The Walworthians: Howard Triou
The Walworthians
A collection of telephone interviews published in the Wayne County STAR Newspaper and Wayne County MAIL Newspaper, 1994-209
by Kate Chamberlin
Howard Triou, Builder of Homes and Family Values
Howard Triou is one of the people in our neighborhood. Many of us live in Triou built homes and know him to be a man of integrity.
“I started in the home building business in 1951,” Mr. Triou said a few weeks ago during our telephone interview. “We did all the work ourselves – block work, roughing, electric, plumbing. We did all of it. My son Daryl work before and after school with me since he was in high school. He took over the business in 1975.”
Triou’s grandparents emigrated from Holland when his dad was just a few months old and settled in this area. The name, Triou, is French and Howard was born on November 14, 1918.
“Growing up I had oil lamps and no indoor plumbing when my folks lived on S. Wayneport Road,” he said. ” The doctor came to the house to deliver my brother and sister. I worked with my father on a muck farm growing celery, potatoes, carrots, onions and lettuce on 12-acres. I used a horse and one-bottom plow to work the soil.
“When my Dad first changed from driving a buggy to a Model T Ford in 1926, the only paved roads were Ridge Road and Route 31 . To go to Grammar School, I had to walk a mile and a half. Then when I attended the Fairport High School, I rode my bike two miles to catch the bus.
“I remember when there were 3-cents newspapers, 6-cents for bread, 10-cents for a hamburger and only 15-cents for a pork chop.” During the slow farming months, Triou worked at the Doberiender dairy farm for $1 a day plus his lunch.
One day, he and a buddy were walking passed the Walworth Methodist Church and noticed two girls sitting on the block in front of the church. His buddy introduced Howard and his future wife that day.
After Howard and Ethel Dieffenderfer, a member of the Academy Class of 1937, were married in 1939, they lived in various rented homes in Walworth. One of them was the large home just west of Orchard Street on Rte. 441. Another was the old McMurray house, located across from the now Academy Apartments, then the Academy (Walworth High School).
“It was owned by Tuttle then,” Triou said of the home’s rental units. “That was Emily Huntley’s father. The Tuttles and Huntleys were the monied people in those days.”
Triou served our country’s WWII effort by working in the shell factory, as he was classified as 4-F by both the Army and the Navy.
Dr. Esley was the family doctor in town during the 1940’s, and the electric was a 25-cycle generator owned by the town.
“It was half of what we have now and sometimes we had electric and sometimes we didn’t,” Mr. Triou chuckled.
Years ago when there were fewer houses, more open fields and virgin forests, Mr. Triou hunted and trap foxes and managed to catch a few coyote.
“About 15-years ago, the state stocked this area with coyote,” he commented during our October, 2000 interview. “They’re native to this area and the State thought it important to re-establish them. Apparently, they’ve flourished. They’ll get small dogs, cats and turkeys. You can hear them at night. They have a yippy kind of howl, not the long hoot of a wolf.”
Mr. Triou ran a grocery store in Walworth from about 1942 until 1951. It was in the old, original Masonic Hall. The store was on the first floor and the meeting rooms were above the store. During this time, he and Ethel attended the Walworth Methodist Church. Out of respect for their religion, they never had the store open on Sundays. They sold the grocery business to Donald and Irene Brockman in 1951.
When my husband and I wanted to add a wing onto our home in 1981, we knew of Howard Triou’s impeccable reputation as a home builder, but he was retired. We asked Daryl to work with our architect, Roger Johanson, to do the construction. We have never regretted Daryl’s attention to detail, the quality of his workmanship and the respect for our wishes and time schedule. It is obvious that Daryl was taught by a Master Builder of character and integrity.
The improved electric situation and indoor plumbing are two of the things Mr. Triou thought were good improvements to the town throughout the years he has lived in our area. He is not happy about the increase in crime, though.
“We used to leave our homes unlocked,” he stated. “Young people today have too many temptations. Too many young men have no father in the family picture. We need to get the family back. The seven of us used to all sit down and have dinner together. We talked and did things together. The decline in the family brought a decline in morality.”
Howard and Ethel’s family include their grown children Daryl, Judith, Linda, Susan and Edward as well as their children’s children.
Thank you, Howard Triou. You are a Walworthian with the accent on worth.