Whatever happened to the Liverpool 399 Degree Team of the Foresters of America? A hundred and eleven years ago, 19 of the fraternal and mutual benefit society members posed for a photo on a village rooftop. Nine of the men pictured wore Civil War Union army uniforms, four dressed as Indians, two as cowboys while three appeared in hooded robes vaguely similar to Ku Klux Klan members.
Though the Foresters existed for the serious purpose of providing insurance for working families, they obviously had a sense of humor.
That fascinating Foresters’ photo is one of some nearly 300 intriguing compiled to create “Around Liverpool,” issued June 22 by Arcadia Publishing as part of its well-known series, “Images of America.”
Year-long project
For 11 long months, from February to December 2014, Dorianne Elitharp Gutierrez and Joyce M. Mills examined thousands of historic photographs of the Liverpool area and chose well to fill the 128-page paperback.
The classy collection takes readers on a tour of Liverpool’s unique history, with images of its salt boilers, willow weavers, firefighters, schoolchildren, churchgoers, picnickers and ice boaters — the people and places that made the community in which we live.
This Sunday, July 19, Dorianne and Joyce will appear at Nichols Supermarket, at 327 First St., from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. to meet with readers and to autograph copies of their book.
Since 1991, Dorianne has served as Liverpool village historian. Joyce is a retired Liverpool Public Library media specialist and has presented local history programs for many years. She volunteers regularly at the Liverpool Village Museum.
Schuelke and Crawford
The varied images in “Around Liverpool” come from the Liverpool Village Museum and the Liverpool Pubic library including the Ted Schuelke and Toby Crawford photographic collections.
Schuelke’s pictures document the village in the 1920s and others recall Liverpool’s salt and willow industries. There are also photos from all around Onondaga Lake, the Oswego Canal, Mud Lock and the projects undertaken by the Work Relief Bureau under the leadership of Liverpool banker, Crandall Melvin Sr.
Toby Crawford was a Liverpool native who collected historic photographs from various sources. The online collection includes scans of 91 glass plate negatives from George “Waxy” Miller and James T. Rogers taken during the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Concise captions
Choosing and scanning and writing captions for the photos was hard work, Joyce said. “In fact, the biggest problem we had was that we were too wordy. We came in 3,200 words over the limit, and had to cut out some of the information. We knew too much about each picture and we wanted to tell everything we knew.”
In the end the captions are crisp and concise, and, remarkably, they personally identify most of the people pictured in the vintage photos, people with familiar Liverpool names such as Alvord, Gleason, Duerr, Fischer, Wentworth, Wyker, Hettler and Hetnar
Joyce looks forward to meeting the public Sunday at Nichols. “It’s going to be a blast,” she said. “[Nichols owner] Mike Hennigan is really thrilled to be helping us publicize it, and of course he’s selling copies right there at the supermarket.”
‘Buy baklava!’
Sign seen last week at Gardenview Diner, on a raised pastry plate under glass on the counter: “Help the Greek economy: buy baklava. Only two euros!”
Moss Back is back
One of CNY’s hardest-working rock bands of the 1970s, the Moss Back Mule Band, have re-united to again perform their tasty country rock and swing, and will help celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Liverpool Is The Place Summer Concert Series with a performance at 7 p.m. Monday, July 20, at Johnson Park. One of Moss Back’s best known covers was the 1946 jump-blues tune, “The House of Blue Lights.”
On Wednesday, July 22, the Sandy Bigtree Band gets back together at Johnson Park. Sandy started her career five decades ago singing with the Bigtree Sisters. All Johnson Park concerts are free; 457-3895; liverpoolistheplace.com.
The columnist can be contacted at [email protected].
