GENESEE COUNTY
Alexander to mark 175th anniversary
ALEXANDER—Alexander, the oldest of Genesee County’s six villages, will celebrate its 175th birthday Saturday, recalling its past with a full menu of events.
The community’s first settler was Alexander Rhea, who bought property along Tonawanda Creek in 1802. The village was incorporated in 1834, and since then its population has doubled to about 500.
The village is noted for its cobblestone 1830s building that houses town offices and a museum.
Its most famous resident was the late Barber B. Conable Jr., who served for 20 years in the House of Representatives and five years as president of the World Bank. Conable lived in the community his entire adult life
Alexander’s charter calls for an annual town meeting instead of a village election, used by the county’s other five villages. The county’s second oldest village is Le Roy, which dates to 1834, but a month after Alexander’s incorporation.
Its most famous visitor was P. T. Barnum’s Swedish nightingale, Jenny Lind, who was often a guest at the Creek Road summer home of Joseph Burke. Burke was an Irish-born actor and musician who traveled to concerts with Lind, a soprano, who quickly became the nation’s most famous diva.
The village may also have the longest-serving mayor in the area, Richard Scharlau, who has held the office since 1985.
Birthday activities in the community’s park include a 1 p. m. concert by the Alexander Firemen’s Band, a slide presentation on Old Alexander and recognition of the village’s two oldest lifelong residents, Don Smith, 87, and Eleaner Rider, 88.
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