By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 13 May 2013 at 12:00 am
Shelby site is listed on National Register of Historic Places
Photos by Tom Rivers – The Millville Cemetery, which was established in 1871 on East Shelby Road, includes this iron arch with the cemetery name. The large statue in the background marks the grave for Asa Hill, a Civil War soldier and prominent local farmer.
This wood frame chapel has a Medina sandstone foundation. It was built into a hill and also served as a receiving vault and office.
SHELBY – Last month I write about Hillside Cemetery in Holley being nominated at the state level to join the National Register of Historic Places, a decision that is expected to be announced this month by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
In doing research on Hillside Cemetery, I discovered that two other cemeteries in Orleans County were on the National Register. I knew Mount Albion was recognized, but I didn’t realize Millville Cemetery made the list in 2007.
I stopped by the cemetery Friday evening on the way to the East Shelby fire hall. Millville Cemetery is impressive, especially the monument to Asa Hill, a Civil War soldier who returned to community and became a prominent farmer. His family put up the large monument, where local lore suggests he is looking towards Sanderson Road, keeping watch on the family farm, said Bill Lattin, the county historian.
The monument for Asa Hill honors the Millville resident who served in the Civil War.
If we ever establish a Civil War Trail in Orleans County, Asa Hill’s monument should certainly be on the list. Several other Civil War soldiers are buried at Millville.
The wood frame chapel in the cemetery was built in a Gothic Revival style in 1894. It includes a Medina sandstone foundation. The chapel also served as the cemetery office and receiving vault.
Millville Cemetery was established in 1871. A sandstone retaining wall faces East Shelby Road. The monuments and Victorian funerary art reflect the prosperity of the community back when it was home to three sawmills, gristmill and turning mill, according to the description of the site on the National Register.
There are many enormous and grand trees in this cemetery.
The cemetery is elevated in an otherwise flat area. “The landscaping and roads and the plantings make it an exemplary vernacular rural cemetery,” according the Department of the Interior, which decides whether a site meets the threshold to be on the National Register.
The Millville Cemetery Association, like many independent cemetery associations, recently disbanded and turned the cemetery over the to town. Shelby is now owner and guardian of the cemetery. Hillside also folded and the Town of Clarendon is the site’s owner.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 13 May 2013 at 12:00 am
New marker in July will recognize Albion pioneer residents
Photos by Tom Rivers – This marker by the Pullman Memorial Universalist Church on South Main Street notes that Albion is the hometown for Terry Anderson, who was taken hostage for about seven years after he was kidnapped in Beirut.
ALBION – They give a quick snapshot of local history, and Bill Lattin says the many historical markers placed in the community also prompt people to stop and look around.
Lattin, the Orleans County historian, has helped place many of the markers in the county, especially in the Courthouse Square and Downtown Albion historic districts.
He supports an effort by Al and Chris Capurso to place a historical marker on the southwest corner of the courthouse lawn, a sign that will highlight Albion’s pioneer residents, William McAllister and his wife. That marker, with a log cabin logo, will be dedicated during a 1 p.m. ceremony on July 6 at the County Clerks’ Building.
“It will be stunning,” Capurso told the County Legislature last week, when the board formally approved the project. “It will be unique to the Courthouse Square.”
The new marker will tell a community story from 1810, when McAllister bought 368 acres, what is now the east side of the village, from the Holland Land Company. Other markers highlight the origin of the historic churches and other buildings in the Courthouse Square.
One marker by the Presbyterian Church notes that immigrants from Ireland, Poland, Italy and Britain worked in sandstone quarries to provide the stone for many of the local churches and buildings.
This marker by the Presbyterian Church on North Main Street notes that the community was home to many quarries that drew immigrants to the community.
Another marker honors a recent prominent resident. Terry Anderson grew up in Albion and was working as a journalist in the Middle East when he was taken hostage from March 16, 1985 to Dec. 4, 1991.
“Whenever you see a historical marker that’s just the tip of the ice berg,” Lattin said. “There’s a lot of history here.”
The state Education Department used to pay for the markers. The Capurso family is paying for the one honoring the McAllisters. That marker, which will be cast in aluminum, will cost about $1,000.
Lattin noted the Courthouse Square used to have a wooden kiosk. It lasted about a decade but was removed when it fell into disrepair.
The markers are far more durable. The one on Ingersoll Street honoring Sanford Church, an Albionite who served as lieutenant governor, has been up since the 1930s.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 12 May 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – Lewiston is home to the Freedom Crossing Monument, which was dedicated about four years ago along the bank of the Niagara River.
Photo by Tom Rivers
Photo by Tom Rivers
I tried to stay on Route 104 last night on the trip to the Aquarium of Niagara. Somewhere in Lewiston I missed a turn and ended up next to the Niagara River. I was running late, and didn’t welcome another delay.
I was taking my son and his little sister to spend the night with Scouts from Pack 164 in Albion at Aquarium of Niagara. We would “camp out” in the aquarium. We went on this outing two years earlier and I trusted my memory to basically stay on 104 until Whirlpool Street.
I missed a sign in Lewiston and we traveled through the historic village and then reached the Niagara River. We were clearly off course.
But the wrong turn was a blessing. We stumbled upon the “Freedom Crossing Monument,” which now ranks as the most moving statuary memorial I’ve ever seen.
This memorial was dedicated on Oct. 14, 2009, on the bank of the Niagara River. It shows slaves trying to flee into Canada with help from some locals. A baby is being passed to a mother, who appears desperate to keep moving, to head for freedom.
The memorial celebrates the historical importance of the Niagara River as a gateway to freedom on the Underground Railroad. I’ve heard snippets about Orleans County homes along the route to freedom, but I don’t know any specifics. I’d like to learn more.
The memorial in Lewiston includes five figures and a boat. The Historical Association of Lewiston pushed for the project, which cost $230,000.
I’ve been trying to rally support for a quarrymen’s memorial in Orleans County. I think Albion makes the most sense for a statue of a quarrymen. Albion is centrally located in a county that was home to thousands of immigrant quarry workers.
Many people support the memorial concept for the quarrymen. Others have told me I’m crazy. But after seeing the memorial in Lewiston, I think we should consider a bigger project than just one statue to honor the quarrymen, with sites in Medina, Albion and Holley – canal villages that all were boomtowns because of the sandstone quarries.
To the people of Lewiston: Well done. Thank you for honoring our Western New York heritage.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 9 May 2013 at 12:00 am
GAINES – Orleans County Historian Bill Lattin holds a brass button that declares, “Long Live The President – GW.”
It was issued in 1789 to commemorate the inauguration of George Washington as the country’s first president. The button has been in Lattin’s family for about 150 years.
His grandmother Sarah Harling was given the button when a Civil War soldier believed to Robert Capstick showed up destitute and hungry at the Harling home on East Countyhouse Road. Harling fed Capstick and helped him regain his health. He was penniless, but gave her the brass button that he carried during the war for good luck.
The button has been passed down through the generations in Lattin’s family. He showed the button to the Albion Rotary Club during its lunch meeting today at The Village Inn. Capstick is buried in Mount Albion Cemetery.
Lattin also shared a canteen that may be at least two centuries old. It originally belonged to his great-great-great-great grandfather John Anderson, who died in 1827 and is buried in the county’s first cemetery behind the Gaines Congregational Church.
Lattin also showed off and discussed some “oddities” from the Cobblestone Society Museum, including a mouse trap developed by David and Claudius Jones of Kendall in the 1870s. The mouse trap was so popular the brothers opened a manufacturing site in Erie, Pa.
The historian also showed an apple slicer and corer from the 1860s and antique tools used by veterinarians. The museum will be open this Sunday for Mother’s Day from 1 to 5 p.m.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 2 May 2013 at 12:00 am
The tower, nestled in the southeast section of Mount Albion Cemetery, rises 68 feet from the hill it stands on. From the top, which can be reached by climbing the spiral staircase inside, visitors can admire Albion’s countryside and, on a clear day, see clear north to Lake Ontario.
ALBION – For 11 years after the Civil War, Orleans County residents fought to raise money for a memorial to 463 county residents who perished in the war.
Quarrymen cut the stone and hauled it to the heart of Mount Albion Cemetery. The community built a 68-foot-high tower, the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, that has endured for nearly 140 years. An 84-step spiral staircase allows people to climb the tower, to enjoy a view above the trees.
The tower is a tremendous achievement, one of our most magnificent sandstone structures – and an overwhelming expression of grief.
The tower was built in stages. Several times, the community ran out of money for the immense project, County Historian Bill Lattin said.
But residents wouldn’t be denied a chance to pay their respects to the fallen. The monument was dedicated on July 4, 1876, the 100th anniversary of the country.
This tower isn’t merely decorative. It’s a memorial to 463 Orleans County residents who died in the Civil War.
I’ve been researching Civil War memorials on-line, and taking pictures of ones from other nearby communities. I want to be respectful and not criticize other memorials. In fact, I admire every one. But I think it’s clear that the Civil War memorial in Albion is one of the most unusual and perhaps most magnificent of them all, especially in a small town.
Many of the Civil War memorials include a plaque with a retired cannon from the war. Kendall has one at Beechwood Cemetery. Bergen has a Civil War memorial with a cannon mounted on a big stone block. The memorial includes the names of the soldiers from the community who died in the war.
Bergen mounted a cannon on a stone block as part of its memorial to Civil War soldiers at Mount Rest Cemetery.
There are a lot of obelisks as monuments. Batavia has a 36-foot-high obelisk with a bronze statue of a soldier in front. A lot of the memorials include statues. Some of them are on stone pedestals that are elevated 50 feet or more above ground. Warsaw in Wyoming County has one like that in the middle of a traffic circle. It’s impressive.
But the Mount Albion tower can be experienced, not just admired. Climb into the tower and you’ll see the names of the local dead carved on nine marble slabs that hang on the walls. Many of the last names, such as Davis and Root, remain in the community.
The Upton Monument in Batavia depicts a Civil War hero and Batavia native, Maj. Gen. Emory Upton. The monument, dedicated in 1919, includes a 36-foot-high obelisk and honors Civil War soldiers and other Genesee County veterans.
A grieving Orleans County didn’t pick the highest-ranked solider from the community and commission a bronze likeness of that solider, and then offer a general comment about how the memorial honors all who died in defense of the union.
In Orleans, every solider who gave his life is remembered. Rank didn’t give a solider a loftier position in the memorial. I think that’s a radical idea, and different from many of the Civil War memorials.
The Civil War memorial in Warsaw features a statue on a pedestal in the middle of Route 19. There are four cannons at the base of the monument.
The Albion tower is one of only two (I think) made of Medina sandstone. Brockport built a 52-foot-high tower in 1893. The tower has crumbled and today partially stands on Owens Road. Calls to save the tower have met with apathy.
Due to safety concerns, the tower in Albion was off limits in the early 1970s. A group of high school students attended a Village Board meeting when one trustee suggested the tower be torn down. The high schoolers were outraged and spearheaded a “Save a Tower” campaign that raised $30,000 to strengthen masonry joints and repair the staircase. The tower was rededicated on July 4, 1976, the country’s 200th anniversary.
The community raised $30,000 to repair the steps and masonry joints inside the tower in the 1970s.
“We saved something that is really important,” Lattin told me. “Out here in Western New York it is certainly one of the more outstanding monuments.”
Locally, we benefited from the close presence of so many sandstone quarries. That provided a superior building material for the memorial. And we had immigrant stonecutters who could shape the stone. They also loved their adopted country, and wanted to express their gratitude for the soldiers’ sacrifice “in defense of the union.”
Lattin said some communities spent more than Orleans County “with exotic memorials with statuary.”
Nine marble slabs bear the names of Orleans County residents who died in the Civil War.
But our tower shows what happens when regular people get together and give their best. A shared sacrifice resulted in a magnificent monument that should endure for decades to come.
I take visiting friends to the tower, and they are filled with awe when they reach the top. I’ve been asked to give tours of the cemetery recently, showing it off to Cornell graduate students last month and a Rotary exchange group from the Philippines last fall.
They act like tourists at Niagara Falls, especially at the top of the tower. They are overwhelmed, shocked by the achievement from 1876.
This group from the Philippines climbed the top of the tower in October.
We should promote the tower, include it as part of a community marketing plan with its likeness on gateway signs and tourism brochures. It could be the focus on a bigger “Civil War Trail” in Orleans County and perhaps Western New York. If we developed a “Sandstone Trail” with roadside markers of sandstone buildings and quarries in the county, the top of tower should be the iconic symbol for the signs.
The tower is absolutely incredible. No other Civil War tribute, at least locally, quite compares.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 1 May 2013 at 12:00 am
ALBION – 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. In a few months a historical marker, with a log cabin logo, will celebrate their pioneering spirit.
The County Legislature approved the marker to be placed on the lawn in front of the Clerks’ Building, near a sidewalk and parking lot at the southwest corner of the grass.
The Capurso family in Albion is paying for the marker, which will be dedicated during a July 6 event at 1 p.m. There will be a ceremony inside the Clerks’ Building, and the dedication will include musical performances.
“It’s a historic first that has not been commemorated,” said Al Capurso of Albion. “They were the first settlers in the village and the town.”
Capurso tracked down the history about McAllister while reading about pioneer residents in Orleans County in books that were published in the mid-1800s. He also traced records in the Holland Land Company.
Capurso’s wife Chris is the daughter of the late Donna Rodden, a former Albion mayor who pushed to have several sites in the community listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the 1980s.
“She was very active and interested in historic preservation and she impressed that upon me,” Capurso said.
The Albion Fire Department was the first in Western New York with motorized fire apparatus. The Dye Hose Company in 1913 purchased this Thomas Flyer truck. The AFD says it was the first fire truck outside New York City.
The Active Hose Company No. 2, another group of Albion firefighters, acquired a fire truck a year later. Henry Hudson is pictured on the truck. The Active Hose Company No. 2, Hart Protective Hose Company No. 3 and Dye Hose Company No. 5 consolidated in 1976 into the Albion Fire Department. The fire hall on Platt Street displays these fire truck photos and many other historical images of the department’s history, which stretches back to 1828.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 21 April 2013 at 12:00 am
Old play advertisements, programs found from century ago
Photos by Tom Rivers
Programs and advertisements from theater shows in the late 1800s and early 1900s were discovered inside the Pratt Opera House in Albion on Saturday when a tin firewall was removed.
ALBION – The wall is covered with signatures of stage hands, and advertisements from comedy and theater shows in the 1890s and early 1900s. For more than a century, they were hid behind a tin barrier in the Pratt Opera House.
The tin was added around 1910 when the stage was expanded. Many visiting actors and actresses stuck advertisements and promotional cards on the wall behind the stage. They were sort of like business cards from that time. Many of the performers signed their names on cards with their photos and the name of their production.
“This is a treasure that is incredibly rare,” said Mark Scarborough, a professional theater manager and consultant who is working with Pratt owners Michael Bonafede and Judith Koehler. “The tin served as a time capsule that preserved everything.”
The tin was carefully removed Saturday afternoon while 33 Cornell University graduate students were in town, working on preservation projects in the opera house from 1882 on North Main Street. The theater was originally known as the Grand Opera House.
They re-glazed windows and repaired mortar on the sandstone walls of the third-story cavernous room. Bonafede was hopeful something historic would be behind the tin wall, and he wanted the Cornell students to be part of the unveiling.
But what was actually there wasn’t known until the metal was taken down. Bonafede was downstairs, working on the windows when he heard shouts of joy from the upper floor. The students were thrilled to see so many signatures and programs, dated from the 1890s and 1900s.
The theater advertisements still have vibrant colors, and remain largely intact.
“It was very exciting to see,” said Caleb Cheng, a Cornell planning student from near Oakland, Calif. “We saw the ’90s on the programs, and realized it was the 1890s, not the 1990s.”
The theater artifacts will be covered with a clear, fireproof material to be preserved long into the future and also stay visible.
Bonafede was in a buoyant mood Saturday evening.
“No one has seen this in 110 years,” he said. “It’s an incredible discovery.”
Bonafede and his wife are working to have the opera house, largely unused since the 1930s, upgraded to “theater in the rough” shape, which would allow performances without scenery and full-blown lighting effects.
“It will be like vaudeville,” Koehler said. “It will be carried by the quality of the performers.”
She and her husband have acquired curtains that they will soon to put up, and they plan to refinish the floor. They are working with an architect who specializes in historic preservation. Koehler said if they can secure a certificate of compliance, there could be performances in the theater later this year.
For now, they are happy with the discovery on Saturday, which Koehler called “a real gold mine of stuff.”
A century ago, Hulberton was home to many quarries and hundreds of immigrant stonecutters and quarry workers. Holley Historian Marsha DeFilipps shared this photograph of a crew. We welcome more “vintage” images from the county. Please send them to tom@orleanshub.com or drop them off at 170 North Main St., Albion.
