Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Summer and a visit to the Sandy Pond - where slaves once escaped to freedom!

Sandy Pond

With the snow storm, the cold and the first day of spring about to arrive... I guess it is not surprising that I thought of summer and the prospect of going to Lake Ontario and the beach. 

One of my favorite destinations is one of today’s summer retreats, Sandy Pond.
Most people don’t realize that Sandy Pond and the area that it encompasses with Big and Little Sandy was actually an area that was used as a boarding place for slaves to escape to Canada. Many of these fugitives came from routes here in Madison County including Peterboro..

I found the story in an old Gipp’s Gazeteer of New York and it was a firsthand account by one of the participants in that particular route, a route that smuggled many slaves to Canada before and during the Civil War.

The well-known conductor who lived on Main Street in Phoenix, New York, was Mr. Thomas Dutcher.  Mr. Gonverneur M. Sweet who was Dutcher’s neighbor across the street, who also harbored runaways in his house when Mr. Dutcher’s house’s facility were unable to hold a large number, and it is he who related the story.

The story says is that the Thomas Dutcher family received runaways from Syracuse and Peterboro, usually at night, and would house them until they could be transported along the Oswego River until they reached their final stop before Canada, which was located at Sandy Pond.  Mr. Sweet noted that the people of Phoenix could be trusted for the most part not to divulge the whereabouts of runaways, and that Phoenix to Sandy Pond was much safer than Oswego where agents were always on the look out for UGRR trafficking.

The route passed along through Mexico, Richland and Sandy Creek until it the cargo could be secreted into the home of Mr. George Bragden, located a mile and a half north east of Selkirk.  Reaching this destination; usually in a lumber wagon covered with straw.  On the second night of their journey they were transported to Big Sandy Pond where they could be placed aboard a pre-arranged sailing boat that would convey them to Canada.

Selkirk Lighthouse
Mr. Sweet noted that it was necessary to avoid all of the ports on the lake, and that Sandy Pond was favorable to small craft whose owners new their way in and out of an area not favorable to larger craft and detection.

Today, Sandy Pond has become a part of Selkirk Shores State Park and is haven for weekenders who seek a getaway of another nature, the beauty of its sandy beaches and the swimming. It is a far cry from the days when slaves sought the beaches for an escape to freedom.

I can only hope that this poor weary of winter person gets to enjoy a warm summer breeze off of the lake soon!

Listen to Seals & Crofts..close your eyes and THINK SUMMER!











Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Bad weather, boredom, Beethoven, Goethe and Fritz Schiller....


This has been an interesting week that was quite boring with the weather cold, windy, and damp.  So bored that I decide to finally write an article I started work on a year ago about Schiller Park in Syracuse. 

The park is one of the largest encompassing 37 acres and its history is a varied as the many activities that are available to the public there.  The park was originally bought as a cemetery in the mid 1800’s and was to be St. Cecilia’s Cemetery, which never fully materialized.  After a legal battle the buried remains were eventually removed to another cemetery.
One of its main features is a round hill that was thought to be a Native American burial site gravesite and for many years the park was called Round Top Park. The park was used much with swimming pools, walkways, picnic tables and was especially loved for its panoramic view of Syracuse from the Round Top pinnacle.

The Park is located on the North side of the city in an area that was called the “German section” because of the many German families living in the surrounding streets.  So in 1905 on the 100th anniversary of the death of the German poet, playwright, historian, philosopher, Friedrich Schiller it was renamed Schiller Park.

The German American societies of the city raised money for a statue to Schiller. Today the statue of Schiller posed with his long time friend another famous German writer Goethe, stands at the top of the stairs to one entrances to the park. 

“Fritz” Schiller as his friends called him has been sort of forgotten by modern times and few people that I spoke with even knew why the park was called Schiller Park or better yet who Schiller was. 

For German American’s of the 1900’s he was considered the Freedom Poet as he espoused holding Germany together and obtaining freedom for its entire population.  Many of his works have been put to music one of his plays Don Carlos was made into an opera by Verdi.  Another was William Tell.  But the clincher is one that is known by most people… including today’s younger set, it is called "Ode an die Freude “ or Ode to Freedom.

Beethoven wanted to put this one special poem to music, as did many others whose renditions were sung and celebrated by choruses… and yet he felt none were perfect.  The correct melody finally came to Beethoven when working on the 9th Symphony.   At the end of it he placed the poem to music... we know it as “Ode To Joy”. 

Today as then it is sung, played and revered through out the world. Yes we sing Fritz Schiller’s words today; he is not forgotten by any means!

Please watch this video and enjoy the music of Beethoven and poem by Fritz Schiller! 



Thursday, March 7, 2013

Stopping by the Woods on the Snowy Evening in Eaton


On this day in history one of America’s most famous poems was published.  It is a poem we all have heard or recited in school and on this snowy evening it seemed to spring to life from the darkness outside my back door.

Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost is a true representation of rural life down here.  Even the resurgence of horses, sleighs and farm teams has occurred with many Amish families that have taken up residence in the farms of the area.

Robert Frost's poetry to me is a unique blend of the vocabulary of rural America and scholarly prose… and by its nature appeals to poetry lovers of all variety.

Amish fishermen on Lebanon Reservoir
Frost never actually graduated from any college, though he taught at many after becoming a poet of note.  Yet he received 4 Pulitzer Prizes for his work and 43 honorary degrees from noted colleges like Cambridge and Dartmouth.

Many have tried to interpret his simple poetry... and yet I am not sure he ever wanted that done.  He loved the sound that words made and truthfully I believe that is what has endeared him to many generations.

Frost was a dichotomy, he was not born in the country he was born and raised in the city.  When his farm and writing career became a failure… he left America for England…returning only after WWI’s outbreak.  On his return he returned to the country farm life and is today considered the Mark Twain of American Poetry.

It is said that "Stopping by the Woods" was story of a true event.  It is said that after failing to get a job he was riding home to his family at Christmas on a snowy winter’s night.  As he rode home he stopped to think and to cry at his failure.   His heart was very heavy since he had no presents for his children and family.  But after being awakened by his horse’s bells he continues down the road home and... eventually into the hearts of America.


Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.



Robert Frost reading his poem..