This past month marked the 100th year anniversary of the beginning of WWI, at least for Europe. The United States, at the outset, maintained a vehemently neutral position. This was partly due to President Woodrow Wilson’s foreign policy beliefs and the fact that in the United States loyalty was divided among the American people much like the Revolutionary War and War of 1812. In addition, American business and banking interests also believed they could straddle the fence. At the start of hostilities, the United States had trade relations and lent money to both sides. Events would eventually prove this favorable economic situation to be untenable and America would have to choose a side. In June of 1917, the United States, stung by German U-boat attacks on her merchant fleet, sent troops to France on the side of the allies helping to bring an end to the war the following year.
Author: gall1958
Rex Tugwell: Wilson’s Connection to The New Deal
Wilson was the boyhood home of one of the twentieth century’s most influential people whose face once appeared on the cover of a well-known news magazine. Most of you have driven by a large blue barn located at 425 Lake Street and noticed the name Tugwell Place painted on the side. From 1904 until 1911, Rexford G Tugwell lived there. Many of the younger readers might now be saying to yourself “I’ve never heard of him, How important and influential could he have been?” The answer is very much so, for some of the economic influences of Tugwell’s ideas and programs are still part of the nation’s fabric today.
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Buffalo State Mental Hospital’s Wilson Farm Annex
Wilson once had a close connection with Buffalo State Hospital. The catalyst for this connection began in the early 1900s. Changes in the treatment philosophy of mental patients as well as an increasing number of institutionalized patients caused the hospital to seek more land and living space. Around 1908 progressive minded administrators came up with an idea to lease a 36 acre farm along Lake Ontario. The idea was proposed to and accepted. The property they settled on was owned by L.A. Dwight and was located in the village of Wilson at 81 Lake Street not in the Roosevelt beach area west of 12 mile creek as previously believed. The confusion over the exact whereabouts is possibly because The Dwight’s did own land west of the village in the Roosevelt Beach area. However more recent research conducted by Dr. James Boles and Melissa Royer from The Museum of Disability History indicates but the main farm and cottage where patients lived and worked was in and around the Lake street address. The Lakeside Colony has also been referred to by at least three different names over the years, two of them being Lakeside Colony and Lake Farm. This may further reason for the confusion.
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The History of Wilson’s Water Supply
Prior to 1912, residents of the village of Wilson had access to telephone and electric service but did not enjoy the luxury of a pressurized, safe water supply for drinking and fighting fires or a modern municipal sewer system. The main problem was the lack of a reliable water delivery mechanism. Though a municipal pressurized, safe drinking water was arguably less important than a readily available source of water for firefighting, the two issues went hand in hand. The centuries old traditional method of individual wells dug by property owners was how drinking water was obtained and as far as firefighting went, there may have been some minimal water storage capability in the form of barrels or larger tanks etc. But generally, if a fire was not extinguished immediately, the structure would more often than not burn to the ground. Newspapers from the era give grim accounts of the numerous fires that destroyed many of Wilson’s finest hotels, homes and other buildings in the 19th and early 20th century. This situation slowly began to be remedied in 1912. The Fredonia Preserving Company needing reliable supply of water for their canning operations began construction of a water supply line. The village of Wilson, lying between Lake Ontario and the canning plant would end up directly benefiting from the company’s water line construction.
100 Years Ago in Wilson
The following is a new feature that I thought might be interesting to include in the newsletter from time to time. It is a look back at what was going on in the Wilson area approximately 100 years ago.
Genealogy Tips
Many if not most of the requests for information that come my way have to do with genealogy. When I began serving as town historian, I did not have much experience in this field. However, over the past few years I have discovered and used a number of resources to help answer the sometimes difficult questions that genealogy research throws at you. In this article, I will be sharing some of these resources to help you, the reader, in your genealogical research of links to the past. One thing to keep in mind when beginning your research is: What information do I already have and what am I looking for? This will loosely dictate an order for your search. However, there are a couple of websites that almost everyone will want to begin with.
Wilson in 1914: The Beginning of WWI
This past month marked the 100th year anniversary of the beginning of WWI, at least for Europe. The United States, at the outset, maintained a vehemently neutral position. This was partly due to President Woodrow Wilson’s foreign policy beliefs and the fact that in the United States loyalty was divided among the American people much like the Revolutionary War and War of 1812. In addition, American business and banking interests also believed they could straddle the fence. At the start of hostilities, the United States had trade relations and lent money to both sides. Events would eventually prove this favorable economic situation to be untenable and America would have to choose a side. In June of 1917, the United States, stung by German U-boat attacks on her merchant fleet, sent troops to France on the side of the allies helping to bring an end to the war the following year.
For this issue of the newsletter, I decided to look to back at issues of The Wilson Star and determine what the prevailing public opinion was at the onset of war in Europe. It seems as though most of America held an almost smug indifferent attitude about the war. Americans felt as though they were above the fray. They did not want to get involved in what most felt were Europe’s problems. Americans believed the conflict could be traced to old, antiquated monarchial systems of governments and the belief in hereditary privilege rather than meritocracy. The following examples help illustrate this point of view. They can be found in the 1914 late summer through fall issues of the Wilson Star.
Jesse Smith’s Log Cabin
Have you ever driven by the little log cabin on Chestnut Road near North Road and wondered about its history? Does it have a story to tell or not? Recently, I stopped by to ask the owner Toby Mansfield, this very question. The house has a long history of continuous occupation by a number of different residents, and is intriguing for the fact that it is still standing and in great condition after nearly 190 years! This makes the little cabin arguably one the oldest homes if not the oldest in Niagara County. There are some that say Reuben Wilson’s home in the village of Wilson is older, dating to 1818 possibly 1825. However, the original cabin was added on to and the walls were hidden by the additions and modifications over the years. There is nothing to be seen of the original home. If the determining criteria is for the structure to look as close to its original appearance as possible, then the Smith cabin on Chestnut wins. Settling this issue would ultimately would depend on when Smith built his cabin on Chestnut Road. No exact dates exist for either house. For the record, the historical marker in front of the little cabin on Chestnut shows a date of 1823.
Wilson Collegiate Institute
At one time, on the site of the present day town hall, Wilson had its own Collegiate Institute. In the mid-1840s, a few enterprising citizens decided to start a school for those children (boys during this era) who were thought to be academically gifted. It was located in the village of Wilson. The school was also intended to be for profit and tuition was charged. First, though, a little clarification on just what is a collegiate institute.
More than a primary school but not quite a college, collegiate institutes were an early- day prep school for those individuals that were intending to attend college. A collegiate institute is a term that can refer to a school either of secondary education or of higher education. It has a complex definition that varies regionally, and has been largely unused outside of Canada since the early 20th century. Collegiate institutes offered arts and humanities education including Greek and Latin, for university-bound students. High schools offered vocational and science programs for those planning to enter the workforce upon graduation. Eventually, the line between what defined a collegiate institute and a high school became blurred leading to the gradual disuse of the term. Although, in Western New York, one school, St Joseph’s Collegiate Institute in Tonawanda still refers to itself in this manner. With that, let’s get back to the story at hand.
The Secret of Roosevelt Beach
Recently, a long-time Wilson resident shared a very interesting and historically relevant story with me. It has to do with Roosevelt Beach and the very significant if deliberately secret role it played in WWII. The story begins with an eleven year old boy who worked as an usher in Wilson’s little theater during the War. That boy was Roland Harding and this is his story.
Wilson, NY History 