BeeLines - August 8, 2018
By Marybelle Beigh, Westfield Town & Village Historian
The Mayor’s “Rogues Gallery” Project Begins
About a year and a half ago, Mayor Mike contacted your Westfield Historian with an idea suggested to him by a local citizen, who, noting that the Fire Hall displays a gallery of photos of all of the Fire Chiefs of the current fire department since it was formed in 1873, and wouldn’t it be nice to do the same for all the previous mayors of the Village of Westfield. While discussing this project, Mayor Mike commented that it would be nice to add biographical information about each Mayor, and your historian thought it would be good to make a biographical booklet to use with the photo gallery.
To begin the project, the Village Clerk provided a list of all the mayors and village board members elected since 1950. Using this list, the Patterson Library was researched for photos of the mayors, but only some were located. And since Westfield has had mayors going back much earlier than 1950, so the archived Westfield Republicans were searched to locate the names and dates of office for previous mayors. This proved to be only partially successful. Plus, it was discovered that, prior to 1927, the head of the village was called the President, not the Mayor, because of a NY State Law enacted that year to make the title consistent across the state. So, another needed to be found.
One the most exciting aspects of the positions of NY State Government Appointed Historian for both the Town and Village of Westfield has been, and continues to be, the opportunity to “dig into” the earliest records of when each of these civic entities was first formed. For the Village of Westfield, that would have been 1833, just four years after the Town of Westfield was formed from the “west field” of the Town of Portland from near the current location of the West Portland Baptist Church to the east side of Big Chautauqua Creek, and an eastern area of the Town of Ripley, from about what is now the Forsythe Bridge on Route 20, to the western side of Big Chautauqua Creek.
At that time (1833), the laws or “Acts” of the State of New York specified the requirements for forming villages that included writing and submitting for legal approval a charter of incorporation, and maintaining all the documents and records of elections of officers, and keeping minutes of all meetings of the elected officials. The books containing these records are kept in the of the Village of Westfield offices. In addition, to preserve them in case of fires, floods, and other damaging events, digitized and/or microfilmed copies are kept at several separate locations.
At this time, August 2018, there most of the photos of prior mayors and presidents of Westfield that are hanging around the upper walls in the entry vestibule of the Eason Hall. The list of the Presidents has been completed all the way back to 1833, with the exception of the years 1845 through 1849, for which no records have been located.
The time as now come to begin compiling and writing the biographies of these men, and one woman, who served as the “point person” for our historic Village of Westfield.
It seems appropriate to begin with the words found in the first book of minutes and articles of incorporation, for August 3rd, 1833, written in flowing cursive writing typical of that era.
“At a meeting of the inhabitant of the village of Westfield convened at the house of Samuel J. Hawkins on Saturday August 3, 1833 at 1 o’clock P.M. for the purposes of organizing under the charter of incorporation, the following officers were duly Elected viz.
James McClurg President
Hugh W. Lowry
William Bradley
James Ray
Lyman Redington
George Hall Trustees
J Franklin Cass Clerk
Daniel Rockwell Treasurer
George W. Bliss Collector
Resolved that the Trustees be authorized to procure a temporary Pound, appoint a keeper, and direct the manner in which all domestic animals found running at large may be seized, impounded and sold.
Amos Atwater Supervisor of the Town of Westfield”
It is interesting to note that the Supervisor of the Town of Westfield was tasked with the responsibility of running and documenting the first election for the Village of Westfield.
In subsequent BeeLines, there will be photos and biographical notes about the former Mayors and Presidents of Westfield. Readers are requested to provide further information, and in the case of missing photos, please try to locate copies to your Westfield Historian.