KNOWLESVILLE – Every night at the Orleans County 4-H Fair, teams attempt to climb a pole slathered in grease. It is a popular tradition at the fair.

Before the grease pole, the fair had a greased pig competition. Actually, the pig didn’t get greased – the competitors did.

“It’s hard enough to hold on to a pig, but when you’re all greased up you can’t hold on to anything,” said Ed Neal, who competed in the event.

I was at the fairgrounds on Friday, meeting with Jennifer Wagester, the new director of the Cornell Cooperative Extension. Wagester had a copy of an anniversary yearbook that I believe covered fair highlights from 1966 to 1991.

I flipped through it and spotted a picture of the pig-greasing team in 1969. One of the team members, Gene Smith, was my friend. Gene was on the Albion Board of Education for many years. He also served as the volunteer electrician at the fairgrounds, wiring most of the facilities and barns at the site in Knowlesville.

Gene died on April 14, 2010 at age 71. At the fair the following July, the Extension board dedicated one of the buildings in his honor. Until yesterday, I had no idea Gene was part of a greased pig team. I didn’t even know there was such a competition.

Neal, the current chairman of the board for the Extension, said the competition was short-lived, maybe for just two or three fairs.

“It was a lot of fun,” he said. “It was entertainment for the crowd. The entertainment back then was simple things.”

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – This week I made a shocking discovery in Albion. There is an old boot scraper behind the DAR House in Albion.

I first encountered one of these last summer in Rochester at the Charlotte-Genesee Lighthouse, which dates back to the 1820s.

I like historic hitching posts and carriage steps. Orleans County has a lot of these, perhaps more than anywhere else.

I’ve been looking for an old boot scraper around here. I thought if we had one it could tie into a possible hitching post-carriage step trail. I hadn’t seen any until I stopped by the DAR House on Wednesday. Mounted in a stone block by the back door stands a cast iron boot scraper.

“They are really old,” said Bill Lattin, the county historian. “These things go way back and you just don’t see them around.”

Lattin knew about the one at the DAR House. He has one at his historic cobblestone house, mounted in a curb. He also has a mobile boot scraper. His two, plus the one at the DAR, are the only ones he knows of in the county.

“They go back to a time when there were a lot of muddy streets,” Lattin said.

Folks back then would scrape off the mud, and sometimes manure, from their shoes before going inside.

The boot scraper at the DAR complements one of the finest buildings in the county.

The DAR House was first built in 1840 on North Main Street at the Linwood Street intersection. The house was enlarged by Orson Tousley in the mid-1800s. The Greek Revival building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Tousley’s daughter Florence followed her father in owning the site. She married George Church, the son of Sanford Church, one of the most prominent people from Albion.

Florence was one of the founding members of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1925. She left the house to her son Sanford T. Church, who sold the house to Emma Reed Webster in 1929. She then donated it a few months later to the DAR, which remains an active local organization.

I did a Google search for boot scrapers, and found these interesting articles (click here and here). If anyone knows where more of these might be locally, send me an email at tom@orleanshub.com.

Photos by Tom Rivers – George Pullman is believed to have made these two couches that are inside the Merrill-Grinnell Funeral Home in Albion. The funeral home was once the home for Sanford Church, a prominent Albionite who served as the state’s lieutenant governor.

ALBION – Before he struck fame and fortune as the manufacturer of palatial sleeping railroad cars, George Pullman was a cabinet and furniture maker in Albion.

Pullman joined the family business at age 17 in 1848.  A decade later he was in Chicago, making money by moving buildings. In 1859, he converted railroad cars into luxury rooms on wheels. Thus began his empire.

Today, I stopped by the Merrill-Grinnell Funeral Home in Albion. Two of Pullman’s couches from more than 150 years ago remain inside the funeral home, which used to be the home of Sanford Church. The prominent Albion resident went on to serve as lieutenant governor from 1851 to 1854. Church may be Albion’s most accomplished resident. He was also the state comptroller and chief judge of the Court of Appeals.

He also apparently owned ornately carved furniture by another young Albionite who would become a titan of business. George Pullman didn’t forget his Albion roots after amassing his riches. He was the prime benefactor in building the Pullman Memorial Universalist Church in Albion, a site that was dedicated in 1895.

Another Albion church has a Pullman-made couch. When I was at the First Presbyterian Church for a visit a few months ago, members of the church noted they have a Pullman couch. I’ll try to get a picture soon.

The Pullman furniture features ornately carved woodwork.