Welcome to the History Corner!
Celebrating the rich history of Port Byron, New York, an old Erie Canal village in the Town of Mentz. This site is dedicated to the legacy and heritage of our community as well as a variety of regional historical tidbits. I hope you enjoy your visit and will stop by again.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Article Correction

This months article was about my trip to the County Seat at Washington County, NY in December.  In this article I commented on there being a separate department containing transcribed wills.  Unfortunately the article was altered by the Editors at the Auburn Citizen.  They do a wonderful job with minor edits in the layout process but they did not recognize the significance of the term LDS which is the universal initials used when referring to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints research center in Salt Lake City, Utah.

I had commented that the transcribed wills is what is on file in Utah, so anyone that rents the reels from their collections would not receive the original wills, they would be viewing the transcribed documents.  That is relevant because there is additional information, likely on additional reels because Washington Co., NY does not store all components of an estate in the same location.

Therefore, when you read the article, the line that says:

We were instructed to report to the opposite end of the complex, only to discover that the bound books contained transcriptions (same as what is on file with Washington County). 

This should read :  {same as what is on file with LDS}.

Many years ago I had rented the films for Washington County Wills and the bound books are the same as what I viewed from Salt Lake City.  Many people will mistake the file as complete when more information is actually on file with the County Archivist.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Mansions of The Past

The Syracuse Morning Standard, Syracuse, NY, Tuesday Morning, May 4, 1880

In the Weedsport Column appeared:

W. W. Mack, of Rochester, brother and partner of S. J. Mack, has purchased the Smith residence at Port Byron, and will make it his present summer residence and  probably a permanent home in the near future.  This mansion originally cost $80,000 but the price paid for it was less than one-fourth of this sum, if current report is  correct.

($80,000.00 in 1880 would have the purchase power of $1,730,000.00 as of 2009 based on CPI) 


Auburn, NY Argus 1895-1897

Coroner A. D. Stewart has purchased the Chas. Smith mansion in Pine street, and will establish a hospital therein; Consideration $2,200.

($2,200.00 in 1886 would have the purchase power of $51,800.00 as of 2009 based on CPI)

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

The New Year

Our website has had a slight change but our mission remains steadfast in promoting and preserving the rich history of the Port Byron, NY area.  In reviewing the stats over the past year, our website has had regular visits from the following locations:

Australia
Canada
Germany
India
Japan
Latvia
Moldova
Netherlands
Romania
Russia
Singapore
Sweden
Ukraine
United Kingdom
United States

Therefore, it seemed appropriate to change our website from Port Byron Historian to Port Byron History, to better reflect our content.  The change went very smoothly.  Our new website is http://www.portbyronhistory.com/ with no loss in content, all of your favorite features and articles are here for your enjoyment.

With this change, we also updated our Facebook group to Port Byron History.  Many of the original posts can still be found in the note section.  Thank you for your participation on Facebook, where posts averaged about 1,000 viewings each.  That is amazing!

It's the start of a bright New Year with a fresh start for Port Byron History.  We look forward to seeing you in our fan club on Facebook.  Thank you for your loyal support and we shall enjoy the upcoming year as we celebrate a wonderful place called Port Byron, NY.