Albion Centennial
1828
1928
It is hard to realize that in the year 1800, this
county wvas an unbroken wilderness, thickly covered
with trees and
game, wolves, bear, otter, rattle snakes, deer, beaver
and even salmon.
and William Walsworth in an open boat from Canada
in 1803.
made the first clearing and built a log house on the
site
blocks of logs and homenmade stools were used for
chairs.
and beds were made by boring holes in the side of the
log house and putting in rods fastened
posts. Dishes
primitive meal was cooked in a fireplace. Maple trees
furnished sugar and a great variety of native berries
and nutS varied the menu.
wool and tow; colored, wove and fashioned it for use.
erops with a seythe, raked with a wooden handrake,
threshed with a flail and cleared the
handfan.
County, November 11, 1824, and until the Erie Canal
was commenced, Albion wvas merely farm land.
at the intersection of Oak Orchard Road, now
Main Street, and the Erie Canal, a town sprang uF
and was called Newport.
Gaines
through the great strategy of several public spirited
men, in their location here and the first Court House
was built in 1827, Mr. Nehemiah Ingersoll donating
the ground.
April 21, 1828, changed the name to Albion, there being
another Newport in the state... .And so on....From
these early times of oxcart, stagecoach and packet-
boat to the auto, airplane and steamship of today.
from the hardships and discouragements of our early
pioneers to the ease and affluence we enjoy, this magi-
cal transformation has been wrought.
underbrush and peopled with
wild
To this region first came James
It was not until 1811 that William McCollister
of our
Courthouse.
In these primitive homes.
Tables were of the same rough manufacture
to upright
were mainly pewter
or wood.
The women spun, carded
men plowed with a
wooden plow, movwed
chaff with a
Orleans County was set off from Genesee
But
our
Then came the strife with
buildings, which resulted.
for the
county
The first Act of Incorporation, passed
6"Time is hastening on and we,
our fathers
are, shall be
Shadow shapes of memory."
Compiled by the D. A. R. Committee, 1928.
