Half-Shire Historical Society News

November 11, 2011

2011-11-07T11:27:00.000-08:00

The society will host the famed Salmon River Boys bluegrass band on Sunday November 20, from 1-4pm. This free concert is offered as part of the NYS Arts Council Decentralization Grant for 2011. Refreshments will be offered along with free coffee and cider. Come join us and hear the acclaimed Salmon River Boys as they perform and entertain on a Sunday afternoon!

The Society was saddened to learn of the passing of Terry Potter of Richland on November 5, after a long illness. Terry is brother to our Trustee Erma Schroeder, and sibling, Uncle and cousin to several other members. A kind man, who has battled health trouble the past few years, Terry’s loss leaves a void in the family who cherished him so much.

A fundraising letter was sent out the first week of November to members, friends and local businesses to solicit funds towards the handicapped access lift for our main hall. All funds up to $7,000 will be matched by the John Ben Snow Foundation making this very important for us to reach our goal by the end of December. We appreciate any donations toward this effort, realizing these are tough times.

Solicitation for 2012 society dues was also in the fund drive letter. A new newsletter with raffle on a painting of St. Mary’s in Florence will also go out in mid-November.

President Doyle had a lengthy phone conversation recently with Betty Brown Goal, 88, of North Syracuse. Betty was born in Richland in 1923 the daughter of John & Elizabeth (Frost) Brown. She recalled her grandparents in Greenboro, and told stories of her youth in Richland and all of the people she knew through her long life. This past summer Betty had visited the area and left a note to say hello, she keeps up with several of her nieces and nephews who number in the hundreds.

On November 6, Betty’s first cousin, author Doris Brown Allen joined several relations for dinner in Pulaski. Doris recently marked her 90th birthday and is working on her second book that will carry on the story of her life, with detailed family history material included.

Our sincere thanks to Robert Lawton of Richland who has assisted us with some lawn mowing this fall. Bob and Charlotte have been long-time good friends and great supporters of Half-Shire. Lloyd and Celia Potter of Orwell have continued to volunteer weekly, assisting Librarian Sharon Turo in her efforts to reconfigure the research wall in the main hall. Sharon has color coded the books which has made locating volumes easier.

Half-Shire can be contacted at halfshire@hotmail.com or on the web at www.halfshire.com. Our new phone number is 298-2986 and we are on facebook under the search halfshire. Our mailing address is P.O. 73 Richland, 13144.

October 7, 2011

2011-10-03T04:40:00.001-07:00

The Society extends its sympathy to the family of the late James Comins of Pulaski. Jim was a native of the Redfield/Osceola region and was the last combat veteran of World War II from the area. He also was the last living member of the original Jolly Miller 4-H Club organized by Agnes Grant in 1932 for local youths. Twelve of the club members served in World War II and were followed in their exploits by the late Mrs. Grant through her ardent scrapbooking and clipping. Comins is survived by a daughter Sandra Langer who assists our society on occasions.

On Saturday October 8 there will be a community Day in Richland Hamlet. The fire department will host a chicken Bar-B-Que and the will be an open house and tag sale at our facility. All are welcome. Erma Schroeder and Nancy Smith will be in charge of our end of the event. Hot coffee, cider and doughnuts from Burrville Cider Mill will also be available.

The annual Salmon River Festival in Pulaski was a bit of a wash out this year. The Saturday event was cold, windy and rainy all day. Most events in the South Park were cancelled, and two food venders vied for customers from the few who braved the rain to hear music and purchase vegetables from our two lone venders. Oswego County tourism spent some time there with their kids “fish pond” and some displays, as did the art center and OCO. Half-Shire kept out books and papers inside, and dry. On the other end of town, the new fishing derby went well, with over 55 venders on fireman’s field braving the rain.

Half-Shire’s “Youth division” staffed the two events with volunteers. Thanks go out to Dylan Cox, Rodney Tilkins, April McNitt, Ricci Hoyt, Sam Washburn and Joshua Pool for their time and energy helping our friends at the Salmon River Fishing Museum by working the day.

On Saturday October 16 the Tug Hill Players will perform a concert of folk and popular music from 1-4 with refreshments provided. This will be a free concert sponsored by a grant from the Central New York Arts Council.

Half-shire is open through the fall Wednesday through Saturday normally from 11-4. Our phone number is 298-2986. We can be also be reached at www.halfshire.com or halfshire@hotmail.com.

September 30, 2011

2011-09-26T04:08:00.000-07:00

The annual meeting of the Society was held on Saturday September 24, 2011 at 1pm at the Richland headquarters with over 25 people in attendance. Trustees Florence Gardner and Rita Rombach were elected for three year terms, with Trustee Charlene Cole reelected for one year term as Trustee at large. Henry Piseski of Amboy was elected to represent that town of the board.

President Doyle went over work on the budget for 2012, as well as a fundraising letter to go out for the handicapped access lift. Celia Potter of Orwell was recognized for her Entergy volunteer grant received, and her planned fall work with Librarian Sharon Turo. Librarian Sharon Turo outlined her plans for the research wall.

Doyle reported that on September 11, 5 college and high school students assisted in tarring and painting the roofs. Doyle feels with some additional drain work we will be ready for winter. Work on the grounds has been taken over by Josh Pool of Richland, who has been weeding gardens and assisting in mowing. Pool also worked at sorting files during the meeting.

Doyle reported on the progress on the historic Florence Catholic Church, and the celebration of mass held on September 18.

A handful of additional people attended the meeting for Museum Day that was planned to highlight the efforts and collections of Half-Shire, as well as Pulaski Historical Society, the Salmon River Fishing Museum and the Sandy Creek History Center.

On Saturday October 16 the Tug Hill Players will perform a concert of folk and popular music from 1-4 with refreshments provided. This will be a free concert sponsored by a grant from the Central New York Arts Council.

Half-shire is open through the fall Wednesday through Saturday normally from 11-4. Our phone number is 298-2986. We can be also be reached at www.halfshire.com or halfshire@hotmail.com.

2011-08-28T06:50:00.000-07:00

Due to remnant of Hurricane Irene, the concert set for today is cancelled.....

AUgust 19, 2011

2011-08-15T04:06:00.001-07:00

The July meeting of the Society was held on Saturday the 23rd and was well attended. Our AmeriCorps worker Tyfany was on hand to discus her projects on local tours of historic sites and cemeteries. On July 24th we held our first summer concert series at the site, and less than two dozen people enjoyed a pleasant afternoon on the lawn listening to the sounds of “Two much fun”.

The next event at the Richland headquarters will be the annual Redfield Schools reunion, held this upcoming weekend on Saturday August 20. Anyone who ever attended a school in the town of Redfield is invited, and honorees include the few living graduates of the old Union High School there. Fay Ann Colvin has charge of the event, and can be reached at facolvin@windstream.net The following day, Half-Shire President Doyle will be a guest speaker at the McClear Reunion at Black Lake. The McClear family is closely tied to the Yerdon and Castor families of Redfield.

On Saturday August 27, the Society will hold its next monthly luncheon meeting. All are welcome, contact Shawn Doyle at 298-3620 to let us know you are coming so we can plan for lunch. On August 28 we are expecting to have our next concert series musical event, and more information will be out next week. The time will be 1-4 pm with a barbeque on site offered by another local group. These events are a great way to bring the community and the organization together and are absolutely free! Please join us.

Our extended hours this summer have been a boon for researcher. We will continue to be open Wednesday through Saturday into the autumn months, hours vary around 11am-3pm and extra time can be offered by calling us. We now have a phone! 298-2986 is not only our new number, but the number of our longtime secretary George Widrig who passed away a year ago. An internet hotspot in the main hall also is proving its worth; our thanks go out to Frontier communications for al, the work in getting us up and running!

Research continues on the Sampson and Tryon families of Richland and Sandy Creek. Brenda Sampson May of Liverpool has been a great new member encouraging us to look into the Revolutionary War record of Levi Sampson. George Wise of Volney donated and early Sampson bible that ties into the family for which we are grateful. Sharon Turo continues to work on cataloging images of her family donated to our collection. Her template is now a model for how to organize photos! Kathy Watson has been putting together some information on the McNett families along with Tousley and Potters. There is always activity in the building during volunteer days!

Nancy Smith and Erma Schroeder hosted an art class with Pulaski Art Center Director Pat Tanner on August 11. Over 40 people came to work on beads and other jewelry and art. The 2012 calendar is being researched thanks to the efforts of Erma Schroeder and Nancy Smith, look for that by the beginning of the month.

Half-Shire can be reached at www.halfshire.com or searched out on facebook at “halfshire” This site has become a great forum for members. Our email is halfshire@hotmail.com and our phone number is 315-298-2986.

July 22, 2011

2011-07-17T19:13:00.000-07:00

The 154th Oswego County Fair is now history, and as such will be remembered as a success overall. The weather cooperated perfectly, with only Saturday as a particularly warm day. The track, which was redone at considerable expense this year, was lauded by the Horse breeders Association as “the best ever” according to the officers.

In the Heritage Hall we had a good week with enthusiastic public reaction to our many fine displays put together by the various town historians and historical societies. Everyone put forth a lot of creatively and energy to make each exhibit special.

Fresh from the fair the Half-Shire staff had to move our materials back to Richland and have the building in shape for a meeting , and two weekend events back to back. New metal and Formica shelves were installed along the north wall of the main room to better display our library materials. The older wooden shelves have been moved upstairs where they will be perfect for storage. We elected to change materials for the shelving as we continue to try to keep our moisture low in the sub-level of the main hall. A new dehumidifier is also assisting with this.

On the weekend of July 15-17 the descendants of Theo and Agnes (Duane) Grant of Redfield held their triennial reunion at the Half-Shire building. 89 were there for dinner on Saturday night, with varying numbers through the weekend. This family includes our Redfield Trustee Liz Grant, who was on site most of the weekend assisting with the kitchen duties and organizing the activities. Former Trustee Phyllis Grant was on hand, as was her brother Ted from Texas. Many of the Grant family are members of Half-Shire so the weekend was a real homecoming. On Saturday the family used our new wireless network to “Skype” an Uncle in Maine who was unable to come. It sure is great what technology can do to bring people together.

On Saturday July 23rd we will meet at noon for a picnic lunch and then at one we will hold our monthly meeting. The public is welcome to attend and join us, please call ahead during our hours at 298-1285 or leave a message with President Doyle at 298-3620 so we can plan for the right number.

On Sunday July 24th the first tour our summer concert series events will feature “Two Much Fun”, versatile local band composed of Deane Delli-Bovi and Tom Wirkes who have played to great acclaim in the area this summer. We encourage our friends to stop by and listen to this group, which may play on the back lawn depending on the weather. Refreshments will be available; there is no charge for admission. This event is funded by the Central New York Arts Council and a NYS Council on the Arts decentralization grant.

Our AmeriCorps worker Tyffany Howlett has been busy at work on the historical walking and biking tours of the region. On July 15th we went through Orwell, Boylston and Redfield taking new photos and meeting with people along the way. Thanks to Members Milferd Potter and Roxanne Ferguson for taking time assisting us with questions.

Our facility is now open Wednesday through Saturday, noon -4 p.m . We continue to also meet out of town visitors by appointment at other times. As mentioned above we have a phone now, 298-1285 as well as wireless internet service in the building that really makes research so much easier!
Our web-site is at www.halfshire.com and we are on Facebook now as Halfshire.

July 1, 2011

2011-06-27T06:33:00.000-07:00

The 154th Oswego County Fair opened on June 30 with fireworks and a parade. Throughout the week Half-Shire officers, trustees and key members will be staffing the Heritage building assisting people with local and family history projects.

On Friday July 1, the communities along the north shore of Oneida Lake will be spotlighted. Hastings, West Monroe and Constantia will be celebrated with local historians on hand to meet and greet people.

On Saturday July 2, we will celebrate the northern Oswego County towns that make up Half-Shire’s region as well as Osceola, Florence and Ellisburg along the borders. Historians and experts from Albion, Amboy, Boylston, Orwell, Parish, Redfield, Richland, Sandy Creek and Williamstown should be on hand through the day to assist with questions and research. Local authors are expected to be on hand from noon-4 p.m. to showcase their books and also to sign copies. From noon-3 p.m. the Sandy Creek post Office will also be on site cancelling mail with the special commemorative stamp.

Late Saturday night at dusk there will be a second fireworks on the grounds.

On Sunday July 3, we will mark Central Townships Day with a focus on the towns of Mexico, Palermo, New Haven and Scriba.

On Monday July 4, Military History Day will be celebrated in Heritage Hall with special exhibits on veteran’s research from early conflicts. Jerry and Lorraine Orton have been invited to bring their GAR and Civil War memorabilia collection and to meet with researchers.

Throughout the week there will be occasional roundtable discussions led by experts on local and family history. Tutorials on family treemaker software as well as its interaction with ancestry.com will be led by knowledgeable persons.

Scanning and organization of family photo collections, a tradition at the Heritage building will be done again this year by a crack team of workers. Call ahead if you have a large collection to bring in, 532-5919.

Across the fairgrounds there will be some great food venders and new entertainment. The 154th Fair is shaping up to be one of the best, please take some time to check out this great venue that still has free admission!

Half-Shire Historical Society will be reopening in our Richland building on Wednesday July 6, and resuming our hours of 11-4 p.m. each Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. On Saturday June 9 we will be open in the morning but closed for a private gathering at noon.

Contact President Shawn Doyle for more information, 532-5919 or email us at halfshire@hotmail.com. Our website is www.halfshire.com and has links to our blog. Check us out on facebook to under halfshire.

Fair News

2011-05-30T09:08:00.001-07:00

Dear Friends of Fair/heritage hall:

The Fair tri-folds have come out with our schedule which as I I indicated May 7 at the meeting was at the printer before I proofed it---Here it is

Wed June 29----5-7 Reception at hall

Thurs June 30---Oswego River Valley Day---Two cities, Volney, Granby, Minetto, Oswego Town and Hannibal

Friday July 1----North shore Day--_Constantia, West Monroe, Hastings

Saturday July 2--Half-Shire town Day---Albion, Amboy, Boylston, Florence, Orwell, Osceola, Redfield, Richland, Sandy Creek and Williamstown also Ellisburg

Sunday July 3, --Central Township Day---Scriba, New Haven, Mexico and Palermo

Monday ----July 4---Military Heritage Day----SaR/DAR luncheon

When you get the flyer you will note a misprint, they put Central town day twice!!! ignore last listing which is for Monday July 4.

I have Fair books, if you need one email me. otherwise they are encouraging people to get them online at the website and to fill out the form that way, print it and mail it.....

Shawn Doyle

April 29, 2011

2011-04-25T04:27:00.001-07:00

The Society will hold back to back meetings April 30 and May 7th. The much meeting on the 30th will feature stuffed pork chops and assorted other covered dish items. On May 7th the greater Oswego County Historical community will be invited to join us to discuss the upcoming Oswego County Fair. Both events are open to the public and are excellent research opportunities with so many historians present at each meeting.

On Wednesday April 19, Half-Shire hosted a family game night as part of TV turnoff week. Thanks to Erma Schroeder, Kathy Watson and Nancy Smith for making this night possible and enjoyable for several area youth.

Friday research hours have been conducted, Either Erma or Nancy are there each Friday to meet researchers and assist. Shawn Doyle has been still at the Court House on Fridays wrapping up winter research projects. Beginning June 3rd the Pulaski Farmers Market will resume and Half-Shire will conduct a weekly table there.

Correspondence on the Outerson family of Pulaski and The Archibald Campbell Families of Richland and Orwell. The Campbells were early settlers on the Ridge Rd. and expanded across eastern Oswego County. Campbell is said to have been a War of 1812 solder, in fact his descendants believe he was a Captain. No clear record has been found to prove his rank, however many Archibald Campbells served in the War.

Julie Litts Robst has been working on new books that cover the Richland hamlet cemetery as well as the Riverside Cemetery in Pulaski. It is hoped that these books will be out by fall. Julie works from her home in Florida, and thanks to the internet and online research has been able to complete much of her work from her southern home.

Area Alumni Societies are planning their annual graduation weekend events, many reunions are being held this year. Half-Shire will host a brunch for the Pulaski class of 1961 on Sunday June 26th this year.

Half-Shire can be reached at P.O. Box 73, 1100 County Rte 48, Richland, NY 13144 or on the web at halfshire@hotmail.com www.halfshire.com

April 22, 2011

2011-04-15T14:14:00.000-07:00

The Society held our first meeting on Saturday March 26th at our Richland headquarters. Lunch was served for about 30 members and guests, including several community service workers who spent the weekend cleaning up the lawns and building. A good meeting and work day was held, and thus a good start for the 2011 season. Our next meetings will be back to back, Saturday April 30, will be a regular meeting, and Saturday May 7, will be our annual Fair planning meeting. Both will begin with a noon lunch.

2011 should be a very busy year for the society. Our SW classroom is expected to be completed this summer with hardwood flooring going in soon. Items from George Widrig’s collection have been being sorted in that room lately, this will continue through the year.

The ATV Club will hold their June brunch meeting on Saturday June 19, at the building. The Pulaski Class of 1961 will hold their reunion breakfast at Half-Shire on Sunday June 26, The Grant family of Redfield will hold their bi-annual reunion the weekend of July 16-17, and will also camp on the grounds. Several other groups will use the facility in August including the town of Richland and the Redfield Alumni Society.

Family history research continues at a brisk pace. Recently we have been looking into the Campbell family that lived on Ridge Rd. north of Richland Hamlet, as well as the Jones family of Pulaski. Work on Port Ontario families continues, with special emphasis on the early settlers.

Richard Hofstead of Syracuse was able to complete a successful application to join the sons of the American Revolution based on documentation of his Chamberlain and Matteson families obtained from the Half-Shire collection. A researcher from the west will arrive in late June to work on the Bliss and Arnold family of Amboy that left for the Morman Trail. Our Library is becoming a destination for family history researchers, and is open by appointment, as well as each Friday from about 11 am till 4.

The Society learned that it will again be a site for an AmeriCorps worker this summer. Interviews will soon be conducted, and we are very excited at the prospect of revamping the old historic area walking tours as part of the 2011 program.

We recently received notice of an award of $1,600 in grant monies to conduct a few musical events at the facility in Richland. We may be able to start this program in late May, and will alternate months with an event that we hope to tie in with a Fire Department chicken Bar-b-que.

Volunteer Richard Cooper continues to assist us by searching the old newspapers for news and obituaries from the 1800s. We are indebted to Richard for the “gems” he has unearthed so far.

Half-Shire can be contacted at halfshire.com as well as our revised website at www.halfshire.com. Our address is PO 73, 1100 County Rte. 48, Richland, NY 13144.

Half-Shire reopens for 2011 Season

2011-03-21T04:02:00.001-07:00

The Half-Shire Historical Society will reopen their Richland facility with the first regular monthly lunch meeting on Saturday March 26, 2011 at noon. Located at 1100 County Rte. 48 in the hamlet of Richland, Half-Shire Historical Society has operated out of the former Richland School since 1973.

A hearty hot lunch will be available beginning at noon, followed by a short business meeting and outline of 2011 programs and events. President Shawn Doyle will also lead a volunteer crew in spring cleaning and sorting of items acquired during the winter, in the morning hours.

For more information contact Half-Shire at halfshire@hotmail.com or contact President Doyle at 298-3630.

December 10, 2010

2010-12-06T05:34:00.000-08:00

The November 27, meeting at the Barclay Court House was only attended by a core group of five people. Snow that morning, along with failure of the column to appear in the Pulaski papers contributed to the number. A lunch of baked ziti and salad was enjoyed, and some planning for 2011 was accomplished.

Many of us were saddened to hear of the passing on Sunday December 5, of Dora Traphagan of Pulaski. Dora was a quiet institution in our community; she was for many years the head of the cafeteria at the Lura Sharp School. Dora was also very involved in the Pulaski Grange for many years, and oversaw the orderly closure of the institution. The night before she passed away in her sleep Dora spent time laughing and reminiscing with neighbor Maggie Seeley who stopped by to help her hem some slacks in preparation for a senior citizen trip. Dora had recently given many old yearbooks to our library collection, and was a good friend; our condolences go out to the family members.

Member Virginia Loomis of Syracuse passed away on December 2, after a brief illness. Virginia was an occasional visitor of our lunch programs, accompanying her brother Willard Loomis. She was a kind and intelligent lady, and a treasure to her close knit family whose origins were in Kasoag and Williamstown. Our sincere condolences are extended to Willard and Lynne and their children.

Member Dee Dee Barclay has been continuing her valuable transcription of the Douglas family diaries. It is fascinating to read about some of the day to day events on the old farm and in the Port Ontario community. The Barclay family have made copies of many of the transcriptions to both Pulaski historical and Half-Shire.

During the winter months Half-Shire will be working out of the Richland Historians office in the Barclay Court House. Friday afternoon hours will be conducted as often as possible, with weather a consideration for volunteers. Researchers looking for family files should call ahead so we can bring materials down from Half-Shire on various files.

Half-Shire can be reached at P.O. 73, Richland, NY 13144 or on the web at www.halfshire.com, halfshire@hotmail.com

November 26, 2010

2010-11-19T03:51:00.001-08:00

The Society will hold its November meeting on Saturday November 27, 2010 at the H. Douglas Barclay Court House in Pulaski at noon. Following a light lunch and brief meeting we anticipate some musical selections to open up the Christmas season. As of this writing we have not yet confirmed the entertainment. Holiday goodies will be served as always regardless, and the 2011 schedule of meetings and events will be available.

On Friday November 12, the arts communities across central New York lost a very dear friend and advocate with the sudden death of Mark Wright, head of the CNY Cultural Resources Council. Mark had struggled with health issues for the past few years but his death at age 50 was still quite a shock to us all. A native of Massachusetts, Mark had moved to the Syracuse area as a youth and fell in love with the region. Mark was an especially good friend to small arts and cultural agencies in Oswego County, and came to our meeting at Half-Shire in August. A strong advocate in the regions arts community has now left us for another world, a great loss to us all.

Last week I mistakenly identified visitors to Half-Shire as coming from Montana. In fact, Mr. & Mrs. Lee were here from Michigan. We received a very nice ancestor packet on the Walworth family who came through eastern Oswego County in the mail on Thursday last week. The well-researched packet is already a great assistance as it has tied in many families in the region in the early nineteenth century. Our thanks also go out to Mrs. Sara Barclay who sent along some information on the Walworths from the Price-Douglas Diaries that she has transcribed.

As November draws to a close we are closing up Half-Shire for the season. We will begin Friday hours at the Barclay Court House 2nd floor office (new section) on Friday the 26th, and continue through spring. Hours planned are from 12-5pm, and are subject to change. Closing the Richland facility a few months will help us to save on fuel and have more monies available for capital projects in 2011. Community service worker Ian Lowery will continue to assist in the movement of files to the Court House.

Richland Deputy Historian Erin Bacon Klarner and husband Kris will be visiting for a week on break from Notre Dame. Mrs. Klarner has a particular glow about her we understand and look forward to catching up.

Half-Shire can be contacted at P.O. Box 73, 1100 County Rte. 48 Richland, NY 13144 or on the web at www.halfshire.com

November 19, 2010

2010-11-15T02:47:00.001-08:00

The Silent Auction and sale of the works of the late George Widrig was held Saturday November 6th at the Richland headquarters. The event was attended by over 50 people and was a great success. We had a lot of laughs over a few of the items and the various bid competitors as they engaged in friendly competition. Thanks to Erma Schroeder and Kathy Watson for again staffing the kitchen to meet our hospitality needs. Ian Lowery, a senior at Pulaski High School also assisted in preparation and through the evening.

On Friday November 12, the society hosted a private retirement party for David Petrie of Camden. Over 100 people enjoyed a meal and entertainment by “Still Kickin” an acclaimed country band in our region. Society members Richard Telian, Margaret Sullivan, Celia Potter, Mark Wallace and others were key in putting this event together. This was our last event to be held in Richland for the season, and soon the building will be closed up for three months.

On Sunday November 14, our neighbor Alaina Bacon (age 7) came over to assist us in the planting of over 1,000 tulip and daffodil bulbs, along with a few hyacinths. All of these bulbs were removed this past spring after five years of sustained growth. They were separated and replanted on Sunday in freshly fertilized soil. Alaina is a very efficient and careful young gardener and was completely up to the task. Alaina’s older sister Erin is a member and our summer 2010 AmeriCorps worker, now away at graduate school at Notre Dame in Indiana.

On Saturday November 12 we had some visitors in from Montana researching some early Richland families, principally the Walworth family who were early settlers along the lake. The couple had obtained records from the town Clerk in Richland and was looking for more information in the local cemeteries. We had only a few extra pages of information to offer them and would welcome more information on the Walworth family if anyone has some.

The new book on Williamstown Veterans is now available. This book covers the period from the Vietnam War to present, and is available for $40 plus postage. We are expecting to receive a consignment of them soon at Half-Shire. The book is as always well researched by the team that includes Anne LaDuke, Roberta Cleveland, Glenna Gorski, Florence Gardner and Willard Loomis.

Half-Shire can be reached at P.O. Box 73, 1100 County Rt. 48, Richland, NY 13144 or on the web at www.halfshire.com or halfshire@hotmail.com

November 5, 2010

2010-11-01T03:18:00.000-07:00

The monthly meeting of the society was held on Saturday October 23rd and was well attended by both members and guests. A beef stroganoff dinner was served, along with all the fixings. The 2011 budget was presented and approved, along with past minutes.
This was the last meeting at the Richland headquarters until March 2011. Our November meeting will be held at the H. Douglas Barclay Court House on Saturday November 27.

On Saturday November 6, Half-Shire will host a reception and silent auction of arts works of the late George Widrig, one of our founders. George was a multi-talented artist, and many of his oils, watercolors and pen and ink sketches will be on display and open for bid. The reception will begin at 5pm and run through 8pm. Refreshments, hors d'oeuvres and desserts will be served. We anticipate having some piano music in the background by various artists. This event is open to the public and we are hoping for a good turnout to honor George.

Research continues on at a brisk pace, the last week of October we had two guests in from Utah researching the Bohannan family who were early Richland settlers. We have had several inquires regarding Redfield and Osceola families also. We will continue to open up on Tuesdays and Fridays through November until we move down to the courthouse for winter hours.

The passing of Pauline Tanner on October 18, 2010 was a milestone in the history of Lacona Village. Pauline had spent her life in that community and was long identified with its social and community affairs. Her death at her daughters’ in Peoria, Illinois was a shock to her friends here who all anticipated her 100th birthday this month.

This writer had known Pauline for over 40 years, and remains grateful for a 1978 lunch with the late Harold Samson that was arranged by Pauline at Seeley’s Restaurant. I was only 12, but just as interested in history as I am now, and Pauline had told me about Harold Samson and his then current book “The Other Side of the Hill” about Tug Hill. Pauline arranged the lunch at my grandmother’s restaurant and I received a signed book from Mr. Samson that is a cherished part of my library today. Pauline continued to support historical research in her village and town, and was a patron of the Sandy Creek Records Center.

Another friend of Half-Shire and volunteer at Sandy Creek, Betty Otis Monson Atkinson is on the sick list of late. She has been a patient at a Syracuse hospital recently, and our thoughts and prayers go out to her as well as her grandson and his family who have been her caregivers.

On October 19, Author Doris Brown Allen and Oswego members Barb and Travor Knight joined Secretary Fay Colvin and Marie Lambie for a dinner at my home. The conversation revolved around Redfield history and the Donahue families. Doris is a graduate of the former Redfield Union School and served as the first alderwoman in Oswego City. She is a fascinating conversationalist and we were so pleased to have her there for an afternoon. This was the first official dinner around my “new to me” table imported from Osceola, for which I owe Marie a debt of gratitude and more.

Half-Shire can be reached at www.halfshire.com or at our mailing address P.O. 73, 1100 County Rte. 48, Richland, NY 13144

Another Correction

2010-10-04T21:03:00.000-07:00

yet another correction!
The George Widrig Art show and silent auction at Half-Shire has been moved from Saturday October 25 to Saturday November 6,
By October 25th when we are open all day for Archives day we anticipate having George's collection on the walls for viewing.
More information to follow.

correction

2010-10-02T15:23:00.000-07:00

Nancy Smith holds research hours on Tuesdays from 11am until 2pm at Richland. Erma Schroeder is at the facility on Fridays from noon until about 4pm. On Friday October 15, I will resume Friday hours at the Barclay Court House from about 3pm until 5.
Any of us can meet people otherwise by appointment, contact me at 298-3620 or by email SPDinPUL@hotmail.com
---Shawn Doyle, President

October 8, 2010

2010-10-02T02:10:00.000-07:00

The Agricultural Society of Oswego County held its annual meeting at the Sandy Creek Masonic hall on Friday October 1st. The 2009 officers were reelected to serve another one-year term. Congratulations are extended to all of the reelected officers who dedicate a tremendous amount of time to planning and executing the fair each year.

The Great flood of 2010 is now a memory. On Thursday night September 30, the waters in Pulaski began to rise dangerously as Brookfield Power released water from both of their Dams in Orwell following heavy rains. A group of Half-Shire members having dinner at the Riverhouse that evening noted that the old mill race south of the restaurant had filled up, and was approaching the parking lot. By early morning of October 1st the waters rose to a point within a foot of the “short bridge” in Pulaski, and lapped the sides of the bridge in Altmar Village, flooding Bridge Street on the south side. Scenes reminiscent of the December 1984 floods played out again and again through the media. At 8am a large section of the crumbling retaining wall along River Street in Pulaski crashed into the river, bringing with it a large section of land. Emergency crews from Oswego County under the leadership of Kurt Ospelt worked through the day adding large blocks of stone to the chasm to prevent further erosion which could have endangered the sewage pump station. (Right, 1903 flood courtesy of Bob Wart)

A few photos were taken by this writer, while many more were taken by Selena Belser. The Society is looking for donations of other images from the flood that can be printed and added to our notebooks on the Salmon River in the flood category. Email images to our address or send prints to our P.O. Box, credit will be given to all photographers.

Work continues at the society during our Tuesday and Friday shifts at sorting materials from George Widrig’s estate. Scanning of photography at the Court House in Pulaski has picked up with local seniors Genna Phillips and Carson Balcom working under the direction of Andrew Balcom, ’06 graduate. The trio is finishing up scanning photographs from the Pulaski and Amboy Masonic orders, as well as the Vernon Randall collection from Redfield.

Half-Shire can be reached at P.O. Box 73, 1100 County Rte. 48. Richland, NY 13144 or on the web at halfshire@hotmail.com or www.halfshire.com

October 1, 2010

2010-09-27T02:12:00.000-07:00

The Society conducted its 38th annual meeting on Saturday September 25, at the old Richland School headquarters. Approximately 25 members and friends enjoyed a soup & stew lunch served up by Trustee Erma Schroeder at noon.

Elections were held with the following new and returning officers: President, Shawn Doyle; Vice President, Greg Monette; Secretary, Fay Ann Colvin; Treasurer, Anne LaDuke. Trustees that were reelected for three year terms were: Liz Grant, Redfield; Erma Schroeder, Richland; Margaret Kastler, Sandy Creek and Glenna Gorski, Williamstown. Charlene Cole was reelected as Trustee at large for a one year term.

President Doyle welcomed the new and returning officers, and noted the departure of Treasurer Mary Yerdon, citing her years of dedication and effort. Anne LaDuke will be the 4th trustee in the organizations history, and has been an active member for several years. Doyle gave a detailed report on the past twelve months progress and handed out a preliminary list of goals for the next few years.

In other business the installation of the hardwood flooring in the southwest classroom was delayed pending receipt of grant monies. The handicapped entry to the main hall has been prioritized also for the end of the year work. Doyle reported that on August 29th Carson Balcom, Kyle Halstead and Sam Washburn assisted in applying sealer to the main roof. The boys did an excellent job and Doyle is confident the roof will be leak-proof for the winter and beyond. The next meeting will be October 23rd in Richland.

Nancy Smith, who serves as the appointed corresponding Secretary has begun holding public hours on Tuesdays from noon until 4pm at Richland. Along with our Friday hours with Erma Schroeder and our other days we “set the flag out” we have seen increased numbers of guests this year. The expanded research files, especially the Widrig obituary files have assisted many people with finding what they need. A few weeks back one out of town guest was so pleased with the speed and ease in which we found material on his families that he wrote us a $100 check on the spot to join and assist.

We continue to struggle with “important clutter” as we sort things from the Widrig estate, but the hall for the most part is well organized.

Among research topics lately we have had inquiries on the McCollom family of Redfield, the Allen family of Albion and Pulaski, the Baker and Weed families of Richland and Sandy Creek and the Chamberlains and Mattesons of Pulaski and Adams.

We have received valuable donations of research materials from Charlene Weed of Cleveland on the Weed families, and miscellaneous records of South Granby families form John Snow of Granby. A member from Victor, Gloria Cronk White sent some extensive files also on the Cronk and Coe families of the region. All of this material has been added to our growing database and file system, helping others who come in later on.

Half-Shire can be contacted at P.O. Box 73, Richland NY 13144 or by email halfshire@hotmail.com. Our website is being updated again at www.halfshire.com

September 17, 2010

2010-09-12T01:50:00.000-07:00

Half-Shire will have a small exhibit in the foyer of the H. Douglas Barclay Court House in Pulaski on Saturday September 18, as part of Salmon River Festival. The exhibit will be open from noon until 5 pm and the public is welcome. Selected scrapbooks from the George Widrig Collection as well as general works on local history will be out for review.

The Society will hold its annual meeting on Saturday September 25, 2010 at 1 pm, following a luncheon served at noon at the Richland headquarters. All members and friends are invited. Election of officers including four trustee seats will occur as part of the meeting.

August was a particularly busy month for the society. We continued to sort and organize material received from the estates of the late George Widrig and Sally Turo. Particular attention has been given to the paintings of George Widrig which have been moved to our building in preparation for a late October art show and sale. (Date to be announced soon).

At this time I’d like to extend our gratitude and appreciation to Christine Drew, formally of Redfield, who carefully sorted and transported so many of George’s items over to Half-Shire. Christine took on the task of cleaning and sorting the Widrig home, and has done am amazing job. As we learned several years ago when some Half-Shire members were involved in the breakup of the Ellen Wild estate, great care needs to be taken in sorting the papers and books of deceased historians and researchers. Chrissy took the time and extraordinary care in all of the sorting. She has done a first class job that George would be proud of, and is highly recommended by this writer for any similar jobs.

With the accessions from the estate of Sally Turo we were very fortunate to have Sally’s daughter Sharon preparing the boxes. Sharon is a librarian and skilled archivist who works in New Caanan, Connecticut. The boxes we received from the Turo estate were not only lovingly packed, but archivally so. Our thanks go out to the entire Turo family for putting many of their family heirlooms into our care.

Research hours were expanded at the society beginning Tuesday September 14. Corresponding Secretary Nancy Smith will be available Tuesday afternoons until December to work with researchers and members of the public at our Richland facility. Besides Nancy, our Richland trustee Erma Schroeder continues to work with the public each Friday and by appointment. Look for the bright “open” flag out front each Tuesday and Friday when one or both of our ladies are their.

As autumn arrives and school has started we are meeting with members of the Pulaski Senior Class of 2011 to guide students in community service projects as well as approved Snow scholarship projects. Many of our expected projects this coming term will revolve around digitalization of photos as we have taken in an incredible amount this year that needs to be scanned and sorted, as well as linked to various family and community files.

On September 4, 2010 Shawn Doyle, Liz Grant and a community service worker staffed our shed at the Redfield Old Home Days. Poor weather prevented a return on Sunday the 5th. Our thanks go out to all of our visitors and friends in Redfield. Our thanks also go out to our members Milferd Potter and Roger Pape who each purchased some valuable historical materials at the Lattimer auction in Orwell and donated them to Half-Shire. Roger brought his treasures to Redfield, which include a very early autograph book from the 1840s.

On September 11, 2010 Half-Shire loaned our tables and chairs out to the Barclay family to help them with an afternoon picnic for Special Children and their families. The event was graced by near perfect weather and went off without a hitch on the historic grounds of Douglaston Manor. Our thanks to Milferd Potter for assisting us with transport of tables and chairs on this day, as well as so many others this summer.

On the research end of the society, some of our members have been looking into The Chamberlain family of Pulaski, the Enos family of Redfield and the Jay Adams family of Redfield. Updating is in progress on our Yerdon and Castor databases. Half-Shire maintains computer databases on numerous families from our region, the Yerdon-Castor file is one of our largest.

Half-Shire can be reached at P.O. 73, 1100 County Rte. 48, Richland, NY 13144 or on the web at www.halfshire.com

August 20, 2010

2010-08-16T04:07:00.001-07:00

The next meeting of the Society will be held on Saturday August 28, beginning with a noon lunch. On the 21st the annual Redfield School Reunion will be held under the direction of Alumni President Fay Ann Colvin. Anyone who ever attended a school in the town of Redfield is welcome and encouraged to attend the noon event.

Our summer AmeriCorps intern Erin Bacon Klarner has gone back to college. Erin will begin graduate work at Notre Dame University in Indiana. We wish her the best in first year of studies there.

An art auction of the works of the late George Widrig will be conducted at Half-Shire in the next few weeks. It is expected that a show and sale will be held on either a Saturday or Sunday soon, we hope to have timely announcements in all of our papers. George was an accomplished artist in pen and ink, charcoal, oils and watercolors and his massive collection was recently moved to Half-Shire in anticipation of its show and sale. Many of George’s “doodles” and sketches will also be offered to those who appreciate talent of this kind. Looking through this massive catalog of work that stretches back to his teen years is truly impressive!

The recent auction sales of household items from George’s estate as well as the Lattimer family estate in Orwell is a painful reminder of how the possessions of our oldest families are leaving the area. The Lattimer auction was attended by a couple of Half-Shire members that graciously purchased some items on behalf of the society, which on our own we cannot afford. We are in great debt to our friends of better means who have assisted our growing collections, and saved history from being lost to future generations.

This being said, the executors of the George Widrig estate have taken great pains to ensure that most of the items of historical note and value have been saved for the society. We have taken over 65 boxes of material in that will be sorted and cataloged in time. We appreciate the concern and care taken here to protect what was important to George. Dr. Jay Sullivan deserves the hearty thanks of all for the lead in this.

Similarly, Sharon Turo of New Canaan Connecticut, daughter of the late Sally Turo, and her brother George deserve an equal measure of thanks for the items they have presented to both Half-Shire and the Sandy Creek Historian’s collection. Sally and Paul Turo were early enthusiasts of regional history and preserved an incredible amount of family materials and local history during their lives. The Turo collection at Half-Shire has been lovingly sorted and boxed by Sharon with the care of a trained archivist. Sharon holds a position in the New Canaan historical community and her work in their library and historical archives guided her sorting and documentation of this rich family legacy. We are very grateful to the Turo family for all they have given our repositories.

As summer wends its way to a close I would encourage everyone to take advantage of the good clear days to take a drive through the hills “east of 81” and view the picturesque landscape that is such an important part of our heritage. Recently this writer has taken a couple such day trips, and no better day can be spent.

Crossing the Redfield Reservoir I am always amazed at how that body of water attracts such a number of swimmers and boaters like. On a recent summers eve I was joined by four other friends for a moonlight swim in these waters that six generations of my own family have enjoyed. Last weekend a trip to Osceola to attend the Josh Waggoner fundraiser included a stop at Dick Himes’ place nearby. Dick had spent a considerable amount of time and effort to restore the old Card-Baker graveyard in back of his home. Dick, Erma Schroeder and Earl and Nancy Meeks took time out of recent gathering there to survey the lots out and restore the markings.

Coming off the hill and returning to Pulaski and Sandy Creek offers breathtaking views of the Lake Ontario shoreline. The winding well-paved roads are a vast improvement over the rock laden pathways our forefathers travelled, yet the scenic vista remains the same.

Half-Shire is open on Friday afternoons or by appointment. We are located at 1100 County Rte. 48 in Richland and our mailing address is P.O. Box 73, Richland, NY 13144. Visit our web site at www.halfshire.com and check out our new photos under the different tabs.

July 29, 2010

2010-07-26T11:57:00.000-07:00

The Society held its monthly lunch meeting on Saturday July 24, beginning at noon. The picnic lunch was expertly prepared by Trustee Erma Schroeder and her daughter Kathleen Watson. Following the lunch a short business meeting was conducted. Photo enhancements completed by Willard Loomis were on display.

Half-Shire has been notified that we are awarded a grant in the amount of $2,225.00 from the Pulaski Community Fund that will go towards our hardwood floor installation in the SW classroom. The original wood ordered was sent back two weeks ago as it was full of worm holes and had many knots. At the meeting it was agreed to have three new bids to consider before going forward with any purchase.

July 24 & 25, as well as the previous weekend were work days at the Richland headquarters of the society. A good deal of grounds work as well as much needed filing was completed during these four days. July 30 and 31 will also be work days, contact President Shawn Doyle if you would like to do some volunteer work.

Our AmeriCorps worker Erin Bacon found some most interesting papers while going through the files of a neighboring historical society. The files seem to be part of the work notes from the 1939 book “The History of Pulaski Schools”. Included in the packet of papers were survey forms sent out to all of the Pulaski district one room schools at the time asking trustees and teachers to write out the histories of the buildings and the district.

One particular history of interest is the one prepared by a trustee of the Port Ontario-Bethel School. The writer reported that she was a granddaughter of Dan Brown, who served as an early trustee of the district and recorded many events in his diary. On August 31, 1897 he had reported in his diary that construction of the current school building at Bethel Corners was begun.

This building information, as well as subsequent pages on this building will serve to assist the new members of the Toothpick P.A. and Community Center board as future grants and funding for renovations of the old school building as well as the former Bethel Church are sought. The Bethel Corners structures have booth fallen into great disrepair over the past twenty years, and are in serious jeopardy if not attended to. The church building was constructed in 1857 by Eli Wheeler, a neighboring carpenter and local abolitionist leader who also donated the site for the structure on the NE corner of modern County Rte. 5 and scenic highway. Wheeler, along with Rev. George Bragdon and other leaders in the Port Ontario Community sought to build a non-denominational church that also served as a center of anti-slavery activity in the region.

The Bethel Church was discontinued in the late 1940s and was signed over to a new volunteer board for use as a community Center. The community center name and mission was changed twenty years ago to one of a performing arts center. The church was moved in 2001 across the road following the acquisition of land on the former site by New York State as part of the bridge project. Land on the NW corner of the same intersection was donated by the Seiter family, and the church was placed behind the 1897 school building. No activities have been held on the site since the move.

Extensive research into the Bethel Corners church and school is being assembled and placed in notebooks on the Half-Shire shelves.

Half Shire is open each Friday from noon until 4pm or by appointment. The group can be contacted at P.O. 73, Richland, NY 13144 or on the web at www.halfshire.com

July 2, 2010

2010-06-28T03:00:00.000-07:00

Half-Shire hosted Pulaski’s Class of 1960 for a breakfast on Sunday June 27th. Four members of the class had attended the Richland school and found the visit quite interesting. The Class donated an oversized photo of themselves on their class trip, as well as a booklet of biographies.

Over reunion weekend we assisted many Pulaski and Sandy Creek Alumni with research. We were very pleased to visit with Alice Carnright formally of Sandy Creek who stopped by on Saturday. Alice has been an active member of the DAR for many years, and is quite knowledgeable on Revolutionary War research.

As this article goes to press the Oswego County Fair should be in full swing. As we write we have gotten the building into good order and even moved our collection of 1,050 family files and books up for the week. It seems like only yesterday that our family files all fit into a milk crate, now they encompass two four-drawer file cabinets and a set of book shelves.

The fair has a lot to offer young and old alike, this year President Carol Sweeney is pleased to announce we have some additional food venders so we no run the gamut from hot dogs and Hamburg’s to frog legs and scallops. The list of entertainment booked in the entertainment building is truly impressive, and that building should be busy everyday now.

The Heritage building staff is energized and ready to assist researchers, please stop by and see your local historians and say hello.

Half-Shire can be reached at the fair at 532 5919 through the week, and by email at yhalfshire@hotmail.com

June 25, 2010

2010-06-22T03:08:00.000-07:00

The 153rd Oswego County Fair will open to the public on Thursday morning July 1st at 9 am. Our Heritage Hall on the eastern end of the grounds will open on Wednesday evening June 30th for a 6 pm reception, followed by tours of the various exhibits until 9 pm. The fair runs July 1-5 this year.

We will be relocating our 1,050 family files, a growing collection that has doubled since last year---to assist with onsite research. We have arranged the building for comfort and ease of research again this year. On Saturday June 19, Vice President Greg Monette conducted a set up meeting on the site, and as of this writing most things are shaping up well!

The theme days reflect the collections of towns and villages that make up Oswego County. On Saturday July 3, we will mark Half-Shire day, which celebrates the history of the nine northern townships. For more detailed information see the fair website at www.oswegocountyfair.com

There will be a special postal stamp cancellation on Saturday july 3, from noon until 3pm. Heather Sweeting of Fair haven has again designed a nice cancellation in honor of the theme of autumn.

On Saturday June 19th our long time volunteer and 2010 AmeriCorps worker Erin Bacon was united in marriage with William Christian Klarner of Baltimore, Maryland at a service held in the historic St. Mary’s Church in Florence. Following the beautiful ceremony the entourage returned to Richland where a reception was held at Half-Shire. Our building and grounds were in nice order and cleanliness for the day, and the decorated hall looked amazing. Thanks go out to our Trustee and kitchen coordinator Erma Schroeder, as well as a support team of Kathy Watson, Debbie Potter, Shirley Purvis, Shirley Purvis, Margaret Kastler and Shirley Rice. Several others were in and out of the kitchen through the day lending help. Our best wishes for a lifetime of happiness go out to Kris and Erin.

Half-Shire can be reached at halfshire@hotmail.com or by mail at PO 73, 1100 County Rte. 48, Richland, NY 13144. Our facility is open Fridays and by appointment.

June 19, 2010

2010-06-14T10:01:00.000-07:00

The Pulaski Farmer’s Market opened for the season on Friday June 4. Half-Shire will have a table most weeks on the northwest corner of the center square. On June 4th and 11th we saw many friends and members as we offered our books and afghan raffles to the public. A notebook with sheets on the downtown Pulaski historic district will be on display each week for people to look over and write in comments about what businesses they remember in the old downtown building. Please stop by and jot down your memories.

At our Richland headquarters renovations continue at a pace. A new drop ceiling is slated to be installed June 14 & 15 in the SW classroom. Painting was completed in that room the week of June 7th. Hardwood flooring should be installed during the last days of June to complete the work in this room. Downstairs, the main hall has had a fresh coat of floor paint applied, and the entry way spruced up some.

Work on our front gardens also continues, mulch was delivered on June 12th and is expected to be applied to the gardens through the next few weeks. The heavy rains of the past week have prevented some work from getting done outside. On June 20 we will host the wedding reception for Erin bacon and Kris Klarner, and we anticipate most of this work being done.

On June 12th we had a full day of work taking in materials from the late George Widrig. Rick Telian and friend Katie assisted until the late hours of the night as materials were sorted and consigned to storage boxes for later accessioning. Some interesting scrapbooks and many valuable family files and local histories are part of this collection. We have found many times in recent weeks where we miss being able to ring George up on a particular question of history. His legacy will live on for many years in his extensive research complied and left to our organization.

Late on June 12th we lost one of our other long-time members when Vernon V. Randall of Redfield passed away. Born March 24, 1917 the son of Marvin and Beulah (Munger) Randall, Vernon lived out his life on the Greenboro family farm which had been first inhabited by Benjamin Randall in 1803. Vernon worked for the Town of Redfield and Sandy Creek Schools until his retirement in 1979. At that time he was elected to the Oswego County legislature and served his community for fifteen years. Vernon was known to this writer as “Uncle Bill”, through his first marriage to the late Evelyn Ballou, by whom he has two daughters Lowana Davenport and Judith Huyck who survive along with 4 grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.

“Bill” was an expert on the history of Redfield and particularly the “north end”, and enjoyed talking about the families and the farms of that community’s
past. Each year at the County fair “Bill” would spend considerable time in the heritage building reminiscing about people and places. He was a regular attendee of the Fair, and was made a life member of the association along with his wife Marie several years ago. He will be sorely missed by those who cared for him and enjoyed his company.

“Bill” took time to write many of his memories down in a set of memoirs, and we look forward to having the opportunity to read these pages that have brought such comfort to his family in his last days when they were able to read them.

Half-Shire can be reached at www.halfshire.com or P.O. 73, Richland, NY 13144 Our facility is open Fridays from noon till 4pm or by appointment. 298-3620 for more information.

May 29, 2010

2010-06-14T10:00:00.000-07:00

The annual Oswego County Fair, heritage hall planning session was held as part of our monthly lunch meeting on Saturday May 22, 2010. Approximately 35 people attended. A surprise guest that day was Mark Wright of the Central New York Cultural Resources Council. Mark administers grants given out by this organization which took over the old Arts & Culture group that many of us once knew. Mark was complimentary of Half-Shire’s facility, and had the opportunity to talk to a cross section of the county from Granby to Boylston about the upcoming round of grants available.

Officials of the Oswego County Fair also joined us for lunch and spoke about the upcoming event. President Carol Sweeney addressed the heritage hall parking and again reinforced that we need to keep the back gate moving freely, and ensure heritage workers are on the daily list.

In other Half-Shire motions, monies were approved for hardwood flooring in the SW classroom as well as a new drop ceiling and insulation there. This will pretty much complete this room when done in early June.

The first meeting of the Friends of the Agricultural Society of Oswego County was held immediately following the Half-Shire meeting. The following five trustees were elected, to the following offices: Milferd Potter, President; Kathy Mulcahey, Vice President; Shawn Doyle, Secretary; Greg Monette, Treasurer. Margaret Kastler also will serve as a Trustee without additional office. Terms were set at staggered rates with Doyle serving 1 year, and on through alphabetically for growing terms. As time passes each trustee will be elected to a five year term. This group was formed in order to apply for 501 © 3 status to assist the Fair Association. There were 35 present to form the group, with the next meeting set for Friday July 3, at the Fair at a time to be announced.

On Sunday May 23, a work day was held at Half-Shire with Kris Klarner, Erin Bacon, Ken Bacon, Andrew Balcom and Shawn Doyle working variously for upwards to twelve hours. A community service worker also joined the group. A significant amount of filing was accomplished inside, with most of our daffodil, hyacinth and tulip bulbs dug up for separation and storage. The original bulbs, donated by June Walker, were planted three years ago and they have spread well.

At the May 23, meeting solicitation for rose bushes was made for a memorial rose garden to be set out on the front lawn in place of the current crescent perennial garden. The garden is to be set out in the next few weeks. Thanks go out to Nancy Smith and daughter Lisa Yesenky for their gracious donation of annual plants in our barrels and urns out front. They were planted before our meeting and commented on by many. Nancy said the donation was in memory of George Widrig.

Erin Bacon, our AmeriCorps worker for the summer has hit the ground running with students from the Pulaski History Club assisting her in various projects. The key project to be completed will be the digitalization of Brookside cemetery in Richland with the resulting photos set out in scrapbooks for the public to utilize. If this is completed in a timely manner, Riverside cemetery in Pulaski is next. The students also will participate in some painting of the SW classroom and the main hall under Bacon’s direction.

Our volunteer Richard Cooper brought in a gem of news clipping on Saturday. He located the obituary of Judge William Hale, who was a Judge and early Oswego County Sheriff. The 1859 obituary said Hale had relocated to Peoria, Illinois in 1835 and with his brother Asahel made a small fortune in lumber mills. Hale was the son of Revolutionary War soldier Gersham Hale, and was born in Pawlet, VT in 1795.

Half-Shire can be reached at halfshire@hotmail.com or at 1100 County Rte. 48, P.O.73, Richland, NY 13144. We shall soon resume weekday hours, but for the time being are open Fridays and Saturdays from 9-4.

may 21, 2010

2010-05-17T10:25:00.000-07:00

This past week our new AmeriCorps summer employee, Erin Bacon started work at our Richland facility. We are very pleased that AmeriCorps accepted our application to become an accredited work site, and we are delighted that Erin Bacon was selected. As some readers may recall, Erin volunteered at our facility from the time she was 15. She has assisted us through the years with the county fair, dinner theatre events, organizing our holdings and editing of written publications. Erin is a graduate of Loyola of Maryland, Class of 2009 and will begin her graduate studies in history this fall at Notre Dame.

Erin’s initial tasks will focus on a collaborative cemetery survey project in Richland with the Pulaski School History Club. Last year the history club (SHIP) began a photographic and mapping project of Brookside cemetery in Richland. Erin will lead the renewed efforts to finish this project this summer. Besides the work with SHIP Erin will work with visitors and volunteers alike at Half-Shire, assisting in preparations for the 2010 Oswego County Fair Heritage exhibit.

Erin joins Paula Sachel on staff with Experience Works. Paula will continue her work from the Richland historian’s office in the H. Douglas Barclay Court House, 2nd floor suite over DMV. Paula can be reached through the week Monday-Thursday there from 9am until 1 pm. Many of the family files at Half-Shire are being duplicated for reference in the Richland historian’s office. An important new collection at both sites is the Rancier family histories, a four volume set of detailed, annotated histories of eastern Lake Ontario families compiled by Esther Rancier, formally of Mexico, NY. These files were first assembled this spring as part of a Snow Foundation scholarship project completed by Chelsea Savastano of Pulaski. Paula has added additional files Esther had compiled, and which are also in the books. All tolled there are over 160 family names covered.

One of Paula’s projects also recently completed was the canvassing and inventory of the existing Half-Shire family files. This new inventory now can be searched from either location in Microsoft access. The index covers over 800 individual family files located primarily in Richland at our headquarters. It is our goal this summer to have copies at both locations so we are not moving them seasonally as we are now. The inventory list will also be shared with neighboring historians to better assist in referrals.

Our lawns at Richland are looking pretty good, this thanks to $200 worth of “weed and feed” and the lawn mowing assistance provided by neighbor Kermit Paro of Richland. Kermit has been a great help in the past few years in his watching over the building as well as with his lawn and property maintenance. Thanks Kermit!

As Memorial Day approaches Half-Shire will be assisting the American Legion and VFW again in the placement of American Flags in all our cemeteries on the graves of servicemen past. Erin Bacon and volunteers Shawn Doyle, Andrew Balcom and Christian Klarner will also be working on this as the national day of remembrance approaches.

The heritage hall, annual county fair planning meeting will be held on Saturday May 22, 2010 at 1 pm. This will be preceded by a lunch served at noon. This meeting is the annual joint meeting of the Oswego County Genealogical Society and Half-Shire. A brief (15 minute) business meeting will be held to move a couple of crucial items through the Half-Shire board, followed by the annual discussion and explanation of the weeks events at the Fair. The Oswego County Fair will be held in Sandy Creek July 1-5, 20010 with “Special Times” on June 30. Half-Shire will also host an opening reception on June 30, at 6 pm at the Fair Heritage building. Greg Monette and Shawn Doyle will again serve as co-chairs of Heritage Hall.

Also on the 22nd, the newly formed Friends of the Agricultural Society of Oswego County organization will hold its first meeting at 11:30am. This group is open to the public, and will be applying for non-profit tax status to assist the fair in fund-raising for events and infrastructure improvements. The group obtained an IRS tax number and now begins the first steps in the 501 process. This initial meeting will be at Half-Shire immediately prior to the luncheon.

The Society is saddened to learn of the death of John Fowler of Redfield. John was a long time member and supporter of the organization and will be missed. Our best regards go out to the family.

The Society is pleased with the response of members to the dues solicitation. Raffle tickets on the two spectacular afghans have also moved quite well. The drawing for the afghans will be held July 4, 2010 at the Fair at 1 pm. Thanks go out to Ian Lowery, Alyssa Ashley and Andrew Balcom for assistance on the work at the County Fair buildings of late.

Half-Shire can be reached at P.O. 73, 1100 County Rte. 48 in Richland, NY 13144 or on the web at halfshire@hotmail.com. We are a few weeks backed up in research answers due to an overwhelming batch of work that has come in over the net. We currently are working on two dozen requests with a need for a “Day in the office” growing.

May 14, 2010

2010-05-17T10:23:00.000-07:00

The Mother’s Day snow sure was a surprise this year after such a nice spring. Society members Fay Ann Colvin and Paulette Yerdon joined Milferd Potter, his daughter Laurie and I for breakfast at the Orwell Diner that morning as we all checked out the fresh snow.

The Yerdon sisters and I returned to half-Shire where we worked on updating the Redfield School listings. We have compiled a list of over 350 people who attended school in Redfield village and the surrounding one room schools. The last classes were held in Redfield in 1974 when the district was fully integrated into Sandy Creek district.

Meda Perry Yerdon and Florence Adsit McCaw had begun a Redfield School reunion in 1984, which continues each August at Half-Shire. Paulette and Fay Ann, nieces of Meda, have taken on the task of updating the list and will be trying to locate all of the people on the new list compiled by looking at the old yearbooks and school reports.

This year’s Redfield School reunion is set for Saturday August 21, at Half-Shire.

We recently completed a $2,000 masonry project that sealed up eleven 1st floor windows and applied fresh stucco to the false windows on the sides that had not been redone in many years. This project no will enable us to go forward with insulation of the east wall of the main hall and repair to the electrical.

We are pleased with the receipt of dues and raffle monies, and thank all of our returning members and new friends. Beginning Monday May 24, Half-Shire will be open Monday-Friday from 10 am until 3 pm. Our newly approved AmeriCorps worker Erin Bacon will be onsite most days to assist people. There may be some days that Erin will be over in Richland cemetery, and if she is not there a note will be left on the door.

Our Richland Trustee Erma Schroeder will also be at the school on Fridays still from noon until 4. Our Experience Works worker Paula Sachel will continue to work at the Richland historian’s office in the Pulaski Court House through May and June Mondays through Thursday. Paula has been doing an exceptional job digitizing records and sorting files. We are grateful for our two program workers, as well as our volunteers led by Erma who are poised to make this the most productive year ever for the society.

Work has commenced at the Oswego County fairgrounds for the year. The fair committee has been busy assembling a varied list of entertaining acts and venues for this years fair that begins July 1 and runs through the 5th. This year there will be more musical acts in the entertainment building on the east side of the grounds. Secretary Ann Gibbs has been very busy lining up sponsors for acts and deserves a great deal of credit.

On Saturday May 8, Ian Lowery and Allysha Ashley worked in the Junior building with me, prepping the floor for sealing.

On Saturday May 22, the Society will hold its annual Fair planning meeting at the Richland School. The public is welcome.

Half-Shire can be reached at P.O. Box 73, Richland, NY 13144 or on the web at haldfshire@hotmail.com

May 7, 2010

2010-05-17T10:20:00.000-07:00

The Half-Shire newsletter that went out this week is long overdue. The feature news items cover the summer through holiday events at the society. Because it has been so many months we had the sad duty to report over 24 deaths of members or friends of the society. As we went to print we received the news of the deaths of Alice Campbell Gasperini, Julia Gawronski and out secretary and founder George O. Widrig. Fuller mention of these former members will be made in the next issue.

The next issue is already being laid out, with material already on hand and a general outline. The cover story of this upcoming newsletter will feature an article on George and his life and contributions to the region.

George O. Widrig was born in May 1931 the son of James and Avis (Donovan) Widrig. His father was a railroad engineer headquartered in the bustling railroad intersection of Richland. George grew up and spent his life in the Richland, he knew everyone by name in the community throughout his nearly 80 years, and he knew their lineage also. He was educated in Richland School, a graduate of the Pulaski Academy and Central School in 1948, and he later went on to take his degree in Art Education at Oswego State.

George taught a number of years in Mexico school. Health issues periodically troubled him through his life, and he retired at a younger age and devoted himself to his research, painting, music and gardening. For many years George also took care of his mother Avis.

Avis and George, along with Avis’ cousin Floyd Kent and his daughter Marie and two others had talked throughout 1972 about forming a historical society on this end of the county. On November 15, the six met at the home of Floyd and Marie and by nights’ end Half-Shire Historical Society had been born.

Our group was founded as a sort of “secessionist movement”, the charter members all felt that the Oswego County Historical Society had not represented the east end for some time. Like the earlier secessionists of 1847 and 1852 who sought to split the county, the Half-Shire founders wanted to form an eastern historical society that would better reflect the rural heritage that differs substantially from the Oswego River valley.

Nearly 40 years later, George was one of two living, and the last of the founders to be actively engaged in our day to day affairs. Serving as Secretary, and for the past year employed by the society through Experience Works, George got the mail daily, sorted it and sent it off to either myself or the Treasurer, he worked at the Court house during winter months answering correspondence, developing research notebooks and pasting up obituaries. Even in his last months when he was in steep decline, George continued to take care of the mail and help with research.

In his capacity as society secretary George particularly excelled. His near daily notes of thanks, and letters to researchers were done in a true nineteenth century manner, with class and efficiency.

In the weeks following is death, we have broken George’s duties up and awarded them to five people. Erin Bacon was appointed the new Deputy historian for Richland Town, and will be working in George’s editing chair, reviewing all periodicals. Erma Schroeder will be taking over the obituary collection and its upkeep, Paula Sachel has taken over George’s Experience works job and works from the court house for the time being, Fay Ann Yerdon Colvin is targeted to fill in as Recording Secretary for meetings while Nancy Smith has agreed to become corresponding Secretary to handle the mail and send out notes.

This writer, who has served and worked alongside George almost daily since 1994 is at a true loss, George was always a phone call away with a research problem, and his knowledge of Richland history was unsurpassed. I have lost a very close friend and fellow historian, whom I will miss greatly for a long time.

The Society met last on April 24th and served over 35 meals. We selected a bid for masonry work to the back of the building, including the covering of long ago windows in the back. Reports were given from committees and the town representatives, and the next meeting was scheduled for Saturday May 22, at the Richland headquarters at 1pm following a noon meal. All are welcome.

In other news, Half-Shire is pleased tot learn we have been approved as an AmeriCorps work site. We should learn in the next few weeks who our summer intern will be. Interviews were started on April 30,

Half-Shire can be reached at P.O. 73, 1100 County Rte. 48 in Richland, NY 13144. Our email is halfshire@hotmail.com and out website is at www.halfshire.com

March 26, 2010

2010-03-24T06:25:00.000-07:00

The society will resume monthly meetings beginning on Saturday March 27. A lunch of beef stroganoff and ziti served at noon will be followed by a business meeting at 1pm.

We have a busy year ahead of us, and it is hoped that a good turnout will be present to help plan things.

We have learned of the death of several members over the past few weeks. John “JJ”DeSantis of Redfield, Nick Warchol of Osceola, Alberta Pretory of Orwell and Edward Roche of Ohio. Our sincere sympathies are extended to the families.

Our winter hours at the Barclay Court House in Pulaski are soon winding down. Thanks to Erma Schroeder for her many hours each Friday meeting with people and working on projects from the Richland historian’s second floor office there. Our Snow scholar Colin Wansink has been working through the season on scanning photos from the Pulaski Masonic Temple. Colin’s project will be wrapping up today and the reproduced photos along with companion biographies of the 100 members who were photographed during the 1891opening of the current building will be shared with the Masons and Pulaski Historical Society.

A new computer was purchased and donated the society in January. The computer will be kept primarily at the Court House and used for scanning projects. The need for a new computer has been part of the delay in our quarterly newsletter which is now several months behind.

Society President Shawn Doyle and Trustee Charlene Cole participated in a Historians’ roundtable on Saturday March 20, in DeWitt. The event was organized by the Central New York Genealogical Society which is presided over by our Vice President Greg Monette.

Half-Shire can be contacted at halfshire@hotmail.com or P.O. 73, Richland, NY 13144

March 26, 2010

2010-03-22T04:58:00.000-07:00

Having Trouble posting column....
Meeting Saturday March 27, 2010 at the Building 1100 County Rte. 48, Richland. Lunch served at noon followed by 1 pm meeting....

January 13, 2010

2010-01-12T03:37:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year to all of our readers in the tri-county region!

While our Richland facility is closed until April, the society is still active with Friday afternoon hours at the Barclay Court House in Pulaski (2nd floor over DMV, 2pm until 5) or by appointment. We got off to a rocky start following our move there with a semi-annual computer crash. We are fortunate to have invested in an off-line backup subscription, but meanwhile all of our main files are difficult to access, and photo scanning has come to a halt. We anticipate purchase of a new computer in the next couple of weeks.

One of our community service workers has been scanning and organizing the Giddings-Castor-Yerdon collection of photos that we had received last year. This six album collection is based on the collection of Lucy Joyner Castor Fry and her daughters, and we hope to have on full display at the 2010 county fair.

George Widrig has been working diligently at updating our obituary files, and works out of the Court House many mornings. One obituary of interest to us that has drawn questions is that of the late Lauretta Clute formally of Central Square who died on October 24, 2009 in Syracuse. Mrs. Clute appears in many of our first Half-Shire minutes as an early and active charter member. We had not heard from her in many years, and were unaware of her death until recently. Mrs. Clute was buried in Orwell’s Evergreen Cemetery. Anyone who remembers Lauretta’s interest in history and connections to the area families give George a call at 298-2986 so we can better document her in our files.

Many winter sports enthusiasts have been drawn to the Tug Hill region with the recent snow accumulation. The occasional appearances of the sun have also drawn a few of us to tour the winter highways taking photos and checking out natures wonders. On Saturday January 9, this writer and one of our regular volunteers began a planned drive around the circumference of the Half-Shire region. While in Boylston, we opted briefly to turn of North Church Rd. onto the Bargy Rd. I say briefly as once on the road we discovered that it was not plowed, but groomed for snowmobiles and skis. We were soon stuck, and efforts to dislodge the 4-wheel drive were fruitless. Cell service was bad, but text messages were able to be sent. We text-messaged member Margaret Sullivan in Parish who placed a call to Trustee Rita Rombach who lives on North Church Rd. and within minutes Rita’s husband Phil was on the scene and effortlessly dislodged our vehicle from the road edge. Our thanks go out to Phil once again for coming to the rescue!

Our friends at the Williamstown Historical Society have recently sent out a nice newsletter complete with a transcription of that town’s 1880 census. Copies can be obtained by getting in touch with the group at P.O. 54, Williamstown, NY 13493.

Half-Shire calendars for 2010 are not yet ready, an earlier plan to focus on the dairy industry has been set aside in favor of the theme “Our favorite photos” which covers the eleven township region.

Half-Shire can be reached at www.halfshire.com or halfshire@hotmail.com. Our mailing address is P.O. 73, 1100 County Rte 48, Richland, NY 13144

December 4, 2009

2009-11-30T04:20:00.001-08:00

The last meeting of the year will be followed by an exciting musical program held at the H. Douglas Barclay Court House in Pulaski on Saturday December 5, beginning with a light lunch at noon. At 1 pm Kelsey Munz of Osceola will perform Christmas selections on her concert harp. This is a “must not miss event” from 1-3pm as the acoustics in the nearly 200 year old Court room are fantastic for the harp. The event is free, and there will be cookies and refreshments provided. For more information contact Shawn Doyle at 298-3620.

During the Thanksgiving holidays the scores of people who helped us this year came to mind. Half-Shire was very fortunate in these tough economic times to continue our building repair program, offer monthly lunches and occasional programs, and continue our Revolutionary War grave marking endeavors. All of our work could not have been accomplished if it were not for the generous contributions of over 300 dedicated members and several local industries such as Entergy Corporation and Healthways.

During the year volunteers such as Erma Schroeder, Rose Graham, Rita and Phil Rombach, Kay Ann Colvin and Richard Cooper have spent a great deal of time at the building assisting with various projects. Members of the Pulaski history Club such as Adam Wickert, Kenny & Kari Bacon, Jon Thousand, Dan Bellinger and their advisor John Gosek have begun a new cemetery documentation project, picking up where Leah Munz left off the year before on the east end. Jodi Wickert, Carol Thompson and Keith Munz donated three gorgeous hand-made afghans that in toll netted us nearly $1,700.00 during two very successful raffles.

As we look forward to 2010 with George Widrig continuing on as our Experience Works employee four days a week, we will again offer hours first at the Pulaski Court House Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Fridays From 9-12, then at Richland the same days beginning in April. Our new Snow scholars Christi Savastano and Colin Wansink will undoubtedly add much to our collections with their two projects that will span the winter. All in all it is an exciting time to be working in the historical field in our region!

We are hoping to re-launch the Tug Hill literary Review in 2010, with George Widrig and Richard Cooper’s valuable research we have uncovered some good poetry and prose from the past 150 years that we would like to share. This writer has been working on compiling a couple of historical ballads based on material from our files. In one such work the Florence town “character” Edwin “Ned” Roach has been spotlighted. Some good data on Roach’s colorful life has been located, detailing his six marriages, his business activities and support of St. Mary’s Church. However, we are still in search of a photo of this colorful Irish Immigrant who dominated Florence town democratic politics during the late 1800s before his death in 1889. Any information that can be shared is most appreciated.

Half-Shire can be reached at P.O. 73, Richland, NY 13144 or on the net at www.halfshire.com or halfshire @hotmail.com

2009-10-27T10:08:00.000-07:00

October 30, 2009

Our October 24th meeting which coincided with archives day went quite well at our Richland facility. We had 30 for a sit down lunch at noon, and another 10 or so folks came in and out through the afternoon. At 1 pm we held a brief meeting of the society, our last at Richland for the season. Our next meeting will be held at the H. Douglas Barclay Court House in Pulaski on Saturday November 21. We are trying to also reschedule our annual holiday musical concert for that afternoon, and will let everyone know in this space as time gets closer.

Also during the 24th four students from the Pulaski School History Club (SHIP) worked at photographing stones in Richland cemetery around the corner from our facility. The students have taken on a project to photograph all of the existing stones for our records. A good two hours work was undertaken before they were driven out by the rain. Our thanks go out to history club members: Ken and Cary, Dan, John. Back at the facility, Ian Lowery, another student worker assisted in insulating an interior wall on the second floor.

Our dinner was donated by Barbara Brown of Palermo, and consisted of three choice hams, scalloped potatoes and salads. Roberta Cleveland also brought one of her famed tossed salads that this writer is particularly partial to.

Tours of the nearly completed 2nd floor room were ongoing through the day. We need to install a drop ceiling before the room is put into use. Right now our insulation and the beams are exposed. The work has come along very well though, and we are grateful to the contractors as well as our volunteers and donors.

Effective Monday October 26, our librarian George Widrig will be working from the Barclay Court House Historians office off the elevator over DMV. George will be there Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Fridays from 9-noon. On Fridays this writer will generally be there from 2 until 5 pm. We have moved our family files to this location for the winter, and many other research items are available for perusal, including access to our ancestry.com and footnote.com accounts.

We have had a couple of new life members: Bob & June Walker of Chaumont, NY and Edwin Fisher of Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Mr. Fisher has also made several archival donations in the past year. He is researching the Gurley, Laney, Hazzard and Edgar families of Central Oswego County. Life memberships are available for $250.00 while our regular membership is $12 annually or $25 per household.

Half-Shire can be reached at halfshire@hotmail.com or on the web at www.halfshire.com. Our mailing address is P.O. 73, 1100 County Rte. 48, Richland, NY 13144. 298-3620 for hours or inquiries.

October 16, 2009

2009-10-13T06:07:00.000-07:00

On Saturday October 24, the society will open its doors from 10am until 4 pm for a full day of research. At noon the society will serve a roast ham lunch just prior to our regular monthly meeting. The meeting and lunch are open to the public. There are many new research volumes on the shelves, and even those familiar with our collections will be surprised.

As the season goes forward we still continue to welcome researchers from near and far. Over the weekend of October 11, we had a research her in from Utah looking for information on Blakeslee and Kitts ancestors who lived along the eastern shore of Lake Ontario as well as the foothills of Tug hill.

Also on the 4th and the 11th Ian Lowery assisted us in some winter storage work. We began at the Heritage Hall on the fairgrounds, and put away the last of the remaining exhibits from the 2009 fair. Some items were then transported to Half-Shire for storage.

On October 2, the Agricultural Society of Oswego County held their annual meeting and dinner. Officers were elected for the upcoming year which include: President, Carol Sweeney; Sr. Vice President, Fred Potter; Three Jr. Vice Presidents: George Commins, Shirley Rice and Robin Seaman.; Treasurer Kathy McPhearson and Secretary Anne Gibbs. One third of the jurisdictional directors were also up for election, new among the list are Margaret Sullivan for Fulton; Kathy Mulcahey for Minetto and Betty Atkinson for Sandy Creek. The 2010 County fair will be held the first week of July at Sandy Creek.

Fall cleaning has begun at the Court House office of the Richland Historian in anticipation of relocating Half-Shire’s research center for the winter months of December-March. We’ve added a new set of shelves to try to alleviate some of the congestion. More information as the move gets closer.

Two seniors from Pulaski Schools have been meeting and communicating with us on their proposed projects for the school year. Colin Wansink will be starting a digitalization project that will focus on photographs from the Pulaski Masonic Lodge collection. Colin prepared his proposal and looked over the work area last week, and hopes to begin soon. Another student is looking to work on re-mapping of area cemeteries. More on that project as we get closer.

Half-Shire can be reached at www.halfshire.com or halfshire@hotmail.com. Our mailing address is P.O. 73, 1100 County Rte 48, Richland, NY 13144

October 2, 2009

2009-10-13T06:05:00.000-07:00

With the first week of autumn now past us, we still continue to see several researchers dropping in at Half-Shire. George Widrig is available to work with people during his regular hours at the facility each Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 9 am until 1 pm. Erma Schroeder follows George on Fridays keeping the doors open until 4 pm. For out of town researchers we can also open up by appointment most anytime.

George has been adding many new volumes of “topic binders” on the research shelf. One particularly interesting set is a three volume folio set on the Salmon River “from the source to the mouth” which is loaded with images, articles and even some poetry. A companion book on the 1983 Tube races is also available for review, with many familiar faces evident, including this writer as a 17 year old participant.

On September 26th several Half-Shire members spent time at the Silver Mine in Sandy Creek to take part in a Cancer society benefit organized by Trustee Glenna Gorski of Williamstown. Gorski has been undergoing treatments for several months now, and wanted to do something to advance the research into cancer cures. All proceeds raised were sent to the Cancer society. Williamstown Supervisor “Chip” Hamlin was also present to support his town historian.

Later in the day, Shawn Doyle, Roberta Cleveland and Anne LaDuke were among those who attended the 50th wedding anniversary of Warren and Florence (Pizon) Gardner held at the Sandy Pond Sportsmen’s club. Florence, our trustee from Albion was very surprised, and both were pleased to have all four of their daughters in attendance.

Work on the southwest classroom seems to be progressing well, the closet doors are all now attached and the primer coat of paint applied. We are going to be at a standstill on the drop ceiling until we raise a little more money, but none the less are quite pleased with the progress so far.

The Oswego County history consortium has set Saturday October 24th as a county-wide day of open houses for all historical and Cultural locations. Half-Shire will be open 10-4pm and offer chili and free coffee and cider to mark the day, along with full access to our research materials. More information will follow in future columns.

Half-Shire can be contacted at halfshire@hotmail.com or 1100 County Rte. 48, Richland, NY 13144. 298-3620

We have a winner!!

2009-09-21T07:18:00.001-07:00

The drawing for the beautiful American Flag afghan was conducted, and Phyllis McNitt of Boylston was the winner. Trustee Margaret Kastler later delivered the afghan. Thanks go out again to jodi Wickert for making the amazing coverlet that was a profitable fundraiser for us.

Kelsey Munz drew the winning ticket for us.

2009-09-21T07:06:00.000-07:00

September 26, 2009

The annual meeting of the society was held on Saturday September 19, at the Richland headquarters. Trustees Rose Graham (Orwell); Mary Munz (Osceola-Florence); Mary Lou Guindon (Parish); and Charlene Cole (at-large Trustee) were all reelected to succeed themselves. In other business, President Doyle went over the progress in the SW classroom, and outlined some broad goals for the upcoming year. The assemblage wished Mary Munz a Happy 80th birthday, complete with a cake sent up by her daughter in law Amy. Cards were signed for many members who were sick or had lost loved ones. (Mary pictured right)

Former Vice President Keith Willis was in attendance, and told the membership about his recent activities with Albany’s Vale Cemetery. Other reports were given by Vice President Monette and Trustees Munz, Gardner, Kastler, Graham, Rombach and Secretary Widrig. A delicious meal was prepared by Trustee Erma Schroeder. The next meeting will coincide with Archives week activities across the county on Saturday October 24th. A lunch at noon will be both preceded and followed by research programs from 10-4 pm.

Also on September 19, the society attempted an exhibit on the Civil War at the Barclay Courthouse foyer. Member Richard Cooper staffed the exhibit for three hours and saw one person. This event was planned to be part of the Salmon River Fest in the park, which otherwise was a great success.

Back a couple weeks, the Redfield Old Home days were quite successful, and Half-Shire sold a few books and took in some membership. Thanks to Erma Schroeder for her good work at the booth both days.

Visitors to the society recently have included members of the Edger and Gurley families who left an extensive file for our records. These folks travelled here from Sheboygan County, Wisconsin. Several other local visitors have come in during our museum days open.

On Sunday September 20, over 350 parishioners and guests filled the shrine of St. Mary of Mt. Carmel in Florence for a thanksgiving mass conducted by the honorable Bishop Emeritus Thomas Costello of Syracuse. Costello, a “son of Florence” had agreed to assist the community of faith in December 2006 when the former church was slated for demolition. Since that meeting less than two years ago, over $200,000 has been raised and the church is now restored and in excellent repair. The mass blended Catholic liturgy with several homilies on the historic church and its people. Following the service the graves were blessed by the bishop, (seen left) and doves released. A reception was then held at the Florence Hotel. Representatives of most all of the legendary Irish Catholic clans of Florence were in attendance, and this writer was one who enjoyed the day immensely.

Other Half-Shire members who were noticed in attendance and who had contributed to the restoration included John & Ann O’Mara, Thomas Clark, Bob & Susan (Archibee) Hemings, Leo Seaton and Sue Kidney, Stedman & Mary Lou Twiss, Mary Adams Lambie, Sylvia Yerdon Adams, Doreen Tilton, Barb Paufe, Dorothy Fey, Jack Plumley, Matthew Clark, Martin Clark, Michael Clark and Monica Clark—the last named siblings being central to the renovation efforts. It was a proud day for Florence and for those among us who appreciate history.

Half-Shire is open through the falls months Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Fridays from 9-1 pm. Friday afternoons usually until 4 pm. We can be contacted at http://www.halfshire.com/ emailed at Halfshire@hotmail.com. Our mailing address is P.O. 73, 1100 County Rte. 48, Richland, NY 13144

September 4, 2009

2009-09-01T07:54:00.001-07:00

On Saturday August 22, Half-Shire hosted our monthly lunch meeting at Richland. Following a lunch of stuffed pork chops with all the fixings, there was a short meeting and some historical discussion.
On Saturday August 29, we hosted the 25th annual Redfield Schools Reunion. The event was a great success with over 30 people present. Three members of the surviving graduates of the Redfield high School were present: Ron Jones, Meda Perry Yerdon and Edward Simson. Meda Yerdon was cited for her commitment to her alma mater in organizing the first reunion 25 years ago, and most of the subsequent ones through the years. A large contingent of Yerdons was present, so a family photo was taken which represented descendants of Abraham Yerdon (1837-1923) through two of his daughters and three of his sons.
Vernon V. Randall was the most senior member present, and of those who attended Redfield Schools Don Yerdon the youngest. Officers of the group were re-elected for another term: Mike Yerdon, President; Shawn Doyle Secretary and Fay Ann Yerdon Colvin Treasurer. Those in attendance enjoyed browsing Half-Shire’s extensive collection of Redfield photographs and scrapbooks, and also shared many good stories!
Also with us on the 29th were two researchers from the west—Mila Behunin Anderson and Nola Behunin Durall. Both of these ladies are descendants of Albert Bohanan, one of Richland’s earliest settlers who located at the mouth of Snake Creek on Lake Ontario about 1803. They brought with them some very good information on the family which was footnoted well. Going through our files the ladies found additional information to add to their files, and they returned the next two days meeting with George Widrig and Erma Schroeder. The current information seems to lead to a direction that the Bohannan/Behunin family was of French Canadian descent.
On September 5, the Ballou and McCaw families of Redfield will gather in Redfield for their 20th Family reunion. Half-Shire has an extensive collection of documents on these early Oswego County families in our collection. Half-Shire will conduct a display/sales booth at the Redfield Old home Days on the 5th and 6th from noon until 6 pm each day.
Half-Shire’s Richland research facility is open four days a week—Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 9-1pm and Fridays 9-4 pm. We are also pleased to schedule any other appointments. Our faculty is located in the former Richland hamlet school, 1100 County Rte. 48, Richland, (PO 73) or on the web at www.halfshire.com.
halfshire@hotmail.com

2009-07-15T22:17:00.000-07:00

The 152nd Oswego County Fair ended on Sunday July 5 with bright sunny skys—a contrast to an otherwise overcast week. Despite the poor weather attendance was steady for the five day event. In our Heritage Hall the crowds were not at all lessened by the weather. Each day we were very busy from early morning through the evening. Of the 22 townships of Oswego County historians from all but three participated in the week’s activities.

Photo: Roy Weldon of Howardville won the trophy as “Sr. Spelling Champion” for 2009 at the Oswego County Fair. Weldon stood with third Cousin Shawn Doyle for this photo.

The main competition in or building each year is the historic room display competition. This year’s competitors did a tremendous job and the three judges had an unenviable task. West Monroe’s historic barn interpretation took the blue ribbon, followed by Lakeshore Hardwood’s historic woodworking shop. New Haven’s model of a working farm in miniature took third place. All entrants are congratulated for their hard work again this year.

During the week our digitalization project moved along at a brisk pace with several volunteers and community service workers taking a turn at scanning some of the thousands of photos brought in for us to copy. The family of the late Malcom and Joan Noble loaned us a large collection of family photos that much time was spent copying and organizing. Included with this collection are many interesting images of the Nobles and their friends snowmobiling on Tug Hill during the 1950s and 60s. The early sleds are quite interesting to see.

The take-down of the Heritage Hall also went better the usual, with most all items returned to their place on the Half-Shire shelves within a few days. Thanks are extended to all who volunteered or assisted during this very busy week.

Back at Richland we met with Andrew Clemens and his three brothers on July 11. The Clemens family was all in the region to attend the annual reunion in Osceola that weekend. Several pages of early data on the Clemens, Blazier and their related families were exchanged, as well as scanned images of Redfield and Osceola photos. All of the brothers are now among our members.

Chances are still available on the amazing American flag afghan donated by Jody Wickert of Fernwood. Tickets went out in the mail with the summer newsletter and will be available at our Pulaski Farmer’s Market stand each week. Drawing will be at our September 19, annual meeting in Richland.

Half-Shire is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Fridays from 9am-1 pm or by appointment. We can be reached at P.O. 73, Richland, NY 13144 or on the web at http://www.halfshire.com/

2009-06-29T06:05:00.000-07:00

Half-Shire Historical Society
July 3, 2009

As this column goes to press the 152nd Oswego County Fair should be in full swing at Sandy Creek. During the previous week the Heritage building was stocked full with many new and unique exhibits. We even brought down a piano for some live music! An interesting week of interactive history is planned, with historians from across the County and region present. Many unique crafters are also planning on being present at various times.

Special exhibits are set up for the communities of West Monroe, Amboy, Redfield, Minetto, Parish, New Haven Volney, Granby, Mallory, Sandy Creek, Pulaski, Williamstown, Richland, Oswego town, Schroeppel and Boylston. Rae Allen will be there each day to quilt and do demonstrations. Carol Thompson, Mary Mason, Florence Gardner, Julie Paintor are on tap among our crafters. Friends of history who wish to learn more about specifics of any given day can reach us at the Fair 387-3257 or 532-5919.

Last week I submitted a correction to an earlier column, and in the apology I cited Phyllis LeBeau, Sandy Creek Historian’s Office volunteer. I mixed up Phyllis’ maiden name which should have read Rowe. Her Dad was J. Hunt Rowe, and there was the mix up. I again offer my apologies.

On June 24, Shawn Doyle and volunteer Ian Lowery worked at bringing more materials to Heritage Hall in Sandy Creek. Later in the day the two set out a government marker for the late Elwood Bristol in St. Mary’s Cemetery, Florence. Bristol, a decorated soldier in the Second World War was a Redfield native. Following his death in 2003, Bristol was buried with his parents in St. Mary’s along the back tree line. This marker is the first monument to his life and service.

While in “the east end” Lowery & Doyle worked at some landscape work in Redfield cemetery, and then joined other town youths in the traditional summertime ritual of “jumping the bridge” to cool off. The reservoir was a perfect swimming temperature, and a couple dozen area residents were also enjoying the waters under a cloudless sky. In this writer’s opinion there is no better season then summer in the Tug Hill/Eastern Lake Ontario region where we have so many recreational opportunities. The Redfield Reservoir is another “hidden gem” in our county that is often overlooked.

Our sister organization to the north, the Historical Association of South Jefferson has published a new book on the history of Lorraine. The book will be on sale at the fairgrounds, and later at Half-Shire. Editor Debbie Quick has penned several local books, and this one is sure to be similarly popular.

Congratulations to Virginia Chrisman Peter of Lacona and Shirley Potter Purvis of Vero Beach, Florida for each correctly guessing the identity of this past newsletter’s “Guess Who”. The mystery man in the child photo was Fred Potter of Boylston. Virginia and Shirley each will be credited a years’ membership and receive a 2009 calendar—and as it is late in the year, a 2010 calendar when they are printed.

In our membership list printed in the last newsletter we omitted several names among those members are Francis Sullivan, Fulton; Kay Dealing, Sandy Creek; Sharon Robarge, Richland; Joan Carter, Charlottesville, VA and life member (Secretary) George Widrig. The printing of the list –and gathering corrections, is helpful before we fill out our annual state report with membership numbers, so if you feel you were omitted please contact us.

Half-Shire can be reached at P.O. 73, 1100 County Rte. 48, Richland, NY 13144
Or on the web at halfshire@hotmail.com www.halfshire.com

It's Fair Time!

2009-06-21T21:18:00.000-07:00

The 152nd Oswego County Fair is soon to be upon us, for the past couple months many volunteers have devoted countless hours to setting up exhibits and maintaining the grounds. The Fair is again not charging admission, and the buildings and exhibits are also free. Prices vary on the midway and the grandstand, but are still quite reasonable.

Heritage Hall has a full week of events planned, with historians from the various townships onsite during their themed day. Several crafters will be on hand, demonstrating spinning, chair caning, weaving, quilting, tatting and crochet work. These demonstrations alone are quite interesting and worth the trip up to see.

On site photo scanning will take place again. If you have some precious photos you’d like to allow us to copy for our records this is a great time and place to take care of things. We will have volunteers behind the counter most of the day who can scan your photos or entire collections. Last year we had a few friends of the society come in with the proverbial shoeboxes, and they left with organized collections, in sheet protector’s compliments of the society. Please call ahead if you have a big collection, 532-5919 or the Hall 387-3257.

We will have Kelsey Munz of Osceola one of the days in the hall, playing her harp. As of this writing that date has not been set. On July 4, Florence Gardner is expected to play some patriotic tunes for us on her keyboard.

There will be iced tea and lemonade available most of the week, with fresh coffee in the morning. The Heritage Hall has two sitting area where folks can rest and enjoy a nice conversation. On Tuesday evening we will have our informal kick-off reception from 5-7 to coincide with “Special Times” on the grounds.

On Wednesday July 1, the commemorative stamping will take place from noon-3pm with the Sandy Creek Post Office on site. This year’s design is again from our good friend Heather Sweeting of Sterling, NY. The theme for Wednesday will be the Oswego River Valley towns of Volney, Oswego, Granby, Minetto, Hannibal and the two cites. Historians from these regions have been asked to attend and meet with people.

The parade will run through Sandy Creek on Wednesday night, and Jerry & Lorraine Orton will be part of the Half-Shire group marching.

On Thursday July 2, it is “North Shore day” where the theme will revolve around the towns of Constantia, West Monroe and Hastings. We expect to see many friends form this region.

On Friday July 3, it will be Central township day with Mexico, New Haven, Palermo and Scriba highlighted.

On Saturday we will honor our veterans with Military History Day. Researchers can consult experts on Revolution, War of 1812 and Civil War topics on this day. Photos from the Pulaski historical Society World War I & II collection of servicemen will also be able to be perused.

On Sunday July 5 the eleven Half-Shire townships will be the focus: Albion, Amboy, Boylston, Florence, Osceola, Orwell, Parish, Redfield, Richland, Sandy Creek and Williamstown along with the villages of Lacona, Sandy Creek, Pulaski and Altmar. Local authors will be on hand from noon until near 4pm to sign books and meet with people.

10am and 7pm each day we are planning roundtable discussions on various history topics. Call ahead for more information, or check out the schedule as it evolves on our blog; halfshire.blogspot.com.

We had another error in the column two weeks ago, in the photo caption Olga J. “Pat” Frye was the proper listing, and I had “Pat” listed as a Weed, which was her mother’s name. Please let us know when we make mistakes so that we can correct them in print. Thanks to Leitha Wills for helping us there.

The June newsletter is out, and should reach homes by this column. We have enclosed a set of raffle tickets for your consideration on a beautiful American Flag design afghan made by Jodi Wickert of Pulaski. We don’t like to go to the members more then once a year on a raffle, but this was donated mid season and is a gem. A September 19, drawing is planned at the annual meeting.

We were very shocked and saddened to learn of the passing of Jack Parker of Pulaski. Jack and Bonnie have been members for several years, and have been very supportive of our organization. Several years ago when the lawn mower in Richland broke, Jack donated one to us that lasted for over 5 years of continuous use, which if anyone is familiar with the size of our lawn, that is pretty good for a little push mower. Our thoughts are with Bonnie and the family at this difficult time.

Half-Shire can be reached at the fair all week, 387-3257 or on the web at halfshire@hotmail.com. Please stop in and see us during the week!

Correction to january 13, Column

2009-06-17T21:59:00.000-07:00

Note:
This letter has been submitted to the Queen Central News in Camden and the Salmon River News in Pulaski to correct a serious error in the January 13, 2009 column, which can be found further down in this blog

“To the Editor,

In the January 13th Half-Shire column that appeared in this paper I wrote a story about an ebay purchase I made of four photos from the 1890s, advertised as from Sandy Creek-Orwell area. When I received the photos, two were labeled “Edith Waggoner” and “May Crocker). I thought it would be interesting to determine exactly who they were and write something about their lives in my column. (See our blog at http://halfshire.blogspot.com for the exact column)

I found information on May Crocker quite readily in our files, however determining who Edith Waggoner was proved more of a task as there were two Edith Waggoners (cousins) who lived during this general time period. Up to the challenge, I pulled our slim files on the Waggoner family, got out some Orwell area scrapbooks, and finally looked on the internet using the Fulton History.com newspaper web browser. I still was uncertain which Edith Waggoner was in the photos from the obituaries I found.

Previous to this task, I had been researching George Waggoner who was responsible (along with son Victor) for building the old keystone bridges in Orwell. During this time I had consulted with some researchers in the area, who I phoned to ask for advice. I was quite innocently led to believe that the lady in the photo was likely Edith H. Waggoner who was born on September 4, 1872 the daughter of George Henry and Jane (Duncan) Waggoner. On my own, I next extrapolated that the lady born on this date was the same Edith Waggoner who was the second wife of Fred Rowe from Boylston, according to records found on ancestry.com, submitted by one of our members Brenda Tanner.

Back on Fulton History.com I found an indexed scrapbook that had a detailed obituary of Fred Rowe, and explained that his first wife died in 1898 and that Fred and Edith Waggoner were married October 24, 1900. I mentioned that Fred’s son J. Hunt Rowe was a well-known figure in our region, and helped with programs at Half-Shire in the mid 1970s, and that many of J. Hunt’s family live in our region and are active in our communities.

I summarized what I had found by mentioning that further information on these folks could be found in the files of local historians and researchers. I mentioned that Phyllis Hunt LeBeau, a volunteer at the Sandy Creek Historians office was a very meticulous researcher and a descendant. I went on to cite the solid family history files that are available in the Sandy Creek office, and other locations, and that despite the internet opening up the world to people there was no replacement for the research knowledge and local files of such exceptional historians such as Charlene Cole, and family members such as Phyllis.

Well, it seems I didn’t follow my own advice, and “got the two Ediths mixed up” I was wrong and made a terrible mistake. To compound matters, when I received a detailed correction and letter of admonishment on my research, I failed to print the correction in a timely fashion in the column---which did not run for over a month when I was involved in other work. This oversight has caused the problem to grow.

And so quite belatedly, I would like to offer my sincere apologies to the descendants of J. Hunt Rowe for the mix up in the identity of their step-grandmother, and more importantly for not setting the record straight sooner. I have enjoyed the friendship of many of these fine people over the years and I intended no slight. As a columnist in this newspaper I should ensure that the material sent in is as accurate as possible, and I will be more careful in the future.

For the record, as I have been corrected, Fred Rowe’s 2nd wife whom he married on October 24, 1900 was Edith Waggoner granddaughter of George and Anna (Sayer) Waggoner solid pioneers of German origin, who settled Orwell in the mid 1800s. Their son John Waggoner, who served nobly in the 24th NY Infantry during the Civil War, was married to the former Frances Crocker of Orwell. Their daughter was Edith Waggoner Rowe, and the photo collection I purchased seems to have come from one of their descendants.

I have made copies of the photos in question and am donating them to the Sandy Creek Historian, with extras for interested family; I hope that this correction serves to restore respect of those whom I may have inadvertently slighted.

Sincerely,

Shawn Doyle
Half-Shire Historical Society President

June 19, 2009

2009-06-13T22:07:00.000-07:00

On Saturday June 13, a handful of historians met at the Oswego County Fairgrounds to set up exhibits and discuss the upcoming fair. Representatives from Mexico, Volney, New Haven, Sandy Creek, Pulaski, and Richland joined Half-Shire members to review plans for the 5-day annual event which begins on the evening of June 30.

This year Shawn Doyle and Greg Monette of Half-Shire will be Superintending Heritage Hall, and will be joined by representatives from most of the communities in Oswego County. The building is expected to be quite full, and diverse. Among the available categories for entry are the three separate scarecrow contests (best-dressed, unique and scariest) with prizes ranging from $3-$10 along with ribbons. On behalf of the Oswego County Genealogical Society Doyle and Monette are also organizing the 2nd annual family photo wall. This unique exhibit will cover wall space of 20’ by 15’ and will be situated in what is known as the red sitting room. Interested people who have a framed antique photo of ancestors past are encouraged to bring them to Heritage Hall before the fair for inclusion. Prizes for best photo will also be awarded, entry deadline is June 28, Contact Shawn Doyle at 298-3620 or SPDinPUL@hotmail.com to save a space.

Renown youth harpist Kelsey Munz of Osceola is planning to perform on a yet to be determined date in Heritage hall, our own Florence Gardner of Albion is also expected to play patriotic anthems on July 4, on her keyboard. Spinning, chair caning, weaving, tatting and crochet work will also be demonstrated by very capable experts. At 10am and 7pm daily historians will conduct “roundtable discussions” on topics of interest. Coffee and iced tea will be available as well as very comfortable furniture to relax in while taking a break in the hall.

In other news: more fantastic photos have arrived via email from the St. Mary’s of Mt. Carmel restoration project. The inside of the church has been completely painted and the images are astounding! A light “Irish Green” was selected for the walls, accented by a both a darker green trim and a crisp New England white ceiling. We eagerly await an opportunity to visit this historic Irish landmark in the hamlet of Florence.

Our second week at the Pulaski Farmers’ Market proved both profitable and busy. A small exhibit on Half-Shire region railroads prepared by Glenna Gorski in 2006 was displayed. Many interested people took time to thumb through the large notebook as well as study the detailed map prepared by Dick and Glenna. On Friday the 19th some of our recently completed scrapbooks from the digitalization project will be on display (weather permitting), On June 26th we will have some select yearbooks from Pulaski and Sandy Creek out for review in the park as we mark “Alumni weekend”. The Pulaski market has musical entertainment lined up each weekend all summer long---and best of all its free to attend!

The Maplelawn Cemetery of Dugway is preparing to construct a new drop-chain style fence along the front of its property line. Bill Sheeley, Tom Burke and Ed Bennett have been marking the site out in preparation. Thanks go out to New York State Engineer Jamie Tompkins of Redfield who took time on his way into work on June 10, to meet with the fence committee to review the right of way rules. Maplelawn cemetery has many old pioneers at rest in its grounds, and their locations are additionally backed up by a detailed map on the wall of the vault painstakingly prepared a few years back by former Trustee Jack Steinfeld. This map is critical to genealogists, and lists unmarked graves as well as the marked locations. The recent work at Maplelawn is able to be undertaken thanks to a generous legacy left by the late Barb Walter of Dugway.

Half-Shire Vice President Greg Monette has recently updated the county-wide data base on War of 1812 veterans. This first of its kind database is being edited and will appear on the Oswego County tourism website soon. New information has doubled the number of men we have been able to prove as veterans of the forgotten “second war of American Independence”. The front line for our region was Lake Ontario where the British North American capital was located in Kingston Ontario. George Widrig is working on a good-sized display that will incorporate Monette’s work as well as a detailed map of the region in 1813. This display will be at the Oswego County Fair and other venues throughout the year.

On June 9, Lorraine Twp. Historian Arlene Moore and her son Tom visited Half-Shire and donated a tremendously valuable collection of family photos that relate to our region. George Widrig and Erma Schroeder spent time finding information for the Moores and had a delightful morning. Arlene edited a book on Lorraine written by her late husband that we still have available for sale. “The Huddle” is a detailed account of the history of Lorraine and well worth the price of $20.

Half-Shire’s Richland research facility is open four days a week—Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 9-1pm and Fridays 9-4 pm. We are also pleased to schedule any other appointments. Our faculty is located in the former Richland hamlet school, 1100 County Rte. 48, Richland, (PO 73) or on the web at http://www.halfshire.com/.
halfshire@hotmail.com

June 12, 2008

2009-06-13T21:31:00.000-07:00

Preparations are moving along for the 152nd Oswego County Fair in Sandy Creek.. President Carol Sweeny along with the officers and Department Superintendents have been busy with planning and set up since the snow cleared. The Fair runs July 1-5 with “Special Times for Special People” on June 30. The annual parade will be the first night, Wednesday July 1. For more information check out the detailed schedule on the web site
http://www.oswegocountyfair.org
The Heritage Hall Committee will meet on Saturday June 13 to review the plans for set up and sales. Our building has been cleared and cleaned and will be ready for set up that day. Several interesting historical “roundtables” are planned for fair week, and many new items of interest have been added to our family files that will be available for review. A brief Half-Shire meeting will take place at noon on the 13th to review affairs as well as a report on the building work in Richland.
The Pulaski Farmer’s Market kicked off its season on Friday June 3, with the 10th Mountain Division Dixieland band. The South Park was filled with people from 4-7 to partake of the first of the weekly events under cloudless skies. Half-Shire had tables set up just north of the bandstand, and assisted in feeding the band members and their families. Each week we will try to have rotating displays from across the coverage region, on June 12, the exhibit will feature railroad information.
The new book on World War I & II Veterans from the Williamstown region is available for $40, or $43 by mail. The Williamstown group has done a remarkable job with this edition, and are due praise. Editors Ann LaDuke, Glenna Gorski and Roberta Cleveland have printed a limited supply of these books which we have available for sale along with the earlier book on Revolution to War of 1898.
The Pulaski community lost a dear friend with the death of Judy Franklin Miller on June 3, after a very short illness. Judy will be remembered for her years of dedication to the beautification of her home village. For many years she quietly organized the planting and maintenance of the flowers in our village parks. Judy was a summer resident of the Elms, on Sandy Pond and was equally well known to the summer community of the lake shore.
The eastern shore lost its eldest resident on June 2, with the death of Perry Hastings. Perry would have been 106 this summer, and had lived at home until just a couple years back. Perry was an avid student of history, and assisted the Pulaski Historical Society in the compilation of its Salmon River Odyssey a few years back. Perry also worked with Half-Shire in the identification of many photos from our collection two years ago.
Both the Hastings and Miller families have our sincere condolences.
Half-Shire is now open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Fridays from 9am-1 pm. Friday afternoons often go longer, and we can make other arrangements with notice. We can be reached at Halfshire@hotmail.com or on our web site www.halfshire.com or by calling 298-3620

June 5, 2009 column

2009-05-29T07:58:00.000-07:00

On Monday May 25 the Society held a memorial and rededication service at the grave of Revolutionary War patriot John Weed (1764-1834) in the old section of the Pulaski cemetery. Among those who attended were ten members of the Weed family, descended from three of the 13 children of John Weed and his wife Mary Townsend. Pulaski Social Studies teacher John Gosek read a first hand account of Weeds life taken from his pension deposition, Erin Bacon, Loyola College Class of “09 finished off the pension reading. Richland Historian Shawn Doyle spoke on Weed’s family contributions to the area communities. Members of the Robert American Legion and the Pulaski VFW assisted with a military salute to Weed, who not only served as a Private in the Revolution, but was a lieutenant in the War of 1812 serving at Plattsburgh, NY.

John Weeds brother Jehiel Weed and a kinsman Joel Harmon were also recognized with new markers located in the same section of the cemetery.

Following the event several returned to Half-Shire where a dessert reception was held under the direction of Trustees Erma Schroeder and George Widrig. Half-Shire thanks all who participated in this event.

Beginning Friday June 5, the Richland Historians files will be relocated to Half-Shire for the summer. Since May 1, we have offered research hours at the Court House in Pulaski as well as Half-Shire. Summer hours at Half-Shire will now be as follows: Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday 9am-1pm; Fridays 9am-4 pm. Closed Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday however, appointments may be available upon request for these days. Warm coffee and iced tea always provided guests.

The Oswego County Fair looms on our summer horizon; Work at the fair grounds has recently picked up speed in anticipation of the 152nd fair. Premium books were late being printed, but are out in the mail now. If anyone still needs one they can be found online at http://countyfair.oswegocountyfair.com/. This year’s theme is “for the love of flowers” and the grounds will reflect the beauty and scent of flowers from across the region. In the Heritage building Superintendents Doyle and Monette are coordinating many interesting exhibits, including a joint exhibit on the War of 1812.

The Pulaski Farmer’s Market season begins on Friday June 5, and will run each week through September. Half-Shire will have a booth at the market most weeks, and will rotate memorabilia and scrapbooks from the various eleven townships. We are looking for volunteers to assist with the booth on various nights, contact Shawn at 298-3620 if you are interested. There is music each week, and the booth always attracts many of our members and friends who stop by to visit.

Over Memorial Day weekend this writer met many people from across the region and nation visiting area cemeteries. Janet Rudolph of Massachusetts met us in Pulaski cemetery where we assisted her in locating graves of Sanderson relations. Mrs. Rudolph donated a very interesting and helpful family bible that once belonged to the family of Benjamin Franklin Taylor, a farmer from Albion-South Richland area in the 1800s. Our friends in Parish will have conducted their annual cemetery walk/tour as of this writing, and we hope other such tours can be organized in the near future in our area.

We have received many terrific photos over email in recent weeks from members of the Save St. Mary’s Committee of Florence, New York. The final stages of the painting of the inside of the church seem to be well underway, and the results are beautiful. The souls at rest in the surrounding historic graveyard must be truly content with the love shown to the church they all worked so hard to found and maintain. Half-Shire will be working with the St. Mary’s committee to set up a tour and perhaps a summer concert when work is completed. For more information go to the website at: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~florenceny/

Work on our own second floor exhibit room at Richland will hopefully resume in the next couple weeks as grant funding arrives. In May a new floor, insulation and wiring was installed, sheet rock and finish work is next.

Half-Shire can be reached at P.O. Box 73, 1100 County Rte. 48, Richland, NY 13144
Or on the web at halfshire@hotmail.com

Above Photos: Descendants at John Weed's grave, with their line of descent: John served in New York, 1780-82 He was 16 at enlistment:

1-Olga Patricia Weed (Lavera Weed Frye, Charles Weed, Newton Weed, John Weed, Jr., John Weed, Sr.); 2-Noreen Frye Robinson (Lavera Weed Frye, Charles Weed, Newton Weed, John Weed, Jr., John Weed, Sr.); 3-Charlene Weed (Charles, Glen, Charles, Newton, John, Jr., John Sr.);4-H. Douglas Barclay (Dorothy Moody Barclay, Anna Douglas Moody, Isaac Douglass, Anna Price Douglass, Lydia Weed Price, John Weed, Sr.);5-Leitha Matthews Borland Wills, (Blanche Weed Matthews, Charles Weed, Newton Weed, John Weed, Jr., John Weed, Sr.); 6-John Gosek, Pulaski Social Studies Teacher; 7-Richard Cooper, Half-Shire Volunteer**Eleanor Zufelt Trendell had left prior to the photo--(Frances Price Zufelt, Henry Price, Porter Price, Rebecca Weed Price, John Weed, Sr.)

Photo 2 featured speakers Erin Bacon of Orwell and John Gosek of Oswego at the ceremony

Photo 3 Erin Bacon, Shawn Doyle (Richland Historian, and Registrar of Sons of the American Revolution, Syracuse Chapter) and John Gosek

April 17, 2009

2009-04-13T16:15:00.000-07:00

Old man winter seems to be gradually receding across Tug Hill. After a late year of snow coverage the spring flowers have begun poking through. We expect to see cow slips soon in all the usual wet areas, that old spring tonic of the greens family.

Half-Shire’s grounds are starting to look good; Trustee Erma Schroeder has had a good crew of workers that have the front lawns raked as of this writing. We expect soon to have some fresh mulch to be applied soon around our large bulb collection that should enhance the building’s appearance.

Work will continue through the week of April 11, to mop the floors and wash dishes in preparation for return to Friday hours on April 17th. The Library holdings have been brought back through the past weeks. Until mid May we will continue to have George Widrig also at the Court house mornings through the week (Wednesday off) at the historian’s office over DMV.

On Saturday April 18, our first lunch meeting of the year will beheld from noon on. A scalloped potatoes & ham dinner is planned with the trimmings. Please call Shawn Doyle at 298-3620, or email SPDinPUL@hotmail.com and leave a message if you are planning to attend so we have a close number to prepare for. The meeting agenda has consideration for bids on the upstairs room and the general work plan for 2009. There will be a report on the War of 1812 committee as well as the County Fair Association.

Over the past few weeks we have been checking out the conditions of area cemeteries and how they survived the winter. Some of our rural cemeteries have limbs and other debris on the ground. In a few cases some stones have fallen or been tipped over. Frost heave, not vandalism seems to be the culprit on some markers that have been leaning for years. In 2009 Half-Shire will be replacing monuments for several of our damaged or missing veteran’s graves. As we try to get the known Revolutionary War vets completed we will move into the War of 1812 men. Initial review of some of the graves is showing many are in terrible condition.

In our email inbox: We received an email from an Orwell researcher who will be in town on the 24th to exchange information and photos. We also received a troubling email from a source that the missing St. Paul’s’ Catholic Church windows have been turning up in south Florida where they are being sold. The former owner of that structure removed all of the stained glass windows two years ago; we had tried unsuccessfully to work with him on sale (to families) of some of the windows. We are fortunate that St. Mary’s in Florence has not experienced this indignity.

Additional copies of the Richland cemetery books on Daysville ($30) and South Richland Cemeteries ($40) have been received and are for sale. Both of these books have been edited from the first edition to correct typos, and have been well received by researchers. Copies can be mailed out for additional $3 postage.

As School Alumni reunion season approaches we’d like to remind graduates or attendees to keep in touch with your school. The following local groups are active:

Sandy Creek-Mary Hicks, Secretary, c/o 240 Miller Rd., Lacona, NY 13083 shop@marysneedleart.com
Altmar-Parish-Williamstown-c/o Mary Lou Guindon, 2885 E. Main St., Parish, NY 13131 guinfam@aol.com
Belleville-Craig Veley, President, c/o P.O. Box 155, Belleville, NY 13611 mlherron99@yahoo.com
Camden-The annual Alumni Banquet will be held Saturday June 20, 2009 at Katie & Karl's Restaurant, Route 13, Camden. Reception 3-5 p.m., business meeting, 5 p.m. followed by dinner and program. See: www.camdenalumni.com Camden Alumni Association, 35 Fourth St., Camden, NY 13316-1401.
Pulaski Alumni Association, P.O. Box 344, Pulaski, NY 13142; The 120th banquet will be held on Saturday June 27, at the Pulaski American Legion. Newsletters going out, check our new blog at http://pulaskialumni.blogspot.com for more information
Mexico-The Mexico Academy Alumni will hold its 182nd banquet this year. Contact Karen Brown at 150 Tudo Rd., Mexico, NY 13114 or Cookie92762@aol.com
Redfield School Alumni Association—will hold the annual lunch meeting at the Half-Shire building in mid August, contact Half-Shire for more information.

Half-Shire can be contacted at P.O. Box 73, 1100 County Rte. 48, Richland, NY 13144 or on the web at halfshire@hotmail.com www.halfshire.com

April 10, 2009

2009-04-07T02:03:00.000-07:00

Just when spring seemed here, another blast of cold and snow reminded Tug Hill/Eastern Lake Ontario residents of that “it’s not over yet”. On Saturday April 4 over a foot was reported in sections of Redfield while Florence residents coped without power for several hours.

During the outage I phoned Leo Seaton to discuss the growing list of Revolutionary War soldiers who lived in Florence at one time or another. Only a few have marked graves, and some have been found to be buried elsewhere. This list is a work in progress, and represents a culling of the census data from 1814-1850 and cross referencing names with US pensions and other data sources. Any additional information on these men is welcomed by Half-Shire, as well as Leo who will be working on this through the year with us “on location”. The state of origin for the veteran (if known) is given following the name:

Nathan Allen (Mass); Ebenezer Barlow, (Mass); Barnes, Jonathan, (CT); Thomas Burch, (Mass); Anthony Empey, (NY); Benoni Fleming, CT; Peter Humphrey, (NY); Eliakim Miller, (Mass); Abraham Morton, (Mass); Azariah Orton, (CT); Eber Rice, (VT); Joseph Woodcock, (Mass). There could very well be many others who came to Florence when it was a wilderness, and died unnoticed by history. In Richland we started out with a list of 17 men that now has grown to 49.

The topic of veteran research was expected to be raised at a meeting to be held in Sacket’s Harbor in anticipation of the War of 1812 commemorations. Margaret Kastler and George Widrig plan on representing the society, and will bring back a report at the April 18, meeting in Richland. Half-Shire has begun the process of gathering data on the men who served in that conflict for inclusion in a multi-town volume of research that may be later printed. Notebooks for each of our towns with the known lists of names and available data have been placed in our library.

As mentioned earlier, the Richland list of Revolutionary War soldiers has now hit 49. For a long time we have believed pioneer Gershom Hale (1756-1826) belonged on that list, but it was not until we were able to untangle the military and family records of his 1st cousin, also Gershom Hale, who died in Addison County, Vermont that we proved our belief. In fact, both Gershoms served in the same unit at one time in 1780 from Windham, CT. The company clerk noted that one Gershom was “#2” Our Gershom Hale was an early officer of the town of Richland, and is buried in Pulaski Cemetery. His son William was the 1st town clerk and served as Sheriff of Oswego County in the 1830s and as a Judge prior to that. Other children include a son Stephen (buried with an Aunt and other cousins in Scripture cemetery, Sandy Creek). We now are set upon the task of learning whom Gersham’s remaining family members were.

Lawn work at the Richland facility will again pick up when the last snow melts. Erma Schroeder has two willing workers in mind to assist us on school break. Our spring flowers were just poking through when old man winter returned, but should be coming up nice by the April 18, meeting. That first meeting of the year at Richland will be held Saturday April 18, beginning with a noon lunch. The meeting that follows at 1 pm will be of short duration. Please call if you are able to come to lunch 298-3620 and leave a message. We are looking at scalloped potatoes and ham dinner. We have begun the bid process to begin work on our 2nd floor classroom that is gutted. We are looking to get this room restored this year, beginning with a new floor.

Half-Shire can be reached at P.O. 73, 1100 County Rte. 48, Richland, NY 13144 or on the web at halfshire@hotmail.com. Our web site is www.halfshire.com

2009-03-31T09:22:00.000-07:00

Half-Shire has been awarded a part-time paid staff position through the experience works program for senior citizens. Long-time member and “founding father” George Widrig interviewed for the position and began work on March 23, at the Pulaski Court House. George will work out of the Richland historian’s office until early May when our Richland facility is “warmed up” decently. While working at the Court House, George has been labeling a backlog of copied photographs from the Waggoner-Moore and Porter-Blodgett Collections. He has also been doing an inventory of our family files, and working on the obituary collection.

Richard Cooper of Sandy Creek has been doing research for us in the Pulaski Democrat collection at the Pulaski Public Library. Two weeks ago we gave Richard a list of names of persons whose death records we sought, and Richard has come through on most counts! George Widrig is organizing the clippings that Richard has brought in , and they will be added to our existing obituary collection at Half-Shire.

Significant among Richard’s finds was the May 1882 obituary of Eli Wheeler, who was the builder of the Selkirk Bethel Church in Port Ontario. Wheeler’ roots have been obscure, the obituary mentions that he was a native of New Hampshire, and had settled in Lorraine, Jefferson County. In 1832 Wheeler moved to Port Ontario where he began a store on the corner of Port Rd. and modern Rte. 3, that store years later became Walker’s Restaurant. Wheeler was elected Justice in 1850, and served at least a term. He was briefly the Postmaster in Port Ontario under the Andrew Johnson Administration.

In 1848 Eli Wheeler was among those who founded the Selkirk Bethel Society. Wheeler worked with the group in raising money for a church that he himself built on land he and his wife donated. In his later years Wheeler lived with the family of his friend Sylvester Brown. Eli and his wife Abigail had no children that we have found so far. We have asked our friends in South Jefferson historical for assistance in culling their files, and if anyone in the area knows something about the Port Ontario Wheelers we’d appreciate hearing.

On March 23, we drew the winning tickets in the annual afghan raffle. George Kirkpatrick of Syracuse was the first name drawn, and he chose the large afghan hand made by Keith Munz of Osceola. Helen “Sue” Phillips of Pulaski was the second name drawn, and she was very pleased with the baby afghan donated by Carol Thompson of Oswego. Five other names were drawn for free 2009 calendars. Our thanks go out to all who participated in this years drawing, the money raised will go towards genealogical supplies for our library.

Our first meeting of the year at Richland will be Saturday April 18, beginning with a noon lunch. The meeting that follows at 1 pm will be of short duration. Please call if you are able to come to lunch 298-3620 and leave a message. We are looking at scalloped potatoes and ham dinner. We have begun the bid process to begin work on our 2nd floor classroom that is gutted. We are looking to get this room restored this year, beginning with a new floor.

Half-Shire can be reached at P.O. 73, 1100 County Rte. 48, Richland, NY 13144 or on the web at halfshire@hotmail.com. Our web site is www.halfshire.com

2009-03-10T01:53:00.000-07:00

March 13, 2009

In last weeks column we made mention of our computer troubles. On Saturday we received a call from Jonathan Goodsell of Rainbow Shores Rd. who offered to take a look at the computer and the non-working external drive. On Sunday Jonathan came down to the Court House and worked through the afternoon (one problem led to another) by 3 pm we were back in business, and all our files we thought were lost have been recovered and are accessible again! Our sincere thanks go out to Jonathan, who can be reached at JPGcomputers@gmail.com He comes highly recommended by us!

On Friday night Marie Lambie and I went to Camden to pay our respects to the family of Amy Darling Joyner of Williamstown. Amy was a founding member of Half-Shire, and served in various offices over the course of thirty years. Amy was a native of Redfield, and at one time was quite a basketball player for the old Redfield Union team (my grandmother Jane Ballou Seeley also was on the team). Our condolences go out to the family, and to the community of Williamstown who mourn her loss.

Also over the past weekend we had a close call at Half-Shire’s Richland headquarters. Snow from the last storms had piled up around the roof drains and formed ice, blocking the drains during our warmer weather. A large amount of water built up on the roof and the pressure separated a portion of the north drain from its expansion coupling. The result was that some water entered the Lion’s Club room, and wet the floor pretty good. I happened to check the building that day, and unable to break up the ice by the drain, called Phil Rombach who got Sancona’s roof specialist George Ballou up there on Monday. We’re pleased to report that the drain is fixed and the water that did enter the north end has proved more of a clean-up nuisance than a damaging one.

We neglected to mention last week that the annual research day at Springbrook apartments in Pulaski went well on Thursday February 19. Our thanks go out to Betty Griffith, Glenna Gorski and Florence Gardner for bringing treats; and to Eleanor Trendell of Pulaski Historical in joining Ann LaDuke, Roberta Cleveland, Erma Schroeder and myself in working with the residents. This year marks the 14th year we have conducted this research day there.

We are pleased with the number of renewing memberships received. Also, a large number of subscribers entered our afghan raffle. The drawing will be done on March 17, and winners will be offered their choice of two fine afghans handcrafted by two of our members Keith Munz and Carol Thompson. On the heels of that drawing we will begin another raffle for an amazing American flag-crocheted afghan recently donated by Richland Town Supervisor’s clerk Jodi Wickert. We have not set a drawing date for this amazing piece, but will print tickets for sale at the county fair and the weekly farmer’s market in Pulaski.

Research is underway for eventual books on the Revolutionary War veterans who lived and died in Florence and Redfield townships. While working on the Richland book these past two years we have kept an eye out for veterans in the other Half-Shire towns. We now have discovered 12 men from Florence who positively served in the revolution and another 12-plus for Redfield. In the coming weeks we will mention many of these men as we begin to flesh out their families.

Benoni Fleming from Florence has been one of the more interesting and better documented men we have looked into so far. His pension papers number over 60, primarily due to his widow’s lengthy battle to secure a widows pension after his death in 1838. Born in Cornwell, Connecticut in 1764, Fleming enlisted in the Militia there in 1781, serving variously along the Hudson River in New York during that year through 1783. He married his wife the former Laticia Squires in Cornwell, and by the early 1810s was living in Florence where they raised many of their 13 children. Fleming died in Lysander while visiting a son; his wife came back to Florence until 1840 when she moved to Onondaga County. No grave has been located in either Florence or Onondaga County for the couple yet. William Empey is one of the Florence neighbors who attested to Flemings character in his 1832 pension application. (Empey was son of another vet, Anthony Empey whose family graveyard was featured in one of our past newsletters, following clean-up and survey by Leo Seaton.)

Half-Shire can be contacted at P.O. 73, 1100 County Rte. 48, Richland, NY 13144 or on the web at www.halfshire.com Our Friday hours will continue at the Barclay Court House until at least mid-April noon-4pm. There are times we may be away “making a house call” but we leave a note on the door. Call ahead at 298-3620 to be sure to catch one of us.

2009-03-02T11:54:00.000-08:00

Half-Shire Historical Society
March 6, 2009

Our Treasurer Mary Yerdon recently found an interesting photo of a group of people taken in a hall somewhere around here. Her father, Roland Balcom is third person from the left in the middle row. Eleanor Walklett is also in the same row further down. Anyone that can identify others in the photo and tell what the occasion was, please drop us a note or email. The photo is on the clerks counter at the Richland Town Office during normal hours.

We were saddened on Saturday February 21st to learn of a tragic car crash in Wyoming County that took the life of David Colvin, age 31, who was son of one of our volunteers Fay Ann (Yerdon) Colvin. Like his Mom, David had a keen interest in history and was an earlier correspondent of this writer as he researched his Colvin and Yerdon roots. Many attended the services at Hax’s in Pulaski on Friday the 27th, including scores of coworkers from Fisher Price in Aurora, NY who came up on a chartered bus. This meant an awful lot to the family, particularly as each one told Fay Ann a story about David as they came through the line. The family has directed contributions to Half-Shire, and a suitable memorial use for them will be decided at the April meeting.

A caution to everyone who saves things to their computer exclusively---don’t! This past few weeks Half-Shire’s back up external drive has ceased working, and with it are 1,000s of our scanned digital images, the fruit of a like amount of hours labor. Most of these photos have been printed, however the last month’s work was all lost. Also on this hard drive were many of our templates and original documents. We are in hopes that someone can rescue these items, meanwhile we’re printing out everything the old fashioned way just in case!

The external drive crash was the last, best excuse this writer had for the late 2009 calendar. Four of our images were on the drive, and two borrowed from the owner while another two had to be located and rescanned. As we write the calendar is being assembled, and will now sell for $5 or $9 by mail. All existing mail orders will get a $2 rebate.

The Richland Revolutionary War book had gone on to “final edits” when two more soldiers popped up on a google search. Timothy Vorce died according to the Vorce Genealogy in August 1830 while threshing a field on his property on the south bank of the Salmon River. According to the Vorce book and subsequent research he served in the New York Line from Duchess County under the name “Timothy Force”. Vorce’s sons William and Samuel each married daughters of Col. Rufus Price.

A neighbor of the Vorce family in Port Ontario was Jacob Ellis, who served in the Massachusetts Militia. Ellis later moved to Vermont, and thence on to Richland Twp. about 1808. He appears in the censuses for 1810, 1814 and 1820 in Richland next door to his son Jacob Jr. (Jacob Ellis Jr’s father in law Thomas Burch is another Revolutionary War vet who we found lived in Williamstown and Florence townships, before moving west to Ripley, NY) The senior Ellis later moved before the 1830 census to Vernon, New York near to his brother Asa. It was here he purportedly died, but we have found no grave record for him yet.

Jacob Ellis the veteran was born in Walpole Massachusetts in September 1758 and died in 1843. He was married twice, the first wife’s name we have not discovered, but the second wife was Latitia Halstead, whom Ellis married in Manlius in March 1799. We are thinking that Latitia may have been related to the wife of Joel Harmon III, who also came to Richland from Vermont. These Ellis family members are not closely related to Caleb and Lyman Ellis, whom Ellisburg is named for.

On Wednesday March 25, Shawn Doyle will address the Pulaski historical Society on the topic of the Bragdon family and thee founding of Bethel Community Church. Half-Shire will re-open in April.
Half-Shire can be reached at P.O. Box 73, Richland, NY 13144 or on the web at halfshire@hotmail.com www.halfshire.com

January 19, 2009

2009-01-13T18:03:00.000-08:00

This writer is a frequent shopper on “ebay”, particularly for items of historical interest. Recently while perusing the local items I came across a set of four nice card-style photos from the 1890s. I put in a small bid and was rewarded with a win and the photos within a fortnight.

Two of the photos were labeled, and interested me as I knew they hailed from Orwell-- Edith Waggoner and May Crocker. All four photos were taken by Heusted studios in Sandy Creek and seemed about the same era.
Curiosity got the better of me one night and I decided to figure out who these ladies were using internet resources.

May Ethel Crocker was born in Orwell in October 1874. She was the daughter of Gilbert Sidney and Aurelia (Stowell) Crocker. She married Duane S. Loucks of Lorraine on October 12, 1892 and they alter settled in Mannsville, NY where they raised three sons; Glen, Leon and Gerald. From Fulton history.com I found a handful of articles that mentioned May. Her father’s obituary lists Mae’s siblings and the record of Gilbert Crocker’s Civil War service. A death date for May hasn’t been found, but she is last found in the 1930 census. Her husband died in 1957. Through the newspaper databases of Fulton History.com as well as the Northern New York library Network it is possible to read about their socializing, church meetings and even new car purchases.

Our search for information on Edith H. Waggoner found that she was born on September 4, 1872 the daughter of George Henry and Jane (Duncan) Waggoner. Edith was the second wife of Fred Rowe from Boylston, marrying in 1900 according to records found on ancestry.com, submitted by one of our members Brenda Tanner. Through Fulton History.com we found an indexed scrapbook that had a detailed obituary of Fred Rowe, and explained that his first wife died in 1898 and that Fred and Edith were married October 24, 1900. Fred’s son J. Hunt Rowe was a well-known figure in our region, and helped with programs at Half-Shire in the mid 1970. Many of this family live in the region and are active in our communities.

This simple exercise in research showed the value of the internet in tracking down information on people from the past, as well as the present. The internet is not however, the “end all” and researchers should still look further into the files at the local libraries and historical societies. For more information on the Crocker, Stowell, Waggoner and Rowe families we know that there are extensive files at the Sandy Creek Historian’s office, Sandy Creek Library, Orwell Historians office as well as Half-Shire. A short perusal of the files at Half-Shire brought May Crocker Loucks’ family back two hundred years to the Revolutionary War and into New England. Similarly, the family of Edith Waggoner and her husband Fred Rowe are well documented at the same places.

If someone were to inquire about either of these women from our past, local historians such as myself, (Richland historian) Celestine Garvin (Orwell) and Charlene Cole (Sandy Creek) would have the local knowledge to direct a researcher to other members of the community who have additional information or even a family relationship. The Half-Shire and Orwell collections have photos of keystone bridges built by George Waggoner in Orwell. For Charlene, information requested on Edith Waggoner Rowe would be likely directed to her able assistant Phyllis Rowe LeBeau, who has done an admirable job at researching her own family.

The moral of this column is to both laud the internet for its terrific assistance, and to caution about its shortcomings. While so much is online and available there will likely never be any substitute for the local knowledge and resources town historians, historical societies and libraries.

Half-Shire can be reached at P.O. 73, Richland, NY 13144 or on the web at www.halfshire.com

2009-01-07T03:37:00.000-08:00

January 9, 2009

The Richland hamlet community was terribly shaken by the devastating house fire on January 4, killing eight members of the same family. In the days following the fire some discussion of that structures history has occurred.

According to George Widrig, the structure was once the east wing of Henry Hezekiah Mellen’s Trout Brook House, which once sat on the current site of the old video store. Mellon was the grandson of Revolutionary War veteran Nathan Mellon, and was himself an early land developer in that section of the town. The Trout Brook House was built about 1853 as the railroad was being built through the town.

Following Mellon’s death the structure later fell to William Streeter who in 1924 split the building in half and moved the main section across the street to the site of the former Averill Hotel. This section was transformed into a duplex and stood until 1996 when it was demolished as part of the Richland Junction convenience store project. Also in 1924, the east portion of the old hotel was moved up the road and was later converted into a one family home that was long known as “the Granger place”. It was this portion of Mellon’s old hotel that was destroyed by fire on Sunday night, taking with it eight members of the community. The officers of Half-Shire extend our most sincere condolences to the surviving members of the families affected.

On January 5, Pulaski attorney Walter Smith stopped by the historian’s office to discuss the mysterious portrait of a Judge in the main courtroom of the courthouse. Several weeks ago we had identified the portrait as that of Judge Irving Hubbs. After his examination, Smith decisively told me that we are mistaken, that the portrait is of Judge Clayton Miller. We then examined the newspaper article and photo from which we took our earlier guess, and both decided that the caption beneath the two men’s 1940 joint photo was ambiguous. Smith described Miller as he remembered him, and told of how his parents were social friends and bridge partners with the Millers.

Judge Clayton I. Miller was born in 1869 the son of William, and Lydia (Howard) Miller of Mexico. He married the former Alice Bard of Mexico in 1900. Miller rose through the ranks of attorneys and later Judges in Oswego County, moving from the Surrogates Judge position to State Supreme Court in the 1920s. Mrs. & Mrs. Miller built unique arts and crafts style home on upper Park Street in Pulaski that is the current home of R. Bramley Palm and his family.

We are further confirm that Judge Miller is the man in the painting, and will report back at a later date our findings.

Half-Shire can be contacted at P.O. 73, Richland NY 13144 or on the web at www.halfshire.com

December 19, 2008

2008-12-14T17:35:00.000-08:00

The annual Christmas harp recital at the H. Douglas Barclay court house in Pulaski featuring Osceola’s Kelsey Munz was rescheduled from December 7th to the 14th due to weather. Seventeen people enjoyed the program on the 14th that varied from Christmas favorites to patriotic music. Kelsey had set the program up to honor world war II era veterans and families for the 7th, and explained the period significance of each song.
The program began with all standing and singing the Star-Spangled Banner, and ended with God Bless America. A set of five religious carols was also played with audience accompaniment. This was a very nice concert enjoyed by all, and like last year there were many remarks about how well suited the historic court room is to harp music. One young couple present asked Kelsey to play at their wedding next year.

The Half-Shire weekly hours continue each Friday at the court house office of the Richland historian.
Last week Richard Cooper spent considerable time with us examining his family tree. Richard is a fifth great-grandson of two area revolutionary war vets, Simeon Trumbull and James Campbell. We are indebted to Millie Reid for working with us last week over the phone to tie in some missing links on Cooper’s Campbell family line. Marie Parsons also worked with us from Florida via the internet.

Completion of the 2009 calendar has been a top priority. It is expected to be done by Christmas and can be delivered by Shawn Doyle within the area by placing a call. The 13-month calendar features bridges of the Half-Shire region and is available for $7 in person or $9 by mail. The Half-Shire newsletter is running very late, and is nearly ready to go out with raffle tickets that are due by February.

Over a week ago we learned of the sudden passing of longtime member and friend Pauline “Polly” Carner from Boylston. Polly was the mother of trustee Rita Rombach and member Patricia Eberle of Camillus. Born October 2, 1917 in Clayton, NY the daughter of George & Laura (Elliot) Plato, she had lived in Boylston over 50 years. Polly was a delightful woman, who attended most all of our meetings, and during research days could be found quietly crocheting in the sitting area. Our sincere condolences go out to her family.

We have just received a new shipment of Richland Cemeteries Volume II books from Julie Litts Robst. This book is the volume that details South Richland Cemetery internments. Obituaries are included for most all people, which in itself was an amazing feat. The nearly 400 page book sells fro $40 or $3 by mail and is still a bargain for its content.

Half-Shire can be reached at P.O. 73, Richland, NY 13144. Our web site is found at http://www.halfshire.com/.
Our winter quarters are located at the H. Barclay Court House in Pulaski where we keep hours in the 2nd floor annex from 12-4pm on Fridays.

November 21, 2008

2008-11-18T23:44:00.000-08:00

On Saturday November 15, the society held its final lunch meeting of the year. Twenty-one members and friends gathered for the lunch and meeting that followed, coinciding with the 36th anniversary of the groups founding. A round of applause was offered to George Widrig as one of the six founders who formed the group in 1972. Thanks were also given to Erma Schroeder for the terrific meals prepared during the year for each meeting.

The society family files and selected materials are in the process of being relocated to the Richland Historians office on the 2nd floor of the Barclay Court House in Pulaski. Friday hours will be maintained there by Shawn Doyle and/or Greg Monette each week from noon until 4 pm. Members Pam Kellogg of North Carolina and Luella Long of Tennessee have each taken out some material to transcribe during the winter months. Both of these ladies are responsible for a large amount of the indexing and fresh-typed transcriptions that are available in our research shelves. While the Richland building sits silent throught he winter months, the work goes on.

The fresh snow that much of the Half-Shire region has ended our pleasantly long Indian summer season. Trustee Mary Munz of Osceola has already reported that she is “snowed in but good” while the rest of us in the flatter lands deal with lesser amounts. The snow postponed the placement of three new Revolutionary War markers received in Richland Township until spring.

Our annual Christmas harp recital at the Barclay Court House in Pulaski is going to be held on Sunday December 7, from 2-4 pm. Christmas cookies, punch and coffee will be available at this free event. If you weren’t able to attend last year to hear Kelsey Munz play the Court House you may want to try to make it this year. The acoustics are terrific for that instrument in the two hundred year old court room. The event is held in conjunction with the light up Pulaski events offered throughout the community on December 7.

The society extends its sympathy to former trustee Barb Ceterski on the death of her daughter Emily. Emily’s son Oren was once a regular visitor of ours at Half-Shire and the fair as he accompanied his grandmother about.

Half-shire can be reached at P.O. 73, 1100 County Rte. 48, Richland, NY 13144 or online at www.halfshire.com.

2008-11-12T03:20:00.000-08:00

November 14, 2008

On October 31, Mr. & Mrs. Steve Behunin of Utah (left)visited the town of Richland. This was significant for us as Steve is a direct descendant of one of out three first settlers who arrived in 1801, Albert Bohannin. Steve’s branch of the family changed the spelling of the name, the origin of which is still being investigated. Albert settled at the mouth of Snake Creek, which can be accessed by South Ramona Beach Road. This writer took the Behunins to this location, as well as Sand Hill-Daysville Cemetery where several of his kinsmen are buried. Steve was very moved to be on the actual land that his family had settled, and they took home lakeshore cobbles as souvenirs.

We recently provided another friend of the society with two reproduction maps of the Town of Florence that showed the names of the landowners in 1874 and 1906. She was very excited to find the names of her ancestors on these old plats. Half-Shire has copies of these color maps, along with Osceola and Camden Township available for $10 each. All Oswego County townships are on black and white paper from the 1867 atlas and are $5 by mail.

On November 7, the Society kitchen staff served 55 meals for the Tug Hill Tomorrow Land Trust annual dinner. The hall looked wonderful with our candlelit tables covered in white tablecloths. Great thanks go out to George Widrig, Sharon Robarge, Shirley Rice, Erma Schroeder and Ian Lowery for heading up the kitchen and serving dinner. Margaret Kastler and Donna Bacon took charge of cleanup. The organization was pleased with our efforts and very complimentary.

On Saturday the 8th this writer and Margaret Kastler catered the quarterly lunch meeting of the Syracuse chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution in Pulaski. The event was held in the historic H. Douglas Barclay Court room. The Court House namesake himself joined the handful of members in attendance and spoke after lunch on his experiences in El Salvador as US Ambassador. This writer and Margaret Kastler also reported on Revolutionary War grave re-marking efforts underway in both Richland and Sandy Creek (Historian Charlene Cole).

On Saturday November 15, the society will hold the final dinner of the season in Richland. Erma is planning a bean and frank main dish with side fixings. All are welcome and the heat will be on so don’t worry about the cold! Later in the week we will be draining the pipes and closing the building for three months to conserve on fuel. Friday hours will officially begin at the H. Douglas Barclay Courthouse, 2nd floor office in the west wing over DMV. Fresh coffee will be on each Friday from 12-4 with the Half-Shire family files relocated for the season for researchers ease.

Half-Shire has obtained copies of the newly reprinted Tug Hill Field Guide from Tug Hill Tomorrow. The 1998 classic handbook has been updated and reissued, and is available for $25 or $27 by mail. This book is a must for those who want to know what is growing or living in the fields and streams of Tug Hill. Bob McNamara, the noted wild life artist from Cleveland, amply illustrates the book. Sympathy is extended to Thelma Ehresman Snyder of Fulton on the untimely loss of her son Scott. Our member Gerald “Jerry” Griffith also passed away on October 31, in his 91st year. Jerry’s wife Betty is a regular attendee at meeting and has our sincere sympathy. Half-Shire can be reached at P.O. 73, 1100 County Rte. 48, Richland NY 13144 or on the web at halfshire@hotmail.com. Our website is at www.halfshire.com

2008-10-20T11:38:00.001-07:00

October 27, 2008

The October meeting of the Society was held on Saturday October 18, with over 35 members and friends present. Kelsey Munz of Osceola entertained all with selections on her concert harp during lunch. Lunch served up by Erma Schroeder featured a selection of three different noodle dishes, mixed vegetables and German chocolate and spice cakes.

Business of the day was taken care of in a brief meeting that went over the recent renovations outside to the fascia, chimney and the entryway. Thanks were extended to Phil and Rita Rombach for their generous assistance and for Phil superintending the work. Former Librarian Pam Kellogg was thanked for her past efforts and wished well in her new South Carolina home.

It was decided that October 24, 31 and November 7 & 14 would be the last research days of the season in Richland. Beginning Friday November 21, research hours will be moved to the 2nd floor office of the Richland Historian in the Barclay Court House. This office will have hot coffee and tea and be equipped with the main census and family file books thought the winter months.

Greg Monette reported on the two seminars that he and Rhonda Nipper attended in Potsdam that helped educate them on proper scanning techniques. Shawn introduced the new cemetery book on South Richland cemetery that has been compiled by Julie Litts Robst. The book is a comprehensive listing complete with all available obituaries. At 380 pages it really is a bargain at $40, many of the death notices are here seen for the first time in over 100 years. Half-Shire has a limited number of these books available.

Julie brought in four albums for scanning that had been found in her fathers attic. These albums are from the Litts and Tollerton families, and include rare photos of Daysville Church including a 1903 play that was cast at the church. Four of these photos have been taken by Willard Loomis to try to restore the clarity of them. The Daysville church was taken down in 1942 and little is left of the former hamlet.

Correspondence with members of Richlands Hubbell and McCHesney families has proven very beneficial to the Revolutionary War book project. Bonnie Waters and Diane Parks have been assisting us in our research on their progenitors. Both ladies are friends and active in historical endeavors in the greater Rochester area.

Half-Shire can be reached at P.O. Box 73, 1100 County Rte. 48, Richland, NY 13144 or on the web at www.halfshire.com

October 10, 2008

2008-10-05T17:04:00.001-07:00

Despite high gas prices it is still a bargain to take a country drive and explore our region on a sunny fall day. The autumn colors across the Tug hill/eastern Lake Ontario landscape are now approaching their most brilliant. This writer looks forward to just such a day next week, to travel around and wander some of the cemeteries from Barnes Corners to Florence, Glenfield to Redfield. This anticipated road trip will offer an opportunity to gather material for our autumn 2008 edition of the Tug Hill Literary Review---our occasional periodical that was suspended for the past year and a half due to lack of content.

Work on the 2009 calendar and next edition of the newsletter has also been stepped up. We are in hopes of getting both done before months end. The next newsletter will contain a set of raffle tickets on the two hand crocheted afghans that were donated to us for our annual holiday raffle. Look for the newsletter to come out the first week of November.

Vice President Greg Monette and Rhonda Nipper both represented Half-Shire at a set of workshops put on by the Northern New York Library Network in Potsdam on September 24 and October 8. The classes have enhanced out knowledge in the process of scanning old photos and documents. In Greg’s report we learned that we should be scanning at a higher resolution and saving our original scans to the external drive instead of CDs for better clarity. Other methods that we have been using for presentation and CD storage have been approved. Thanks to Greg and Rhonda for taking the time to go to these classes for us!

The next meeting of the Society will be an extra special one as Kelsey Munz of Osceola will be coming with her concert harp to perform. A home cooked beef stroganoff dinner is planned with salads and desserts to accompany it. All are welcome; however we would appreciate a phone call or quick email to let us know in order to plan the menu amount. 298-3620 or SPDinPUL@hotmail.com. Our former Librarian Pam Kellogg will be stopping by to say goodbye, she has recently relocated to Cottageville, South Carolina. Pam is the one who took the time to organize our research library to its current state. During the years 2005 and 06 when she Penny Schott worked together an incredible amount of work was done. Friends of Pam are encouraged to stop in and wish her well.

We are running a bit behind in our research correspondence due to this writers work schedule, it is anticipated that we will catch up in mid October. If you have called or written with a request please be patient. Inquiries on the Olcott, Averall, Miner, Preston and Baldwin families all await our attention.

Condolences go out to the family of former Redfield resident Nellie Lago, who passed away on September 27 in Rome. She was the last of the children of Joseph and Kathleen (Helbock) Lago who were born and raised in Redfield. Of the many Nieces and nephews who survive are: Fay Ann, Paulette and Don Yerdon.

On the brighter side of things, we received two phone calls from member Ron Bumpus of Redfield, who is currently “on the road” working in the tidewater region. Our last call came while Ron was visiting our friend and member John Stedman in Virginia. We are glad to hear the pair got together, and imagine it was quite an evening!

Half-Shire can be reached at P.O. 73, 1100 County Rte. 48, Richland, NY 13144 or on the net at halfshire@hotmail.com. Our web site is www.halfshire.com with a link to this weekly column on our blog.

Half-Shire Historical Society--October 3, 2008

2008-09-28T23:19:00.000-07:00

At long last the planned renovations and replacement of the second story fascia of our Richland headquarters has been completed! The work was done in less then a week by Basciani Construction and looks terrific. The Bascianis also did some additional masonry work while we had the hydraulic lift rented (rental courtesy of members Phil & Rita Rombach). This work and a little additional upkeep to the chimney complete our planned capital projects for the year.
While the work in Richland was ongoing, Trustee Margaret Kastler and I were in Niagara Falls participating in the NYS Association of Counties annual conference. On Thursday evening we were pleased to join members of the Niagara County historical community as they celebrated the 200th anniversary of the county founding. The event culminated at a gala dinner that night under a tent alongside the majestic Canadian falls. Many re-enactors depicting various eras in history greeted and served at the dinner. It was a beautiful evening capped off by fireworks at dusk.
On our return trip Margaret and I detoured to the Finger Lakes region where we made two stops to investigate cemeteries. The first stop was in rural Potter Township in the north part of Yates County where fourth-great grandparents of my mother, Ichabod & Paulina (Ferre) Randall are buried. Recently a distant cousin Ted Worrell contacted me to let me know that he had purchased and placed a new marker in the small farm-field grave site. Margaret and I found the Thomas family cemetery with little problem at all, and the new marker was discovered right away, placed in front of the original 200 year-old deteriorated slate markers for the pair. It was interesting to learn that this small cemetery is said to be atop an old Indian burial site.
Headed back north we visited the city of Canandaigua to look for Pioneer Cemetery where some former Pulaskians were said to be buried. Upon discovery of the neatly kept cemetery in back of the city hall we believe we have solved a local mystery over “where Abijah Hubbell is buried”
Abijah Hubbell was born in Fairfield, Connecticut in 1761. He enlisted in the 2nd Connecticut Continentals during the American Revolution, serving from 1777 through 1783. He departed the service as a Corporal, having served at the battle of Fairfield as well as several miner skirmishes. Seven years after marriage to Clarissa Fitch, the young couple relocated to Saratoga County, New York. They raised five sons, three of whom lived to maturity and graduated from law school. Each of these sons, Walter, Hiram and Levi rose to judicial seats in their adopted localities. Two of the sons, Hiram and Walter also served terms in the New York State Assembly. Hiram was the second Oswego County Clerk, and a prominent member of the Pulaski community.
When Abijah and his wife left Saratoga County for Oswego County in the late 1830s they left behind two sons buried in Union Cemetery at Malta. A cemetery stone there had also been pre-chiseled for Abijah and his wife. Clarissa died shortly after moving to Pulaski, and by all accounts was buried there where a new family stone was erected. Two years after his wife’s death Abijah apparently was staying with his son Walter in Canandaigua when he himself died.
With his wife buried in Pulaski it seemed unusual that the prosperous Hubbell family would not transport Abijah’s body back there, however Margaret and I are now convinced that the family in Canandaigua kept Abijah there, and buried him in Pioneer Cemetery with Walter’s wife Elizabeth who had died in 1839. Walter himself died in 1848, and they all rest in very well marked plot on the north side of the historic grounds. The obelisk style marker tells the full tale of where all were born and died as well as listing the dates. Later that day Abijah’s death notice was discovered in the archives of the Ontario County Messenger proving for us finally that he indeed died and is buried in Canandaigua.
As we write we have learned of the untimely death of our good friend Shirley Balcom Hort of Pulaski. Shirley was an occasional participant in society affairs, and was last with us one evening this summer during farmer’s market. Shirley was the daughter of the late Charles and Leona (Lighthall) Balcom, and was a descendant of Revolutionary war veteran Nathan Mellon of Richland. We extend our sincere sympathy to her son, daughter and many descendants.
Half-Shire can be reached at P.O. 73, 100 County Rte. 48, Richland, NY 13144 or on the web at www.halfshire.com email halfshire@hotmail.com Our Richland facility continues to be open Fridays from noon-4pm, our next lunch meeting will be at noon on Saturday October 18, 2008 and will feature a musical performance by acclaimed concert harpist Kelsey Munz of Osceola.

September 26, 2008 column

2008-09-21T00:20:00.001-07:00

Oswego County’s tourism advisory committee convened their monthly meeting at the Richland facility on Tuesday September 16. Twenty two members and guests participated in the hour and a half long meeting. Jim Laird of Barton & Logudice Engineers spoke on the Pulaski section of the Salmon River trail system. Following the meeting a chicken casserole lunch was served by trustees Erma Schroeder and Rose Graham. (Special thanks go out also to Nancy Meeks for assistance.)
The Oswego County Tourism website, which was overhauled earlier this year, features many useful links to heritage related website, including the half-Shire site. The site also features directions to each cemetery in Oswego County. Much credit is due to the ladies in the tourism department for their hard work at keeping the site fresh and interesting.
Member Julie Litts Robst will be debuting her new publication this week, “Richland Township Cemeteries, Volume II—Willis/South Richland Cemetery records”. In this very large, information-filled book Julie has presented a new survey of the cemetery internments with obituaries for each person where found. In some cases Julie has even included estate records, and short sketches. The book is over 350 pages long with short margins. At $40 it is a bargain for a researcher that has to be seen to be appreciated. Copies can be obtained at Half-Shire on Fridays from 12-4 or from Shawn Doyle in person. Copies can be mailed for an additional $3. This series of books by Julie is remarkable in its detail and scope, the research community at large is truly indebted to her.
On Saturday October 18th the Society will host a special musical recital following our monthly lunch meeting. Osceola native Kelsey Munz will perform a variety of selections on her concert harp from approximately 1:30-3pm at the Richland building. Kelsey was at our last meeting and was questioned extensively about how she was doing with her harp, and volunteered to come back in October to perform. This will be a “sneak peak” for many of our regulars as Kelsey will be performing at the Barclay Court House on Sunday December 7, for our second annual Christmas recital. The public is welcome to attend both events, for the October event if you plan on attending lunch please leave a message with Shawn at 298-3620 so we can plan accordingly.
Work on the outside fascia of our building commenced finally on Monday September 22, under contract with Basciani masons. The work is expected to take a little over a week, and will replace our fallen back fascia with new material, and repair and paint the remaining three sides. Building and Grounds Superintendent Phil Rombach and his wife our trustee Rita have graciously donated the cost towards the man lift. This work is the principal capital project of the year that we will be doing, and while being somewhat costly, is essential. We are grateful to Tom Basciani for working with us on the project planning.
The northern New York Library Network has a new addition to its newspaper digitalization project on its website. The Pulaski Democrat is now online for the years 1834-1990. This searchable database has proven a huge hit with many in the research community, as well as novices. To access the site go to: http://www.nnyln.org/ and select northern NY Historical newspapers. This link will bring you to a map of the region. Land your curser on Oswego County and select “Pulaski Democrat”. From this point the search technique is straight-forward. A couple of hints: in the drop box below the search choose “exact phrase” for best results, and also you will have to enlarge the image each time to 100 or 150% depending on the size of the font. We showed our town clerk the other day, and he was instantly hooked!
Half-Shire can be contacted at P.O. 73, 1100 County Rte. 48, Richland, NY 13144 or on the web at www.halfshire.com our email is at halfshire@hotmail.com and our weekly column can be found at http://halfshire.blogspot.com There have been occasions where our column has failed to appear in either the Salmon River News or the Camden Queen Central News. We will try to ensure the blog is current.

2008-09-15T00:36:00.000-07:00

Half-Shire Historical Society
September 19, 2008

The 36th Annual meeting of the Society was held on Saturday September 13, 2008. Following a chicken casserole meal served by Erma Schroeder and Nancy Meeks, the meeting was conducted with nearly two dozen members present. The slate of officers presented for the 2009-10 term was approved by a voice vote. Reelected were President Shawn Doyle, Vice President Greg Monette, Secretary George Widrig and Treasurer Mary Yerdon. Four trustee seats were also up for election with current officers succeeding themselves viz.: Florence Gardner, Albion; Ed Lescenski, Amboy; Rita Rombach, Boylston and Charlene Cole, trustee at large.
Newly updated bylaws were read for the third time and enacted also by voice vote. President Doyle thanked all of the officers and Trustees present for their time and dedication throughout the summer months at various events. Richland Trustee Erma Schroeder was singled out for her expert preparation of meals during monthly meetings, as well as at the various events that have taken place at the Richland facility throughout the summer.
The next meeting of the society will be on Saturday October 18, followed by a musical program. Research hours at Richland will continue through November 14, each Friday from 12-4pm. Other times are available by appointment. From November 21, through March 2009 the Richland building will be closed to conserve on heat, with family files and other materials relocated to the Richland Historians office, 2nd floor of the west wing of the H. Douglas Barclay Court House in Pulaski, where Friday research will be conducted from 12-4pm.
The Society was saddened to learn of the passing of Geraldine “Boots” Hall of Orwell. “Boots” was born in Redfield the daughter of Everett & Viola Simpson Balcom and lived her life in the Tug Hill region. She was married to the late Harley Hall of Osceola. She is survived by Surviving are three daughters and sons-in-law, Arlie and Howard Corday, of Charlton, MA, Sarah and Tom Clerkin, of Syracuse, IN, and Kate and Paul Bartlett, of Redfield; four sons and three daughters-in-law, Carney and Virginia Hall, of Florence, Daniel and Christine Hall, of Redfield, Jon and Theresa Hall, of Norwich, and Bill Hall, of Marathon, NY; a brother and sister-in-law, Gerald and Elaine Balcom, of Nashua, NH; fifteen grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. “Boots” was a past member of Half-Shire and had helped us identify photos in the past, as well as assist with the Redfield books we wrote on area veterans. Our sincere sympathy goes out to the family.
On Friday September 12, Jim Butler of Oswego visited with us, bringing out seven very early family bibles with scores of entries on members of the Comstock, Plumb, French and Frost families of whom he descends. Most of these bibles belong to siblings of Butler, who graciously loaned them to him for our scanning. We have scanned each of these into our database, and will soon have enhanced copies of each available for public research. Each of these families were very early settlers in the Williamstown area. Ichabod Comstock scion of one of the families enumerated in a bible was a War of 1812 veteran, and the son of a Revolutionary War vet who himself died in Rhode Island.
Half-Shire encourages people who possess old family bibles with records within to allow us to make copies. Family bibles are often times the only records for some of our early settlers. Bible records are generally admissible as proof in DAR and SAR applications, as well as other genealogical organizations.
A recent communication that this writer received from a cousin may be of interest. DNA research to determine or prove a family line is a growing field of interest. The price for a DNA test report has come down considerably over the years, and now for as low as a couple hundred dollars a decent test can be done. Recently, a maternal cousin had a tests done to determine if our Seeley family line in fact comes down from Captain Robert Seeley (1602-68) of England and later Connecticut Colony—or not. The results proved conclusive that in fact our line of Seeleys does descend directly from Captain Seeley, through his son Nathaniel. We have not been able to get our descent back before the birth of a grandfather Samuel Seeley in the 1770s, but the determination that Samuel was in fact descended from Captain Robert Seeley narrows down our research.
DNA research has also been successfully used in many criminal cases and is an amazing wonder of the modern age. Price Phillip of Great Britain participated in a DNA test several years ago that helped to identify bones found in Russia that are now believed to be the remains of the last imperial family---cousins to Prince Phillip
Half-Shire can be reached at halfshire@hotmail.com as well as our web site www.halfshire.com. Our facility is open each Friday afternoon and is located at 1100 County Rte. 48, Richland, NY 13144

2008-09-10T02:25:00.001-07:00

Half-Shire Historical Society
September 12, 2008

The 36th annual meeting of the society will be held on Saturday September 13, 2008 at 1pm. A lunch will be served starting at noon under the direction of Richland Trustee, Erma Schroeder. Election of officers and 4 trustees will be the chief item of business on the agenda, followed by the final consideration of updated bylaws.
In a previous column we discussed the career of Pulaski native son and State Appellate Justice Irving Hubbs, whose portrait graces the main courtroom at the H. Douglas Barclay Court House in Pulaski. This writer cited an article from Hubbs’ retirement dinner that mentioned he would go on to practice law in Pulaski with his good friend and former clerk Judge Clayton Miller. What was left out is the fact that both men joined the law firm of Merritt Switzer, which was located over the People’s Bank building which sits vacant now on the SW corner of North Jefferson and Park Streets.
Merritt Amos Switzer was born May 29, 1888, and served many years as an attorney in the Pulaski region. Switzer was married to the former Jean Muier, a native of Exeter, Ontario. Switzer was active in the Pulaski community and many of its civic organizations, his death on November 7, 1958 ended a distinguished legal career. Thanks go out to Mrs. Cameron Cox, daughter of the late Merritt Switzer, for sharing some additional insight into Judge Hubbs and his later career.
On Saturday September 6, the annual Salmon River Festival was conducted in downtown Pulaski. This year’s festival incorporated additional venues in the north Park, Court House, Masonic Temple and Pulaski Historical Society. Despite some gloomy and occasional wet weather many people enjoyed the day, and sales were brisk in both parks. Half-Shire Secretary George Widrig conducted an exhibit at the Court House which saw only a few people. We were disappointed in attendance there, and hope to better advertise next year. Thanks go out to Jerry and Lorraine Orton of Syracuse who came up with their terrific display of Grand Army of the Republic Memorabilia and material from the Woman’s Relief Corp.
Our member Julie Litts Robst is nearing completion of her most recent book in the Richland Township Cemetery series. The new volume is over 300 pages thick and will cover Willis/South Richland Cemetery on County Route 41 south of Pulaski. The book is anticipated to sell for $35 or $38 by mail. Details will follow in future columns.
The 2009 local views calendar is progressing well; the theme of Historic Bridges has brought forth some very good images of the past, with only one to find for Amboy left. We are in hopes of completing this in the next few weeks and having the calendar available for $7 at local vendors, or $9 by mail.
Research on the descendants of Richland Township Revolutionary War Veteran Thomas Taylor, Jr. has been a focal point for both Mary Lou Morrow and Shawn Doyle. Taylor who died in 1826 lies at rest in McClelland Cemetery just off Exit 34 of Interstate 81 south of Pulaski. Members of the Stewart, Higler and Hinman families claim descent from this honored veteran, and a better family tree is being worked on to trace out the line. Deputy Town Clerk Millie Newcomb has been particularly helpful in searching out the Vital Statistics and putting pieces together.
Half-Shire can be reached at halfshire@hotmail.com or P.O. 73 1100 County Rte. 48, Richland, NY 13144. Our website at www.halfshire.com has links for each township with additional approaches to offsite resources.

2008-08-25T02:02:00.001-07:00

Half-Shire Historical Society
August 29, 2008
On Thursday August 14, the Oswego County Legislature held its August session in the historic H. Douglas Barclay Court House in Pulaski. Meetings of the Board of Supervisors and later County Legislature have been held periodically in the Court House for nearly 190 years. The historic Court House was built in 1819 by James Weed, and named in honor of Weed’s lineal nephew, former State Senator and recently Ambassador H. Douglas Barclay of Pulaski in 1985. Before the meeting began on the 14th, Legislative Chairman Barry Leemann had a 2-page proclamation read in honor of Ambassador Barclay, citing his lifetime of achievements and officially welcoming him home.
Following the session several people questioned this writer on who the Judge was in the portrait above the bench. Surely the late Richland Historian Mary Parker and many other older residents remembered, but it took this writer several days to solve the mystery of the “forgotten Judge” who was presumed to be either former Judge Irving Hubbs or Judge Clayton Miller.
Village Historian Mary Lou Morrow unearthed several pictures and articles that upon review convinced this writer that the portrait was of former State Appellate Justice Irving George Hubbs. Further research into Justice Hubbs brought forth many details of a fascinating life and a distinguished legal career. Born in Sandy Creek on November 18, 1870 the son of George & Catherine (Snyder) Hubbs, young Irving later moved with his parents to Pulaski where the senior Hubbs operated the Salmon River House on North Jefferson Street, which was located where the current one-story Hilton block is next to Community Bank.
At the age of 18, Hubbs chose to follow a different career, and over his fathers objections entered college. He went on to graduate from Cornell University and at the age of 21 passed the New York State bar. Hubbs was a natural legal mind, and also an able politician. In 1893 he was elected a special County Judge at the age of 23. He served until 1898 in this capacity, returning to the practice of law later on. In 1912 Hubbs ran for New York State Supreme Court in one of Oswego County’s most memorable elections. That election pitted young Hubbs against an incumbent Judge backed by Congressman Mott who at the time was very powerful in state political circles.
Through skilled campaigning Hubbs won over a majority of the delegates, and at the judicial; convention held in Pulaski came out the clear winner on the second ballot. Hubbs served as a Supreme Court Justice until 1928 when he resigned to run for a position on the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals. Hubbs garnered that position and held it until his resignation in 1939.
Following his retirement Hubbs was welcomed back to Pulaski officially at a gala dinner held in the cafeteria of the new school building, now known as the Lura Sharp Elementary School. Hubbs continued to practice law in Pulaski in association with his good friend, Judge Clayton Miller, until his death on July 22, 1952. Several articles in regional papers at the time honored Hubbs for a lifetime of achievements.
The painting of Justice Hubbs will soon have a proper name place affixed to its frame so future historians will not be at the loss that this writer was.
The Redfield Old Home Days will run August 30 and 31 in downtown Redfield, marking the climax of another summer season. Half-Shire will conduct a booth at the event both days, and researchers are encouraged to stop by.
The August meeting of the society was conducted on Saturday August 23, with over 21 members and friends in attendance. Greg Monette officiated at the grill for a picnic style lunch that was planned and executed to perfection by Erma Schroeder. During the meeting the second reading of the new bylaws was conducted, and the slate of proposed officers read. The annual meeting will be held on Saturday September 13, at 1 pm following a lunch prepared at noon. The lunches and meetings are always open to the public.
Thanks go out to our friends at Pulaski Historical Society for sharing some photos and clipping with us, along with a Genealogy of the Dewey Family in America. Additional thanks are also due to our newest life members, Charles Balcom and Brantley Deaton of Pulaski. Both of these gentlemen have been very supportive in the past, and their life memberships are most welcome.
Sincere sympathy is extended on behalf of the Society to the families of past members Irma Warren Corbett and Carl Bice. Irma’s family all attended the Richland School, and continued their patronage of the building once Half-Shire took over its possession in 1973. Carl has been a long-time friend and assisted us in many renovation projects with removal of debris.
Half-Shire can be reached at P.O. 73, 1100 County Rte. 48, Richland, NY 13144 or HalfShire@hotmail.com check out our new website www.halfshire.com.

2008-08-17T21:16:00.000-07:00

Half-Shire Historical Society
August 21, 2008

We took a two week break from our columns, but remained quite busy at Half-Shire. On Saturday August 9, we hosted the 24th annual reunion of Redfield students. Seventeen people attended ranging in ages from early 50s to mid 90s. A chicken and biscuit dinner was expertly prepared by Erma Schroeder and George Widrig. Redfield graduated students at their own school from 1928 until 1941, and kept their facility as a grammar school open until 1970. A one room school in Greenboro survived until the late 1950s.
On Saturday August 16, Half-Shire was host to a breakfast put on by the Oswego County Fair Association for the Oswego County ATV Club. The day had earlier been set as a summer meeting at Half-Shire by the sportsmen, and the Fair officers took the opportunity to thank them in an additional manner by serving up a hot breakfast. The Oswego County ATV Club has for three years controlled parking at the Fair, and is very much appreciated by all involved in the Fair for their dedication and efforts. President Steve Cronk deserves a large part of the credit for keeping this club so active.
During the weekend of August 16 & 17 workers from the weekend program of the Oswego County Jail spent a very productive 12 hours working on our lawns and gardens. Four workers did an amazing amount of weeding, trimming and mulching. The lawns look very good! Thanks to Sheriff Reuel Todd for keeping this great program in place!
On Saturday August 23rd the monthly lunch meeting of the Half-Shire Society will take place at Richland. A summer picnic style lunch is anticipated to be served. The agenda items for discussion include building work and the September annual meeting. There is no formal program other then research discussion.
On Tuesday August 26, Half-Shire will host the members of the Oswego County Infrastructure and Facilities and Economic Development and Planning Committees for an informal “between meeting” lunch. August has brought county government to Pulaski for the Legislature on the 14th as well as two jurisdictional committees on the 26th.
On August 4, Mary Lou (Woods) Dewey of Pulaski joined Richland Historian Shawn Doyle in placing a new veteran marker in front of the deteriorating stone of her ancestor, Thaddeus Waight formally of Massachusetts. Waight is buried in Richland's Willis/South Richland Cemetery and has a notable record of service documented by his pension and other papers in possession of Half-Shire. Nearby to Waight (also spelled Waite) are the graves of John Erskine, Sr. and David Soule who we hope to have remarked in the coming years. A new stone for Elnathan Mason is also a stone’s throw away, making South Richland the resting place of four Revolutionary War vets.
Another descendant of both Thaddeus Waight and Elnathan Mason, Adam Wickert of Pulaski, has been volunteering his time at the Richland Historians Office digitally scanning photos for us. Wickert, a student at Pulaski Jr.-Sr.-High School is involved in the History Club (SHIP) and very interested in history. His work is greatly appreciated and significantly helpful to our organization!
Back in Richland, our Librarian Erma Schroeder has been spending a great deal of time copying material received from former President and founder Marie Parsons. Many of the files Marie donated will be shelved on “the back wall” and available for viewing soon thanks to Erma’s dedication and persistence. Recently we found Nancy Meeks joining her for a little joint work. Many far-flung researchers continue to visit us during our Friday hours, or just by chance when they find someone at the building during the week. Latest inquiries are from researchers seeking information on the Claflin, Filkins, Hilton and Aldrich families.
For more information contact Half-Shire at P.O. Box 73, 1100 County Rte. 48, Richland, NY 13144 or on the web at halfshire@hotmail.com or our new website at www.halfshire.com

August 1, 2008 column

2008-07-27T19:36:00.000-07:00

Half-Shire Historical Society
August 1, 2008

Our dinner theatre presentation of “Stratocles or War” on Friday July 25, was attended by a mere 28 people, yet those who attended were pleased with homemade spaghetti and meatballs and individual home-baked cupcakes. The cast of the play was led by Loyola students Erin Bacon and Christian Klamner, along with PACS History teacher John Gosek, and Erin’s mother Donna and sister. Half-Shire Secretary George O. Widrig began the play with a brief narration. Erin’s Mom deserves special recognition as she was asked to perform only that day, as another cast member couldn’t make it. Donna did a tremendous job! All of the cast deserve special recognition, ---and will have it as history will record that the first English language performance of this play was held in Richland, NY.
The dinner theater meal was expertly prepared by members Margaret Sullivan and Erma Schroeder. Shawn Doyle lent some help with meatballs, and desserts were done by Doreen Tilton of Florence. On Saturday July 26, the Society met for the monthly meeting and enjoyed---spaghetti leftovers! Everyone enjoyed the meal and by the end of the day nothing remained—the best part of a long weekend. During the meeting the new proposed bylaws were passed out and reviewed. Vice President Greg Monette has worked on these for the past few months. The by laws reflect the enlargement of the society and update some language to catch up with our evolving mission. They will be voted on for the last time at the Annual meeting in September.
President Doyle appointed a nominating committee consisting of Dick & Glenna Gorski and Margaret Kastler. The four principal officers and at-large Trustee along with Trustees representing Albion, Amboy, Boylston and Orwell will stand for election in September.
The digitalization project has moved along quite swiftly since the fair. During July 23-25 Leah Munz of Osceola spent 6 hours a day at the Barclay Court House working on the Kent and Adams photo collections. Great strides were made, and it is anticipated that with another three or four like days we will be caught up.
Once images are scanned prints are made and housed in our main shelves for the public to view. During our open hours each Friday from noon-4 pm the photo collections have been available.
On Saturday August 9, Half-Shire will host the Redfield Schools reunion from noon until 2pm. This 27th annual gathering of students who attended the rural and village schools was moved to Half-Shire last year. A chicken and biscuit dinner will be served for the cost of $7.50. Contact Shawn Doyle at 298-3620 if you would like to attend.
Half-shire has been present every other weekend at the Pulaski Farmer’s market in the South park. Our little table offers books and maps for sale to the public, stop ion and say hello if you are able to make the market. Weekly entertainment has made the market a popular venue this year.
Family historians and researchers from across the nation continue to drop in on us. We were pleased to see Linda Babcock from Colorado two weeks ago, and we missed Glenn Flodstrom who stopped by when we were closed. The Grant family reunion was held at Half-Shire to the satisfaction of all the family who came from across the nation and around the world. Our growing library has been a good draw for events like these, as well as research days.
For more information contact Half-Shire at P.O. Box 73, 1100 County Rte. 48, Richland, NY 13144 or on the web at halfshire@hotmail.com or our new website at www.halfshire.com

2007-10-02T03:56:00.000-07:00

Half-Shire Historical Society
October 5, 2007

The Society will hold a research open house on Saturday afternoon October 6 from noon until 4 pm at our Richland headquarters. The public is encouraged and welcome to attend. Our next scheduled meeting is Saturday October 20 at noon.
Work continues on our current round of building renovations headed up by Sancona Lumber Company of Sandy Creek. Our ladies restroom is currently undergoing a complete overhaul. This work is expected to be completed mid-month and is reimbursable through a grant obtained by Assemblyman Barclay in 2005. Also included in this work was a complete overhaul of the front roof and work to the main roof.
Research into the Revolutionary War veterans who settled our region continues on several fronts. In Boylston, our trustee Rita Rombach is seeking information on the family of Amos Ormsby. Ormsby was born November 5, 1749 the son of Samuel and Diana (Fisher) Ormsby in Windham, Connecticut. He was married May 25, 1775 in Canaan, Connecticut to the former Lucy Franklin. Ormsby served as a private in the Connecticut line through the war.
A few years after the war was over, Ormsby, his wife and son Almon moved to Montgomery County, New York where they lived several years. Lucy Ormsby died in Little Falls, New York on October 31, 1826 and was buried there. Amos and son Almon later moved to Boylston Township where some other relations had earlier located.
Amos Ormsby died there on July 9, 1845 according to his pension records. His grave has not been located as of this writing, and information is sought by Rita and Half-Shire.
In Richland Township, Shawn Doyle and George Widrig have been working hard on the families of the 35 known veterans who lived or died in that jurisdiction. Last month we reported the discovery that Jedediah Durfey who is buried in Ferguson Cemetery on the Schoeller Paper Company property east of Richland had served in the Revolutionary War. Intensive research on Durfey in Vermont, New York and southern Ontario Province has yielded an amazing amount of information on the man. Uncovered documentation has proven that Durfey first enlisted in the Connecticut Militia following the Lexington alarm in 1775. He worked his way up to the rank of Sergeant before he moved to Vermont in 1778, where he continued to serve conspicuously throughout the war until 1782.
One of the most interesting discoveries on Jedediah Durfey was found recently among the 52-page pension record of Sandy Creek settler Stephen Lindsey, who served under Durfey in Connecticut from 1777-78. In August 1828 Durfey swore out an affidavit in the Pulaski Court House attesting to Lindsey’s service, aiding him in his pension application. This occurred only three weeks before Durfey’s death. The Lindsey pension record, along with statements found in a Mr. Richardson’s pension from Ellisburg, proved to us that Sergeant Jedediah Durfey of Cornwell, Vermont was the same man buried in Ferguson Cemetery.
Further work among the papers of the Bennington Library in Vermont has also brought forth the information hat Jedediah Durfey was one of the founders of Lincoln, Vermont and served as a state representative for that district in 1801. Durfey was succeeded by his brother Ebenezer who served 13 terms in the position. Durfey left Vermont to settle the Canadian wilderness near North Crosby, Leeds County Ontario about 1807. He later returned to the United States living in Ellisburg and Richland before his death. Information about the thirteen children born to Jedediah Durfey and his two wives add more color to the biography, one son, Royal Durfey, followed Joseph Smith and Brigham Young west with the Mormon movement.
What is amazing to us is that this fascinating life history has been unknown to us for all these years. Contacts made among Durfey descendants and Vermont researchers are also pleased to finally know where this missing ancestor and Vermont Republic patriot is buried.
Half-Shire Historical Society is located at 1100 County Rte. 48 in Richland. We can be reached by mail at P.O. Box 73, Richland, NY 13144 or on the web at halfshire@hotmail.com. We have a blog also at http://halfshire.blogspot.com/

2007-08-05T19:42:00.001-07:00

Half-Shire Historical Society
August 10, 2007

The summer reunion season is in full swing in the North Country. We note in every week’s paper at least one mention of a gathering big or small. The tradition of family reunions seems to be an essentially American one, and since the nineteenth century reunions have been more commonplace.
On Saturday August 4, the Descendants of Marvin and Beulah (Munger) Randall gathered in Greenboro at the 204 year old Randall farm to celebrate the 90th birthday of family patriarch Vernon Valoris Randall. “Uncle Bill” was actually born March 24, 1917, but the celebration was postponed in deference to his wish to have all his family around him for a hot dog roast “under the old maple tree” at the farm. Bill’s wish was granted when the entire family came together. They included: his wife Marie, two daughters and sons-in-law, Richard and Lowana Davenport of Brooktondale and Dale & Judith Huyck of Saranac Lake; grandson Russ & Traci Huck and their son Deryck; grandson Brian and Terri Huyck and their sons Matthew and Steven; granddaughter Chris Day and sons Randall & Steven; granddaughter Cathy Caveney and her girls Carley & Morgan. A friend stopped by and took a family photo of the occasion which will be surely cherished by generations.
Bill’s Great-grandchildren are the eighth generation of the Randall family to wander the fields and woodlands
On Saturday August 11, three notable gatherings will take place: In Mexico the 80th annual reunion of the descendants of Rolan Edgar Dennis & Addie (Rogers) Fox will be held at the community park just east of town. This reunion encompasses hundreds of people scattered across the world that descend from an early Redfield family. Our friend Sarah Darling Rector keeps track of the growing family tree, and will surely be there to enumerate and sort the attendees. Meanwhile, in Pulaski many members of the Alonzo & Grace (Colven) Flagg family will be in attendance at the Pulaski Public Library to fete the family matriarch, Pearl Flagg Bontomaise on the occasion of her first book signing. For many years Pearl has written poetry, and finally at the insistence of her family (particularly granddaughter Angela) Pearl is able to present her poetry to the public. Half-Shire will have copies of Pearls book for sale among our books, but first editions will only be available on the 11th at the Library.
Also on August 11, Half-Shire will host graduates and attendees of Redfield Schools for the 22nd annual school picnic. The reunion was moved from Redfield this year due to the closure of the Century House and also to allow attendees to look through Redfield photos and scrapbooks at our facility. George Widrig, Erma Schroeder and Shawn Doyle will be heading up the kitchen staff for an old fashioned chicken and biscuit dinner. Anyone who ever went to school in Redfield is welcome to attend!
On Saturday September 1, the Ballou and McCaw families of Redfield will be gathering for their annual reunion during old home days.
Any other upcoming reunions we will gladly publicize. We also may be able to help organizers add a little bit of history to the event. Half-Shire now has hundreds of family files, and many are computerized for ease of printing. Major north country families such as the Yerdons, Casters, Joyners, Randalls, Howards, Buells, Ballous, McCaws, and countless others are all kept updated as we take in information. Contact us for your specific request for information! On Tuesday July 31, former Volney Historian George Wise paid a visit to us for a day of cemetery inspection and research. In an upcoming column we will go over our joint findings from that day that will add a new chapter to Pulaski’s George Washington/Henry Lyman story. New evidence of the abolitionist movement in our region has been found by George, and in our travels we linked other clues to flesh out the story.
Work continues on the Richland Revolutionary War Veteran book due out this fall. New material has been obtained on the David Soule and Abraham Bull lines. Significant work has also been done on the Doane families. Thanks to Alice Campbell Gasperini for the loan of some DAR papers that have assisted us in sorting out the Doane families. One interesting facet of this project is that each of the 25 veterans we have identified can be linked with at least one of the other veterans either by service or family record. It truly is a small world.
Half-Shire Historical Society is open every Friday from 12 -4 p.m. or by appointment. We can be reached at P.O. 73, 1100 County Rte. 48, Richland, NY 13144 or on the web at halfshire@hotmail.com our columns are also posted on our blog at: http://halfshire.blogspot.com/

August 3, 2007

2007-07-31T00:44:00.001-07:00

Half-Shire Historical Society
August 3, 2007

On Saturday July 28, Half-Shire held the annual July picnic meeting. Twenty-five members attended and enjoyed a picnic lunch and dessert. Thanks go to Erma Schroeder of Richland and Greg Monett of Oswego for their key assistance in getting the meal out on time. Trustees Rita Rombach, Mary Munz and Margaret Kastler were also key components of the kitchen team.
Following lunch a brief meeting was held. Reports were given on the Society’s finances, building work, publications and other items of interest. Grant monies received from Entergy Corporation and The Pulaski Community Fund has greatly enhanced our ability to work on building repairs as well as our continued photo digitalization. Paid memberships have now surpassed 200, and this milestone is of great importance not only to our finances but our outreach and presence in the region and state. The meeting was adjourned before 2 p.m. with the next meeting planned for Saturday August 25 at the Richland facility. Lunch will be served at noon, followed by another quick meeting and program.
During this last meeting Leah Munz worked on scanning and storing images for our collection from Osceola. Leah will be working with her grandmother for the remainder of the summer on the Osceola Cemetery photo project that they began last summer, a copy of which is held at Half-Shire
We received a phone call last week from Ed & Rhea (Noble) Roche of Wooster, Ohio. The Roche’s called to order copies of the photo of 1957 Oswego County Fair officers that ran in our last newsletter. Rhea was friends throughout her youth with the late Paul Woodard’s daughters, and wanted to get them copies. Paul was the President of the Fair Association for the centennial fair. Congratulations also go out to the Roche’s on the milestone of their 60th wedding anniversary, which was marked on Sunday July 22, in Pulaski by a renewal of their vows at St. John’s Roman Catholic Church where they were first married in 1947.
In other member news, Esther Rancier of Carson City California has been assisting us with research on various families for several years. Esther has recently taken up the task of editing our veterans list by cross referencing the names we have with her extensive files. Esther has sent us data on one of her Revolutionary War ancestors, David Soule, who lived and died in the town of Richland. Esther continues to gather proof of David’s service in the Rhode Island Militia, and with what she has sent we are confident enough to count David as number 35 in our biographies of Veterans from The Revolution who will be featured in our new book due out by years end.
On Saturday August 11, Half-Shire will host the 24th annual lunch for Alumni of Redfield School. This group was started by Meda (Perry) Yerdon and Florence (Adsit) McCaw in 1983, and each year former graduates and students who attended any of the rural schools of the Town of Redfield have gathered for an afternoon of reminiscing. A Chicken and Biscuit lunch will be served at noon, and the remainder of the afternoon will be devoted to catching up. Half-Shire is a perfect backdrop for an affair such as this, with the wealth of research materials and photos on display and file in the hall. Anyone who attended Redfield Schools is invited to attend, contact Shawn Doyle at 298-3620 or SPDinPUL@hotmail.com to reserve a spot for lunch. A $5 donation is asked for lunch.
Half-Shire is open to the public each Friday from noon-4 p.m. or by appointment. We can be reached at P.O. 73, 1100 County Rte. 48, Richland, NY 13144 or on the web at Halfshire@hotmail.com

2007-07-09T07:35:00.000-07:00

Half-Shire Historical Society
July 13, 2007

The numbers are in for the 2007 Oswego County Fair, and over 30,900 people came through the gates.
We do not have numbers for 2006, but in 2005 there were only 15,000 attendees. So it is very apparent we are getting more visitors, and often repeat fairgoers. The ribbon cutting on the new Cattle barn took place beneath a cloudless sky on Friday June 30. Senator James Wright, the honoree, was flanked by fair officials and members of town and county government as he cut the ribbon. Half of the ribbon is preserved in Fair records at Half-Shire, the other half was given to Charlene Cole for the Sandy Creek Historians’ collection.
The Heritage building was as usual one of the busiest on the grounds. We had many people come from a distance to do research and meet with other researchers. One lady, Marian Steward from Georgia spent a considerable amount of time in the building meeting with people she has written back and forth with for a long time. Marian is researching several different families, including the Ackleys of eastern Oswego County.
The Half-Shire newsletter went out late, after the fair as we were unable to print our mailing labels do to a computer glitch. The next newsletter will be coming out in August, to “catch up”.
Thanks go out to several people for work on display panels that commemorated the Fair’s 15oth year and were scattered around the grounds: George Widrig, Charlotte DeGaetano, Julie Lattimer, Mary Hicks, Glen Hall and others from the local scrap booking club. Thanks go out to Dee Dee Barclay for donating many older fair related photos that we utilized in the barns.
The Central New York Genealogical Society provided much needed assistance with our sales table this year. CNYGS officers were a great addition to our building and we are gratified by their joining our building.
Winners of the highly competitive room display competition were: 1st place, Mexico Historical Society witrh “The Wedding”; 2nd place, New Haven Historical with a display on the Hamlet of Dempster in its railroad hay-day. Third place went to Pulaski Historical with their restaurant display. Special notice and appreciation goes out to West Monroe Historical for their kitchen and Amboy Historical for their “attic” both groups which are normally in the placing did not have their forms filled out and in to the office before the fair.
Special thanks go out to Trustee Mary Lou Guindon of Parish for her three batches of cookies and her time spent volunteering at the Fair during crucial times. Also to be lauded was Osceola historian Mary Munz and her granddaughter Leah Munz. Mary did a lot of work on filling scrapbooks, while Leah spent three days scanning photos into our database. Leah’s work was crucial as we have fallen behind since our snow scholars graduated from the program.
On Friday July 6, we completed the take-down and cleanup of the building. We also began our new Friday hours at Half-Shire. Phil & Rita Rombach and Polly Carner joined Shawn Doyle in re-shelving items and greeting researchers (2). We will continue these 12-4 p.m. hours through the summer and autumn months.
The Town of Richland has assumed maintenance responsibilities for Ferguson –Blue Spring Cemetery on Stowell Drive east of Richland Hamlet. John Fox’s crew trimmed the three trees on the grounds and did a great job with the edging. The Town of Richland sees to the mowing of Brown’s Landing Cemetery on Rte. 5, McClelland on Tinker’s Tavern Rd., and Riverside on State Rte. 13 in Pulaski. Thanks go out to Richland Supervisor James Atkinson and Highway Superintendent John Fox for helping to keep these hallowed grounds trim.
We are not sure what happened to our last column, but the most important item that needs to be conveyed is a sincere and grateful thank you to Phil & Rita Rombach for purchasing a new sign for our headquarters lawn. The Rombachs are tremendous supporters of our continuing efforts to renovate our building. Phil chairs our building committee and has recently overseen the successful roof replacement of our back entry.
Half-Shire can be reached at P.O. Box 73, Richland, NY 13144; halfshire@hotmail.com or our blog at http://halfshire.blogspot.com call 298-3620 for more information on hours, or for an appointment.

June 22, 2007 Column

2007-06-20T16:57:00.000-07:00

Half-Shire Historical Society (June 22, 2007)
It’s now down to “crunch time” at the Oswego County Fairgrounds in Sandy Creek. Every building Superintendent is working extra time to get things ready and in order before opening day Friday June 29. The last item of work (also the most important) is the preparation of the race track. As of this writing that too is coming along as planned, and the grading and rolling should take place by the last weekend of June. In the Heritage building, progress has been slow but steady as historians have been bringing up their items to display. This year we are going to have a full building, and have had to cut back on some of our “sitting room area” we are hoping that with placement of several more round tables in each exhibit area people will still find lots of comfort to sit and talk with historians and friends.
On Friday June 29 the new cattle barn will be formally opened. The Association has voted to dedicate this new structure to Senator James Wright for his continued and sustained support of the Fair Association through the years. At 2 p.m. on the 29th the Senator will be on the Fairgrounds for the ribbon cutting that will take place at 2 p.m. The public is welcome to attend and thank Jim for his great support over the years. The last cattle barn was constructed in 1959 under the direction of the local 4-H clubs and the Future Farmers of America. George and Sybil Cummins provided us with a 4-page brochure given out on the opening day. We expect to have a new brochure out for this barn also. The accompanying photo is from the construction week, and shows several of the workers. We sure would like to know who is in this photo! A special display panel on the 1959 barn construction will be on display at the fair, come and see if you can guess who is in the photos!
To mark the 150th fair the sesquicentennial committee has gathered photos from the past and will have free standing exhibits in each building. For the new several of these photo exhibits we are indebted to Doug and Dee Dee Barclay of Pulaski who donated photos of animals and flowers shown at the fair in years past. For the Cattle barn, two large panels detailing the pedigree of two specific cows have been completely re-matted by Charlotte DeGeatano and her scrapbook club. Glenn Hall re-framed these large displays, and they will be on display in the new cattle barn. The scrap booking club also has done two floral panels showing some orchids and Iris shown by the late Dorothy Barclay in the 1930s. The Barclays also donated three very nice silver trophies that will be on display in the Heritage building.
Our tri-fold fliers were a little late in arriving this year, so on June 19, we hurriedly assembled a Fair newsletter that had been held up waiting for the material. Thanks go out to Julia Marie Lambie, Milferd and Pat Potter And their two Florida houseguests for coming up to Half-Shire to assemble the Fair newsletter with Shawn Doyle. It is great to have a “mail girl” helping with such work, and Pat Potter is great at these tasks.
On June 22 and 23 the Sandy Creek Class of 1957 will be meeting at Half-Shire for a class reunion lunch and mixer. Milferd Potter has charge of the affair, and he had worked hard on a commemorative book on the class. Thanks go out to Erin Bacon for her assistance to Milferd.

June 15, 2007

2007-06-10T13:49:00.000-07:00

Half-Shire Historical Society Column, by President Shawn Doyle
June 15, 2007 (Salmon River News and Queen Central News of Camden)

The Oswego County Fair is fast approaching! The 150th Fair will open on Friday June 29, and run through Wednesday July 4. Admission is free again this year, with variable grandstand admission prices. One of the most popular attractions each year is the Heritage Building located at the far corner along Franklin Street.
Since the early 1990s, Half-Shire Historical Society has had charge of organizing the Heritage Hall exhibits. Former Sandy Creek Town & Fair Historian, and Half-Shire President Marie Parsons developed the Heritage Hall concept, Marie and her late father, Floyd Kent, had set up free-standing heritage exhibits in the 1960s and 70s. In 1992 with the construction of a stand-alone building, Marie and Half-Shire were given free reign to fill it. Since this time the building has evolved into an interactive showplace for all of Oswego County’s Historians and Historical Societies.
For the past twelve years one of the most interesting facets of the building has been the onsite research library. This year, Half-Shire will focus on its collection of family histories and cemetery records. These two collections form the core of the new Half-Shire research room, and are much utilized by traveling researchers and the general public at our Richland facility.
A few words about the cemetery records are in order: In 1976 members of Half-Shire, led by Marie Parsons, Floyd Kent, Avis Widrig, Mary White and Dorthea Blodgett, began the first comprehensive cemetery survey in northern Oswego County. The survey began by utilizing the few existing D.A.R records from the 1920s, but in many places it was the very first survey. The townships that were the subject were: Albion, Amboy, Boylston, Orwell, Redfield, Richland, Sandy Creek and Williamstown. A specific set of codes is shown on the first page of the survey, and these codes indicate how a stone is read (front only, as opposed to 4-sides), Veterans and Service monuments and markers found, and in some cases, the verses discovered. A separate A-Z index card system was also gleaned from these records for each township.
In an effort to share resources, in 1999 Half-Shire, made photo copies of all of these original transcriptions, and shared them with local historians and libraries. A complete set exists also in the Oswego County Records center in Oswego. In 2000 and 2001, Shawn Doyle and Charlene Cole began to further collect and share cemetery records across the county. Charlene worked with then County Historian Barbara Dix, and gathered a near complete collection of records for the Oswego County facility, Half-Shire and now the Historian’s office in Sandy Creek.
Many of these records were old or in some cases, incomplete, so in 2001 the Oswego County Cemetery Census (OCCC) project was initiated. This project laid out a standard recommended template that historians were encouraged to use in re-canvassing and publishing their records. Charlene herself contributed greatly to these efforts by transcribing nearly all the cemeteries in Hannibal, along with St. Mary’s and Mt. Adnah in Fulton. With the advent of digital technology digital photos have recently been added to the most recent of OCCC editions. The late Connie Mason Skilinskis’ book on Dugway cemetery in Albion was ground-breaking in its inclusion of obituaries and brief histories.
The town of Sandy Creek rural cemetery books being compiled by Charlene are a great example of this enhanced version of the cemetery record project, building on the D.A.R. and Half-Shire surveys of the past. Charlene and the Sandy Creek volunteers have done an admirable job with these books. New books on Daysville and South Richland cemeteries are also nearing completion. Similar projects are being done for Albion, Williamstown, Redfield, Osceola and the rest of Richland. It is the goal of Half-Shire to one day have a digital file on each burial in our 10-township district, and a linked family database to the deceased. The entire Half-Shire cemetery holdings will be at the Fair, and available for viewing.
In related cemetery news, on Memorial Day the new monument for Revolutionary War Veteran Thomas Baker was quietly set out in Noyes Cemetery. Baker was from Massachusetts, and settled the Ridge Road between Richland and Sandy Creek. He was responsible for naming the Village of Pulaski. Kudos go out to George Widrig and Baker descendant John Komer for their research efforts and successful application to Veterans Affairs. Four additional markers have now been applied for to mark the graves of Revolutionary War Veterans Elnathan Mason, John McChesney, John Erskine and Edward Wade. Thanks go out to J. Marie Lambie and Michelle Arthur who assisted me in putting out additional flags for these men on Memorial Day Weekend.
Half-Shire Historical Society, founded in 1972, represents the towns of Albion, Amboy, Boylston, Orwell, parish, Redfield, Richland, Sandy Creek, Williamstown and the Lewis County Town of Osceola. We can be contacted at P.O. Box 73, Richland, NY 13144; halfshire@hotmail.com or our blog at: http://halfshire.blogspot.com/

March 21, 2005 Column

2005-03-16T04:20:00.000-08:00

On Saturday March 26, the Historical Building will be open from 11am-3pm. Lunch will be served for members and friends at 12 noon. The regular monthly meeting will begin promptly at 1pm, followed by a program conducted by George Widrig. George is the author of the recent book "Mayhem, Mystery and More" which debuted last fall. He will field questions on the book, and also discuss his research on the Mellon family who were once prominent in Richland hamlet.Extra copies of the most recent Half-Shire Newsletter and the new Tug Hill Literary Review will be available at the door.
Work has commenced on the next issues of these society publications. Over 600 copies of each publication were distributed by mail two weeks ago. If you would like to be on our mailing list contact the staff at Halfshire@hotmail.com or c/o P.O. 73 Richland, New York 13144.
For those who plan on attending the lunch it is requested that they call President Shawn Doyle (298-3620) or drop a note by email at SPDinPUL@hotmail.com so we will have plenty of food available. Lunch will be as always, a "free will offering." Our Kitchen staff, led by Margaret Sullivan of Parish, has planned an extra special Easter meal. We look forward to seeing everyone again now that the snows are disappearing.
Beginning this week our column will be posted on a web blog available at Syracuse.com under http://halfshire.blogspot.com/. We are currently found in the Camden Queen Central News and the Salmon River News of northern Oswego County.
On March 12 & 13 work weekends were conducted at the Richland headquarters. Six workers from the Oswego County Probation program and one from the town of Richland court spent over 12 hours on various projects. We were able to remove the buckled flooring in the Snow Memorial Room (old southwest classroom) and await word from our inquiries to area contractors about floor replacement. Treasurer Mary Yerdon is seeking an electrician to do some work in this room, and the kitchen. Mary can be reached at 298-2585.The Society will be seeking bids on roof replacement for the front and back entry roofs. Each roof is of original 1926 construction and they have developed leaks that patching no longer secures. Contact either Mary Yerdon or Shawn Doyle at the above numbers to view the roofs and submit a proposal.
George Widrig has been busy with research on early writers of the Tug Hill region. We aim to have a variety of poems from past and present writers to place in the summer issue of the Literary Review. In his research, George discovered a wonderful poem on the Salmon River, written in the early 1820s by John Gardner Calkins Brainard (1796-1828) that ran in an 1897 Pulaski Democrat. As his name implies, Brainard was descended three families who settled Pulaski in the early 1800s. The writer left the area and moved to Connecticut where he became associate editor of the Connecticut Mirror. He died in 1828 at age 32. We are seeking more information on this writer, and others who have been inspired by Pulaski and other Tug Hill area locales. Writers and sketch artists can submit material to the Society at P.O. 73 Richland, NY 13144. The Summer issue of the Literary Review will be mailed in mid June. The Literary Review is a joint project of South Jefferson Historical Society and Half-Shire.
Thanks go out to Marie, Molly and Mary Yerdon along with Marie Lambie and Margaret Kastler for their assistance with the Newsletter assembly. Thanks again go out to Evelyn Davis, M.E. Griffith, and Mr. & Mrs.. Ellsworth Barber for their generous donations towards the new copier which worked remarkably in this first big project.Thanks also go out to Herb & Marie Yerdon for the donation of a ledger from the Burkett store in Redfield. Wayne and Jean Taplin also gave us an original photo of three teachers from Richland School, and an enlargement of the same. We are grateful for all of these kind donations!
Our sympathy goes out to our friend Mary Lou Dewey of Pulaski. Mary Lou's husband Lester died several weeks ago after a short illness. We will miss seeing Les at the Hometown Diner and other area venues. Les and Mary Lou were two of the best customers of Seeley's Restaurant until its closure in 1985. Seeley's was operated by this writers grandmother Jane Ballou Seeley, and I grew up seeing Les & mary Lou often.
We also note the passing of Viola Greenfield Shuhart of Springbrook Apartments in Pulaski, and Leila Speck Jackson, formally of Osceola and Orwell. Viola attended many of our early programs at Springbrook, and was the mother of our member Beryl Greenfield. Leila was also an attendee of our events, and was sister to the well-know Osceolan Homer Speck. To all these families we offer our condolences.