By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 7 July 2013 at 12:00 am
Orleans County is sprinkled with numerous cast-iron and bronze markers, giving a glimpse into local historical events, notable residents and buildings.
Yesterday, the county dedicated its newest marker in memory of William McAllister and his wife, who were Albion’s first settlers in 1811. They built a log cabin on the site where the County Clerk’s Building now stands next to the courthouse.
The Clerk’s Building is also home to first the historical marker that was put up in Orleans County. The marker was dedicated 100 years ago, in May 1913. The alumni of the Phipps Union Seminary, a school for girls, had the marker put on a sandstone wall next to the front steps of the building.
Phipps Union Seminary was established in 1833 and operated until about 1870. The school was torn down to make way for the Clerk’s Building, which was constructed in 1882-1883.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 6 July 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – Orleans County Legislature Chairman David Callard unveils a marker in honor of Albion’s pioneer residents.
ALBION – Long before there was a lush lawn and some of Orleans County’s most treasured buildings, the Courthouse Square was wilderness.
In 1811, William McAllister and his wife arrived in Albion and began the daunting task of settling the area. Mr. McAllister chopped down trees and cleared a spot for a log cabin where the County Clerks’ Building stands today.
His wife likely made his clothes, prepared the meals, and even concocted medicine for her husband. That was the role of the pioneer wives from two centuries ago, said Dee Robinson, town of Gaines historian.
“It was her job to keep him healthy to carry on the settlement,” Robinson said this afternoon during a dedication ceremony for a marker in honor of Mr. and Mrs. McAllister.
Many markers in other communities honor pioneer residents, listing the names of men, where they came from and what their job was locally. But Robinson said the new marker in Albion is unusual in recognizing McAllister - and his wife, whose first name is not known.
“When we look as pioneers, remember there was always a woman behind the man,” she said.
Orleans County Historian Bill Lattin talks about Donna Rodden and the former Albion mayor’s efforts to preserve local history. Rodden’s daughter, Chris Capurso, is second from back right.
Mr. McAllister purchased 368 acres from the Holland Land Company in 1810. That was land on the east side of the village. The couple arrived in 1811, all alone.
Mrs. McAllister would die in 1812, and her husband would then move out of the area. She was buried near where the County Clerk’s Building stands today. That building was constructed in 1882-1883.
Her skeletal remains were discovered in 1957, when the county was doing a project at that building.
When the marker was unveiled today on the lawn of the Clerk’s Building, County Legislature Chairman David Callard lifted the cover to show the new marker. It features a log cabin logo.
Callard marveled at how quickly the area changed after the first settlers arrived. The Erie Canal opened a couple blocks away in 1825. Albion became a boomtown from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s, with quarrying and farming major industries.
Most of the buildings that went up in that era – the Courthouse, churches and downtown business district – remain.
“You can see what’s happened in 200 years with people working together for the common good,” Callard said during the dedication ceremony attended by about 50 people.
State Assemblyman Steve Hawley presented a proclamation in honor of the McAllisters and their grit in the community’s beginning.
Al Capurso and his son Dan performed three songs as a tribute to the pioneering spirit of Mr. and Mrs. McAllister, the community’s first settlers in 1811.
The Capurso family in Albion paid for the marker and organized the dedication ceremony to honor those early settlers. Al Capurso and his son Dan performed three songs in their honor: “Whole world round,” “See the sky about to rain,” and “After the storm.”
Al’s wife Chris is daughter of the late Donna Rodden, a former Albion mayor who was influential in getting the Courthouse Square listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
“She recognized the importance of our local history and heritage and passed it on to the next generation,” said County Historian Bill Lattin.
He has worked to have many of the local historical markers placed in Albion and around the county.
“These few lines are just the tip of the ice berg,” Lattin said about the markers. “Volumes could be written about each one.”
Many of the markers note the contributions of prominent residents or provide a short vignette about a church or other significant public building. Lattin is pleased to see a marker for the first folks who chose Albion to live.
“It highlights the earliest aspect of our local history,” he said.
The Capurso family poses in front of the historical marker not long after it was unveiled this afternoon.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 6 July 2013 at 12:00 am
Courtesy of Tom Taber/Library of Congress
LEADERS OF THE BATTERY: Tom Taber restored and colorized this photograph from May 3, 1863 of the leaders of the 17th New York Light Artillery. The photograph was taken at Camp Barry, Washington, D.C. The group includes, from left: an unidentified Camp Barry officer who wasn’t in the 17th NY; 1st Lieut. Irving Meade Thompson of Albion; 2nd Lieut. Edwin Joel Barber of Lyndonville; Capt. George Tobey Anthony of Medina; 1st Lieut. Hiram Edwards Sickels of Albion; and 2nd Lieut. Hiram D. Smith of Medina.
ALBION – As nation reflects on the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and continues to celebrate the July Fourth holiday, I thought it was a good time to highlight the efforts of Tom Taber, an Albion man who worked dutifully for 15 years to track down stories about Orleans County men who fought in the war.
Taber’s book, The “Orleans Battery” – A History of the 17th New York Light Artillery in the War of Rebellion, details the service of 240 men from Orleans County who served in the war. The book came out last year and is available in local bookstores.
The Orleans Battery includes biographical sketches on nearly every soldier in the 17th. Taber also found 60 photographs of the soldiers that he included in the 320-page book.
He found a black-and-white image of the officers in the 17th through the Library of Congress. Taber restored the image, filling in cracks in the old negative. He used Photoshop to meticulously restore the image.
“There are problems all over with these old negatives,” Taber said. “There is stuff stuck on them and cracks.”
He uses the Photoshop computer program to fill in the cracks and recreate a scene. It takes numerous hours of research and painstaking detail.
Although the book came out a year ago, Taber has kept working to highlight the service of the local group of soldiers. After initially restoring the image of the officers in black-and-white, Taber has added color to the historic photograph taken at Camp Barry, Washington, D.C.
“My goal is to make it look like you’re sitting next to the photographer when he took the picture 150 years ago,” Taber said.
He added skin tones, dark blue coats and hats, lighter-colored pants and numerous other details.
“I want people to look like they did,” he said.
Taber, who retired in 2005 as a training coordinator at the county’s Job Development Agency, feels like he has adopted the soldiers from the 17th. Many returned from the war and led distinguished lives.
The leader of the local group of soldiers, Capt. George Anthony of Medina, would later move to Kansas and become governor of that state.
While hunting down images of soldiers from the 17th, Taber came across a scene from Appomattox Court House. A group of people includes soldiers and civilians by the famed red building where the Confederate Army surrendered.
Taber has been working on the restoration and “colorization” of the photograph. He studies the contrast from the sun and works to shade in intensity of color in trees and on the ground.
The Library for Congress image that doesn’t give the precise date of when it was taken. Taber said it could be the day of the surrender on April 9, 1865 or it may be a few days before or after.
The surrender at Appomattox ended a war with 620,000 deaths, including about 500 soldiers from Orleans County.
Tom Taber has restored and added color to this photo in April 1865 at Appomattox Court House, Virginia.
GAINES – The accompanying photo dating back around 80 years recently was given to the Orleans County Department of History by Dan Hatch. Here we see officers of the Gaines Grange posed in front of the Gaines Congregational Church in the 1930s.
The women in the picture, from left to right, include: Elinor Cooper, Sarah Bacon, Octavia Mather (chaplain), Kate Crowley, Alice Hatch (secretary), Alma Appleton and Wilhelmina Taylor.
The men in the photo include, from left: William Grinelle (trustee), Charles Thompson (trustee), Fred Derisley, Winton Hatch (master), Ronald Spinks, Lewis Reed and William Crowley (trustee).
The Gaines Grange 1147 was formed on Nov. 30, 1908. In May 1909, 40 people were initiated into membership. In the spring of 1915 they purchased Thurber’s Hotel next to the Congregational Church and transformed it into a Grange Hall. The third floor was fixed up for a dance hall with a superb hard floor being installed at the time. This was considered one of the best dance floors around at the time and one of the largest Grange Halls in the region.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 30 June 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – The Ingersoll Memorial Fountain is still going strong in Mount Albion 99 years after it was dedicated in the historic cemetery. The sandstone chapel is in the background.
ALBION – I’m glad they didn’t do it on the cheap nearly 100 years ago. The Ingersoll Memorial Fountain in Mount Albion is the Cadillac of fountains.
It has endured for nearly a century. It’s visible from Route 31 and is one of the three most iconic structures in the cemetery, with the front sandstone arch and the Civil War Memorial – Mount Albion Tower – also enduring landmarks.
I don’t know the full story behind the Ingersoll family. Nehemiah Ingersoll was an early prominent resident in Albion. There were only a few settlers in 1812, but when it was announced the canal would pass through here, entrepreneurs started to buy up land.
Photo by Tom Rivers
Ingersoll purchased much of the land near the planned intersection of the canal and Oak Orchard Road, the main north-south route through the area in 1822, according to a Wikipedia entry about Albion. Ingersoll’s land was soon subdivided, and the village, then known as Newport, began to grow.
I’d like to see Albion put up another fountain, and not just the cheapest one on the market. An Ingersoll-type fountain on the bank of the canal would be an attraction and would give our canal bank and downtown a big lift, while also drawing some customers for the downtown businesses.
I think the fountain should be built in honor of the 15 people who died in a Sept. 28, 1859 bridge collapse. I wrote about that part of our history about a week ago. You can read about it by clicking here.
Those 15 people died while watching a wire walker. I think Nik Wallenda could be talked into doing an event in Albion, to help the community dedicate a fountain in their memory.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 28 June 2013 at 12:00 am
ALBION – Before the Village of Albion Joint Municipal Industrial Pollution Control Facility was built about four decades ago on Densmore Street, the village had a smaller sewer facility on Densmore, west of the current facility.
Matt Ballard shared this photo of the sewer plant. The photograph was taken in May 1933 by Frank Nayman, then a laborer for the Village of Albion. The image was shot from the northeast corner of the facility looking southwest.
The row of houses along the left of the image are the back end of homes located along Moore, Joseph and Knapp streets. In the distance, three church steeples – the Presbyterian Church, St. Mary’s Assumption and the Baptist Church – are visible.
Ballard says it is an interesting photograph showing the mix of technology at the time, including the automobile and horses.
If you want to share a historic local photo, please email it to tom@orleanshub.com or drop it off at the Lake Country Pennysaver, 170 North Main St., Albion.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 23 June 2013 at 12:00 am
15 died in Albion in 1859 while watching a wire walker
Wikipedia photo
Nik Wallenda should add the Erie Canal to a growing list of famed sites that he has crossed on a high wire.
A year ago he conquered Niagara Falls, walking across the raging river on a high wire. Tonight, Nik Wallenda will attempt to clear the Grand Canyon while suspended 1,500 feet above the Colorado River Gorge.
I wish him well. Nik is an inspirational person, full of daring and courage.
I want him to come to Albion to do the longest wire walk on water. He could add the Erie Canal to his list of famed attractions that he faced down.
The calm canal is hardly the Niagara Falls or the Grand Canyon. The man-made waterway, which opened in 1825, isn’t a deep descent into the abyss. But the canal would lend itself to a long line of spectators. We could put stakes in the canal to hold the wire and Wallenda could walk a mile or more above the water, ending the walk at the Main Street lift bridge. I think he could start the walk by the Gaines Basin canal bridge and head east to the village. We could pack tens of thousands of people along the way.
Nik Wallenda should come walk the Erie Canal in Albion, ending at the journey at the Main Street lift bridge, where tragedy struck 154 years ago.
This isn’t just a crowd-pleasing initiative.
A Wallenda walk would bring a positive to a community that is home to one of the worst canal tragedies ever. It involves a wire walk from Sept. 28, 1859.
There was a bit of a wire-walking frenzy back then. Jean Francois Gravelet, “The Great Blondin,” walked across the Falls on a tight rope on June 30, 1859. A bunch of copycats sprang up, including one in Albion three months later during the county fair. The wooden Main Street bridge was packed with 250 people and five horses to watch a wire walker cross the canal just west of the bridge.
The wire walker didn’t get far before the bridge gave out from the weight of all the people and the horses. At least 15 people died, many of them children and young adults.
This tragedy wasn’t noted in the community until 2002, when the Orleans County Historical Association put a marker just west of the canal. The marker didn’t have enough room for the names of the people who died that day.
This historical marker acknowledges a horrific day in Albion’s history.
I think there should be a bigger memorial, with the names of the victims from this horrific accident. This was Albion’s most tragic day ever.
I’d like Nik to come and help us dedicate a fitting memorial to these folks. I think a nice fountain between the two lift bridges could serve as a memorial and a much-needed beautification project along the canal. If the fountain was between the lift bridges, it would also be visible from Platt Street, providing additional aesthetic benefit to the village and local residents.
The names of the people who died could be listed on a big sandstone slab or perhaps on a memorial sandstone walkway that could go around the fountain.
I put word out to Nik’s team about this project last summer, and he was reportedly “intrigued.” I haven’t pestered him because I knew he was focused on the Grand Canyon.
A memorial fountain would be highly visible from land and water along the canal bank at the end of Platt Street. The sign should be removed to make way for a fountain and memorial site for the victims of the 1859 bridge collapse.
I think now is the time for Albion community to try to entice him here, to help us pay our respects to people in a sad chapter of our history. Nik would be a part of Albion’s rebirth, helping a community that honors its heritage.
I’d like one of the local businesses or perhaps the Village Office to create a giant invitation for Nik. Let’s have hundreds, maybe thousands, of people sign it and we’ll get it to him. As a community we also need to commit ourselves to a fitting memorial for these people from Sept. 28, 1859.
Here are some of their names:
Perry G. Cole, aged 19, Barre.
Augusta Martin, aged 18, Carlton.
Mrs. Ann Viele, aged 36, Gaines.
Edwin Stillson, aged 16, Barre
Joseph Code, aged 18, Albion
Lydia Harris, aged 11, Albion
Thomas Handy, aged 66, Yates
Sarah Thomas, aged 10, Carlton
Harry Henry, aged 22
Ransom S. Murdock, aged 17, Carlton
Adelbert Wilcox, aged 17, West Kendall
Sophia Pratt, aged 18, Toledo, Ohio
Thomas Aulchin, aged 50, Paris, C.W.
Jane Lavery, Albion
(To read news accounts of the tragedy, click here.)
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 17 June 2013 at 12:00 am
FANCHER – In August 1949, the Fancher community gathered to dedicate a monument on the triangle along the Route 31 curve.
The memorial honored 10 soldiers from the Fancher community who died in World War II. The monument includes a plaque noting the ultimate sacrifice by John Christopher, Joseph Christopher, Cosmo Coccitti, John Kettle, Jr., Leonard Licursi, Martin Licursi, Richard Merritt, Camille Nenni, Floyd Valentine and Richard Vendetta.
I’ve driven by this monument hundreds of times. I was happy about a decade ago when the four electric clocks were repaired. This evening I stopped to find out the meaning behind the memorial.
It didn’t realize it was dedicated to WWII veterans, or that the small community of Fancher had lost so many in the war.
Click here for a link to an article in The Holley Standard from Aug. 11, 1949, previewing the dedication of the monument.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 16 June 2013 at 12:00 am
HOLLEY – In the 1950s, Ray Shahin started the first marching band at Holley Central School. In a few short years, he turned the band into one of the best in the state, and a source of community pride that endures today.
I was inside the Murray-Holley Historical Society’s Museum on Friday. Holley celebrated Flag Day with speeches and presentations from the museum, a former train depot. Relics from the band program’s heyday are displayed inside the museum, including a band uniform and the banner noting six state championships.
The marching band even spurred the community to start a municipal band. A drum from that band is displayed on a shelf in the museum.
Holley joined forces with Kendall this year for a school marching band. The group had a good year, and again is a source of community pride.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 16 June 2013 at 12:00 am
Blacksmith creates rings for hitching post project
Photos by Tom Rivers – George Borrelli works in his Carlton shop to make the ring that will be put in a hitching post.
The steel in the ring is heated to about 1,600 degrees.
ALBION – Here is something you may not realize about Albion: This community may have more century-old hitching posts, carriage steps and mounting blocks than anywhere else in the world.
I’ve counted about 40 hitching posts in the 14411 zip code. There may be a hundred of the carriage steps and mounting blocks. Some of these are beautiful works of art carved by the quarrymen from generations ago.
The posts and blocks were the parking spaces in the horse-and-buggy era. Most communities took these out long ago. But in Albion many have endured along East State Street, Mount Albion Cemetery, Ridge Road in Gaines and a lot of the village side streets.
George Borrelli studied the rings on local hitching posts, including this one at South Clinton Street in Albion, to make new ones.
This hitching post is in front of a historic cobblestone house on Densmore Street.
They sit in front of some of the finest old homes in the community, sometimes only a few feet from the road.
Four more will soon join the local landscape in prominent spots along Main Street.
The Albion Main Street Alliance is coordinating the project that is targeting the courthouse lawn for two hitching posts, a spot in front of the former Swan Library and a Main Street sidewalk by Krantz Furniture. (The state Department of Transportation needs to sign off on the sidewalk.)
This project has a lot of people excited. Several of us donated money to buy four hitching posts from local contractor Fred Pilon. The sandstone posts didn’t have holes for the rings to tie up horses. These posts were likely property markers from long ago. But they look just like hitching posts, except for the missing rings.
We wanted rings and turned to a local blacksmith George Borrelli for help. Borrelli is a talented metal artist. I first learned about him when I admired the ornate coat rack at the former Elsewhere coffee house in Albion. (Yes, I marveled at a coat rack.) Borrelli turned a mundane piece of furniture into a piece of artwork.
Borrelli knows how to shape steel. Yesterday I picked up the four rings he made for the hitching posts. They are thick and about three inches in diameter. He also made a 4-inch long pintle that will go into a hole in the hitching post. (Tony Russo of Medina is helping us drill the holes. We also need to fill the holes with lead to hold the pintle.)
Borrelli, a machine builder and former tool-and-die maker, studied the rings on some of the old hitching posts to make a design for the new ones. He has a forge in his Carlton shop. He believes he made them using the same skills and techniques from the blacksmiths 100 years ago.
One difference in the new rings: They are made of steel instead of iron. Borrelli said iron is hard to come by these days.
He used a forge to heat the steel to 1,600 degrees and shape it into a circle. He used a hammer to flatten out the pintle.
“I’ve always loved the old machines and the old ways,” he said at his shop in Carlton on Saturday. “I enjoy trying to recreate something.”
Borrelli has a niche in making custom cabinet handles. He said there has been a renaissance in blacksmithing in the past decade. (Emil Smith of Medina is another skilled local blacksmith. His sculptures are on display on Route 63, just south of the village.)
I’m hoping the hitching posts are well received by the public and we can try to add some to downtown Medina and Holley, as well as a few more to Albion. I also think we should create a map with these horse-and-buggy artifacts. I’ve been taking pictures and jotting down addresses, but I’m sure I’m missing some. If you have one, send me your address so I can stop by and put you on the map.
Borrelli created a jig to wrap the steel around, creating a ring with a 3-inch diameter.
Borrelli bends and shapes the metal.
George Borrelli holds one of the new rings and pintles he created. He coated them in turpentine and linseed oil.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 14 June 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo courtesy of Al Capurso – The Capurso family and Orleans County officials will dedicate this marker on the courthouse lawn July 6.
ALBION – Al Capurso can’t contain his excitement.
A historic marker, with a log cabin logo, arrived at his house this week. On July 6 it will be dedicated on the courthouse lawn during a 1 p.m. ceremony.
Capurso sent me a photo of the marker last night. On Wednesday he discussed the project with the Orleans County Historical Association.
The Capurso family is paying for the marker. They wanted to honor the pioneering spirit of Albion’s first residents.
In December 1810, William McAllister bought 368 acres in Albion, the east side of the village, from the Holland Land Company. The following year he built a log cabin where the current County Clerks’ Building stands next the county courthouse.
McAllister and his wife, known only in historical information as “Mrs. McAllister,” were Albion’s first settlers.
Capurso researched the history about McAllister while reading about pioneer residents in Orleans County in books that were published in the mid-1800s. He also dug into records at the Holland Land Company.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 13 June 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – The Sanford family in Gaines proudly displays a collection of gas pumps and other gas station artifacts that were amassed by Roland and Elma Sanford on Gaines Basin Road.
GAINES – Julie and Scott Sanford will be working in their yard or out in the barn when the cars pull up by the side of the road. Folks come out with cameras, questions and sometimes a sense of awe.
“People stop all the time,” Julie Sanford told me earlier this evening, when I came over to do a story on her son Allen. He is working on his Eagle Scout project. (I’ll have an article on that a little later.)
The Sanfords have about a dozens old gas pumps sprinkled around their property. One still shows the price of a gallon of gas: 35.5 cents.
There are oil cans and other gas station artifacts from about a half century ago.
Scott’s father Roland and his late mother Elma collected the gas pumps. Once they retired from teaching, they went for drives in the country – on a mission. They found many of the old pumps in fields and ditches. They rescued them, cleaned them up and proudly displayed them on their Gaines Basin Road property.
“They’re all original,” Julie said.
She said there is a growing number of gas pump aficionados. Many want to buy the old pumps, but the Sanfords won’t sell them. Each one represents a story, and an adventure for Roland and Elma.
“They would love to talk and meet with people,” Julie said.
Brad Sanford poses with an old gas pump rescued and preserved by his grandparents, Roland and the late Elma Sanford.
Replicas of the old pumps are popular, she said. Books are written about the original gas pumps, and the different styles and companies.
Roland’s son Scott has followed suit with his father’s obsession. He is working to restore one in the barn.
Roland and Elma also saved a number of other local automobile-related artifacts, including old signs for Routes 31, 63 and 98. The family hobby has rubbed off on Allen, the Boy Scout. A musician, he named his band, “Route 98.”
Allen Sanford holds an old Route 98 sign that his grandparents saved.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 12 June 2013 at 12:00 am
Lincoln took Grace Bedell’s advice to grow a beard
Photos by Tom Rivers – 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 grew up in Albion, but briefly lived in Westfield. She mailed the letter to Lincoln, recommending he grow whiskers, when she lived in Westfield.
Grace 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.
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.
A historical marker (badly in need of painting) stands next to 350 West State St., the neighborhood were Bedell lived in Albion. After she married in 1870, she left Albion to live in Kansas.
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.
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.
Westfield recreated the scene when Lincoln met Grace Bedell on his inaugural train ride.
Albion notes its Bedell connection with a historical marker next to 350 West State St., her childhood home. (Most of the paint has flaked off the sign.)
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.
The Lincoln statue in Westfield is larger than life.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 1 June 2013 at 12:00 am
Former church bell, quarrymen tools donated to Murray-Holley Historical Society
Photos by Tom Rivers – Dan Mawn, president of the Murray-Holley Historical Society, holds a century-old hammer that belonged to Italian immigrant Jack Nenni, who settled in Holley and worked in the local quarries.
The hammer and two boxes of Nenni’s tools were donated to the museum last week.
HOLLEY – A week ago a Holley resident handed Dan Mawn two heavy boxes full of old tools.
They weren’t ordinary tools. They were hammers, chisels and edges from a century ago. They belonged to Jack Nenni, an Italian immigrant who settled in Holley and worked in the local quarries. Many of the tools bear his name or initials.
Mawn, president of the Murray-Holley Historical Society, feels like the tools are like gold, tangible reminders of the trade that built Holley and drew many immigrants to the community.
The tools were sold at a garage sale for $3. Mawn praised resident Steve Gergely for buying the tools at a sale a year ago, for keeping them in the community and ultimately deciding to donate them to the historical society.
Mawn has been cleaning some of the tools. He is eager to give tours of the museum and let people, especially children, hold the hammers and chisels.
The museum has another new addition that members are excited about. The church bell from the United Methodist Church in the Public Square is now owned by the museum. The church closed when the congregation moved to Route 237 in Clarendon.
The Disciples United Methodist Church took the bell with them, but decided to give it to the museum.
This bell used to ring in the Public Square at the United Methodist Church. It was donated to the Murray-Holley Historical Society by the Disciples United Methodist Church on Route 237 in Clarendon.
“It’s a treasure,” said Marsha DeFillipps, the Murray-Holley historian. “It’s an important piece of our history.”
The bell was made by the McShane Bell Foundry in Baltimore, and cast on Oct. 31, 1894.
Now museum members want to mount the bell outside the railroad depot on Geddes Street Extension, where the local history collection is kept. It will take donations to set up the bell securely, DeFillipps said.
To help with the project, call DeFillipps at 638-8188 or Mawn at 465-3723.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 31 May 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – Susan B. Anthony is depicted in this statue down the street from the Susan B. Anthony House on Madison Street in Rochester.
MEDINA – Before he became governor of Kansas, George Anthony led 240 soldiers from Orleans County into battle during the Civil War.
Anthony’s life – his roots in Medina, his leadership in the war and his service as Kansas governor – are noted on a historical marker on West Center Street in Medina.
He was also the cousin of famed suffragist, abolitionist and temperance activist Susan B. Anthony.
A historical marker on West Center Street in Medina notes the home of George Anthony, who went on to be governor of Kansas.
The cousins, who were raised by Quakers, were radical people in the mid to late 1800s.
I was in Rochester today and swung by the Susan B. Anthony House on Madison Street. I’ve driven by the bronze statues of Anthony and Frederick Douglass up the street, but never took the time to stop and experience them until today. They are the centerpieces of the Susan B. Anthony Square Park.
Anthony and her friend Douglass, a noted abolitionist, are depicted having tea together. One resident saw me taking photos, and exclaimed about the beauty of the statues, which were erected in 2001. They certainly give a lift to the neighborhood.
Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass are depicted in “Let’s Have Tea,” statues in the Susan B. Anthony Square Park.
This is an old street in Rochester and I couldn’t help but notice sandstone foundations on the houses, a couple hitching posts in front yards, and sandstone posts to hold up the sign with the park’s name.
I’d like to see some bronze statues honoring the quarrymen who built the canal villages in Orleans County. I like how the Susan B. Anthony Square Park doesn’t have Anthony by herself. She appears very much engaged with Douglass.
The quarrymen’s job involved a lot of teamwork. I hope as a community we could come up with a memorial site that would give a glimpse of that difficult work from more than a century ago.
Regarding George Anthony, Tom Taber of Albion features the Medina resident in “The Orleans Battery – A History of the 17th New York Light Artillery in the War of Rebellion.” Taber published that 320-page book last year. It’s a remarkable research effort.
He found a letter that Anthony wrote to his brother on April 9, 1865, the day of the Confederate surrender. Anthony was outside the Appomattox Court House only a few yards away from the where General Robert E. Lee surrendered.
“This is a glorious hour, and will live in history,” he wrote his brother Benjamin Anthony of Medina. “The work is done. Gen. Ord announces to us the surrender of Lee, and the entire army under his command, and that are present. Thus ends the Army of the Virginia, and, virtually, the Rebellion.”
After the war, Anthony moved to Kansas, working as a newspaper editor. He was elected the state’s governor, serving two years from January 1877 to January 1879.
