The Man Who Did Almost Everything Right

They say that history is written by the winners, but maybe it should not always be about the winners. The losers, especially the ones who had what it takes to win, can be fascinating. That certainly applied to the L.R. Steel Corporation, founded in Buffalo in 1919 and bankrupt by 1923, leaving 60,000 investors about $26 million poorer. This is a company that could have been Wal-Mart, but ended up being more like Enron.

The name is misleading; the company had nothing to do with the steel industry. It was actually an early competitor to Woolworth's in the chain store marketplace. The founder, Leonard Rambler Steel, was just following that American tradition of naming his company after himself.

To read more of Dave Dyer's's story, see page 9 of the Fall 2009 Heritage Magazine.

Cobblestone Country

Driving along Route 104, passersby might notice a particular style of masonry rarely seen in other areas of the country. Most buildings of this style are old farmhouses, and may bear architectural resemblance to the neighboring structures, but are constructed from a different type of building material; what seem to be small rocks. Upon closer inspection, these farmhouses are indeed constructed from small rocks, most of which are rounded and held together by mortar joints. This style is known as cobblestone masonry.

By definition, a cobblestone is a stone small enough to be held in one hand, approximately 2.5-10.1 inches (64-256mm). Cobblestone masonry was most heavily practiced between 1925 and 1860. After the Civil War began, there was little time for building such labor intensive structures.

To view the rest of this story by Alissa Monti see page 21 in the Fall 2009 Heritage Magazine. Subscribe now!

From Russia...With Log!

After 60 years at the bottom of an Arctic Russian lake, P-39Q-15BE 44-2911 has finally come home. Completed in November, 1943, she was one of the last 100 P-39Q-15s built at the Bell Aircraft Company's Wheatfield plant, adjacent to the Niagara Falls airport. From the factory, P-39-44-2911 was ferried to the Soviet Union as part of America's Lend-Lease shipment to that nation. There she fought against both the Germans and the Finns, shooting down at least six enemy aircraft. The P-29 disappeared on a routine ferrying flight on November 19, 1944, and was lost until 2004 when she was recovered by a Russian and British salvage team at the bottom of Lake Mart-Yavr, about 18 miles southeast of Luostari in the Russian Arctic Circle. In March 2008, representatives from the Ira G Ross Aerospace Museum visited the aircraft in Britain. Sale negotiations followed and this historic aircraft returned to Western New York in April 2009, currently residing in the old Bell factory in Wheafield where she was built.

To read more of this story by Douglas W. DeCroix, see page 32 of the Fall 2009 Heritage Magazine.

 

 

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