No one knows how long it’s been up there, but more than 125 years is a good guess.
Benjamin Harrison may have been U.S. president at the time. Or possibly Grover Cleveland.
While doing remodeling work on their 1880 home, a western New York couple discovered an old relic from Akron, Ohio, in their sealed attic.
Shauna and Steve Cannon live in Hornell, N.Y., a small town nearly 60 miles south of Rochester and more than 200 miles from Akron.
They bought their home in 2012, but were not able to access the top level until hiring a professional remodeler this spring to break into the room. Shuttered for decades, the attic yielded a dusty wooden artifact imbedded with rusty nails.
In yellow letters on a red-and-green background, the crate lid reads: “ROLLED AVENA.” In smaller type, the sign notes, “Manufactured by the F. Schumacher Milling Co., Akron, O.,” and features an illustration of a bustling cereal plant labeled “GERMAN MILLS” with billowing smokestacks and horse-drawn wagons.
Barely legible are the words “Established 1852. Destroyed by fire March 6, 1886.” The devastating blaze at the eight-story plant was described in Akron newspapers as “the most disastrous conflagration that has ever befallen the city.” Akron had fewer than 27,000 residents at the time.
Akron oatmeal king Ferdinand Schumacher (1822-1908) rebuilt his business empire and later merged with the American Cereal Co. in a conglomerate that eventually was renamed Quaker Oats.
Schumacher’s trademarked name for rolled wheat, Farina, remains a household name in the 21st century. Lesser known today is Avena, Schumacher’s trademarked name for rolled oats. He phased out the name in the 1890s, so that helps date the New York lid to that decade — or a few years earlier.
Roughly 18 inches by 12 inches, the lid once covered a box that contained 36 packages of Rolled Avena weighing 2 pounds each. Such packages sold for 10 cents in 1890 (about $3.36 today) and were shipped by canalboat and train car.
What did Shauna Cannon think when she saw the wooden relic?
“I thought it was pretty awesome,” she said. “I’d never seen anything like that in any of our houses, or anything growing up. So it was really neat to find something like that.”
East Avenue neighbor Betty Drake did some online research, contacted the Beacon Journal and sent a photo of the lid.
Although the object may have been in the house for more than a century, it might not stay there forever.
“If someone was interested, I would consider offers on it,” Cannon said.
Mark J. Price can be reached at 330-996-3850 or mjprice@thebeaconjournal.com.