Hidden Heroes - Hiram McDonald - Master Boat Builder

With his wife Rhoda and their six children, Hiram McDonald (1807-1890) arrived in Union Springs sometime in the 1840's. Over time, another six children would join the family here. Hiram also brought with him his keen knowledge of boat building which had been honed around the boat yards of Ludlowville in Tompkins County.

On several census records for Springport, Hiram's listed occupation was that of ship carpenter, boat builder and manufacturer. He also served several terms as a school and village trustee. But Hiram's greatest connections were his ties to the Howland's, a wealthy New Bedford whaling family who saw great possibility for growth in this area. It was the patriarch, George, who built the iconic stone mill at the North Pond realizing the potential value of a pond which never froze in the cold winter months.

George's son, Charles, engaged in a local ferry boat operation and in boat building. By the 1850's, McDonald joined Charles Howland in his boat building yard located adjacent to the canal leading from the North Pond and Cayuga Lake. It is noted as "Dock House" on the 1859 map of Union Springs.

In advertisements dating to the 1850's which appeared in Albany newspapers, it is clear that McDonald's intention was to attract commercial buyers from all over New York State. To tempt these buyers, McDonald cleverly moored one of his boats, the "Adriatic," at a dock in Brooklyn. The Adriatic, a cargo ship built by the Union Springs' lakeside, offered a tonnage of 86.68 tons.

Noted Haverford College graduate, philanthropist and area entrepreneur, Robert Howland, stated in a 1902 edition of the Union Springs Advertiser that "Hiram McDonald built the best boats every floated in the Erie Canal in a yard west of the mill" referring the mill at the North Pond.

Following his retirement from boat building, Hiram worked for Howland Bending Works. In 1861 he was granted Patent No. 31,182 for a device which created a more secure means of bending wood. In 1981, IBM applied for a patent entitled Dynamic Send Queue Modification System which was a data communications system providing for the dynamic modification of a queue of documents arranged sequentially for transmission. This patent and 14 later patents all cited McDonald's original patent in their applications. Hiram and Rhoda McDonald removed from Union Springs to Shortsville, NY to be near family and where he died in 1890.

We are indebted to Alan McDonald, three greats grandson of Hiram McDonald for the source information for this article. Alan presented the museum with copies of a biography of Hiram which he completed in 2016. Hiram's History. Copies of this biography are available in the Lake Room of the museum.

Hidden Heroes - Phoebe Brockway - Pioneer Era

In the 1880's, several residents of Union Springs were making national news. Champion rower Charles Courtney was flying across lake waters winning championships in his scull. Will Hoagland (check out his previous Hidden Heroes article) was outwalking other "pedestrians" at an unprecedented pace. Henry Carr was skating to headlines proclaiming him to be a world champion. Phoebe Brockway was also making news around the country as having been the "greatest natural curiosity of the times." Phoebe, who lived in Hamburg just a mile south of Union springs, lived to age 112, giving her the distinction of being the oldest resident of New York State and the country. The news of her death even warranted an extensive write up in the New York Times and countless other papers across the country.

Born in Saratoga County in 1772, Phoebe Collier Brockway came to this area with her parents when it was considered a western wild, inhabited mostly by Native Americans. Her husband, Gideon, died young, leaving her to live a life of hardship and privation. Endowed with a strong constitution, she lived to see her descendants of the fifth generation. During the Civil War, she lived with a daughter, Abigail Menzie, whose husband had enlisted and later died in Libby Prison. Their lot became a humble one, living in a small home in Hamburg. Upon her death, a correspondent for the St. Louis Globe wrote of his past meeting with Phoebe penning the following:

"The centenarian inhabited a portion of a small hut a stone's throw from the pale blue waters of Cayuga Lake, on the outskirts of the village, and when your correspondent visited her last, he found her seated in a dingy little armchair which looked almost as time worn as it occupant, her form bent toward the bright fire gleaming on the hearth, her lips tightly clasped about the stem of a clay pipe, from which she was slowly drawing whiff after whiff of tobacco smoke. She had been an inveterate smoker for more than half a century and ridicules the idea that tobacco was injurious to the healthy. Her face was very much wrinkled and her eyesight was almost gone. She became aware of the visitor's presence by means of hearing rather than by sight. Her hand shook incessantly when not occupied with her pipe. Her memory was fast failing her.

Mrs. Brockway had enjoyed remarkable good health up to half a dozen years ago. Even as late as three years ago she continued her habit of walking to the village for her supplies, and many a time in her extreme age she astonished the younger generations by carrying a sack of flour from the mill."

As recorded by the Union Springs Advertiser, she died "full of years.". Phoebe Brockway had four children, one of which died in infancy while the rest survived her. Lettie Whipple, Abigail Menzie and William Brockway. Her descendants occupied several homes in the Hamburg area, one of which today is the home of her Knapp descendants.

Hidden Heroes - Ruden Wheeler

Ruden Wheeler's roots in Cayuga County run very deep. His great grandfather, Capt. Edward Wheeler, one of the first settlers of this county, settled in Fleming in the early 1790's on land which was part of a Revolutionary Grant. Before leaving Salem, NY for Fleming, family lore tells us that Edward had a dream in which he envisioned the land on which he was going to settle. Once he arrived and saw the Ridge and Skillet Roads area of Fleming, he recognized it as the very land in his dream. The home built by the early Wheelers at the junction of Ridge and Skillet Roads still stands today as testament to the fortitude and determination of these early settlers.

Ruden Wheeler came to the attention of our museum only recently when an early photo of the Wheeler home and his baby cap were generously donated to us by museum friend Amy Weaver, who had found both during a clean out of the Wheeler attic. As we do with all donations, we researched for stories which would tell us more about the donation and the history of Ruden Wheeler. Ancestry.com and fultonhistory.com, two of our tried and true resources, told us of Ruden's involvement in a slander law suit against Henry Whitehead which occurred in 1895. Ruden, it was reported, had allegedly stated that Whitehead "would take anything he could lay his hands on." Ruden prevailed when the case was dismissed as it did not constitute cause of action for slander. A comment which seems today to be everyday news was viewed as "fighting words" in 1895.

Both sources also told us of Ruden's service during the Civil War. In 1864 at age 18, Ruden enlisted in the 22nd New York Cavalry, Company 1, as a Private, rising to the rank of Sergeant in one year. He mustered out at Winchester, VA in 1865 eventually receiving a pension for his service. As a member of the 22nd, Wheeler would have seen hard fighting and death at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor and Shenandoah Valley campaigns.

Finally a Google search of Ruden's name bought us an unexpected treasure - a photo of Ruden's Civil War cap which is posted on Pinterest. The cap had been sold at Heritage Auctions in 2014. Through this research, we were able to add dimension not only to Ruden and his life but also to these two important donated items.

We hope that this story will encourage you to entrust attic and other treasures you may find to the Frontenac. Due to space considerations, we are unable to accept every item offered. We do appreciate the opportunity to consider items related to the Towns of Aurelius, Fleming, Ledyard, Springport and the Village of Union Springs as those are the areas which the NY Department of Education has chartered our museum to serve.