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1901
A Hammondsport Odyssey
by
January
Conflict, Pedro and a Touch of Grace
The twentieth century has been called "The American Century," and you
could already see one of the reasons if you read the January 2 issue of
the weekly Hammondsport Herald in 1901. German business leaders
were complaining that world financial markets had begun taking their cues
from Wall Street. "Ever since the war with Spain," the Germans said, "the
United States government has pursued undeviatingly a world-policy of conquest."
It was certainly true that in 1898 we had picked up Puerto Rico, Guam,
some guano islands, and Hawaii, besides establishing a protectorate in
Cuba. By 1901 we also had troops in a multi-national force occupying parts
of China, where the Boxer Rebellion had attacked foreigners. Mining engineer
Herbert Hoover, who had survived the 55-day siege of the Legation Quarter
in Peking, was preparing to return to China even as US forces were preparing
to leave.
We also took over the Philippines from Spain, and in those islands we
were locked in struggle with pro-independence insurgents, who saw no point
in replacing Spanish colonialism with American imperialism. Our 9th Cavalry
had just attacked a large insurgent force, killing 45 Filipinos, even
as Cornell established six scholarships for students from our new Pacific
possession—a net loss of 39, cynics might reasonably observe.
The British had their colonial troubles as well. In West Africa they
were meeting success against the Ashanti, the last independent indigenous
power on the continent apart from Liberia (whose power structure wasn't
really indigenous anyhow) and Abyssinia. But in South Africa, Britain
was meeting repeated defeats at the hands of the Boers, Dutch-descended
farmers who resented British dominance, including the prospect of (relatively)
liberal racial views.
All this no doubt clouded the last days of Queen Victoria, who died
on January 23, ending the second-longest reign in British history. Kaiser
Wilhelm II was already rattling the saber against England (he didn't like
British pre-eminence any more than the Boers did), but blood is thicker
than water. Kaiser Bill's mother was Queen Victoria's daughter Vicky,
so he rushed to London and the side of Grandmama before she died, much
to the annoyance of his English cousins. The caisson that bore the Queen
to her tomb had new pneumatic tires, because she had been shocked by the
jolting of the coffin at the Duke of Wellington's funeral many decades
earlier.
Anti-saloon campaigner Carrie Nation was arrested in Wichita that January,
and West Point abolished hazing after two cadets died. Douglas A. MacArthur,
who had almost died under hazing himself, inspired admiration and exasperation
when he refused to name his tormentors before a Congressional committee.
Mark Twain wintered in New York City, and Teddy Roosevelt killed a mountain
lion in Colorado; he had recently been elected vice-president, but was
not yet inaugurated. There were 4,047 millionaires in the United States.
One of them, meat-packing tycoon Philip Armour, died.
Folks in big cities like New York could avail themselves of a lecture
tour by Mr. Winston Churchill. Young Mr. Churchill had just been elected
(for the first time) to Parliament, but forewent swearing-in ceremonies
because he needed the American and Canadian lecture fees. Churchill regaled
audiences with the thrilling tale of his capture by Boers in South Africa,
and his daring cross-country escape with a price on his head. Mark Twain
introduced Mr. Churchill to one meeting as "the perfect man" by virtue
of having an English father and an American mother.
Druggists on New Year's Day found themselves subject to a new Empire
State licensing fee of $2.00 per annum. Smallpox broke out in Elmira and
Watertown, while Savona sharply complained about a sewer line leading
from the county office building (in Bath) to the Conhocton River. Telephone
companies were organized in Pulteney and in Bath, where a collision on
the Lackawanna line wrecked several railroad cars and injured two people.
In Hammondsport, on the other hand, things were mostly quiet.
True, Father O'Shea at St. Gabriel's Church reported arson at the rectory,
but it had been the first fire alarm for several months. The Knights of
the Maccabees, Ladies of the Maccabees, and International Order of Red
Men dedicated lodge rooms, complete with steam heat and electricity, in
the new Pratt Block. Banker Pratt also boasted a time lock on his safe,
and picture checks with a view of Keuka Lake. This latter innovation caused
quite a stir, but the bank went broke in a few years, leaving stockholders
and depositors high and dry, for there was no banking insurance back then.
Mr. Pratt should have lavished a little less on lodge rooms.
Players of Pedro (a form of pitch) held a progressive Pedro party around
the town. Later that month they all took a trip to Bath, returning by
train at midnight on a Bath & Hammondsport special. (Pedro players were
obviously a pretty lively bunch.) The married couples dancing class, 120
strong, held a dance in the rooms of the Keeler Hose Company, one of three
volunteer fire forces serving Hammondsport at the time.
The Hammondsport paper carried ads for Jell-O (a new concoction, made
not too far away, in LeRoy), Sapolio, Cordova Candles, Singer sewing machines,
and Duffy's Pure Malt Whisky. But the month ended with a jingle of pleasure
for young and old. Sleighing began that winter in the third week of January,
as the nineteenth century exhaled one final breath of grace.
February
Ice and Light
They were sleighing in Hammondsport as February opened in 1901—"much
sleighing" to quote the Hammondsport Herald. Although people
obviously used sleighs for transportation, sleighing season also seems
to have been a time for pleasure, sociability, and no doubt, courting.
Highways, then as now, were a major concern of town government. There
were 71 highway supervisors in Urbana alone; presumably each had responsibility
for a stretch of road near his home. In most locales, the goal was not
to clear snow but to keep it, packing it down to a hard surface by means
of huge horse-drawn rollers. As long as this packed snow lasted, runnered
vehicles could operate. Once it was gone, dirt and gravel roads might
turn to mud or ruts, making wheeled traffic inconvenient, to say the least.
But times were changing. A bill in the state legislature proposed to replace
the labor tax for highway maintenance with a money tax.
Another sign of winter was the annual ice harvest. Workers in Bath were
drawing ice a full foot thick, largely from Lake Salubria. Ice was big
business back in those days. Electrical refrigeration was just in its
infancy. Most rural districts had no power anyhow, and even in a village
like Hammondsport, electricity (introduced three years earlier) was only
part-time. So ice was vital for chilling and preserving food—in many places
it would still be used routinely until after World War II.
Horse-drawn apparatus were often used to score the surface of the ice,
but after that point it was man-power, with long saws cutting through
the scores. After hauling ice out of the frigid water (no easy task in
itself), workers packed blocks in sawdust and stored them in ice houses
where they would keep until summer. It was chilling, backbreaking work,
and ice businesses were often linked with coal businesses, giving the
operators a sale item for each half of the year.
Electricity in Hammondsport, while still limited in daily duration,
was at least spreading in area and increasing in power. P. G. Zimmer,
who ran the power plant, added a new Westinghouse dynamo to his equipment
in February of 1901. His lines began extending up Lake Street, taking
in the residences of Aaron G. Pratt and Lyman Aulls. He published a prospectus
for interested customers in the Herald. Installation cost $1.50
per light, and lighting was overwhelmingly the purpose of electricity
back then—there were few "appliances" apart from doorbells. Zimmer would
set you up with a meter at half his cost, refundable after one year.
As an aside, my father knew a man who as a boy helped his own father
install electric lights, with knob-and-tube wiring, in New England. This
gentleman said that all the neighbors and relatives would be gathered
around waiting for the big moment when the lights came on. As soon as
they did, someone would say, "Boy—these walls really need washing!" Of
course, that was not simply a matter of better illumination. Up until
that point they would have been using candles, gaslight, or oil lamps,
building up quite a residue over the years.
Even in the depths of a Finger Lakes winter, with ice cutting and sleighing
going vigorously on, the village (1169 residents) kept busy. Afternoon
school sessions began at 1:15. George Hutches made a frisky road mare
available by offering 600 tickets at 10 cents apiece. The members of the
Hammondsport Hook and Ladder Company were planning for their annual ball
and musicale on April 8.
Lua Curtiss Adams, Glenn Curtiss's widowed and remarried mother, was
in town from Rock Stream with her little boy, Glenn's half-brother Carl.
They were staying with her old mother-in-law, Glenn's grandmother Ruth
Bramble Curtiss, in the big house where Curtiss School now stands. Besides
just being sociable, she may have wanted to look in on the young couple.
Glenn and his wife Lena lived with Grandma, and they were expecting their
first child shortly.
Character impersonator Edwin R. Wells rounded out the season's lecture
series at the town hall (at a guess, two of his subjects were Teddy Roosevelt
and William Jennings Bryan). The Methodist Church had just completed a
series of evangelistic services, with 60 people converted or reclaimed,
and 50 taken into the church on probation. Father Kennedy was installed
as Pastor of St. Gabriel's, taking over from Father O'Shea. The Hammondsport
pastor also had the parish of Prattsburgh, but there was no rail connection,
so we presume he got back and forth by buggy.
Bath and Hammondsport were bickering over allocation of rural mail routes,
which were finally being created after years of agitation by the Grange.
Manfred Peterson in Watkins Glen was arrested for counterfeiting nickels,
which must have been an intellectual pleasure for him, as he could scarcely
have earned enough money to make it worthwhile. The Caledonia hatchery
stocked Keuka Lake with half a million whitefish and half a million pike.
Spring was coming.
March
Justified Optimism
In the first year of the new century, March was just as mixed-up a month
as it is today. Hammondsport children were coasting on Pulteney Street
(their favorite sport) when the month opened, even as bluebirds, phoebes,
and robins made their return appearance from the sunny south.
The Hammondsport Herald was brimming with enthusiastic news
about the upcoming Pan-American Exposition (or world's fair) in Buffalo.
The Pan-Am, an optimistic celebration of American know-how, had laid on
a Lackawanna Special railroad junket for journalists. The Herald
people participated, and dedicated their entire front page to the Pan
on March 27. Of course, the Pan-Am was in fact shaping up as a truly spectacular
affair. Moreover, Marc Bennitt, the Pan-Am's publicity director, was a
former Hammondsporter who had actually started his career on the weekly
Herald. Malinda Bennitt had been one of the paper's founders
back in 1874, and Marc was presumably a family member.
The water commissioners and the village treasurer both issued their
annual reports. The village budget was $3565.46, including a $75 allocation
for each of three fire companies—Hook & Ladder, Citizens' Hose, and Keeler
Hose. Money was appropriated for work on the creek wall. Hammondsport
was getting nine months of curfew ringing for $11, besides spending a
dollar a year to buy matches for "the old lamplighter." He also needed
kerosene and lamps, of course.
The Methodist Church decided it had had enough of lamps and matches,
taking up a subscription to install electric lights now that P. G. Zimmer
had extended his lines up Lake Street. Zimmer even announced that he would
place an incandescent arc light, at his own expense, on the new soldiers'
monument, but that installation apparently didn't last long.
C. M. Thorp set up every second Saturday morning at the Bedell barn
to buy veal calves, hides, poultry, and pelts. Frank Houck had the seasonal
mail contracts for Penn Yan-Wayne and Hammondsport-Dundee. He ran these
routes as long as the lake was frozen up, after which the customary steamboat
delivery resumed. The Shannon steam plant in Penn Yan may have been sorry
when the thaw came—they harvested 20,000 tons of ice that season, shipping
it out in 6000 boxcars. But the weather did indeed break at last, and
Keuka Lake rose over 5" in heavy rains.
Another sign of spring was the increase in bicycle advertising, including
ads by Glenn Curtiss, who was also collecting 60-cent side path fees.
Each bicycle in the county needed to be tagged annually, and receipts
provided for cinder paths alongside the highways. A side path ran from
Hammondsport to Bath along what is now Fish Hatchery Road. These paths
were often in better shape than the roads themselves, and proved a blessing
as more and more people sallied forth on two-wheelers. The modern "safety
bicycle" was only about a decade old, but it had already changed patterns
of American life and transportation.
Glenn and Lena Curtiss also celebrated the birth of their first child,
Carlton, in March of 1901. Unfortunately, though, Carlton was a "blue
baby." He had cardiac and respiratory problems, and would die a month
before his first birthday. This was far more common in those days than
it is now—the Franklin Roosevelts, the Dwight Eisenhowers, and the Winston
Churchills would all lose very young children—but no less devastating
than it would be for parents a hundred years on.
William McKinley was inaugurated for his second term on March 4, and
attended the funeral of former President Benjamin Harrison later in the
month. McKinley and Harrison had both been combat officers in the Civil
War. New York governor Teddy Roosevelt, who was a very young child when
he watched Lincoln's funeral procession pass through New York, had also
been sworn in, as vice-president, on Inauguration Day. No one suspected
that he would succeed to the White House nine months later, when McKinley
was assassinated while visiting the Pan-Am.
There were certainly other signs of turmoil in the world. Blackmail
charges made a nine-days'-wonder in Wheeler. A man in Sodus was killed
by a trolley, and Robert Mower of Pulteney died in Naples on the Lehigh
Valley spur. R. J. Wixom in Hammondsport advertised that none of the shirts
in his store were made by sweat shops. Russians rioted in St. Petersburg.
In Corsicana, Texas, 5000 Americans gathered to watch a Negro burned at
the stake for assault and murder.
Signs of optimism were also in the air. Gottlieb Frey began work on
his new opera house, and J. S. Hubbs on his modern residence. More than
a hundred years later their work still stands, so it seems that some optimism
was justified as winter gave way to spring.
A Close-Up Look at the Presidents of 1901
We already know something about what Presidents McKinley, Hoover, Benjamin
Harrison, and Theodore Roosevelt were doing in 1901. How many other past
or future Presidents were living in that year, and what were they up to?
Past President Grover Cleveland and future President Woodrow Wilson
were both in Princeton, New Jersey. Curiously, the only Democratic Presidents
between James Buchanan and F. D. Roosevelt were both active in the university—Cleveland
as a Trustee, Wilson as a professor. He would be named university president
the following year.
William Howard Taft, as we shall see, became civil governor of the Philippines
in 1901. Warren G. Harding was an Ohio state senator, while Calvin Coolidge
was re-elected as city solicitor in Northampton, Massachusetts. Dwight
D. Eisenhower was in grade school in Kansas.
Franklin D. Roosevelt was a student at Harvard during this momentous
year. Harry Truman was graduated from the only high school in Independence,
Missouri, in 1901, along with Bess Wallace (the future Mrs. Truman) and
Charlie Ross (President Truman's first press secretary).
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