The Chenango Canal History & Lebanon Reservior

This history is on another of the many ponds and lakes that dot our beautiful Southern Madison County area, Lebanon Reservoir.  I am still a bit under the weather so will get back to you on the historic markers soon...more yet to come...but with the warm weather and summer folk arriving I thought I would put this piece up f0r you to enjoy!

Though located in today’s Town of Lebanon, the water that flowed from this reservoir makes its way via feeders to Eaton’s Leland Pond and Woodman Pond areas, where it is 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!

More on the Old Madison County Home, winter and Welfare Reform

Workers starting the rebuilding of "The Home!.

This week as usual has been cold for the most part.  Winter does not read calendars...so its still winter.  The snow is still on the ground...so I thought I would continue with the story of the old "Madison County Home.

The building of the news Almshouse almost coincided with the new wave of welfare reform that swept New York State after the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt as the new Governor.  Roosevelt, elected in 1928, set to work immediately modernizing the poor laws and the rules governing public assistance in New York State.

The Superintendent of the Poor at this point in Madison County (since January 1, 1927) was Freeman MacIntyre.   The new governor signed the new Public Welfare Act into place.

The new Welfare Act came into law in April of 1929, modernizing the Madison County poor laws, which had been put into place in 1821.  This “Act” placed all the monies at the charge of the new Commissioner of Public Welfare.  Freeman McIntyre’s title had changed.

This new Welfare Act removed the terms “pauper, alms house and superintendent of the poor”.  The term Alms House that had been used for over one hundred years, was to officially become County Home.  (It is interesting to note that in Madison County documents it continued to be off and on referred to as the “Almshouse.”

Those interested in historic markers can go to the Town of Eaton Office Building and see the beautiful plaque that was removed from the Gerrit Smith Infirmary before it was sold; this bronze plaque clearly reads “Almshouse.”

From a 1931 clipping we find that the County Home and Freeman MacIntyre was placed in a number 1 classification for administration.  These times were the times of great poverty and depression in the United States, and the County Home contained over 95 occupants.  The highest number for the year was 112.  From July of the year before, there were 67 admissions and 61 discharges in addition to many “transients” that received food and shelter.

Winter, Cows, Fog, The Old Town of Eaton Museum and Me!

Burchard Farm as it used to look...still standing in Pine Woods

It seems everyone has been down with something health wise this winter.  For those that haven’t been affected physically they have been depressed by the ups and downs of the weather.  I myself am one!  It had to be tough on animals with near zero to mid sixties and back again. This got me thinking about the cows, yes the cows.

Few people realize the role the Town of Eaton has played in the history of the Holstein-Friesian breed whose relatives still dot the countryside today.  Many know of Gerrit Smith Miller and his famous cow, but few realize that the Chenango Breeders Association brought the first actual breeding herd here from Holland in the 1800’s.  As a matter of fact the group of Eatonites included Sylvester Burchard, Charles Payne and a very interesting man called by many Deacon (Alva) Cole.  As a matter of fact Burchard and Payne wrote the rules the breed was judged by. (I have some of Cole’s and Burchard’s artifacts and pictures in the Old Town of Eaton Museum.) It is also interesting to note that the old Burchard Farm was the first dairy in Madison County.

So with that being said… the “FOG” we had the other night down here made me think of a good story I remembered. One of the many things I did not realize when I move here was the meaning of the term “leavings”.  Old Nellie Wooten always would say as she went here or there that there were a mess of leavings. Okay, what are leavings? But not inquiring…. I would just shrug my shoulders and figure it was something or other. I finally realized the actual meaning once, which made sense months later.

It was a hot spring week, but the nights were still quite cool, and my cat Chat my cat woke me up and kept running to the side door. I got up and followed him as Chat was very smart, and I assumed some- thing was wrong. As we went out onto the porch I could hear this mooing that sounded eerie. It was dancing in the thick pea soup fog that had arisen. It seemed to be moving at one point, then sounded as if it was in my back yard, but neither the cat or I could see anything.

The next morning I went across the street to my neighbor Mike Curtis’ and asked, “Were there cows loose running around town last night”? He just laughed at me. ”It’s the fog, it makes everything sound that way!” I walked over to Bob Rollins, struck up a conversation and told him about it. He said, “Oh the fog can really fool you; it was for sure the farm up above.” He told me a story about how some local men had been lost in the local swamp after going bullhead fishing because the fog was so thick. He said they even had to send a search group after them when they did not return home! Something I stored in my memory should I ever go bullhead fishing in a swamp in spring! 

Just then Nellie came strolling down the street heading “over town” as she called it. I greeted her and asked her if she had heard cows roaming in the back yards last night. She said no but asked if I had looked in my back yard for leavings!

Ah, leavings. All of the bells and whistles went off in my head: leavings! Sure enough, there were cow leavings, and the piles of stuff that they left were quite visible. Even today I politely call them leav- ings!

So csome to the old Town of Eaton this Spring and view “Cow” history!