VOL. XXIV APRIL 1978 NO. 4 WARSAW, NEW YORK small/Historical... · he woul havd beee coveren by...

Cheesebox and Bar re l Factory on Richardson Road. Phototaken about 1885.

By C. Kihm Richardson

APRIL 1978 WARSAW, NEW YORK

Walking f rom Strykersvi l le into Buffalo and back around 1850 was not such an unheard of thing as it would be today, especially if a tub of butter were being ca r r i ed on the head. When I travel now at 55 mi les an hour over hard-sur faced roads all the way and go the thirty mi les to Buffalo in three-qua r t e r s of an hour, many thoughts turn over in my mind of the changes between then and now. Much of this change I know of f rom written information, but some I have come by f rom incidents handed down by my family, for both my fa the r ' s and mothe r ' s famil ies lived in the a rea for severa l generat ions. It i s this close contact with actual events that s t i r s my interes t and gives me a di f fer-ent feeling of the past than just something read f rom a book.

It was my maternal grandmother (Lena Sloand Kihm) who rela ted that her mother , Margaret Hyman Sloand, would take a tub of butter on her head and s ta r t out for Buffalo at 2 o'clock in the morning in order to get a few extra cents for it in Buffalo.

By 1850, the United States had more than made

up the 100 yea r s by which they were reported to have lagged behind Europe in 1800. The gap had not only closed but the United States economy was pro-gress ing at a rapid ra te . The United States had been instrumental in the development of the high p res -su re (30 psig) s team engine and boiler in lieu of the atmospheric s team engine invented and used in England. This opened up the possibili ty of i ts use for mobile equipment such as boats and railway engines since it was much lighter. A ra i l road ran f rom Buffalo to Attica by 1843, to East Aurora by 1867 and on to Olean by 1872. Atoll road, completed in 1849, plank on one side, ran f rom Buffalo to East Aurora. This was protected by the s ta te against any paral lel road until 1900 and was in existence until 1904. In i ts ea r l i es t y e a r s it must have had much t raf f ic f rom the hauling of produce, hay, grain, butter, cheese, etc. , for the original cost was paid off in two years . The ra i l road probably caused it to fall on hard t imes because in later years bonds were sold just to maintain it and these were never paid off.

(continued on page 86)

VOL. XXIV NO. 4

APRIL 1978

Historical Wyoming is published quarterly by the Wyoming County Historian's Office, 76 jj North Main Street, Warsaw, N.Y. 14569. Editor: John G. Wilson, County Historian; Ij Assistant Editor, Mary Wilson. Annual sub- | scription rate is $3.00. Subscription year runs from July 1 to July 1 and those sub-scribing during that period will be sent all back issues for that year. Cost for extra back issues is $1.00 per copy. Checks should be made payable to Historical Wyoming and sent to the County Historian's Office. Second-class postage paid at Warsaw, N.Y. 14569. Postmaster send forms 3579 to County His-torian 's Office, 76 North Main Street, War-saw, N.Y. 14569.

Memories of Java and Strykersville (continued) However, this progress had not raised the stan-

dard of living of the imigrants who had little or no money to s tar t with and were trying to pay for land as well as ra i se a family, which was the situation with my great-grandparents on my mother 's side. My grandmother told also of remembering her parents cutting, hauling and burning t rees to clear land and then some peddler would come along and barter with some needles or other small items they needed in exchange for the ashes. Ashes were leached with water, the water boiled off to get a more concentrated lye solution often used in home-made soap. Meat was not on the daily diet, except maybe for a little on Sunday. I suspect that they did not consume a great deal of dairy products themselves as this was needed to bring in some cash.

On the other side of the family, things at that time were different. My great-great grandfather, Charles Richardson, had paid off some purchase agreements and gotten title to some of his land but was paying on some more. The books of the F a r m e r s Loan and Trust Co. (successor to the Holland Land Co.) now in possession of the Genesee Co. Historical Society, show that he made payments of 7 or 8 dollars every 6 months on a purchase contract. The records show this was sometimes in cash and sometimes in cattle. From what I have heard, life was much easier for him, as it was for many who had gotten an ear l ie r start and maybe had some financial help f rom their fami-lies who settled ear l ier in New England or some other par ts of the country.

ABOUT MY GRANDMOTHER To get back to the reason that I think some fam-

ilies did not live too well, my maternal grandmother had her teeth out at an early age, early twenties. Now this wouldn't have been because of too many sweets, for the large scale refining of sugar hadn't

come about by that time, and it wasn't some thing that would have been purchased anyway. She r e -lated having her teeth pulled in the 1870's with only a couple of shots of whiskey which the dentist suggested that she had better take. She told how she kicked her feet on the chair and after he had pulled about half the teeth he stopped and went at it again and pulled the res t . Whether they had nothing better than alcohol to deaden the pain of pulling teeth or whether nothing else was used in order to save money, I do not know. The use of ether had been discovered in the 1840's for making patients in-sensitive during operations and dental work. In later years Dr. Moore came to Strykersville one day a week from Holland. In 1931 he was still prac-ticing in Holland using a foot peddled drill .

As with many young and not very well educated girls , my grandmother worked in East Aurora doing housework and cooking and later marr ied Pe te r Kihm who was a woodworker, more specifically, a wagon-maker or wheelwright. At that time (about 1875) many, probably most villages had a place where wagons and buggies were made but it was changing fast and they were being made in larger quantities in cities. It was necessary to change to something more in vogue, railway passenger ca r s for the Pullman Co., for whom he worked prior to his death in 1889 at an ear ly age, leaving a wife and six children, one still unborn. He had worked up to the time he was so ill that the boys had to draw him to work in their wagon. Had he been working for such a company in this day and age, he would have been covered by disability and life insurance by the company, as well as by Social Security for the six children, and life would have been fairly easy. At that t ime there was no income from any source except what they could earn doing the most menial tasks. Things were rough for about 10 or 15 years until her oldest boy Charles was able to support her and then later her young-est son, Peter . With all this struggle to ra ise her family alone, she lived to be 103 yea r s old. Her last years were hard when she lived with my mother Ida Kihm Richardson, because she could no longer do anything for I truly think that she liked to work.

When it became necessary to send a message from Strykersville to Buffalo in 1888 of the death of Lewis Sloand, there was no simple means even though the telegraph became a reality by 1848 and the way to make a telephone had been discovered by 1875. I have a copy of the telegram delivered by the Buffalo telegraph office which indicates that it was sent f rom the Arcade Western Union office. Actually it says f rom Strykersville via Arcade. I find no reference to any telegraph office at Strykersville and speculate that the closest telegraph f rom up the P e r r y Hill Road would have been North Java at the Attica and Arcade railway station. The rai lroad had been completed in 1880 and an item in a local newspaper of 1885 makes ref-erence to a telegraph operator there; he was not necessari ly the f i rs t operator. On this subject of


APRIL 1978 PAGE 3

Memories of Java and Strykersville (continued) communication a system of four telephones is re -ported to have connected Strykersville, Java, Wales Center and Portageville in 1894.

If a f a rmer back around 1890 had boys or g i r l s of working age it was considered a big help. Of course they had to be fed, but they did not spend as much time as now going to school or watching television and were considered an asset. Shortly af ter my grandmother was widowed with three boys old enough to work and had been moved back to Strykersville, some man stopped and asked her to mar ry him. She told him to get out and threat-ened to throw boiling water on him if he bothered her anymore. As I remember hearing this, he didn't even get off his wagon to make this proposal, but the boiling water incident suggests that he must have been off the wagon.

Because my mother ' s father died when she was only seven years old, life may have not been much easier than for her mother, but I think she did get more education and worked for someone when she was sixteen to learn tailoring. At seventeen, she did housework in Strykersville and later in East Aurora. My father, Charles Gilbert Richardson got to go away to the equivalent of high school in the winter. Some of the time it was at P e r r y where he could stay with an aunt. He never said much about the school part but he had to go with his girl cousin or cousins to dancing class. I can't believe it was the dancing that he compained about, just who he had to take because he later loved to dance, driving quite some distances around the area.

MY FATHER'S FAMILY When I worked on the history of Java for the

Bicentennial, I copied from the histories of several families and did some interviewing on others but did not put in about the Richardson who came to Java, Strykersville area around 1820. This was partly because I didn't want it to sound too person-al and partly because I didn't know very much about them. Charles Richardson apparently articled land where Leonard Holmes now lives and built the front part of that house.

From what I read in Beers and old deeds he also had his hand in other businesses such as the grist mill at Java Village. As happened so much in those times, his wife died young and he returned two more t imes to New England to remarry . From what Leonard Holmes' father told him, there was evidence in the front center part of the house that there had been three f i replaces downstairs and two upstairs. This was probably the only means of heating the house at that time. At the southeast corner was a wing for processing milk, la ter moved out back for storage. He must have articled land running on north up into Strykersville in the town of Sheldon as he donated land for the Baptist Church, and as he sold off lots along the road, he retained a s tr ip of land so that he could walk to

church on his own land. Sounds as though he were a little something or other but that is what the old deeds say.

His oldest son, Charles H. Richardson, was born in 1823 (supposedly in that house). He apparently was in business around Java Village. Either he and/or his father had land other than the homestead because some of his children were born in other towns in the a rea . v He had marr ied Mary Balcom in 1845. They had 13 children born between 1846 and 1868. When his father died in 1867, he took over the homestead fa rm. Since he had this large family, I would assume that at that time, the large addition was made at the r ea r but it could have been ear l ier because his father liked to have meetings of religious and political groups. In any case, when the house was remodeled, probably around 1860 or 1870, apparently f i replaces were not the up-to-date thing to have, and all five were torn out and also the chimneys so that the front a rea could be used for a hall and a stairway to the second floor. Leonard related that when he was doing some remodeling, he found a let ter in a partition writ-ten in 1826. Someone was dunning my great-great grandfather for money overdue on a mortgage or note.

My grandfather, Fayette Richardson, also ran the farm for a t ime before it was sold to Ernest Holmes, but most of his life he had run a cheese-box and bar re l factory at Java Village in partner-ship with his father and/or his brother. My father operated the mill for the last several years before it was abandoned. The last year that it amounted to much was 1914. There were two or three reasons that it was no longer practical to operate. It was an old mill and was equipped to do the special operations to make par t s for cheeseboxes and bar re ls . To just saw lumber wasn't economical. A second reason which has always been a draw-back for the area was that although there was still a market for cheeseboxes not being on a rai lroad was a disadvantage and it wasn't possible to compete with mil ls better located. Third, the barre l business had all but disappeared for the apple buyer wanted apples packed in baskets, not barre ls .

DOCTORING IN THE EARLY DAYS At one time when he was young, my father had a

job driving for Dr. Fromholtzer in Strykersville. As I remember , the doctor had two teams so that with bad roads and a lot of te r r i tory to cover, they could spell the horses . The doctor had a driver so that he could get some res t between calls. What a doctor could do to help people then seems small be-cause they had practically none of the many drugs now available. As late a s 1931, I remember a sec-ond cousin died in his home of a cer tain type of in-fluenza for which the doctor had no type of t reat-ment. It was the later 30 's when the drugs that really gave the doctors some weapons came into use.


APRIL 1978

Memories of Java and Strykersville (continued) In 1909 my fa ther ' s leg was broken when he

jumped from a buggy because the horses were running away. Both bones below the knee were twisted off. I had always assumed that he was taken to a hospital in Buffalo because that is what would have happened anytime in the last 50 years . I dis-cussed this with Dr. Anthony Sloand who was born and raised in Java. He thinks they would have set this locally because the transportation to a hos-pital would have been difficult under any condition and especially with a brokenleg. Itwouldhave been by horse drawn vehicle to East Aurora and then by train to Buffalo. He feels that even if he had been in Buffalo, they would not have used X-ray. It had been discovered in 1895 but was not used very much because of the expense at that time. Only the large bone ever mended. Had this happened even 20 years later it probably would have been medically possible to handle this problem.

WELLS AND PUMPS At the house on the north edge of Java where

my grandmother lived for many years there was a dug well, walled up with stone. This was in the woodshed and had a wooden pump over it. One time her boys came home and found the pump frozen so they pulled it up and took it in and put it on the top of the kitchen stove to thaw. Such a pump was made from a square piece of wood about 6 " x 6 " with about a 2 " hole. I ts toodup about 4 1/2' and probably extended down 6 or 8'. If this was not deep enough to reach water a pump log was added. They were joined by a male and female taper as was a wooden check valve at the bottom. Kenneth Suttell tel ls me that the checkvalve at the bottom was a piece of weighted leather in a wooden housing. The handle worked a wooden plunger wrapped with leather. By the early 1900's the sucker rod going to the plunger may have been steel but on the f i rs t wooden pumps it was probably wood. On this pump the outlet screwed to the side of the pump was cast iron but ea r l ie r would have been wood. There was another early type of pump with a crank which was made of steel. A sprocket at the top engaged a chain with a se r i e s of disks about 2 " in diameter which were pulled up through a cylinder which could be wood or metal. This sytem required no check valve and ran down after each time that it was used; in fact the crank flew backwards and hit you if you weren't careful . This pump was housed in a wooden box about 5 " x l 5 " x 4 ' high.

THE HORSE THIEF There have always been people who coveted

other people's property and sometimes took it. Before the time of the car thief, there was stealing of horses . There are s tor ies of stolen horses being dyed, etc. Sometime around 1915 a man who had been imprisoned for stealing horses, escaped

or was released. When it was heard that he was out of prison and headed back to the area, two fellows moved a team of horses f rom a barn on the west side of Route 78 near the Congregational Church in Strykersville to a little used barn on the east side of the road. Only one man saw them do it and he didn't say anything to anyone. The news spread like wildfire that the horse thief had struck again. When it dragged on and the horses were not found, the two fellows who had moved the horses became quite worried because horses can not go for as long periods without water as some other animals.

STORIES MY FATHER TOLD Life was harder in some ways 75 years ago than

today, but there was less traveling about and more sitting and talking. One true story that my father told always gets a laugh. The fellows were sitting around talking at a s tore, blacksmith shop or what have you. They were talking about having carbun-cles and how painful they were. One of the fellows who was known for not sticking to the facts said, "You can't tell me anything about how painful they are , I had one right here on my a rm and it was t e r r i b l e . " He pulled up his sleeve and looked at his arm top and bottom^ then said, "It must have been the other a r m , " and after looking at that a rm he said, "Come to think of it, it was my brother J o e . "

Another story my father told of his uncle who had a ra ther sour outlook on most things, was r e -garding his razor strop. This was af ter my grand-father moved down to run the homestead farm. His youngest brother stayed on there as he had before his father died. It seems the boys didn't have a razor s t rop or one as good a one as their uncle 's , so they borrowed his. Not being very experienced yet at stropping a razor , they cut a nick in it. When George noticed this he flew into one of his spells and cut the s trop in 2 or 3 pieces. Well, the boys couldn't let it go at that so they cut the whole strop in pieces about a half inch long and one eighth inch wide (now we should say 13mil imeters long and 3 mi l imeters wide) and they put some in every pocket of every piece of clothing he had.

THE ARMY WORMS When army worms got s tar ted back in 1914 and

devoured one field af ter another, there was ap-parently no way to stop them until their cycle ran its course. All they left of a field of grain was a stalk here and there. They marched across a dirt road until there were no wagon t racks left, only thousands of their t racks. Apparently this was not solved for some time for I learn they struck as late as 1963 up on P e r r y Hill Road. F a r m e r s have problems now but have not had that one for several years , thanks to modern chemistry.

THE COMING OF THE AUTOMOBILE (continued on page 89)

APRIL 1978 .

Memories of Java and Strykersville (continued) I was born in 1908 but I don't remember even

seeing an automobile until about 1914. Some auto-mobiles had ventured out to the Java area before that but roads into Buffalo had only recently been hard surfaced, side roads were not even good gravel. Moving of mater ia ls such as gravel onto roads had to be accomplished with horse and wagon. Such things as auto agencies, gas stations, garages were practically non-existent in the country. Sears Roebuck had ear l ier sold automobiles by catalog; this was a buggy wheel type delivered by railway car to the local area. The f i rs t gasoline pump I remember was a one gallon piston and cylinder type. The garage mechanic had rigged up a rod to push a ball bearing over into a hopper on each stroke so there could be no mik up on the amount pumped. Another early pump had a glass container of 5 to 10 gallons on top of the pump where the gas was pumped and measured, then drained into the automobile tank.

Gasoline was used for stationary gasoline engines before automobiles madetheirway into this area, so gasoline and kerosene were delivered by horse drawn vehicles. The various different shaped one gallon cans had not yet been produced. Syrup cans were avilable at any hardware store, in fact, made at Java Village. This resulted in their being used for many purposes such as lubricating oil as it was called then rather that motor oil. This resulted in some problems, one I know of when syrup was in-advertently added to the crankcase of the f i rs t small dump truck bought by the town where I lived. As soon as the syrup and oil mixture was heated, the syrup candied and after the engine had been stopped and allowed to cool the pistons were stuck solid. Only by steaming the disassembled engine was it possible to use it again. Of course the cause of the trouble was not known until they had this engine all torn to pieces and the problem was traced back to the syrup.

Automobiles were not nearly so dependable as in later years . Broken axles were not uncommon, engines were overhauled every 3 or 10 thousand miles; did they need it? I have always had a ques-tion in my mind. After being overhauled they were towed because the rings, pistons and bearings were set up so tight. Bearings were of babbeted type, scraped to fit.

The automobile manufacturers by 1912 began experimenting with methods of starting other than by crank. There were other methods than with an electr ic motor, such as compressed air and a combustible gas stored in a cylinder. The cheap ca r s did not go in for this added feature for some years but for one well known make you could buy a rachet and a cable that could be pulled from inside the car to give the engine a quarter turn, this would have been in the 20's. 1912 saw the s tar t of enclosed cars , but open ca r s with their side curtains continued to predominate for many years .

PAGE 89 Headlights were probably originally oil but the

f i rs t I remember were acetyline supplied from a cylinder on the running board. The f i r s t electric lights that I remember ran off a magneto, and if the lights were too dim, you released the clutch to let the engine speed up to give a burst of light.

T i res were a problem, I mean really a problem, until they star ted making what they called cord t i res about the time of the f i rs t World War; even these left some thing to be desired. The cemented fabric type that woulci heat and fail because the layers were not vulcanized to each other continued in use for a time af ter that. Ear l ie r c a r s were ad-vertised as equipped with a tube patching outfit. A tr ip of any distance like 50 miles was expected to include patching t i res .

In the early 20's a great achievement with a car was being able to go up a hill such as the one to Java Center in high gear . This was what is now called Pitt Road, at that t ime the only road to Java Center. The new road was built in about 1928 following some of the route that had been planned for the electr ic railway of about 1900.

Pictured is Mrs . Lena Kihm the maternal grandmother of the author. '

The four wheel brakes and actuation by hydraulics came along in the 20's. Of course when they f i r s t came out there were those who argued that having brakes on the front wheels would never work out. Automobiles have improved since the 20's with higher compression, better t i res , lower suspen-sion because of better roads, but the advance-ment there has been small compared with the a i r -plane, television, travel to the moon, electronics, etc. These have all made greater and greater use of fossil produced energy in lieu of the sweat of the human brow or animals to ra i se the standard of living. Who knows how long this will last?


Memories of Java and Strykersville (continued) FOOD MEMORIES

It is indeed unfortunate that by the time a man is able to afford to buy and eat anything his heart des i res , he can't afford the calories. I don't know that I was ever terr ibly hungry after eating a meal, but I could always have eaten more up until I was about 30 years old. I doubt if this was a situation peculiar to myself only. Some of the memories related to food in my younger years were visiting a farm at lunch time and having a full dinner with more ham than I could eat, my mother buying a basket of grapes or peaches f rom a man with a hayrack full of fruit he had picked up from the fruit country (about 1924) watching my grandmother stand at the wood stove finely chopping hash while it was frying, a stick of hard summer sausage in the cupboard of her pantry, sliced roast beef sand-wiches on bread made by my aunt, a wiener from the meat wagon, and beef soup made by my mother with r ice and a small amount of meat, the pork sausage given us in the fall when the neighbors killed a pig. The wiener f rom the meat wagon was remembered more for the lesson learned from it than for the food.

THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME For a week or two each summer in my early

teens I would visit my grandmother and uncle in Strykersville, and among other things go on the meat route a couple of t imes. This s tar ted out from the market near the small creek that c rosses Route 78 in the center of Strykersville with a box on the back of a Model " T " . After we had gone a distance, my uncle Peter Kihm asked me if I wanted a wiener. The f i r s t time this happened I said, " I don't c a r e . " My uncle said, "Well, if you don't care (and he knew I did) you don't get one, if you want one, say so . " He only had to tell me that once.

In conjunction with these visits there were also t r ips into Buffalo to pick up meat. Atone time meat sold in Buffalo was generally grown locally and slaughtered in Buffalo. Then in the late 1840's herds were being driven in from the west and in the late 1860's meat was being shipped in re f r ig-erated ca r s from Chicago. So in the 1920's Buffalo had only a t race of stockyards and slaughter houses. There was a slaughter house behind the meat market in Strykersville which until the advent of reliable automobiles and t i res had been used to slaughter much of the meat sold at the market. Going back to before my uncle 's t ime the butcher made sausage.

There was also an icehouse behind the meat market for storing ice for the meat cooler. At the time of my visits there was an occasional slaugh-tering of a cow. Of course this meat from an old cow did not compare with the young beef slaugh-tered in Chicago. The cow was killed by tying its head down, shooting it, cutting its throat, putting a

APRIL 1978 spreader between the hind legs and hauling it up in the air with a hand operated windlass, skinning it starting at the hind legs, as it was raised by degrees. When the hide was off the head was cut off, it was gutted and was left hanging overnight to cool off. This was in the summer and there was no protection from flies.

Ice was taken every few days from the ice house to resupply the meat cooler. Sawdust was removed from over the ice and the amount to be used was removed and the sawdust replaced. After the ice was washed off, it was raised to the top level of the cooler again with a hand windlass and put in place through a door near the top. I never was present when the ice house was being filled but I have been told ice was cut by hand f rom the mill pond down Mill (Sanders) Road and hauled by horse and sleigh to the ice house. I can imagine what a hard task this was to lift, haul and ra i se all this ice up into the ice house. The blocks were all separated by and covered with sawdust.

At an ear l ie r date some places, on a rai lroad, made a business of cutting ice and storing it for shipment into cit ies in the summer. They were put out of business by large ice making plants in the cit ies. Of course, they in turn became obso-lete with the development of the modern r e f r ige ra -tor for the home operated by gas or electricity.

WATER POWER The last water power used in Java Village was

probably sometime between 1904 and 1915. A gaso-line engine had been installed in the grist mill there in 1904 but I believe this only supplemented the water power at that time. The flume for bring-ing water to that mill f rom up Beaver Meadows Creek was removed for the lumber in the early 1920's, reported to be in excellent condition and used for building si los. The sawmill and grist mill at Strykersville on Sanders Road (or Mill Rd.) operated with water power until about 1929. In fact, I can remember seeing them build a new concrete dam to replace the wooden dam. This would have been about 1922. Unwashed gravel was used for this but a greater problem seemed to be that the dam did not go far enough into the banks and down into the s t ream bed, and water washed around it; Buffalo Creek really gets quite wild when there is a cloud burst or fast thaw. Electrici ty came to the area about 1926 and an electr ic motor was installed in the gr is t mill. The mill burned about 1932.

Electr ic r e f r ige ra to r s did not come to the area until about 1930. This made it necessary to use different foods and to s tore them differently. Ice boxes were not as common as in the cities; more use was made of cel lars . A cellar to me is dif-ferent from the modern basement with its concrete walls and floors. Cellar to me in those days meant stone walls and no cement floor. This made for a cooler and probably damper environment and was


APRIL 1978 PAGE 91

Memories of Java and Strykersville (continued)

used for storing foods for short periods and was especially good for storing vegetables and potatoes for long periods.

MEMORIES OF MY YOUNGER DAYS As a youngster one of the most exciting things I

remember was the traction engine usually drawing the threshing machine. The sound of the steam and the res t of the machinery f rom this was more in-teresting than the railway train, perhaps because I could get closer to it without feeling any fear. These engines were also used to run portable saw-mills. The use of portable sawtmills operated in the winter gets back to the difficulty of transportation and because of this transportation problem there would, many t imes be a camp near the mill where the men could stay and stable their horses , because to go home and back was a problem. One of the men would be the cook and probably helped at other things also. He might not be a real experienced cook and know that beans swelled up when soaked and cooked, so in order not to get ribbed about preparing too many, the beans could be disposed of under the floor of the cook house where no one would spot them.

An operator of such an engine re t i red it in about 1918. He had a gasoline or kerosene fueled inter-nal combustion engine for a time before that.

Blacksmith shops were always interesting. With-in my memory there was one at Java Village and two at Strykersville. They were more interesting than a garage for there was the forge, hot rods being pounded, animals being shod, the heating and shrinking of iron r i m s on wheels. There might even be a celebration of the end of World War I in the center of the road by putting some gunpow-der in the hole of an anvil with a trail of powder running out to the side by which it could be ex-ploded with a long rod, red hot the end. It made a loud noise because a second anvil had been placed over the f i rs t , confining the powder.

A stove in my grandmother 's woodshed used for summer cooking that burned kerosene was some-thing I grew up with and was taken for granted by me as something not worth mentioning until I found out how much that had impressed my daugh-ter who was used to an electr ic or gas stove. I ra ther imagine that the outside plumbing was sort of a surpr ise too but she didn't specifically men-tion it. These oil stoves for cooking usually had 3 burners . They had a round wick, a steel chimney coated with colored ceramic material and a door with isinglass for lighting and observing the flame. The supply tank holding about a gallon was inverted over a second tank and when the level in the lower tank reached the desired level tofeed the wicks, the outlet of the upper tank was covered and since no air could get up into the tank, no more kerosene came down until the burners required more.

INTERVIEWS I talked over what I had written with Helen

Sloand and Alton Hyman. Her father spelled the name Schlund early in his life; his grandfather spelled his name Heimann. Helen feels that people in ear l ier t imes had more confidence that they could sope with any opportunity that was offered them; had more nerve to tackle things and not appeal to the poormaster . On the fa rm they had to work hard but they had most of the food they needed and through drying, salting, smoking, etc., little went to waste and they had the food they needed throughout the year . Every so often a pig, a calf, or cow, was killed. They churned butter and did many other tasks such as pumping water for cattle. Maple syrup, butter, eggs, etc. were bar-tered at the s tore for clothing and shoes. Milk was taken to the c reamery but they kept plenty for themselves.

They were glad to see a drummer come along and to look at what he had to sell because life was not that full of the extra ordinary events.

They had very little s tore candy. Sometimes Mr. Foster , in a s tore where the laundromat is lo-cated, would give them candy on a break from the two-mile walk home f rom school. Helen showed me a book written in German that belongs to Margaret Sloand Marzoff dating back to the 1840's. She believes her f i r s t r ide in an automobile was in 1913 with Charlie Dehlinger to East Aurora and remembers how her father hung on to the side of the seat ready to jump out if necessary. Also how in 1919 they had their own car and went to Hamburg. There were many stops for water and to fix t i res . She was very glad to get home.

She also noted that the doctors at Strykersvil le following Dr. Fromholtzer were Byrnes, McCall, Fal ler and then Valente. The town supported a veterinarian called Doc. Paul, and also a shop for repairing harnesses .

Chub Hyman, now 82, could remember working-on the f i r s t concrete road between Java Village and Strykersville when he was sixteen years old. He had to' be at work by 7 a.m. and with an hour off at lunch time he had to feed and res t his horses, then worked until six o'clock for fifty cents an hour for the team and horses . That was $30.00 a week for six days of work, 60 hours. (I r emem-ber when I f i r s t worked in Buffalo, it was 9 hours for 5 days and 4 hours on Saturday). There was no being late or quitting early or taking it easy on that road job. He said the supervisor was tough and rode a horse to cover all pa r t s of the job There was no union or grievance committee. Wagons were loaded by hand and the driver had to dump his own load.

The story that came down to him s imi lar to the one about my great grandmother carrying the tub of butter, as told by his grandmother (Elizabeth Hyman), same generation as my great-grand-mother, is that she also had a basket of eggs in


APRIL 1978

Memories of Java and Strykersville (continued) each hand. He recal ls that Watson who had a store at the corner of Route 78 and Mill Rd., also had an early car , maybe as early as 1910. "He would get some people in for a ride to Java Village. They would get about as far as Shearings and it would quit so they had to push it back. Sim Petz had a blacksmith shop across Route 78 from Mill Rd., Brass had one about in the center of town (those I remember) , but he also remembers another fur ther north. He expanded on the ice house information, hotels, the creamery , the brewery and some individuals who had ice houses. There would be work for a couple of months dur-ing the winter filling them. They might get as many as three cuttings on the ponds that they used for ice.

He believes that the dam on Mill Rd. was re -built with concrete about 1921. When that went out, or even before, about 1929, the sawmill was abandoned. Electr ic power was installed in the feed mill when electricity came to the area in approximately 1926.

The horse thief mentioned ear l ier was remem-bered as being Bubby Roe who had previously stolen 2 or 3 teams. In the case of the army worms that I remember occuring at Java Village in 1914 also occured up on P e r r y Hill as late as 1963. He recal l s that they would hear the whistle of the Java Village Mill up there on P e r r y Hill. When the mill was abandoned, my father saved the b ras s whistle and an injector for the steam boiler. When I was in my teens I foolishly gave or loaned the whistle to a friend for a fountain. I wish I had it now to give to the museum.

This was not intended to be and isn't a complete history of the area but more of the things that were of interest to me and that I thought I could weave into something of interest to others.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR - C. KIHM RICHARDSON Mr. C. Kihm Richardson is a re t i red engineer

who spent much of his early childhood in the Java Village-Strykersville a rea .

Although he moved away in later years , he and his wife still maintain a summer residence in Java Village.

Mr. Richardson is a member of the Java His-torical Society and enjoys writing ar t ic les on local history.

He was a contributor to the Town of Java History published in 1976.

NECROLOGY J . Ear l Blakeley, 83, of Arcade, died in Batavia on February 14, 1978. An Arcade native and a Navy veteran of World War I, he was employed for 27

years by Arcade Central School in several capac-ities. Calvin (Tap) Haggerty, 44, of Cur r ie r s , died at Warsaw on January 9, 1978. He was self-employed as a carpenter and was a member of the Cur r i e r s Community Church. In recent years at Eas ter time, he directed an ecumenical choir made up of singers f rom many choirs in the southwest part of the county. Hayden H. Dadd, of Attica, chairman of Wyoming County Board of Supervisors, 1961-68, died Febru-ary 28, 1978, at Wyoming County Community Hospital. He was 69 and served as County Attorney from 1961-1977, and received the New York State Bar Association award for outstanding contribu-tions in the field of civil r ights in 1962. Active in Wyoming County politics for many years , he will be rememberd among other accomplishments, for creating the current weighted voting sys tems adopted in 1976 by the County Board of Super-visors . His son, Mark, is Wyoming County Dis-tr ict Attorney. Thomas E. Hess, 79, Bliss F i r e Chief for twenty years , died February 8, 1978. He was honored at Wyoming County Fa i r in 1977, for his fifty-eight years a re volunteer f i re fighter of Eagle Hose Company, the oldest active member. Roland G. Wise, 69, Attica Publisher, died Febru-ary 8, 1978. He founded the Attica Penny Saver and operated the Wise P r e s s and Stationery Store. George W. Blodgett, 86, P e r r y Civic leader, died January 28, 1978. He was mayor of the village 1941-1942; past president of the Board of Educa-tion and Rotary Club; former chairman of Wyoming County Republican Committee and operated the George W. Blodgett Bean Company of P e r r y Center for fifty years .

CORRECTIONS FOR ST. JOSEPH CEMETERY PUBLISHED JANUARY 1978 ISSUE

ALLEN Margaret M. Roche, 1900-1971 CONAWAY, Blake S., 1903-1960 (instead of CONWAY) FAY Catherine, 1853-1907 (omitted) ROCHE William G. 1868-1932 TWOHIG Jeremiah A., 1888-1976 (omitted) Pebble R., wife, 1890-1977, mother of Marion L.

APRIL 1978 PAGE 93

THOUGHTS ON PIONEER LIVING AND THE ROLE OF THE

PIONEER WOMAN ...By Robert M. French

PROLOGUE For many yea r s I have marvel led at the hard-

ships suffered by the ear ly se t t l e r s , and par t icular -ly at the work demanded of their wives and daugh-t e r s in the early days of Pike and the Holland Purchase area . One New England author, Alice Morse Ear le , in her "HOME LIFE IN COLONIAL DAYS" gives us many interest ing details of pioneer living in the places where our se t t l e r s originated; other accounts I re la te have come f rom John Minard of Hume, an Allegany county surveyor, and f rom Julia Tarbel l M e r r i l l ' s "RUSHFORD CEN-TENNIAL." I also rely on personal recollections of s tor ies told by my grandparents .

What the historian E a r l e recounts, however, i s predicated on a colonial way of life as it was in Massachusetts about a hundred yea r s a f te r the arr ival of the pi lgr ims. The soil there had been cleared around the cabin many yea r s before, so that in most cases each home had a garden patch well cultivated for their needs.

EARLY PIKE FAMILIES Not so for the f i r s t s e t t l e r s of the Holland Pu r -

chase. They had virgin soil to tame, and it was conceded to be the work of the housewife to do it.

The f i r s t housewife in Pike was the wife of Asahel Newcomb. The Newcombs had at least two grown children when they ar r ived , Asahel J r . and Susannah. Susannah soon mar r i ed another ear ly set t ler , Eli Griffith. Eli built a log cabin on the site of P ike ' s f i r s t town hall. Griffith s tar ted one of the f i r s t saw mil ls and also a gr is t mill. P e r -haps the f i r s t in the Holland Purchase . Many were built about the same time.

The Newcombs lived nearby in a " shan ty . " (Our f i rs t Pike historian, Car los Stebbins sketched it about 1835. This sketch has been mounted and can be seen in the Pike Library) .

FIRST FRAME HOUSE Perhaps the f i r s t Griffith child was born in the

cabin, but Griffith with the aid of his saw mill erected one of the f i r s t planked f r a m e houses in

Wyoming County Pioneer House built around 1808 by El i Gr i f f i t h located at Wyoming County Fa i r Grounds. Now in process of restorat ion.

the Holland Purchase , which sti l l r e s t s on i ts orig-inal site. This house, being gradually reconstructed by the Wyoming Fa i r Association, is now the gate-way to the Wyoming County Fairgrounds. It i s a showplace to r e c r e a t e pioneer living for the bene-fit of thousands of f a i rgoers every summer . Eli Griffith later became one of the f i r s t judges in Allegany County. (Pike was in Allegany Co. until 1846).

According to Minard, v " the f i r s t s e t t l e r s in Hume walked five miles every week to get their b r ead . " They were bachelors, and had to go to the Griffith house where Susannah did the baking. It is futile to speculate whether she could have used a yeast s t a r t e r or made salt r is ing bread. In the absence of a local brewery, either one required the same labor. It i s probable that it was part rye and part cornmeal bread. Ear ly wheat plantings did not always ripen well.

Without doubt the pioneers brought with them from New. England various seeds and probably seed potatoes. These when planted the f i r s t season insured food for the year ahead also. The se t t l e r s might be thirty mi les or more f rom a s to re or civilization. After the seeds were planted the family must wait three months or more for har-vest , meanwhile living on fish and game, Indian fashion.

The garden was in a clearing close to the house. Women, as a rule , had a minor ro le in clearing the land, but my great grandmother, C la r i s sa Lord Thornton, often pulled one end of a two-man c ross -cu t saw when other males were unavailable. There were " log - ro l l ings" often at one f a rm or another, at which t ime neighborhood women got together for chats and served communal meals .

Kettles were hung on c ranes in the open f i re -place, such as the one you can see at F a i r - t i m e in the old Griffith house. When apples were avail-


Thoughts on Pioneer Living (continued) able, women would have "apple par ing" bees. The apples were cooked in b ras s kettles, sour apples on the bottom and sweet apples on top. Sometimes quinces were added for flavor. Molasses, boiled with apples, made pungent "apple molasses" and was stored in the cellar .

In the ear l ie r days, butter and churns were r a r e . When milk and cream were available, the buttermaking was always left to the good wife. Even women of wealthy families expected to take over the churn.

The apple was used in countless ways by the pioneer housewife. There was apple slump, apple chowder, apple ta r t s , apple pies, apple puff and poached apples. House-pies used the leavings of the apples and was given to the children. Some apple pies in country places were made of apples neither peeled nor cored. Apple pies were served throughout the year . When f resh apples were no longer to be had, the dried ones took over. It was the evening meal for children. The crust of these pies, however, was "something e l s e . " It was said that the crust "could be broken only if a wagon wheel went over i t . "

Pumpkins were plentiful and easy to keep in dried form. Yet the pioneers did not welcome this item with rel ish. According to one account, "we have pumpkins at morning, pumpkins at noon. If it were not for pumpkins we should be undone!" Pumpkin bread made of Indian meal was not rec-ommended for its flavor. The Indians dried pump-kins and strung them up for winter, as did the se t t lers .

Squash was likewise a native vegetable. Beans were grown abundantly. The Indians baked them in earthenware pots, as we do now. Peas , pars-nips, ca r ro t s , huckleberries, blackberr ies and wild s t rawberr ies were seasonal delicacies. Al-ways at least one ber ry was left on the stem for natural seeding. Grapes also, were found wild. Apple t r ees were always planted as soon as the family settled, as well as pears and quinces.

Mi l l Stone in Pike located in front of the Wyoming County Pioneer House.

APRIL 1978 OLD TIME UTENSILS

From Merr i l l ' s account in the RUSHFORD CENTENNIAL: "The housewife worked under many difficulties; pancakes were baked in a spider with legs three or four inches long. Bread and johnny-cakes were baked in an iron bake kettle or brick oven. To bake in these ovens, they would build a f i re , and when the stones or bricks were hot, they would rake out the coals, sweep out the oven, then put in their meat, bread or cake, and shut it up. A crane with its hooks adorned the fireplace. Meat hung from iron hooks, with a dish underneath to catch the "dr ippings ."

"Brooms were made of swamp birch or hickory; the piece of wood cut into splints, the splints turned up and tied, then turned down and tied again. Often, however, hemlock or pine branches were used. For a mop, a piece of board was utilized, about a foot in diameter, hewn down at one end, through which auger holes were bored and rags tied thru them - the other end of the board shaped at the end for a handle.

"In place of soda, or sa lera tus for use in baking, the housewife burned corn cobs, poured hot water over the ashes and used the lye to ra i se her bread and cakes. Money was scarce , and about the only way of obtaining it was selling black ashes. T rees were felled, piled and burned; then from the ashes a lye was made, until it crystall ized into a hard substance called black sal ts - or later, pearl ash.

"Sap troughs were used as cradles for babies, and small wooden troughs used in place of dishes on the table. Many t imes there would not be enough stools for all to sit down; the children would stand around the table, taking their rye bread or johnny cake, and dip into the central dish of venison, or whatever it happened to be.

"The f i r s t potatoes were brought to Rushford by Holton Colburn in a pair of boots slung over his shoulder. They were blue potatoes, and considered a fine variety for many years

"Many t imes when the larder was nearly empty, a circuit r ider stopping in for the night had nothing to eat but stewed pumpkin and milk. When black-ber ry bushes sprang up the se t t le rs were much pleased, as they enjoyed the fruit .

DEER WERE PLENTIFUL "Venison formed the chief ar t ic le of diet, but

some men were not good hunters. David Vaughn (of Rushford) was a "mighty hunter ," and often neighbors, when hard pressed for meat, would get him to go hunting for them. All he asked was that they work on the farm in his place The deer were so tame they were often seen near the houses, and at the "deer l icks" sometimes a long line of them could be seen. The skins of deer were used for whiplashes and for clothing.

"When the set t ler owned a cow he was well off. The cows were pastured on common ground and


APRIL 1978 PAGE 95

Thoughts on Pioneer Living (continued) usually wore a bell so they could be found. To churn the butter, the c ream was put into a large bottle or jug and shaken, until they had butter. Neighbors who owned cows would put their milk together to make cheese. It was pressed into a four quart or peck measure according to size, and for a p ress it was placed under a log.

"It was often a long t ime before a barn was built, and some men would get up nights and chase their cows around so they would not f r e e z e . "

SPINNING AND WEAVING "Near ly all cabins ra ised a small patch of flax.

The women spun and wove it into cloth for clothes and general use. Sheep were soon bought, and then woolen clothes were also made, but wolves were so numerous that at f i r s t it was difficult to keep sheep.

"Women spun tow (flax), wove it and then made into bags, for which they received twenty-five cents each. They also braided whip-lashes; David Vaughn bought a horse for sixty dollars and paid it all by selling whip-lashes.

"Deer hides were made into braided lashes of six or seven s t rands each. A s e t t l e r ' s daughter braided and sold enough whip-lashes to buy a silk d ress .

"A Mrs . Weaver made a coat for a neighbor, r e -ceiving one dollar for it. She bought a bushel of wheat with it; her husband cleared off enough land to sow the whole of it that year .

"The washboards of ear ly yea r s were simply pieces of boards. With a paddle, called a "ba t t l e , " they pressed out the dirt .

' 'The t ime of day was told by cutting notches on the door sill if it was on the south side of the house. This would answer well when the sun shone so they could keep track of the shadow."

RECREATION - SOCIAL LIFE We must not think of the pioneers as being dis-

couraged; they were doubtless as happy as we a re today. Their social life combined healthy exercise with fun; log-rollings, husking bees, spelling schools, barn or house ra is ings, besides evening visi ts . We a r e told that af ter log rolling, when supper was over they would sing hymns and songs and sit and visit. Their nearest neighbor might be three or four miles distant; they had no convey-ance but an ox team and sled; no roads but blazed t rees , yet they would go for the evening. Oftimes there was little to offer a guest, but they did not worry; they had as good as their neighbors, some-t imes only potatoes and salt .

Mrs . Chapman Brooks often told of the f i r s t t ime she was invited out to tea; it was at Samuel Pe r sons ' who then lived where Dr. Bixby's house now stands. The Pe r sons family were considered well-to-do and had the best things of any around.

wmmmm .nj* Miss Kathy Rice of Per ry working at old loom in Wyoming County Pioneer House in Pike.

Thelma Robinson of Cast i le copking up a stew for Fair v is i to rs in the Wyoming County Pioneer House.

They had wooden plates and wooden forks and some pewter dishes. For supper, there were johnnycakes, sage tea and fr ied pork. The pork was fr ied, cut in smal l pieces and put on the pewter p la t te rs in the center of the table. There was no butter. Each would reach over, take a small piece of pork as a re l i sh for the johnnycake. A lump of (maple?) sugar was suspended by a string and hung over the table. Each in turn would take a bite as it swung to and fro.

Cowcabbage, called poor -man ' s cabbage, was cooked and eaten. Sometimes they had lit t le else. The f i r s t hen on record here (Rushford) was brought by a woman on the Centervil le Road. Someone had given her the hen and fifteen eggs. She set the hen and ra i sed the f i r s t chickens in Rushford.

RELATIONS WITH INDIANS The Indians of the Holland Purchase that

came into contact with the se t t le rs , were usually amicable. Under the t e r m s of the Pickering Treaty , the Indians agreed to move into the various r e s e r -vations in New York State, but could move from


APRIL 1978

Thoughts on Pioneer Living (continued) one reservation to another at will to hunt and fish. This treaty permitted the Indians to visit their cousins without paying border fees.

In this early period^ if an Indian happened to be enroute to another reservation and was strand-ed by darkness, he could pull the latch string and enter the log cabin and lie down next to the banked fireplace as the set t ler slept. Of course the Indian stayed for breakfast. We have the story that one Indian did not wait for breakfast. He star ted to lift the stewpot, whereupon the pioneer matron grabbed her butcher knife and made the Indian sit down and wait his turn.

My forebear in Hume started to erect a f rame house. He hired two Indians from the Caneadea Reservation to help ra i se the f rame. After the raising, the set t ler offered cash for their help. The Indians refused. No! No! The Indian plucked at Aaron's wedding shirt . So Aaron gave them his two shir ts , and the Indians danced with glee.

THE "IMMORTAL" MARY Finally, we have the story of the most famous

pioneer woman of our area, Mary Jemison, from the pen of Dr. James Seaver. Mary 's life was one long reci tal of hardships, and she always lived close to the land. With her Scotch-Irish back-ground, she had the foresight, when the 1798treaty was being negotiated, to demand that her land (the Gardeau Reservation) was to include all of her "potato patches ."

Mary was a diligent f a rmer . Along the "Grand Canyon of the E a s t , " af ter the spring flood had run off, Mary and the squaws went down to the damp ground along the r iver to plant their crops. No iron hoes - with crooked sticks they punched holes in the soft ground, dropped in the seeds and closed the hole with their heels. These garden spots extended here and there along the r iver , and when the reservat ion was surveyed these potato patches extended in places for twenty miles.

The canyon being 600 feet deep, Mary 's patches escaped the killing f ros t s of the "year without a s u m m e r . " The spring following, (1817), my great grandfather, Obed Thornton, and others, were glad to walk for miles to buy her seeds. Her thrif t and foresight saved many f rom starvation that year.

Many episodes regarding the work of pioneer women must necessar i ly have escaped recorded history for lack of a contemporary repor ter . From these f ragments that have been handed down to us, however, we must conclude that those who survived were a hardy breed, and have left us a goodly heritage.

PHOTO CREDITS Front page: courtesy of Java Historical Society

Page 89: courtesy of C. Kihm Richardson Page 95: courtesy of Java Historical Society and

Bonnie Sheer Page 101: courtesy of Harry Douglass

MILESTONES L. Erwood Kelly, P e r r y supervisor and Wyoming County Board Chairman, was elected fourth vice-president of the State Association of Towns at their annual meeting in February. He was the only Western New York official elected to office at this meeting. In January, Mr. Kelly started serving his eleventh t e rm as chairman of the County Board of Supervisors. Congratulations, "Woody!" Miss Gertrude Copsey, a charter member of Attica Historical Society, celebrated her ninety-ninth birthday quietly at the home of Rev. and Mrs . Addison Conrad in Attica in February. She came to this country f rom Lowestoft, England at the age of three. She had her own dressmaking shop in Attica, where she was known for her " f i n e " work; later , she switched to a career as l ibrarian at Stevens Memorial Library until her re t i rement at the age of eighty-eight. A 32,000 ac re t ract including all of the town of Bennington and par ts of Attica, Sheldon and Orange-ville, has received tenative approval for designa-tion as Wyoming County's fourth agricultural dis-t r ic t . It has been described as some of the best agricultural land in Western New York and par -ticularly suited to dairy farming. The area will include 122 fa rms . Wyoming County's three other agricultural d is t r ic ts include about 72,500 acres . According to the Federal Environmental Protec-tion Agency, the resu l t s of a recent study shows that Wyoming County stands alone among 10 Western New York counties for clean air . The other counties, Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Er ie , Genesee, Livingston, Niagara, Orleans and Steuben under study showed a i r containing more than the minimum amount of pollutants. The Arcade Area Chamber of Commerce gave Wyoming County Republican Chairman Robert Bent-ley the "Citizen of the Year Award" at their February meeting. He was honored " in recogni-tion of his long years of service to the community in government, business and social a f f a i r s . " His former boss, State Senator Majority Leader War-ren Anderson presented Mr. Bentley with the stool on which Bentley had sat in the State Senate Chambers behind the senators, for whom he had been legal counsel for 30 years . Bentley began his law pract ice in Arcade in 1944 and has been county Republican chairman for 15 years . He be-came legal counsel in Albany in 1947 for state Senator Austin W. Erwin.

APRIL 1978 PAGE 97

AMONG OUR SOCIETIES THE CASTILE HISTORICAL SOCIETY had one

of the largest turnouts in years at their March meeting. One hundred members and guests enjoyed the tureen dinner at the Masonic Temple meeting rooms. The program was given by John Morgan of Pike, on the subject of old decorated stoneware. He brought along with him many handsome examples of this ar t which flourished during the early days of the Er ie Canal, and explained how they were made.

Paul Schroeder conducted the business meeting in the absence of the president, Jay Carmichael. Reports were made by Ruth Schroeder, secretary, and Mildred Anderson, t r easu re r .

Mr. Morgan told of the new building to be erect-ed at the Wyoming County Fairgrounds adjacent to the Pioneer house, which will provide space for antique agricultural implements and other col-lections of historical interest , whether as gifts or loans. It will be fireproof and provide maxi-mum security. Owners of collections a re invited to display them when the building is completed.

If you happen to be going by, stop in and see our Historical Display. We chose for our theme two facts about the early history of Castile - its Span-ish name and early transportation before the auto-mobile. Martha Reed, and her son Roger left Eas ter Sunday for Old Castile, Spain. They will take with them one of our Anniversary booklets which tel ls why Sally Gilbert Hurd wanted us to have a Spanish name. Par t 1 of our display is in the Living Room, Par t 2 is in the Office. Children love the dolls that just came from Guatemala, showing how the people there d ress . The oxen are Castile oxen belonging to Byron Fuller . Inci-dentally, our staff is getting a stiff course in Spanish history, Harriet t Scott i s back after hav-ing been away since before Chris tmas. And A1 Ogden just loves to do the research necessary. We understand Spain will have elections some-time in the next few weeks - the f i rs t in 41 years . We are making a study of the Celts who were around 3000 years before Christ and started to make real history 700 B.C. Nothing to do with us? How about Hallowe'en? There a re people in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales that a re proud of their Celtic ancestry. Katharine Barnes

THE MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY was invited to the f i rs t program of the newly organized WYOMING GASLIGHTERS YORKER CLUB, at Wyo-ming Central School recently. Mrs. Bertha Nicol-azzo entertained with folk songs accompanying herself on the zither. Mrs. Norma Spencer and Donald Parmele are advisors; Cheryl Richardson is president and Robin Kaczmarek is secretary . This would appear to be the f i rs t Yorker Club in Wyoming County.

THE ARCADE HISTORICAL SOCIETY recently

received le t ters f rom Mr. Wilson McKerrow of North Carolina and Mrs. Charlotte Wilson Orser of Ohio containing extensive recollections of their homes and families, and their West Main Street neighborhood while they were growing up in Arcade in the early 1900's. These let ters will complement the society's research into the buildings and neigh-borhoods of Arcade. Many of the architectural items were researched by Mr.Arthur Prey, using title abst racts obtained from the owners or from the County Clerk ' s office.

The society in March viewed a movie about the Alaska pipeline, and in April, Mrs. Arietta Slocum discussed and displayed her collection of American glass candy containers.

THE ATTICA HISTORICAL SOCIETY held their spring meeting and dinner at St. Paul ' s United Church of Christ on March 7th.

After a delicious dinner served by the ladies of the church, a short business was conducted by the President , Mrs. Car r ie Beaumont. John Wilson, County Historian, explained the projected "Heri-tage Resource T e a m , " apossibleC.E.T.A. project.

Angelo Corcimiglia, Attica Mayor, was intro-duced and responded with a few words as did August Petr i , Attica Supervisor.

Following the meeting, the President introduced Dave Dyviniak, of Alden, a f ree lance photograph-er , who presented a very interesting slide show. His slides covered a wide range of subjects from art forms to visits to historic museums. The pro-gram was greatly enjoyed by a large group.

THE JAVA HISTORICAL SOCIETY will have its museum open to the public every Wednesday even-ing throughout the summer months. Hours will be from 7-9 p.m.

Regular meetings will be held the f i rs t Wednes-day of the month. Visitors a re welcome to come and browse. There will be members of the Society present to ass is t anyone wishing to do research and students a re encouraged to come if help is needed on school related history projects.

Mr. and Mrs. Robert Pingetore will be back with us in the near future to present a candlemak-ing demonstration. Guest speakers will discuss various topics of historical interest.

The Town of Java History Books a re still avail-able at $5.00 per copy. You may send to Mrs. Ronald Sheer, 2081 P e r r y Road, North Java, N.Y. 14113. Please make checks payable to Java His-torical Society and include 30? for postage.

THE WARSAW HISTORICAL SOCIETY has sent, a progress report to their members outlining the renovation work now going on at the Gates house as a result of a CETA grant received in the amount of $8,700. The "b lue" room and the main meeting room have been redecorated and some repa i r s made throughout the two-story building. Eventually


|M i l l on Route 78 and old bandstand in rear 1909. Hogan's. Waite house in Java Vi l lage located across f rom

St rykersv i l le in 1907.

- - - : " M M B B I Cheese Factory and Creamery that burned in 1891

APRIL 1978 PAGE 99

APRIL 1978

Among Our Societies (continued) all the windows will be scraped and painted, the roof reshingled and the other three sides of the building a re to be painted if funds permit. This should put the historic old Gates house in prime condition before the end of summer.

A similar project was planned to extend to other historical society properties throughout the county, but finally has been postponed because of lack of funding.

The Warsaw building renovation project has been under the supervision of Stewart Gay, presi-dent, and Kenneth Cole, t rustee; assited by John Bracken, Mitchell Alegre, James DeAmnesy and the curator, Lewis Bishop. Th^ museum housed by the building has been the result of years of dedication on the part of Mr. Bishop, who is both Town and Village Historian.

THE COVINGTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY is planning a "Springtime Supper" to be held May 4. Mrs. Ruth Cromwell of LeRoy will show slides of her tr ip to Peru at the April 15th meeting.

AT THE OFFICE It has been a busy winter at the office. Hardly a

day goes by without a new genealogy search reaching our desk. Along with these tasks we have prepared a booklet containing the P e r r y Center Cemetery records which is for sale at $2.00 per copy. Also we have been working on name indices for HISTORICAL WYOMING. We now have for sale indexes for Volumes 21,22,23 at $1.50 per copy. If you are binding the issues by volume, these indices a re indespensible for reference work.

Our thanks go to Francis Hoy, Town Historian for Orangeville for his valued help in preparing these indices.

It may make us appear to be a book store but there is still a good supply of the Beers reprint of the HISTORY OF WYOMING COUNTY available at the office. We also have available some re -prints of HISTORICAL WYOMING VOL. XI No. 2, January 1958, which contains the story "The Immortal Mary Jemison." Whether it i s to pur-chase something or just to visit, do stop by the office.

WYOMING COUNTY NATIVE WAS FAMOUS

ASTRONOMER From an unknown source in Craig, Colorado,

comes a clipping f rom the ELPASO TIMES, dated June 16, 1976, bringing to our attention another distinguished native of Wyoming County hitherto unrecognized, to join the ranks of "Famous Sons and Daughters ."

The clipping is titled: DISTINGUISHED AMER-ICAN WOMEN, and is about Sarah Frances Whiting, (1847-1927) who pioneered in the study of both physics and astronomy:

"Born in Wyoming, N.Y., her interest in ex-perimental science began when she helped her teacher father in preparing demonstrations for his science c lasses . (Middlebury Academy)

"Graduating with an A.B. f rom Ingham Univer-sity in 1865, she was advanced in Greek, Latin and Mathematics. She taught at Ingham and later the Brooklyn Heights Seminary, where she attended lectures and visited labs of new equipment.

"When the founder of Wellesley College, Henry F. Durant, was looking for a teacher of physics for the a l l - female faculty in 1875, he chose her, one of the few trained women in the subject. He had her attend c lasses at MIT to learn lab methods.

"Miss Whiting then set up a lab at Wellesley, purchasing and installing the equipment herself. She sometimes 'found it nerve-wracking to be in places where women were' real ly not expected to be, and to do things which women had not done before. '

"Thus in 1878 she opened the second undergrad-uate physics lab in America. In 1879 she was chosen to view applications of physics to astron-omy, including the use of the new spectroscope in investigation of s te l lar spectra .

"She introduced the study of astronomy at Wellesley in 1880, teaching it for two decades. In 1900, Whitin Observatory was completed from her plans, and enlarged in 1906.

" F r o m 1896-98 she spent sabbatical years abroad at Edinburg University, bringing back the beginnings of modern physics. One of her famous pupils was the famous Harvard as t ronomer, Annie Jump Cannon.

"Miss Whiting re t i red f rom Wellesley in 1912 to devote herself to astronomy, then re t i red as di-rector of Whitin in 1916. - CMV" EDITOR'S NOTE: To make it more mysterious, the name of John Deja, Oakfield, N.Y. i s written across the top of the newspaper clipping.

APRIL 1978 PAGE 101

A HISTORICAL SKETCH of the

MERLE FAMILY READ AT THEIR FIRST REUNION,

AUGUST 22, 1925 ...By William J. Merle

Zion Evangelical Church, South Att ica. Bui l t 1869, closed in 1970.

The Merle-Marley fami l ies represented at our Reunion today a r e the descendents of John George and Anna Maria Merle, who came to America 81 yea r s ago.

Our family history is full of interest and even of peculiar and singular events. To us who believe in the Providence of God, we may see his guiding hand in the various events of our history.

In t racing our history we shall go back nearly 300 yea r s and begin with the religious persecut ions in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries .

Before we speak of these persecut ions in their possibly remote connections with our family his-tory, we want to ascer ta in the national or racial origin of our name.

In the Geneological Department of the Grosvenor Library of Buffalo where I spent severa l hours in making a search for the origin of the name Merle, I found a volume written in the French language in

which no l ess than 17 famil ies were given under the name Merle with a description of their "coat of a r m s . " Not being able to read French I was unable to t ransla te these descript ions.

" M e r l e " is the French name of a blackbird, so several of the coat of a r m s had the ensign or insig-nia of a blackbird.

The coat of a r m s was a tunic that was former ly worn by the order of Knights over their suit of a rmor . To belong to the order of Knights was a title of honor. It was a mil i tary o rder of the an-cient nobility.

In connection with the foregoing, let me r e f e r to a noted author and professor or church history in Geneva, Switzerland by the name of Jean Henri Merle (1774-1872). He wrote a History of the Reformation in Europe in the French language. His ances tors were French Protes tants . His History of the Reformation in 5 volumes has ra ised a monu-ment to his name. It has been t ranslated into the German, English and other languages. (I have the 5 volumes of his History in my l ibrary. The f i r s t volume contains a well executed por t ra i t of the author).

In those days the custom was common in Geneva and in many French provinces to join the wife 's family name to that of herhusband. In harmony with this custom Jean Henri Merle affixed his mother ' s family name - D'Aubigne (do-been-ga) to his name. As an author he is known to us as "Mer l e D'Aubigne." The family name of his an-ces to r s was Merle. This , with the geneological record found in the Grosvenor Library in Buffalo would prove thatour name was of French origin.

Another question we shall t ry to answer is this: what connection, or relation has the history of the Merle family with the persecut ions and the dis-persion of the Huguenots of F rance in the 16th and 17th centur ies? The answer may be found in the fact that our ances tors migrated f rom Holland to Germany, probably a century of more before their coming to America .

I r emember well of hearing grandmother Merle tell that the ances tors of grandfather Mer le came f rom Holland to Germany. Now there is a strong presumption, although we cannot offer actual proof, that our ances tors were descendents of the Huguenot refugees who fled to Holland during the religious persecutions in France .

We may assume, or claim as an historical fact, that during these persecut ions our ances tors with thousands of others fled to Holland.

It may be of interest to us if our attention is called at this t ime to two great occur rences in France which caused the persecuted Huguenots to flee to all par t s of Protes tant Europe. They found refuge in England, Holland, Germany and Switzer-land.

The f i r s t persecut ions began with the t e r r ib le m a s s a c r e of St. Bar tholemew's night, August 24, 1572 when 12 to 13 thousand Huguenots perished in P a r i s alone, and in the whole of France from


A Historical Sketch of the Merle Family (continued} 70 to 100 thousand.

The second persecutions followed the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1585. (The Edict of Nantes gave religious freedom to the Huguenots. It was signed in 1598 by King Louis the XIV). A century later (1685) this Edict was revoked. It was the death-knell of the Huguenots in France, when up-wards of 300,000 refugees fled f rom France to save their lives, and to be able to worship their Creator according to the belief of the reformed religion.

A home was offered to the persecuted Huguenots in every part of Protestant Europe, especially in Holland.

France lost more than a half qiillion of her most industrious and trust worthy citizens.

It has been stated on authority that when the war between Germany and France broke out in 1870 there were in the German army no less than 34 generals and 65,000 soldiers of Huguenot descent.

Coming back to our family name we know further that the name " M e r l e " is not racially connected or derived from the native family names of Holland. It also remains a fact, based on grandmother Merle ' s statement that the Merles were originally not f rom Germany. What the motive was which led our forefathers to emigrate f rom Holland to Germany we do not know. Nor do we know how long they lived in Holland. They may have lived a cen-tury or longer in Germany before grandfather Merle 's time. During their residence in Germany, they of course, in termarr ied with the Germans, so that the larger percentage of our immediate an-cestry became racially German. Grandmother Merle ' s maiden name was Kurtz -- a purely Ger-man name. Physically our forefathers were tall of stature and of robust strength. Uncle George was the tallest of the seven brothers, and grandfather Merle, as I remember him was at least as tall as Uncle George.

Grandmother Merle used to re la te an incident about the physical strength of some of our an-cestors in Germany: A barn hard been filled with hay. Several loads were stil l to be moved away, but there was no room in the barn. Then two Merle brothers succeeeded in putting all the hay that remained in the barn.

Grandfather Merle ' s given name was John George. He was born April 12, 1799 in Dietters-chaussen, Kreis Ziegehnain, Hesse Cassel. Grand-mother Merle was born in March 2, 1799. Grand-fa ther ' s property in Germany consisted of 50 acres of land which made him a man of considerable means in those days.

In the year 1844 - - 81 years ago - - they came to America. The family at the time theyemigrated was composed of one daughter, Mary, and seven sons -- Walter, Henry, William, John, George, August and Jacob. Aunt Mary, the eldest was about 20 years old. Uncle August, the youngest, was about 3 years old.

APRIL 1978 They took ship f rom Hamburg, a seaport town of

Germany and landed at New York City, where for a brief time they stopped with relat ives by the name of Losokomm. Mr. Losokomm was a tailor by trade.

One of the grandfather 's boys -- Uncle John - -about 12 years of age remained with the Losokomm family where he learned the tai lors trade. Uncle Walter -- about 18 years old -- also stayed in New York for a short time.

Grandfather with the res t of the family, af ter a parting "Lebemohl ," started on his journey for the west. Their rai lroad tickets were purchased to a place in the state of Ohio. But how often our plans miscar ry , "Man proposes, but God disposes ." Oftentimes "Our disappointments a re God's ap-pointments." Before the t rain arr ived in Batavia, grandmother Merle was taken seriously ill, so that she had to be taken off the train at Batavia. We may imagine the difficult and perplexing dilem-ma in which they were placed. Strangers in a strange country - - unable to speak English - - no home, no place to go, grandmother sick, with a large family depending upon a mother ' s care . Grandfather Mele walked the s t ree t s of Batavia, not knowing where to go or what to do, when he met a German by the name of Merkle, who told him a place where there was a German settlement in South Attica and Orangeville. Mr. Merkle was the father of Joseph Merkle of South Attica, and grandfather of Henry Merkle also of South Attica.

On hearing this welcome news, grandfather and a man by the name of Miller, who with his family came with them from Qermany star ted for South Attica. It was in the month of August. F a r m e r s were harvesting their grain. Grandfather was fav-orably impressed with both land and people. He bought the farm now owned by Peter Schlenker. As soon as grandmother was able to travel they came f rom Batavia to Orangeville. The dwelling house not being vacant, they moved for a few weeks into a barn owned by Adam Clor at the Dutch Flats .

Let us remember that this was in the year 1844. It seems a strange co-incidence that 81 years la ter in the month of August, three generations -- the second, third, and fourth -- a r e having their f i r s t reunion on the 22nd day of August.

Grandfather, probably did" not live more than 3 or 4 years on the f a rm in Orangeville.Duringtheir residence there, Aunt Mary was marr ied to Uncle George Werner. Soon after their marr iage Uncle Werner decided to go west. Grandmother became homesick for her only daughter. She had no res t until grandfather sold his f a rm and followed Uncle Werner to the state of Illinois, where they settled in a section known at the time as ' 'The Queen Ann P r a i r i e , " northwest of Chicago.

Uncle Walter, who was marr ied about that t ime, or soon af ter , did not accompany them. During their residence in Illinois, gold was discovered in California in 1848.

One of the sons - - Uncle Henry - - was induced by a Gold Mining Company to go to California, as


APRIL 1978

A Historical Sketch of the Merle Family (continued) a gold miner, probably about 1850. He never came back, but died there, the resul t of an accident.

After living a number of years in Illinois, Uncle Werner returned to the State of New York. He bought the farm in 1853 now owned by August Richert and William Eastman. My father William -- also returned with Uncle Werner.

The following year , probably in the fall of 1854, grandfather sold his fa rm in Illinois and returned to the town of Attica, where he bought in 1855 the north end of the farm, then owned by Uncle Werner -- now in possession of William Eastman, whose wife i s a granddaughter of grandfather Merle.

Grandfather owned a valuable team of horses on his fa rm in Illinois, that he would not part with, so Uncle John drove the team f rom Illinois to At-tica, a distance of over 600 miles. The home that grandfather bought on his re turn f rom the west, became the "Old Homestead" for his children and grandchildren. Here he died on the 24th of March in 1863 at the age of 63 yea r s 11 months and 12 days. At this home, grandmother Merle continued to live with her three younger sons for a number of years . Here her children and grandchildren came for their oft-repeated visi ts to see "g randma . " Some of us stil l r emember those visi ts to see grandma. We shall always remember grand-mother ' s "Kuchen" and the fine cut "noodles" she used to make.

When the Civil War broke out in 1861 Uncle George enlisted and served three years in defense of his country, and the Preservat ion of the Union of States.

After the three younger sons were marr ied , grandmother made her home with Uncle Jacob at whose home she died on December 14th, 1879 at the age of 80 years 8 months and 23 days. Here I would mention that the date of her death on her tombstone is incorrect . She died in 1879 and not in 1880, the date on her tombstone.

Of the f i rs t generation Aunt Barbara is the only one left , who is with us today. We a re glad that she is with us at this reunion. While Aunt Barbara i s the oldest, and only remaining member repre -senting the f i rs t generation, Mary Louise Flagler of Buffalo i s the youngest member of the fourth generation present at this reunion.

Had it been possible for all to be present at our reunion today, the attendance would have been over 200.

This historical sketch would not be complete unless we would answer the oft-repeated question, "Why do some give their family name as Marley, and others as Mer le?" Who changed the name f rom Merle to Marley, and which is correc t? It i s both embarrass ing and unfortunate that we have two ways of writing our family name. Before at-tempting to answer these questions, I shall give the ru le for t ransferr ing family names f rom one language to another. The rule i s that family names a re not translated, but t rans fe r red , retaining the

same le t ters a re were used in the original name, that is, the spelling of the name should remain unchanged. For example, the family name "Z im-merman" should not be written Carpenter when t ransfer red f rom the German to the English language. A man by the name of Koch does not become an English Cook when he comes to Amer-ica. The rule i s to wri te family names in any language with the same le t ters that were used in the language of the country in which they originated.

The original spelling of our family name was " M e r l e . " Grandfather always wrote his name Merle. In the baptismal cert i f icate that father brought f rom Germany the name is written Merle. Uncle Walter, the eldest of the family, always wrote his name Merle. So we ask again, who changed the name f rom Merle to Marley? The change came about in this way: the three younger sons -- George, Jacob and August, were of school age, and attended the Public School. Mr. Carmi Lindsay was their school teacher. He apparently was ignorant pertaining to the ru le governing family names when t r ans fe r red to another language. Mr. Lindsay changed the name f rom Merle to Marley. He changed the German e to an English a and added a y to make two syllables in the name.

We shall forgive him, for we believe he did it ignorantly and "without malice aforethought," but it was a most unfortunate occurrance. Everyone fell in line and began to write their name Marley, except Uncle Walter. This continued until about 40 years ago, when a large number changek their names f rom Marley to Merle. In so doing they simply corrected an e r r o r that had been made in the spelling of our name.

The change was made and star ted by cousin Henry and myself at the t ime we entered the minis-try of the Evangelical Church in 1886. Today the majori ty have gone back to the original spelling of the name.

It is also a fact worthy of notice that on every tombstone, marking the last resting place of our departed relat ives you will find the name Merle. EDITOR'S NOTE: The Rev. Wm. J. Merle, eldest son of Wm. Merle who prepared the historical sketch of the family, which you have just read, entered the minis t ry of the Evangelical Church in 1886 and continued in this work until his death in 1930, at which t ime he was serving the Tona-wanda, N.Y. Church.

EXCERPT FROM JULIA TARBELL MERRILL'S " O L D T IME CUSTOMS" IN RUSHFORD CENTENNIAL, (1908), pages 36-40: Concert for Wolves - " A young man by the name of WiIson l iv ing at Caneadea came to Rushford to see a Freeman g i r l whom he a f terwards m a r r i e d . He was a f idd ler and often ployed for dances. Going home one night after a dance he was chased by wolves; he took refuge in a deserted old hut and the wolves fol lowed. Wilson began playing, and was obliged to play unt i l dayl ight, when the wolves slunk away . "

APRIL 1978

SUPPLEMENT TO THE ORIGINAL MERLE-MARLEY

FAMILY HISTORY It is nearly one hundred years since the f i r s t

Merles came to Attica. The f irs t German se t t lers came to this section in about 1843. As you have heard in the previous talk, Mr. and Mrs. John Henry Merle, my great-grandparents , came to America from Germany in 1844 with their family of one daughter and seven sons. It was with some difficulty that they obtained permission to make the t r ip to this country. The boys were nearing the age of conscription - mili tary training in Germany being then, as now, compulsory. Ger-many would, of course, feel the loss of many families of this size. Therefore, they gave as their reason for leaving Germany that they wanted to visit relat ives in America; so leave was granted by the German authorities.

Although two of the boys learned " t r a d e s " af ter coming to America, all the children in the second generation, with the exception of Henry, eventually became f a r m e r s in this locality; and Mary, the only daughter marr ied a f a rmer . (Rev. Merle considered this the f i rs t generation). Here it is considered the second. Let us note where they settled in and around Attica.

Mary marr ied George Werner and they bought the fa rm now owned by August Richert on Ex-change Street.

Walter Merle, who mar r ied Magdalena Bauer, purchased the fa rm known as the Kropp Farm, which is near Peter Schlenker's home.

William Merle, a shoemaker by trade, worked for a t ime for the late Andrew Krauss and also for Mr. McCabe of Bennington Center. He marr ied Ellen Meeder and lived for a time on Exchange St. Road, near the present Lydia Eastman farm. He later purchased the fa rm now owned by Floyd Merle, his grandson.

John Merle, a tailor by trade, worked for a time for a man by the name of Losokomm in New York City. He, too, came to Attica; mar r i ed Elizabeth Meeder, s i s te r of Mrs. William Merle; and bought the fa rm now owned by Robert Eck.

George Merle served in the Civil War in the 160th infantry, Company G, as a sergeant, f rom August 30, 1862 to November 1, 1865. After the war he mar r ied Barbara Glor and purchased the fa rm now owned by his sons, Elon and Robert Merle.

Jacob Merle marr ied Emma Hacker. He, too, bought a fa rm, par t of which i s now owned by

August Richert and Mrs . William Eastman, a niece.

August Merle, who mar r ied Margaret Richert, purchased a farm now owned by Mrs. William Eastman, his daughter. Later he purchased the farm now owned by Frank Marley, his son.

This accounts for all of those in the second gen-eration whose occupations were principally farm-ing. Henry, who was also of this generation, went to California with several others, at the time of the gold rush in about 1848, making the tr ip with a team of oxen. He was the only one of the child-ren who didn't marry . He died as the result of an accident, suffering a broken neck, when he fell f rom a load of hay.

Starting with the third generation, there were many who took up professions other than farm-ing: the Rev. William J. Merle, eldest son of William who prepared the historical sketch of the family, in the foregoing ar t icle , entered the min-is t ry of the Evangelical Church in 1886 and contin-ued in this work until his death in 1930, at which t ime he was serving the Tonawanda, N.Y. Church.

Henry, son of John, entered the ministry at the same time, and, while he has re t i red f rom active service, he i s still serving as a supply pastor at the Batavia, N.Y. church.

Otto, son of August, also studied for the minis-try, but died before he could complete his training.

The three entering the ministry went out f rom the Zion Evangelical Church at South Attica. At the time the church was built in 1869, several of the children of John and Anna Kurtz Merle, who as stated previously came to America in 1844, do-nated much of their time, as well as lumber f rom their own f a rms in the building of the church. In the nearly 71 years the church has been built, the name Merle has been on the membership rec-ord, and at the present out of the total membership of around 45, about 17 a re Merles.

When both William and Henry entered the minis-try, their sermons were given in German. Gradually they gave up the German preaching, but for those of the older generation who sti l l wished it, they held a German Service besides the service in English every Sunday.

Elizabeth Merle, daughter of George, studied medicine and is at the present time practicing in Rochester, N.Y. (1940)

Julius, son of John, is a practicing dentist in Detroit, Michigan.

Clor Merle, son of Rev. William Merle, was a practicing dentist in Batavia until the time of his death during the flu epidemic in 1918.

Others in the Merle-Marley family have fitted themselves for teachers , nurses, undertakers and for secre tar ia l positions. However, there a re still many Merles and Marleys in the third and fourth generations who a re engaged in farming. Of the f a rms purchased by the men of the second genera-tion, two a r e still owned by their children and one by a grandson.


APRIL 1978 PAGE 105

Supplement to the Original Merle-Marley Family History (continued)

It seems to be character is t ic of the Merles and Marleys to stick pretty closely together. Take for example, the Exchange Street Road. From Peter Mer le ' s home to the Village of Attica, a distance of 4 1/2 miles, there a re thirteen families, who a re either Merles or Marleys now, or were before their marr iages .

At the present t ime there are 28 direct descen-dants of John Henry and Anna Merle in the third generation living. Of these 23 a re now living in or near Attica; while the fourth generation have 53 members of the family, in the f irect line, living in this locality. In the fifth there are about 23 and in the sicth, there a re two - Beverly Ann Brei and Judy Gay Clor.

The committee on historical data of the Attica Historical Society has prepared a chart showing our family through the fourth generation.

As prepared by: Frances Merle Dresse r - March 1940

QUERIES Livingston County American Legion is search-

ing for the grave of William E. Hart, d. Nov. 1874, Civil War Medal of Honor winner who was born in Rushville, N.Y. He marr ied Irena Flint, s i s te r of George Flint, both of Gainesville. Irena Har t ' s death reported in the WESTERN NEW YORKER under Gainesville News Jan. 23, 1913, but place of burial not given.

Descendants of John Maxon, veteran of War of 1812, would like to know his relationship to Joel, (d. April 26, 1833) and Lucretia Maxon, (d. Mar. 16, 1825). They a re listed in Maxon Cemetery, Attica. Joel was a Revolutionary War soldier f rom R.I. The story goes that John was com-missioned by his dying "buddy" on the battle-field, to deliver a ring to his wife. John later mar r i ed the widow, Lydia Sweet.

Information requested concerning Lewis Vos-burgh. He was thought to be either a Baptist or Methodist minister living in or near Warsaw in 1913. Help would be appreciated in order to t race the family. His f i r s t wife was Katherine Christman.

An Alden resident would like information re-garding Horace Kyser. It is believed that he was born in Pike, N.Y. May 18, 1824. He died April 10, 1880 and is buried in Elma, N.Y. Can anyone furnish the names of his parents.

A Warsaw correspondent requests help with research on the Barber family, who lived in Alle-gany and Wyoming Counties. Her great -great grandfather John had seven children: Sarah Louise, born April 1864- m. Charles Waterman; William, born 1865- m. Nettie Belle Colley; Julia Ann, b. 1853- m. Fred Howard; Frances , m. Joseph Meyers; and John, Emma and Frank. Any infor-mation regarding the above will be appreciated.

EARLY LETTERS FROM JAVA The two following let ters , written in 1833 and

1835, contain some of the earl iest known descrip-tions of life in Java, and are contributed by Harry S. Douglass. They were written by Jacob Morse, to his friend, Capt. Artemus Stevens, who was the Great Grandfather of Mr. Douglass. Apparently Jacob was a shoemaker and did farming to sup-plement his living. Morse was a fo rmer neighbor of Capt. Stevens in Massachusetts. Capt. Stevens came to Java in 1835, and resided there until his death in 1877. Isaac Friend was a boyhood friend of Capt. Stevens in Dracut, Mass. The former came to Java in 1821, and was a very successful f a rmer , owning at one t ime 1000 ac res in the area . (The spelling has been modernized and corrected and punctuation added.) JACOB MORSE, JAVA, JULY 6th, 1833, TO CAPT. ARTEMUS STEVENS, SUNCOOK, NEW HAMP-SHIRE.

JAVA, July 6th, 1833 Dear Friend,

I now take my pen in hand to write a few lines which I ought to have written to you before to you as I promised to do. But I hope you will receive these few lines in fr iendship and forgive me in my neglect in not writing before.

My family is all well at present and been ever since I have been here and I hope these few lines will find you and family enjoying the same bless-ing. I am myself ra ther lame but still on the gain-ing hand. You wrote I should write to you what the prospects would be here for you; for my own part I think if you can get here with 200 hundred dollars that you will be better off than you a re now. Mr. Friend thinks you will do well to come here as farming can be run with one half of the Labor than you can with where you a re as they do any of their plowing with one yoke of oxen and their plows is heavier than yours a re . It i s more work to clear the land here than it i s with you as we have all our brush to pile before we can burn it up, but a man can chop 1 acre in a week and chop it up in one


APRIL 1978

Early Letters From Java (continued) week fit for loging and then 4 hands and 1 yoke of oxen will lay up one acre in one day. The land is generally of good quality; there is but very (little) waste land here. It is excellent for grass and any other thing that you want to put on it, it being so new a place that it looks rather hard to a new commer but several have been to Mishagun and Ohio and have come back and purchased here for they say that they think it is a better country here than it is there.

The winters here is much milder here than they a re with you but the summers i s cool night but warm days which makes better for wheat but it is not country for corn. Frui t does well here and it will be very plenty here as everyone is trimming to see which one is f i rs t . According to the look now there will be some Swenmure kind this season, on t r ees that have been set out more then 3 years hung full. They don't pretend to keep any of th. . . cattle but they have oxen and horses and there is none of them that keep more than one yoke of oxen; most of them keep 3 or 4 horses, some keep 4 cows, some 8 and some 12, and young stock in preportion and one-half of them keeps on brouse through the winter. The grass and s . . . s t a r t s in the very early in the Spring. They turn their young cattle in the woods by the f i rs t of April and let them run till they get their fields clean of their crops. There is all kinds of roots and herbs over in the woods here Sometimes there is a flock of wolves come along that make the woods ring with their howling but they don't stay but a little while with us as there is no ledges here for them to burrow in and the Indians here about till they go off, and the owls give us a little musick in the evening so that we are not without musick if we a re in the woods.

The Indians come round to visit us once in awhile but they a re very peaceable. Mr. Friend (Isaac) has got to be pretty forhanded; he has 200 hundred and 20 acres of land and 100 hundred under improvement, and keeps 60 head of horned cattle and 5 horse . . . . and 80 sheep and lambs and 10 hogs and he milks 12 cows and he p resses his cheese in a 1/2 bushel every day. He killed 20 hogs. Last Fall he told me that he turned off 300 hundred dollars worth of sheep last fall for which he took part cash and part te rm in towards his land, and he says he can turn off this Fall 500 hundred worth of sheep and have enough left for his own use. My land lays joining him on two sides within forty rods of his house. He is a man that is much set by here in this place. The probability is that he will cut 100 hundred tons of the f i rs t ra te of hay this season as there is now other kinds cut here. Wheat is coming in very heavy this season and there is gravel on the ground. Corn is rather low now but it has a good color so I am in hopes

that we shall have a good crop yield.

I have not room to write no more on this sheet. I have wrote to John Osgood and Murthuey Goutt and I want you should put your let ters all together and sit down together and read them and one then some of you write to me as soon as convenient. Give my best respects to your family and Mr. Linevag (?) and Mr. Chandler. This from your friend, JACOB MORSE Artemas Stevens

Little i s known of his family or of his per -sonal history. Capt. Artemas Stevens, native of Dracut, Massachusetts, came to Java in 1835, and resided there until his death in 1877. Isaac Friend, a neighbor and friend of Capt. Stevens in Dracut, moved to Java in 1821, died there in 1883, and was progeniture of a numerous family, some of whom still reside in the town.

JACOB MORSE, JAVA, N.Y. LETTER WRITTEN JANUARY 5th, 1835, TO CAPT. ARTEMAS STE-VENS, SUNCOOK, NEW HAMPSHIRE, LETTER HAS BEEN EDITED.

Java - January 5th, 1835 Dear Friend,

I now take this opportunity to write a few lines to inform you that I received your let ter this day, dated November the 2, and I received it with so much pleasure as I should 5 dollars in money as I began to think that you had all forgotten me. We a re all in good health at present hoping these few lines will find you enjoying the same blessing.

I am getting along here as well as can be ex-pected considering how I came here. I have had a good run of Customers this winter at Shoemaking. 1 have made 42 pa i r s of -boots and 53 pai rs of shoes in 3 months so you may guess whether I have worked or played. I have let out 2 1/4 ac res of t imber to chop this winter and have paid for it in shoemaking. I have made boots for one dollar and 25 cents . . . some made for 1 dollar and some have been one dollar and 50 cents. I bought (meadow?) land last Fall and give 15 dollars and then I took a job clearing 3 ac res of land after it was chopped and burnt for 15 dollars and I done it in 13 days, and split the r a i l s and put up 24 rods of fence on the same and I have bought four sheep, 2 of paid in shoemaking at 1 dollar and 50 cents per head. 2 I paid for in (geese?) that I raised last summer. And I have got 3 shotes. I have got 6 ac res c leared on my place and 2 ac res of wheat;


APRIL 1978 PAGE 107

Early Letters From Java (continued) have the res t of it sowed with wheat and oats and rye. Last Spring I have got 51 apple t r ees sat out. It is (a) great place for t r ee s in this place although we had no fruit last season on the account of a lot of f ros t . Our crops was very good last season ex-cept potatoes which were light in some places.

You wanted I should write to you about the climate and production of the place and I will t ry to inform you as well as I can. The soil is as good as in any other place; it will produce f rom 20 to 25 bushels of wheat per acre on new land, and on old land we don't have what it will produce but I think it will be f i rs t ra te of land for wheat when the stumps get rotten out so we can plow it well; corn in good seasons will yield on new ground f rom 25 to 40 bushels to the ac re and on old ground consider-able more. Oats f rom 40 to 60 bushels per acre; potatoes f rom 3 to 4 hundred bushels to the acre; g r a s s f rom one to 2 tons per acre . The climate differs f rom yours; our summers a re not so very hot and our winters not for all it set in about the f i rs t of November and continues till the middle of March. . . . have never known the ground to f reeze more than 4 inches deep. Since I have been here we put our potatoes in a pile of 50 to one hundred bushels and then put on a little straw and then put on 4 or 5 inches of dirt and they will lay all winter without freezing.

Wheat is worth 1 dollar with the f a rmer s ; oats 18 to 25; apples when plenty f rom 13 to 18 per bushel; corn 50 cents. Salt in buffalo 150 cents per . . . which has 5 bushels in Tea 50 cents per pound; maple ; molasses 62 1/2 cents per gallon; shirting 10 cents . . . the land is uneven here it has been selling for 3 1/2 per ac re on 4 years credit . We expect it will come down to 2 dollars this spring. It i s very healthy here, the water i s as good as it ever was then and a plenty of it. I want you to be su re to come here before you go any fur ther . We have a good market at buffalo which is 28 mi les f rom us; we can get the cash for any that we have to sel l at some price or other, potatoes a re selling at 34 cents; oats at 26 cents; pork at 3 1/2 and 4 1/2; beef at 3 1/4 and

4 dollars; poultry fetches a good price at any t ime of the year; butter various prices , cheap grade 8 cents.

I have nothing more that I can enclose here . Tell Esq. Goult that if he goes to the west to be sure to come here before he goes any fur ther . Give our best respec ts G. . . and family; give our best respec ts to J. H. Osgood & Mr. Morgan & Mr. Leanon, Miss Pa rke r and all other . . . f r iends. This f rom your friend, A, StEVENS J. MORSE Note: I think that if you a re prudent that you can come here for about 50 or 55 dollars with your family if you come in the way I did.

MOTHER SHIPTON'S PROPHECY East Aurora, May 2

Carr iages without horses shall go And accidents fill the world with woe. Around the world thoughts will fly In the twinkling of an eye. Water shall yet more wonders do, Now strange, yet shall be true. The world upside down shall be And gold be found at root of t ree . Through hills man shall r ide And no horse or a s s be by his side Under water men shall walk Shall r ide, shall sleep, shall talk. In the a i r men shall be seen, In white, in black, in green. Iron in the water shall float As easy as a wooden boat. Gold shall be found 'mid stone In alland that ' s no unknown F i r e and water shall wonders do, England shall at last admit a Jew, And this world to an end shall come In eighteen hundred and eighty-one.

These lines a r e said to have been published in England in 1486.

DALE CEMETERY Dale Cemetery Association was organized November 29, 1873 with the following trustees: Isaac Chase, Zadock Nichols, Howel Jones, Char-les Thomson, E.S. Smith and Orrin Smith. A right-of-way leads from the Pflaum Road to the cemetery grounds. It is less than a half mile from the Dale Pioneer Cemetery, which is on the main Dale Road. The present directors are: Elmer

Bagg, president; Frank Kessler, Lewis Gay, Velma Thomson, Wayne Dersam, Bernita Wombwell, and Mildred Belt. We sire indebted to Lewis Gay, secretary, for up-dating these records, which include the 1955 records compiled by Charles Pflaum. Some interments from the Pioneer Cemetery in Dale have been removed to the present cemetery. ANDREWS

Gus, no dates ATWATER Eugene, 1850-1923 Rosetta J., 1852-1929 ARMSTRONG Thomas, 8/24/1797-7/18/1853 Betsey, 1804-1897 Sylvester, 1820-9/22/1901 Sophia, 4/21/1825-12/30/1900 James, 1850-4/24/1936


APRIL 1978

Dale Cemetery (continued) BROWN Gordon, 1893-1966 DERSAM George, 1904-1972

Ella Whaley Armstrong, 1884- BURNHEIMER DOTY 6/25/1927 Olive Van Buren, d. 1953 Mary, d. 7/5/1926

Sophronia, 1811-1897 BUSH George, d. 1/7/1928 AUSTIN Norman, 1913-8/5/1975 DRING

Stanley, 1901-1929 CARLTON Mabel, 1860-1954, wife of Henry Fred, d. 1927 Albert E., 1849-1932 Henry, 1868-1957 Ora Lindsey Austin, 1874-1961 De-Elsie-Ona Carlton, 1853-1941, Forest, 1913-1971 Charles, 1872-1950 wife of Albert DUSING Burnis, d. 1931 CARMODY Reginald, 1904-1975

BABBITT Patrick, 1839-1924, of Co. C, 61st DUTTON Catherine, 1870-1939 N.Y. Inf. Willie, 1878-1879, son of Phillip Nora, 1878-1953 Catherine, 1848-1923 & Libbie Henry, 1875-1967 CARTER Harley, 1888-1895, son of Phillip Lloyd, 1887-1919 Frederick, 1909-1/31/1948 & Libbie John, 1836-1928, son of Nathan & CHAFFEE Phillip B., 1850-1911 Sophronia Halloway Nellie, 1873-1944 Libbie, wife of Phillip, 1853-1928

Emma Adell, 1841-1929 George, 1868-1934, son of Charles Alanso, 1843-1911 Carrie A. Babbitt, 1862-1930, dau. Chaffee Louisa, 1850-1933, wife of Alanso of John CHASE Lessie, 1872-1894, wife of Walter

Alice, 1858-1922 Leander, 1852-6/1/1930 Judd Emma, 1854-1873 Almeda, 1853-1942 Pearl, 1880-1896 Amelia Slater Babbitt, 1832-1886, Mary, 1846-1924, wife of Oscar Irving, 1876-1953

wife of Jerome Oscar, 1838-1910, son of Issac & Alice, wife of Irving, 1880-1964 Jerome, 1823-1906 Sally Edwin E., infant, 1900-1901 Carrie, 1841-1859 Esther Hixon Chase, 1879-1949 Pearl, 1898-1899 David - no dates Ray, 1878-1946 Erwin, 1895-1896 Sophronia, 1810-1887 Isaac, 1811-1885 Rosabelle, 1860-1923 Nathan, 1808-1890 Sally, wife of Isaac, 1813-1865 Edwin, 1856-2/6/1936

BAKER CHOATE Amos, 1800-6/7/1881 Jacob, 1852-1880 Rowley D. d. 6/25/1930 son of Louise, d. 10/9/1885, aged 66y 7m

BAUER Horis Choate 27d, wife of Amos Laverne, 1910-12/9/1976 Margaret, d. 5/3/1929, dau. of EASTLAND

BECKER Howel Jones Lewis, d. 1913 Maude Kelly, 1896-1917 Wallace M., 1848-1910 Ora, no dates

BENCHLEY Rosetta, d. 1929 Roy, 1884-1943, brother of Ora E. Augusta, 1849-1939 CLARK Delia Spaulding, mother, no dates Merritt, 1847-1925 Marvin S., d. 3/7/1946 ELY Mary L., 1812-1892 Alida M., 1869-12/1944, wife Fannie, 1881-1972 Nathan, 1809-1865 Irving, d. 12/28/1949 EWELL

BEY Earl, 1888-1966 Albert,.1844-1923 Harold, 1905-1906 Schuyler, d. 3/24/1900, 35y9ml4d Phidenia Miller Ewell, 1840-1915 Fanny, 1876-1960 CLEMENSHIRE Clayton, 1874-1965 William, 1876-2/12/1945 Charles, 1843-1932 Dora, 1873-1926 BIDLACK Phena, his wife, 1856-1908 A.E. no date Margarette, 1830-1912 Alanson, 1878-1955 FILKINS BLAKESLEE Elizabeth, his wife, 1880-1967 Lester,-1813-1897 Amzi, 1889-1965 CLOR Lorinda Mead, 1830-1899 BOOTH Kevin, infant son of Arthur & Nellie, d. 1935 Charity, 1830-1906 Eileen Clor, 1970-1971 Almira, d. 1927 Ambrose, 1833-1910 COFIELD Elvira, d. 1927 Fred, d. 1920 Rosetta Perkins (Coefield), 1874- Samuel Mead, 1791-1885 Paul, 1931-4/13/1932, son of Grant 1941 FIRMAN Booth George Cofield, 1866-1948 Emma, 1858-1938 BOOTHE Elizabeth, wife of P.H. Cofield, FOGARTY Gaity (Guitry), 1835-1924 1829-1887 Delia, 1882-6/21/1949 James, 1835-1924 John, 1915-1971, son of George FREEMAN Getta, d. 1924 Clifford, 1901-7/3/1974, son of Edith Shattuck, 2/27/1909-6/7/ Webster, d. 1928 George 1977 Flora W., 1869-1905 COLLARD FULLINGTON Otto P., 1876-1954 Nettie, 1856-1899 George, 1883-1950 BOVENSKI COMSTOCK Jane, 1878-1919 Agusta, 1903-1970 Doris, 1903-1970 GAY BOYKI Beverly, 1927-9/6/1948 Elisha Gay, 12/15/1835-12/4/1913 David, 7/1944-1960 (by drowning) CROSS son of Samuel Gay BROTHERTON Ralph, 1897-1971 Harriet Smith Gay, 4/27/1833-9/ Lucy, mother of Walter J. Spauld- DAVIS 29/1911 ing, 1827-1902 Ina, 1883-1910 (continued on page 1 0 9 )

APRIL 1978 PAGE 109 Dale Cemetery (continued)

Carl, 1/31/1871-11/1/1947 Mary Embt, 7/23/1875-6/5/1958 Elmer, 1/5/1862-7/7/1926, son of Elisha Lena Sikes Whaley Gay, 7/7/1876-2/12/1962 GESSINGER Elic, d. 1905 GOETZ Emma, 1857-1886 GORMAN J.N. 1815-1901 GREEN Cassius, 1900-2/8/1977 GUERMONPREZ Emile, 1868-1952 Jenny, 1871-12/30/1945 GUSSETT Gottlieb, 1866-1947 Ella M. 1871-4/23/1932 HAIN Susanne, d. 1876 Edna, 1976-6/2/1976, daughter of Henry N. Charles, 1914-1959 HAMMOND Elizabeth Dutton H., 1853-1928 HAWKINS Vance, 1900-1965 Gladys, 1902-Giles, 1847-1903 Alice Judd H., 1850-1908 Leon, 1874-1/3/1948 Melody, 1949-1965 Annabel, 1879-1968 HAY Delos, d. 1914 HAYES Margaret, 1829-7/20/1934, aged 104y HERON Mabel Kelly H., 1888-1966, wife of Richard Richard, 1886-1964 Richard, infant, d. 5/20/1915 H1GGINS Sophronia, 1811-1897 Adelia, 1826-1909 Clinton, 1831-1909 Francis, 1864-1904 Edith - no dates L.L. Higgins, 1/25/1832-5/6/1914 Abbie, 3/29/1832-12/21/1892, wife of L.L. Leora, 1873-1875 Harlow, 1856-1887 Smith, 1824-1888 Adell, 1836-HILL Mary, d. 1970 HOGLE John, 1804-1888 Polly, 1809-1883 Susann, 1848-1891, dau. of John & Polly HOWARD Rufus - no date

Kathy Ann, 1817-1897 Elias, 1806-1888 Elizabeth, 1875-1958 Alvin, 1870-9/14/1948 Jennie - no dates Harriet - no dates HOWES Ezekiel, 1827-1904 Elizabeth F&rrer H., 1829-1867, wife of Ezekiel Frank,1855-1926 John V., 1858-1926 Emma C., 1857-1945 George M., 1852-1936 JENKS Ralph, 1903-1953 JOHNSON Emily Swan J., 1833-5/13/1885; wife of William JONES Samuel, 1806-1896 Rachel, 1818-1900 Catherine, 1794-1882,wife of Wm. William, 1797-1854 Rowena Smith, wife of Howell, 1832-1918 Howell, 1831-1888 Fannie, 1871-1874, dau. of Howell & Rowena Sarah, 1841-1892 John, 1839-1913 William, 1811-1878 Elizabeth, 1806-1878 J. Arthur, 1875-1937 Barbara Kebler J., wife of J. Arthur, 1872-1911 Paul, 1902-1922 JUDD

Caroline, 1835-1909,wife of Stephen Stephen H., 1832-1910 Charles, 1856-10/3/1926 KEEBLER Ina Smith K., 1864-1904 Frank, 1863-1933 Kate, 1841-1902, wife of John K. John, 1839-1910 George, 1873-1893, sot of Kate & John KELLEY Russell, 1813-1891 Rhoda,1818-1896 William H., 1860-1883, sonofRus-sell KELLY Judson, 1830-1906 Betsey, 1825-1910, wife of Judson Orlando, 1801-1889 Rhoda, 1803-1887 Clara Smith K., 2/27/1860-6/7/ 1914 Edwin O., 1860-1946, sonof Judson Otis, d. 6/22/1923, son of Russell Simeon, 1886-1915 Simeon O., 1843-1915 Eliza Jane, 1845-1895, wife of Simeon O. KENT David, 1806-1869 Susie, 1802-1888

Adelia, d. 1/18/1893; age 53y KEPLER John, 1893-1977, husband of Julia of Tonawanda Julia. 1893-1976 KEPPEN Helen,1852-1905 William, 1850-1908 Amanda, 1890-1921 KESSLER Hazel, 1902-12/8/1918 Lawrence, 1906-11/26/1935 Emma, 1876-6/15/1920 Frank, 1877-1943 KORNOW W. 1912-1959 LANE Luana, d. 1913 LARMORE Burt T., 1872-1908 LESTER Flora, 1883-1946 LOOMIS Dora L., 1853-1883, wife of H.M. Loomis Herbert M., 1856-1938 J. Morrill, 1828-1904 Mina M., 1828-1905 LYON Frank,1853-1946 Jane 1851-MALLISON Alden, d. 1932, son of Solomon M. Catharine, 1820-1902 ---wife of Alden, d. 1926:daughter of Anson & Sarah Miller Cole Solomon M., 1818-1887 Harriet, 1823-1897 George, 1827-1912 Clarissa, 1826-1903; wife of George C. Leon, 1882-1917 Frank,1856-1920 Alida Marie, 1832-1907 John R., 1831-1914 Marybelle, 1870-1938 Fred E., 1862-1952 P.M., d. 4/18/1932 ---wife of P.M., 3/18/1932 H.W., no dates MATTERN Thomas, 1899, Easter Sunday 1944 (flag) MAURER Peter, 1876-1896 Kate, 1859-1940 George, 1855-1941 Elizabeth, 1839-1914 ~ Phillip, 1826-1887 Linda, 1872-4/23/1938, wife of Philip J. Philip J., 1865-1941 Anna May Mallison, 1892-1970 Clarence H., 1890-1949 MEAD Samuel, 1791-1885 MEEDER Hugh, 2/24/1913-3/2/1965 MERTZ


APRIL 1978

Dale Cemetery (continued) Lawrence, 1918-1965 MC CADDEN Mary, d. 1913 MC CAFFERY Ruth, 1898-1950 MAC DONALD (MC DONALD?) William, 1844-1922 Sarah, 1843-1916, wife MILLER Pearl, 1910-1972 Wilber, 1863-3/20/1934 Hattie, 1870-1950 Alanson, 1830-1915 Mrs. A., d. 9/2/1875, wife of

Alanson Ralph, 1900-1969 Clara Nichols Miller, 1/31/1869-9/12/1960 Dwight, 1867-9/9/1948 Russel, 1825-1908 Eliza, wife of Russel M., d. 12/28/1927 Mary S., 1834-1924, wife of Russel M. Elva, 1852-1955 Floyd, 1876-1956 Lewellen, 1856-1927 MONROE Milo, 1887-1898 Sidney, 1804-1884 George, 1863-1945 Sarah Thomson M., 1834-1914, wife of Edson B. Edson, 1833-1916 Harriet Kemp M., wife of Sidney, 1812-1900 MULLEN Marion (Dutton), 1907-1969,dau. of Irving & Alice D.,wife of Warren ren Warren, 1906-1976, husband NICHOLS Samuel, 1820-1913 Fidelia D., 1819-1896, wifeofSam-uel Eugene S., 1855-1907 Samuel, d. 1914 Julia, 1830 - 7/1 /1884,wife of Zadock J. Henry, 1826-1907 Zadock, 1824-1893 Lewis, d. 1897 Clarence, d. 1900 Calista, 1822-7/21/1839, dau. of Zadock & Malina Marvin Louisa, wife of J.Henry, 1837-1926 NESBITT Henry,1882-1950 Merle, 1909-1939 OTT

Grace Weber 0., 1877-1969 Orrin, 1880-1955 Barbara O., infant 1963 OWENS John, 1868-1910 Mae Fettis O., 1884-1960, wifeof John PARMENTER

Juliette, 1839-1910 Julius, 1875-1887 Rufus - no dates, buried about 1900 Mary - no dates, wife of Julius O. PAQUETTE Yvonne, 1898-1976 Bertha, 1893-1974 PECK William B. 1806-1877 Permelia, 1802-1879 PERKINS William, 1828-1898, his wife 1828-1918 PFLAUM Edwin, 1897-1969 children Clara, 1892-1963 of August Pflaum Lilly, 1863-7/17/1937, wife of August Christof, 1824-1900 Johanna, wife of Christof, d. 11/15/1885, age 59y 7m 13d Eva, 1889-1918, step. dau. of John Pflaum twins, buried 1911 Carl, 1890-10/28/1975 Bessie P., wife of Carl, 1892-

1/24/1975 August, 1863-1/31/1945 Mary S., no dates, wife of John Henry, no dates, stepson (Mrs. P.), d. 7/20/1927 John Pflaum, d. 1/4/1931 PHILLIPS Levi, 1807-1879 Sarah, 1812-1879, wife of Levi Adelia, 1842-1884, dau. of Levi & Sarah John, no dates PLOWE Elizabeth, 1904-1937 Fred, 1872-1945 Katherine Fay, 1932-1953 Margaret, 1870-1946 George, 1896-1965 POSTE Charles W., 1900-1932, son of George G. & Kate (Dutton) George G., 1872-1936 George A., 1899-1971 Katie D., 1874-1935, wifeof George G. Infant, died 1944 Charles W., d. 1954 QUALE James, 1787-1853 Mercy, 1788-6/21/1860, wife of James Moses, 1828-1836, son of James & Mercy Q. Marianne,1845-1862,dau. of James & Mercy Julia A. Moore, 1816-1889 John W., 1812-1892 Merritt H., no dates RAUH John d. 1949 RAUPP Infant son of Gary & Dorothy Raupp RIX Lewis, 1849-4/12/1881

Elizabeth, 1853-1883, wifeof Lewis R. Mabel Smith Rix, d. 1962, dau. of Loren Smith Carl, 1876-1944 RONAN Margaret, 1900-1952 RUTHERFORD Frank,1909-1970 SCHENCK Lee, 1882-4/16/1947 SCHNECKENBURGER Ruby Meade S., 1894-1971 Ruby GayS.,2/25/1858-11/17/1938 dau. of Elisha Gay John, 1858-12/17/1922 Ray S., 1891-1919 twin children Roy S., 1891 -1892 of John & Ruby SCHRANZ Mrs. (?), d. 2/8/1946 SCHREIBER Mary Smith, 1873-SHATTUCK Orrin M., 1830-1909 Cora Webster,10/9/1857-1/1/1937 Artemus, 10/7/1853-12/25/1932 George Webster, 1883-1909 Lysander, 1828-1886 Anna, 1830-1909 SHAY Maude Cross, 1886-1966 Kenneth, 1878-6/2/1935 SHEPHERD Infant son of Henry Shepherd,d. 1971 SMITH Curt and Baby, children of Romanzo Smith John, 1868-1905 Charles, 1865-1939 Mary A. 1839-1926 Lamont, 1827-1906 Warren-1817-1904 Caroline, 1819-1906 Artie, no dates David, no dates Lovel E., 1874-1920 Henry, 1870-3/13/1873, son of J. Monroe"& Frances Fanny, d. 3/16/1884, age 76y, wife of Hawley Smith Mary L. Schreiber, 1873-? J. Monroe, 2/12/1831-1915 Frances Johnson, wifeof J. Monroe Lydia, 1806-1/19/1882, wife of Henry, mother of J. Monroe Henry, 1801-1867 (both were re-moved from old cem. 11/1874) Charlotte, 1852-12/1/1930, dau. of M. Loomis Edgar, 1850-4/13/1932, son of Or-rin Smith Allie Vader Smith, 1858-1923 Loren,1853-1923 Orrin, 1824-1884 Lucinda, 1836-1889 Irving, 1861-1864 (moved from old cem. 11/1874) Edwin,1835-1920


Dale Cemetery (continued) Elizabeth, 1838-1919, wife of Edwin Fanny Bailey Smith, 1808-1884, wife of Hawley Hawley, 1806-1884 Bert, son of Francis S. Francis, 1845-1936, 18thN.Y. Bat-tery d. 2/24/1936, son of J. Mon-roe & Frances J. Rosavil Austin S., 1848-8/6/1907, 18th N.Y. Battery Y Frank E., 1858-1941, son of Edwin Ida Bolton S., 1858-1960 Franklin R. Smith, (moved from old cem. in 1874) Rettie, 1858-1940 Charles W. 1858-8/24/1931 George W., 1826-11/12/1888 SMYTHE Don, d. 1968

Mildred, 1898-1962, wife SPAULDING Walter, 1848-1917 SPINK Arthur,1882-1963 Rosabelle Weber, 1884-1959 STARR Rev. L.B.1822-8/18/1875,husband of Mary B. Starr STONES Miral Burdette, 1902-7/15/1931, veteran of WWI, Hdq. Co. 108 Reg. Inf. Lawrence, d. 1956 SWAN Clara Benchley, 1883-1977 Merton, 1866-1955 Lucy Chaffee S., 1845-1920 (wife of Joseph) Joseph B., 1839-1926 Eliza Chaffee Swan d. 4/2/1876, age 71y Alonzo, 1823-1907 Emeline, 1826-1890 Amos, 1801-1875 William, d. 11/16/1911 Eliza Chaffee Swan, wife of Amos S. Charles, 1870-1924 Frances, 1844-1921 Henry A., 1842-1902 C. Milan, 1878-1961 Alberta, 1912-1913, du. of Clara Swan

George H., 1883-1918 Elizabeth, 1885-1965 Clifford, 1903-1905 TABOR Charles H., 1843-1916 Alice Loomis Taber, 1849-1924 Roy, 1884-1968 George, 1853-1944" Minnie Tabor Perry, dau. of George T. 1880-11/19/1947, wife of Char-les Perry Ida Tabor, 1859-1924 Bertha, 1885-TAKACH Stella, 1888-1960

John, 1888-1964 THOMSON Charles D. Thomason, 2/12/1837-4/14/1907 Art Eliza Spring Thomson, d. 4/2/ 1929 Edward Thomson, 10/6/1859-1/8/ 1896, son of Charles & Art Eliza S.P. Isabelle Miller Thomson, wife of Edward T., d. 1894 Florence Gay T., dau. of Elisha Gay - no date George, 2/17/1879-9/25/1961 Clarence, 2/5/1882-6/15/1975 Grace Bush Thomson, 11/28/1886-1965 Jeffrey Thomson, infant - 1970 Everett T., son of Ray, 4/24/1912-1/29/1953 Elsie Danforth T., 7/30/1887-1965 C. Ray Thomson, 5/16/1885-10/ 26/1974, son of Edward Ithai, 6/9/1832-12/20/1921 TIEDE Mrs. Katherine 1912-Henry, 1910-1969 UNDERWOOD Flora Smith Underwood, 1865-8/30/1938, wife of George George .Underwood, 1862-1921 Minerva L. Clark, d. 6/25/1883, age 57y 9m 47d, wife of Schuyler VADER Flora, 1860-1941 Frank, 1860-1926 Floyd, 1881-1918 Julia Ann, 1830-1914 Julius, 1830-1918 VAN ALLEN Lutte (Swan) VA, 1826-1894 VAN BUREN Florence, 1901-1965 VANDERHEYDEN Daniel, 1833-1913 Chloe, 1839-1921, wife of Daniel VORMONG Lois, 1877-12/13/1949 WALDRON Katherine. 1856-1940 William, 1860-1947 WEBER Glenna,1891-1959 Edwin, 1891-1967 Frank,1/9/1888-9/3/1888 George P., 1858-1893 Harvey, 1875-10/26/1948 Florence, 1874-8/14/1946 Henry, 1847-3/1919 Infant son of Henry W. (no date) Wilhelmina, 1834-5/1/1890, wife of George George,1828-4/30/1890 Irving, 1876-1961 Irma. 1881-1960 Lillian, 1915-1962 Charles, 1817-1901 Catherine, 1818-1888 Charles, no date

Arthur, 1884-1965 Ruth, 1918-1961 WEBSTER Jane Smith W., 1824-1874 John M. d. 1874, both moved from old cem. in 1874 Grant & Elmer, twin sons of Jane S. & John, d. of scarlet fever (Grant 5/30, Elmer 7/5/1875) Adelia Shattuck W., 1846-1876 Eulalia J., dau. John M. & Sarah Jane, d. 8/1/1856, age 12y lm WHALEY Charles M., 1822-1888 Eunice, 1818-1890, wife of Charles Melvin, d. 1938 William, 1816-1878 Emma E., 1851-4/7/1915 Remington, 1851-1885 George, 1826-1875 Jane, 1825-1904, wife of Simeon Hiram B., 1835-1896 Nettie Miller, 1864-1941, wife of Hiram, parents of Bessie W. Pflaum Mary Ruth, 1890-1947 dau. George B., d. 4/30/1890, age 62y WHEELER Bertha Smith Wheeler, 1877-1957, wife of Henry W. Henry Wheeler, 1878-1958 Monroe Wheeler. 1912-1922, son of Bertha & W. Henry W. Edith, no dates Forest, no dates WIDMER Alvine (Alaime ?), 1887-1904 WILKIE Albert, 1906-1969 Infant daughter of Ida and Albert Wilkie - no date WINCHESTER Charles W., 1856-1927 Luella R., 1856-1932 Kate, 1880-1921 Noel, 1883-1939 Leon, 1881-1927 Evaline, 1906-1927 William, 1875-1958, Spanish Am. War Veteran Dora Schenck W., 1880-1962 Alice Shattuck W., 1883-1/22/1974 WINNEY Lewis B., 1850-1925 Rose Judd W., 1858-5/3/1933, wife of Lewis Emily, 1828-1898 Henry, 1818-1875 WILSON James, 1903-1976 WOLCOTT John, 1851-1919 Mary, 1856-1932, wife of John Mary, 1886-1886, dau. of John & Mary W. Florence, 1910-Harry, 1888-1942

APRIL 1978

SUBJECT INDEX TO VOL XXIV Att ica His tor ica l Society. 40th .75-76

Avery, Susan Look 57-64

Ayer , O l iver , Miss ionary Journal 19

Barber , Raymond 80

Barnes, Katherine 97

Bennington, Bee Hive 7-8

Bishop. Lewis H 40-41,44-49

B l iss , Rural Del ivery. 11

Casti le H is tor ica l House 97

Cast i le H is tor ica l Society, 25th 38-39

C iv i l War Let ters , Java 77-80

Cemeter ies

Dale, newer 107-111

Restoration 9,42-43

St. Ceci l ia 's 20-28.49-50,80-81

St. Joseph 80-84,92

Varysburg 53-56

Colton, Rev. Chester, Miss ionary Journal. . .18-19

Covington

Schoolhouse 1, 65

His tor ica l Society, 25th 36-38

County His tor ian 's Office 9-10, 39, 80.100

Danley's Corners 7

Douglass, Har ry S.

Ear ly Rural Schools 1-7

Ear ly Let ters f r om Java 105-107

Foote, Glenn 11

French, Robert M 93-96

Gr i f f i t h Pioneer House, Pike 93-95

Hi l ls ide, Avery Fami ly 59.62,64

Photos 70-71

His tor ica l Societies

Arcade 8.97

Att ica 8,75.97

Cast i le 38,75,97

Covington 1, 36, 100

Java 8,97

Middlebury 8, 64, 97

Holland Purchase Journal 18-20 Indians

Iroquois Myths; 51-52

Medicinal Plants 12,17

Java, Memor ies of 85-92

Jemison, Mary , pageant 38

Jef f res, Thomas 75

K i r k , Jane 57-64

Lyon, Florence 17

LaGrange

Baptist Church 1, 65-69

Schoolhouse 1 -7, 74

Mer le , Rev. Wi l l i am 101-105

Middlebury, Amzi Wr ight 's Tavern 12

Hi l ls ide 59. 70-71

Milestones 11 -12, 76. 96

Moag, Imogene 36-38

Mother Shipton's Prophecy .107

Murphy, M r . & Mrs . J .L 75

Necrology 8 -9 ,39 ,77 ,92

Oatka, Settlement (Warsaw) 29-36

Baptist Church 29-31

Paddock, Ear l 72-74

Pike, Pioneer L iv ing 93-95 Portagevi l le Flood 9

Queries 10,-77,105

Richardson, C. Kihm 85-92

Schools, D is t r i c t & Ear ly Rural 1 -7 ,13-16

Smallwood, Estel le L 51-52

Spencer, Norma C 29-36

Steel, Samuel, of Java Vi l lage 80

St rykersv i l le , Memor ies of 85-92

War of 1812 40-41,44-49

Welker, A.B 7-8

Whit ing, Sarah, Wyo. Co. Famous Astonomer. .100

Wyoming County, 1st Saw M i l l s 76-77

Fa i r 17

D is t r i c t Schools 1 -7 ,13-16

Pioneer House 93-95

Wright , Amzi ; Daybook 12

Wyoming Gasl ighters Yorker Club 97

VOL. XXIV APRIL 1978 NO. 4 WARSAW, NEW YORK small/Historical... · he woul havd beee coveren by...

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Transcript of VOL. XXIV APRIL 1978 NO. 4 WARSAW, NEW YORK small/Historical... · he woul havd beee coveren by...