Deliveries At All Hours!

A newspaper clipping from the Arcade Herald in 1952 was musing about the "good old days" of 1902: "Telephones were few, and far between," referring to Main Street businesses. "Stores were shy on putting in phones, claiming it would result in forcing them to make deliveries at all hours." When you compare that with Amazon developing drones to make deliveries directly to your front door, 24 / 7, those business owners of 1902 would faint in horror! 

1893 Reference Book

for Everyday Use

I found this book in the society's collection, C.Y. Moyer's The Business Manual; A Complete Guide in all Mercantile and Legal Transactions and Reference Book for Every Day Use, published by N.G. Hamilton & Co. It has everything from various types of contracts to penmanship, determining how much wallpaper needed for a room and the page I have scanned below on how to determine the capacity of a wagon-box. Very handy indeed!

 

Kids Learn About Elsie

Elementary students visit the Arcade Historical Society at the end of every school year. This year we talked to them about how "cheese built the Gibby House" - via Mr. Gibby's cheese factories - as well as two other important milk industries in Arcade, the Merrell-Soule and Borden's powdered milk plants. As we all know, there are more cows than people in Wyoming County, NY and milk products have always been a big export. Pictured here is a page from Borden's 100 year anniversary comic book for children. 

On a Ship in the Pacific

One of "Shorty" Roblee's experiences during WWII.

As a result of the historical society's annual Walking With Heroes cemetery tours held on Memorial Day weekend and the Post 374 V.F.W. 75th anniversary last year, the society has begun to compile an archive of veterans' service experiences, both to honor them and maintain their experiences as a historical record. Here is one of those remembrances.

 Anson (Shorty) Roblee served in the U.S. Marine Corps aboard the USS Bunker Hill from March 1943 to August 1945. On Mothers’ Day 1945, kamikaze planes attacked the USS Bunker Hill. As told by Shorty in an article for the Arcade Herald, “ ...I heard what everybody thought was our attack planes coming back from another strike. All at once a meatball“ (Japanese plane) “came in over the island structure, dropped a 500 pound bomb and crashed his plane into our planes at the aft end of the flight deck.  The bomb went through the flight deck, hanger deck, and blew up in the port quarter of the ship. This immediately started huge fires on the whole aft portion of the ship.” Soon a second Kamikaze dove at the ship, crashing his plane into the base of the ship’s island.  “We fought the fires and further Jap attacks for 26 hours.” Meanwhile, back at home in Arcade, his mother had a strong feeling he would be in trouble on that day, but didn’t find out about the attack until weeks later.

Confusing "Times" in 1938

May 20, 1938 Arcade newspaper had the following notice:

DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME

Daylight saving time is again with us to confuse the unwary. Buffalo, East Aurora and Holland are on daylight saving time, while Arcade and south including Olean are on standard time. Rochester remains on standard time.  Last week Perry voted to stay on standard time, while Batavia voted in favor of daylight saving time.

1975 Overpass Construction

Mary Wertz had a photography studio in Arcade in the 70s and photographed the construction of the overpass on Route 39 between Yorkshire and Arcade in 1975. She is selling the framed prints from a GCC show she did on that project. If you are interested in buying a piece of this history, go to the link below.  

http://buffalo.craigslist.org/art/3937318298.html

1938, the view from Arcade, NY

Here in Arcade, we are in the middle of celebrating the 75^th Anniversary of the Hendershott-Manness Post 374 Veterans of Foreign Wars. The post was founded in 1938 with 25 charter members. The first Post Commander was a veteran of the Spanish-American War, John Henry Connors. In addition to post history at the exhibit, we went through all the 1938 issues of the Arcade Herald to see what going on locally and also did a search for national and global news. Here is a sampling of what can be found at the exhibit:

·         Unemployment in the U.S. was 19%.

·         The minimum wage in the U.S. was 25 cents an hour.

·         Oil had just been discovered in Saudi Arabia.

·         A Duck Dinner at the Holland Willows was 35 cents on special.

·         A car “caravan” opened scenic route 39.

·         The wooden Fire Hall on Liberty Street in Arcade was torn down and the brick Fire Hall was built (the building which the VFW exhibit is in this month, July 2013).

·         The Niagara Falls View Bridge between the U.S. and Canada fell into the gorge after being weakened by ice jams.

·         Sportsmen “up in arms” over the new Cummings Bill proposing that all firearms be registered.

·         Superman comic book number 1 debuts.

·         Inventions: xerographic print, ballpoint pen, nylon, Teflon

·         German Troops invade Austria - anchluss (the event the Sound of Music is based on).

·         Arcade votes to centralize the schools – 26 schools (local one room school houses and the Arcade Academy) to form Arcade Central School.

·         Animated Disney movie “Snow White” is shown in local theaters.

·         Arcade remained on Standard Time while areas north (Buffalo, Holland, East Aurora) switched to Daylight Savings Time.

·         The Arcade Congregational Church celebrated their 125th anniversary – which means in 2013, they are celebrating their 200^th!

 

See the VFW Anniversary page on our website, www.arcadehistorical.org for dates and times of the exhibit.