Gone but not forgotten

Yesterday it was just Alicia and I here. I wanted to go for a bike ride with her. That is when I discovered that Alicia had no shoes other than flip-flops that fit her. We will be heading to Cape Cod next weekend and she will need more than just flip flops for that trip. So we went sneaker shopping. I figured we'd just go to the Shoe Department store here in town and be done with it, but Alicia had other ideas. She had her heart set on converse and the local store wouldn't do, so we went to the mall. She had mentioned in the past that she would like to go to her grandfather's grave and see it. I figured this might be a good day for that so after Alicia decided on the gray converse sneakers, we headed up to Oakwood Cemetery in Penfield. I hadn't thought to bring my camera along for this excursion. I'm sorry now. Thankfully, I have a sister who doesn't mind my borrowing images that she has taken. (Right, Mart?)This is not my father's grave, but it is my mother's father's grave. His grave is just three down from my father's grave. I showed this one to Alicia too. I have no picture of my father's grave. Perhaps Martha has one, but not one on her blog that I can borrow.Afterward we swung over to Webster for a bit to eat. We drove by the Dayton Corners School house on the corner of Creek and Plank and I decided to pull in and show Alicia the initials that her great grandfather carved into the post running up the outside. (This time my Father's father)
This of course is not Alicia pointing to her grandfather's initials, but it is my niece, Hannah in 2004. Grandpa P was born in 1904 and attended the school house when he was a boy. I'm guessing that these initials were carved in or around the year 1917. No one knows for sure though. Grandpa lived down the street in a big farmhouse. He was one of 6 children and the family owned quite a bit of land on Creek Street. The farmhouse is still there...right near a street called Royal View Drive on the opposite side of Creek Street. I drove down past it and pointed it out to Alicia. The house sits on an average sized lot and the barn is gone. All the farmland has long ago been parceled up into sections for more houses and neighborhoods.
Lately we have been busy cleaning out my parent's home in Webster to sell it. It felt strange to be so near a place I called home for many years and be unable to go there. I was pretty sure that no one would be there and the place is empty and locked up. Soon it will be owned by someone else...just like that old farmhouse on Creek Street. History gone but not forgotten.

The Old State House

This is the Old State House in Boston. Right in front of it is where the Boston Massacre took place in March 5, 1770.
Here is Alicia standing next to a model of it. I should have thought these posts out better. I would have put the picture of me with John Hancock's outfit here because it was taken inside of this building.
This is Priscilla Melvill. She was married to Thomas Melvill, a participant in the Boston Tea party. He was present during the Boston Massacre.

Memorial Day 2010

I have a strange fascination for old cemeteries. Yesterday I visited Fairview Cemetary in the village of Naples, after enjoying ice-cream with my daughters at Bob and Ruth's. I thought about Memorial Day and took several pictures of graves that had flags marking the resting place of veterans.Some were too faded to read. After doing some homework, I figured out that this grave is actually the grave of an infant girl name Lillis Ann Oakley, who died at age 11 months. Thus the flag was put on the wrong grave. I also found out that little Lillis Ann's father (William) passed away less than a month earlier at age 39...making me wonder if there was some sort of sickness passed about. Her poor mother (Ann Oakley) and sister (Elizabeth) were left behind.
This photo is presented in honor of Captain Nathan Watkins who fought with the 12th Massachusetts Regiment during the Revolutionary War. Nathan Watkins was one of the first white settlers here in the area. He constructed the fourth house in the settlement of "Watkinstown," later called "Middletown" and finally renamed "Naples." The house was made of logs. He later constructed the first barn. You can read about it here if you'd like.
And this photo is in honor of Sgt. Jabez Metcalf who also fought during the Revolutionary War.
I found out that Jabez Metcalf may have been instrumental in naming the town of Naples. (I say "may have"...because any good librarian knows to check her sources for reliability before declaring anything as truth)

...the original name of Naples was MIDDLETOWN...and, it was changed to Naples in 1808....Jabez Metcalf ran a tavern in Naples. One frequent guest was a Duke from France who remarked that he loved the area because it reminded him so very much of Naples Italy, one of his favorite places. In that era there were six communities named Middletown. Consequently, when anyone said where they were from, they always had to explain which one. The folks grew tired of that and wanted something unique. They held a meeting and during the discussion, Jabez mentioned the Duke's comment. Middletown was changed to Naples.

He also helped erect the first saw mill in Naples.

If you like history: Find out more here.

It all started out to be simply photographs of old graves with flags on them. Then I Googled the names and found out so much more about them. I'm always fascinated by stories and history.

In any case: Thank you to all our veterans. We remember and appreciate you!

Mystery Solved

I have just deleted my last post because of some inaccuracies. A long time ago while reading an article in a magazine about quilting, I ran across a little information about a girl who lived in this house in the 1850's-60's and whose father was the minister of the Congregational Church here in town. I also remembered that there was mention of a diary. I was interested when Gudl left information about a diary kept by a young girl by the name of Caroline Cowles Richards. I was very excited to learn that her diary is on-line. You can read the entire thing here. (ignore the cover page which is for a different book. Just click on the arrows to turn the pages)

So I began to read the diary and soon discovered what I thought were discrepencies between the diary and what I remembered the magazine article saying. First of all, Caroline's father was not the pastor of this church. In fact, she lived with her grandparents. Her grandfather was the town's banker. Her great-uncle had been the first pastor of the Congregational Church many years earlier, so I chalked that up to what had confused me. But then I was puzzled by things she wrote about her home. She described a wrought iron fence on her property that was quite high with a stone foundation. There is no fence on the property on which this house is located. It didn't seem like such a structure would be taken down. In another entry in the diary, Caroline tells of it raining quite hard. Her grandmother would not allow her and her little sister Anna to walk to church. Instead, they sat in the kitchen with their window opened so they could hear the sermon coming from the Methodist church located next door to their house. Well that settled it. This house was not Caroline's house. How could I have gotten two things wrong that I was sure that I had remembered?

It bugged me enough to stay up late on-line doing research until about 12:30 am this morning...but I solved the mystery. I finally tracked down the original magazine article that I had read. The girl who lived in the house was Susie Daggett. Her father was the pastor of the Congregational Church. She is mentioned many times in Caroline's diary because they were school chums. These two girls, along with a few other girls decided to make quilts together to keep for the day that each of them would marry. In the diary, Susie declares to the other girls that she has decided that she will never marry. The girls come to a concensus that they will make a quilt for her anyway. I could not find a picture of Susie...but I did find one of her father, Rev. Oliver E. Daggett.

Circa 1826

I love houses with history. This one has it. Unfortunately, I can't remember the specific names of the people who used to reside here. Several years ago, I was reading an article about some local history...and it included excerps from a diary kept by a young teenage girl who lived here. There was nothing really remarkable about her life. Her days were rather ordinary, but I was interested just the same. The article was really about quilts in local history. In the diary, the girl (whom I want to call Emily, but I can't remember) was working on a square for a friendship quilt with her school friends. She would talk about walking to a friend's house to work on it. LOL! Can you imagine what a stark contast that makes with today's young teenage girls. (Come to think of it though, we do have a group of young girls who knit together at our church)

Anyway, Emily's father was the pastor of the church pictured at the top of this post. If I ever run across that article again, I will come back and correct or add the names here.

Sister Trip

Martha and I took a lovely trip down to Angelica, NY yesterday. It was a really nice day. I hadn't spent that kind of time with my sister in a long time. We were sorry that Rachel couldn't make it too. Our first stop was this great coffee house for lunch. The pumpkin-apple soup is to die for! I strongly recommend stopping here if you are ever traveling along rout 17 in the southerntier of NY state. It has great atmosphere and very friendly service.

It happened to be the town's Harvest Festival in the the center of the circle yesterday. A lot of businesses along main street put up fall scarecrow displays. Some even were in front of houses. This one was in front of a house. I thought it was one of the better ones and comical. It is of a prisonbreak. Notice the escaped convict in stripes.

One of our last stops was to the local cemetary. We found a lot of familiar family names such as Shafer, Rice, Harwood, Jennings. We had a few pictures of some of our deceased relatives who are buried there. By placing them next to the gravestones and taking a picture...it really made it feel as if they were with us in some way.

Old Family Photo

This is a picture of my grandparents, my Mother and 2 older brothers. Hanging out on the swingset in the back yard of the house I grew up in. I'm guessing it was taken in about 1959. Now a days, you can't even see the fence anymore. There are evergreens planted along it now and they have grown quite tall. Three of the people in this picture are in Heaven now. Grandma and Grandpa...and Dan(on the teeter-totter). My mother is almost 73 now and must be on oxygen 24 hours a day. She carries a tank of oxygen everywhere she goes. Wow. Time really changes things. It keeps marching on. Which is why I am glad I have hope in the Lord.

Have you hugged a tree today?

Probably not, but this tree appears to be hugging the fence.

There is a tree here in town that fascinates me...actually there are several of them. This tree and wrought iron fence have been here so long that the tree has grown right through and around the fence posts. I'm always amused by it when I walk by. I try to imagine well over 100 years ago when someone put this fence up. I'm sure they never would have imagined that this would happen some day.

No picture of a tree is complete without showing the top. Here it is waaaayyyy up there!

Lovers...and a History Lesson

Here are my parents in the early 50's. I'm thinking they were engaged to be married...making it 1953. I was going to crop the picture...but decided not to because of my love of history. In the background is a picture of a grist flour mill located on Irondequoit Creek. It dates back to 1848 when the city of Rochester was quite well know for it's export of flour. My grandparents helped the owner run the mill and they also lived on it's premises.

Now this same mill is a fancy restaurant in the rochester area called The Daisy Flour Mill restaurant. I've never eaten there, but my parents did once and they got a complimentary tour of it (including the kitchen) because my father mentioned to the waiter that he had worked and lived there in his younger years. Nowadays Rochester is called The Flower City...but it once was The Flour City.

Genesee Country Museum

Yesterday I went with my daughter on her field trip to a Museum. It's several historic buildings put together to form a village that you can walk through. The people working there dress in period costumes and talk to the visitors about what life was like in colonial times. Of course this type of museum is right up my alley as far as my interests go. Above is an ox on one of the farms in the village. The log structure is an actual barn that was moved to the premises. The log house is a one room structure built in 1806 where a family raised 10 children.

Here's Audra looking out the window of the log farmhouse.

Here is a picture of one of the rooms in another village home. I believe this room would have been called the "keeping room" rather than a dining room. This particular house was built in 1797 by Amhurst Humphrey.

It was a fun day, but very hot. Take your own tour here .

Walking Home From School

After Sherman and I drop the kids off at school, we usually take a different route home. Here are some of the sights we see.

Here is a historic church. It was built in 1812. I know this doesn't sound very old to some of my European friends...but for the USA, that is old. Interstingly enough, I read a diary exerpt at our library...written by a teenage girl, who's father was the pastor of this church. It was a fun read. She sounded similar to a typical teenage girl of today...except for she and her friends were working on a friendship quilt together.
Here is the county court house. I've never been inside of it. I've heard that it is beautiful. It has a lot of history too. If you ever visit my town, you can't miss this building. I didn't grow up in this town, but as a kid I remember driving by this building. It was always what I thought of when someone mentioned this town.

Here is a stretch of some of the shops and a bank in our town. We have a very nice down town area. Almost everyone we meet is very friendly. Sherman and I almost always meet a dog or two walking along with their owner. This town seems to have quite a few dog lovers!

Midtown Plaza Mall (1963)

Not all of you will appreciate this video...but some will. It brought back some memories and I found it to be amusing.

Colored School

This little house once was a school for colored children. It is now a private residence. I find it interesting that so long ago there were enough black children in this community to have their own school. I also find it sad that at one time people thought it was necessary to segregate white children from black children. I'm also glad that that is no longer the case!

I also found it amusing to discover when I turned on my computer, that this month is Black History Month...when I had unknowingly planned on this post! How ironoic!

Little School House in the Snow

Here's a piece of area history. This school house, located in what is known as "Vine Valley" was busy with children from 1874-1937. I plan to get another shot of it in the springtime...and then maybe again in the summer. I love history. If I am ever up near my homtown with my camera, I'll try to remember to take a picture of the school my grandpa went to as a boy.

New York State Fair

On Friday we went to the fair out near Syracuse. I particularly enjoyed looking at the livestock...perhaps because I had always secretly wished to live on a farm as a kid. I just enjoyed watching these kids taking such time and effort to show their cows and horses...grooming them and polishing their hooves! Never seen such clean cows! Our kids got to bottle-feed a calf. I do not have a dependable camera...thus missing this great photo opportunity. (Sorry, Shelly! I know this is just killing you!) I would have rather posted that picture here. I googled photos from the fair and considered stealing one for my post...but I felt too guilty to do it.

My great grandfather was an excellent horseman and raised several of them. Here he is pictured with one. Great Grandpa refused to learn how to drive an automobile. He prefered the horse and buggy. He was born in 1862. I never met him, but have heard many stories about him. I've also been told by my father that this man was a man of faith. So....I get to meet him some day in heaven! I look forward to meeting him and also my mother's parents and sister.

Will you be there? Who do you look forward to meeting? (besides Jesus!)

My Personality

Oh I just get a kick out of old photographs. This one is of my great grandparents-Joseph and Matilda Shafer. He was 20 years older than her and they had 11 children. I know that sounds a little sick....but that is the way it was. He was born in 1862 and she was born in 1882. He looks so much like my father that it makes me smile.

This brings me around to today's topic. My personality. I spent a fair amount of time tonight taking a personality inventory...which I have taken before. I always find them fascinating. It turns out that I am a ISFJ through and through! Just can't get around it. I have some things in common with ISFP...but overall...ISFJ wins!

I wonder what personality types Joe and Tilly had? Was anything passed down to me? I suppose so! I wish I had pictures of the other great grandparents!

Anyway...which personality type are you? You can read up on it at
http://www.personalitypage.com/high-level.html
Have fun! Let me know your results!