by Old Mentz | Aug 12, 2018 | Uncategorized
It is likely you have heard, sang, or hummed the old song “Fifteen Miles of the Erie Canal”, with the famous refrain “Low bridge, everybody down; Low bridge, for we are a coming to a town.” The Thomas S. Allen tune was written around 1911 about the time when the era...
by Old Mentz | Jul 16, 2018 | Uncategorized
(This is a slightly expanded version of what will appear in the Citizen.) Last month I wrote about the death of Ethen Akin, and his possible relationship to the Mount Pleasant Cemetery. This month, I wanted to write about his life. Ethen was born in 1779 in White...
by Old Mentz | Jul 8, 2018 | Uncategorized
By Anita Messina Bill Pilgrim is remembered as Port Byron’s Chairman of the Zoning Board of Appeals, as president of the Port Byron School Board, as a friend with a great sense of humor. But not many knew he was the holder of nine patents, each responsible for an...
by Old Mentz | Jun 25, 2018 | Uncategorized
The name Akin is not well known when it comes to Mentz history. We tend to think of names such as King, Buck, Rooker, and many others. But Akin? The story of Ethen Akin will be the subject of a upcoming column, but for the purpose of today’s article, we look to deaths...
by Old Mentz | Jun 3, 2018 | Uncategorized
There was, for a brief period of time, an era of transportation in Port Byron and Weedsport that will never again be recreated. That time was from 1908 to 1931 when the Rochester, Syracuse and Eastern Electric Railway operated a fast trolley car service between...
by Old Mentz | May 28, 2018 | Uncategorized
Last month, I wrote about the change over from the old Erie Canal to the new Barge Canal in the spring of 1918. I wanted to get into this a bit more this month. The impact of the new canal for the people of Cayuga County was minimal, if not negative. The new route of...
