Devastating canal breach in 1927 flooded community

Photo courtesy NYS Barge Canal Western Division

By Doug Farley, Cobblestone Museum Director – Vol. 2 No. 43

Eagle Harbor, once a thriving Erie Canal community, was the scene of a devastating canal breach in August, 1927, that caused damages estimated at over $3 Million in today’s economy. The sleepy canal town instantly became the scene of an enormous work force numbering several hundred people that worked 24 hours a day to restore canal commerce.

The underpinning of the disaster can be attributed to the design of the canal in what became known as the south wall of the “Trough at Eagle Harbor.” During the Barge Canal expansion in 1912, a massive embankment or trough with a height of about 50’ feet raising above the level of Otter Creek was created to contain the canal and pass over the creek. The embankment was constructed from earth, concrete and stone.

A portion of the embankment passing over Otter Creek today, known as state canal culvert #86

A short excursion along the towpath at Eagle Harbor quickly identifies the immense scale of the construction project, also seen in the picture above.  The creek itself was channeled through a culvert that was buried 6’ beneath the canal, creating a trough of water 12’ deep above.

On August 3, 1927, bridge tender, Leon Walters, received word from two boys that they had seen a small leak open up in the canal near the embankment. The small leak foretold of the disaster that was about to follow.  A local man, L.E. Bennett, reported seeing a 3’ square hole open up later that day.

This opening began spilling thousands of gallons of water from the canal into the surrounding countryside in short period of time.  The breach occurred about 100’ west of the Otter Creek culvert. Quickly, a massive hole opened up and the south wall of the canal broke apart creating a hole 50’ across and 7’ deep.

Photo courtesy Orleans County Historian

Newspapers stated that canal officials estimated 1 billion gallons of water spilled out of the canal into the surrounding fields, creating an artificial lake about 2 miles long by one-half mile wide with a depth of 20’-60’ throughout.  Numerous houses were flooded with some victims stranded in their second stories until the next day.

The reconstruction efforts began immediately and were supervised by Canal Commissioner Thomas Farrell. Early estimates stated that the canal west of Rochester would need to be closed for ten days, but when the full scope of the disaster was realized, the project dragged on for six weeks.  Some sources reported that during that time, upward to two million bushels of grain were stopped at Buffalo due to the canal break, along with untold amount of other agricultural products from other locales around the Great Lakes.  Local farmers pleaded with Farrell to keep the canal open to the Lattin Bridge Guard Gate so that commerce into and out of Albion (eastbound) could be maintained to help minimize the impact in Orleans County.

Over 200 men were put to work, round the clock to make the repairs. Heavy equipment operators were employed to operate about 20 trucks, 6 steam shovels, concrete mixers, pile drivers and other pieces of earth moving equipment were utilized to complete the project.

Photo courtesy Orleans County Historian

The break became an overnight sensation, drawing motorists thought to number in the thousands to the region. In addition to the cost to repair the canal, many local farmers suffered devastating losses, the ill effects of which lasted a few years in some cases. Local farmer John Potter reported his field of potatoes was submerged under 10’ of water for weeks. Other farmers reported losses of cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers and grain products.

Repaired canal structures passing over Otter Creek at Eagle Harbor today. Note use of concrete retaining walls on both sides of the canal.

When final reports were published, state officials postulated that the underlying culprit in the disaster was a colony of errant muskrats, close cousins to the otters of Otter Creek fame, that had burrowed into the wall of the embankment, thus setting up the cataclysmic series of events that led to this historic disaster.

The 1927 Eagle Harbor canal breach is probably the most well known, but not the only historic canal breach in Orleans County. A 19th century breach occurred in the 1850s, a few miles east of Eagle Harbor, near the Joseph Lattin farm in the Town of Albion. At that time, it was reported that a canal boat was actually washed out of the canal and deposited into the adjoining farm land.

Following the canal repairs, Bartlett Lattin helped return the boat to its rightful location back in the canal. More specifically, Lattin’s mother and sister came to the rescue, too, by supplying homemade soap that Bartlett used to grease the skids used to move the boat off dry land. The equipment utilized was actually provided by George Pullman who used an ox-powered machine that his father developed to lift and move houses that were in the way during the canal expansion which was ongoing at that time.

Pullman, a furniture manufacturer in Albion, was working a contract that the state had given to Charles Danolds to facilitate the canal enlargement in this region. Pullman, of course, went on in subsequent years to become a railroad tycoon with the improvements he made to railroad sleeping cars that became known as Pullman cars.

Another 19th century canal break in the region occurred around 1870 in the Town of Gaines, very near the northernmost point on the canal. Water from that breach flowed out in great force, making its way to Beardsley Creek on the north side of the canal. It is said that a local farmer, David Bullard and his daughter, were working in a chicken coop at the time of the deluge of water in the creek, which expanded to include the chicken coop in its wake.

The chicken coop, and all of its occupants at the time, were raised form its moorings and carried downstream at a heart-stopping pace. Eyewitnesses reported that Bullard’s daughter jumped out of the chicken coop as it was passing over Gaines Basin Road but Mr. Bullard rode it out until the coop eventually crash landed at a tree where Beardsley Creek crosses Gaines Basin Rd again at the Sanford Farm.

Workers at the site of 2012 canal breach, photo courtesy Times-Union, David Duprey/AP

A much more recent canal breach took place in 2012, once again in the proximity of Gaines Basin. On the evening of July 30, passersby on Albion-Eagle Harbor Road near the Lattin Bridge, noticed that a slight depression in the highway had formed in a very short amount of time. Retired County Historian Bill Lattin reported, “I was the last car that made it through.  I felt a huge ‘kerplunk’ as my car kind of bottomed out.”

The next car to approach the scene came upon a gaping 60’ wide by 16’ deep sinkhole that had opened up in that same spot.  Luckily, a state worker had arrived on the scene to flag that motorist down.

It was discovered that extensive damage had occurred to a large culvert pipe under the Albion Eagle Harbor Road at that spot. The discovery was followed by the closing of a 25-mile stretch of the canal from Middleport in Niagara County to Holley in Orleans County.  Contractors, meanwhile, hauled in 200 tons of crushed stone to fill the sinkhole in the weakened rock-and-clay embankment.

Photo by Tom Rivers: Construction crews led by C.P. Ward were mobilized late into the night of July 30, 2012 to fill a sinkhole on Albion Eagle Harbor Road and a path along the Erie Canal. Crews worked late into the night to fill the hole and stabilize the site so the canal wouldn’t flood two neighboring state prisons.

The sinkhole nearly collapsed the embankment that held back the Erie Canal. Had the wall been washed out, officials feared the two state prisons next to the road would have been flooded.

Dump trucks hauled stone from Keeler Construction in Barre to fill in the road and canal path.

Repairing the road and path cost the state $1.3 million to fix. The sinkhole forced the state Canal Corp. to close a section of the canal in Albion for about 2 ½ weeks.

Gaines has northernmost point of canal, a private bridge, turn basin and lift bridge

Gaines Basin, 1860 map

By Doug Farley, Cobblestone Museum Director

GAINES – Today, a quick blink is all it would take to completely miss the Hamlet of Gaines Basin located just a few miles southwest of Childs.  Other than its 1832 Cobblestone School, the current Gaines Basin ghost town nestled on the towpath of the Erie Canal no longer gives a hint of the bustling canal commerce that took place there once the canal was completed.

Gaines Basin Road that bisects the hamlet, was actually the shortest distance between the Ridge Road and the Erie Canal, a fact that obviously added to the strategic commercial value of the small community that grew up on the banks of the canal. Even the name “Gaines Basin,” is attributed to the hamlet’s early ties to the Erie Canal.

At one time, after the construction of the canal, Gaines Basin could boast almost a dozen residences and at least two thriving businesses.  While most of the residences were associated with farm owners, the businesses included a blacksmith shop and grain warehouse.

The blacksmith shop, present in the 1830s, was gone by the 1870s.  In that time, it served the local farmers from Gaines Basin. One item produced in the blacksmith shop that remains today is an artifact called a “peel,” shown above. For those unaccustomed to the term, as I was, a peel is a shovel-like tool that is used to slide out embers from a brick bake oven. This particular peel, produced in the blacksmith shop in Gaines Basin in 1823, is part of the collection of retired Orleans County Historian Bill Lattin.

Another Gaines Basin business that came and left without a trace was a grain warehouse, also located on the north bank of the canal. It’s location on the canal made it an ideal spot to load and unload grain from a canal boat into the grain bins. While the buildings themselves may be gone, the stories of what went on there still persist.

Bill Lattin explains that his great-grandfather, Bartlett Lattin, sold grain to the owner of the warehouse around 1870. Unfortunately, he never received payment. When Lattin approached the grain warehouse owner, he said he couldn’t pay him, but offered Lattin a percussion muzzleloader flintlock rifle as a substitute for cash.

Bartlett took the gun as payment, and Bill Lattin, through inheritance, now has this artifact in his personal collection. The rifle reaches nearly 6-1/2 feet in length. Bill recalls a childhood story he was told that the early colonists often traded with the Native Americans, offering rifles in exchange for fur belts.  The colonists would set the rifle on the ground and the Native Americans would stack fur pelts next to it until the pile reached the top of the gun barrel.  As time went on, it was said the colonists tricked the Native Peoples by increasing the length of the barrel to garner more fur belts in exchange for a single rifle.

Barge Canal route, Gaines Basin & Eagle Harbor, 1913 map

The Erie Canal, even though it doesn’t occupy much real estate in the Town of Gaines, has been a big part of the community’s history. The canal stretches just a few miles from Gaines Basin to Eagle Harbor, which is another community that owes its name and existence to the construction of the Erie Canal.

It is said that an eagle’s nest was spotted in the area in 1815 at the time of the initial canal survey – hence the name Eagle Harbor. The portion of the Erie Canal situated in Gaines seems an anomaly today as we consider the canal route. Why would canal planners deviate from their southern route and move northward into Gaines? The canal, most likely, would not have passed through Gaines without a decision to put a bend in the proposed canal and move its course substantially northward into Gaines. This can be seen by looking at the map above map and noticing that the canal makes what looks like a northward detour from its course further south, to reach into a small sliver of the Town of Gaines along the town’s southern boundary.

Profile Map of the original Erie Canal, 1825, Long Level highlighted

Looking for an answer to this paradox we have to consider the lack of engineering skills in the 1800s when the canal was constructed. (There wasn’t even a single engineering school in NYS at that time.)  The course of the canal from Lockport east to Rochester is part of what was originally called the “long level.”

This roughly 60-mile stretch was the longest section of the canal that contained no locks to handle changes in elevation related to topography.  The reason for that was in the 1800s when the canal commissioners laid out the eventual path for the canal, they discovered that there was no suitable body of water between Lockport and Rochester from which additional water could be added to the canal.

That fact meant that the water in the canal had to flow completely by gravity through the 60-mile long level from its Lake Erie headwater at Lockport to the Genesee River at Rochester where more water could be added. We all know that water doesn’t flow uphill. The bend in the canal into the Town of Gaines was created by a need to bypass higher ground further south that would have prevented the free flow of water without moving an exorbitant amount of earth.

Northernmost point on the Erie Canal, Cobblestone District #2 Schoolhouse in background

This northern route gave Gaines the distinction of containing the northernmost point along the entire route of the 363-mile Erie Canal. A state marker on the canal marks the spot, now.

Another anomaly regarding the Erie Canal in the Town of Gaines is the presence of a turn basin, shown on the map above, about half way between Gaines Basin and Eagle Harbor on the south side of the canal.  The original Erie Canal was carved into the countryside with a depth of only 4 feet and a width of 40 feet.

To save construction cost, the canal was built with a single towpath servicing mules and horses pulling both eastbound and westbound boats.  This fact created a dilemma when oncoming boats would meet in any spot along the canal and pass each other without tangling lines. One boat would move to the far side of the canal as its mules halted on the outside of the towpath.

The towline which was 100 to 150 feet long would go slack and sink to the bottom of the canal so the overtaking or oncoming boat could pass over it freely. When this simple method didn’t work out, the mule tenders or “hoggees” would carry the lines over the other mule team. Crew members on deck would do the same with the towrope passing over the idled boat.

Canal Turn Basin, Town of Gaines, 2021, Canal partially drained

To facilitate this process, a small number of turn basins or “wide-waters” were cut into the side of the canal to provide a safe harbor for boats that needed to “pull over,” to make repairs or get out of the way of oncoming traffic. It also served to provide a location with sufficient width where boats could be turned in the opposite direction if needed.

If a boat moved into a turn basin, it could sit there for an extended period of time, out of the way of two-way traffic moving on the canal. Also, over time, boats became larger trying to squeeze as much precious cargo on deck as possible. This scenario would create plenty of bottlenecks without an occasional turn basin to assist.

Another part of our shared Erie Canal history concerns canal bridges. From our childhood, we probably recall singing “Low bridge, everybody down. Low bridge, for we’re comin’ to a town.”

Bridges were a real sore point for canal planners. They knew that a 363-mile ribbon of water would necessitate dividing a lot of farms and property. Farmers still needed a way to access their fields on the other side of the canal. In 1817, after canal construction began, literally hundreds of bridges were needed across the state in very short order.

A workforce of state officials quickly approached every property owner along the proposed route of the canal and worked to find a solution that would allow the state to acquire the necessary land from the property owners to construct the canal. Often times, it came down to an offer to build a bridge for a farmer who may need it to reach their barn or farm land on the opposite side of “Clinton’s Ditch.”

The cost of all of these bridges was another major concern.  NYS had allocated $5 million for the canal project and they needed to try to contain their costs, so the bridges needed to be as low-cost as possible. (Canal costs eventually spiked to $7 million at the time of its completion.) Saving money usually meant sticking with a very low bridge built right from ground level, instead of raising the bridge up by building abutments or other superstructures.

Lattin Bridge today

Town of Gaines property owners along the canal were “given” bridges in exchange for their signature on easements or deeds.  One case in point was the farm of Lansing Bailey. In the 1820s during canal construction, a bridge was created to accommodate his farm house in the Town of Albion and farm land in the Town of Gaines. In 1837 the farm and bridge passed into the possession of Joseph Lattin.  The “Lattin Bridge” as it became known, was built ostensibly to service one farm. In the late 1880s, the bridge began to service traffic going to and from the Albion Waterworks nearby.

A similar situation existed on the Starkweather farm, near Eagle Harbor.  At the time of the canal expansion in the late 1800s, both Starkweathers and Lattins were offered a choice of keeping the private bridge or accepting $1,000 from NYS to give up their bridge claim.  Starkweathers accepted the latter, Lattins did not. And, today, the Lattin Bridge is the only canal bridge in the state still serving private property.

Eagle Harbor lift bridge, 2007

Eventually, during the construction of the 1862 Enlarged Erie Canal, and again in the 1900s for the Barge Canal, low bridges were eliminated and replaced with tall stationary bridges or hydraulic lift bridges.

In all, 17 lift bridges were built across NYS to carry vehicular traffic over the canal. Orleans County can lay claim to seven of those lift bridges: Prospect Avenue (Route 63) in Medina, Knowlesville Road, Eagle Harbor Road, North Main Street Albion, Ingersoll Street in Albion, Hulberton Road in Murray and East Avenue in Holley. The small sliver of canal crossing through the Town of Gaines is serviced by a lift bridge in Eagle Harbor and a tall stationary bridge at Gaines Basin Road.

Eagle Harbor Lift Bridge, 2021

In Part 2 of this article, we will look at the historic canal breach that occurred in the Town of Gaines.

By Doug Farley, Cobblestone Museum Director – Vol. 2 No. 41

GAINES – In last week’s article, we looked at the origin of the Murray family dollhouse, a nearly 90-year-old children’s treasure in the Hamlet of Childs.

The dollhouse was created by Mary Miller Murray in 1934, and much enjoyed by the Murray children: George, Joyce and Janice. Also, much enjoyed by countless other children who played out their fantasies and dreams while rearranging miniature furniture or posing the miniature people going about a typical days activities in the “life” of a miniature family.

Janice Mann Beech (shown at right) inherited the dollhouse from her mother and father, Mary & Curtis Murray. Later, Janice’s children also enjoyed playing with the dollhouse.

On October 12, 2021, Janice donated the dollhouse to the Cobblestone Museum for the enjoyment of the current generation of children as well as future generations.

Moving day was accomplished without a lot of fanfare. Janice had worked ahead of time to carefully wrap individual miniature furnishings in tissue paper and lovingly stacked them in handle sacks to make the move from Heritage Estates, where she lives, to the Museum’s Vagg House on the corner of Routes 98 and 104.

Former Museum director Bill Lattin and current director Doug Farley arrived at 1 p.m. to load the dollhouse into Bill’s hatchback to make the short trek. Janice came along on her own with all the furnishings to supervise the placement of the dollhouse in its new home and to unpack and reinstall the tables, couches, chairs and much more!

Every miniature piece of furniture in the dollhouse was crafted to recreate the workings of an actual full sized piece of furniture. Tiny cabinet doors swing open and closed, and dresser drawers pull open to reveal miniature pieces of clothing, and more. Straight pins were cut-off to serve as hinge pins.

Kitchen drawers are complete with miniature wooden silverware that Mary Murray carved by hand. Janice recalled, “We used to play with the silverware outdoors. That was a very bad idea! I think all that’s left are a few knives.” A dining room setting is complete with hanging Tiffany style lamp, parrot on a stand, and dinner on the table.

Mirrors used in the dollhouse were originally given by various companies to advertise their products. Twentieth century ladies carried the mirrors in their purses and used them to check their makeup when out-and-about. One mirror reads, “Red Cross Stoves, Ranges and Furnaces” on the back side. It is shown above in its room setting in the dollhouse.

The dollhouse candles are real candles, but of course, much smaller than life-sized. A small piece of sewing thread was dipped in candle wax to give the appearance of small candlesticks that sit inside small brass candle stands.  Above, one of the “children” plays with a miniature-miniature table, chairs and stove. And irons rest against the small fireplace and “family” portraits adorn the walls.

In order to maintain domestic tranquility when two kids were playing “house” at the same time, all things had to be equal. Janice explained, “There needed to be at least two of each item so both children could have their own.”

Janice remembers that her mother had a hard time crafting people that would be the right size to fit in the dollhouse. She said, “I think ‘Grandma’ looks terrified!” Her face has circles with dots in the middle that were supposed to simulate spectacles. Janice’s daughter, Mary Beth Chassagnol, made a mini-knitting basket (shown) for “Grandmother” who resides in the dollhouse.  She made it from a walnut shell and little pieces of yarn and straight pins for knitting needles.

Janice explained that Mary Beth was an artistic child. Later, in adult life, Mary Beth was a scenery painter, working in New York City. On one occasion, Mary Beth rewarded herself for a successful year at work and planned a trip to Paris. While in The City of Light, she ventured out to eat at about 2 a.m. Andre, her future husband, came out of the restaurant and opened her cab door. He later said he knew it was love-at-first-sight.  Mary Beth needed a little more convincing. The couple married in 1984 and resided in France. Mary Beth passed away in 2020.

The “maids” room has its own wood stove, Strong Museum shopping bag, and a can of Crisco, bottle of milk and box of Cheerios.

“Grandpa” has a woolen hat. The lampshades have pleated coverings held in shape with a hidden wire, just like their full-sized counterparts. A bust of King Louis of France and the Holy Bible sit on the coffee table.

The dollhouse kids had their own toys like a mini-rocking horse. Janice said her family loved playing croquet for many years.  So it was only natural, at some point, to add a croquet set to the dollhouse toys.  The miniature croquet set was purchased in more recent times at the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester.

After a busy day of setting up shop, the miniature “family” takes a well-deserved rest. Cobblestone Society members are welcome to attend a “Housewarming” for the dollhouse on Saturday, November 6th at the Annual Meeting. All others are encouraged to call the museum at (585) 589-9013 to request a Vagg House Tour.

This cooper shop at Eagle Harbor was located on the south side of the Erie Canal, by the bridge. The boy in the window to the left is identified as Charles Bennett. The photograph, which dates to the 1880’s, was donated to the Orleans County Dept. of History in 1962 by Mrs. Lottie Fountain Trow.

By Catherine Cooper, Orleans County Historian

Illuminating Orleans – Vol. 1, No. 26

EAGLE HARBOR – On the eighth of April 1853, William H. Bennett, along with his wife, Nancy, and their children boarded the Rose, a sailing vessel which departed Plymouth, England, bound for Quebec. The anticipated three-week journey took 52 days instead. Having had to bring their own provisions along, the family ran out of food. But William, ever resourceful, managed. He could play the flute and so could entertain the sailors and thus, scour some food.

Several fellow passengers were bound for Eagle Harbor, New York, having relatives who had settled there. William decided to go there also, expecting that being a harbor, it would be a place of importance for shipping and therefore for employment.

By the time they got to Eagle Harbor, they had spent their money and had bartered what few fine items they had for food and tickets. William spent their last eleven cents on food – bread, an onion, salt. He met a “former chum,” a shoemaker named Abbott, who took them to his home.

William got a job at a stone quarry, where he worked fourteen days for $1 a day. But, on arriving at the quarry on the fifteenth day, he was told that the owner had “failed in business.” William located the buyer of the stone and negotiated some payment from him. He then found a job haying and harvesting for a Joel Starkweather for one month for $13. He tried working as a Canal Driver ($14 per month) but did not like it. He then took a job chopping stove wood for 31 ¼ cents per cord. With his hands badly blistered, he “began to think of old England and the work I had left there, but I was here to make the best of it.”

Indeed, life in “old England” had been equally precarious. His father was a laborer who “indulged freely in beer drinking” and often was unemployed. At one point, when William was 10, the family resorted to the County Alms House, where he worked at the brick yard. His first job was at a limestone quarry (22 cents a day). He also worked as an apple picker and later learned the trade of wool combing, but soon the wool combers went on strike, and he was unemployed. He experienced the Bread Riots of 1847, when large crowds protesting the high price of grain stormed gristmills and farmhouses to demand relief. It was this background of social unrest, high prices and uncertain employment that caused him to decide to emigrate, even though his wife’s family objected strongly to her leaving.

Making the best of it in Eagle Harbor, William packed flour for C.A. Danolds, worked as a laborer on the 1854 enlarging of the Canal, learned how to mill and learned the cooper trade. In the spring of 1857, he was hired as a miller at $300 a year. His brothers, James and Charles, immigrated in 1854, and later brother George, his parents and sister.

Nancy, his “good wife …who was of cheerful disposition, with no tendency to fault-finding,” bore nine children, the youngest in 1875 when she was 44. That same year, five of the children were stricken at the same time with scarlet fever but they survived. Five of their children contracted measles in 1880, all survived, except for their daughter Mary.

Bennett Bros. store, Eagle Harbor, circa 1900

Despite several setbacks in employment and the economy, William gained a foothold and slowly prospered, by dint of hard work and shrewdness. In summarizing the years, he tends to elaborate on the negatives while sparing the details of their successes: “The year closed with many difficulties and some triumphs.”

He became a citizen. Following the death of his mother, he “quit all vices” and joined the Wesleyan Methodist Church. In 1880, he was elected Overseer of the Poor for the western half of the town of Gaines. When Harrison was inaugurated President in 1889, “a change in Postmaster was a natural outcome,” the position then being tied to political patronage, and William secured the appointment but had to relinquish it with the inauguration of Grover Cleveland in 1893.

A disastrous fire in Sept. 1893 destroyed several buildings in Eagle Harbor, including the A.S. Reed store. William’s sons, G.W. and James T., bought the site and built a new store which became a successful grocery business. The building still stands, north of the canal, right by the bridge.

William H. Bennett recounted the story of his life and times in 1911, at the age of 79. These memoirs, which are part of the Orleans County Dept. of History collection, are remarkable for the wealth of detail included about the economy, work, and survival during hard times in England, as well as in this country.

His memoirs are a gift to any family members interested in genealogy as he lists the birth dates of his children, their marriage dates, and the names of their spouses. Also, in the very first paragraph, he traces the Bennett family back three hundred years, residents of the City of Exeter, Parish Clerks of Saint Mary’s Episcopal Church, and all were named George Bennett.

This shrewd, industrious gentleman died at the age of 89 on July 22, 1921. He is buried in Otter Creek Cemetery.

By Doug Farley, Cobblestone Museum Director – Vol 2. No. 40

CHILDS – A treasured family heirloom from the Curtis Murray family of Childs has a new life in the community that benefited from its earliest history.

The subject of this article is a remarkable children’s dollhouse that once resided at the Murray Farm, on Ridge Road, just west of Brown Street Road in Childs. The dollhouse has been passed down over the years from Mary Miller Murray, its creator, to her loving daughter, Janice Mann Beech, who has wonderful family memories of treasured moments spent with siblings and cousins, pretending to “keep house” while playing with painstakingly made miniature furniture, arranged in neat rooms, typical of their own farmhouse.

Janice recently decided to donate the dollhouse to the Cobblestone Museum, which intends to keep the artifact on permanent display in one of the bedrooms at the Vagg House, its 1920s themed building. This generous donation will ensure that the Murray family heirloom will be enjoyed by countless other children and families in years to come.

Curtis Murray, and his wife Mary, continued the farming legacy of Curt’s father George Murray, at what became known as Maple Lawn Farm, named after a row of maple trees that once lined the property. The Curtis Murray family was involved in dairying, and sold cream and butter on the farm. They also grew cash crops like cabbage, corn and cucumbers.

Curt and Mary had three children: George, Joyce and Janice. Mary made the dollhouse in 1934 for her children. Janice, the youngest of the children, was four years old at the time.

Janice relates how her mother made all the dollhouse furniture, too, including the kitchen items and wicker furniture.  It was important that everything be made to proper scale so it all looks like it fits. She said even the dollhouse “family” was handmade to exacting detail.  The miniature family includes Mother, Father, and two daughters, along with Grandma, Grandpa, the maid, and baby.

Janice said her mother didn’t try to explain the makeup of the family, it was just taken as fact. Simple things, like straight pins, were used as fasteners and hinges on the kitchen cabinets.

A wooden fence that surrounds the dollhouse was added later. Janice recalled that the fence provided a little buffer to help protect the dollhouse when it was transported to the racetrack at Batavia in the 1960s to be displayed in doll shows that were held there over the years. Also included in the setup is a wooden front porch that can be detached and stored in the dollhouse attic when it was not in use.

At some point, probably in the 1960s, Janice’s daughter, Mary Beth, added period wallpaper to many of the rooms. Also, a display card was added that talked about the materials used in the dollhouse that came to a total cost of 80 cents. Janice said, “At one point, the dollhouse was displayed in the early days of the Cobblestone Museum. I’m really happy that it’s going back there now.”

When the dollhouse was being used, it sat directly on the floor and the children would either sit or lay down beside it to look in the ground floor rooms and adjust all of the furniture. Kids could stand up and rearrange the second and third floor furnishings as desired. Janice said, “You know when you’re little, you get down on the floor. I don’t do that anymore, because then I’d have to get up!”

Janice said, “It was always played with. Kids knew they had to be careful and not abuse the furniture. But, it was made to be played with!” The dollhouse was kept in the front hall of their farmhouse.  When not being used by the children, it was covered with a cloth and turned with its open front facing the wall, which provided dust protection for its plentiful contents. Janice believes that simple trick over the years has probably added to the longevity of the piece.

Still in use today, Janice explained, “There’s a little boy who visits, who loves it. Mostly he takes the car and the people go ‘camping.’ He doesn’t care much for the dollhouse, but he loves the car.”

Another object that Janice has kept through the ages is a toy barn that belonged to her cousin, Jack. She said he enjoyed playing with the barn that contained cutout cardboard animals that stood up with small wooden stands, and a cardboard car with button lights that he made for himself. These simple toys were all that it took to provide entertainment and education for growing children on the farm.

In addition to her family dollhouse, Mary Miller Murray (shown above) was known for her doll hospital. For over 40 years, Mrs. Murray repaired broken dolls. Janice said, “The dolls came in from all over the country. News spread, and the dolls came in by word of mouth.  My mother kept a log. It was really remarkable.”

In addition to her many memories surrounding the dollhouse and doll hospital, Janice has many other special memories of growing up on Maple Lawn Farm, including the “old house” which was the original smaller house on the farm. Janice tells a story she heard from her father. At some point in about 1909, her grandparents built a new, larger house on the farm. Her father, Curt, recalled that that when he was a lad, his father moved the old house out onto Ridge Road and left it sit there overnight. It must have come as quite a shock to unsuspecting Ridge Road travelers that night!

The Murray Farm on Ridge Road is still standing today. There’s no escaping the Murray’s legacy with the building, either. The back steps into the building have the names of the Murray children engraved on them.  The front steps have the name “Murray” embellished into the concrete.

Retired Cobblestone Museum Director Bill Lattin was pleased to see the dollhouse again and was especially pleased to learn that it was to be added to the permanent collection at the museum. He said, “This is going to be one of the ‘wow’ items. Right up there with our bird collection and the Civil War era body cooler.”

In part two of this article, we will look at the dollhouse’s arrival at the Museum as well as the décor of each of the dollhouse rooms.

By Doug Farley, Cobblestone Museum Director – Vol. 2 No. 39

GAINES – One of the very unique buildings located in the Hamlet of Childs is a historic “Voting House,” given to the Cobblestone Museum in 1999.

This interesting structure was donated to the Museum by the Town of Hamlin in Monroe County. Mary Smith, Town of Hamlin Historian, explained that the old voting house dated back to 1909.  The exact date that the building was taken out of service for voting is not certain, but can be estimated to be sometime around 1970.  But, what is known, is that the building had reached a high level of deterioration over the years. The photo above shows the building at the time of its arrival at the Museum in the fall of 1999.

I was recently asked by an observer, what exactly is a Voting House? The concept of having a unique and separate building that is only used for voting once or twice a year seems pretty foreign today. I admit that in my lifetime, I have seen the evolution from “voting booths,” which were actual booths, usually closed off with curtains, to the present day system of electronic voting machines that are delivered to select locations when needed for voting, but I never voted in a Voting House.

The history of voting in Orleans County pretty much follows the trend of all voting in this country, from paper ballots or “tickets” to mechanical voting devices.  The invention of the later is credited to Jacob Meyers, who operated a company that made safes in Rochester, NY.  His introduction of the Meyers Automatic Voting Booth set the course for a trail of successors that even today, follow his model.

Meyer’s voting machine used many of the same security measures he built into his safes, and in many ways, the first voting machines resembled a large vault, about ten feet square containing two doors at the front and no windows.  The voters would enter through the door on the right. The poll watcher would then close and lock the door while with the aid of kerosene lamps for lighting, the voter pressed in a series of knobs next to the names of their candidates.

When finished, the voter would exit through another door and slam the door shut.  This process would lock the exit door, record the vote and release the lock on the entrance door, allowing the next voter to enter.  Meyers declared that his new voting machine would “protect mechanically the vote from rascals and make the process of casting the ballot perfectly plain, simple and secret.”

The first application of the Meyers machine in the United States came on April 15, 1892 in the Town of Lockport when at 8:45 a.m., incumbent supervisor, John G. Freeman, entered the machine and cast the first mechanical vote for his own re-election. The “Lockport Union” reported that six persons voted in the first minute – a truly remarkable feat.

For the benefit of those who could not read, the slate of candidates for each party were printed in different colors – yellow for Democrats, red for Republicans and blue for the Prohibition Party.  The newspaper went on to report that the voting was “unquestionable, untrammeled, incorruptible and correctly counted.” (It would be safe to presume there were no “hanging-chads.”)  Within a minute after the polls closed at 5:30 p.m., the re-election of Supervisor Freeman was announced and within minutes, the name of every other successful candidate was also known.  It was a remarkable feat in a day and age when voting results usually required many hours or days of counting paper ballots by hand.

Even the old voting “booths” that I remember used to take up a lot of real estate in a polling place and were generally stored at the voting site which also created storage issues. However, I really have never seen or frequented a voting house in my lifetime, so I thought the question pertaining to voting houses to be pretty valid.

We know for a fact, that the voters in the Town of Gaines would have exercised their Constitutional authority to participate in free, local elections by entering their vote within the town’s polling place. This was first accomplished through paper ballots placed in a ballot box, and eventually progressed to mechanical registry by pulling a lever on a voting machine.

Voting House (lower left above) on Courthouse Square, Albion. As seen from Christ Episcopal Church, c. 1930.

Former Orleans County Historian Bill Lattin remembers seeing voting houses used in various locations in Orleans County, although they were gone when he was old enough to vote. In the early 1900s, Voting Houses for each voting district were placed on a flat-bed wagon and pulled by horses to sit within the voting district.  They placed them between the sidewalk and the street, but they usually extended out into the road.

An old Voting House now used for storage on West Academy Street, Albion.

Bill recalls seeing a photo of a Voting House at the Court House Square in Albion and an old Voting House on West Academy Street. After Election Day, the Voting House was again carted off to be stored on county property. Primary voting at that time took place in September, so the Voting Houses were left in place from Primary Day in September to Election Day in November.

Larger municipalities used Voting Houses, but small towns used public buildings for voting, similar to today. Cary Lattin, Bill’s father, served as a Voting Inspector in the Town of Gaines and fulfilled his duties at the Voting District #1 in the old Town Hall. He served as a Republican Inspector along with Nellie Vagg. The two Democrat Inspectors were Mae Wolfe and Mrs. House. Gaines also had other Voting Districts, some casting ballots in the Schoolhouse at Eagle Harbor and others at the East Gaines Church. The number of voting districts was controlled by state law based on population density.

Bill noted that the Voting Houses were “always painted battleship grey.” They had two doors, with the door on the left used as an entrance and the door on the right side of the house used for an exit only. Bill said, “The exit door didn’t even have an outside doorknob to prevent people from entering the wrong door and disrupting the voting process.” The buildings were heated with a kerosene stove and lit with kerosene lamps.  Inside the building, a railing was placed to separate someone who was voting from people waiting to vote. There were lots of windows to provide illumination.

At some point in history, towns, cities and villages stopped using voting houses and instead enlisted the help of churches and other community buildings to serve as temporary polling locations.  The rest of the year, the sites continued in their normal course of business.

The Voting House that was given a new home at the Cobblestone Museum was one that had originally been commissioned by the Monroe County Board of Elections in 1909. It was used in the city of Rochester until it was taken out of service. Town of Hamlin Historian Mary Smith acquired it for part of a Town of Hamlin Museum, made up of several small buildings, located just north of Walker, NY. When it was decided to no longer have a Town Museum, Mary Smith offered the former Voting House to the Cobblestone Museum. Highway Superintendents in both Hamlin and Gaines assisted with moving the structure. The remaining buildings at the Walker, NY site were removed and the lot was cleared.

All this having been said, the Voting House at the Cobblestone Museum was a welcome addition to the Museum campus in 1999. A great deal of restoration work was completed at that time. Don Ross and Dick Cook rewired the building for lighting and Ken Root helped install a system of shelving units.

This allowed the historic structure to become a place to display used books for sale to the general public as a fundraiser for the Museum. This purpose has continued, even to this day, with a wide selection of hardcover and softcover books, none more than $1. The Book Building is located behind the Cobblestone Church and is open pretty much around-the-clock until snow flies. Plastic bins are located outside the Book Building to accept used books from community members.  All of the proceeds from the book sales have provided valuable funds over these twenty some years to help cover Museum expenses.

A beautiful Garden Court was also added in 2000 that was made possible by a donation from Marcia Hart Conrad in memory of her father, Homer C. Brown and her mother Marcia Brown Hart. A Bronze Plaque was also donated by Glen and Irene Woolston of Waterport and placed on the Voting House.

The photo above shows the Book Building’s official opening with Cobblestone Museum Treasurer Don Ross and President Mary Anne Braunbach cutting the ribbon.  The addition of the Book Building was a big part of the Museum’s 40th Anniversary Celebration in the year 2000.  (By the way, the celebration went off without a hitch in spite of all of the “Y2K” hoopla that was prevalent in the year 2000 when doomsday pundits believed computers would melt down in a tizzy when they rolled over from 1999 to the new millennium.)

There were a lot of activities that took place at the Museum on September 10, 2000 to celebrate this milestone 40th anniversary.  Here is a list of volunteers who made the celebration possible:

Katie Anderson, Weaving

Nancy Berger, Dried flowers

Nancy Breslawski, Corn husk dolls

Bonnie Beiswenger, Dulcimer

Mary Anne Braunbach, Helper

Sandy Chimenhagen, Basket weaving

Doris Clune, Weaving

Ed Cornwall, Antiques Appraisal

Nancy Ellington, Rug hooking

Elsie Epke, Harvest soup

Bob Gleason, Printing

Betty Gleason, Helper

Lyla Gutman, Refreshments

David Heminway, Historic engines

Betsey Hoffman, Quilts

Katie Laine, Hostess

Bill Lattin, Docent

Evelyn Lyman, Harvest soup

Terri McLaren, Soap making

Marva McCracken, Music

Bruce Midkiff, Masonry

Louie Molisani, Quilts

William Nestle, Tickets

Don Newcomb, Blacksmith

Lois Ormond,Quilts

Debbie Radzinski, Quilts

Marjorie & Gloria Recchia, Victorian Dolls

Nancy Rhodes, Music

Dee Robinson, Herbs

Janet Root, Quilts

Ken Root, Chair caning

Stella Robinson, Spinning

Susan Rudnicky, Carving

René Schasel, Tickets

Linda Schwartz, Refreshments

Marilyn Staines, Tatting

Merwin Staines, Tickets

Janice Thaine, Docent

Russell West, Farm tools

Andy Wheelock, Farm tools

1913 Orleans County New Century Atlas

By Doug Farley, Cobblestone Museum Director – Vol. 2 No. 38

GAINES – Just south of the hamlet of Childs lies the crossroad community of Five Corners, easily identifiable by its nexus of five roads that meet in a star pattern. Recently, in Part 1 of this article we looked at the Bacon family and their contributions to the hamlet which included providing a lot of land for a school and a lot for a cemetery. In today’s article we focus on the Union Cemetery at Five Corners.

A meeting of Town of Gaines residents took place on May 8, 1834 at the home of Lewis Gates, in order to discuss the creation of a burying ground. Elias Bacon was selected as Moderator and Hosea Bacon, Lewis Gates, Samuel Hill, James Leonard and Seth Leonard were chosen to serve as Trustees to secure a title for a piece of land for that purpose. On April 21, 1835 the Trustees accomplished their duties and took title to a plot of land purchased from Moses and Sarah Bacon.

The cemetery land, adjacent to the Fair Haven Road, ran 100 feet by 90 feet and was further subdivided into 40 burial plots approximately 10 feet square. The cemetery was only described as a “burying ground” on survey maps until 1853 when a group of citizens met again, this time for the purpose of forming a rural cemetery association. The meeting took place at the Cobblestone District #11 Schoolhouse. The group elected Trustees and voted that the association be called the Union Cemetery Association and decided that an annual meeting be held each year at the Schoolhouse on the first Tuesday in October at 6 p.m.

At a later meeting of the Association, it was decided that Elias Bacon was to furnish materials and build a fence around the cemetery.  To reimburse Mr. Bacon for his duties he was to be reimbursed by a levy of $3.44 on each plot.

Although the name selected for the cemetery was officially “The Union Cemetery,” lacking a sign, local residents usually called it the Five Corners Cemetery or the Harding Farm Cemetery. It wasn’t until the 1980s that the lack of a sign on the cemetery was corrected, when Russell West, a local Boy Scout, placed a wooden sign at the west end of the property and a wooden bench in the interior.  In more recent times, it appears the sign on the property is missing once more.

Many times, the history of a community is told through the gravestones of its local cemetery, and the Union Cemetery is no exception. Moses, Elias and Hosea Bacon, who provided for the creation of the cemetery, along with many early settlers of Five Corners, are all buried here.

Moses Bacon arrived here in 1809. As mentioned in the previous article, he was wounded and taken prisoner during the War of 1812.  He built the brick home at the Corners in 1835.

A special War of 1812 marker was added to Moses Bacon’s grave a few years ago.

Hosea Bacon, also interred at the Union Cemetery, constructed the Cobblestone Home on Brown Road, known as Graystone Farm beginning in 1835.

Boy Scout Eagle Project built by Russell West

Rebecca Baker, originally from Rensselaer County, was a Methodist minister of some local note. She eventually settled on a farm in Carlton and is buried in Union Cemetery along with her husband and six children.

Mrs. Olive Bartlett and her husband came to this area on one of the first canal boats to travel to Buffalo in 1825.

Benjamin Dwinnell, a blacksmith from New Hampshire, was an uncle to famed newspaper man, Horace Greeley of New York City. Mr. Greeley agreed to co-sign a mortgage for his nephew on the Dwinnell’s Cobblestone House in Childs. Today, the home is known as the Ward House, and is part of the National Historic Landmark Cobblestone District.  The Dwinnell’s, along with daughter Lucy, are buried in Union Cemetery.

Simeon Dutcher and his wife, Rachel, are buried here. Mr. Dutcher was born in Dutchess County in 1772 and settled in Gaines in 1817. He was ordained an elder of the Baptist Church and was one of the first preachers for local settlers, officiating at many early marriages and funerals. During the Anti-Masonic Movement of the 1820s, he was told to renounce Free Masonry, which he refused to do, and was subsequently ex-communicated from his church.

Four Civil War veterans also are found in the Union Cemetery. Victory Ball was wounded in the shoulder at the Second Battle of Bull Run. Joseph Cook was killed near Fairfax Station, Virginia at the age of 22. Also interred here are veterans Henry Watson and Valentine Beach.

The majority of those buried in Union Cemetery are related to one another, and nearly half were under the age of 18 when they died. On the original plot map for the cemetery, a plot known as #22 was reserved for “strangers.” The last burial recorded for the cemetery took place in 1910.

1913 New Century Atlas

By Doug Farley, Cobblestone Museum Director – Vol. 2 No. 37

Special thanks to local historian, Delia Robinson for her research and writing about the history of Five Corners, with input from Watt Farm Country Market, still operating at Five Corners.

Just south of the Hamlet of Childs, The Hamlet of Five Corners derives its name from the intersection of three roads: Route 98, Route 279 and Bacon Road.

Route 98 is the original Second Meridian Survey Line of the Holland Land Company. Route 279 essentially follows the original route of the Oak Orchard Road leading from Batavia to Lake Ontario. Bacon Road, running east and west, was named for the family who most influenced the history of that intersection.

Three brothers, all in their early 20’s came from Burlington, Connecticut to the new frontier of the Holland Land Purchase in the early 1800s. They were the sons of Moses and Rosanna (Rust) Bacon.  Moses, the first to come, selected 200 acres and worked for the Holland Land Company to help open the Oak Orchard Road. His earnings were applied towards paying for his land. That road today follows Route 98 from Batavia north and continues on Route 279 to Lake Ontario.

In December 1813, the War of 1812 touched the settlers in the area. Moses Bacon was called out with the militia to defend the frontier at Molyneaux Corners Tavern in the Town of Cambria. A historical recounting of the battle follows:

“Many of those who fled the Lewiston area reached the Town of Gaines, roughly thirty miles west of the (Forsyth) tavern, on the same day. Residents of the Town of Gaines recount that the villagers from Lewiston passed through their homes with warnings of an invading army killing and burning everything along the Ridge Road. The residents at Gaines decided not to flee but to muster a militia. It is said that all of the males over 18 living along the Ridge Road were gathered and under the direction of Captain McCarthy they proceeded single file west on the road by early daylight on Friday, December 20, 1813.

“They paused at the home and tavern of the widow Forsyth just before nightfall where the soldiers argued about whether to make camp or continue to the arms stockpile further up the Ridge Road. They came upon the tavern of William Molyneaux (originally that of David Klink) where some British soldiers and their Native allies had burned the barn and taken residence in the log tavern. In the dark, the militia stormed the tavern. Two British soldiers and one Native American were killed in the skirmish and the remainder were taken as prisoners. The militia later turned their prisoners over to the American army as it advanced from the south to scout the charred remains of the settlement at Lewiston. Twenty-one farms were destroyed on the Ridge Road between Lewiston and the Forsyth Tavern. The British continued to dispatch raids of approximately 15 men each throughout the Niagara Frontier to pillage and burn farms. Meanwhile an army of over 1,000 burned the village of Buffalo.”

Moses Bacon served again in September 1814 at the Battle of Fort Erie. During that battle he was shot in the neck and taken prisoner by the British and transported to Halifax, Canada. According to family records, Moses Bacon, while captive, carved a figure out of horse bone, after eating the meat from the bone for survival. He was released at the end of the war in 1815 and returned to his home where he lived out his life.

Moses built the brick house, still extant, at The Corners in 1835, which suffered a destructive fire in more recent years.  Moses drew a pension from the government for his service and injuries during the War of 1812.

Moses’ brothers, Elias and Hosea, followed him to Five Corners between 1819 and 1823. Moses sold part of his land to each brother. In those first years, the brothers built a sawmill where they produced timber from the trees felled to clear the land. Elias built a log cabin and barn by the side of the spring just north of the corner. He brought his wife, Sarah, from Connecticut to live in the wilderness. The barn was constructed of logs with a thatched roof in which he kept a cow and a horse. After clearing his land and planting crops, Elias was financially able to build his cobblestone home, still present at Five Corners.

Bacon Home, “Graystone,” Brown Road

Hosea was the youngest brother and first visited the Holland Purchase when he was 19 years old. For four years after he spent summers here with his brothers cutting and sawing timber at the mill and clearing land for planting. He worked at the saw mill until 1828 when he received the deed to his property, located east of Five Corners, on Brown Road. He built a frame house there, which was later replaced with a cobblestone home (shown above) and the farm acquired the name Graystone. It’s quite possible that the wrought iron frieze window works came from the Bacon foundry, about one mile away.  Today this beautiful cobblestone home is owned by Susan and Peter Heard.

Education at Five Corners in the early years was conducted in a variety of buildings. Around 1820, school was held just south of The Corners in a log barn that “leaked when it rained.” The next summer, school was held in a log house northwest of The Corners, which was the first house built south of the Ridge Road. The next summer, school was held in a corn crib just south of Five Corners, and from there it went to a horse barn just north of the corner.

By 1824, Moses and Sarah Bacon decided to help in the schooling of the children and deeded a piece of land to be used to build a schoolhouse. A cobblestone schoolhouse was built and serves today as a private residence (shown above) on Route 279, just north of the intersection.

In 1834 Moses Bacon deeded another parcel of land to create a burying ground, which will be the subject of Part 2 of this article. In addition to his community service of providing a cemetery, Moses Bacon was a trustee of the Congregational Church in Gaines in 1824 and contributed financially to the establishment of Phipps Union Seminary on Courthouse Square in Albion. He died in 1848 and was buried in the Union Cemetery that his philanthropy made possible.

Descendants of the Bacon brothers carried on business at Five Corners into the 20th century. Elias Scott Bacon lived in a brick house on the point of the triangle. Elias also built a foundry and manufactured farm implements. His son, Scott E. Bacon, carried on after his father with a foundry and furniture manufacturing business just north of the house. Photo shows structure prior to demolition in 1977.

In the 20th century, nieces of the Bacons inherited the Elias Bacon cobblestone home, where Dr. Ruth (Mary) Neilans, a descendant, now lives.

Earl Harding, Cornell University photo, 1920

Earl Harding, also a descendent, grew up in Five Corners in the Moses Bacon home. He attended the Cobblestone School at Five Corners and the Albion High School. Earl went to Cornell University and graduated in 1920.

Over the next 60 years his accomplishments were many for both Gaines and New York State.  After serving in the armed forces in WWI and graduating from Cornell, Earl married Marguerite (Hazard) and they had one daughter, Joan (Farnsworth.)

Before his death in 1980 he was president of the NYS Horticultural Society, one of the original Directors and President of the National Cherry Institute, first President of Orleans County Farm Bureau, served 20 years on the Advisory Board of Marine Trust Bank,  Chairman of the National Cherry Growers Meeting, Director for six years of the NYS Agricultural Society, appointed by Governor Rockefeller in 1959 to the New York Marketing Order Advisory Board and the Marketing Development Board for Apples. He also served on the Gaines Town Board for 21 years in addition to his service as a Mason, member of the Town Club, Lions Club and Methodist Church.

Earl Harding in his cherry Orchard at Five Corners, 1956

Organization to acquire 1834 ‘Brick House’ with plans for an addition at key crossroads location

Photos by Tom Rivers: The Cobblestone Museum will be acquiring the “Brick House” and will turn it into a welcome center that would promote other tourism sites and businesses in Orleans County.

GAINES – The Cobblestone Museum has announced it has raised $400,000 out of a $750,000 goal for a visitor’s center in the historic Childs hamlet.

The museum is acquiring the “Brick House,” a 3,000-square-foot building from 1834 at the southeast corner of the routes 98 and 104 and wants to put an addition on the back of the brick building with new modern bathrooms and a meeting space that hold up to 100 people. The property includes 50 parking spaces.

The site would be an Orleans County welcome center and would promote businesses and other tourism sites in the county.

“It’s a win-win,” said County Legislator Fred Miller, who is serving on a fund-raising committee for the project. “It would help all of Orleans County. It’s perfect.”

Miller would like to see the county tourism office be based out of the site, with the county providing some steady revenue to the museum as a tenant in the building.

He sees tourism and the Cobblestone Museum working together to promote other attractions, including fishing, the Medina Railroad Museum, the Niagara Wine Trail (which runs along Route 104) and other historic districts and sites.

“It’s right at Route 98 and 104 which are major routes in the county,” Miller said about the site. “It would be ideal, and it would help everybody. It wouldn’t just be an Albion or Medina thing. Hopefully people will get on board.”

Gail Johnson, a member of the capitol committee for a welcome/visitor center, and Cobblestone Museum Director Doug Farley are pictured by the “Brick House,” a building the museum is acquiring with plans for an addition. The site also has about 50 parking spaces.

Many people already have given to the project. The museum has been doing a “silent” capital campaign and has $400,000 committed. It is making the campaign public this week and welcomes community support.

The Cobblestone Museum’s board of directors have considered a visitor’s center as part of the museum’s campus for several years. But there wasn’t enough room for a new building at the museum campus, which is a National Historic Landmark, the only site in Orleans County with that designation besides the Erie Canal.

The Cobblestone group only had to look across Ridge Road from the Cobblestone Church to see a stately red brick home with six fireplaces. That church was also built in 1834.

Ray and Linda Burke fixed up the brick house, added parking and a driveway on Route 98. They opened Fair Haven Treasures in May 2014. They have high-end artisans and crafters at the site. Doug Farley, the Cobblestone Museum’s director, praised the Burkes for their work and care for the property.

“It is ideal for a welcome center,” Farley said about the brick house. “It is high visibility.”

The $750,000 campaign total would fund the following: $260,000 purchase price with closing costs; $200,000 for meeting room addition; $130,000 for theater and interactive exhibits; $100,000 for ADA accessibility; $30,000 for architectural planning; $20,000 for stabilization (roof, septic, windows, masonry, etc.); and $10,000 for historic structures report.

The Cobblestone Welcome Center Fundraising Campaign Committee includes chairman Richard Remley, treasurer Kevin Hamilton, Brett Kast, Andrew Meier, County Legislator Fred Miller, retired county historian Bill Lattin (who was the museum director for 40 years), Gail Johnson, Cobblestone Museum President Erin Anheier and Doug Farley, the museum director.

Ray and Linda Burke, shown in May 2014, gave the site new life as Fair Haven Treasures.

The Burkes in their work on the building removed plywood and linoleum from the floors, and discovered hardwood floors underneath. They took out one wall to make a bigger room that they used for performances and public events.

The museum cited many benefits of the acquiring the Brick House, including:

• a highly visible location to promote the museum and other local sites
• plentiful additional parking for school and tour buses, and other museum events including weddings
• year-round access to bathrooms
• further expansion of the Childs historic district
• expanding educational programming and visitation with year-round access
• kitchenette for use by caterers or small receptions
• large community meeting space for educational programming
• multi-purpose room
• space for Orleans County Tourism Department (currently based at Orleans County Office Building on Route 31)
• new exhibit space to interpret Orleans County history
• space for viewing an introductory video and new cobblestone interactive exhibits
• distribute materials for local attractions including Medina Railroad Museum, Erie Canal, lighthouse at Point Breeze, campgrounds, marinas, bed and breakfast sites, sports fishing, agri-business, wineries and other locations.

The capital campaign includes several opportunities for naming rights, including the building name (for $250,000-plus), large meeting room ($75,000), Orleans County History Room ($30,000), Reception Desk ($25,000), Ground Floor Rooms (5 at $25,000 each), Second Floor Rooms (5 at $20,000 each), Entrance ($20,000), Stairway ($15,000), Meeting Room on lower level ($15,000) and Major Donor Plaque Entry (Heritage level at $10,000 or more).

The donations can be paid over five years. For more information on the capital campaign, click here to be directed to the museum website or contact Farley at (585) 589-9013, or by email at info@CobblestoneMuseum.org.

A group of Santas helped dedicate International Peace Garden at the Brick House property at the corner of 98 and 104 on April 17, 2015. The Santas were in town for a Santa convention.

Dr. Frank H. Lattin had extensive bird egg collection featured at World’s Fair, produced magazines on science – also served as assemblyman and local health officer

By Doug Farley, Cobblestone Museum Director – Vol. 2 No. 36

Frank Haak Lattin (1861-1937), age 26

GAINES – In Part 1 of this article, we explored a 19th century discovery in the Town of Gaines with roots back to the last Ice Age. In this article, we explore how this discovery had a dramatic influence on the life of one of the Town of Gaines leading citizens.

Frank H. Lattin was born in 1861, son of Joseph and Mary (Haak) Lattin of Gaines. Joseph died when Frank was only nine years old, but the setback was only temporary, as Frank went on to graduate from Albion High School, taught school for several years in Gaines, and then began an amazing career buying, selling and collecting natural history objects.

Even at the age of 36, Frank Lattin returned to school and worked his way through medical college and received his M.D. from the University of Buffalo in 1899, beginning a second career in medicine and surgery.

At an early age, Frank developed an interest in geology and natural history. He was especially fascinated by the discovery of “Gilbert’s Hearth” in Gaines in 1864, a prehistoric find that geologists and anthropologists dated to the Paleo-Indian era at the end of the last Ice Age.

His interest in the natural sciences started Frank on a lifelong obsession that led him to leave his mark not only on Gaines and Orleans County, but also all over the world.

“North American Birds Eggs,” 1905, by Frank H. Lattin, MD.  Also shown is the birds egg collection of Cary Lattin which he created 1911-1914 at age 13, currently display at the Cobblestone Museum.

At first, Frank’s primary interest was in bird eggs and in 1884 he began the publication of a monthly magazine entitled the “Oologist,” which grew to a circulation of 3,000 copies. In 1894 he exhibited his collection of birds’ eggs at the Chicago World’s Fair and his display alone covered 2,000 square feet in the Anthropological Building.

Frank Lattin’s interests certainly included much more than just bird eggs. Following the World’s Fair, he purchased a world renowned collection of shells once owned by Col. Ezekiel Jewett, former curator of the NYS Museum at Albany. The collection embraced 50,000 separate specimens from over 10,000 species.  The Catalog of the Collection made a book of 200 pages.

On February 15, 1895 Lattin began producing a weekly publication entitled, “Natural Science News.” Popularity spread quickly and the publisher needed to employ four workers to meet the demand. Eventually, Mr. Lattin’s many collections within the natural sciences grew to encompass two large warehouses of specimens.

Dr. Frank H. Lattin, 1917

Dr. Frank Lattin’s reputation was equally as strong locally as it was with scientists worldwide. One Gaines resident, Earl Harding, recalled his admiration and appreciation for this small town medical legend.

“Yes, in those days, doctors made house calls. The doctor that delivered me was Dr. Frank Lattin of Gaines. I almost used to try and get ill so my Mother would call him up, because Frank Lattin was very famous as a collector of birds’ eggs. I used to do some of that myself, so if I could get Dr. Frank Lattin up here and talk about birds’ eggs, I’d like it! At that time, there was quite a migration of our people to Wayne County to buy fruit farms, and Frank Lattin was interested in that project, too. He had a farm in Wayne County as I remember.”

Town of Gaines Centennial, 1909

Mr. Lattin wore many hats indeed during his lifetime. He promoted local history and was a moving force in the Town of Gaines Centennial celebration in 1909. On January 5, 1909 he addressed the Eleventh Annual Convention of New York State Fruit Growers Association held in Convention Hall in Rochester. His topic was “My Experience in Reclaiming Old Apple Orchards.”

From 1917 to 1930 he served in the NYS Legislature as Assemblyman from Orleans County. He contributed to the advancement of public health in the State by endorsing and defending new health measures as the Chairman of the Assembly Committee on Public Health.

In the 1920s, Dr. Lattin was busy organizing the Old Schoolmates Reunion for the District #4 Cobblestone School in Gaines.

District #4 First Reunion, 1924

In addition to his historical research, Frank Lattin produced extensive genealogical information on the Lattin family. He served as health officer for the Town of Gaines until his death in 1937.

Photo courtesy Town of Gaines Historian

One of Dr. Frank Lattin’s favorite activities was judging fruit exhibits at state and county fairs, as seen in this photo from the 1930s.

The Lattin home in the Village of Gaines, shown above, was a great source of community pride over the years. Dr. Lattin himself reflected that it is probably the only home in the world that was secured through the consummation of a single sale of bird eggs.

Frank Lattin married May Bullard in 1885 when she was 19 years old.  They had two daughters, Dorothy Root and Virginia Lattin Morrison who later resided in the family homestead on the southwest corner of NYS Routes 104 and 279.

Perhaps, an editorial in the “Orleans Republican” newspaper from 1937 provides the best summary of Dr. Lattin’s character:

“Everything pertaining to natural history attracted him and he gained a broad knowledge by keen observation of everything about him.  Step by step he broadened and progressed, not by magic, but by his own unswerving integrity and steadfastness. Honorable, possessed of a keen sense of humor, he radiated cheer wherever he might be.  His success meant no man’s downfall, hence all loved him and regarded him as a friend.  His life touched many others at home and in foreign countries in a business way that culminated in friendship. He was like the sturdy mountain oak whose roots ever deepen into the rich soil until it stands firm and solid against each blast.”

This 1909 postcard photo taken by W.C. Eaton of Jeddo, shows Main Street, Eagle Harbor, looking north.

By Catherine Cooper, Orleans County Historian

“Illuminating Orleans” – Vol. 1, No. 21

EAGLE HARBOR – The hamlet of Eagle Harbor has seen more traffic of late as many avail of its convenient bridge because the Knowlesville bridge on Route 31 is still “Closed” or “Out.”

Named for the eagle’s nest found in a tree there by Canal surveyors in 1815, Eagle Harbor’s growth was due to Canal trade.

In 1894, it boasted a hotel, livery, wagon shop, meat market, grist mill, school, three general stores, two churches, and two blacksmiths. The following photographs from the History Dept. provide interesting visual images of Eagle Harbor’s history.

The old steel arch bridge is visible in this bustling scene.

This 1911 postcard photo also taken by W.C. Eaton, of Jeddo, shows the early stages of the bridge reconstruction project which was necessitated by the widening of the Erie Canal.

This massive reconstruction project was thoroughly documented by the New York State Barge Canal (Western Division). This photograph is labeled “South Wall of Trough, Eagle Harbor, Looking East, 4/12/12”

“Eagle Harbor Waste Weir, Looking S.E., 4/10/1912”

A temporary wooden bridge over the Canal at Eagle Harbor, 1912.

The construction of the Erie Canal presented several engineering challenges and lead to the development of several new types of bridge design. The vertical lift bridge at Eagle Harbor is one of the longer spans of this bridge type. It is one of seven lift bridges in Orleans County.

According to www.historicbridges.org: “This bridge features end posts which extend above the top chord, with a tastefully designed curved plate providing a visual and structural transition from the top chord to the top of the end post…..this bridge stands on its own as a beautiful eye-catching landmark for the area.”

By Doug Farley, Cobblestone Museum Director – Vol. 2 No. 35

Our efforts to date with the “Historic Childs” article series have focused on 19th and 20th century history, today we take a venture into much, much earlier territory.

I believe the first printed telling of this historic discovery appeared in the “Holley Standard” newspaper on January 6, 1887. The subject of the article concerned an 1814 discovery in the Town of Gaines that scholars over the years have confirmed to date from a pre-Ice Age, Paleo-Indian settlement, dating back over 12,000 years ago.

The scene of the local discovery in 1814 was at the David Tomlinson Farm located on Ridge Road just west of the Village of Gaines. At that time, the region was largely unbroken forest. About 150’ off the Ridge, there was a well-known fresh water spring that the Native Peoples had shown to the settlers in the early 1800s.

In 1824, the spring was cleaned out and stones were built up to form a well. In 1853, the well failed and was subsequently deepened to replenish the water supply. In 1864, the farm experienced a dry well which necessitated a second re-digging to the 18’ level. It was at that level that the prehistoric discovery was made which was described in detail in the Holley newspaper:

“About 18’ below the original surface, the digger came upon a quantity of brush overlying an ancient fireplace, consisting of three round stones, each about one foot in diameter, placed in the form of a triangle. A mess of charcoal and ashes surrounded the stones, which were burned and blackened by fire and smoke. Several sticks were found thrust between the stones, the inner ends burned and charred as left by the expiring flames. A careful inspection of these sticks by a gentleman thoroughly acquainted with the nature and grain of various woods proved them to be hemlock and ash.

“Some were denuded of bark and had the smooth surface usually presented by water washed wood found on any beach. Several sticks were split and surrounding one was a depressed ring or indentation, as through some dull instrument had been employed in an effort to weaken or break the wood. The ashes were indurated to a degree requiring the use of a pick in their removal and rested upon a stratum of sand which was also in a hardened condition, being taken out in large pieces that proved to be fine grained with a smooth surface, slightly creased in places, possibly ripple marks.

“When first discovered the brush was closely packed over the fireplace and had every appearance of having been forced into position by the action of water. The fireplace and all the details of its narrow surroundings, which were carefully noted, clearly indicated that it had been made upon a sand beach and was subjected to an inundation that washed the mass of brush, possibly gathered for fuel, over the stones and ashes, which were afterwards covered many feet deep by successive strata of the same gravelly soil of which the Ridge is composed, and was preserved for ages unknown.

After ascertaining these facts, and after looking over the ground, the observer reached the conclusion that the fireplace must have been made at a period just before the formation of the Ridge.  The Ridge at that point in time must has been a (sand) bar like that on the present lake shore behind which lies a little round pond. The waters of the pond or marsh, finally soaked thru the mud bottom and following a vein or seam, rose to the surface in the formation of the spring. When the marsh land was cleaned and drained the spring failed.  All this would go to show that man was a habitant of the lake shore before the existence of the Ridge. The late Lewis H. Morgan thought the discovery an important one and advised its publication.

At a late meeting of the Anthropological Society of Washington, G. K. Gilbert of the U.S. Geological Survey, retold the story of the find as verified by himself on the occasion of his visit to this vicinity.”

Grove Karl (G. K.) Gilbert (1843-1918), Rochester NY

The find, at that time, was labeled “Gilbert’s Hearth.”  Professor Gilbert’s findings were recorded in the Handbook of Aboriginal American Antiquities, 1919. He stated that the terrace on which the Tomlinson site sits is located about 175’ above the present level of Lake Ontario.  The formation occurred between the ice front on the north and the southern rim of the basin. When the basin was finally free from ice, the lake outflowed via the Mohawk Valley and the present terrace was formed.

Gilbert concluded that the hearth was made in the period following the Ice Age outflow at the Mohawk Valley in a period of time that reflected the decline of the glacial climate.

Next week, in Part 2 of this article, we look at how this local discovery became a dramatic influence in the life of one of Orleans County’s early citizens, Dr. Frank. H. Lattin.