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 moving 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.
In 1940, my parents took a road trip to Texas to visit my mother’s aunt and uncle. On the way there they took this picture where gas was selling for 9 cents a gallon.
I believe there was a “gas war” under way in that vicinity as we can see another service station in the distance.
At any rate they thought it was very cheap at the time, hence the picture was taken as proof.
By Matthew Ballard, Orleans County Historian Posted 17 August 2014 at 12:00 am
Photo from the Cobblestone Society Collection – Dr. George Jesse Lund in a photo taken at Medina
Photo courtesy of the Cobblestone Society Collection – Mrs. Lina Davis LeValley Lund, wife of Dr. George Jesse Lund
By Matthew Ballard
Co-director of Cobblestone Society Museum
George Jesse Lund was born July 8, 1859 in Genesee County’s township of Alabama. The son of Franklyn Lund and Martha Webster, George boasted a rich lineage dating back to Colonial Connecticut Governor, John Webster.
Lund attended Medina’s High School and received additional education at the prestigious Cary Seminary in Oakfield. Receiving his MD from Rush Medical College in Chicago, Ill. on Feb. 21, 1882, Dr. Lund returned to Genesee County where he began practicing medicine. Shortly after returning to Western New York, Dr. Lund removed to Medina where he purchased the “Alcorn House,” the first house west of the Hart House Hotel.
Although his stay in Medina was short, Dr. Lund became a well-respected man whom many Medina citizens relied on for medical assistance. A particular story the Medina Daily Register and Journal recalled one of the many unusual cases that Dr. Lund responded to on a regular basis.
In 1894, Henry Palmer of Ridgeway visited a local restaurant where he engaged in eating raw oysters. On this particular occasion, Palmer swallowed part of a broken oyster shell that became lodged in his throat. Restaurant patrons assisted Palmer in attempting to dislodge the piece from his esophagus but were unsuccessful. He was quickly transported to the office of Dr. Lund, who after several hours of labor, was successful in forcibly coaxing the shell fragment from Mr. Palmer.
In another peculiar instance, Dr. Lund was traveling along Main Street in Medina when the wheel of his two-wheeled gig fell of, discharging him from the carriage. He managed to not only land on his feet but catch and stop the horse as well.
Photo courtesy of Matthew Ballard – Dr. George Jesse Lund in a photo taken at Mt. Wilson, Calif.
In 1895 Dr. Lund moved his family to California where he purchased a lot and built his home at 1227 Maryland Street in Los Angeles. Receiving his certificate from the California Board of Medical Examiners on March 3, 1896, Dr. Lund made quick work of establishing his presence in Southern California.
We find George Lund’s name amongst the list of faculty at The College of Physicians and Surgeons of the University of Southern California (now known as The Keck School of Medicine). One of the earlier members of the faculty, Dr. Lund was the Associate Professor of Otology, Laryngology, and Rhinology (Ear, Throat, and Nose). His office was located in 414-417 of the Auditorium Building on campus.
Dr. Lund and his family were members of the Orleans County Association of Los Angeles, a society of displaced Orleans County residents who had relocated to Los Angeles. He was also a member of the Orleans County Medical Association and served as Genesee County Coroner before traveling to California.
Following in his steps, Dr. Lund’s only son, LeValley Lund, became a physician after graduating from the University of South California in 1916. After graduation, “LeVal” enlisted with the Naval Medical Corps as a Junior Grade Lieutenant/Assistant Surgeon on Nov. 17, 1917. Reenlisting on Dec. 1, 1919 he was given the rank of Lieutenant in the Medical Corps. Dr. LeVal Lund focused his studies in the same area as his father and it is likely that he received his education at the University of South California while taking classes under his father.
The Lund family is still prominently associated with the Los Angeles area. LeValley’s son, LeValley Lund, Jr. became a civil engineer focusing his studies on earthquake related construction methods.
Editor’s Note: The Cobblestone Museum will kick off a lecture series today at 4 p.m., featuring Dr. Ronald Batt, MD, PhD, of the University at Buffalo’s Medical School. He will discuss the development of medicine in WNY from 1800-1850. The lecture will be at the Cobblestone Universalist Church. For more on the Cobblestone Museum, click here.
