We’re been posting images of unusual implements to our facebook page in conjunction with our current “What is it?” museum exhibit.
The Goodell Bonanza Apple Peeler Corer was created by David H. Goodell whose Goodell company produce a variety of devices to aid in the processing apples and other fruits. Goodell became the Governor of Hew Hampshire in 1889.
Today is Tomorrow’s Yesterday
If history helps connects us to the past, then in a way it also helps connect us to the future. Today is tomorrow’s yesterday.
Despite decades of research done by our museum volunteers, there are still countless stories to be unearthed and told about the people, places, and events that have helped make our little community what it is today.
We love sharing those stories with you through our exhibits, school visits and tours, speakers and presentations, our website, and even a few new-fangled ways of communicating.
No one here is working for peanuts. (Well, except Chip.) We are volunteers and work for the love of history and the pleasure of sharing Webster’s story with you.
There is still no admission charge to visit the Webster Museum.
We rely on the kindness of our neighbors and friends to assist us in keeping the doors of the Webster Museum open.
Even in its early days, Rochester had multiple neighborhoods, small settlements with names such as Swillburg, Goat Hill and the Butter Bowl. Today, Rochester is a community of 128 neighborhoods, each happily pursuing a local identity while united together with justifiable pride in their role as New York State's third largest city outside of the New York City metropolis. Located in the Genesee River Valley just below Lake Ontario, Rochester is on an old Indian trail that once brought Seneca families here to hunt and fish. The milling industry began here in 1789 and, as it flourished, Rochester became known as the "Flour City." By the mid-1800s, the seed industry and the widespread production of flowers, trees, and shrubs had recreated Rochester as the "Flower City." Later, thanks to the Eastman Kodak Company and the Xerox Corporation, Rochester became the "Picture City" and the "World's Image Centre." Rochester was a haven on the Underground Railroad between 1830 and 1860. Always an ethnic city, it became a hotbed for inventors, reformers, educators, and spiritual leaders. Its leaders were independent, sometimes outrageous, outspoken, colorful, and courageous. Many were women-foremost among them was Susan Brownell Anthony.
Greece, a community of nearly 100,000 people, lies on the south shore of Lake Ontario, opposite Toronto. It has a picturesque shoreline with a bay and more ponds than any other locality along the lake. In its early years, community life was centered around a harbor on the Genesee River at the village of Charlotte. From these simple beginnings, Greece eventually grew to become the largest township in Monroe County. Its growth was due in large part to photography leader George Eastman, whose factories became the major employer in the Rochester metropolitan area. Over the years, the township's political leaders have been recognized across the state. Its land once produced magnificent flowers, vegetable seeds, and rootstock for shipment worldwide. Greece also is the home of the Wegman families, whose food stores rank among the nation's best grocery operations. Buried in nearby Holy Sepulchre Cemetery are the remains of Dr. Francis Tumblety, inventor of patent medicine cure-alls and main suspect in London's 1888 Jack the Ripper murder investigation. Greece contains marvelous pictorial memories of the amusement park at Manitou Beach, with its poplar-lined entrance, grand old hotels reached by an open-air trolley that slowly crossed the bay and ponds, and two nearby lighthouses that guided vessels across the lake to and from Canada.