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FALCONER – Have you ever wondered why the second-busiest road in Falconer is named Work Street?
Brenda Cavallaro, Falconer village historian, shared the answer during a recent Falconer Village Board meeting along with a brief history of some of the names behind roads and streets in the village. The first group of streets named were after prominent people in the village: Work (Edward Work), Falconer (Patrick Falconer), Davis (Gilbert Davis, who built the Davis block and Davis Hall), Everett (a prominent businessman), Phetteplace (John Phetteplace, the first president of Falconer), Homestead (the original Falconer family house that had a sign out front for years that read "The Old Homestead"), Mosher (store owner), Merriam (prominent businessman), and Dow (Charles Dow, involved in a resolution to bring a water plant to the village).
Work Street is named Edward Work, who has ties back to the earliest roots of the Holland Land Company. Joseph Ellicott, the namesake of the town of Ellicott, was hired in 1800 by the Holland Land Company to survey the area. Dr. Thomas Kennedy of Meadville, Pa., married Joseph Ellicott's niece. That led Kennedy to purchase 3,000 acres of land in the Kennedy area, where he built a sawmill in the settlement that came to be known as "Kennedy Mills," later "Kennedyville" and finally "Kennedy." Ironically, Kennedy never actually lived in the area. But his connection to Meadville brought Edward Work, who had been a lawyer and postmaster in Meadville, to what later became Falconer. Work purchased an additional 1,260 acres of land and built a log home in what is now Falconer. The settlement became known as "Worksburg." Work then built a sawmill in 1808 – the first to use power generated from Chautauqua Lake. Work's first milled lumber was used for flat boats for trips to Philadelphia and New Orleans. Twelve boats were built and were launched from the site of the Levant boat launch. Lumber and salts were sent to Pittsburgh, where lumber sold for $7 for 1,000 feet. At this same time, Kennedy and Work opened a road between Worksburg and Kennedyville.
MOSHER STREET
Mosher Street is named after the local Mosher family, a prominent early pioneering and farming family in the Ellicott and Falconer area. They include Stiles B. Mosher, an established 19th-century farmer and merchant in the town.
FALCONER STREET
In the 1840s, Robert Falconer from Sugar Grove, Pa., and his sons Patrick and William Falconer purchased most of the Work properties and land. Work maintained his home where Prevention Works is now located before it was eventually moved to Mosher Street. By 1844, Patrick Falconer had bought out his father, and was considered the owner of Worksburg. His home is the present-day Falconer Baptist Church parsonage.
During the 1870s, the Dunkirk Allegheny Valley and Pittsburgh Railroad (DAV & P) started a line through the area. Worksburg was 50 feet less above sea level than Jamestown, which was an advantage to the railroad. Patrick Falconer also was willing to donate land to ensure its passage through Worksburg while the railroad decided to locate a depot in Worksburg. Falconer stipulated the name of the depot be Falconer, which is also how the village was eventually renamed Falconer.
DOW STREET
Charles M. Dow operated a large, prominent dairy farm in the Falconer area and held prominent local banking connections near the turn of the 20th century. He also owned the Charles M. Dow Dairy Farm, a historic multi-acre property in the Falconer area known for large-scale Holstein dairy cattle operations during the early 1900s. Dow was also associated with the Jamestown National Bank and active in the local Chautauqua County business community development alongside contemporaries of the era.
NOTABLE PEOPLE
In another part of the village, streets were also named after people: Mason, Morgan and Hough Hill, Karen Lane (World Game gold medal winner in Javelin), Coleson Drive and Harrison (originally called Plumb). There was some confusion with Harrison because Jamestown also had a street with the same name, so the village decided to change the name again and it is now known as Elmwood Avenue.
COLESON DRIVE
Coleson Drive in Falconer is named in honor of Walter “Bud” Coleson, a prominent local resident and longtime community volunteer famous for portraying Santa Claus in the village for decades. The adjacent Coleson Park and the road itself were dedicated to his memory and extensive civic service.
KAREN LANE
Karen Lane was named after Karen Tellinghuisen, a Falconer native who at the age of 18 won a gold medal in the javelin at the World Olympics Games for the Deaf in Bucharest, Romania. Karen's accomplishments began at birth. The daughter of Rachel and Edward Tellinghuisen, she was born August 26, 1958, three months premature, along with a stillborn twin, and only weighed 2 pounds, 14 ounces. She spent the first 67 days of her life in WCA Hospital.
At 18 months her parents discerned that their daughter could not hear. She initially received instruction at SUNY Fredonia and by age 3 she began formal schooling at St. Mary's School for the Deaf in Buffalo.
At St. Mary's, Karen displayed an affinity for and a talent at athletics. She played volleyball, basketball, softball and track and field. She was the Most Valuable Player on the volleyball, basketball and track and field teams in high school and she received the Outstanding Athlete Award at St. Mary's School. She was named a 1977 Deaf Girls Basketball All-American. She was inducted into St. Mary's School for the Deaf Hall of Fame in 1998.
Tellinghuisen's coach at St. Mary's, Lou Pennella, noticed that she had a very powerful arm playing softball, suggested she try throwing the javelin and with considerable practice she became quite proficient. He took Karen to the 1977 USA tryouts for the World Deaf Olympic Games at Gallaudet University (Washington, D. C.) and she earned a spot on the track and field team.
The village of Falconer and the surrounding communities rallied to raise funds for Karen and her mother to go to Bucharest, Romania for the World Games. After winning the gold medal, Tellinghuisen was welcomed back to Falconer with a huge homecoming party. She was feted at a Jamestown Expos baseball game by local dignitaries and Karen Lane was named in her honor. She continued training with the javelin and in 1981 competed in the Deaf World Olympic Games, this time in Cologne, Germany, where she won a bronze medal.
Tellinghuisen went on to a 30-year career as a calculations clerk for New York state.