“Overlooked Orleans” – Volume 3, Issue 53

ALBION – During the holiday season, I often think back to the years I spent as a young boy, enjoying Christmas with family and friends; simpler times. The memory that remains fresh in my mind is Christmas Eve Mass at St. Mary’s Assumption on Brown Street in Albion. We would walk down the street to church and visit with parishioners, young and old, before walking to my grandmother’s house for Christmas dinner.

I always remember being enamored with the beautiful artwork that adorned the ceiling of the nave, but at that time I had no idea of the significance of the paintings, who completed the work, or what the paintings depicted. I am sure the question of how an artist managed to paint on such a high ceiling was the predominant thought circling in my head.

Starting in the 1930s and continuing through the 1940s, the Polish Catholics in Albion realized as they neared their golden jubilee that the interior of the church was in need of considerable improvements. The sanctuary was relatively plain in comparison to the churches in the “old world,” many which were beautified with murals and statuary inside and out.

It is believed that Rev. John Hrycyna sought out Jozef Mazur, the renowned ecclesiastical painter of Buffalo, to complete artwork in the sanctuary of the church including murals of the Virgin Mary, the Binding of Isaac, and the Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek. Polish priests throughout Western New York were familiar with Mazur’s abilities as his first major sacred project consisted of the interior paintings at Buffalo’s St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr, the mother church of Polonia.

It was later confirmed through financial receipts that Marion Rzeznik, another ecclesiastical painter from Buffalo, completed the six murals that adorned the nave of the church sometime after Mazur completed his work in the sanctuary. These men would have considered themselves “rivals” of one another, but the parish sought continued assistance from both artists over the coming years to complete additional work and touch up existing murals. Perhaps one of the most beautiful murals is Rzeznik’s “Adoration of the Magi,” the second of three murals situated on the southern portion of the nave.

The particular image depicted by Rzeznik is that of the Epiphany and is one that is rooted in traditional, late medieval representations. The representation of the Magi as “Kings” was the product of the Christian writer Tertullian, who was the first to refer to them in this manner. In more traditional works, the men were dressed in Mithraic robes and Phrygian caps, symbolic of their roots as astrologers of the Persian court.

Here we see Caspar, the eldest, kneeling with his gift of gold, representing Jesus as King. Balthazar, represented as the African brings a gift of myrrh, foreshadowing Christ’s eventual death. Melchior, the youngest, presents his gift of frankincense as a representation of Christ’s divinity. The three men are often depicted in a manner which represents the three known parts of the world during the medieval times; Europe, Asia, and Africa.

The camel present in the background is often seen as a representation of Asia, but is also symbolic of obedience. Mary wears her traditional blue and red representative of love and we see Joseph who wears brown and earthen tones representative of humility and poverty. Also present is a ladder and rope. Both of these pieces are traditionally associated with the crucifixion and are often viewed as a representation of Christ’s future.

This mural and others completed by Rzeznik in St. Mary’s Assumption were some of the last remaining examples of these particular subjects. The mural of the Blessed Virgin Mary, completed by Mazur, was painted in the likeness of Mazur’s wife. That particular mural was painted over after the building was sold.

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“Overlooked Orleans” – Volume 3, Issue 52

Another year has passed, and another volume of Overlooked Orleans has concluded. To write another article about Charlie Howard and his Santa Claus School is perhaps cliché for the Christmas season. Those years of perfecting the spirit of Santa, dating back to his childhood days when as “a short fat boy” his mother sewed a suit for him to play the role, brought about a more meaningful understanding to the holiday season. A man whose passions rested with the children, who anticipated the abundance of gifts and dolefully observed the quick passing of this festive time of year.

While perusing old issues of the Orleans Republican, I was drawn to a column which appeared during the month of December in which the newspaper accepted letters to Santa Claus for publication. The short notes written to Kris Kringle during the Great Depression reflect a gentle consciousness of the hardships associated with the time. Amidst the friendly but firm requests for the latest toy or the nicest doll came appeals for family support and gifts for siblings. I thought it might be worth sharing some of those stories this year.

“Dear Santa Claus, I am a little girl 2 ½ years old. I have long curls and blue eyes. Dear Santa, please bring me a big doll, a doll buggy and a choo choo train and some aggets. Thank you very much. Don’t forget my brother Junior, my cousins Bobby and Richard DeCarlo. Your pal, DeLois Marie DeCarlo, 63 West Ave.” (1936).

“Dear Santa Claus, I am writing my letter to you for Christmas. I bet you are very busy and some of your little elves…I am going to ask for a nice little type writter and a real one too. And I want a sled. That is all I want because you have other children that want and need them…My name is Eleanor Louise Brooks and my age is 11 years old.” (1936)

“Dear Santa Claus, My name is Leona Marcks I am 11 years old. I have been a good girl and help my mother. I want shoes rubber gloves, my sister Frances is 8 years old. She want shoes rubber gloves, my brother Edward is 10 years old he want a hat, gloves. Peter is 5 years old he want a suit and stocking. Stanley is 4 years old and want suit and stocking. My baby brother Valentine is 1 ½ years old and want shoes and a suit and he want an orange. Thank you very much. Yours truly, Leona Marcks.” (1931)

“Dear Santa, We always rite you at Xmas but we wonder why you don’t bring us what we ask for, so this year I’m going to ask you again if you can find a doll buggy will you bring one for my little sister Marjorie she wants a buggy real bad also some shoes and rubbers size 12 shoes…please Santa try and think of us if you possibly can because Daddy has been sick so he can’t work and he don’t have enough money to buy us things at all now. We like oranges and candy too if you have some to spare…With love from Evelyn Durrant” (1933)

One can only imagine little Evelyn’s frustrations that her requests for gifts appeared to go unnoticed; thankfully she did not realize the impact of her father’s illness and work situation on the family’s Christmas plans. This is a season for being thankful for everything we have!

“Overlooked Orleans” – Volume 3, Issue 51

ALBION – Around this time last year, I authored a piece about Charles Howard and the founding of the Santa Claus School (v.2, no.52). As Christmas approaches, I thought it appropriate to once again recall the life of an influential and beloved man who left a lasting impression on many Orleans County residents.

Starting in the mid-1950s, Howard started the process of converting his farm and barns to a Christmas Park. On Saturday, September 22, 1956, this “entertainment, education, gift, and amusement center,” opened for a short, 13-week season. Mrs. Henry Greene of Medina provided “Christmas Village,” a collection of 20 small houses, schools, churches, and other structures, fully furnished and lighted – an endeavor that required 25 years of collecting to complete. Also included was “Toy Lane,” a collection of 23 window scenes aimed at simulating store fronts. Children had opportunities to visit with Santa Claus, see reindeer in the stables, and visit Mrs. Santa’s Kitchen for a bite to eat.

In the files of the Department of History is a five-page Director’s Report prepared by Charles Howard for Christmas Park’s Board of Directors in February of 1960. Howard noted that extensive efforts were underway to rebuild the south end of the big barn, as the timbers were rotting away – they gutted the section and a steel beam was installed. To prepare the miniature train for visitors, the cars were touched up and the engine sent to Buffalo where it would be examined, putting it “up in first class condition.” The business was in full swing and seeing considerable success after four years of operation. Howard noted that he sold the most merchandise in the history of the business during the current season, shipping out nearly 150 wigs and beards for cleaning and selling a large quantity of new merchandise.

The question of opening day was directed to the board members, noting that previous suggestions included opening the Saturday before Decoration Day (Memorial Day) all the way through the end of June. Howard mentioned the importance of shortening hours after Labor Day, but proposed extended hours over the summer, despite the need for added labor to do so. The biggest issue brought forth was the question of admission rates. He writes that 1959 was the first year since the Park opened in 1956 that complaints about the ticket prices were minimal; $.75 for adults and $.10 for children.

The surprising success of the Park was attributed to word-of-mouth advertising, but Howard recognized the importance of advertising outside of Orleans County to attract visitors. In a detailed breakdown of marketing ideas, he suggested that 24 sheet billboards be leased at $40 per month in Rochester and $50 per month in Buffalo. Should they want to light those billboards up at night, each would cost an additional $10 per month; he placed considerable emphasis on the point that this effort “must be done now.” Road signs were also proposed for a more local approach. In 1960, the business had approximately 10 signs along Rt. 98 through to Batavia and Howard suggested adding a minimum of 40 more at $40 per sign. The previous year, Christmas Park handed out 41,600 brochures, a little more than half of the total visitors to the park, and a minimum of 70,000 was the proposed number for 1960. That year the Park attracted over 80,000 visitors.

After several years of operating Christmas Park as Executive Director, the operation grew to a point where he could no longer oversee it alone and resigned his position to a corporation of businessmen. On June 25, 1964, Howard wrote a letter asking for his name to be removed from all printed material and the sign at the entrance to the park. The Buffalo Courier Express published a short article about the impending financial troubles of Santa Claus School, Inc., quoting Howard as saying, “They put in merry-go-rounds and ferris wheels. I have nothing against these things, but in Christmas Park a ferris wheel should be in the form of a Christmas wreath, and a merry-go-round should have reindeer to ride on.” He also claimed that the directors “lost the spirit of Christmas,” which resulted in financial losses.

In 1965, the operation filed for bankruptcy with debts totaling $95,324.00 ($748,836.81 today). Two months later the operation, consisting of Christmas Park and Santa School Inc., was sold at public auction and purchased by Vincent Cardone for the sum of $31,000. Elizabeth Babcock, who was acting as caretaker for the park and school after closing, acquired the Santa suit and equipment portion of the operation for $2,000. Newspapers reported an attendance of over 100 bidders at the auction, some coming from as far as Florida.

Unfortunately, the world lost one of its most beloved men the following year on May 1, 1966. Howard suffered a fatal heart attack, and as Bill Lattin so eloquently wrote, “guided his sleigh into the limitless great beyond.”

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“Overlooked Orleans” – Volume 3, Issue 50

ALBION – This photograph, taken some time around the turn of the 20th century, shows the storefront of Landauer & Strouse Dry Goods on North Main Street in Albion.

Standing on the left is Simon Landauer and the young man standing on the right is his son, Jacob Landauer. A number of crates sit along the curb marked Landauer & Strouse Albion, NY, many of them coming by way of the New York Central Railroad; a young boy watches from the second-floor window as the photograph is taken.

Simon Landauer was born in Bavaria (present day Germany) in 1833, the son of a Jewish cattle farmer. He and his brother Moritz were trained in cotton weaving while living in Europe, leaving for America prior to forced conscription in the army. Although documentation of Moritz’s arrival has not been located, Simon arrived at New York City on August 21, 1852 aboard the Chancey Jerome. Along with his brother, the two young men traveled to Macon, Georgia where they opened their dry goods business, M. Landauer & Brother.

Records from 1857 show that the two men were involved in starting the United Hebrew Society of Macon, both listed on the act to incorporate filed that year. Several years later, Moritz appeared on a list to appear at the Bibb County Court House to select delegates for the purpose of seceding from the Union. The brothers also appeared in records indicating their support, albeit indirect, of the Southern cause as the Ladies’ Aid Society in Macon was purchasing flannel from Landauers to sew shirts for Confederate soldiers.

After the outbreak of the Civil War, Moritz paid $600 to send a substitute soldier in his place. By 1862, he was drafted into the Confederate Army and chose to flee north rather than render service. A November 1862 advertisement appeared in the Georgia Weekly Telegraph noting that the store of M. Landauer & Brother was available for rent, indicating that the two had left the region shortly before. Nativist ideology was gaining strength in the years leading up to the Civil War, but those ideas ultimately subsided as immigrants rendered service in the Union and Confederate armies. Jewish immigrants, many who earned their living through clothing and textile businesses, were met with the same pre-war anti-immigrant sentiment; many in the North and South felt as though Jewish immigrants were exploiting the war.

By 1863 the brothers had arrived at Albion and reestablished their partnership on North Main Street. It was in 1882, the same year that a devastating fire wiped through the northwestern corner of Albion’s business district, that the partnership dissolved with each man entering into business with his son (vol. 3, iss. 17). As a result, Moritz opened what was known locally as “Upper Landauers” in the Hart Block (now Shay’s Shamrock) while Simon opened “Lower Landauers” at the site pictured here. Eventually H. Morris Strouse, the son-in-law of Simon, entered the business which effectively transformed the operation into Landauer & Strouse.

Prior to this photograph, a competing dry goods business known as Bell & Phelps operated out of the northern half of this storefront (the right half of this building) until Landauers rented both sides starting in 1895. Jacob Landauer purchased this block from Diadette Brockway Day and Ferdinand Austin Day in 1910, effectively solidifying the business on Albion’s Main Street. Although Moritz closed Upper Landauers, likely sometime in the 1920s or 1930s, Lower Landauers remained in operation at this site through the middle of the 20th century.

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“Overlooked Orleans” – Volume 3, Issue 49

ALBION – These two photographs show the baseball grounds in Albion located on Caroline Street on land now occupied by the ARC of Orleans. A popular pastime in Orleans County, baseball teams commonly played on fields located at the County Fairgrounds until this site was created in the early 1900s.

The top photograph shows the grandstand, situated in the northeast corner of the lot. A 1911 map shows the grandstand situated at an angle and a small structure to the immediate west of the grandstand. Based on the bottom photograph, we can presume that the small building on the map is the structure occupied by Robert Clark, who is selling popcorn and peanuts to those watching the game. Behind the grandstand, the peak of a house on the north side of Caroline Street is slightly visible. One would venture to guess that this is 137 Caroline Street.

In addition to the field itself, the photographs show the 1905 baseball club consisting of Howard Kilborn, 1st base; James Craffey, 2nd base and team captain; Frank VanStone, 3rd base; Ralph Vick, Shortstop; Herbert Reed, left field; Homer Brown, center field; Walter Radley, right field; Robert Clark, Jr., pitcher; Pete Galarneau, catcher; Arnold Donovan, mascot. Standing in the bottom photograph (left to right) are Howard Kilborn, ___ McGarnwell, Robert Clark, Jr., “Doc” Davis, Homer Brown, Frank VanStone, Walter Radley, Pete Galarneau, “Doc” Creighton, Ralph Vick, and Herbert Reed. The tall man in the back wearing a derby is Timothy Donovan, a local furniture store clerk and father of the team’s mascot; Arnold is approximately 8 years old in the photograph.

It was in 1905 that Robert Clark attempted to form a baseball league in Western New York consisting of teams from Niagara Falls, Tonawanda, Lockport, Middleport, Medina, Albion, Holley, Brockport, Spencerport, and Rochester. Clark was well known throughout the area as a proficient pitcher, having signed a contract with Rochester’s Eastern League team in 1896 as the league’s youngest player at age 17. The same year this photograph was taken, Frank VanStone was offered a tryout with Erie, Pennsylvania’s baseball club, although no further note of his time with the team is noted.

In 1895, notice appeared in the local papers regarding Silas Elmore’s time with Albion’s baseball club. As rambunctious and tough young boy, he was hit by a train and lost one of his legs. Although he was “reformed” through his work with the Salvation Army, the local community took up a collection to purchase Elmore a wooden leg to ease his mobility issues. It was with this prosthesis that he was able to play at least one season with the team. He died several years later at the age of 32 from Addison’s Disease, a rare condition impacting the adrenal glands.

Upon closer examination, a large crowd has gathered to watch the game. The group is seated behind a screen of chicken wire to prevent foul balls from hitting spectators. All of those in attendance are dressed in their best attire and although a number of women are visible, they are seated together for the most part.

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“Overlooked Orleans” – Volume 3, Issue 48

This photograph, taken prior to 1915, shows the main office located within the administration building of the Western House of Refuge (now the Albion Correctional Facility). Miss Alice E. Curtin, the superintendent, stands in the center of the room shaking the hand of a young woman who is preparing to depart the facility on parole. Standing near the door is Miss Katherine Capitola Grinnell, the institution’s parole officer, who is prepared to escort the young woman to the railroad depot.

Miss Curtin ran a conservative operation at the House of Refuge as the institution was intended to rehabilitate young women who failed or refused to adhere to the strict gender norms of the time. The 1914 annual report for the Western House of Refuge shows that the inmate population totaled 238 women at the conclusion of the fiscal year with an annual average of 229 inmates; the facility’s capacity was rated at 215.

Young women were forced to sleep in corridors and public areas while healthy and sick women were forced to share sleeping quarters in the hospital. The Board of Managers previously requested $35,000 in funding to construct a new cottage along with $25,000 for a new cottage for the care of the institution’s infant population, but Governor Glynn vetoed the appropriations. A portion of the total appropriations were earmarked for the construction of an iron fence that was meant to prevent visitors from wandering onto the grounds.

The institution remained under the direction of Miss Curtin until her resignation in October of 1915; Mrs. Flora P. Daniels of Buffalo was appointed in her place at an annual salary of $1,500. Annual reports from the years leading up to 1919 provide valuable insight into the operations of the institution. Girls were taught to read and write, attending school just as children would.

In addition to basic school subjects, inmates were taught how to cook, care for the kitchen, plan and serve meals, sew, cane chairs, weave rugs, and launder clothes. The farm provided sustenance for the young women, growing crops, raising livestock, and preserving food. In 1919 the institution’s farm produced 18,247 quarts of milk, 1,453 dozen eggs, 1,389 pounds of fresh pork, and 8,703 pounds of carrots.

Of those women brought to the House of Refuge, 47 were committed for vagrancy, 20 for immorality, 14 for petit larceny, five for habitual intoxication, three for adultery, two for manslaughter, and one for bigamy. Upon their arrival they were examined by a physician, 73 of those women treated for cases of syphilis, 24 with menstrual disorders, 21 with gonorrhea, and 17 with tonsillitis. A dentist and oculist were also on call to examine the women, to which 215 teeth were filled during the year and an additional 280 teeth extracted. Nearly 50% of the women were between the ages of 16 and 18, 73 were Protestant, 29 were Catholic, and 1 was Jewish, while 92% of the inmates were native-born citizens.

The transition from Miss Curtin’s conservative ideologies to Mrs. Daniel’s more progressive mentality created a rift on the Board of Managers. After Miss Grinnell’s dismissal in 1919, Gov. Charles Whitman initiated an examination of the institution based on accusations of incompetency. Aurilla Desmond, a former matron, testified that Daniels was lax in her management and frequently traveled away from the institution. A farm worker, who resigned his position the year prior, claimed that his departure was in part due to the poor conditions of the facility.

It was later determined that Mrs. Daniels had expressed concerns about Miss Grinnell’s shortcomings to the Board of Managers, including an accusation that she played the phonograph on Sunday (which Grinnell did not deny). These shortcomings were used as grounds for dismissal. Upon further investigation, the NYS Senators charged with the investigation determined that the true issue at the House of Refuge was the considerable amount of friction between the Managers and the Superintendent, to which the former should be replaced in its entirety.

Miss Grinnell, a former school teacher in West Barre, later found employment at the Rome Institution for Feeble Minded Children. An Orleans County native, she was buried in Mt. Albion Cemetery after her death in 1928.

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“Overlooked Orleans” – Volume 3, Issue 47

Following the passing of New York’s amendment that extended voting rights to women in 1917, the subsequent election involving the question of whether Albion would remain a “wet” or “dry” town was decided by the female vote.

Although the vote was later deemed invalid, the local temperance organizations mobilized a sufficient number of new voters to end the sale of alcohol in Orleans County, even if only for a brief moment.

This Thomas Nast cartoon appeared in Harper’s Weekly on March 21, 1874 and depicted the debaucheries commonly associated with the saloon. A man of the middle-class accepts a drink of rum from the bartender who is depicted as death. The man’s young daughter pleads for her father to come home while his son looks on with concern and a man lays to the right, passed out in the corner of the room.

In the distance is the man’s home and his wife, dressed in black, weeps behind her children. On the floor sits a hat, a broken bottle, a brick, and a revolver, all symbolic of the violence commonly associated with alcohol consumption. In the background a man watches through a doorway as men brawl with one another, one man ready to strike another in the head with a bottle.

Local temperance movements grew out of the reform activity of the early 19th century commonly associated with the Second Great Awakening that flooded through Western New York. Members of the upper and middle classes went to battle against the intemperate behavior of the lower, wage-earning and unskilled laborers who flooded the region to toil along the canal and in the quarries. In Orleans County, the early arrival of Irish and German immigrants and later the Polish and Italians bred contempt against groups of people who were perceived a prone to consuming alcohol.

In the early 1870s, Albion had three active temperance organizations, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, Albion Temperance League, and Drunkard’s Reform Association. The Albion Temperance League organized around 1874, holding meetings at the Free Methodist Church, where Edwin R. Reynolds was selected as the organization’s permanent president. Other prominent local residents joined the ranks as officers, including John G. Sawyer, Arad Thomas, Joseph Cornell, Ezra T. Coan, and Free Methodist minister Alanson K. Bacon. In the latter half of the 1870s, Medina boasted 6 active temperance societies with 840 members, nearly 1/5 of the village’s total population.

Drunkards posed concerns for local residents, unable to work, engaging in violence, and abandoning wives and children. On July 30, 1882, Isaac Harrington of Medina was riding a train to Albion when the conductor removed him from the car on account of his intoxication. Harrington passed out on the tracks and was run over by a passing locomotive shortly after. A month later, John Mack of Kendall travelled to Albion to catch a glimpse of Jumbo the elephant’s visit to the area. Instead of focusing on the visit, he fancied a nip of the bottle, fell off a dock, and drowned in the canal.

Excessive drinking had the potential to affect all members of the family, not just the individual. In 1879, Albion papers reported a nine-year-old boy who was wandering drunk through the village streets, though there was no further report of the young man’s parents. Medina reported a similar occurrence the previous year when a 13-year-old boy was found drunk with whiskey in his coat pocket. Three years later, Nicholas Gavin, a farmer from Albion, was enjoying a few drinks at a saloon downtown before venturing home for the evening. Drunk and befuddled, he drove his buggy over the Main Street bridge, turned onto the tow-path and travelled a short distance to the east before steering his horse into the canal. His body was discovered beneath the frozen water the following morning; he left a wife and five children to mourn his death.

Perhaps one of the most shocking stories of the late 19th century was the case of James O’Connell of Fletcher Chapel. The violence-prone farmer went on a week-long binge, much to the disappointment of his wife. On January 16, 1896 he told his wife he would visit the priest at Medina to “sign the pledge” and give up drinking. Instead, he visited a gun store in Medina and purchased a .22 revolver, returned home, and shot his wife in the head. Although she survived the incident, she lived the remainder of her life with the bullet in her skull and O’Connell spent eight years in Auburn Prison for the deed.

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Susan B. Anthony spoke in Orleans County, trying to rally support for women’s suffrage.

“Overlooked Orleans” – Volume 3, Issue 46

On November 6, 1917, half way across the world, the October Uprising was in full swing as the Bolsheviks led a revolution against the Tsarist government of Russia. In the United States, New York voters decided that it was time to extend suffrage to women.

Orleans County was at the center of suffragist activity and notes pertaining to Susan B. Anthony’s visits to the area can be found within the local papers. As early as October of 1859, Anthony attended a local women’s rights convention along with Frances Dana Barker Gage and Hannah Tracy Cutler, noted abolitionists and movers in the women’s suffrage movement. In a later visit on January 22, 1894, Anthony spoke at the Court House, along with Mary Seymour Howell and Mary G. Hay, on the subject of extending suffrage to women by amending law at the constitutional convention. The event led with a symposium on the subject of equal suffrage and involved a number of notable suffragists.

Leading up to the vote in 1917, a number of local women formed committees in Albion, Medina, and Holley to operate Suffrage Schools. On March 5th and 6th, Holley hosted a school followed by Albion’s school at the Swan Library on the 7th and 8th. The following week, Medina hosted their school in the rooms of the Grand Army of the Republic. These Suffrage Schools held lectures on topics such as “Women in Relation to Community Problems,” “The Legal Status of Women,” “Parliamentary Law,” and public speaking. Prominent women from across Western New York attended and taught “classes” for local women in preparation for the anticipated victory in November.

It was believed that Medina’s school received additional interest as an announcement guaranteeing the suffrage bill as part of the November 6th election was made shortly before the event. Mrs. Carl Breed was appointed to chair a committee of fifty women tasked with planning the important program. The event attracted considerable attention as Mrs. Mary Grace White, wife of local attorney David White, opened the program by attacking Sen. Elon Brown for his claims that the birth control movement was an off-shoot of the suffrage movement.

Fervor surrounding the impending vote increased exponentially as November neared. Attorney John J. Ryan led efforts to enlist the support of men throughout the county in favor of the suffrage movement. On November 1, 1917, a lengthy article appeared in the Orleans American highlighting the importance of the approaching vote. “If you have a son or a brother who has been drafted for the war for democracy, don’t spoil your family record by voting against democracy in New York State.” The author went on to write, “Don’t be too sure, when you are making the woman suffrage amendment that men can represent women. The women may after all have ideas of their own.”

As the day passed, the papers reported that the “election in Orleans County passed off quietly. There was no excitement anywhere in the county.” The vote to extend suffrage to women in Orleans County was defeated by a vote of 2,134 for, to 3,024 against, but news quickly spread of downstate carrying the amendment through. It was quickly reported that Albion would be one of the first locations to provide the opportunity for women to vote as village elections were slated for February 26, 1918. When it came time to elect new members to the Albion Board of Education, Mrs. Lorinda Lasher was nominated as the first woman for public office in the village, unopposed to replace Alfred Wood. Mrs. Ruth Williams nominated Dr. Cora Billings Lattin to run against Thomas A. Kirby, but was defeated 230 to 110.

Perhaps one of the oft-overlooked tidbits of local suffragist history relates to Gilbert Turner Mason, the son of Albert J. Mason of Albion. Mason, the chief clerk at the Clum & Atkins Company in Rochester, married the young Miss Anna Elizabeth Dann in the home of Susan B. Anthony on Madison Street in 1902. Dann was the housekeeper and personal secretary to Anthony, assisting in the preparation of Anthony’s biography. In a 1906 letter to Anna Mason, Anthony’s niece Lucy wrote, “I think you know…that we all love you for your own sake…but we love you even more because dear Aunt Susan was so fond of you.” Susan was so fond of her that she stood by Anna’s side as she was married to Gilbert by the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw. The Masons are buried at Mt. Albion Cemetery.

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John Daniels also owned the first automobile in Albion

“Overlooked Orleans” – Volume 3, Issue 44

ALBION – This stunning photograph shows the storefront of John DeValson Daniels, a local jeweler who operated his business out of the old Empire Block at the intersection of North Main and East Bank Streets. Daniels, standing to the left and wearing a hat, ran this successful commercial venture for nearly fifty years when he finally retired from the profession in 1935.

John Daniels was raised at Whitney Point, New York, where he attended the local schools until 1878 when he left to join his father in the jewelry business. Nearly ten years later, in 1887, he arrived at Albion and purchased this business from Hiram W. Preston the following year. His specialties, according to advertisements, included watches, clocks, jewelry, silverware, optical goods, musical instruments, and bric-a-brac (tchotchkes), which he sold out of “The Old Corner Store.”

It is clear that Daniels was fond of leisure activities, including cycling, as he assisted in the formation of the Albion Cycle Club in 1895 and was appointed as a sidepath commissioner charged with overseeing the construction of bicycle paths in areas west and northwest of the village. Advertisements regularly appeared in the local papers, announcing Daniels’ inventory of bikes available for purchase in his store. He also served as president of Albion’s Sportsman’s Club as he was an avid hunter.

In addition to his deep-rooted connection to the community through his successful business, John Daniels was a charter member of Albion’s Rotary Club, the Masons Damascus Temple, and the Pullman Memorial Universalist Church. He was often credited with owning the first automobile in Albion, a steam-powered machine called “The Rochester Steamer.” This automobile was likely a product of the Rochester Carriage Motor Company, operating for two years between 1901 and 1902, selling vehicles from $450 to $700.

Around the time this photograph was taken, circa 1904, the store suffered a small loss of inventory. In the spring of that year, Daniels noticed a missing diamond ring valued at $100 (approx. $2,700 today) that was no longer in the showcase. He recalled seeing a man in the store around that same time and suspected that he may have lifted the item. After contacting police, it was discovered that the man had traveled to Rochester and a detective was sent to follow the suspect. When the detective observed the man attempting to sell the ring to several store owners, he was placed under arrest and later charged with 2nd Degree Grand Larceny. Although theft was rarely a problem for Daniels, a similar situation occurred in 1928 when William Robinson was arrested for selling a ring that his wife had stolen from the jewelry store two years earlier.

On May 2, 1934, John and his wife Frances celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary and just one year later, Daniels sold his business to Charles Tibbits, his employee of 28 years. The couple retired to St. Petersburg, Florida where John Daniels passed away on January 27, 1942.

The photograph reveals a number of beautiful silverware sets on display in the front window; through the front door, a wall clock is visible displaying the time, 10:35. As Daniels stands to the left, the three young men standing with him were probably employees, one of those men is likely Charles Tibbitts. Two pieces of advertisement are barely visible; the south wall facing East Bank Street included text about the store, the other piece included the large pocket watch mounted on the pole in front of the store which was an iconic signature of the business.

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