In August of 1958 my father Cary Lattin, in the stern of the canoe, took my friend Lee Stevenson, son of Don and Ruth Stevenson, and myself, in the bow of the canoe, on a trip.
We started in North Tonawanda on the Erie Canal, came through the locks at Lockport and camped on the canal bank overnight around Gasport.
The next day we arrived back in Albion. It was a lot of paddling!
I was 13 years old at the time. Wishing us bon voyage from the dock are Angie Brown, Polly Rosch and my mother Avis Lattin.
ALBION – In this picture from the early 1960s we see the Atlantic gas station that was located at the southeast corner of routes 31 and 98 in Albion.
Rollie Kast operated this service station at the time. Note the three overhead doors.
In the righthand background, we see a new Marti’s Motel. This site was later acquired by the Eckerd Drug Co. and now serves as a location for the Rite Aid store.
GAINES – Cousins Arthur Poelma, left, and Ralph Poelma posed together for this picture in 1920. They are standing on a Minneapolis Moline tractor that had an electric starter, electric head lights and a front-wheel drive.
The photo was taken on one of the Poelma Farms at East Gaines.
Editor’s note: Ralph Poelma died on July 7 at age 98. He was a full-time farmer until he was 87. He gave 28 gallons of blood as a donor, a period spanning about 75 years. His cousin Arthur lived to be 88. He died on Oct. 4, 2004. Both are buried at Mount Albion Cemetery.
Photos by Sue Cook
MEDINA – Todd Bensley, the village of Medina historian, talks about the cold storage building on Main Street and why its stone is gray. Bensley was one of the speakers of the downtown historical walk today set up by the Medina Sandstone Society.
Orleans County Historian Bill Lattin explains the cornerstone location on the Medina City Hall.
Todd Bensley discusses some of the downtown buildings, including O’Brien’s Tavern. Today’s tour followed 11 interpretive panels about Medina history that were recently installed as part of a project by the Orleans Renaissance Group.
Bill Lattin tells the group about the hose-drying tower used by the firemen.
Bensley talks about the variety of downtown buildings and why so many are made of different materials.
By Bill Lattin, Orleans County Historian
ALBION – The Albion High School football team had this picture taken in 1924.
The player seated on the floor is unidentified. In the front row, from left: the first two are unidentified followed by Pete Costello, Abel Brown, S. McNaughton, and John Donovan.
Second row: S. Reed, H. Sands, Chas. Barcelona, Chauncy Miller, Rexford Briggs, and unidentified.
Third row: The first two players are unidentified, followed by Don Higley, and another unidentified player.
Back row: D. Sprague, J. Simpson, G. Sprague, M.W. Cole, and Dell Fisher, coach.
ALBION – In this photo from around 1912 we see 10 unidentified men by a wrecked auto on Orchard Street in Albion.
The touring car shown here obviously had a head-on collision with bent fenders and a broken radiator.
Two other autos with tops show behind the men along signage. In the distance a sign states “Jake Forman,” who was a junk dealer.
All the buildings here are gone except the one with the Michelin tire sign, which is now the back end of the Lake Country Pennysaver and Orleans Hub at 170 North Main St.
EAST SHELBY – It is believed this photo was taken around 1910 in East Shelby. It shows the Hagerman children.
The buggy is being pulled by one horse that is wearing a fly net. This helped keep horse flies from landing on the horse and biting. As the horse moved, the fly net jiggled.
No doubt the photographer who took the picture thought it was very cute with one child holding the reins.
ALBION – Printed information on this photo indicates it was taken on June 5, 1908, when the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Temple was dedicated in Albion.
A grand arch made of bunting was erected over Main Street to welcome everyone. The symbol for the Odd Fellows – the three links of chain for friendship, love and truth – is prominently displayed.
A speakers’ stand in the middle of our picture is draped in flags. The temple rooms were located on the second floor with three store fronts at the street level.
The one to the right was an early move theater known as Bijou Dream. Next to it was a restaurant called The Iroquois. Looking up Main Street to West State, we note that it was a dirt street.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 2 August 2014 at 12:00 am
Cobblestone Museum has straight edges, house call bag, and numerous other items from era
Photo by Tom Rivers – Matt Ballard, co-director of the Cobblestone Society Museum, stands in the Danolds Room in the Cobblestone Universalist Church where artifacts, portraits and other information about the medical profession from more than a century ago are on display. The portrait in back shows Orson Nicholson, M.D. Nicholson, who lived from 1795 to 1870, was a pioneer physician in Orleans County. The portrait was donated by his grandson, Francis E. Stewart, M.D.
The display includes a collection of medicines and medical equipment, including a 1913 fully intact syringe with the Diptheria Antitoxin.
GAINES – If you think going to the doctor’s office gets a little frustrating now, sometimes having to wait an hour, imagine what it was like in the 1800s.
It could take days for doctors’ to make a house call. They had to be fetched and would then travel by horse through the wilderness of Orleans County.
“When the county started there were one or two doctors to cycle around and miles and miles of open space,” said Matt Ballard, co-director of the Cobblestone Society Museum.
He put together an exhibit – “Medicine at the Museum” – about medical care in the 1800s. The museum had an extensive collection of artifacts, and many were also donated from community members for the exhibit, which runs until Oct. 12.
“Medicine at the Museum” features photos and write-ups on many of the pioneer physicians and pharmacists in the county.
The display includes the sign for Dr. Eugene Everett Barnum, a doctor who grew up in Kendall. He earned medical degree from UB Medical School in 1881. He was born 1854 and died in 1904 at age 50. He worked out of Waterport and also was a farmer. The crutches are from the Civil War era.
This house call bag belonged to Dr. Dorothy Ollswang Cooper.
Some of the doctors and pharmacists had influences that stretched beyond Orleans County. Henry C. Lawrence of Knowlesville was a mentor to Col. Eli Lilly. Silas Mainville Burroughs of Medina was a founding partner of Burroughs, Welcomme and Co., which helped to develop compression power in medicine that was used in tablets and pills. Francis E. Stewart, M.D., worked in the research department at Parke, Davis & Co.
For medicine, pharmacists would mix concoctions. There were a lot of herbal and natural treatments, tinctures, tonics and syrups.
The museum received this collection of pharmacology items from a former Rexall store in Albion. They were donated to the museum about 40 years ago.
One of the bottles included aqua ammonia.
Doctors used straight edges for surgeries, with a barber sometimes doing a lot of the work.
Ballard consulted with local historians, reviewed local history books and used Internet research to compile the biographies of many physicians who worked in the county in the 1800s.
Doctors often teamed with barbers for surgeries, using straight edges.
“Our physician history is not very well known,” Ballard. “Those doctors had to do a little bit of everything.”
Ballard also has arranged for four lectures to be given about Orleans and WNY medical history. Those lectures will be 4 p.m. on Sundays on Aug. 17, Aug. 31, Sept. 14 and Sept. 28.
Ballard said the medical exhibit and lectures should be a draw for the museum, which is a National Historic Landmark with many structures located near the intersection of routes 98 and 104.
“Every time you go here you see something new and learn something new,” he said. “It’s not a one and done museum.”
For more on the museum and its upcoming events, click here.
ALBION – In this color post card, which was mailed in May 1909, we see the Tower or Soldiers and Sailors Monument at Mount Albion Cemetery.
At that time there was a fountain over the cistern west of the tower, which shows here in the foreground.
When the water works was first put in, a windmill pumped water from a well up to the cistern for then gravity fed water to the various faucets throughout the cemetery.
In 1906 the windmill was replaced with a pumphouse over the well where a gasoline engine then pumped up the cistern.
Historian to lead tours of cemetery on Sundays in August
Editor’s Note: Tours of Mount Albion will take place every Sunday evening in August at 6 p.m. The tours begin at the main gate and will be led by Bill Lattin, the county historian.
