Summer 1998

About this Issue

Note from the Editors

This issue begins with diary entries by Abigail Hackett for the months of June, July and August, 1865. George Dickey transcribed the hand-written diary and added explanatory notes. George lives and farms on the Swale close to where the Hacketts lived.

Two Tales of Naples set down by Alice Stoddard Bishop and shared by her daughter Beth Bishop Flory follow. Beth Flory is president of the Naples Historical Society and lives close to Naples on Canandaigua Lake. She wrote about the Naples clubes of New York City and Rochester in issue #105, Fall 1997.

Joan K Hayward writes of an area in Bristol Valley that was for a time a prosperous sheep slaughtering center called Muttonville, and later became a busy hop growing location called Vincent. Now both are gone but her grandmother's house, once an inn, remains. Mrs. Hayward supplied pictures of the house and of a store. She lives in Naples and does volunteer work for the Naples library and several other community groups.

Stephen Lewandowski informs us about the microorganisms and complex compounds that exist in a wilderness underneath our feet. "Wild Soils" is a tribute to the surface layer of the Earth that seems so commonplace yet remains so mysterious and vital to our well being. Steve Lewandowski lives in Naples, works as a conservationist, and writes poetry. In issue #74 he wrote of corn, squash and beans, the Three Sisters of Indian gardens.

Robert Gregory contributes a story of helping his dad build a barn which became the center of their farm life. The barn is still standing; Bob visited it again in 1996. Bob grew up on a family farm near Tompkins Center, Chemung County, but lives now in New Zealand and is senior lecturer in the Department of Psychology at Massey University.

David Minor adds two more years, 1789 and 1790, to his year-by-year history of New York. These columns come from his radio scripts for Simon Pontin's Salmagundi broadcast from WXXI-FM (91.5). David can be heard on the same station every Saturday morning at 11 a.m. speaking on various aspects of world history.

Richard Palmer tells of the early shipping by arks and rafts on the Tioughnioga River from Cortland south into the Susquehanna system to the bay. The river was declared a public thoroughfare. Richard Palmer lives in Tully, New York.

Gary Lehmann tells of Lincoln Mills located on Irondequoit Creek, and the letter of a man who had robbed the mill but felt that he should return to the miller papers of no value to himself.

Donovan Shilling describes the April 25, 1998, visit members of the New Society of the Genesee to the William H. Seward Mansion in Auburn. Don Shilling lives in Penfield and is Chronicler for the Society.

The Fall 1998 issue will feature a biographical sketch of Halsey C. Ives by Herbert A. Wisbey, Jr., an account of the mills at Cold Spring by Joseph E. Paddock, the natural history of the western Finger Lakes by Stephen Lewanadowski, an essay "Observations on the Environment: A Plea" by Robert Gregory, and more from David Minor, Richard Palmer, Abigail Hackett and George Dickey.

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