Fun Facts

 by Susan Zehnder, Education Director

“I didn’t know that!” For the last few years, The Chemung County Historical Society has printed bookmarks with photos and biographical information about more than 20 different community leaders. Our mission, “to deepen the understanding of and appreciation for our community’s place in state and national history,” inspires us to continue to add more to our collection whenever we can, and we welcome any suggestions. Some of the people and their stories are quite well-known, while others may be more of a surprise.

Newcomers don’t always recognize the man with wild white hair smoking a cigar on the city’s Welcome to Elmira sign on Church Street. Nor do many younger people have any idea who the other people are. Our bookmarks help to share some of their stories. Hardly comprehensive, they act as small reminders of what people in our community have accomplished.

The bookmarks highlight local athletes, scholars, scientists, civic leaders, authors, inventors, politicians, lawyers, astronauts, and engineers from Chemung County. We pass them out at events and share local history.

This summer a ceremony was held to recognize renaming the former Madison Avenue Bridge over the Chemung River. Now known as the Allen-Berry Bridge, it honors two local Civil Rights leaders who did so much for the community: A’Don Allen and Bessie Berry. 

A'Don Allen (1916 - 1994)

Allen grew up in Elmira. He served with the Army Corps of Engineers in WWII and earned a bronze star on Okinawa. Upon his return, he became active in politics and was known as a prominent civic and community leader. In 1966, he became Elmira's first Black man appointed to the Civil Service Commission. Over the next thirty years, Allen held various government positions including that of deputy mayor for the City of Elmira.

Bessie Berry (1932 - 2008)

As president of the local NAACP, Berry supported “Black Dollar Days” to encourage people of color to use Susan B. Anthony dollar coins and $2 bills when making purchases to highlight the Black community’s economic impact. Berry became the first African American elected to the Elmira School Board and successfully pushed the district to recognize Martin Luther King Jr. day as a holiday.

(Hear an interview with Bessie Berry followed by a community discussion, by checking out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGPjCQ32UHs )

In no way do we claim these bookmarks tell a complete story of any local leader. But we pass them out in hopes that they may spark curiosity to learn more about local history. To learn about the lives, contributions, and accomplishments people have made to our community.

The next time you pass over the Allen-Berry Bridge, we hope you think of some of the work these two did. Neither Allen nor Berry is pictured on the Church Street welcome sign, but they are part of our community’s story and certainly could be.

The Three Sisters and Beyond: Haudenosaunee Agriculture

 By Rachel Dworkin, Archivist

 

Corn. Beans. Squash. The Haudenosaunee (pronounced HOH-din-oh-SHOH-nee), sometimes known as the Iroquois, of upstate New York called these three plants the Three Sisters. In school, I was taught that they were the basis of Haudenosaunee agriculture, but the full truth is so much more interesting and complicated.  

 

Squash, corn, and beans were first domesticated, in that order, in Mexico between 8 and 9 thousand years ago. They were spread across North and South America via migration and trade. According to the archeological record, corn was first grown in New York around 800 CE with squash arriving around 1000 and beans by 1300. Soon after, Haudenosaunee farmers were growing them together in a system known as polyculture. The corn and beans would be planted together in the center of small mounds while the squash would be planted between the mounds. This way, the corn stalks acted as a trellis for the beans to climb while the beans fixed nitrogen in the soil. The broad leaves of the squash blocked weeds from growing and helped reduce evaporation, keeping the soil moist. When consumed together, the three pants contain all the nine essential amino acids needed for human life. 

 

The Haudenosaunee grew 13 varieties of corn, as many varieties of beans, 5 varieties of squash, and 3 types of melons. They also grew potatoes, tomatoes, artichokes, cucumbers, onions, and other root vegetables. Sometimes, Haudenosaunee farmers planted a so-called Fourth Sister, sunflowers, along the edges of fields to provide cooking oil and act as a living fence to keep deer out of the crops. They also grew tobacco for medicinal, spiritual, and trade purposes.

Traditionally, land was owned, not by the individual, but by the matrilineal clan. Haudenosaunee women worked the fields collectively, planting, tending, and harvesting together under the leadership of an elder matriarch. Women were also responsible for gathering from the woods the various nuts, berries, fruits, and greens which made up the rest of their diet. In school, I was taught they “foraged” for “wild edibles”, but recent scholarship suggests that they “harvested” from their “carefully managed food forests.”

Nuts were a hugely important part of the Haudenosaunee diet. Archeological evidence shows that they were harvesting from various nut trees as far back as 2500 BCE. Evidence also suggests that the Haudenosaunee may have deliberately cultivated black walnut and pawpaw, neither of which are originally native to the area. The Haudenosaunee relied heavily on the woods, not just for food, but for the trees they used in construction and tools. Red oak, white cedar, hickory, and American elm were all used to build long houses. Shagbark hickory was used to make bows and other tools, while black ash was used for baskets. While Haudenosaunee women farmed, it was the men who managed the forest through controlled burns and other techniques. After all the wood surrounding a village had been used up, the settlement would be abandoned and its surrounding fields replanted with useful trees before the community moved on.

 When the Continental Army under the command of General John Sullivan burned its way through western New York in the summer of 1779, they found a thriving village in what is now the Town of Chemung. It was surrounded by fields of crops which extended along both sides of the Chemung River, as well as extensive orchards of native plums and European apples and peaches. The soldiers burned it all and chased the villagers west to starvation. When white settlers moved into the area in the following decades, they cut down the carefully managed forests for lumber and farmland. By the 1860s, all of the old growth was gone.

In recent decades, there has been renewed interest in studying and restoring old Haudenosaunee farming and forest management techniques. For Native activists and ecologists, it is about preserving culture, improving diet, and restoring the land. Many non-Native scientists now believe that traditional techniques might help stem climate change while ensuring food for local communities. Food forests are especially hot right now. The Skarù·ręʔ (Tuscarora) Nation reservation in Lewiston, NY, and the City of Syracuse both recently launched initiatives to plant their own community food forests. Check out the White Corn Project based out of the Ganondagan State Historic Site near Victor, NY to learn more about the push to recover Haudenosaunee food ways.

 

If you’d like to learn more about the Haudenosaunee and their contribution to the roots of American democracy, be sure to check out the Smithsonian traveling exhibit Voice & Votes: Democracy in America, on display at the Chemung County Historical Society through November 15, 2025.

The Rise of a Corpse

by Erin Doane, Senior Curator

Autumn is my favorite season with the cooler weather, beautifully changing leaves, warm comforting foods, and, of course, Halloween. While most horror movies are too much for me, I do enjoy reading scary stories. More than ten years ago, I came across an article in the Elmira Telegram published on November 13, 1892. It told the tale of a local undertaker who had a terrifying experience. In the spirit of the season, I will now share that story with you.

Elmira Telegram, November 13, 1892

The article began with the Telegram reporter in conversation with a well-known Elmira undertaker who would only tell his story upon the express condition that he was not named in the article. “The majority of people are inclined to deny or disbelieve supernaturalism, and attribute tales of dead people returning to life as either a fraud or delusion of the nerves,” he said. “I don’t enjoy being called a fool.” With the reporter’s assurance of anonymity, the undertaker launched into his tale.

A few months earlier, the undertaker was called to the Erie Railroad station to collect a body that had been shipped to Elmira. It had been a long, busy day so it was already quite late when he picked up the corpse in his ambulance and brought it to his undertaking rooms. There were two funerals scheduled the next morning and his assistant was tired, so the undertaker sent him home. That was around midnight. Once the assistant had left, the undertaker locked the street doors to his office and went about preparing the newly-arrive body for burial. At this point in the article, he made sure to let the reporter know that he was not superstitious and had “not the least particle of dread of a corpse.” He went so far as to tell about the finely polished skeleton he kept in his own bedroom. He said he would often pat its bony skull or shake its fleshless hand, thus proving that he was not at all afraid of the dead. 

Continuing the tale, the undertaker said he removed the body from the casket and laid it upon the preparation table. The corpse was in rough shape and he thought he “detected the effluvia of decay” as he unwrapped its shroud. He washed the body then took his trocar needle and began injecting embalming fluid into the cadaver. He explained that there is a vessel that “if rightly touched will raise the sunken eyes or cheeks to their normal fullness” so that the individual would look as they did before sickness and death. 

Just as the undertake inserted the needle into the corpse’s face near its eye, it suddenly sat up! “It seemed to me as the flash of an electric current, the body raised up in a sitting posture, throwing me back by the contact and driving the needle far into the eye socket.” At the same time, the deceased’s lips twitched and it let out a breathy, unintelligible sound. “To say that for once in my life I was frightened out of my wits does not fittingly describe the situation.” He ran out of the operating room and into the office, expecting to be chased by the suddenly-reanimated corpse. 

The undertaker dropped into a chair, feeling terribly weak with great beads of perspiration rolling down his forehead. He was “so wrought up” that when he finally mustered the courage to look back toward the embalming room, he thought he saw the cadaver peeking through the black muslin curtain that covered the door. He rushed to the front door, unlocked it, and ran out to the street in search of a policeman. 

The officer he found thought at first that the undertaker was drunk, but agreed to accompany him back to the undertaking rooms. The two man found the corpse face down on the floor with both hands outstretched. Though the policeman seemed skeptical of the undertaker’s tale, he helped return the body to the operating table. The pair reexamined the body for signs of life and even summoned a nearby doctor who applied his galvanic battery to the corpse to make sure it was indeed deceased. The doctor pronounced the subject “stone dead” and advised the undertaker to take something for his nerves. 

When the undertaker finally returned to his home early that morning, his wife asked if he had been ill. He told her he wasn’t feeling well but didn’t tell her about his terrifying experience as she was “a very nervous woman.” He supposed that no one would believe his story and that he would be “sneered at by all of the jesters in the town,” but he assured the reporter that it actually happened. 

“It will probably remain a fact or phenomenon that cannot be explained,” the undertaker said. “Psychometery, visions, voices, table movements, automatic writing, trance speaking all may be accounted for, but when a dead man rises up and fairly speaks, with a trochar (sic) inserted three inches into his brain, the greatest searcher after psychical knowledge is puzzled.”

The article concludes: “The Telegram reporter shrugged his shoulders and looked around the undertaker’s office to see that no uncanny corpse was about to grab him, and bade the undertaker good-night.”

There were a half dozen undertakers working in Elmira in the early 1890s. Any one of them could have been the source of this chilling tale. We’ll never know. I’m just glad that one of them trusted the Telegram reporter enough to share it.

 

Ghost Walk 2025

Thank you! by Susan Zehnder, Education Director

We want to thank all the volunteers, actors, and guides who helped us put this event on!

Cathleen Koons Wiggs as Julia Reynolds

It takes a dedicated group to make it work and the success shows when we sell out. This is the 19th year we’ve held the Ghost Walk, and over the years it has grown in scope and popularity.

We couldn’t do it without the loyal support of our members and visitors. What started as a humble idea to share local history now brings in over 500 people on 20 tours for a truly unique experience. 

Amanda Bailey as Lucy Diven

Since 2007, despite rain, snow, fog and even moonlight, we have shared nearly 100 different stories from the past. 

Cameron Dumas as Dr. William F. Goodman
David Gang as Dr. Nathaniel R. Seeley

      

And if you like the Ghost Walk, consider joining us for

David Wiggs as Captain R.R. Dumars
Scott Geiss as Henry Dumars

Ghosts in the Museum: Three Weddings and a Funeral on February 7th. Think of it as a Ghost Walk inside the museum. Tickets may be purchased online through our website, and we’re offering a 10% discount on any tickets purchased before December 1, 2025.

Lastly, be sure to catch the special Smithsonian Institute Traveling Exhibition Services exhibit Voices and Votes: Democracy in America at the museum from Oct 3 to Nov 15 at the museum. We have a talk on Tuesday, October 21st by Dr. Lempert on The Voting Rights Act of 1965: Past Present and Future followed by Game Night on October 23rd, an evening of games and conversations connecting to the exhibit. For more details, see our website ChemungValleyMuseum.org and thanks again for your support!

CCHS Archivist Rachel Dworkin

 

Introducing the Chemung County Women’s Suffrage Digital Collection

 By Rachel Dworkin, archivist

The Woman Suffrage Party of Chemung County was established in 1916 with the goal of securing women the vote. It was not the first pro-suffrage organization to be established in Elmira but, thanks to their efforts, it would be the last. In 1917, New York passed a ballot initiative granting women the right to vote. The Woman Suffrage Party played an important role in ensuring that the initiative passed. The group was an important part of our local history and, earlier this year, we received a grant to digitize their records.

Becoming a member in the Woman Suffrage Party was simple. All one had to do was sign their name to the membership slip and donate 25 cents to the cause. The work of the Woman Suffrage Party, however, was anything but simple. During 1917, they met weekly and worked tirelessly to for the cause. Members volunteered as military census takers and Liberty Bond saleswomen, going door-to-door to hundreds of Chemung County homes to do important war work and promote women’s suffrage. They lectured at local churches, clubs, and factories, even bringing in foreign language speakers to speak to different immigrant groups. The club maintained a booth at the Chemung County Fair where they handed out leaflets and free soft drinks. They also hosted market days where they distributed literature and sold flowers, fruit jellies, and cakes to raise money for their efforts. On November 3^rd, three days before the election, they held a rally and downtown parade. On election day, 111 members served as poll watchers.

How do we know about these activities? We were donated the records of the organization by the descendants of the Party’s recording secretary, Mildred Sheely Scharf. The collection includes the minutes from May 11, 1916 through May 17, 1918; programs for events hosted by the Party; handbills; newspaper clippings; correspondence; and pieces of letterhead. And we recently digitized all of it. You can view that collection here: https://nyheritage.org/collections/chemung-county-womens-suffrage-collection

 

First page of the minutes of the Woman Suffrage Party of Chemung County

The collection is hosted by New York Heritage, a collaborative project hosted by the eight of the nine New York Library Councils. The website documents New York state history through maps, yearbooks, directories, photographs, oral histories, and more. These items come from over 430 archives, libraries, and museums across the state, including us! At present, we have 12 different digital collections up on New York Heritage including county atlases, high school yearbooks, city directories, and three different oral history projects. Some of these collections were developed in partnership with the Chemung County Library District and the Corning Museum of Glass. All our various collections are available here: https://nyheritage.org/organizations/chemung-county-historical-society

 This spring, we applied for and received a grant to digitize the Woman Suffrage Party papers, along with other suffrage-related material in our collections including photographs of local suffragists, handbills from earlier suffrage campaigns, and writings for and against by local authors. We will be adding that material to the digital collection over the course of the rest of the year.

The grant was through the South Central Regional Library Council and funded the purchase of a new scanner to replace our old one. Our new scanner is an Epson Perfection V850 Pro. In addition to doing documents, the new scanner has attachments to scan slides, film, and even large-form glass plate negatives. As part of the grant, we are required to digitize and share at least one collection with it each year. We have a lot of options to choose from for our next project. Tell me, gentle reader, which would you prefer: a collection of glass-plate negatives of American LaFrance products from the early 1900s or a collection of film negatives of houses demolished for urban renewal in the 1960s and 70s?

Our new scanner!

 

C.H. Wheadon & Son

by Erin Doane, Senior Curator

An April 27, 1893 article in the Elmira Star-Gazette describes the embarrassing business troubles of Henry G. Wheadon, owner of C.H. Wheadon & Son. The shameful news was that Henry had filed not one but two chattel mortgages in the county clerk’s office. It was with “sincere regret and surprise” that Elmirans learned this humiliating news, according to the reporter. As a modern reader, I didn’t understand how taking out a mortgage was newsworthy or brought such public shame. So, I went looking for historical context.

C.H. Wheadon & Son label inside travel trunk, c. 1878

I first became interested in C.H. Wheadon & Son earlier this year when the museum received the donation of a lovely travel trunk from around 1878. Inside the trunk was a label showing that it was originally purchased from C.H. Wheadon & Son at 206 East Water Street in Elmira.

Trunk sold by C.H. Wheadon & Son, closed and open

Charles H. Wheadon, the company’s founder, was born in Hebron, New York in 1812. Charles married Cordelia Short and they had six children together, four of whom survived into adulthood – Frances, Mary, Charles F., and Henry. After years as a successful businessman in Homer, New York, Charles and his family came to Elmira in 1874. Two years later, he opened a new harness shop on Water Street across the street from the Rathbun House.

C.H. Wheadon & Son dvertisement, The Wellsboro Agitator, May 8, 1877

C.H. Wheadon & Son originally manufactured and sold coaches and harnesses. They sold road, track, and farm harnesses, sporting and tack goods, ladies and gentlemen’s riding saddles, trunks, traveling bags, and valises. The business became so successful that it expanded into the storefront next door and occupied 204-206 East Water Street.

C.H. Wheadon & Son advertisement listing all the types of bells available at the store – “All the latest styles. Largest line in the city”
Originally published in the Evening Star, December 1, 1888; reprinted by the Star-Gazette, May 24, 1953

Henry G. Wheadon was the younger of Charles H.’s sons and was the “son” in his father’s company. Henry’s older brother, Charles F., was already in business for himself when Charles H. opened his store on Water Street. He came to Elmira two years before the rest of the family to work for the Richardson Shoe Company. He started his own wholesale produce business before eventually partnering with Robert W. Barton in Barton & Wheadon, wholesale grocers and tea merchants.

Advertising calendar from Barton & Wheadon, 1908

By 1893, Charles H. had gone into retirement and Henry owned and operated C.H. Wheadon & Son. It was under his management that the business foundered. Henry was forced to give his father a chattel mortgage for the sum of $7,700 that covered all goods, wares, and merchandise in the store, including harnesses, leather goods, trunks, satchels, and handbags. He also gave a second chattel mortgage for the sum of $255 to L.M. Baldwin of Montrose, Pennsylvania covering one carriage and one set of coupe harness. A chattel mortgage is a loan secured by moveable personal property rather than real property. This type of mortgage was seen as a sign of poor financial management and was considered an act of desperation. Henry needed the money to pay off creditors in New York and Philadelphia. Many at the time thought it was a character flaw to be so far in debt and Henry certainly would have been looked down upon and pitied for it.  

Henry blamed this great business embarrassment on competition in his trade. C.H. Wheadon & Son sold goods at retail prices but there were jobbers (wholesale dealers) who sold the same things for less. He also lamented his general bad luck in the business. The G.E.S.S. medical company that occupied rooms above C.H. Wheadon & Son reportedly had seven fires in one year. Each time, the store below suffered water damage. The building’s basement had also flooded several times, damaging merchandise. 

Larger, national economic issues were also at play. The Panic of 1893, one of the most severe economic depressions in the U.S. to that time, began in February. The panic was caused by complex, nationwide issues but here’s a very brief, sweeping explanation: Overbuilding and speculation led to financial collapse of major industries including railroads and banks. The stock market crashed, leading to panic and a credit crisis. This all resulted in mass unemployment (up to 20% in some places), farm foreclosures, and more than 15,000 businesses going bankrupt. The failure of C.H. Wheadon & Son was most likely due to Henry’s poor business decisions but by the time he filed the chattel mortgages, the national economy was on the verge of collapse. 

Henry told the reporter that he planned to accept a position as a travelling salesman, something he had done before joining his father’s business. A week later, in early May 1893, the newspaper reported that Henry had left town. I don’t know if he ever came back to Elmira. On August 16, 1903, the Star-Gazette reported that word had been received that Henry G. Wheadon had died in Los Angeles, California at the age of 44. While the report stated that his remains would be taken to Homer, New York for burial with his family, he was actually interred in Evergreen Cemetery in Los Angeles. 

After Henry left town in 1893, his father announced that he would be coming out of retirement to reopen the harness and trunk shop and resume business. This does not appear to have happened. Charles H. Wheadon, one of Elmira’s oldest citizens at nearly 81 years old, passed away on August 24, 1893 after a protracted illness.

We the People

by Susan Zehnder, Education Director

In 2004, the United States Congress passed 36 U.S. Code § 106  which recognized September 17^th as Constitution and Citizenship Day. The purpose was to promote literacy and understanding of the American constitution.  While not a federal holiday, the law asks “each educational institution that receives Federal funds for a fiscal year (to) hold an educational program on the United States Constitution on September 17 of such year for the students served by the educational institution.”

Does it count if we started things in July? On the 3^rd of that month, CCHS held a community event at the Clemens Center to increase awareness of an oft quoted and important historical document. We called it the Constitution Read because that’s what took place: community members read aloud the entire constitution. We had invited anyone interested in reading, and available to join us, asking that they were 14 years old and up (future voters in four years) and that no one wore political buttons, hats, or t-shirts to the event. 45 community members signed up. Everything went smoothly. We were grateful to the Clemens Center staff and volunteers for helping us and to the audience of readers, friends, and family who stayed to listen. Reading the entire document, all 7,686 words, took an hour. When a section of the document had been changed or amended, we let everyone know by holding up a sign. The event was filmed and many readers shared that it was their first time hearing the whole thing, and asked when we would do it again. In the months since, groups from two southern states have contacted us wanting to know how they could do something similar.

Constitution Read event

Recognizing the importance of the constitution by having a special day was the brainchild of Louise Leigh. Born in 1914 in Gloversville, NY, she moved to Southern California to work as a medical technologist. Leigh became politically active with Republican causes and was appointed Presidential Elector, Delegate to two National Republican conventions, and served as the California Republican Assembly Historian. When she retired from her medical work in 1997, she taught English to immigrants, tutored children, and started a campaign to improve constitutional literacy. Her work was recognized and honored by various political and civic organizations including the Southern Division Federated Republican Women, Daughters of the American Revolution, and the National Center for Constitutional Studies.

In October, CCHS will continue to do our part to promote constitutional literacy. Starting October 3^rd, until November 15^th, we are hosting Voices and Votes: Democracy in America from the Smithsonian Institute's Traveling Exhibition Services. It is a detailed look at some of the complex issues surrounding our country’s vision and understanding of democracy. To go along with it, our Senior Curator and Archivist have put together an exhibit connecting local and national issues. We also have programs to share more information about the exhibit and the topic in general. On October 8^th at noon, CCHS staff will talk about hosting the exhibit. On October 21^st at 7 pm, Dr. Danny Lempert, a former political science professor and current Cornell University law student, will be speaking on “The Voting Rights Act of 1965: Past, Present, and Future.” On the evening of October 23^rd, we are running a game night using materials from the exhibit to spark community conversations. On November 12^th, at noon, members of the Chemung County Board of Elections will be sharing a behind the scenes look at what they do. Inspired by the exhibit, we are working with the Arnot Art Museum and holding a Vote! poster contest. Poster submissions are due in December and more details can be found in our exhibit and on our website. And not to be left out, all Elmira City School District first graders will again be creating flags to hang on display in our museum.  

Flags from last year's First Graders

The film recorded at the Constitution Read will also be showing in the galleries. We invite everyone to come explore the exhibit, participate in discussions, and try out the games. What does it mean to vote? Whose voices are heard? Who is an American? We may not all agree on the answers, but asking the questions offers us a chance to better understand our country and each other: we ARE the people of this great country.

Voices and Votes: Democracy in America will be on display to the public October 3 – November 15^th Monday through Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm. To get the latest CCHS information, sign up for our e-newsletter by writing to CCHS@ChemungValleyMuseum.org for more information.