USA > New York > Chenango County > Smyrna > Early years in Smyrna and our first Old home week > Part 15
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Smyrna had a fair share of quaint and queer characters. Per- haps no worse rag-a-muffin was ever on earth than "Old Pettis." Clad in rags and filth, and peddling baskets he was one of the most repulsive objects of my remembrance. The appearance and mode of life of "Old Pettis" was not due to poverty but to a perverted mind.
"Gowdy", a half-wit, was the village butt for many years. Uncle Sam when he was hard pressed for soldiers found another name for "Gowdy" and as Leroy German he was drafted. He was terribly teased about going to war, but when it came time to take the matter seriously a petition was drawn up and signed setting forth that he was mentally incompetent, and he was dis- charged. "Gowdy" took this as a mark of good will and not as a reflection on his cranial capacity.
Elisha Sprague who owned a farm of two acres at the foot of the "dugway" a couple of miles west of the village, was a philosopher of less repute than Job or Carlyle, yet not without influence upon his day and generation. Elisha and his wife were members of the Baptist church, but for some cause he did not consider that his wife had received proper treatment in the church, and thereafter for years Elisha walked for worship every Sunday to a Free Baptist Church in the town of Otselic, to show the Smyrna Baptists "proper resentment" as he stated. Mr. Sprague was the thrifty owner of a flock of seventeen sheep, one of whom departed this life during a severe winter. The loss of one-seventeenth of his flock was keenly felt, but he met it with resignation saying "I have a wife and seventeen sheep, them that has must lose."
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The most useful family ever reared in Smyrna, was the Dixon family, (I speak of a single family, not of tribes like the Collins, the Wilcoxs and the Wilburs,) Charley, Joe, Hub, Menzo, Mott and Sadie in youth, C. G., J. W., H. M., A. K., and M. C., as after designated, Charles G., Joseph W., Herbert M., Almenzo K., Mortimer C., and Sarah. Considering inheritance and envi- ronment, my experience in life affords me no parallel to the career of the Dixons. When the annals of Smyrna are written, no little part should be accorded to this remarkable family. Herbert Dixon was one among ten thousand. I knew him well under many trying and distressing circumstances, and I never knew a man whose eye was more single to the right as he saw it.
If required to name the most useful man in Smyrna in my time, I should reply Dr. G. E. Lawrence. My recollection runs to old Dr. Mead who owned and occupied the only brick house in the village, and to Dr. Devillo P. White who resided in an octa- gon house in Sherburne, but whose "ride" extended to Smyrna. Dr. Lyman and Dr. Owen of Sherburne were also often minis- ters of mercy in our town. By-the-way, in September, in San Francisco, there is to be conclave of Knights Templar. Ten thousand swords and forty bands are to be in procession, but the sight will not thrill me like the voice and attire of Dr. I. C. Owen did when as Grand Master I heard him conduct the Ma- sonic rites at the first fraternal funeral I ever attended.
I had thought to revive personal memories and to make mention of relatives and acquaintances, but I am admonished that this paper is too long. My kindred were numerous in Smyrna, and included many noble men and women in their day. One brother, Frank R., one uncle, Horace T. Nearing, and one cousin, W. P. Briggs, are all that remain of the circle of relatives. As I mentally call the roll of acquaintanceship I find most of them absentees. Some are scattered o'er the land but a majority have gone to the Far Country.
I hope some one on this occasion will embalm the record of the Smyrna boys "who went to war," beginning with Samuel J. Hopkins, one of Lincoln's three months men, and including the
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list who afterwards enlisted in Ellsworth's Zouaves, and in the 114th and the 157th Regiments, N. Y. V.
I am not forgetful of devoted teachers and pleasant school fellows of both genders. Term after term of public school left little permanent impress, but those of us who were pupils in the Select school taught by Isaac B. Collins, have an experience to be ever gratefully remembered. School Master Collins may have been old-fashioned, but he was fashioned after the model of the true teacher, who imparts instruction and awakens the desire for more knowledge.
In the school days 1 passed in Smyrna, I was in a state of constant admiration of the handsomest boy and the prettiest girl in the room. It so happened that both were brilliant as well as as beautiful. The boy, "Tommy" Sweet, passed away before attaining his majority. The girl-the girl-this paper is alto- gether too long.
ARTHUR A. TAYLOR.
NORTH LAKIMPUR, (Assam) India, July 15, 1904.
MR. G. A. MUNSON, Cor. Sec'y, Smyrna, N. Y .:
Best Wishes for Old Home Week, with Cordial Greetings. MR. & MRS. H. B. DICKSON.
DENVER, Col., July 31, 1904.
MY DEAR FRIENDS:
Your kind invitation to the reunion is received. My heart is touched beyond expression to know I am not quite forgotten, and "it is sweet to be remembered."
Dear old Smyrna friends, I love you all, and wish I could be with you next week, and join in the festivities of the occasion, but as that cannot be I can only wish you a good time. May God bless you all and keep you near Him. May we so live that if we never meet again in this world, we may be an unbro- ken circle in Heaven. Sincerely yours,
GERTRUDE KELSEY MARTENIS.
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ENTERPRISE, Oregon, August 1, 1904. TO THE OLD HOME WEEK COMMITTEE:
You are now gathered from many lands to celebrate the good old days of our youth. It would give me great pleasure to be among you and mingle in your joyful re-union, but circum- stances hinder my coming. In thought and heart 1 am with you as you go in and out, and may you all find much pleasure in the many hearty hand-shakes.
Your Old Friend,
ALFRED DUNBAR.
TREADWELL, Delaware Co., N. Y., Aug. 5, 1904. MR. MUNSON:
Dear Sir-I received a number of weeks ago an invitation "to participate in Old Home Week" in Smyrna, August 7-14. The letter was mislaid or you would have heard from me long before this. It came from an unknown source and I knew not whom to address until I found the letter. 1 wish to thank sin- cerely the sender for it, and were it possible I should be delight- ed to visit Smyrna once more, and meet the few relatives and friends remaining this side the river, and many of them since my recollection have crossed to the other side, but their memory is dear to me still, and will be to the last. Smyrna has been a name dear to me from childhood, it was where my grandfather, Elijah Sexton, a Revolutionary soldier, lived, and died March 28, 1839, aged 85 years. Sibyl Spencer Sexton, his wife, died May 28, 1808, and their precious remains rest on Sherburne West Hill. My mother, Lovina Sexton, was born in Somers, Conn., August 23, 1790, and went with her parents in 1795 to the new home, then Sherburne, now Smyrna, where my mother was married to Herman Treadwell, October 13, 1812. My father was a carpenter by trade and has left it on record, "that he built the fourth framed house in Smyrna," and as my mother made a yearly pilgrimage to that place taking me with her, she always pointed to the house as the one he built and where she com-
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menced housekeeping, when she gave one dollar a paper for pins and other things accordingly. While there she always, with some relative visited the cemetery and the old church on Sher- burne Hill, where she and her kindred used to worship without fires in the winter. Then to Cousin Fred and Fanny Sexton's to dinner. My last visit there the church was gone, the ceme- tery well kept, and we hope the dear old soldier's grave there is not forgotten on Memorial day. My mother said when the news came of George Washington's death, he, (grandfather) sat down and wept like a child. I have his diary kept by him while on the march from Somers to Boston.
The late Mr. and Mrs. Levi Collins were dear friends in my father's family, and I have a melodeon bought of him over fifty years ago. Also one of his singing books, and many other re- minders of the good old town from way back. 1 came to the home on the fourteenth anniversary of my parents marriage, and am the only survivor of the family of parents and five brothers, and with poor health or I would have been present in person to meet some friends of former days. When I commenced this I just intended to send my thanks and regrets, and never thought of troubling you so much as trying to read this, so please excuse this. 1 must close wishing all one of the pleasantest gathering of friends Smyrna has ever known, and one that will be long remembered. Truly yours,
MRS. L. A. SMITH.
PAXTON, 111., July 7, 1904. MR. GEORGE A. MUNSON:
Esteemed Friend-The invitation mailed June 2d, to join the old friends, neighbors and relatives, in not only a red letter day of social pleasure, but a whole week of red letter days, was duly received, for which accept thanks.
A reader of the Smyrna Press, I have not failed to notice the generous entertainment planned for those who in the near or re- mote past are fortunate to say: "Smyrna, with its pure air, lovely valleys and towering hills is my native home."
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I was cradled on Smyrna Hill, and it was there "I felt a mother's fond embrace and love's honored kiss." I wish I could pay a fitting tribute to the memory of the devoted, loving, self- sacrificing parents that cared for me in my helplessness. Over and over again I have said,
"Backward, turn backward, oh time in your flight, Make me a child again just for to-night."
I do not ask for that now, but if I could go back and find father, mother, brothers and sisters waiting to give me welcome, I should say of course I will be in old Smyrna during Old Home Week. Now I am like a lone tree of the forest, all else laid low, and the cold speechless marble that marks their resting place, would not answer to my loving call.
For over a month we have been trying to decide the ques- tion so as to give you an answer that has stirred the memory, and the events and incidents of the years I spent in Smyrna pass as a panorama before my mind. Not only the names of all the families, but the looks, tones, gestures and individual characters are before me. How plainly I can see the old log school house, with the children coming from the north, east, south and west roads, with dinner pails and baskets in their hands.
Seventy years ago Ruth Ferris taught me to read, and now her children's children are among our college graduates, and very many of the descendants of the hardy pioneers that felled the forests are among the literati of the present day, and as teachers and writers their influence is felt in thousands of homes.
I may regret my decision to forgo the pleasure of meeting the few to avoid missing the many when it is too late. 1 sit in my home, but my mind wanders as I read your program, and events crowd thicker and faster upon me. But I must close, I weary you with what was intended to be a few lines expressive of my intense love of old friends and appreciation of the beauty and grandeur of the scenery, the clear sky, health-giving atmos- phere, sparkling streams and almost irresistible charms of my native town.
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Since I am not to be with you, I will bespeak the most favor- able conditions of weather. I will watch for the glow of the beacon fires and the bright flashes of fireworks, and I may say, "Oh, How I wish I was there."
Happy are we in believing,
"There is a land, upon whose blissful shore, There rests no shadow, falls no stain, There those who meet shall part no more, And those long parted, meet again."
MRS. ROXANA CLEVELAND FERGUSON.
NORTH TRURO, Mass., Angust 4, 1904. MY DEAR MUNSON:
The invitation to Old Home Week at Smyrna stirs a long- ing within us to revisit the scenes of my first pastorate and our first housekeeping, and only the distance keeps me away. I re- member so vividly the church and the parsonage, the brass band which I assisted to serenade myself at the reception to the pastor and wife, and above all the hosts of friends we made while in Smyrna. Please accept our sincere regrets that we cannot be present, and our hearty wishes for a successful week.
Very cordially yours,
CLARENCE F. SWIFT.
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HESPERIA, Mich., May 17, 1904.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF OLD HOME WEEK,
Dear Sir-I have received the invitation to spend Old Home Week with you and would be very glad to do so, but old age and infirmities will prevent.
My grandparents, Joseph and Elizabeth Tobey, were the sec- ond family that settled in Smyrna. I remember of grandmother often telling of the trials they passed through the first year of her life there. Born in Providence, R. I., and living in wealth
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all her early life, it was a great change for her. They came in from Albany with an ox team, and when they reached Pleasant Brook the stream was frozen over, so the ice had to be broken to get the oxen through, and she often told us as she sat on a log waiting for that, she wished that she might die. Now the fifth generation is living on the farm she helped to clear.
Hoping many of the old settlers may be there, and you will have a pleasant time, I will close.
ANTOINETTE TOBEY BROWN.
MUSKEGON, Mich , August 1, 1904.
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY :
I am in receipt of your invitation to attend your Home Week in Smyrna. It would give me great pleasure to do so, but I regret that it is impossible.
In looking over your committee I recognize four of my old schoolmates, and it seems a long time ago I was there.
I trust you will have a pleasant and profitable time, and as I cannot come will hope in some other years that I may meet you all. Yours most kindly,
EVA JAYNES BARBER. (Now Mrs. Almenzo K. Dixon.)
TRIPOLI, lowa, August 2, 1904. MR. GEORGE A. MUNSON:
My Dear Sir-I hereby send most hearty greetings to all old Smyrna friends, especially the boys and girls of a quarter of a century ago. I wish for all the pleasant remembering of old acquaintance, and happy reunions.
Most truly yours,
WELLS T. FERRIS.
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WAMEGO, Kan., August 2, 1904. MR. GEO. A. MUNSON, and all Smyrna Friends:
Many thanks for your invitation to attend "Old Home Week," that you have all worked so hard for, and did so much to make a memorable time in the lives of so many.
My regret is that I am unable to be present to respond. My- self, wife and three children, Edwin 13, Fayette 11, and Marce- lia 8, live within one mile north of Wamego, we have survived drouths and floods, and are enjoying God's blessings. All of us are members of the Methodist Church, whose Sunday School Superintendent I have been for eight years.
For the past two months especially vivid remembrances have passed through my mind, and during home week, D. V., I shall think of you all, and pray for your welfare, and that we may all receive a great spiritual uplift. Trust our own (Julius Wood,) family may be represented directly, and by many descendants.
Shall be anxious to hear the report of your precious meeting together.
With best wishes, kind regards, and God's choicest blessings. I am very truly yours, FRANK F. WOOD ..
HAMILTON, N. Y., August 8, 1904.
GEORGE A. MUNSON, ESQ., Cor. Sec'y. :
Dear Sir-Having received an invitation for Old Home Week will say, while it will not be possible for me to be present at the Banquet am proud to say I was born in Smyrna, and it is on record among my papers of the Daughters of the American Revolution at Washington, and my ancestors were among the first settlers in the town, among them Henry and Benjamin Knowles, John Browning, and Paris G. Holley, so shall be much interested in all the history of "early days." Thanking you for your kind invitation,
Very cordially yours, MARGARET S. POTTER LEWIS.
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BERWICK, Pa., August 7, 1904.
FRIEND MUNSON :
This is the Old Home Week in Smyrna, and I am glad that it has been taken up there. I hope the results will be so pleasant as to make it a permanent institution for years to come. We regret exceedingly that we are unable to be with you, and wish you to convey our greetings to the many friends who are there. Trusting that the occasion will be one of profit and pleasure to you all,
Sincerely yours, COURTNEY E. FERRIS AND FAMILY, LEPHA A. DUTTON.
BINGHAMTON, N. Y., August 5, 1904. G. A. MUNSON, ESQ .:
My Dear Mr. Munson-An unusual degree of interest was awakened within me on receiving your kind invitation.
So many times during the many years that I was privileged to visit professionally Smyrna village, I would see and meet heads or members of many different families. As in almost every community, many of the good fathers and mothers are gone and their children now grown have taken to pursuits in thriving towns and cities outside, or have remained in the good old town and its borderland.
I would only be too happy to meet the acquaintances and their many friends at this time. May Providence favor the occasion from the opening to its closing, fine weather prevail, happiness, joy and pleasure abound, is the prayer and heartfelt wish of my humble self.
I thank you very much for bringing the privilege of think - ing of the occasion before me, and may God's blessing specially rest upon you and yours in the work which is yours to aid in all its unfoldments and enjoyments.
Yours very sincerely,
DR. S. ANDRAL KILMER.
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BINGHAMTON, N. Y., July 9, 1904. G. A. MUNSON, Secretary :
My Dear Sir-Your kindly remembrance of me as a resident of your town and an invitation to attend the reunion was re- ceived some time ago, and it gives me great pleasure to ac- knowledge the same.
Forty-two years ago I first came to reside in Smyrna, in the midst of war time, in which I afterwards entered, serving three years and two months.
Many whom I then knew have gone over the river. You of the younger generation are filling their places now. Hoping the reunion will prove enjoyable, I am,
Cordially yours,
NELSON L. IRELAND.
NORWICH, N. Y., July 15, 1904.
DEAR FRIENDS:
Your cordial invitation to attend your coming festivities is gratefully acknowledged with deep regret that we cannot be present. Brother Sheldon, sister Mary and myself, are the only remaining members of the family of Benjamin and Agnes Bar- ber who had resided in Smyrna thirty-one years when we re- moved to Norwich fifty-one years ago. Our attachment to our native town has always been strong, causing fondly cherished memories. But childhood days have passed away, as has most of the friends we so dearly loved, yet the sacred influence of Christian lives never die, and I wish personally to say that the tenderest ties, the deepest gratitude and highest joy that thrills my soul results from the faithful labors of members of each of the Smyrna churches for my conversion. And soon after leav- ing there under the same sacred influences here, the good seed already sown in my heart burst forth into the new life in Christ. It was the "birth from above," without which Jesus said none can enter into the Kingdom of God. One passage of the sacred word especially, Acts 5:31, which I had heard in the Baptist
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Sunday school in Smyrna when a child, was one of those which the Holy Spirit made effectual in leading me to Jesus. And to- day I praise Him for the countless blessings of nearly half a century of joyous service as his willing follower, and would say to all the unsaved, "Now is the accepted time, to-day is the day of salvation." Joyfully,
AGNES F. BARBER.
OLD HOME SUNDAY.
No brighter Sunday ever dawned than that of Sunday, August 7, 1904, a day long to be remembered in Smyrna, and one of much interest to every inhabitant of the town, whether old or young.
Appropriate services were held in every church in the town, and every seat was occupied, and many old faces were noticed among the different congregations. The author could only be present at one church, so consequently we are able to give more of the program at that church than of the others, but we are in- formed that each church had its share of the interesting services of the day. At the Baptist church, the oldest in the town, Rev. M. S. Richardson the regular pastor conducted the services, which were held in accordance of the observance of the day, and very interesting to all present.
At the Methodist church services for the occasion were held, and an address given by a former resident, Rev. Alfred Eastman, the pastor, Rev. George W. Crosby, giving a very interesting address consistent with the occasion. The most interesting, per- haps, was the singing of some of the old-time Methodist hymns, which carried the minds of the older portion of the congrega- tion back to the days of primitive Methodism.
Both the Free Will Baptist at West Symrna, and the Friend's church at Upperville, were active in the observance of the day, and services in accordance with the program laid out, were held, and
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many old home guests were present. At the Congregational church the house was filled to overflowing, and Rev. W. D. Eddy, the regular pastor, announced that the regular service would be suspended and the morning service turned over to the former members present. He also announced that the historical docu- ments showed that the church had an actual history of eighty years, and an essential history of one hundred and two years, it being practicably the successor of the church on Sherburne West Hill organized in 1802. Rev. Charles C. Johnson, of Clarkson, N. Y., was expected to be present and preach a sermon for the oc- casion, but was unavoidably detained at home, a fact which was very much regretted by all. A male quartette composed of Messrs. Leland L. Ferris, Gardner N. and Walter G. Willcox, and Frank P. Hartwell sang very sweetly, "Home, Sweet Home," and there was scarcely a dry eye among all the people present.
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HOME, SWEET HOME.
"'Mid pleasures, and palaces, though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home ; A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there, Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere.
I gaze on the moon, as I tread the drear wild, And feel like my mother, now thinks of her child; As she looks on that moon, from our own cottage door, Thro' the woodbine, whose fragrance shall cheer me no more.
An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain, Oh, give me my lowly thatched cottage again ; The birds singing gayly, that came at my call,
Give me them, and that peace of mind, dearer than all.
Chorus:
Home, Home, sweet, sweet home, There's no place like höme, Oh, there's no place like home."
Myron T. Kinyon, of Pawtucket, R. 1., one of the former influential members of the church, referred in most affectionate terms to the pastor of his boyhood, Rev. Sidney Mills, who re-
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ceived him into the church in 1848, and he also gave very inter- esting reminiscences of a powerful revival of religion in the church, which occurred during the same year.
Almenzo K. Dixon recalled the names of twenty-five per- sous who united with the church when he did in 1860.
Mott C. Dixon, clerk of the church for thirty-six years, re- called with much feeling, the fact that he was one of the five volunteers who went forth from the church to the Civil war, the others being Rev. Charles Barstow, who became chaplain of the 157th Regiment, Walstein D. Pudney, Edward F. Lawrence and Hudson Wood.
Edward F. Lawrence spoke of the tender, almost pathetic impression the striking of the old town clock a moment before had made upon him, and recalled with much vividness the old church before it was remodeled, its galleries, pews, and the high pulpit, also naming the members of the once large and famous choir led by Deacon L. B. Collins for nearly sixty years, closing with a tender tribute to the memory of the late Herbert M. Dixon.
Hon. Walstein Pudney, of Cleveland, Ohio, paid a tender tribute to his Sunday School teachers, Mrs. Herbert M. Dixon and Martha Northup. The fathers, he said, laid foundations for not only the town of Smyrna, but also for the great west.
Mrs. Celia C. Beecher, of Flint, Mich., cited the fact that several of her father's grandchildren had become ministers and missionaries. Her sister, Mrs. Helen Munn, of Flushing, Mich., was also present, a most interested listener to all the proceedings of the occasion. Both are daughters of the late Julius Wood, whose death in 1873 removed the last of the original deacons of the church.
J. LaMott Dixon, the oldest son of the late Herbert M. Dixon was present, and made some very interesting remarks, which were listened to with marked attention by all present.
So very interesting was the service that the Sunday School was waived and the meeting continued till one o'clock, when it
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