‘Weight Socials’ provided fundraising opportunity for local organizations

 “Overlooked Orleans” – Vol. 6, No. 9

With one extra day this year, I thought it would be interesting to dive into some early newspapers to extract a handful of interesting “February 29th” events. Lo and behold, the leap year provided few notable deviations from everyday life. That is, of course, aside from the prevalence of “Leap Year Parties” scattered throughout the calendar.

However, one particular paragraph published in the February 28, 1884 edition of the Holley Standard caught my eye. Lyman Preston was scheduled to host a “Weight Social” at his home in Clarendon on Friday, the 29th of February. A rather foreign occasion to readers today, the Standard was kind enough to provide some brief insight into this unique gathering. The social event paired men and women together based on luck, with the occasional dire consequence for the unsuspecting gentleman. Each guest received a card as they arrived and on that card was a number; lucky couples would identify themselves by matching numbers.

Then the real fun began. As in the case of Mr. Preston’s party, each man paid one cent for every ten pounds that the lady “he may draw” will weigh. After confirming the lady’s weight on a scale, the gentleman paid his debt. The couple would then eat supper together, usually a meal that the woman prepared. The Holley Standard provided some additional, yet perhaps snarky, context to the story. “Gentleman will please remember and carry sufficient of the “needful” to meet any emergency that may arise. Clarendon has been noted for stout women…”

The ”emergency” referenced here came by way of female attendants who tied rocks, horseshoes, or other objects to their hoop skirts in order to increase their weight on the scale. These socials served the purpose of raising funds for charitable and religious organizations in the community. Often organized and hosted by ladies’ societies, it was in their best interest to tip the scales when possible to increase contributions.

Lyman Preston’s weight social was not the only gathering of its kind held that year. On December 11th of the same year, an ad in the Holley Standard read, “Pick out a good heavy girl and attend the Good Templars weight social at McCargo’s Hall tomorrow night. A jolly time is anticipated.” In fact, it appears that the International Organization of Good Templars in Holley frequently hosted these events in the 1880s.

Another social in December of 1884 received considerable attention. The papers wrote, “Now let every young man who feels an interest in the organization display his generosity by taking to supper the heaviest young lady he can find…he may equalize matters by taking two smaller ones.” Hoping to raise money to support the organization’s temperance activities, women were weighed as they arrived, given a number, and the corresponding number placed in a bag. Men pulled numbers from the bag and paid the price per pound before sitting down to eat. The Standard included a follow-up article noting, “one girl, with an eye to the shekels, hung some heavy clock weights from her waist under her dress and made herself weigh 209 pounds! Her partner had cold shivers when he saw the beam balance.”

On March 1, 1888 (another leap year), Henry Brown held a weight social at his home to raise funds for the Good Templars. “It was amusing in the extreme to notice the contrast in some of the couples who sat down to a sumptuous supper, the largest man present escorted a little dot weighing less than 80 lbs.” Of course, the odd pairings of attendees became the most entertaining feature of these fundraising events.

The weight social represented just one of many interesting social gatherings. The Box Social placed additional emphasis on the prepared supper, where women wrote their name on a card and placed it inside of a box with a meal they prepared. Men bid on each box, paid the fee, and enjoyed supper with the woman who prepared it.

A local “Old Folks Social” encouraged attendees to bust open their old trunks and dress in pioneer attire for a party; what an antiquated sight! Conundrum Socials or Quiz Socials paired men and women together based on questions and answers. The occasional Sock Social required guests to fill old socks with pennies, which were then deposited in a large sock hung at the party venue.

Then, of course, was the very rare and mysterious “Handsome Social,” once hosted by Mrs. Minerva Pratt of Clarendon. Although it attracted considerable attention from local papers, they never provided a detailed explanation of the event. It is surmised that the social included an activity similar to a “Bachelor Auction.”

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“Overlooked Orleans” – Vol. 6, No. 8

Photograph of Henry Spencer courtesy of the University of Rochester

The history of Orleans County’s African American population in the earliest decades of our area is scarce and unknown in many aspects.

Some residents may be familiar with the story of Richard Gordineer who, as an infant, was sold by his father to Joseph Grant; Grant eventually settled in the Shelby/Medina area. After New York abolished slavery in 1827, Gordineer became a free man and a well-respected citizen of Medina. Other stories involve families, like those of Henry Spencer and Jacob Carter, who came to Western New York with local Union army officers at the conclusion of the Civil War.

Spencer came to Orleans County with Lt. Hiram Sickels of the 17th New York Light Independent Artillery sometime around 1866. After earning enough money working for George Sickels, he brought his wife and children to this area. One of Spencer’s sons, Henry Austin, spent the majority of his teenage years working for Asa and William Howard as an errand boy until he reached adulthood. While he worked, he made his best efforts to attend the local schools, which he attended for approximately three months out of the year. A biographical sketch of Spencer noted that he kept up with his fellow classmates by “burning the midnight oil.”

He attended Miss Mabel Foster’s boarding school in Philadelphia, becoming the first African American admitted to that institution where he quickly became one of the more popular students. Spencer then attended the Brockport Normal School, where he was one of the few African American students at an institution with several hundred students.

The impressive young man graduated in 1880, about 10 years after Fannie Barrier Williams became the first African American student to graduate from the school. During commencement week, Spencer was selected as the Gamma Sigma orator, an honor that earned him a full scholarship to the University of Rochester shortly after. It was not the scholarship that was unprecedented, but Spencer’s acceptance to the University, which marked the first time in the history of the institution that an African American was accepted into the institution.

Upon the conclusion of his schooling, he studied law under the Hon. George H. Smith of Rochester while working to support his family. Spencer was appointed to a position in Albany in the speaker’s room thanks to a former University of Rochester classmate, Hon. James M. E. O’Grady. When S. Fred Nixon assumed the role as speaker of the State Assembly, Spencer was appointed as Nixon’s confidential clerk, a position which he continued to hold through the tenure of the Hon. James Wadsworth, Jr.

Upon his retirement in 1929, he had served in government for over 30 years and worked for a period of time under Governor Alfred E. Smith and other prominent state officials. At the time of his death on September 25, 1935 in Rochester, he was one of the area’s more prominent African American citizens. He was a past grand master of the New York State Colored Masons, an organization which consisted of over 2,000 members across New York.

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Isaac Hawkins survived inhumane conditions at Andersonville

The Battle of Olustee, Chromolithograph by Kurz & Allison

“Overlooked Orleans” – Vol. 6, No. 7

February 20th marks the 156th anniversary of the Battle of Olustee, the only major battle fought in Florida during the American Civil War. The story of Isaac Hawkins represents a significant tale in the progression of the involvement of black soldiers in the Union Army during the Civil War.

The son of Richard and Caroline Hawkins, Isaac was born at Medina in 1843. As indicated by early census records, Richard was a grocer who was enumerated immediately before John Ryan, the pioneer stone mason who opened the first commercial sandstone quarry in Medina. An 1842 deed shows that Hawkins purchased a parcel of land from David Evans for the sum of $200 at the point where West Street crossed over the Erie Canal (lot 41). This lot would have sat near the current intersection of Glenwood and Ryan streets.

It is likely that Isaac was born on this site, working for his father as a young man before the outbreak of the Civil War. In 1863, the twenty-year-old Hawkins enlisted at Medina and was placed with the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the unit once under the command of Robert Gould Shaw. Shaw was killed at Ft. Wagner on July 18, 1863, months before Hawkins enlisted with the Union Army. However, Isaac was with the regiment for approximately two months when the unit engaged Confederate troops in Baker County, Florida at the Battle of Olustee on February 20, 1864 (the only major battle fought in Florida).

Isaac survived the battle, which claimed the lives of over 200 Union troops, but was captured and sent to Andersonville as a prisoner. The camp became infamous for its poor and inhumane treatment of white prisoners, who were given bread made from ground corn cobs, maggot-filled meat, and rotten vegetables. Blankets were scarce, tents were often non-existent, and men were forced to defecate in areas that contaminated drinking water.

One can imagine that the treatment of African American prisoners was far worse. In his pension documents, Hawkins noted that he received 250 lashes for forging a pass; he was stripped naked, forced to lie across a log, and whipped from head to foot. He was shackled and returned to work in the graveyard, where he was threatened with similar treatment if he stopped working for even a few moments. Following the war, this particular event was referenced by two witnesses in the trial of Henry Wirz. This testimony and the testimony of other prisoners resulted in Wirz’s sentence to death by hanging.

In addition to the whipping he received while at Andersonville, it was recorded that he had suffered a sabre wound to his arm and a gunshot wound to his arm and foot; the latter injury mangled his foot and required the use of a cane for the remainder of his life. His brother, Charles R. Hawkins, also enlisted in the Union Army in November of 1864 at the age of sixteen and removed to New Jersey following the war where he worked as a barber. His brother Walter relocated to Pennsylvania and worked the same profession. As for Isaac, he later removed to Washington, D.C. where he died on August 25, 1902; he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

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“Overlooked Orleans” – Vol. 6, No. 6

Babe Ruth is pictured during his first year with the New York Yankees in 1920.

MEDINA – February 6th marked the 125th birthday of George Herman “Babe” Ruth. After a stint with Jack Dunn’s Baltimore Orioles, Ruth’s contract was sold to the Boston Red Sox on July 4, 1914 and once again to the New York Yankees in 1919 for $100,000. Those hardened baseball fans know the rest of the story, the superstitious “Curse of the Bambino” and subsequent Red Sox World Series drought.

Ruth made a visit to Medina on October 18, 1920, playing as a ringer for “Bing” Cleary’s Medina baseball club against Jimmy Mack’s Harrisons of Lockport. Playing at what is now Veterans Park along with Carl Mays, Fred Hoffman, and James “Truck” Hannah, the Medina club shelled out $2,000 to bring the quartet to Orleans County.

Cleary announced in the local papers that advanced-sale grandstand tickets were unavailable and that all sales would take place the afternoon of October 18th. After the close of the game, the ticket sales came up approximately $400 short of the needed $2,000. Local accounts indicate that the “Sultan of Swat” put on a home run exhibition before the game, launching 15 balls over the fence. Cleary was forced to step in and stopped the demonstration as Ruth threatened to knock all of the team’s balls out of the park before the game even started.

It was anticipated that Ruth would pitch for the game, but during a game at Binghamton the week prior he sprained his wrist. The Bambino played first base for the duration of the game, while Carl Mays took the mound and Hoffman played behind home plate.

Although Ruth was just beginning to establish himself as major hitter, he fanned on his first at bat for the game against Lockport’s Bert Lewis. It was “Fin” Whalen of Lockport who hit the first ball out of the park. Whalen later recalled, as he rounded first base, that Ruth remarked, “Beat me to it, eh Red?” Ruth later hit a home run and triple in Medina’s 6-2 victory over Lockport.

Ruth’s visit to Medina is legendary, although those who would recall first hand have since passed. Over the years, variations of the story have appeared in local papers, including notations that the game occurred in 1921 rather than 1920, occurred on October 19th instead of the 18th, and that Jeff Tesreau of the NY Giants played instead of “Truck” Hannah. Of course, Ruth’s connection to Orleans County was not limited to his visit in 1920. Carl Fischer, “The Medina Mauler,” struck out Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Sam Byrd consecutively during his time as a pitcher with the Detroit Tigers in 1932.

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Post-mortem portrait of Tracy Bogue, taken March 10, 1892 by P.W. Griffiths of Marysville, California.

“Overlooked Orleans” – Vol. 6, No. 5

Popular during the Victorian era, post-mortem photographs provided family members with an opportunity to capture a lasting likeness of their deceased loved ones. In this particular case, a young child passed before his parents could arrange a formal studio portrait. The boy is peacefully posed on a fur blanket on the front porch of the family’s home in Yuba City, California, holding a rose in his left hand with another laid beside him.

The appearance of the child may seem peculiar given his clothing and hairstyle. Breeching remained a common practice through the late 19th century. As infants, boys often wore dresses that covered their legs down to their feet which made ambling difficult. Once they began walking, these knee-length dresses allowed the child to walk while facilitating easy toilet training. After toilet training was complete, the boy went through the “breeching” process at which point he was dressed in trousers for the first time. This represented a very important rite of passage for a young man.

Tracy Bogue, pictured here, was born in December of 1889 to James Tracy Bogue and Clara Worden. James, the brother of Virgil Bogue, operated the Batavia Nurseries in Genesee County with his brother Nelson until moving to Hillsdale, Michigan in the early 1880s. A sufferer of asthma, James hoped the change in climate would improve his health. After several years in that location, he and his family returned to Batavia where he remained until his condition worsened. He relocated his family to Yuba City, California where he operated one of the largest nurseries on the west coast. Among his many accomplishments, he is credited with promulgating the Phillips Cling Peach and the California Red Plum.

This particular image is one of two post-mortem photographs found in an album recently donated to the Department of History by Tom Phillips of Batavia. The other photograph shows Tracy’s older sister, Grace, who died on March 19, 1892, just two weeks after Tracy’s death. A death notice, which calls attention to the suffering experienced by Mr. and Mrs. Bogue following the untimely passing of both children, suggests that croup was the cause of death. James and Clara Bogue returned to Albion on August 19, 1892 to bury their children in the family plot located at Mt. Albion Cemetery.

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Small section of first canal also can be seen in Lockport

Provided: Craig Bacon, deputy historian for Niagara County, sent the Orleans Hub this section of a survey from 1868 showing where this is a small section of the original Erie Canal remaining in Lockport. This survey shows the then-current path of the canal as well as the outlines of the original canal.

Orleans Hub received an email today from Craig Bacon, the deputy Historian for Niagara County.

Bacon read the report last week in the Orleans Hub about the efforts to clear about 2,000 feet of the original Erie Canal loop in Holley. (Click here to see “Excavators put to work in clearing out old canal loop in Holley.) That section is clogged with trees and heavy brush.

Holley has a historical marker proclaiming this as the last remaining original loop of the Erie Canal. The original canal, completed in 1825, was later enlarged several times, with the last expansion from 1905 to 1918.

In Holley, the canal used to veer sharply to near the Public Square.  The canal would later be straightened near Bennetts Corners Road. However, some of the original section would remain and wasn’t filled in.

Turns out, this isn’t the only original piece of the canal, according to Bacon.

“I have seen this claim many times, and wondered about it,” Bacon wrote in an email. “I can tell you, with near absolute certainty, that this claim is incorrect.”

Provided photo: Craig Bacon also sent in this photo showing what looks like a farm lane next to the Synder family farm in Lockport. This is actually part of the original Erie Canal at the intersection of Harrington Road and North Canal Road.

There is another original part of the Erie Canal in the Town of Lockport, at the intersection of Harrington Road and North Canal Road, very near the border with the Town of Royalton.

“What is seemingly a ditch along a farm lane next to the Snyder Family Farm is actually part of the 1825 canal,” Bacon said.

He has studied maps of land records to verify this claim. He sent the Orleans Hub a recent picture of the area as well as an 1868 survey of the Enlarged Canal.

“From this map, it is very obvious that this ditch is actually the old canal,” he said. “The red dot shows approximately from where the new photo was taken, with the arrow showing the direction.”

Bacon said he is “an Erie Canal aficionado” and appreciates canal’s importance to the state and county.

“I find these hidden gems so fascinating,” he said about the original pieces in Holley and Lockport. “It is very amazing that these almost forgotten pieces of the canal are finally getting the respect they deserve. After all, the Erie Canal transformed New York into the Empire State.”

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“Overlooked Orleans” – Vol. 6, No. 1

Now that 2019 has concluded, the centennial celebration of the legislation requiring each municipality in New York to appoint a local historian has also passed. Signed into law by Gov. Al Smith on April 11, 1919, New York became the first and only state to mandate the appointment of municipal historians.

Gubernatorial portrait of Al Smith of New York, by Douglas Volk

This legislation resulted from efforts to preserve the histories of New York servicemen and the impact of the First World War on local communities. Under the direction of James Sullivan and Alexander Flick, local government historians gathered service information from their respective communities and sent those reports to the State Historian.

The language requiring each municipality to appoint an historian is found within Section 57.07 of the NYS Arts and Cultural Affairs Law. Local Government Historian Law stipulates that each city, town, or village shall appoint an historian, except for any city with a population of over one million in which case an historian shall be appointed for each borough.

In the case of counties, the Board of Supervisors is permitted to appoint a county historian tasked largely with supporting the work of city, village, and town historians within their boundaries. Although the law provided municipalities with the authority to appropriate funds to support the work of local historians, it does not require that the appointed historian be compensated for their work.

Each historian is tasked with one overarching responsibility, to preserve government records with “enduring value for historical and other research” while assisting with coordinated efforts to develop collections of non-government records. Ultimately, the goal of local historians is to encourage the use of these collections for research that creates an understanding and appreciation of their community’s history.

This language is relatively broad, but the State further defined the responsibilities of municipal historians as categorized in four major areas; research and writing, education and programming, historic preservation, and organization, advocacy, and tourism. Since its inception, the interpretation of the law and the duties outlined within it have changed to reflect new methods of engaging with communities, including the use of technology to preserve information in an increasingly digital world.

Over the last 100 years, villages and towns in Orleans County have filled their posts with highly proficient and passionate historians. Yet for many municipalities, identifying residents willing to fill the vacancies for nominal stipends, or no remuneration at all, has proved challenging.

In 1929, the Village of Albion appointed Lillian Achilles to serve as its first historian, nearly ten years after the passing of the Local Government Historian Law. At the county level, it was not until 1944 when Joseph Achilles was appointed as historian that the position was made salaried at $900 per year.

As for those early records of service during World War One, the NYS Archives has digitized these collections and made them available for free to residents of New York. Of those in Orleans County, four town historians submitted information including H. Clure White of Gaines, Mary Bamber of Carlton, Fred T. Potter of Clarendon, and Charles Burt of Kendall.

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