Fall 2000

About the Fall 2000 Issue

Note from the Editors

The issue opens with Jana A. Bouma's account of Lydia Philadelphia Mott's life and her school for girls at Skaneateles, New York. Jana Bouma teaches in the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her recently-completed dissertation, Caroline M. Kirkland: A Literary Life is available from Bell & Howell Information and Learning.

In the next article, Robert G. Koch recounts the different summer work he did in college years and later, and comments how jobs have changed. Robert Koch was professor and chair of Language and Literature at the Rochester Institute of Technology for the years 1950 - 70 and was Dean of the University College at the U. of Rochester from 1970 - 82. Since 1976 he has broadcast cultural interviews every Tuesday and Thursday and, since 1987, history pieces on Saturdays from WXXI-FM. Bob Koch lives in Pittsford.

Ed Van Dyne writes on Mark Twain in Elmira: his family, work, and hangouts. Mr. Van Dyne tells how Elmira has come to be proud that Mark Twain lived at Quarry Farm for twenty summers and wrote some of his finest stories there. Ed Van Dyne was a WWII war correspondent, a travel writer for the New York Times and for the Herald Tribune, and a photo-journalist for the Elmira Sunday Telegram. He lives near Ithaca, New York.

Chapter IV, "Building Railroads," from Gary Emerson's biography of John Magee is included. In this part Magee and his business colleagues do overcome many obstacles to complete the Erie Railroad, then victimize many small investors in the Buffalo, Corning, and New York Railroad by causing the company to default on bonds they themselves held. Gary Emerson lives with his family in Odessa, New York.

Thomas D. Cornell's series on retracing the route of Sullivan's Army through Pennsylvania concludes in this issue. Tom and Terry's tour of roadways, landscapes, site markers and museums along the trail finishes in his "Day Five" account with selections from soldier's diaries and personal observations. Tom Cornell teaches history of science at the Rochester Institute of Technology and lives in Rochester.

John Rezelman relates an incident in his family's farm life when a team of horses ran off hitched to a wagon. John Rezelman is retired from the Farm Credit Administration but continues his gardening, and writing for farming and country-life magazines. He lives in Bath, New York.

Richard Palmer writes a new chapter in his "social history" of the Genesee Valley Canal in this issue. This segment contains a portion of William N. Cobb's September and October, 1836, diary of his trip from McLean, New York, near Ithaca, by canal boat and foot to Mount Morris and his beginning work as a surveyor for the canal. Richard Palmer is editor of the Baldwinsville Messenger. He lives in Otisco.

Two more years, 1807 and 1808 from David Minor's New York Timeline are in this issue. Read the fine print at the bottom of both pages, check out his Eagles Byte website, and receive his email scripts with links to unusual sources. David Minor broadcasts historical vignettes weekly on WXXI-FM. He lives in Pittsford, New York.

Barbara Bell tells the story of the Mary and Hannah that carried in 1823 the first cargo from Seneca Lake to New York City. See the picture, on the back page, of the silver urn presented by flour merchants for bringing 800 bushels of wheat from the central part of the state. Barbara Bell has collected information on the Mary and Hannah and on the award trophy for 40 years. She is Historian for Schuyler County and the town of Reading. She lives in Irelandville, near Watkins Glen.

Donovan A. Shilling, Chronicler for the New Society of the Genesee, has accounts of three recent meetings of the society in June 2000, July 2000 and August 2000. Don regularly portrays DeWitt Clinton. A selection from his fascinating miniature scenes of the Rochester area will be exhibited in the Dollhouse and Miniature Show at the Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport from November 17, 2000 through January 31, 2001.

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