St. Joseph's Cemetery

As I was snapping some pictures at Greenwich Cemetery last week, I realized I had never been in St. Joseph's Cemetery before. & it is just across the road. So, after work, I drove over & snapped some pictures there. I didn't realize how large it was, & that you can see the high school. I use to run cross country (for Schuylerville) around the cornfield on the other side of the cemetery fence.

Now for a bit of background provided by Joseph L. Shannon, who wrote Saint Joseph Parish Greenwich, New York in 1978. This book is available for research at the Greenwich Free Library & Crandall Public Library in Glens Falls (all copies are non-circulating).

History of St. Joseph's

Albany Catholic Diocese established April 1847
Visitation Catholic Church, Schuylerville founded 1847
St. Patrick's Catholic Church, Cambridge founded 1853
St. Joseph's Catholic Church founded 1870

The plethora of mills in the area brought immigrants to rural areas upstate.  In 1865, 80,000 of the estimated 134,000 Catholics living in the area covered by the Albany Diocese were Irish immigrants (Shannon, p.8) escaping the Great Potato Famine. When the Greenwich Dunbarton Mill opened in 1879, many of the 200 workers were Catholic (Shannon, p.4).

Shannon states "After the Mass of 24 January 1869, which marked the opening of the Mission of Greenwich, until the first Mass offered in the building now call "St. Joseph [sic] Church" 24 July 1870, the Fathers from Cambridge held services in various places in Greenwich" (p.15-16). The only other option was to travel to Mass in Schuylerville, Hudson Falls, Salem, or Schaghticoke.

St. Joseph's first resident pastor & proponent of the Temperance Movement, Fr. Thomas A. Field, was the one who set about founding the St. Joseph's Cemetery. Shannon writes "By Deed,  dated  6 November 1881 (Book 91, page 30) Fr. Field purchased for $1,000 two parcels of land, one  of sixty-seven acres and the other of one acre on the northern edge of the village of Greenwich from Charles Stevens and his wife, Sarah A. Stevens" (p.44).

Some of the artistry on the tombstones in St. Joseph's

The first burials (& tombstones) appear to be transferred from other cemeteries as the deaths predate the founding of the cemetery. The oldest date is 1863 (Shannon, p. 45).

Well, St. Joseph's is just a peaceful as Greenwich, except for the neighbor's dog who decided to bark at my car. But even (s)he didn't sound too upset by me being there.

St. Joseph's Cemetery, Greenwich, NY- 10 May 2013

The Greenwich Cemetery

We have 32 cemeteries in the Town of Greenwich, the largest is, of course, the Greenwich Cemetery nestled between Main St & Cottage St. Over 10,000 people have been interred in this peaceful spot & the Greenwich Cemetery Association does a great job of keeping it nice.

I've never found cemeteries to be creepy, or scary. I've always found them tranquil, thoughtful. As an historian & lover of history, I have been to many cemeteries. My sister & I visited Lincoln's tomb in Springfield, IL when we traveled across the country in 1995. (Yes, we rubbed his nose.) I keep meaning to go to Albany Rural Cemetery to visit Chester A. Arthur's grave.

However, most of the time, I go to a cemetery to look at the graves of non-famous people, like my relatives, or random people with interesting stones. Typical iconography like weeping willows, winged angel heads & urns are typical on early New England headstones. I saw a number of these in Salem, MA last fall. A good example of the willow motif can be found here in Section F.

Greenwich Cemetery May 2013

As a kid, my younger sister & I use to ride our bikes over to the Riverside Cemetery in Fort Miller. There are a number of large pine trees shading the ground, plus it was next to the Hudson. It was always cooler there, so it was the perfect spot after a hot, dusty bike ride. Reading the stones made me appreciate my life a bit more, especially when we noticed the markers of children who died young.

Before my daughter started school, she & my mom use to visit my dad while he was working at St. Mary's Cemetery in South Glens Falls. She would lay under the trees on a quilt & say the trees were talking to her. They we eat lunch, picnic style, then head home.

The idea of picnicking at a cemetery may seem odd to some, but it was very common in the 19th & early 20th centuries for many of the reasons I have stated above.

Cemetery picnic early 20th century

If you are looking for ancestors buried in local cemeteries, check out the books put out by Historical Data Services. The Greenwich Free Library has non-circulating copies in the Gill Room. I also have a few of them in my office for research, so stop by on a Friday morning.

Also, check out Find-A-Grave. It is a very useful website to locate burial information throughout the country.

Greenwich & Johnsonville treasure

Yet again, at a loss for what to blog about this week (not because nothing comes to mind, but because too many do & I can't choose), an envelope on my desk this morning provided the answer.

A train ticket collector in California sent me 2 Greenwich & Johnsonville Railway Company tickets! They are tiny & stained but otherwise in great condition. Based on the information in David F. Nestle's book Rails Along the Battenkill: A History of the Greenwich & Johnsonville Railway (Is the title a play of Drums Along the Mohawk? I digress.) I can estimate the dates of the ticket...

The oldest ticket is numbered 20791 & has the signature of J.H. Thompson who was Superintendent in 1897. The other ticket is numbered 26824 & signed by J.H. Mc Daniels. Mc Daniels was Superintendent from at least 1901-1912.

Greenwich & Johnsonville Railway ticket c. 1897

For more information I highly recommend Nestle's book. It is very readable & has quite a few interesting images of engines, bridges, maps & railway ephemera like tickets & schedules. I have referred to it before, but now I am actually reading it!

Highly recommended book on the G&J

 

Happy Anniversary

I just wanted to say that today marks my 10th anniversary of being the appointed Town Historian of Greenwich!

Thank you all for your questions, comments, likes on Facebook... Inviting me to present a program to your students, or group...I really appreciate being able to serve this wonderful community for the past 10 years!

Sesquicentennial in Greenwich: 1959

Sesquicentennial Banner - Greenwich, NY 1959

In 1959 the village of Greenwich, NY hosted an elaborate Sesquicentennial celebration, complete with two parades, & a pageant called "Whipple City Grows."

Front page of Whipple City Grows and ticket stub

The schedule of events is listed in the center of the program above.

Saturday, August 1, 1959 was Sesquicentennial Parade Day which included the parade from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. & the Queen's Ball at the high school from 9:00 to midnight.

Sunday, August 2, 1959 was Religious Dedication Day with all of the local churches hosting special services in the morning & an interfaith service at 8:00 p.m.

Monday, August 3, 1959 was Youth Day- filled with baseball, softball, swimming, & an "Outdoor Street Dance."

Tuesday, August 4, 1959 was Agricultural Day featuring a hay ride, square dance, old-time farm equipment & exhibits by the Farm Bureau, Soil Conservation, the Grange, 4-H, & others.

Wednesday, August 5, 1959 was Ladies' Day (sorry fellas). This included a luncheon, a reception, a dinner for Lt. Governor Malcolm Wilson, a fashion show, & the crowning of the "Sesquicentennial Queen." 

Thursday, August 6, 1959 was Homecoming Day with open houses at the various churches & fraternal organizations like the Independent Order Of Fellows. 

Friday, August 7, 1959 was Industrial Day which included guided tours of local industries. Plus, the final judging of the "Brothers of the Brush" beard growing competition ended with a shaving contest!

Saturday, August 8, 1959 was Fireman's Day. The week of festivities concluded with the Washington County Fireman's Parade at 2:00 p.m. & the final of 4 performances of "Whipple City Grows"!

Sesquicentennial book and Washington County VFA Convention Program

Housing Committee badge

Some Housing Committee documents still survive. Then, as now, there was little accommodation for out-of-town guests. So, the committee members were in charge of finding housing for people coming to town for the week long celebration. Marion Harrington was the Housing Committee Chair.

Wooden nickels- one with the Sesquicentennial logo 1959

When we held the Town of Greenwich Bicentennial in 2003, & the Village of Greenwich Bicentennial in 2009, I looked into having wooden nickels done, but the funds just weren't there. I did have a wooden nickel collector call me though. The gentleman told me that he would buy a bunch of them if we decided to do it so he could trade & sell with other wooden nickel collectors! (Who knew...)

Historian vs. Archivist

As some of you may know, I am working on my Master's of Science in Information Science from the University at Albany, SUNY. (Information Science used to be called "Library Science" not too long ago.) My focus is on Archives & Records Management & I am currently interning at the NYS Archives in Albany.  & thinking about what to blog about today, I realized that many of you may not know what an archivist does. You may not even know what an historian does.

So, I did what most of us do in this day & age, I "googled" it.

The definition of an historian: a student, writer, chronicler of history

The definition of an archivist: one who is in charge of an archives & its collection

Didn't we learn in grade school not to define a word by using the word? These definitions are vague & flawed, but I think you get the idea. An archivist cares for, describes & preserves records, documents for posterity. An historian uses those documents as evidence to prove, or disprove, the point of their writing.

As a public historian, I am not supposed to amass a collection* of documents pertaining to Greenwich history. I am supposed to look at those records, read, study, synthesize, then write & talk about Greenwich history. This blog is one attempt at that.

Recently, I received a package of documents pertaining to the United Presbyterian Church of East Greenwich. Mostly they are bits of ephemera that, singly, may not amount to much, but as a whole could be useful to someone studying local churches or local businesses. I plan on transferring the documents to the Gill Room so that they can be accessible to researchers. Here is a taste...

Documents relating to the UP Church of East Greenwich

*Many of my colleagues do because there may not be a suitable repository available.

Preparing for the big move...

It appears spring has finally sprung, as it always does, here in Greenwich. Just this morning traffic was backed up from the Mowry/Corliss/Main intersection to Cottage Street behind the street sweeper. Kids & adults alike were walking to the Greenwich Free Library without winter coats.

My new office is coming along nicely, but my packing is not. Every time I decide to look through something with the intention of putting it into a box, I come across really cool stuff. Stuff that must be perused & read right now!

Today, was just such a day. I opened the Historic Resources Survey boxes to see if there was anything on Riddle Road to aid in an e-mail inquiry (just a nondescript record on The Owl Pen) & realized that there was a wealth of information in those boxes. Plus, I need to go through & put the records in folders & label them. That will be my project next week! Oh, the survey was done in preparation for Greenwich's nomination for Historic District designation from the National Register of Historic Places & the National Park Service. Check it out here.

I found some information regarding the Lowber Lime Kilns in Bald Mountain & Old Lock 12 of the Champlain Canal. If any of you have been on the Facebook page you have seen the photo I posted, but there were a few others.So I ran them trough my new app "Photo Grid" & voile!

1981 images of the Lime Kilns with a 21st century shot of the marker

Mash-up of 1981 images and my 2009 photos

I also found some interesting historical "papers" included in the survey that I will be reading & sharing with you. An obituary on Ann Caroline Holmes (nee Mowry) really caught my attention. More research is needed there I think!

I'll leave you with images of my new/ old offices. I haven't been this excited since I got upgraded from Windows 3.1 to Windows 98! (Now I have Vista.)

work in progress- new Historian's Office upstairs

current vs. new- so much bigger