The is the last installment of the Grand Island story! Thank you to everyone who has commented, here and on Facebook! Your support and encouragement mean so much to me! And thank you to the owners of the Island Ship Center: Fahim and Seema Mojawalla. You are truly kind and wonderful people, and I love you and your business. Your business is everything I would hope for in a business: kind, accommodating, and creative. You put your heart and soul into it, and it shows!
And now, for the last pictures:
But I digress. Back to River Lea we go. This farmhouse was designed by Lewis F. Allen (1800-1890). There are some questions as to who built the house and when it was built. Some people say in the 1870s and others say it was built in 1849. According to some stories, it was Lewis F. Allen who built the house, while other stories say that the builder was Allen’s son, W. Cleveland Allen. And yet another account said that the house was built for Lewis F. Allen. So… who knows? I thought that I did but now, I don’t have a clue. So sorry about the confusion, but the stories about the construction of the house and the date that the house was built are… clear as mud. Anyway, the only clear things are that the house was based on a design by Lewis F. Allen that was printed in a book that he wrote, called “Rural Architecture.” At the time, Grand Island was sparsely populated and very rural. It was mostly a place where people spent their summers. There were very few permanent residents. So, Lewis F. Allen purchased land on Grand Island back in 1833. Not just a little land, but 16,000 acres. That was almost the entire island. Much of which he sold. He kept several hundred acres in the southern tip of Grand Island, which he cleared and turned into his experimental farm, called Allenton Farms. He raised cattle and he introduced a variety of apples to the Island, including the Northern Spy apple.
Allen also had a farm in Buffalo, with a path for cattle. That path is now known as Allen Street, and the area in which Allen had his Buffalo farm is known as Allentown. Yes, named for Lewis F. Allen. In Beaver Island State Park, on Grand Island, River Lea still stands, while many of the estates located nearby were torn down to provide more space for the park. River Lea stands because the newly formed Grand Island Historical Society in 1962 advocated for the building’s survival. It was not in good condition at that point. But the building was considered to be important because of its connection to a U.S. president. The president was Grover Cleveland. He was Lewis F. Allen’s nephew, and he had spent some time working for his uncle on the farm. His job was to maintain the farm records. When he wasn’t working, he was a member of the Jolly Reefers club, a sportsmen’s club located on Grand Island. It’s unknown as to whether or not Grover Cleveland ever set foot in River Lea, but there was enough of a connection to a U.S. president to motivate the state parks department to save the building from destruction. Oh, and one other comment about Grover Cleveland. His actual name was Stephen Grover Cleveland, and his nickname was “Big Steve” because he was a big guy.
This is from an article I wrote for the Island Dispatch in 2022, about a ceremonial inspection of the fire company that was held in front of Dr. Rayhill’s house, as a way to honor Dr. Rayhill’s service to the community. He was 92 years old then and his health, unfortunately, was declining, so the decision was made to honor him at his home.
“His wife, Joanne, said, ‘He was with the fire company, and he was on a call one day, and he had to save a person’s life. The firemen just stood around, not knowing how to do this. After the procedure was done, he realized that he had to train these firemen because he wouldn’t always be able to be with them on these occasions.’
‘So, he began talking to some of the firemen,’ Cathy (Rayhill – daughter of Dr. Rayhill) said. ‘They began to talk about creating a paramedic program. My father was instrumental in training them initially. They established the first paramedic unit … it was either the first or second in New York state. Basically, that was the beginning. He and Bob Miller and Tom Sheehan rotated as medical directors for the fire company for decades.’
“In September 1978, the first class of paramedics began training under the direction of Rayhill, Dr. Alvin L. Scott and Town of Tonawanda paramedic and former GIFC First Aid Capt. Lance J. Kohn Sr. In October 1979, the paramedic unit, consisting of nine trained paramedics, began offering advanced life support services to the town.
“Rayhill retired from practicing medicine in 1997. In 2004, ‘New York state recognized him as having one of the first volunteer units in the state,’ said his son, Mike Rayhill.”
