Sunday Lifestyles

Readers helping preserve area farm, industrial history

Since the OBSERVER published the first two parts of this story, something remarkable has happened.

Readers, former employees and local families have begun filling in pieces of northern Chautauqua County’s agricultural and industrial history that might otherwise have been lost. What began as a story about several well-known food companies is becoming something considerably larger.

We are finding evidence of an interconnected regional economy that stretched from farms and vineyards to neighborhood dairies, canneries, wineries and nationally significant food processors – but also to machine shops, inventors, patents, packaging, transportation and specialized equipment.

Huntley Manufacturing is one striking example. Material recently uncovered shows the company manufacturing sophisticated machinery for agricultural, canning and food-processing operations from Silver Creek and Brocton. Historical accounts describe Silver Creek as an important center of grain-cleaning machinery manufacture, with equipment from the community reaching markets far beyond Chautauqua County. It raises a fascinating question: Chautauqua County wasn’t simply growing and processing food. How much of the machinery and technology that made those industries work was also being invented and built here?

The research has also begun uncovering patents issued to local inventors for food packaging, agricultural and processing machinery and other innovations. We would especially like to hear from families who remember an inventor, machinist, engineer or small manufacturer – or who may still have patent papers, drawings, machinery catalogs, photographs or identification plates.

The human side of the story is growing just as quickly. Families have shared memories of bottles moving through local dairy plants, milkmen making home deliveries, bean and tomato lines operating inside Sheridan Canning, farmers supplying local processors, and employees whose working lives connected one local company to another. These recollections are helping us understand not just what these companies made, but what it was actually like to work there.

Another unanswered question involves Red Wing in Fredonia. In 1982, the company installed an enormous peanut roaster that was later described as the world’s largest. We are trying to identify who manufactured that machine. If any former Red Wing employee, contractor or family member has photographs of the roaster, remembers the manufacturer, or has a picture of a machinery nameplate or identification tag, we would very much like to hear from them.

This is no longer only a Dunkirk-Fredonia story. We are interested in memories and material from Dunkirk, Fredonia, Sheridan, Silver Creek, Brocton, Westfield, Forestville, Ripley and the surrounding farming communities. Earlier county histories document food processing, dairying, grape products, canning and machinery manufacturing across this entire region.

We are seeking information from anyone who worked for – or whose family was connected with – local farms, vineyards, dairies, canneries, wineries and companies such as Bedford Products, Red Wing, Cliffstar, Dunkirk Ice Cream, Welch’s/National Grape, Sheridan Canning, Huntley Manufacturing and the many smaller businesses that formed part of this network.

Photographs, employee publications, advertisements, labels, bottles, catalogs, patents, machinery photographs, company records and personal recollections can all help. Even a seemingly small memory, an unidentified photograph or an old piece of company material tucked away in a family collection may provide an important piece of a much larger story.

The response to the earlier OBSERVER articles has already shown how much of this history still survives in people’s memories and family collections. We hope readers throughout northern Chautauqua County will help us find the next pieces before they disappear.

Readers with questions or submissions can send to tommuldowney7@gmail.com