Native:
7 Tudor Place
Buffalo, NY 14222
"I missed being born in Pennsylvania by about two months."

Also resided:
107 Hodge Ave.
Buffalo, NY 14222

975 Archbald Rd.
Waterport, NY 14571

Primary Education:
Franklin School
Nichols School

Secondary Education:
Yale University
Majored in Forestry

1910:
Attended a recruitment presentation for Boy Scouting hosted by Troop 6 chartered by the Trinity Episcopal Church on Delaware Avenue in Buffalo, NY. The recruiter was Lord Robert Baden-Powell, founder of Boy Scouting. Ed, his brother Joe and six of their friends decided to not only join this troop, but to earn the rank of Eagle Scout and form the first Eagle Scout patrol in the U.S.

1914
Ed's father, Joseph, purchases 400 acres of farm land in Waterport, Town of Carlton, Orleans County, NY. This would be known as Iroquois Fruit Farm.

Approx. 1915
Eagle Scout
Troop 6
Buffalo (NY) Council
Boy Scouts of America
Trinity Episcopal Church, Buffalo, NY
Ed and five of his friends that he joined with earn this rank.

1916
Yale University
"Dad said I was going to be an apple grower so I had better learn how to grow apple trees. So I became a Forester. I was the only one in my class."

13 SEP 1918
Second Lieutenant (2LT) U.S. Army
Camp Jackson, SC
Cavalry, Artillery
"They sent a troop train down to Yale to pick up a couple of hundred of us. We went down to Camp Jackson and we shipped 5000 men to Europe, and after about four months I said, 'I'm going home now.' I wasn't getting paid, I wasn't even in the Army, I had nothing to do with the Army!" "They said, 'We'll make you a Lieutenant' and a bunch of others along with me." "I can give cavalry commands, infantry commands; I could handle French 75's, long guns, the 2.95's"

Discharged: 04 DEC 1918
Honorably

1919
Graduated from Yale University

Ed moved to an abandoned lighthouse on Oak Orchard Creek. The house was full of personal items but the people that had lived there left everything, including a loaded pistol, and were long gone. The house was purchased from the Federal government, gutted and remodeled. Ed had roads built for easier access to Point Breeze, Rt. 18 and Albion. He contacted Charlie Swett to furnish electric for Point Breeze and Waterport at a cost of $2500.00 and built a water pump house and storage tank for running water. The pump was a 3 h.p. Fairbanks-Morse gasoline engine that lasted quite a few years. By 1960, he had the area connected to the water treatment plant located west of Point Breeze.

In farming, he planted between two and three thousand oak trees and about the same in evergreen trees in his lifetime. His farm was initially made up of wheat, corn, 10 thousand apple trees (Baldwin, Greening, Rome and Wealthy), 10 thousand peach (white) trees, and four thousand cherry trees. At their peak, a typical harvest would yield 2,500 tons of apples, 500 tons of peaches and 100 tons of cherries. He had his own rail cars for transport to processing facilities.

Ice was also needed. Lake Ontario provided all that he could handle. An ice house was built in 1920 and had a capacity of 40 tons. Men with teams of horses, plows and saws could quickly cut slabs six to eight inches thick. No horses were lost on his watch and the ice would last through the summer months. At one time, Waterport Cold Storage lost their ice maker to mechanical failure. Ed was able to keep them supplied and in business.

Approx. 1927
Founding member and former president of the Town Club.
Ed, and avid player, had courts for squash, racquetball and tennis built. He also included horseshoe pits and other outdoor activities.

Prohibition:
Ed's first attempt at hard cider did not work out as planned. He made about 300 gallons of 100 proof cider but lost about half to the Angel's share. Later batches were smaller but worked out well. Stories are also told of Ed making the 80 mile round trip to Canada across the lake in his boat to bring back bottled contraband.

DEC 1932
The Monroe-Orleans District separates from the Rochester Area (NY) Council, Boy Scouts of America. Eventually it is named the Red Jacket Council. Ed remained involved in Scouting and is an adult leader. The Council is in need of its own campground but gets by using other camps or leasing property in the area.

05 AUG 1939
Ed leases 80 acres of his land to the Red Jacket Council and with volunteer help, along with his drawings, builds cabins, campsites, a waterfront, craft lodge and a parade field. On the above date, this camp, known as the Troop Camp Training Reservation was officially opened. Sometime later, after a unanimous vote of the Council Executive Board, it was renamed Camp Archbald.

About this same time, Ed is instrumental in building break walls, piers, boat ramps and slips and founds the Oak Orchard Yacht Club. He was Commodore numerous times. An avid boater and swimmer, this was his second home.

1940
Awarded the Silver Beaver from the Red Jacket Council, Boy Scouts of America.

31 JUL 1944
Ed is appointed Chairman of the Orleans County War Price and Rationing Board.
"I was head of the whole thing. I didn't deal with most of it. Most of it was gasoline I dealt with. I never had any adverse discussions with anybody. Nobody ever said, 'I think you're wrong.'"

1942
Red Jacket Council is faltering. It consists of rural Monroe County and Central/Eastern Orleans County. It is decided that either the Council merge into the Rochester Area as a whole or Orleans County unites and joins the Lewiston Trail Council headquartered out of Lockport, Niagara County, NY. Ed is instrumental in encouraging Orleans County unification. Following a vote, Red Jacket Council is dissolved and Orleans County is united in the Lewiston Trail council on 20 MAY 1943. By June 1943, Ed is named Vice President of Lewiston Trail Council.

1960's
Ed becomes Director of the Arnold Gregory Hospital in Albion, NY. It was located in the Ezra Coann house on South Main Street. Ed's first project was to build a new, modern facility. "If you (the community) would raise $160,000.00, I'll build you a new hospital." "We knew darn well it was going to cost $400,000.00. So everybody went out and we raised the money. I was tough on them. Like going to see Ward Wilson. He said, 'I knew you were coming. We were only going to give you $50.00 but we decided we better give you $100.00' I said, 'Ward, you haven't got the message. You're going to give me $1,500.00' He said, 'I am? Well if you say so then that's what it is.'"

The $160,000.00 was raised and presented to Albany. New York State would furnish the balance needed and the hospital was built. Ed then had the Coann house torn down. "We used to do the darndest things."

Ed was a farmer, hunter, golfer and boater. He dabbled in all sorts of businesses and helped to keep Orleans County moving in the right direction. He was a loving husband and with his wife, adopted a daughter, Connie and sons Jose and Louis. He was a conservationist, Life Member of Albion Rotary, Lodge 1006 BPO of Elks, First Presbyterian Church of Albion, Turtle Lake Club of Quebec, and self proclaimed friend of the Indians. At the time of his death, he was the oldest living Eagle Scout in the U.S. and last surviving veteran of WWI in Orleans County. Although Ed lived and worked most of his adult life in Orleans County, he never forgot his roots and first home. Ed was a resident and pioneer in Carlton but always saw himself as a Buffaloian.

Quotes provided by a taped interview conducted by Lysbeth Hoffman, Carlton Town Historian, March 1997.