State Quilt

The Public Historians of NYS are submitting a State Quilt to the New York State Museum in Albany and it will include a block for every town and village across our State as submitted by each local historian.



Made by Clara Rooker McIver and her daughter Anne.


I would like to thank both of them for taking the time to create and donate the block so that our community can be represented in the New York State Quilt that will display in Albany when completed.

Our quilt block is an image of what we know today as the Port Byron Hotel. This structure is listed as one of the sites in the National Underground Railroad Network To Freedom Program. See Page 255 from the attached link:

Port Byron Hotel's role in the Antislavery Movement

This is a brick structure and was built by Samuel Lytle in 1835. Many of you may have had a chance to see the brick core during the recent renovations to the building this past summer.

The hotel would undergo a series of name changes. By 1844 Steward Kendrick called it the National Hotel. As of the 1884 Sanford map it was listed as the Palace Hotel but the name was not to last. The hotel would resume its name as the National Hotel by 1890. Another name change would occur by 1900 when it would be known as Hotel Carey. Then around 1908/1910 it became the Park Hotel which lasted until 1933 when it would be renamed Hotel Port Byron with a final change to Port Byron Hotel.

Here is a list of some of the prior owners of the hotel:
Phebe Lamkin, widow of Harry Lamkin
1855 Richard Dyer
1863/64 Levi Stevens
1868 Elijah B. Buck
1873 D.E. McBurney
1874 Jeremiah H. Krom
1875 William G. Gallt (Galt)
1889 Edwin T. Parmalee
1900 D. Carey & Son
1908/1910 E.R. Parker
Charles and Grace Higgens
1914 Bell J Scott
1916 Orlando Family
1933 Fred Hartwell
1936/45 Arnold Corwell
Laneharts, Harry Rayburn
1947 Anna and Wallace Strohm
1952/84 Walter Piotrowski
Carole N. Blauvelt Bajanen and her husband Maynard
1995 Robert F. Holbrook, Jr.
2004 Gary Cole
2009 Glenn S. Martin

Sources: Hotels of Port Byron by Penny Helzer 2005 and Uncovering the Freedom Trail in Auburn and Cayuga County, New York sponsored by City of Auburn Historic Resources Review Board and the Cayuga County Historian's Office.

Buckle Patent

The town of Mentz is not traditionally known for having patents issued to inventors, that is until I found Isaac B. VerPlank, who invented a new design of buckle and had it patented in 1844:

Patent # 3,471 dated March 9, 1844

Drawing of Buckle Patent # 3,471

New York City Shirt Company founded at Port Byron

In 1881 a company called The Goodstock Manufacturing Company was established at Port Byron, NY. The original founders were J.H. Snow and Walter A. Parce of Fairport, NY and William T Gallt of Port Byron, NY. William T Gallt held one patent under the Goodstock Company.

C.A. Peters would purchase the company and relocate it to Syracuse, NY in 1887. They operated in the Hotel Burns Block on West Fayette Street until 1889, when a new structure was built. They would move once again to Noxon Street where a 40 x 80, 4 story brick building would become their new home. This was at 106-110 Noxon Street where they produced flannel and negligee shirts.

They would later open an additional branch at 744 Broadway in New York City where they would become known for their extra long high grade flannel and silk shirts that were 36 inches long, as compared to their competitors 31 to 33 inches.

Henry C. Peters would eventually take over the business. He would also become President of the Marcellus Paper Company.

Obituary of Henry C. Peters

Source:
Memorial history of Syracuse, N.Y. : from its settlement to the present time
Syracuse: H.P. Smith & Co., 1891, 912 pgs.

William T. Gallt would continue with shirt making at Port Byron under the firm name of Galt & Branch Shirt Manufacturers. He would hold two additional patents:

Shirt Lace Patent 1885

Rake Patent 1893

There was also an Auburn, NY branch called Gallt Dress Novelty Company, which was located at 148 Genesee Street and also at 218 Metcalf Building.

William T Gallt married Ina Hadden, died in 1923 and is buried at Pine Hill Cemetery in Throop, NY.