Christiana Street

"Christiana Street: 1875 to 1910" By ELIZABETH F. McLEAN

The story of a street goes far beyond a description of houses and gardens and grounds. It is the story of the families who lived there, what they were like, and what happened to them.
   
I have lived in this town long enough to recall some very surprising events and the ending to some interesting stories which I shall try to share with you.

    Now we come to the large old home at the corner of Grant Street where the R.T. Jones family lived.  Back In the 1880's it had been an academy for young ladies. The Scribner girls went there, Geneva Scribner who married James Sweeney Thompson, the parents of Mrs. Peter A. Porter.  Mary Scribner married James Rand, and Mabel became Mrs. Guy White. Also, Mrs. Arlie Belliger attended the academy.
   
R.T. Jones bought the property when they moved here from Elmira in 1903. There were four sons: H. Morton Jones who married Ruth Neff; Walter who was killed in France in 1918; Raymond who married Florence Treble of Toronto, and Charles.  Raymond survives and lives in Naples, Florida in winter.  He is confined to a wheelchair, and suffers from arthritis.  Miss Mary Conley lived with the family.  She was the bookkeeper or treasurer for the company.  The house later was the Starling home but was torn down when Grant School was built.
   
I have very happy memories of the parties Mrs. Jones gave for us when we were in high school. She was very hospitable but made us take off our shoes when we danced on her beautiful floor in the front parlor. Don Warren played the piano for us.

#65 was the home of the George Herschell family, related to Allan Herschell. The son Walter is the only one I remember. He used to take me canoeing on the Erie Canal when I was about 15 years old.

#93 was the home of P.T. Large who came here from Chicago with his wife and six children. They were Preston Jr., Hamilton, Fred, Frank, Lottie and Cora.  Fred married JuLou Palmer, daughter of W.G. Palmer who had a lumber mill. Mr. Large was superintendent of Buffalo Steel.  He died about 1919.  Later the Larges moved across the street.
   
After they left #93 Miss Caroline Beattie bought the house. Her sister Mrs. Bernard Thomas and husband all lived there. I recall that Miss Beattie had one of the first enclosed electric automobiles. It was like a large glass showcase.
   
A small cut glass vase with flowers decorated the interior. Very impressive. There is much to be said in favor of those early electrics. They caused no pollution, made no noise and used no gasoline.

#93 was the home of Almyra Meyers. I do not know much about her. Ella Staley lived there too.
   
Another Bellinger family lived across the street. There was Wilsey, one they called Goat, then three girls Lorinda, Genevieve, and Honey. She married Rumsey, who had something to do with Niagara County roads. I recall that they were the grandchildren of Mr. Angevine of LaSalle.
   
There is a large stone on the lawn of his old home on River Road marking the spot where the French explorer de LaSalle landed. I will never forget the tragedy when Mr. Angevine, his horse and sleigh were hit by a Niagara Fails trolley in a blinding snow storm. He and his horse were killed.

Next: The Clark home, the Kents and others.

#103 was Harry Clark's home. He was Treasurer of State National Bank. There were four children. The family moved to Earlville, N.Y. long ago.
   
Now we come to the home of Augustine Hathaway on the Northeast corner of Lincoln Avenue. Mrs. Hathaway was the daughter of Christian Smith. There was Kate, a teacher of math at Lafayette High School in Buffalo, and Mrs. French. These two were from Hathaways first marriage. Then came Augustus Jr., Henry, Christiana, Georgiana, and Millicent. The girls all were Phi Beta Kappa. Millicent I believe received her Ph.D. from Cornell. Georgiana Hathaway wrote history of Long family now in our library.
   
The Kent home on Goundry had a large backyard which extended through to Christiana. According to an 1875 map, Grelman and Upson families lived there on this extension.

#115 was the Wm. J. Curtis home. They had one child Mary Beach Curtis who married H.P. Kendall, pres. of CreoDipt Shingles Co.  They had two sons Curtis and Parkman. Mary died when Parkey was born. The widower then married Adelaide Winterhalter of Chicago who raised the two little boys as her own.  She was an excellent stepmother.  Parkey married Nancy Greer, the granddaughter of Al Spillman, of Herschell Spillman Co.  Parkey and Nancy now live in Indianapolis

#118 was occupied by the Oscar Cramers, brother of John Cramer. They moved to Cleveland long ago.

#126 was the home of Edward Reynolds. His wife was the sister of George Rand and Mrs. Fred Robertson. There were three boys, Ed, Jim, and George. George's son was U.S. Vice Counsel in Strassburg. Lucy Rand and I visited them in 1953.
   
Mrs. George Warren, the librarian, occupied part of the Reynold's house. Don Warren was her son. Marsha Warren was really her niece but people thought she was Don's sister as Mrs. Warren raised her.  Don, who played the piano, smoked cigarettes which was unusual at that time in high school.  He became a Naval architect and died of lung cancer at an early age.

#130 was the home of Dr. T.P.C. Barnard, health officer.  He was related to Mrs. Charles E. Hewitt of the Tonawanda NEWS . Emma Barnard was his niece.  For years, she was in charge of vital statistics at City Hall.

#136 was where Walter Evans lived.  Later, Ed MacDonald and wife occupied it.  On southwest corner facing Payne Avenue was the grocery store and meat market of Mr. Goerss.  I wish it were still there.
   
Later the building was turned into a multi-apartment house.  It burned and was torn down.  On northeast corner still stands the Church of Christ, now Church of  the Nazarene.  In 1910, Mr. Hull was pastor.  Their children were Christine and Ralph Hull.

#147 was the Gombert family home. Later, Dr. Charles Clendenan and wife Elgin bought it.  He was a good family doctor. He took Howard Beattle into his home and eventually educated him to become a doctor.

#153 was the home where Jake Rumbold, wife, and son LeRoy and twins Leigh and Lynn Rumbold lived.

#154 was the Elchelberger home. There were several attractive daughters. One married Charles Butts. Myrtle married Walter Jewell. They moved to California where he made a fortune after W.W. I.

#157 lists Harry Bowers as owner. Later the Millener family lived there before they moved to Tonawanda.  Pearcey and Marge Humphrey bought it and raised their three girls there, Betty, Nancy and Mary.

#158 was where Wm. Griffin, a lumberman, evidently lived. He had several homes and eventually built a very large one in the next block.

#160 was the home of Wm. Holt and family.  He was bookkeeper at Tonawanda Iron Works.

#163 was the residence of Dr. David Sinclair.  He built three different houses on this street.

#166 was the home of Albert R. Smith who became a judge.  He married Florence Roberts a music supervisor in Felton High School.

#167 was the home of Albert Allan and their son and daughter.  Later they moved to Bryant Street.

#171 was the Goodman home. Mr. Goodman had a clothing store on Webster Street. There is a story that he opened a store in Lockport, later went to N.Y. City and became a partner in Bergdorf-Goodman.

#183 is where Charles Hill built a home. He married Edith Tuxbury, daughter of A.C. Tuxbury, owner of Northern Lumber Co., a lumberman.  Their daughter Geraldine died of polio about 1918 or 1919.  Son Alfred was president of a small college.

Next: Congressman Peter A. Porter's home and a tragic love story that made national and local headlines.

#183 When Hon. Peter A. Porter was elected to Congress from this district, he and his wife and son Preston lived at 183. Across the street on northeast corner stand the Colonial Apartments, the first apartment house in the town at that time.

#190 was where the Edmund Hind family lived.  Later, Frank and Tena Wallace bought it.

#194 is where Hon. James P. MacKenzie, wife and two sons lived.  He was state senator in Albany.  Norman and Kennett were their children.  The latter married Katherine Smith, daughter of H.P. Smith.

#198 was the home of Fred Davies. He worked for Tuxbury, was moved to Charleston, S.C., when he started Southern Pines Lumber Co. After the Davies moved south, the home was occupied by Edward Farmer, his wife and niece Bethel. Mr. Farmer came here as head of Niagara Silk Mills, later Van Raalte Co.
   
He also has an Oriental Art store on Madison Avenue in N.Y. City. The Farmers built a large Tudor style home on Goundry, quite a show place with conservatory and many Chinese sculptures in the garden.

#206 is where Jason Knapp of Knapp & Cramer Hardware store lived with his family, Isabelle, Margaret, Esther, and Jason Jr.

#210 is where Stillman Woodruff was listed as owner. Later it was the home of William Greer. The northeast corner of Falconer was the home of Philip Scribner, a Civil War veteran. His son James Scribner was a captain in the Spanish American War. I often heard him tell about his war experiences.
   
These were the houses on Christiana Street in 1910. Between Niagara and Division Streets there were tennis courts and frog swamps and woods. Across Division was the farm of Benjamin Felton. He was president of the Board of Education and used his influence to get Felton School built.
   
There was natural gas on that farm. The high school boys would light a match and throw it down a small hole in the ground. A blue flame would spring up and the boys would rush to put it out. I wonder if the gas is still there.

There is one more story I would like to tell. This is about Arthur Stafford, called Buck, who lived at 170 Christiana St.

When World War I broke out in Europe, Buck went overseas and joined the French Ambulance Corps. He sustained a leg injury and thereafter always walked aided by a cane. After the armistice, he remained in Paris for some time. Finally he came home and brought his French wife Edith with him.
   
Jobs were scarce, so Edith became governess for the children of a very wealthy Buffalo family. She taught them French and German. Later she and Buck moved to New York City. She got a job doing book reviews and ghost writing for the New York Times. In 1923, when we were in N.Y. City, mother and I went to see them. Buck was looking for work. They were living in a one-room fourth walk-up apartment. Times were hard for them.
   
Not too long after that, I heard that Edith had become acquainted with a very wealthy man. He was the head of a large nationally known insurance company.
   
She divorced Buck and married the old man who was twice her age. They moved to a large Long Island estate where each summer her family came over from France and spent the season. Also, Edith made frequent trips to Paris each year. She also had a boyfriend.
   
One September, Edith departed for Paris. Her husband was on a business trip to California. However, Edith did not go to Paris. Instead, she and the boyfriend were staying at a lodge in Carolina.
   
They went out in a small boat, a tropical storm came up and they were never seen alive again. Within a week or so, the bodies were washed up on the Carolina shore.
   
The story made the headlines in papers all over the country, including the Tonawanda NEWS .

   
Christiana Street begins at the Erie Railroad tracks. According to the 1875 city map, there were no houses on the street before that date. But soon #9 appears on the south side, built by a Mr. May first as a saloon and later as a good eating place, popular with teachers and businessmen. A hot noon dinner cost 25 cents.

   
Across from there, Tom Pelow, a cement dealer, built a home with Victorian style pointed top windows. Both these buildings are still there. The May house has been turned into an apartment house, I believe.
   
I recall that on the south west corner of Vandervoort was E. C. Praker's grocery store. There also was another Praker grocery store north east corner of Payne Avenue and Thompson run by a brother. Milton Praker belonged to this family. He married Ruth Robertson daughter of Frederick Robertson, banker, and sister of Fred, Jr..
   
Crossing Vandervoort Street on the north east corner was the home of Elgin Austen an insurance man. I recall hearing each year he went to New Orleans to the Mardi Gras on a vacation but he never took his wife. She was devoted to a cat which had a broken tail . This she wrapped in a bandage made from an old bed sheet. The cat would go out trailing the white bandage, a very amusing sight.

#38 was the home of Rolland Pickard and wife. His sister Ora lived there, too. She worked at the gas or telephone office where we paid our bills.

#41 on the south east corner of Vandervoort was the home of Arch Scoby. He worked for Niagara County and had to travel to Lockport every day on the trolley. His children were Vest, Celia who later was secretary at YWCA and Hal who joined the Air Force in WWI.

#41 was occupied by Charles Calkins; he had a daughter Edith who had a beautiful high soprano voice. She starred in Felton High School Glee Club and was also soloist at First Baptist Church on Vandervoort.

#48 was the Weitheimer home. There were 3 children: Bill, who married Irene Mago of Tonawanda, Claude, and Irma who married, Karl Litchka. They later bought a house at 203 farther along the street.
   
More about Mr. Weinheimer. I would like to pay tribute to a very excellent teacher who gave us very useful knowledge. He also had a sly and dry humor. He taught penmanship and commercial subjects in North Tonawanda schools. His was the vertical style of writing . He also taught us how to write a check, a money order, an acceptance or regret to an invitation, how to write a business letter and much more. Who could do that now?
   
After  his wife died he moved in with daughter Irma Litchka and husband, Karl. He finally decided to take a trip to Florida. There he met a charming widow from the mid-west. He started courting her. One day he showed her his savings bank book, proud of the large balance. Soon they were married and took up residence in North Tonawanda. She did not like our city or anything about it and made frequent trips to her old home. They finally moved to Worthington, Ohio. The marriage broke up and no doubt you are wondering where this information came from. I used to play bridge with Irma and she told everyone in the club about it. Incidentally, Mr. Weinheimer was heard to remark that he was glad to be rid of that woman at any cost.

Next: The Smith home and the woman after whom the street was named.

#52 was the home of the famous Christiana Long Smith for whom the street was named. Born in 1824, she married in 1841 and died in 1910 at age 86. I remember her as a very old lady. She was related to H.P. Smith and Congressman Smith, the Rands, Simsons, DeGraffs, the Hathaways and numerous others. Being one of the famous Long Sisters, you can read all about that family at our Historical Museum and also in our library.

#44 was the home of E. C. Smith who had a popular clothing store on Webster Street.

#53 was the home of the Rex family. Mrs. Rex was the sister of Tom Charleton of Goundry Street.  After she broke her his (must be hip ) she walked with a crutch. I think Charleton Rex was their only child. The Latta family lived in the other half of the Rex house.

#57 was the home of another Pickard family. They ran a boarding house. One daughter, Sadie Pickard married Jim Armitage.  Their daughters were Lucy and Elizabeth. Her sister Lottie Pickard married James Mundie.  Elizabeth Armitage married Harry Stubbs.

#58 The John Shartle family lived here.  He was with Tonawanda Board and Paper Co. The daughters were Ruth, Helen and Ernestine.  Later the family bought C. B. Thompson's home next door to Goundry School.  About 1909 when Farny Wurlitzer and Grace moved here from Cincinnati, they occupied the upper apartment in that house.  I first met them there before they bought the John Edwards house on Goundry, not the Town Club.

#73 was the W. B. Kerr home. The family moved here from Pittsburgh in 1888. Mr. Kerr was brought here as superintendent of the Tonawanda Iron Works. A daughter Mary was born back in Pittsburgh and son Bill was born here.
William Mills, then a bachelor, who worked under Mr. Kerr, first lived at their home in the Ironton section of the city. Kerrs later built a large Victorian home on Christiana Street which finally burned down and was replaced by a modern brick.  Mary married Bill Cole and moved to Midland, Canada but returned to North Tonawanda. Bill married Frankie Hill of Tonawanda.
   
They had one child, Bill Kerr III whose hobby was collecting miniature glass, hats and slippers.
   
One Sunday afternoon, he was on a radio program describing his collection. This was before TV. It happened that a Gary Kerr in Pittsburgh was listening to the program. When he heard the name Wm. Kerr of North Tonawanda he recalled that he had a cousin of that name whom he had lost track of. He called the radio station and got the Kerr's address and started writing to the family.
   
Every few months, Mary received a check for $3000 or $5000. She made me promise I would not tell, a promise I kept at the time. When Gary Kerr died, he was a widower without children. He left an estate of about $10 million. He was one of Andrew Carnegie's original partners. Mary and Bill Kerr and cousin Pearl Kerr were the heirs.
   
We all know of the wonderful benefit to the community Mary Kerr Cole's will provided. The beneficiaries were DeGraff Hospital, the Association for the Blind, the Y.W.C.A., the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, our church, and a host of old friends who will never forget her kindness.  She left her home to her good neighbor Judge Brick and family. Young Bill Kerr III died some years ago.  He was a lawyer in Ithaca, N.Y.

Article: Transcribed from a collection of "Try To Remember" articles developed by the Historical Society of the Tonawandas, which appeared in the Tonawanda News from 1976 - 1978, by Melville J. Batt. This collection was provided by Melville's son, Douglas Batt.