Question: If a picture was taken today from the same spot as is shown in the photo, it would look quite different. Do you know what streets are shown and what the businesses were in the buildings pictured? See if you can give the approximate date by dating the items pictured.
Last week’s answer: Before the general population was educated enough to read, their more learned neighbors would often hold gatherings in their homes and entertain by reading some enlightening literature. There were a number of societies throughout in the area.
The following were located in Van Buren: at the homes of Cyrus Kingsley who ranked high in the literacy field and at one time was a member of the state legislature; also farmers Hezekiah Dow, James Sears, Isaiah Harrington and Hiram Bowman, a prosperous surveyor and the Pagoda Hill Literary Society which met at the Willis Cornell home.
In the village, there was a society called the Lyceum, composed of the better class, which held weekly meetings and presented programs consisting of essays, discussions and debates on the current topics of the day.
Last week’s picture shows the Shining Light Club of Dead Creek at rehearsal in the Harrington parlor on Nov. 22, 1901. Members of the club were Harry Wormuth, Sarah Cornell, Frank Court (teacher at Stone Pile School), Julia Walker, Mercy Burlingame, Harriet, Linda and Isaiah Harrington, Harvey Walker and Emma Wormuth.
Contact Editor Sarah Hall at [email protected] or leave a message at 434-8889 ext. 310 with your guess by 5 p.m. Friday (please leave the information in the message; we are not generally able to return calls regarding History Mystery responses). If you are the first person to correctly identify an element in the photo before the deadline, your name and guess will appear in next week’s Messenger, along with another History Mystery feature. History Mystery is a joint project of the Museum at the Shacksboro Schoolhouse and the Baldwinsville Public Library.