On October 8, 1880, George Richardson (2nd Great Grandfather to Greece Historical Society Board Trustee David Richardson) bought 100 acres of land at the Southeast corner of Big Ridge Road and Mitchell Road (now Ridgeway and Long Pond Road) for $11,000 from the widow of Daniel Sharp. This was Lot 108 of the 20,000 Acre tract of the Phelps and Gorham purchase. George left the oil wells of Bradford, PA for the Flour City and the rich farming industry that was flourishing at that time. In 1895, George turned the farm over to his oldest son, Edward and his wife Cora Miller. The family raised cows and grew grain.
Family painting of their farm
Photo of farmhouse circa 1930
In the early 1900s, the State of New York began making plans to widen, relocate, and make improvements to the Erie Canal. By 1918, the Erie Canal would be moved from the North side of Big Ridge Road (Ridgeway Ave) to the South side. You can still see evidence of the old Erie Canal to this day, just South of Unity Hospital on Long Pond Road.
As evidenced by this document, Ed and Cora received $480.31 from the State of New York on March 4, 1907. The “new” Erie Canal would divide the Richardson parcel nearly in half and significantly reduce their fields for farming. Ed and Cora’s children witnessed the building of the Canal on their property, as well as the bridge which was built to cross the Canal. The property was eventually auctioned off in 1939. The northern part of their former property is now Canal Ponds Business Park. The south portion was the site of the Central Drive-in from 1946 to 1982 and is now townhomes and a professional building.
NYS deed March 4, 1907
1938 map illustrating the Richardson land (shaded area) purchased by NYS for the Barge Canal (Environs of Rochester, Vol. 3, Plat 38) via Rochester Public Library
Most everyone who lives in this area is familiar with the unusual shape of the City of Rochester. The shape is the result of years of annexations. The long neck to the north is the result of annexing Charlotte. A very narrow strip of Culver Road was created so the City would be connected to Durand Eastman Park. The small area to the southwest is the airport and Genesee Valley Park, and then there is a small strip on the east connecting the City to Tyron Park and Irondequoit Bay.
In addition, there is an approximately 2 mile long by 130’ wide strip of land that seems to run parallel to Ridgeway Avenue in the Town of Greece.
Silhouette map of City Of Rochester
Two hundred years ago the Erie Canal was completed. It ran from the Hudson River through upstate New York and bisected what is now the City of Rochester and on through the Town of Greece and west to Lake Erie. When the newly enlarged and relocated Barge Canal opened in 1918, the old Erie Canal bed through Rochester and parts of Greece was abandoned. The City ultimately purchased the abandoned Erie Canal right of way. In 1922 the City began constructing the now infamous Rochester Subway within the City limits using the old Erie Canal right of way.
In the early 1920s industrial expansion was moving westward and it can be assumed that city officials thought that the subway rail line might someday continue west to support that anticipated industrial growth. In 1926, the City annexed that portion of the old canal right of way outside of the city limits that they already owned. With little records available to know their reasoning, we can conjecture that this was done to ensure the City’s right to build a rail line to the west without political interference from the Town of Greece. The subway never succeeded the way the planners had hoped and ultimately shut down in 1956.
To this day, if you drive down Latona Road or 390 in the Town of Greece just north of Ridgeway Ave., you may notice a row of thick trees; that’s the area where you quickly enter and exit the City of Rochester in the Town of Greece and the original 1825 route of the Erie Canal.
Olde Erie Trail street sign
Olde Erie Trail, a subdivision street just north of that area is named after the old Erie Canal and Erie Canal Commons Plaza, also derives its name from its location adjacent to the original Erie Canal.
I am sure the residents on the south side of Olde Erie Trail and the north side of Ridgeway Ave realize their backyards are adjacent to that original Erie Canal, but do they realize the area is IN the City of Rochester?
1938 Plat Map (rpm00633) showing City’s 1926 annexation (notice Latona Rd had not yet been extended to Lee Rd) Current map showing the areaArea Photo showing current property lines. Monroe County GIS. (Geographic Information System)Erie Canal Commons. Tree line is location of original Erie Canal. Courtesy of Camegi Companies
Between 1945 and 1955, there was a disease that struck terror in the hearts of parents—polio. Polio used to strike thousands of children in the United States each year. According to one historian: “By mid-century, polio had become the nation’s most feared disease. And with good reason. It hit without warning. It killed some victims and marked others for life…”
In 1945, there were 12 Grecians suffering from polio. More than half the men, women, and children attacked by polio recovered with no enduring affects; 29% were left with a slight residual paralysis, 18% remained handicapped, and 3% died. It was most fatal to children under the age of 10, such as Ronald Gammeriello of North Greece Road who contracted polio when he was one and died from it at age 4.
Greece Press. September 25, 1952
Polio was one of the costliest diseases known to medicine. Care and treatment often extended for months afterward. Some patients with serious breathing problems were placed in an “iron lung,” a cylindrical chamber that surrounded a patient’s body from the neck down, and used rhythmic alterations in air pressure to force air in and out of the lungs. The Barnard Fire Department had an iron lung machine, but in 1950, realizing their machine was better off in a hospital setting, they donated it to Strong Memorial Hospital.
Every January for more than 10 years, the women of Greece participated in the March of Dimes campaign to raise money to find a vaccine to prevent polio. It was an all-out effort joined by many others in the community in support of research for a vaccine. Every year the Men’s Brotherhood of Bethany Presbyterian Church held a dance; two of the organizers were polio survivors. The Barnard Teen Canteen also held a dance each year, donating the proceeds to the effort. There were collection boxes in all the schools. The Paddy Hill Players put on a benefit show. The campaign culminated in the Mothers March, a night when everyone was asked to leave their porch lights on and the mothers went from door to door in their neighborhoods soliciting donations. Every home in the town was canvassed. In 1952 almost 2,000 mothers participated. In 1953, the Mothers March alone garnered $10,000 of the almost $13,000 raised. Lillian Sauers noted in her diary for January 27, 1954, that she collected $12.50 from ten of her neighbors; that’s almost $150 in today’s terms.
Greece Press, January 1954
Polio Inoculations at Greece Town Hall March 13, 1958
The hope for a vaccine was realized in 1955. That year, the Jonas Salk vaccine was approved; it was made from completely inactivated polio viruses and injected into the body. A kindergarten class in a Greece school was a testing site for the Salk vaccine; the children were given two shots over a two-week period in May 1954.They were part of the largest human experiment in history. Today, cases in the United States are very rare.
Polio Ad from Greece Press January 27, 1949
Polio vaccine test group Greece Press, May 13, 1954
Explore More on the Childhood Diseases from our Bicentennial Snapshot # 47
In 1885 Anthony Kleinhans bought the old Dann House, an earlier resort hotel, along the lakeshore, and moved it back to the Long Pond outlet to use as a carriage house. He then built the Grand View Beach Hotel. That hotel was destroyed by fire in 1947.
Dann House prior to 1885
Dann House Hotel Illustration from McIntosh’s 1877 History of Monroe County
Ames Tavern & Bowling Center prior to demolition
In 1948 Harry Boehm, the current owner of the building, remolded the decades old Dann House and opened it as a restaurant. In 1950 he built additions including a bowling alley. By the early 1960s it changed hands and became Ames Tavern and Bowling Center.
Greece Press Aug. 1950
Greece Press Sept. 1960
The early 1960s also saw the construction of nearby modern bowling halls like Terrice Gardens, Dewey Gardens and Maiden Lanes with air conditioning and automatic pin setters. These new bowling halls were too much competition for small neighborhood bowling establishments like Ames.
The site today from Girly Goodwin Park photo by Bill Sauers
In 1972 the owners closed the place and soon stopped paying taxes. A year later an attempt was made to reopen the old place, but neighbors objected, stating that the establishment had created a general nuisance in the past. Its fate was sealed when town inspectors found numerous code violations. Monroe County eventually acquired the property through default of taxes and then transferred ownership to the Town of Greece. In October 1978, after a partial fire and concerns for public safety, the Town of Greece, using a grant of $5,000, eventually demolished the century old building.
Today nothing remains of the old place but the memories of the neighbors and those who patronized it.
“About the year 1830 a small number of persons, residing near the town line in Parma and Greece, feeling the necessity of religious services, met together at what was known as the old red schoolhouse, east of Parma Centre, and agreed to hold bi-weekly meetings for mutual prayers and for reading the Scriptures.
The services of a preacher were seldom secured until 1833. Madison Thomas, a young man from Orleans County, preached for some time, followed by Elder Joel Doubleday. On the 23d day of August 1834, Elder Doubleday, after hearing the Christian experience of 14 persons, organized them in a church. In 1835 the church joined the Christian Conference of Western New York, and Isaac Chase was appointed clerk. The first pastor was Joel Doubleday, followed by Jonathan Morse, Ezra Smith, Asa C. Morrison, Ambrose Burlingame again, Elder Crocker, Jonathan S. Thompson, for several years, Ambrose Burlingame again in 1857, Elias Jones, 1861, William J. Grimes, 4 years, Albert Dunlap, 5 years, and Elder James W. Burgdorf, who is still serving.
Original Parma Greece United Church of Christ, 1844 – Cobblestone Church (Greece Historical Society archives)
On December 28, 1843, the society was lawfully organized, as the statute directs, and the first trustees elected. In 1844 the structure it now occupies was erected, at a cost, including lot, of $5,500. It is located on the Parma side of the town line, midway the south section, and is a fine, substantial edifice, built of stone. Its present membership is 84. A flourishing Sabbath-school was organized May 3, 1848. It now includes 97 teachers and pupils, with Isaac Chase as superintendent.”
This text is from the handwritten late 19th-century journal of the Parma Greece United Church of Christ. Many of our worship leaders during the 19th century came to us by way of the Erie Canal. I, Jessilou Gage Vaccarelli, have added my name to that list and although I travel by road, my home is near the Holley branch of the canal.
In August of 2024, the church celebrated its 190th anniversary atop the hill on Manitou Road at the Latta Road intersection. It is no longer the stone edifice described above, but a classic wood frame building, erected in the early part of the 20th century. We have served our community for nearly two centuries and will continue to do so as long as we have sufficient support and resources. Stop by sometime and we’ll share our story with you. We are proud of our heritage and the contributions we’ve made to our neighbors, here and around the world.
Parma Greece United Church of Christ- Current Photo – Photo by Bill Sauers
Pastor Jessilou Gage Vaccarelli
Original Parma Greece United Church of Christ built using cobblestone construction Greece Historical Society archives (possible from the first Kodak camera, circa 1888)
Cornerstone from Original 1844 “Cobblestone Church” This was located above the front entrance into the church – Photo by Bill Sauers
Parma Greece United Church of Christ as constructed in the early 1900s
1903 The Cobblestone Church was torn down and the present structure was built on the very same foundation as the Cobblestone Church. The windows of the Cobblestone Church were put in the nave of the sanctuary. On November 22, “Parma and Greece Christian Church” was dedicated – Source PARMA GREECE UNITED CHURCH OF CHRISThttps://parmagreeceucc.wixsite.com/pgucc/history-of-pgucc
One of the oldest cemeteries in Monroe County is the Ridge Road Cemetery Association, also known as the Falls Cemetery in Greece, New York with its first known burial in 1811.
Photo by Jo Ann Ward Snyder
It all started in 1808 when Daniel Budd (c. 1770-1850) and his wife Chloe Allen (1787-1871) of Dutchess County, New York purchased land in what is now the Town of Greece on Ridge Road, which at that time was little more than a dirt track in the wilderness. It wasn’t until two years later, in May of 1810, that Daniel and Chloe moved here with their children, all their belongings, and 18 head of cattle. Soon they owned almost all the land on the south side of Ridge Road between what is now Mitchell Road and Latona Road, including this cemetery. Daniel was a farmer and tavern and hotel owner, as well as a town official.
In 1827, a deed was created and later filed in 1836. It transferred the burial ground from Daniel and Chloe Budd to the men representing the Ridge Road Cemetery Association. Monroe County Deeds, Liber 35, pages 540-54
M. B. Loper, age 29, was the first person interred here in 1811 and as per the sign on the building, the cemetery was officially established in 1813. The Budds still owned the property, but it appears it was an unofficial community cemetery with unrelated Greece pioneer family burials occurring every year. In 1827, Daniel and Chloe sold this burial site to a committee of respected Town of Greece citizens, Frederick Rowe, Asahel Tucker, and John Williams, who was the Town of Greece’s first supervisor. Thus, the Ridge Road Cemetery Association was born. The deed was finally officially recorded nine years later in 1836.
According to the Cemetery Association records, the Falls Cemetery name came about as it was the halfway point of the stagecoach stops enroute to Niagara Falls.
Photo by Jo Ann Ward Snyder
From the early 1900s through 1963, the Ridge Road Cemetery was the site of the Town’s Memorial Day remembrances, complete with a parade of town officials, veterans, and local community groups. The parade went from the Greece Memorial Town Hall, which was then on Ridge Road, and ended at this Cemetery with prayers and benedictions. Taps was played, graves visited with wreaths and flags left behind. The cemetery is home to 5 Revolutionary War veterans, 16 from the War of 1812, 25 from the Civil War, and 5 from the Spanish American War, as well as innumerable veterans of later military conflicts and service in the 20th and 21st centuries. Of note, thirteen Greece Town Supervisors have been laid to rest here.
1852 Greece Map, arrow shows location of the Ridge Road Cemetery Association Aka Falls Cemetery, on the corner of Ridge Road and Latona Road (then Cemetery Road). The William Falls Hotel had just been purchased by William Fall in 1850, it had previously been the Budd Hotel and Tavern.
Since 1827, the Ridge Road Cemetery Association has operated the cemetery as a nonprofit with a governing board that meets annually. At the present time, Katie Meeson is the President. The family of current cemetery Superintendent David Hare, Jr. has long been associated with this cemetery. For more than fifty years members of the Hare family have been looking after it. David is the 3rd generation, along with his cousin Diane Hare, following in the footsteps of his father David Senior, Uncle Claude, and Grandfather Gordon Hare.
Hannah Hopper (1800-1881) Bartholf
Stephen Bartholf (1798-1879)
Pioneers Stephen (1798-1879) and Hannah Hopper (1800-1881) Bartholf
Courtesy Linda Cushman Dowell and tombstone photos by Jo Ann Ward Snyder
The north section of the cemetery is the location of pioneer graves, with families represented by the names of Bartolf, Benedict, Britton, Buckman, Filer, Hopper, Justice, Kenyon, Lay, Lowden, Mitchell, Payne, Perrin, Rowe, Shearman, Weiland, and too many more to list. The west and south sections have more recent burials. In addition, a section was added in 1967 for the remains from the Wagner Cemetery on Long Pond Road that was closed to make way for the construction of Park Ridge, now called Unity Hospital.
From its founding over two hundred years ago, the Ridge Road Cemetery Association, also popularly known as the Falls Cemetery, is a respectful, beautiful. and active private cemetery that continues to serve our community.
Photo by Katie Meeson
Extra information will be in Volume 2 of the Pioneer Families of Greece, New York coming out soon.
It is hard to imagine today, that seventy years ago there was no library in the Town of Greece. The Greece Public Library was not even organized until 1958 and didn’t have its own building until 1962.
Beginning in the early 1920s, a book caravan stopped in Greece at the Dewey Avenue Union Church and was succeeded by the Monroe County Traveling Library for decades. For a time, the Willis N. Britton (later Hoover Drive and now Discovery Charter School) school library served as a public library for the community. Every six weeks the county library truck would drop off books and the school would open some evening for a few hours so that patrons could borrow books.
After many years of planning, a provisional charter was granted to the Greece Public Library in 1958. The library created its first home with used furniture and shelving in the new Greece Olympia High School, followed by locations at the Greece Baptist Church and Ridgecrest Plaza. In 1962 a new permanent library building opened on Mitchell Road.
Over time, four additional branches were added to the Town’s library system, starting with Paddy Hill in 1969 when the town leased the vacant Mother of Sorrows Church. Then came the North Greece branch in 1974, located in the North Greece Plaza, followed by Lowden Point branch at 105 Lowden Point Rd, in 1978, (The North Greece branch closed in 1991 and the Lowden Point branch closed in 1994.) A Dewey-Stone branch opened in 1980, in the Dewstone Shopping Center. That branch was moved to Dewey Avenue at Florence Avenue in 1998 and renamed Barnard Crossing Branch. It moved again to 2808 Dewey Ave in 2014.
After nearly ten years of discussions and planning, including the possibility of moving into the Mall, our new Greece Public Library building opened on the Greece Town Campus in 2000, at which time the Paddy Hill branch closed. The Barnard Crossing branch was the only branch retained after the new library opened. During the Covid pandemic, Barnard Crossing closed for good.
Our new library has had several interior changes since 2000, along with the addition of the Story Garden children’s section in 2021. It is presently finishing a complete interior remodeling to meet the needs of a 21st-century library. The Greece Public Library has certainly come a long way since 1958 and is well-equipped to serve our community for decades to come.
Since 2021, I have been researching pioneer families for the two Town of Greece pioneer books. Discovery of relationships whether by family and/or location abound; this story is about location.
My 87-year-old mother, Veronica “Bonnie” Reilly Ward, grew up in her grandparents’ home at 163 Buckman Road. While researching the George Buckman family of Buckman Road for Book 2, I went looking for their home; old photos showed that it was two stories and white. The only other two-story home was my family’s brown house. It was time to visit the Monroe County offices to do a deed search. Sure enough, it confirmed while structural and color changes were made, my mother’s childhood home was indeed the old Buckman homestead.
Buckman Homestead on Buckman Road off of the Ridge Road. 1902 Greece Map
George Albert Buckman (1861-1959) married Lucy Griffin (1860-1932) on March 14, 1883; two weeks later they bought this nine-acre farm property from Civil War veteran George Herman. George and Lucy raised their three children, James Burl, Homer, and May, who were born here between 1884-1889. The farm appears very prosperous with its large home, greenhouses, and numerous outbuildings, as well as an orchard. Once their children were grown and started marrying, this farm was sold. George and Lucy lived at several other residences in Greece before moving to Florida in retirement.
Of their children, the famous Homer, who married Alice Mitchell in 1906, would set his landmark milk and later dairy operation at Long Pond and Ridge Road. Oldest son James Burl married Lora Clarke in 1910, and they moved to Webster. J. Burl is best known for his business together with Loren Bonenblust selling and servicing cars under the business name Bonenblust & Buckman.
Youngest child May Newton Buckman married Pliny Thomas in 1913. They started their marriage in Greece, but moved to Oakland County, Michigan where they remained. May preserved her family photos for future generations, and her granddaughter Bonnie Stemen Fiser has graciously shared dozens of photos as well as their family stories with GHS.
Eventually the house and property were sold to Edward William (1877-1927) and Mary Katherine “May” Beck Reilly (1877-1951). Edward and May had married in 1895 and previously lived on nearby Stone Road. Like the Buckmans, they set about farming and raising their family. The couple had three children, Theresa “Ione,” James Ivan, and Bernard Leo, who died in 1904 at age 4.
Son James Ivan Reilly married Marie Susie Ras in 1928, the year after his father Edward’s untimely death when his horse-driven carriage was struck by a train. May had a stand where she sold her flowers, vegetables, and eggs. She also watched her grandchildren, Ione and Bonnie (my mom), while son Jim and his wife worked. When May died in 1951, Jim and Marie built a “modern” home on the frontage. They sold the farmhouse, but retained the land which was leased out. The property left the Reilly family in the 1990s.
For more about these families, see Pioneer Families of the Town of Greece, Volume 1 for Reilly, and Volume 2, coming out later this year, for Buckman and Beck. As always, we very much appreciate families telling us their stories and/or sharing photos preserving our early town pioneer history.
Then and Now of 163 Buckman Road
Then
163 Buckman Road circa1890s
163 Buckman Road 2023
Now
Then and Now: 163 Buckman Road circa1890s and in 2023. Courtesy Bonnie Stemen Fiser (photo 1) and Jo Ann Ward Snyder (photo 2)
May, Burl, George, Lucy (Griffin), and Homer Buckman. Courtesy Bonnie Stemen Fiser
May Beck Reilly with granddaughters Ione and Bonnie Reilly, and son and daughter-in-law James and Marie Ras Reilly. Courtesy Ione Reilly Newman and Diane Newman Long
Homer and J. Burl Buckman Courtesy Bonnie Stemen Fiser
May Newton Buckman Thomas Courtesy Bonnie Stemen Fiser
Veronica Reilly Ward Courtesy Reilly Family andVeronica Reilly Ward
Bernard Leo and Theresa “Ione” Reilly Courtesy Reilly Family and Veronica Reilly Ward
At the turn of the last century, our Town’s lakeshore was the vacation destination for many in the Rochester area. Summer cottages, hotels, resorts, and private clubs dotted the area along the eight-mile route of the Manitou Trolley. During Prohibition, this remote area also provided a haven for those who ignored the Volstead Act. All those places are now gone, although many are preserved in memories and stories about the area.
Grand View Beach Club provided of Barb Bray
Grand View Beach Neighboord sign, taken by Pat Worboys
One of the grand old establishments in the area called Grand View Beach was the Grand View Beach Hotel, known as “Rosenbach’s by the locals. It was built in 1882 and destroyed by fire in 1947. (Learn about that hotel in Bicentennial Snapshot #45) Only a few properties west of the hotel, at 2286 Old Edgemere Drive, was the private Grand View Beach Club.
The Grand View Beach Club was organized in 1902. With a membership of over 100 cottagers, they built a pavilion/clubhouse for $3,500 (which would cost $126,295.47 in today’s value).
Not much is known about the club’s early years. A 1915 Democrat & Chronicle article stated that the building was used for entertainment, card parties, minstrel shows, dances, meetings, and other purposes, and that the club also advocated for civic improvements.
Claim Bake Committee – from left to right Joseph C. Murrer, Joseph Mahler, Edmund M. Lambiase, Robert F. Gifford, Dr. Joseph W. Martin Jr., Harold D. Cross, and William L. Dibacco – The date of this Clambake Committee photo is unknown.
By the 1940s, on Wednesday nights, silent, black & white “kid’s movies” were shown for 10 cents, and Saturday night dances were held for the teen youth crowd. A 1947 Greece Press article stated that “the dances were described as definitely ‘swell’ by the dungaree crowd.” (See our Historic Newspapers section for links to the Greece Press newspapers that have been digitized and hosted on NYS Historic Newspapers)
Democrat & Chronicle June 25, 1950
Democrat & Chronicle July 15, 1950
For adult entertainment, there were five slot machines (rumor has it that they were purchased from the mob) and a 10-15-foot bar. Behind the bar was a closet, and behind the closet was storage for the slot machines and other “paraphernalia” when not in use.
Democrat & Chronicle Nov 14, 1949provided by Pat Martin
In the mid-1940s, a well-known annual Turkey Raffle was held, which sometimes included winning a pig. Annual field days, carnivals, and clambakes were held to raise funds for the club.
Turkey Raffle Committee November 1946. Back row (Left to right) Dr. Joe Martin Sr, Joe Mahler, unknown, Jim Bell, unknown, Bill McCormick. Front row (left to right) Fred McCormick, *Leonard B. Finewood, Dr. Ed Hardenbrook, unknown, Don Blanchard, unknown. (front center) Boy with a pig, unknown. *Leonard B. Finewood raised the turkeys and the pigs on his farm on Long Pond Rd. and donated them to the club. Photo provided by Pat Martin.
By the early 1950s, the club offered their clubhouse for Protestant church services as well as space to the Grand View Fire Department (see Bicentennial Snapshot No. 50: Barnard and Lakeshore Fire Districts) during the winter months. In 1951 and ’52, the place was used for public meetings asking for government help with the problems of the rising water level of Lake Ontario.
As the saying goes: “All good things must come to an end.” For the Grand View Beach Club, it was the mid-1950s when membership and attendance began to decline. In 1961, the property was listed as delinquent in its taxes. In December 1963, the Town considered using the old place for a senior citizens group, but in the spring of 1964, the club sold the building to the Mennonites who carefully dismantled it for the wood. Finally, in August 1964, the now-empty lot, was sold at public auction. The parcel stood empty until 1977 when a private home was built on it.
Nothing remains of the Grand View Beach Club except the memories of some old timers and the sign on the building that was saved by a neighbor during the building’s deconstruction. To this day that sign hangs in the living room of a Greece resident.
A contemporary aerial photo showing the location of the former Grand View Beach Club. provided by Barb Bray
Most people in Greece associate the surname Fetzner with the making and repairing of means of transportation. First with a carriage and blacksmith shop and then as the “fuel” changed from hay for horse-powered carriages to gas, the family moved on to selling and/or repairing cars.
J.P. Fetzners’ brothers John and Frank owned and operated the J & F Fetzner Carriage Makers, Blacksmithing and Painting on Ridge Road in Greece. Frank’s blacksmith Shop was in the small building, and John’s carriage-making building was the larger. Drawing by William Aeberli
Joseph Peter “J.P”. Fetzner, 1901 Courtesy Lever/Henricus Family
Patriarch Frank Fetzner arrived in the United States in the mid to late 1840s from Untergrombach, Bruschal, Baden, Germany (18km or 11 miles east of the Rhine River). He married Catherine Mura, together they had eight children and resided on a farm in Greece with a blacksmith shop as one of their outbuildings. The driveway to their farm later became Fetzner Road. Sons John and Frank were the well-known carriage makers and blacksmiths whose enterprise was on the Ridge Road. Another son, Joseph Peter (1856-1909), better known in business as J.P., became a maker of wine, liquors, cider and vinegar.
Perhaps making moonshine in the still on his father’s farm, gave J.P. the idea to establish his way in the liquor business. In 1878, J.P. planted grapes for a fledgling vineyard on Long Pond Road, just north of Mill Road. He married Mary Hutte the following year. The Long Pond vineyard thrived and grew, buildings and operations expanded over time, including a storehouse, winery, mill, brandy distillery plant, and a house. There was an additional cider mill on Ridge Road. By 1881, he had founded the Rochester Liquor & Distilling Company in the city of Rochester. As growth continued, in 1899, the name changed to the Lake Ontario Wine Company and the venture went public. The company produced wine, champagne (American Eagle brand), and brandies. It was a very successful family operation with its offices and distillery then based in Rochester. The cider mill, vineyards, winery, wine cellars and woodland (to make the vineyard stakes) were in Greece.
J.P. Fetzner Vineyard and Cider Mill location on Long Pond Road, just north of Mill Road on this (1905 Greece Map)
J.P. Fetzner and worker at Vineyard on Long Pond Road. History of the Brewery and Liquor Business of Rochester, N.Y., Kearse
At the business peak around the year 1900, it was very much a family affair. J.P. was president and treasurer; brother-in-law William Hutte was vice-president; brother Wendell Fetzner helped for a few years with carting; son-in-law brewer, William Kipp (married daughter Minnie), was secretary; and son Arthur Fetzner was a foreman. The company appeared to be highly successful, paying excellent dividends to their stockholders and allowing the family to live prosperously. Unfortunately, J.P. got pulmonary tuberculosis, and then died suddenly in 1909. With his passing, things quickly fell apart. J.P. had sold most of his personal land to the company as well as used personal funds to establish it. During probate, it was discovered that the stock shares were worthless. The family members involved in the business, as well as J.P.’s second wife, Josephine Neidert, and his children from both marriages, had to take other paths in life.
J.P. Fetzner wine jugs. The jugs were made by Jacob Fisher’s pottery business in Lyons, Wayne County, New York. To ensure a return for refill, vendors put their business name on the jugs.
An ashtray artifact surfaced during a recent inventory at the Greece Museum. Lee Strauss and Bill Sauers were kind enough to bring it to my attention and help research what and who it was all about.
Many years ago, every time my late mother and I would drive past a certain farmhouse on English Road, she would announce, “That’s Juddy Kenyon’s house!” Kenyon being an ancestral name, I would press her for details on the relationship, but she was uncharacteristically vague, “Some sort of cousin.” As it turns out, he was my 4th cousin 4 times removed, but prominent enough for her to have claimed him.
As it also turns out, the house to which Mom was referring all those times is a good two miles west of the Judson Kenyon farm property, but the houses are very similar in appearance and if Mom ever actually set foot in “Juddy’s,” it had probably happened 85 years before.
Judson S. Kenyon was born in 1872 in Barry County, Michigan, to William James Kenyon and Elizabeth L. Rowe of Greece. Originally from Rhode Island, William’s parents, and presumably William, farmed in Michigan, but there were extensive Kenyon family ties to Greece, New York. By 1875 William, Elizabeth, and 3-year-old Judson were living in Greece.
Judson, a graduate of Rochester Business Institute, married Mrs. Kate (Rickman) Justice in the Long Pond Road home of her parents, Mr. & Mrs. Arthur Rickman, in April of 1920 (Kate was the widow of Willard H. Justice and had two children by that marriage.) After their wedding trip out west, they lived at what is now 2428 English Road, where they farmed. Both houses still stand.
Judson S Kenyon (Ancestry)
Judson S. Kenyon
(Greece Baptist Church)
During his 90-year lifespan, Judson was very active in Greece political, religious, and local government roles. At one time or another, he served as: deacon, clerk, teacher, trustee, treasurer, and historian at Greece Baptist Church; tax collector, justice of the peace, and member of the Town Board of Greece, NY; life member of Greece Grange…and a member of the Greece Republican Party for most of his life.
The base of the ashtray reads: 1948 Honoring Judson S. Kenyon Over 50 Years a Republican Greece Republican Organization
This ashtray was presented to Judson S Kenyon in 1948, in commemoration of his long-standing involvement in the Greece Republican Party.
The ashtray was presented to him in 1948, in commemoration of his long-standing involvement in that organization. Way to go, Cousin Juddy!
Thanks to a 75-year-old ashtray and to my mother, whose geography may have been off, but whose interest in family and Greece history were spot-on, I was prompted to tell the story of a prominent Greece resident.
Judson S. Kenyon died in 1963 and is buried in Falls Cemetery, among many of his relatives.
In the February Corinthian, I wrote a short story, “The Stories That Find You – Camp Sawyer’s The Well”, about a well and its pump that Boy Scout Troop 14 (from a 2018 article called A Civic Club’s Legacy,) from Barnard School used at Camp Sawyer in the late 1930s and early 1940s. In the story, I wondered if the remains of the well and pump were still there. The Boy Scouts abandoned using the site in the 1950s and the Town dedicated the area as Sawyer Park in 1970.
Boy Scout Troop 14 at Camp Sawyer Cabin in 1943.
After reading my story, Gil (Gilbert) Holts offered to help find the campsite and possibly the remains of the well. He is the man who gave us the photo of the Boy Scouts and who is in the photo of the group standing at their cabin in 1943.
Gil Holts (Left) Bill Sauers(Right) standing over the Troop 14’s well at (Camp) Sawyer now Sawyer Park August 2023
In early August, Gil and I met at Sawyer Park. Nearly 80 years have passed since he was a Boy Scout and invasive plants, mother nature, and human development have severely changed the natural landscape of this 16-acre park. Needless to say, finding the old campsite proved more difficult than anyone thought. To my surprise after more than an hour, we did find the site and the long-abandoned tile-lined well.
It was such a pleasure to listen to Gil reminisce about the scout camp he spent so much time at many years ago. He talked about swimming in the creek, playing ball where the parking lot is now, and planting the very small pine seedlings that are now nearly 100 feet tall. I was especially excited to find evidence of the campsite and verify the stories I had read about Camp Sawyer.
Clay tile lined well and pump base.
The well is now covered again and camouflaged, and we will let it stay buried for now knowing that a piece of history from Boy Scout Troop 14 and their Camp Sawyer still survives in the Town of Greece.
Deep in the back of a rather large yard at Paddy Hill, hidden among the weeds and overgrown brush, is what appears to be the foundation of an old structure. Adolescents finding this structure could easily imagine themselves as an explorer discovering the ruins of an ancient civilization. A less imaginative adult might see the remains of a long-forgotten barn.
“THE HIDDEN FOUNDATION”
Neither a lost civilization, nor an old barn, the crumbling structure is what remains of a forgotten story in the history of the Town of Greece, a story of a community-supported theatrical group whose trophy case once contained countless awards for their outstanding contributions in the entertainment field.
The “Cat and the Canary” was one of their first. The Paddy Hill Players produced over 50 plays between 1931 and 1949.
It was during the early part of the last century that a group of neighbors from the Paddy Hill area got together for the purpose of entertaining themselves by putting on plays. When the new School 5 was completed in 1931, there was a need for new equipment. The president of the school’s PTA asked a young and talented Walter Whelehan to put on a play to raise money for the project, which he did, directing a successful play with those amateur actors from the neighborhood.
The play was so successful that the group was invited to a statewide contest, sponsored by Cornell University. They went on to win the contest and for the next two decades, they were the premier amateur theatrical group in this area.
Mr. Whelehan became the president and the theatrical director of the group. He was also an accomplished actor, starring in many of the plays he directed. Proceeds from their melodramas, mysteries, and comedies helped dozens of community organizations.
With no theater of their own, their plays were produced at area schools, and a few times in the late 1930s they were featured at the Auditorium Theater in downtown Rochester, receiving accolades from both the Democrat & Chronicle and the Times-Union. By 1940, they had more than 76 productions to their credit.
The group’s headquarters was a cabin or what they called a “shanty” on the Whelehan family farm. After the war, this successful and philanthropic group had a dream of building and owning their own theater. In 1946 they incorporated and in 1947 with the help of a community fund drive, purchased seven acres of the Whelehan farm.
The “Shanty”
The unfinished theater
Construction of the theater began in 1948, but near its completion, the project and the group lost its momentum. We may never know why, but the theater was never finished. The group eventually disbanded and went their separate ways. In 1955, The Democrat & Chronicle reported that the group was inactive and still waiting for their theater to be completed. In 1957, the land was sold back to the Whelehan estate, ending forever their dream. Soon new suburban neighborhood streets would all but bury the old farms and orchards of the area and the remains of that unfinished theater.
That foundation, hidden among the weeds and overgrown brush, is what remains of their unfinished dream, but it is also a hidden monument to a group of people who gave their talents for the benefit of the community. They were the Paddy Hill Players.
NOTE: This is a condensed and edited version of a story that appeared in the Greece Post, on July 13, 2006
Back in early Greece history much of the farmland around Long Pond Road north of Maiden Lane was owned by the Britton Family. Opposite this land down at 1048 Long Pond Road stood a stone structure, the first location of the Greece school where the Greece Methodist Church organized in 1841, and now is around the corner at 1924 Maiden Lane. The old stone structure’s frame successor is Greece School #9 and remains today as the home of the Douglas Worboys Family.
In 1895 the Brittons sold the farm fields on the west side of Long Pond Road to John and Eva Easton. In 1901 the farm was purchased by Frank and Julia Herman, a farmer who also became a Greece Town Justice.
In 1953 the Herman Farm, with its two gable roof barns connected by a large chicken coop, was sold by Mr. Herman’s daughter, Isabel Johnson, to Clarence and Adrienne Preston of 1036 Long Pond Road. Here fresh produce was grown and sold at the Rochester Public Market until Clarence retired in 1968. Then sons Eugene and Kenneth continued growing produce for sale at a roadside stand. Most memorable were the tall sunflowers that grew close to the road and admired every summer by motorists driving by.
Sunflowers at 1036 Long Pond Road at Sunset – (Doug Worboys)
In 1965 Rochester Telephone Company constructed a brick operations center at 1041 Long Pond Road said to be exactly in the geographical center of Greece. This land was the private dwelling of Earl and Anna Davis, a Kodak employee.
Getting up in years, I am approaching 82, the Prestons agreed to sell the couple acres of farmland remaining on the west side at 1043 and 1051 Long Pond Road to The Arc of Monroe for the purpose of building two single-family homes. Nestled to the west of the property lies Preston Circle, named after my family, when that portion of the farm was sold more than 50 years ago.
On March 31, 2023, an official Groundbreaking Ceremony was held beneath a large tent, beginning with delightful entertainment by residents of the Arc. Speakers included Arc of Monroe officials including Tracy Petrichick, President and CEO, Tracy Crosby, Executive Director, Arc of Monroe Foundation, and Town of Greece 2nd Ward Councilman, Bill Murphy. Among invited friends, neighbors, and bystanders, I deeply appreciated the opportunity to speak briefly on the family history and the bittersweet feelings of seeing the rich agricultural farmland transition into residential use.
Remembered were tales of my family working the land and caring for the crops, going way back to a period in the late 1940s when, as youngsters, we would be treated to huge slices of cold watermelon on a hot August day by the grand old, retired gentleman, Frank Herman who still lived in the farmhouse on the property at the time. I recall that years earlier when we kids were too young to pull weeds, we’d play beneath the farm wagon with our homemade wooden tractors out of the hot summer sun.
Wonderful refreshments were provided as media personnel finished up their interviews and everyone disbursed into the light rain that was falling. So, another chapter is completed in the history book of the Preston Family Farm on Long Pond Road. Below are some additional pictures from the event taken by Doug Worboys.
Bill MurphyGetting ready to break groundThe Arc of Monroe CountyGene Preston (left), Town of Greece 2nd Ward Councilman, Bill Murphy (middle), Patty(right)Architectural rendering of the two single-family styles homes that will be built and used by the Arc of Monroe County
On February 23, 2021, we celebrated the Bicentennial of the founding of Monroe County. Named for President James Monroe, the county was carved out of land taken from both Ontario and Genesee Counties; it became a new county on February 23, 1821, by decree of the New York State Legislature.
After the Revolutionary War, a treaty of 1783 established the Great Lakes as the northwestern border of the United States. This treaty was referred to as “The Thirteen Council Fires” by Native Americans who were attempting to peacefully co-exist with the new Americans. Unscrupulous speculators often attempted to swindle the natives by tricking them into surrendering their land. Meanwhile, George Washington had sent General Sullivan into western New York to forcibly remove the Seneca by burning their crops and destroying their villages.
Land speculators Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham purchased over six million acres in western NY from Massachusetts in 1788. The land extended all the way from Lake Ontario at the north to the Pennsylvania state line on the south. Phelps also negotiated a treaty with the Seneca, who had originally refused to sell any land west of the Genesee River. Phelps “convinced” the native Americas to part with an area 12 miles wide by 28 miles long for the construction of a mill on the west side of the Genesee. This area became known as the “mill seat tract” and was the site of the first mill built by Ebenezer “Indian” Allan in 1789 (the mill site was just west of today’s Court Street Bridge).
When Phelps and Gorham were unable to pay their debts, their unsold lots were sold to Robert Morris of Philadelphia in 1790. Morris was a financier who quickly turned over the sale of a million acres of Genesee land the very next year to Sir William Johnstone Pulteney. Due to a NY State law that said that a foreigner could not pass title to any New York property, Charles Williamson became Pulteney’s land agent and he held the legal title to the Genesee lands. He opened a land office in Bath, Steuben County.
The settlements on the east side of the Genesee became the Town of Northfield created in 1796. This land was originally a part of Ontario County with the county seat at Canandaigua. It later was known as “Boyle.” The towns split off from Northfield were: Penfield (1810), Perinton (1812), Pittsford and Brighton (1814), Henrietta (1818), Irondequoit (1839) and Webster (1840). Mendon was taken from Bloomfield in 1812 and Rush was taken from Avon in 1818.
March 18, 1806 record book of Northampton mentions money payable to Asa and Frederick Rowe.
Settlements on the west side of the Genesee River were part of the Town of Northampton created in 1797. Originally a part of Genesee County, the county seat was at Batavia. Towns split off from Northhampton were: Parma and Riga (1808), Gates (1808*), Sweden (1813), Ogden (1817), Clarkson (1819), and Greece and Chili (1822). (The reason for the asterisk after Gates 1808 is due the fact that the petition was presented to Albany in 1808, but it took four years to pass in the legislature and an additional year to take effect!) Wheatland was originally called “Inverness” when created in 1821 and Hamlin was originally called “Union” when formed in 1852 before being renamed in 1861. The county seat of Northampton was at Batavia.
In March of 1801, Abel Rowe built a cabin in Batavia and Joseph Ellicott moved his Holland Land Company office into Rowe’s cabin. Abel Rowe soon became a pioneer settler of Gates (later the Town of Greece) and marries the daughter of William Hincher of Charlotte in 1804. Their son Asa would become the famous nurseryman of Ridge Road in Greece.
In 1805, Pulteney land agent, James Wadsworth (1768-1844), offered land for sale in a letter written at Geneseo in 1805. (see at right- New Lands for Sale)
At first, there were very few permanent settlers in our area. Pioneers included Orringh Stone, Daniel Penfield, Glover Perrin, and William Hincher who built log cabin in 1792 on the bluff where the Charlotte Genesee Lighthouse now stands. The “Genesee Fever” pretty much wiped out the settlers at King’s Landing where Gideon King and Zaddock Granger had bought 6000 acres in 1796. The earliest settlers of the Town of Greece are buried at the Hanford Landing and the Charlotte Village Cemeteries.
The 1971 Monroe County Sesquicentennial booklet, Preface to Tomorrow, referred to our area as: “a God-forsaken place, inhabited by muskrats, visited only by straggling trappers, and through which neither man nor beast could gallop without fear of starvation, or fever or ague.” Nevertheless, in 1803, Charles Carroll, William Fitzhugh, and Nathaniel Rochester contracted to buy the “Genesee Fall mill tract” property (100 acres) from Sir William Pulteney, through his attorney Robert Troup.
But it was the area’s waterways that were key to the early growth of Monroe County. The arrival of the Erie Canal was a huge boon to the local economy by providing a cheap and efficient way to get bountiful crops to market. The waterfalls of the Genesee River provided power to its flour mills, mills that shipped over 200,000 barrels of flour in 1826, the very next year after the Erie Canal opened. Schooners and steamers at the busy port at Charlotte brought in lumber from Canada and exported finished wood from its sawmills and flour from its gristmills.
Early settlers planted fruit orchards and grain fields of wheat and barley. Wheat was ground into flour and the excess was turned into whiskey. An early census of western New York noted that there were more distilleries than gristmills.
The population of Rochesterville was less than 5000 people when it became an incorporated village in 1817. That number grew to over 12,000 residents when it received its charter as a city in 1834 and annexed another 4000 acres of land obtained from the surrounding towns of Gates, Greece, Brighton, and Irondequoit.
Both Genesee and Ontario Counties fought the establishment of Monroe County and it took four more trip to Albany to persuade state legislators. But the locals grew tired to long and arduous journey to either Batavia or Canandaigua to record land transactions. Monroe County was approved by the NYS Legislature on February 23, 1821.
Today, the County of Monroe has a total of 19 towns. The current Monroe County Office Building is on the same spot that the first courthouse building of 1829 occupied. After two hundred years, most of the farmland is now gone, but Monroe County can trace its roots back to the farming pioneers who came to the area after the Revolutionary War.
Every historian knows that while researching a specific subject, it is not unusual to stumble on a completely unrelated subject that sparks your interest. One day, not that long ago, while looking for an obscure fact for a story I was helping someone with, I stumbled on a 1937 Greece Press article about Camp Sawyer.
I had written about Camp Sawyer some years ago (Sept. 2018 Corinthian) called A Civic Club’s Legacy, how in the early 1930s it became a camp for Boy Scout Troop 14 from Barnard School. In 1958 the Town of Greece acquired the camp with the provision that it would become a public park. And in 1970 it was opened as Sawyer Park.
What sparked my interest in that 1937 article, was a story about a well being dug by the scouts and their leaders, that hopefully would someday provide a dependable supply of water for their camp. The article stated that the project was running into problems because of a layer of red sandstone and that Empire Clay Products would be donating glazed tile to be used to line the well once completed.
After reading the article, I remembered a photo of Camp Sawyer given to the Greece Historical Society by Gilbert Holtz several years ago. The photo, dated 1943, shows the scouts standing in front of a cabin they had built. What I had never noticed before is a pump in front of the boys. A reasonable assumption can now be made that the boys did in fact finish their well.
I never did find that original piece of information I was looking for and now I am left with several questions that may never be answered about Sawyer Park: Are the remains of that tile lined well still there and where exactly would they be? The land stood unused for several years before the Town officially opened it as a park and there have been numerous changes and upgrades since. Maybe someday, some archaeologist or amateur explorer will find the remains of that long-forgotten well and wonder about its original use. In the meantime, I need to get back to that original research task.
Well, it turns out there is an update to this story and it is thanks to Gil Holts who was a member of Boy Scout Troup 14 and camped at Camp Sawyer.
