Tag Archives: Hornell

Old-Time Depots (and Where to Find Some!)

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“Millions of people in this country still couldn’t find the airport, Lyndon. But they sure as hell know where the depot is.” – Harry S. Truman, 1964.

Harry Truman’s long-ago advice to President Johnson is, well, long ago. For almost a hundred years this country’s economy rose or fell with the railroad, just as it rose or fell with the car for most of OUR lifetimes. Nowadays, though, the railroad doesn’t mean what it used to.

But the train still runs, and even where it doesn’t, our region is still dotted with the stations and depots where travelers once huddled from the rain, checked their ticket for the dozenth time, bought a magazine to read along the way. For many military personnel, the depot was the last sight of home. For far too many families, the depot was the last place they ever hugged their son or dad or husband, the last place his voice was ever heard, in the town that heard his very first cry.

For most soldiers, they knew their war was finally over when they jumped off the train and raced back into the oh-so-familiar hometown station, not even pausing in their rush to the street beyond.

Some depots are pretty uninspiring, but others are worth a little trip. The DL&W depot in PAINTED POST (277 Steuben Street) is in the pagoda style – a very early example of company branding, with the roof flared out on both long sides, and braced by elegant external buttresses. This depot was actually prefabricated, shopped out by rail in sections, and assembled on site! It was a makeshift morgue after the 1972 flood, and it’s Now home to the Painted Post-Erwin Museum at the Depot. All three metal “Indian” figures that preceded the current Chief Montour statue are on exhibit here.

The Erie Depot in HORNELL (111 Loder Street) is now creatively called the Hornell Erie Depot Museum. “Hornellsville” was a modest unincorporated settlement when Millard Fillmore and Daniel Webster came through on the ceremonial first Erie Railroad train, connecting Lake Erie with New York City. The company decided that Hornell (as we know it) would be a great spot for their main repair and maintenance shop. The Maple City started to boom as an industrial center. Railroads are still big business in Hornell, and the historic depot reflects that.

As far as I can tell, the B&H depot on the waterfront in HAMMONDSPORT (7 Water Street) was a pretty routine piece of work until World War I or later, when it took on the railroad gothic form that’s now been the beloved village symbol for decades. The swooping spire, weathervane, deep overhang, and rows of buttresses seize the memory, along with the background of Keuka Lake and the Depot Park. Glenn Curtiss and Alexander Graham Bell knew this place, which helped make feasible their early experiments in airplanes and motorcycles. This was the northern terminus of the Bath & Hammondsport Railroad – the entrance to the Lake, or the portal to the world. (It’s now the Village offices.)

The 1905 Lehigh Valley station in ROCHESTER (99 Court Street) is now home to Dinosaur Bar-B-Que! The squat tower, and its position above the falls of the Genesee River, make it unmistakable. Both the station and the 1892 Court Street Bridge are on the National Register of Historic Places… as is the Painted Post depot.

While you’re in ROCHESTER, stop by at Amtrak’s Louise K. Slaughter Rochester Station (320 Central Avenue). This modern 2017 intermodal facility is a reminder that trains… indeed, PASSENGER trains… are still a part of our life and our economy. Long may they wave!

Just Passin’ Through… Hornell

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Communities often celebrate Native Sons and Native Daughters – residents who have achieved fame. Hammondsport is justly proud of Glenn Curtiss, Elmira of Ernie Davis, Wayland of Bill T. Jones, Rochester of Susan B. Anthony. Even when living memory fades, the tales are still told with affection and awe, passed down from generation to generation.
It’s also not unusual for people to have only a fleeting contact with a community – living there a few months, perhaps, and then moving on. In some cases that’s just as well. Joseph D’Angelo, recently convicted as the “Golden State” serial killer, was born in Bath, but the family moved to the West Coast when he was still very small.
A number of very interesting people have touched briefly on Hornell… just passin’ through.
TV star Bob Crane – most famous for playing the lead in the sitcom Hogan’s Heroes – started his broadcasting career with a short stint at radio WLEA. He then went on to the New York City and Los Angeles markets before crossing over to television, first as a regular on the Donna Reed Show.
Don Zimmer spent the summer of 1950 playing baseball for the Hornell Dodgers. He later played or managed on six World Series championship teams, besides being named an All-Star and National League Manager of the Year. A Hornell teammate was Charlie Neal — later Gold Glove winner, three times an All-Star, and key player on the 1959 World Series championship team.
Neal and Zimmer were on their way up in 1950, but Hornell must have looked pretty bleak to John Joseph Fox sixty years earlier. He had ALREADY been in the majors, and by 1890 was on his way down. He’d recently spent two years banned from baseball for “general dissipation and insubordination.” We shudder to think what “general dissipation” amounted to in the 1880s.
Frank Kelly Freas was born in Hornell, where his parents were professional photographers, but grew up in Canada. His magazine art won 11 Hugo Awards for best artist of the year from the World Science Fiction Society. He was also a renowned artist for MAD magazine, painting elaborate layouts in full color. Freas further created some 50 MAD covers, every one including Alfred E. Neuman, until he made the mistake of asking for more money.
Dr. Marc Edwards, who was also born in Hornell, was a 2007 Macarthur Fellow (the so-called “Genius” grant). He played a key role in alerting the public to the Flint water crisis in 2015.
In 1867 Carl Myers opened a photo studio in Hornell (then Hornellsville), where he met and married Mary Hawley. In 1875 they started their “Balloon Farm” in Herkimer County and plunged into lighter-than-air aviation, including their pedal-powered “sky cycle,” billing themselves as Carl and Carlotta Myers. They were probably America’s most famous aviators until the Wright brothers came along, and Carlotta the Lady Aeronaut could always draw a crowd.
Charles H. Day was born in Salamanca, and graduated from Hornell High School around 1906. By 1909 he and Glenn Martin were building their first airplane together. He designed the Standard Model J biplane, one of which is in Curtiss Museum. His aviation career… including building up the Chinese industry as the Japanese invaded… lasted until his death in 1955. He’s buried in Dansville (Livingston County).

A Tour Through the Counties: Sprawling Steuben

STEUBEN was formed in 1796, and named for hero of the Revolution Baron Steuben. He never visited, but the name continually confuses researchers who mix it up with the Town of Steuben, near the Baron’s home in Herkimer County… not to mention those who mix it up with Steuben County, Indiana (where several place names are duplicated, just to muddy the waters even more).
*Steuben County is bigger than Rhode Island… in fact, it’s almost the size of Delaware. Its terrain varies considerably. Roughly south of the line of the Conhocton and Chemung Rivers, the highlands of the Appalachian Plateau rise. In the northwest corner, western New York’s rich muckland begins.
*The county’s so big that folks from its various components scarcely know the rest of the place. Corning, of course, is dominated by Corning Incorporated. Formerly an industrial town where the Glass Works pumped out soot, and trains ran down the main streets, Corning is now world headquarters for the company, and the center of research. Market Street, once crammed with saloons, is a lovely tourist marketplace. The Glass Museum is a major tourist attractor, and Corning Community College perches up on the peak of Spencer Hill.
*Hornell once boomed with railroad work – nowadays it hums, but the “Maple City” still earns much of its bread from the trains. Hornell has one of two Carnegie libraries in the five-county region. For decades Hornell was home to farm teams for Major League Baseball… alumni include Don Zimmer and Charlie Neal.
*Bath bustles as the county seat, and home for a V.A. Medical Center, which began life as a place to care for New York veterans of the Civil War. Arbor Development, the ARC, Pro-Action, Catholic Charities and other service agencies complement the work of the County and the V.A. Bath also has the county prison, and what used to be called “the infirmary.”
*Hammondsport, like Corning, is a tourism magnet (though many of the tourists bed down in Bath). The attractors here are Keuka Lake, the wineries, and Glenn Curtiss. Swimming and boating are big on the lake, and the scenery’s spectacular. Vine-covered hillsides and 19th-century stone vaults complement modern winery operations, and many of them welcome visitors.
*The Finger Lakes Trail wends through Steuben – so do the Bristol Hills Trail, and the Crystal Hills Trail. It’s New York’s top county for deer harvest, and in the top five for turkey.
*There are hospitals in or near Bath, Corning, and Hornell, and state parks in opposite corners. Robert Moses selected the “gorge-eous” site for Stony Brook State Park, and Governor Al Smith bought it.
*Addison, Prattsburgh, Hammondsport, and Bath have lovely green town squares (some have more than one). Savona, Bath, Hornell, and Corning have breathtaking historic churches. Parts of the central and southern portions of the county are horse-and-buggy country, with substantial populations of Amish and/or Old Order Mennonites.
*A staggering view overlooks Bath from Mossy Bank Park. On the flats below the lookout, eagles frequently nest… the corridors of the Conhocton and Canisteo Rivers have been growth regions for them, and also for osprey. Bobcat, beaver, fisher, and bear have recently returned to their historic ranges here.
*Besides the wildlife, Steuben has a little over a hundred thousand people. As far as I can tell, most of them like it here.

10 Local Women Were Killed in 1905 Accident

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From time to time over the past few months in this space we’ve looked at Steuben County’s worst train wreck (Gibson, 1912), highway wreck (Campbell, 1943), fire (Bath poorhouse, 1878), epidemic (Spanish influenza, 1918-19), and flood (June 1972).

*And certainly there were other very serious examples of each type of disaster. But there’s one tragedy worth noting that’s very difficult to classify. It’s not exactly a highway accident, and not exactly a railroad accident. Perhaps it’s the worst rail vehicle/road vehicle crash, and almost certainly the worst accident involving draft animals.

*The tragedy began to take shape on January 29, 1905, when Hornell’s First Universalist Church celebrated its first service in its new facility – still unfinished at the time. The Ladies Aid Society took advantage of leftovers from the celebration and moved up the date of planned sleigh ride. They would ride on February 1 to the home of Mrs. Martin Baldwin, outside Arkport, where their gathering would double as a 68th birthday celebration for Jane Graves.

*After a fine visit they left a little after six, as the dark was gathering, packed into two sleighs. South of Arkport a third sleigh fell into line, just by coincidence.

*At a railroad crossing occupants of the first sleigh saw a locomotive’s headlight, but the driver assumed that it was in the distant Shawmut rail yard. He crossed the tracks safely, but by then it had become clear that this was on oncoming train… in fact, the Angelica Express, steaming along at about 30 miles an hour.

*Those in the first sleigh shouted and waved for the second sleigh to stop. Maybe it was their unexpected noise and frantic activity, maybe it was the oncoming train, maybe something else known only to horses, but both animals drawing the second sleigh spooked. Driver Elijah Quick stopped them, then tried to get them moving again. But the inertia of a heavily-laden sleigh was too much. The train slammed right into the sleigh, finally managing to stop (inertia at work again) about a hundred yards down).

*The passengers had been able to see the train coming, but heavily bundled and packed tightly into the sleigh, none of them were able to jump out in time. The driver of the third sleigh raced to alert St. James Hospital, while someone from the first sleigh found a phone in a nearby farmhouse. Most of the dead and injured were lain in the baggage car and the train backed up to Hornell – with two women still trapped in the locomotive’s pilot.

*When all was said and done ten women died, including Mrs. Graves whose birthday it was. Three other women were injured, along with the driver. Both horses appeared unscathed.

*Ten such deaths would be devastating to any community, but in this case there was also the smaller church community. Back where I come from in Rhode Island, Christ Episcopal Church in Westerly lost ten members of its mothers’ group, plus a young boy who had gone along with his mother on their picnic, when the 1938 hurricane crashed in by surprise. The church still keeps their memory alive.

*And First Universalist would do the same, no doubt, if it could. Despite the loss they finished their edifice, installing a Tiffany window honoring the dead. But neither congregation nor edifice (which was diagonally across from the Baptist church) still exist today. The window was sold into private hands, but has lately been exhibited in a Chicago Museum.

A Stroll in Hornell

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Once upon a time, it was just an inconsequential hamlet in Hornellsville. Then the Erie Railroad came through, and by 1851 Erie had located its main repair shops in the isolated settlement. The little hamlet became a much bigger place, and then an incorporated village, and then the City of Hornellsville, finally changed a few years later to our modern City of Hornell.

*This was a pretty prosperous place, thanks to the railroad. Shade trees lining the streets inspired the nickname “Maple City.” An electric trolley line ran around and about in the city, and even dipped into a “subway” under Main Street, and connected with Canisteo.

*The young city had monumental churches, a Catholic hospital, a Catholic orphanage, an armory, an impressive school system, multiple bands, and a very busy Y.M.C.A. Manufacturers made silk, and even “Ferris wheels.” Maude Adams, John L. Sullivan, Tom Thumb, and even Oscar Wilde trod the boards at Shattuck Opera House. (No clue, unfortunately, what Oscar thought about Hornell.) Aviation pioneer Charlie Day went to Hornell High School. Former flying star Blanche Stuart Scott ended her broadcasting days on Hornell radio, and future TV star Bob Crane started his.

*For many years Hornell held its own annual fair to rival the one in Bath. The fairground made a convenient landing place in 1916 when Ruth Law flew in non-stop from Chicago in an open biplane, setting the American distance record and the world women’s distance record. Cal Rodgers stopped in Hornell on America’s first coast-to-coast flight (which took three months).

*U.S.S. Hornell, a tug in the “Erie Navy,” once plied waters of the Port of New York. For many years Hornell was home to minor-league baseball – future all-stars Don Zimmer and Charlie Neal both played for Hornell in 1950.

*The 1935 flood shattered the city. New Deal flood control programs insured that 1972 wasn’t as bad, but three men surveying damage were killed in a helicopter crash. The flood also spelled doom for what was then the Erie Lackawanna Railroad… which meant declining population and prosperity in Hornell.

*Things have come back since then – not to the glory days of the Erie, but then railroads just aren’t what they used to be. Alstom is busy manufacturing and assembling traction engines, railway cars, and passenger locomotives. The Hornell Erie Depot Museum is a “must visit” for railfans. The city’s peak population was 16,300 in 1930 (also pretty much the peak of railroads), and 8,600 in the latest census.

*It’s gratifying to stroll around the city center, where the streets and the sidewalks are wide enough to give you a fine feeling of openness. I wander in and out of antique shops (rooting out old comic books) and little eateries, and if I really want to know the time, I check the town clock.

*A few steps away from the city center the 1916 post office, no longer in use, is an imposing edifice from the age of imperialism. It was created under the watchful eye of Steuben County native James A. Wetmore, Acting Supervising Architect of the Treasury Department. A little farther down Seneca Street is the still-active 1894 armory. Off a little on Genesee Street is Hornell Public Library, in its lovely 1911 Carnegie Building.

*Hornell has a downtown walk-in movie theater… a daily newspaper (our sister publication, the Evening Tribune)… a Catholic school (St. Ann’s Academy)… Steuben County’s only formal Jewish congregation (Temple Beth-El)… a much-loved St. Patrick’s Day parade… and the longest-serving mayor (Shawn Hogan) in New York history. (His father was mayor too.) Hornell is well worth a stop and a stroll. I like it there. Maybe you would too.

Eighty Years Ago — the Horrendous Flood of 1935

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Once upon a time there was a flood that sprang up in the pre-dawn hours of an early summer’s morning, snatching away lives and houses while wrecking railroads, bridges, and highways. Many reading these words will say, “ah, yes, I remember it well.”
Maybe not. Because we’re speaking of the 1935 flood, which burst forth in the early-morning hours of July 8, eighty years ago this week.
While the 1972 flood arose from the remnants of Hurricane Agnes, the flood of 1935 sprang from several days of heavy rain – the earth and the watercourses just couldn’t hold any more.
As in 1972, the waters broke forth while most folks were sound asleep – a factor (in both cases) that contributed to tragedy.
When the 1972 flood struck the Corning-Painted Post area, many people at best got a few minutes of warning. But in 1935 a great many people had no telephone. Scarcely anyone outside the cities and villages had a radio, or even electricity. So for many people, there was no warning at all.
So… what happened?
The Genesee River flooded, inundating Wellsville, Mount Morris, and Rochester.
Crosby Creek, Bennett’s Creek, and the Canisteo River flooded, putting much of Hornell underwater. Hornell was an important rail center, and this flood ripped many of the lines to shreds. Farther downstream, Addison too was flooded.
The Conhocton River flowed into the grounds of the “Soldiers Home,” or Bath V.A. All of downtown Bath flooded, with people using canoes and rowboats out as far as the post office at William and Liberty Streets. A few steps up Liberty, the flood spared the municipal building by literally the width of the sidewalk. Davenport Library was in the flooded zone, leading to the loss of historic documents. Once again, railroad lines were wrecked. Upstream and downstream, Kanona and Savona flooded.
Most of Hammondsport village was inundated. Some streets, most of them still unpaved, were gouged into canyons. The churches, many homes, and the downtown business district were all trashed.
Torrents pouring out of the Glen tore through the Mallory Mill and its grounds, where Roualet Wine Company had stored casks of brandy. These were dumped all across the village as far down as the waterfront, leading to numerous local family legends as to who got the casks, how they got them, and what they did with them afterward. (Roualet went bankrupt.)
Cataracts rushing out through Watkins Glen tore away the state park gatehouse, and carried it down toward Seneca Lake. Ithaca flooded.
Farm livestock was carried away from Coopers Plains.
Painted Post and Corning flooded on both sides of the Chemung River, including Market Street, Corning Glass Works, and Ingersoll Rand. Rising water threatened the painstakingly-made 200-inch disc for Mount Palomar observatory, which was in the midst of a months-long cooling period. Rising water forced Glass Works men to move the generator that powered temperature-control equipment, meaning no control at all for several days. To everyone’s relief, the disc came through unscathed.
Elmira flooded. Owego flooded. Binghamton flooded. As in 1972, it would take a week or more just to sort out what had happened, and where everybody was.
Governor Lehman rushed to the area, as did Red Cross, Salvation Army, and National Guard. Hornell Armory and Hammondsport Presbyterian Church were two of many local centers where drinking water was trucked in. This was the midst of the Depression, but men with horse teams suddenly found themselves (and their animals) in high demand for cleanup and construction work.
This was a hydrologically-complex flood… actually a widespread set of simultaneous separate floods. One, for instance, occupied the north-flowing Genesee River and its tributaries. A separate flood flowed from the east-running Conhocton-Canisteo-Chemung System. Another flood followed the west-flowing Susquehanna and its tributaries. Three separate floods engulfed Hammondsport, Ithaca, and Watkins Glen.
New Deal programs set to work ameliorating the problem. C.C.C. (Civilian Conservation Corps) boys worked on hoe-and-shovel drainage projects, while Alfred and Almond dams were soon rising. The 1972 flood, believe it or not, would have been worse without this earlier work.
And, believe it or not, 1935 was arguably worse than 1972, with forty-four dead region-wide, as opposed to nineteen. Of course, the 1935 flood WAS essentially a regional event, while the total nationwide death toll from Hurricane Agnes was around 130, plus more in the West Indies. Since only 37 years separated the two disasters, a great many people in 1972 must have experienced an utterly horrifying déjà vu.

“Going to Church”

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Our area benefits a lot from tourism, and tourism is… whatever somebody wants to see or do. Railfans will bushwhack through the brush for half an hour to get to the place where the tracks USED to be, and consider it the best morning they’ve ever spent. Genealogists haunt the cemeteries. Some people enjoy wine tastings, though many others find that the most bizarre waste of time they could imagine. And golf is something you get, or you don’t get; there’s no middle ground.

Both tourists and local folks (not just here, but anywhere) often miss the thought of churches as places of interest. They have historical, social, architectural, religious, spiritual, and ecclesiastical significance, and they’re not usually hard to find. “Where there is a church there is civilization,” in the words of Lord Peer Wimsey. Our region has quite a few interesting edifices for churches and places of worship.

The FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH in Bath is a standout by any standard. Its late 19th-century incarnation was largely funded by the Davenport family, entrepreneurs and benefactors of fame in the county seat. The massive stone edifice rises dramatically on the courthouse square, right on the axis of Liberty Street.

Visitors come literally from around the world to view the sumptuous sanctuary, magnificently designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany. The church hosts drop-in tours on Wednesdays following the Fourth of July and through August, and by appointment.

ST. THOMAS EPISCOPAL CHURCH, farther up Liberty Street, is a fitting counterpoint to First Presbyterian. Also a massive stone structure, with a sky-piercing spire, the St. Thomas edifice is the oldest in Bath village. The congregation is now celebrating its bicentennial.

The EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD, by contrast to these breathtaking edifices, is a lovely century-old cobblestone creation, with craftsman-style touches, tucked quietly away on a side street in Savona. GARRETT MEMORIAL CHAPEL, meanwhile, is a jewelbox Norman Gothic style church on Keuka Bluff, with services on summer Sundays. The winemaking Garrett family built it in memory of a son who died young.

TEMPLE BETH-EL, an impressive understated structure on Church Street in Hornell, is interesting as home to the only formal Jewish congregation in Steuben County.

If you go looking for HARRISBURG HOLLOW METHODIST CHURCH outside Bath, you won’t find it. What you WILL find is the steeple – JUST the steeple – standing there for all the world like the lamppost in Narnia.

TOWN LINE CHURCH in Rathbone is interesting (to me, it’s also familiar), because it follows the old New England pattern of two front doors leading to two side aisles, rather than the more common central door and a central aisle.

Reverend Thomas K. Beecher (brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe) ministered at PARK CHURCH in Elmira, where a statue honors his memory. During his time here he led the church in creating a large up-to-date facility with banquet hall, social rooms, play space, and library – the forerunner of the modern mega-church.

George Pullman (the sleeper-car millionaire) underwrote PULLMAN MEMORIAL UNIVERSALIST CHURCH of Albion in honor of his father. It was built with local Medina sandstone and includes 56 (!) Tiffany windows.

ST. JANUARIUS CATHOLIC CHURCH in Naples has a remarkable 1966 edifice that delightfully complements its vineyard setting. It also features a chalet roof, and its floor plan represents a grape leaf. This is a fine example of modern church architecture, at once thoughtful and innovative. It draws from, adds to, and fits into its surroundings.

And, of course, you should see ST. GABRIEL’S CHURCH in Hammondsport – just because it’s the coolest Catholic Church in the coolest small town in America!

Travel and Tourism — New Deal Style

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New Deal work programs built the Glenn Curtiss Memorial School, the Painted Post post office, the Arkport dam.  Civilian Conservation Corps crews developed Stony Brook State Park, and created soil conservation projects.
But also part of the New Deal were the Federal Artists Project (which created the post office mural in Painted Post) and the Federal Writers Project.
One notable accomplishment of the Writers Project was creation of lengthy hardcover travel guides for each state.  This gave the writers work, but it was also aimed to stimulate tourism business, and with it gasoline sales… not to mention work for printers, and revenue for booksellers.
The New York State guide describes power boating on Keuka Lake and the wineries, which “grow more famous each year,” at Hammondsport, besides including a photo of a champagne cellar at Rheims.
That’s all in the overview, but then the guide suggests numerous auto routes you can take on your own through the Empire State.  Four of them pass through Steuben.

One tour goes from Elmira to Olean, on what was then State Route 17.  The guide suggests visiting Corning and the Corning Glass Works, emphasizing this advice with a photo of a glass blower and another of the 200” disc (miniature discs sold as souvenirs).  The showrooms are open to the public, and the plant by appointment.  The Glass Works are famous for Pyrex, glass fibres (shades of the future!), and the “very fine decorative glassware” at the Steuben Division.
Your route then takes you to Painted Post, where people are largely employed by foundries, machine shops, and Ingersoll-Rand, and then through Erwin (a hamlet) and Jasper, where you find the junction with State Route 21.  That’s the end of the Steuben descriptions on this route.

A Penn Yan-Hammondsport-Bath tour runs along State Route 54, but this is primarily what we call 54A, the West Lake Road.  After working around Bluff Point and through Branchport, then heading south, the guide points out Keuka Lake’s connections with aviation history, pointing out Glenn Curtiss and his accomplishments.  Hammondsport “is proud of the title, ‘Cradle of  American Aviation.’”  The tour then passes Stony Brook Farm, mentioning Curtiss’s flights there, especially the July 4 June Bug flight in 1908.
Hammondsport, of course, is also “a center of the New York State champagne industry,” and the next feature along the route is Pleasant Valley Wine Company.  The guide treats us to a lengthy description of the champagne process before sending us by the Fish Hatchery and down to Bath, where the tour ends at the junction with U.S. Route 15.

A Pulteneyville-Naples-Hornell-state line tour enters Steuben at Wayland, the northern junction with U.S. 15.  It proceeds to Hornell, a town “made” by the Erie Railroad and then the home of 27-acre Elim Bible School, which the writers apparently considered a significant attraction all by itself.  “Outsiders come to watch the camp meetings….  The worshippers, sitting around in a circle, listen to the music of a three-piece orchestra, maintaining an unbroken posture for hours at a stretch with no outward sign of physical discomfort; here and there one rises, raises his eyes heavenward, and chants hymn fragments; then, eyes partly closed, mumbling as in a trance, several throw their arms above their heads, cry out, and roll on the ground in the hysteria of emotion; all become convulsed with joy, and even the onlookers take the contagion and smile at one another with unaccustomed cordiality.”
After giving some history on George Hornell and Benjamin Crosby, the guide directs us on through Canisteo (stopping for the tale of Kanisteo Castle in colonial days) to Jasper, where the Steuben information again ends at the junction with State 15.

Lastly there’s a Rochester-Bath-Painted Post-Lawrenceville tour.  This also enters the county at Wayland, the junction with State 21 and a stopping place on the old Elmira-Buffalo stagecoach route.  Once the Erie railroad came in, “German immigrants settled here and gave the place a reputation for hard work and thrift,” making Steuben “one of the greatest potato-growing counties in the country.”  Waylanders also raise peas, corn, and beans, besides operating chair and silk factories.
The route then takes you to Stony Brook Park, where a 25-cent parking fee will gain you access to 560 acres of rough, rocky country, then being improved by a federal work relief project.
On your way to Avoca (which we only skirt) you cross the site of a U.S. Soil Service soil erosion project, put into effect after the horrible 1935 flood.  Avocans, we are told, manufacture brooms, hockey sticks, spools, reels, and potato graders.  The writers also pass on the story of the farmer who discouraged theft of his firewood by adding in a little gunpowder.
Then you come to the rich farming area of Bath, where busy workers make saddlery, ladders, and knit goods.  Pulteney Square, we’re assured, is lined with business blocks and buff-colored county buildings.  After a few Charles Williamson stories we’re off to Painted Post, the junction with State Route 17 and the last mention of Steuben County.