Edwards has had, on occasion, residents who are remembered for their eccentricities, from the fellow who always took a workman’s lunch pail to the community public suppers and filled it with leftovers to take home for later, thereby earning the nickname “Dinnerpail” (aka H. Grant), to the lady who preferred to live the life of a vagabond rather than occupy a permanent home.

 This independent woman, Melissa McComber, loved to wander the area at her own pace visiting with her acquaintances and staying the night at homes where she knew she was welcome.  One of the homes where she always planned to spend a night or two was the farmhouse of Will and Jen Watson in the South Edwards area.  She was visiting the Watsons one time when their daughter, Hazel, was a baby.  Will asked, “Meliss’, want to hold the baby?”

Her answer was, “I’d rather hold a rattlesnake!”

This tickled the funnybone of Will who always appreciated comments he found humorous and he told and retold the story until it became part of the family legends.

And then there was “August”.  The man known as August came to Edwards as a single, older man in the mid- 1920’s and lived in a third floor apartment over Hermy Beach’s hardware store on Main St.

Very little is known of him except what was printed in his obituary, the circumstances of his death and his sparse death record. 

He came to Edwards with a road work crew, stayed and worked in the mines for a time.  Later he only had odd jobs to support himself.

He did not enter into the social life of the village very much in the seven years he was a resident, but stated he had been born in Holland.  He was supposed to be married, but his wife never came to Edwards to be with him and it isn’t known whether or not he had any children.

On Thursday afternoon, April 13, 1933, about 3:30 the firemen were called to the building housing Beach’s hardware store and could see August in the front window of his upstairs apartment.  However, soon he was overcome with smoke.  A ladder was put up to the window and Dr. Adams was asked to climb up to help the old man.  The doctor started up, but came down saying he couldn’t do it because of the smoke and fire.  Someone else managed to get up to the third floor through the back entrance and dragged August to a nearby roof where a pulmotor was sent for, but nothing could be done to save him and his body was taken to the J. N. McLeod undertaking rooms.

The obituary states that August had just carried up some provisions and had come back for kerosene oil.  When the fire was discovered it was thought at first he had started the fire that way, but later the oil was found intact.

His full name and birthplace were located through his death certificate and found to be Augustin Neddenzer, born in Germany about 75 years before.  It indicates he had been in Edwards seven years where he lived a quiet life, died an accidental death and was buried on April 16, 1933 in Fairview Cemetery.  One picture exists of him, the only likeness of the man known as “August”.

  In the late 1890’s in the Pleasant Valley section of Edwards lived an older man in a small house that probably should be classified as a “shack”, but it satisfied a rather hermit type man who is another mystery to present day residents.

Why Shepard Keyes came to Edwards to spend his retirement years is not known, but he bothered no one and allowed the Pleasant Valley school children to come to get drinking water from his well.  When he could no longer live alone he went to live with the Tom Sullivan family.

In the Edwards History Center is a tattered memento (donated by Ethel Cleland) of a man believed to be from the city, but preferred to spend his golden years in a small town in Northern New York.  What was his earlier life like that he needed a bank bag, presumably for money or some type of savings?

An Italian immigrant, familiarly known only by his given name, Dominic, lived on outer Main Street in a small house he bought 9 July 1930 from Lura Gordon and Lutheria Moore. The census record of 1925 lists his immigration date as 1910.  At that time he would have been 20 years old.  The census also records that he was a lodger at the hotel at mines where he was a laborer at the zinc mill.  The hotel referred to was probably the boarding house across the road from the zinc mines and built especially for the foreign workers because of ethnic discrimination at the original hotel on mine property.

As an older man he was frequently seen with a burlap bag over his shoulder walking to Woodcock’s (later Lumley’s) mill to scavenge coal that had fallen from the train car.  He would take his find home to use for fuel to heat his house.  He was not in the habit of washing his hands very often so during blackberry season when he tried to peddle the berries to the villagers, he would show the size and condition of his produce, which he carried in pint glass jars, with grimy fingers!

He lived very simply, planting a garden for fresh vegetables on his quarter acre, but when he needed supplies he would go to Bob Ferry’s store to make his purchases and in a humorous manner say to the clerk, ”I want a bushel o’ money, bushel o’ money”.

Dominic lived independently for many years then two local men who looked after his needs in later years were Joe Manzolati and Albert Rotundo.

Dominic’s death certificate was obtained from the Ogdensburg Vital Statistics office.  It revealed that his full name was Dominic Scambelione, born 15 November 1890 in Italy to Joseph and Rose Gamellen.  He became a citizen of USA and had a Social Security card.  He had lived at the Ogdensburg Psychiatric Center for 6 years 6 months and 7 days due to heart problems, senile psychosis and simple deterioration.  His date of death was 17 August 1968.  He was then buried in St. Mary’s Cemetery in Ogdensburg on 19 August 1968 having lived as he wanted in small town Edwards, USA.