Embedded Files
A journey “INTO THE WOODS” inspires a walk back in time.
The Phoenix School District has been recognized for its outstanding music department for many years. You might say the teachers and students are making (local) history. The following narrative was written by one of those students, who just happens to be serving as secretary of Schroeppel Historical Society. Kim Ventura was so moved by the most recent JCB production that it prompted a wonderful cascade of memories:
A Journey “Into the Woods” inspires a walk back in time 6/24/21
Students at John C. Birdlebough (JCB) High School in Phoenix presented “Into the Woods” May 20-22 in the high school’s newly renovated auditorium. A limited in-person audience attended with all the current COVID guidelines in place. As a Phoenix theater program graduate and wife of a current JCB teacher, I always attend the show and this year was no exception. Upon arrival, my daughter and I were temperature-checked, health-quizzed, socially distanced, and masked and more importantly, relieved to be back watching live theater.
The auditorium renovation began in 2019 and was largely completed last fall. Aside from the seating, which had been replaced recently, the entire space was overhauled including a new HVAC system, sound and acoustic infrastructure, lighting, catwalk, and control booth. The newly surfaced stage extends 8 feet beyond the original. The lofty catwalk was employed as another venue for the actors and for special effects like falling leaves during the earthquake scenes.
The cast and crew who, like all JCB students, just came back to in-person school in March put on a solid performance of Sondheim’s classic show. That these young adults could emerge from a year of isolation and put on a successful performance run is an impressive feat. Standouts were the Baker and the Baker’s wife who, as my daughter (a fellow HS thespian and budding theater critic) put it, “performed, like, what you’d see at a professional level.” Everyone associated with the show can be proud to know they’ve upheld the tradition of great performances at JCB.
That tradition is always on my mind when I attend the Phoenix musical. My oldest sisters performed summer shows there in the early 70s. Another sister did “Oklahoma” and “Once Upon a Mattress” in the early 80s, when the annual spring musical was established. I could list every one of the shows and characters I played there between 1985 and 1989 but I’ll name my top two: Sarah Brown in “Guys and Dolls” (1988) and Hope in “Anything Goes” (1989). More recently, my nieces have taken their turns. One was a second generation Hope in 1999’s “Anything Goes” and another niece nailed the lead role in “Kiss Me Kate” (2013), the capstone to her impressive JCB theater career. During the ‘80s and ‘90s, my mother, a long time Phoenix music teacher, played piano in the pit orchestra. She even remembers as a child accompanying her 6th grade class performance of “Mikado” – at the old Pennellville school circa 1940! Though spanning the better part of a century, my family accounts for just one of many who hold their place in Phoenix theater history.
Performing the polished show was what we were all there for, but I loved being on the JCB stage anytime. Even rehearsals could be unforgettable, like when I was kissed for the first time in my life – onstage! (You can tell me that it didn’t count. I’m fine with that – it still happened!) It was during an early rehearsal my freshman year. I was the understudy to the romantic female lead and one day she was absent. I stepped into the role and when the kissing scene came, we dutifully followed the script, with a brief sweet kiss in character. The actor opposite me, a kind and classy sophomore, may not have realized it was a monumental moment for me, but it was – despite the presence of the rest of the cast, and my MOM, who looked on from her place at the rehearsal piano!
My favorite moment in the audience, and perhaps a pinnacle JCB performance of all-time was “Les Miserables” in 2017. That the staff tackled the construction of a rotating stage was very impressive. Even more so were the performances that year. By the end of “Bring Him Home”, Jean Valjean had me in tears. During the extended applause my brother-in-law turned and said, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Where were we, Phoenix or somewhere closer to Broadway?
For all those years leading up to the recent renovation, the JCB auditorium was a character unto itself ─ a part of the experience: old, but special and cherished. Opening the heavy doors and entering the auditorium always filled me with a humming sense of expectation, back when I was going to rehearsal, but also as an audience member. The gentle slope of the aisleway propelled me to the stage. And how distinctive was its smell ─ memorable but beyond description. Ask any JCB theater alumni and they’ll remember it. I wouldn’t want to know the explanation behind its distinctive smell. It probably came from the original building materials of the late 1950s, overlaid by decades of set construction, paint, costumes, and musical instruments. To understand its true composition would be to reveal the trick behind the magic.
This year when I attended “Into the Woods” and realized that the old theater as I knew it was gone, my theater was gone, I allowed myself one moment of grief and reflection. One last time before the lights went down, I sealed in my mind the look and smell of the old theater. My shock at the new renovation affirmed two facts: one, it verified how much my high school theater experience meant to me; and two, it told me how fortunate current and future JCB students and audiences are to have such a startlingly new and beautifully renovated performance space. As an alumnus, I’ll always treasure the memory of my stage but as an audience member and front row observer of today’s generation of performers, I’m happy to see this leap of progress and look forward to many years of continued performing excellence.
ALEXANDER MOYER’S CIVIL WAR PAPERS
At the outset of the Civil War, it was difficult to obtain troops by the North for the war against the South by voluntary enrollment and thus Congress passed the Enrollment Act also known as the Civil War Military Draft Act on March 3, 1863. For draftees, however, it was possible to get a substitute to go in your place, such substitutes obtaining compensation from the government for enlisting. The problem with substitutes was that it provided them with powerful incentives to desert soon after enlisting. Many men made a living by enlisting as a substitute, collecting their compensation and then deserting before their units were dispatched to the front.
A policy known as “commutation” (paying $300 to escape the draft) was then created in an effort to keep substitution prices low since without commutation, the price paid to a substitute by the government would have soared past $300. But substitution and commutation policies were controversial practices and the result was general public resentment of both leading directly to the slogan “rich man’s war, poor man’s fight.” Despite the good intentions behind commutation, it was one of the most hated policies of the war. Congress passed an amendment to the Enrollment Act in 1864, which limited the length of a commutation fee paid as an exemption to the draft to one year. After the end of a year, those drafted were then required to serve or to furnish a substitute.
For whatever unknown reason, our great-grandfather, Alexander Moyer, opted to pay the $300 commutation fee to avoid the draft. He was just twenty-three years old and newly married with a soon-to-be pregnant wife when the war began (their first child, Byron Moyer, was born in 1864). It surely must have been difficult for Alexander who was eking out a living as a farmer (later becoming a carpenter and cabinet maker) to come up with the sum of $300. It’s very possible that he borrowed it from his father, Josiah Moyer, or Josiah’s brother, Abram (Alexander’s uncle), who had adjoining farms on Bankrupt Road just outside Phoenix. It was Abram in fact, who Alexander somehow prevailed upon to become his substitute (records show that Abram served in the Union Army) when the year after paying the $300 ended.
Fortunately the very rare papers relative to Alexander’s commutation have been preserved and framed and are herewith donated to the SHS. They include his draft notice from the Provost Marshal’s Office dated August 6, 1863; a receipt for $300 from the Office of Receiver of Commutation Money dated August 15, 1863 paid by Alexander and a Certificate of Non-Liability To Be Given By The Board of Enrollment (exempting him from the draft) dated August 17, 1863. An interesting story (possibly an “urban legend”) told by our grandmother, Myrtie Moyer (married to Alexander’s son, Arthur Moyer and thus Alexander’s daughter-in-law) was that the $300 was to be returned to draftees after the war, but the man responsible for returning it to those in New York State had absconded with the money).
In 1955, she wrote a letter (to whom it was addressed is unknown) seeking the return of the $300 paid by Alexander to avoid the draft. Preserved along with the Civil War documents listed above, however, is an answer from the United States General Accounting Office dated October 6, 1955 referencing her letter of September 15, 1955. It stated that an Act of February 28, 1867 prohibited such claims unless filed in the War Department within two years of the Act as amended on March 1, 1869. Her letter is not preserved (she likely didn’t make a copy), but the government’s answering letter (as noted) and the envelope it came in are framed along with the above noted Civil War papers. Perhaps she had a vision that an enormous amount of interest might be forthcoming along with the original $300!
CANALERS ON THEIR MUSCLE
Maggie O’Brien’s great-great grandfather, Frank John Washer, who died in Schroeppel in 1903 , was a canal captain. According to Maggie, he was always was always rescuing someone or fighting someone. The following article submitted by Maggie O’Brien, appeared in the New York Herald in August of 1886.
Yesterday was a great day for the canal boatmen around Pier 6 East River. Sunday usually is. Everybody is at liberty to sit around on the grain and coal laden boats—the captains with their wives on the cabin deck and the deck hands on the fo’castle roof with nothing to do but burn their faces in the sun and quarrel with the rivermen. Usually large gatherings enjoy the sport. It was so yesterday. One canal boat load occupied more than its share of attention.
The boat’s name is the John Mulhall of Oswego, Captain Aiken. On board were, besides the captain and female cook, three women, Deckhand Tim Donohue and John Donohue, a cousin of the latter, 21 years of age, who is a fireman on Staten Island.
John amused himself during the early evening by firing iron bolts at various peaceful captains of craft in the vicinity of Mulhall. As he was the only one likely to obtain any enjoyment from this sort of thing they remonstrated with energy and an abundance of “cuss” words. The women came out of the cabin of the Mulhall and joined in the wordy contest with much success.
Three squads of police appeared at different times to clear the dock of spectators, but made no arrests. Finally, Officer Thomas McParkland, of Captain Gastlin’s squad, strode down the dock. He had gone there to arrest the disorderly crowd on the Mulhall, and a vast crowd gathered around to assist him with advice. Then young John Donohue, taking counsel of discretion, tried to escape. Captain Frank Washer, of the boat Amasa P. Hart, headed him off with a blow on the head, but right behind the youth came Tim, his cousin. he landed a blow on the cheek of Captain Washer, which sent him over backward into the chilly water between two canalers, amid the shouts of the onlookers. It was fun for them. Just as friends succeeded in pulling him out of the river the author of Washer’s ducking missed his own footing in his haste and took a header into the river alongside the dock.
“Let him drown!” yelled the crowd, beside itself with excitement. The officer didn’t do that but the crowd kept the poor fellow under the dock for half an hour until he took the young Donohue up to the Old slip station and brought reinforcements to hunt the swimmer. The prisoner was nearly frozen when they finally succeeded in driving him from his hiding place. Both men will answer charges of assault this morning in the Tombs.
Dean Biancavilla
original newspaper article
PHOENIX SWEPT BY WORST CONFLAGRATION IN HISTORY; LOSS MORE THAN $500,000. MILL LAND BUSINESS SECTION DESTROYED; COMMUNICATION CUT OFF. FIRE STARTS IN CHAIR FACTORY, SPREADS TO PUMP WORKS AND FIRE FIGHTERS ARE HELPLESS. HELP IS SENT FROM SYRACUSE. FIRE STILL SPREADING AT EARLY HOUR THIS MORNING -- TWENTY BUILDINGS IN FLAMES AT ONE TIME.
The village of Phoenix, 1,600 in population, sixteen miles from Syracuse on the way to Oswego, stands to sustain a fire loss estimated at more than half a million dollars, and probably one life, with its business district in flames from 11 o'clock last night until an early hour this morning. Four squares were practically razed by the flames, which first destroyed the fire fighting pumps on which the village relied. Aged Man Accounted Missing. JOHN GOODWIN, an aged man, last seen walking into the Parker factory, one of a score of buildings burned, is accounted missing at last reports. DR. E. J. DRURY sustained a fracture of one arm in efforts against the fire. Several firemen are burned about the face and arms. Phoenix in darkness save for lurid light from fire eating its way from the business into the home section of the village, powerless to fight from the first because of the destruction of pumping station equipment, was gripped in the mercy of flame and wind, and cut off from wire communication with the outside world at midnight. Twenty buildings blazed at once, mills, bank, warehouses, business blocks, factories. An alarm went out to Syracuse and cities and villages in every direction while wire communication held. Village Faces Staggering Damage. But from the first the village faced staggering damage, if not destruction. Revised estimates of the loss in excess of $500,000 apportion it between the Duffy Silk mill, $150,000, partly insured; C. E. HUTCHINSON block, $25,000; CORNELIA DEAN estate, $30,000. Accurate estimates of other losses, covering the postoffice, the Baptist church, four hotels, the HAWKES home, a beautiful stone residence, and numerous business properties, have not been compiled. Starting in the Canal and Bridge street section, the fire jumped from the Sinclair Chair factory, first attacked, to the Duffy Silk mill, next door, owned in part by ABRAHAM F. NELLIS of Syracuse, and valued at $150,000. Destroying entirely as it went, it went on as a moving wall to the SWEET Brothers Paper mill adjoining the silk mill on the west bank of the Oswego canal. Leaping the canal the flames fed avidly on the J. H. LOOMIS Lumber and Planing mill. From the rear, on the canal, it spread to the front, jumped across the street and enveloped the two-story brick building used as the Phoenix National bank. Buildings Destroyed in Phoenix Fire at Early Hour This Morning. Leaping from building to building, across the canal and from one side of Canal street to the other, the flames destroyed nearly every building in the business section of the village. The buildings destroyed were: The SINCLAIR Chair factory, on west bank of the canal. The DUFFY Silk mill next door. SWEET Brothers' Paper mill, next door to the silk mill. J. H. LOOMIS lumber yard and planing mill, across the canal. The Phoenix Bank building on Canal street, two-story brick. The HUTCHINSON block, across the street from the bank at Bridge and Canal streets. (Included in the HUTCHINSON block were BENSON'S meat market, KELLAR'S drug store, and the BABCOCK store.) The BETTS block, frame budding near canal, across from LOOMIS planing mill. DR. E. J. DRURY'S office and home. BURROUGH Paper mill. GIFFORD'S grocery store next to DR. DRURY'S dwelling. Two large storehouses, each 150 feet long and 75 feet wide, on west of canal. The Phoenix Electric Light and Power plant. Three-story brick building. PIERCE & PENDERGAST Grist mill a building 70 by 80 feet, and 70 feet high. M. C. RYAN'S hardware factory. All the hotels in the village were destroyed including the Windsor hotel, the Phoenix hotel, the Tivoli hotel and the Howard house. Six private residences. Baptist church. Postoffice. A.C. PARKER'S feed mill. The Syracuse Herald New York 1916-09-24
The Mystery Lady of Phoenix Rural Cemetery
by David Moyer and Thomas Moyer Luebberman*
If you live in Phoenix and have relatives buried in Phoenix Rural Cemetery (PRC), you are likely aware of a life-size statue in the cemetery of a young woman named Marie Keller wearing a rather filmy garment. Even if you don’t have relatives buried there, but have driven up Chestnut Street past the PRC’s main entrance the statue is quite visible from the road just as you pass that small building (a tool shed). In a rather unique way, it is a part of our “family lore” and thus the following article.
A few feet behind the statue is a Moyer family burial plot where our great-grandparents are buried. As Tom tells it, when he was a kid during the summer, he and our grandmother, Myrtie Moyer, along with the five oldest Whorrall family’s children (who lived next door to our grandmother) would often set out walking along the railroad tracks (just below her house) she with a basket over her arm full of deviled eggs, pie and other good things on the way to the PRC for a picnic. When they got there and stopped at our great-grandparents’ burial plot, she would always point out Marie’s statue nearby.
She often noticed that her nose was full of spider webs, which apparently bothered her and on one occasion she picked up a stick and as Tom was always somewhat fascinated by the statue, gave it to him and assigned him the job of keeping Marie’s nose clean by using a stick. He and the Whorrall kids laughed uproariously at his “new nose cleaning job,” but it quickly became a rather oddly humorous tradition lasting for decades even to the present on every trip to the cemetery. The Whorralls still talk about the story and, in fact, one of the girls (named Marie!) recently sent Tom a picture of herself doing just that with a note saying, “Tom – I got her nose all cleaned out till you get back to take over.”
But back to Marie. She was born in 1879 a few years before her parents, Karl and Elizabeth (Seibel) Keller, emigrated from Germany with their family sailing on the Norway-Heritage line ship the S.S. Oder. They landed in New York on June 19, 1884 and then passed through Castle Garden in lower Manhattan, the immigrant processing center (known today as Fort Clinton), the predecessor of Ellis Island, before taking up permanent residence in the U.S. Their oldest son Charles (who is not listed on the S.S. Oder’s 1884 passenger list) landed in New York in 1882 ahead of the rest of the family.
Marie was one of ten children, including three brothers and six sisters. Her brothers were Charles, John and Lukas who, according to our research, died in 1882 prior to the family leaving as his name is also not on the S.S. Oder’s 1884 passenger list. Charles and John married and settled in Phoenix where Charles became a farmer and John a mill worker. Charles died in 1935 childless and John in 1940 leaving one son; both brothers and their wives are buried in the PRC Of Marie’s six sisters (Elizabeth, Barbara and Gertrude (twins), Charlotte, Magdalena and Christina, the youngest called “Tina” for short), five are known to have married and settled in the central New York area with four known to have had children.
According to her obituary in the Syracuse Post Standard dated September 19, 1948, Marie died after a long illness at her home at 1445 South Salina Street (the Roosevelt Arms apartments, which is still there) where she was living with a Mrs. Violet Rheam and was buried in the PRC next to her parents. Her obituary noted that she was a retired school teacher and a New York model who worked as a physical culture teacher on the staff of the well-known physical guru, Bernarr Macfadden.
For those of you who don’t recall the name, Bernarr Macfadden (1868-1955) was a publisher and fitness nut who was notoriously opposed to the consumption of white bread, which he called the “staff of death.” He was the predecessor of Charles Atlas (1892-1972) and “Jack” LaLanne (1914-2011) both of whom also espoused fitness, exercise and nutrition. But it was Macfadden who is credited with beginning the culture of health and fitness in the U.S. He founded Macfadden Publications, which published several magazines, including Physical Culture, Liberty, and Photoplay movie magazine.
It is uncertain as to when or by whom the statue of Marie (for which she likely posed) was created and erected at her gravesite. According to Phoenix residents Ken Sweet and his son Sam, she rejected the first statue and a second was created. Ken stated that she commissioned the statue as a “glorification to her parents” for producing such an outstanding specimen as herself (Ken’s words). The rear of the statue is inscribed: “THIS MEMORIAL IS A LIFE MODEL OF MARIE KELLER IN LOVING MEMORY OF HER DEAR MOTHER AND FATHER.”
Ken also noted that the statue was considered somewhat scandalous at the time (due to its near state of nudity) although he said a farmer named G. William Butts (for whom he worked), thought it was quite wonderful that he could look at it out of his window every day and in every season (he must have lived on Chestnut Street across from the cemetery). Sam said that he recalled being very surprised to see an identical statue in a cemetery in either Cortland or Auburn (perhaps the rejected one?). Marie’s grave marker is inscribed “Babe” (perhaps a nickname) Marie Keller 1879-1948. Her father Karl died in 1897 and her mother Elizabeth in 1923 with their grave stones near Marie’s inscribed “Father” and “Mother” with names and dates of birth and death.
Our research turned up some very interesting newspaper stories about Marie, the first in the Syracuse Herald’s Sunday Morning edition of September 5, 1909 captioned “Artist’s Model Will Appear On Karnival Float.” It reads: “Among the many striking young women, which director of pageantry Henry J. Ormsbee has secured to ‘man’ the floats for the pageantry parade on Wednesday night at the Karnival week is one whose beauty has been recognized by New York artists, sculptors and physical culture experts. She is Miss Marie Keller, a former Syracuse girl, who recently returned here and expects to make her future home with relatives on Hartson Street. Miss Keller has been in New York several years and has been very successful in her work as a model. For a time she was also connected with the Macfadden physical culture studios. Miss Keller with Miss Walsh and Miss Weiss will appear on the float ‘Fairies of Autumn’.”
The pageant and Karnival week referred to in the Syracuse Herald article was part of a hugely successful festival called the “Ka-Noo-No,” which was held every year in Syracuse from 1905-1917. The festivals were eventually responsible for making Syracuse the permanent home of the New York State Fair, which for years had been just a daytime event that traveled from city to city across the state, but in 1887 the city of Syracuse offered it 100 acres for a permanent location and in 1889, it came to Syracuse to stay, but by 1903 it was losing money. Something was needed to promote better attendance (the major mode of transportation to get to it was still by horse and buggy), so the Syracuse Chamber of Commerce decided on having three (eventually five) nights of entertainment.
A New Orleans Mardi Gras type of carnival with a general Native American theme and the Indian name “Ka-Noo-No” (meaning the territory in New York State) was decided upon. Beginning in 1905, elaborate parades were held every night, which included Indians in native costume, firemen, military and fraternal organizations, enactments of historic events and fireworks. They wound their way through the city lit by strand lighting attracting some 100,000 people each night. The State Fair prospered and Syracuse became its permanent home.
A follow-up article in the Syracuse Journal for August 8, 1910 is captioned “When Beauty Works for Ka-Noo-No Karnival Ballet and Many Spectacles” which describes two of them for the upcoming 1910 festival: “A Fete in Ka-Noo-No Land” and a water scene called “A Night On the Grand Canal of Venice.” The land spectacle would have dances of nations and the water scene men dressed as cavaliers and ladies lounging in their flower-decked gondolas. The article mentions the “working staff,” including the instructor of physical culture, Marie Keller, who has to teach the dancers the art of posturing and to instruct them in making their gestures graceful and easy.
A third article from the February 28, 1911 edition of the Syracuse Post Standard was headlined “Idyls in Garden of Roses Capture Watertown” and “Posing by Marie Keller Wins Applause.” The story reported that pageant director, Henry Ormsbee, had brought the company to Watertown, NY for an afternoon and evening performance set in a “Grecian Garden” with dancing girls portraying flowers, one of whom was Marie whose poses created a furor. A huge curtain of roses hid her except when it was drawn at intervals to reveal pose after pose.
Strangely, we have been unable to find any other references to Marie in newspapers or census reports until her death in 1948! In her sister Barbara (Keller) Roller’s obituary in the December 4, 1933 edition of the Syracuse Herald, however, one of her survivors was noted as “Miss Marie Keller of Montreal, Canada,” although we have been unable to find any record of her in that city.
We did find a Marie Keller listed in the Fulton, NY city directories for the years 1916, 1922, 1927, 1930, 1935 and 1938 first as a student and then as a teacher and later a librarian. It is our educated guess that this may be “our Marie,” who might have attended what was then the Oswego Primary Teachers Training School (founded in 1861), which became the Oswego State Teachers College (part of the State University of New York) in 1948.
Hopefully one of her family’s descendants (her mother’s obit listed nineteen grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren as survivors!) will see this story in the Phoenix Register or on the Schroeppel Historical Society’s facebook page and contact us with more complete information. Meanwhile, if you’re in the cemetery or driving by, do tip your hat and say hello to the statue of this lovely and mysterious lady as beguiling in life as she is in death.
*Tom would like to dedicate his contribution to this article to the memory of Judy (Whorrall) Sauers who passed away in November 2016.
OUT OF OUR PAST
by Barbara Dix
Village of Phoenix, Town of Schroeppel Historian
The Mystery Lady of Phoenix Rural Cemetery
Part III
The pageant and Karnival week referred to in the Syracuse Herald article was part of a hugely successful festival called the “Ka-Noo-No,” which was held every year in Syracuse from 1905-1917. The festivals were eventually responsible for making Syracuse the permanent home of the New York State Fair, which for years had been just a daytime event that traveled from city to city across the state, but in 1887 the city of Syracuse offered it 100 acres for a permanent location and in 1889, it came to Syracuse to stay. By 1903, however, it was losing money. Something was needed to promote better attendance (the major mode of transportation to get to it was still by horse and buggy), so the Syracuse Chamber of Commerce decided on having three (eventually five) nights of entertainment.
A New Orleans Mardi Gras type of carnival with a general Native American theme and the Indian name “Ka-Noo-No” (meaning the territory in New York State) were decided upon. Beginning in 1905, elaborate parades were held every night, which included Indians in native costume, firemen, military and fraternal organizations, enactments of historic events and fireworks. They wound their way through the city lit by strand lighting attracting some 100,000 people each night. The State Fair prospered and Syracuse became its permanent home.
A follow-up article in the Syracuse Journal for August 8, 1910 is captioned “When Beauty Works for Ka-Noo-No Karnival Ballet and Many Spectacles” which describes two of them for the upcoming 1910 festival: “A Fete in Ka-Noo-No Land” and a water scene called “A Night On the Grand Canal of Venice.” The land spectacle would have dances of nations and the water scene men dressed as cavaliers and ladies lounging in their flower-decked gondolas. The article mentions the “working staff,” including the instructor of physical culture, Marie Keller, who “has to teach the dancers the art of posturing and to instruct them in making their gestures graceful and easy.”
A third article from the February 28, 1911 edition of the Syracuse Post Standard was headlined “Idyls in Garden of Roses Capture Watertown” and “Posing by Marie Keller Wins Applause.” The story reported that pageant director, Henry Ormsbee, had brought the company to Watertown, NY for an afternoon and evening performance set in a “Grecian Garden” with dancing girls portraying flowers, one of whom was Marie whose poses created a furor. A huge curtain of roses hid her except when it was drawn at intervals to reveal pose after pose.
Strangely, we have been unable to find any other references to Marie in newspapers or census reports until her death in 1948! In her sister Barbara (Keller) Roller’s obituary in the December 4, 1933 edition of the Syracuse Herald, however, one of her survivors was noted as “Miss Marie Keller of Montreal, Canada,” although we have been unable to find any record of her in that city.
We did find a Marie Keller listed in the Fulton, NY city directories for the years 1916, 1922, 1927, 1930, 1935 and 1938 first as a student and then as a teacher and later a librarian. It is our educated guess that this may be “our Marie,” who might have attended what was then the Oswego Primary Teachers Training School (founded in 1861), which became the Oswego State Teachers College (part of the State University of New York) in 1948.
Hopefully one of her family’s descendants (her mother’s obit listed nineteen grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren as survivors!) will see this story in the Phoenix Register or on the Schroeppel Historical Society’s Facebook page and contact us with more complete information. Meanwhile, if you’re in the cemetery or driving by, do tip your hat and say hello to the statue of this lovely and mysterious lady, who was as beguiling in life as she has been in death.
The Mystery Lady of Phoenix Rural Cemetery
by David Moyer and Thomas Moyer Luebberman*
If you live in Phoenix and have relatives buried in Phoenix Rural Cemetery (PRC), you are likely aware of a life-size statue in the cemetery of a young woman named Marie Keller wearing a rather filmy garment. Even if you don’t have relatives buried there, but have driven up Chestnut Street past the PRC’s main entrance the statue is quite visible from the road just as you pass that small building (a tool shed). In a rather unique way, it is a part of our “family lore” and thus the following article.
A few feet behind the statue is a Moyer family burial plot where our great-grandparents are buried. As Tom tells it, when he was a kid during the summer, he and our grandmother, Myrtie Moyer, along with the five oldest Whorrall family’s children (who lived next door to our grandmother) would often set out walking along the railroad tracks (just below her house) she with a basket over her arm full of deviled eggs, pie and other good things on the way to the PRC for a picnic. When they got there and stopped at our great-grandparents’ burial plot, she would always point out Marie’s statue nearby.
She often noticed that her nose was full of spider webs, which apparently bothered her and on one occasion she picked up a stick and as Tom was always somewhat fascinated by the statue, gave it to him and assigned him the job of keeping Marie’s nose clean by using a stick. He and the Whorrall kids laughed uproariously at his “new nose cleaning job,” but it quickly became a rather oddly humorous tradition lasting for decades even to the present on every trip to the cemetery. The Whorralls still talk about the story and, in fact, one of the girls (named Marie!) recently sent Tom a picture of herself doing just that with a note saying, “Tom – I got her nose all cleaned out till you get back to take over.”
But back to Marie. She was born in 1879 a few years before her parents, Karl and Elizabeth (Seibel) Keller, emigrated from Germany with their family sailing on the Norway-Heritage line ship the S.S. Oder. They landed in New York on June 19, 1884 and then passed through Castle Garden in lower Manhattan, the immigrant processing center (known today as Fort Clinton), the predecessor of Ellis Island, before taking up permanent residence in the U.S. Their oldest son Charles (who is not listed on the S.S. Oder’s 1884 passenger list) landed in New York in 1882 ahead of the rest of the family.
Marie was one of ten children, including three brothers and six sisters. Her brothers were Charles, John and Lukas who, according to our research, died in 1882 prior to the family leaving as his name is also not on the S.S. Oder’s 1884 passenger list. Charles and John married and settled in Phoenix where Charles became a farmer and John a mill worker. Charles died in 1935 childless and John in 1940 leaving one son; both brothers and their wives are buried in the PRC Of Marie’s six sisters (Elizabeth, Barbara and Gertrude (twins), Charlotte, Magdalena and Christina, the youngest called “Tina” for short), five are known to have married and settled in the central New York area with four known to have had children.
According to her obituary in the Syracuse Post Standard dated September 19, 1948, Marie died after a long illness at her home at 1445 South Salina Street (the Roosevelt Arms apartments, which is still there) where she was living with a Mrs. Violet Rheam and was buried in the PRC next to her parents. Her obituary noted that she was a retired school teacher and a New York model who worked as a physical culture teacher on the staff of the well-known physical guru, Bernarr Macfadden.
For those of you who don’t recall the name, Bernarr Macfadden (1868-1955) was a publisher and fitness nut who was notoriously opposed to the consumption of white bread, which he called the “staff of death.” He was the predecessor of Charles Atlas (1892-1972) and “Jack” LaLanne (1914-2011) both of whom also espoused fitness, exercise and nutrition. But it was Macfadden who is credited with beginning the culture of health and fitness in the U.S. He founded Macfadden Publications, which published several magazines, including Physical Culture, Liberty, and Photoplay movie magazine.
It is uncertain as to when or by whom the statue of Marie (for which she likely posed) was created and erected at her gravesite. According to Phoenix residents Ken Sweet and his son Sam, she rejected the first statue and a second was created. Ken stated that she commissioned the statue as a “glorification to her parents” for producing such an outstanding specimen as herself (Ken’s words). The rear of the statue is inscribed: “THIS MEMORIAL IS A LIFE MODEL OF MARIE KELLER IN LOVING MEMORY OF HER DEAR MOTHER AND FATHER.”
Ken also noted that the statue was considered somewhat scandalous at the time (due to its near state of nudity) although he said a farmer named G. William Butts (for whom he worked), thought it was quite wonderful that he could look at it out of his window every day and in every season (he must have lived on Chestnut Street across from the cemetery). Sam said that he recalled being very surprised to see an identical statue in a cemetery in either Cortland or Auburn (perhaps the rejected one?). Marie’s grave marker is inscribed “Babe” (perhaps a nickname) Marie Keller 1879-1948. Her father Karl died in 1897 and her mother Elizabeth in 1923 with their grave stones near Marie’s inscribed “Father” and “Mother” with names and dates of birth and death.
Our research turned up some very interesting newspaper stories about Marie, the first in the Syracuse Herald’s Sunday Morning edition of September 5, 1909 captioned “Artist’s Model Will Appear On Karnival Float.” It reads: “Among the many striking young women, which director of pageantry Henry J. Ormsbee has secured to ‘man’ the floats for the pageantry parade on Wednesday night at the Karnival week is one whose beauty has been recognized by New York artists, sculptors and physical culture experts. She is Miss Marie Keller, a former Syracuse girl, who recently returned here and expects to make her future home with relatives on Hartson Street. Miss Keller has been in New York several years and has been very successful in her work as a model. For a time she was also connected with the Macfadden physical culture studios. Miss Keller with Miss Walsh and Miss Weiss will appear on the float ‘Fairies of Autumn’.”
The pageant and Karnival week referred to in the Syracuse Herald article was part of a hugely successful festival called the “Ka-Noo-No,” which was held every year in Syracuse from 1905-1917. The festivals were eventually responsible for making Syracuse the permanent home of the New York State Fair, which for years had been just a daytime event that traveled from city to city across the state, but in 1887 the city of Syracuse offered it 100 acres for a permanent location and in 1889, it came to Syracuse to stay, but by 1903 it was losing money. Something was needed to promote better attendance (the major mode of transportation to get to it was still by horse and buggy), so the Syracuse Chamber of Commerce decided on having three (eventually five) nights of entertainment.
A New Orleans Mardi Gras type of carnival with a general Native American theme and the Indian name “Ka-Noo-No” (meaning the territory in New York State) was decided upon. Beginning in 1905, elaborate parades were held every night, which included Indians in native costume, firemen, military and fraternal organizations, enactments of historic events and fireworks. They wound their way through the city lit by strand lighting attracting some 100,000 people each night. The State Fair prospered and Syracuse became its permanent home.
A follow-up article in the Syracuse Journal for August 8, 1910 is captioned “When Beauty Works for Ka-Noo-No Karnival Ballet and Many Spectacles” which describes two of them for the upcoming 1910 festival: “A Fete in Ka-Noo-No Land” and a water scene called “A Night On the Grand Canal of Venice.” The land spectacle would have dances of nations and the water scene men dressed as cavaliers and ladies lounging in their flower-decked gondolas. The article mentions the “working staff,” including the instructor of physical culture, Marie Keller, who has to teach the dancers the art of posturing and to instruct them in making their gestures graceful and easy.
A third article from the February 28, 1911 edition of the Syracuse Post Standard was headlined “Idyls in Garden of Roses Capture Watertown” and “Posing by Marie Keller Wins Applause.” The story reported that pageant director, Henry Ormsbee, had brought the company to Watertown, NY for an afternoon and evening performance set in a “Grecian Garden” with dancing girls portraying flowers, one of whom was Marie whose poses created a furor. A huge curtain of roses hid her except when it was drawn at intervals to reveal pose after pose.
Strangely, we have been unable to find any other references to Marie in newspapers or census reports until her death in 1948! In her sister Barbara (Keller) Roller’s obituary in the December 4, 1933 edition of the Syracuse Herald, however, one of her survivors was noted as “Miss Marie Keller of Montreal, Canada,” although we have been unable to find any record of her in that city.
We did find a Marie Keller listed in the Fulton, NY city directories for the years 1916, 1922, 1927, 1930, 1935 and 1938 first as a student and then as a teacher and later a librarian. It is our educated guess that this may be “our Marie,” who might have attended what was then the Oswego Primary Teachers Training School (founded in 1861), which became the Oswego State Teachers College (part of the State University of New York) in 1948.
Hopefully one of her family’s descendants (her mother’s obit listed nineteen grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren as survivors!) will see this story in the Phoenix Register or on the Schroeppel Historical Society’s facebook page and contact us with more complete information. Meanwhile, if you’re in the cemetery or driving by, do tip your hat and say hello to the statue of this lovely and mysterious lady as beguiling in life as she is in death.
*Tom would like to dedicate his contribution to this article to the memory of Judy (Whorrall) Sauers who passed away in November 2016.
THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION OF 1916 AND THE DEATH OF JOHN E. GOODWIN
by David Moyer and Thomas Moyer Luebberman
Contributing Editors: Susan Lynch and Barbara Dix
The 23rd of this month of September 2020 will mark 104 years since a disastrous fire ravaged the central business section of Phoenix. But the village was not abandoned and instead rose with new life like the Phoenix Bird of old. The Greeks named it the Phoenix, a long-lived bird that periodically regenerates or is otherwise reborn by arising from the ashes of its predecessor. It represents transformation, death and rebirth and is the ultimate symbol of strength and renewal. It is strange that Phoenix experienced a similar occurrence as the mythical bird, thereby gaining the legendary name “The Phoenix Fire Bird.”
However, the village was not named for the bird, but for a tract of land bought in 1792 by Daniel Phoenix. Some historians claim it was named for his son, Alexander Phoenix, who owned the tract in 1828 when the village was established. Phoenix is only one of many small villages, which form the Town of Schroeppel after George Casper Schroeppel, owner at one time of most of the land which now makes up the town.
The recovery of Phoenix after the fire was close to miraculous as was the fact that only one poor soul was lost in that fire -- John E. Goodwin, the proprietor of a small blacksmith’s shop located in A.C. Parker’s Feed Store on the East side of Canal Street (now State Street). What little is known about Goodwin’s life (extensively researched by Tom) will be addressed later, but first a recap of the main events of the devastating fire with more expanded detail, previously unpublished material, and family recollections.
It is highly unlikely that anyone alive in Phoenix or elsewhere today remembers when or where the fire started, but most Phoenicians are aware of the event from a sign erected by the village near the Oswego Canal, which reads in part “Center of the Phoenix Fire.” Chapters describing the fire and its aftermath are included in The Story of Schroeppel written by the late Evelyn L. Sauers (the former Town of Schroeppel Historian) and published in May 1974.
On a calm evening around 10:45 p.m. on Saturday, September 23, 1916, a workman on the night shift had just returned to the Duffy Silk Mill, one of several large mills on the “island” (formerly known as Mill Island, now called Lock Island between the Oswego Canal and Oswego River) with a pail of fresh water from the pump at the Windsor Hotel on Main Street when the fire whistle blew. He rushed to the window, but suddenly realized that a red glow in the room was from the south end of the island where the Sinclair Chair Factory was located, right next door to the Duffy Silk Mill. Sparks coming from a small generator, ignited scraps of wood lying about in the chair factory, and soon engulfed the small wooden building.
Flames then began spreading to other mills on the island, including the Sweet Bros. Paper Mfg. Co. and the Duffy Silk Mill where men were trying to save the valuable raw silk stored in a vault, but had to leave the burning building, managing only to close the vault door, thereby saving the silk. Volunteer fire fighters arrived with the hose cart, but the two pumps in Duffy’s Mill that drew water from the canal had no pressure, rendering the fire company helpless. As the other mills on the island began catching fire, a messenger was sent to the telephone office on Bridge Street where the operators called Fulton, Syracuse, Oswego and Baldwinsville for help.
As paper and lumber were consumed, burning embers leaped high into the air: the wind shifted and carried them across the canal as though it didn’t exist and ignited the solid mass of two- and three-story buildings on both sides of Canal Street. The electricity was knocked out at the Seneca River Power Plant on the East side of Canal Street leaving the village in darkness except for the brilliant glow from the well-fed flames.
A Syracuse, Lake Shore & Northern Trolley tried to run through the business section, but was caught in the fire, its wheels fused to the track as passengers ran for their lives. The fire then turned the corner of Canal Street and continued up Bridge Street, the flames spreading from building to building on both sides destroying brick and frame structures alike. Then turning right to the west side of Main Street the fire, like a hungry dragon, continued to consume the Windsor Hotel and Opera House and Livery Stables and several of the largest homes in the village.
Residents stood a block away, horrified as they watched the business section go up in flames. Those whose houses were near the fire area made trip after trip up to the roofs with buckets of water, wet blankets and brooms to beat out the many falling embers to no avail. They worked frantically to remove valuables and belongings from homes in the path of the fire, some putting their furniture in the Baptist Church on the East side of Main Street believing it to be safe, but sparks ignited the belfry causing the steeple to topple and fall on the roof leaving only the four walls. In some cases would-be helpers loaded householders’ belongings on wagons and drove them out of town never to be seen again! One prominent Phoenician who worked tirelessly through Saturday night and Sunday morning helping to rescue household effects was Thaddeus C. Sweet (owner with his brother Kirk of the Sweet Bros. Paper Mfg. Co.) who had been elected Speaker of the New York State Assembly two years before.*
One amusing story told by our grandmother concerned volunteers trying to move a grand piano out of a wealthy woman’s home as the roof caught fire, but were told to please not scratch the floors as they had just been polished! There were other reports of rather odd events and peculiar behaviors published later in the Phoenix Register. One story was about a cabinet filled with five dozen glasses being carried down a flight of stairs in one home, then carried one block away, and finally laid on its back on a lawn, with not a single glass broken or even chipped. Another told of a woman who saved a stuffed parrot along with some of her personal effects, and a third described a woman who grabbed a mirror and found herself walking around in her back yard with no idea of what she was doing.
After sending frantic telephone and telegraph messages for help, the young women at the telephone switchboard stayed at their posts until all the wires were down and the building was on fire -- a bit reminiscent of the heroic wireless operators on the sinking Titanic who stayed at their posts, desperately trying to contact other ships for help until the rising water forced them to flee. The fire companies they had called got to Phoenix as soon as they could although experiencing various delays. By the time they arrived, however, the bridge over the canal was damaged making it impossible to get over to the island.
They took a stand at the site of the Phoenix Hotel (aka the Phoenix House) on the corner of Canal and Lock Streets, pouring hundreds of gallons of water pumped from the Oswego River onto the blaze, hoping to save the rest of the village from going up in flames. There were reports that they were also valiantly trying to save the Hotel, the third floor of which was already on fire. The two lower stories survived and were later repaired so that the Hotel could continue to operate much to the dismay of some residents, who had hoped the entire establishment would burn down because of its shady reputation.*
In five hours, eighty buildings in Phoenix were consumed in the fire for a loss of close to $1,000,000 (equal to about $23,500,000 at the general rate of inflation today) with owners having very little insurance to replace their buildings. In proportion to the size of the community, this was a greater tragedy than famous fires in Chicago and San Francisco. Duffy’s Silk Mill was destroyed although the silk in the vault was saved (valued at $45,000). Half of Sweet’s Paper Mfg. Co. remained and the Crescent Paper Mill escaped.
Among the losses were two Moyer family businesses: Moyer Bros. Hardware (owned by brothers Byron and Arthur Moyer, our grandfather) and Moyer’s Cigar and Candy Store (operated by Seymour J. Moyer -- Byron and Arthur’s brother). Only three buildings and the remains of two others remained standing in the area swept by fire: the Remington Blacksmith Shop, the cement power house and as noted, the two lower stories of the Phoenix Hotel and the Crescent Paper Mill and half of Sweet Bros.
According to an article in the September 25, 1925 edition of the Oswego Palladium Times, William Stewart (owner of a harness business on the West Side of Canal Street) stated that as flames enveloped Duffy’s Silk Mill, he saw an unidentified man leap from the third floor of the burning structure into the shallow waters of the Oswego River. After he landed in the water he swam a few feet, reached a shoal and waded to the West side of the river bank.
At the time of the fire our grandparents and their daughter (our mother) were living on Fulton Street (since renamed Main Street) on the north side of Bridge Street. Although only seven years old, she recalls being awakened in what seemed like the middle of the night by her mother. She recollects her father (the postmaster) rushing off to save what he could from the post office. She and her mother climbed out onto a low roof of their house and watched the fire ravaging Main Street (south beyond Bridge Street) now a massive glow in the sky over the darkened village with occasional towering plumes of sparks and smoke. A young man in his teens named Homer Bowman, leaving a movie theater in Oswego at the same time, saw the enormous red glow from the Phoenix fire, at a distance of more than 20 miles.*
The homes of several prominent Phoenicians were destroyed, among them that of Mrs. W.E. Sparrow widow of the well-known Victorian photographer, whose studio was up a narrow stairway of Moyer’s Cigar and Candy Store with pictures of brides in the downstairs case. Many of her husband’s photos and several credited to their daughter (“Lizzie,” Seymour Moyer’s wife) are in Grip’s 1902 Souvenir of Phoenix (republished in 1976 by the Greater Phoenix Improvement Association). He died in 1907 and is buried next to his wife, Sarah, in the Phoenix Rural Cemetery (she lived on after her husband and died two weeks after celebrating her one hundredth birthday in 1932).
The Chief of Police took charge of the rescue work and rounding up looters; in fact, his orders were to shoot pillagers on sight during the night of the fire (sounds a bit drastic, but this was quoted from Sauers’ account). The next few days brought hordes of sightseers by car and trolley who wandered over the ruins picking up souvenirs. It is estimated that 30,000 people jammed the roads to Phoenix making a continuous line from Moyers Corners to the village and another line from the North creating a traffic problem on top of everything else.
Almost miraculously, as noted, only one life was lost in the raging fire – that of John E. Goodwin who, prior to his notoriety in death was an elderly itinerant known locally as the inventor of the so-called chainless bicycle. He did hold a number of patents on various inventions, including one on the chainless bicycle, but apparently none of them were ever utilized or acted upon. He was born ca 1841 on a family farm in Rochester, New Hampshire the older of two siblings, a brother Andrew and a sister Hannah. The family moved from there to Hastings, New York ca 1851 and acquired another farm spending the next several years there where a third son, Franklin, was born.
According to a newspaper report titled “Draft of the Militia” in the September 3, 1864 edition of the Oswego Commercial Times, Goodwin, a member of what was known as the “reserved militia” was drafted from Hastings Town along with others from surrounding towns, including Jacob Moyer from Schroeppel Town (Tom has not yet determined his relationship to our family) to fill the ranks of the 88th Regiment. There is no indication that these men were trained or sent to the field before the end of the war.
According to the 1865 New York State Census, Goodwin was still living on the farm in Hastings. In August 1866 the U.S. IRS Tax Assessment Lists noted him as a “one horse peddler” with a tax assessment of $15.00. Four years later the federal census of 1870 listed John as living in Dubuque, Iowa with a male roommate, V.B. Ruth, whose occupation was noted as Sewing Machine Agent and Goodwin as Machinist. This was soon after the first Singer Sewing Machines became mass produced and apparently John wanted to be involved in the distribution of these new machines. Five years later in 1875, he was back on the farm in Hastings with his father (his mother had since passed away) with his occupation listed as sewing machine agent.
In 1880 according to the federal census, John’s father was living alone listed as a “retired farmer” and John was living a few houses away on another farm as a “boarder” with the Pierce Leger family with his occupation noted as “Huckster.” During the next thirty-five years the only references are the 1892 and 1905 New York State Census (the 1890 federal census was destroyed in a fire and John is not listed in the 1910 federal census). The New York State census lists note him living in Lysander, New York where he had become a wagon maker. He remained single and lived in various homes into his 60s.
During this period, according to newspaper reports, he became active in the Republican Party and was appointed to fulfill the balance of the Justice of the Peace’s term in West Phoenix and was then nominated for and served as Justice of the Peace in Lysander. Sometime later when he was 75, he had relocated to Phoenix where he operated a small blacksmith’s shop located as noted in the A.C. Parker Feed Store with his living quarters upstairs.
On the night of the fire John Goodwin apparently evacuated the feed store building, but went back in with Chester W. Barnard, a feed store employee, in an attempt to save some of his tools and personal belongings. But the fire rapidly enveloped the building and Barnard lost the older man in the dense smoke. He heard his desperate call for help, but could not find him, and was forced to escape the building to save his own life. Goodwin’s hapless silhouette was last seen through the smoke and flames moving back and forth on the roof, but the walls fell in before rescuers could get to him. Tragically, his charred remains were not found until eleven days after the fire when the ruins had cooled. His funeral was held in Brewerton, New York at the home of his brother, Franklin. He is buried in an unmarked grave in the Riverside Cemetery in Brewerton.
On Sunday morning there was nothing left except a heap of smoldering ruins where once had stood the center of Phoenix and by Monday there was not a thing to be bought in the village. The late Ken Sweet (a local historian and storyteller)* described the situation in a presentation he narrated for the Schroeppel Historical Society: “Remember… it was September. Winter was coming. What were we [residents of Phoenix in 1916] going to do?” He then told his audience that the local butcher [George Wood] was the first on Monday morning to open up for business. He set up a door on two sawhorses in his garage and butchered meat on it, probably offering it free to whomever was in need.
In the following days several other businesses reopened in garages (or converted carriage houses), barns or private homes that had escaped the fire. Among them were Moyer Bros. Hardware, Moyer’s News Room (opening in its old location in true Western style in a tent and board floor), the Windsor Hotel & Garage and the Phoenix Bank (although its total building was lost, confidence was unshaken and $8,000 was placed on deposit opening day in a garage). Our grandfather managed to save the post office’s record books and stamps, which he sold from William Hilborn’s garage Although its power station had been destroyed, the Seneca River Power Plant restored electric service within twenty-four hours.
Times were grim in Phoenix in the winter of 1916/1917 with the loss of over 300 jobs affecting almost every family. A few had found work cleaning up the debris from the fire, but others were waiting for the promised rebuilding. Some moved out, others looked to mills in Fulton for work or even to plants in Syracuse, which they could reach by trolley car. They had been running at capacity to supply the war needs of France and England who were fighting Germany in the Great War. United States armed merchant ships carrying war materials to them were often attacked by Germany. In April 1917, America entered the war and eighty men from the Town of Schroeppel went to fight in France, the popular slogan at the time being “to save the world for democracy.”
Phoenix business men asked the Mayor of Syracuse to send his consultants to confer with them and they suggested that a business complex should be built on the East side of Canal Street through to Main Street. All buildings would be of uniform size with the Municipal Building in the center of Main Street and the Post Office in the center of Canal Street. Another suggestion (which was fifty years ahead of its time) was made by Dick Kellar. It suggested a completely covered business section with the main entrance on Main Street and two stories on Canal Street all under one roof like today’s shopping centers. Needless to say nothing came of either plan.
With no town-wide viable plan, businesses began erecting their own new buildings: the Odd Fellows chose the corner of Bridge and Canal Street with lodge rooms upstairs and Kellar’s Drug Store and Soda Fountain on the ground floor. The Phoenix Bank erected a new building on the corner of the north side of Bridge Street. On the opposite side several businesses built new buildings, including the Phoenix Register (its file cabinet had survived and it was temporarily printing the paper in Syracuse), William Murphy’s Hardware Store and next to it the Rex Theater building, which was erected in 1917 to replace the destroyed Hippodrome on the west Side of Canal Street that formerly showed silent films. The Rex Theater was later known as the Strand Theater where our mother, Luella Moyer, as a teenager played piano for silent films from 1924-1927. Her (ca 1918) piano is still in the family.
On the island, Duffy’s Silk Mill, the largest industry of Phoenix was planning to build a new fireproof plant on its original site, but was not able to arrange for the additional water power to double their capacity so they built elsewhere, and Ryan’s Machine Shop went with them. This was a severe blow to Phoenix as these two had employed the largest number of people. The Sweet Bros. Paper Mfg. Co. repaired what was left of their building and added to it. It took some time, however, for the older residents of Phoenix to get used to the lower buildings with empty spaces in between, no shade trees and particularly the vacant look of the center of the island where the imposing Duffy’s Silk Mill, Sinclair Chair Factory, Ryan’s Machine Shop and flour and feed mills had always shut out their view across the Oswego River.
As time went on, however, life in Phoenix was far from dull with such organizations as the Odd Fellows and the Rebeccas, the Masonic Lodge and the Eastern Star and the Century Club holding weekly dances, fairs and fund-raising events of all sorts. Masons from all over Central New York flocked to Phoenix for a day’s outing and to help out their brothers who had suffered terrible losses. The dining room of the new Masonic Temple was the setting for shows of all kinds along with delicious meals and barbecues. Club rooms were provided for cards and smokers as were tables for pool and billiards. No gambling or drinking was allowed. Phoenix had begun to live again following Thaddeus C. Sweet’s words directed at those who wanted to leave the village: “It would be folly to abandon the town – there will be no exodus if business men can help it – we will rebuild.”
NOTES
*Tragically, Sweet, who was elected to Congress in 1923, lost his life in an airplane accident five years later. On the morning of May 1, 1928, he and his pilot, Lt. Bushrod Hoppin, took off from Washington, D.C. for Oswego where Sweet was to give a speech. They hit a storm between Binghamton and Cortland and Hoppin thought it best to land and chose a field at Whitney Point near Binghamton. The field was rough and the plane bounced doing a somersault throwing Sweet against the cockpit wall causing his death from a head injury (his pilot survived). Sweet is buried in Phoenix Rural Cemetery. The neoclassical style Sweet Memorial Building on Main Street was built in 1929 and dedicated to Sweet who helped rebuild Phoenix after the fire.
A family connection concerning Sweet is an undated (but obviously prior to his death) newspaper article titled “Sweet Party Bags Four Deer,” which notes that Sweet passed through Gouverneur, New York by car en route from his hunting camp near South Colton, New York with a party of deer hunters carrying on the car four large bucks and one big black bear. The party included Phoenix residents, (Sheriff) Rock Vincent and Arthur C. Moyer. A picture of the party with the deer and a bear hanging upside down is in one our mother’s photo albums.
**What happened to the Phoenix Hotel prior to the 1916 fire and a few years later lends truth to the saying “you can’t keep a good hotel down.” First off, it had been damaged in a smaller fire in 1911 five years prior to losing its top floor in 1916. Eight years later, according to an article titled “Raid made at Phoenix House” in the August 8, 1924 edition of the Oswego Daily Times, Sheriff [Rock] Vincent of Fulton received so many complaints that the prohibition law was being violated at the Hotel that he sent his Deputy Sheriff Harold Green to raid the place. Green said he entered the barroom at 1:30 a.m. and charged the proprietor and bartender for violating the Volstead Act (formerly the National Prohibition Act). He found three bottles of Canadian Ale and several ounces of whiskey all of which he took as evidence of course! Some of the worst offenders were teenage boys from Fulton High School who, after first drinking heavily at the Hotel on their way to Pelkey’s Grove [sic] outside Phoenix to break up their weekly dances, headed back to the hotel to imbibe some more.
Although she had no connection to the Hotel per se, our Mother did know Sheriff Rock Vincent and his daughter, Esther, as the family lived in Phoenix. She noted in her diary that she and Esther often took the trolley to Fulton to visit the Sheriff. They loved seeing the jail and he enjoyed taking them on a tour of it. She also noted in her diary that she often went to Pilkey’s Park (in Hinmansville) with friends for the weekly dances.
*** Homer Bowman, the son of canal boat owners, became a carpenter, and a volunteer fireman in Phoenix, advancing to Fire Chief, and serving for many years. His sons, Homer Jr. and Bob, joined him, forming a well-known building business in Phoenix, and like their father, simultaneously served as volunteer firemen, with Homer Jr. also serving as Fire Chief for many years. Homer Sr. recounted this memory of the fire to John Lynch in the 1970’s.
****The late Kenneth Sweet was the grandson of Thaddeus C. Sweet. He was co-owner and stone carver with Sweet-Woods Monument Company, along with his cousin, the late Richard Sweet, who worked in sales. Mr. Sweet was well-known for his extensive knowledge of Phoenix history, including a great interest in aviation, perhaps having to do with the tragic death of his grandfather. He was probably best known, however, for his extraordinary ability to mesmerize audiences in Phoenix and the Syracuse area. The sonorous tones of his baritone voice combined with humorous asides and broad vocabulary marked him as a master storyteller.
******Thanks are due to the late Evelyn L. Sauers whose book, The Story of Schroeppel, published in 1974, was most useful in the preparation of this article wherein several of the events of the fire described in her book were used or adapted.
An introduction to the authors:
Brothers David Moyer and Tom Luebberman lived in Syracuse when they were children, but their hearts were in Phoenix, because that was where they spent magical summers at their grandparents’ home in the village, often having picnics at Hinmansville where their grandparents used to have a camp. David and his sister, the late Suzanne South, who did the wonderful painting (now owned by the SHS) of the old Hinmansville camp and Tom when he got older, spent summers at their grandparents’ camp at Pt. Peninsula on Lake Ontario. They treasure these childhood memories to this day, and have built on these memories by actively researching persons, businesses and events relevant to the history of Phoenix. At times, their narratives are entwined with their own early experiences, as in “The Mystery Lady of Phoenix Rural Cemetery,” or, as in “When Spiritualism Came to Phoenix,” with members of their ancestral family tree. Their factual research on the Great Phoenix Fire, is enhanced by a memory of that fire related to them by their own mother Luella G. Moyer Luebberman, who as a child, witnessed the fire with her mother, Myrtie Moyer.
David Moyer (as he is known professionally) and Thomas Moyer Luebberman are both active members of the Schroeppel Historical Society and in addition to being the co-authors of three articles (including this one) on Phoenix history for the SHS facebook page have donated important family papers to the Society. David is an Egyptologist and retired professor of adult education classes on ancient civilizations as well as a respected authority on the life of Wizard of Oz author, L. Frank Baum.. Tom is a retired CPA and a skillful researcher and genealogist. They are grandsons of the late Arthur C. and Myrtie Moyer and sons of the late Luella G. Moyer Luebberman.
DEATH OF CHARLES MOYER ENDS 180 YEARS OF MOYER NAME IN PHOENIX
The following is a Moyer family brief history relating to the late Charles Moyer submitted by David Moyer and his brother, Tom Luebbermann, who note that with Charles’ death on December 16, 2015, there are no longer any Moyers living in Phoenix. According to a History of Herkimer County, Henry Moyer and his brothers left Switzerland in the late 1700s to settle in Minden, New York, part of what was then Tryon County (later Montgomery County) not far from Albany, New York, several of them later serving in the Revolutionary War of 1776.
In the same history it is noted that among Henry’s many children (he married three times and had children with each wife) was a son named Solomon H., who fought in the battle of Sacketts Harbor in the War of 1812 and died in the town of Schroeppel in 1839. It further notes that “Josiah, son of Solomon H. Moyer was born in Minden, Montgomery County in 1814, died September 25, 1887. In 1835 he removed to Oswego county, New York and followed farming during the remainder of his life.”
An early map shows that Josiah and his brother, Abram (who likely also moved from Minden at the same time as Josiah along with their father, Solomon H.) had adjoining farms on Bankrupt Road. Abram died in 1892 and was buried in Chase Cemetery with his wife, three sons and a daughter (all of whom died early on), near his father Solomon H. who, as noted, fought in the War of 1812. According to his obituary, Josiah was also buried in Chase Cemetery although their records to not reflect it.
My source goes on to note “Alexander, son of Josiah Moyer, was born August 27, 1840 in the town of Schroeppel, Oswego county, New York, died July 12, 1897. At Phoenix, he married Sarah Van Surdam.” This is the only mention of Phoenix in my source, which uses “town of Schroeppel” and “Oswego county, New York” as locations for the family’s move from Minden as noted above.
In 1863, Alexander (our great grandfather) received a draft notice addressed to him at Schroeppel, Oswego County to serve in the Civil War. He avoided service, however, by using a process called “commutation” in which a potential draftee must provide a suitable substitute or pay $300 to avoid the draft. Alexander paid the $300, but it’s possible he also provided a substitute, his uncle Abram (who did serve in the war). By good fortune, we still have Alexander’s draft notice, a certificate of non-liability for the draft and a receipt for the $300 (which will eventually go to the SHS).
A humorous side note to the $300 is that supposedly it would be returned after the war, but according to our grandmother (Myrtie Harrison Moyer, wife of Arthur Moyer, Alexander’s son), the government agent responsible for returning the money absconded with it. So, In 1955, she wrote to the War Department seeking the return of the $300 paid by her father-in-law, but was informed by them (in a letter which also survives), that such a request had to be made by 1867, two years after the war’s end.
Alexander, his wife and sons Arthur, Byron and Seymour and their families are buried in Phoenix Rural Cemetery. You may have read recently on this facebook page the humorous newspaper reports about the robberies in Byron’s hardware store and Seymour’s cigar and candy store in the years not long before the Phoenix fire of 1916.
As you can see from the above brief history, there have been Moyers living in the Village of Phoenix continually since Josiah and his family settled there in 1835, a period of 180 years. But as noted, with Charles Moyer’s death there are no longer any Moyers living in Phoenix. However, there are still Moyers in the area, including Charles’ son and his family who live in Pennelville in the Town of Schroeppel and his daughter and her family who live in Fulton in Oswego County. I would venture to say that not many families in Phoenix can claim 180 years (and counting) in one place!
Phoenix Trip 2016
by David Moyer
On Monday, May 30 I left home in New York via AMTRAK for my annual trip upstate where I spent a wonderful week in Syracuse, Phoenix and Chittenango, returning to New York on June 6. During my stay, I managed to visit not one but three cemeteries: two with the burials of Moyer relatives (my mother’s side) and one with Luebbermann relatives (my father’s side). On Tuesday, May 31, the day after I arrived, myself and David (a friend of mine who had arrived from Wisconsin the day before) met up with a cousin on my father’s side who lives in East Syracuse (Carol Satterlee), who had promised to take us to Assumption Cemetery in Syracuse to locate the graves of my father’s parents, siblings and their wives and Carol’s own family. I had seen some of these on a previous visit with Carol, but my brother, Tom, had never been to this cemetery so after locating most of the graves, I took pictures of them for him. In the afternoon, we drove to Phoenix Rural Cemetery so I could show Carol (who had never been there) where my parents (her great uncle and aunt), my grandparents, my great-grandparents and other relatives are buried.
While there, David cleaned the barely legible gravestones of my great uncle Seymour Moyer (my grandfather’s brother) and his wife Elizabeth (Lizzie) Moyer, who are buried in an adjoining plot to Seymour’s parents Alex and Sarah Surdam (my great-grandparents) and their daughter Luella Moyer (Burleigh), for whom my mother was named (we had previously cleaned their three tombstones). The two plots are just behind the Keller family plot with its life size statue of Marie Keller (whom many of you have probably seen). Seymour’s wife, Elizabeth (Lizzie) may be familiar if you happen to own a copy of Grips’ Souvenir of Phoenix (published by the Schroeppel Historical Society), which is illustrated with dozens of pictures taken by her (labeled ”Photo by Mrs. S. J. Moyer”). She no doubt learned that skill from her father, W.E. Sparrow, the well-known local photographer who had a studio in Phoenix with his wife, Sarah (who lived to the ripe old age of 100!). They are buried next to their daughter and her husband.
I also took time to pay my respects at the graves of my recently deceased cousin Charles Moyer (since I did not arrive in Phoenix in time for his memorial service) and his parents, Dewitt and Lucile Moyer who are buried on Charles’s grandfather’s family plot (my grandfather’s other brother, Byron Moyer). On Wednesday, June 1, I met with SHS curator, Barbara Dix, Sue Lynch (the SHS’ facebook page genius) and a cousin I never knew I had, the very charming Gail Hammond, daughter of Alan Moyer at the SHS headquarters. Alan and his father, Howard Moyer, operated Moyer Bros. Hardware Store for many years (originally owned by my grandfather, Arthur Moyer, his brother, Byron and Arthur’s brother-in-law, Phoenix scoutmaster, George Taylor whose Boy Scout Camp window’s decoration was previously posted on facebook and in the Phoenix Register).
I gave Barbara two additional donations for the SHS: my mother’s high school autograph book with signatures of her many friends dated 1926 (many years later in 1979 at her 1926 high school reunion, some of the same friends signed again on their original page!). I also gave her an album with dozens of envelopes each having a clever and/or humorous drawing by my grandmother (Myrtie Harrison Moyer) on its face. The drawings on the envelopes (which once contained letters to myself, my sister and my brother) depicted all the wonderful times we had with our grandmother every week and all summer on picnics, on the Oswego and Oneida Rivers, in the woods around Phoenix, even on visits to the Phoenix cemetery where to our great amusement she always cleaned the spider webs off the face of Marie Keller’s statue.
We left the SHS and Gail took Barbara and I to Chase Cemetery in Lysander where a plot with the graves of my three-times great grandfather, Solomon Moyer (who fought at Sacketts Harbor in the War of 1812), his son Abram Moyer, Abram’s wife Elvira and their four prematurely deceased children are located. His brother, Josiah (my great-great grandfather) and his wife Maria are likely buried in the same plot but without markers, although there is one for a daughter who outlived her four siblings. The graves of Col. Augustus Diefendorf and his wife Maria, parents of Josiah’s wife (also named Maria) are in the same plot. Abram (Alex Moyer’s uncle) volunteered for the Civil War at the age of 42 and was Alex’s substitute for his exemption from the Civil War draft along with a payment of $300.
Following this visit, Gail entertained Barbara and I at lunch in her beautiful home on the Oswego River. After which, she drove us down Bankrupt Road to point out the original Moyer homestead/farm of Josiah Moyer (the house was torn down shortly after 1990), the adjoining farm of his brother Abram (with a small modernized house that may have been his) and further along, the house and barn (still standing) of Josiah’s daughter, Charity Moyer Ostrander Cook. She had moved to Schroeppel from Minden in Montgomery County (where the Moyers had first settled) shortly before 1840 with her first husband, Henry Ostrander and their seven children. When he died, she married Hiram Cook, sixteen years her junior!
On Thursday, June 2, David and I took our good friends Phyllis & Clark Rathbun to lunch at the Euclid Hotel and on Friday, June 3, as we have in past years, spent time at Canal Days, which was much enjoyed. Then it was on to “Oz-Stravaganza!” the annual three-day celebration (June 3, 4 and 5) of L. Frank Baum’s (author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz) birthday in Chittenango where he was born. We also made a quick stop at the Yellow Brick Road Casino (with its “Wizard of Oz” penny machines) outside town (now celebrating a two-years’ success) and next door to it the Tops Super Market decorated in an elaborate Oz theme throughout the store. Both are worth a visit if you’re out that way. All in all, it was a wonderful few days with great weather.
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