YOUR SILENT NEIGHBORS, Albert A. Elston, Collins Company Worker
by David K. Leff
Canton Poet Laureate and Deputy Town Historian

A native of Unionville, New York, Albert A. Elston (1870-1919) came to Collinsville in the late 1880s and served as a clerk in Harrington & Mead’s store on Maple Avenue. Afterward he went to work for the Collins Company, first in the tempering department and later in the polishing department. Illness caused him to stop working less than six months before his death from Bright’s disease, a chronic inflammation of structures in the kidneys. He was a member of the Village Lodge of Masons.

Elston died at his home on Center Street on a Saturday afternoon in June. The funeral was held at the home of G.F. Bailey, pastor of the Collinsville Congregational Church.

Elston’s wife, Jane Warren, survived him by more than two decades. The couple had a son and a daughter. Their son, Clair, was a Yale educated chemist who had worked for Remington Repeating Arms and later the Collins Company where he rose in the ranks to become the firm’s last president. He was married just a few months after his father’s death.

Albert A. Elston is buried in the Village Cemetery, Collinsville.



“Your Silent Neighbors” introduces readers to people out of Canton’s past.  Readers are encouraged to visit these gravesites and pay their respects to the people who have helped make our community what it is today.