Monday, January 1, 2024

Thank You..Happy New Year. Sunday Cat Blog

Cat Blog

THANK YOU TO ALL WHSO HELPED MAKE OUR CHRISTMAS SALE A SUCCESS!

This week we have heard of so many new strays being found in our local area, that I though I would post some information on the problems facing these poor little creatures as fall and winter moves in.

As the days grow shorter and night with its colder temperatures moves in these drop off or left behind animals seek shelter and food. The true unkindness of people is the shortsightedness of the former owner, many of whom think a domestic kitten or cat can seek food like a feral cat whose mother teaches them to hunt.

If we could get some cooperation at spreading the word about the importance of neuter and spaying your animals, we could help with this problem.

Kittens are great for playing with but ownership is a great responsibility. Have your cat fixed and remember that if you move it is still your responsibility… and apartment dwellers should realize many landlords do not want tenants with cats.

We also need more funding for ANIMAL SHELTERS, AS WELL AS VOLUNTEERS AND SUPPORTERS, FOR THOSE THAT WE DO HAVE. An more free or low cost clinics to help with fixing.

Go to our clinic and heath pages for importation on clinics in our area.

We also have a lost and found page….send backstreetmary@yahoo.com a picture with information and we will share it!!

A good site to visit in the CNY Area is SANS of Syracuse (https://www.spayandneutersyracuse.com


Wednesday, December 27, 2023

For All My Friends...From Me to You!




Once again on the week behore Christmas I find myself lost amid old memories, problems of the present... and the dificulties of living in this (at the very moment) place in history where in seconds news is flashed, reflashed, disected and rehashed within the blink of an eye. 

So.. I decided to try and go back to a much nicer time, a time when life was simple and the holidays were something to look forward to...times to remember in your heart with joy!  Here is a repost from last year...but some things to think about.   I question...are we living in better times???

I painted the above picture for a Christmas card in 1995 and wrote the poem to go with it.  The story came from discussions with the old members of our little community group who shared their remembrances of "Christmas Past".

They are all dead now... but like on old clock I have turned my mind back to that year and leave the poem to you as my Christmas blog and my hope for a quiet and warmer future built on love...not hate....on families....not presents and shopping...and on love for your neighbor!


Going to Grandma’s for Christmas


Going to grandma’s for Christmas,
A very special day.
Through the city, past the suburbs,
Out the country way;
Past the now frozen pond,
Where children skate and sled;
While moms and dads look on.

As we approach the old farm house’
With barns in red and white;
I feel a glow of warmth,
In just picturing the sight,
The front door swinging open;
As waves and cheers abound.
It seems a million years ago,
Last Christmas came around.

The tree in its shining hour;
Standing in the hall,
So it might stretch to its fullest height,
And run from floor to floor.
Grandma’s fresh baked cookies,
Cooling by the stove;
And gingerbread decorated,
With swirls, and dots, and love.


The goose stuffed and waiting;
Cranberries and popcorn strung;
The neighbors gathering at the door,
Singing carols just for fun.
After all the presents,
Are unwrapped and tucked away;
I slip upstairs to Grandma’s room, 
To kneel with her and pray.

Then curled up in a feather bed,
So snug and fluffy warm;
I feel at ease with all the world;
And safe from any harm.

No matter how many years come and pass away,
Grandma and the country,
Will be the heart of my Christmas Day!

Friday, December 22, 2023

Christmas Thoughts - William Booth



With Christmas Eve approaching it always brings back many memories to us all …and one special one returns every year to me. 

Christmas Eve was the best day of the holiday season for my family as all the relatives gathered together, usually at our house - with food, fun, music and friends running in and out.   It was my favorite day…but this particular year was my first Christmas as a member of the workforce.

My first job was in the card shop in E W Edwards Department Store in Syracuse and Edward’s was the busiest card shop downtown.  I worked with an older woman who had worked in the department for years.  Doris was a wonderful woman who helped people and who was very kindhearted.  She and I learned to ring over the top of each other on the register so that we could help people get through the line faster. 

This one particular night was a cold Christmas Eve, and my bus was to arrive 10 minutes after the closing of the store…and I was ready to roll.  Trouble was you couldn’t cash out or leave until all of the customers were gone.

The store lights blinked as usual denoting the closing of the store, but Doris kept on talking to these 5 bedraggled looking people who kept handing a card back and forth amongst themselves.  This went on and I kept walking up and down waiting to cash out and getting more nervous by the minute that I was going to miss the bus that meant have to wait for the Clover and walk an extra half-mile home.

Finally after what seemed like and eternity Doris rang them out….one 25 cent card…one miserable card had caused me to miss by bus and make me get home very late for the festivities! 

As they left and we started cashing out and I snapped at her about it and she turned on her heal and looked at me…her glance was more serious than I had ever seen….”Are you going home to a nice warm house with family, food and friends?” she snapped.  “Well of course”, I replied.  “Well they don’t have homes…they are homeless…and they bought a card because the man at the hotel behind here is going to let them stay and sit with their friends until midnight…and they are all going to share the card!”  She stopped and pointed up town, “Then they are going to the church for midnight Mass where they can stay for a while…and then if they are lucky…. they will be picked up by a Rescue Mission or Salvation Army Van and be taken somewhere to warm and eat!!!”

I was silenced.  I waited in the freezing cold and wind for the bus and thought about the lesson I had learned, something us well fed lucky people never think about on Christmas Eve…a lesson I have never forgotten to this day. 

When I arrived home and started wrapping a few presents I sat near the tree and cried…I realized I had lost my innocence.

Years latter I found out that Gen. William Booth founder of the Salvation Army and I shared the same birthdate...April 10th.   To this day I am proud of that fact, and have set out to spread the word on all my Christmas Eves... that there can be no celebration until all people on earth share what they have and men live in peace without Wars..  None, until we learn to treat one another as you would your family…with love not hate, with understanding and acceptance.... for really we are the family of man... and we all live together in this little envelope called EARTH!

Saturday, December 2, 2023

Some Christmas Stories and History!

                                                 Photo I took in London of Churchill's Statue

I thought of some fun that might make you readers smile, especially since so many people on TV have been talking about Winston Churchill's wise words... so.. here the story of home and a famous cat called Jock that I was talking about on Thanksgiving to my family!

Winston  Churchill’s mother was Jennie Jerome, a beautiful American who actually has great ties to CNY.  The Jerome Family farms were in CNY and the land that my family built its house on was part of the Jerome Farm…home of Jennie’s grandmother.  

Thoughts of the Jerome farm led me to ponder the fact that for Christmas one year I gave my brother the gold watch dad had given me...he had found the old gold watch in the family garden as a young man...a garden that would later become the family compound of homes.  Repaired and running, I thought it was a great family history piece and a great present.

Churchill was supposed to come to speak at a family reunion in Syracuse once, but had to turn back because of the presence of U Boats...he did send a telegram to the family group assembled…a piece of history I learned from the Wood-Eaton sisters who visited me years back in Eaton.  They were relatives and were to be at the reunion and remembered the trip.   They had come to Eaton to visit their great grandfather Allen Nelson Wood’s house, the house I live in.  Isn’t it strange how life is full of so much serendipity?

Mr. Wood was named Allen Nelson Wood...Nelson for Lord Nelson a hero his family honored with the name for many generations…and then suddenly my grey cat Rascal jumped in my lap…hint …one o f Winston Churchill’s most famous cat’s  (grey) was named Nelson to honor Lord Nelson.

Churchill was a cat lover, actually an animal lover.  Winston and his wife Clementine signed their love letters to each other with little drawn pictures…he a dog (Pug) she his cat...and their daughter the PK or puppy-kitten.

His cat stories are famous and many can still picture him speaking with a drink in one hand and the grey cat next to him. One story I love is... after one of his famous speeches (he had a lisp as well as drank) a woman MP in Parliament said, “Sir, you are drunk!”  His replay was “Madame that may be true, but in the morning I shall be sober whereas you will still be ugly!”

His favorite cat in later life cat was a ginger-marmalade colored cat he called  “Jock”, named after Sir John Coville his secretary who gave it to him.  Churchill loved the color and the cat so much that after giving his home Chartwell to the National Trust… he stated in his will that it should always have a ginger colored cat in residence…and to this day it does…and always named appropriately “Jock”!




Sunday, November 26, 2023

Thanksgiving Special....Blog

Joseph More House ...Eaton

I was asked by some of you blog followers..why I put the Thanksgiving story of the Native Americans up for Thanksgiving and what it had to do with Eaton History…well a lot! The original families that settled the area were from Natick including the LeLands, Morse, Morris, Bigelows and many more..
Flag that flew over the town and commemorative
citation from the Town Sherburne and Natick Massachusetts
 for our Bicentennial, a direct descendant Joseph Morse raised the flag ! 

History is a fickle friend that changes its mind as new and different information surfaces from the long ago past. Many times this occurs when a new tidbit of information comes from and old newspaper article somebody clipped and stuck in the back of a book. Such an occurrence is common.

While going through a number of early clippings I found an article put out for the Centennial of Madison County in 1906. The information would have come from a reliable source as the Morse family still resided in Eaton and always loaned history out for research. The article lists itself as the first in a newspaper … but what paper I do not know. I include a part here.

“The silver cup referred to in the first installment of this paper and presented to Joseph Morse in 1819 by the Madison County Agricultural society, was one of the most attractive relics in the exhibits at the centennial exercises by Prof. Briggs at Eaton Union School March 21st, 1906.”

I would love to find out where this silver cup is … the museum would love to have it since Joseph Morse is considered the founding father of Eaton. The article goes on to give us a picture into Joseph.

“At his death, at this time of need in the new country, while he was yet in the prime of life and in the midst of usefulness, became a personal loss to the inhabitants, who individually mourned him as a father, brother and friend. Together they had striven through many a crisis and conquered supreme difficulties. He was of a generous nature, yet he helped men to help themselves and so strengthened the spirit of independence.

Joseph was born in (Natick)  Sherburne, Massachusetts, married Eunice Bigelow April 24, 1768. Four children were born to them before their removal from Massachusetts and four were born in Eaton among them Ellis and Eunice that I have written about earlier.

Ellis assumed the role that his father played to the community and inherited the Stone House … once considered the showplace of the area. Ellis also sold and owned the controlling stock in the Hamilton Skaneateles Turnpike that passed by his house. As a boy he worked in the Morse Distillery that produced a vast amount of revenue and booze that supported the community both in jobs and in cash. He was self-educated with some schooling at the log school located then, near the cemetery and friends with Charles Grandison Finney who also attended that school. Ellis made sure that each of his children including his daughters was educated.

The second son of Joseph Morse was Joseph Morse, Jr., who removed to Pennsylvania and was there several times returned to the legislature of that state and also became judge of his county’s courts. Calvin, the third son, was an extensive farmer and held responsible offices frequently. He was elected to the state legislature in 1842. The museum has some of his count books

Having no sons, Calvin’s daughters became conspicuous as educators. The eldest, Belinda, was the wife of Andrew Cone, manufacturer; the second daughter, Miss A. Eliza, was assistant lady principal at Vassar College during the life of Dr. John H. Raymond, the first president of Vassar … I have written about her life and her famous ”Locust Hill” cottage.

Alpheus, the fourth son Joseph Morse, lived in Eaton until his later years. He was a merchant, scientific farmer and a large manufacturer, being many years proprietor of the Alderbrook Woolen Mill, known first as the Morse & Brown factory and later wholly in Morse’s name. His interesting early businesses included make cast iron plow blades, growing asparagus that until recently grew in the wild around the cemetery and investing in silk production.

Bigelow, the fifth and youngest son of Joseph Morse, became a prominent citizen of Onondaga County. He became a wealthy farmer in the Fabius area … this because of The Skaneateles Turnpike that passed in front of it allowing him to take his cops to market.

Bigelow had terrible headaches and died young most likely from a brain tumor. His daughter Allie moved to Eaton and lived with his brother Calvin. His two sons, Frank B. and Darwin, under the name of Morse Bros, became Eaton’s long time reliable merchants.

Frank B. was the postmaster at Eaton most of his life for more than forty years. The museum is lucky enough to have info and beautiful pictures of his children.

Many of Joseph’s sons were town supervisors and Joseph was in charge of the building of the courthouse in Eaton after its move from Cazenovia. Ellis was in charge of building of the second and his son George was in charge of building the third today know as Madison Hall.

Messere posts stories online regularly to share a look at Eaton’s past. She encourages everyone to share and help entertain and educate home schoolers, older relatives and anyone with an interest in the area’s rich history. For more history stories on Eaton visit historystarproduction.com.


Wednesday, November 22, 2023

This Thanksgiving - Something to Think About


Thanksgiving and Wars...as we celebrate Thanksgiving we should think about the first Thanksgiving story of Pilgrims and Natives.s..but here is the rest of the story...

The date of May 26, 1637, a mere 17 years after the settlement of Plymouth, the tensions between the Puritans and the Native Americans had become strained.  The very people who they stole the corn from on their landing and who showed them how to plant corn and other crops. as well as how to fish and hunt, were being exterminated by the English and Puritans who had now flocked to the shores of New England. 

The most militant of the Native tribes the Pequot has started warring against the white settlers who were pushing them off of their land.  So Militia and English troops set up and ambush on May 26, 1637.  The surrounded the Pequot settlement and using surprise burned the native fort to the ground.  The women, children, sick and elderly hid in their teepees and thus were burned alive.

Governor Bradford is quoted as saying: “It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire and the streams of blood quenching the same, and horrible was the stink there of: but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the praise there of to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to enclose their enemies in their hands and give them such a speedy victory!’

The history Channel named this as one of the 10 days that unexpectedly changed history, for the attitude of removal or cleansing would be our policy.  We regarded all those Native Americans who would not become civilized - near white as Devils who must be killed or driven out.

The Wampanoag’s and their famous Chief Massasoit, who were friends with Bradford and the Plymouth settlement, began to complain about the white settlers freely taking the crops and invading their land. In 1622 a militia Captain killed 8 friendly natives and impaled their sachem’s head on a pole in Plymouth.  Hostilities had begun and as the colony encroached more and more on their land, New England became a battleground.  The Wampanoag’s thought they could coexist with the whites but by the 1670’s Massasoit’s grandson Metacom, known to the English as King Phillip, began what would become known as King Phillip’s War. 

Metacom noted that The Wampanoag “had bine the first in doing good to the English and the English the first in doing rong.”

Metacom claimed that phony contracts were used to take large tracts of land from Indians who had been made drunk.

When a praying Indian who helped set up the Praying Indian Village of Natick was found murdered, three of Metacom’s followers were accused, found guilty and executed.  King Philips war was on…settlements, major towns and villages were burned and sacked until finally on August 12, 1676 he was killed…thus ending the King Phillip’s War. 

*It is noted that in Plymouth for that Thanksgiving they bought his head back and paraded it around town.  They Puritans thought it a sign from God of their righteous ownership of this new land...they the chosen people!

* Today Natick has a National Day of Mourning instead of Thanksgiving.  A monument was placed marking the genocide that took place at that time!

Why do we let hate and religion ruin our lives I wonder???





Saturday, November 18, 2023

Eaton and Thanksgiving History!

                                                 Kitchen in the Morse House in Early Thanksgivings! 

We have been getting ready for our Colonial Holiday Celebration of Thanksgiving  this week... and I have been going through the genealogy of a number of the early settlers of the Town of Eaton and vicinity it is interesting to note how many of the early settlers could trace their bloodline back to members of the Mayflower.  Myles Standish III directly from Myles Standish is buried in the Eaton Cemetery.  Patience Kent, who married Bigelow Morse, was related to three of them: the John Howland, the John Bilington, and the Isaac Allerton.  Some like Hanna Hall Clark are related to the first elected official, Governor Bradford.

Bradford was a very interesting person who was born in Austerfield, England, and who faced many hardships in his early life including the death of his mother and father.  William Bradford, who as a boy walked to a separatist Church in Babworth, broke at an early age with the Church of England.  This break eventually led him to Holland and on the venture of his lifetime with his fellow Pilgrims, to the New World.

Once here in America, Bradford was elected to office as Governor, a post he held for 36 years, the first ten of which he received no compensation for.

Bradford wrote a number of books of poetry and books on Congregationalism: his most important work, however, was a volume called Of Plimouth Plantation (Which we will talk about at a later date.)

Since the Plymouth Colony had no Royal Patent, they adopted their own system of government, a system that was drawn from their needs and from their faith.  It is this system that was set forth in the Mayflower Compact.

From The Mayflower Quarterly, the American historian Samuel Eliot Morrison says. “In 1636 the Pilgrims even created a Bill of Rights of their own.”

The article, written by J. Allyn Bradford, shows that in the rules they set forth which included that no laws would be made or taxes laid without the consent of the citizens (called Freemen), a free election of Governor and Assistants, the right to an impartial and equal justice, nobody was to be punished except by the law of the Colony, as well as a trial by jury, only called if there were two witnesses to the crime and or sufficient circumstantial evidence.

Between Bradford’s and the Colony’s reforms was the separation of Church and State, something we still employ today. The key word in our pursuit of the history of the Pilgrim’s is DEMOCRACY.  Democracy, is the basis for the Pilgrim’s government, carried through both the church and the state.
    
 The church of the Pilgrim’s was based on a primitive church discussed in the Bible in the Book of Acts.  In our Colonial terms it was called Congregationalism, a subject that Governor William Bradford discussed in full in one of his writings late in life called A Dialogue Between the Older and Younger Men.

The Pilgrims were actually pushed out of England because they believed that the King was not the head of the church, but that Jesus Christ was.  The church itself was democratic in all of its dealings, and it left marriage a civil, not spiritual, right.

William Bradford must have been a shrewd and valued leader in all aspects of the unbelievable hardships faced by this group of religious rebels who crossed a raging sea and forged a home out of unfamiliar, hostile surroundings.  Bradford’s election 30 times to the post of Governor of the Plymouth (Plimouth) Colony certainly proves that.

So Happy Thanksgiving ... and pass on this bit of history!