Pioneers, recent community leaders among those buried at West Ridgeway Cemetery

Photos by Tom Rivers

RIDGEWAY – Orleans County Historian Catherine Cooper leads a tour last month at the West Ridgeway Cemetery on Route 104 at the Marshall Road intersection.

The cemetery opened in 1810 when the area was still under jurisdiction of Genesee County. (Orleans County became independent of Genesee in 1825. Next year is the bicentennial of Orleans.)

Catherine Cooper highlights some of the early settlers who are buried at the cemetery.

The first burial was in 1810 after a 12-year-old girl died from rabies after getting bitten by a dog. She is in an unmarked grave.

The first marked grave was in 1814.

The site was known as the Barrett Cemetery until 1870, when it became the West Ridgeway Cemetery.

Cooper said the early pioneers needed to tame a wilderness. Seymour Murdock is one of the pioneers in the cemetery. He camped for six weeks in a wagon while building a house. It also took him 2-3 days each way to get to Batavia and the Holland Land Office to buy land for $2 to $2.50 an acre, Cooper said.

Those early settlers were drawn by the prospect of cheap land. Others were refugees from the War of 1812 who had their homes burned out by the British and then moved east into Ridgeway and Orleans County, Cooper said.

Catherine Cooper talks with Gordon Grimes, president of the cemetery association that oversees the active cemetery. Grimes said there is typically about 11 burials a year at the cemetery, but that is down to three this year with two cremations.

The tour on Aug. 4 started at a chapel in with windows in a Gothic architectural style on the back side and Romanesque in front. The building was constructed in 1899. From left include Catherine Cooper, retired county historian Bill Lattin, and Todd Bensley, Medina historian.

Catherine Cooper shared about some recent community leaders in the cemetery.

Charles R. Owen, a staff sergeant in the Army during World War II soldier, was a recipient of Purple Heart and a prisoner of war. He shared his POW experience during community talks, including with local schools. He died at age 90 on Nov. 21, 2012

Richard Knights, who died of cancer in 1984 at age 39, continues to be honored by his family as part of the Knights-Kaderli Memorial Fund that supports families battling cancer in Orleans County.

Richard’s father William C. Knights (1917 to 1973) also is buried at the cemetery. He was elected to the State Assembly and died from injuries in a car accident on Feb. 5, 1973, just a few weeks into his term.

Warren P. Towne, a principal at Medina, was a leader of a school after centralization in the 1950s. Medina named one of its school buildings in his honor.

Milford Phinney, who led the Phinney Tool & Die company in Medina, also is at West Ridgeway. He was a prominent community leader with the Boy Scouts, Lions Club and Shelridge Country Club.

The Mason monument is one of the most striking at the cemetery. Cooper shared how Oliver and Martha Mason endured the loss of three young daughters to sickness. Their son Theodore died at Great Bend, Nebraska on Nov. 28, 1874 at age 24. Martha travelled by train to Kansas to bring his body home. She went about 3,000 miles in seven days.

The tour on Aug. 4 was one of four of local cemeteries last month organized by the Orleans County Historical Association.