“A few months ago, Miss Irene Gibson called me to find out if I knew when Murray Station became Fancher. An official had received a letter asking the question, but could find no answer. I started digging.
“Landmarks, 1894, described Murray Station as ‘a rural hamlet on the N.Y.C. & H.R.R. a few miles west of Holley, containing one store, a coal yard, and a few dwellings. It has become quite an important shipping point for the several quarries lying along the canal a short distance north.’
“Something after 1894, the “hamlet” was notified that because there was another Murray in the State, they must find a new name. According to family tradition, there were two prominent families long resident in the area, which presented a problem. Naming after one, would slight the other. It seemed best to name it Fancher after my father, who had been a partner of Charles F. Gwynne after learning quarrying from him, and was now running a quarry on the north side of Canal Road, having built his own dock for loading boats.
“The date of change was difficult to find. At last, I discovered it in a clipping from the Albion Advertiser under date of Jan. 3, 1938. In an interview with my father near his eighty-first birthday, the interviewer was shown the first ticket sold under the new name, dated on the back, July 17, 1901. That ticket is no longer in the family, as it was given to my oldest sister, Eliza Fancher Cottis of Jamestown, N.Y. It seems to have been fost at the time of her death.
“On such slight evidence seems to hang the answer!”
Source: The Journal-Register, Medina, NY, 31 August 1979, p. 5, NYS Historic Newspapers.