Ilion Free Public Library

The book sale has begun!! From today until Friday we'll be hosting during our open hours, thirty minutes after we open until 30 minutes before we close. Stop down to see our collection! All our hardcovers are 1$, and all our softcovers are .50c! Get em while they last!

If you stop by the Ilion Post Office (right side of this photo) over the coming weeks as the holiday season approaches, take a look across the street at the ARC Mall and picture what was once the massive Odd Fellows Temple, housed on the corner of First and Morgan Streets. The Ilion Lodge No. 400 of the International Order of Odd Fellows was instituted on July 7, 1874 with original charter members led by John H. Miller, Simeon Atherton, Daniel J. Sullivan, William M. Outwater, and Joseph Atherton. The Odd Fellows met at five locations over the next 30 years, all situated in the downtown Ilion area around Main, Otsego, and Union Streets. In 1903, Lodge No. 400 and the newly chartered Golden Star Lodge No. 839 formed The United Odd Fellows Association of Ilion and put 600 shares of stock on the market valued at $10 each (around $358 at present valuation) with the intent of purchasing a lot to build their own temple. The stock was a success, and the Dygert property on the corner of First and Morgan was purchased for $3500. The temple was designed by Ilion architect George Angell and ground was broken in 1910, with the cornerstone laid in 1911, and construction completed in 1913. The temple would house Ilion Lodge No. 400, Golden Star Lodge No. 839, Ilion Encampment No. 80, and Violet Rebekah Lodge No. 198 over the years. The building also included the briefly used Temple Theatre on its first floor. Ilion Lodge No. 400 and Golden Star Lodge No. 839 would rejoin in a merger in 1939 and were granted a new charter as Ilion Lodge No. 839. With membership declining and much of the temple being unused, the temple was sold in 1963 to Reardon Enterprises for $20,000 to be used as a furniture warehouse. The Ilion Lodge purchased the former Ilion Savings & Loan on East Main Street and disbanded by 1984. The temple was eventually razed in 1972 during Ilion’s Urban Renewal to make way for Fay’s Mall, which is now the ARC Mall. The original 1911 cornerstone from this impressive temple can still be found in front of what is now Ilion Wine & Spirits. The Ilion Post Office also had five previous locations between first operations in 1843, and 1936 when federal funds were allocated to purchase the popular Harter Block at First and Morgan Streets across from the temple, along with several other buildings, to make way for the new building. If you have any questions, please email them to [email protected].

Curious about our latest event? On Saturday, December 7th, the Ilion Free Public Library Foundation, Ltd.will be hosting a jewelry sale, with all proceeds being used to support library programs and services!

Want to help? We're accepting donations! Unwanted accessories or jewelry can be dropped off at the library. We'll be accepting donations until the 30th of November, and then the sale will happen the week after!

Apologies for the re-upload of our book sale! All the dates and times should be correct now, so double check so you don't miss it!

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We hope to see you this month! ***Please note that Lego Club is on the third Thursday this month due to our Annual Book Sale and Thanksgiving.

We are partnering with Central Valley CSD Performing Arts Boosters to collect instruments for students in the Band and Orchestra programs. If you have good quality instruments that are not being used please consider donating them. This will allow students who cannot purchase their own instruments the opportunity to participate in the Band or Orchestra with an instrument borrowed from the school. Donations will be appraised and the value will be provided to the donor for a tax write off. Drop off here or at Mohawk Weller Library in Mohawk during any of our open hours.

Here's our schedule for next week! We've got a lot of fun stuff lined up, but keep an eye out for our future events too! Our book sale will start next Saturday, on 11/9/22. Some of our events were rescheduled to different dates, and some were cancelled to make space in our basement! LEGO Club is included in this. It will be on the 3rd Thursday only this month.

See you next week!

Meet a Re*****on U.M.C. factory employee from the past - Edmond Wakelee (seated 2nd from the left in 2nd row wearing bow tie). Born in 1854, Wakelee lived in Clinton and planned on moving to Michigan in the late 1800s. After making a pit stop in Ilion to visit and scope out Re*****on Arms, he found employment in Ilion and never made it to Michigan, settling multiple times at different addresses on Barringer Rd., Re*****on Ave., and Otsego St. As a toolmaker’s apprentice, Wakelee was eventually promoted to foreman of the toolmaking dept. During his career, he helped produce an order for 5,000 saber handles to fill a contract Re*****on made with Spain. Afterward, he and a small group of employees helped make custom parts for the first model(s) of the first Re*****on Typewriter with W. K. Jenne. When Re*****on later sold the typewriter manufacturing rights to Wykoff, Seamans, & Benedict, Wakelee remained with Re*****on and didn’t transfer. When he decided to retire in 1938 and travel, he’d served over 65 years (continuously) as a Re*****on employee and was acknowledged as one of the company’s longest-serving employees. Re*****on held a retirement dinner in his honor, where he was gifted a leather traveling bag and a lamp from the Foreman’s Association. Edmond Wakelee died in 1941 at the age of 86. This photo of “Old-timers” at the Re*****on U.M.C. factory is from the early 1900s. Swipe right to see a second version of this photo with a seating chart. Here’s the name listing from the photo: “Old timers in the Re*****on U.M.C. factory at Ilion: 1- W.H. Deyle, 43 years in service; 2- Samuel Dennison, 41 years in service; 3- Frank Hubbard, 44 years in service; 4- M.D. Hartford, 51 years in service; 5- A.L. Nutting, 46 years in service; 6- J.C. Truax, 50 years in service; 7- L.N. Walker, 42 years in service; 8- Samuel Underwood, 42 years in service; 9- E.E. Wakelee, 40 years in service; 10- John Haller, 58 years in service; 11- A.A. Rivers, 50 years in service; 12- Freemont, Tefft, 50 years in service; 13- Howard, Russel, 43 years in service; 14- J.S. Nichols, 42 years in service.”

Happy Halloween everyone! Today's the last day that the Haunted Library will be open, so it's the last chance to stop down in (or out of!) your costumes and get candy! We'll have the lights on from 11 to 1, but for our more daring patrons, the lights will go off at 4:30 until 7:30!
We're so excited to see you!

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Happy Halloween! It's an exciting time down at the library, for our Haunted Library is now open for the week! A lot of our regular programming was cancelled so we could host, so keep that in mind if you're looking for storytime or Line Dancing! We'll be back to normal the next week...But mid November, a sale might be happening. Keep your eyes peeled for more information!

Did you know the Erie Canal officially opened on October 26, 1825? In honor of the upcoming anniversary date this weekend, we’re looking at some local historic photos of the Erie Canal from our collection. This first photo shows a group of passengers on a Sunday packet boat excursion traveling from Ilion to Utica in 1908. The boat was named the D. D. Winston and operated by Captain Budlong (of Mohawk). The second photo (swipe right) shows a section of the canal in Ilion that’s been drained - either for necessary repairs or for the winter season. During the Erie Canal’s heyday, the season for boat traffic typically lasted about seven months (from the spring thaw to the winter freeze). When the boating season ended, various sections of the canal between locks were completely drained as part of a process called “bottoming-out” so that construction workers could access and make necessary repairs to the canal bed or banks. If no repairs were needed in a section, a shallow amount of water was left to freeze in winter for public recreation (ie. ice-skating, horse racing, hockey, etc.). Think of today’s winter season on New York State roadways followed by the ‘road work’ season the rest of the year. The same concept applied to the canal since it was a major NYS infrastructure system. - It was either boating season, repair season, or the off-season to enjoy some winter sports. The Erie Canal was succeeded by the New York State Barge Canal, completed in 1918. Commercial canal traffic declined rapidly following the advent of the railroad industry and the installation of more efficient and cost-effective railway transportation.

Castles, poltergeists, and presidents oh my! This week for Throwback Thursday we’re exploring some spooky (somewhat) local history highlighting items from our collection. This photo from our archives shows Gelston Castle (also known as Cruger Mansion), located just outside the village of Ilion between Mohawk and Jordanville. The castle/mansion was built in the early 1830s by Harriet Douglas Cruger, who was a wealthy socialite in both the U.S. and Scotland - where her family was from. Her ancestor - Dr. James Henderson was gifted a large tract of land in the Mohawk Valley by King George II in the mid-1700s for his services as a physician. Dr. Henderson visited the land, but was unimpressed with the uncleared wilderness and remote location, and ended up settling in New York City. The land stayed in the family though, and was later inherited by his granddaughter - Margaret (Corne) Douglas, who built a summer cottage on the property in 1778. Harriet (Douglas) Cruger was her daughter. She decided to build her own mansion/castle on the property next to her mother’s cottage resembling Gelston Castle in Scotland, which was built and owned by her uncle - whom she visited as a young girl. The name ‘Cruger Mansion’ came from Harriet’s husband, and the limestone used to build it was sourced from Little Falls. Here’s the haunted part - Harriet had unique tastes and stated in her will that she wished to be laid to rest in a sarcophagus carved of imported Scottish granite she commissioned and installed in the castle, but when she died in 1872 her family gave her a normal cemetery burial instead, and removed the sarcophagus from the castle. According to multiple personal accounts, Harriet’s restless ghost still haunts the castle and is suspected of causing several unexplained encounters over the years. So where does presidential history tie into the story? After Harriet’s death, the property passed down to her niece - Frances (‘Fanny’) (Monroe) Robinson (great-niece of U.S. President James Monroe). After ‘Fanny,’ her son - Douglas Robinson became owner, and his wife was the sister of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, his wife (Eleanor Roosevelt), and famous writer James Fenimore Cooper also visited friends and family at the property over the years. When the property eventually fell out of the family’s ownership, it was later owned by the famous Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovitch. Swipe right to see more photos of the property.

Here are our events for next week! Don't forget the Author's reception on Tuesday, they have some great stuff on display!

Are you familiar with the name Alexander Jarvis? We’ve mentioned him on Throwback Thursday before. He owned a gravestone monument business on East Main in Ilion in the early 1900s, and was responsible for carving and installing the Soldier’s Monument near Benedict Ave. He’s also the grandfather of NASA space shuttle engineer/astronaut Greg Jarvis. This illustration from the Ilion Citizen newspaper on August 12, 1904 shows what the inside of his business warehouse would’ve looked like with its latest and greatest technology (back then). Featured is a pneumatic stone cutting plant with its 3-horsepower motor in one room powering an air compressor and feeder pipes running across the ceiling to the next room, where connecting hoses serviced multiple workstations with pneumatic chisels and other time-saving stone carving tools. Alexander Jarvis, or the “Canny Scotchman” as the accompanying article refers to him, was a native of Ballater in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, born in 1860. He attended school there and apprenticed as a granite cutter while learning his trade, before relocating to Canada seeking better rates for his services. While there, he learned how to cut marble. After mastering both, he found work in Detroit, Michigan, then moved to Barre, Vermont, where he liked the quality of the local granite. In 1901, he made his final move to Ilion seeking a better education for his children and an opportunity to start his own successful business. After finding a business partner in Ilion resident Frank B. Cady, the two men started a business procuring stone for curbing and flagging, and produced marble and granite monuments and gravestones under the business name Jarvis & Cady. Their partnership would later end, with Jarvis continuing his monument business until his death in 1920, when his son took over. Swipe right to see some business ads highlighting the name changes of the company through the years, Jarvis’ grave stone, and some other monuments from Armory Hill Cemetery we believe were produced by his company.