CHILDS – In this picture from the summer of 1977 we see the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Ward House at the Cobblestone Museum in Childs.
Cobblestone Society board members, along with Congressman John LaFalce, appear behind the ribbon. In front, from left, include: Bernard Lynch, Evelyn Lyman, Congressman LaFalce (who is about to cut the ribbon), Cary H. Lattin, and Cary W. Lattin, the museum director.
In back, from left, include: Ward Wilson, Donna Rodden, Bea Davis, Donald Ross, George Wolfe, Josephine Howard and Alma Starkweather. A couple other people are in the picture but their faces do not show.
The cobblestone Ward House was first used as a church parsonage and later owned briefly in the 1860s by Horace Greeley, an influential newspaper editor who opposed slavery and ran for president in 1872.
ALBION – In this picture from 1904 we see the race track, two grandstands full of people and the judges’ stand.
The photo is entitled: “Ready for the Trot at the County Fair.”
At the time horse racing was Americans’ favorite sport. The fairgrounds was located off West State Street in Albion with numerous buildings including stables and a very fine race track.
MEDINA – The Medina Canal Basin was under construction when this picture was taken July 31, 1913. In the center we see the great retaining wall being built using wooden forms for poured concrete.
A number of derricks appear along the side of this wall. A steam engine on tracks in the bottom of the canal provides power. The back side of the business blocks on Main Street show at far left.
A temporary work building is seen in the lower right corner above which appears Oak Orchard River. Along with steam power we also notice man power in the foreground as well as horsepower drawing a wagon on the lane.
GAINES – Our color photo shows a small building in Gaines as it looked in 1987 when given by Rose Welles to the Cobblestone Museum.
This was moved in August 1987 from next to the Chatterbox Restaurant to Route 98 in Childs. It had been built in 1838 for a shoe shop by Starr Chester. Once at the museum grounds, the building was restored inside and out.
In the mid-1960s the children of John G. Peters from Lyndonville had given the Cobblestone Museum the contents of their father’s harness shop following his death at age 85 in 1963.
The black and white photo taken 25 years ago in July 1989 shows the dedication ceremony, when the small building opened as the John G. Peters Harness Shop.
Bill Lattin, director of the museum at the time, and the late William Nestle, president of the Cobblestone Society back then, appear on the front porch. Other participants at the dedication are seated on the porch of the museum print shop next door.
County Legislators Ronald Radzinski and William Vick are visible along with Rev. Hilda Spann and the Rev. Steve Devine.
BARRE – It is believed this photo was taken in the Town of Barre in the late 1920s or early 1930s.
It shows two men on a horse-drawn hay wagon pitching around loose hay to level the load. What is of particular interest is the mechanical hay loader being pulled in the rear. This greatly saved on manpower and eliminated having men on the ground to pitch hay onto the wagon.
All this kind of work was done before hay was commonly baled.
MILLVILLE – This clever post card was mailed in 1914 from Medina.
The tipped-on photograph shows a scene in Millville at the time. Here are we looking west onto Maple Ridge Road from the intersection of West Countyhouse Road and West Lee Road.
The tower of the Millville Methodist Church shows above the trees. Next to this is the Methodist parsonage, which was removed many years ago with the site now a parking lot.
HOLLEY – In this postcard view from 1908 we note it’s labeled “Trolley Road and Glen, Holley, N.Y.”
The picture was taken right after the BL & R trolley tracks were paid at the top of the very high embankment. This photo looking northeast from the glen shows the east branch of Sandy Creek where it goes under the canal.
Back in 1908 the trolley tracks were adjacent to the canal bank through here. Today the embankment is totally covered with a dense overgrowth of trees.
Two local residents, Harry Spencer (left) and Bruce Baldwin, obviously had a very successful fishing expedition when this photo was taken about a century ago.
The picture is from a post card by J. Cliff Pennock from Chaffey’s Lock in Ontario, Canada.
A summer type resort hotel appears in the background.
The noted Civil War photographer, Mathew Brady, took this picture at Camp Cameron in Washington, D.C. during 1861.
The men are identified from left as Pt. Samuel Sherman, F.E.T. Cotter, William H. Gibson, Captain William H. Smith, Pt. R.P. Gibson and William H. Lent.
Captain Smith of the 151st Infantry was a volunteer from Gaines.
In this tent scene we note a sign on the tent which states, in part: “Crow’s Nest!”
A cook stove with stove pipe shows to the left rear of the picture.
CHILDS – It was 32 years ago on July 4, 1982, that this picture was taken for the ribbon-cutting at the Liberty Pole.
The block of stone is inscribed as follows: “To the people of Gaines this Liberty Pole Replica was erected in the Year of the Eagle 1982 by the Cobblestone Society.”
The Liberty Pole is located by Farmers Hall on Route 98 in Childs, just south of Route 104.
Officials from left to right include: Richard Cook, chairman of buildings and grounds for the museum; Arthur “Dick” Eddy, Orleans County legislator; Steve Hawley, state assemblyman; James Hubbell, Gaines town councilman; Roger Rush, Gaines town councilman; Ronald “Butch” Radzinski, Gaines town supervisor; and David Vagg, Gaines town councilman. Sheret Post NO. 35 Color Guard stands in the background.
The Liberty Pole by the Cobblestone Museum is a replica of the poles that were popular during the Revolutionary War. The tall wooden poles were typically put up in town squares. They were painted red on top, a sign of defiance against British rule.
ALBION – This picture was taken on Sept.10, 1885 at the laying of the cornerstone of Bruen Memorial Chapel. This is now the parish house of Christ Episcopal Church in Albion.
Dignitaries in the photo include, seated, from left: William J. Hannington, clerk of the Vestry; Rev. C.T. Seibt, S.T.D.; Rev. W.W. Walsh; Rev. S.H. Cook; Rev. G.W. Southwell; Rev. W. D’Orville Doty, D.D.; Rev. Noble Palmer; Rev. Sidney Wilbur and Zephaniah Clarke, senior warden.
Standing, from left: Howard Abeel; W. Crawford Ramsdale, junior warden; W.S. Danolds; R.C. Tobias; John Hull White; Rev. Francis S. Dunham, rector of Christ Church; Joseph A. Wall and George H. Thatcher.
ALBION – In this photo from the mid-1940s we see Walt Disney looking over the shoulder of one of his chief illustrators, Henry L. Porter (1901-1951).
Porter was a native of Albion where he attended Albion High School. From there he studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and became a commercial artist. After working at his own business in Buffalo, he then joined the Disney Studio in 1936, working on cartoon films. He created many of the characters in Disney’s 1941 film “Fantasia.”
In fact it was Henry Porter who created the cartoon character Donald Duck. Because he worked for Disney, all credit went to the studio.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 27 June 2014 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – The latest addition of the downtown Albion public art project, where benches are painted to celebrate local history and themes, debuted late this morning. Artist Peter Loran of Kent painted the bench with images of Abraham Lincoln and Grace Bedell, an Albion native who wrote Lincoln a letter, urging him to grow a beard. He took her advice. The bench is on East Bank Street, near the Main Street intersection.
ALBION – A bench near the Main Street and East Bank Street intersection in Albion now celebrates a story from Albion’s heritage, including a connection to Abraham Lincoln and a letter that “changed the face of the presidency.”
Grace Bedell spent most of her childhood in Albion. But when she was 11, she lived in Westfield in Chautauqua County. Abraham Lincoln was running for president at the time.
Bedell’s father Norman attended a country fair in the fall of 1860 and brought home a campaign poster featuring Abraham Lincoln and his vice presidential running mate Hannibal Hamlin.
Grace, 11, didn’t see how Lincoln could win, not with that face. He was too homely looking. But Bedell, who lived in a pro-abolitionist home, had an idea that would make Lincoln more appealing to the masses: Grow a beard.
The community of Westfield in Chautauqua County erected these statues of Grace Bedell and Abraham Lincoln in 1999, commemorating Lincoln’s meeting with Bedell when a train stopped in the village in early 1861 on his way to Washington to serve as U.S. president. The statues are the centerpieces of a park at corner of Main and Portage streets. Bedell briefly lived in Westfield, and mailed her letter to Lincoln from that community.
This historical marker, which is badly in need of painting, stands next to 350 West State St., the neighborhood were Bedell lived in Albion.
On Oct. 15, 1860, she mailed a letter to Lincoln.
“I have got 4 brothers and part of them will vote for you any way and if you let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you. You would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be President,” Grace wrote.
Lincoln took Bedell’s advice and was elected. He also wrote back to Grace on Oct. 19, 1860.
“I regret the necessity of saying I have no daughters – I have three sons – one seventeen, one nine, and one seven years of age – They, with their mother, constitute my whole family –
“As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affection if I were to begin it now?” Lincoln wrote to Grace.
The Bedell family had lived in Albion for 40 years before they moved to Westfield in 1859. They stayed two years before returning to Albion. After she married in 1870, Bedell left Albion to live in Kansas.
Grace has become a beloved American story. She is typically associated with Westfield because that’s where she mailed her letter and where Lincoln met her on Feb. 16, 1861. Lincoln was on a train ride from Springfield, Ill. to the nation’s capitol when the train stopped in Westfield. Lincoln chatted with Grace and showed off his new beard.
In 1999, the Westfield community dedicated two statues at the intersection of Main and Portage streets. The statues recreate the scene when Lincoln met Bedell on the train stop. It has turned what had been a drab piece of property into an attraction, a big visual improvement and source of community pride.
Peter Loran painted the Lincoln bench. The bench was paid for as part of a Main Street grant awarded to Albion for street-scape improvements. The Albion Rotary Club paid Loran for his art work on the bench.
Grace is more an Albion girl than a Westfield one. Her father Norman was a partner in a stove-making company next to the canal in Albion.
Norman Bedell was a staunch abolitionist. Historians say the family attended the Albion Methodist Episcopal Church, which split into two churches in 1859 because of the turmoil over slavery. (The Albion Free Methodist Church emerged from this split. It is the first Free Methodist Church in the world.)
Bedell wanted out of the disharmony and moved to Westfield, working in a stove-making business. Railroads were spreading in the mid-1850s and started to compete with the canal for shipping goods. Westfield had a new railroad.
Mr. Bedell worked there for two years and then moved back to Albion. Grace finished school in Albion, married George Billings and then settled in Kansas. Grace lived to be 87. The couple had one son.
ALBION – In this photo from 1904 we see St. Joseph’s Church Rectory at the corner of Main Street and West Park Street in Albion.
Notice the tower which was removed in the 1950s and also a porte-cochere on the end of the side porch. The house was designed and built for Newton Proctor by William V.N. Barlow.
Proctor’s son-in-law William P.L. Stafford sold this property to St. Joseph’s Church in 1896, requesting that the new church be built as close as possible to Park Street in order to block out a view of the First Baptist Church next door.
Stafford was angry with the Baptists, and this was his way of taking revenge. This picture is proof in that the Baptist Church can hardly be seen.
To the far left we can just see a house that in 1905 was moved down to East Park Street to make room for a Catholic school to be built on the site. That house, which still exists, is now the residence of Richard and Sharon Nenni.
