Lewis County Adventure

Sunday, 20 October, I took off for Lewis to search for Rev War burials, had to find two cemeteries first. I knew their general location but had never been there.  The directions on findagrave were very general with no pictures for the cemeteries.

First was Ferry road.  From the name I assumed it was near the Black river but old newspaper articles told me it was on a abandoned town road, near the edge of the town of Lowville, between No 3 road and NYS 12.  I was able to find it on the back side of a cornfield.  The used to be Feare, probably after an old family, but had morphed into Ferry The road still existed but was overgrown with grass and burdock.

Ferry/Feare Road Cemetery

It was a beautiful day and location , with farmland all around me, Tug Hill and it's windmills  looming to the West and the Adirondacks to the East.  Over head were Lake Effect clouds in long wide rows separated by equal clear spaces.  The cemetery was a nice patch of trees that had been mowed and the fallen branches stacked by the edge.  Only one stone was still standing but it was the vet, Ichabod Perry, that I had come for.  It's a large cemetery and must have had hundreds of stones. Perhaps some are under the leaves.

Plank Cemetery

Next I went to Plank cemetery, near Copenhagen.  I knew where it was but had to get permission from the farmer to get to it.  The cemetery was a small area surrounded by fence in the center of a pasture containing 20 or so cows.  They were at the far end so I had no trouble with them.  I had to climb a gate, open an other and then get my feet wet hopping over a damp area to get to the cemetery.  The stones are few, faint and hard to read.  The two vets, John Plank and Joseph Van Ingen, were still standing and readable.  They looked like replacement stones but were still old. 



The view from Ferry Rd.

 

Kelsey Bridge Cemetery

Yesterday, 10/2/2013, I attended the Celebration Of Remembrance of those resting in the Kelsey Bridge Cemetery and Recognition of Richard L Perrigo.     This ceremony was organized by the Hon James M Eagan, President Rochester Chapter ESSAAR, the Sons of the American Revolution.




                                                    
Mr Perrigo has spent an enormous amount of time, money and sweat cleaning up this cemetery, which is located across from his home. There are three Revolutionary war veterans and four War of 1812 veterans buried there.  His work, and the burials of the veterans, were the inspiration for this ceremony.

SAR members were present from the Rochester, Oriskany and Saratoga, NY chapters and the Clearwater, FL chapter.  Officers were also there from the LeRay de Chaumont chapter of the ESSDAR and the Gen Jacob Brown Chapter of the US Daughters of 1812.  A small delegation was also there to honor Mr Perrigo and the Civil war veterans buried in Kelsey Bridge.  Many of the people attending wore period costumes.

Several people were present who were interested in the attempt to start a Thousand Island Chapter of the SAR to be based in Alexandria Bay, NY.  A very pleasant day and a very warm one for October in upstate NY.

Still Plugging Along

August already, a really wet year.  The garden was a challenge.  Nothing wanted to grow and the creeping myrtle turned into frank-en-weed, covering everything.  Potatoes look good and the salvia put on a good show.

My wife bought me a new toy,  a new zero turn mower, a really great machine.  It does an excellent job and is quick.  I don't have to make the 3 point turns or loop back like I did with the old mower.  It did burn out a blade bearing but that was replaced under warranty.  Took 2 weeks though.

Found the 1835 Roll of Pensioners produced by  Congress, online and free thanks to Google.  The information obtained is posted on my site in the Revolution & 1812 section.  Also found there are my lists for Revolutionary war veterans buried in Lewis and St. Lawrence counties.

Lewis county, NY Revolutionary War Burials

Just posted my Lewis county list to my homepage.  The list is a compilation of all the hints and leads I could find on line augmented by some burials I found in Lewis county cemeteries. 

My website is coded in HTML and I was afraid I would have to write the code for a 6X131 table but the rootsweb Freepages-Help list directed me to Tableizer!.  The site is free.  Just copy the cells from your spread sheet and drop it in the box.  A few seconds later it produces the code.  Very nice and a great time saver.

Weather and Rev Vets

The damp weather has stopped and now the hot humid weather begins.  A unpleasant years.  The wild berries have put on a poor show but the nuts trees are loaded to the breaking point.

Have spent some time working up virtual cemeteries on FAG for Revolutionary vets buried in Jefferson, Lewis and St Lawrence county.  Now to find a way to post it to rootsweb.  There must be a easy way to code it.  Meanwhile check out the cemeteries on FAG.

A quick update.  I have added the new obits from Tamaqua to the Friberg page of my homepage.  Also have updated the tree on rootsweb but have as yet not combined the Taves and Coyne2010 trees.  The Taves/Tews in Allentown seemed to switch at will between the two names but I have decided to go ahead with Rieka Taves marred to Charles Tews.  Tews was used in their obits and when Rieka came over in 1893 with all the children, they used Tews.

Post Boot Life

The boot came off last Saturday.  The foot seems OK but stiff and hard to walk on.  Hopefully this will change over time.  I see the Doc on Monday.

The PA certificates of death started showing up, 4 months after they were ordered.   That's about when they said to expect them.  Very informative especially with dates of birth and sometimes names of parents.  They seem to be filled out by the funeral home.  The name of the informant is usually the spouse or a child.  Amazing how many don't know the names of their grand parents or in laws. Overall, well worth the $3 and the wait.

Finally sent requests for obit look up to the Tamaqua Public library in Tamaqua, PA.  They found 8 out of 12.  HURRAY!  Turns out The Tamaqua Evening Courier was the paper of choice for obits among my PA ancestors.  That explains why the other libraries couldn't find much. 

I haven't completely absorbed them into my tree but it does add a son who went by himself to Oshkosh, WI.  I had found him in the WW I draft registrations but couldn't tie him in.  Best of all it ties the Taves/Tews family to the rest via Hannah Rhode's obit mentioning a sister in Allentown.  This had been mentioned before in the obit for August Friberg but I couldn't find other support for it until now.

Bought a Celestron 100mm scope for bird watching.  Great for star gazing also.  Haven't quite mastered it yet.