Happy 4th....Read some History from the Fourth in Eaton in 1884

                                             First block of Eaton Main Street Stores

It is interesting to note that Eaton actually had a newspaper for a while; we are lucky to have a copy of one in the museum archives. Old newspapers are a great way to visit the past and give us much information on the people and businesses that once thrived in our rural communities.  I ran across an article taken from the Eaton Herald and was republish in the Madison County Leader under history.

 

The Eaton Herald brought to Eatonians the news of country, state, and village, and announced through its four-column, eight-page sheet much news.  Some of this was so interesting I thought I would include some of the information here. 

 

The publisher of this 1884 sheet was G. B. Greenfield whose office was the first door east of the Exchange Hotel.  The price per inch was twice that of the Leader’s, and got business for advertisers because the Leader’s advertisers were allowed to change their copy only four times a year. Unfortunately the editor took ill, ending its run.

 

 

From the EATON HERALD

 

“Barnum’s Greatest Show on Earth is second only to the large and handsome display of fine stoves and ranges, for sale at G. E. Clark’s in the Blakeman Block, Eaton, N.Y.

 

“Paper, Sir - The Eaton Herald-just off the press-Wood, Taber and Morse will run on three-fourths time!”

 

 On the Fourth of July…The great day passed off very quietly at Log City save for the booming of the cannon, which jarred out nearly all of N. Bence’s windowpanes.

 

H. C. Holmes conducted his “Temple of Variety” under the slogan “Death to Large Profits”, and the Morse Brothers stepped out in bigger and bolder letters, “NOW IS THE TIME” and proceeded to tell of dry goods, shoes, boots, and celebrated corsets-all of which were advertised as being selected with great care as to quality, and which are for sale at the lowest living prices.

 

 L. L. Hamilton of West Eaton proclaimed in four inches, single column, that “For the Presidential year, we propose to sell more goods than ever before,” while downstream at Eaton A.D. Morton made the “Largest Stock of Furniture at the Lowest Prices in Madison County.”

 

B. Leavenworth offered bargains in clothing all the year around in men’s, youth’s and children’s clothing, and Jacob Dickson’s custom tailoring was warranted and guaranteed, especially the “Light Pants and White Vests,”  a specialty at this time of year.

 

Wooden Water Pipe was manufactured by Gardner Morse who also dealt in lumber and mill work.  On the corner of Main and Church St., Medbury’s Furniture and Undertaking House sold everything from Chamber Suites to cheap beds for hop picking.  And at that very date T. R. Jones was opening a meat market in the basement of the Blakeman Block.

 

 Under a section called local intelligence we find out that that season was very dry… and  “S. A. Curtis was the champion at the glass ball shoot Thursday.”

 

 “The editor of this paper is responsible for the assertion that Eaton has the best cornet band of any place in Madison County.” “J. Morey’s little boy fell from the milk wagon while going to the cheese factory yesterday, the wagon passed over his body.  The extent of his injuries we have not learned.” “Ed Wilcox, mail agent on the Central was quite seriously hurt at the collision between his train and a freight at Albany on Wednesday of this week.  He is able to be around, however, and will doubtless soon recover.” “The Stage Line was being operated between West Eaton and the O. & W. Station by E. Isebell three times daily.”

 

 

In Georgetown the Herald reports… “Fred Hill was hit by lightning for the second time in his life and still lives to tell the story. D. Whitmore was also getting his billiard parlor in running order to make way for wizards of the cue. “

 

It was a much more simple time when Eaton’s name had gone from “Log City” to its more sophisticated proper name of Eaton Village. The summer brought an influx of people from NYC while Wood, Taber & Morse put on much labor to run its machine shop night and day because of demand.  Eaton was also the site of the Madison County Home and vast agricultural fields that attracted large groups of pickers in the summer…a “Bustling Town”’

History Shines at the Eaton Museum

             This Sunday, June 29,  we will have our 30th Anniversary Celebration.

We are hoping the weather will cooperate this time.  To all those hit by the storms last Sunday like us... we wish you well.  The cake was frozen and will come out rain or shine....Please join us!

The Old Town of Eaton Museum will be hosting its 30th Anniversary on Sunday with a special treat.  Artist of note, Virginia Keith's portrait of Mary will be unveiled at the museum at 1:30 during an award ceremony.  The oil portrait will be donated to the museum by the artist.

Virginia Keith hails from the Town of Brookfield, also in Madison 

County, where both her parents served as Town Historians. Virginia has 

also served on the Board of the Brookfield Historical Society. She has 

painted as a hobby her whole life, but it wasn't until 2015 that she 

studied portrait painting.

During the initial COVID 19 shutdown, a group of five Mohawk Valley area 

women, who had studied portraiture together at Munson in Utica, won a 

commission from the Women's Fund of Central New York to Commemorate the 

100th anniversary of the passing of the 19th Amendment granting women 

the right to vote.

This effort was immediately followed up by a Commitment to paint a 

collection of portraits of significant and highly accomplished local 

women. The show called Women Paint Women hung in the public Library in 

Utica and in the Arts Center in little Falls, and was commemorated in a 

book by the same name.

Virginia chose to portray Mary Messere for her contributions to the 

collection and preservation of local history. As this painting is done 

with the techniques of the European masters, it is hope to serve as a 

loving picture of Eaton's History Champion for many, many decades to come.

----------------------------------------

Virginia Keith currently lives in Waterville NY and can be reached at 

<vskeith@twcny.rr.com>

Memories, Life, Memorable Birthday Parties

I watched an old movie the other night, something I seldom do.  The movie was “The Way We Were” and what I found most interesting was the mini documentary that went along with the movie.  The most part that interested me most was the discussion of finding the right song.   They needed a song that would transport the viewer back to memories.  

                                                           Family Birthday Party!

The composer chosen for the job was Marvin Hamlisch and the wordsmiths… the Bergman’s.   They describe in the documentary their work to craft the perfect “vehicle” to set the mood.  They said the title, “The Way We Were” was wonderful all in itself, but that they had the first line originally “daydreams light the corners of my mind”.    When they presented the song to Barbra Streisand she changed… one note and one word, a word that became the most important change …  the word daydreams to “Memories”.

The song won the 1973 Academy Award for best song in a movie, a Golden Globe and became one of the songs of the century!   To this day I am sure many of us enter a little piece of reverie as we listen to it… since memories are a haunting part of our life; they are something that comes back to us …sometimes good, sometimes bad…sometimes happy…sometimes sad.

My memories seem to start in the  Spring, which is supposed to be a new beginning, a time of rebirth when the earth wakes from the sleep of winter.  The sap has started to run and the great giants on the hill have started to sprout buds that will soon bring leaves that will last until fall’s last call.  Added to this are my memories of the many summer days spent by the lake, by the glimmering water, with the brush of soft sand against my feet when I walked the shore dreaming of the future.  Never expecting it to be where I am today.

Spring for me brings both my best memories and my saddest memoires. 

My best are the many childhood weekends around Easter… since most members of my family shared April time birthdays.  Grandmother, grandfather, aunts, uncles, mom, dad, myself… these birthdays all turned into weekend parties, one after another.  Parties where everyone got together and cousins played at life.  Easter meant seeing some cousins from a long distance that came to the city to visit Grandma.  These were fun times to be sure.

Then things changed and I moved to the country where – ironically - all of the new neighbors shared April birthdays and the parties began again.  

Those times and people have all passed as well… and I am left here with only memories of them.  Lingering sad memories… as death end life.  In the past some of my best friends died on the three days around my birthday… and their memories though certainly fond ones, are wonderful… but they are sad.   They leave me with a feeling of being alone…. like sad memories all of my family who are no longer here.  

The wise man said that you can never go back… you can only go forward.  And so we must… we can only relive that past as “Memories” that light the corners of our mind.

A Special Sunday - 30 years & Leland History

The Old Town of Eaton Museum located on River Road in Eaton... will be open for Summer's first weekend..Sunday, June 22nd from 1to 3pm and will be celebrating 30 years of Eatons History group. For the occasion we will be sporting a new display with items belonging to the Leland Family and a copy of the deed signed by Col. William Smith and his wife.  Refreshments will be served and we will be honoring a couple of the groups hard workers.

Joshua Leland came to Eaton in 1792 - 1793 with friends Benjamin Morse and John Morris from Sherburne, Massachusetts.  The land that was opening up for sale in those days would have been the “frontier”, or “Indian Country.”  Leland made a shelter or rudimentary house and later returned with his wife and family. 

They became stuck in the mud at what would become his later home near today’s Leland Pond.  Mrs. Hammond writes that he had to fetch Benjamin and John to help him cross the Chenango, and come to today’s English Avenue in Eaton.  He and his family are recorded as living in a three-sided abode with their children and animals the first winter.

Mrs. Hammond’s History of Madison County claims that it was near what is today’s Caleb Dunbar’s House marked by a NYS Historic Marker.  Leland kept his house open to the public as a tavern and accommodation for travelers.  I believe he built the house that he sold to Samuel Sinclair and that it is Sinclair who sold the property to Caleb Dunbar. This would explain why it was hard to trace the original deed totally.

Humorously, the deed to most of the parcel of land known as Eaton today was found 131 years later (a sheepskin deed) and finally filed in Madison County.  The original deed would have been registered prior to 1806 in Chenango County, as this land was in Chenango County until when it was parceled off as a separate county.

The house was passed back and forth in the Dunbar Family to Thaxter, George and Henry until the 1900’s when it was sold on a tax deed. Many original papers that belonged to Col. Leland were found in the house including a parcel of information on the Kent family another of one of the earliest settlers who lived above this land on today’s Sanford Road.

Leland sold his interest in this area to Joseph Morse and moved to the location of the Leland Marker at the Ponds.  Leland had teased while living on English Avenue that his wife was the “fairest woman” east of the Chenango and of course… she was the first white woman.

*The dead is restored and is located at the Madison Country Courthouse and is signed by Col. William Smith and his wife Abigail Adams Smith,  President Adams daughter. See previous articles.

A Special Tribute for Veteran's Day!

The Old Town of Eaton Museum is celebrating Veteran's Day by giving a " shout out" to one of our own Douglas Chilson!  Doug a founding member of our museum as was his mother before him, served in Viet Nam and won the Purple Heart.  He has helped me put on a display this year on Nam and we salute him and all of the veteran's from our town and the USA.

I have included this piece I wrote before on the Maria Dolens.  Please read and share and also wait if you view the video at the bottom, as it take forever to get it to ring.

November 11, is .known as Armistice Day, later known as Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth and Veterans Day in the United States, it marks the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne, France,  for the cessation of hostilities.   I thought about the current wars. WWI was tagged..."The War to end all Wars".

I went online to find out what  has been said in the past...   Pope Francis...who signs everything just Francis…in his  New Years message a few years ago for the 48th anniversary of the Day of World Peace...he spoke in front of a screen that had the Maria Dolens bell ringing in the background.  The Maria Dolens? And so I was off on a history quest.

The Maria Dolens is the name of a bell that was cast from the bronze of many of the cannons - 19, one from each of the countries that participated in WWI.  It sits in Roverto, in today’s northern Italy and it rings 100 times each day in the evening to honor the fallen and to many to act  as a symbol for peace and an end to war.

The Bell was the idea of Don Antonio Rossaro,  called the Bell of the Fallen.  It was given the name Maria Dolens and placed on the Malipiero tower of Castello di Rovereto.  It has been recast many times because of fractures from ringing 100 times a day no doubt... but it has always been recast and returned to the tower where is nightly reminds the world of the price of war.  The latest recast was blessed by Pope Paul VI and on November 4^th, 1965 was placed on the Colle di Miravalle where it today rest above the city of Roverto.

On the bell, which is the second largest swinging bell in the world, were added at its recasting the statements of the Pontiff Pius XII "With peace nothing is lost. Everything is to be lost through war." John XXIII: "In pace hominum ordinata concordia et tranquilla libertas."

Today, as always, it rang 100 times at midday...in Italy as I am writing this..... just as it  was shown on the large screen in St. Peter’s square that day.

It is said that it tolls in the hope that Man, in the memory of the Fallen of every war and every nation in the world, may find the path that leads to Peace….

I say AMEN to that…! Sit and listen and think quietly...It is big it takes a bit or so to start ringing!

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.

Thoughts.. on Today and Tomorrow in History

                                                   My great grandparents and grandmother!

I got to thinking about the world situation this morning after listening to the news and as usual a song popped in my head.  I was never a hippy or a protester but I was into folk music and that era of quiet protest with songs...too many to remember.  Even today songs like "Where have all the Flowers Gone", "Peace Train" and...to many to remember. But occasionally a song from way back pops up. It brought me back to the days of my youth...The Barge and Poor House in Syracuse and getting together with friends late at night singing songs, playing records and thinking about the world through the eyes of song writers, folk singers and such.

I can still remember Joni Mitchell's lyrics..."they paved paradise and put up a parking lot"...and today its a reality.  Friends are traveling to vacation spots around the world but now everything basically looks the same...little original flavor in many cities...maybe we are too modern.

Today we spend more time on the internet and our phones and not enough time thinking in the quiet...but that's just my opinion!

Everyone has got a beef about something out in the world...we worry about money more than the future of civilization I fear.  Wars and conflict over land have been part of civilization forever. We can tune in to TV shows on the lost civilizations and wonder what happened to them? Do we worry as much about what's happening to us???

Morals have gone out the window, so many think...but we historians can point to Sodom and 

Gomorra, Noah and the great flood, asteroid hits, on and on. Today we do ancestry sites to find where we came from and of course hope for a successful relative or a famous relative or two.  Perhaps we should be thinking more along the lines of what WE will be remembered for?

I can personally attest to the fact that people come back to the museum to find tidbits on their relatives but trying to get volunteers to help provide it is impossible!

Oh well...here is the song I was thinking of...turn on your sound, think about it and smile... as Uncle 

Basil would say "people change...they get worse"...and grandma always said "it only happens to the living!"

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!

A Memorial Day Memory and Thank You!

Thank You... to all who attended and all who helped make Memorial Day Monday a success. 

Thanks to  Jim Monahan for use of the Auction Barn property and for going above and beyond getting his 1790's Revolutionary War Fly up to give us shade. Thanks to Pam Wexler for showing up early to help with setup and with donuts, Carolyn Tine... plus our usual crew... Jen Caloia, Barb Keough, and Michele Kelly...and anyone I forgot.

A great thank you to Dianne Morris Chilson and Doug Chilson who set up a display in the little Mini Museum next to the old one. Doug provided a glimpse into area World War II veterans, which included his father and Viet Nam...himself.  Medals and patches however cannot tell the whole story of their sacrifice.

Memorial Day in Old Eaton

The can drive was a hit and you still have a few days before they are counted... so drop any you have off at Michele's place on Mill Street or my house on Brooklyn Street.  The Cats and Museum would thank you if they could.. thank you! 

The day brought out a number of the original members of founding families which in essence is what makes a history day or old home day an important part of the community.  Our roots seem unimportant until we have children or grand children and then take the time to look back... wondering about our ancestors and how we came to be!

Eaton's history is fun to learn about for many reasons and learning about history is a great way to prove that everything is a circle and learning history gives you a glimpse into the future as well,,, it acts a like warning device. 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 (Civil 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 has been taken over by Hamilton today. 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.

The Museum will be open pn Father's Day from 11 until 1.

Early Times in Eaton & Its Early Newspapers

                                             First block of Eaton Main Street Stores

It is interesting to note that Eaton actually had a newspaper for a while; we are lucky to have a copy of one in the museum archives. Old newspapers are a great way to visit the past and give us much information on the people and businesses that once thrived in our rural communities.  I ran across an article taken from the Eaton Herald and was republish in the Madison County Leader under history.

 

The Eaton Herald brought to Eatonians the news of country, state, and village, and announced through its four-column, eight-page sheet much news.  Some of this was so interesting I thought I would include some of the information here. 

 

The publisher of this 1884 sheet was G. B. Greenfield whose office was the first door east of the Exchange Hotel.  The price per inch was twice that of the Leader’s, and got business for advertisers because the Leader’s advertisers were allowed to change their copy only four times a year. Unfortunately the editor took ill, ending its run.

 

 

From the EATON HERALD

 

“Barnum’s Greatest Show on Earth is second only to the large and handsome display of fine stoves and ranges, for sale at G. E. Clark’s in the Blakeman Block, Eaton, N.Y.

 

“Paper, Sir - The Eaton Herald-just off the press-Wood, Taber and Morse will run on three-fourths time!”

 

 On the Fourth of July…The great day passed off very quietly at Log City save for the booming of the cannon, which jarred out nearly all of N. Bence’s windowpanes.

 

H. C. Holmes conducted his “Temple of Variety” under the slogan “Death to Large Profits”, and the Morse Brothers stepped out in bigger and bolder letters, “NOW IS THE TIME” and proceeded to tell of dry goods, shoes, boots, and celebrated corsets-all of which were advertised as being selected with great care as to quality, and which are for sale at the lowest living prices.

 

 L. L. Hamilton of West Eaton proclaimed in four inches, single column, that “For the Presidential year, we propose to sell more goods than ever before,” while downstream at Eaton A.D. Morton made the “Largest Stock of Furniture at the Lowest Prices in Madison County.”

 

B. Leavenworth offered bargains in clothing all the year around in men’s, youth’s and children’s clothing, and Jacob Dickson’s custom tailoring was warranted and guaranteed, especially the “Light Pants and White Vests,”  a specialty at this time of year.

 

Wooden Water Pipe was manufactured by Gardner Morse who also dealt in lumber and mill work.  On the corner of Main and Church St., Medbury’s Furniture and Undertaking House sold everything from Chamber Suites to cheap beds for hop picking.  And at that very date T. R. Jones was opening a meat market in the basement of the Blakeman Block.

 

 Under a section called local intelligence we find out that that season was very dry… and  “S. A. Curtis was the champion at the glass ball shoot Thursday.”

 

 “The editor of this paper is responsible for the assertion that Eaton has the best cornet band of any place in Madison County.” “J. Morey’s little boy fell from the milk wagon while going to the cheese factory yesterday, the wagon passed over his body.  The extent of his injuries we have not learned.” “Ed Wilcox, mail agent on the Central was quite seriously hurt at the collision between his train and a freight at Albany on Wednesday of this week.  He is able to be around, however, and will doubtless soon recover.” “The Stage Line was being operated between West Eaton and the O. & W. Station by E. Isebell three times daily.”

 

 

In Georgetown the Herald reports… “Fred Hill was hit by lightning for the second time in his life and still lives to tell the story. D. Whitmore was also getting his billiard parlor in running order to make way for wizards of the cue. “

 

It was a much more simple time when Eaton’s name had gone from “Log City” to its more sophisticated proper name of Eaton Village. The summer brought an influx of people from NYC while Wood, Taber & Morse put on much labor to run its machine shop night and day because of demand.  Eaton was also the site of the Madison County Home and vast agricultural fields that attracted large groups of pickers in the summer…a “Bustling Town”’

 

 

 

     

Joseph Morse and his Distinguished Family

                                                              Early Photo of Morse Sawmill & Gristmill Building

History is a fickle friend that changes its mind as new and different information surfaces from the long ago past. Many times this occurs when a new tidbit of information comes from and old newspaper article somebody clipped and stuck in the back of a book.  Such an occurrence is common.  

 

While going through a number of early clippings I found an article put out for the Centennial of Madison County in 1906.  The information would have come from a reliable source as the Morse family still resided in Eaton and always loaned history out for research.  The article lists itself as the first in a newspaper…but what paper I do not know. I include a part here.

 

“The silver cup referred to in the first installment of this paper and presented to Joseph Morse in 1819 by the Madison County Agricultural society, was one of the most attractive relics in the exhibits at the centennial exercises by Prof. Briggs at Eaton Union School March 21^st, 1906.”

 

I would love to find out where this silver cup is…the museum would love to have it since Joseph Morse is considered the founding father of Eaton.  The article goes on to give us a picture into Joseph.

 

“At his death, at this time of need in the new country, while he was yet in the prime of life and in the midst of usefulness, became a personal loss to the inhabitants, who individually mourned him as a father, brother and friend.  Together they had striven through many a crisis and conquered supreme difficulties.  He was of a generous nature, yet he helped men to help themselves and so strengthened the spirit of independence.”

 

Joseph was born in Sherburne, Massachusetts and married Eunice Bigelow in 1768, on April 24^th.  Four children were born to them before their removal from Massachusetts, and four were born in Eaton among them Ellis and Eunice that I have written about.

 

Ellis assumed the role that his father played to the community and inherited the Stone House… once considered the showplace of the area.  Ellis also sold and owned the controlling stock in the Hamilton Skaneateles Turnpike that passed by his house.  Ellis as a boy worked in the Morse Distillery that produced a vast amount of revenue and booze that supported the community both in jobs and in cash. He was self-educated with some schooling at the log school located then, near the cemetery and friends with Charles Grandison Finney who also attended that school. Ellis made sure that each of his children including his daughters was educated.

 

The second son of Joseph Morse was Joseph Morse, Jr., who removed to Pennsylvania and was there several times returned to the legislature of that state and also became judge of his county’s courts.  Calvin, the third son, was an extensive farmer and held responsible offices frequently.  He was elected to the state legislature in 1842. (The museum has some of his count books) Having no sons Calvin’s daughters became conspicuous as eductors.  The eldest, Belinda, was the wife of Andrew Cone, manufacturer; the second daughter, Miss A. Eliza, was assistant lady principal at Vassar College during the life of Dr. John H. Raymond, the first president of Vassar…I have written about her life and her famous ”Locust Hill” cottage.

 

Alpheus, the fourth son Joseph Morse, lived in Eaton until his later years.  He was a merchant, scientific farmer and a large manufacturer, being many years proprietor of the Alderbrook Woolen Mill, known first as the Morse & Brown factory and later wholly in Morse’s name. His interesting early businesses included make cast iron plow blades, growing asparagus that until recently grew in the wild around the cemetery and investing in silk production.

 

Bigelow, the fifth and youngest son of Joseph Morse, became a prominent citizen of Onondaga County. He became a wealthy farmer in the Fabius area… this because of The Skaneateles Turnpike that passed in front of it allowing him to take his cops to market. I learn from other letters that he

Bigelow had terrible headaches and died young most likely from a brain tumor.  His daughter Allie moved to Eaton and lived with his brother Calvin. His two sons, Frank B. and Darwin, under the name of Morse Bros, became Eaton’s long time reliable merchants.  Frank B. was the postmaster at Eaton most of his life for more than forty years. The museum is lucky enough to have info and beautiful pictures of his children. 

 

*of note… Many of Joseph’s Sons were Town Supervisors and that Joseph was in charge of the building of the Court House in Eaton after its move from Cazenovia, his son Ellis was in charge of building of the second and his son George was in charge of building the third today know as Madison Hall.