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HISTORIAN’S CORNER
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Chapter 15 - 1860s - Business, Civil War, Fire! (continued)
[From "200 Years of the Town of Phelps"]
By John M. Parmelee
An 1867 directory lists the following farms: Crothers, Marsh, Musselman, Peck and Ridley each had 400 acres; Westfalls had 900 acres and L.B. Hotchkiss owned 1400 acres. The village had the following businesses: a newspaper, bank, six churches, seven malthouses, a paper mill, five flour mills, two plaster mills, a cheese factory, foundry, tannery, soap factory and a yeast cake factory. At this time, Oaks Corners had: a carriage factory, hardware store, blacksmith and cooper shop, a distillery, brickyard, lime and hop kiln, two coal yards and a nursery.
These were the seven malthouses listed in the Phelps directory: The H.H. Titus Company was at the corner of Flint and Mill Streets where the Gibson Distillery had burned in 1864. Tutus rebuilt on the same foundation. H. McKenna had a large operation across Flint Street on the west. John White had a malt house right next to McKenna on the north. Oliver Crothers I had one where the Deane cabin had been on Main Street. Crothers later sold the building to GLF who used it as a fertilizer store. It was torn down in 1930. Dr. John Q. Howe had his malt house in operation south of the Crothers building. Betts and Nestor, from Geneva, had a malthouse on the southeast corner of Ontario and William Streets. Peter Garlock built a malthouse and brandy operation on Mill Street at the end of Exchange Street. Later, George Hicks, grandfather of Mary Hicks Preston, operated a malt house on Eagle Street across from the Vandevoort Distillery (now the Kraut Factory). It is easy to understand why Phelps had such a reputation for producing and consuming "sprits" in those days. Of course, because of lack of refrigeration and preservatives, it was about the only way to process fruits and the grains that farmers raised.
Perhaps the best known of the malt houses was that of Betts and Nestor. Samuel K. Nestor, born in Pennsylvania in 1840, went to New York City when he was 19 to secure a position in a malt house. While there, he met John F. Betts who would later become his partner in the malt business. In 1962 Phelps Business Directory listed Nestor as a clerk at 75 West Main Street, residing at the Lawrence House (Globe Hotel), and Betts was a maltster at 75 West Main Street with a residence in New York City. By 1867 Nestor was also listed as a maltster. The towering malthouse of Betts and Nestor was built in 1867 on Ontario Street near William Street. Nestor lived in the house across the street. Their business was so successful that Nestor moved to Geneva in 1871 where the partners built a large, modern and innovative malthouse, their headquarters for many years. In 1879 the partnership broke up and Nestor became sole owner. By 1893, the Geneva operation was described by Conover as "one of the most extensive of its kind in the country". The malt house covered one acre of land, had eight malting floors, and processed 35,000 bushels of barley a year. He also had malt houses in Waterloo and Phelps, each with a 100,000 bushel capacity. He also developed branches in Buffalo, Watkins Glen and Lyons. Nestor died in 1909 and by 1914 the whole operation was sold under foreclosure order. The Geneva operation was torn down in 1921.
Jesse Briglin bought the Phelps malthouse in 1910 for $1700 from the Nestor estate and used it as a produce warehouse. During the years from 1922 to 1932, the malthouse was a cider mill and produce shipping center. Many barrels of sweet and hard cider were produced there for the local trade. I remember stopping there during the fall season on my way home from school and getting a drink of sweet cider. A spigot on the side of one of the large vats and a glass kept handy were available for anyone to stop and get a drink. That you couldn't do today! The operation was then owned by Charles White and Scott Partridge. They shipped many carloads of cabbage, potatoes, grains and beans from the railroad siding there. The operation went bankrupt in 1932 in the Great Depression.
In 1935, GLF purchased the property and used it as a bean cleaning and receiving plant. Agway, who bought out GLF, remodeled the building in 1963 to improve its capacity and efficiency in handling dry beans. In 1969 the building was totally destroyed by fire. The site is still used by Agway for storage.
In 1867, Charles Price owned the Red Mill near Newark Road, and Shumway and Sons owned the soap factory just south of the Howe Mills. The Rose and Cooley Block was erected on the corner of Exchange and Main Streets. Mr. Nelson and S.K. Bowker started their carriage and hearse business near Flint Creek West of the Globe Hotel after it was rebuilt. The carriage business lasted until 1890. In 1893 the building was used as a thermometer factory and later was used as an automobile garage. The buildings were torn down about 1920. The Globe Hotel burned in 1931. Valere Minet built a gas station and automobile dealership on the site. Walter Covert now owns the garage. In 1867 S.K. Bowker owned the home which is now the Eacker Funeral Home on East Main Street. The next year, 1868, the present Phelps Hotel was built by a local builder named Henry Edgecomb for L.B. Hotchkiss, the owner, at a cost of $26,000.
After the Civil War in 1867, the Crown Drill Company was established by B.F. Pritchard who became president and Dr. G.C. Pritchard who became vice-president. They made grain drills, planters (seeders) and similar farm equipment. They became the largest industry in Phelps during the late 1800's. Their plant was located on the south side of the railroad tracks at the corner of South Wayne and Pleasant Streets. The original building was only one story, but in 1883 they built a five-story building. In 1893, they made one thousand drills and twelve hundred seeders. There was a house on South Wayne Street in front of the factory. The Pritchards used the main part as an office; the south wing was used as a public library in 1890. Dr. Pritchard was instrumental in collecting and donating 600 books for the library which lasted approximately 25 years. In 1909 the factory burned and was rebuilt as a one-story plant. In 1911, it was sold to E.F. Needham who, with his son John, operated it until 1930. It was then used for a short while by Geneva Foundry and Andes Stove Works, purchased in 1948 by Mike Camilis and a Mr. Mahoney. It later burned.
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