by Sue Savard
On June 20, 2021, as part of a family reunion, 39 descendants of the William Dailey family gathered in Brockport. Volunteers from the Emily L. Knapp Museum welcomed them at the village courthouse, distributed village maps, coffee, bottled water, and cookies, and gave a brief history of Brockport.
William Dailey’s family came to America in 1836 and settled in the Town of Sweden. In 1865, William established a produce business, and by 1880, he was the largest produce distributor in western New York. He built a large facility across from the railroad station on Park Avenue. His son, Donald, managed the coal business on the same site. Because of his reputation as a careful and honorable man, he knew every farmer within a twenty-mile radius and convinced farmers to switch from growing barley to wheat, which he sold to the Shredded Wheat factory in Niagara Falls. His large home on South Avenue, built of redwood, was a showplace for many years. Upon William’s death, the business passed to his son Frank, but with the changing economy, both the business and home fell upon hard times. The house was later demolished, and the lot is now a village playground. A SUNY Brockport building bears the name Vincent Dailey, political secretary to NY Governor Leman. Donald Dailey became Rochester’s Commissioner of Public Safety and later the Rochester Postmaster. William D. Dailey’s grandson, Franklyn E. Dailey, Jr., now 100 years old, wrote a book, My Time With The Sisters and Other Events, about his upbringing in Brockport in the 1920s and 30s and two books about his later years as a pilot.
With the help of museum volunteers, the Dailey descendants accomplished their goal of visiting their roots, including the Catholic Church and school, the former convent, family business and home locations.
Thanks to Chris Martin, the Emily L. Knapp Museum now has photographs of the total group, family groups, and the site of the Dailey family home for its files.
Provided photos
