Tuesday, August 27, 2013

A found dog and a found cat... Homeward Bound and Drake is HOME!


Well it is offically a happy ending to the story of Drake the missing Sheltie!  

He was found and is home with his family and is back to barking at me when I go out the door.  Mind you his bark is not quite the same as before because he is week...but its Drake!

After 2 and one half months of searching and crying his owner can now sleep knowing he is not dying cold and hungry...tho he was down from 35 pounds to around 18.  So this proves that animal stories can be both sad and heart warming; over the years Eaton has had a number of interesting cases that can attribute to that.  A lost pet can just wrench at a family who worries about where the animal is, if it has food or if it is alive.  These feelings last for a long time and guilt many times causes owners to loose sleep and wellbeing while they continue to search sometimes for months for months.

One such case are my neighbors who… including myself…. have been looking for their lost Sheltie called Drake.  Drake became lost July 3rd near Sherrill on Seneca Street.   The dog has been spotted a number of times running wild but has not been caught.  Hope for catching him has started to dwindle.

However, remarkable stories of hope also survive in stories like "The Incredible Journey", or "Lassie Comes Home" and so on.   In Eaton there is a incredible tale of a cat who looked much like my Rascal.  The cat was a birthday present for a very ill young man who loved and bonded with him until his death at the young age of 19 years. 

The boy and the cat were so close and he loved it so much that a picture of the cat was put on the boys gravestone.  The animal continued to live with the family as a link to their son until an explosion caused the owners to move to a family summer home on the Eatonbrook Reservoir while their house was repaired…. this is where the beloved cat got lost.

The owners searched and searched but to no avail and eventually moved back to their home near Cicero. 

Three years later a cat was brought to the Cazenovia Animal Hospital after a car had hit it.  To the surprise of all it had an information chip embedding in it.  The workers called the chip company but had no luck locating who owned it. (It had been 3 years).  Then by a stroke of fate the salesman for the company came in the office that very day and after some searching found its owners.  Yes, three years later the family was united with their link to their son…. a heartwarming story.

So today we can add the story of Drake who has come home!

The Trailer for Homeward Bound or the incredible Journey!

















Sunday, August 18, 2013

Memories, elderberry time...friends in the country and Elderberry PIE!


A favorite haunt.. hunting for berries on Jack Ass Hill

Sometimes memories can make you laugh until you cry….and this week I had such a memory. I thought about the end of summer and all the good times we had in the past including the yearly hut for “Elderberries”!

The first time I came in contact with elderberries was the second summer I lived in Eaton. I heard a knock on my back door, and there stood my neighbor Brownie. In her hand were two huge bags of elderberries. She had come over to inquire if I knew how to make elderberry wine.

Seems it was a banner year for elderberries, and she and my neighbor Nellie could remember their mothers making the wine for special occasions. I guess I looked like the guru of this type of knowledge.

Actually I did have winemaking supplies, and we did make Elderberry Wine! It was a banner year for elderberries, and I remember thinking it was a banner year for new friends too!

One time after Nellies death when Betty, Nellies daughter-in-law, lived in Nellies old house, Pauline came over to the house and said that Deb, a friend, had told her she could go elderberrying on her property.  She claimed  that there were loads of elderberry bushes up there and she didn’t pick them.

Brownie and Betty wanted to know if I knew where her house and the patch of bushes were. Well I did, and I also knew why the woman didnt pick them, but we will get to that.

That morning I picked the ladies up, and off to the road the woman lived on. I took them down the slope to where the berry bushes were, and sure enough there was a mess of berries. We picked and picked and picked. Finally we had filled all our bags full..... My eyes of course were full of elderberry pies to come.

As were leaving Brownie said, “Why, that woman leaving all these berries here like this—its a crying shame.” Betty said, "It's a SIN.... why doesnt she pick them!”

I paused for effect and casually replied, “Because of all the snakes that live in this patch of bushes.”

With that, old Betty kicked up her heals and beat a path for the car at double speed.

Betty later claimed that if she had seen one of those wiggly creatures she would have made a path out of the patch the size of a two-lane highway!

P S.... I didnt tell them that the kids told the woman that there were snakes there just to scare her! 

The video.....last fall one of Brownie's granddaughters came to visit me and we went to old Jack Ass hill to relive those great days of summer...good friends..neighbors...laughter and " Elderberry Time."   

Enjoy a trip back!























Wednesday, August 14, 2013

My house, Allen Wood, steam engines, 4 wheel drive tractors....and a birthday!




August 14th,  is an important day of sorts for me, my house, and the history of not only Eaton.... but also of Madison county and today's agriculture.  If you have a four wheel drive car, truck or tractor...it might be impotant to you also. 
 
Eaton is the home of Allen Wood the maker of the first four-wheel drive transmission that used metal gears like today's models.  It was the his brain child and wish to make this unit available to pull traction engines into the field with all of its equipment.....in other words the precursor of today's tractor.  Yes it meant man rode on it into the field for the first time. To accomplish this his relative Loyal Clark Tabor invented and patented its design with all its gears...

Allen Nelson Wood was born in the community of Middleport, one of the stops on the Chenango Canal just below Eaton. His mother and father named him after the great Lord Nelson. Captain Allen Wood Sr., Allen’s father, was a Revolutionary War veteran and a well-known Freemason. His death recorded on March 16, 1823, resulted in the largest Masonic funeral in Madison County history up until that time and for some years to come, because of the decline in Masonry after the William Morgan incident.

Allen Wood Sr. married Lucinda Newcomb of Lebanon, they had five children - Alonzo born in 1808, (he married Lydia Hodges), Olivia, born in 1810, (she married Oliver Whitaker), Tirza (married David Smith of NYC), Polly Hale (married Dr. Orson Gregory of NYC) and Allen Nelson Wood, born on August 14, 1818.

Mr. Wood was a respected member of the area, the Congregational Church, and the business community. Wood was a director, and one of the largest stockholders of the First National Bank of Morrisville as well as director and a major stockholder of the Hamilton National Bank. In 1880.  Allen Wood was the also the main stockholder of the Morrisville National Bank, owning personally sixty-five shares. He traveled as the business agent of the company that had offices in Chicago, Augusta GA. and of course, Eaton, NY.

Through his records of stock found in Cornell's Olin Library it was evident that Mr. Wood invested in many banks across America.  Mr. Wood was also instrumental in bringing the Midland Railroad to the area. To bring the railroad in, Eaton agreed to bond for $150,000.

The railroad, of course, allowed an easier and wider distribution of the steam engines and parts, as well as affording the company an easier way to bringing the needed iron ore from the Clinton area to Eaton for use in the foundry, and the coal from Pennsylvania. A foundry, we might add, which made all the parts for the engines - even to casting all of the needed gears.  Wood and company also employed many through the deepest depressions of the post Civil War period and set up and sold rights to the Oneida Royal Company.

Mr. Wood's great granddaughters visited the Wood House on Brooklyn Street in 1996, and took pleasure in telling of how... their great grandfather, Mr. Wood, who was considered the larger than life pillar of the community... Mr. Wood was on the Board of Directors or Trustee for the banks, the Eaton Congregational Church where he was also a Deacon and Sunday School Superintendent, he was Trustee of the Eaton Village Cemetery Association, and an abolitionist whose house was and Underground Railroad stop and of course – the founding member and co-owner of the famous Wood, Taber & Morse Steam Engine Works... stood only 5 foot three inches tall.

Happy Birthday Mr. Wood..your family pictures still grace your house on Brooklyn Street and still see's many visitors.


For more information on Mr. Wood, Wood, Tabor and Morse, Patents for the machines visit the Old Town of Eaton Museum on River Road in Eaton.  For information visit their facebook page >>> Old Town of Eaton Museum.

*An interesting side note for genealogists is Lucinda's sister Jerusha, who married their father's brother John Newcomb, lived and is buried in Eaton. One of Lucinda's brothers Daniel married Anna Clark of Eaton.

Eaton Church is still standing with its historic windows one of which has the Wood family name on it..near the pew where he is mentioned in a story in a book by Melville Landon! The Landons have a window also!












Sunday, August 11, 2013

A trip to Quebec, Paul McCartney, and French hot dogs!!!


This week is almost over and I can only say it has been a wild one.  My poor cat Rascal got a severe ear infection and had to go to the vet, which turned out to be a painful experience. 

I went north to Lake Ontario to see the spot where my friend of 37 years is buried…something I have wanted to do for 3 years…  and then took a quick right to Oswego to visit my brother.  As usual he was working but I did get a quick visit with my sister-in-law and she could show me pictures of their latest trip, which was to Quebec and a Paul McCartney Concert.

She related how boring the ride up was and suddenly I went back in time to my last and only visit to Quebec in the late 60’s I believe.  We went as a family outing and I do remember the drive was…well boring and long.  The other thing I remembered was that it was in the middle of the French-English debate.  Humorously this debate is back in the news again.

Did you know that French in the Canadian province is the most regulated language in the world.  Yes…they passed legislation in 1977 I believe to solve the problem as to what the officially language was (which is both) but the controversy is back and up in front of the public with a new bill this year!  Some want Quebec sovereignty!  Read this article to catch up!


Then everyone gave us a hard time because we asked for directions in English.  The people were rude and although the old city of Quebec was picturesque and clean…I did not enjoy the visit until we found a “Fair” to attend on a day that it was pouring rain!

There of course, the vendors wanted to make a buck and spoke in any language they could to sell you something.  It was a unique experience…and fun culturally!

However, my greatest remembrance of my trip to Quebec had to do with food!!
Yes it was food!  I was in a store a few months ago with a friend and I exclaimed “Pronto Pups!”  She looked around on the floor for some lady with couple of Poodles I suspect…she said “Where!”  I pointed to the case where there were corn dipped hot dogs on a stick….”Those”.  She said…”Those are corn dogs!”  Well at the Quebec Fair they were called  “Pronto Pups!”

The new dilemma I suspect is if I go to Quebec how do I ask for them…. Is there a French translation for “Fast Hot Dog!”???

Here is a Gordon Lightfoot song written during the late 60's-early 70's about the subject....I love the melody interlude...so "French!"






















Friday, August 2, 2013

Dan Patch, Harness Racing, Eaton history and 2 new residents!


Well old Eaton has two new inhabitants this week Graeme & Darla Monahan.  As I passed the house they live in this morning I thought about…its history!  The new two some live in at a location that few people realize has a great “horsey” history. 

Located on Front Street in Eaton - as it is called by the locals - actually Route 26, there was a stable behind the Monahan house in the days of Eaton’s horse racing frenzy.  This stable was well remembered by the elders who have now passed on to the other side…as a matter of fact many who have never been to Eaton talked about it.  I was told that when he once raced in the area, in that stable stayed a horse that was considered the greatest pacing harness horse that ever lived…Dan Patch.

Dan Patch was a slow starting young horse sired by a six year old Joe Patchen who was a former champion, and Zelica who was not considered an exception race mare.  Dan Messner, a storekeeper, at action for $255, originally purchased him.  The horse was allowed to mature to four years until he was raced … eventually being bought by Marion Willis Savage who owned the International Stock Food Farm… an unbelievable horse stable.  Savage loved the horse and as he progressed to the champion pacer of the era, Savage started promoting him.

Dan Patch had a custom 65-foot railroad car that was custom built for him and his two traveling horse companions.   His races drew crowds of up to 100, 000 in number to watch and to enable them to say that “they saw the great Dan Patch race”.  Savage, a great publicist and promoter sold all types of Dan Patch souvenirs. 

The horse became a sensation loved by the crowds and a pacer that paced his way into the record books by breaking the World Record for the mile 14 times… including once at 1:55.  Harry Truman said he had even written a fan letter to the horse when he was a boy!

Dan lived out his days in comfort with the love and affection of Savage.  Ironically, Willis Savage and Dan Patch died on the same day only hours apart and were buried with honors on the same day!

Today there are Dan Patch Historical Societies, Dan Patch memorabilia collections, even books and a movie! 

That is not where the history ends however,  for in that stable was found another racing horse of note…her name was Flora Temple…and today we know her since she was the “Bob Tailed Nag” made famous by Stephen Foster in his song Camptown Races!

See history is everywhere…especially in Eaton.

***Here is a video on Dan!