 6 for $4” from J.A. Pool’s Oswego Thermometer Works, Oswego, NY.

The weather records in this notebook run from Jan. 1883 to August 21, 1886, the last full entry on the next to last page. We can deduce that this record keeper was methodical and precise. But what of the person’s identity?

The answer is provided at the end of the very last page of this notebook. The notation reads:

“Levan W. Merritt died at 1:15 a.m., August 23, 1886. Funeral services at 3 p.m. Aug. 26th, 1886. Burial about 4:30 p.m. under a perfectly cloudless sky.”

Born in Connecticut in 1806, Mr. Merritt came to Medina in 1833. He operated a flouring mill. In 1841, when he built his sturdy red brick home at 406 West Ave., the location was considered to be “out in the country”. He helped design the layout of Boxwood Cemetery, was a founding member of the first fire company and is credited with planting the first shade trees on the Village streets. He would, no doubt, have appreciated that “perfectly cloudless sky”.

Illuminating Orleans, Vol. 1, No. 3

By Catherine Cooper, County Historian

The holiday season invariably evokes memories of times past and the terrifyingly magical experience of a visit with Santa Claus is one that remains vivid.

The top image is an evocative photograph showing children at G.C. Murphy’s store on Main Street, Medina. The photo is courtesy of Medina Historical Society.

A Medinian recalls: “I remember walking to the back of Murphy’s store, Santa was seated on a throne.”

Several people recall a Santa situated at the back left corner of Newberry’s store in Albion, he gave out candy canes and coloring books. This photo is from the Orleans County Department of History file.

Photo from the Orleans County Department of History

But, the most famous Santa of all, of course, was right in Albion. Visiting Christmas Park during the year was a thrill, as was the opportunity to feed the reindeer or ride on the Christmas train.

An Albion lady recalls the ultimate Santa experience:

“I sat on Charles Howard’s lap at Christmas Park. Near his seat was a ‘fishing pond,’ where, for probably 25 cents, you’d put a pole with some sort of clothes pin on the line over the barrier – you’d feel a tug, and reel in some little toys that are probably collectibles today. I remember getting a bag with 2 comic books in it.”

Ridge Road Station image courtesy of Medina Historical Society

More recently, a generation of children (and their accompanying adults) experienced the wonder of Christmas at Ridge Road Station in Holley. This 30,000 square-foot emporium was in operation from 1992-2011. It was the largest independent toy and Christmas store in New York State.

The inventory and displays were absolutely breathtaking. Garlands and stars, ornaments of every description, a mesmerizing train layout, a wealth of imaginative toys and collectibles.

But, commerce is inextricably intertwined with Christmas. G.C. Murphy’s, Newberry’s, Christmas Park and Ridge Road Station no longer exist in the physical dimension, but they live on vividly in the memories of those who experienced them.

By Doug Farley, Cobblestone Museum Director; and Bill Lattin, former Director

John Proctor

GAINES – The presence of water was an important consideration for pioneers to this region when they were looking to purchase property. Plentiful fresh water was important for livestock, crop irrigation and much more.

John Proctor would have pondered the same considerations when he acquired his land from the Holland Land Company in the early 1800s. The meandering brook that now bears his name probably played heavily in his decision to locate his prototype community of Fair Haven (now Childs) at the intersection of the Ridge Road and Oak Orchard Road.

When and how Proctor Brook got its name is not recorded, but most likely honors the community’s founding father.

Time marches on, and over time, little attention was paid to Proctor Brook, so little, that folks had pretty much forgotten its name. Town of Carlton Historian Lysbeth “Betsy” Hoffman recalls “re-discovering” the name in the 1980s when she was reviewing 1820s Town Board Minutes.

In those documents, she saw frequent references to the name Proctor Brook, which grabbed her attention and got her thinking about the probable location of this mystery waterway. Betsy contacted Mike Slack from the abstract office at the County Clerk’s Office, and he verified that Proctor Brook was indeed the historic name assigned to the little tributary that crosses the Ridge Road at Childs while winding through the towns of Gaines and Carlton.

In an effort to make sure the community didn’t forget the name of Proctor Brook again, and to commemorate John Proctor for posterity, a fitting sign was built by Cobblestone Museum volunteer George Callard and erected near the brook on the grounds of the Museum’s Route 98 campus.

Assisting in this effort was Town of Gaines Historian Dee Robinson, Town of Carlton Historian Betsy Hoffman, and Orleans County Historian Bill Lattin. A dedication ceremony for the sign took place on September 11, 1988.

Proctor Brook has its geographic beginning in a marshy area around the present day Sheret American Legion Post on Gaines Basin Road. From there it travels north and approaches the Erie Canal as shown above left.  Then it goes under the canal through a sleuth located west of the canal guard gate and exits on the north side of the canal bank as seen above right. It then meanders mainly northward, but sometimes east and west, too.

Proctor Brook enters the Hamlet of Childs alongside Route 98 near the Cobblestone Museum’s artisan buildings as seen here with the NYS DOT crew cleaning up the bank.  The brook then travels through the Museum campus and crosses Route 104 just west of the Village Inn.  From there it continues through the Town of Gaines until reaching Carlton where it joins forces with Marsh Creek and heads on to Lake Ontario.

At some point in the mid- 20th century, Proctor Brook received a boost with a new supply of water diverted through an Erie Canal syphon. As seen here, the syphon is located west of the canal guard gate.

Farmers can petition NYS to receive a permit to use that water supply for their crops or other needs. Excess water from the syphon drains into Proctor Brook. Jim Kirby utilized the syphon for his farming for many years. Former Orleans County Historian Bill Lattin recalls one year in the late 1900s when Kirby said the syphon stopped working. He investigated the situation and discovered a large turtle had been sucked into the vortex and got stuck, effectively closing off the water supply. Kirby said, “Getting that thing out of there was a nasty job.”

Proctor Brook has had some man-made adjustments made to its course, too. In 1921 the original Blacksmith Shop at the corner of Routes 104 and 98 caught fire and burned to the ground. Local farmers knew the absence of a local blacksmith shop would negatively impact their livelihood. Bill Lattin described their desperation, “The farmers, while the embers were still hot from the fire, pitched in to help blacksmith Joseph Vagg rebuild his shop.”

But, this time they decided to site the blacksmith shop a little further south to help protect Joe’s home from catching fire, too.  To do so, they needed to relocate Proctor Brook which would have gone right through the new shop.  So, the farmers and Vagg set about moving Proctor Brook about 20-25 feet south to make way for the new structure.  They did that by dropping boulders into the creek bed that effectively moved the brook, making a sharp turn to the west, and then follow its current course to the south of the shop.

Proctor Brook, usually a very gentle little stream, is known to have an annual freshet or spring flood, usually in May or June. Some have been pretty severe. Melva Vagg Warner, Joe Vagg’s daughter, recalled that during one particularly severe flood, she kept track of Proctor Brook’s high water point by placing a mark on the side of her barn that sits next to the brook.

That marking came in handy in 1977 when the Cobblestone Museum was relocating its Print Shop to the grounds on the banks of Proctor Brook, and pondered how high to elevate the shop to avoid potential flooding. Bill Lattin said that Town of Gaines Highway Superintendent Cliff Kelley used a transit and Melva Warner’s water mark to determine a presumably safe position.

That theory was tested in the 1980s when the spring thaw resulted in flooding that came to within one inch from overflowing the floor of the Print Shop.

At that point, the water rose to over 1 foot above Route 98. It was during that flood that the Cobblestone Museum’s historic wooden cattle trough, usually located in front of Farmers Hall, floated downstream and ended up at the cobblestone house on Route 104.

The high water mark for that flood is still visible inside the Eastlake outhouse located next to the Print Shop. The water line is just above the row of seats.

By Doug Farley, Director Cobblestone Museum; and Bill Lattin, Retired Director

CHILDS – The impetus for this article surrounds this historic photo circa 1905 which Bill Lattin recently purchased at an antique shop. Notice here the set of steps used for mounting and dismounting a horse, wagon or buggy.

On the back of the photo is written Miss A. D. Reidel. The name of the presumed photographer, August Christe, is also stamped on the back with a rubber stamp. Retired Cobblestone Resource Center Director Dee Robinson researched these two names and found them in the 1900 U.S. Federal Census.

Annie Reidel was 14 years of age and living on Bessell Avenue in Buffalo. Albert Augustus Christie was age 33 and lived on Fifth Street, also in Buffalo. Through this little bit of detective work, we can guess this picture may have been taken in Erie County.

Notice again in this picture of the steps how the platform overhangs the base. This was done intentionally so the hub of the wheels on the democrat wagon, shown in the picture, could roll under the platform. This arrangement reduced the gap between the wagon box and the mounting steps. There had to be innumerable wooden mounting steps and platforms in use in the area in horse and buggy days.

Using the historic photo as a guide, Bill Lattin recently built a replica set of mounting step, seen here in this modern photo, now located in front of the Vagg House in Childs.

The buggy in the photo was donated to the Cobblestone Museum by Bill, Tom and Mark Tillman in the 1980s when they renovated their old barn to become what is now the Carriage Room at the Village Inn Restaurant. The buggy is one of several historic vehicles that are planned for a new exhibit in the Vagg Carriage Barn located behind the Vagg House. Tours of the house and barn will begin in 2021.

Also typical of the era, are the horse block or carriage stone seen here in front of the Ward House at the Cobblestone Museum. The large stone blocks had the advantage of not being easily moved and did not rot.

This piece of beautiful Medina Sandstone has the local family name “Bacon” carved into it. Bill Lattin recalls this horse block was given to the Museum around 1970 by Earl Harding. It was once located in front of the brick house at Five Corners. The Bacon horse block was moved to the Ward House about 1977 along with two fine Medina Sandstone hitching posts donated by former Orleans County Historian Cary Lattin. Each hitching post has the number 74 on it. Lattin said these came from 74 West State Street in Albion.

Because carriages and wagons were high off the ground it was advantageous to have a step, especially for ladies with long skirts, to embark and disembark such conveyances. This historic photo of the Cobblestone Universalist Church at Childs shows a high terrace in front for the same purpose.

It seems originally there was only a very high flight of wooden stairs up to the front entrance. In 1874 an earth ramp, brick platform and stone steps were added to the front of the church. This was so carriages on Sunday could pull right up in front and ladies and children could disembark on the level.

The driver of the buggy could then drive around to the carriage shed behind the church for the duration of the church service. Note a small portion of the shed shows on the left side of the photo behind the evergreens.

A similar situation existed at the Fair Haven Hotel, circa 1903, now the Village Inn at Childs. Notice the steps are at the corner. The rest of the porch is high across the front so carriages could pull right up close for people to easily step off onto the porch.

When carriage blocks were not in sight, the nearest stump often served as an easy way for the horse back rider to mount or dismount his steed.

Bridge building, Jeddo, 1916, Orleans County History Department collection.

By Catherine Cooper, County Historian – Vol. 1, No. 2

RIDGEWAY – Part of the fascination of local history is that it adds layers of depth to our experience of our surroundings.

The accompanying photograph is of men building a bridge at Jeddo in 1916. However, the background brings into consideration several factors: the determination of the early settlers, how a determined re-routing of water led to the formation of a vibrant settlement, and an appreciation of oral history for preserving the details that enhance the story.

On June 11, 1916, the steel bridge spanning Jeddo Creek on Ridge Road collapsed and fell into Johnson Creek. The Medina Daily Journal of June 12, 1916 reported:

“The water raised so high Saturday and Sunday that it washed out the abutments and foundation of the bridge spanning the creek.”

Town of Ridgeway officials acted quickly. Highway Superintendent Harry Waldo and Town Supervisor Burt Smith declared the bridge a “total wreck” and on June 14 at a special meeting, the Town Board called for a proposition to raise taxes by the sum of $5,000 to construct a concrete archway or bridge over Jeddo Creek at Ridge Road, this proposition to be voted on July 5.

On June 22, 1916, it was reported that a “substantial temporary bridge which could be crossed by a detour has been completed over the creek at Jeddo, consequently travel on the Ridge highway will not be interrupted while the stone arch, planned to take the place of the old bridge, is being erected.”

This bridge was completed by November.

The 1916 bridge collapse was not the first such at Jeddo. A severe flood in 1897 washed out a dam and the foundation of the mill. Yet another flood occurred in 1902. Jeddo residents may have wondered if these occurrences were the result of a stealthy re-routing of the creek by earlier settlers. This intriguing item of local lore has thankfully been preserved in an oral history interview conducted by former Historian Arden McAllister with Horace Bird in 1978.

According to Mr. Bird, the land around the Jeddo area was wet and swampy, and was referred to as “Wild Cat Swamp.” The creek then was but a stream which moved sluggishly along the south side of Ridge Road and joined the Oak Orchard River south of Ridgeway Corners.

Pioneer settler, Jeremiah Brown, took his oxen and dug a trench across Ridge Road to divert the water. Farmers on the north side were furious as their land flooded, so they filled in the trench. Jeremiah persisted with re-digging the trench and soon the volume of water draining north created a channel which joined with Johnson Creek and necessitated the construction of a bridge. The drained farmland proved very suitable for fruit orchards. The volume of water proved suitable for a mill and soon the settlement grew to include a saw mill as well as a cooperage, a blacksmith shop, a store, and for some time, a jelly factory.

Too often, we traverse historic Route 104, aware of the hamlets only as areas to reduce speed. Next time, take note of the jaunty oversize bowling pins at Jeddo Mills Antiques and salute the determination of the settlers, bridge builders, millers and merchants who lived there.

To access newspaper articles: www.nyshistoricnewspapers.org.

Transcripts of the Orleans County Oral Histories are available at Lee-Whedon Memorial Library, Medina, and Hoag Library, Albion.

By Doug Farley, Cobblestone Museum Director

CHILDS – In the past two weeks, we have looked at how electricity first came to the Hamlet of Childs and the dramatic effect it had on changing how people lived their lives.

It was said, “Electricity is the only servant you will ever need!” Times had changed. In the early-1800s, if you were fortunate enough to have rugs in your home, the homemaker would probably clean them by hanging them over a line outdoors and then swatting them with a carpet beater.

Fast forward 50 years or more and the Victorian home might have the Eureka Pneumatic Cleaner as seen above in the Ward House in the Hamlet of Childs.

Actual operation of this vacuum was cumbersome at best. It was a heavy, two-person endeavor that required someone to pump the handle to create suction and someone else to direct the wand to the area to be cleaned.

Moving forward to the decade known as the Roaring ’20s, we find a much improved cleaner called the Airway as seen here at the Vagg House in Childs.  This upright electric vacuum cleaner was produced by the Air-Way Sanitizor Company beginning in 1920. Company advertising stated this revolutionary machine “could be found in modern homes the world over!”

Housewives throughout time have probably shared a distain for laundry day. Certain chores have been worse than others, but most folks would agree that ironing is a chore they don’t enjoy. Electricity changed that, at least to some degree.

Prior to installing electricity in the home, homemakers would have removed wrinkles from their family’s clothes and linens using a heavy iron made of cast-iron. The iron would need to be heated on a wood or coal stove before it was used. Controlling the temperature of the “appliance” was iffy at best. Certainly many a shirt was scorched in the process.

Electricity added a new level of convenience to the chore. Not only were the new electric irons lighter, they had switches to control the temperature of the iron. An early electric iron is shown above.  This model had another benefit in that the iron itself was cordless. The base unit held the electric cord and when used, it would heat up the iron to a suitable temperature.

If we move forward another 20 years to World War II, we start to see another appliance added to the home to help with ironing clothes, the electric mangle. Relatively speaking, this was a pretty large appliance compared to the simple iron. It consisted of a cloth covered roller inside a freestanding white enamel cabinet that heated up and pressed clothes by applying pressure between the roller and a metal plate. The model shown here was owned and used by Hamlet of Child’s resident, Nellie Vagg, wife of blacksmith Joseph Vagg.

Today, with modern blended fabrics and de-wrinkle settings on clothes dryers, we don’t pay a lot of attention to pressing clothes.  This was not the case during the Baby Boom years when an assortment of electrical appliances were created to help with the task. In the above photo we see two such devices, an electric tie presser and pants creaser.

The last item we will look at today, shown above, is an appliance you probably have not seen very often, if at all.  See if you can guess what it’s used for.  It was usually found in the kitchen, but could have been located in other rooms, too.

If you guessed a DE-FLY-ER Model 1600 by DE-BUG-ER INC., you win the Kewpie Doll!  This appliance was designed to rid your household of flying and crawling insects using invisible vapors. (Don’t breathe too deeply though, the device used benzene hexachloride, a known carcinogen, today!)  The patent date shown here is 1950, and at that date, electricity had finally become available in all of Orleans County.

Our next article of Electricity Comes to Childs (Part 4) will take a look at even more labor savings appliances that found prominence in the all-electric kitchen after World War II.

Electric appliances doomed other industries, including ice harvesting

(Editor’s Note: This is part of an ongoing series about the historic Childs hamlet. This article is part 2 of when electricity came to Childs in the late 1920s. Part three will be next week.)

By Doug Farley, Cobblestone Museum Director

Electric appliance companies, such as Edison General Electric, had an interesting marketing pitch in the 1920s to help sell their newfangled electrical devices, “Electricity is the only servant you will ever need!”

Such was the case in the Hamlet of Childs after electric power became readily available after 1926. Perhaps the most successful of all of the G.E. appliances was the monitor top refrigerator (pictured above), first introduced in 1927.

This success of the refrigerator sounded the beginning of a death knoll for another industry, ice harvesting.  The “Iceman” was a frequent visitor to homes in the Hamlet of Childs before the arrival of electricity.  It’s probably safe to say there was an icebox in every home in the 1800s and early 1900s as demonstrated by this ice sign found in window at the Ward House in Childs.

Homeowners used signs like this to let the iceman know how much ice they needed for their delivery.  The number showing at the top of the sign signaled the iceman to bring the corresponding number of pounds of ice into the home.

With monitor top refrigerators replacing ice boxes, a new dilemma surfaced for housewives, namely how to defrost their refrigerator without spoiling all the food inside.

Today with frost-free refrigeration, we’ve lost track of the need to manually defrost the appliance to remove the ice that would build up on the refrigerator’s freezer compartment. Electricity came to the rescue with a new gadget designed to quickly and safely melt the accumulated ice.

If monitor-top refrigerators were one of the largest electrical appliances, perhaps the smallest would have been the electric sifter.  Even such mundane tasks as sifting flour became fair game for electrification in the new electric household.

When electricity was new, it was originally installed in a home for lighting.  As manufacturers began to produce more and more electrical appliances homeowners didn’t have enough outlets installed in their homes.

Necessity became the mother of invention and it was not unusual to see a power cord dangling from an overhead light fixture, because that was the only power source to be found. This is demonstrated at the Vagg House in Childs where a Royal Rochester waffle iron is plugged into an overhead light fixture.

This connection was made possible by removing an incandescent lightbulb from a light fixture and screwing in a lampholder plug to provide an outlet in the room.  In the early days it was not uncommon to use a light fixture to power your vacuum cleaner, space heater, flat iron, radio and many other appliances.

Another problem with early electrical appliances was found with the plug at the end of the cord. Appliance manufactures each chose their own design for the arrangement of the prongs.

Even if you were fortunate enough to have an electrical wall socket in your home, it might not have the needed configuration to match the pins on your appliance.

This socket and plug dilemma didn’t get resolved until the mid-20th century when groups like Underwriters Laboratories came up with their “Seal of Approval” to designate standardized, safe appliances. You can see a portion of the familiar red and gold seal on this apartment-sized electric clothes washer manufactured by the Cinderella Company and on display at the Vagg House in Childs.

Washday doldrums were a routine occurrence prior to the arrival of electricity.  Every piece of laundry required hand scrubbing, rinsing, and wringing dry, followed up by hanging laundry outdoors to air dry. Here we see a 1900 mechanical clothes washer manufactured by Boss of Cincinnati.

It required hand cranking to scrub the clothes and then using the mechanical wringer shown here. This washing system is in place at the Ward House in Childs and represents the way clothes were cleaned in the Victorian era.

Moving forward a generation to the 1920s, electricity changed the washday routine offering “modern” homemakers a little more leisure time. Here we see an early electric clothes washer manufactured by the Easy Washing Machine Company (1877-1963) with headquarters in Syracuse, NY.

This model featured a spin dryer, which was an improvement over their wringer model. This system is found in the Vagg House in Childs.

With all of the new labor saving electrical devices, homemakers now had some new found leisure time. Families could turn their attention to enjoying some music, news, or drama on the console radio in their living room. Early radios were often large pieces of furniture that made a statement that this household has arrived in the 20th century.

Our next article (Part 3) will take a look at even more labor savings appliances that found prominence in the all-electric home of the Roaring ’20s, including the Air-Way Sanitizing System (vacuum cleaner), Hamilton Beach Mixer with Juicerizer, ceramic hotplate, electric iron, mangle, tie presser, pants creaser, drip-o-lator, and more.

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Not everyone was quick to hook up to new system – ‘You don’t miss what you never had’

Photos courtesy of Cobblestone Museum

By Doug Farley, Cobblestone Museum Director

GAINES – Burning candles or kerosene were two ways the school, the church, homes and businesses in the Hamlet of Childs would have provided lighting in the 1800s as seen here in this kerosene lamp fixture in the Universalist Church at Childs.

Note the glass “smoke bells” above the lamps that were designed to protect the ceiling by capturing the soot that was released when burning kerosene. Kerosene lighting was augmented with a product called “manufactured gas.”

The Albion Gasworks manufactured gas from 1858-1927. They did this by heating coal in a “retort” which produced a gas vapor that was stored under pressure to provide lighting for their customers. The byproduct produced from the process was known as “coke,” and was burned to provide heat in many early homes.

The next generation of lighting followed in 1888 when The Albion Electric Light & Power Company began generating power below the steel arch bridge from their hydroelectric station at Waterport. They distributed power using transmission lines that ran south along what we know as NYS Route 279.

Photo courtesy Orleans County Historian

One of the first major usages of Albion Power electricity was for electric arc street lights in the Village of Albion beginning April 1890.  Here we see a community effort to raise a power pole in Albion.

Even though electricity was available at that time, there was a certain reticence to hook into the line. For instance, the Pullman Church always had power when it was built in 1894, but the nearby St. Joseph’s Church waited until 1913, and the Episcopal Church didn’t electrify until 1914. There is an adage that says, “You don’t miss what you never had.” That was the case for many homeowners, too.

Former Orleans County Historian Bill Lattin remembers his father, Cary Lattin, telling him that he had electric wiring installed in his house on Gaines Basin Road when it was built in 1932, even though electricity was not yet available on the road.

Lattin lobbied his neighbors to try to drum up enough interest to entice the electric company to send power up Gaines Basin Road. But, Lattin had little success talking his neighbors into spending the money to add electricity to their homes in the era of the Great Depression.

Lattin finally succeeded in his quest when he convinced his fellow taxpayers of the Gaines Basin School that they should have electric lights in their schoolhouse. The neighbors’ favorable decision was responsible for power being distributed on the road. Lattin hooked up right away, but many neighbors waited awhile to follow suit.

Electricity finally reached the Hamlet of Childs circa 1926. Other parts of the county weren’t fully electrified until after World War II. This is a birds-eye view of Childs in the early 1950s.

In the early days, those who wanted electricity in their homes would install “knob & tube” wiring on their interior walls. The two wires were plainly visible to the homes occupants and were held away from touching the wall using porcelain insulators.

Ceramic insulators were also used for switches to help protect from stray electrical shocks.   Here we see an early turn-button switch that was commonly used.

Other switches used push-buttons. Another oddity of that era was that fuse boxes were sometimes installed in a home’s attic instead of the basement. The electric lines entered the home through the attic, so it made sense at the time to place the fuse box there, too, albeit a little inconvenient to change a fuse.  In later days, wiring was recessed behind walls, like we know it today.

Editor’s Note: This is the 14th article in a series about historic Childs in the Town of Gaines. The hamlet of Childs lies just north of Albion at the intersection of Routes 104 and 98. In 2019, Childs was selected to be on the Landmark Society of Western New York’s “Five to Revive” list. In 1993, the federal U.S. Department of the Interior declared the Cobblestone Museum in Childs a National Historic Landmark, the first site in Orleans County with that distinction.

The next article will take a look at the proliferation of labor savings appliances that found prominence in the all-electric home of the Roaring ’20s. 

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Sgt. James Sheret and his brother Pvt. Egbert Sheret were both killed in action on Sept. 29, 1918

By Catherine Cooper, Orleans County Historian 

Illuminating Orleans, No. 1

Photo courtesy of Catherine Cooper: The Mack Flag Pole is located on the front lawn of Central Hall (East Park and Platt Streets, Albion). The memorial was dedicated in 1977 to the memory of Frank Joseph Mack Sr., a past commander of Sheret Post #35 American Legion and a medical corpsman who served on the island of Guam with the U.S. Army Medical Corps during WWII.

ALBION – This first column of Illuminating Orleans appropriately enough focuses on Central Hall, East Park Street in Albion, as its varied incarnations over the years dovetail with Veterans Day.

This solid red-brick building was the Central School from 1882-1934. Purchased by Orleans County in 1980, it has since accommodated the Treasurer’s Dept., the Probation Dept. and the Historian’s Office.

Having outgrown its quarters, the Historian’s Office and Orleans County History Dept. will soon be moved to the second floor, recently vacated by Probation.

From 1935-1980 the building was home to Sheret Post #35 American Legion which was named in honor of Sgt. James A. Sheret whom General Pershing considered “one of the hundred heroes of WW1”. A member of Co. F. 108th Reg., NY Volunteer Infantry, Sgt. Sheret was killed in action on September 29, 1918. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for the bravery of his actions during the attack on the Hindenburg Line.

Sept. 29, 1918 was a dark day indeed for the Sheret family, as their son Pvt. Egbert Sheret, a machine gunner was also killed in action on that same day. Yet another son, Andrew, was wounded at that battle, but survived. A fourth son, John G. served in the Navy and mercifully survived the war as well.

The Sheret brothers were the sons of John Galashan Sheret Sr. who immigrated from Aberdeenshire, Scotland in 1886. He married Anna Wickizer of South Ausman, Susquehanna County, Pa. in 1891. Described as a block breaker by profession in the 1915 NY Census, John Sheret Sr. became secretary of the International Union of Paving Cutters. John and Anna had ten children: James, Egbert, John Jr., Andrew, Elsie, Marion, Virginia, Donald and Bernard, with quite a range in age as James was born in 1892 and Bernard in 1916.

John Sheret Sr. maintained his ties with Scotland and visited family in 1911, sailing on the ship Caledonia, according to Ellis Island records. Naturally, the Scottish branch of the family was also saddened by the loss of the two young men. The Aberdeen Evening Express of November 26, 1918 carried a notice of James and Egbert’s deaths:

“Two brothers, James and Egbert Sheret, of the U.S.A. Infantry, were killed in action on 29th September last. They were the eldest and second sons of Mr. John Sheret, late of Bucksburn, and grandsons of Mrs. Sheret, Kirkvale, Ashgrove Road, Aberdeen. A third brother was wounded on the same day, and a fourth brother is in training.”

The Sheret brothers of Albion are also included in the Aberdeen and District Roll of Honour which is housed at the National Library of Scotland:

This family who sacrificed so much is buried in the Fairview section of Mount Albion Cemetery. Their memory is honored in the buildings and organizations named for them. Their story is part of the collection maintained by the History Dept. at Central Hall.

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Photos courtesy of the Cobblestone Museum: The Harness Shop was moved to the Cobblestone Museum grounds on Route 98 in 1987. Several structures have been relocated and preserved at the museum.

(Editor’s Note: This is the 12th article in a series about historic Childs in the Town of Gaines. The hamlet of Childs lies just north of Albion at the intersection of Routes 104 and 98. In 2019, Childs was selected to be on the Landmark Society of Western New York’s “Five to Revive” list. In 1993, the federal U.S. Department of the Interior declared the Cobblestone Museum in Childs a National Historic Landmark, the first site in Orleans County with that distinction.)

By Doug Farley, Cobblestone Museum Director

In the 1800s, before the advent of the horseless carriage, it was very common to find one or more harness shops in every community as shown above in the list of harness businesses in Orleans County.

The typical harness maker could reproduce over 50 different leather goods used to make a horse’s harness, any of which could break down due to heavy use and weathering.

The typical harness shop also carried metal fasteners for harnesses, currycombs, lap robes, harness oil, gloves, whips, ointments and much more.

Harness maker P. Henry Peters is shown here at the entrance of his harness store in Albion.  A sampling of the numerous types of leather goods he produced is seen in the store windows and also on the life-sized horse mannequin he moved outdoors in fair weather.

The Hamlet of Childs is now home to the J. G. Peters Harness Shop, a building which was built by Starr Chester in 1838 in the Town of Gaines. It originally was used as a shoe store until Chester’s death in 1880. The next owner, Gates Knickerbocker, purchased the building for $30 and moved it to another location in Gaines where it served as a jewelry and clock repair business until his death in 1914.

The photo above depicts the Knickerbocker clock repair store in the late 1800s. A series of owners used the building for other purposes including a gun repair shop, paint shop, cycle depot and as a rental property in the mid-1900s.

The little shop passed to the Cobblestone Society in 1987 when owner Rose Welles, notified Cobblestone Museum director C. W. Lattin that she would donate the building to the Cobblestone Museum complex. Shown above (left) is Delia Robinson, Town of Gaines Historian; C. W. Bill Lattin, Rose Welles, and Janice Thaine, Gaines Deputy Historian.

In more recent years, the little shop had been used as living quarters in connection with the Chatterbox Restaurant located next door. Here we see the building in 1987 as it is being prepared to be moved to the Hamlet of Childs.

The building was moved intact, one mile down Ridge Road, to the Cobblestone Museum campus on August 28, 1987 through courtesies performed by Rice Homes of Barre Center, the Orleans County Sheriff’s Department and the Town of Gaines.

The Cobblestone Museum accepted the donation of the building with a plan to relocate its own collection of harness making equipment from the lower level of its Cobblestone Church where it was displayed.  The leatherworking tools had been gifted to the museum in 1963 from the estate of John G. Peters.

Peters was born on July 4, 1877 and served a three-year apprenticeship under Reuben Pridmore, harness maker, in Albion. In 1909, Peters opened a harness shop of his own in Lyndonville. In 1918, Mr. Peters “saw the handwriting on the wall,” and knew tractors were taking over for horses.

He decided to take up shoe repair to earn his livelihood when the harness business became a thing of the past. Following Peters’ death, his family donated his entire collection of artifacts associated with his business to the Cobblestone Museum.

On July 9, 1989 the building was dedicated on the Cobblestone Museum campus as the J. G. Peters Harness Shop. The building was fully restored to house the Peters Collection. Over 50 members of the Peters family attended the celebration with a full family reunion, including a group photo in front of the restored harness shop.

There were innumerable men such as John Peters who manufactured and repaired harnesses around the turn of the 20th century. The J.G. Peters Harness shop serves today as a memorial not just to one man, but to an entire trade. Peters represents the countless craftsmen who plied their trade for hundreds of years, providing needed and valuable services to their communities.

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Photos courtesy of Cobblestone Museum: The Farmers Hall is on Route 98, just south of the Route 104 intersection. The building was originally a church in Kendall and then the Kendall Town Hall.

(Editor’s Note: This is the 11th article in a series about historic Childs in the Town of Gaines. The hamlet of Childs lies just north of Albion at the intersection of Routes 104 and 98. In 2019, Childs was selected to be on the Landmark Society of Western New York’s “Five to Revive” list. In 1993, the federal U.S. Department of the Interior declared the Cobblestone Museum in Childs a National Historic Landmark, the first site in Orleans County with that distinction.)

By Doug Farley, Cobblestone Museum Director

CHILDS – The Cobblestone Museum maintains several wooden structures in the Hamlet of Childs in addition to its National Historic Landmark cobblestone buildings. The large wooden Greek Revival building that is located on the southern end of the campus is known today as Farmers Hall.  It has a truly unique and storied history since it was first built in the Town of Kendall in 1855.

Originally the Universalist Church of Kendall, this Greek Revival structure served its congregation in Kendal until the early 1880s when a German Lutheran congregation used the church for another two decades.  Following that, the building became the Kendall Town Hall, a status that lasted until a new Town Hall was built in the 1970s.

The next intended use for the old building in Kendall would have been a preservation nightmare. Kendall officials had planned to use the old church turned Town Hall for fire practice. That tragedy was narrowly averted when Cobblestone Museum officials received permission to move the two-story building to their campus to display their growing collection of farm tools from the 19th and early 20th century.

The biggest obstacle to this decision for the Cobblestone Museum board was they had run out of land on which to put the building. That dilemma was solved when Mrs. Neva Murray made an offer of land adjacent to the museum property. In May 1978, Museum Director Bill Lattin, Kendall Town Historian Mrs. Delores Sedore and four CETA workers (a Nixon-era job training program) began the monumental task of disassembling the building, board by board, and numbering all of the components for later reassembly at the museum’s artisan campus on Route 98.

Almost miraculously, the building was reassembled by November of the same year. Bill Lattin has recently lamented, “If I knew then what I know now, I never would have started that project!”

Joe Ward, Eddie Drisdom & Ronnie Tower are shown outside their job site at Farmers Hall following its reconstruction. The next year work progressed on the building’s interior, followed by pulling together the Museum’s farm tool collection from the disparate corners of the county where donated objects lacking display space had been stored for many years.

Once accomplished, June 1, 1980 was selected to be the day of celebration for the completion of the Herculean task.

Dignitaries from around the state came to speak at Farmers Hall Dedication. Shown here are (from left) Marcia Hart, Kendall Supervisor Mike Paduchak, NYS Senator John Daly and Rev. Richard Hood from the Pullman Memorial Unitarian Church.

Over 2,000 spectators assembled that day to enjoy the 70-unit Farmers Parade on Route 104.

Five generations of Kirby Farms were celebrated in one of many farm floats.

Everyone was a farmer for at least one day. The parade route stretched from the 104 Country Shop in Gaines to Zambito Produce in Childs.  Coach Ed Stackwick served as Parade Marshall and a reviewing podium was set up in front of the Cobblestone Universalist Church.

A timeless message proclaimed using antique farm equipment.

A square dance followed the parade in the parking lot of Radzinski’s H&A Superette and adjoining liquor store.

Farmers Hall has continuously served as an educational site since it was dedicated right up to today. Here we see the first school tour in Farmers Hall in 1979 when teacher Mr. Gary Kent (back row center) brought his Social Studies class from Kendall School.

Georgia Thomas demonstrates butter churning outside of Farmers Hall at a Cobblestone Museum event in 2018.

Hundreds and hundreds of school tours later, C. W. “Bill” Lattin ended his official tenure as Cobblestone Museum Director in 2010 after 40 years of dedicated service to the museum community.  At that time Farmers Hall was officially dedicated in his honor. Bill worked tirelessly to create a facility that would be both educational and interesting, all while preserving so much of our storied past for future generations.

In 2017, after almost 40 years of school tours and more, Farmers Hall was beginning to exhibit some bowing walls and sagging floors, and needed some preservation work once again. The Cobblestone Museum secured grants from Rochester Area Foundation, Orleans Foundation (Curtis Fund), and Genesee Country Antiques Dealers Association that provided funds to shore up the foundation pillars and added rafter ties to “tighten” the building, bringing it back to its original shape. Matching cedar siding was also added to the rear of the hall and other important work was accomplished as well.

It is hoped that the building is now ready to face the next 150 years of its life as a centerpiece in the Historic Hamlet of Childs.

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Photo by Bruce and Associates: Skilled artisan David Damico demonstrates his skill on a late 19th century mechanical printing press at the Cobblestone Museum.

(Editor’s Note: This is the tenth article in a series about historic Childs in the Town of Gaines. The hamlet of Childs lies just north of Albion at the intersection of Routes 104 and 98. In 2019, Childs was selected to be on the Landmark Society of Western New York’s “Five to Revive” list. In 1993, the federal U.S. Department of the Interior declared the Cobblestone Museum in Childs a National Historic Landmark, the first site in Orleans County with that distinction.)

By Fred Dean, Cobblestone Museum Docent

GAINES – Let’s go back in time over a hundred years ago! What would you do if you needed to print a flyer for an upcoming event or business cards for your networking needs?

Would you open up Google Docs or Microsoft Word? What if you found that you needed a program for your music performance? Today, you tap your fingers and with a quick highlight for an edit you’ll find that you’re in business.

Yes, seems pretty simple, but you will still need to pick out a font. If you had to do this a hundred years ago, this process would take a day, or two, depending on how many people were helping you, not to mention you would need a printing press and the knowhow to put your program together.

This is where a printer came in. You would need a printer that would be right for the job, such as Herbert C. Hill of Knowlesville.

The equipment from Hill’s Print Shop is now part of the Cobblestone Museum in Childs.  Hill was known as a “Job Printer” which meant he would print small jobs like invitations and letterhead for individual customers. These customers would come back and pick up their own orders.  A “book printer” would work on larger orders like books and magazines.  Those orders were usually shipped to the customers in another city.

Hill and other printers would take moveable type and form it to create the document you want to print. He would go to his typesetter who would pick out a font for you to use. As your new ideas came together, you would need to pick out a letter and stamp. To ensure proper punctuation you would need to get capital letters from the literal “upper case” and small letters from the “lower case.”

The need to cut the printing paper down to size by “cutting to the chase” lends us a phrase that has had its original meaning changed. It helped indicate the job of working with the chase (metal or wood frame to hold the type) to select the right type to make up the information you were printing. This process would help you know what paper you needed.

Once your order was in place, you could arrange to pick it up by telephone, another “modern” piece of technology used in the 1900s print shop. This “Bell Telephone” shown is typical of the late 1800s models. The bell in this case is clearly visible at the top of the phone, but also indicates a technology patented and perfected by Alexander Graham Bell.

Another phrase we borrow from printing today during more challenging moments takes place when we find ourselves “out of sorts.” When the printer was using fewer pieces of type due to higher costs, they may run out of lesser-used letters such as z’s and q’s during the middle of a job.

Another phrase we use today is “mind your ‘p’s’ and q’s” because the two letters were hard to distinguish when viewed in mirror-image used on typeset.

The print shop is still in working order at the museum.

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