LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - DECEMBER 17, 2023 by Lynne Belluscio First, I want to thank David Grayson and his staff for allowingme towrite these articles for the past 35 years. There have been some good articles and there have been some that I really would like to rewrite. I’ve been lucky that there have been people over on Church Street who have found misspelled words and sentences that don’t make sense. There have been times when I came close to missing the deadline. With all that said, I will continue writing articles. For the time, I will write a weekly article for LeRoy Then and Now. I realize that many of you are not on Facebook, so I am looking at some other options and I will let you know what’s happening. I have already committed to writing a monthly blurb for the Woodward Memorial Library. The first article is about celebrating New Year’s Eve. That newsletter is available both online and in printed form. I have also been asked about accessing old Pennysaver articles that I have written. I don’t have an immediate answer. I have almost all of the 1750 articles in notebooks. I am trying to find a grant that would pay for the articles to be scanned so they can be searched. I promise I will let you know as soon as I can. Now on to a little history about what we all know as the Pennysaver Building. I searched through my copies of the LeRoy Pennysaver to find an article that I wrote in 2007. David had just won a “Tender Loving Care” award from the Genesee County Landmark Society for preserving the building that was built in 1877 by Schuyler C. Wells. Wells had his beginning on Main Street. In 1866, he bought the huge building called Medical Hall and went into business with his brotherin-law, Dr. L.S. Hooker. This partnership lasted a short time and Wells sold his interest in the drug store and partnered with James Kneeland, under the name of Wells and Kneeland. They built a factory equipped with steam power and stamping presses, although I am not sure where this factory was located. Wells sold twothirds interest in this business for a sizable sum and shortly after, in 1870, Wells bought the formula for Dr. Brutus Shiloh’s Consumption Cure. Consumption was the name for Tuberculosis and many people had tuberculosis. Shiloh’s Consumption Cure was a concoction of herbs and some kind of opioid that stopped the patient from coughing, but it did not cure the deadly disease. That was a time before the US Food and Drug Administration was formed in 1906 which limited these types of hucksters and people could sell anything and claim anything. In 1877, Wells built the four-story brick building on Church Street. The first configuration of the building did not include the tower. The entrance to the building was on the corner where the tower is located now. In 1882, Wells sold one third interest in the business to his brother George Wells and the company became known S.C. Wells & Company. The same year he had the tower built and had an addition put toward the creek. Inside the tower was a huge walk-in safe. The new tower and its mansard roof, in the Empire style of architecture, changed the building. This was meant to portray a sense of high culture and permanence. Wells distributed advertising cards that showed the Shiloh building with his steamship, also known as “Shiloh” in the Oatka Creek. Wells was taking artistic license, because the steamship was moored on Silver Lake in Perry and could have never sailed up the Oatka Creek in LeRoy. The Shiloh burned in September 1884 andWells had it rebuilt. The boat was condemned in 1897 and ran aground near Buffalo Point where it burned in 1900. Wells’ financial success enabled him to build a huge home and farm on East Main Road which he called Dreamland. His stock barns had stalls for 125 trotting horses. His two stallions, St. Gothard and Dictatum were famous track horses. Schuyler Wells died in 1897 and his son, who was always called “Carl”, took over the company and immediately began expanding the business. He bought the rights to Hammond’s King of Cures; Celery King Tea; Dr. Carter’s K&B Tea, and Dr. Fenners Golden Relief and Dr. Fenner’s Family Ointment. In 1919, fire broke out on the lower floor of the Shiloh Building causing major damage. Two weeks later, Dreamland was totally destroyed by fire. Wells built a new home on East Main Street and repaired the Shiloh building and added a large four story addition on the north side of the factory. In 1924, Wells purchased the rights to all of the Ramon medicines and the “Little Doctor” advertising. This purchase also included the rights to the Brownie Calendar which was printed at the Pennysaver until last year. The last product purchased by Carl Wells was the Rough on Rats products, which were owned by E.S. Wells (no relation to Carl Wells) of Hersey City, New Jersey. After nearly 60 years as President of S.C. Wells’ & Company, he retired on January 1, 1963, and all the trademarks and recipes were purchased by JamesMarshall Hadley, who maintained the company until it was sold 43 years ago to the Graysons. A Historic Building
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