ALBION – Pictured here in the summer of 1943 are employees of the Birdseye Lab, which was located on South Main Street in Albion. The back of the lab building appears in the background. The McNall Funeral Home is to the far left.
Front row, from left: Charlie Byrne, Sy Pomper (s), Ruth Adamy (s), Fern Chase (s) and Jessie Nenni. Back row: Hunter Cohen (s), Helen Collins, Bill Lee, Helen DiJuilio, W. Enzie and John Swenholt. The (s) signifies the person was a summer worker. Dr. Dykstra, supervisor, was absent from the photo.
Note the glass bottles of Coca-Cola in this picture, which was taken when the employees were on break.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 25 September 2013 at 12:00 am
ALBION – Most of our Vintage Orleans features are from a century ago. This one isn’t even quite a year old. It shows Albion’s Main Street while it was lit up with incandescent light bulbs.
The village has replaced about 30 of the those lights with new LED technology that use far less power and give a softer glow. The lights also have new globes that help direct the light downward.
A Hub reader, Wayne Burlison of Albion, took this photo last December. I didn’t have a pre-LED photo to compare the new lights with. Thanks, Wayne.
Sept. 28 event will include 80 students at Mount Albion
Courtesy of Albion Central School – Albion student Kendra Morrison recounts a story during last year’s Ghost Walk about Amos Clift and how he solved the issue of some hobos that kept stealing his farm fencing.
Press release
Albion Central School
ALBION – About 80 Albion High School students will portray notable residents of Mount Albion during a Ghost Walk on Sept. 28. The event runs from 5 to 9 p.m. with tours every 15 minutes. The cost is $5 with proceeds going to service-learning projects.
The tours will start near the chapel of the historic cemetery on Route 31, east of the village. The tour includes the older part of the cemetery.
Students will portray the following:
Albert Warner, who embezzled money from the Roswell Burrows estate and the First National Bank.
William Barlow, a famous architect who designed and built some of our most prominentbuildings, including the Orleans County Courthouse.
Jane Lavery, who was 16 yearsold when she died in the 1859 Main Street bridge collapse while watching an aerialist attempt to cross the Erie Canal.
Ben Field, who acquired the franchise rights to make sleeper cars for the railroad. He sold his part of the business to his partner, George Pullman, for $5,000. Pullman became a multi-millionaire.
Loren Stiles, who was influential in starting the first Free Congregational Methodist Church in the world. The Free Methodist denomination started in Albion.
Amanda Bedell, mother of Grace Bedell, who was 11 when she wrote a letter to Abe Lincoln encouraging him to grow whiskers. He took her advice and met Grace during a train stop in Westfield, NY.
Sanford Church, perhaps the most prominent citizen of Albion’s past. He was an attorney, state assemblyman, state comptroller, Lieutenant Governor of NY and served as chief justice to the NYS Court of Appeals.
Emma Swan, who along with her husband, William Gere Swan, turned the Burrows mansion into thefirst public library for the Albion community.
John Proctor, an early settler in Gaines, he was the Paul Revere of the Ridge during the War of 1812.He rode east to warn people the British were advancing to Lewiston.
John Hull White, who was the grand sire of theIndependent Order of the Oddfellows.
William Butts, a Revolutionary War soldier.
Roswell Burrows, a wealthy banker (reportedly the richest man in Albion). He established the First National Bank of Albion and unfortunately trusted Albert Warner, his assistant.
Lewis Tyrell, a Civil War soldier who fought at the Battle of Petersburg with General Grant.
Emma Root, who recounts a story of a certain gentleman named Pat Flynntrying to settle his bill with a clerk at the village store.
The tour includes choral and instrumental musical selections. To reserve a spot on the tour, call Sue Starkweather Miller at the school, 589-2087.
MEDINA – The view in this post card shows thousands of barrels of apples stacked up along the Erie Canal dock in Medina.
The card was published by the Bickle Brothers, circa 1908. This was before the canal was enlarged here in 1911-13. Note the canal boat which is already loaded with apple barrels.
ALBION – This photo post card, published in the second decade of the 20th century, shows the original administration building at the Western House of Refuge in Albion.
It was built in 1892 and demolished in the 1930s with the expansion of the New York State Training School, now the Albion Correctional Facility, which is the state’s largest prison for women inmates.
HOLLEY – In this photo from 1914, we are looking north to the canal bridge just outside of Holley. This is now Route 237 with a more modern bridge which replaced the one in our photo a number of years ago.
In this picture, we note the dirt road with wooden guard rails on each side of the ramp. An early truck with hard rubber tires is headed down the ramp towards Holley.
To the right we see the guard gates on the canal. If you look carefully you can also see a horse and buggy on the towpath under one of the guard gates in the back, just left of the bridge.
ALBION – A group of residents of the Orleans County House posed for this picture around 1900. The photo was taken by Frank L. Weller of Holley.
The man standing in front of the screen door and the man sitting on the railing are staff members of the County House or the “Poor House.” It was located on County House Road and was the forerunner to the Orleans County Nursing Home.
Back when this photo was taken, the residents were referred to as inmates. Many lived there for reasons other than ill-health, including just being poor.
ALBION – This picture speaks for itself. The people seen here were members of the Orleans County Pioneer Association, which was organized June 25, 1859. It was the county’s first historical organization.
Our photo was taken on Main Street in Albion from the second floor of Geo. Hopkins’ Studio. The building with the Nicholson sign at right is currently Peter Snell Realtors at 107 North Main St.
The other two wooden buildings were torn down around 1890 with the Briggs building now located in the middle. J.H. Hallenbake’s Hardware was replaced with the Waterman building which later was damaged in a fire and then torn down. That site is now Waterman Park.
KNOWLESVILLE – This photo from around 1900 is thought to be of a church group from Knowlesville on a picnic at Elm Park, located at the east side of Oak Orchard Creek north of Medina. It was a popular spot at the time.
To the left is a picnic gazebo with a table and benches. Behind this is a swing set with chairs which must turn around the pole from which they are suspended.
A three-story treehouse appears in the tree along the shoreline. To the right a fountain sprays into a pool.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 26 August 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – Joe Pagan of California on Saturday addressed a group of Vietnam War veterans who gathered locally for a reunion.
Twenty years ago they reconnected for the first time since the Vietnam War. Since then, the 57th Assault Helicopter Company has made their reunions a top priority every other year.
“Everybody talks about the Band of Brothers. When we see each other, we don’t shake hands, we hug,” said Joe Pagan, a mechanic or “witch doctor” for the helicopters during the war. He was tasked with “fixing anything that breaks.”
Pagan, a resident of Riverside, Calif., was chairman of a past reunion of the 57th in Houston. The group gathered again on Aug. 22-25, this time staying at the Clarion in Batavia.
They flew in from all over the country. Albion resident Charlie Nesbitt, a pilot with the 57th from 1968-1969, was chairman of the group’s 11th reunion, which was attended by 67 veterans.
They toured sites in Western New York, including Niagara Falls, the Lockport Locks, the Cobblestone Society Museum, downtown Albion, Leonard Oakes Estate Winery and the Village Inn. They also took a boat ride along the canal.
Mostly, they talked and reconnected.
“You spend the worst year of your life with these guys,” Pagan said. “You build a bond that’s no comparison.”
Pagan has been to all 11 reunions. When some members of the group wanted to have a reunion 20 years ago, they each picked a few names and tried to track down veterans through mail and phone calls. Now the group has its own web site, and that has helped veterans get back in touch with the 57th. The group also takes out ads in military magazines, informing veterans about the reunions.
Several veterans attended the reunion for the first time from Aug. 22-25. The attendees included generals, pilots, gunners, mechanics, crew chiefs, cooks and anyone else who served in the 57th, a group that flew special forces soldiers in and out of enemy territory.
“When I was in Vietnam, this unit was my family,” said Bob Tobey, a Massachusetts native who now runs a coconut farm in Jamaica. “We watched each other’s back.”
Tobey was a pilot in Vietnam. He said the 57th took people from all over the country, of varying backgrounds and talents, and developed a highly efficient and skilled team.
“We all worked together like clockwork,” Tobey said. “We were a group of people thrown together and it worked.”
Gary Beikirch was one of the special forces soldiers who was brought in and out of battle by the 57th. Beikirch is one of 79 living Medal of Honor winners. He addressed the 57th reunion on Saturday night.
Beikirch won his medal for his extreme bravery during the Seige of Dak Seang, a battle supported by aircrews from the 57th. On April 1, 1970 a massive force of North Vietnamese attacked a camp in the Central Highlands of Vietnam.
Although suffering multiple wounds Beikirch continued to perform his duties and rescued numerous American and indigenous personnel. For his actions he was awarded the Medal of Honor on October 15, 1973.
Beikirch returned to Rochester and worked 33 years as a middle school counselor.
“I’ve had a lot of years of life because you had my back over and over again,” Beikirch told the 57th veterans.
He repeated a message he often shared with middle schoolers about the importance of having goals and a vision for the future. He told the veterans they still have a lot to give.
“There is much more for us to do as men who have fought,” he told the group.
