The Walworthians: Harold Floyd Granger
The Walworthians
A collection of telephone interviews published in the Wayne County STAR Newspaper and Wayne County MAIL Newspaper, 1994-209
by Kate Chamberlin
Harold F. Granger
2019 Up-Date:
Harold Floyd Granger
West Walworth: Harold passed away on January 24, 2019 at age 88. He was born in Walworth, NY to Floyd and Eunice Granger. He was also predeceased by his sister, Patricia Wahl. Harold is survived by his wife of 68 years, Nancy Granger; children, Alan (Nancy) Granger, Shelly (Curt) Kenyon, Laurie Finn, Melanie (Jim) Frauel and Cindy (Jeff) Casper; 14 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren.
Harold proudly served his country in the United States Navy. After working 36 years for Eastman Kodak, Harold retired and he and his wife, Nancy worked for Camp Denali in Alaska for 8 summers. They enjoyed their time in Alaska and made many friends from all over the world. Harold enjoyed photography and being with his family. He was a lifelong member of West Walworth Zion Methodist Church.
A celebration of Harold’s life will be offered on Saturday (January 26), 11 AM at West Walworth Zion United Methodist Church, 3960 W. Walworth Rd., Macedon, NY 14502. Interment in Walworth Cemetery in the Spring. In lieu of flowers, contribution in Harold’s memory may be directed to the church.
“Cornucopia”
By Kate Chamberlin
Copyright © 1995 Wayne County STAR Newspaper
Harold and Nancy Granger are two of the people in our neighborhood. Alaska has always intrigued Harold. About seven years ago when a couple from their Square Dancing Group recommended Camp Denali, they took a vacation to Alaska. The Wilderness Camp for Adults in Denali National Park was the high point of their trip. They went again the next summer for a month. The owners of the camp invited them to become staff members for the following summer. They accepted!
Harold did much of the carpentry work to open a second lodge for guests and continues to help keep things inhabitable. Nancy helps out with the laundry, serving and everything else to make a guest’s stay enjoyable.
The main lodge is more like a motel, but the newer lodge is made up of several cabins. It has a main shower room and an out-house. It is closer to nature.
“The country is just incredible,” Nancy said as her voice trailed off into memorable thoughts.
She mentioned that they’d met a bear or two on the trail. “They went their way and we went our way,” she said as if meeting a bear was an everyday occurrence!
“It’s the people,” Harold said. “The owners and the guests are just the greatest.”
Nancy Scott was born in Union Hill and brought up on her parents farm in Walworth. After they sold the farm. Her parents lived on High Street (just around the corner from Bill Youngman’s family) Nancy’s Aunt Pearl Scott still lives there.
Harold and Nancy attended Walworth Academy, in what she called “East Walworth”.
When I asked her where East Walworth was, she said, “Well, it’s called Walworth now, but it used to be Lincoln, West Walworth and East Walworth.”
We agreed that it was getting even more complicated with Blue Heron Hills and Gananda as part of Walworth–or are they part of West Walworth?
The Grangers were married in 1950 and lived in Ontario for 25 years.
She enjoyed being home with their five children, but when the youngest was in Kindergarten she became the bookkeeper for Paul Schreiber. It was a full-time job
that lasted 25 years. Actually, she still goes in to help out from time to time.
In 1983, they moved into the home they built on a portion of Harold’s parent’s farm in West Walworth.
When I talked with Nancy, she was baby-sitting one of their nine grand-children. She spoke proudly of their son, Alan, who is the Swim Instructor at the Ontario Golf Club.
Harold was born in West Walworth and maintains that he is a permanent resident of West Walworth, He just had a temporary stay (of 25 years) in Ontario!
“When I was growing up,” he said, “West Walworth was sort of considered the wrong side of town, probably because it had a bar in the center of it. The elite lived on the east side of Walworth and then there were the rest of us…”
The bar he mentioned became a grocery store and now houses several apartments.
After High School at the Walworth Academy, Harold attended Illinois School of Technology and then graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology. He was employed by Kodak for 36 years.
Traveling and photography are two of his hobbies. He as taken slides of their many trips and has them organized in carrousels. Occasionally he gives slide presentations to small groups. He has several terrific shots of bears in Alaska scooping salmon out of the river. His favorite subjects to snap are his grandchildren. He then enlarges the stills to admire or give as Gifts..
Harold is saddened to see so much building going on so near the Blue Heron’s rookery.
“If I ever win the lottery,” he said emphatically, “I’d buy up all the remaining land. Several years ago, I took a walk over where the Home-a-rama is. There were over 50 Blue Heron nests with fledglings in them. Where are they now?”
He hopes some of them will nest in the swampy area he owns behind his home.
Thank you for caring, Nancy and Harold. You are Walworthians, er, West Walworthians with the accent on Worth.
March 02, 2006 Wayne County MAIL Newspaper
Zion United Methodist Church of W. Walworth
Part I: Fay Willis, Church Historian
This year, the congregation of Zion United Methodist Church of
- Walworth is celebrating 150‑years of worship and serving in
and around the hamlet of West Walworth.
In 1953, Rev. Scheib started to collect all the little pieces
of paper with church history on them dating back to 1904 and
transcribe the information into a book for future generations.
Even at that, there were few official documents to preserve and
record the path from an Evangelical Church (1856), United
Brethren (1946, to the Methodist Conference (United Methodist
Church in 1968; yoked with United Methodist Church of Walworth
and Pastor Anne O’Connor in 1969; and as the Zion United
Methodist Church with Pastor Todd Goddard in 2003.) The main
archival book has records of births, marriages, and deaths and
for many years, was faithfully kept up by Edna( Mildhan)Jacobs. a
teacher in the Newark School system.
Fay Willis is the current Church Historian. She is well
qualified for this position, as she has been a member of the
congregation for more than half of its existence. Willis was
born in W. Walworth while her family was living in the apartment
above the Dry Goods Store, across from the Grocery Store and was
Baptized in this church when she was about four‑years old.
Willis remembers roller skating with her friends down the
middle of Main Street. It was paved, but, there were few cars
traveling on it during those days. Her mother was the Custodian
of the church, so Willis spent Saturdays cleaning and dusting and
other jobs that fell on the Custodians shoulders.
“It was like my second home,” Willis remarked. “The first
Pastor I remember is Rev. Charles Hess, but the most memorable is
Norman Pusey. I probably say that because he was our Pastor
while I was a teenager. He was just a wonderful, Christian man
and we all loved his wife, too. Eventually, though, they headed
north.”
“After James and I were married, we went north on our
honeymoon trip. We stopped in to see Rev. Pusey and our car
broke down. We ended up staying several days!”
Although, James and Fay moved to the Penfield area, they
brought their growing family to church at Zion, so they could
stay in touch with their cousins. James and Fay currently have
four grown children; Dan, Judith, Mike and Peter;
plus 11 grand‑children; and 2 great‑grandchildren.
One of the biggest changes to the church building occurred
in 1956, when a large addition was built on the backside. The
new kitchen, two bathrooms, nursery, office and various
classrooms are always in use.
The women’s group of Zion Methodist is very active in
supporting the Bible Society, Walworth Food Pantry, the Clothing
Closet, Pines of Peace, Vacation Bible School, the Walworth Area
Council of Churches, (to name a few) and the missionary efforts
of the Satres. Mrs. Satre is the daughter of a Zion member,
Victor Smith. Although the Satres are currently home in Texas on
a year’s leave, they have been living in Uganda and have been
translating our English Bible into the Ugandan language.
Each Memorial Day, since 1947, Zion Methodist teams up with
the Baptist Church of W. Walworth and Pastor Gwen Bassage for a
especially moving service honoring the veteran’s. Following the
joint service, the youth place red geraniums on veteran’s graves
in the cemetery across the street from the church while a student
plays taps on his trumpet. A white geranium is placed on the
grave of Rev. John Rosenthal, a former Zion Pastor, who is buried
there.
“The really big church project we all work very hard on,
is our annual turkey dinner,” Willis said. “We started the
turkey dinners about 15‑years ago. Everyone, young and old pitch
- It’s a lot of hard work, but it is also a lot of fun on the
first Saturday in November. Last year, we served over 600
people.”
Proceeds from the turkey dinner go toward the church’s
numerous projects in our community and around the world.
“I’d like to see more youth involved in the life of the
church,” Willis stated. “There are so many activities and things
that pull our young people away from church on Sunday mornings.
They don’t come because of football practice or swim lessons.
Church just isn’t their second home, the way it was for me.”
Along with their now famous annual turkey dinner and Quilt
Mission activities, Zion Methodist has several special events
planned to commemorate their 150‑anniversary, such as a picnic,
pot‑luck suppers with various invited guests of honor, and a
super special gala dinner in the fall with as many former Zion
pastors and congregation members as they can find.
For starters, Harold Granger was instrumental in procuring a
huge banner that will adorn the bell tower this year. It’s
bright red letters on a white background, invite you to “Come
celebrate every Sunday.”