Some Fun History and Mr. Wood's House,,,,

Picture I took on a trip to London
of Churchill's statue with
Big Ben in Background

I thought of some fun that might make you readers smile, especially since so many people on TV have been talking about Winston Churchill's wise words so.. here the story of home and a famous cat called Jock!

Winston  Churchill’s mother was Jennie Jerome, a beautiful American who actually has great ties to CNY.  The Jerome Family farms were in CNY and the land that my family built its house on was part of the Jerome Farm…home of Jennie’s grandmother.  

Thoughts of the Jerome farm led me to ponder the fact that for Christmas one year I gave my brother the gold watch dad had given me...he had found the old gold watch in the family garden as a young man...a garden that would later become the family compound of homes.  Repaired and running, I thought it was a great family history piece and a great present.

Churchill was supposed to come to speak at a family reunion in Syracuse once, but had to turn back because of the presence of U Boats...he did send a telegram to the family group assembled…a piece of history I learned from the Wood-Eaton sisters who visited me years back in Eaton.  They were relatives and were to be at the reunion and remembered the trip.   They had come to Eaton to visit their great grandfather Allen Nelson Wood’s house, the house I live in.  Isn’t it strange how life is full of so much serendipity?

Mr. Wood was named Allen Nelson Wood...Nelson for Lord Nelson a hero his family honored with the name for many generations…and then suddenly my grey cat Rascal jumped in my lap…hint …one o f Winston Churchill’s most famous cat’s  (grey) was named Nelson to honor Lord Nelson.

Churchill was a cat lover, actually an animal lover.  Winston and his wife Clementine signed their love letters to each other with little drawn pictures…he a dog (Pug) she his cat...and their daughter the PK or puppy-kitten.

His cat stories are famous and many can still picture him speaking with a drink in one hand and the grey cat next to him. One story I love is... after one of his famous speeches (he had a lisp as well as drank) a woman MP in Parliament said, “Sir, you are drunk!”  His replay was “Madame that may be true, but in the morning I shall be sober whereas you will still be ugly!”

His favorite cat in later life cat was a ginger-marmalade colored cat he called  “Jock”, named after Sir John Coville his secretary who gave it to him.  Churchill loved the color and the cat so much that after giving his home Chartwell to the National Trust… he stated in his will that it should always have a ginger colored cat in residence…and to this day it does…and always named appropriately “Jock”.

History, Eaton... What has changed in our World & not for the better I fear!

The history of Eaton Village and the Town of Eaton have continued now for 220 years, in a way it is just a pebble in the sand of time.

Old History book and the new!

The horses and the wagons that carried people to this once a wilderness, have disappeared and in their place have sprung up horse facilities and horse farms of all variety…but these for more pleasant enterprises than hauling people and their belongings up the steep old trails.

The hills that surround the town are still steep but huge tractor-trailers wiz over them with little thought of the heavily burdened ox carts that once served the same purpose.  The wood fires are still burning yet coal, wood pellets, and oil have overtaken their importance.

The memories of the town’s famous inhabitants have now faded, and the young do not have to time to remember their wonderful historic roots.  It seems it is not until they reach the age of retirement that they are suddenly filled with the nostalgia needed and the wish to find out about their past genealogy.

The cell phone and Internet have brought the outside world to a place where young Samuel Chubbuck stood testing and developing the pony key and sounder for S B Morse’s telegraph, an invention that would change the way news was transmitted across the world in the 1800’s.

Gone is the factory of Wood, Taber and Morse who developed four-wheel drive equipment that we think little of today as we watch huge John Deere’s plowing the fields using the sisters of the first 4-driver traction engines they developed.

The church is still standing and open… seeming to follow the historic past, but all the many denominations have spread out of the small villages and into the surrounding area, where stood three now stands one.  Famous preachers are now replaced with musical groups who tour to raise spirits in the ever more connected and depressing world.

Missionaries like the Deans, Emily Judson, and the Wades have faded... but some still go out via the local churches as missions, but it is not the same.

The promise of gas lights and heat at a cheap rate has gone away, though today there are more gas heads and gas lines crossing the town than ever before… yet no gas is delivered to a majority of its rural population.

Cows are really no longer family with pictures and names that are revered…now they are part of a mechanical business we call production.  Herds that once roamed free have expanded to hundreds in barns feeding and milking,  many  - three times a day.

Children can no longer walk to school and return home with lunch pails in hand talking about their day to their friends along the way.  Local education that was the pride and care of the community has disappeared… replaced by central schools and huge buses that runaround the town mostly empty… back and forth, back and forth.

Yes things have changed, we now drive miles to stores rather than walk “over town” to shop locally. We spend our money at institutions run by millionaires and foreign countries rather than keep our money local helping the butcher, baker and candlestick maker.

Doctors no longer make house calls and you can’t stop at Mrs. Chase’s for a remedy or liquid cure…now we now have specialists and travel to big complexes in Syracuse. Our children leave for college and a better way of life to never return in many cases…but sometimes I wonder… are we really better off in the modern world?  Only history will tell.

For a piece of history you can purchase the new Eaton History Book at Dougherty's Pharmacy in Morrisville...

small town fun.....

Eaton's Church turns 180 years old........Happy Birthday!

Today is a special day in Eaton, it is the day the current Eaton Church was dedicated on June 6^th in 1833.  Its 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.

The step which bore the inscription still sits in front of the church, but has been broken up and can no longer be read.  But the churches history has followed that of the Eaton Hamlet and has in fact helped the history of the United States. 

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, a friend of Gerrit Smith and a noted abolitionist.  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.

One of the best stories I have about the church is one that ended up involving me.  Melville Landon wrote a story on Mr. Wood and the Rev. Cleveland for one of his books. In the story Mr. Wood is hawking hymnals for sale in the back of the church while Rev. Cleveland was announcing the following weeks Baptism Service for children.  Wood only had one child and so when the minister said for the parishioners to bring their children… Mr. Wood piped up, thinking he was talking about the hymnal that “they could have as many as they wanted for 50 cents each.”

I wrote about this story for the Mid-York Weekly newspaper and the next week I received a package from Pennsylvania…it was the sermon handwritten that Rev. Cleveland delivered that day!...

History always returns to Eaton…so visit the museum soon and see the document for yourself…we are going to be open on Sundays 1-3 pm in the summer.

Here's a video of the church!