Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

       As I write this column on March 9, I will quote some of the articles contained in the Weedsport Cayuga Chief on this date in 1878.   Some of the news of 146 years ago doesn't sound that different from what's going on today.

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

       I am heartened by the recent resurrection of various properties, both residential and commercial in the village.   Of course there are several left that are woefully in need of attention.  Coming to immediate mind is the 4 story Mack family mansion which is unfortunately the first thing you see as you enter the village on Rt. 34 from the south.   Out of fairness to the village, it is just over the line in the Town of Brutus.   Having spent my working career as a building engineer, I personally question at this point if the building can be saved.  The 3rd floor and the 4th floor cupola are wide open to the elements and it's a tribute to the original builder that it is still standing.  When I was young and the Cecil Colvin family lived there , it was a showpiece.  The former Old Erie Restaurant is another example of how fast a property can deteriorate when routine maintenance is lacking.   The restaurant was a place that I was glad to take out of town guests to when the Mutz'es and Gibsons owned it.  The other property that to my mind is an obvious eyesore is the end wall of the former tavern adjacent to  Whittlers Green, right in the center of the village. Enough said about that!

     On the other hand, the old Havens Block on North Seneca St. which when I was young was a busy commercial street with Putnam's Drug Store on the corner, then O'Hara's Restaurant, The Winton Shoppe, The A&P Grocery, and Heffernan's Meat Market. That whole section of street is currently being restored to look similar to what it did then and the stores and apartments above are pretty much occupied again. The big brick colonial on Jackson St. which has been in a state of collapse for years is being restored by the same local concern that resurrected the dreadful mess that was the Gallup house (then Riggs Home) next to the library.   As visitors to the library and school watched that progress, they were amazed.  I used to go up and turn around in the school driveway just to see how they were progressing.

    Other places that come to mind that either have been restored, or about to be include the (Doc Prok) house which Joe and Kim Fey have undertaken as their latest challenge.   A testament to the wonder of their workmanship can be seen in the 5,or 6 beautiful homes they have already made show pieces in the village.   Bob Fields did an outstanding job on the old Rheubottom mansion on Jackson St and the former  Zimmer house on the corner of Jackson and Brutus is also being restored.

     The property which until recently had been the Weedsport Tool and Machine Co is being renovated for commercial use.   The building has an interesting history.  The site had been the location of C.E.Minor Ford until WWII.   The Barr Typewriter (Purple Monkey) building next door had changed over from producing typewriters to making parts for airplane magnetos and other such war supplies.   The Ordinance Corps wanted more production from Barr, so they obliged Clayton Minor to move his dealership to a new facility at the intersection of South and Brutus St's next to the firehouse.  They then built the Barr addition, which after the war was used as Barr's wood shop, making bases for clocks, and other wood parts like seats for kiddy cars and strollers . After Barr went out of business, Hugh Kane bought the building and it became the tool and machine concern.   As an aside my son who has one of the largest toy collections in the US has a very rare Barr kiddy car in his collection.  As another aside, Local home builder Ross Marshall was in charge of the wood shop.  I guess I have rambled on enough for this month.   More another time.

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

    In the more than twenty years that I've been writing this column about Weedsport and the surrounding community I've never had more responses than I did a couple of months ago lamenting Dollar General's intent to tear down their existing store (the old Zimmer's Weedsport Theater building) and build a new store to the south and turn that property into a parking lot.   I had telephone messages, email and face book and even one snail mail letter---unbelievable!

Some of the messages reminded me of things that went on there that I either never knew, or my age softened brain had forgotten.   A few examples---Classmate Pete O'Hara from the Albany area reminds me that when the local St. Joseph's Catholic Church was condemned, Mass was held in the theater for a time. John (Baldy) O'Brien way down east in Delaware? refreshed my memory about the boy scouts meeting in a vacant room over the pool hall that had been the Weedsport exchange for New York Telephone until they built the building still in use today on S,Seneca St.

Immediately south of the theater, Grandpa Zimmer parked his Pontiac about where Dollar General stores cardboard now, and continuing down that drive way led to a good sized metal building where there is a grove of trees now.   That building was owned by Earl Zimmer's brother Leonard who had a business placing coin operated machines in various businesses in central New York and juke boxes, pinball machines and slide bowler machines were stored in that building.  I got several messages from members of the Zimmer family thanking me for the article

Something I had kind of forgotten about but again was reminded of it by John O'Brien was the pizza place on Erie Drive, right behind the bowling alley.   At that time in the 1950's there was a small chain of pizza and sub shops in the Syracuse area name PIZIO'S.  They were pretty good and I've never had a meatball sub as good as theirs.   At any rate they had expanded their operation a bit and had one of their stands in Old Forge , very near where the Zimmer family had a cottage on Fourth Lake at Inlet, NY.  It seemed like a good concept and shortly the above mentioned stand, very similar to Pizio's was built.  It was necessary to find someone to operate it as the hard working Ann had her hands full running the lunch counter in the bowling alley.  Ralph Mazolli Jr. had recently given up his car salesman's job at Harris Buick-Pontiac and he was hired to run the pizza joint.   I recall him telling me that he didn't bother buying sausage for the pizza--he just threw a bunch of fennel seeds on top and people would taste the fennel and think there was sausage in the topping.    Remember I said he was a former car salesman.

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

    Again to reiterate I loved the detail and brevity used by these "paragraphers" as they were known in the past.    Here's another group of them, which I use always when I haven't prepared a column. These taken from the Cayuga Chief of  Saturday July 28, 1877.

      Dr.Brown in Weedsport has some used bee hives for sale.    E.J. Seward has purchased a new Springport thresher and will do threshing.  C. C. Caywood  expects to ship no less than 100 tons of baled hay this week. He owns a "Dedrick's perpetual baling press"   Chas. Vanderburg was paid extra for his work as fire department janitor.  C.H.Weed spoke about the proposed reservoir on Jackson St. Present at the meeting were village board members President Henry Brewster, Clerk William Watson, & Trustees  Adams, Stickle, Holcomb and Faatz.  Additional Members of the Weedsport Watson Board of Directors now includes W. J. Baker, J.I. Weed, E.D. Bryant,  Manager  C.T. Brockway and Scorer  Homer Rheubottom.

      A trial of reapers occurred on the farm of Geo.Harris in this town, attended by a large number of farmers.  The Wood, Buckeye, Royce & Johnson were used.    One of the horses belonging to our Town Supervisor E.M. Sheldon, Esq. got an ugly wound in the breast Saturday from a splinter off an old root.  St. John's Episcopal  Church ladies will hold an ice cream social at the residence of Mrs. C.W. Sprague on Tues. evening next.   Insurance adjuster A. Newton Locke was in town on Tuesday to settle the loss of Henry Skadan on his house destroyed by fire.

      An unmarried lady, Ann Clark, 47 yrs., for nearly 19 yrs. has made a home in the family of E.J.Seward of this village, died very suddenly Wed. last.  Apparently in good health, then complained of head pain & went to bed, became unconscious  and died.  Dr Little summoned to attend the case, assisted by Dr Brown made a post mortem exam. and found death due to apoplexy, resulting from a massive blood clot in the brain.   H.C. Beach, Esq. was caught in Buffalo when the trains stopped running.  He arrived home Wed. night after much inconvenience.   Similarly Mrs. Nan Bucher and daughter Mrs.  Carrie Stevens visiting in Buffalo were delayed by R.R transportation.

      Mason Healy, citizen of Sennett, father of Mrs. T.S Bentley of this town is very ill & no hope of recovery.   Chas. Wright ran the tine of a pitchfork through the large muscle of his arm Fri. last, nevertheless he played ball on Sat. as well as usual.  The sickness and recent death of Mrs. Ann Tolles has excited our sympathy.  Her care during her illness fell upon her husband and son-in-law & they performed faithfully Honest poverty is no disgrace.  Charitable people of Weedsport could organize a movement for their relief.   On a lighter note---the school at North Victory has closed because the teacher could not endure the bad conduct of some of the scholars.   More news items from the past another time.

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

I was saddened terribly to hear of Dollar General's plan to tear down their existing store and build a new one. The building was erected as Zimmer's Weedsport Theater and although it has been many things since it was a theater including Emerson's Food Mart, Grand Union Grocery,  Fult's Furniture, Dollar General, and probably others I have forgotten, it's still the theater to me.    I have many memories of that building going back to when I was 10, or 11 years old when my brother Dave and I would walk to that building on a Saturday afternoon with a quarter in our pockets , pay 15 cents to watch a double feature, a couple of cartoons, a newsreel, the latest chapter in a serial and several coming attractions.   We would have enough left to buy a giant bag of fresh popped popcorn  and perhaps a fountain coke in the drugstore that was adjacent to and entered into the theater lobby.

    The Zimmer family owned the theater, the drugstore and the Weedsport Recreation Center to the north of the theater where Dollar General's parking lot is now.  The recreation center contained 4 bowling alleys, several pool tables and a lunch counter, as well as pinball machines, bowling machines,  and a juke box.  Like Arnold's Place in Happy Days, this was where we hung out as teenagers.  When I got to be 16, I worked several nights a week setting pins at the bowling alley--very hard work, but it paid very well.  The Zimmer family consisted of Grandma and Grampa (Fred & Christine)  Mother and Father (Ann & Earl) and kids Fred, John, Henry, Joe and Christine.  Everyone helped in the business and Joe was my best friend in school, although he was a year younger than me.

     One night after I had got done setting pins Fred came to me and asked if I would be interested in going to work in the "booth".   I truthfully didn't know what he was talking about so I asked him  "you mean the ticket booth?"    The projection booth he stated with obvious annoyance.   I couldn't say yes fast enough
and for several years until television had driven nearly all movie theaters out of business I was the projectionist.  Eventually Grandma and Grandpa Zimmer decided to return to their home in Syracuse and the drugstore was closed.  No more lucky Monday sundaes at the beautiful old soda fountain.   When they were in Weedsport they lived in a nice little apartment that was upstairs in the theater adjacent to the projection booth, overlooking the top of the marquee and S. Seneca St.   When they left the apartment , newlyweds John and Betty Ann moved in and I helped them tote their belongings up the projection room stairs.

   With the drug store closed and Henry in the service family help was beginning to be at a premium and it was decided to contract out a concession stand in the theater lobby.   When asked if I knew anyone who could run it, I was pleased to give them the name of classmate Ron Berry,   Over the course of time I taught several people including Paul Gary and another classmate Bob Hirons how to operate the projectors  so I could get the occasional night off.   As some  may remember I'm the Vice President of the Empire State Theater and Musical Instrument Museum at the New York State Fairgrounds and on display in the museum is a 35 MM Simplex projector identical to the pair that I operated in Zimmer's Weedsport Theater all these years ago.  Every time I see it, or explain to a visitor how it works it brings back so many happy memories.

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

Recently we took a short , but enjoyable ride on the Fingerlakes Railroad from Solvay to Auburn and back.   Although there was very little foliage change yet, the hour and a half ride was great,  The refurbished Canadian passenger cars were very comfortable and the roadbed of the old "Auburn Road " was pretty smooth.

It reminded me of when I was a kid.  Before the Thruway was built, we could look cross lot from our house and very plainly see the 4 track main line of the New York Central RR and the North Weedsport depot.  I recall very plainly the 20th Century Limited ripping through Weedsport on it's way from Grand Central Station in New York to Chicago which it would make in 15 1/2 hours to the minute. By the way it takes 20 hours today via Amtrack!  It passed through Weedsport at 10:10 PM and it was always obvious what train it was as it carried a large baby blue tail light as opposed to the red lights carried by every thing else.   When that blue light was seen, my mother would intone "there goes the Century--time for bed."
 The Century had unbelievable accommodations including a stenographer, barber shop and beauty salon, maids and valets.  The dining car was 5 star on wheels.  The term "red carpet" was invented by the train--when boarding at Grand Central station a red carpet 100 yards long was unrolled for the passengers to walk on.

I was reading an article recently about the observation car that carried the blue "drum head " light.  The name of the car was the " Hickory Creek".   If a second section was necessary for the train, a similar car the "Sandy Creek" was afixed to the tail of that.  At any rate let's talk about the Hickory Creek.  It was built by the Pullman Company in 1948 as a " Look out lounge car" specifically for the 20th Century.  After the last run of the Century on December 3rd, 1967 the car was sold to the Ringling Bros., Barnum & Bailey Circus who used it for executive travel, after which it went into private ownership, was parked and vandalized.   Ten years ago it was acquired by a company who spent the next 10 years and 13 million dollars restoring it completely.  It was restored to look much like it did originally, but with modern running gear and furnishings.  If your pockets are deep enough, you can charter it and go anywhere Amtrack has rights!  Today it features sleeping for 8 with private baths,  dining for 8, lounge seating for 24,  full kitchen,  on board generator for heat, A/C power, Satellite TV and radio and it again sports the blue tail light that I recall so well.

Today, not only is the 20th Century Limited gone, but gone also is the North Weedsport station and even the road that it was on.  When the State did the last iteration on the railroad overpass, they did away with the only house on the road ( the Maitland family residence). and eliminated the road, which actually had a couple of names over the years,  First it was Maple Park and then finally was called Station Rd.

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

Readers of this column over the past more than 20 years have heard me bemoan the fact that parades are slowly disappearing , or lacking in participation from what used to be.   Let me give you an example--in the nearly 30 years that I was in the Weedsport Fire Department, we often marched in other departmental parades 3, or 4 times a week, many times marching over 20 men.   We would march in a local (Cayuga County) parade  on a Thursday evening, perhaps Interlaken, Richland, or Pulaski on Friday evening,  somewhere in Onondaga County Saturday morning, and perhaps the annual Northern Central Volunteer Firemen's Association parade in Penfield, or Fairport on Saturday afternoon..   My mother would have sent me a very critical note about that being a "run on sentence".    She told me one time "That's not even a sentence, it's a paragraph".  Nonetheless, you get my point---for example, while many fire departments are represented in the annual field day parade, there are precious few feet on the pavement--it's mostly a show of apparatus.

At one time nearly every community had a band of one type , or another.  This is still very common in Europe, particularly so in England and Ireland , with wonderful brass bands, accordion bands, flute bands, and even string bands marching in parades weekly in their communities.  I am kind of a "pen pal" through facebook with the Edgarstown Accordion Band in Portadown, near Belfast ,Ireland.  Weedsport was no exception .  The Weedsport Cornet Band operated for many years.   While rummaging through my "stuff" I came across an old post card which sent me off on this tangent.   I enclose a copy of the front of that photo card in this column.  It is the Weedsport  Cornet Band leading the 1908 Memorial Day Parade here in town.

They are marching up Seneca St. (Rt. 34), and as you can see, it is a dirt road, as it was not paved until 1916.  Behind the band can be seen the Fire Department marching, and behind them one can see a team of horses pulling the nearly new Silsby steamer, which replaced the "Neptune" pumper.   Please note that for the purposes of the parade the village DPW has raked aside copious amounts of horse manure to the side so the marchers would not have to trudge through it.

The back of the card is kind of interesting too--it was addressed to Mrs. Floyd Auyer, Meridian ,New York, and I believe it was from her son Roy, who was living in Weedsport at the time.  He writes  "I will send this to you, but I told uncle Jud I  would write to him about work.  You tell him that I have lots of work here, and I think that I can make more here than he would want to give, and I have no shoes but the one pair I ware (sic).   I meant to have written before.  If my feet were stronger I would come anyway regarding last of my wages.   "  It is safe to assume that both Roy and his mother have gone to their reward, so I am not betraying any  confidences that will offend them.

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

I'm writing this column while taking a break from my usual hang-out at this time of year, that is the Empire State Theater and Musical Instrument Museum at the State Fair. I am one of only two people left that helped to move the "Mighty WurliTzer" from the RKO Keith's theater on Salina St. in Syracuse to the state fairgrounds in 1967. The other gentleman is Paul Fleming, who lives in Chesterfield MO. It's kind of an interesting story how I got involved these many years ago. Someone told me a long time ago that it was always a mistake to give me a microphone, but nonetheless, here goes. I worked for many years for the Lipe-Rollway Corporation and eventually they sent me to monthly meetings held by the Applied Management Science Company , I presume in the hopes it would make me smarter. I dutifully went to these gathering held at the former LeMoyne Manor restaurant and had the same bad meal for 2, or 3 years. One of the people that I met there was a man from Weedsport, Jay Lopez. Jay had come to the U. S. from Mexico and was a master carver for the Syracuse Ornamental Co (SYROCO).

It certainly never entered my mind at the time that I would eventually wind up my manufacturing career also working for SYROCO. At any rate Jay knew that I was interested in player pianos and old stuff in general and that I had been the projectionist at Zimmer's Weedsport Theater for several years, from when I was 16. Also at that time I maintained the wonderful old Steere and Turner pipe organ next door in the Baptist Church. Jay told me he was involved with a project trying to make the Loew's State Theater presentable enough inside to convince Onondaga Co. to purchase it as a performance venue. (The effort must have bee successful, since it's been the "Landmark Theater " now for many years.) One afternoon when we were ready to go to work, Jay said "there's even a fancier theater just down the street that they're going to tear down to make room for a Sibley's department store---let's go check it out" We couldn't get in the front , so we went around the block to the Clinton St. side of the building and they were hauling out what I recognized as giant organ pipes through a big hole in the wall about 15 feet up. I never went back to the Loew's theater and have been involved with ESTMIM ever since.

The state fair carpenters built the organ chambers, the state fair electricians did all the wiring and believe it or not, within a year the mighty WurliTzer was again booming out. The capital T in the middle of WurliTzer is not a typo---The people in N.Tonawanda, NY felt that their organs had superior tone to other manufacturers (probably true) thus the T stands for tone! All has not always been rosy between various State Fair administrations and us. It has been going on 3 years since we have been able to have a concert, in fact, the fair locked us out of our own organ chambers and forbid us to even meet on the premises. We finally gave up and hired a lawyer and I'm pleased to report that we're back in business. Our first concert in nearly three years will be in October (date to be announced). It will be the famous original silent film "Phantom of the Opera", starring Lon Chaney, with renowned artist David Peckham at the console of the mighty WurliTzer. Come join us--free parking right by the building, free refreshments--handicapped accessible-elevator right to the theater door. fun for all

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

Am I the only one who is disenchanted, bored, or out right disgusted by the commercials heard on TV recently? I have worn the lettering right off my mute button getting rid of them. I have actually changed insurance companies because I was sick to death of them spending my premium dollars to promote an ostrich selling insurance. It almost seems that ad agencies lay awake at night thinking up ways to insult the intelligence of the viewer. I long for the days when radio, or TV commercials were pleasant to listen to. I particularly liked those that were either set to rhyme, or music. I note below some of my favorites over the years:

The first singing commercial that I recall as a kid was for DUZ laundry soap---"Put DUZ in your washing machine, see the clothes come out so clean" and so on. Downright pleasant to the ear. My all time favorite was the Rheingold beer song, sung to the beautiful strains of the Estudiantina Waltz "My beer is Rheingold, the dry beer, so buy Rheingold whenever you buy beer, it's not bitter, not sweet, extra dry flavor treat, when you buy won't you try Rheingold beer. Who could forget Singing Sam, The Barbisol man, extolling the virtues of that shave cream in a rich baritone voice. Speaking of shaving, does anyone remember listening to the world series on the radio and between innings hear the virtues of Gillette razors sung. Weedsport even had a take-off on the Gillette song that the cheerleaders used to sing, except they were bragging up the prowess of the "Johnny Green" instead of razor blades.

Other musical commercials that come to mind include Robin Hood flour, Lava soap , Ajax cleanser and of course one that is still used today, Oscar Meyer. Right after WWII the Campbell soup twins sang 'They're back and they're better than ever before, Campbell's Pork and Beans. " All production had been diverted to the military during the war. How about Motorola TV, sung to the tune of Happy Birthday? Who wouldn't want to buy a Chevy after listening to a beautiful blond warble "See the USA in your Chevrolet" ? I wonder if anyone ever bought Royal pudding because in the words of their song it was "rich, rich, rich in flavor, smooth, smooth, smooth as silk with more food energy than sweet fresh milk"

Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola have waged battle for many years. Coke was only sold in 6 ounce bottles, which you can still get today, but Pepsi got their foot solidly in Coke's door with a bit of clever marketing and an accompanying song---they changed to a 12 ounce bottle for the same price. Do you remember the song which they used for years? "Pepsi Cola hits the spot, 12 full ounces, that's a lot. Twice as much for a nickel too, Pepsi Cola is the drink for you" Eventually Coke gave in and offered larger bottles. Having said that, I date myself because it's been a long time since you could buy anything for a nickel.
I know that this isn't particularly Weedsport, but I couldn't help myself.

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

As my deadline approaches, I find myself completely unprepared to write a column, so I'll revert to my old standard---quoting articles from the paragraphers of old at the Weedsport Cayuga Chief.

*******I'll go back to the July 21, 1877 issue for news of the day.*******

Phillip Proudfoot of Sterling died from blows inflicted on his head with a ball bat by Edmond Hoppin. Proudfoot alleged to have seduced a sister of Hoppin, then left town. Hoppin's mother died from grief & Hoppin vowed vengeance. I. L. Upham's horse & buggy stolen by Duane Trowbridge, an escaped convict has been found in Homer, Cortland Co. Hon. Asa Packer, Pres. W. H. Sayre, Gen. Agt. & other officials of the Lehigh Valley R. R. went over the Southern Central from Sayre, P.A. through Weedsport to Fair Haven Tuesday of this week. Geo. H.Weyant credited with being the 1st farmer in the area to take his 1877 crop of wheat to the Brutus Mills.

Mrs. W.J. Donovan has an injured foot, suffered when her horse stepped on it. Rev. A. R. Hewitt was taken suddenly ill last Sabbath & evening service was canceled. He is better now. "Doc" Barnard, village character, sent to Auburn jail, reported to be demented. An effort is being made to get him into the Soldier's Home in Dayton, O. James Dennock, a well to do farmer is accused by Hull's Corner's Dairy of watering his milk. The little daughter of Mr. Tilloe disappeared last week, but had been berrying. John Sturge is commencing his threshing campaign. Abe LaDue is 1st on the list.

A story from Sharon, Pa. was carried. Miss Kate McGilvery, out driving on State St. in Sharon attempted to pass an old man, Mr. Bell who was deaf. She told her father Mr. Bell tried to frighten her horse. Her father went to find Mr. Bell and knocked him through a window cutting his head. Mr Bell told his son Richd. & he sought out Mr. McGilvery, knocking him through the same window with a 2# brass weight, fracturing his skull & he soon died. Miss Kate, the cause of it all lost her reason & there is slight hope for her recovery. Young Bell is in custody.

Mrs. V. B. Whiting will do hair work for lady readers. 2 aged veterans , David Morris of Centerport and Loren Fresho of Mosquito Point were buried Tues. of this week. Minnie Casey of this village fell into the millpond & was rescued by J. D. Sampson. We were shocked to hear of the suicide death of G.W. Peck , one of the proprietors and editors of the Auburn Advertiser. An opium habit caused him untold agony and several times he had threatened to end his life. He came to Auburn in 1849 & with Oscar Knapp had made a fortune. So much for the "good old days" More another time.

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

I've been asked  "how come you don't write the do you remember articles any more"?    It's possible that I'm so old that I don't remember anything myself.    Nonetheless, I racked what's left of my brain and came up with the following:

     The successful firefighters field days have recently concluded, which by the way was incorrectly reported in this paper as being held at "the Cayuga County Fairgrounds"  It was not and never has been.  It was held at the fire department's own Ralph St. John Memorial Park, which was donated kindly to the fire department many years ago by his widow, Olive Sr. John Embody.  But I digress--Did anyone know that as was usual in the day different companies in the fire department had names instead of numbers. What became Company One was for years Brutus Hose, Company Two was Batchelor Hose, Company Three was H.D.Brewster Steamer, the ladder company was Eagle Hook and Ladder and the rescue company was Chemical Company.  After the department got rid of a dedicated ladder truck in favor of a multi-purpose quint the last vestige of these names was gone--the ladder truck had a big eagle on each side until the end.
      Wow!   I went off on a tangent there!    Does anyone recall Ethyl O'Neil selling her eggs door to door in the village?   For that matter, who besides me bought  "crax"  at the local GLF egg processing plant ?  I once went in to buy some and they didn't have any , so I asked Leona Keel who was the receptionist if she would crack some for me.   You can imagine her reply.  How about the large farm stand operated by Eva Oliver for many years, or perhaps buying asparagus or raspberries from John DeWispeliere at his Berry Hump Farm on Bonta Bridge Road.  I wonder what WCS class was the last to drink their white , or chocolate milk from a glass half-pint bottle?   Who recalls a time when you took your car in for service you would be given a "courtesy car" to drive.   When Kirk Wolford and Elsie Johnson got married Guy Lamphere loaned them a new Chevrolet to go on their honeymoon with!   Those were the days.
       Does anyone but me recall getting packages sent to you by Railway Express?  I used to order fireworks (illegal even back then) and they would come in a box marked "hot peppers"  Stationmaster Otto Stevenson, who was no fool always told me to be careful of the "hot peppers".  Speaking of Mr. Stevenson he used to round up some of us kids to load a boxcar at the freighthouse siding which was about where the abandoned silo plant is now.   That was hard work as the hay bales that we were loading had usually been baled by Ernie Luke with his stationary baler.   The bales weighed more than us kids. Speaking of baling,  Cerd Jones told me one time that his company, Tudor & Jones was the biggest jobber of baling wire in the state.   Who recalls the village DPW being on S. Willow St.?   Does anyone remember the West Shore Railroad running at grade through the village?   Seneca St. had a watchman stopping  traffic until the late 1950's when gates were installed.  There were flashing lights at E. Brutus St, but Horton , S. Willow and Clinton Rd. had only crossbucks to warn of the tracks.
      Remember the little kits they used to sell to repair the hole in a pot, or pan?  Can you imagine doing that today?  How about the public freezer plants ,  where you could rent space before home freezers, or refrigerators with freezer compartments were common.   Most people in Weedsport used the Jordan Food Locker.  In closing, I make note of the fact that the Memorial Day parade was missed by many and as a matter of fact after the ceremonies had concluded at the school, I put the 48 star flags on my 1930 Model A and drove around town creating my own parade.    More next month.   Denny Randall

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

       As I continue my recovery from more heart work, I'll continue taking the easy way out with these columns, that is,  plaguerizing the Cayuga Chief's paragraphers of old,  This time from the September 15, 1877 edition.

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

       Continuing the news of the day from the earliest Cayuga Chief's , these articles from the July 27, 1878 issue. Little Minnie Warren, sister of Lavinia died at Fall River, Mass in childbirth. She had a normal sized 6 pound baby . Both of the beautiful tiny sisters were former residents of Bell St. in this village. Lavinia was famously married to "General Tom Thumb" and Minnie was wed to "Commodore Nutt", both affiliated with P.T.Barnum. She gave an exhibition in Weedsport last March. What "muzzled" the salt well near Weedsport? The brine was a great deal stronger than that of Syracuse, by chemical tests. Lack of knowledge in salt manufacturing led to nothing but a sunken well and there it remains, of no use to anyone.
A new sidewalk has been laid on the south side of Donovan and Mack's store, speaking of which, a kerosene lamp exploded in the store last week. Little damage resulted. When oil is low, a gas forms that may explode. Strictly pure kerosene will not explode. Mrs. Lewis Putnam gave a "hen party" to honor Mrs. O.T. Atwood's visit to her old house Wednesday evening. BURGLARY! The dwelling of O.L.Gildersleeve, railroad mail agent was entered Thur. night. Entrance was gained by prying open the shutters, the windows having been left open. A lamp was burning in the room, but Mr. & Mrs. G. both slept while the robbery took place. $6/8 in money was taken and Mr. G's watch and chain, as well as other jewelry was taken between 1-3 AM.
All persons forbidden to trust my husband, Andrew P.Williams, on my account, as I will pay no debts of his contracting. Laura Williams. Virginia plans to send Mr. W.H.F Lee to Congress as a tribute to the memory of his father, General Robt. E.Lee. Mr. E.R Redhead & wife are sojourning for 1 week at the 1000 Islands. The Auburn Advertiser & Cayuga Independent have resolved that the Cayuga Chief will be ignored in those papers in the future. Filled with hard cider, Alonzo Edee was arrested by officer Sprague for turning his wife and daughter out of doors, etc. Police Justice Little required $1000.00 bail. A "night blooming cereus" in the garden of Mrs. Carrie Stevens started blooming at sundown Wed. evening. . Peter D.Hamilton has put up a peppermint oil distillery near this village. and finally for this month The M.E. Church Sunday School was refused the use of the Camp Meeting grounds for a picnic, so the children and their friends will picnic in the grove owned by Eli Hamilton, west of the village on Wed. next.

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

       As I was looking through old Cayuga Chief newspapers a couple of weeks ago I found and jotted down enough interesting (at least to me) articles for several of these columns. That works out well, since I don't have to dig up something to write about. These paragraphs were taken from the June 29,1878 issue.

A "wild cat" engine #227, with John McGraw as engineer dropped through the draw bridge at Cayuga just as a canal boat laden with coal was passing through. The boat sank in 9 feet of water, no one was hurt, but financial loss was heavy. The 5 year old son of Robt. Brown and grandson of Horace Christian went home from school with slight illness which grew worse & he died Mon. following. It was thought that he was injured by larger boys while at play. Geo. Rude has not run away, but is in Auburn. No poison was in the post mortem of the body of his wife & her will is being contested.

The Hamilton family will have a picnic of their own in the grove west of the village on July 4. Negotiations for the sale of Sylvester Wright's "Jericho" farm to John W. Bibbens has been going on for some time. A.B.Harmon of Weedsport advertises the "Star Stove" that does away with the excessive heat, dirt, litter and ashes of a cook stove. Trouble with the old fashioned (Neptune) fire engine of Weedsport, operating when J.M. Bryant's barn burned failed and was ordered by the Chief Engineer to be repaired on Sunday, for which he was criticized by some. J.E.Rogers and Geo. R. Nash, once members of the Fire Department on paper, but never turned out a a trial of engines, etc., but escaped the $1.00 poll tax by their memberships now censure the Chief Engineer for something they know nothing about. (My note--his bad mouthing Mr. Nash is probably not coincidental, as George Nash published a rival newspaper in the village)

Mr. Eli Hamilton was hurt (severe bruises) when his horses were frightened by the fire engine Sat. evening when several wagons colllided. Rev. T.R.Peters has taken possession of a new house on Liberty Street next to the Baptist Church , built by M.C.Remington. Ephraim W. Childs of the southern part of this village produces fine vegetables and fruit. Over 300 quarts of currants sold this year. Prunes are coming on well. James Bell's horse attached to a lumber wagon started to run away from Brutus Mills on Mon. Mrs. S.D.Skelton has a cactus with over 300 blooms on it. Wm. R. Weeds of Keokuk, Iowa visited his brother the Hon. C.W.Weed in this village. Mrs. L.B.Gilmore gave some of her capital recitations to a select party at the Willard House parlors. Philo Healy of Sennett intends to become a citizen of Weedsport for the purpose of education of his children in our Union School. (my note--somethings never change---realty ads in this paper often note 'Weedsport schools' as an enticement
to potential purchasers)

Arthur W. Faatz has returned home from attending school at Manlius. Miss Catherine Richards was found dead & thought to have been gored by a bull, but developments point to Myron Buell, who threw her into the bulls pen, to conceal his crime(of murder). He was arrested, but so far, proof is lacking. Winding up this column, I'll strike a bit of a personals note. R.R.Stillwell of Port Byron has purchased the beautiful residence on North Main St. in Port Byron formerly belonging to Mrs. Wethey, wife of our ex-banker for a consideration of $2500.00. In 1962 I lived in that house and it was still called the "Wethey house" More from the news of the day in the late 1800's next time.

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

       As most of you know, I love to go through the old copies of the Weedsport Cayuga Chief newspaper that we have in the museum.    We have the original papers and a number of years ago we had them put on microfilm and invested in an optical reader to more easily access them.   We have now gone one step more up the technology ladder and have purchased a gizmo that will digitize the rolls of microfilm and the whole shooting match will probably fit on a couple of flash drives.   

The column this month will be articles from the first Cayuga Chief , Jun 16, 1877.   I admire greatly the writing style of using very short paragraphs containing a lot of information.  In fact news writers of the day were referred to as "paragraphers" because of this style of writing.    I have to say that I much prefer it to the blah-blah dished out day in and day out by the never ending bunch of talking heads on cable TV.

OK   Here we go--- Austin Bros. & Co have purchased the steam planing mill and lumber yard of Cowan & Finch in this village.   A. B. Harmon's Hardware has in stock new style patented screens.   There will be a prayer meeting of the Y. M. C. A. at their rooms on  Brutus  St. , Sunday P.M. at  3 1/2 o'clock.  The fire department will meet at the engine house on  Furnace St.   Schedules of trains of N. Y. Central and Southern Central R.R. as well as mail arrival times are posted at the P.O.  (My note--the Southern Central became the Lehigh Valley).

H. D. Brown started a print shop 3 years ago.  After urging of friends is now starting to publish this paper.   Subscription  $1 annum in advance.   Thieves tried to enter the brick dwelling of W.L.Cowell on the Sennett Road, south of this village on Sunday night last.  They removed lattice work and blinds from cellar window, but probably frightened away by a dog.  The same night they entered the dwelling of V.B.Whiting, but got only change & other articles from his pants pocket.    "Doc" Barnard & a woman he sometimes calls wife were arraigned before Justice Parsons on Monday for breaking windows, etc.   He sentenced to 4 Mo. in Onondaga penitentiary and she fined $5.

Mrs. N. D. Caldwell lost some valuable flowering plants taken from her door-yard. last season Dr. Brown lost a young pear tree and a thief stole a street lamp from South St.   John B. Smith of  Cato Rd. lost a valuable steer , which over ate of young clover.     St. John's Epis. Ch.  ladies are having a lawn social  at the residence of Mrs. W.E.Billey.    Davis and Dickey of Port Byron have created a new cigar "Cayuga Chief".  Burrill and company are stocking them here in the village.   Rev. T. R. Peters is taking   a summer vacation and there will be no services at the Bapt. Ch. in his absence.  Faatz & Co have their hardware and grocery store in running order.

Unless Edwin Hines returns soon from the west there will be no croquet  in Weedsport this year.  Wayde Hampton and other reconstructed rebels  were recently in Auburn to attend the anniversary of the Shield Guards.  I'll close with this bit of information---At Auburn, last Friday , Herbert Bard, son of D. B. Bard of Sennett was prostrated by the heat.   He had his hair clipped in the A.M., then stood in the sunshine.
  
More another time.    Denny Randall    Past Pres.  OBHS

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

       We have been on a project to rearrange the files in the museum to make them more user friendly and to facilitate searching for specific items.   To that end I'll give them a test drive this month for this column.  Colleen has worked tirelessly on this project for several months with a little help from Tom Sevier and me.

     Who recalls hot dog roasts in Putnam's woods, or Lucky Monday sundaes at Zimmer's Drug Store?  Did anyone but me set pins at the Baptist Fellowship bowling alleys.   It was a terrifying experience.  There was no overhead rack.   You had to make sure that all pins were off the alley and into the pit between shots and then had to step on a pedal which raised small dowels up from the floor of the alley which you then had to place the pins on carefully in a hole drilled in the bottom of each pin.   I mentioned that was no overhead rack which left you exposed to the flying pins created by the likes of Art Jorolemon and his fast straight ball.  Seldom did you go home without a noticeable limp!   When Church member Burt Ogden came looking for volunteers years later to remove the alleys and build Sunday School rooms in their place , I was glad to help.

     Did anyone ever have Sunday dinner at  the Lindberg House at the corner of Jackson and Brutus?  It was formerly the Quick house , After the fire in March of 1940 which destroyed his restaurant on the four corners, Bill and Ida May Saroodis operated their Bill-May restaurant there.  It was then the private residence of the Ernest Barber family for many years, and  the John Zimmer family for about as many.  It is now being completely refurbished.  As long as we're talking restaurants , how about the Hazmore restaurant run by Hazel and Morris Gifford, which then became the Cozy Corner, operated by Ruth and Francis Holman and then by Mildred and "Hap" Hunter and finally in it's final iteration as a restaurant , St. John's Restaurant, operated by Olive St. John.  It was then demolished and a gas station built , now the location of Quick-Fill.

     Who remembers fondly going down to the New York Central depot and watching the mail get snatched from the gantry at about 60 miles per hour.  At the same time incoming Weedsport mail would be flung onto the platform as the train thundered on by.    Once in a while the arm snatching the canvas mail bag off the gantry would miss and tear the bag.   Stationmaster Otto Stevenson would round up a few of us kids and we would pick up mail all the way to Max Appleby's house.   It's worth noting that Otto was a second generation Stationmaster, as his father Fred was Stationmaster before him.  

     Enough of trivia, but we now have easy access to a lot of info!   I would be remiss if, as a member of the Class of a Lifetime--WCS '57 that I did not put my 2 cents worth in retiring the Warrier logo.  Without question,  I'm in favor of reverting back to being "Johnny Greens"

     On another subject, it's that time of year again when the annual Christmas tree show is on at the O'Hara Ag. Museum.  Every year a group that I belong  to (Auburn History Club)  sponsors a tree with a  local historical theme.  This year Jane Owen has worked tirelessly for a couple of months assembling and decorating our tree with actual photos of many of the more than 60 railroad stations in Cayuga County in use before Henry Ford loused it up with his Model T.   Stop in at the museum which is now heated and check out well over a hundred trees.   Ours has moved from the school  house area to the lower level near the E.D.Clapp fire bell.   Vote for us!!!   And speaking of museum displays , at OBHS we have decided to once again have Rich Wieczorek's terrific train set up on display.  This is a large layout takes up most of our meeting room.   Other antique historical exhibits will be displayed including some of Mike Randall's incredible toy collection.  Scope us out on December 17th and 18th.    Both the Christmas tree show and our museum are always free and open to the public.

     In closing,  we recently lost a wonderful member of our Class of a lifetime , Lorna Jones Sande.  It is appropriate to close  this column with her quote in our recreated 50 year yearbook, now 16 more years ago.  "Yesterday is history"
         "Tomorrow is mystery
         "Today is a gift"

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

      The recent re-paving of Seneca Street (Rt.34) through the Village of Weedsport was certainly a tribulation, although long overdue. It was so rough you couldn't stay on the seat if your seat belt wasn't buckled.  I had to buy some stamps to send out my bills last month (I still do it the old fashioned way, they send me a bill during the month and at the end of the month I send them a check.) , all snail mail.  At any rate , I tried getting to the Post Office from all directions and I just couldn't do it.  I finally ended up parking at the hardware store on Erie Drive, walked up DB's parking lot, stagger stepped across Seneca Street and finally got my sheet of Purple Hearts., Then I had to reverse the process to get back to my car.  All told it took me about a half hour to buy a sheet of stamps

For all the aggravation this was, in talking to one of the State engineers, he told me that this was only a temporary fix, as they only milled the top surface of asphalt off down to the original brick pavement installed in 1916.  In a couple of years according to him they are going to take it right down to the base and totally rebuild the road from scratch, including all sidewalks and curbs.   I can hardly wait!  We at the Museum were lucky on this go around as we had 4 badly spalled side walk slabs that we had intended to replace, but they included it in the project and replaced them gratis.

One can only imagine how happy the people of the village were in 1916 when the street was first paved.  Although at the time that was certainly little vehicular traffic, there were plenty of horses and what with the horses doing what they do, which when mixed with the normal mud of the street, it's not pleasant to even think of the results.  At least with the pavement the excrement  could be swept and shoveled up for the DPW crews to pick up. On June 3, 1915 a special election was held and a 20 year bond issue was passed overwhelmingly to borrow $16,600  to pave the length of Seneca Street with brick. Concrete curbs were also included in the proposal.  It is interesting to note that the bond issue included the stipulation that property owners with street frontage would have to pay to the village one fourth of the cost of the pavement and curbing in front of their business.  When the job was done the village decided to hold a big celebration, or as they called it a "Jollification".  I attach a copy of the showbill advertising this Jollification.

I was amazed to see one of the suffragette proponents was Miss Harriet May Mills, for whom the building at the State Fair Grounds  where I have held forth with the MIGHTY WurliTzer for nearly 60 years was named after her.

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

      It's about time i wrote another "Do you Recall Column", so here goes.

     Who remembers when the village DPW was on South Willow St.?, or the Odd Fellows Hall upstairs over Harry Tanners IGA grocery store?   How many businesses can you recall being in the building now being renovated where the late Shawn Coyle ran "Nickle Back Jack's " bottle redemption center?  I can remember several, among them Doctor Willard Herrling, dentist on the 2nd floor, and luncheonettes run by Peter Canolesio, Jack and Mary Miller, the Butler family, George and Madeline Westcott, the Hiron's family and there were probably more eating places there.  The building also housed Elvin Dolph's barber shop for many years,  a real estate office, and a Magazine shop operated by Gary Sine.

     Who recalls Barber Welding being squeezed into the space behind the Presbyterian Church where their parking lot is now located?   Actually, before Barber a large livery stable was operated there.  Who knew that the name of Adder Tool Company operated by Derwood Salsbury was a combination of his and his wifes first names  ADeline and DERwood.    Does anyone remember fondly the pizza and hoagy shop behind the bowling alley   owned by the  Zimmer family, but operated by Ralph Mazzoli Jr. They made the best meatball sandwiches in town!   Does anyone (but me) still have their  WCS class pin purchased at L.L. Compson Jewelers?   Who recalls the days when all gas stations also did service and repair work?  Now no gas station does automotive repair work, they sell groceries instead, one local one also sells full meals, but no fan belts, it's amazing to me.  Speaking of cars , how many will recall when just about anything but the engine on a car was optional when you bought it?   Heater, optional, Defroster, optional,and so forth for brake lights , back up lights, turn signals, etc.

     How about the great air shows that were held at Whitford's Airport?    Who can remember when Weedsport had 2 TV repair shops. In fact one of them was located where our museum is now.  How about Allen Lamphere put-puting in the state buoy boat from Weedsport to Cross Lake and then back to Mosquito Point filling the buoys on the canal with kerosene. This was an every day job, no matter the weather while the canal system was open.  How many of you lived in the village as a kid and walked home for lunch at noontime?  It seems like eons ago that you had to get up and walk across the room to change channels on the TV, but did you know that the convenience of the infra red remote control used to control just about everything was conceived of by Theodore Case in Auburn, who, of course is known for his sound on film work, but the infra red remotes were related to the work he did for the Navy on Owasco Lake.   But I digress--

     Who remembers their first taste of Pizza?  How about Yogurt?  I never even liked the name!  Who can recall milk cans sitting along side the road waiting to be picked up and taken the the Dairymen's League milk processing plant on East St.?    The pasteurizer at the plant burned bituminous (soft) coal , so every morning the village had that distinctive soft coal smell.  At one time we had several grocery stores operating at the same time--The aforementioned IGA, Coyles Red & White, Baran's Supermarket, Hoopers , O'Hara & Cuddy, the A&P, and Ken Heffernan's .  We have been down to one now for many years, first the Big M and now Shurfine.   My son and his wife who live in Tully now have to get groceries in Nedrow, or Homer after their local store closed, so please support your local merchants. I'll close by asking if anyone, but me has a phonograph turntable capable of all 4 speeds of records?
16 2/3 RPM, 33 RPM, 45 RPM and 78 RPM.   Remember we have lots of surplus WCS yearbooks for sale at the museum.   From all reports the Gettysburg trip we sponsored went very well and chances are we'll do it again next fall.

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

  Weedsport was typical of nearly every upstate community during the period of time known as the industrial revolution. Every community had a manufacturing base that provided many jobs and considerable wealth for the local inhabitants. Alas and alack, most of those industries are now long gone, leading to the area being referred to as a rust belt. Listed below are some of the earlier concerns.

W. G. Adams made and sold "Oriole" phonographs, of which we have several in the museum. Skadan, Kerns and Co manufactured ladies apparel, especially skirts and nightgowns for turn of the century women. The Security Co. made dress skirts, wash shirts, underskirts, blouses, yard goods, hoop skirts and even horses fly nets. The Abram Walrath Steam Bent wood works used steam to bend wood for sleigh runners, chair parts and silo staves. The Weedsport Construction Co, owned by Charles Whitman built and installed bridges from 1902 until 1912. The former iron truss bridge over the Seneca River was built by them. As various bridges in the area have been removed, we have snagged the builders plates and have them on display in the museum.

Speaking of Mr. Whitman he and C.C. Caywood joined forces to produce the Whitwood truck. 7 were built before the company went out of business. They were a little unusual sporting a single huge center mounted cyclops like headlight, chain drive and hard rubber tires. The first vehicle produced was sold to Edward Guyder for use in his coal and feed business. F. D.Lanphere's concern sold Studebaker wagons and various lines of farm equipment and early automobiles including Dodge, Essex, Ford and others.

Charles Cusick and Co. sorted tobacco grown locally, dried and bundled it and shipped it from their Graham street factory to cigarette and cigar manufacturers The venerable Tudor and Jones farm machinery brokerage has been in continual operation since 1887. The largest business in the past was the Barr Manufacturing Corp., originally producing typewriters, a couple of which we have on display. During WWII they produced parts for airplane magnetos, bombs, machine guns and other war time parts and employed as many as 800, many of whom were women. After the war they made clocks, toys, decor items, electric frying pans and many other consumer goods. Leonardi Mfg. started out making frames for ladies hand bags and has evolved into a state of the art custom machine shop. Among their current products are carbide stump grinder replacement teeth.

Other concerns have been Jaymar Corp which produced printed circuit boards, Adder Tool making injection molds for the plastic industry, Phoenix Tool which was a drop hammer forge shop, Corostone Silo, Zonolite Corp, made insulation. Barber welding does not only general welding work, but markets a line of large boats of their own manufacture, specially built to cut and remove weeds from bodies of water. Whitman and Robinson made the first "Bobcat" tractor as well as Sagen boat hoists and nautiloy marine hardware. Weedsport Tool and Machine made high precision machine parts produced on Hardinge lathes which were built in Elmira. Unfortunately nearly all of these concerns are long gone, with Leonardi, Barber Welding, and Tudor & Jones being the exceptions. More another time.

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

 I have been reading a old copy  (Sept. 22, 1853)  of the "Weedsport Advertiser" a weekly newspaper published in Weedsport in the mid 1800's.   i enclose as a photo the masthead of this particular paper.

Although it contains general news, including world wide events, as well as local news, I found most interesting the advertising, and I'll quote several of the ads in this column.    "  WANTED  At Remington and Close's Foundry, 100 tons of old iron, for which the highest market prices will be paid"   The foundry was located about where the pond is on the Stevenson farm across from the Thruway entrance.  O.W. Burritt ran a big box ad:  " STOVES!   STOVES!   A large assortment of the best cooking stoves in use, comprising the Atlas, that queen of cooking stoves, the Cultivator, with a large double oven, , the best cooking stove for use and the cheapest to be found in the country, as hundreds are ready to testify., sold with, or without furniture."   Burritt also ran a more modest ad--"-EAVES TROUGHS of all kinds , kept on hand , to be furnished on the shortest notice and made in the most workmanlike manner and of good stock."

The local chapter of the I. O.  of O. F. (Odd Fellows) note the following---"Brutus Lodge Number 146  I. O. of O. F.  meets at Odd Fellows Hall in Weedsport over the "Advertiser"  office on Wednesday evenings at 7 1/2 o'clock."   G.H.Otis Sec'y     Another interesting ad-- " FIRST COME--FIRST SERVED is the motto at the Brutus Mills.   Please keep this in mind   as you call, for we will wait on you with anything we have in our line of business for the cash and grind your grain for you as the best.   For master don't intend to be mean, just drive up your team, and he your grain will grind, and no fault will be found for all kind"    Signed by A.W. Dean, Asst. Miller

One more  from the T.S. Bentley and Co. , Which was located on  Seneca St. , opposite the Eagle Hotel.  They advertise every variety of stove ", both cook and parlor, among which may be found the following: Vulcan Air Tight, Phoenix, Woodland, Eagle, Congress, and Premium.  Also, Granger's,  Souvenir, , Ben Franklin, Persian, Shield Air Tight, Ottoman,  Sylvan,  Race's Self Regulator,  and Cottage. "

We have recently acquired another supply of  Weedsport yearbooks from the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's.  If your book has been lost, or you lost custody of it during a divorce settlement, or if you couldn't afford one while you were in school they are available for sale at a paltry $15.00 each.  Stop at the Museum Wednesday evenings, Thursday mornings or during one of our monthly programs.

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

     This month I'll ventures beyond the confines of Weedsport and the local community , and back in time to 1814 when a young virtual prisoner on a British ship watched and listened to the bombardment of Fort McHenry, as the war of 1812 slowly moved to closure.   The man's name of course was Francis Scott Key and the words that he wrote that night have stood the test of time as the STAR SPANGLED BANNER.   Many people do not realize that there are 4 verses to our national anthem and only because I think they're beautiful and seldom heard beyond the first verse, and the fact that it's my column, I will set them down here.

  Second verse-- On the shore, dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep,
                           Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
                            What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
                             As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
                             Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam
                             In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream
                             'Tis the star-spangled banner, Oh! long may it wave
                              O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave!

  Third verse--      And where is the band who so vauntingly swore
                             That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
                              A home and a country should leave us no more?
                              Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps pollution.
                               No refuge could save the hireling and slave
                               From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave.
                               And the star spangled banner in triumph doth wave
                                O'e the land of the free, and the home of the brave.

Last verse--             Oh! Thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
                                Between their loved home and the war's desolation
                                Blest with vict'ry  and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
                                Praise the power that hath made and preserved as a nation.
                                Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just
                                 And this be our motto, "In God is our trust".
                                 And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
                                 O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

It would surely gave Mr key pause ,  in this day of turmoil throughout the world from the poor peaceful citizens in Ukraine to the flock of crazies storming our nation's capital led by a clearly unbalanced chief executive .  He would wonder I'm sure if any progress has been made in a couple of hundred years.   Clip this out and sing these beautiful words to yourself once in a while .   Back off my soap-box to Weedsport next time. 

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

     We have in the museum over a hundred years of copies of the "WEEDSPORT CAYUGA CHIEF" , a weekly newspaper published in the very building where our museum is now located.   Many years ago we had them put on microfilm which made it a good deal easier to  research items in the papers.   We have recently taken another step forward in that process.  We have purchased a gizmo that scans the 3 inch diameter rolls of film and makes a digital record of them capable of putting several years of newspapers on a single flash drive, which can then be watched on a monitor, or even on our 70 inch smart TV.   Pretty amazing stuff.   Having said all that, I'm old enough to be classified as a non-digital person and I'll probably continue to use the old optical viewer.   At any rate, this month's column is taken from articles in a copy of the Cayuga Chief from January 7, 1954, when I was a freshman in high school.

The Grange reports that plans have been completed for remodeling the kitchen in the Grange Hall, which is of course the former trolley station.  A covered dish supper will be served to members at 7:00 PM on Saturday , and the Saturday night dance committee will be appointed at that time.   An oyster supper will be held on Saturday, January 15 in the Fellowship Building by the Kupples Klub of the Baptist Church.

Assemblyman Cusick has been appointed Vice  Chair of the state commission on the revision of fire laws.  The Weedsport  Central School High School band will hold a concert next Tuesday at 8:00 PM, featuring a french horn quartet of Mary Jane Shepherd, Bessie Webster, Dorothy Spier and Esther Stebbins, under the direction of Caesar Struglia.   The girls basketball team lost to Sherwood by a score of 55 to 22.   Members of the team include Joan Muth, Wanda Smith,  Agnes Van Duzer, Janet Fults,  Ann Whitman, Cora Chamberlain, Jackie Pratt, Marilyn Edmunds, Gracia Harding and Jeanne Waldron.   20 boys from Troop 59 of the BSA went on a 5 mile hike on the 2nd and 3rd of January in the sleet and rain.     Meals were prepared and served by Bill Humphrey, Vic DeMoors, Chris Nelson and Joe Moody.

A Teen Canteen will be starting soon weekly in the school gym featuring dancing, ping pong, basketball, cards,  and refreshments.  The committee consists of  Dan Webster, Gracia Harding, Carol Witherell, Phil Shepherd,  Allen Chapman, Tresure Johnson,  Esther Jordan, Phyllis Tierney, Ed Cartner, and  Fred Hinman.   Faculty advisers will be Joe Berle,  Charles Jeffries and Mary Ann  Sullivan.

The New York State Canal Authority report that in 1953  4 million tons of freight were transported on the Barge Canal.  Fred  and Nellie Kinney have purchased the Howe mansion on Jackson street with the intent to open a funeral parlor there, as well as it becoming their residence.   Mr Kinney, an Army veteran has recently received his mortuary credentials from the Simmons School of Embalming and Mortuary Science.   The Kinney's will hold an open house shortly.  The home was designed and built by the late Assemblyman Michael Grace.

Some of the advertising included were CRAX,  cracked eggs sold by GLF for 50 cent a dozen,  Fult's Furniture Store advertised Serta extra firm, full or twin size mattresses for $39.75.    Ken Heffernan advertised custom curing of ham, bacon, and other cuts.   Sausage making a specialty.  Can supply meat in quarters, halves, or whole carcasses, cut and wrapped to order.   Finally, Subscription rates for the newspaper were $3.00 yearly including postage, or 7 cents the single copy.  More  another time.

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

     In 1859 a couple of men in  New York City decided to form a partnership to sell tea and coffee at a discounted rate.   Their names were George Gilman and George Huntington Hartford.  After a couple of name changes the company they founded became known as " THE GREAT ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC TEA COMPANY--- A & P for short.  They placed their first ad in the May 11, 1867 issue  of Harper's Weekly.  At first the company was a mail order house where customers could place orders in large quantities.  Upon the strength of these advance orders the company bought directly from overseas at a savings of from 50 cents to a dollar a pound, a substantial saving in the 1800's
     In a short time Mr. Hartford bought out his partner and by 1876 he had established 76 branch retail houses.  By 1910 A & P had grown to 372 stores, expanding to general grocery lines in addition to the original tea and coffee.   A & P staffed their small stores with a Manager and oftentimes a Meat and Produce Manager as well.  They decorated their storefront  with a large uniform signboard with the company name in red and white.  The company grew by leaps and bounds and by 1918 there were 4000 places of business and by 1930 there were 15,500 stores!   Every town of substance had an A & P.  They had become the biggest chain store  enterprise in the nation.  Their greatest stock in trade was their private label canned , bottled and packaged groceries marketed under the ANN PAGE name and always priced a few cents cheaper than name brand goods
      Their quality was  excellent, with baked goods delivered to the Weedsport store daily in the wee hours of the morning from their bakery on Erie Blvd. in Syracuse.  The baked goods would be stacked on the front steps of the store awaiting the arrival of Harry Traver to take them inside and stock the shelves with them.  Imagine doing that today--you would be lucky to have enough left to make a sandwich.  Manager Oliver French ran the Weedsport operation, assisted by his wife Marge,  the hard working Harry Traver , Edna Patterson, and several others over the years including my dad's youngest brother Clyde, before he got drafted into the infantry in 1942
      I remember walking uptown quite often with my brother Dave to get some groceries from the A & P, stopping next door to get a 3 pound bag of cheap Pilgrim hot dogs at Ken Heffernan's Weedsport Meat Market and then going across the street to Edie LaPlante's Luncheonette for a few pieces of penny candy from her amazing selection.   Those were the days!

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

Another famous Weedsport person was early stage and film actor Justus D.Barnes.   Justus was a handsome leading man, famous for his roles in silent movies of the western genre.   He made at least 77 movies between 1903 and 1917.    Sporting a fake bushy mustache and a sullen glower, his big screen debut was the film titled "The Great Train Robbery", which is considered to be the first "western" with a plot.   He was honored in 1988 on a postage stamp, perhaps the only Weedsport person so honored.   He is famous for the final scene in that movie where he lowers a six-gun at the viewers and squeezes off  six shots directly at the camera.  One of the accompanying photos is that scene.   In 1917 he retired to Weedsport and took work as a milkman, eventually buying a tobacco shop.  He lived in the house where Scott and Sue Randolph live now, directly across the street from my home on Hamilton Street.  He loved horses and had no use for the mechanical contraptions automobiles were in that day.  He always traveled by horse and buggy, even as an elderly man.  Justus passed away in 1946 and is buried in Section 8 of the Weedsport Rural Cemetery.   See Photo of gravestone.

We are now officially open at the Museum and are there every Wednesday between 5 and 7 PM.  Other times by appointment.  We have had 2 monthly programs, both well attended and we thank you for your support.    Our modest $10.00 annual dues are due, and as you can imagine we can sure use the money after being in neutral for over 2 years.   We still have a few seats still available on our September Gettysburg trip with John Lamphere, and finally we have many surplus Weedsport Central School yearbooks for sale at a modest $15.00 cost.    Only books printed since World War II are available.
WATCH THE GO! SECTION IN THIS NEWSPAPER FOR LISTINGS OF OUR PROGRAMS WHICH ARE ALWAYS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

By the time you read this it will be old news.  After a 2 year hiatus, we opened our Old Brutus museum Monday evening the 21st.  Since we weren't sure how the program would go after such a long lay off, we decided to go with one of our own members as the presenter, namely me.   I work cheap!   Some of you may know that I'm President of the Empire State Theater and Musical Instrument Museum (ESTMIM) at the State Fairgrounds.   I have been involved with them since 1967 and let me tell you how it came about.

In the mid sixties it was common for industrial and commercial concerns to have mid-level supervisory personnel attend motivational meetings, typically held monthly.   Oddly, I met a gentleman from Weedsport at one of those meetings.    We met at LeMoyne Manor once a month, listened to the same boring program and ate the same boring meal every month for a couple of years.  I worked for Lipe-Rollway for 23 years and he was a master carver employed by Syroco.  His name was Jay Lopez and he had  immigrated from Mexico many years before.  Jay and his wife lived on Oakland Road.  We had talked at these meetings presented by the International Management Council and he knew of my interest in player piano's and such.   We met one afternoon at the Big M  and he told me he was doing some volunteer work at the old Loew's State theater on South Salina St. in Syracuse and asked me to join him.  I was interested since I had worked for the Zimmer family as projectionist at their Weedsport Theater for several years.  The Loew's theater had been closed for awhile and a leaky roof had damaged some of the beautiful fresco's on the ceiling. Jay was working carving replacement panels for the ceiling.

A  group had gotten together and was trying to put the theater in decent enough shape so that Onondaga County would purchase it for a performing arts venue.   As a note aside they were successful and it became the Landmark Theater.

At any rate, about the 3rd time I went with Jay to Syracuse, he said to me "there's even a more beautiful theater just down the street that they're going to tear down and put up a Sibley's store--let's go snoop around"  Sure enough the RKO Keith's theater was being demolished.   We couldn't get in from the front of the building on Salina St, so we went around the block to the Clinton St. side and a group of men were working like ants in the rear of the building.   They had hacked an ugly hole in the brickwork about 15 feet up on the wall and they were hoisting out parts of what I recognized as a pipe organ.  I knew something  about the subject because I had lived next to the Baptist Church in Weedsport before I built the house on Hamilton St. and since I lived close by, the Minister at the time , Wellington Hardy asked me if I would help maintain the organ, since he also knew I messed with player piano's.  They were taking boxes and boxes and big pipes out of that hole in the wall with an ancient old scissors lift and loading it on trucks.  I asked where it was going and they told me that they had reached an agreement with the director of the State Fair to install it in the Harriet May Mills Building auditorium.   I fell right in with them and have been involved  with the Mighty WurliTzer ever since.  I have to be honest, looking at the boxes and boxes of "stuff" stored temporarily in the cattle barn  didn't think it would ever make a noise again, but within a year we opened for the first concert , with long time Loew's state organist Carleton James at the console

The  reference to one of these organs being called "Mighty" was by design.  When you ordered one of these instruments, it was right in the contract that if it was to be mentioned in advertising on the marquee, posters, radio, or anywhere else, that was how it was to be referred to.   Another bit of trivia--Why is WurliTzer always spelled with a capital  T in the center.   The people at the factory in North Tonawanda felt that their instruments had far better tone than other manufacturers, thus the capital T is for tone!

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

     I sometimes write in this column about famous, or near famous residents of our community.  Today I take the opportunity to pen a short story about a recently deceased man that I knew quite well and admired.  George Randolph Harris lll passed away recently at the tender age of 101.

     George and Peggy came to Weedsport  around 1950.  They purchased the apple and cherry farm preciously owned by Reginald (RP) Davis.  Davis had named the farm "Hidden Springs Farm".  The hidden springs that the farm was named for was and still is located on Hoyt Road, flowing down over the hill to the farm and used for irrigation and watering the stock.   The Harris' retained the Hidden Springs name and they purchased the farm with  the intention of raising and showing pure bred Arabian horses, one of Peggy's passions.  George purchased the W.H.Smith Buick-Pontiac dealership which was located where Lunkenheimer Craft Brewing and their parking lot is now.  Although the roadside Hidden Springs billboard type sign is long gone the sign on the barn front still proudly proclaims "HIDDEN SPRINGS FARM   ARABIAN HORSES.    As a matter of fact, horses are still boarded and trained at the farm.

     Peggy pretty much handled the horse part of the operation, but George had different horsepower in mind .  He was a world class Grand Prix road race driver, placing well in many races around the country. He drove a British Allard J2 race car, which was comparable to Ferrari at that time.  Unlike Ferrari however, Allard did not build their own engines--instead they relied on big American muscle power and you had your choice of either a monstrous Cadillac V8, or Chrysler's new fangled "hemi".  Since George owned a General Motors dealership, predictably he chose the Cadillac.  If you go online to Watkin's Glen Grand Prix history, you will find a nice picture of George crossing the finish line in the 1952 race a scant 1.1 seconds  behind a Jaguar to finish second.

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

At one time it was common to get a "premium"  when making a purchase to encourage further purchase of the item in question.  I may still be using dish towels, or wash cloths obtained as premiums in boxes of laundry detergent. Other items so distributed included dishes, glassware ,  tableware and others. I still have a beautiful set of Funk and Wagnall encyclopedias obtained at the Weedsport Big M over the course of several months for buying X dollars worth of groceries a week.  They look nice on the shelf, but haven't been opened since I got my first computer.  If there's any thing to be grateful for, it's that they were free and didn't cost me thousands of dollars like the Encyclopedia Britannica and other high priced  sets of reference books.

I got thinking about "Something for Nothing" and snooped around the museum this past week and found a staggering amount of local advertising handed  out to customers , or potential customers at one time.   Calendars were always high on the list, in fact they are still passed out at years end by many concerns.  They ranged in scope from the large Currier and Ives models passed out by the Howe and later Howe-Ward Insurance Agency for many years to the beautiful combination calendar/thermometers issued by Lamphere &Van Hoover  for as long as they were in business.  Clarence Van hoover and Harold Lamphere operated a service station at the intersection of W. Brutus St.  and Erie Drive (now Muzzy's Italian Ice)  The service station was unusual in that they sold Sunoco gas on the Brutus side of the building and Tydol on the Erie Drive side. One of the accompanying photos shows the 1955 model.  The calendars were on the back.

As mentioned thermometers were a hot item, as were  post cards and trade cards,  can and bottle openers, pens and pencils, and in an earlier time ice picks, button hooks for buttoning up your shoes ( there were no velcro strips for portly people like myself  in those days!) , shoe horns, ladies fans, and many other handy items.    In later years, ash trays were common give aways, as were yard sticks, folding rules, litter bags for cars,  jar openers,  soda bottle resealers {speaking of which , when students returned to school in Weedsport each September the would find on their desk a couple of pencils and a 1 foot rule, compliments of Bill Spier, Manager of the Auburn Coca Cola Bottling plant)  The rule ws denoted as "THE GOLDEN RULE" and   inscribed on them  was "Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You "  Predictably, I still have mine!  

Matches were always popular, as were shot glasses, ladies fans, license plate frames, windshield scrapers, nail aprons, match boxes, jack knives, thimbles, miniature creamer glasses and many other useful items..   A couple of the more unusual items in our collection are a broom and mop holder given away by the Brutus Roller Mill and a 1950 Chevrolet model car given out by the Guy H. Lamphere Chevrolet agency. The second photo  is a business card, passed out by Smithler's Garage.  Bob Smithler ran a garage and body shop in the former Richfield, then Gulf gas station where Weedsport Electric Motors is now located.  The card notes on the back "Smile And The World Smiles With You" and by turning card ( in your case, the newspaper page upside down) It says "grouch And You'll Grouch Alone"  Check out the clever artwork!

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

As I write this, I'm sitting in front of my wood stove enjoying the heat.  There's nothing like a wood fire to warm the body and soul.   It's been said that a wood fire warms you twice---when you cut , split and stack it and when you burn it!   I have a late 1800's parlor oak in the basement game room connected to a  six inch Metalbestos chimney up the back side of the house.  I burn all kinds of wood--whatever is available and free.  Scarcely a storm goes by that doesn't down some box elder, or cottonwood limbs in my yard. During a windstorm this past fall the big old apple tree in my front yard blew down straight across Hamilton Street.  This was the tree that the park  bench was chained to for nearly 50 years.  Perhaps it was lonely without the bench and committed suicide??  At any rate the fire department sectioned it up and dragged it out of the street.  The next day wonderful neighbor Scott Randolph and my long suffering brother Phil came over and cut it up and we stacked it behind the house, neatly stacked the brush which the Village of Weedsport chipped and the apple tree with it's beautiful white blossoms in the spring was history.

So far this season I have burned Box Elder, Mulberry, Cottonwood, Apple, Arbor Vitae, Sumac, Ash, Black Walnut,  Black Locust and Butternut.   As trees get trimmed, or taken down by various of my friends, or family  they bring me the wood and I'm glad to get it!  Rich DeMoors even brings me the wood when he trims his daughter's trees in Fulton!   Scott Randolph alone has given me dozens of cords of wood, all split and he even brings it down and stacks it.  These are the kinds of friends and neighbors to have!

When I  was a kid we heated the whole old uninsulated house with a round oak stove, similar to mine.  When times were good, we burned coal which was shot down a chute through a basement window to a coal bin in the cellar.   It was delivered usually by Jim Gilfus who worked for Fancher Follett Coal & Gas, whose place of business was where the Pit Stop is now, but their coal yard was along the Lehigh Valley railroad tracks just south of Erie drive ( Rt. 31).  When times were not so good, we burned wood. My dad had gotten permission from Jimmy Dunn to cut up downed trees in his woods ( where the Weedsport Rod and Gun Club is now located) at the end of Trombley Road and over the Lehigh Valley tracks.  I remember some of the deadly equipment he used to cut up that wood---an ancient Mall 2 man chainsaw with a 40 inch bar, and an even older Ottawa drag saw with a big hit and miss engine powering it.  eventually coal was too expensive and wood was too much work as a steady diet and the round oak went, to be replaced by a modern looking "Heatrola" which was fired by kerosene, again delivered by Follett Coal and Gas in 5 gallon cans carried on the side of their tank truck.  The kerosene was poured into a 55 gallon drum using a giant funnel and then transferred using a hand pump into the removable tank from the back of the "heatrola".  I guess it was alright, but it wasn't the  great immediate heat you got from a wood fire.

Fast forward several years until after I was married and lived in a house on Liberty Street, which had an oil furnace.  I hated the smell of that fuel oil every time the 275 gallon tank was filled.  Also, I thought it was pretty expensive at 15.9 cents a gallon!  At any rate, I was in the process at that time in the mid 1960's of designing a new house to be built on teachers row (Hamilton St.) and in 1969 I did just that and moved into the first all electric house in Weedsport, and i enjoyed carefree, maintenance free and all the other wonders that electric heat gave me.  At that time it was actually cheaper than gas, but that was about to change and in 1978 I was forced  to have the house converted to gas, not an easy thing since I had no duct work, or any provision for a furnace, but convert I  did, giving up my precious quiet and trouble free electric heat, but when I changed over I kept the electric heat in place and every couple of years I shut off the furnace for a couple of days , turn on the breakers and enjoy the silence and comfort of the electric heat once again.

This was sure a long winded soap box justification of my sitting here soaking up the heat from the round oak!

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

   I belong to a loosely organized group that meets mostly bi-weekly at the O'Hara Ag Museum.  We call ourselves the Auburn History Club, although since I belong it is not totally relegated to Auburn members. We have members from most of the towns surrounding Auburn and even a couple from out of the county.  The Christmas tree show is now open at the Ag Museum, and for the second year we are proud to again sponsor a history related tree, thanks to some of the ladies in the group, notably Doris Lindsay.
Last year the tree was decorated with photos of various New York State historical signs in the county and some of the products produced in the past.   I donated an Auburn Spark Plug and some Columbian Rope advertising souvenirs to the cause.  This year we have framed photos of 40 famous, or near famous county residents of the past.  We decided to only include deceased individuals.  There are sheets by the tree with the reason for their fame.   Take one of the sheets and in the dreary months ahead look up some of our cast of characters.   You may be surprised!

     Although we are not yet completely open at Old Brutus, we are there every Wednesday from 5:00 to 7:00.  Stop in and we'll be glad to show you around, including some of the building and exhibit improvements done while we've been in neutral  A couple of weeks ago during the monsoons we had a scary time with water coming into the basement (former Historian Jeanne Baker insisted that it was not " the basement, but the lower level exhibit area" ).   We finally got ahead of it with 3 wet vacs.  No damage was done to any exhibits, but it was very scary.   Subsequent investigation revealed that the roof leaders (downspouts) apparently don't lead anywhere, but just dump the water along the foundation wall.  Temporary repairs were made to lead the water away from the building and into the parking lot, but this is a problem that needs to be addressed.   We hope to be completely back in business the first of the year , unless we have another surge of covid in the county.   We are sponsoring a bus trip to Gettysburg in September.   John Lamphere will be conducting the tour and if you've ever been on one of John's tours, you will know that his knowledge of the battlefield is exceeded only by his entertaining dialog.

     I have heard several people say what a shame it is that Weedsport is not included in the proposed Erie Canal rewatering project.  A brief check of history will show you why this is not feasible.  Shortly after WWll  New York State decided to make Route 31 a major east-west road across the state, running from Niagara Falls to Vernon.  Prior to this remake it had consisted of a series of small segments loosely held together as a state route. As it ran through Weedsport it included W. Brutus St., parts of Seneca St., all of North St. and on to join what was to become Clinton Rd.   It was decided to fill in the canal where it ran through the village as it had long been relegated to not only a dump where old refrigerators and car bodies could be seen, along with lesser run of the mill trash, but a nasty open sewer .  Local homes and business sanitary drains simply ran right into the canal with the expected dreadful odor during warm weather.  At any rate , the canal was filled in, the village built a sewage treatment plant and Erie Drive( Rt.31) resulted.
Other villages made out a lot better, including Jordan, where they ran the road around the village allowing them to enjoy their beautiful sunken gardens built in the canal bed.

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

     In this column I'll go back a long ways to the beginnings of Weedsport as a "Port" on the Erie Canal.  The first spadeful of dirt for the canal was dug on the Fourth of July, 1817 in Rome, New York.  Construction proceeded rapidly, and in July of 1820 boats began running from Montezuma to Utica.  This middle section was opened before either end and the whole canal was opened to traffic on October 26, 1825.

     The canal was first built 363 miles long,  40 feet wide and but 4 feet deep , all dug largely with pick and shovel.  There were 84 locks, each 90 feet long.   The original canal was enlarged and improved starting in 1835 and was completed in 1862.   As improved, the length was reduced to about 350 miles, largely by straightening out jigs and jogs, one of which was as it passed through downtown what was then called Weeds-Port.  The width was increased to 70 feet and the depth to 7 feet.  The number of locks was also reduced to 74.   Early on, the largest boat on the system was able to carry 90 tons of freight and after improvement boats routinely carried up to 300 tons.

     Before the construction of the canal, the cost of transporting a ton of freight from Buffalo to Albany was around $100.00.   By 1835 via Erie Canal it was about $5.00, and after the tolls were abolished in 1882, the cost was reduced to less than a dollar for carrying a ton of freight the length of the canal.  The tolls were abolished by virtue of the fact that the construction costs had long been paid.   As a note aside, a similar arrangement was originally proposed for the Thruway, but-----.

     By the early 1900's it became obvious that the old canal had been overtaken by the times and improvements were necessary to stay with those times and accommodate larger and more powerful vessels.  To that end in October of 1917, the Superintendent of Public Works in Albany ordered all boats off Section 7 (our area)  of the canal so that contractors could take down the beautiful aqueduct over the Seneca River at Montezuma in order to complete what was to be known as the New York State Barge Canal.  This canal was 12 feet minimum depth, 200 feet wide in rivers, 94 feet wide in rock cuts and 75 feet wide in land cuts.

     Water was left in the old canal during the 1918 season as far west as Lock 52 in Port Byron, and in the fall of 1918 a tug which been under construction in the H.F. Tanner Dry Docks in Port Byron steamed east and thus became the last boat to pass through Weedsport.  The canal eventually became less and less important commercially by the advent of the national railroad industry who themselves would meet the same fate in the mid twentieth century by the motor truck industry and the interstate highway system.

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

     Those who know me well know that I enjoy cooking.  I have 100's of cookbooks, mostly old ones.  I particularly like making pickles and every year about this time I get the pickle urge and end up "putting up" jars and jars of pickles, most of which I give away.  I decided to make Bread and Butter pickles this year, along with green tomato pickles and pickled onions in balsamic vinegar.  For years I have used a recipe for B & B pickles that I acquired from an Amish lady at a book signing many years ago in Pennsylvania.  I was looking for her book and I came across one which I had forgotten I had.  It's titled  WEEDSPORT COOK BOOK , and although undated, I can tell by the names that it was done in the early 1920's.  Here then are a few of the recipes from that book which was published by the ladies of the Weedsport Methodist Church.

The book starts out with this admonition: BAD DINNERS GO HAND IN HAND WITH TOTAL DEPRAVITY, WHILE A PROPERLY FED MAN IS ALREADY HALF SAVED.
     Swiss steak---2 pounds round steak, cut thick.  Pound steak full of flour and sear over hot suet. Add 1 large tomato and 1 small onion chopped fine, cover with water and cook slowly for 2 hours.  Mrs. A. B.Hoyt.    Abner Hoyt was a local funeral director.
      Italian spaghetti sauce---2 pounds cross-rib of beef, 1 can consomme, 1 large can tomatoes, 6 onions, 1/2 cup olive oil,  1/8 pound butter, 1 can mushrooms, 1 pint water.   Melt butter, add olive oil, and brown beef in it.  Add all other ingredients and cook slowly for several hours until meat is done and sauce is thick.  Remove meat and serve over spaghetti.   Mrs. George Valentine.    Mr. Valentine was the Publisher of the Weedsport Cayuga Chief newspaper.
     Creamed potatoes---1 cup milk, 1 tsp flour, 1 tbs butter.  Put butter in a fry pan,, when hot add the flour and stir until smooth, then add the milk. Let it boil up once and add cut up cold boiled potatoes and heat to serve.   Mrs. E.G. Treat         Mr. Treat was President of the Weedsport First National Bank.

     I finally found what I was looking for and here is Edna Eby Heller's recipe which I have used for years for bread and butter pickles.
     1 gallon cucumbers sliced paper thin. 8 small white onions, 2 bell peppers, red, or green, 1/2 cup pickling salt.
Scrub cucumbers and slice very thin.  You can do this with a knife, or a food processor, but a mandolin  is the easiest and best way to do it.  A WORD OF CAUTION!  Keep your mind on your knitting when using one of these gadgets because it's awful easy to lose your finger prints!    Slice onions and peppers as well,  mix salt with the 3 vegetables, add a quart of cracked ice, mix well, cover and let stand 3 hours stirring occasionally.  Meanwhile, make syrup of the following--5 cups sugar, 1/2 tsp each turmeric and ground cloves,  1 tsp celery seeds, 2 tbs mustard seeds, 3 cups white vinegar and 2 cups of water. Heat to almost boiling.
     Drain pickles thoroughly-do not rinse, add to syrup and bring back to boil.  Pack pickles in sterile jars, pour syrup over the top and seal.  Makes about 10 pints.  I cheat a little and add  1/4 tsp of  calcium chloride, sold by Ball as "Pickle Crisp" to each jar  and they will stay crisp  and crunchy forever.  Enjoy!

     On another subject--The long awaited Vietnam Veterans memorial has been installed at the Aqua duct park.  It was set by Barnett Memorials on September 30th.  Kudos to Bill Barnett and his crew for finally getting this accomplished.    The work done previously by 4 Seasons and the Committee have been realized in the final memorial.  It is stunning!!!    Check it out!

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

 It never occurred to me that I would be writing a historical column on typewriters, but----

I learned to type as a senior at Weedsport Central.  I already had enough credits to graduate, but I had to fill in my schedule with something.   Of the electives offered, I chose typing.  I learned to type on an old cast iron open frame Underwood, whereas the better (read that as serious) students, mostly girls had much nicer Royals, or Smith-Corona machines with nice looking sheet metal enclosures.   I didn't care, I had kind of a hard touch anyway and that old Underwood and I seemed made for each other.

During the winter, I was messing around with my dad's table saw and I learned a valuable lesson about using using power equipment while wearing gloves, as I managed to traumatically amputate the small finger of my right hand.  This did nothing to improve my typing skills and I think that business teacher Joe Abraham felt sorry for me and I may have gotten better marks with 9 fingers than I would have with 10.

We have no less than 15 typewriters in  our collection at the museum, surpassed only by our collection of flatirons.  We have several brands, including those mentioned above, but Remington,  Oliver and a couple of Barr's as well.  Barr typewriters were of course built across the street from the museum in the building now known as Purple Monkey.  During WWll they converted to the war effort and never resumed typewriter production after the war, although they did produce a myriad of consumer products for several years.  I was able to purchase a new ribbon for one of the Barr's and it is fully functional.  One of the Barr's is labeled MACY'S as it was apparently built as a private label for the giant New York department store.

As it happened,I was fortunate that I chose typing as an elective course because nearly all of my 30 plus year career in manufacturing I would have to fill out reams of local, state and federal forms for various things, oftentimes in triplicate.  I needn't tell anyone who ever made a mistake on one of theses forms what a task it was to correct.   At any rate, I had in my office for many years an old Smith-Corona manual typewriter with a wide carriage, perfectly suited for filling out forms.   I got so I could index those lousy forms pretty easily just by releasing the carriage back and forth and unlocking the platen (roller) and rolling it to the correct line.  It was much faster and easier than setting tabs, etc.   There came a day now, also many years ago that my boss came in and saw me filling out a form on the old manual Smith-Corona.  This is B.S. was his assessment of the situation and over my protests, I soon had a brand new IBM  Selectric sitting on my desk which was capable of doing anything except what  I  wanted it to in a timely fashion., besides, I previously mentioned my hard touch and I was continuously having to correct errors, not fun on a 3 part form.   But I outsmarted him and hid the old S-C in a paper closet out of sight and continued to use it.

Eventually, even the Selectric became obsolete and I was forced to go kicking and screaming doing the forms online with a #@%$ computer on my desk.  I soon came to love this however,  because of one key "backstroke" and the ease with which corrections could be made.   These columns are an ongoing test of my typing skills, and I'm not sure what Lake Life Editor Dave Wilcox thinks of them when he gets my monthly copy.  A few years ago I was giving a group of Elementary School students a tour of the museum and when we came to the typewriter exhibit, one of them was heard to remark "wow, look at all these old computers"   All in good time kid, all in good time.

Past President of OBHS Old Brutus Historical Society

 Continued from last month---Does anyone recall the large cypress water tank that used to be on the roof of the now Purple Monkey building?   The tank was a left over from when the building was a textile mill, which had previously burned with a large insurance pay out to the owner.   When the plant was rebuilt, the insurers insisted that it be equipped with a sprinkler system, almost unheard of at that time, especially in a small community like Weedsport, whose water system was no where near robust enough to operate a sprinkler system, thus the water tank, on the roof, feeding water through gravity to any open sprinkler head.    This concept is still used today in areas of marginal water flow in case of fire, although today the tank is generally on the ground and aided by a large diesel, or electric pump.

Does anyone remember George Wethey's propane dock on  Erie Drive?   How about the Socony Vacuum tank farm behind the Riverview Hotel?    Dan Fisher used to deliver Mobil products from there to service stations in the area using an old Autocar tank truck, which when they were done with it was donated to the Weedsport Fire Department and served as their first tank truck until 1962.   Who can think back about being sent to the office in school for some infraction, or other and being made to crank the Ditto machine, producing tests and the like.   The Ditto machine ( spirit duplicator)  used stencils which had to be typed, inserted into the machine and then cranked , producing purple copies, and usually purple hands and clothes.  For that matter who recalls that the better typewriters of the day had 3 positions  for ribbon selection--black, red and blank--the blank produced no print but was for the purpose of cutting the above mentioned stencils for Ditto machines,  Addressographs, etc.

Does anyone remember when you wanted to call the Village police  department, you dialed their number which caused a red light over the call box on the four corners to flash and an officer driving by, or walking a beat could take the call.  Yes,  the village officers did walk a beat , religiously checking all businesses for unlocked doors or suspicious activity.  Speaking of police do you remember that when Bill Humphrey was Police Chief he drove a very fast Hudson Wasp.  He was also our school bus driver and occasionally when we missed the bus, he would come back and pick us up with the Hudson.   We lived for those days!

Who recalls the village owning a pair of Whitman & Robinson's Bobcat tractors, the original Bobcat?    The village used them for many things, one was fitted with a V plow for plowing sidewalks, the other had a large snow blower mounted on it for snow removal in the downtown area in the winter.  During the better weather they were used for general construction and one towed a large orchard sprayer around the village for mosquito control, even going into wooded areas and backyards.  Does anyone except me (a Mopar man) recall that all Chrysler products left side wheels had left hand threads on the lug nuts.  Not only that, if you were changing a tire on any Chrysler product you had to be very careful not to get a finger between the tire bead and the rim as they had what they called a safety bead which as you aired up the tire would snap into place with great force.

Who remembers that the area around where I live on Hamilton Street was called "Teachers Row"  because of all the school teachers living here.   How about the upper part of Bonta Bridge Road being called  Berry Hump Road after John DeWispelier's  Berry farm?   More another time.

      Hi -  Let me take this opportunity to use this bully pulpit to express my sincere thanks to those who have sent cards, thoughts, prayers , visits and general well wishes during my recent health issues.  It's hard work getting old!!   It even caused me to miss my newspaper deadline last month for the first time in nearly 20 years of writing this column.  At any rate I have decided to do another " Do You Recall"  this month.

     Speaking of writing, when was the last time you saw a sky writer, or for that matter one of the giant searchlights rotating in the night sky to announce the grand opening of an auto dealership, grocery store, or some such.  I can remember following one of the searchlights all the way to Camillus one time.     How about the road that is no more--Maple Park and then called Station Road which ran from the intersection of Becker Road and Rt. 34, along the toe of the slope of the railroad overpass approach to the New York Central passenger station.  There was one house on the road, very near the tracks where the Maitland family lived.  The house was torn down and the road done away with during the last iteration of the overpass refurbishment.   Remember also there was a set of poured concrete steps all the way to the top of the overpass which the Maitland kids climbed to get on the school bus.  The steps were not put there for that purpose however, they were for folks traveling from the north to get down to the railroad station.  The steps went away at the same time as the road.   The station had been long gone by that time.

     Who remembers the longgggg slow freight trains on the West Shore Railroad as it crossed Goff Street, Seneca Street, Horton Street, South Willow Street and East Brutus Street at grade?   Can you imagine the snafu they would cause with todays traffic?    And on the subject of transportation,  does anyone recall the last barge they saw on the Seneca River (Barge Canal) ?   The year I was a senior in high school I worked as a deck hand on the tug "Coyne Sisters" shoving a barge full of creosote from Buffalo to Kearny N.J.  It was quite an experience.  By the way, the Coyne Sisters had an Alco engine, made in Auburn.   In the days before the common use and availability of "sneakers"  one wore regular shoes, or went barefoot typically in the summer.  I can remember my mother telling us to " get those shoes off, do you think they grow on trees?"   When they had outlived their useful lives, down they went to Agosti Pantusi's shoe repair shop on Seneca Street where new "Cat's Paw" heels were hammered on and perhaps a pair  of "Neolite" half soles would be stitched on with his fascinating big sewing machine. At the museum we acquired all of the left overs, tools, etc.  from his shop when he closed up. Mr.  Pantusi must have been the eternal optimist, because he apparently thought high button shoes were going to come back into style, because there were bottles and bottles of buttons for them which are now in our collection.

     Unfortunately, the Weedsport Firemen's field days were canceled again this year, but who remembers the late town Judge Rev. Hook and your writer running a wine wheel where a thin dime placed on the right number would get you a bottle of cheap wine?  We made a lot of money for the purchase of ambulances and other equipment over the years 10 cents at a time.  It's almost lunch time so I'll close with a couple of food queries.   Who remembers the first slice of pizza they ate, and does any one recall buying apples from the underground  storage facility  at R. P. Davis's Hidden Springs Farm?    How about buying Ann Page products at the local A & P?   One more --who had the odious task of mixing the orange coloring in the margarine before coloring it at the factory became legal in NY which was second only to Wisconsin in dairy production.     More another time.

      As we enter our second year of  curtailed  parades and activities due to this dratted  Covid crisis,  It seems appropriate to direct our thoughts to our Veterans, both past and present that have done and continue to do so much to keep this the country that we know and love.  Veterans locally have been represented by Post 568 of the American Legion, having been chartered  on October 17,  1919 at the conclusion of the great war  WW1.    It was chartered as the Clarence Clark Post , named for Marine Pvt. Clarence Clark killed in action in 1918.   The Post was renamed Clark-Heck Post 568 after WW2 in honor of  John Heck who was lost in battle in Europe .   There were 16 Charter members and the group has always led the community in honoring the memories of their fellowship.  The annual Memorial Day parade has been sponsored by them since before World War 11 and they are involved in nearly every aspect of what you expect in "small town" America.

      Before the American Legion was chartered however and operating simultaneously with it for a period of years was  another veterans group made up wholly of Civil War vets.  The local Post of the G.A. R.   The Grand Army of the Republic Post 166--The J. C. Whiteside post was named in honor of  John C. Whiteside, who was killed in action in the war between the states.  It boggles the mind to realize how many of our local boys went off to serve the Army of the Potomac during the horror story that was that war!  No less that 197 men went to fight on southern soil from the small community of Weedsport , N.Y. , many of whom never again were to return.   Those that did return organized the Whiteside Post.  14 members comprised the charter group which eventually grew to over 90 men. At that point the grim work of time began it's slow but steady thinning out of the ranks until they ceased to meet in 1928.  Francis M.  Hunting who went to his reward in 1934 was our last Civil War Veteran to pass away.  The GAR held magnificent conventions throughout the North for many years and we have recently put on display at the museum several frames of beautiful convention delegates ribbons and medals from all over the state convening in Weedsport.

       The site work at Aqueduct Park for the new Viet memorial  has pretty much been completed by the Town and hopefully the new memorial will be erected shortly.   Remember, our museum is now  open on Wednesdays from 5:00 PM until 7:00 PM.   The accompanying photo shows the Whiteside post  in the early 1920's    Francis Hunting is the dapper man 3rd  from the left in the 2nd row from the top.  The bugler in the front row was Joseph Hebert.

       Get vaccinated so that we don't have to go through another year without parades and celebrations.    More another time

 Here we go with more Weedsport stuff---Do you recall seeing the giant Mack trucks operated by the world famous F. H. Tuxill & Son  house moving firm around town?  These monster rigs were actually repurposed tank retrievers purchased  as war surplus and retrofitted for the herculean task of moving buildings.  They used to be parked in a vacant lot where the Kinney Drug store is now and when we were kids we would play in them by the hour.  If you would like a trip down memory lane and see these brutes at work, google Tahawus  Village Move 1963.  Tahawus was a hamlet in the Adirondacks which was owned by the National Lead Company.  Residents were employees of the local lead mine and lived in the homes basically rent free, so they didn't have any choice when the company decided to move the town to expand the mine.  The Tuxill firm from Weedsport was hired for the job, and over the course of the next 2 years they moved 67 homes, 2 apartment buildings, 2 churches and a general store 12 miles down the road to Newcomb, NY.   This fascinating film was shot by a local resident on 8 mm film and has since been redone digitally.  The original is in the local history museum at Newcomb.  Notice the trucks are mostly painted bright red with yellow lettering, but a couple had morphed into the more sedate dark maroon that Carl Tuxill apparently favored.

Who remembers the village clock in the Methodist Church steeple?  It was actually purchased by the village--not only is the clock gone, but the steeple and for that matter,  the whole church that held it is long gone from the landscape.  Who remembers the Cayuga Chief newspaper being printed in the very building where our museum is now located?  Does anyone recall going down to the New York Central Railroad station a couple of times a day to see the mail bags snatched from the trackside gantry by a hook extended from the mail car?  Did you ever enjoy the concerts held by the Weedsport Central School Adult Education Orchestra ?  I recall that butcher Ken Heffernan played 1st violin and Fran Sine played tuba, which was kind of unusual in those days for a woman.  Up the street from me and on the other side Fred Fellows had beautiful fields of Gladioli--all houses now.   There are a few of us still around that recall when the Weedsport Fire Department operated ambulances built on "professional car" chassis---Buicks and Cadillacs.  I recall how disappointing it was to drive  one of the new fangled "truck bodied"  rigs when they first came out.

How about the toboggan run down  Science Hill, or the ice skating rink between the school on Jackson St. and the hill?  For that matter who recalls the roller skating parties in the gyms with special skates provided by the skating company that didn't mar the floor?  Does any one recall that the Barr Building (now Purple Monkey)  had a large shipping dock that took up most of the sidewalk in front of the building and when a truck  was at that dock traffic on N. Seneca St came to a virtual standstill.  After the Thruway opened this was no longer acceptable because of the increased traffic and the dock was removed.  Does anyone recall the cast iron cat that live on Fred and Leone Rowe's roof for decades? Speaking of animals, who remembers that Fred and Shag Hinman had a pet fox?

I could go on and on,  but I'm a car nut kind of guy and who remembers having to retard the spark manually as I have to on my Model A to start the engine. To fail to do so will likely result in your starter Bendix lying under the car in pieces as the engine kicked  back against the starter.  I recall knowing everyone by the kind of car they drove---now they all look the same!   More another time.

     Firstly, over the nearly 20 years of writing this column, I have seldom, if ever fielded more calls and e-mails than I did with last months story on Dr. Parkman / Al Hibbler.   One of the callers was a member of Mrs. Parkman's family who noted that when the 2 doctors developed the Rubella vaccine they patented it for "general use".  That is,  anyone was free and clear to manufacture and use it without  profit to the patent holders.  In other words, they did not make a penny from this earth shaking patent.   If you knew Dr. Parkman you would have expected no less.   The other part of the column had to do with the late Al Hibbler, who had the first popular recording of "Unchained Melody" in the mid 1950's.  Several people checked it out on line and were impressed.   Many people have done it, but none better than the blind man they called "HIB", Al Hibbler.

Periodically I write about famous, or near famous people from the past in our small community.  This month I'll speak of the Stevens brothers,  specifically Harvey, George and Fred as they were the ones involved in the manufacture and sale of some of the finest waterfowl decoys ever built anywhere and despite the fact that they were carved by hand for the most part more than a hundred years ago are highly prized by collectors today, with a recent offering of a mallard drake on e-bay with an opening bid of $9000.00!

Make no mistake, this was a large and successful industry, and in fact of all the products built in and around Weedsport over the years including the first Bobcat tractor, pocketbook frames , clocks, textiles,  silos,  chipper teeth,  aquatic weed cutters, typewriters and many,  many other products,  none have ever attained the lasting appreciation that the Stevens brothers decoys have.  Originally carved by Harvey in a small shed which was referred to in their sales literature as "the factory",  sales eventually obliged him to press his brother George into the business and ultimately his brother Fred and at busy times, other relatives and residents who had some artistic talent.  The "factory" was located at the extreme southern edge of the village on Seneca St., near where Darlene Dolph maintains a seasonally decorated giant round hay bale.  In fact Darlene's father-in-law, Elvin Dolph is a recognized authority on the Stevens brothers and their decoys.

Harvey first started carving and selling his decoys in about 1870 when he was 20 years old.  He soon started advertising in the prestigious publication "Forest and Stream", noting that his decoys were "the finest in the world".  This was not an idle boast,  time and the trade have proven it to be true.  Alas, Harvey was to pass to his reward in 1894 at the age of 47 and he would be followed in 1905 by his brother George at age 49, both of consumption, or tuberculosis , perhaps as a result of working in that cold drafty old shed, burning wood scraps for heat.  Brother Fred had no desire to continue the business after  the death of his brothers.   Distant cousin, the late Eula Lamphere told of when she was a young girl  she and the neighborhood kids would play in the old decrepit "factory" and throw finished decoy heads at each other and play baseball with them!  A lot of today's collectors would have liked to been in on those games!

At the museum we have a few (less than 5) of what is probably the most complete story of the Stevens decoys for sale.  The book is " The Stevens Brothers--Their Lives, The Times, and Their Decoys". The author is Dr. Peter Muller.  The attached photo shows some representative examples of Stevens decoys.
More another time. 

   I was pleased to read Robert Harding's interview story with Weedsport's favorite son, Dr. Paul Parkman in the January 24th Citizen.  Let me reprise part of a column I wrote on Dr. Parkman in 2006.

I wrote that in June of 1940 WCS Valedictorian Phyllis Parkman  was bed ridden with German measles at the end of June and despite having a 96.4 GPA she could not take her Regent's  exams until the following January, thus no Regent's diploma until then.  Measles was a serious illness, not in the fact that it caused young ladies to miss graduation, but  the dreadful effects  to  the unborn whose mothers  had been exposed to  someone with the disease  was the true horror of Rubella, or German Measles.  There was a very high risk of newborn death ,mental retardation, blindness, or deafness in children with mothers so exposed.

In 1950, 10 years after his sister had missed graduation, her brother Paul graduated from WCS as Salutatorian, and while he didn't have the measles, his name is synonymous  with any discussion of the disease around the world.  After graduation he did undergrad work at St Lawrence University and completed his 4 year degree in 3.  He then entered medical school at SUNY Upstate in Syracuse.  A scant 4 years after his graduation from medical school, and just 11 years after he walked the halls of Weedsport High, he changed the World!  He isolated the Rubella virus and then joined with Dr. Harry Meyers to develop the vaccine that has led to the virtual elimination of this scourge world-wide.

In 2000 Dr. Parkman was honored by his Alma Mater by being named the very first WCS "GRADUATE OF DISTINCTION", which leads me to as the late Paul Harvey used to say "The Rest Of The Story".  One of my favorite songs Is "Unchained Melody".  It was not written by, or for the Rightious Brothers as some people believe.  Nor was it written for the "Ghost" movies which used it as a theme.  It was however written as a movie theme by Alex North, with lyrics by Hy Zoret for the movie "UNCHAINED" in 1954.  This was a forgettable film, in which starred of all people famous football player Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch.  The movie score was sung by operatic baritone Todd Duncan.  As a matter of fact, more than 1500 artists groups, or bands have recorded it worldwide, however the one that sticks in my mind was a black blues singer  named Al Hibbler.

Mr. Hibbler had sung with Duke Ellington for years and in 1951 had left and signed a recording deal with Decca Records .  He sang this plaintive love ballad in 1954 as it was meant to be sung and I wore out my first 45 RPM record of it!   He went on to have a great singing career until he joined the civil rights movement.  He marched with and was arrested with Dr. King and others several times.   The big record companies had little taste for such activity and his career tanked..  His last public performance was singing at the funeral of Louis Armstrong in 1971 at the request of "Satchmo"  What you would ask has any of this to do with Dr. Parkman?   Al Hibbler was born totally blind as a result of his mother having measles while pregnant.   Do me a favor and google "UNCHAINED MELODY AL HIBBLER and listen to this beautiful song sung 54 years before the R Brothers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC7obNtXLYU

I was looking through a 1950 WCS yearbook "SPARKS"  and the frontispiece has a picture of Paul Parkman and his high school sweetheart Elmerina Leonardi, who has now been Mrs. Paul Parkman forever.   Guess what the caption under the picture says?   GIRL AND BOY MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED.   Likely to succeed indeed!

As a note aside Elmerina Leonardi Parkman is the older sister of fellow Citizen columnist Bob Leonardi   More another time

     Before this goes to print, I'll have attained my 82nd birthday.  Truthfully I have kind of disdained all birthdays since the 50th one.  I suppose however they're not bad when one considers the alternative as Twain said.   Everyone knows that I am a collector,  NOT A HOARDER, but a reasonably neat collector of just about anything.   I have no less than 7 filing cabinets full of "stuff".  People ask me how I can remember this, or that and truthfully I can go into my never ending files and look it up (if I can 
find it, but that's another story!).

A short time ago I decided to see if I could cull some of these files, so I opened one, and picked out a hanging folder easily 3 inches thick labeled "memorabilia".  It took me hours to go through it and I found everything  from my first drivers license to a playbill for every show I've ever gone to--Broadway, Toronto, Merry Go Round, I've got them all.  Let me list some of the other important things I've kept for all these years:

     A1958 program from the Weedsport Speedway,  A listing and description of coins of the Bible, A paid up note for a 1955 Dodge , a 1957 DeSoto, a 1965 Dodge convertible and just about any other car that I've owned.   Menus from various restaurants from the Siam Inn Too and  St Anthony's in New York City to Zum Deuchen Eck and Little Bohemia in Chicago.  Temporary registration for a 1951 Chrysler Imperial, I've got it.  1972 dog license for a Collie named Lady--yup , it's there.  how about a program from the Green Valley Inn in London Ontario, featuring for your dancing and listening pleasure, the music of Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians.

But wait--there's more, lots more!   Perhaps an "exhibitor" tag from the Weedsport Community Fair, or a boarding pass for a one way trip from Newark to Syracuse.  Perhaps a 1964 "blue light" authorization card for my car,  or a 1957 polio vaccination record  (I wish I could add a Covid one to the collection!)   Maybe a book of Wheelock Ride tickets from 1955 ,  or a notice from the Post Office from 1954 that my class ring had arrived  COD please pick it up $20.42 due. would interest you.   School dance programs up to 1963,   A paid bill from Mendel Parker Buick-Pontiac for 106.21 to repair the transmission of the above mentioned DeSoto.  An invite to a stag party for Doug Short, a short wave call card K2LFC from Curt LaForce

A parking pass at the Niagara Frontier is there, as well as an A certificate issued to me as a "painter A"  by Bert Ogden, Chairman First Baptist Church Maintenance Committee,  A program from the Sacred Heard Sports Dinner from 1988 signed by Ray Nitschke. Son Michael was the designated driver to pick him up and return him to the airport and on the way he stopped at the house, knowing I've always been a Green Bay fan.  I was pretty surprised to find Ray taking up quite a lot of the kitchen.  I found my certificate that I had taken driving in school which allowed me to drive after dark at 17--a big deal!.  A MPG calculator  from Hugh Carey, Gov.  Several photos printed on silk????,  Various snowmobile registrations, an entry ticket to Ted Trice's Old Stuff Corners Museum in Sennett,,   a repair bill for Mike's trombone, a ticket to the 1965 Worlds Fair, and a coupon worth a quarter at the Weedsport Fair

Perhaps the specs for all 1957 cars would interest you,, or how about a 1959 Syracuse football schedule.  I've got a 1959 Jordan Swimming Pool membership card and a ticket stub for the first game in the Carrier Dome, a bill of sale for a 1962 Daimler sp250,  A Chicago Fire Department House assignment list from 1978.  A copy of my lease of a house in Port Byron-yes, I lived in Port Byron for a year when i was first married at 224 N. Main.,  I have an appointment card with Dr. Charles  Ryan for follow up in 1956 when i learned a hard lesson about saws.    i have all the early programs of ESTMIM from when we moved the mighty Wurlitzer to the fairgrounds from the RKO  Keith's Theater downtown.

The more I look at this stuff, the less inclined i am to part with anything.  In the words of Fagin in "Oliver",   "I am reviewing the situation--I guess I'll have think it out again"

     Weedsport was incorporated as a village on April 26,  1831.   By an act of the New York State Legislature passed February 28, 1789 the state Surveyor General was directed to lay out 25 townships of land in this part of the state.  Eventually 28 such townships were surveyed.  Each township was to be 10 miles square and to be divided into one hundred lots, each one mile square.  All the lots in each township were to be numbered from 1-100.  Each lot contained about 640 acres of land.  One of these 28 townships laid out in the years between 1789 and 1791 was named Brutus and the Village of Weedsport when incorporated  comprised the whole of lot number 65 in that town.

    Most of the lots of 640 acres of land were given as a bounty, or grant to soldiers of the Revolutionary War, some of whom sold them for a few dollars, or traded them for a suit of clothes, or something else of value or desired.   So it came about that the land now covered by the Village of Weedsport was drawn by lot  by James Fairlie in 1791 as a reward for his service as a Lieutenant in the war.  By 1801 the entire lot was in the possession of Jedidiah Sanger.   The first settlements were made in 1802 and in the years immediately following by Jonah and Nathan Rude, Abigail Powers, Thomas Gould, Elezer Mosely and William Stevens.  These persons owned nearly all the 640 acres of lot 65, thus the boundaries of our village are one mile each way.

     About the time the village was incorporating, the business of transporting freight between the Erie Canal in Weedsport to the manufacturing hub of Auburn had grown so large that a company was formed in Auburn and a charter was obtained from the state to build a canal along the Owasco River (Outlet) from Owasco Lake to Port Byron.  After spending over $70,000 including building a huge dam to raise the lake level, the project was abandoned.  This was basically due to the construction of a railroad from Rochester to Syracuse though Auburn  (the Auburn Road) , much of which is still used today as part of the Finger Lakes Railroad.  This also had a terrible effect on passenger service on the Erie canal, although there was still much freight service, as water transport is by far the most cost effective way of getting freight from point A to point B.   As a matter of fact  about this time William Fargo of Weedsport and Henry Wells of Port Byron started the freight company which became the world famous Wells Fargo Express company and also now one of the largest banking concerns in the world.  Apparently they did well (no pun intended) as it allowed Mr. Wells enough loose cash to establish Wells College, who to this day uses Wells Fargo Express coaches for their graduation ceremonies.

I'll continue on this month with more information from the  "History of Cayuga County"  1789-1879.  

"The first settlements on the site of Weedsport were made in 1802 by Jonah and Nathan Rude near the south line of the corporation, in the area known as Macedonia , known today as Rude Street after the original settlers there.  Abel Powers came along shortly thereafter.  In 1817 when the construction of the Erie Canal was begun, most of the settlements which by then had gathered in Macedonia morphed north to the line of that great aquatic highway.  When this section was completed in 1821,, Elihu and Edward Weed, sons of wealthy merchant Smith Weed of Albany settled on the site of the village, constructed a basin along side the canal in the area of what is now Nickle Jack's parking lot and extending up what is now Furnace Street.  They also erected a warehouse on the site."

"From them the settlement acquired the name "Weed's Basin" , and in 1822 a post Office was established by the name of "Weed's  Port" and Elihu Weed was named Postmaster.  With the advent of the Weed's and the development of their business projects an impetus was given to the growth of the place which continued unchecked until the opening of the Auburn and Syracuse Railroad in 1836 and the Auburn and Rochester Railroad in 1840.   Weedsport was the canal landing for Auburn, and a large business was done in short term storage, transfer and carriage of goods between the two places..  The principle public buildings were storehouses erected to accommodate this business and the chief vocation of the inhabitants  was that of  attending to the receipt,  shipment,  and carrying of  merchandise to Auburn and contiguous places."

"The Village was incorporated  April 26th 1831, but owing to the destruction of the records by the disastrous fire of 1871 (which coincidentally was also the year of not only the great Chicago fire, but also the Peshtigo, Wisconsin fire which still has the dubious distinction of causing the most deaths yet recorded in a fire), not much is known about the early  days of the village.  The opening of the railroads  was a serious blow to Weedsport and took  from it a  prestige which has required years of sustained energy and patent industry to recover"  

The photos show the "Weedsport Cornet Band" playing for  some celebration in the middle of the street at Seneca and Brutus Street. (The 4 corners)  The  gentleman sitting in the middle facing the camera with a cornet  was band leader Dr. Horace Stone,  Dentist..  The other photo shows what recently would have been the  " Old Erie"  restaurant from across the street. The building next door to the north (left) is the Kanaley Grocery and next to that was the 3 story Congress Hotel , while beyond that is the large building operated by the Security Company.  The Security Company was a knitting mill, which explains the large water tank on the roof to feed the sprinkler system which was required by insurers even at that early date to prevent fire in that type of business.  The building looks much the same today as the " Purple Monkey"    More another time . 

Weedsport in 1879, as noted in  this huge book, published in Syracuse 
by D. Mason and Company in 1879.

Since our museum is pretty much shut down for the duration of the virus, we have been taking the time to do some house cleaning.   Our library has been overstuffed for years with many volumes, some pertinent  to local history and many not.  There were also many duplicates and we have been sorting these books for a couple of months and deaccesssioning material where appropriate.  Several huge volumes of agricultural studies have been donated to the Ward O'Hara Museum, as well as several duplicates of other old tomes.  I was delivering several of these books to O'Hara and I decided to keep one for awhile and read it.  We had 3 copies of  "The History of Cayuga County 1789-1889"  This is a huge book and not an easy read since to begin with, it weighs 11 pounds.  In this column I will quote unashamedly from that book as respect to Weedsport in the late 1880's.

"Weedsport is  eligibly located , and has some nicely graded, well kept and handsomely shaded streets.  It's  private and public buildings are generally plain, but neat and substantial, conspicuous  for the absence  of very fine, or very poor ones.  The population is about 1500. " Not much different from today. " There  are 5 churches in the village Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Episcopal and Roman Catholic.  Also   a union graded school, 3 good hotels, 4 general stores, 8 groceries, 2 hardware stores,  3 drug stores, 3 booksellers, 3 clothing stores,, 3 jewelry stores, 1 furniture store, 1 undertaker, 1 boot and shoe store, 2 milliners, 2 newspaper and printing offices, , 2 banks, a flour and grist mill and  2 sawmills.".

Also in the village was "  a bent wood works, a pump manufacturer, a foundry, a machine shop, 4 carriage shops, a cigar manufacturer, 3 malt houses, a brewery, 3 warehouses and a marble and granite works."   As you can see it was a pretty busy place with east-west rail service provided by the New York Central R.R and north- south by the Southern Central (later Lehigh Valley)  These two rail systems were later joined by the West Shore R.R and the Syracuse and Rochester Electric R.R.  At the height of  rail travel there were no less than 34 departures a day from Weedsport.  Of course, the Erie Canal was also still in operation although pretty much relegated to freight only by that time.

The business  district of Weedsport had been devastated by a huge fire in 1871 and in the aftermath a very progressive man , Henry Brewster was elected Chief of the Fire Department.  His first issue was the modernization of the Fire department and accordingly he went on the stump to erect a new firehouse to replace the several frame sheds that had been used up to that point.  He also ordered from the Silsby Manufacturing Company in Seneca Falls a newfangled 2nd class steam powered pumper capable of throwing water at 600 gallons a minute,  tirelessly, which was a lot more than could be said for the "black Crook" hand pumper used until then.  By the time this book was published, Chief Brewster had been elected President (Mayor) of the village and he went on to become a founding father of the New York State Volunteer Firemen's Home in Hudson, N.Y.. 

As a note aside Chief Brewster was married to the favorite sister of L. Frank Baum, author of the Wizard of Oz, and the Baum family were frequent visitors to Weedsport., as a matter of fact, he is buried in the Baum plot in Oakwood Cemetery in Syracuse.   More from the book another time.  The accompanying photos show the Weedsport fire house as it was completed in 1884. Note the arched doors and hose drying tower. Amazingly, it is still in use today although remodeled in 1950 and 1974.  The other photo was the luxurious  Willard House Hotel.

As we near Halloween I am reminded of an annual ritual that used to take place at the end of October every year.   That was the placing of a purloined outhouse under the stoplight at the four corners of Weedsport.  This went on for many years until there were simply none left in the area that could be moved.   It has to be realized that it took considerable planning to accomplish this and there were several  pit falls to avoid, not the least of which was falling into the pit while moving the building itself.

Other considerations were scouting out an appropriate privy--it had to be framed--brick ones simply could not be moved.   You had to scout out what time the residents of the property involved went to bed, You had to round up enough help to accomplish the deed and you had to find a kid with access to a pick up truck (not so common then) , in fact it almost always involved  getting a farm kid in on the deal.

The normal operation was to wait until around midnight, and have some accomplices set off fireworks in another area of town, descend on the 4 corners and unload the privy under the stoplight and be gone before the local police had a chance to get back to watching the intersection.  I can remember a couple of years when the local cops couldn't be  drawn away with fireworks, or a leaf fire or two and it was necessary to go to alternate "plan B" .  That was to rope the aforementioned 1, 2, or 3 holer up on top of the school bus garage.  This was done in times of desperation only as it was a lot more work and took a lot longer, with the added risk of being caught--especially in the school bus court, with only one way out.

By the 1950's most local residents had indoor plumbing and the little houses were not much used anymore, and it's possible some people were glad to be rid of them , How's that for rationalization? With many humorists and pundits continually writing stories about them,  one such writer by the name of Charles (Chic) Sale  managed to make a living writing about outdoor toilets to the extent that his name-Chic Sale became synonymous with an out door privy.  I have in my collection a small book that he wrote about a carpenter specialist friend if his by the name of Lem Putt who was , as the story goes the "champion privy builder in Sagamon County."   I won't go into many of his thoughts on the proper construction and placing of an outhouse.  One of his recommendations was to never place one under a nut, or a fruit tree, as " there ain't no sound so disconcerting in nature as the sound of apples dropping on the roof"
Outhouses for some reason had always been an object of  interest and in our museum we have a well used  3 hole seat on display and the grade school kids can almost  always guess what it is , but they can never guess what the box of corn cobs on it were used for   When told they were the toilet paper of the day, their comment is always the same "  EWWWW"

Our museum is not yet open for regular hours , however  the Historian is there with some of the staff on Wednesday evenings from 5:00 and we'll be glad to show you around.

I imagine some people wondered why they would have ever named "Weedsport Rural Cemetery"  rural.
Why not "Gates of Heaven" or " Evergreen Hill", or some such great sounding name?  The answer is that Weedsport was part of a movement started in 1831 in an area between Watertown and Cambridge Mass. where it was decided to build a new cemetery,  "Mount Auburn Rural  Cemetery", which would be set  in a rolling terrain, breaking with traditional churchyard and colonial era burying grounds where it was important to get as many people in the ground in the limited amount of space available. It was their feeling that a cemetery should be beautiful and parklike--in fact the word cemetery is derived from the Greek to mean a sleeping place, rather than a graveyard .  The 174 acre Mt Auburn Rural Cemetery is important because it started a "Rural" cemetery movement across the country.

The "Rural" type cemetery was intended to convey a park like atmosphere to those interred there and visitors alike. Other cemeteries were soon to follow including Oakwood in Syracuse, Mt. Hope in Rochester and Albany Rural as well as Weedsport Rural in 1860.    In Weedsport, " God's Acre" on S. Seneca St. was nearly at capacity, with no room for expansion and it was obvious that the growing community must  find a new site.  A committee was formed of several town movers and shakers,  W. J. Donovan, M. C. Remington, C.C. Adams, O.W. Burritt,  C.C. Caywood and S. W. Treat.  At a subsequent meeting attended by many interested townspeople article of Incorporation were drawn under the name  the Weedsport Rural cemetery Association" as they had decided to follow the lead of Mt Auburn and others.  In due time a Board of Directors was appointed and on July 2, 1860 it was decided to purchase the original 8.75 acres for $ 787.50.  By 1880 it was necessary to purchase much more land as  the original areas  had been to a large extent used  up by "death's silent tenants" form neighboring  towns and villages eager to be interred in the beautiful parklike setting of Weedsport Rural which be now had been planted with the pines (which are now huge).

Indeed it was beautiful and daylong excursions were encouraged. The roadways all had street signs, the triangle in front of the private vaults was planted with spring bulbs and flowering perennials , as was the triangle in front of the receiving vault. A windmill at the top of section 22 provided water for the underground piping before  the village supplied water from their spring line.  Their was even a commodious (forgive the pun) 4 hole outhouse  which was only torn down within the last 10 years.  Many family plots were lined with ledger stones, or cast iron decorative posts and chains.  The entire cemetery was surrounded by a wrought iron fence. There were many  fancy cast iron hitching posts, several of which are still in place.

Gravestones were encouraged not to be of a same kind and shape as continuous uniformity must always be avoided .  Variety provides a much more pleasing effect. Early on the lot holders were responsible for mowing and their own maintenance, although the association would do it if necessary and bill accordingly.  Unfortunately Henry Ford pretty much did away with the concept  of the truly "rural" cemetery in the 1920's , when instead of spending a peaceful day in the cemetery  you could hop into your Model T  and go anywhere.  Having said all this, Mt. Auburn retains it's original concept and is a registered National Historic Site.

The photo shows the original front gate which was just around  the bend on E. Brutus St Rd... The entrance was relocated farther up the hill many years ago because of the trouble  that coming up on a slow moving funeral caused when you suddenly came around the bend in the road.

In accord with your wishes, here's a summary of my more than half a century, as far as the State Fair and I go.

In 1966 I was involved a little bit in the restoration work going on at the former Loew's State Theater on Salina St. in Syracuse. I was working with another man from Weedsport, the late Jay Lopez, who was a master carver who had immigrated from Mexico many years before. We w ere trying to get the theater looking decent enough so that Onondaga County would purchase it for a community theater so it wouldn't get torn down. I had a natural interest in movie theaters as I had worked as a teenager as projectionist for the Zimmer family in their Weedsport Theater.. Our efforts must have been successful, as the county did buy it and renamed it the Landmark Theater.

One afternoon as we were about to enter the building Jay said "there's an even more ornate theater just down the street that they're tearing down for a Sibley's store" We walked down the street and sure enough they were tearing down the RKO Keith's theater. We walked around back to the Clinton Street side of the building and a group of men were working like ants taking box after box of "stuff" out of a hole in the brick work about 15 feet up in the air. It turned out that same group had scrounged up enough money to purchase the "Mighty Wurlitzer" theater organ from the RKO people.. On June 14, 1966 a sold out benefit concert had been held featuring a silent film, with original organist Carlton James at the console. Also featured were Louella Wickam, Karl Cole and Paul Forster. Additionally, there were no less than 12 vaudeville acts.. The rest, as they say is history and I never went back to the Landmark!

I became part of what was eventually dubbed ESTMIM and here I am more than 50 years later, Vice President of ESTMIM --- the Empire State Theater and Musical Instrument Museum. We're located in the Harriet May Mills building on the state fairgrounds, which is where the RKO mighty Wurlitzer ended up...In July of 1967, the Wurlitzer again roared to life and again with Carlton James at the console. In the fullness of time I have become very familiar with the organ and routinely give tours of the chambers and explain what all the gadgets do on the console to interested audience members after performances. We ( Prior to covid) had a 4 to 6 concert schedule yearly with visiting organists from around the world playing and every day during the fair it is played twice. We're the only state fair in the country to boast having our own theater organ.

. During the fair I hold forth on the 3rd floor where we have a museum featuring unusual instruments including player pianos, a player Hammond organ, a nickelodeon, a fancy Wurlitzer juke box, several parlor organs and many other instruments and much theater equipment including a couple of 35 mm Simplex projectors exactly like the ones I used to run at the Weedsport Theater all these years ago. The featured instrument is a 1910 Koehler & Campbell upright player piano where I may be found nearly every afternoon showing fairgoers how it works and encouraging sing a longs. As it happens, I know quite a lot about player pianos since I bought a 1922 Baldwin at a Lions Club auction here in Weedsport when I was 14 for $7.00.. It sat for many years and eventually with the help of the late Hugh Wallace of Elbridge we restored and refinished it. I enclose a photo of it!

I guess the sum and substance of this column is that I'm going to have to make my own sausage sandwich this year for the first time in MANY years.

      I don't know if anyone but me, reads the bridge condition reports issued periodically, or for that matter looks up when they go under a bridge, almost any bridge in New York State at least and are concerned when they see the incredible rust , lack of paint and just plain general lack of routine maintenance that exists.   In the wake of the ongoing pandemic it seems to me  that whoever is elected President in  the upcoming election would do well to emulate Franklin Roosevelt and create something like the CCC to do two things--take  care of the aforementioned problem and put the thousands and thousands of people who are going to be unemployed to work.
      The CCC was established on April 5, 1933 by the President as part of his New Deal to combat gross unemployment during the great depression (he had earlier started a similar program while Governor of our state).  The CCC aimed at recruiting unemployed men (in those days, there were not many women in the workforce) between the ages of 18 and 25.  They were paid $30 a month and were given free room and board at a CCC camp.  They were required to send home $22 each month to  help support their families..  As a note aside, in 1933, a skilled  man would expect to earn about $39 per month, so a CCC son's contribution to the family income was huge.
      CCC corps also received basic education if needed.  It is estimated that some 57,000 illiterate men were taught to read and write.  The CCC also enrolled WW1 veterans, skilled foresters, and approximately 88,000 Native Americans who were living on reservations.   African Americans were also recruited, but were required  to live and work in separate camps.  In the 1930's the Supreme Court had not yet made any segregation rulings.
       By 1935 more than 500,000 corpsmen were spread over 2900 camps across the US.  It is estimated that close to 3 million men--about 5% of the US population had taken part in the CCC over the course of it's 9 year history. Since many of the camps were in the west and most of the members lived in the east, the army took a huge part in the transportation issue.  The trade unions highly criticized the program, opposing the training of unskilled men when many skilled union members were also out of work. They feared the army involvement would lead to government control of organized labor.  Ever the consummate politician President Roosevelt appointed  the Vice President of the International Machinists Union as the first Director of the CCC.
     Some of the accomplishments of the CCC are taken for granted today--more than 3.5 BILLION trees were planted on barren land created by forest fires, natural erosion and aggressive farming( think dust bowl).  More than 700 new state parks were created, Including Fair Haven Beach and Fillmore Glen locally. Onondaga Lake Parkway between Syracuse and Liverpool was another CCC projects, as well as dozens of others in this general area.  With the advent of WW2 the CCC was discontinued as the personnel were needed for more pressing things, however  the camps were often used  for other purposes, including one camp in Kentucky that was used to train the Code Girls.  It is important to remember that our State and National park services  grew out of the CCC.  The CCC helped our country at a  time when it needed it most and it continues today to benefit us--imagine  not having  our parks.
      At any rate, it seems to me that there is a place for such a program again, instead of just handing out money!

Many people in this region are familiar with the story of the scythe tree in Waterloo..  The story went  that a young man hung his scythe in  a small cottonwood  tree and went off to fight for the Union in the Civil War., with the instructions to his parents  too leave it there until he returned.  Unfortunately he was killed and buried in North  Carolina and never returned..  His parents refused to accept that and left the scythe hanging in the tree, where  what remains of it may still be seen today on Rt.5 & 20 near the State Police station.

Until recently, I had my own scythe tree in my front yard.  In 1972, shortly after I built my house on Hamilton St., I went to a City of Syracuse surplus auction and purchased an old wrought iron park bench which had been built around the turn of the century and was about 70 years old even then.  It was still in good shape however, so I painted it up and  chained it to an old apple tree in my front yard  right along the street..  In this area of Hamilton St. there are no sidewalks and I thought it would be nice for people walking in the street  to have a place to sit and rest.

My supposition was correct and  over the years, many people enjoyed it.  Neighbor Ed Rafferty used to sit there and watch the cars go by,  neighbor up the street Bud Goss used to sit there and rest on his daily walks,  boys and girls walking to and from school used to sit there and hold hands, in no particular hurry to get where they were headed.  At one time my kids delivered the  Syracuse "Herald American" to the entire Village of  Weedsport.  The Herald American was a large combined newspaper published on Sundays of a combined morning Post Standard and afternoon Herald Journal.  When they dropped the bales off in the garage there were always several extras, so I got in the habit of leaving one on the bench on nice days and weighting it down with a small rock , so people could sit on the bench and read.

Predictably, in the fullness of time, because it was chained to the tree and couldn't move away as the tree grew, the bench became grown into the tree trunk and had been forced down into the ground about 6 inches from the weight of the tree growing on and around it.  A short time ago my son Mike said that he and Kathleen would like to have it for their yard.  Accordingly we spent an entire Saturday morning extricating it from the tree., using an axe, Sawzall, hammer and chisel and lots of other equipment including a shovel.Finally released from it's imprisonment it was loaded on to Mike's truck ( still very heavy)  and headed for the" higher elevations" of Tully.  It has since been welded up, sandblasted and powder coated in it's original forest green color.  With any luck, it will last another 120  years, or so.

The photo shows it , looking brand new in it's new home under a maple tree overlooking the cornfields of Tully.  Several people (actually 3) had asked me what became of it, so I decided to use this bully pulpit to let everyone know that it lives on and has entered it's 3rd term of duty.

As I write this column it is Flag Day, so I bounded (well, make that crawled) out of bed this morning, put the 48 star flags on the Model A and did my one man parade around town as I did on Memorial Day--it just doesn't seem right to stay home.  For 62 years  the Weedsport Central School Class of '57, the Class of a Lifetime as we like to refer to ourselves  has held a class reunion in conjunction with the school Alumni Banquet.   We still feel fortunate to live in a community where there is enough school pride to have a well organized and active Alumni Association , passing out thousands of dollars every year in scholarships to deserving seniors..   Unfortunately after over 100 years of holding annual banquets the association found  it necessary to cancel this year's celebration because of that lousy bug,  although they're still going to pass out the scholarships.   Accordingly  , we (the class of '57  have also regretfully canceled our annual get together, although we are going to meet via ZOOM at the same time the banquet would normally be held.  Small solace, but better than nothing. Over the years we have met at various classmates homes dined at different local restaurants and in recent years have settled on a format of renting a hall for the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of Alumni weekend.   We have meals catered in , attend the Alumni Banquet en-masse, and adjourn on Sunday with a brunch at a local restaurant..  As you can imagine, it takes a bit of doing to keep it going and over the years the local committee has consisted of Connie Goodrich Bolton, of Liverpool, Judy Williams Lofft of Port Byron, Alicia Rosecrans Procino, of Auburn, Bruce Christopher, Burt Ward and I who still live in Weedsport.

The most important member  of our group is Joan Spier Higham, who lives in New Port Richey Florida.  She is our webmaster, and she is a webmaster's webmaster!   Included on our website is a complete directory of names, addresses, phone numbers, e-mail numbers, birthdays, etc , etc. There is also a bulletin board updated regularly noting special events,  illness, or anything else of note.  It's also the only place other than The Old Brutus Historical Society and the Citizen Archives where you may read all of the "stuff" that I have written for this column for now approaching 20 years. Hop on our website some time and see what we're up to.  Just Google Joan Higham.com and we'll be there like magic.  We graduated 50 classmates and regretfully there are only 37 left to soldier on, and soldier on we will. Our Flower Fund is administered by Barbara Tallman Welch from Myrtle Beach.

It seems like everything I'm interested in has been squelched.---Car shows, Museums--naturally ours has been closed, along with the O'Hara Ag Museum  and with that goes our Auburn History Club bi-weekly meetings, the Martha Shaw monthly lecture series "Harvesting History", and the rest of the programs held at this wonderful facility.   For more than 50 years I have been involved with the Empire State Theater and Musical Instrument Museum at the State Fairgrounds.  Our whole season of theater organ concerts had to be cancelled.  It's anyone's guess when the Mighty Wurlitzer will again be heard, as the State Fair itself is in doubt.

I guess I've gone on about this aggravating turn of events long enough but let me close with a nod to our local fire department, who were forced to cancel their annual field days for the 1st time since they started having them in 1957.  The money made during this event has purchased  much needed equipment over the years, including several ambulances outright saving the taxpayers a ton of money  Please consider sending a small donation to the fire department to help make up this loss and finally, with a nod to fellow columnist Joni Lincoln , hopefully the roast beef dinner at the Spring Lake Methodist church will resume shortly.  A better dinner cannot be bought at any price anywhere.
More next month

Has it occurred to anyone else now that gas is cheaper than it has been in years we can't drive anywhere?   While sitting here under "house arrest"  the thought struck me that many businesses in the village and surrounding area were conducted without benefit of an actual mercantile, or business establishment.   These businesses were often in addition to another regular line of work.   There are of course some that still operate in that fashion.    Let me list some of the hundreds that have done business in this manner locally over the years:
      Frank Hayden had  a backhoe service and when he passed away, the old Ford 8N backhoe went to Charlie Kreplin and he offered the service for many more years.  Bob Green painted signs, as did Fred Rowe just down Seneca St.   Glenn Wood on Washington St. rototilled gardens,  and a couple of doors down Manly Erb offered furniture reupholstering.    Vic Sine sold insurance from his home on West Brutus and across the street Ralph Black sold and repaired 2 way radios for the emergency services. A couple of doors down from him Jack Holihan operated a TV repair shop in his home and for that matter his wife Doris who was Town of Brutus Clerk at the time ran the Clerk's office from their home.

     Ethel O'Neil sold and delivered eggs in the village from the farm in Emerson and Eva Oliver and John DeWispelere sold produce in front  of their homes.  Doctor Goodwin and Doctor Prokopiw had offices in their homes on S. Seneca St. as was fairly common for physicians .   Similarly it was common for funeral directors such as Fred Kinney, Dwight Kelly, Ab Hoyt,  Dickinson's and Ward's as well as many others over the years to utilize their residence as a mortuary.  Katherine Gary ran a tourist home and her husband Lawrence (Lefty) centered his carpentry business form their home on Jackson St.  Ernie Luke did his blacksmithing from his home and Bob Flansburg sharpened saws on South St.

     Morris Gifford and Pete Ozark operated a successful masonry business from their respective homes and brothers  Ross and Ernie Marshall, as well as second generation  home builder Joe always worked from home.  The several dairies in the area were nearly all operated from home.  Ernie Holmes' sold and serviced Skiroule snowmobiles on Hamilton St.   Legenday coach John Skvorak had his successful Celtic Glove Co. at home and  Principal William F. Lampman did concrete flatwork around the village during the summer.  There are probably still sidewalk slabs in the village with his WFL in the corner.   Roger Donahue and Dave Keel ran a lawn care business for many years and Clara Symula had her hairdressing salon in her apartment on E. Brutus St.

     Leland  (Squint) Jorolemon operated a hay and coal trucking firm from his home on West Brutus and  Dr. William Tierney operated a large animal veterinary service from his home on Jericho Rd.  Frank Drabel sold and serviced septic tanks from his home.  M.J. Almstead  had his optometry practice in his home, the former Burritt mansion on Van Buren St. and Everett Hazer operated his plumbing company from home on South St.  With a little thought I could go on and on, but you get the idea.   I'm sure this is one of those columns where I get lots of jabs asking why not ---I'll probably have to pen an addendum.    Other than the occasional Dr.'s appointment my calendar which normally overflows is empty.  Oh well--this too shall pass.   More next time.

    The 1918 flu epidemic had great similarities  to the vexation that we are all dealing  with today. Their were nearly 200 deaths in Cayuga County and eventually over 650,000 nationwide and more than 100 million worldwide!  I'll set down a timeline obtained from the CDC on how the disease progressed.

      
April 1917---U. S. enters WWl  with 378,000 in the armed services.

March 1918---Outbreaks of flu like illness are first detected in the United States  More than 100 soldiers at Camp Funston in Kansas become ill with influenza--within a week the number quintuples.  Flu  spreads unevenly  through the U.S., Europe, and Asia over the next 6 months.

April 1918---1st mention of Influenza appears in an April 5 weekly public health report telling of 18 severe cases and 3 deaths in Haskell, Kansas.

May 1918---Hundreds of thousands of soldiers travel across the Atlantic each month as they are deployed to Europe for WW1.

September 1918---The 2nd wave of Flu emerges at Camp Devens outside of Boston.  Between September and November  this second wave is highly fatal and is responsible for most of the death attributed to the pandemic.   

October 1918--- 195,000 Americans die during October alone.  In Philadelphia more than 500 bodies await burial--some for more than a week.  Meat storage plants were used as temporary morgues. New York City requires all cases to be isolated at home, or in a hospital.  Most large cities close theaters, movie houses, schools and prohibit public gatherings.  San Francisco requires residents to use masks in public.  New York city reports a 40% decline in shipyard productivity in the midst of the war.

November 1918---The end of WW1 enables a resurgence of the disease as people celebrate Armistice Day and soldiers begin to mobilize.

December 1918---Public health officials began educating people about the dangers of coughing and sneezing and careless disposal of "nasal discharges"  ,  People were urged to walk to work when possible to avoid overcrowded public transportation.

January 1919---A 3rd wave of Influenza occurs in the winter and kills many more.  

April 1919--- The worst of the pandemic is over, however at the Versailles Peace Conference while negotiating the end of WW1 with other world leaders U. S. President Woodrow Wilson collapsed from the flu, and although he ultimately recovered, he was never the same.  During WW1 there were 53,402 combat deaths in the military and over 45,000  attributed to flu.  Congress noted that "Dollars cannot be considered."

The similarity between what happened  a hundred years ago is to me unbelievably similar!  The attached photos show  how little things have changed.  Note the sign on one of the ladies on the railroad platform  "WEAR A MASK, or go to jail".   As a note aside in the other photo that old open frame typewriter reminds me of the Underwood I used in typing class at WCS 65 years ago!

     The thought occurred to me the other day that hardly anyone gives anything away any more .  It used to be very common when making a purchase of just about anything you would get an "advertising premium" as a gift.  I'm sure that I'm still using dish towels received in a box of laundry detergent more than 50 years ago.   I decided to take a stroll through the museum recently to see what we have acquired  over the years by way of  "free" advertising gifts.  I list below a small fraction of what I found:
      Some of the more unusual were: Sanitary hats issued by the Dairylea plant on East St.,  Shoe horns by E.C. Fuller Shoes,  Paper fans by J.R. Putnam Drug Store,  Ice picks and pot holders by Hazzard Trucking, Storage and Ice,  Chevrolet model cars by Guy H. Lanphere Chevrolet.,  Jar gripper by Bill's Esso Servicenter,  Ink blotters by George E. Wethey Plumbing, fireproof matchbox by J.R. Putnam Drug Store, and a hand mirror from Fult's Furniture Store.
      Much more common were  the aforementioned linens, and  encyclopedias and china from the grocery store. As a note aside I have a beautiful set of Funk and Wagnall's acquired over about 2 years  at the Weedsport Big M.  Never mind that they haven't been opened since I bought a computer.    Probably the most common giveaways over the years have been pens and pencils, as well as note pads to go with them.  Among our treasures , we have  many of them in our collection of Weedsport related "stuff":  Tudor & Jones,  Joe Marshall, Builder,   H.R. Follett & Sons Interior Decorating, E.W Hazer, Plumbing, Victor L. Sine, Insurance,  Joseph O'Connor Seeds,   First National Bank of Weedsport,  Eidman Motors Hudson,  Weedsport FFA,  Harry Tanner IGA,  Chapman Lumber,  Leonardi Mfg.,  B. W. Mower, coal, wood & farm supplies,  Spingler Chevrolet,  F. J Burns, Coal,  Ron Case Construction and many others. 
      We have match holders from Burn's and Rice Coal Co.,  and Brutus Roller Mill,    Bottle openers and matches from many sources,  ash trays from E Traver and Son's Grocery and Guy Lanphere Chevrolet as well as a sewing kit from Harris Buick Pontiac.  Calendars and thermometers were popular giveaways--we have dozens of calendars, many with beautiful Currier and Ives artwork.  Among the local merchants providing them were: Howe Insurance Co.,  Smitty's Wee Ranch,  Kinney Funeral Home  and F.J. Burn's Coal, Cement and Plaster.  We have thermometers from Cayuga County Patron's Insurance Co.,  Lamphere & Van Hoover,  Farmer's Mutual Indemnity,  Ralph St. John Dodge-Plymouth,  Hoyt Funeral Home  and N.G. Taylor Jeweler. among other's.  The attached photo is a beautiful thermometer issued by Lamphere & Van Hoover in 1955.
      Maps were given away at all service stations and we have key chains and ice scrapers from Fox Dodge, Plymouth, Chrysler ,  H. Spingler Chevrolet, and Harris Buick-Pontiac. Also popular were yardsticks and paint stirring sticks.  We have them from Abram Walrath Lumber,  Chapman Lumber, Whitman's Hardware and Geo. E Wethey..  Among the oddest "premium in our collection is an asbestos hot pad from Rising and Son Grocery.  This "stuff" and much more is in our museum and in closing, who of my age can forget the 2 pencils from Coca-Cola on your desk when you returned to school in September  along with the "Golden Rule", a 12 inch ruler suitably inscribed with "Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You."
      Our museum is of course closed in accord with Federal and State guidelines and we are taking advantage of this downtime to do some needed maintenance and renovation.  It is hoped that we will be able to  re-open when the schools do.