Wilson A. Bentley "Godfather of Snow"

...The farmer-scientist who coined the phrase "no two snowflakes are alike" and who harnessed the new science of photography to show the structural beauty of snowflakes for the first time was not a Western New Yorker. The story of atmospheric science/photography pioneer Wilson Bentley converges with Buffalo, NY in several interesting ways b ut begins like this:

"When the other boys of my age were playing with popguns and slingshots, I was absorbed in studying things under this microscope: drops of water, tiny fragments of stone, a feather droppped from a bird's wing, a delicately veined petal from some flower. But always, from the very beginning, it was the snowflakes that fascinated me most!"

To read more of Anne Conable's story, see page 6 of the Winter 2008 Heritage Magazine.

Snatched From Time: The Trial and Execution of David D. How For the Murder of Othello Church

It was harvest time in the frontier village of Angelica, NY. In October of 1823, David D. How had managed to grow enough food to sustain his family through another New York winter on the farm he rented. However, several individuals had other plans for How. They came to the farm seeking repayment of a substantial debt owed by How. Among them was Othello Church. Church and others began seizing How's crops, livestock and farming tools. How begged the men to leave enough for his family as the tore up vegetables from the garden an confiscated his grain. He implored Church to leave at least some onions to feed hs family. In answer, Church spat in How's face. The men left How seething with hatred for Church and anxiously contemplating how he would now provide for his wife and children.

To view the rest of this story by David Eric Cummins see page 12 in the Winter 2008 Heritage Magazine. Subscribe now!

 

Cheese History in Western New York

In the early 1900s, Cuba, NY, in Alleghany County was billed as "the cheese capital of the world."

...An early American example of commerically produced cheese for general consumption was the Norton familiy's "Pineapple cheese." It began in Goshen, Connecticut. Lewis M. Norton invented a process for making a soft cheddar cheese which he pressed into a pineapple-shaped wooden mold and then dried by hanging in an openwork net that produced a distinctive diamond-shape pattern. Norton obtained a patent for it in 1810. Norton is credited for establishing the first cheese factory in the United States in 1844. The factory eventually moved from Connecticut to Rushford, NY in Alleghany County, north of Cuba, NY.

In 1884, the Norton plant was moved to Attica, in Wyoming County, where railroad facilities were readily available to ship the product to an ever-increasing market...

To read more of this story by Tony Cutter, see page 20 of theWinter 2008 Heritage Magazine.

 

To the next Winter 2008 Excerpts

Back to the Winter 2008 Heritage Magazine Contents

Back to WNY Heritage Press home