A Week with Bovina People - December 1900 - 125 Years ago from the Andes Recorder

 

December 7, 1900

• Vern Dumond was at John Oliver’s on Sabbath.

• W.B. Scott was in town from Delhi on Sabbath.

• Alex. Archibald passed through this place on Sabbath.

• John Miller’s hired man is seriously ill with pneumonia.

• A daughter of Richard Fuller has been visiting in town.

• Bovina’s tax rate this year is $7.72 on each thousand assessed.

• Adam Scott and wife were up from Delhi the first of the week.

• Miss Jennie Campbell was home from Hobart over Thanksgiving.

• Born on Tuesday, December 4, to Mr. and Mrs. Milton Doig, a son.

• Rev. Samson attended the meeting of the Presbytery at West Kortright Tuesday.

• Alex. Johnson, a brother of the late Thomas Johnson, has been visiting in town.

• Thomas Gordon is in Delhi assisting B.F. Gerowe with the laying of the taxes, etc.

• Elder T.C. Strangeway attended the meeting of Presbytery at West Kortright this week.

• G.D. Miller was at Pine Hill Tuesday attending the funeral of a child of Adolphus Banker.

• Robert Foreman and Miss Dora Boggs were married Wednesday evening at home of the bride’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Boggs, in upper Bovina at 7:30 o’clock, Rev. W.L.C. Samson officiating. Over 100 guests were in attendance and many valuable presents were received. A wedding trip was taken to Albany. 

Gordon-Rogers

Mr. and Mrs. T. Gordon and B.S. Miller returned last Saturday from New York, having been attending the marriage of John L. Gordon of the New York police force, and Miss Lizzie Rogers, daughter of William Rogers, of N. 41, East 62d street. The ceremony was attending by over 100 guests and took place in St. Vincent Ferrer’s church. The bride was attired in white silk, covered and trimmed with white and cream lace, and the groom in conventional black. They were attended by the bride’s brother, James, as best man and Miss Mamie Levy of Bridgeport, Conn, a cousin of the bride, as bridesmaid, also attired in white silk. The bride carried a magnificent bouquet of white roses and the bridesmaid one of pink roses. Afterwards a royal reception took place at the bride’s home, where tables were set for 105. The presents were numerous and valuable. The young couple have commenced housekeeping in their flat at No. 225 East 71st Street. 

December 14, 1900

• A.O. Butts was at Bloomville Sabbath.

• Charles Barker was in this place on Monday.

• R.A. Thompson went to Kingston Monday.

• W.G. McNee is ill at John Irvine’s with pleurisy.

• Rev. Marvin J. .Thompson arrived in town Monday.

• John Blair and Alex. Hilson were at Delhi Tuesday.

• R.A. Thompson and A.O. Butts have traded horses.

• Thomas Gordon and wife returned home from Delhi Monday.

• The musical entertainment Monday evening is said to have been very fine.

• Presiding Elder Germond preached in the Methodist church Saturday afternoon.

• Supervisor Irvine is at Delhi attending the meeting of the supervisors this week. 

• Mrs. W.J. Doig and Mrs. E. George Galdstone went to New York city Monday on the excursion.

• James Townsend and family have moved from the Samuel Adee farm to Covert Hollow, Hamden.

• Marshall Gladstone and Smith Hillis of Delhi, were in town Saturday doing some work for F.G. Bramley. 

• Winter weather is here and Monday morning the thermometer registered from 2 to 5 degrees below zero.

December 21, 1900

• A.A. Johnson visited Delhi on Tuesday.

• John Irvine was at the County seat Tuesday.

• John Blair and wife visited Delhi on Saturday.

• Commissioner Gow was at Stamford Thursday.

• James Armstrong was here Saturday from Andes. 

• John Storie was down at the County Seat Thursday.

• Dr. Seacord and Orrin Reynolds were at Andes Monday.

• Robert Laing was seen in town from Andes Wednesday.

• Mrs. Alex Hilson and son, John, visited Delhi Saturday.

• Mrs. Barnhart has been visiting her son, Jeremy Barnhart.

• E.F. Thompson, of Bellefontaine, Ohio, is in this vicinity.

• John Douglas and John Glendenning were up from Delhi Monday.

• Thomas Miller visited Walton and Norwich the first of the week.

• Mrs. William Crosier and Mrs. M.M. Boggs were at Delhi Saturday.

• Michael, Berry S. and Gilbert D. Miller visited Delhi Wednesday.

• A Christmas tree will be held next Tuesday evening in Strangeway’s Hall.

• Rev. Williams arrived home Tuesday after an absence of about a fortnight.

• W.W. Hoy, wife and children, from Oil City, Pennsylvania, are guests of his parents, Mr. and John R. Hoy in this village.

• Among those at Delhi Wednesday were Rev. Samson and wife, Mrs. J.I. Coulter, Miss Jennie Gladstone, Frank R. Coulter and wife, and Fred Thompson.

• Wesley Williams, who had been ill with pneumonia at John M. Miller’s died Thursday morning.  The remains will be taken to his home at Honesdale, Pennsylvania.

• Rev. Minch of Delhi, will deliver a lecture on the “Battle of Gettysburg” in Strangeway’s Hall, Thursday evening, December 27.  Admission 25 cents and proceeds for the benefit of the soldiers’ monument fund.

• William Strangeway died Saturday morning at his home on Federal Hill, near Delhi with heart trouble, and had he lived until January would have been 64 years old.  He was born in Bovina.  The funeral was held at his home Tuesday, his pastor Rev. Samson, officiating. Interment was made in the cemetery at this place.

December 28, 1900

• Bert Elliott was at Andes Tuesday.

• Charles Palmer was down at Delhi Friday.

• Robert Biggar was over at Andes on Monday.

• Mrs. James Boyd visited Andes on Tuesday.

• Leonard Sloan and wife visited Delhi Friday.

• William Coulter was here Wednesday from Andes.

• Arthur Burns is home from school at Kingston.

• The Centre school is enjoying a two weeks’ vacation.

• W.M. Johnson visited relatives at Walton last week.

• Mr. and Mrs. John M. Miller were at Delhi Friday last.

• Milton Hoy, of Oil City, Pennsylvania, is visiting his parents here.

• Robert Brown and Elliott Liddle, of Andes, were seen in town Saturday.

• John Smith, of Walton, visited his parents here the latter part of last week.

• Hon. E.T. Gerry has made J.W. Coulter a present of a very fine gold watch.

• Rev. John H. Lee has received and accepted a call at Columbus, Ohio, and will be installed sometime in January. 

• Hon. E.T. Gerry will build a large new barn with all modern improvements at his summer home at Lake Delaware.

• Some of those home for a vacation are, Miss Jennie Campbell, Misses Anna and Bertha Phyfe, Irving Phinney and Leslie McNee.

• Night Cap social will be held at the residence of Peter McNair on Monday evening, December 31, under the auspices of the Ladies Aid Society, for the benefit of the Methodist church.

• Alex. Crosier, A.O. Butts and Will Maynard have each put in a bid to carry the mail for the next four years from Bovina to Bloomville.  We understand that the bids range from about $390 up to $500.

• January 1.  J.W. Coulter who has for many years been manager at the Gerry summer home at Lake Delaware will retire and move to rooms in A.T. Strangeway’s store.  He will be succeeded by Mr. McWilliams who will institute many radical reforms.

Bovina and the American Revolution - James Vanderburgh (1758-1840)

The second revolutionary war burial in the Brush cemetery is James Vanderburgh. Like Samuel Ludington, his time in Bovina was relatively brief. James was born in 1758 in Beekman, Dutchess County, NY. In April 1776, he joined the company of Captain Durling, re-enlisting in 1777 and 1779. He was a guard over military stores in the Town of Beekman and participated in the taking of two robbers or, “cow boys as they were usually called, named Weeks and Ackerly.” They actually were British spies and were hanged at Poughkeepsie in April 1781. The whole time he was in service, as he later noted in his pension application, he did not attend to any civil pursuit, saying that “his business was solely that of a soldier…” 

While in service, he found time in October 1779 to marry Jane Rosecrans. After the war, he settled in Columbia County, where he filed for his Revolutionary War pension in 1831. His pension was $40 a year. 

One of the people writing to support his application wrote: “Mr. Vanderburgh is an honest & very respectable old man, all who know him feel a very deep interest in the success of his application because he is poor & meritorious. It would afford me very great pleasure to be able to take home with me a certificate that he is to be one of the recipients of his Country’s bounty and thus gladden the heart of the good old patriot.” 

We don’t know when he came to Bovina but by 1840, he and his wife were living in Bovina with their son Clarence. James died later that year, as did his wife. He’s buried in the Brush cemetery, next to what is now the Bovina library, as likely is his wife, though her grave is not marked. 

December 1925 - 100 Years Ago in "That Thriving Town"

 

December 4, 1925

• John Aitken’s jr. is on the sick list.

• Gilbert Banker motored to Pine Hill on Friday.

• Frank Coulter and family were Delhi visitors Tuesday.

• Mrs. Carrie Doig is visiting her brother in Walton.

• The Thank Offering at the U.P. church amounted to $528.

• A.P. Lee is preparing to erect a modern barn on the Lee homestead.

• From a supper the Young Woman’s Missionary Society cleared $32.70.

• Elmer Hastings, of Saranac Lake, is renewing acquaintances in town.

• Mrs. Walter G. Coulter had her toe severely injured when a soap stone fell on it. [This is Margaret Strangeway Coulter, mother of Ruth Coulter Parsons and Celia Coulter.]

• The friends of Mr. and Mrs. Benj Schofield made them a visit Monday evening.

• Harry Robinson and Miss Mary Thomson were at South Kortright on Tuesday. [This might be Harry Robertson, not Robinson, but I’m not sure.]

• Mr. and Mrs. Arnold VanDusen, of Oneonta, spent Sabbath with his parents here.

• Mr. and Mrs. James A. Gow spent over Thanksgiving with their sons in Endicott.

• Robert E. Thomson and wife and Norton Forrest spent Thanksgiving at George Cable’s in Delhi.

• It is reported that Mr. Miner, who has been living in the A.B. Phyfe house, will move to Big Indian.

• Mr. Smith, who has been on Barney Johnson’s farm in the upper part of the town, has moved to John Blair’s farm.

• Frank Drake has moved from the Dickson house to the A.W. Baker farm uptown, known as the Fred Johnson place.

• Owing to the absence of the pastor there will be no preaching in the U.P. church on Sabbath. Sabbath school at 12 o’clock.

• Edgar Lee, who has a position as a pharmacist in Buffalo, spent over the weekend with his father, John B. Lee in Tuttle Hollow. [Edgar became a successful pharmacist in Delhi, running Lee’s Pharmacy for many years. His daughter Lucile would marry Willard Frisbee.]

• Mrs. Lucy Coulter spent Thanksgiving with her son Ward Coulter, at Walton, and also attended the 30th anniversary of the marriage of her brother, William Ward at Colchester Station.

• Mrs. Dixon Thomson and Mrs. Wm Armstrong received word Monday that their brother, Frank Kaufman, died in Kingston on Sabbath, November 29. Death was due to shock. He was connected with the Kaufman ice cream business. 

• Professor Leon Taggart and family, of Oneonta, Frank Dickson and family, from Little Delaware, were at T.C. Strangeway’s on Friday. Mrs. Dickson remained until Monday to help care for her mother, who is confined to her bed with grip poisoning.

Had Delicate Operation

Wm. H. Irvine, a Former Bovina Boy, Has Operation for Tumor on Brain

William H. Irvine, a former Bovina boy, now a business man of Seattle, Washington, is improving in St. Mary’s hospital at Rochester, Minn, after an operation for tumor at the base of the brain, performed on November 26.  He was on the operation table three hours and went through a very painful and trying ordeal, only a local anesthetic being used so that he was conscious during the entire time.  A partition of the skull over and above the tumor was removed and a quantity of the fluid drained from the tumor, but the tumor itself was not taken out.  The surgeons hope by radium and x-ray treatment to dry up the tumor in time, but think it will likely continue to fill up with the fluid may have to [be] drained several times before recovery is complete.  When the section of the skull that was removed was replaced a small opening was left over the spot where the tumor is, before the flesh and skin were replaced.  This will allow easy drainage of the tumor without the severe operation that was performed last week.  [Bill Irvine recovered enough to make a trip back east a year later. He had a second operation in 1928 but sadly, it was all for naught. He died in 1929 at the age of 41.]

December 11, 1925

• Mr. and Mrs. Loron Maxim visited his mother at Fleischmanns on Sabbath.

• Born to Mr. and Mrs. Guy Rockefeller, Thursday morning, December 10, a son. [This was Bill Rockefeller. He married Marge Thomas and passed away in 2005.]

• Robert Robinson was at Andes on Tuesday attending the funeral of his sister-in-law.

• Mr. and Mrs. C.S. Gladstone and daughter attended church at Andes on Sabbath evening.

• Thomas Miner, who has been employed at the dry milk plant, moved to Big Indian on Tuesday.

• Mr. Hoyt, who has been living on the James Henry Dean farm for past two or three years, is very low with cancer of the stomach.

• Mrs. M.M. Wright, who teaches in the Armstrong district, had an exciting experience Tuesday morning.  In coming down the hill on the state road from Andes her car skidded on the slippery road and went around and into the ditch.  One tire was torn off.  Fortunately Harry Robinson came along and put on another tire for her and helped her get righted.

Resolutions on the Death of Mrs. Elizabeth Taylor Raitt

The Women’s Missionary Society of Bovina Cener desire to pay this tribute of love and respect to the memory of Mrs. Elizabeth Taylor Raitt, wife of John Raitt, ruling Elder in this congregation for a great number of years.

In the passing of Mrs. Raitt we have had taken from among us, and from our membership one who was truly a saint of Israel.

She was a Charter member of the Women’s Missionary Society; quiet and unassuming in her nature but always interested in the activities that were for the building up of Christ Kingdom at home in the mission fields. Her long life of over ninety years was truly a benediction and the fragrance of it remains with us.

For a number of years feebleness of body and distance from the place of meeting prevent her from meeting with us, but she always maintained her interest in the work, and what was and will be accomplished by her prayers and liberality will only be revealed in the future. In the closing of life, she could truthfully say;

It pays to live in Gods service

Faithfully day by day,

Cheerfully bearing the Chalis

Which shows to others the way.

To the only son and aged Brother we extend our sincere sympathy and commend them to Him who said; As one who his Mother comforteth so will I comfort you.

Mrs. Lucy Coulter, Mrs. Mary Gordon, Mrs. Eliott Thomson; Committee

[Mrs. Raitt had been widowed for many years. She had two children. Her daughter Anna predeceased her in 1910. She was the grandmother of John Raitt, who was Delaware County Historian and wrote several volumes of local history, including his “Ruts in the Road” series.]

December 18, 1925

• The Willing Workers made Mrs. W.B. Smith a surprise Monday.

• Mrs. Everett Joslin and Mrs. Hull are spending the week in New York City.

• Mrs. Walter McDivitt , of South Kortright, has been visiting in town a few days.

• Mrs. William T. Forrest, of Lake Delaware, is spending a few weeks in New York City.

• George Miller is improving his barn on the old Kinmuth place, re-siding it and making other repairs. [This was later the residence of Clark and Gladys Lay. George Miller was Clark’s maternal grandfather.]

• The second number of the Bovina lecture course was a lecture by Ward Flexington last Friday night.

• Mrs. William M. Armstrong, who has been ill several months, does not improve as her friends would wish.

• Supervisor Wallace B. Smith is in Delhi this week attending the closing sessions of the board of Supervisors.

• Mrs. and Mrs. Abram Foremeu and Mr. and Mrs. Ed McCumber, of Poughkeepsie, spent the weekend with their parents in town. [Foremeu might be Foreman but I’m not sure.]

• Mr. and Mrs. Collin Reside of Shavertown and Mrs. Bell Reside of Andes, were visiting their cousin Mrs. David D. Liddle, Tuesday.

• Mrs. Anna Ruff, formerly of this town, who lives in Delhi, has gone to Abescon, N.J. to spend the winter with her brother, M.H. White. [Anna was the widow of William Ruff, who died in 1912. Anna died in 1943.]

• Mr. and Mrs. E.G. Gladstone, who left Bovina about 16 years ago and went to Crested Butte, Colorado, have moved to Farr, Colorado, where another of the Fuel & Iron Co. mines is located.  The altitude of their new location is about 2,000 feet lower.

Gerry House Started

Henry Connor, of Walton, has the contract for the cellar of the new house of Miss Angelica Gerry at Lake Delaware, and it must be finished in April.  The location is on the highest point of the J.K. Russell place, the former Hogaboom farm.  It is found the foundation is on solid rock and the stone blasted out will be used to build a road to connect with the stone highway running thru the original Gerry estate. [This was Ancram House, which stood until the early 60s.]

Bovina Boys at Cornell

Sheldon Budine, Walton; Howard Dickson, Delhi, and Hugh McPherson, Bovina Center, were the members of the team which represented Delaware at the State Poultry Judging contest at the Cornell Poultry show December 1-3. Their total score was 1,810 which gave them third place with Orange First and Chenango second. 

Was Lake Delaware Girl

Mrs. Bertha Landon died at Great Barrington, Mass., December 3, from cancer. She was born at Lake Delaware and is a daughter of Charles A. Lee. Besides her father she leaves three daughters and two sons. Last spring she was granted a divorce from her husband Dr. F.D. Landon, a veterinary. 

December 25, 1925

• Fred Thomson was a Delhi caller Monday.

• C.S. Gladstone and family were Andes shoppers Saturday evening.

• A Christmas tree and exercises were held at the U.P. church Thursday evening.

• Frank Palmer has moved from the Dickson big house to Arch Phyfe’s tenant house.

• Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Burgin visited her sister, Mrs. Harvey Robertson at Andes on Friday.

• William C. Russell, who had been helping his sisters in southern Bovina returned home Saturday.

• Mrs. and Mrs. Alfred Russell and children and Mr. and Mrs. William C. Russell were at Delhi on Monday. 

• Paul Furhman has purchased the McCune house and lot for $1,250 and will open a barber shop in the old grocery building. [This was later owned by Florence and Clayton Thomas and currently is owned by Tom Hetterich.]

• John Northrup, who lives on what is known as the Margaret Hoy farm, underwent an operation for appendicitis at Delhi last Thursday afternoon.

• Mr. and Mrs. Millard Gow and son, and Mr. and Mrs. Willard Gow, of Endicott, are here to spend over Christmas with their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Jas A. Gow.

• C.J. Hoyt, who for about two years had been employed at Len Smith on the former James Henry Dean farm, died on Thursday afternoon, December 17, from cancer of the stomach. His age was about 60 years.

• Those home for the holidays are: Mabel Thomson, Winstead, Conn; William Gordon, Pratts Institute, Brooklyn; Margaret Gordon, Albany Teachers’ College; Jane Hilson, South Orange, J.J.; Caroline Dickson, Vermont; Professor and Mrs. Geo Baldwin, Spring Valley.