Historical Society of Elba

We have several copies of ECS yearbooks from years past for sale.  If you are looking for a particular year please let me know which one and I will see if it is available.

Also, we are in search of an ECS yearbook from 1993 to complete our collection for the archives.  If you have a 1993 yearbook from ECS please contact me.  We would be interested in acquiring it.

There is a general membership meeting this Thursday, April 4, at 7:00 pm at the museum on Maple Ave Extension in Elba.  All are welcomed and new members are always encouraged.

We will be discussing events for the year as well as spring cleaning at the museum in preparation for the museum opening for the summer season.

The Historical Society of Elba will be participating in the Local History Open House at Genesee Community College, Saturday, April 6 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.  Several local historical museums and organizations will be represented.  This event is free and open to the public.

For all who are wondering about the picture of the building and smoke stack located in Elba. The Western New York Farms Company had successfully drained and reclaimed thousands of acres of the Oak Orchard swamp and turned it into the thriving and prosperous mucklands. With the soil proving so fertile and the extremely high yields being attained, a problem arose as to how to process the crops economically. In 1915, the Batavia Canning co.,negotiated with the Western Farms Co. to establish a large canning company known as the Elba Food Products Company. There were originally 3 buildings built. The windows in the buildings contained 3,000 panes of quarter-inch 10 by 16 inch wire-ribbed glass, the buildings took 200,000 feet of lumber to build. In it’s first year of operation it processed 240 tons of spinach and 274 acres of peas. Sadly the company went bankrupt. It was purchased in 1917 by another food processing company. They processed food for the U.S. Army. In 1919 they were advised to shut down operations as World War 1 had ended. That was the end of it’s use. The owners left Elba. In September of 1919, Wheat’s Ice Cream Co. of Akron purchased the buildings. Remodeling began and at that time the chimney that remains standing was built. It is 150 feet high and 7 feet across at the top. The Atlas Milk Products, Inc., condensery was officially opened in March of 1920. It had the capacity to take in 300,000 pounds of raw milk. It’s daily out-put of sweetened condensed milk would eventually total 3 carloads a day. The buildings were located next to the West Shore Railroad. Over time a 100 people were employed at the business, many of them woman. In the twenty’s the Dairymen’s League was operating the plant. In 1932 they were taking in about 90,000 pounds of raw milk daily. Eventually the plant was used by the Oakfield & Elba Growers, Inc., the O & E Growers Inc. and Marky’s Produce who operated it as a produce packing, shipping and brokerage business. Most of the buildings were consumed by fire in the 90’s. Information is from the 1996 Pinehill, Town of Elba, 175th Anniversary Book available for $10.00 from the Historical Society of Elba.

The new membership year is starting.  Our first membership meeting of the new year is this Thursday, March 7 at 7:00 pm at the museum on Maple Ave Ext in Elba.  New members are always welcomed.  Yearly membership dues: $10 individual, or $15 family.

Contact us at our email address: historicalsocietyofelba@yahoo.com

This excerpt is copied from the Town of Elba history book compiled by Scott Benz in honor of the town’s 175th Anniversary in 1995.

This shop was purchased by Levi Rugg in 1850.  In 1870 Frederic Sunricker owned the property.  The Sunrickers came from France in 1836 and settled in Attica, NY.  That is where Frederic Sunricker was born on April 28, 1842 to Michael and Elizabeth (Werner) Sunricker.  In 1870 he united in marriage with Miss Helen Case and they settled in Elba where he commenced the blacksmith business until his death. He received a serious injury in 1878, when a horse he was shoeing for Edwin Parker, kicked him in the back.  His health steadily declined and by March of 1879 he was no longer able to work.  He suffered greatly from his injuries until death overtook the pain on November 18, 1879.  He was laid to rest in Maple Lawn Cemetery.

John Weber was born in Germany on March 7, 1850, one of the ten childen of Leonhardt & Gertrude (Dessom) Weber.  He spent his childhood growing up in York, NY.  He left his family to apprentice out to William Buckingham, a blacksmith in Pavilion, learning the trade.  He came to Elba around 1880 and was employed in one of the blacksmith shops here.  In November 1881, he purchased the shop of the late Frederic Sunricker for $300.  He repaired it thoroughly and reopened it shortly afterwards.Once he was established here he married his former employer’s daughter, Charlotte Buckingham, on April 12, 1882.  John kept himself fairly busy and in May 1888, he added a large addition onto his shop to create more working space.  Later he constructed a new smithy on Maple Ave and sold this blacksmith shop to Louis J Hundredmark in May of 1896.  Leonard Weber remained to assist him.  But Mr. Hundredmark decided he wasn’t cut out for the blacksmithing trade and gave up the business on October 8, 1896 selling out to H. Edward Snell.
H. Edward Snell took over the shop and through the years he employed various people to assist him, including Leonard Weber, John King, Martin Hull, AJ Lawyer, Henry Baube, Frank Warner and JD Cooper.  In September 1898, he opened a wood working shop in connection with the blacksmith business.  He retired from smithing in September 1902, closing his shop, but the following month he reopened with Harmon Baube’s aid.  When Mr. Baube left in March of 1903, he engaged Alexander Wilson, a traveling blacksmith, but he left by the end of the year.  The shop was again closed and in February 1904 he leased it to the Brown brothers.

Stay tuned for another installment.

Our president, Ronald Komar, passed away on July 3, 2012 unexpectedly.  He will be sadly missed as he was a great asset to the Historical Society of Elba.  He had a lot of time and energy into the museum and especially the barn.

The blacksmith was usually one of the first tradesmen to set up shop in an emerging village and Pine Hill was no exception.  Samuel Laing purchased 7/10 of an acre in December 1829 from Charles Woodworth for $58.00 upon which he constructed his blacksmith shop.  Besides shoeing horses, he would make hardware, repair wagons and plows, and his skills often included that of a wheelwright.  Just 21 months later, he sold 4/10s of an acre and the cobblestone shop to Samuel Parker for $275.  Next to the shop, Laing conducted a merchandising business out of a brick store which he built about the same time as the cobblestone shop.  He expected that Pine Hill was going to develop rapidly and he wanted to profit by it. 

During the 1830’s, it passed from the hands of Mr. Parker to William Sherman and then to Nelson L Sherman who held it from 1835 to 1846 when he sold it to William Bradley, a blacksmith from Oakfield.

Levi Rugg purchased a shop used for carriage repair located behind the cobblestone blacksmith shop on Mechanic St in 1849. The following year he added to his holdings, acquiring 3 acres of land across the road from his carriage shop.  In this acquisition, he also obtained the blacksmithing shop.  In 1863, Levi and William Rugg purchased the cobblestone shop from William Bradley, having already sold their carriage shop some years earlier.  Together they operated the business for 12 years until Levi became ill with dropsy that finally ended his life on Dec. 12, 1875.

It was in country villages that American society flourished.  This was especially true in the Genesee Country where by the 1820’s and 1830’s, some forty hamlets and villages were providing economic services and other community functions for the flood of settlers who were clearing and developing its rich lands.  Each village developed its own special character and history, but all supplied urgent needs, nurturing a thriving homespun society rich with creative energies.

Villages were located and built be enterprising pioneers who seized the opportunity to provide their fellow settlers with taverns, stores, mills, tanneries, and smiths, as well as churches, libraries and academies to fit their varied tastes.

The village of Pine Hill developed at the four corners where the lands of the early settlers, Asa Babcock, Charles Woodworth, John Wyllis and Thomas Davis met.  It seemed a likely spot, with the cross roads, and the traffic passing through to the lake in the north and Batavia to the south.