Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Memorial Day Weekend ...Remembrance...and its history!

Re-enactors at the Eaton Museum



Well what a holiday weekend…the weather was unbelievable.. .Snow…Rain…Hail…wind…Frost!

Monday turned out to be a celebration for some to just get out of the house.  To those who turned out for the different parades and celebrations you are to be congratulated.  Memorial Day definitely has its sad and happy moments. In Eaton we celebrated and remembered our Revolutionary War Veteran's.

Dick Leland with Col. Joshua
 Leland's Revolutionary War
Sword! 
The stories on the original start of Memorial Day are numerous but in New York State we think it is Waterloo.

Many younger people do not realize that May 30th was the original Decoration Day, which became today’s Memorial Day. Now set on the 4th Monday in May, its history is forever linked to Waterloo, New York, a village that on May 5th, 1866, closed its doors to business to allow its citizens to put flowers and flags on the graves of its Civil War dead.

The town’s local druggist Henry C. Wells put the idea forth originally and Civil War General John B. Murray, who picked up the idea a year later, joined with him to make the original celebration a reality. The village held ceremonies with a somber march to the cemetery while martial music played and in Waterloo, it became a yearly tradition.

By 1868 the observance was recognized by General Logan the Commander-and-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic and was moved to May 30th.

This tradition perpetuated itself until the day was officially made a National Day of Remembrance for all those that fought and died for the United States, and today more than ever before it has become a community day that brings people together to watch parades, attend official cemetery ceremonies to remember our soldiers, and to reflect on all that is good in America.

For Waterloo, the history of the day is enshrined in the Memorial Day Museum on Waterloo’s Main Street. The museum contains information on the first Memorial Day and much information on the men who worked tirelessly to make it a National Holiday of importance and a yearly reminder of the great price we have paid through the years to not only keep our nation as one, but to keep it FREE!

Friday, May 24, 2013

The Museum..an Event...History...and TROUBLE!


This has been another wild week of weather...unbelievable it was 33 this morning!!!  I am still trying to get caught up for our big museum opening.  Sure hope Monday is nice…

After fighting with my poor old PC I gave up and transferred the documentary I was working on to the Apple and from there it blossomed into more trouble. 

Everyone thinks that the country is quiet…ha!  I had to try and get up at 2 in the morning to record the voice over for the documentary on Leland and believe me every so often I still heard a truck rumble through town and of course, into my voice over.  Then my little video camera took a turn for the worse…rule 1 - never take your video camera on to Fourth Lake in a Kayak.   But all and all.. the documentary is together without a studio (which I need terribly) and without using my large camera in a space that is too small and…fighting the fact that sound travels for miles…and farther.

I then called the group together to set up the canopy frame that had been twisted into a pretzel by the storm that dropped a tree on the museum and had punched a hole in the roof.  It took three people exerting all their weight to bend that thing into submission.  Then the poles that hold it up had to be shortened to eliminate the bent ends….Now you say flimsy metal right?  Wrong!  It is 11/2 inch steel pipe.  Luckily I have a plumber on Front Street who came over and in a few minutes eliminated the problem.

Then on to the big problem….it is 33 degrees outside and they are predicting cold nights like this for the weekend!  So tomorrow it is get propane and set it up to heat building in the morning of our big “Event”!

Humorously… the person who is supposed to bring the ice for the event emailed that maybe she should bring hot coffee and tea!  Also  said, “Who do you think is going to want “Ice cream”!  Hmm….

Lastly but more importantly, since the tree also took out my electric service for the second time and I have not reconnected because of money…the generator won’t start!  So as a sidelight….generator repair 101!

Well there is one thing for certain …we are going to celebrate history!  And even though the historian who has only had 3 hours of sleep a night for two weeks is sleepy…the Revolutionary re-enactors will wake her up when their cannon fires the first volley of “Remembrance” behind the museum on Monday!

So come out and help us celebrate a Museum Opening, Revolutionary War Veteran’s and one of our founding father’s here in Eaton…Col. William Leland whose sword will be in the museum to liven things up!

Eaton’s Old Town Museum is located on River Road in Eaton, NY.  For more information visit www.historystarproductions.com.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

A sword of a different color….an event…a deed….and a museum!



Barbra looking sword over!
So many things to do before we open the Eaton Old Town Museum here in Eaton on Memorial Day Monday!  I have been wondering how to tie all the loose ends down with the weather as bad as it has been.  The other night it was 21 degrees …last night it warmed up to 29...whoopi doo…and the WIND!

The little documentary I was working on for the special day ground to a halt and I have had to redo in a different format…but of course that means changing it entirely as one is PC and the other is Apple…but the good news is Col. Joshua Leland’s Revolutionary War sword has arrived!

The old sword is not some glamorous shiny thing… it is a real...used sword!  The Col. was in the Revolutionary War as and Ensign under the Commission of George Washington, and the sword has been handed down to the eldest son from the Colonel’s death to today!  How cool is that.  The current owner is Richard Leland of Malta, New York, who is a friend and supporter of the museum.  Here a thank you to Fran Van Slyke for picking it up and delivering it!

Step to Col. Smith's Farm house in Smith's Valley
The Leland story actually starts with Col. William S. Smith who served under Washington and married Abigail “Nabby” Adams (President John Adams daughter) and lived in “Smith’s Valley.  Joshua purchased the property, which became Eaton from him, and the original document is framed at the Madison County Clerk’s Office.  The document on sheepskin has been preserved and has a back-story of its own.  This deed is dated July 2, 1795, and was recorded by Albert F. Devitt, Madison County clerk, July 2, 1926, just 131 years after it was dated!

But back to the “sword”.  The Col. it is said used to also help drill troops that were the early Militia here.  Most people don’t realize the local Militia’s were active at the time since the War of 1812 was pending and people were still required to form to protect and serve..the Col. died in 1816.  Of interest to me was that our wonderful Madison County Records Manager - Kevin Orr has found some information for the museum that confirms my belief that Smith famiy members lived in the Eaton side…John Adams Smith and his wife Ann are listed in deeds for Eaton, among others.

Well that all adds up to more stories and more information for the mseum…which will be opening to the public and telling its story on Monday…Memorial Day..the old fashioned way with new fangled video (I hope) and a good time for all…please come!

Here's a video on Leland & the Ponds that bear his name!



Sunday, May 12, 2013

A Mother, a slave, and a speaker for human rights - Sojourner Truth!


I was on Facebook today and found a quote posted with picture of a woman I greatly admired when I was much younger. 

The Quote
Her name was Isabelle Baumfree, born in 1797, into slavery, right here in the State of New York.   Yes, New York …and as a young person I found that hard to believe because of course, the south is where the slaves were.

Isabella spoke Dutch since a New York Dutch family owned her… (Dutch...that blew my mind as a kid) She was eventually sold with sheep for $100 and started her family by being forced to marry a man she did not love.  The man she loved was a slave who belong to another slave owner and if they had children - they would have been his owner’s property. 

In her own biography she tells of the terrible beatings she received, being sold, of her poor children being sold and of finally being promised her freedom in 1826 for an amount of work.  When her owner reneged on the deal, she ran away with her young child Sophia and found refuge with a man and wife who paid the $20 for work she supposedly still owned her former owner. (New York laws for abolition took effect on July 4, 1827)

When she learned that her 5 years old son Peter (she had to leave behind) had been illegally sold south, she took the issue to court. This case was one of the first in which a black woman challenged a white man in a United States court, and she won.

She says the “Spirit” came to her one day and she decided to go out and preach for abolition and women’s rights - among many other issues.  The name she took would become well known in American history…she chose Sojourner Truth.

Sojourner Truth became a great public speaker and became friends with all of the luminaries of abolition from Wendell Phillips to William Lloyd Garrison.  She met Presidents... and she vigorously spoke for Women’s Rights - especially for black women after black men were given the vote and so much more.  Reading some of her quotes today is totally enjoyable since she spoke the “Truth”-plainly and out front! (Maybe why I am so outspoken some times.)

"Truth is powerful, and it prevails."
                                                                                
   – Sojourner Truth






Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Stray cat of my attic cat bed and breakfast!


Wu - Chi marker in the Eaton Cemetery for a dog!

Well this has been a tough week; I finally caught the little sight-impaired cat that has been living in my attic for three years.  The cat came in with another Siamese cat who was very elderly and  died in the attic, which is how I found out that they were there.

I could never get close to her she just seemed to stare out at sounds and finally I realized that she could not really see.  When I called KIT-TEN she learned that food was being brought to her.

So I took the time to insulate the attic area she used that has a window and heat from the woodstove located in the kitchen below.  I tried unsuccessfully to get her to come closer… but no dice.  I had someone who would have adopted her …but she wouldn’t come to us.

She made friends that year with the old stray the neighbors called Curly, and for two years they lived in the attic together in the winter and she would come down and sit with him on the porch in the summer… unless something approached and then it was up the stairs to the attic room. 

To get there she had to jump through a missing windowpane, up the stairs and through another little cut out in the door.  For me to get there however, I had to go out the kitchen door, through the side yard to the garage doors, and up the stairs to her abode.

Each night I brought her (them) food, water and each time she would hide in the corner and wait until she heard me close the door and my foot hit the step, only then would she come out to eat.

Old Curly had to be put to sleep last year in the terrible hot summer…a truly aged and wise cat who had found a good retirement home in my attic. 

Then this horrible long winter came and Kitten never came downstairs.  She used the little box I put up there for her and appeared to love laying in the basket next to the little ”safe” electric heater I installed.  Then I noticed she got diarrhea.  I tried to catch her but could not, until I guess she finally knew she was in trouble.

This week she came down to the porch on her own to beg for food.  After two failed attempts at catching her, I finally got her, and took her to the vets.  Unfortunately it was too late.

And so the little stow-a-way in the attic…is gone.  This cat had been someone’s cat -she was fixed.  I assumed the two cats that had come in together were strays lost by summer people or…worse yet… dumped by someone where they had belonged to an old lady or man who was taken to a nursing home.  Yes, the friend or family says they will take care of them...but they don’t.  They just put them out with some food down and by winter they are helpless and hopeless.  It happens a lot down here. 


Wish people would understand that old cats don’t become feral after living indoors all their life…especially after being spoiled by their owners. 

So the attic is empty and this year I won’t have to worry about keeping the heat up for the upstairs cat and going out at 20 below to make the climb to the second floor attic room with food… I have boarded it up…the last occupant has left the “attic bed and breakfast.” 

I have to admit it though ...I feel terrible about her passing.