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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Mr. Norman, Harold Austin and James Arnold formed their own firm and became known for their work in metal fabrication, arc welding and machine work.  In 1961 the business moved from Kelly Avenue to a former Niagara Chemical Division building on Maple Avenue at the foot of Cemetery Street and added six additional employes.

Chauncey Norman retired in 1971 and passed away in 1993.

Photo courtesy of Bill Arnold.

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The caption dates this at 1909 and says: “The makers of house trim, sash and doors. It was located on Kelly Ave. and is presently occupied by Barden and Robeson Corp. Lower photo shows workers from left, Art Webber, Art Vale, Frank Owens, Tim Riordan, and Bill Mahar. Photos are through the courtesy of Tim Riordan.”

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The Royalton Hartland Community Library now offers FREE access to Ancestry Library Edition, one of the most important genealogical collections available.

Unlimited access is provided within the library, on Public Access library computers or your laptop using library WiFi and the link you are provided at the library.

We have a new multi-computer workstation that has public access computers for our patrons to use. Stop in and see all that we have to offer!

It’s all free and available when you stop in to the library at 9 Vernon Street in Middleport and use the library’s subscription to this valuable service.

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The first train came through  in June of 1852 and by 1853 some 11 trains were traveling through or community per day.  By 1888 there was a train every hour all day long and that put a serious dent into the commerce on the canal.

The Hotel Rich had a livery service from the station to the hotel for anyone who needed a place to stay.  Middleport became well known for the hospitality it showed to travelers on their way to other places.

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This creek and its four ponds furnished the employment for more than 400 at the 16 manufacturing firms who used the water to power their steam engines, water wheels or both. At one time, the creek flowed all year around, and was a fisherman’s paradise. All kinds of fish were caught.

In 1872, about halfway between the railroad and Route 31, the R.T. Chase Cheese Factory made 400 lbs. of cheese per day, the milk furnished by 130 cows. Just north of the Church St. bridge, the first pond was located behind the houses on Orchard St. although it has been filled in for years except for the creek bed. At the corner of Church and Orchard Streets, there was a broom factory, taken over by Dr. E.L. Downey for the bottling of his “Downeyside” liquid insecticide.

The dry docks were on the west side of the pond at the canal; west of the docks a bay opened directly into the canal so that the boats could be floated in and out of the docks. On the east side of the pond was Monroe Woodworth’s stave mill.

The next pond downstream was the grist mill pond, extending along N. Hartland St. from Mechanic St. t Sherman Rd. On the southwest corner, the Carey Bothers Ice House stored 12′- 14′ blocks of ice cut from the pond. On the east side, a small culvert ran under Hartland St. to a small pond at the Gould Greenhouse for their water supply. At the northeast corner at Sherman Rd., a 4-storey stone flour mill operated for about 80 years. This pond was nearly square in shape and a waterfall flooded the area that is now Trail Home Estates.

The third pond, or paper millpond, extended from Sherman Rd. to Chase Rd. along Hartland St. At the northeast corner of this pond at Chase Road was the Sterritt Paper Mill, operating two 12-hour shifts per day. This mill was taken over by the Middleport Electric Company about 1903, and supplied the village with its first electric arc streetlights.

The fourth pond ran between Hartland Street and Chase Road, north of the Chase Road bridge. On the northeast corner was the heading mill of George Smith. There were several heading mills, cooper shops and stave yards along this creek, but when the bushel baskets and other small containers began to be widely used in the shipping market, they faded out of the picture.

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