History of the Baptist Missions, Bibles & William Dean

The missionary movement of the early 1800’s was very much a part of our local history, and doing the research on it has been interesting and informative. While on my search for information on the different missionaries from the Eaton area, I came across an interesting bit of information on the Reverend Dr. William Dean.

 I knew of his fame but was never able to put words to it.  After much searching and reading I came across a site on the Anniversary of the Hong Kong Baptist Mission which marked in 2002 their 160^th year.  There smack dab in the middle, was the honored story of the Reverend William Dean and his wife.  

I did some more digging and have come up with a wealth of information that links him to many things in the missionary movement.  In the biography of Emily Chubbuck I found out that it is Dr. Dean who baptized her when as a young women she was finally formally entered into the Baptist Faith.  Dr. Dean was also the corresponding secretary as a young man for the Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution.

 In an interesting letter that was sent to Dean as recording secretary was a reply by Andoniram Judson, American missionary to Burma.  In the letter Judson says:

     “I feel called upon to answer, for you ask my advice on several important points.  There is, also, in the sentiments you express, something so congenial to my own, that I feel my heart knit to the members of your association, and instead of commonplace reply, am desirous of setting down a few items which may be profitable to you in your future course.  Brief items they must be, for want of time forbids my expatiating.”

The rules basically covered rules for those contemplating the missionary life.  Among them are remarks that include his telling them to come out to the missionary field for “life” not just for a limited term.  He also gives them information which I still laugh over and my women readers will enjoy-please read:

     “In choosing a companion for life, have particular regard to a good constitution, and not wantonly, or without good cause, bring a burden on yourselves and the mission.”

We can only assume he had what he considered “good cause” when Judson married for the third time a very unhealthy young lady by the name of Emily Chubbuck!

 William Dean was born in Eaton, N.Y. on June 21 of 1807.  Eaton had just become a town and early settlements were started in 1793, so his family was one of the early residents.  Dean being a brilliant student went on to attend the Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution, which became Madison University then Colgate University.  In 1833 he was ordained a Baptist minister and sailed for Siam to become a missionary for the Baptist Missionary Union to the Chinese in Bangkok, arriving in Thailand in 1835.  

Of note* He received his confirmation just before he “Baptized Emily,” we learn this from her biography!  Dr. Dean was the first pastor of the Baptist church organized there in 1837.

 In the year 1842 he moved his labors to Hong Kong where he founded a Swatow-speaking Baptist church in 1843.  Dean remained in Hong Kong until 1845, when he returned for a year to America.  Dean returned to Hong Kong and continued working in the missionary field there until 1865.

His worked included publication of mainly translations and tracts on the Bible to the Chinese language.  Many of them were translations of the New Testament in part and unbelievably some early texts were printed by local printers (in Chinese) using wooden blocks.  

History and Memorial Day Cross in Eaton!

This year the annal Memorial Day Monday {Parade will be in the Hamlet of Eaton!  This a special one since it will mark 250 years of America!

The very spot where we usually host our event on Memorial Day Monday - Eaton Day…and our lectures…is one of the town’s historic places…a place  of national importance actually…for it is the site of the birth of the Camelback Key and Sounder for Morse’s telegraph!  Yup.. in old Eaton, New York.

Early Sounder

If you go behind the old auction barn building you will find the spot where Samuel W. Chubbuck did all his experiments … a place that was his father’s Mechanic Shop.  Samuel Chubbuck and his family moved to Eaton, then called Log City, very early and his son Samuel it was said could fix anything. Mechanics ib those days fixed wagons, hitches even pots and pans.

Samuel eventually became noted for his many ideas, which include not only telegraph equipment but also the modern battery post used in our cars, lift bridges, and so much more.  If an idea came to him in a dream he took no patent on it as he believed in came from God.

His camelback key is actually patented to his cousin Charles Chubbuck?  I have always wondered if he gave it to Emily Chubbuck’s father to give him some income… (His family was very poor.) Oh yes did I mention Emily Chubbuck Judson…the missionary known also as the famous writer “Fanny Forrester”… was his cousin. And yes, the brook that wanders behind Samuel’s work spot, and or museum..... is the brook that she made famous in her “Alderbrook Tales!”

Anyway Samuel went on to become a very famous and a rich man who gave lectures all over the USA as Professor Chubbuck.  It is interesting to note that one of the men he influenced with his theories on “electricity” who gave him credit was Thomas Alvah Edison.  Chubbuck’s company made all of the early equipment for Morse’s Telegraph…something that modernized news and communication.

A humorous piece on his family is noted in Luna Hammond’s history of Madison County:

“After the Skaneateles turnpike went through, there was need of better tavern accommodations; Mr. Samuel Stow, therefore, built and kept a tavern on the corner opposite the lower hotel. Samuel Chubbuck, living opposite to him, carried on a blacksmith shop. These two men had by some disagreement become violently opposed to each other. In a spirit of competition, Mr. Chubbuck was a staunch Democrat, and this was a time soon after the war of 1812; so upon one side of his attractive sign board was displayed the dying words of Commodore Lawrence, as a motto, --- "Don't give up the Ship!" --- and on the other side, "Free Trade and Sailor's Rights!" Mr. Stow immediately erected another blacksmith shop to match Chubbuck's, which stood very near where Coman's store is, and swung out his sign directly opposite to Chubbuck bearing these words: "Don't give up the Shop!" and on the reverse side, "Free Trade and Mechanic's Rights!" --- alluding to his neighbor's giving up blacksmithing for tavern keeping. Those unique signs hung out for many a year. “

PS   If you didn’t ever hear of this piece…it was because S F B Morse was and ego-maniac and took credit for everything he could!

So come out and visit " on Memorial Day...get a bit of history and envision what was a once bustling town!

The timeless beauty of Fort Klock Reminds us of our Historic Past

I did a talk last week on the Battle of Oriskany and thought about all the wonderful remnants of that. period of our settlement,  That night I thought about the burning of the Mohawk Valley and all the wonderful history day trips we can all take to celebrate our 250th year.

A trip to Old Fort Klock near Johnsville on Route 5, is a great way to revisit New York States historic “past.” The L shaped stone farmhouse served as a Fort in two different Wars, the French and Indian as well as the American Revolution. Built in 1750 by Johannes Klock one of the many Palatine Germans who populated the area, Fort Klock actually saw one of the last skirmishes of the Revolutionary War on October 19, 1780 at the Battle of Klock’s Field, also referred to as “The Great Raid”.

The Fort and grounds have been restored and new farm buildings erected in the Dutch style so that the Fort Klock Restoration, the group that now runs it, can keep it open yearly from Memorial Day to Columbus Day for visitors to learn of its unique history.

It is written that many famous personages of the time including Chief Joseph Brant, General Clinton, Alexander Hamilton and King Hendrick, were all guest within its walls at one time or another.

Fort Klock, was built on a hill overlooking the Mohawk River and just above the King’s Highway (now the railroad bed). For protection against raiding Indians it contained “loop holes” so that it could be fortified by long rifle from within its walls during raids. It served as protection for other settlers in the area during these times. Its formidable stonewalls that are two feet thick could ward off munitions as well as fire.

The story of the many raids that took place from Canada are featured in the book “The Burning of the Valley” by Gavin K.Watt”, a wonderfully researched book with a story and maps of the famous “Burning of the Harvest at Klock’s Field”. Humorously, the book gives us the view from the British– Canadian raiders side. So few of us realize that many of the Mohawk Valley settlers who remained loyal to the Crown had to flee to Canada, leaving their homes behind and that many of these settlers participated in these burning raids as retribution.

Fort Klock (actually there were more than one) was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, being listed as – “A site of exceptional value in commemorating or illustrating the history of the United States.” And as that, it truly is a place worth visiting!

  

The Deaf White Cat that came in from the Cold!

                                                                        Whitie

 I have had so many cats that have wandered in to get a free meal and in many cases help, I can't remember them all.!  One such cat is "Whitie", he is mostly white and is mostly deaf.  He wandered in with blood on him and was starving. Nobody claimed the poor fellow and all he wanted was food and a place to sleep!  It was the dead of winter this past year and I found he would hide on the back porch under the chair,,,it was freezing out there.  

This summer he has turned into a good looking white cat but only wants to eat and be in the house, which is driving my house cats crazy.  What I need is  to find a home for him.  He is fixed now and someone would have a great, friendly, and very gentle cat.  Humorously, Whitie is the opposite of my blind black cat Willie... so I wondered if maybe we should start a "disabled cat ranch" down here!

Please if you can find a home for White you will have no trouble... only a food bill and I can have a happy home again in my kitchen!  The thing that worries me the most is the upcoming winter weather as once again the porch will be freezing cold and an electric heater will be unaffordable with this years  electric rates.

It reminds me of  "The Cat who came to Christmas" by Cleveland Amory.  I am the "Curmudgeon" that seems to always gets stuck feeling sorry for them, mumbles under my breath, and then finds love from them...  Animals unlike people who want everything...new cars, fancy phones, overpriced houses... only want a home and food...and I might add "...they show much love back.

This is the reason we founded our "not for profit.  4 Community Cats Inc".  This is our way of helping to control the animal population in our little area and to put a website out with information on vets, neutering and spaying, and health tips..Please help us help the community and cats like White!

4CommunityCats.Inc.   We have a go Fund Me Page or you can mail check to 4 Community Cats Inc in care of 5823 Brooklyn Street, Eaton, NY.   https://gofund.me/7356f605 

We are a NYS and Federal Not for Profit Charity!

Cornelia M Raymond, Louise Burchard, Women's First Vote, Vassar College, and Eaton!

I read my mail today and realized that is still wonderful to open the mail and get information for the museum from Vassar College.  The fact is Eaton has a role in Vassar College’s history in its earliest days.  This dates to the college’s early President John Raymond and his wife Cornelia Morse Raymond and her cousins Anna and Louise Burchard.  It also dates to the founding of today’s Colgate University since Raymond taught at Colgate and on the Burchard side... Seneca Barton Burchard was a supporter and supervisor of the building of the  hall that today's COVE is located in. 

Melville Landon

Burchard Family

John Raymond met and married Cornelia Morse Raymond while was a student at Colgate, hen wanted to become a missionary... He also became good friends with Henry Ward Beecher who visited him often up here.  Of course Henry Ward Beecher’s relatives in Eaton were Samuel Stowe of Stowe’s Tavern, and Mrs. Joseph Morse (Eunice Bigelow Morse)...(His and Harriet's grandmother was a Bjgelow - Stowe Relative and Harriet Married a Stowe)

Another part of the relationship appears to be Melville Landon (Eli Perkins) whose father John Landon moved his family to Eaton from Lichfield, Conn. home parish of Rev. Lyman Beecher... Harriets & Henry's father.  John Landon was an early supporter of the Olive Branch Newspaper (published in Sherburne, NY), which carried all of Beecher’s editorials and articles.  *Please note that the Beechers of the Sherburne area are direct relatives.  Melville Landon was a very good friend of Henry’s and the Morse family. (Also remember that Harriet Beecher Stowe married Calvin Ellis Stowe (Great Aunt was Mrs. Joseph Morse -Eunice Bigelow Morse) who became the assistant to her father at Lane Seminary in Ohio.

My… my… how things entangle as we study the past.

Louise Burchard

Cornelia’s relatives were Anna Burchard and Louise Burchard who were enticed to go to Vassar when John Raymond became President of the Vassar College, and today a scholarship still retains Louise’s name since she also taught at the college.  Louise wrote an early book on information for called Aid for Women Voters...published when the women first got the vote... she was an avid women's rights advocate. (We have a copy of her book at the museum)

Anna and Louise Burchard where the daughters of Sylvester Burchard and Allie Morse…Allie was Bigelow Morse’s daughter and Sylvester Burchard was the head of the Chenango Breeder’s Association that brought the first breeding herd of Holsteins to America.

Ahhhh…Eaton and its famous families have so much history that I will never be able to track it all…but the Old Town of Eaton Museum has artifacts that belong to all of these people and is a great place to learn the history of not only Eaton and Colgate…but also of the national figures who were missionaries, teachers, speakers, authors and on and on..

Wisconsin and Madison County History!

With the Republican Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin this week I remembered another piece of Eaton History! The young man who lived in the Eaton - Munnsvill-Pratts Hollow area with his family and became one of the most remembered men of Wisconsin....William Dempster Hoard.

So.... when traveling on Route 46 from Oneida to Hamilton you might pass a beautiful, now deserted stone building on the side of the road. Missing windows and doors… it sits as reminder of Eaton & Munnsville’s past, a past that included many famous people and famous products. One such man was born in the building and passed his childhood there observing the area and interested in its development, his name was William Dempster Hoard.

Hoard spent many hours observing the growing of hops that was a mainstay crop during his formative years; a crop that depleted the already thin soil of this hilly Madison County, NY area. The farmers who lost their fortunes and farms to this fickle crop, wiped out by blight and the commodity market, changed to milk production and Holstein–Friesian cattle that were imported from Holland.

The cows were a needed agricultural addition that was - with its bi-product of manure - an enhancement of the soil and a new way of life for this Madison county, NY area. Hoard as a young man moved to Wisconsin in the westward exodus of the 1800’s and landed in an area that also had agricultural problems much like his former home. One day siting on a hillside noting the farmers going out of business or struggling, he came up with the idea of making the same change to cows, an idea that made Wisconsin the “Dairy State” for many years.

Hoard also started Hoard’s Dairyman’s Journal that gave information to farmers on dairy practices. He is considered the father of the refrigerated railcar that was needed to ship milk to markets at a great distance and today his drawings of the perfect barn have been copied by Cornell University. His motto was that happy cows produced more milk and that entering his dairy you were to treat his cows like “mothers” with kindness and respect.

In his lifetime he became the Governor of Wisconsin and helped bring abolition to the state, staunchly supporting legislation to accompany his beliefs.Today Madison County, NY is still an agricultural county and much of what was learned by our founding dairy farmer’s came out of Hoard’s Journal! 

I Have at the museum a wonderful letter he wrote about attending school at Eaton's Pine Woods School.  Charming remembrance of the one room school.

Enjoy the Fourth of July!

I realize that I have been tardy in getting some new history blogs out...but I have also been struggling along trying to repair my house after the fire and get our new 501 3c started.  

This week has been good for my brain and while watching the TV about the rising "White Nationalism" and Civil War era legislation with voter suppression .. I was reminded of an old story about Eaton.  The story actually revolves around the house next to the museum on River Road, the road that was once called Water Street. The building is one of the oldest in town and was owned during the period before and after the Civil War by the Leach family. It is "Henry" I believe who served in the Confederate Army while the rest of the town for the most part was pro North.

Small towns in those days stuck together in a more cohesive way than today I guess... and after the War had passed, it is said that on all holidays and during parades old Mr. Leach would don his Confederate uniform and march in the parade with the many members of the GAR.  Both sides it is noted paraded up and down the streets with pride.  As a matter of fact... it wrote Mr. Leach into history and he has become part of the "Tales told of Old Eaton"... ones that you can enjoy.

Curiously, when redoing the museum we held a very large opening day celebration... and Chris Staudt with whom I bought the building and refurbished it to become  the museum for Eaton... invited friends and family down for the occasion. 

Chris' dad came down and toured...after the crowd had gone home and as he was leaving, he looked up at the American flag flying over the door, he glanced across the yard to the Leach house and said... "You really need a Confederate Flg flying here also".  To this day I wonder if old  Mr. Leach was around giving us a hint of his past... could be I guess.... after all it was Memorial Day!

The concept of Eaton Day arose from Eaton's traditional 4th July Celebration which had been taken over by Hamilton recent years. In "the Old Days" it was a celebration of honoring the dead warriors, remembering the past and enjoying community, today Eaton's little history group has tried to keep that spirit alive on Memorial Day Monday's.

I hope everyone will come out and visit what has become the Old Town of Eaton Museum, currently owned and run by the not- for- profit museum group Old Town Folks.  Of great interest... the new group that has formed to help support it is...Friends of the Old Town of Eaton Museum. 

The group has officially become a recognized charity so all donations to it are are tax deductible. The museum is open on very other Sunday most of the year , with a sign board giving the dates and times. of the year until October  and we are currently seeking Docents who will help, or anyone interested in giving a hand. Donations may be sent to Friends of the Old Town of Eaton Museum care of 5823 Brooklyn Street, Eaton, NY 13334.

You can contact backstreetmary@ yahoo.com for more information.

Attached is a video I did  for  Memorial Day honoring the many Revolutionary War Soldiers  buried in Eaton Village Cemetery.

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

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!

A Deep Purple Day as Summer Fades

Today as I sit here in my office looking out over the the Old Union School and the historic Eaton Church, I was struck by the fact that since I came to this little hamlet in 1984 things have changed drastically.  The change has been not for the better in many cases.  

The old friends I used to treasure are for the most part gone, many relatives gone, associates gone, and most original museum members are gone.  An old friend Nellie Wooten taught me so much about the people she knew each time we walked in the cemetery...once on the way down to town she looked back over her shoulder and said wistfully with sadness...all my friends and relatives are here...I miss them.

Maybe because of my tiredness and depression caused by the fact that I have not accomplished more in  this short summer that is slipping away...whatever it is... I could not stop singing or humming a very sad song…"Deep Purple"!

When the deep purple falls..

Over sleepy garden walls?…

And the stars begin to twinkle in the night..

In the mist of a memory ..

You wander on back to me..

Breathing my name with a sigh..

As of course, you would suspect …the song has an unbelievable history.  This piece of music was written originally as a piano piece written by pianist Peter DeRose, who broadcast, 1923 to 1939, with May Singhi as "The Sweethearts of the Air" on the NBC radio network.

"Deep Purple" was published in 1933 as a piano composition. The following year, Paul Whiteman had it scored for his suave "big band" orchestra that was "making a lady out of jazz" in Whiteman's phrase. "Deep Purple" became so popular in sheet music sales that Mitchell Parish added lyrics in 1938 or 1939.

It was recorded so many times by different bands and sung by different singers that it is amazing.  On the hit charts it was a  number 1 song in 1939 with Larry Witman, it was also number 2 for Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra, a number 9 for Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians, number14 on the charts for Bing Crosby, number 17 for Artie Shaw and His Orchestra….. all in 1939. 

By January 1949 Paul Weston and His Orchestra recorded it as well as Billy Ward and His Dominoes in September.  For us 70 year olds it became number 1 again for Nino Tempo and April Stevens in September 1963 and also a hit for Donny and Marie Osmond in December 1975.

It just seems to remind you of every love, every person you ever knew.. and how loneliness feels at night in this small town.

In the still of the night

Once again I hold you tight..

Though you're gone,

Your love lives on when moonlight beams

And as long as my heart will beat,

Sweet loved ones we'll always meet..

Here in my deep purple dreams…

I have been working all summer on my house that was going to the bulldozer when I bought it...Mr Woods house... and part of the old school.  It has survived 200 plus years of floods, wars, trees falling on it, and this past two a fire...I am still working on it.  

I am working on a growing website of history for Eaton, another website to try and help people understand the importance of fixing their animals called 4 Community Cats, my blog View from the BackStreet that reflects my thoughts on history on the area, and a perhaps a bit of hope.

My hope rises as the Stone Morse House on the hill is finally being saved, plus all in all we still have here  Eaton Fire Department, a Community Bible  Church, a well kept EatonVillage Cemetery, the  Old Town of Eaton Museum, a store and gas station... as well as a beautiful scenic place to live. A place we can just look out at the world with all its wars, sorrows, and disasters from. 

Depressed...yes I am...but filled with some hope for the future.

You can make a Difference...WRITE LADIES

I ran across this old blog I wrote in 2014 about women writers and the impact they made on our history. With all that is happening now and knowing history always repeats itself...I thought I would post this and ask those who can to write about things today...to write..you can change things for the better and might become famous as well.

Most interesting to me is when a visitor to the old stone museum who  actually knows who Emily Chubbuck Judson was.  Of course the woman was a writer and journalist... but still…Emily dates back to 1817.

Born in Eaton Emily became a writer of children’s stories under the pen name Fanny Forrester.   She started writing articles for the newspapers and put them together as a book of famous short tales about the Eatonbrook .  The Eatonbrook is a little stream still runs today through Eaton and behind the Old Town Museum today.  Then it was call the Alderbrook and her stories of  “Alderbrook Tales” put together as book sold very well.  Emily of course became famous in the mid-1840s when she married Adoniram Judson the American Missionary to Burma.  Her life and her writings about Judson’s earlier wife made quite an impact on the Baptist world in her time.

Certainly the most famous woman writer of her time and a woman credited with moving America toward abolition was Harriet Beecher Stowe.  The Old Town Museum contains information on her family and her husband’s family as they are directly related to the Stowes and Morse-Bigelows who settled Eaton.

Harriet’s book “Uncle Tom’s Cabin, like Chubbuck’s “Alderbrook Tales”, was also a serial book first carried in the periodical "National Era".  Later as an actual book it was translated into different languages and became a best seller in many countries.  In the United States the only book that sold more copies in its day was the Bible.  In its first year it sold 300,000 copies here in the USA and 200,000 copies in England.  It effected a change that some feel led to the Civil War.  It certainly stirred the sentiment of a great swath of the country toward abolition.

Another woman later did the same thing with her only actual full-length novel, a book in part based on an actual experience that happened in her early life called “To Kill A Mocking Bird”.

With the release of this book… Harper Lee became an overnight sensation.  The 1960 book won her the Pulitzer Prize and was rated in England by librarians as “a book every adult should read”.  The story in a way contributed to social change since it addressed race relations, equality and life in the “Deep South”... among other things.  A book used in classrooms and made into a movie…it has never been out of print.

So women…get out your pens…start writing…there are a whole lot of social issues that need to be addressed today.  Remember it only takes one book to make a difference.  Wish I could make a difference with my blog…but if I got someone else to write the big book…. I will have.  SO WRITE!

This Sunday and Some History on the Canals

The Old Town of Eaton Museum will be open on Fathers Day from 11am until 1pm with a special display on the Stone Morse House and the Morse founding family off Eaton, NY. The display was featured for our Old Home Day for Memorial Day. If you missed it besure and stop by. The display will be located in the new Ag Museum next door. 

We are also preparing for a new display on the Chenango Canal. The story of this canal is an interesting link into the history of the lakes and reserviors of the area that so many summer folks enjoy today. It answers the question of how and why they came to be. 

This piece of the history is on one of the many ponds and lakes that dot our beautiful Southern Madison County area, Lebanon Reservoir. Though located in today’s Town of Lebanon, the water that flowed from this reservoir made its way via feeders to Eaton’s Leland Pond and Woodman Pond areas where it was distributed to the canal. 

This Reservoir has had two names, an old one that is very historic and a new one that is known by everyone. Kingsleybrook Reservoir is one such place. Today, we know this body of water surrounded by camps and homes as a sparkling gem, where fishing, swimming, boating and camping is enjoyed, as Lebanon Reservoir. Its original name and one still used on some maps however, is Kingsleybrook Reservoir. 

\Kingsley Brook, a fast-flowing stream, provides the water to this reservoir, a reservoir that once fed the Chenango Canal. The reservoir was added after the initial start of the proposed canal to insure that there would be enough water to run the canal during dry times. The dam was contracted in the fall of 1835, and scheduled to be completed by November of the following year. During the process, it was decided to raise the proposed height by 15 feet, it was noted that this would only take a small additional part of land, but would increase the capacity of the reservoir by 80 percent.

The addition of the height was never accomplished. After a horrible freshet occurred in April of 1843, the dam was breached and was severely damaged, estimates for the repair came to over $8,000 ( a pittance in our time). The canal engineers and commissioners felt that this dam and reservoir could be dispensed with, and consequently did not repair it. 

By 1864, more water was needed to insure navigation on the canal because of leaking canal walls and decapitated locks, plus the addition of a proposed extension, so work was begun to rebuild the Kingsleybrook Reservoir. This time, the dam was raised the additional number of feet (15) and the dam was completed in 1867. The additional number of feet increased the capacity of the reservoir by over 100 percent. When the Chenango Canal no longer needed its water it became labels Lebanon Reservoir!

Eaton Museum Opening = Memorial Day Monday

The Old Town of Eaton Museum will open on Memorial Day Monday this year for the first time in two years.  The outbreak of Covid caused many of the small museums to close their doors, which of course causes many problems including gather funding for operational purposes. The Old Town Museum was no exception.

Memorial Day Monday in Eaton has always been our main event and honors the historic roots of Eaton and its many Revolutionary Soldiers, founders, Civil War Veterans and all veterans.

 The land mass itself was purchased from Col. William Smith, husband of Abigail Adams Smith (President Adams daughter).  The area now Eaton and Lebanon were the first settlements and clearing of what is now Madison County. One of the more interesting aspects of our area is the old historic marker that stands on River Road marking Madison County’s early settlement history.  The marker lies just below the Old Town of Eaton Museum and lists the first clearing in what is now Madison County.. 1788...The Bark Hut.

If one takes the time to pick threw Mrs. Hammond's History of Madison County you will note many stories on our early founding including where men forged into what was still considered" Indian country," and upon arrival made a rudimentary hut to stay in. This area actually formed what was eventually a set of log homes that stretched from Lebanon to Eaton then dubbed "Log City".

Most of these men and those that came later were veteran's of the Revolutionary War and some had followed Col. William Smith to his land patent set up and built by Joshua Smith (not a relative) who served under him. Joshua was sent by Col. Smith to find him the best tract of land in the area...which Joshua did, and where upon he built a bark hut.These actual squatters were indeed our first settlers and ironically today over two hundred years latter,  many of these families names still live on here.

The area dubbed “Log City” was also considered Masonic settlement as many Members of the Masonic order.  Today many stone buildings on River Road once called Water Street, reflect that including the building that houses the Old Town of Eaton Museum dated to before 1800.

Some of the earliest settlers of Revolutionary War era include notables Major Sinclair who purchased the land owned by Col Leland, now with a historical marker for the Dunbar Farm.  Sinclair kept a tavern and stable on that property for travelers.

Others include Jonathan Bates who came to Eaton and purchase land just below the Old Town of Eaton Museum, his grave on the side of the road is marked today with a large bronze plaque on a boulder.  Bates had served with the well known Patriot Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys.

Others include Benjamin Morse brother of Joseph Morse, Major Elisha Haden, Nicholas Byer who had been a member of Burgoyne’s Hessians, Simeon Chubbuck, grandfather of Emily Chubbuck and many more. To choose one to honor was hard.

So I decided to go back in the history of our military men and choose a known historic name, Myles Standish. Yes, Myles Standish.

Mr. Standish was a direct lineal descendant of his illustrious namesake, Captain Miles Standish of the Mayflower, one of the most distinguished of the colonists who landed upon Plymouth Rock in 1620. 

Captain Standish had been hired as the military protection for the early colony, and in true military fashion Miles Jr. was a soldier as well.

Corporal Myles Standish was born in 1748 at Duxbury, Plymouth County Massachusetts, moving to Eaton where he died on July 22, 1818 at the age of 70.

Myles Standish, Naomi Standish, and Daniel Standish were members of the Second Baptist Church of Eaton, and appear in the US Census of Eaton, Madison County.

Myles, was always called Myles by all who knew him, and took up the farm once owned by Adin Brown near Pierceville, living there for many years. Standish was an energetic businessman who invested in the Skaneateles Turnpike, and he built and kept the first old turnpike gate, which stood in the early years opposite the famous Alderbrook gristmill.  It is so interesting to see both national and local history meld seamlessly together this way.

So for a day full of History please join the Museum for its opening on Memorial Day Monday, May 30th from 11 to 4 pm.  Refreshments will be served and all are invited to travel back in time to our historic roots to honor our Veteran’s and our history.