BARRE – In this panoramic view we see the mucklands off Route 98 north of Elba and in the southern part of Orleans County.
Here in the early 1930s are men harvesting lettuce and putting it into crates. Horse-drawn wagons stacked with the crop are shown hauling it out of the muckland.
Windbreaks of willow hedges were used to subdivide the great spaces down into smaller fields to help stop wind erosion.
Along with lettuce, the muck also produced carrots, potatoes, celery and of course the famous onions.
The fertile land was first drained from the Tonawanda Swamp beginning in 1909. The various farmers who owned and operated these lands were known as muckers.
HULBERTON – On this post card is a picture of the Hulberton Methodist Church in 1911.
It was built in 1836 and was used for regular services until 1945. This card was mailed out inviting people to attend an Old Home Day in 1911.
Dinner and supper for the event were 25 cents. After the church closed, it stood vacant and fell into disrepair. It eventually was torn down in 1969 when the grounds were properly cleaned up.
HOLLEY – In this window from St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Holley we see St. Paul the Apostle holding a book and pointing upward.
The window was given in 1894 when the church was built. At the bottom it states: “Presented by Evangeline A. Johnson A.D. 1894.” Mrs. Johnson was a daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Edwin Armstrong of Holley who were among the first members of St. Paul’s Church.
In 1892 Evangeline married Robert Wood Johnson of the famed pharmaceutical company known as Johnson & Johnson.
Editor’s Note: The Cobblestone Society Museum in Gaines is currently featuring an exhibit, “Medicine at the Museum,” that includes several Orleans County ties to pharmaceutical and medical research, including Johnson’s. That exhibit will be on display until Oct. 13.
CARLTON – This stick style cottage, built in 1883, was one of the first at Oak Orchard-On-The-Lake.
The Isaac Signor Family and the Edwin Wage Family built the double cottage together. The Wages occupied the east half, the Signors the west half. Wage and Signor were law partners.
The photo of a gathering was taken in 1886. When the lake eroded to within inches of this cottage it was torn down in 1952.
MEDINA – In this 1908 view of Main Street on Medina we see tracks being laid for the B.L. & R. trolley system. Two sets of tracks were put down here so trolleys could bypass each other.
The trolley tracks did not go straight through Medina as they did in Albion. It seems people who lived in the fine residences on West Center Street did not want the trolley cars rumbling past their homes.
Therefore the trolley line made a right angle off East Center Street onto Main Street and followed Commercial Street out to Salt Works Road.
The noteworthy landmark in our photo is White’s Hotel in the distance with the seven-story tower.
By Mike Wertman, Sports Writer Posted 12 June 2014 at 12:00 am
Photo by Cheryl Wertman – A project is now underway to highlight the history of Albion’s Sandstone Park baseball diamond with the erection of a plaque.
Sandstone Park is a special part of the neighborhood and of the Albion Midget League and it has been for decades.
Like its neighbor just to the north across the Erie Canal the St. Mary’s Club field, the Sandstone Park diamond dates back to the formation of the Albion Midget League in 1956 making the two diamonds the oldest youth fields in the community.
It’s a neighborhood park, which gets its “Sandstone” name from the Medina sandstone quarry which once operated on the site.
And plans are now well underway to chronicle the quarry history of the site and of the baseball teams which have played on its diamond over the past six decades with the placing of a plaque on a block of sandstone near the backstop.
Photo by Cheryl Wertman – A view of the Sandstone diamond from right field.
“The kids I coach now many of their parents also played ball at Sandstone as did some of their grandparents,” said current Sandstone team Coach and Sandstone player alum Dan Bartlett in commenting on the importance of the park to the neighborhood.
“As kids we played ball there all the time. That’s all we did,” said Bartlett who is just Sandstone’s fourth coach in the 59 year history of the team.
“It’s a unique situation. It was a neighborhood thing playing there,” said former Albion High coach and Sandstone team alum Gary Mannella, whose father, Guido Mannella, was the Sandstone team’s first coach.
“I guess that’s where I got my baseball DNA from,” said Mannella of his early days playing at Sandstone.
In fact, a sign on the backstop honors the team’s four coaches, a list of mentors which also include Leonard Sidari and Steve Coville.
No date has been set yet for the placing of the plaque.
Photo by Cheryl Wertman – In addition to a baseball shaped sign with the Sandstone Park logo, a sign on the backstop also recognizes the only four coaches the Sandstone team has ever had and the years they served – Guido Mannella, Leonard Sidari, Steve Coville and Dan Bartlett.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 12 June 2014 at 12:00 am
Memorials honor local soldiers who made ultimate sacrifice
Photos by Tom Rivers – A member of the Special Forces Association Parachute Team descends with an American flag near the Pembroke Town Park this afternoon.
PEMBROKE – The Cost of Freedom Tribute opened today in the Pembroke Town Park, the beginning of four days in Genesee County. I took a drive out there because I knew veterans’ groups from Orleans County helped bring the memorial to the area.
I knew the Tribute including a replica of the Moving Wall in honor of Americans who died in the Vietnam War. I went looking for two local names: Rick Engle of Albion and George Fischer of Holley.
Engle was 19 when he was killed in Vietnam on Feb. 21, 1968. I know three of his sisters. Engle’s name is on the 36th panel east, on line 070.
I heard Gary Kent speak at Memorial Day a few years ago. He talked about his childhood friend named George W. Fischer of Holley. Fischer was 22 when he died in Vietnam on Aug. 3, 1968. He is one of eight to die from Holley in Vietnam, giving the community one of the highest per capita death rates from the war in all of the United States. Fischer’s name is located on panel 49 west, on line 004.
The Cost of Freedom Tribute includes sections to other wars. Here, two people look over a display about World War II.
I found the section on the Global War on Terror to be particularly moving. The names of soldiers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan are listed in chronological order by order of their deaths.
Orleans County has lost one soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan. Jason Johnston of Albion was 24 when he was killed on Dec. 26, 2009. He died in Afghanistan due to a roadside bomb.
The Cost of Freedom Tribute includes an 80 percent replica of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C.
The American Legion in Oakfield-Alabama took the lead in bringing the Cost of Freedom Tribute to the area, but several Orleans County veterans’ groups provided donations and manpower for the event.
Today’s opening ceremonies included laying of wreaths by the memorials.
Students look over a memorial that will be dedicated on Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Pembroke Town Park.
In the mid-1890s mourners assembled at a cemetery by an open grave. A woman dressed all in black stands at the head of the grave.
On Friday, June 13 from 12 to 6 p.m. and on Saturday, June 14, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. a display of funeral-related photos and artifacts will be shown at the Merrill-Grinnell Funeral Home in Albion.
Many of these items are from the personal collection of County Historian Bill lattin, including the above photo.
A replica of Lincoln’s coffin made by Batesville Casket Co. will also be on loan from that business and will be displayed at Merrill-Grinnell’s.
ALBION – In this serene photo from the 1890s we see the old Albion Mill and Mill Pond. It was located off East State Street on the west branch of Sandy Creek at the edge of the Erie Canal.
Purity Flour was made here by Woods and Sprague using both steam and water power. When the canal was enlarged 100 years ago, the old mill was torn down and the pond reduced to a stream. This flows under the canal in a culvert, which is behind the Community Action building.
