ALBION – County personnel met at Marti’s Restaurant on Nov. 6, 1947 for a banquet when this photo was taken. Celia Keeler, clerk for the Board of Supervisors, is pictured second from left. She died on June 5 at age 106. She is the last known living person in this photograph.
Pictured, left to right around the table, include: Herb Holt, clerk of the highway department; Celia Keeler, clerk for the Board of Supervisors; Justin Robert, Shelby town supervisor; Katherin Mathews, secretary to child welfare agent; unidentified, machine agent; J.J. Beach, Ridgeway town supervisor; Ole Orsland, Kendall town supervisor; Earl Strickland, Carlton town supervisor; Henry De Lano, Barre town supervisor;
Ross N. Wilson, Albion town supervisor; Harold Farnsworth, secretary for civil service; Mark Heath, county attorney; John Kast, Gaines town supervisor; Mrs. R. Beebe, Murray town supervisor; Henry Hannan, highway superintendent; M. Harris, custodian; Geraldine Barry, deputy county treasurer; Manley Morrison, Yates town supervisor; unidentified, machine agent; and Cassius Webster, Clarendon town supervisor.
Provided photo – In this photograph at Cazenovia Town Hall, Dr. Stephen M. Potter is seated on the right – circa 1860s.
By Matthew Ballard
Co-director of Cobblestone Museum
Physicians, sworn to uphold the Hippocratic Oath, rarely take the life of a person intentionally. Instead, they take in their hands the lives of their patients with the sole intent of preserving the person’s physical wellbeing and health. Yet one of Albion’s earliest practicing physicians was forced to deliberately end a man’s life in 1854.
Stephen M. Potter was born Oct. 6, 1794 at Westport, Mass., the son of Benjamin Potter and Amy Manchester. Benjamin was all but a young man at the outbreak of the Revolution in 1775, nonetheless Stephen’s grandfather faithfully served the fledgling nation as a seaman aboard the brigantine “Hazard” under command of John Foster Williams.
Stephen followed in his grandfather’s footsteps and enlisted with the 98th Regiment of New York Militia during the War of 1812, serving as a private in Capt. Plinney Draper’s company under the command of Col. Christopher Clark. Potter was paid $6.70 for his service in October and November of 1814 at Smith’s Mills, receiving his discharge on Nov. 17 of that same year.
Around 1817, Stephen married his first wife, Miss Mary “Polly” Moore and commenced his studies in medicine at Manlius, NY under his brother-in-law, Dr. Henry Buell Moore. With this marriage Polly gave birth to their daughter, Mary Louise. After Polly’s death on July 29, 1823, Stephen remarried to Huldah Collins in another short-lived marriage. Dr. Potter buried his wife at Mt. Albion Cemetery in 1833, leaving an adjacent plot for himself when his time on this earth came to an end.
In 1838, Dr. Potter was once again united in marriage, this time to Ann Harding, the widow of Lewis Crittenden who was killed by a falling tree at Jackson, Mich. in 1833. With this marriage he became the step-father of Sarah Ann Crittenden who would later marry Dr. Thomas Cushing of Barre on December 27, 1848. Ann gave birth to Stephen’s first son, Louis Albert Potter, on October 10, 1839 in Albion.
It was shortly after the birth of his son that Stephen decided to return to Madison County where he settled in Cazenovia. His time in Orleans County was short, but Dr. Potter was considered a respectable and kind gentleman whose presence was felt beyond the practice of his profession.
Dr. Potter became a highly regarded citizen of Madison County, receiving the nod from the Democratic Party for his first run at political office. Representing Madison County, Dr. Potter was elected as an assemblyman to the 69th New York State Legislature in 1846; a position he held for one term. It was in 1852 that he received the vote of confidence from his fellow citizens of Madison County when he was elected to serve as county sheriff. Serving three terms, Dr. Potter was involved in one of the most significant criminal cases in the history of the county.
In October of 1853, the murder trial of John Hadock of Madison County was brought before the court by William E. Lansing, the county district attorney at the time. Hadock was accused of murdering Mary Gregg, a flirtatious newlywed who had convinced Hadock that she was interested in marriage. When Gregg married another man, an enraged Hadock took extreme action. After the body of Gregg was discovered, it was determined through the work of Dr. Potter that Hadock had shot Gregg through an open window.
After receiving a confession from Hadock, it was deemed that he was not mentally fit to receive his sentence at the gallows. After the issuance of a stay of execution, a jury was summoned by Sheriff Potter to determine Hadock’s mental state. Following two hours of deliberation, the jury could not reach an agreement and were thus dismissed. With no further action from Gov. Seymour, Sheriff Potter was legally required to carry out the duties of his office.
During these times, executions were carried out by the elected sheriff and this case would prove to be no different. At 11 a.m. on a Friday morning, Feb. 24, 1854, John Hadock was hanged from the gallows away from the prying eyes of local citizens. The hanging of Hadock represented the last legal execution to take place in Madison County, all at the hands of Dr. Stephen M. Potter.
Potter died Oct. 4, 1885 and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery at Cazenovia, NY.
For more on the Cobblestone Museum and its “Medicine at the Museum” exhibit and lecture series, click here.
MEDINA – Here we have the Medina Baseball Club pictured on a postcard, noting that they were the champion baseball club of Western New York for the 1908 season.
Pictured, front row, from left: Patrick Burns, leftfield; L. Mead, mascot; and R. Hainggrey, second base.
Seated: Frank Boyle, third base; Charles Bacon, catcher; John M. Comerford, manager; Leo Comerford, pitcher; and Le Roy Montgomery, shortstop
Standing: Frank Shultz, right field; Fred Tillman, pitcher; Howard Olds, scorer; Joseph Reil, first base; and Hugh Montgomery, centerfield.
I find in interesting that the 1911 Orleans County Directory lists Bail, Bacon, Boyle, H. Montgomery, L. Montgomery, Haingrey and Reil all as upholsterers.
ALBION – In this photo taken in the late 1920s, we see the interior of the Kenyon Kumfort Kab Kompany in Albion.
This was located at the corner of Liberty Street and Beaver Alley in Albion. Their main line of work was manufacturing truck cabs under contract with the Brockway Co.
These were made of hardwood and covered with sheet metal. Cabs were also made for Mack trucks and fire trucks.
The man at the left is Roy Wyman who died in 1937. Other men in the picture include Walter “Barney” Johnson, John Wells and George Wigley, while others are unidentified.
ALBION – In this post card from the late 1920s, we see a view of the Lone Star Inn. It was originally a farm house for the Thurston family located on Gaines Basin Road across from it now the Orleans Correctional Facility.
In the early ’20s, Lewis Sands transformed this into a very fine restaurant where the elite dined. It was destroyed by fire in November 1930.
New York State then purchased the property and moved houses and barns onto the land, then using it as a state farm for the Albion State Training School.
ALBION – This was the residence of Ezra T. Coann, which was located on South Main Street in Albion.
It was built during the mid-1870s in the Second Empire style. Coann was very prominent in business affairs and a leading banker.
In 1912, Arnold Gregory purchased this house. It was turned into the first Arnold Gregory Memorial Hospital, opening in 1916.
In 1952, after the new hospital building opened, the old hospital and former Coann house was demolished. The space that once occupied Coann is now a parking lot in front of COVA (Central Orleans Volunteer Ambulance).
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 1 September 2014 at 12:00 am
Step bears name of Danolds, who were friends with George Pullman and influential Universalists
Photos by Tom Rivers – David Heminway is pictured with his grandson Nathaniel Metzler, 8, on a carriage step that Heminway dug up and reset last year. He also repositioned the hitching posts and sandstone sidewalk panels.
A close-up view of the Danolds carriage step
EAGLE HARBOR – Most of the carriage step had disappeared into the soil. David Heminway saw the tops of letters on the step but wasn’t sure what it said because the majority of the stone was buried.
Last year Heminway set about unearthing the step. It was in his front yard in Eagle Harbor. Heminway and his wife Joanne bought a house in 2006 at 3209 Eagle Harbor-Waterport Rd. It took about two years of work before they could move in. The house wasn’t original at the site. The first house burned down more than a century ago. That original house was owned by the Danolds family.
When Heminway dug down to see what was on the carriage step, he recognized the Danolds name. Heminway, a machinist for the state Canal Corp., also has been an active volunteer the past 20 years for the Cobblestone Society and Museum. In the Cobblestone Church there is a Danolds Room, dedicated to Charles and Mary Jane Danolds.
Mrs. Danolds suggested the Cobblestone Universalist Church name its building “The Church of the Good Shepherd.”
Her husband was friends with George Pullman. In the 1850s, when the canal was enlarged, Danolds had a contract to expand the canal and he hired Pullman to move some of the houses that were in the way of the expansion.
Pullman was also a local furniture maker. He would move to Chicago and become a titan of industry with railroad sleeping cars.
Danolds kept up a friendship with Pullman and while the two were vacationing in the Thousand Islands in 1890, Danolds made a pitch for Pullman to help build a new Universalist Church in Albion. Pullman agreed as long as the locals would commit some of their own funds to the project.
The new church opened in 1895 as a memorial to Pullman’s parents, James Lewis Pullman and Emily Caroline Pullman.
Pullman was one of the great industrialists of the 19th Century, but Danolds was no slouch. He ran a mill in Eagle Harbor, where he ground wheat into flour, said Bill Lattin, Orleans County historian.
These portraits of Mary Jane and Charles Danolds hang in the Cobblestone Church in Childs.
Danolds also owned the Cobblestone Inn, sold horses to the Union during the Civil War, worked to enlarge the canal and was a key leader of the local Universalist Church.
“He was a real entrepreneur in his own time,” Lattin said.
The Danolds carriage step, once prominent in front of the Danolds homestead, gradually sank to the point only the top was visible.
Heminway decided to reset a sandstone sidewalk and two hitching posts last year. He also brought up the carriage step and hired Mike Jessmer to fix the sandstone steps by the house.
Heminway worked on the project for about six months. It was a lot of work. The carriage step weighs about 1,500 pounds. The sidewalk panels are also very heavy. He used a tractor with a fork lift to move them. He set the carriage step on about 2 feet of crusher run stone. That should prevent the step from sinking in the future.
David Heminway and his grandson Nathaniel Metzler pose the carriage step in front of Heminway’s house on Eagle Harbor-Waterport Road.
He considered move the hitching posts, carriage step and sidewalk panels closer to the house. He didn’t want to have to mow around a bunch of obstacles, but decided they wouldn’t look right back by the house.
“I think they belong out front where they are,” he said.
Heminway made the sure the hitching posts and carriage step were set far back enough out of the right of way by the the road. He didn’t want to be told he would have to move them again someday.
He is happy to have the step fully visible, and is pleased to have an artifact from a prominent community member from generations ago.
The step shows the talent of the stone carvers from that era with the inscription of “DANOLDS” and detailing on the front. The stone also has two steps where many of the carriage blocks were one-step stones.
Heminway is pleased to have the artifacts from the horse-and-buggy era in his front lawn.
“They’re not making any more carriage steps,” he said.
Lattin praised the Heminways for bringing a historical asset back to the local landscape.
“I thought it was great that they resurrected it,” Lattin said.
Photo courtesy of Cobblestone Museum – Homer C. Brown used this bat-wing Football Nose Guard, pat. 1891. Brown played football for Albion and his nose guard was donated to the Cobblestone Museum.
By Matt Ballard
Co-director of Cobblestone Museum
CHILDS – Well before “League of Denial” was released, before the NFL acknowledged the severity of concussions and beyond the widespread use of plastic helmets and facemasks, football players relied on leather helmets and homemade equipment for protection.
American football has changed a great deal over the last century and this “Victor Special” bat-wing style nose guard manufactured under Arthur Cumnock’s patent for the “Morrill Nose Mask” (1891) depicts the frightening history of football protection.
Arthur Cumnock cited in his patent that although blows to the face were not permitted in the game, players were allowed to push off of their opponents with considerable force.
Injuries to the nose and mouth were unavoidable during game, which could render a player unusable for a considerable amount of time.
The rubber nose mask was fitted with a strap that went around the head to keep the top portion of the piece in place. A rubber ledge was fitted on the backside for the player to place in his mouth.
The “bat-wing” style mask added extra coverage for the player’s cheeks and chin to prevent any severe injuries to those portions of the face. Holes were drilled into the front to allow for breathing.
The 1898 Albion Football Team pictured with their mascot “Rover.” Several players are depicted with nose masks hanging around their necks, including Billy Rose (center with football) who is wearing a nose mask similar to Cumnock’s 1891 bat-wing model. Pictured, from left, front row: Murray Hardenbook, “Rover” and Guyler Leslie. Second row: Fred Hillspaugh, Pete Galarneau, Billy Rose, Bert Squire, George Sullivan and Bob Clark. Third row: John Wilson, Frank Mason, Eugene Barnum, Clayton Blood and George Wall.
Spaulding featured this protective equipment in their catalogs for a period of time at the cost of 70 cents.
It would take another 60 years for head and face protection to become a serious concern for officials in the NFL.
This piece was not required for football players at any age and the bulky nature of the device caused it to fall to the wayside.
Today, these nose masks are highly sought-after artifacts that open the window into a bygone era.
Created to prevent serious injuries to athletes, it represents the first step towards player safety in a highly physical sport.
The nose mask pictured above was used by Homer Culver Brown while he was a student athlete on the Albion Football Team.
It will be displayed beginning this weekend at the Cobblestone Museum.
SHELBY – In this photo from around 1890, we see the railroad crossing at Salt Works Road in the Town of Shelby.
A horse headed south is about to cross the tracks. The board fence in the background encloses a race track. On the 1875 map this area adjacent to New York Central is denoted as: “Medina Driving Park.” It was a place where horse owners living in the village could take their horses for exercise.
The small building behind the fence appears to be a grandstand for people to watch races. Poles along the tracks support telegraph wires. Some of the men in the picture appear to be inspecting the tracks.
ALBION – In this picture from the mid-1930s, we see Coffey Brothers Garage and Gas Station on West Bank Street in Albion.
This business was operated by Francis and Edward Coffey for many years. Both appear in the photo, one behind the tank truck and the other behind the gas pumps in the shadows.
This building is currently used by Arnold’s Auto Parts.
WATERPORT – In June 1958, Mrs. Phoebe Beales sat with her second grade students at the Waterport School for this class picture.
Front row, from left: Jason Jeffords, Sandra Peruzzini, John Jurs, Kathleen Woolston, Susan Peruzzini, Janet Brown, Kenneth Kuhns, and Linda Garrod.
Middle row: Robert Canham, Ronald Gurrslin, Frank Gould, Karen Van Wycke, Michele Nesbitt, Ronald Marek and Graig Milliman.
Back row: Michael Budynski, Lynn Miller, Thomas Taber, Rosemary Pinson, Michael Kuhn, David Thomas, Curtis Beam, Bertha Walker, Sue Batt, John Mack and Lynn Gursslin.
ALBION – These three daring high school students posed for this picture on the ledge of the Albion High School in 1915.
Up at the second floor level, the person who took the photo had to be standing on the school’s marquee.
This gray sandstone building, facing East Academy Street, was built in 1906 and later became the Albion Grammar School. The students in the picture are Cary Lattin, Millie House and Alan Burritt.
