A famous landmark in Fredonia will soon be only a memory. The 200 foot high smoke stack at the Red Wing Company is being demolished.

The demolition symbolizes the end of the old style canning industry in Fredonia. Dense smoke pouring from high stacks characterized the area’s fruit processing industry during each canning season through the first part of the century. Actually, The Red Wing stack has not been used in the several years since the Fredonia Company voluntarily converted their boilers from coal to gas to eliminate the smoke pollution and happily, in the case of Red Wing, the change not only marked the passing of the old, but was part of a modernization program for the local concern.

The Red Wing Company started life in the year 1912 as the Puritan Food Processing Company, a subsidiary of the Cudahy Packing Company and in 1917 the name was changed to the Red Wing Company. In the first 10 years of its existence, the company reportedly lost over one million dollars and in a salvage operation, Leon C. Steele was sent by Cudahy with orders to sell or close-out the business. Instead, upon taking a close look at the operation, Mr. Steele made drastic changes which saved the plant for Cudahy and for the community.

Mr. Steel remained here as Vice-President and General Manager. He was succeeded in 1938 by Louise Long who stayed until 19511 when he became President of the Cudahy Packing Company. It was at this time that the present President, Edward C. Steele, became General Manager and assumed increasing control of the enterprise.

The recent revitalization of the company has been achieved in the face of a general deterioration of the industry as it was constituted a generation ago. It was no longer possible to have a one or two product-plant limited in its major operations to one season of the year. Recognizing this, the production line of Red Wing has been greatly expanded so that today it includes jams, jellies, peanut butter, grape juice, catsup, and chili sauce. Employment still peaks in the Autumn, but the greater part of the plant’s production rolls steadily off modern lines twelve months a year.

As a qualify packer, the Fredonia Company enjoys the patronage of millions of people from New England to St. Louis and south to Florida, although the customers might be unaware of the origin of the products because they are mainly marketed under 300 different brand labels of chain stores and wholesalers. Replacing the smoke stack as the most prominent physical feature of the plant is a recently completed one-story warehouse on Newton Street.

Barker publishes booklet on 19th c. artist

A booklet on the life of 19th c. artist Alvah Bradish has become a reality thanks to funding from the New York State Council of the Arts. Author Doug Shepard has provided an informative piece of literature on this artist that can be purchased at the Barker Museum and other local outlets.
Bradish was born Sept. 4, 1806 in Sherburne, New York, to Samuel Morton and Mary Finch Bradish. By 1810 the Bradish family was listed in Junius, Seneca County. His father died when Alvah was 6, leaving his mother to raise him and three other sons in somewhat difficult circumstances. Although, the Barker has made a very significant attempt to determine where he received his formal training, this knowledge still is unknown, but visit the Barker and view any one of the 12 portraits on exhibit and you will conclude that he did receive some formal training at some point. Fortunately young Alvah’s second cousin, Luther Bradish, a diplomat, state assemblyman and later Lieutenant Governor of New York, became his patron.
Bradish’s career progresses and he arrived in Detroit in 1834. He soon developed a friendship with Douglass Houghton and his sister Lydia, and their relationship develops into marriage.
In 1852 Bradish was appointed Prof. of Fine Arts at the University of Michigan. He leaves there in 1865 taking his academic title with him, he moved to Buffalo where he painted for three years, relocating by March 1868 in Chicago,
then a growing center for the arts. And so the story continues, in more interesting details if you come to the Barker Museum and purchased the booklet as well as view the twelve portraits from the Barker’s collection now on display. The booklet, the portraits and future talks to be presented at the Museum, get ready to learn more about this artist and other local artists in the near future.

Sunset Hill on Central Ave., Fredonia, NY

 

Story of Hascal Taylor

In the Spring 2009 an article of local significance was published in Western New York Heritage Magazine by Jason Aronoff. Hascal Taylor, the man who commissioned Adler & Sullivan's Buffalo Building was from Fredonia. This world famous office building we now know as the Guaranty Building was the last commission he did before he died in 1894. Hascal Taylor, born in Stockton, NY in 1830 became a well known business man in Fredonia before he worked in the oil region of the northwestern Pennsylvania, and finally in Buffalo. In 1856 Taylor formed a partnership with a carriage maker, Festus Day. The company called, Taylor & Day, grew rapidly, expanding its operations. In 1864 another partner joined, forming Taylor, Day & Company. One factor in the company's rapid prosperity was the demand created by the Civil War. Another factor was the firm's invention of the "Road Wagon" and its sale in the oil regions of northwest Pennsylvania. In 1867, the firm patented the famous "buck board" road wagon, "which had an immense sale not only throughout the oil country but wherever a wagon was wanted for rough roads and severe service," according to the Fredonia Censor newspaper. By 1872, the company had built a large three-story building on Center Street in Fredonia to house the manufacturing, storage and display rooms their expanding business warranted. In 1873 the booming operation built five new forges and another three-story building. However, later that year the carriage industry was among the victims of a financial downturn that drove prices for the wagons to low levels. In 1875 Taylor sold his interest in the business and went onto the oil business in nearby Titusville, PA., and by the 1880s Taylor was the President of Union Oil Company which was one of the largest producers of oil in the country. In 1881 Taylor became a resident of Buffalo, and moved his Union Oil headquarters to Buffalo. He started purchasing property and in the Dec. 25, 1894 issue of the Buffalo Morning Express a drawing of the Taylor Building appeared. If Taylor had lived for two more years (he died in 1894) the building we know as the Guaranty Building would have been the Taylor Building and the name Hascall L. Taylor, would be as well known as other great patrons of Buffalo's out standing architecture including William Dorsheimer, Darwin Martin, and Edward Kleinhans. (This information was taken from the original article published in the Spring 2009 issue of the WNY Heritage Magazine.)

Taylor House in Fredonia

Hamburg Turnpike