“Overlooked Orleans” – Vol. 3, Issue 20

ALBION – Established in 1920, the Sheret Post #35 American Legion Band operated for over twenty years under the direction of William Melville of Rochester. The Livonia school band director joined the organization on April 18, 1930 and remained as the director into the 1950s.

After the conclusion of World War Two, the band was an active participant in dedicatory programs and memorial parades throughout the county. During the dedication of the statue of the Blessed Mother, Our Lady of Fatima, erected on the front lawn of St. Joseph’s Rectory in May of 1947, the Legion Band led the parade and furnished a beautiful rendition of the national anthem following the ceremony.

This photograph, taken by Fred Holt, shows the Legion Band marching out of St. Joseph’s Cemetery. Annual Memorial Day exercises typically included a parade from downtown Albion, to St. Joseph’s Cemetery, and finally to Mt. Albion Cemetery where veteran gravesites were decorated.

Up until the early 1930s, members of the Grand Army of the Republic coordinated Memorial Day activities in Albion as a carryover from the old days of “Decoration Day” following the Civil War. In 1931 the responsibility of planning the Memorial Day program was passed on to the Sheret Post, under the command of John Kane, who placed W. Edward Ryan in charge of the preparation.

The photograph likely shows the band sometime in the late 1930s or early 1940s. The band was a well respected musical outfit throughout Western New York, regularly traveling throughout the region providing concerts to communities and veterans organizations. The men who filled the ranks of the group were skilled musicians, many playing with other community and ethnic bands before the Sheret Post was established.

Isidore DiLodovico, one of the founding members of the band, was a musician with Donatelli’s Italian Band before his service during the First World War. Another founding musician, James Pilato, was the last remaining charter member of the Legion Band upon his death in 1985.

Around 1955/56 the band went defunct until 1986 when it was reorganized under Keith Harvey of Holley. Rho Mitchell remarked that it was the first time in 31 years that the band performed in Albion, returning to Courthouse Square for summer concerts.

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Many famous individuals sat for Harding’s portraits, including Daniel Boone, U.S. presidents

“Overlooked Orleans” – Vol. 3, Issue 18

A considerable amount of information that appears within the pages of this column often constitutes some sort of overlooked aspect of Orleans County. On occasion, I have the privilege of writing about something that is truly ignored, or perhaps long forgotten in our area’s history.

This self portrait of Chester Harding was completed in 1825.

The story of Chester and Horace Harding is one of those stories of men who, at one time or another, passed through our corner of Western New York while leaving their mark on history.

Born at Conway, Massachusetts, the fourth child of twelve to Abiel and Olive Smith, Chester Harding grew up in a large family with a poor economic disposition. Abiel was a veteran of the American Revolution, working in a distillery and claiming status as an “inventor.” Failing to create anything of need or want in this endeavor, the family had little money which often forced the elder siblings to care for themselves.

In 1806, Abiel uprooted the family and relocated to Madison County; “western New York” by accounts from that time. There he learned the trade of cabinet and furniture making, earning extra money while painting houses. When the War Hawks of 1812 pushed the United States into a second war with Britain, Chester enlisted with a New York militia regiment as a drummer boy for the duration of the War of 1812. At the conclusion of the conflict, he married and moved to Caledonia in Livingston County. His short tenure in that area was marred by failures in the cabinetmaking and tavern-keeping businesses; he racked up a large amount of debt and was forced to relocate his young family.

Horace Harding, Chester’s younger brother, was working in Paris, Kentucky and sent word to his sibling that portrait painters were fetching $50 “per head” in that area. A self-trained painter himself, Chester jumped at the opportunity to reestablish himself financially and ventured south to live with his brother. After a short period of time, Chester earned enough for a course of study at the Pennsylvania Academy of Design in Philadelphia where he honed his skills with the brush and canvas. Upon completion, he realized his work lacked the color and refinement of high quality competitors.

This portrait of Davy Crockett was painted in 1832 by Chester Harding. This portrait now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery at Washington, D.C

Sources note that in 1821 Chester relocated to western New York near his father’s family. In 1823, records show that a Chester Harding purchased a parcel of land from the Holland Purchase in Barre. It is known that Abiel and Olive Harding are buried at Myrtle Hill Cemetery in Barre and census records show that Horace Harding was living in Albion and working as an artist in the late 1840s and early 1850s.

Little is known about Chester’s tenure in Orleans County, but we know that it was short as he continued to travel throughout the United States, refining his craft and expanding his repertoire.

Although Horace remained a painter of “fair ability,” as noted by newspaper advertisements in Rochester during the 1830s, Chester far surpassed his younger brother’s abilities. His first notable subject was Daniel Boone, whose portrait completed by Harding is the only piece known to have been completed during Boone’s lifetime; all other portraits were derivatives of Harding’s work.

Chester’s tenure as a noted painter was capped by famous individuals who agreed to sit for portraits, including U.S. Presidents James Madison, James Monroe, and John Quincy Adams, as well as Daniel Webster, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall, and Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, who was the last subject to sit for Harding in 1866.

While traveling for a fishing trip at Cape Cod in the early spring of that year, Harding caught a cold and died during a short stop in Boston. He was interred next to his wife, Caroline, at the Springfield Cemetery in Massachusetts. Relegated to the footnotes of Orleans County history, Chester and Horace Harding remain as relatively unknown figures in antiquity, but worthy of note nonetheless.

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“Overlooked Orleans” – Vol. 3, Issue 17

ALBION – On Friday, January 13, 1882 at 9 o’clock in the evening, occupants of properties located along West Bank Street in Albion noticed the odor of smoke coming from an unknown source. When neighbors discovered smoke billowing out of F. C. Parchert’s millinery and fancy goods business, they sounded the fire alarm.

Quickly arriving on scene, fireman forced open the door to find a pile of paper boxes ablaze. The stifling smoke made it impossible to remain within the store for even a short period of time and despite efforts to carry in extinguishers, the fire had already spread up the partition walls.

Hart Hose No. 3’s engine arrived on scene with slight delay, as the horses were not stabled nearby. Upon the company’s arrival, the fire had worked its way up the walls and burst through the roof. No. 3’s engine worked tirelessly for seven hours, providing steady streams into the early hours of the morning; another engine on scene broke down shortly after its arrival.

Wind conditions remained favorable as nearby merchants feared for their buildings and merchandise. It was expected by those fire companies on scene that the lack of wind and presence of Proctor’s brick block to the north at Beaver Alley would curtail the fire. Instead, flames leaped to the north, setting the wooden skylight of Wolsley Russell’s photography studio ablaze, stretching through the interior, and threatening façades along West Bank and Main.

As the Swan Block was surrounded on both sides firemen sought to contain the fire, dousing the Proctor and English blocks near Beaver Alley and wetting down the east side of Main Street. Soon after the Swan Block caught fire and firemen carried hose around West Bank in an effort to prevent the fire from spreading further westward. Sparks and embers rained down upon buildings along the eastern side of Main Street as gusts of winds blew in from the west.

Medina fire companies arrived shortly after midnight and several engines were sent by special train from Rochester to provide mutual aid. Although the men found it unnecessary to unload the engines, the firemen from Rochester were greeted by hearty cheers from Albion’s companies. As the fire progressed, walls collapsed and brought down burnt wood and bricks upon nearby telegraph poles, snapping the lines like string.

The total loss of the fire was estimated at $151,000, roughly $3.8 million today, with approximately $95,000 of that covered by insurance. The heaviest loss was suffered by George H. Sickels who not only suffered a staggering $40,000 loss of his buildings, but another $40,000 relating to his dry goods store. William Swan’s block was a loss of $11,000, while F.A. and D.B. Day lost their buildings at a combined total of $5,000. Other merchants, such as George Waterman who operated a hardware store out of his block along the east side of Main Street, lost considerable merchandise due to water damage and theft. As the engines pumped water onto those buildings, the pressure broke windows, providing an opportunity for nearby observers to grab merchandise.

The presence of fireworks, chemicals, liquor, and kerosene within the businesses added to the ferocity of the fire. Visitors from Rochester claimed that the flames could be seen from the western outskirts of the city and embers travelled as far as Caroline Street, carried by the sudden gusts of winds. The dramatic circumstances of the fire led to numerous injuries among firemen and bystanders alike.

Albert S. Warner, foreman of the Young American Hook & Ladder Company sprained his ankle amidst the commotion and refused to leave the scene; he directed his company under the physical support of two men. Dean Currie, whose second floor office was on fire, fell down a flight of stairs in the Swan Block and sprained his wrist. Charles Hilbert, an employee of George Ough, had his collarbone broken when a fire engine knocked him into the canal.

Perhaps the most interesting story of that evening was the presence of a cat, which appeared upon a smoldering pile of bricks in front of Sickels’ Block; the feline painfully meandered towards the intersection of Bank and Main. Belonging to William Hawes, whose confectionary store was destroyed by the fire, bystanders were perplexed as to how the cat survived the conflagration.

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“Overlooked Orleans” – Volume 3, Issue 16

GAINES – Born at Gaines in 1828 to pioneer parents, George Bullard was raised on the family farm and attended the local district schools in that township. Upon reaching the appropriate age, various resources indicate that he studied at the Albion Academy, Gaines Academy, and the famed Yates Academy.

He read law with Cole Sawyer, in the years before law schools were commonplace, and was eventually admitted to the bar in 1857. Bullard commenced the practice of law with Benjamin Bessac and later worked with Henry Glidden, and John G. Sawyer.

In 1877, Bullard barely escaped death when his horse and buggy were struck by an engine on the New York Central Railroad. He and the horse were narrowly missed by the train, but his buggy was smashed to bits. As a charter member of the Orleans County Pioneer Association and the Orleans County Bar Association, he was well regarded in the community as a respectable orator and frequently addressed the community at gatherings and events.

In 1894, he was elected to the New York State Assembly as a Republican from Orleans County, receiving 3,822 votes to his Democratic challenger, Ora Lee, who received 2,423; Relly Tinkham, the Prohibitionist candidate, took home 315 votes.

Bullard was regarded as an independent thinker who caused great despair for party managers, as he preferred to formulate his own opinions on political matters instead of following orders from party leaders. Noting this threat to stability, the Republican organization quickly realized that he was “so absolutely unhitched” that party organizers could not risk a second term. The following election, Bullard was actively supporting the Democrat candidates.

When the state legislature authorized the construction of the New York State Barge Canal in 1903, Bullard became one of its biggest opponents. In an October 1905 issue of the Orleans Republican, Stanley Filkins of Medina noted that the project was being opposed by “such clodhoppers as George Bullard.” The paper scolded Filkins for his demeaning language used to describe such a prominent and well-respected citizen of Albion. One could not blame Bullard for his opposition to the canal project as his property was threatened on several occasions by breaks in the canal wall in the latter half of the 19th century.

Upon his death in 1912, a provision within his will left approximately 24 acres of land for a park in the village of Albion, if the authorities accepted the gift and agreed to improve and maintain the land. Nearly 12 years later, Bullard’s son Daniel contested the transfer of the land, stating that the village voided the agreement by failing to improve the land; up until that point, the lot remained a vacant hayfield with no improvements.

After a lengthy battle in court, Mayor Daniel Hanley announced in June of 1928 that the village won the case, retaining ownership of what would eventually become Bullard Park. Encompassing a meadow, grove, and the ravine created by the west branch of Sandy Creek, village officials planned to convert the land into a park, tourist camp, and picnic grounds.

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Howard Hinckley of Medina among the many local soldiers deployed in the war

“Overlooked Orleans” – Volume 3, Issue 15

With an 82-to-6 vote in the Senate, the United States Congress declared war upon Germany 100 years ago on April 6th. After campaigning in 1916 on the claim that he “kept us out of war,” the Southern Democrat Woodrow Wilson had reneged on this promise after asking a special joint session of Congress for the declaration just days earlier in 1917.

Men throughout Orleans County heeded the call to service by enlisting with local National Guard regiments or enlisting directly with federal units. Howard G. Hinckley, a Medina resident, was one of the men who signed up for service within a week of the declaration of war.

The son of Thorn and Allie Garter Hinckley, Howard was raised on South Academy Street in Medina where his father worked odd jobs as a carpenter. The 22-year-old was mustered into service with Company F of the 3rd New York National Guard, the unit stationed out of Medina’s Armory.

When called into active duty, the unit was designated as the 108th Infantry with the 27th Division and men were transferred to Camp Wadsworth in South Carolina for basic training and military maneuvers. It was during this training that Hinckley was promoted to the rank of private first class in early August of 1917 and then to the rank of corporal in September of the same year. As Company F trained in South Carolina, U.S. troops trickled into Europe totaling 14,000 by June of 1917.

Departing Camp Wadsworth on May 2, 1918, Company F traveled to Newport News, Virginia where the unit embarked for Europe aboard the U.S.S. Antigone and H.M.S. Kurtz. When the 108th arrived in France, the total number of U.S. troops in Europe had increased to over 1 million. Service was quiet for the men of Company F, spending the majority of their summer in 1918 training with the British Army. As plans developed for an eventual attack on the Hindenburg Line, the 27th Division was ordered to the front lines in anticipation of a major offensive in September of that year.

On September 27, 1918, the unit marched 8 ½ miles from their bivouac camp near Ronssoy, resting near Templeaux le Geurard. They covered the remaining 6 miles under the cover of darkness while taking heavy artillery fire and gas concentration; it was during this march that Medina native Frank Bloom was killed by artillery fire. 2nd Battalion arrived on the front lines at daybreak, led by Capt. John S. Thompson, who stretched the unit 1,500 yards from a location near Valle Post to Bull Post.

Command set zero hour for 5:50 a.m. on September 29th, an advance that was preceded by a massive machine gun and artillery barrage. As the whistles blew and men climbed out from the trenches, more than 100 machine guns from the 27th Division opened fire supported by 23 brigades of British light artillery and 10 brigades of British heavy artillery. Nearly four minutes of heavy shelling cleared the land for the infantry advance. A rolling barrage, firing for four minutes every 100 yards, would lead the way for the 27th Division.

An immediate German counter-barrage inflicted heavy casualties upon the 108th as it fell across the initial advance. The men of 2nd Battalion were required to advance several hundred yards before they reached a point that was in line with the rest of the division. Met by heavy machine gun and artillery fire, the men of Company F advanced as quickly as they could until meeting concentrated Germany opposition at the main defenses along the Hindenburg Line.

A thick cloud of smoke settled on the battlefield as officers and enlisted men were cut down in a hail of gunfire. 2nd Battalion, consisting of over 400 men at the start of the engagement, a formidable unit of men, many whom had served through the Mexican Campaign of 1916, suffered casualties that would cut their numbers in half by the time they reached the German line. Facing a tangled web of barbed wire and overwhelmed by small arms fire and a barrage of hand grenades, the men pushed through the wire either running through paths already cut or by throwing themselves over the thicket.

Less than 200 men jumped into the German trenches, engaging the enemy in hand-to-hand combat at times, taking 100 prisoners, 4 field pieces, machine guns, anti-tank rifles, and other supplies. The final prisoner count totaled 159, constituting nearly the same number of men who remained in the battalion. The men of Company F fended off counterattacks for the remainder of the day until relieved by friendly troops with the 3rd Australian Division.

Hinckley survived the engagement without harm, though many men from Orleans County were not as fortunate. The mass casualties suffered on September 29th and throughout engagements in mid-October led to Hinckley’s eventual promotion to the rank of sergeant on October 28, 1918. The men of Company F remained in service overseas through the Armistice on November 11, 1918, eventually returning home in March of 1919. After his discharge, Hinckley returned to the home of his parents, remaining a resident of Medina until his death in 1990.

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“Overlooked Orleans” – Volume 3, Issue 14

MEDINA – This photograph, taken circa 1917, shows the Ladies’ Triangular Debating League Society of Medina High School. Seated center is Myra Coon, behind her is Ethel Willis, and left to right is Florence Gray and Doris Webb.

The Interscholastic Triangular Debating League was established in 1910 and provided teams of boys and girls from Albion, Medina, and Lockport to debate against one another on preselected topics. Each school would submit three questions and the schools would vote to select one of nine submitted questions. The question returning the highest number of votes was used for that year’s debates.

The debate teams argued on topics that were pertinent to current events at the time, just as debate teams today do. Going back to 1913, the selected question was “Resolved, that the Government should own and control all coal mines of the United States.” The Medina boys won the debate with a unanimous 3-0 decision, while the Medina girls won in a split 2-1 decision. Sanford T. Church, Dr. John Dugan, and Dr. John Sutton were the judges for the girls’ debate.

Following the progression of the debates during the 1910s, it is apparent that Medina fielded the strongest debate teams. In the 1916 debates, both teams argued the question, “Resolved, that the Short Ballot should be adopted by the people of New York State.” The team consisting of Doris Reeves, Charlotte Acer, Harriet Holmes, and Florence Gray secured a unanimous decision after one of the Lockport debaters defiantly threw a long ballot with 70+ names on it into the crowd. The boys secured their own unanimous victory and secured the league championship for Medina that year. As the papers reported, it was the fifth consecutive victory of Medina over Albion…five straight victories in six years of the debate’s existence.

The question debated for 1917, the year this photograph was taken, was “Resolved, that Congress shall pass a law providing for the compulsory arbitration of labor disputes.” It should be no surprise that the Medina ladies won with a unanimous decision, but they earned a number of compliments on the manner in which they handled the question. This debate was the final for Florence Gray and Myra Coon, who both graduated that same year.

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A crackdown on pinball, survivors of a sunken ship, a failed bank in Medina, and an outbreak of ‘religious mania’

Editor’s Note: County Historian Matthew Ballard has a new monthly column, “Out of the Past,” that lists interesting events happenings from various milestone years (50 years ago, 75, 100, 125, 150, 175, and 200).

75 Years Ago – 1942

March 5th

The U.S. State Department announces that George D. Lamont will serve as consul to French Guiana. Lamont was formerly serving as consul at Canton, China.

March 12th

Mr. and Mrs. Fay Hollenbeck of Gaines receive a phone call from their son Louis Hollenbeck, a sailor aboard the U.S.S. Jacob Jones, the destroyer sunk by German torpedoes on February 27, 1942 off the coast of New Jersey. Hollenbeck was one of 11 survivors from the crew of roughly 150.

March 19th

Orleans County receives word of the first local casualties of the war when the parents of Alfred J. Skinner of Medina and James Zazzara of Holley are notified that their sons are missing in action. Both men were aboard the U.S.S. Houston when it was sunk on February 28, 1942 during the Battle of Sunda Strait in the Pacific Theater. It would be nearly nine months before the fate of the ship was known.

March 26th

Orleans County District Attorney Russell Scharping issues an order branding all pinball machines illegal, directing their removal from all establishments within the county limits. The act was the result of efforts in New York City to ban the “gambling” machines that offered no pay-off system. Glen and Thomas Calafates of the Mayflower Restaurant in Medina were the first to have their machines confiscated in December and January of the previous year.

100 Years Ago – 1917

March 1st

Rumors were circulating across the county that woman suffragists at Albion wanted the village charter amended so that they could vote for school officers at charter elections.

March 1st

Assemblyman Frank Lattin introduced a bill to amend the village charter in Albion in order to annex the sewage treatment facility constructed on Densmore Street in Gaines.

March 1st

A young boy appeared in a local church the previous Sunday with a box of candy. When the pastor asked where he obtained the candy, the young lad told the minister that he had “won it.” He had placed his pennies in a gambling machine at a candy store and won the prize. The result was a local movement to “suppress the petty gambling devices” in Medina.

March 8th

Erwin King, the man who would eventually be convicted of the murder of Charles Phelps and Margaret Wolcott, was arrested in Cattaraugus County on a charge of perjury.

March 8th

Edward Donaher, 22 of Shelby, was crushed by a falling tree. Expecting the tree to fall in another direction, he was unable to move out of the way in time. While attempting to escape, he stubbed his toe and fell, the tree crushing his chest. It was expected that the young man would succumb to his injuries.

March 15th

William Kelley and Tony Chireco of Rochester are arrested by county sheriff deputies at Fancher. The two are accused of murdering Wesley Webster at a lunch car in the city.

March 22nd

Rumors are circulating that Guy Merrill, Platt LaMont, and Elbert Rowley are forming a new corporation to take over the interest of Morgan & Linson Cold Storage.

March 29th

Edith Ponder, an 18-year-old servant working for a family on Lewiston road, was committed to the Buffalo state hospital after suffering an attack of “religious mania.” The woman was said to be reading the Bible at “unseemly hours” and objected to anyone working on Sunday. The case was of interest to many Christians across the county.

125 Years Ago – 1892

March 3rd

A large pane of glass in the storefront belonging to Allen & Vosler’s meat market was broken by a snowball which was thrown by a young boy named Comerford.

March 3rd

James Farrell and John O’Brien, who are working on the sewers in the western part of Medina, were seriously injured when a dynamite cartridge exploded.

March 10th

A farmer sent a ten-cent stamp to a man claiming to offer advice on how to operate a farm without having to worry about potato bugs. The farmer received the following response, “Plant fruit trees instead of potatoes.”

March 17th

Harry Underhill was injured at Ide’s planing mill at Medina when a saw he was using caught a knot in a piece of wood, sending splinters into his eye. A doctor was summoned and the splinters removed.

March 17th

Nerville L. Cole was elected as president of the Village of Holley without opposition.

150 Years Ago – 1867

March 13th

Notices appear in papers across the country that the First National Bank at Medina failed and closed its doors near the end of February. It was suspected that the failure was due to the bank president’s “wild speculations” in the produce business. The federal treasury agreed to cover outstanding bank notes from the institution.

March 16th

Newspapers report that a man living in Murray, who arrived in the area over fifty years ago, had never once traveled from his home. The farthest distance from home was a single trip to Rochester by packet boat on the canal. He recently attempted to travel by railroad but found the cars to travel far too fast for his liking. The man was a staunch Federalist in his early years and was certain that Thomas Jefferson would have burned all the bibles in the country, but “abstained from it as a matter of policy.”

March 19th

A man named L. Beecher is arrested in Ohio claiming to represent the Orphan Asylum Association of Medina, New York. Detectives found it strange that funds collected to support an institution in New York needed to be sent to an address in Covington, Kentucky.

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“Overlooked Orleans” – Volume 3, Issue 13

In the years preceding massive department and grocery stores, smaller family-owned dry goods and grocery stores occupied the storefronts of small-town America. This image shows the store owned by James Bailey of Albion, taken sometime in the late 1890s.

Bailey was raised on a 240-acre farm on the Transit Road and sometime in the 1850s entered the employ of Harvey Goodrich, a grocer and dry goods dealer at Albion. After a short stint with that interest, James entered the produce business with Charles Baker and worked under his employ for nearly 15 years before starting his own grocery store. During his time with Baker, Bailey developed a sizable farm west of Albion, later owned by John H. Denio on land now occupied by the Albion Correctional Facility.

Herbert J. Bailey, pictured center, was brought into the trade in 1882 when the business became known as James Bailey & Son. The father-son duo also built a large fruit house capable of holding 8,000 barrels near the railroad freight house on West Academy Street, one of the first in the area.

This store was located at 61 Main Street in the Swan Block on the corner of North Main and West Bank streets, now occupied by Five Star Bank. The reflection in the right window shows the Empire Block; one can faintly make out “Law Office” in the upper windows where Church & Currie and Kirby & Hughes had their offices. In the left window is a reflection down East Bank Street where one can slightly see the portico of the Orleans House, now a municipal parking lot across the street from the Village of Albion offices.

Standing to the left of Bailey is George Hess who worked as a clerk in the store. Hess started with Bailey after 1892, so we know this photograph was taken sometime between then and prior to the death of James Bailey in 1899, when Herbert took full ownership of the business and changed the name from James Bailey & Son.

The storefront is filled with merchandise commonly carried by local grocers. A hammock hangs on a hook on the left, situated next to a large pile of pineapples. For those who preferred to grow their own produce, seeds of all kinds were offered. The display inside consisted of canned fruits and vegetables, including peaches, apricots, pineapple, tomatoes, succotash, lima beans, Bartlett pears, and baked beans.

Two massive barrels of salt sit to the right, shipped in from LeRoy and the right window includes a nice display of canned and bottled goods as well as a tall stack of Quaker Oats. The store located to the left was owned by Dr. Charles Burrows, who operated a drug store once owned by George Barrell, and the boot and shoe store to the right, owned and operated by Orville Taylor.

Herbert was a respected businessman and a Republican in politics. He was elected Village President in 1903, the first Republican elected to that position. In 1882 he married Mary Sawyer, the daughter of Hon. John G. Sawyer, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

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Photo by Cheryl Wertman: This photo taken last October shows the Drake House Ruins site at Golden Hill State Park in Barker. The sign describes the history of the site. This spot is the front of an area that was uncovered last summer.

BARKER – Mike and Cheryl Wertman are well known in Orleans County for their decades of work highlighting local sports, first for The Journal-Register in Medina and now for Orleans Hub.

The couple from Medina also enjoys camping at the Golden Hill State Park, and they have become dedicated volunteers helping to uncover the “Drake House Ruins” at the eastern edge of Golden Hill in Somerset.

The restoration effort, which was sparked about two years ago at an “I Love My Park Day” held annually in early May, has seen volunteers uncover a long stone wall highlighted by cobblestone features, several large stone posts and a long lake stone sidewalk which ends at a large cornerstone believed to be part of the foundation of the Drake house. The home was demolished in 1962 when New York State acquired the property for inclusion into the state park.

Contributed Photo – A gathering of Newell Shirt Factory employees at the Drake House in 1922.

The Wertmans have been dedicated volunteers at the site, and they were highlighted on Wednesday in The Buffalo News in an article entitled, “Mysteries abound as couple unearths ruins of Lake Ontario estate.” Click here to see the article.

The Wertmans have removed vines and brush, and dug down in the dirt to help uncover some of the ornate features from an elaborate estate that had been forgotten.

“We, right now, want to make sure the site never becomes overgrown again,” Cheryl Wertman told The Buffalo News. “We would like to see groups come in and maybe redo some new gardens, make some repairs to the cobblestone wall and the pond. And mainly have it become an integral part of the park so it remains maintained. Most of that can be possible without a grant by dedicated volunteers who come to love the site as much as we do.”

Dr. Douglas J. Perrelli, director of Archaeological Survey and clinical assistant professor of Anthropology at the University at Buffalo, would like to see the state fund a cultural landscape study and see the site brought back to its former glory.

Volunteers are welcome to help at the site. This year’s I Love My Park Day is set for May 6.

For more on Golden Hill, click here.

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“Overlooked Orleans” – Volume 3, Issue 11

This image shows the interior of a newspaper printing office in Albion. Although the photograph does not indicate which newspaper outfit we are looking at, based on available evidence this is likely the interior of the Orleans Republican taken sometime around 1910 or 1915. If that is the case, the man standing in the center of the room is probably Sanford T. Church and the man seated is W. Crawford Ramsdale.

The Orleans Republican was established in June of 1828 by Cephas McConnell, the same year that the Village of Albion was incorporated. Due to its age, it was regarded as the pioneer publication of the area with the Orleans American as the only newspaper printing business with an older lineage (dating back to 1823). The business was sold to J. O. Willsea of Albion in 1848, who brought Calvin Gilbert Beach of Rochester in to assist in its operation starting in 1850.

The business eventually transitioned to Beach upon Willsea’s retirement and operated under Beach’s ownership until his untimely death in 1868. Not wishing to sell the business, his widow Juliette Beach ran the printing outfit until the two sons were old enough to engage in the operation. After the death of their mother, Lafayette took control of the business and Frederick moved to Rochester where he associated with the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

Lafayette retained ownership until his retirement in 1909 when he sold the business to Sanford T. Church and W. Crawford Ramsdale, two Albion attorneys. In the earliest days of operation, the printing equipment was housed on the 3^rd floor of 13-15 East Bank Street and remained there until Church and Ramsdale took over; the business was eventually relocated to the first floor sometime around 1915. We can tell from this image that the room is situated on the first floor given the visible features outside of the front door and windows.

The two large presses located along the left wall were used to print the weekly paper, which peaked in the early portion of the 20^th century at over 2,000 subscriptions. Given the nature of the printing process, the majority of area papers at the time were weekly runs due to the amount of time associated with setting the type. Along the right wall there are a number of cases filled with types used in the typesetting process.

The letterpress method of printing, where type is locked into a chase that is used for pressing ink onto paper, was the standard printing method from its development by Johannes Gutenberg during the 15^th century up until the development of offset printing in the 20^th century. The woman standing to the left was likely responsible for setting the type, which was done upside down and backwards – a time-consuming and tedious process that required a great deal of precision.

Once the chase was set, it was given to the men situated at one of the two presses for printing. Both men wear long aprons to prevent ink from staining their clothing. In this picture, the men are wearing long-sleeved shirts and have opted to roll the sleeves up. Some printers would wear coverings over their arms to prevent ink from damaging clothing or staining their skin.

As a side note, the municipal park on State Street in Albion is named in memory of Lafayette Beach. Today we refer to it as Lafayette Park, even though Lafayette Beach Park or simply Beach Park would be the more appropriate name.

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