The Brockporter Historic House Of The Week - 46 King Street

46 King Street currently owned by David Markham is the only single family residential house left on King Street. All the other houses are non owner occupied and used as rentals mostly to college students.

Markham bought the house in 2005 at an auction. The previous owner Sara Watts had lived at the property for 36 years. Prior to that the home was occupied by George Marks, a prominant electrician in Brockport. One of George's sons, George, Jr., was killed in Viet Nam in the 60s.

The house was built in 1840, and is a federal style brick house with a two story carriage barn in back built around the turn of the century in the early 1900s.

Earlier history is not known at the present time.

The house is assessed at $79,900.

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The Brockporter Historic House of The Week - 21 State Street

© Copyright by Carol L. Hannan – April 2013. All rights reserved.

George Flint and Catherine Lyell Thorpe Barnett
Owners/builders: circa 1830s/40s to 1897
George Flint Barnett, son of Samuel and Rachel Sweet Barnett, was born in Bridgewater, Oneida County, New York. His wife Catherine was the daughter of Asa and Abigail (?) Thorpe, whose family members probably moved west to new frontiers in Michigan. From the records of the 1840 village census, it appears that the Barnett family was living in their home at 3 State Street well before the publication of the 1852 map that first shows its location. This house, which George Barnett built, was the one in which he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives.

George and Catherine had five children: James Melanethon, Carrie, Martha M., Mary H. and Frances C., who was known as “Frannie.” James moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan and found success in the lumber and banking businesses. Sadly, Martha died of consumption in her late twenties. Carrie Barnett Allis and her infant daughter Carrie both died within months of her child’s birth. The young Barnett daughters and granddaughter were laid to rest in the Brockport Cemetery.

While he began his career here as an architect and builder, Barnett’s greater claim to fame and fortune was in other areas. We have a record of his business ventures from census and other information, beginning in 1850, when he was a “joiner.” By 1855, he was working as a “carpenter.” In the 1860 Federal Census, Barnett described his occupation as “foundry.” According to the History of Monroe County, he reportedly worked for several years as a superintendent for the Seymour & Morgan Company. From 1870 to 1880 he was a “manufacturer of agricultural equipment.” With him in this business venture were others, principally George B. Whiteside, who held several patents individually and in partnership with Barnett. Whiteside’s first patent, for a cook stove, would have required a foundry for production and Barnett’s employment with Seymour & Morgan certainly gave him experience with foundry operations. Their successful partnership resulted first in the formation of Chappell, Whiteside & Barnett, then Whiteside & Barnett and finally Whiteside, Barnett & Company, which was dissolved upon the death of George Whiteside in the late 1880s. The company manufactured a number of farm implements, such as the Empire Grain Drill and Ithaca Wheel Rake. At the Genesee Agricultural Society in 1852, it won awards and/or premiums (cash prizes) for a cast iron frame wheel cultivator, a plough, a wood frame wheel cultivator and a combined grain drill and broadcast seed sower. Aaron Miller, Josiah M. Lane, Whiteside and Barnett also shared a patent in 1860 for an improved corn planter.

This was a time in Brockport’s history when the development and manufacturing of agricultural equipment gave the village an international reputation. Brockport was in the forefront of the agricultural revolution and Whiteside & Barnett, although not the largest or most famous of our local companies, was, until the ill health of its primary partners, a successful business operation. The former manufacturing plant of Whiteside & Barnett at what is now 65 Clinton Street, along with most of its machinery, was purchased at auction in 1890 by L. T. Underhill. Josiah M. Lane, a partner of the firm and long-time Barnett household resident bought the drill patterns and a few tools. The original Medina sandstone building with its wooden addition still stands and is now on the National Register, a reminder of our early manufacturing glory days now long gone by.

George Barnett was a founding member of the Congregational Church, which was later reorganized as the current Presbyterian Church, and along with William H. Seymour, he was one of the last two surviving members of the original congregation. Business and religious matters seem to have been the extent of Barnett’s interests later in life, but in the late 1830’s, he also served as a village trustee.
Catherine Barnett’s life is a mystery. She had live-in servants to assist her in her homemaking duties but we really know nothing of her personal interests. She died in 1883 and was buried in the Brockport Cemetery. George retired from business in the late 1880s and died at the venerable age of 93 in 1897. He was laid to rest in the family plot beside his wife.

Mary H. and Frances C. Barnett
Owners: 1897 to 1939
Mary and Frances Barnett spent their entire lives living in the State Street home built by their father and inherited from him upon his death. Neither of the sisters ever married. By 1920, the sisters had living with them Ella Robinson, a younger single woman who described her occupation as “companion” and on the 1930 census, as a “cook,” so we know they had the financial resources to employ someone to help them in their later years. From their lifestyles, we can assume that George Barnett’s estate provided for their primary financial needs for the remainder of their lives.

Early in Brockport’s history, when a school district was formed on the eastern side of the village, Mary became one of its first teachers, but for the majority of her life she was not employed outside the home. A lifetime member of the Presbyterian Church, Mary was the long-time treasurer of the Ladies Missionary Society. Although details of her membership couldn’t be located, Mary was reportedly a member of the DAR. She was described in her obituary as keenly interested in history and intellectual pursuits. Along with her sister, Mary obtained a passport in 1898 and reportedly traveled to Europe. After a brief illness, Mary passed away at home in 1925.

Frances C. “Fannie” Barnett was the last surviving child of George and Catherine. She was a teacher of drawing who once described her occupation as “artist.” Fannie’s life, unfortunately, was not well documented. She passed away at her home in 1936. Her brief obituary mentioned surviving nieces and a nephew in Michigan.

Members of the Barnett family buried in the Brockport Cemetery include all the daughters, their parents and George’s father and mother.

John Melvin and Mary Millican Cromwell Woodworth, Jr.
Owners: early 1940s to at least 1954
From the death of Frances Barnett in 1936 until the purchase of the home, now 19 State Street, by John and Mary Woodworth, census records show the house was rented and occupied by widow Elsie McDonald. Who owned the property? Without further, in depth research or access to the home’s abstract, we really don’t know. The next identifiable owners were the Woodworths.

John Woodworth, son of John L. and Adeline Glor Woodworth, was born in Warsaw, Wyoming County, New York. His father was an attorney. Mary M. Cromwell, the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Charles Cromwell married her husband in Warsaw, but according to the newspaper notice, her parents lived in Fairfield, Maine.

At the time of his marriage in 1937, John lived in Brockport. He had purchased a Ford dealership located at 20 King Street. The business was incorporated in 1946 as Woodworth Motors, with 500 shares of stock worth $50 each. The directors were John, his wife Mary and his mother Adeline. Woodworth continued in business until 1960, when the dealership, which had moved to South Main Street, was sold to two Rochester businessmen.

Woodworth served on the Brockport Central School Board of Education in the late 1940s and early 1950s. In 1946, Woodworth was named “Sports Czar” over all community sponsored athletics. Our semi-pro basketball club was named the “Brockport Towners.” It played against teams such as Kodak Park, the Polish Falcons and Cuba Reds with hometown talent including Tommy Burns and the Heise brothers. The “Towners” enjoyed a good deal of success, winning the league championship over Kodak Park in 1940.

The Woodworths moved from Brockport and spent their final years in California. Never having severed his emotional ties with hometown Warsaw, John was buried there after his death in 1992. Mary died after her husband and was also buried in the Warsaw Cemetery.

Epilogue 2013
This early home, built and occupied by two generations of the Barnett family for approximately 100 years, still stands. It has been covered with siding and the front lawn has been paved; turning it into a parking lot for the multiple tenants living in what is now a rental property. If memory serves correctly, there was some controversy – but not enough, obviously – to prevent the paving of the front lawn. Such has been the fate of more than one village lawn but parking arrangements aside, the home of one of Brockport’s early businessmen remains a noble and imposing structure. George Barnett was obviously a builder of quality.

Editor's note: The Brockporter Historic House Of The Week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears most Tuesdays. It is made possible by the research and writing of Carol Hannan and the production of Pam Ketchum. The Historic Houses of Brockport can also be seen at the ProBrockport web site at www.probrockport.org.

21 State Street is currently owned by Frank Tripi, zoned as an apartment house, and assessed at $168,600.00

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The Brockporter Historic House Of The Week - 100 State Street

© Copyright by Carol L. Hannan – April 2013. All rights reserved.

Ida May Hooker Gordon
Owner/builder (?): between 1861 and 1872
Ida May Hooker was born in Kendall, the daughter of Thomas Cullen and Caroline Wilhelminia Dannenhauer Hooker. Ida married George Cooley Gordon, only son of Luther and Forilla Cooley Gordon. They had five sons: Luther, William Hooker, George Cooley, Fred Hooker and Thomas Cullen. All but William, who died of “remittent fever” in 1880, lived to adulthood.

The Gordon family moved to Brockport in the mid-1850s and became extremely successful in the lumber and banking business. Their facilities in Brockport were located on State Street, just east of this house, next to the Erie Canal. Ida’s husband and her father-in-law were partners in the lumber business and George succeeded his father as president of the First National Bank of Brockport.

Unfortunately, George Gordon died suddenly at his newly finished summer cottage on the shore of Lake Ontario at age 49, leaving his widow and children, two of them minors. Ida spent the remainder and majority of her long life as a widow. Her husband left considerable real estate holdings, including multiple village properties, such as this, in which she obviously never lived.

The Gordon family was very influential in village history and played an important role in saving the Brockport Normal School. Although the male family members were very regularly mentioned in Rochester “society” pages, Ida led a quiet life, generally out of the public eye. She became out of the first two female trustees on the Normal School Board of Trustees. Gordon Hall on the campus honors the family. Ida was a member of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Brockport where the largest of the Tiffany windows located in the sanctuary were given in memory of her and her late husband. When Ida died of cancer in 1946, she was laid to rest in Mt. Hope Cemetery, Rochester, in the Gordon family plot.

 
Hy. Garrison
Owner: 1902
On the 1902 village map, this property, now number 49 State Street, was identified as belonging to Hy. Garrison. Who this person was remains a mystery. There was a Garrison family living in the vicinity at that time period but nobody with a first name beginning with “H” was among them. Most likely, there was a mistake in labeling the map, as others have been found, but that doesn’t solve the puzzle of ownership, which remains to be solved by detailed research of property records.

George Ransom and Alice C. Moore Bulkley
Owners; about 1915 to 1940
George Bulkley was born on a farm and worked as a farmer his entire life. His parents were Guy R. and Elsie Ann Smith Bulkley. Alice Moore was his second wife. Her parents were Henry and Lucinda Moore, farmers in Ogden. George and Alice had no children.

From his 1928 obituary, we know that George’s first wife was Maria Crippen. Maria died in 1909 and George remarried two years later. He was a member of the local Methodist Episcopal Church, the Monroe Lodge F & A M and the Brockport Grange. Bulkley’s farm was located at the southwest corner of Sweden Walker and Canal Road.

George and Alice initially lived in Brockport with her two brothers and mother. By 1920, the Moore’s had moved and by 1925, George had retired from farming. After his death, Alice remained in the State Street home, eventually converting the house into a “double” occupied by herself and Marion and Fowler Maw.

George Bulkley and his first wife are buried in the Garland Cemetery along with his parents. Alice lived until the late 1940s but the date of her death and burial location are unknown.

Epilogue 2013
The house at 100 State Street still stands and it remains a multi-family home.




Editor's note: 100 State Street is currently owned by Paula and Richard Sesock, is zoned 3 family, and is assessed at $129,900.00.



The Brockporter Historic House of The Week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears on most Tuesdays. It is made possible by the research and writing of Carol Hanna and the production of Pam Ketchum. The Historic Houses of Brockport can also be seen on the ProBrockport web site at www.probrockport.org.

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The Brockporter House Of The Week - 55 Park Avenue

© Copyright by Carol L. Hannan – April 2013. All rights reserved.

Yale Parce and Louise C. Bulkley Forbes
Owners/builders(?): between 1902 to late 1940s
One of the newer homes on a very old street, this turn of the century structure may have been built by Yale and Louise Forbes, the first identifiable owners. Yale Forbes was the son of the Reverend Merrill and Maria Palmer Forbes of Wyoming County. Louise Bilkley was the daughter of area residents Guy R. and Elsie Smith Bulkley. Louise’s sister, Aurelia Heddon was her Park Avenue neighbor and her brother, George, lived only a block away on State Street.

Yale and Louise married in Sweden Township in 1884. They had two daughters, Gertrude E. and Hazel L., neither of whom ever married.

Yale began work as a partner with his brother, Merrill, and later continued as a produce dealer until approximately the time he moved into the house at what was then 13 Park Avenue. He then changed careers and became an insurance agent for the remainder of his life.

The Forbes family continued in the Baptist faith of Yale’s parents but only Hazel was mentioned in the contemporary accounts as being actively involved in her church. The greatest mention of the Forbes family was the many newspaper reports of their excursions to visit family and friends, especially those in Wyoming County.

After Yale’s death in 1938, it was Hazel who quickly reorganized the insurance agency and continued to run it from the family home. She was the final living member of the immediate family to pass away in 1946, after an undisclosed illness of several days. In her obituary, it mentioned Hazel’s membership in the Baptist Church, the local Needlework Guild and her assistance in a Lakeside Hospital fund raising drive. No mention of her mother’s passing or her sister’s life and death could be found. In fact, it seems that Gertrude Forbes never held employment outside of the home.

The Forbes family is buried in the Brockport Cemetery, which is also the final resting place of many of their relatives.

Wilbur M. “Buck” and Mildred “Millie”McCormick
Owners: 1946 to 2010
“Buck”and “Millie” McCormick were the next home owners, and like the Forbes, they lived here for many decades. Both public school teachers, the couple likely met at the Brockport Normal, now the College at Brockport. “Millie” grew up near Canandaigua. “Buck” grew up in Clarkson, the son of Merton and Alma M. Armer McCormick.

Is this, perhaps, the McCormick family of reaper fame, living once again in this area? Probably not, Merton McCormick’s father, Robert, was born in Canada and Cyrus Hall McCormick and his family lived in Pennsylvania and Virginia. Still, conceivably, there could have been a family connection in Ireland – many generations ago.

The McCormicks lived on Park Avenue for decades, yet there is little published information on their daily lives at historical sites, as they resided there later in Brockport’s history, when newspapers didn’t routinely include as many social “happenings.” The demise of local newspapers and the rise of confidentiality concerns will be the bain of researchers in years to come. Obituaries still give us a glimpse of the contribution made by residents to our community, and in the case of the McCormicks, those contributions were many.

“Buck” and “Millie” had a number of common interests, including membership in the Brockport United Methodist Church, the Western Monroe Historical Society, the Brockport Alumni Association and Mornings with the Professors. “Buck” served on the Brockport Village Board, was a member of the Brockport Exempt Fireman’s Association and a Kodak retiree.

“Millie” McCormick survived her husband and died in 2010. She enjoyed, of course, the company of her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren! After a long life together, “Millie”and “Buck” are now at rest in Lake View Cemetery, Sweden Township, but still fondly remembered by their former neighbors on Park Avenue.

Epilogue 2013
Now known as 55 Park Avenue, this home remains a single family residence with an exterior probably much like it was when it was built. In the history of Brockport’s many older homes and their interesting owners, this dwelling’s full story has yet to be written.

Editor's note: 55 Park Avenue is current owned by Amy Nesbitt and Daniel Hawken, is zoned single family residential, and is assessed at $106,400.00.

The Brockporter Historic House of the Week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears most Tuesdays. It is made possible by the research and writing of Carol Hannan and the production services of Pam Ketchum. The Historic Houses of Brockport can also be seen on the Pro Brockport web site at  www.probrockport.org.

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The Brockporter Historic House Of The Week - 12 High Street

© Copyright by Carol L. Hannan – February 2013. All rights reserved.

Bill and Ruth Phipps Colby
Owners/builders (?): 1838-1850s
Perched on a rise overlooking the length of Park Avenue north to the Erie Canal, 12 High Street has been an elegant addition to the village from a very early date. The first documented owners and probable builders were Bill and Ruth Colby, who moved here from their Sophia Street home in Rochester’s upscale 5th Ward.

Bill Colby, a native of Salisbury, New Hampshire, relocated to Rochester with his siblings John and Sally. His parents, Philip and Abrea Greeley Colby, were relatives of the Colbys who settled in Ogden, Monroe County. Philip was described as a builder prominent in public affairs; characteristics he passed on to his son. Ruth Phipps was the daughter of John and Cynthia Thomas Phipps, natives of Brookfield, Massachusetts, where John was a property owner before moving to Vermont.

Bill Colby made his fortune and a name for himself in Rochester. He was a cabinet and chair maker with a business and warehouse on Buffalo Street. He was an active member of the “Mechanics’ Institute,” a trade and lobbying organization, served as a superintendent of the First Methodist Church’s Sunday-school program, was a 5th Ward fire warden, vice president of the Franklin Institute, a school of higher education, treasurer of the Rochester Anti-Slavery Society in 1833 and one of many noteworthy Masons who returned their charter and ended their organization in 1834 during the height of anti-Mason sentiments.

Bill and Ruth married in 1824 and had four children: John Phipps, Charles G., Charlotte S., and Edward F., none of whom ever married. John served in the Civil War, after which he and Edward moved to Florida and worked in the lumber industry. Edward became a farmer after John’s death. Charlotte graduated from Boston University in 1875 and spent the remainder of her life teaching “elocution” (elocution is the study of pronunciation, grammar, style and tone in formal speaking) in Boston. Nothing is known of Charles’ life.

A great misfortune for the Colby’s and most likely Brockport, as well, was Bill’s death in 1839; although it was apparently not unexpected, as his will was written just a month before his demise. Ruth administered the estate and continued to live in the Brockport home with her children. Details of the family’s life in Brockport after Bill’s death remain largely a mystery, however, we do know that Ruth contributed money to buy the mortgage and rebuild the Baptist Collegiate Institute which became the Brockport Normal School and then ultimately the College at Brockport. Ruth reportedly moved to Brattleboro, Vermont, where she died in 1868. Although separated by great distances later in life, the family was reunited in death, to lie beside Bill in the Brockport Cemetery. Death may have deprived the village of a successful businessman and public servant but not the enduring legacy of a gracious home.

Horace J. and Caroline N. Brace Thomas
Owners: 1860s to 1880s
The second known owner of what was then number 2 High Street was attorney Horace J. Thomas and his wife. Horace was the son of pioneer farmer Peleg Thomas and his wife Theodosia Comstock. Caroline’s parents were Samuel John Mills Brace and his wife Susan Newell, who ended their family’s westward journey in Brockport.

Horace was active in politics. Shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War, he and fellow Republicans organized a “Lincoln and Hamilton Club,” with himself as president. After the war, however, Thomas was a Democratic delegate to his party’s state convention. He was nominated as a Democrat for the state assembly in 1871 and continued political involvement at least through 1876, when he organized a “Tilden and Hendricks Reform Club.”

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Thomas enlisted as a Captain in Company K, 13th Infantry, which recruited its members from the village. No details are known, but Thomas was discharged for “disability” four short months later. He returned to Brockport and resumed his legal career, at first in partnership with E. P. Butts, then in a solo practice for some 45 years in total.

Before the war, Thomas and his wife had shared their home with the Chickering family, whose husband was studying law with Horace. In 1870, Thomas’ nephew Oscar, a doctor, lived with Horace, Caroline and their household help. Horace also either worked on shares or rented a farm in Sweden. In 1863, he paid a tax of $10.62 on his attorney’s income of $354. Caroline, too, contributed to the household’s income as a teacher before her death in 1881.

It isn’t clear whether Horace and Caroline had children of their own. In 1892, census information listed the 69 year old Horace, a servant and 15 year old Giles E. Thomas living together, but Giles was almost certainly a nephew rather than a son. In the Beach Ridge section of Lakeview Cemetery, in adjoining graves, however, are found Horace, Caroline, Harry and Giles Thomas. Horace’s headstone was erected by a Town of Sweden commission charged with burying and marking the
graves of its honorably discharged deceased veterans.

                                                                     1909 Post Card
 
William Henry and Benjamin Franklin Cooley
Owners: 1880s to 1924
Cooley is a name familiar to generations of local residents, although it hasn’t received the attention other families have enjoyed. The achievements of Brockport’s native son William H. Cooley should help remedy that oversight. William and “B. Frank” were sons of Levi Cooley, Jr. and Elizabeth Mabel Story. Levi, Jr. and his father, according to biographical sketch in the History of Rochester and Monroe County, were both contractors and Levi, Jr. was the architect/builder of the original Normal School and the owner of a sash and blind manufacturing business in the village. Their uncle, Orville, also a Brockport native, was a prolific inventor of agricultural equipment. Elizabeth Story’s family history is unknown.

Both William and Frank studied at Brockport Normal. Frank became an educator. William began studies at the University of Rochester, which were unfortunately cut short by the death of his father, as he was obliged to leave college and tend to his father’s business for the next several years. The 1880 special manufacturing schedule gives us a glimpse of the business. There were 8 employees working 10 hours days at $2/day for skilled work and $1.50/day for “ordinary” laborers. The business was located on the canal and ran on steam power with one boiler and one 25 horsepower engine. Total capital invested in the business was $2,500. His father’s business however, was not to be William’s vocation in life.

To say that William carried on the family tradition of mechanical inventiveness is an understatement. He was so successful an inventor and patent solicitor, it became his life-long vocation; reportedly taking him to distant cities as an expert consultant. His inventions were numerous and varied, with many relying on his mechanical and electrical expertise. Patents included, for example, an electric system of distribution and control for electric railways, an electric motor, a camera and a machine for cutting and corrugating sheet metal. William maintained a local office in the Powers building in Rochester and was a member of the International Inventors’ Congress.

William and Augusta H. Harrison, an Ontario, Canada native married in 1888. They had no children. William died very suddenly in 1913. A protracted legal battle immediately began between his widow and his brother, which continued until 1924. At question was who would inherit William’s home and the bulk of his estate. Frank claimed to be his brother’s sole heir and Augusta countered that her husband had left the home and the estate to her in a will which Frank had found and destroyed. Augusta eventually lost all but the required widow’s share of the estate and Frank took ownership of the Brockport home, which he immediately sold.

By the time of his brother’s death, Frank had long since moved to Brooklyn and then Oyster Bay with his wife, Alice Wall, and family of four surviving children: Homer K., Mabel E., Frank L. and Dorothea H. He never returned to Brockport. Augusta Cooley moved to Rochester where she spent the remainder of her life. She died in 1931 of a cerebral hemorrhage and was buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery, Rochester. A number of Cooley’s forbearers rest forever in Brockport Cemetery, but the location of William’s grave is unknown. It seems likely that no monument marks the grave of this most creative, successful native son.

Epilogue 2013
The early brick residence was enlarged through the years and at one time, two barns were erected at the back of the property. A historic photo shows that decorative ironwork originally located on the home’s roof was removed, but today, during its second century, the house remains an imposing single family residence overlooking one of Brockport’s most gracious and historic streets.

Editor's note: 12 High Street is currently owned by Larry and Natalie Root, is zoned single family residential, and is assessed at $144,700.00.

The Brockporter Historic House of The Week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears most Tuesdays. It is made possible by the research and writing of Carol Hannan, and the production of Pam Ketchum. The Historic Homes Of Brockport can also be seen on the Pro-Brockport web site at www.probrockport.org. 

 

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The Brockporter House of the Week - 49 State Street

© Copyright by Carol L. Hannan – March 2013. All rights reserved.

Pelatiah and Mary Tall Wells Rogers
Owners/builders: 1824 to 1835
Pelatiah Rogers built what is arguably one of the most iconic symbols of Brockport, yet we associate this home with the more familiar name of Seymour. The Rogers family was, in fact, related to William H. Seymour, the second owner of this house, although what they built in the early 1820s reportedly bears little resemblance to the structure we see today.

Pelatiah and Mary Rogers came here with their family, which eventually included ten children, and John June Rogers, Pelatiah’s brother. Rogers was reportedly a descendant of a Mayflower passenger and the son of Samuel Rogers, an officer in the Revolutionary War. Mary’s ancestry is unknown. Sarah Maria, Sophia, Henry P. and James Towle Rogers were four of their ten children but the remainder of the children’s names is unknown. Also living with the family was Pelatiah’s niece, Narcissa “Nancy” Pixley, who eventually married William Seymour. Sarah Rogers married Amos Bartlett and moved west with him to Peoria, Illinois, where the family eventually relocated.

According to a historical account written by Helen M. Hastings, the structure that now houses the Brockport Village Hall and Emily Knapp Museum was built in the style of a Dutch row house, much like that of the former Presbyterian manse. Photos of that house survive and give us some idea of the look of the original Roger’s home, with tall chimneys flanking each side of the building. Red brick was the original color of the house, which was first painted light grey in the 1860s. Fireplaces grace the major rooms, ceilings are ten and nine feet tall on the first and second floors, respectively. The parlor woodwork was elaborate and always painted white in contrast to the faux grained doors. The house was built to impress, no doubt successfully.

Presbyterian Manse – west of the church; demolished late fall 1965. Built by Thomas Roby (1820s):
In addition to the house at 49 State Street, we know that Pelatiah built at least two other frame houses which survive. They’re located just to the east on State Street at the north 57 State Street) and southwest (58 State Street) corners of Park Avenue. Pelatiah’s family lived in one of the houses while construction was taking place on his brick home. In addition to building village homes, Pelatiah was also appointed by the state legislature to handle land sales near the canal. His compensation was 5% of the sale prices. As a relative by marriage to William Seymour, Pelatiah probably had some degree of influence with Seymour’s uncle, the canal commissioner.

By the late 1820s, the enticement to move westward became too much for the Rogers family to resist. To compensate William Seymour for his debts, Pelatiah relinquished ownership of his large brick home at some point and moved to Peoria, Illinois, with at least several of his children and his brother John June. There he took up farming on 160 acres of land, raising livestock and growing large amounts of oats, wheat and Indian corn. His sons James and Henry were very successful in the lumber business.

“Fell Asleep Age 66 Years … We Thank Our God Upon Every Remembrance of Thee” is the epitaph on Pelatiah Roger’s gravestone in Elmwood Township Cemetery, Peoria, Illinois. John June and Mary Rogers are buried there, as well.

William Henry and Narcissa “Nancy” Pixley Seymour
Owners: about 1830 to 1902
Much has been written documenting the long life and business success of William H. Seymour. He came to western New York as a young man to clerk for his brother James in a “mercantile” which opened in Clarkson and relocated to Brockport with the opening of the Erie Canal. He was appointed village postmaster in the 1830s. His partnership with Dayton Morgan and others in the business of manufacturing reapers made him a wealthy man.

Seymour, son of Revolutionary War veteran Samuel Seymour, was descended from early Connecticut colonists. His wife, Narcissa Pixley, our first village schoolteacher, was the daughter of Ephraim Pixley, an officer in the Revolutionary War from Columbia County, New York. The Seymours had five children, three of whom lived to adulthood: Henry William, Helen M. and James Horatio. Mary and John Seymour died as children. All three of the Seymour children joined Revolutionary War lineage societies based on the service record of their paternal grandfather.

Life for members of the Seymour household in some respects seemed to be almost ordinary, especially given the family’s wealth and social position within the village. They kept a cow in the barn next to their house and it was James’ responsibility to ‘drive’ her to the Seymour farm’s pasture in the morning and retrieve her in the evening. James, who enjoyed a lifetime of theatrical pursuits preformed childhood productions on a third floor raised platform which he used as a stage. Father William liked to read, play whist, a card game, and billiards. He traveled to Europe but preferred to stay home. A lifelong Democrat, he walked to the polls to cast his vote even in his ninety-eighth year, but he never served in public office. On the occasion of his one hundredth birthday, the village celebrated with and for him, his daughter served as his hostess for a party on his lawn and an orchestra provided music for all to enjoy.

Of William’s three children, only the oldest, Henry William, demonstrated business skills similar to those of his father. Henry graduated from Brockport Normal and Williams College. He became an attorney and assisted his father here but left Brockport for Michigan, where his father had bought timber acreage. He ran the timber operation and served in the Michigan legislature before being elected to Congress. He married three times and had one daughter. Henry died during a visit to Washington, D. C. in 1906. His body was returned to Brockport where his third wife, who died in 1951, rests besides him in the Seymour family plot.

In the mid-1860s, William engaged Rochester architect Henry Scarles to remodel his house. It was then that the mansard roof was added and the exterior was first painted light grey. There have been changes, of course. Once set on fire and burned to the ground, the family’s barn was apparently rebuilt but no longer exists. A large modern addition replaced the side porch and the glass conservatory has long been demolished. Still, the Seymours would recognize their family home, even today.

“Nancy” Seymour died of bronchitis at age 80. Her husband died in at age 101. They were both buried in the Brockport Cemetery. Ownership of the family home passed to William’s daughter Helen.

 William H. Seymour celebrating his 100th birthday riding in neighbor,
Wilson H. Moore’s horseless carriage on August 19, 1902.

Helen M. Seymour Sylvester
Owner: 1902 to 1921
Helen Seymour Sylvester, the surviving daughter of William and Nancy, was born and lived most of her life in her childhood home. No documentation could be found of her education, which apparently didn’t include college. She married William Bedell Sylvester, an employee of the Johnston Harvester Company. They had no children.

Helen was active in the DAR, and was elected first Regent of the Monroe Chapter. She hosted meetings at her home, although it was reportedly her older brother, Henry, who spent the most effort researching the family history. They must have been elaborate gatherings, indeed, with speakers, musical selections and flag ceremonies preformed while dressed in colonial costumes. She was also active in the Presbyterian Church.

It was Helen who built a summer cottage on “Point Seymour” located on 4th Lake near Old Forge, New York. Her husband had purchased the land for their summer home which had a dock and boat house plus several outbuildings – hardly a primitive seasonal camp. It was here that Helen passed away from heart disease at age 76. Her body was returned to Brockport and she was buried in the family plot with her parents. Husband William Sylvester retained life use of Camp Seymour but her younger brother, James became the next owner of the property, which still exists today.

James Horatio Seymour
Owner: 1921 to 1931
James Horatio, youngest of the Seymour children, also, like his sister, spent the majority of his life in the family home. He attended college for two years, apparently without graduating, and assisted in the family’s Michigan lumber business with his older brother Henry but had an otherwise unremarkable work record. He was, however, keenly interested in music and dramatics all his life, which was an immense benefit to the Brockport Opera Company, which James obviously had the funds to generously support. Gilbert and Sullivan operettas were especially popular during James’ lifetime and he played principal parts in many productions, always to good reviews. This was clearly his passion in life; not business.

James died at his California home in 1931. His body was returned to the village and the Seymour family plot in the Brockport Cemetery. It was James who willed ownership of the family home to the village, with a generous cash endowment, as well, for the purpose of establishing a library. Perhaps he recalled how much his father had enjoyed reading during his lifetime or perhaps he was aware of efforts to raise funds for a village library. In any case, his gift resulted in the creation of the Seymour Library located in his family home.

Epilogue 2013
The Seymour Library is now located in a newly built, larger building but the former Seymour home houses both the village offices and the Emily L. Knapp Museum of Local History, including its collection of historic books, artifacts and records.
History written by Carol L. Hannan, March 2013

Editor's Note: The Brockporter Historic House of the Week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine. It is made possible by the research and writing skills of Carol Hannan and the production services of Pam Ketchum. It appears on the Brockporter most Tuesdays. The Historic Houses of Brockport can also be viewed at www.probrockport.org.

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The Brockporter Historic House Of The Week - 47 Park Avenue

47 Park Avenue, Brockport, New York
© Copyright by Carol L. Hannan – March 2013. All rights reserved.

Moses Aaron and Alexina Alverta Colestock Keller
Owners/Builders(?): 1879 to 1886
According to its current owners, 47 Park Avenue is a circa 1880's house. That belief coincides with the arrival in Brockport of Moses and Alexina Keller, who moved here from Ohio. Moses, a very successful inventor, sold his foundry, moved briefly to Ohio and then relocated here to work for the Johnston Harvester Company as a “machinist,” inventing agricultural equipment. After the fire that prompted the departure of his employer from Brockport, sadly, Moses and his family also relocated to Batavia, New York.

Moses Aaron Keller was born in York, Pennsylvania to Jacob and Sophia Keller; one of their sixteen children. His father was a farmer but Moses’ inventive talents used his farm experiences to gain employment and great financial success in a different way. Beginning in the 1860s, he was granted numerous patents, especially for farm implements, such as a gleaning and grain-binding machine in 1879 and a grain-binder in 1880, both invented while his family was living in Brockport.

After leaving employment with the harvester company, Moses continued perfecting a wide variety of inventions, such as bicycle brakes, for the remainder of his life. Although he described his occupation in the 1880 census as a “machinist,” Moses was truly a gifted inventor.

Moses married Alexina Colestock, the daughter of Johannes “John” and Harriet Little Comstock. The Comstock family, of German origin, had lived in Pennsylvania for generations. The older Keller children were baptized in the Littestown, Pennsylvania St. John’s Evangelical Luthern Church but several of the children attended the Methodist-Episcopal Church in Batavia.

Like his parents, Moses had a large family of twelve children: Allen Percival, Miriam E., Ida Mae, Bessie Colestock, John Reynold, Amibel F., Franklin Rowland, Russell Judson, Maude Arlene and her twin Moses Arthur, Ruth A. and Earl Emerson. Franklin, Russell, Maude and Moses were born during the time period the family lived in Brockport. Allen became a taxidermist, Arthur an attorney and Earl an artist but there were no inventors in that generation.

Profoundly deaf by age 54, Moses was riding his bicycle and demonstrating its newly invented brake near Seneca Falls, when, crossing railroad tracks, he was struck and instantly killed by a train. A patent was granted for the bicycle brakes after his death. The income from that and his other inventions apparently supported Moses’ widow and her single daughters for the rest of their lives, as they never had outside employment. None of the Keller family members are buried in or near Brockport.

                                                             1871 Brockport Village map

Francis T. and Sarah A. Hovey Sparlin
Owners: 1886 to 1918/19
Fransic “Frank” Sparlin, a farmer, owned land just to the north of Beadle Road and acreage north-west of Brockport. His mother’s name was Cynthia and her maiden name was Tyler. She was widowed by age 40 and living with Timothy Tyler, one of the first Sweden Township pioneers. In the Brockport Cemetery is the gravestone of Cynthia T. Sparlin, infant daughter of Alson and Cynthia. The “T” in their firstborn child’s name likely stood for “Tyler.” Cynthia’s youngest child, Alson, was born after her husband’s death. Sarah Hovey was the daughter of Ebenezer and Nancy A. Treat Hovey. Her maternal grandfather, Charles Treat, served in the Revolutionary War and Anson Sparlin, likely Alson’s father, also served in the war. Both Treat and Sparlin moved to this area very early in its history. This couple had impeccable pioneer and patriotic roots.

The Sparlins had two children. Ezra, a graduate of Brockport Normal and the University of Rochester, earned a doctorate and became a school teacher and Principal. Emma Ella Sparlin married Arthur O’Dell. Neith stayed in Brockport but Ezra began and ended his professional life in nearby Rochester.

The Sparlins lived a quiet life. Francis was elected assessor several times on the Republican ticket. His farming earned him a brief moment of fame in 1911, when newspapers throughout the state published an account of his apples, which “were baked on the tree by the intense heat” and then exhibited in a village store window. Sarah outlived her husband and spent the last several years of her life alone in their home, which was then number 14 Park Avenue. She and her husband are buried in the Brockport Cemetery.

When you next pass the large, beautiful stained glass windows at the front of the United Methodist Church at the corner of Main and Erie Streets, pause to enjoy them; then think of Francis and Sarah and know that the windows were donated by Ezra Merton Sparlin in memory of his parents. The Sparlins continue to enrich our village in a way they never imagined during their lifetimes.

William C. and Molly Mc Claskey
Owners: 1918/19 to about 1926
After the death of Sarah Sparlin, this house was sold to William C. Mc Claskey and his wife Molly. He was born in California; she in Pennsylvania, where the first four of their children were also born. Their parentage in unknown.

Newspaper accounts mention that the McClaskeys lived in Medina, New York, for a time before moving to Brockport but no record of them there could be found. McClaskey was the eastern regional sales manager for Reeves Manufacturing Company of Dover, Ohio. The company produced irons and other kitchen products that were sold worldwide. He was a successful businessman who employed a live-in servant at his village home.

In 1926, Mc Claskey partnered with Fred Hawes to purchase the Burhans and Black commercial/retail hardware store located in Syracuse. This was no small transaction, as
it involved a million dollars in assets. The Mc Claskeys soon moved to Syracuse, where William became treasurer and later president of the company. At a better time in the nation’s history, the company may have flourished, but as with many others, the Great Depression was its doom.

Maxwell R. (Rudolph?) and Anna May Jerige Karge
Owners: about 1926 to mid-1940s
Maxwell Karge was the son of Rudolph Maximillian and Ludwika (Louisa) Karge, Austrian natives who came to the United States in 1905. Maxwell would have been about 17 years old when he arrived in New York City. Like his father, Maxwell was a “machinist.” He lived near Oswego and then Syracuse before moving to this area. Anna May’s parentage is unknown.

As with so many of Brockport’s residents, Maxwell was a prolific inventor who was granted numerous patents during his lifetime, beginning in the 1920s and for many successive decades after that. He owned, individually or with sons Maxwell, Jr. and/or Gustave, several businesses, including Monroe Refrigeration Engineering Co., first located on South avenue, as well as Karge & Son(s), a machine company. Their first company produced ice cream making equipment, refrigerators and electric milk coolers which were marketed directly to farmers, restaurants and the general public. The Karge companies variously produced not only refrigeration equipment, but made-to-order metal products and gifts, the patented Karge fishing rod and reel, general machine shop products, and the patented linear bearing of their Turnomat Company. The Karge machine shop was at 80 Clinton Street and the building still bears the name Karge on the door.

According to the 1940s census, Maxwell Karge had moved to Seneca Parkway in Rochester. He returned to Brockport by 1944, but not to 47 Park Avenue. Karge’s Turnomat Company, located at the Clinton Street machine shop produced his linear bearing, but due to its tremendous success and an overwhelming demand, which his company couldn’t meet, Maxwell sold the company and the patent.
Maxwell and his wife are buried in the family plot at Lakeview Cemetery, Sweden Township, along with his parents, brother Walter J. and daughter Anna Mae. His family still has a presence in Brockport. The Turnomat Company produces fixed and linear motion bearings and slides in Wakarusa, Indiana.

George Herbert and Lillian May Mastian Lester
Owners: mid-1940s to unknown
George Herbert Lester, son of village residents Julian and Emma Lester, was born in Brockport and grew up at 85 State Street, just around the corner from what is now number 47 Park Avenue. He was better known as Herbert G. Lester throughout his lifetime. Lester graduated in 1916 from the parochial school of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Brockport. He and Lillian May Bastian, daughter of Wilhelm “William” and Augusta Epke Bastian, German natives, were married in 1936.

For those familiar with notable Brockport families, the name Lester will be well known. After graduating from law school in Buffalo, “Herbert G.” joined the family law firm of Lester & Lester and spent his entire career as a practicing local attorney. In 1931, he was selected by the New York Attorney General to be the special prosecuting attorney in charge of agricultural and market violations. His brother, “Nat O.” had also held a special prosecuting attorney appointment in state government.

The Lester family lived in this home until it was sold to the present owners in May of 1999. Herbert died in 1986 and Lillian died in 1991. They are buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Brockport with their daughter Nancy Jean, who, unfortunately, died as a young child.

Epilogue 2013
This home sits on property that once belonged to the original lot of the house next door at 41 Park Avenue. Although very old, it is actually one of the newer houses on the street.
A large, impressive house, it has been extensively renovated by the current owners, who most recently constructed a porch across the front of the home. Interestingly, the new porch replaces one of similar design but smaller size that originally graced the front of the home. We know this because the original porch can be glimpsed in a historic photograph of Park Avenue. Also new to the property is a picket fence that surrounds the front yard. As it has been in the past, it remains a single family home today, adding to the ambience created by other, nearby homes which have also been lovingly maintained on one of our more prestigious village streets.

Editor's note: 47 Park Avenue is currently owned by Mark Rice and Ann Panning, is zoned as a singe family residence, and is assessed at $153,000.00.

The Brockporter Historic House of the Week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears most Tuesdays, and is made possible by the research and writing of Carol Hannan and the production of Pam Ketchum. The historic houses of Brockport can also be seen on the Pro Brockport web site at www.probrockport.org.

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Coming tomorrow - The Brockporter Historic House of The Week - 47 Park Avenue

47 Park Avenue, Brockport, NY 14420

Click on image to enlarge for easier viewing.

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The Brockporter Historic House Of The Week - 41 Park Avenue

© Copyright by Carol L. Hannan – February 2013. All rights reserved.

Abel and Lydia Morgan Gifford
Owners/builders (?): 1829 to 1860
A house was built on this lot long prior to the first village map in 1852 but it was definitely not the expansive Victorian we see today, nor was it a Park Avenue home. When first built, the house was a story and a half structure with post and beam construction facing State Street. Its footprint was a simple rectangle. Such was this home’s very early and humble beginning.

The Gifford family came here from Herkimer, New York, between 1810 and 1820. These true pioneers settled in what was then Sweden, Genesee County. In 1829, Abel purchased the Brockport lot from James Seymour, who may or may not have already erected that first modest house. Gifford was the son of James and Susannah Hubbard Gifford. Lydia Morgan, his wife, was the daughter of Amos and Sarah Welch Morgan, also early settlers in this area. They were related to the family of Brockport millionaire Dayton S. Morgan.

Detailed records of very early residents, unfortunately, are few and far between. We know that Abel and Lydia had a number of children, both boys and girls; some born in Herkimer. The names and fate of the Gifford children are unknown.

Abel was a member of the county Board of Canvassers as a Sweden representative in 1827. He was a farmer. Abel died in 1839 and was buried in the Brockport Cemetery. By his last will and testament, he conveyed lifetime use of the village property to his widow, Lydia. Although Milton Randall’s name appeared on an 1821 village map, which usually indicated ownership of a property, legal title to the house had apparently not been transferred to Lydia’s nephew. The elderly Lydia, however, lived with Milton and his family during that time period and there was undoubtedly some sort of arrangement in place; the details of which are unclear. Also puzzling is the lack of involvement of any of Lydia’s children. They may have moved away or preceded her in death. After Lydia’s death in 1865, sale of the house to the next owner, James Whelan, mentioned Milton’s indebtedness, with interest, to his late aunt’s estate.

Following Lydia Gifford’s death, Milton sold his farm and moved to Kansas. He was the last of his family to leave the area, as his father and brothers, Maynard and twin Morgan had moved to Illinois years earlier. Lydia was laid to rest beside her husband in the Brockport Cemetery. Milton’s mother, Laura Morgan Randall, his young sister, Betsey, along with Laura’s Revolutionary War veteran father, Amos Morgan, are buried in East Lake Cemetery, Sweden Township.

James and Harmony Anderson Whelan
Owners: 1865 until 1873/74
James Whelan, the son of Silas and Betsey Kimball Whelan, was a grocer with a store on Main Street. His wife, Harmony Anderson, was the daughter of Deacon Seneca and Lucy Webb Anderson, early settlers in Le Roy, Genesee County. James and Harmony had three children, two of whom, unfortunately, died at a young age. Francene and William B. are buried in the West Sweden Cemetery along with their Whelan grandparents.

There is no indication that James participated in civic endeavors while a resident of Brockport. His father-in-law was a Baptist Deacon but if James and his wife had a religious affiliation, it is unknown.

By 1871, James had given up the grocery store and was working as a salesman in Rochester, although he and his family continued to live in the State Street house at least until1873. The family moved to Comfort Street in Rochester by 1875.

After James died in 1892 his widow moved back to Le Roy, Genesee County, where her family lived. Sometime between 1907 and 1910, Harmony returned to Brockport to live with her nephew Erastus Kniffen and his family on Park Avenue. She died in 1911 at the Hahnemann hospital in Rochester, the last surviving member of her immediate family, as the 1910 Federal Census states that of her three children, none were living. The burial location of James, Harmony and their son James F. is unknown.

Cornelia S. Sutphen White
Owner: after 1880 to 1901
Cornelia Sutphen, the widow of successful Sweden farmer Chauncey S. White, purchased this property at some point after her husband’s death from Typhoid pneumonia in 1880, meaning that an unknown owner likely purchased the property from James and Harmony Whelan.

Cornelia, the daughter of Peter and Martha Sutphen, was born in the Town of Sweden in 1818. She and her husband, who lived on the road that bears their name, had no children. Chauncey S. White was a successful and well-to-do farmer when he passed away, thus leaving his widow with a very comfortable inheritance on which to live the remainder of her life. At some time after her husband’s death, Cornelia bought the State Street property before selling it in 1901 and moving to Brooklyn to live with a niece.

It was during this approximate time period that the home was substantially enlarged and changed in style. Gone was the simple early dwelling. In its place is the grand Victorian Park Avenue home which stands on the corner today. The large windows, the impressive mahogany staircase that winds down from the second floor, the bay windows, the expansive front and side porch and decorative exterior trim no doubt impress passer-byes just as they were intended to do “back in the day.” Although there is no known documentation to prove conclusively that Cornelia White transformed this home, it is certain she had the funds to make those changes. We shouldn’t forget, too, that this area of Brockport was a very prestigious one. Many wealthy residents and/or society leaders called this area of the village “home.” Perhaps the prospect of joining the social and financial elite of the village appealed to Cornelia. In any case, by 1902, according to a village map, the house had been transformed and reoriented to face Park Avenue.

Cornelia died at her Brooklyn home in 1911 at age 94. Many decades after the death of her husband Chauncey she left a considerable estate to her nieces and nephews as well as the thousands of dollars to the neighborhood Presbyterian Church in which she was active. Cornelia’s body was returned to rest beside her late husband in Beach Ridge Cemetery.

Willis Curtis and Mary Ellen Williams Cook:
Owners: 1901 to about 1911
Willis Curtis Cook, an allopath physician and graduate of Toledo Medical College, lived and practiced on King Street before moving to this stately Victorian home on Park Avenue. He was the son of Curtis and Betsey Snow Brown Cook and the grandson of Lemuel Cook, a Revolutionary War soldier and one of the last surviving veterans of that conflict when he died in Clarendon at the age of 107. The Cooks married in Michigan, moved to Holley and then to Brockport. They had five children, Jay Willis, Curtis Lemuel, Karl Ruthven, Frank William and one daughter, Lenoyr Cook Philbrook.

Although born in this area, Willis Cook served in the Civil War in Company D, 13th Michigan Infantry and re-enlisted in Company E, 9th Michigan Cavalry. His grandfather lived long enough to know of Willis’ part in saving the country he fought to create, and Lemuel was quoted as declaring that although the conflict was terrible, “,,, the rebellion must be put down.” Beginning in 1887, Willis collected a pension based on his military service.

Cook served as Brockport’s health officer for a number of years beginning in 1896. After his wife died in 1902 of a protracted illness, he shared the Park Avenue home with his granddaughter Lenore, sister-in-law Mary and niece May. He died suddenly in Albion while visiting his married granddaughter. Frank W. Cook spent the remainder of his life in Brockport and organized the first Boy Scout troop here. Son Karl struck out on his own at a very early age and eventually became a wealthy ex-patriot mine and landowner in Mexico, dying there at age 101 in 1964, having outlived the rest of the immediate family by many years, but several years short of the impressive longevity record of his great grandfather. The Cook family burial plot is in Lakeview Cemetery, Town of Sweden.

Perry A. and Lottie S. Murphy Smith
Owners: about 1911 to 1935
Perry A. and Lottie Smith bought the house at 41 Park Avenue for the sum of $5,000. They moved there with daughters Winnifred Doris and Gladys Marietta, their oldest daughter Ethyl having died in 1899. Also living with the family was Perry’s unmarried sister, Lucy Smith. Earlier in their married life, his grandmother Marietta lived with the family. Perry was the son of Sweden Township farmer George L. and his wife Mary Jane. He was a third generation “Perry” in the Smith family, named after his grandfather, Perry J., a veteran of the War of 1812 or perhaps for his great grandfather, Perry G., a Revolutionary War veteran. Lottie Murphy’s parentage is unknown.

Although he and his family moved to the village, Perry was a farmer his entire life, just like his father. While his uncle Henry E. organized a company during the Civil War and another uncle, Dayton, was the supervisor of the reaper factory, Perry A. lived a quiet life and unremarkable life as far as we know.

The Great Depression brought misfortune to the Smith family, which was bankrupted and saw their long-time home sold at a foreclosure auction held on its front steps on 1935. With their unmarried daughter Gladys, they moved to Rochester, where Gladys, a Brockport Normal graduate, worked in the public schools. In death, Perry, “Lottie” and Gladys returned to Sweden, as they were buried in Lakeview Cemetery along with their extended family, once again close to the farm where the Smiths had once settled so many years before.

Epilogue 2013
This original lot was, like so many others, divided many years ago making room for two additional homes, one to the east on State Street and one to the south on Park Avenue. A barn was built on the south eastern corner of the property between the publication of the 1872 and 1902 village maps. It was still standing in 1935 when the property was auctioned but only remnants of the foundation exist today.

The owner who bought this house at the foreclosure auction in 1935 is unknown. Since then, the property has changed hands quite a few times. It’s now a multi-family rental.

Editor's note: 41 Park Avenue is currently owned by Kevin J. McCarthy, is zoned multi-family, and is assessed at $97,300.00. The Brockporter Histroric House of the Week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears most Tuesdays and made possible by the research and writing of Carol Hannan and the production of Pam Ketchum. The historic houses of Brockport can also be seen on the ProBrockport web site at www.probrockport.org

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Brockporter Historic House of The Week - 34 Utica Street

From Wikipedia:

Hiel Brockway was a native of Lyme, Connecticut and came to Clarkson, New York shortly after the War of 1812. Upon arrival, he built and operated a tavern. He was a town builder and the first citizen of the village that bears his name. Seizing the opportunity offered by the canal, he speculated the land by building many of the first houses. Brockway owned a brickyard which produced most of the material for their construction. He also owned a shipyard and later operated a packet service on the canal.

Brockway and Seymour, both civic and business minded, donated land for the construction of schools and churches. It was Brockway that contributed the land for the original campus. Shrewd and industrious, but a man of foresight and vision, the founder of Brockport, New York was typical of, and pre-eminent among, the New England immigrants who were the first settlers in the area.

Already in the prime of life and father of thirteen children when his village was settled, Hiel Brockway continued to reside in Brockport until his death in 1842.

Editor's note: 34 Utica Street is currently owned by Daniel and Sarah Kuhn, is zoned singe family residential, and is assessed at $120,400.00. The Brockporter Historic house of the week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears most Tuesdays. The historic houses of Brockport can also be seen at www.probrockport.org.

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The Brockporter Historic House Of The Week - 24 Park Avenue

24 Park Avenue, Brockport, New York
History researched and written by Carol L. Hannan, January 2013
© Copyright by Carol L. Hannan – January 2013. All rights reserved.

Arthur Burton “A. B.” and Wilhelmina “Minnie” Kelsoe Elwell
Owners/builders (?): between 1915/1918 to 1940+
There remain on Park Avenue, many homes built early in Brockport’s history. This house is not one of them. It was constructed not too long after the turn of the twentieth century on a lot “carved out” from the back yard of the home at the corner of Park Avenue and State Street, 57 State Street. Whether “A. B.” and his wife Minnie had the home built or whether they bought it as new construction is unknown. By 1918, they resided here with their three children, according to the local rural directory, which identified the house as number 6 Park Avenue. “Minnie” Kelso Elwell was a Hamlin, N. Y. native of German origin.

Arthur Burton Elwell was a native of Brockport, the son of George and “Georgie” Elwell, who also lived on Park Avenue. Included in the 1918 directory was the occupation of both father and son. They were commercial painters, and although A. B. made his living as a house painter his entire life, he had another abiding interest which will continue to impact Brockport forever.

A.B. was a local historian and early amateur photographer. His articles, published as editorials between 1954 and 1956 in the Brockport-Republic, covered a variety of topics and were infused with his recollections of residents and times past. He also authored the “History of Brockport with Vicinity Happenings 1826 – 1956: Also Biographies of Prominent Men of the Past.” Thank you, A. B.

Minnie and A. B. had two daughters and a son, Merritt S. Elwell, who carried on the family tradition of interest in Brockport’s past. His collection of historic postcards was donated to the Seymour Library in Brockport and he worked at the local museum.

In 1942, Minnie died suddenly and unexpectedly of a stroke. She and A. B., who died in 1990, are buried in the Brockport Cemetery.

1902 Village Map before property was subdivided from Van Eps State Street property.

Epilogue 2013
This lovely old home is owned and occupied by direct relatives of the original owners. What are the odds? Now in its second century, this is literally a historic, single family home.

Editor's note: 24 Park Avenue is currently owned by Lillian Elwell, is zoned single family residential, and  is assessed at $81,300. The Brockporter Historic House Of The Week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears most Tuesdays and is made possible by the research and writing of Carol Hannan and the production assistance of Pam Ketchum. The historic houses of Brockport can also be seen at the ProBrockport web site at www.probrockport.org

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The Brockporter Historic House Of The Week - 16 Park Avenue

16 Park Avenue, Brockport, New York

History researched and written by Carol L. Hannan © Copyright by Carol L. Hannan – January 2013. All rights reserved.

Calvin C. and Mary Ann Robbins Lyman
Owners/builders: probably 1840s to 1875
Calvin C. Lyman, a farmer, was the son of David and Flavia Collins Lyman. Having left his home in Connecticut by 1830, the whereabouts of the Lyman family was unknown until they settled in this area by 1840. Calvin was an early landowner in the village. One village historian credited him with the building of this home at what was then 2 Mechanic Street, which was identified as his residence on an 1852 village map. Mary Ann Robbins, Calvin’s wife, was also born in Connecticut but her parentage is unknown.

Mary Ann and Calvin had four children: Emily E., George C., Mary J. and Sarah. All but Emily were definitely born after coming to Brockport. Supporting documentation couldn’t be found, but it’s certainly possible that Calvin, as reported in a biographical sketch, was prominent in civic affairs and served on the board of the Brockport Collegiate Institute. Lyman Street is reportedly named for this family, which owned land north of the canal.

The Genealogy of the Lyman Family in Great Britain and America notes the role religion had in Calvin’s life. “He was converted at the early age of 12 years, but soon relapsed into a state of indifference, and remained so until his last sickness, when he was fully restored to the divine favor, and his son George C., writes that he died happy, perfectly resigned to the will of heaven, assured of eternal life hereafter.” Ironically, Calvin reportedly had an essential role in the conversion of his father a great many years before his own death, when he appealed to his father to save himself before he perished.

According to the 1860 Special Agricultural Schedule, Calvin owned 46 acres of improved and 20 acres of unimproved farmland, which in total was worth about $5,000. He owned 3 horses, 2 milch cows and 2 swine, livestock which was then worth $3000 and he had produced 80 bushels of wheat that year. After he died in 1868, Calvin’s widow, Mary Ann, served as executrix of the estate and paid slightly more than $5,000 in legacies, on which she owned $38.15 in taxes.

Mary Ann lived until 1875. Her name was recorded on the 1872 village map as still living in what had been the family home for at least two decades. The youngest Lyman daughter, Sarah S., died two years before her mother. Mary was last known to be living with her sister and brother-in-law, Charles Perry, in Clarkson. She died in 1910. George C. was working as a New York City real estate broker in 1910, three years before his death. Calvin, Mary Ann, Mary J., Sarah and Emily Lyman Perry are buried in the Brockport Cemetery.

Dayton Samuel and Susan M. Joslyn Morgan
Owners: probably 1875 to about 1921
The estate of Dayton Samuel Morgan, a self-made Brockport millionaire well-known to many residents as a partner of Seymour and Morgan, the manufacturer of reapers, was identified with this property on a 1902 village map. During the time between the death of Mary Ann Lyman and the purchase of the property by long-term owner Margaret Peshmann, the house was apparently occupied as a rental. Morgan, obviously never lived there.

Two likely tenants were, first, village grocer John R. Davis, who later purchased his own home on the renamed Park Avenue and then (James?) Thomas Tobin, a cooper. Tobin, an Irish immigrant and his wife, who was also born in Ireland, had some sort of working relationship with John Corbett, a fellow Irish-born resident, who built and owned a cooper shop in the location of Corbett Park, which obviously takes its name from the former owner. Whether Tobin and Corbett were full partners or Tobin was an employee of Corbett’s is unclear.

Margaret A. Peshmann
Owner: about 1921 to 1961
Margaret A. Peshmann, the widow of Dr. Henry W. A. Peshmann, both German immigrants, was a long-term owner of this home, according to several sources, including a published obituary and multiple census documents. What is confusing, however, is why on a 1924 village map, the property is clearly identified as being owned by the Henry Harrison Company. Maps aren’t immune to printing errors and the weight of information leads us to believe that Margaret owned and lived in the home, which by now was number 16 Park Avenue, with her sons, Karl and Adelbert.

Margaret A. Peshmann had a busy life after the death of her physician husband. Although she collected a widow’s pension based on her husband’s service in the Spanish-American War, she also engaged in a number of occupations to support herself and her children. She ran, perhaps as an owner, a “Cash Variety Shop” in Hulberton, then worked as a grocery clerk and a dress and hosiery saleslady after coming to Brockport. Shortly after her husband’s death, she ran a “political ad” in the Holley Standard, calling on all her late husband’s patients and friends of both parties to elect her town clerk, as “I need the office.” Ambition wasn’t only her providence – son Karl graduated as a chemistry major from Cornell University. Private Adelbert “Del” Peshmann served in the military during World War II. In a 1943 edition of the Brockport Republic Democrat, he wrote of hearing from friends; wishing that he could “get one more look at Brockport.” His wish was granted. Del returned here to live the remainder of his life until he passed away in 1983.

Margaret died at her home at 16 Park Avenue in 1961 and was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Holley, where her husband was interred forty years earlier.

Epilogue 2013
The original Lyman lot on the corner of Market and Mechanic Streets has been divided at least twice. On the larger parcel to the north of the original house is a small strip mall/apartment building. A house was built to the south. At one time, a large barn occupied the south west corner of the lot. It’s no longer standing.

The house itself is now a rental but remains a single family home. The interior was extensively renovated by a recent owner.

Editor's note: 16 Park Avenue is currently owned by Ronald Case, is zoned single family and is assessed at $115,900.

The Brockporter Historic House Of The Week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears most Tuesdays. It is researched and written by Carol Hannan and produced by Pam Ketchum. The historic houses of Brockport also appears on the Pro-Brockport web site at www.ProBrockport.com.

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