Henry Moore Harrington

ALBION – The son of Shelby Harrington and Nancy Moore, Henry Moore Harrington, was born in Albion on April 30, 1849. His maternal uncle, Charles Henry Moore, was a well-respected entrepreneur and land speculator in Albion.

An astute and brilliant young man, Henry attended the Cleveland Institute at University Heights, Ohio, where he graduated as valedictorian of his class. It was with these high honors that Harrington was awarded with an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, an honor that he turned down in favor of a spot at the U.S. Military Academy in 1868.

Harrington’s time at West Point was completed in 1872, capped off by his marriage to Grace Berard, the daughter of a professor at the military academy. Shortly thereafter, Harrington was assigned as a lieutenant with the 7th U.S. Cavalry and stationed in the Carolinas for training during the winter and spring of 1872-1873. These training exercises were to prepare Harrington and the other men for service in the west.

Stationed at Ft. Lincoln and Ft. Rice in the Dakota Territory, Harrington was in service alongside George Armstrong Custer during the Yellowstone Expedition in 1873 and the Black Hills Expedition in 1874, the latter discovering gold in the hills of the Dakotas.

It was during the Great Sioux War of 1876 that Lt. Harrington would distinguish himself as one of the bravest men ever encountered by the Sioux Nation. On June 25, Custer divided his 7th Cavalry into three columns. Due to a shortage of officers, Harrington was assigned to Company C where he would serve alongside Capt. Thomas Custer, the younger brother of George.

Outnumbered upwards of 20 to 1, Custer’s men crossed the Little Big Horn River and led a charge against the northern end of the Native American village. Against insurmountable odds, the men made their advance on the village and were completely annihilated.

It was during Custer’s overly glorified “Last Stand” that Harrington was said to have escaped on his “unique, large sorrel.” Breaking through the encirclement of Native American warriors, he was pursued by seven men. Based on accounts of the engagement, remains believed to be those of Harrington were found nearly eight miles away from the battlefield.

Harrington’s remains were never found or identified following the battle. His wife searched for three years in the hopes of finding his remains but returned home empty-handed.

In 2006, forensic scientists with the Smithsonian Institute identified remains within the museum’s anthropological collection as those of Henry Moore Harrington. Dr. Robert Shufeldt had retrieved the skull in 1877 from a location some distance from the battlefield, leading to misidentification.

Harrington was 27 years old at the time of his death, leaving a wife and two children to mourn his passing. The family erected a cenotaph in his memory at Coldwater, Michigan.

ALBION – This once beautiful mansion was erected on South Main Street by local entrepreneur Elizur Kirke Hart.

President of the Orleans County National Bank and director of the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge Company, Hart was well respected throughout Orleans County as a precise and decisive businessman who exuded confidence and common sense.

On July 31, 1871 Hart purchased Hemlock Island from Charles and John Walton for $100 and commenced the construction of a large and beautiful “cottage” near Alexandria Bay. The expansive structure was completed at a cost of $12,000 (over $300,000 today), measuring 84 feet long by 76 feet wide, and containing 80 rooms; hardly a “cottage” by today’s standards.

The large summer home constructed on “Hart Island” was one of the most highly desired properties in the Thousand Islands region, even more desirable than George Pullman’s nearby cottage, “Castle Rest.” Hart received numerous purchase offers on the astounding estate but consistently refused to sell.

Although he rarely considered himself a politician, Hart was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1872 as a Republican. It was during Horace Greeley’s presidential campaign for the 1872 election that Hart became a supporter of liberal ideas and a Democrat. Despite his changing of parties, he was elected in 1876 as a U.S. Representative as a Democrat in a district with an overwhelmingly large Republican majority.

Locally, Hart was respected for his efforts to bring electric lights to Albion. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Western House of Refuge for Women in Albion and served as the first president of the board of managers with that institution. A man dedicated to the continuation of education and learning, he owned one of the finest personal libraries in Western New York and was the first signer of a petition to establish a public library in Albion.

This image was taken in 1925, shortly after the death of Hart’s son Charles. At the time of Elizur’s death in 1893, he left an estate valued at $800,000 for his family equivalent to over $20 million today. In 1942 a notice appeared in the local papers stating, “everything for sale, including doors, lumber, windows, sinks, and fixtures of all kinds” Sadly, the building was razed shortly after and Albion lost a stunning local landmark.

The Hoag Library currently occupies the site of the old Hart mansion.

Henry C. Lawrence – Pharmaceutical Mentor

A native of Bainbridge, New York, Henry C. Lawrence was born on Aug. 5, 1820 to Richard Lawrence and Sarah DeZeng. Richard moved his family to Lafayette, Indiana prior to 1845 where he established “The Good Samaritan” drug store in 1844 on the north side of Lafayette’s public square. It was in 1853 that Henry would enter into a partnership with his father and younger brother, George DeZeng Lawrence.

In 1854, Henry Lawrence married Martha Stevens of Knowlesville, but their life together was short. She died on Oct. 10, 1855 at her father’s home in Orleans County. Henry remarried to Martha’s older sister Maria Stevens Flintham, the mother of Albion undertaker William S. Flintham.

Shortly after his arrival in Indiana, Lawrence became an active member of the Free and Accepted Masons, an organization emerging from the persecution of the Anti-Masonic movement of the 1830s and 1840s. In 1853 he was selected as the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Indiana and remained in that position until 1854. It was during that year that the partnership with his brother ceased and he took full ownership of the family business.

Taking considerable interest in the business, Lawrence expanded upon the basic medicines in which his father dealt; drugs, medicines, paints, and dyestuff. He added perfumes, hair dressing, fertilizers, and spirituous liquors for both recreational and medicinal uses. It was also during this time that Lawrence took an aspiring young Eli Lilly under his wing as an apprentice during the years of “The Good Samaritan” drug store.

Lilly was present during the growth and expansion of Lawrence’s business, witnessing the transformation of the business into “The City Drug Store” around 1857. Translating from a French pharmacology journal, Lawrence instructed Lilly in the method of dipping pills in molten gelatin to produce an easy-to-swallow capsule.

The mentorship between Lawrence and Lilly ended in 1858 when it was determined that Lilly was more than capable of conducting himself in the drug business. Nearly 10 years later, Lilly would set himself on a path towards developing one of the largest drug manufacturing businesses in the United States; a company that still bears his name today.

Lawrence met his untimely death in 1862 as the result of an accident and his body was interred within his father-in-law’s lot in Knowlesville.

As part of the 1868 sesquicentennial celebration of the founding of Masonry in Indiana, a bronze plaque was erected at the gravesite of Lawrence with the assistance of Eli Lilly and Company. This marker pays tribute to Lawrence, “an encouraging teacher” and mentor of a pharmaceutical giant.

HOLLEY – On the morning of Sept. 7, 1918, Mrs. Effie Stevens received an envelope from Lt. James A. Meissner of the 147th Aero Squadron. Her eyes gazed upon the words, “My deepest sympathy goes out to you who have sacrificed your all to the country” and with that single note her son, a respected pilot and Distinguished Service Cross recipient, was yet another casualty from Orleans County.

On July 2, 1918 near Chateau-Thierry, Lt. Stevens would earn himself a reputation as one of the most daring members of the 147th Aero Squadron when he and four other U.S. pilots engaged twelve Pfalz type enemy aircraft flying in two groups well beyond enemy lines.

After sighting the planes, Stevens quickly maneuvered into position between the aircraft and the sun, gaining the advantage with some difficulty. While three of the pilots engaged the lower formation, Stevens and 2nd Lt. Kenneth Porter engaged the upper formation in a “bold and brilliant combat,” destroying two planes.

Although marked as missing on Aug. 1, 1918, he was killed the previous day when his aircraft was shot down. His body was laid to rest by German soldiers under a rough cross adjacent to his wrecked machine. Lt. Henry Richardson of Albion wrote to his mother stating that a major visited their camp with a ball-bearing taken from a downed aircraft near Lt. Stevens’ grave.

In his most recent engagement, he was credited with defending an American supply base with five other flyers who repelled an attack of 30 German aircraft, accounting for eleven destroyed machines. His remains were reinterred at the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery at Picardie, France.

This image shows 2nd Lt. John Hulett Stevens seated atop his single-seat WWI biplane adorned in the prototypical aviator’s attire. The Cobblestone Museum is displaying the same style of French aviator goggles as part of an new exhibit, courtesy of the Orleans County Department of History..

“The Lost Generation” Exhibition, highlighting the service of Orleans County soldiers, opened on Sunday at the Cobblestone Museum in Childs. Additional virtual exhibits, oral histories, and other stories will be made available through an online collaborative project between the Cobblestone Museum and the Orleans County Department of History at orleanscountyhistorian.org.