By 1848 there were no longer two separate settlements, Fayette and Silver Creek Harbour. The two consolidated into one unified village, Silver Creek, so called from the creek which derived its name originally from the Indians, who, having to cross it to enter the village from the reservation, were ever conscious of the silvery reflections of the sky through the water. 1848 was a proud year for Silver Creek with its history-making incorporation. The members of the first Village Board were early settlers who had contributed their best to developing the settlement to its present size and importance. Noah Snow was honored by his appointment as the first president. He was a partner of Oliver Lee, a man of extensive business experience and connected with many enterprises. Charles Lee was chosen for his valuable business experience with his father’s lake commerce and his public spirit and benev olent generosity. George Tew, the first banker, was chosen for his financial knowledge and experience. Judge Elisha Ward was needed for his legal guidance and judicial opinion. Major Swift was chosen for his knowledge of people’s needs and opinions as he often heard them expressed over his store counter. Abiathar Gates, Jr., who owned and successfully operated a shoe peg factory was chosen not only for his good business judgment, but for his sincerity and integrity. These were the men who laid the foundation for the town it is today.

Close upon the incorporation of the village was the coming of the first railroad the “Buffalo and State Line” connecting the state with Pennsylvania. By 1852, it was in operation with Charles M. Lee, first vice president. This was to develop into the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, an important railroad which later was to become the all important New York Central. Its influence upon the life of the town cannot be over estimated.

A second line soon followed. The New York and Pennsylvania was to become The Pennsylvania with all its subsidiaries; while the third, the Nickle Plate, now the Norfolk & Western, not too long after added its tracks to the scene. Mr. Lee could no longer from his home have looked out over the wide open spaces upon his harbour and the wide expanse of lake. Trestles and railroad embankments with their arches now rose up to cut off the scene entirely. It was a totally different world with Silver Creek, a once isolated little settlement, now a part of it.

With three lines operating, it is easy to realize how lake commerce could dwindle and disappear entirely. After the government discontinued the operation of the light House, Mr. Lee’s once thriving wharf lay idle, its timbers silently rotting away.

The “Age of the Railroad” was the beginning of a new era for the whole country, and Silver Creek had its full share of excitement and benefits. The town was put to it to accomodate the hordes of workmen the laying of the railroads involved, and native children were to see their first foreigners. One gang of Finnish excavators were camped in Blanding’s Hollow; another of Italian stone cutters were encamped near the arches, while the Polish and the Irish were everywhere in great numbers, some, like the O’Connors, to stay permanently, enriching Silver Creek’s future with its fifth generation.

It was during this construction period that the Skew Arch was built, one of the world’s most famous engineering feat’s, according to an atlas of the 1880’s. The Arch was designed and erected by a deaf and dumb Frenchman and brought Silver Creek to world attention.

Gone were the picturesque days of the oxcart, covered wagon and swaying stage coach. “The Lee House”, the first railroad hotel, built parallel to the tracks which it bordered, had supplanted the “Blue Eagle” (53 Main) of such a short time before. The railroads had, with their clanging bells, shrill whistles and trailing clouds of smoke, ushered in this thrilling new era which was to be one of continued progress and great prosperity for the newly incorporated village.

The prosperity was not attributable entirely to the advent of the railroads; there were other factors at work. From the earliest shipping days when grain began pouring in from the West, different mechanically-minded local men had been endeavoring to develop a grain cleaning machine. The most successful experiment was that of Mr. Huntley. His “Bran Duster” was patented, but after a number of machines had been returned because of faulty performance, the patent was cancelled. Finally in 1852 the smut machine of Alpheus Babcock proved completely successful, and a new industry was born. This first smut machine was built by Ezekial Montgomery in his creek side machine shop on Howard Street with the inventor, Alpheus Babcock, and the financial sponsor, Simeon Howes, hovering over him. “Eureka”, shouted Simeon Howes, as the crucial moment of testing arrived; and the machine worked as perfectly as the model. Six machines were made and marketed that first year and double that number the second.

The “Eureka” Shop was built and ready to meet the exciting orders in 1856 which marks the birth of an industry that was to become world wide and win for Silver Creek the reputation it still holds of being the world center of the grain cleaning machine industry. The original shop which opened with fourteen workers still stands, dominating the center of town. “The Sun Never Sets on the Eureka Machine’ holds as true today as in earlier times.

Two other grain machine shops sprang up, each with its own inventions as successful as the original Babcock model making Silver Creek the world center of the grain cleaning machinery industry. The Huntley and Hammond plant was known as the “Monitor” which name was given its product, and its location was at the foot of Oak Hill covering all the flat section between the creek and the slope. After the death of Mr. Hammond the business moved to Brocton where buildings and shipping facilities were more convenient.

The “Excelsior” works occupied the property at the foot of Main Street, now used as municipal parking space. The “Excelsior” machines had been welt accepted by the milling world, and the business was as successful as the “Monitor” and the original “Eureka”. The “Invincible” came into the possession of the Eureka Company as the owners Mr. Grasho, Elgin Keith and Chauncey Lanphere aged and were unable to carry on. The S. Howes Company is the only one of the original industries remaining today.

Upon the death of Mr. Howes in 1892, the business was sold to Louis Everett Barbeau, manager of the S. Howes branch plant of Hull, England. In this family it remained for three generations. The business was again sold in 1967, but the S. Howes name has been retained, and its volume business has steadily increased. In 1856 one machine, the original Alpheus Babcock invention, was being made, but now over one hundred fifty different models are being manufactured. For one hundred seventeen years the S. Howes shop has dominated the industrial scene of Silver Creek.

The seventies and eighties, the years of growing industry, were the horse and carriage days where watering troughs, hitching posts, carriage steps and blacksmith shops were an ever present part of the village scene. These years marked the coming of the earliest German settlers who chose for locating to overlook the lake. By 1884 their numbers made it possible for the building of the Trinity Lutheran Church which observes its nintieth anniversary next year.

From 1856 through the sixties, seventies, and eighties prosperity expressed itself in many ways, the Victorian brick house becoming the status symbol of that day.  The first Victorian house, built in 1874, was the home of Alpheus Babcock, where Frances Chapman Watson, a great niece, was born and which later became the well known Livermore home (151 Central). The second was built by Norman Hitchcock on Main Street where the Babcock Avenue School now is. This became the Barbeau home for three generations when Mr. Barbeau purchased the property as well as the S. Howes business. The third home, known as the Malcomb Barbeau home (the oldest son) was built by Simeon Howes in 1878 and is pictured in atlases of earlier days. The yellow brick house at the top of Central Avenue facing the Denny house was built by Mr. Holcomb, one of the original owners of the Monitor works.

The nineties will go down in history for the advent of two new elements of interest which were to take on proportions and prominence with the years: the grape industry and the Italian immigration.

There were no vineyards within the village, but certain Silver Creek businessmen were daring enough to risk the experiment. Charles Horton was the first vineyard owner, setting out one on Middle Road (Andrus today) just beyond the “Friday Home”. Al Paine was the second, on land adjoining the Hortons. Mr. Keloway set out a vineyard at the top of Burgess Street, and Frank Stewart set out his, adjacent to his own property, parallel to the Ward Avenue of today. The Grape Harvest Festival testifies to the importance of those early ventures. The Honorable George Towne (grandfather of Judge Lee Adams) and partner, Judge Wade of Jamestown at one time owned the largest vineyard in Chautauqua County, twelve rows o which were a mile long. This was in the Alleghany Road vicinity and was manage by his daughters and the Orr boys after Mr. Towne’s death. The grape-picker would suggest the scope of today’s business and its effect upon today’s economy.

In 1893 came the first permanent Italians, Mr. Mangano and his oldest son Gus. Their shoe repair shop was opened in the building today known as “Smith’s”. Gus attended school by day, assisting his father and keeping house behind the shop. In the spring of another year came the family, and that was the beginning of the ltalian population. The earliest families following the Mangano’s were the Vara’s, Mondo’s and DeAngelo’s.

The nineties were the bicycle days and as gay as elsewhere the country over. Bicycle racks were now in front of every place of business, especially the old Silver Creek House and Windsor Hotel. People peddled to business and to market over bicycle paths laid out on the main thoroughfares and between connecting villages. Bicycle suits and socks and shrill whistles with lapel chains prevailed while the Bicycle Club and bicycle races were the ruling interest. Fred Thomas, the pioneer insurance agent and editor of the Silver Creek Gazette, headed this club for its duration.

With the nineties came the arc street lights with Jack Wier cleaning globes and replacing carbons, followed by a train of juvenile followers to retrieve the discarded treasures. Gone were the kerosene burning lampposts of Mr. Colberg’s and Anderson’s day, their little ladders on their backs. With the nineties came the first soda fountain. Montgomery & Talcott’s store with its home-made syrups made heaven seem second class.

With the nineties came the foot bridge connecting the two parts of town and the telephone in 1894 with Susie Blanding presiding over the switchboard which connected all parts of town. Two long distance phones were established, one in the Silver Creek House and one in Montgomery & Talcott’s Store. A third major mark of progress was the construction of a reservoir in 1896. In this year the lines were Iaid in the village and piped throughout. Gone were the pump and privy and in came the faucets and all the niceties of the bathroom. The Water Board became a most important factor in the village life and affairs.

Steady, even prosperity held through the years; people living by the shop whistles, walking or bicycling to work, hoeing in their gardens, chatting with neighbors after their ten hour working day was over, going with their families to the band concerts in the park Saturday evenings and church on Sundays, in happy contentment, with trains running steady accompaniment in the back ground. It was a good, good life and so gone!

With the new century came a new mode of transportation: the trolley, the it & L. E. (Buffalo and Erie) which made its maiden tour from Erie to Buffalo on December 24, 1908. Its brick station, with Vincent Train as station agent, became an important point of activity on lower Main Street where the gas office now stand Many county movements came into existance with the trolley, which rattled and clanged up Silver Creek’s Main Street in its day. The trolley gave a great impetus to education. Young people could now attend the Fredonia Normal and train for teaching while living at home, while others could go to the University of Buffalo for higher education.

The most direct effect of the trolley on Silver Creek was the opening of Hanford Bay and Sunset Bay with their beautiful but practically inaccessible beaches. Certain enterprising, nature-loving citizens, including the names of Stewart, Dr. Hunt and Charles Schumacher, owner of the Silver Creek Canning Company, built crude cottages on Dahms Beach. Now there was a way of getting there, and others were quick to follow. The old Dahms, Moran, Hanford and Dickinson farms became the thickly populated summer colony of Hanford Bay, as did the historic Cattarauaus Creek fishing village which is now Sunset Bay. Without the trolley the town would not have had long years of benefits, nor would it have had the happy memories of Lena Wright’s Tea Room when it was the center of Silver Creek’s social life. Dunn this trolley period the trains on the three lines were running at high speed, but the trolley was taking care of the inter-urban travellers. Going to Buffalo now was mentioned casually as “running into town”. No one thought of taking the train.

1908 marks a new era with the discovery of natural gas. An experimental well had been drilled on the lake side of the railroad embankment behind the present Firemen’s Club House, and it did yield some gas. Encouraged by this, another well was drilled on the Thomas property. This proved to be a gusher, giving assurance of certain that this was a gas territory. Out went the kitchen range, the base burner, the kerosene lamps, the coal ashes and chicken wing that dusted off the coal ashes, and in came the gas lights, stoves and furnaces. The village basked in this new luxury but… what a mess it made while the lines were being laid!

During this general period a new, unbelievable element began to appear in the form of the horseless carriage. Mr. Porter’s homemade affair with its electrical system installed by Newton Bock actually worked -- that is, on the level. It couldn’t climb the Main Street hill, had to back down Main Street to base, but it worked, and the whole town came out to see. On that bright Sunday morning trolleys were running, gas had been discovered, and a horseless carriage had travelled Main Street. What other wonders did the new century hold in store! Mr. Porter’s homemade affair was followed by Lynn Power’s electric which crept impressively around town.

In 1900 the town had a Home-Coming Week, the inspiration of Mrs. Helen Denny, and a more successful affair could not be imagined. The “old boys and girls” came back in gratifying numbers, and the high light of the week was the automobile parade, led by Mr. Denny’s stunning fire-red roadster with Deke Colberg’s lank figure arrayed as Uncle Sam riding astride the engine. This was followed by seven flower bedecked and festooned autos which proceeded “in low” from the park to the Main Street bridge. It was truly the experience of a life time! Ethel Stewart’s Queen Anne’s lace embowered Reo was awarded first prize, while Harry Boehnrwitch’s Maxwell, Gene Stewart’s Buick, Lou Merritt’s Oakland, Mrs. Denny’s Pierce Arrow touring car and Francella Swift’s Studebaker looked on with envy. The trolley was still the thing and would be for over twenty years more, but -- the auto was coming in; there were eight in town already.

With the increase of cars came a steady decline in trolley patronage, until in 1913 the trolley on January 28th rattled down Main Street for the last time, empty and forlorn and unwanted. It had performed its mission and a good one much needed its day, but that day was over. The trains stopped even less often; a new era had matured and succeeded it -- the automotive age.

With this age came not only cars but sales rooms, garages, tire shops, and new names: Crandall, Leworthy, Adams, Schrader, Damon, and others that were to figure prominently in village affairs. The main street had to be widened as trucks began to appear and buses in their wake; while on all sides in even the most conservative of homes appeared signs reading “Room with Bath” or “Rooms and Bath”, challenging a weighty decision on the part of the weary motorist. Fewer and fewer people walked to their places of business while the park with its benches, intriguing pagoda arid Saturday night band concerts, the hub of the village’s life, began shrinking foot by foot as the traffic’s increase demanded wider space for bigger trucks and bigger buses connecting the ends of the continent.

With this period of greater mobility came the expansion of beach life, the opening of the East Lake Development and the birth of clubs. The Motor Boat Club is one never to be forgotten with its new commodious club house in 1915 fronting the lake. With Alexis Barbeau as the first Commodore, its community Fourth of July fireworks, its family holiday parties, its weekly afternoon bridge parties and its dances, many of them costume, as on Halloween, make a procession of memories precious to many a person today. Its grounds were the scene of the pageant on the one hundredth anniversary of the village’s incorporation in 1948. With an increased mobility, the Tn-County Country Club came into the life of the town in 1924.

In 1948 the Main Road hills were circumvented by the new Route 20, and not too long after, the Lake Road was routed down Howard Street to relieve congestion at the four corners and became Route 5. The amount of traffic flowing through the town was immeasurable and the benefits not small. Then came the Thruway in 1961 and the traffic situation was relieved, with the village becoming the victim as well as the survivor.

Over the years of the motor age a marked change came in the character of village life which once was purely local with every man employed in his own home town. More and more of Silver Creek’s population has become a commuting one, with employment elsewhere, but by the same token more families have come to town because it affords the benefits of village life.

But what of its institutions, its organizations, its special events and achievements? Of churches, it could be said they had been with us always. The Methodist Church organized in 1812 with the first settlers built three church buildings over the years. The Presbyterian Church was standing when the town was incorporated, having been built in 1833 after its organization in Oliver Lee’s barn in 1 831. The first German Organization was in 1878 with its church, Trinity Lutheran, being built in 1883. The Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church was built in 1890. Our Lady of Mount Carmel, organized in 1890, built the present church in 1931. St. Alban’s Episcopal Church was built in 1894, the Christian Science Church in 1934 and the Wesleyan in 1950.

The schools also have been with us since the time of the earliest settlers of Fayette. The Main Street School was constructed in 1922, the Babcock Street Elementary 1951, the Junior-Senior Central School 1960, and the Mt. Carmel School in 1914.

Among the achievements of the twenties was the Anderson-Lee Library, promoted by Mrs. Helen Abel Denny, granddaughter of Oliver Lee, who gave the original building the library occupied. With the opening in 1923 a Library Society was formed that worked as no group ever had to stock and support this first library. Mr. Arthur Guest, the first president, was succeeded by Mr. Firnum Anderson, Attorney. It was due to his untiring persistence, determination, and generosity that the present library building was achieved in 1963.

Another special achievement is that of the Lake Shore Community Hospital in 1965 and a Nursing Home in 1973. But what about progress in the new century in general?

1912 --  White Bank established and built by Mr. and Mrs. J. D. Denny.
1914 --  Catholic purchase of Swift property.
1914 --  Silver Creek National Bank, present Manufacturers & Traders Trust Bank building built by Theodore Stewart, President.
1917 --  Guarding of the railroad bridges by Co. E of Jamestown during the first World War.
1919 --  Opening of the first hospital in Mrs. Rhinehart’s home on Buffalo Street.
1920 --  New brick Methodist Church replacing the white church destroyed by the tragic fire that wiped out the historic Main Street House, the livery stable, two residences flanking the hotel and the church opposite. A real holocaust!
1922 --  Andy Geitner’s new brick movie picture theatre facing the Park.
1923 --  The Chamber of Commerce organized.
1924 --  Beauty parlors opening with Etta Montgomery’s shop in the Pelletter block among the first.
1924-40 Ward and Dickinson manufacturing diners, supplied to all parts of the United States, started at the foot of Oak Hill and expanded to the present Forbes and Wagner buildings.
1929 --  Old Schumaker Canning Factory expanded by Nahum Pratt.
1932 --  New Municipal Building replaced the dilapidated Silver Creek Academy, and a landing field established at the top of Ward Avenue.
1937 --  Opening of new Post Office on Main Street.
1940 --  Development of two new industries, the Precision Plant and the Empire.
1944 --  Founding of Silver Creek Marina by Allen Reppenhagen.
1945 --  Dr. Barresi established in his new brick office.
1946 --  Opening of the Excelco Development, Inc.
1948 --  Forbes and Wagner Plant established as important industrial development of village.
1950 --  Establishment of Hanover General Hospital in the former Carlos Ewell home on Central Avenue by Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Taravella.
1950 --  Mr. Petri’s cookie business opened, spreading the name of Silver Creek and Petri through many states.
1953 --  Newbrook Company located on Mechanic Street on former Monitor Works property.
1954 --  Development of Alfred Heights by Dr. Barresi, adding a new location for homes.
1957 --  New branch of the Silver Creek Preserving Company opening on the up end of Central Avenue and eventually housing the entire canning industry.
1962 --  Visit of Governor Rockefeller for the purpose of dedicating the new Hanover Town Hall.
1965 --  Marks an important date: Sewers. The lines all laid and ready for the hookups. (The village streets were no longer hazardous, but the village minds were still overturned.)
1968 --  First Grape Festival held, attracting great crowds of outsiders.
1969 --  Silver Creek Plumbing Company opened on Arch Street.
1971 --  May 31 — the last passenger train making its final run on the New York Central lines after a century of public service.
1972 --  Barone’s new market built after fire destroyed the old building.
1972 --  The old canning factory site cleared and converted into a mobile home area.

And how about its mayors and village boards who have invested so much time, thought and concern in the village’s welfare? Mayor DeJohn with his fourteen years of office; Albert Seegert with his dedicated years of service; Herbert Crandall with his long years as postmaster as well; Leo Kittell, another former postmaster, who previously had operated a local bakery; Lee Dickinson with his two different terms as mayor, 1924-28 and 1930-34, injecting courage during the depression years; Ben Bebee before him; and on back to the Johnny Webster days (he being the proprietor of the old Windsor House) of the late eighties and nineties.

No tribute is too high to pay these public spirited citizens who have contributed so richly of their time and themselves to the welfare of their community — the hometown that we call ours.

Written by Marion W. Thomas
May of 1973, her 24th year as
Historian of the Town of Hanover

Oliver Lee, a New Englander who settled first in Warsaw and later in Westfield, after his service in the War of 1812, came upon the bay at Silver Creek (then Fayette) in 1827 while out for a Sunday walk, following the shore line from Westfield. He realized that here was a natural harbor which called for only a wharf to make it veritable gold mine. He straightaway bought 350 acres from John Howard, one of the first of three settlers of Fayette. This land extended from the lake frontage over the hills to the south and as far as Silver Creek to the east, at the foot of Oak Hill.

The winter of 1828 was spent building the wharf that it might be ready for the summer lake trade, and the summer was spent building the Lee home. The second winter, the stem was built connecting the wharf with the land so that cargo would no longer have to be towed into shore or poled in on rafts. The wharf was completed; lake commerce was well established, and a glowing future of prosperity loomed ahead for the town and all the adjacent country.

By 1832, Mr. Lee’s persistence was rewarded and an appropriation was made for a government lighthouse to be erected on the upper point, lighting up the black expanse of water at night for the sailing vessels of that period and giving warning of the dangerous cliffs. This lighthouse cast its protective beams unflaggingly throughout the duration of the harbor days. It held an historic place in Silver Creek’s development as a village and as an industrial center.

It was the coming of the railroad (the Lakeshore) that sounded the knell of the period of lake commerce and the lighthouse. As lake activity declined and dwindled the lights dimmed, and, in 1886, the appropriation was discontinued; the lighthouse, shrouded in darkness, fell into disuse and disrepair. The heap of rocks and rubble which marked its location after it was abandoned and completely disintegrated can still be remembered with romantic nostalgia by some of the oldsters of today,

After the death of Oliver Lee in July 1846 and the settlement of his estate, “Lighthouse Point” became the property of one of his daughters, Mrs. Helen Lee Montgomery of Buffalo, mother of the late H. E. Montgomery and grandmother of Nelson Montgomery of Buffalo. It was in 1902 that she decided to make Silver Creek her place of summer residence. Lighthouse Point became transformed into a beautiful, impressive estate with its wide sweep of grounds, artistically designed gardens, and majestic square-pillared, wide-verandah three-story home.

The long ignored, neglected Lighthouse Point now became one of the most outstanding beauty spots of the lakeshore area between Buffalo and Erie. Stables and carriage houses were erected with living quarters for the coachman on the second floor. On Washington Avenue at the farthest extremity of the estate was built the gardener’s cottage, which Mrs. H. E. Montgomery used as her summer home in recent years. This estate was enjoyed for four generations of the Montgomery family and their friends and was the scene of many social events. It was a glamorous era long to be remembered.

Having outlived its usefulness to the family, the estate was sold about 1942 to the Melville Clarkes of Clarence, New York, who soon had the house and gardens refurbished and ringing with life again. Fire on June 2, 1945 destroyed the majestic original house. The present two-storied home was constructed on the same foundation soon after the tragic fire. This historic estate was sold in 1966 to Mr. and Mrs. Harry Cooper of Buffalo.

Published June 1966

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Time passes and with it many landmarks and institutions once significant and dearly loved. Such is true of the Liberty Pole and the G.A.R.’s (the Civil War veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic).

The majestic white shaft of the Liberty Pole, topped by a soaring gold eagle, flew the stars and stripes as a true symbol of liberty. Erected in 1876 on the corner of the village park diagonally across from the present Citibank site, it commemorated the first one hundred years of United States freedom.

The Liberty Pole had its own history too, for the golden eagle poised in flight saw ALL and heard ALL that transpired in the village. It was the focal point of all public life and activity. It was the scene of all political rallies and mass meetings, such as speeches on the Fourth of July and campaigning speakers who harangued and shouted themselves hoarse before elections. There the breathless crowd awaited in suspense the election returns in presidential years. The returns were shouted from a second floor window of the hotel, where a telegraph instrument was set up for that purpose. It was the assembling point for all parades, processions, and public demonstrations; the point of departure for excursions, sleigh rides and hay rides, Bicycle Club meets, and all types of races. Surprise parties met there before descending upon their hapless victim, and there husbands picked up their wives after such sorties as choir rehearsal and the Shakespeare Club. It was the gathering place of the men on Saturday nights, and it was the accepted spot for meeting that lost member of the family at the close of the Band Concert. It was, in short, the HUB.

It was at the Liberty Pole that exciting strangers from the outside world got their bearings: the spring peddler, the scissors grinder, the umbrella mender and the house to house canvasser. It was the natural point to which itinerant entertainers gravitated. It was there that the traveling medicine show drew up, with its enclosed wagon covered with painted pictures. From its tailgate the long-haired medicine man charmed his rattlesnakes and hawked his wonder-working bottles of oil to the straggling followers he attracted. There traveling musicians, such as an occasional three piece German Band, or a red coated monkey with the organ grinder, more than earned their scattered coins. The Liberty Pole even witnessed a dancing bear lumbering behind his swarthy master while the children went mad with mingled joy and terror.

The Liberty Pole was the center of every school child’s life. Many are the sedate grandmothers who remember the delight of encircling the pole with her pigtailed playmates and dancing till breathless while chanting “Round and round the Liberty Pole, the Liberty Pole, the Liberty Pole   Round and round the Liberty Pole, so early in the morning.” Coming from all directions they converged to hasten on together to the Dunkirk Street School.

The greatest thrill of the spring was that day each year when the painters were spied with their paint pots and ladders, preparing to renew the pole’s freshness after the hard winter. Excitement and joy ran apace; there could be but one meaning: Decoration Day was at hand and the Grand Army of the Republic would march again!

It was a bereft village that had to learn to live without its Liberty Pole after that day in 1900 when the pole with its eagle arid trailing flag came toppling down in a gust of wind.
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On August 26, 1884, a similar pole was being raised as a campaign pole approximately across Main Street from the foot of Knight Street where the Gabel building now stands. The pole fell and killed eight-year old George Newell Abbot, the son of John and Mary Abbot of Robinson Street. The tragedy was long to be remembered and never were other poles hazarded.

Published July 3, 1958

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