Spring 1999

About the Spring 1999 Issue

Note from the Editors

There were periods of cold and disagreeable weather in the spring of 1866. Abigail Hackett started a quilt, tended new-born lambs, and tasted warm maple sugar with friends. Some of her neighbors were ancestors of George Dickey who edited her journal and still lives on the Swale in Steuben County close to where Abigail resided.

Featured in this issue are personal stories of the Orphan Train Era by Mary Ellen Pollock who was born in Hammondsport, and then travelled by train with the care of The Children's Aid Society to new parents and their home in East St. Louis, Illinois, and by Richard H. Call who was born in Canandaigua and went by train to the Brace Orphange in New York City and another train ride to a farm in Hartsville, New York, where he still lives.

Part I of "Life of a Salesman," an account of Charles Williamson by David Minor begins in this issue. It was first published in his Eagles Byte Historic Research newsletter. Readers are familiar with the New York Timeline in which David traces year by year the early history of NYC and NYS. Find out what happened in 1795 and 1796. David Minor lives in Pittsford, NY.

In Remembering the Genesee Valley Canal, Richard Palmer uses early newspaper accounts to describe life and business on the canal. This is the first installment about the beginnings of transport on the Genesee River, the authorization for a canal, and its long and difficult construction. The canal was opened to Dansville 1841 and to Olean 1856. It closed in 1878 and much of the right-of-way became a railroad that operated until 1963. Richard Palmer lives in Tully, NY.

Robert Gregory lives and teaches in New Zealand. He grew up in Chemung County and returns to visit occasionally. His essay in this issue is about his observations of trees in this part of New York. On regular walks along country roads, he saw very few mature trees of desirable lumber-producing species. Robert Gregory pleads that woodsmen and farmers preserve the desirable trees to regenerate valuable forests for their descendants.

Donovan Shilling tells us of a visit by the New Society of the Genesee to the exhibit at the Memorial Art Gallery of paintings, textiles, ceramics, silver, sculpture, furniture, and unusual items from Rochester collectors. On January 16th Society members viewed the exhibit and later ate and conversed in the restaurant in the gallery building. Don Shilling lives in Penfield, NY.

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