The property was leased to the company by Buel P. Barnes who stipulated that it could only be used as a canning factory.  Mr. Barnes at that time owned the flour mill on the corner of North Hartland and Sherman Road and wanted to make sure he had no new competition. Managed by Mr. Charles Francis with Mr. Jay S. Vary as superintendent, processor and chemist, the plant was known for packing peas which were shelled every morning by local housewives and picked up by horse and wagon before noon so they could be processed by evening.

As the cost of peas made the product no longer profitable for the plant, it switched to pineapples, naval oranges, strawberries, cherries as well as a large variety of other fruits and vegetables.  The plant had the first acetylene gas units to replace the old kerosene lamps as well as a steam engine to provide additional power and  Middleport’s first sprinkler system for fire protection.

The plant was an active employer of around 500 local residents and several additions had to be made to the building to house the new equipment.  In 1891, the Sprague-Warner Company of Chicago,Illinois purchased the plant and the name was changed to the Batavia Preserving Company.  The Middleport plant continued to preserve fruits while another plant in Batavia handled most of the vegetables.  The plant was again sold in 1913 when the Batavia Preserving Company decided to leave Western New York.

After several more owners who ran it as a canning company, the last name on the building was Longview Farms Inc. which was run by Louis Catalano and R.C Walthew.  After a destructive fire in the 1960’s, the building became a safety hazard and was demolished in 1967.

Information for this article came from a 1966 essay written by Elmer Vary, longtime resident of Middleport

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State trooper divers from Athol Springs came down and the car was eventually pulled out inch by agonizing inch. It almost ran over my cousins who are playing on that embankment. The family was visiting from Buffalo on a 25 foot Chris Craft docked at Middleport.

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At a recent meeting of the Belvadear troop in Middleport, I enjoyed sharing with the scouts a little history on our own Belva Bennett McNall Lockwood.   Born in the Town of Royalton in 1830, she championed the rights of women for equal pay, a good education and the right to vote when women were given little encouragement to do any of these. With the theme of “Women of the Year” coming up in 1975, Mrs. Trudy Sworts and Mrs. Doris March, active leaders in local Girl Scouting, came up with the idea of erecting a plaque at the site of Belva’s birthplace on Griswold Street. A committee planned the observance with the help of scout troops 164, 107, 33 and 34 and many scout leaders.

A special scout badge was the creation of scouts Roselee Sworts, Stephanie LePard and Holly Ortman with the badges handmade for the scouts by Mrs. Pearl Schumacher. Belva Lockwood Day was celebrated on November 23, 1975 with a special proclamation by then Royalton Supervisor George Steimer Jr. A special plaque was erected to honor Doris March who passed away shortly before the celebration.

Many of us drive by the monument to Belva without thinking of her many accomplishments. After being widowed at the age of 22, she attended college and fought for equal pay with male teachers in order to support herself and her daughter. Furthering her education with a law degree, she had to petition then president Ulysses Grant to get her diploma when the college would not release it because she was a female. Her second husband had to stand up in court and give his permission that his wife be allowed to practice law. She was the first female to be able to practice before the Supreme Court of the US (thanks to her work on the Lockwood Bill in 1879) and she was presidential candidate of the Equal Rights Party in 1884 and 1888. She knew she had no chance to win but she wanted to bring the cause of equal rights to the public. In the 1888 election she managed to get over 4,000 votes, remarkable when you consider that not a single woman cast a vote. Sadly she died in 1917, the year New York was among the first states that allowed women to vote and three years before the 19^th Amendment was passed.

I am sure Mrs. Lockwood would be very proud of the young scouts who carry on the message that she tried to spread over 100 years ago.

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I have faithfully continues to follow the web site in England and enjoy reading all about the fabulous activities they offer. They also have great video of the whole restoration process and the history of the pottery making industry in their area.   Recently a former student of mine from

Middleport Elementary School, Stephanie Cuzzacrea and her husband Steve Bradshaw, made a visit to England, where Steve once lived and where his mother still resides. They sent me this lovely book, which was delivered to my home the same day that I received a special post card from the marketing manager at Middleport Pottery. It really is a small world after all. I will be sharing more about our Middleport with their Middleport in the near future.

If you would like to learn more about Middleport Pottery, check out www.middleportpottery.co.uk.

Also check out some of the old dishes great granny or someone left behind. You just might have a treasure from the original Middleport Pottery brought over by an early ancestor.

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The Middleport Fire Department first dedicated their bell memorial in the park on Memorial Day of 1952 in  honor of  the deceased members of the department.

The bell used to hang in a tower behind the old fire hall, now better knows to residents as our
Village Hall.  After a fire in 1898 that engulfed the tower and the bell, the village lost their alarm system.

According to Anna Wallace’s History of Middleport, the bell tower of the Episcopal Church was then used for ringing fire alarms at a cost to the village of $25 per year. In this view of the old Haines Dry Dock, the bell tower can clearly seen before the devastating fire.  The remains of the old bell tower were removed in 1946 to make parking spaces at the rear of the Main Street stores.

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The building of the church was accomplished with smooth, egg shaped stones gathered by the congregation from the shore of Lake Ontario and under the supervision of stone mason Emery Smith.

Reverend Linus Everett was chosen to dedicate the church in 1842. In 1870 the Middleport Church was valued at $8 thousand dollars with the only church bell withing the village as well as the first organ. Due to diminished membership, the church closed its doors in 2015 and the building was sold. Many of their books and some other artifacts were donated to the office of the Village Historian, and are currently on display at the Middleport Village Hall.

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By 1893, James Hulihan and Thomas Conley owned the Royalton Basket Company which supplied local fruit farmers with different size baskets ranging from berry baskets to fruit crates. The logs were floated down the canal and held in the log pond until they were needed. The lower level of the building was used to cut the logs into strips while the assembling of the baskets took place on the top floor.

Deliveries of the finished baskets were made by horse and wagon to local farmers. Owners of the business at its closing in 1934 were James and Timothy O’Shaughnessey.

Today we look forward to once again having the building in use as the Basket Factory Restaurant.

*See this article about the Basket Factory Restaurant re-opening. 

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All history lovers, especially those who love learning more about our little village, will be pleased to hear that the history written by our previous historian, Anna Wallace, is about to go to press.  During her 30 year tenure as historian, Anna collected stories that go back to the beginning of our community in the early 1800s up to her retirement in 2010.

I recently had a visit with her at her residence in Rochester where I shared with her a proof copy of her writings,  now compiled in a book entitled “A Friendly Community, A History of Middleport, New York.”

The book will contains lots of interesting facts as well as 130 pictures from old newspapers, post cards and private photos. After a little more editing, we should be going to press in a few weeks.

The history will be available locally and also through Amazon.

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In a newspaper article from 1972, Mrs. Wilmot was quoted that she took up painting when a local art class needed new members. She had never had any formal training but often admired scenes, thinking they might make a good picture. She would spend the next twenty years of her life painting scenes mostly of local interest.

Today many of her works can be found in the collection of the Royalton Hartland Community Library and the Village Hall in Middleport. Mrs. Wilmot lived until 1974 and after the passing of Mr. Wilmot in 1975, the major portion of their estate was left in trust to numerous educational, religious, health and civic organizations.

This photo shows Myrtle Lewis Wilmot with her father Elgie Lewis.  Her father will be featured in a future article about his incredible inventions.

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After a fire in 1883, the original wooden building was replaced in 1884 by one made of brick by the new owner, A.D. Rich.  The new building was 118 feet long, 47 feet wide and three stories high. The main floor had a large dining room, billiard and bar room and offices. Upstairs were large sleeping apartments some of which provided a starting home for many local young married couples.

After several more proprietors, the building was sold to  George Fenton in 1922.  The building stood at that corner until 1966 when the property was sold to make way for a gas station.

Today it is the location of the Cornerstone Credit Union building.

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