Uncovering the mystery of the unnamed lock tender
Sep. 16—There was a name, but no face to match it.
That's what William LeValley discovered when visiting Lock Tenders Tribute Monument in the Lockport Locks in 2019 from Costa Mesa, California.
His great great grandfather, Frank LeValley, was determined to be one of the 14 people in the 1897 F.B. Clench photograph of the lock tenders sitting on the staircase, but until that point had remained unidentified in the photo.
After a series of messages and sharing of family photos with Locks Heritage District Corporation Chair David Kinyon, LeValley and his family helped identify their ancestor as the man on the left in the top row of the original photograph.
LeValley made the trip back with several family members, including his sister Mary Kay Lamarre and her daughter Liz, who live in Huntington Beach, California, to attend today's dedication ceremony.
LeValley, Lamarre and their three other siblings were born in Lockport where several generations of their family, including Frank, also lived. Their father's job saw them live in several locations across the country before LeValley even turned 10 years-old.
"We got sent to Sacramento when I was like two years old, then we came back here, then San Francisco, then in New York City, and then we finally moved out to Orange County," LeValley recalled.
The family would return on multiple occasions over the years to visit relatives in the area, retrace family history and, of course, go down to the canal.
"We used to come here," Mary Kay recalled. "Grandma and Grandpa would bring us here to come stand and look at the locks."
