The Train that Never Came

I was on Peg Ellsworth's show on WIOX in Roxbury again yesterday, sharing the mike with Doug Kadow, President of the Ulster and Delaware Railroad Historical Society. We talked about railroads, with my focus being on the attempt to bring the railroad into Bovina in 1898. This effort, by the way, had as its main purpose of connecting Delhi and Andes by rail, but a 3 mile spur was planned to bring it into Bovina. Doug is very interested in this particular railroad that never was.

Over the past month, some research in the newspapers has led to answering some questions about the railroad - and bringing up others. And I learned a lot from Doug about these railroads. I'll be doing a series of blog entries over the next month explaining what I have found about this failed attempt. Did you know that much of the rail bed had been constructed - and in only 7 weeks? Did you know that workers went on strike and nearly rioted when they didn't get paid for their efforts? And what was unusual about the spur to Bovina?

And thanks to Tim Mallery, I now have information on further attempts in the early 20th century to bring the trains to Bovina. The 1898 failure did not end the discussion.

So be ready on the platform for when the next installment of "The Train that Never Came" rolls into your computer (sorry, I couldn't resist a clunky railroad analogy).

Bovina Celebrates - Celebrate Bovina

I just met this evening with Shannon Shoemaker, a Bovina Historical Society trustee. We discussed creating a DVD of images and videos showing Bovina celebrating -- town picnics, tugs of war, ball games, parades, church celebrations, rock concerts and other ways that Bovina celebrates its heritage and, well, has fun. And we hope to use local musicians to provide the musical track to go along with the images.

We have a number of images but could always use more. Images from the town picnics from the 20s, 50s and 60s are especially desired, but anything showing the different ways Bovina had fun are always welcome. I am happy to scan any non-electronic images you have and return them to you. I also can provide you with an electronic copy. We'd like to have all of our images collected and identified by April 1. Shannon is hoping to use students at SUNY Delhi to put together the DVD.

I'll keep you all posted as this develops. We're hoping to premiere it in the fall and have it available for sale, proceeds to benefit the BHS.

Past and Future of Bovina Farming

Bovina, as any community, has had occasions over the years to review its livelihood. In the late 19th century, the reduced demand for butter, a major product of Bovina farms for much of that century, led to an address by Bovina farmer Thomas Ormiston in 1896. Mr. Ormiston, the father of Lois Davidson and Ruth Monroe, spoke at the annual meeting of the New York State Dairymen's Association in Delhi. He sounded the alarm about the reduced demand for Delaware County butter and suggested some ways to deal with it. Ormiston noted that “the demand for dairy butter is growing less and less every year. Last fall having lost an old customer...I went to New York to try and get another place for the butter. I found that the majority of the stores were overstocked with butter. With this condition of affairs, and the extremely low prices for other farm products, the dairymen of Delaware County are in a bad way.” Ormiston put some of the blame on the farmers themselves for keeping the butter too long before selling it. He also noted that “there are too many persons between the producer and the consumer.” He noted that “there are three classes of men who have been taking from the consumers in the butter trade. They are the creamery man, the creamery supply man and the hocuspocus man." Ormiston had nothing against the creamery man but said that "The second is a shark to do the farmers and the last man is seeking to steal the reputation of the others.”

Ormiston noted that "there are a good many farmers who are very sensible as producers, but who would utterly fail as salesmen in working up a trade." He suggested working cooperatively. "Cooperation in producing, cooperation in selling, cooperation in buying." In this way, he hoped to avoid the middle man.

Ormiston suggested a cooperative creamery, though with caveats. He noted that at the 1893 World's Fair, "old fashioned dairy butter (i.e. butter made at home) was proven to be the best." His remedy for that was to have each cooperative member still make butter at home, but follow rules for its production. In this way, butter from Delaware County would be of a uniformly good quality.

Six years after Ormiston's speech, the Bovina Center Cooperative Creamery was established. Milk was processed and contrary to Ormiston's advice, the butter was made at the creamery by a butter maker. In 1905, the butter maker was paid a salary of $800. The creamery operated until 1973.

Over the past few years, Bovina farmers and those interested in the future of the town have again looked at cooperation as a way to save Bovina farming and thus preserve the community's rural and agricultural flavor. In Tom Ormiston's time, and well before and after his time, Bovina's primary farming activity has been dairying. Today, farming in Bovina has a more eclectic mix. While there still are three dairy farms in the town, there also are farmers dealing in beef, pork, eggs, Christmas trees, organic vegetables, maple syrup, hay and agri-tourism.

On Saturday, January 15, I attended a meeting organized by Evelyn Stewart at which the creation of a not-for-profit organization to help farmers in Bovina was discussed. The goal of this effort is to keep the over 200 year old tradition of farming in Bovina going well into the 21st century. This new cooperative venture is following the historic footsteps of people like Thomas Ormiston. Come back to this blog for updates on Bovina's rich farming history - and its farming future.

Bovina in the Civil War - The Sesquicentennial

It was 150 years ago this April that the United States Civil War began with the attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. The impact of the war was nationwide, even in states where no actual engagements took place, such as New York. And the war had its impact on Bovina. Over 90 men from Bovina served in the war, with 11 of them dying in the conflict. Thirty-three men eligible for military service applied for an exemption from such service. Bovina taxpayers in 1863, 1864 and 1865 were asked to ante up money for bounties to meet the town's quota of men. The minister of the Bovina United Presbyterian Church took a leave from the church to serve as a chaplain - and suffered serious illness as a result.

Over the next year, I will be doing monthly blog entries related to the impact of the Civil War on Bovina. I'll look at what was going on in Bovina when the war started, the various reasons men gave for exemption from service, those 11 men who died in the service (including two brothers), what happened to those soldiers who survived, and how Bovina voted during the war.

Here's the headstone of Solomon G. Coulter, one of Bovina's Civil War casualties. There are several headstones like this in the Bovina Cemtery. Photo courtesy of Ed and Dick Davidson.

Annual Town Meetings

Tonight is the organizational meeting of the Town of Bovina. All towns in New York are required to hold such a meeting at which certain appointments are made (including that of the town historian). The town board, made up of the supervisor and four town council persons, meets monthly.

Things were different in the 19th century. Towns usually held only one meeting a year and did not have a town board as we know it today. Bovina held annual town meetings for almost 80 years. They were held in March until 1840, when they changed to February. At the annual meetings, town officials were elected and resolutions passed. Resolutions covered a range of issues. At the annual meeting held Tuesday, March 6, 1827, for instance, it was voted that “John Johnston, a town pauper, be sold to the person that will keep him the cheapest.” He was sold was sold to John Bennet for one year at the rate of nine shillings and six pense per week. The following year, he was sold to Robert Johnston, who was “allowed one dollar per week" for his support. Whether or not Robert was a relative is not clear.

During Bovina’s early years, the town justices, supervisor and clerk would meet as a board when there were issues to be resolved between Annual Meetings. Occasionally, issues were deemed important enough to hold an extra meeting to get a public vote. At a special meeting on April 5, 1821, the following items were resolved:
• that hogs are not to run at large unless yoked according to law said yoke to be four inches above and below the neck;
• that rams shall not be permitted to run at large from the first day of September until the fifteenth day of November following under the penalty of twelve dollars and fifty cents per head;
• that the collector have ... three percent for collecting the Taxes of the town;
• that the town raise by tax Ten Dollars for Compensating the Clerk of said Town for his services in the years 1820 and 1821;
• the vote taken at the annual Town Meeting of paying John Seacord the Collector Thirty Seven Dollars and fifty cents be rescinded.

Bovina’s last annual meeting was held on February 8, 1898 at Strangeway’s Hall. On February 14, 1899, Bovina started holding Biennial meetings. These meetings were essentially held to vote for town officers. The town board was meeting regularly by then. In 1903, the time of the Biennial meeting was moved to November to coincide with Election Day. The Biennial meetings ended in 1921.

Who Am I?

When I walked into Russell's this past Friday, Bea saw me and said 'Ray LaFever, just the guy I want to see.' Oh dear, what question would she hit me with this time?! She then presented me with this picture of a baseball player from Bovina and wanted to know who it was. She got it from a gentleman in Harpersfield. Unfortunately, I was not able to answer her question. Maybe he is one of the players in the turn of the century games I reported on in my August 16, 2010 blog entry. Because we don't know anything else about where the picture was found or why it ended up where it did, I cannot even fathom a guess. Of course, nothing was written on the back and we don't even know what studio did the photograph. And I don't recognize the face. So if anyone has any thoughts, please pass them along to me. And yes, I have already passed this image on to Tim Harlo Bray, who got the Bovina Dairymen vintage baseball team going last year. Help us get this gentleman identified so he doesn't join the legions of those unidentified persons staring out at us from old photographs.

Bovina Historian on the Wireless

Tomorrow (Saturday the 8th) I'm going to be on WIOX in Roxbury from 9-10 am talking with Peg Ellsworth about Bovina, local history in general, the role of the local government historian and how to research Delaware County's history and genealogy. You can listen on your wireless (an old British word for radio) at 91.3 or listen on your wireless or wired internet at http://wroxradio.blogspot.com/.

This radio was once owned by Cecil Russell - he used to listen to Yankee games on it. I bought it at the Russell auction in 2000. Unfortunately, I can't listen to WIOX on it, but it's a great conversation piece.