February 1995

About this Issue

Note from the Editors

Mrs. Ernestine E. King's account of The Church of The Redeemer that stands in Addison, New York, begins this issue. The church was completed in 1859 by two men who are unknown except for their names. Built of wood in the style of Richard Upjohn, it has lasted for 135 years under the tender care of its congregation. Mrs. King lives now in Corning. She collected the photographs used. The copy of Upjohn's drawing shown on the back page was obtained by Mrs. Charlotte Hegyi of Geneva.

John Rezelman returns with a new series, this time a commentary on the diaries kept just more than 100 years ago by T.N. Smith, the grandfather of Stanley Fox of Avoca, New York. This month's installment looks back on January of 1888 which was a much snowier month and therefore better for the then all-important sleighing mode of transportation, than was our past month. Today people look upon snow as a nuisance, or a pleasure, but not a vital necessity. John Rezelman lives in Bath, which he tells us is a relatively snow-free area of New York.

Robert Koch writes about life around Springwater, New York in the early eighteen hundreds when people made nearly everything they needed, and somethings they didn't need, like whiskey. No doubt about it, they were resourceful, hard-working, and hard-living people who often lived long lives. Bob Koch can be heard every Saturday morning on WXXI-FM at 9:30 with his vignettes of history.

Leonard P. Wood lives in Pleasaant Valley, close to Hammondsport, and adjacent to where his great-great-great-grandfather settled and lived. Mr. Wood has preserved his ancestor's diaries and offered them to be published here. Read what Cornelius Younglove did in February, 1827, and note that the abduction of Morgan was a subject of a conversation on February 24.

Mr. A. G. Hilbert lived in Elmira and was an active volunteer for years as historian at the Chemung County Historical Society, and as a popular lecturer. He spoke often about the natives of New York. One of his talks was about Handsome Lake, a Seneca, who convinced many of his people that they could improve their lives by avoiding white men's whiskey while practicing white men's husbandry. The account in this issue is taken from the text of Mr. Hilbert's lecture Handsome Lake or The Reformed Drunkard Who Talked with Angels.

Next Issue

Coming in the March issue will be another chapter from Verne Marshall's The Roses of Geneva, this one about John Nicholas Rose, the man who built Esperanza. We are looking for early pictures of the mansion to go with this second chapter on the Branchport Roses.

Next issue will conclude our year of excerpts from Cornelius Younglove's journal, and more from John Rezelman's commentaries on the diaries of T. N. Smith.

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