Sandy Beglinger has taken over the duties of President, Fabius Historical Society. Al has done a terrific job as past president, and would like to concentrate his time more on the Pioneer Museum, of which he is now the Director.

Sandy can be reached at 315-683-5878 or via email.

Mr. Al LaFrance, Former President of the Fabius Historical Society, and now Director of the Pioneer Museum, stands at the entrance to the Pioneer Museum which is operated and maintained by Fabius Historical Society volunteers. The museum is located in Highland Forest Park off of Route 80. You can find out more about Highland Forest Park by visiting its website.

I found Mr. LaFrance to be a very energetic man who also participates in archeology digs. He, along with the rest of the Fabius Historical Society, have a very ambitious plan to preserve the history of Fabius for its future generations. One of the goals is to buld a pole barn to store the large horse-drawn farm machinery, along with two fanning mills.

While the horse-drawn planter was donated by the Sweetland family, other historical artifacts are needed. If you have any Grandma "favorites" or Grandpa's "can't live withouts" consider donating it to the museum. Contact Sandy Beglinger, Vice President, at 315-683-5878 to find out if the artifact could be used.

Inside the museum Mr. LaFrance is pointing to pictures of what the Highland Forest Park used to be - a working farm. Why would someone establish a farm in one of the coldest points in Onondaga county, on the side of a steep hill with its less than fertile soil? Mr. LaFrance explained that the valley below was primarily swamp land similar to that west of Fabius. Until the land was drained it was uninhabitable.

A map of where the glaciers of ice from the ice age explained why I find so many fossilized sea shells in the rocks. At one time in history the entire city of Syracuse was under water and the inland sea extended to the foothills of the Catskills in Fabius. The only area not covered in ice was the High-Peaks area in the Adirondack Mountains.

Other artifacts in the museum include farm implements, pictures of days gone by, a nice toy collection of farm equipment, furniture, clothes and section honoring the military men and women from Fabius.

What I thought was going to be a quick meeting with Mr. LaFrance at the museum, turned into a two hour visit! It was that interesting. A trip to this museum is definately worth it and it costs nothing to go in.

Unknownst to me, the Fabius area had quite an industry. Here is a photo of the creamery in Fabius as it looked in 1890. This photo and the others on this page were scanned in from the collection at the museum.

The caption is: The Fabius Creamery was erected in 1890 to process the farmers' milk into cheese, butter and milk sugar. Eventually the company was sold to the Borden company which shipped milk out of Apulia Station and this plant was closed. The Board of Directors of the original company included Edmund Shea, Homer Gray, Reuben Gallinger, Henry Clark, William Hamilton, Frank Gallinger and Edward Knapp.

This is what the Fabius creamery looks like today. The creamery is located on the western border of the village. The road is route 80. One can speculate as to why the industries in Fabius declined. Perhaps it was the advent of the automobile and cheap gas?

Another example of Fabius' industry is the chair factory which was located in Apulia Station and a maple syrup sugar house. One of the chairs made in this factory is on display in the museum.

The caption is: There was local industry. The top picture shows the chair factory in Apulia Station which was started in 1874. It is claimed that as many as 33,000 chairs per year were made there. The bottom picture shows Hall's sugar house. With so many sugar maples, many people refined maple syrup.

To support this industry, there were several large hotels in the Fabius area. To learn about those, you'll have to visit the museum.

Of course, history is nothing without people. People need to be educated and in earlier years this was the way to do it. I am sure the teacher knew each student's capabilities as each student went from grade to grade. Visit the Fabius-Pompey School District's website to see what the school district is like today.

A photo of the Fabius High School students taken in 1913.

Anyone look familiar?

Every high school class needs a graduating class and these were the students of the 1928 graduating class. Congratulations!

My daughter's graduating class was about 4 times larger!