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POST OFFICE ON COOMER ROAD SERVED EARLY SETTLERS HERE

By Bob Kostoff

A historic post office in the Town of Newfane was established on Coomer Road on Feb. 3, 1836, and had lasted for 100 years when it was torn down.

Coomer Road, an eight-mile stretch from Ridge Road north to the lake, was named after pioneer Newfane settler Benjamin Coomer. It was fashioned from an old Indian trail in 1811.

The sturdy building was erected by Theodore M. Titus on Coomer Road three miles north of Ridge Road. Titus was the first postmaster, and served for many years in that post when mail was carried by horseback and then stagecoach.

The one-story frame building was 18 feet wide and 30 feet long. The hand-hewn timbers were held together by wooden pins. The siding consisted of one-inch-thick boards held in place by old square nails. The cracks were covered by two-inch batting strips.

Titus originally built the structure as a two-room general store. The front room was used as the store and post office, and the rear was a barroom known as the Red Onion. One of the attractions of the Coomer Station was a hand-dug well of crystal-clear pure spring water 22 feet deep and five feet in circumference. A nearby trough was kept filled with water for horses.

Coomer Station was the local gathering place for people to hear news of the day, socialize and discuss public affairs.

As with many other post offices, Coomer Station was affected by the institution of Rural Free Delivery and was eventually discontinued.

Perilous Leap -- On a sunny day, Aug. 12, 1934, Mrs. Ruth Hyde, 30, of Bradford, Pa., drove to Niagara Falls, N.Y., telling her husband she was going to visit relatives in Brookville, Pa. Instead, she got a hotel room here, and the next day took a taxi to Canada. Along with other tourists, she bought a ticket for a ride on the Spanish Aero Car, which travels on heavy cables from one part of Canada to another Canadian part over the Whirlpool in the lower Niagara River.

On boarding, she gave her purse to the attendant to hold and took a seat in the middle of the car. When the car was over the whirlpool and the car was halfway across, she suddenly left her seat and bolted over the railing, plunging to her death in the whirlpool. She left a suicide note in her purse. Her body was found four days later near Youngstown.

Another Quote -- Add to the vast number of quotations from the rich and famous about Niagara Falls the written comment of one Susanna Moodie, a Canadian writer who visited the falls about 1851. She wrote, "Like every perfect work, the more frequently and closely the falls are examined, the more wonderful they must appear. The mind and eye can never weary of such an astonishing combination of sublimity and power."

Niagara Falls Reporter www.niagarafallsreporter.com Nov. 15, 2011