Photos by Tom Rivers

Here is how the sign looked about two years ago.

GAINES – A historical marker on Ridge Road, next to the Gaines Carlton Community Church, honors pioneer settler Elizabeth Gilbert.

The marker had flaked off paint and was getting hard to read to motorists on Route 104.

Late last month the sign, with a fresh coat of paint, was reinstalled. Melissa Ierlan, president of the Clarendon Historical Society, has been repainting many historical markers in the county. She had help from Matt Ballard, the county historian, with the Gilbert marker.

There is a creek near this sign that last year was officially named “Gilbert Creek” in honor of Gilbert.

Early settlers liked to build log cabins close to a source of water. Mrs. Elizabeth Gilbert and her family chose the north side of Ridge Road, building their home where there was a rise in the land.

The cabin is long gone, but a historical marker notes the pioneering efforts from Mrs. Gilbert, one of the first settlers on the Ridge between Monroe and Niagara counties. Her husband died in 1808, leaving her to raise the children, and tame the nearby wilderness.

Local resident Al Capurso worked on the effort to name “Gilbert Creek” for more than a year, researching the issue and lining up the needed government support.

The creek begins from feeder sources south of Route 104 near Brown Road. It then marries Proctor Brook in Carlton, and then flows into the Oak Orchard River.

Photos by Tom Rivers

GAINES – Bill Lattin, the retired Orleans County historian, was busy on Friday at the former cobblestone schoolhouse on Gaines Basin Road, painting the front windows.

The schoolhouse for District No. 2 was built in 1832 and served as a school until 1944. It fell into disrepair and has been targeted for improvements by the Orleans County Historical Association.

The building has settled over the years and window frames are a little crooked. That made it tricky for Lattin to fix the windows. Fred Miller at Family Hardware in Albion cut new glass for the windows, accommodating the leaning frames.

“You have to go with the flow with these old things,” Lattin said.

The inside of the building has been largely cleared of debris and the floor swept.

Lattin said other buildings in worse shape have been saved in the county.

Gaines resident Al Capurso has been leading the reclamation effort at the former schoolhouse.

Capurso says many pioneer children in Orleans County were taught at the school, which was also used for countless town meetings.

Volunteers will be working to replace windows, repair holes in the flooring and plastering.

Capurso and the Historical Association also will erect a historical marker, highlighting the building’s use as a school from 1832 to 1944.

Capurso has photos of other cobblestone schools in the community that were torn down, including one at the corner of Riches Corner and Holley roads.

“We have lost some cobblestone school houses and we are determined not to lose this one,” he said.

Part of the front wall includes cobblestone masonry that has endured for nearly two centuries.

Capurso and the volunteers would like to have new storm windows on the building before winter, as well as a new roof and the historical marker.

Capurso would like to have the building up to code with a solid floor and electricity so it could again be used for community gatherings.

Bill Lattin points to his father’s initials, which Cary Lattin put in plaster in 1939.

Lattin said many of his relatives attended school in the building.

“My ancestors went here,” Lattin said. “I’m helping out of sentimentality.”

For more information on the project, and how to help, call Capurso at (585) 590-0763.

Photos by Tom Rivers

GAINES – A print shop from about a century ago is getting cleaned up with some new parts to be added to the old presses.

David Damico, a volunteer for the Cobblestone Museum, has been reorganizing the shop, which was built in 1875. It used to be in Medina, but was moved to the museum grounds on Route 98 in Gaines in the late 1977.

Damico lives in Le Roy. He also volunteers at the print shop at the Genesee Country Village in Mumford. Damico teaches graphic design and topography at Brockport State College.

The shop at the Cobblestone Museum has several cases of type.

Damico believes the shop dates to about 1910-1920, based on the type for printing and lettering, as well as the electricity for the shop and a phone on the wall.

The printing shop is like walking into a time capsule from a century ago. The site includes two printing presses from the late 1800s.

Damico is getting rollers, aprons and cleaning materials for the site that are appropriate for the time period of the shop.

A poster advertising a baseball game between Albion and Medina is on the wall in the shop. The game was to be played on Sept. 1, 1915 in Albion.

The building was constructed in the Second Empire style. It was built by William Hedley of Medina in the 1870s. Hedley purchased land on East Center Street in Medina, and also purchased land near the canal aqueduct. During that time period, Hedley owned and operated a saw mill, stone planing mill, a flour mill, and a machine shop, according to the Cobblestone Museum.

The print shop building was donated to the Cobblestone Museum in 1977 by Erling Maine.

For more on the historic buildings at the Cobblestone Museum, click here.

Damico wants to train volunteers on how to use the printing presses and equipment in the shop. He has a print shop in his basement with equipment from the 1920s.

Photos by Tom Rivers

GAINES – Lee Richards, pastor of the Pullman Memorial Universalist Church in Albion, preaches from the pulpit at the Cobblestone Universalist Church today.

The Pullman congregation twice a year has church at the cobblestone site in Gaines, a building from 1834. That church is oldest cobblestone church in North America and is a National Historic Landmark.

Universalists met at the cobblestone site until the new Pullman church, built with money from Albion native and business tycoon George Pullman, opened in 1895.

The Albion congregation of Unitarian-Universalists has been holding services twice a year at the cobblestone church for at least four decades, with a service the fourth Sunday in June and a patriotic service the first Sunday in July.

In honor of the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War, Richards prepared a sermon as if it was June 28, 1865. He spent a month researching that time frame, looking up sermons, essays and newspaper reports.

Richards dressed as a preacher would in that era, with a large loose tie, a vest and some wild hair. Richards said people in that era hadn’t updated their clothes in years because of the war and they went without haircuts for extended periods.

The church presented a program from June 28, 1865, with the minister at that time named Nathaniel Langdon Frothingham. The church is located in a hamlet that was known then as Fairhaven.

The Cobblestone Universalist Church had endured many ministers who stayed briefly from 1834 to 1865. The church would close in 1865 and reopened in 1874 after a new minister, Rev. Nelson Snell, instilled a newfound zeal in the congregation, according to the church program from today.

During his sermon today, Richards spoke as if it was 1865 and the impending closure of the church would be “one more travesty of the terrible war that just concluded.”

The community and country, at that time, needed religion “now more than ever,” Richards said.

Richards noted the war claimed half a million lives, and left countless others wounded – missing limbs, eyes and bearing invisible scars: “from taken up arms against friends and family.”

Richards’ prepared a sermon from June 28, 1865, which was about two months after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated – “taken from us so suddenly and so shamelessly.” The country desperately needed Lincoln’s leadership for reconciliation between the north and the south, Richards said.

In his sermon, he advocated for rights and education for women and “people of the African race.” He noted that Universalist seminaries were preparing women to preach and lead churches at that time.

Jeremy Rath plays the organ in the balcony of the historic church.

Judy Wenrich dressed as a Native American woman for the service to help commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Wenrich said many Native Americans were assimilated into Christian churches in the 19th Century.

Lee Richards, right, chats with his wife Louise Wu and Matt Ballard, director of the Cobblestone Museum, following the service today. The church will hold its annual patriotic service next Sunday at 11 a.m.

Adrienne Kirby holds her daughter Rosemary after today’s service. Kirby’s father, Bill Lattin, was the Cobblestone Museum director and curator for about 40 years.