Apple Blossom Times
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Town of Newfane Historical Society’s Apple Blossom Times Since 1975 Summer 2021 rental info., date Inside This Issue Summertime’s in the air availability and President’s Letter From the desk of our President more. Minute History Hello friends- We have made it through winter and now If you are reading this, we head full speed into warmer days, thank goodness! May 16: Drive-Thru dear member, know that all of us at the Chowder Fundraiser With uncertainty still in the air concerning the Newfane Historical pandemic, we are moving our 44th Apple Blossom Member Update Society appreciate Festival to 2022. We won’t leave you hanging, however, your support, and Summer Fun Fact as we are doing a drive-thru chowder fundraiser on anxiously await for May 16. It is a first-come, first-serve basis, so don’t History of the Electric Fan the days when we’ll miss out! Art Gladow’s famous chicken chowder all come together WNY Native Etymologies has always been a staple of our apple festivals, and again to celebrate is the first food to sell out annually. So swing by that Support our Historial Society local history in person. As I sign off, I will leave you Sunday for some chowder and to say hello to some of our with this, to put a smile on your face. Recipe Rewind hardworking trustees and volunteers! What do ghosts like to eat in the summer? Calendar With warmer weather upon us, I’d also like to I Scream. remind everyone that the Van Horn Mansion and Country Village are available for private rentals. Visit Until next time! newfanehistoricalsociety.com for updates on private Minute History Melissa Schaeffer Historians believe the Neuter tribe were likely the first people to inhabit Niagara County. Artifacts, such as arrowheads Join us on May 16 and support our historical society and tools for catching and The chowder will be made fresh that morning on-site What: Drive-Thru Chowder Fundraiser smoking fish have been by our amazing chowder team, which begins cooking discovered in the county that before the sun rises. connect to the Neuters. Based When: Sunday, May 16, 1pm until sold out in Ontario, Canada by the 1300s, they established a few Where: Newfane’s Country Village, 2685 West Creek We are selling 1 gallon of ‘Art Gladow’s Famous settlements along Lake Ontario’s Chicken Chowder’ for $25 each, cash only. We southern shore, including what Rd. Newfane, NY 14108 are now Youngstown (a village) will not be taking any reservations; it’s strictly and Wilson (a seasonal fishing As we enter our second consecutive spring without first-come, first-served. Sales will begin at 1pm, camp). As they kept no-known an Apple Blossom Festival, we are still in need of and continue until we’re sold out. All visitors will written records, much about their lives remains a mystery. community support to keep moving forward. So we remain in their cars and follow our drive-thru Nearby indigenous tribes are once again hosting a food take-out fundraiser, route. called them by various names: and hope to see you stop by! Attawandaron, Aondironon, PLEASE NOTE: we have a very the Wenrehronon, and the Last Autumn we had a variety of Ongniaahraronon. The ‘Neuter’ limited supply of chowder (we name came from the first white foods available, and we appreciated sold out last time), so don’t miss the great community support. explorers to the area in the early out! Also, cars can line up a little 1600s: the French. The name However as most of those foods comes from their efforts to celebrated the apple harvest which early, but we will not begin sales remain neutral in tribal wars. has now ended, we decided to early- sorry but no exceptions. Unfortunately by 1650 they were keep things simple for the planting overwhelmed by the Seneca Our volunteers thank you ahead Nation. Most were slaughtered, season. This time we’re only and the remaining were offering our popular chicken of time for your patience through absorbed into the Seneca. The chowder, so you can still enjoy the drive-thru, and we also greatly society was considered lost by one of your favorite parts of our appreciate your support. We genuinely 1672, as French historical festivals. hope to bring back our traditional records never mention the events starting this fall. u Neuters after this time. Apple Blossom Times Page 2 Summer Fun Fact: Popsicles were invented by accident! The very first ice pop was created way back in 1905 by an 11-year- This section is an ongoing record of our amazing members. old named Frank Epperson. After a long day of play Frank went inside, but left his cup of soda with the Special thanks to the following stirring stick still in it out on the for their continued support: porch. The night got very cold, and when Frank went outside the next morning he Marvin Croop Ken Sr. Sears found his drink frozen like an icicle. Frank called Mickie Kramp Judith G. Sears his invention the “Epsicle.” It was a hit with the kids Carolyn Leibring Kimberlee Walker at school, and later with his own kids who called it “Pop’s ‘sicle.” The name was catchy and the treat was delicious, so Frank patented it in 1923 to share his Popsicle® ice pops with the world. The Twin Welcome to our newest member! Popsicle® ice pop came along during The Great Depression, so that two children could share an ice Ken Sears Jr. pop for just a nickle. History of the Electric Fan By Sharon DeBartolo Carmack; familytreemagazine.com It’s not an invention that’s often thought of, but it always comes in handy. When the summer heat rises, you’ll be thankful for the ingenuity of the unheralded Dr. Schuyler Skaats Wheeler, who has yet to even be inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame (which does, however, have a place of honor for Willis Carrier, inventor of the air conditioner— a feat clearly impossible without the electric fan). The smelly truth is that our ancestors, bereft of such technology, spent their summers being hot and sweaty. People have been fanning themselves by hand for millennia, of course— or, like the ancient Egyptians, making slaves fan them with huge lotus leaves. The Egyptians also caught on to the trick of fanning air across wet mats or water-filled vessels for evaporative cooling. The Greeks and Romans preferred peacock feathers for fanning; Roman emperors added the cooling power of snow hauled down from the Alps. The Japanese invented folding fans in the eighth century, possibly inspired by the way bats fold their wings. But the heyday of the handheld fan was China’s Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644), when exquisitely painted fans were all the rage. Portuguese traders brought Asian fans to Europe in the 1400s. The Chinese were also pioneers in mechanizing the fan. About 180 AD, the famed Han dynasty inventor Ting Huan created a rotary fan employing seven wheels, each 10 feet in diameter, by which a single man could cool an entire hall. Later rotary fans were used not only for cooling, but also for winnowing grain and ventilating mine shafts. That Roman idea of combining a fan with ice or snow resurfaced in the 19th century’s early attempts...(continued on page 3) Apple Blossom Times Page 3 operate it would cost only one-fourth of a penny per hour. Inventor Profile: Dr. Wheeler Schuyler Skaats Wheeler was an Self-contained window fans, made of plastic instead of metal, were American electrical engineer and introduced in 1934 by Vent-Axia, a British company. In 1937, the manufacturer who invented the electric development of a new plastic laminate for coating fan blades, Micarta, fan, an electric elevator design, and the made fans quieter and less likely to warp or corrode. electric fire engine. He is associated with the early development of the electric motor The big chill: air conditioning industry, and trained newcomers to the field for gainful employment. He helped develop and implement a code of ethics Meanwhile, however, Willis Carrier (1876-1950) was perfecting the for electrical engineers, and was invention that would leave Wheeler’s humble electric fan in the dust associated with the electrical field in one of history. Inspiration struck Carrier while he waited for a train on way or another for over thirty years. a cold, foggy night; by the time his train arrived, he’d grasped the interrelationship of temperature, humidity and dew point. ...(continued from page 2) at air conditioning. In 1830s Apalachicola, Florida, John Gorrie (1803-1855), an American Carrier built his first air conditioner in July 1902—not to cool people, physician, blew air over a bucket of ice to cool hospital rooms for but to keep paper cool and dry at the Sackett-Wilhelms printing plant malaria and yellow-fever patients. in Brooklyn. Soon Carrier’s invention was cooling movie theaters, de- partment stores and even, by 1929, the US Congress. When President James Garfield was shot in 1881, US Navy engineers came up with a contraption Along with the elevator, air conditioning made combining a fan and iced cloths, which dropped modern skyscrapers practical. You could even say that the temperature of the dying president’s room 20 air conditioning transformed the nation, cooling the degrees—while consuming 436 pounds of ice an hour. sweltering Sunbelt so hordes of Americans could be tempted to move there. Development of electric fans In parts of the desert Southwest, however, a But all these cooling devices relied on human- simple variant on Schuyler Skaats Wheeler’s electric fan or horse-powered fans.