June Pultz Seamans Remembering

By Anita Messina

An expert Sudoku player, skilled at crossword puzzles and an eager listener to books on tape, June’s brain waves keep on a-tumbling. “Now don’t make me sound like Wonder Woman,” she warns when learning that her personal history was about to be chronicled. “I’m no Wonder Woman.”

Really? We’ll see about that.

Mentz’s first woman supervisor survived the Gypsies, Tony Savarese’s dare devil roller skate antics and independent preschool meanderings on every inch of village sidewalks, growing strong to become one of Port Byron’s women of influence. As a small child the entire village was her realm. The only time an adult intervened was when the Gypsies came. If she was close enough to the garage and gas station her father ran – near where Wright’s Garage is now on Rt. 31 -- she said, “He locked me in a back room until the Gypsies left. Back then everyone said the gypsies stole little children. And another time Mr. Blake took me into his drugstore. And once Guy Parsons – he ran a grocery store near the drugstore – brought me in, gave me a paper bag and told me to walk around the candy aisle and choose whatever candy I wanted and put it into the paper bag.

“The whole village watched out for children back then. I know exactly what Hilary Clinton meant when she said ‘It takes a village to raise a child.’ I miss the village I knew as a child. I miss the innocence of Port Byron.

“We always were outside playing. In the morning I’d put my roller skates on, turn the key to clamp them on tight and not take them off until I went home at the end of the day. The slate sidewalks on Main Street were the best to skate on. And Tony Savarese! Now he could really roller skate. Girls would lie down on the sidewalk, and he would jump right over them.”

Waiting for Tony to clear them in his long jumps wasn’t nearly as scary as the attic at home. Her four brothers taunted her with tales of their deceased grandmother’s teeth, which they insisted were there and began to click and clack whenever anyone went up. She was at least five years old before she stopped flattening herself against the wall, giving herself plenty of distance whenever she had to go by the stairs to the attic, hoping she wouldn’t hear the clack and chatter of Grandma’s teeth.

June said, “We spent a lot of time at Herbie Lade’s house. He was my best friend when we were little. He lived with his grandparents across from the Baptist Church on Rochester Street. We called him “Junior.” He had all kinds of toys we could play with, and he was generous with his toys. He wasn’t a selfish child. Friendship continued into adulthood and through his tenure as the village’s postmaster.

“When I was a child Christmas wasn’t the extravagant holiday it is now. Easter wasn’t either. But we all looked forward to Halloween. We’d run up to peoples’ doors, knock and run away. I don’t remember people giving out candy. It was just a night for tricks. We’d run up and down the street and throw toilet paper over the electric wires. And Alice Powers was always the one to insist we had to tip the outhouse over. She’d say, ‘It’s Halloween. We gotta tip the outhouse over.’ One year her brother Ed was in there, and he got tipped over too. But I never had any part of that ‘we gotta tip over the outhouse.’” A little girl with a conscience, June stayed in good graces with Alice’s parents. The Powers owned a candy store next to the Legion.

Too soon the time came to hang up her roller skate key and follow her seven older siblings to school. She speaks fondly of Lindy McBath’s art classes. June claims to have no artistic talent; nevertheless she enjoyed those classes. Above her bed is a pleasing oil painting of the family home, painted by June. She has few school memories that stand out vividly. She remembers her sixth grade teacher, Theresa VanDetto. Miss VanDetto, June said, never raised her voice. “She was a good, steady teacher.” Another strong memory is the day the school principal, Professor A. A. Gates, summoned all the children to assembly. He talked about the school fire that shocked the village. She remembers his poignant words: “What we need this Christmas is a new school.”

After 12^th grade June began nurse’s training. “I graduated from nurse’s training in ’47 but I never worked at it. I became a stay-at-home mom.” When George Seamans returned home from his service in WWII, he and June married and lived in the apartment above Howard Wethey’s store (a dry goods store now occupied by Nino’s Pizza shop). They lived there a short time while George rehabbed the house that was to be their home.

“We lived at 11 Pine Street. My husband George – nobody called him that, everybody called him ‘Nate.’ George and I had three boys: Glen, John and Ramon. There’s no ‘y’ in Ramon.

“Glen was named after his uncle, Tex Pultz, who was a paratrooper in WWII. He was killed in Naples, Italy on a jump. He made eight previous jumps before that final one.” Tex Pultz Parkway is named in his honor. June said, “We nicknamed him ‘Tex’ because he loved reading cowboy stories.

“I was always called by store owners who were looking for someone to hire. Claire Travor who was Town Clerk and also the owner of the Shoppers’ Guide hired me to replace his front office person, Lola Wilt, who left to be county deputy treasurer in Auburn. Claire also conducted his Town Clerk responsibilities there at the Shoppers’ Guide so besides the Shoppers’ Guide business I learned how to do some of the things that a Town Clerk does. When Claire died I made up my mind to run for Town Clerk. That was a challenge because I was a Democrat, and the whole town was Republican. Still is. But I was voted in. Even Republicans voted for me. I was Town Clerk for eight years then on the Town Board for two years then decided I would run against Eloise Warren for Town Supervisor.” The popular no-nonsense, hard-working public servant won.

“I was the first woman and the first Democrat to be Town Supervisor!” She is most appreciative of a personal letter U. S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan sent, commending her on her resounding victory in this Republican stronghold.

June says her term just went by smoothly with one exception. The town was in a frenzy when Jack Crandall proposed a trash burning plant be built. Some saw the value. Most did not, and after prolonged and heated controversy, the proposal was defeated.

After many energetic years of service, June is now enjoying peaceful days with her brainy puzzles and her audio books. Her sense of humor is quick and her memories -- except for the teeth in the attic – are happy ones.

Leona Morningstar Dove

Leona Morningstar Dove

By Anita Messina

I was born April 8, 1915 in Athens, Pennsylvania. Now I live here near my daughter.

My two earliest memories were playing house and baking a real cake in a toy cake pan. Another memory I have is when my sister Marian was taken for a walk in the wicker baby carriage. I was able to hold onto the lower part of the handle and walk with her.

Most of all I remember going with my mother to the Lehigh Valley Station in Sayre, PA in 1917 or 1918 when the troop train came. The soldiers got off the train to go to the canteen and walk around the park in front of the station. One of them picked me up and put me on his knee. I often wondered if he went to active duty and if he survived the fighting in World War I. My brother and I used to sit on a hill overlooking the train tracks, and when a troop train came through, the soldiers threw us Hard-Tack and a deck of cards. We cherished those cards and kept them for a long time.

My Papa was a railroader and loved his job as brakeman. In years to come he became a conductor on the Black Diamond, a crack passenger train of the Lehigh Valley Railroad.

I started school at age five. I remember a bench in the hallway of the school with a pail of water and a dipper so we students could get a drink. One day I saw my mother walking by the school so I hollered to her. The teacher brought me up short but didn’t punish me for disturbing the class.

One day at school when we were practicing for our Thanksgiving play, one of the older girls tossed me up in the air miles high, and I screamed. The teacher was mad because I screamed so I got my coat and ran home. I kept looking back to see if someone or the teacher was coming after me. I made it home and told Mama that the teacher shook me all over the room. I refused to go back to school and no one insisted I go. I don’t know how many days I missed but at the end of that school year I was promoted to second grade.

We had an old ice house nearby our house where cakes of ice were kept in deep sawdust so they wouldn’t melt. One day my brothers Elden and Norman went into the ice house. I went with them. They told me to turn around, and they took off their clothes and buried themselves in the sawdust. When I turned around to see them, a big black snake was coming out of the sawdust. You never saw two boys get out of that ice house so fast, leaving their clothes behind. Mama got them dressed, and, needless to say, they never went back in there again. When Papa got home, he returned their clothes and the snake to the outdoors.

When I was a young girl I had a Larkins Route. I sold baking ingredients and other household needs door-to-door. I would take orders and send them into the company. When the product came in the mail, I delivered them and collected the money. I don’t remember how much money I made, but enough for Mama to buy yard goods and make dresses for my sister Marian and me.

I also earned money with punch cards. Papa would take me down to the boarding house where farm workers lived. They would punch a spot on the card to see how much they would have to pay for a box of candy. I’d send the card and the money to the company, and the company would send the candy.

After my high school graduation in 1934 I moved to California and went to IBM school to learn keypunch operation. I worked for the California State Department in Sacramento for three years. When I found out that Mama was going to have another baby, I quit my job and moved back home to help her with the kids. There were 14 of us kids in all.

I married Percy Dove in 1938. I became a Girl Scout leader and a camp counselor. I was involved in Girl Scouts for more than 50 years.

Octagon Cabins, Part Two

Way back in 2014, I wrote a short post about the Octagon Cabins. These were small waiting rooms that were built for flag stops along the Rochester, Syracuse and Eastern. The "bible" of all study on the RS&E, written by Gordon and McFarlane, describes the stops as such; "The standard shelter was a work of art, very possibly unequaled on any other electric line outside of the Beebe Syndicate (the owners of the line). They were built in a true octagon shape, every joint being a miter. They were 10 feet square and 14 feet high with 8 foot ceilings inside. Each building was erected on one corner of a 16 by 20 foot yellow pine platform. The framing of the shelter was hemlock and the finish both inside and out was chestnut. Each shelter had a hardwood floor and oak seats with a capacity of 8 to 10 people. All buildings were electrically lighted and under the seats three electric car heaters were provided to keep the passengers comfortable even in the most strenuous winter weather. Each shelter cost $400 (about $7600 in 2015 money)" He also wrote (in 1961) that many of the shelters could still be seen west of Port Byron.

Because of the post, I was contacted by someone in Harrisburg, PA who said he had purchased photos of the cabins at a house sale. The collection has 29 images of various quality covering the cabins, the store, and family members. As a collection on a single subject, it is one of the most complete I have seen for a local topic and gives us a fairly complete look at the cabins and the business.

The signs show that this business was owned by FD Thrush, and wife Zella. Is this a photo of the two of them?

We also have many of showing the woman with a dog that appears in many other photos. Is this Mrs. Zella Thrush?

As I wrote in 2014, Thrush sold the business sometime in the 1940's (see below for update). He worked at the Smith-Corona factory in Cortland, starting there around 1943. Maybe Zella ran the cabin business while he worked elsewhere.

Sometime in the 1960's the cabins were removed. So far, I have not been able to find any record of them in that time period.

These cabins tell a story about a period of time, after the rise of the automobile and the demise of the trolley. They show what life was like before the building of the Interstate Highway system that would take people away from the small villages and rural roads. Route 31, Route 20, Route 5; all had small motels and hotels that served the traveling public. But with the building of the Thruway in the 1950's, this period came to an end

And an update- After writing the above post, I spent the better part of the next day searching for more info. I kept running up against the name of Samuel Harnden. I had through that Sam purchased the cabins later, but than Clara McIver wrote and said that the cabins were always owned by Harnden. And then I rediscovered this article that Cheryl Longyear had given me.

Although there is no paper noted, and I cannot find this on Fulton History, it does say April 1936. So it appears that Harnden owned the business, and Thrush ran it. His name is on the signs. I did find an advertisement from 1937 saying that the Harnden Store and Cabins were under new management. Maybe this is when Thrush came into the story.

How Port Byron Became Port Byron

While writing about John Beach and his Mill, I was reminded of the stories that credit Beach with changing the name of the village from Bucksville to Port Byron. Over the years, many people have chimed in on this fascinating story, the latest was as late as 2012, when historian Dawn Roe wrote an excellent article about the subject. Years ago, I had written an article about the subject for the InPort, and looking back on it, I found it needed more details. So here is the latest entry.

There is an issue with using first person sources as people tend to mis-remember as time goes by. What clouds the facts is the fairly large event that takes place when John Beach and his partners build their very large grist mill on the banks of the Erie Canal. There is also the building of the Canal in 1820, the Incorporation of the Village in 1837, and the enlargement of the Canal in the 1850’s. So mashed all together, the events and dates tend to run together in people’s recollections.

In an Chronicle article titled “How Port Byron Got It’s Name” written by E.H. Kerns, he says when he wrote his 1922 History of the Village of Port Byron and the Town of Mentz, he could not find any record or person who could tell him why the name was changed. He goes on to say that he later spoke with Albina Treat about the issue. Mrs. Treat, who was born in1841, tells Kerns that the name was changed in 1832 after Beach built his grist mill. Remember that this major event took place eleven years before she was born. As Ms. Roe points out, Kerns “facts” are quickly corrected by George Perkins, who uses actual dated letters to place the name change prior to 1826. Perkins writes; “The origin of the village name has been a controversy for many years, and, while the story of Lord Byron, who died in 1824, and the mill owner with aristocratic tendencies is alluring, I fear it is just another of those fables which crop up in all village histories.” Perkins then goes onto write a very accurate history of the mill.

So I wanted to see what documents were available on the web that could help point to the Bucksville / Port Byron name change.

Ms. Roe mentions this very interesting death notice for Sarah Buck of Bucksville, and Giles Landon of Port Byron from February 15, 1826.

How can we have both a Bucksville and a Port Byron? Good question. From even earlier, we have this Travelers Pocket Guide from 1825, which was written in the summer of 1824.

What is important to keep in the mind is that whatever you call it, Bucksville or Port Byron, it was what we would call today a hamlet, or an unincorporated village. The actual Village was not formally created until 1837. Further supporting documents can be found in form of notices from the Post Master, telling people to pick up their mail. From April of 1827, we find this notice. And as you look it over, notice the last name, Bingham Young, more likely Brigham Young.

Yet there are conflicting documents that I won't post here. A document in the NYS Assembly from January 27, 1825 says Bucksville, as does the 1829 Natural History of NY, and the 1831 Gazetter. But the register of Post Offices in 1828 says Port Byron, as does the Niles Register of 1827.

In 1830, John Beach purchases the water rights of the Outlet and builds his mill. This probably delighted Aholiab Buck who runs this ad in the Auburn Free Press in 1830.

However, just a year later, Buck and his wife sell all their remaining village lots to Beach and Company and his family moves west. The deed is very interesting as it lists all the people that Buck had sold lots to, and all the land that Beach would own. The amount of land, basically much of the village, can be seen in the canal map from 1834 as listed as owned by Beach and Company, or Beach and Others. You can also see a part of Beach's Mill. The road running from the top to bottom of the image is Utica Street.

So let's go back to the 1824/25 Pocket Guide, which is the earliest document I could find that used the name of Port Byron.

It clearly says Bucksville, Port Byron P.O. (post office). Looking at the register of post offices, you find a Bucksville in Bucks County in Pennsylvania, and other Bucksville’s in Tennessee and Alabama. Just as the name of the Town was changed in 1808 from Jefferson to Mentz because there was just too many Jefferson’s about, the decision to change the name of the Post Office may have been one of convenience. In fact, we don't have any indication that there was ever a post office with the name of Bucksville, or that Bucksville had a post office prior to 1824 and the coming of the canal boom. Once the name of the Post Office was in common use, it was likely inevitable that the whole community becomes known as Port Byron. Was Lord Byron and his famous writings a factor in the name change? It certainly makes sense as he died in 1824, about the same time the name “Port Byron” came into use. However, Ms. Roe gives a good alternative explanation of the origin of “Byron”.

Buck may have been happy to see the big mill come to town, but as can be seen in his ad, continued to fight the name change that was occurring. It might be why Sarah Buck is listed as dying in Bucksville, where Mr. Landon was listed as dying in Port Byron. I ask you, would Aholiab allow a Buck to die in Port Byron? And the name was well used ever before John Beach built his mill, although his purchase of all the land and the leaving of the Buck family likely settled the matter.

An update as of January 1, 2017

It was another one of those wonderful moments in history when a question about one topic led to a answer on another, quite unrelated topic. So for a little background, a few months ago I wrote about a program where the speaker thought he had, at the very least, nailed down the date that Bucksville became Port Byron, and maybe why. He suggested that both Bucksville and Port Byron were in use at the same time, with maybe Port Byron being the name of the post office. (We have the talk up on our YouTube page so you can hear the reasons why.) But a lot of the reasoning well simply that, well researched reasoning of what few facts were available. Well then a question came in about the age of housing in the village, and in my study I was reading a study about historical resources in Port Byron. A citation noted that a letter dated October 6, 1824 that made reference to the name change. This led me to the talents of Jessica in the County Historian’s Office, who quickly found the 1824 letter in the Cayuga Republican. The reason for the letter was that a Mr. B.B. Drake was protesting the way that his minutes of a meeting in the village were reported. The letter stated that he was the secretary at a meeting where it was decided to change the name of the post office from Mentz to “Port Byron”. (The name Bucksville was adopted in 1819, so why the name of the post office wasn’t Bucksville is not known.) Drake states that it was unlikely that the Post Master General would allow the name change, but if he did, then Port Byron would become the name of the village by use. But, Mr. Drake goes on, there was no reason why there couldn’t be both a Bucksville and the Port Byron. To cap this off, the Editor of the Republican posted a notice just below Drake’s letter stating that the Post Master General had indeed changed the name of the post office from Mentz to Port Byron.

The interesting thing was that Mr. Drake began his letter with; “In your last, an article purporting to be a copy of the proceedings...”. I asked Jessica to go back through the previous issues of the Republican thinking that we would find the first article, but no luck. Looking for avenues, I starting looking into B.B. Drake, and came up with very little on my own. So it was back to the County Historian’s office with the question, “Who is Drake?” Well, little was found on Drake, but a notice in the paper was found, stating that the village residents had held a meeting, and had voted to change the name of the village from Bucksville to Port Byron. Not the post office, but the village, and that B.B. Drake was the secretary. This article appears in the Free Press, dated September 13, 1824. A week later, the B.B. Drake letter appears in the September 29 Free Press, and a week later, the October 6 Cayuga Republican reprints the letter, word for word. This is why we couldn’t find the notice in the Republican.

Anyone who has done family research knows that the censuses before 1850 are greatly lacking in information,listing only the male head of household. So B.B. Drake is still a mystery. He lived in Weedsport, maybe Bucksville, maybe Skaneateles, and Waterloo. But we do know that he was there in the meeting when about 60 people decided to change the name of the village. And he must have opposed the action of the meeting, hence his letter to the paper, as he puts up his convoluted argument to keep Bucksville and still use Port Byron. There is more to do. Is the Roswell Beardsley mentioned in the newspaper a part of the Auburn Beardsley’s? And who was Peter Cook?

This must have been quite a blow to Aholiab Buck, who had given his name to the settlement, and his land to settlers who would move here. Much of the old history states that it was John Beach and his mill that changed the name of the village, but this notice places the change six years prior, and as a action of a large number of the residents. Buck did sell off the rest of his land to Beach in 1831 and then moved west. But up till then, he continued to advertise land for sale in Bucksville.

Main Street Garage

The caption for this photo says; "Harvey C. Ware, Main Street, PB". Below, the ad is from 1915.



Checking the papers, a couple articles are found that state that H.C. Ware and Nicholas Goss were the owners in 1915. But by 1920, Fred Clark is mentioned as the owner, and then in 1921, Graham and Pultz are shown as owners. In 1924, Pultz and VanDitto are owners.





The location of this business is unknown other then the fact that a newspaper article states that Ware put up signs at the corner of Rochester and Main to help people find the business.