Question: What appears to be a scene from rural Baldwinsville is actually a village residence. The photographer was out in the midst of an early snowstorm “capturing the moment.” Leaves are still on the trees, and the screen door is still up and appears to have blown open. The house appears much the same today as did when this photo was taken circa 1900. For several generations this was the home of a well-known area family. Can you locate it and do you know whose home it was?
Last week’s answer: The photo from last week is Ingemar Dalstad, left, manager of Morris Machine Works international sales, showing a cutaway model of an RX slurry pump to David A. Ap-Thomas of Australia, a sales representative that was in Baldwinsville for Morris’ triennial sales meeting.
Representatives from throughout the world were visiting Morris Machine Works, manufacturer of centrifugal pumps and hydraulic dredging equipment, for the meetings. Some 61 representatives who sold Morris equipment all over the globe, and about 40 wives were to be here for the three-day meeting. Morris dealers in Sweden, England, Italy, Australia, the West Indies, Canada and the United States were represented.
Seminars and sales meetings were centered at the Morris plant on East Genesee Street. Other functions took place at the Holiday Inn on Farrell Road where the visitors stayed.
The meeting opened officially Thursday morning with representatives gathered in the MMW slurry lab for a welcome from John C. Meyers, company president and general manager. More meetings and other “fun” activities followed that week. One topic that was covered in depth was the ever-increasing importance of the Morris firm in the ecology. For many years, Morris had provided pumping equipment for stream and air pollution control. The enactment of stricter controls and increasing awareness of improved environment had added to the demand for the pollution control technology possessed by the Morris firm.
The following week MMW held an “open plant” inviting the public to tour its manufacturing facilities on East Genesee Street. Visitors has a chance to see a pump demonstration in the MMW slurry lab, the company’s test house, pattern shop, assembly area, and machine shop as well as the office, engineering and sales departments and the data-processing center.
If you want to know more about Morris Machine Works and find out why its slogan “The Sun Never Sets on a Morris Pump” is appropriate, visit the Baldwinsville Public Library, the Shacksboro Schoolhouse Museum or the historian at the town of Lysander to learn more.
Email your guess to [email protected] or leave a message at 315-434-8889 ext. 310 with your guess by noon Friday. If you are the first person to correctly identify an element in the photo before the deadline, your name and guess will appear in next week’s Messenger, along with another History Mystery feature. History Mystery is a joint project of the Museum at the Shacksboro Schoolhouse and the Baldwinsville Public Library.
