The horrible weather, Adult Day Care, Tornadoes, Oz and Flag Day rolled into one!

me painting Bob's house

Well what a week!  I bet you are tired of me saying that…but rain… cold… rain… hot…trying to paint was hopeless... although I persisted!

Then us Eaton folk got robo calls from the Department of Homeland Security telling us to  go to our basement…Tornado approaching you!!!  What!

At that point I was saying please tornado take my house as it seems it is the only way I am going to get out of this horrible cold this winter!  Alas and AFLACK…  I mean alack… No such luck!  So I muddled through painting and all the rest.  My phone still doesn’t work but my sister-in-law got through somehow so that I would know (Thank You!) But I am still here, not in Kansas with Rascal standing in for Toto!

It was fun to give a talk to the Crouse Memorial Daycare people in Cazenovia they seemed to enjoy it and asked me back with my little Armchair Traveler gig.  Thanks to Elizabeth MacArthur Braun for the invite!

Happy Flag Day!  Yes this Sunday, June 14^th is Flag Day.  As a matter of fact most people don’t know much about “flag day” and so I thought I would do a history quest and find out how it came about!

Flag Day or Flag Birthday was suggested originally to celebrate the 108^th Anniversary of the date the “stars and stripes” were officially adopted as our flag.  That occurred on the anniversary of the Flag Resolution of 1777.  So in 1885, a schoolteacher by the name of BJ Cigrand of the Fredonia, Wisconsin Public School decided to hold a celebration on June 14 for his students to learn about the flag and celebrate its official “birthday”.

Different groups agreed with the concept of having a designated Flag Day and on June 14^th, in 1889…. in New York City… a teacher (George Blach) picked up on the idea.  The Official Flag Day idea was forwarded in the press and in that way brought to the public’s attention. 

Eventually the State Board of Education of New York adopted the idea in 1891. By 1894 the State of New York went a little farther ordering the flag be flown on all state buildings.

The celebration of the flag was heralded by different American organizations like Sons of the Revolution etc. and eventually was officially established by the Proclamation of President Woodrow Wilson on May 30th, 1916.  It still remained a state to state observance until on August 3rd, 1949, when President Truman signed an Act of Congress designating June 14th of each year as National Flag Day.


So fly your flag…if it hasn’t been blown away…Hope your week was better than mine.

Let's all go to Kansas!

Memories of the past, sorrow, things to think about this Sunday in Eaton!

Marti Howell Collins

I can truly say it has been another one of those weeks.  Sad since the Neighbors have lost two from our small group… Harry Schenk and the Rev. Tom Clark.  In a city that would not be many people... but in a small community where everyone knows everyone... it is.  It is something we think about and reflected upon.

After some humor in finding we sent the wrong new history book copy to the printer (was someone too tired?)… with the help of Marti Howell Collins one of our new members who is an expert editor…the book is done and will be printed and picked up Monday!  If you would like a copy to replace the one you have... contact one of the group.  Actually it is a collectable as only 12 or 14 were printed and it followed the pattern of the fun”cut and paste-mistake ridden” things we put out for the Bicentennial in 1995…no spell check on our little word processor then!

Our float...

The parade this year included a float with a gigantic sign put together by Steve and Judy Goodfriend.  The sign obviously worked…there were almost no bake goods left!  Our small community parades have gotten smaller...down to only 10-15 minutes long. I think it is time for the communities to start making their Memorial Day Parades what they used to be.  Now everyone goes to Hamilton on the Fourth with a float. It is wrong, we need our communities to come together around their own community not promote another…oh well.

Time passes slowly for the young but faster and faster every day as we get older, in the end memories are all we have left of our friends and loved ones.  I have thought about this.  I spent much time digging up clips for the movie on the Bicentennial of 1995, yet few people bought them…really you should.  In it is the history of our town and community for that year.  In viewing it, it is sad to see so many who are no longer with us… and yet wonderful so see the young who are now adults with children of their own.  If you would like one I have some videos for sale at Dougherty’s and or you can go on line and order a book or a video… all precedes benefit the museum. www.historystarproductions.com.

The Historic Eaton Church celebrated its 183 Anniversary this week.  It is still so nice to hear that historic Meneeley Bell ring on Sunday’s as well as important to note that Tom Clark was one of the reasons that it is still here. The church is still a viable part and important of the community.

To all those that took time to come out and help us celebrate our Anniversary…Thank You!  You are the reason we keep doing these community gathering events.  Yes they are a remembrance of the past…but they are also a reminder of what is good in small town America, in part and parcel... a ray of hope for the future.

View our video and remember our friends no longer with us!

A Sad Day in Eaton as we celebrate the 183rd Anniversary of the Historic Eaton Church!

Today is a sad day in Eaton, another of the Neighbors for Historic Eaton has passed, Tom Clark.  The Rev. Tom Clark was a major mover in the Hamlet of Eaton helping to keep the Historic Eaton Congregational Church alive.  What is ironic is that he would die the day before the 182^nd Anniversary of the founding of the church that is now the Eaton Bible Church.

I thought I would include a piece on the church and Tom… that was put into our Bicentennial History Book in 1995…20 years ago.

EATON COMMUNITY CHURCH

1979-1995

     Thomas E. Clark began his pastorate at the Community Church of Eaton in 1970, the same year that Eaton was reduced to a single church.  Previously there had been three churches in the village.

     The church is a Bible believing church with a vision.  In the early 1970’s Bible studies were organized with as many as three groups meeting each week.  As the congregation increased, it became necessary to build an addition in 1981 for Sunday school classes.

     In the past 25 years we have continued debt free while adding storm windows and vinyl siding to the building.  The front, back and balcony of the sanctuary paneled.  New hymnals, new chairs for the choir loft and a new piano have been purchased.

     For the past 6 years  (*26 years now) we have been enrolled in Awana Clubs International and with the increase of youth it became necessary to purchase land behind the church and begin our gymnasium, which we hope to dedicate in this Bicentennial year.  To date all bills are paid.

     Beyond this even more we encouraged by the numbers of dedicated servants.  Several have entered into some kind of full-time service for Our Lord!  There is only ONE WAY, and Jesus declared it when He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

….Here a snip it of the churches history by me on this day 3 years ago!

Today is a special day in Eaton, it is the day the current Eaton Church was dedicated on June 6th in 1833.  It’s the historic sight I see while having coffee in the morning.

At that time it was the Congregational Church, its founding members included two of the original incorporators of the Baptist Theological Seminary that became Madison University and today's Colgate University.

In 1848 the church hosted the Congregational Society’s yearly northeast meeting at which time the Congregational Society officially adopted an anti-slavery stand.  Some information on this is in the Cornell College Library.

The church had many noteworthy pastors including its first installed minister the Reverend E D Willis.  I became interested in Willis because he lived in my house, a house that Allen Nelson Wood and his wife would buy on their return to Eaton.

The church’s members at that time included Allen Nelson Wood founder of the Wood, Taber & Morse Steam Engine Works and both his partners Loyal Clark Taber and Walter Morse.

Other famous Eatonites who attended services were Melville Delancey Landon and his family. Landon became a well known as both a writer and as a lecturer. Many rich and famous people attended the church during the Victorian era during what time Grover Cleveland’s brother; the Reverend William Cleveland was its pastor.

The church still today houses a historic Meneely Clock and Bell, and the churches windows which bear the names of some of Eaton’s greats... still grace its interior; an interior that sports hand turned pillars turned by Allen Wood himself.

During the Civil War the Eaton Churches banded together and held services attended by each other patrons during the week to pray for the wars end.

Eventually, the Congregational Church became part of the Federated Churches of Eaton and then later became a Community Church under the Pastor Thomas Clark who improved not only the building, and but helped institute a fabulous AWANA program. During the time he was pastor the congregation also built a large activities build that is used today for youths to play basketball and games and to host special functions.

Let’s look back to 1995 and Memorial Day & Rev. Clark speaking!

Shakers, inventions, patents, milk and a new history quest!

Brother Hollister and his inventio

When putting on an event, even a little one…I end up with a whole group of interesting history tidbits I planned to write a blog about.  So this week I am going to share a few and try to catch up with the backlog.

While doing research on next years lecture, which includes much history on the Shakers of New York State…Sodus, Groveland and Niskayuna… and another Eaton book on Patents... I ran across a tidbit that put me on another history quest.

The Shakers were a very ingenious group of people of varied backgrounds that wished to use everything God gave them to the betterment of mankind.  It was like a mantra to them.  So they invented many machines and laborsaving devices that they never patented.  They felt that if God sent them this idea as a “gift” they should let mankind (the World’s People) benefit from it. 

One such gift is a mainstream item we get use from today.  No it is not the close pin or the circular saw that they are noted for inventing…no not the washing machine…. but an evaporator.

The Shakers were the first organized company that sold herbal remedies to the new world market.  Yes herbs… like today’s modern herbal cures… as I always say, “Everything old is new again”. 

The Shakers dried, bottled, and shipped herbal remedies around the world.  The cures were celebrated, but to preserve the quality of their distilled herbs Brother Alonzo Hollister invented an evaporator.  The evaporator dried the herbs at a lower temperature using a vacuum.

Here enters a visitor to the Shakers, a man who became fascinated with the machine and idea of preservation by evaporation. He began experimenting with the idea of drying food using evaporation and vacuum. He patented the machine, as Patent RE2103.  Brother Hollister’s visitor’s name was Gail Borden.

It seems Gail and his brother John Borden were the publishers of a newspaper, the Telegraph and Texas Register.  Selling his shares in the paper after his brother left, a paper that was often in financial trouble, he became a mover in Texas politics and helped write the early drafts of the Texas Constitution.  From there Borden who seemed to be in financial trouble often went into real estate, eventually looking for a way to make money by making a dried beef product.

After a wave of milk contamination swept the nation… he decided to try to dry milk using the evaporating and vacuum method he had seen … and the product and evaporator were patented to him in 1856… this product made him a fortune and started the Borden’s Milk Company... makers of Eagle Brand Condensed Milk a… product that was in great demand by the outbreak of the Civil War.

Today Borden’s is still making the product and we as “the worlds people” are still benefitting from Shaker Brother Hollister’s invention…an idea that was a “gift”.

History quest are fun don’t you think? Here is video I did on Niskayuna near Albany...Enjoy!