Merrill Bailey and Walter Clark, Cazenovia 1940

Cazenovia Pilot Reader "Heyst" writes:

That's Merrill Bailey(left) and Walter Clark(right). Taken in Cazenovia 1940. Perhaps add, for those unfamiliar with Bailey, that his work is what they have looked upon for years on the walls of the Seven Stone Steps while "bending the elbow."

For more information about the conversation that prompted Heyst to send this photo, please read The Ox-Bow Man in the Discussion area.

A little Valentine's Day History

From today's Post-Standard:

February of 1934 was a month of only eight days above zero. Dr. Edward Morrow was called to a house on Chenango Street in Cazenovia where mothers delivered their sons/daughters. A little before midnight, with a temperature of 30 below zero, Dr. Morrow delivered a son, David Edward Shephard, to Homer W. and Helen E. Shephard.

My father told me that he had to go out and start his car every half hour so as to make sure the car would start so he could return home. Dr. Morrow received a phone call from the old Oneida Hospital telling him twins were being born and they needed him at the hospital. Well, upon getting into his car, Dr. Morrow discovered that his car wouldn't start and he asked my dad if he would take him to the hospital. Upon reaching the hospital, Dr. Morrow asked my dad how much he could give him for taking him to the hospital. My dad replied, "You just delivered my son, why should you give me money?" Dr. Morrow said, "We'll call it $25 for the delivery and the ride to the hospital."

David E. Shephard
Cazenovia

"History Detectives" Visit Cazenovia

The PBS television show "History Detectives" visited Cazenovia over the weekend, searching for clues to the history of the Knowlton branch of the Grand Army of the Republic. The GAR was a civil war veteran's organization, and Cazenovia's Knowlton branch was one of the first racially integrated groups.

Cazenovia - The origin of the name

Charlie Bond wrote to ask about the origin of the name "Cazenovia".

The late Dan Weiskotten was at one town the town historian for Cazenovia, and much of his research and writings are still available online at http://www.rootsweb.com/~nyccazen/. That site includes the biography of Théophile Cazenove, who was born in Holland but in the 1790's was an agent and financier for the Holland Land Company in Philadelphia who directed the purchase millions of acres of land in New York and Pennsylvania.

Some of this land was first researched by John (also known as "Jan") Lincklaen, who founded and named Cazenovia for Cazenove.

Incidentally, Lincklaen built Lorenzo mansion, which remained in his family until the 1960's. It is now a state historic site and still commands an incredible view from the south end of Cazenovia Lake. He and his family are the same Lincklaens for whom the Lincklaen House, Lincklaen Street, and the town of Lincklaen (Chenango County) are named.

Thanks, Mr. Bond, for the opportunity to tell this story.

Photo of Cazenovia's 6th Grade Class of 1921

Generous reader Bob Pangborn sends along this photo (click it to see a bigger version) of Miss Hulbert's sixth-grade class in 1921. Bob says:

My father is in the front, left, seated on the ground. Merrill Bailey is in the back row, fourth in from the right. On his left is Clive Gregg, former owner of Slabsides and Alberts. He didn't change much. I remember others, anyone else recognize a name (Bill Davis, Lumber Company) etc.?

1927 Cazenovia Event Program for "Corporal Eagen"

Bob Pangborn sent in this great program with dozens of names from a production of a musical play called "Corporal Eagen", staged in Cazenovia in 1927. He writes:

This program was one of the things my father and uncle Ed got into. My dad was Bass Drummer in the local band until he died in 1939. My uncle Harold, listed as a cook, played drums in Charlie Greggs band at Slabsides in Erieville. My grandfather Arthur Beuchat is listed among the chorus members. His family came over from Switzerland through Ellis Island. As usual he had to learn English but could never get my mother and the other kids to learn any French. After looking through the names of all those people, I couldn't see any that are alive today, i'll check again. My mother(97) may be the only one today that ever went to that show. You will note that some of the charactor names in the lower left are not acceptable these days.

Preservation Society goes to bat for Madison County Hop Houses

The Syracuse Newspapers reports on attempts to preserve several hop houses in Madison County. Hop houses are barns with a cut pyramid shape at the top, used for drying hop flowers. Hop flowers are an important ingredient in the preservation and flavoring of beer, and at one time were the largest cash crop grown in the county.

Madison County still has about 35 hop houses, but most are in bad shape and 5 are in danger of collapse. Critz Farms in Cazenovia has built a replica hop house as both a meeting place and as an educational opportunity. When they opened it, I had a chance to tour it and write this article for Maltblog on the design and purpose of the hop houses, as explained by Juanita and Matthew Critz.

1966 Cazenovia photo

This web site has some great small-town and rural photos, including one of the north side of Albany Street from 1966. The photographer's name is David Plowden and it's on a site that specializes in rare books and manuscripts.

Tenth Annual Madison County Hop Fest - This weekend!

To encourage interest and increase knowledge about hops, the Madison County Historical Society will host its 10th Annual Madison County Hop Fest Sept. 17, 2005 on the society’s grounds at 435 Main Street ("Cottage Lawn") in Oneida.

The event features live music from the Syracuse Irish Session, hop advocacy and education, and of course a tasting of beers from around the US and Belgium.

Barber Pole Sells for $45,000

Remember the Behm barber pole from Cazenovia? Well, it's been sold at Sotheby's auction house for $45,000, over four times the expected high bid of $10,000. The pole was front-page news in the Cazenovia Republican last week, and yesterday's auction is described in this article from the Syracuse Post-Standard.

200-Year Old Barn burns

A barn on Lincklaen Road was destroyed by fire on Friday morning; several cats and many antiques and items of personal value to the owner were lost. The link below leads to the Syracuse Post-Standard's article.

Blaze destroys 1800-era barn

Cazenovia Authors

Bob Pangborn of Endicott grew up in Cazenovia. He submitted the following article about two Cazenovia residents who were also famous authors.

How many people in Caz today remember that at least two former Caz residents were nationally acclaimed authors? These two had successful movies made, based on their stories.

The first was Hervey Allen who was best know for his Anthony Adverse series of books. Mr. Allen used to live on Mill St. when I used to see him around town. I don't know how long he lived here, but I expect it was towards the end of his life. His first Anthony Adverse was the nation's best selling novel in the mid thirtys. A movie was made, Anthony Adverse, based on this book, in 1936. It starred Frederic March and Olivia De Haviland (big names for years). Allen did write other books during his career.

The second person was one of my English teachers, Walter VanTilburg Clark. He taught in Caz for quite a long time but i'm not sure how long. His novel, later to become a widely acclaimed movie, was The Ox Bow Incident. It starred Henry Fonda and Anthony Quinn(1943). Mr. Clark also wrote another novel that was made into a movie, that was Track of the Cat. I don't think that movie did all that well. He also wrote around 20 short stories.

So for what its worth, Caz has had its share of fame but its been buried in the past. It's very possible the two main movies I mentioned are on DVD.

Cazenovia: 1947

Bob Pangborn, a frequent contributor to the Cazenovia Discussion Forum, has provided that group with many photos and descriptions of life in Cazenovia in the mid-1940's. He took the photos himself with a Kodak Bantam camera. Be sure to click the photos to see the larger versions.

Part 1

April 17, 02

Jim

I don't know if you can put these photos on your message site or not but I thought Pat Costello would find them interesting.

They were photos, at Lakeland, of what I would call the old boathouse but how the Bandstand.

One photo shows kids jumping off the porch rail into the Lagoon. The water was dirty with old leaves and willow branches. If there was a lifeguard around, they would be over on the pier. The more daring kids would get on the roof to jump, using the willow tree right next to the porch.

The second photo shows what the building looked like to us growing up in Caz years ago. Tom Callahan's boat rental area was in the lower left downstairs area (see the arrow). You could smell Tom's cigar before you got to the door.

Photos were taken probably summer of 1946, by me, using a little "Kodak Bantam".

I have had good luck making photo copies at our CVS pharmacy Kodak 5 minute picture maker. It does a great job.

Best wishes,
Bob Pangborn
Endicott NY

Click to enlarge photos

Part 2

June 23, 2002

I thought I'd send up a few more photos of local interest. Once again, I had my photos copied on a 5 min. photo machine in a CVS pharmacy. All photos were taken around 1947.

A youngster jumping off a tree at Lakeland. Near the Bandstand. Can you swim there now?

Lakeland again. Looks like he will make a big splash.

 
Looking up towards the college. Note the steeple on the Methodist Church. I'm not sure what year it was removed.

 
How many remember The Cazenovia House? It used to be where Smith's store is/was located. Several Caz people made their homes there. Not too bad a location for sitting on the porch and dropping in the bar for a cool one. (The bar in the Cazenovia House. Albert's was started up sometime during the demolition of The Cazenovia House). The car looks like mine before I painted it bright red with yellow trim.

 
I took this photo after taking off from a grass strip located up Albany St./Route 20. The field may have been across from Bruce's apple orchard. You probably wouldn't realize there was a landing strip there because the field wasn't flat. That didn't bother the pilots, some of whom were known as the Flying Farmers, Dean Coe for example. My pilot was Bob Ward, a classmate, who went on to fly for Eastern Airlines.

I hope these photos might get some response from the message board viewers.

There are more tales to go with these photos.

The boy in the first photo is probably Merwin Marshall. Maybe someone could print the photo and bring it to Marshalls and ask Mer if he remembers those jumps.

The fellow diving into the lake was Charlie Stanton from Syracuse. He stayed at Caz during the summer. Charlie was one of the first hearing and speech impaired people we ever knew. We had a lot of laughs with him in spite of his handicaps. His father owned Stanton Foundries in Syracuse, if i'm not mistaken.

In the aerial photo, you can see Buyeas quonset building/store at the lower right. Can you see where the RR tracks were? To the left of Buyeas, across Albany St., there is a small square building near the tracks. That was a frozen food locker where people used to rent space for storing their meat and Vegs etc. That was before home freezers were popular. Actually, a lot of of us only had ice boxes until after WW2. Anybody remember Mr. Gardner or Howard Stafford, our ice men? The last buildings on the lower left include Luke Gages bowling alley and Stanley Bittners feed mill. (Atwells Mill?)

Does any of this bring up any questions? If so, let me know and i'll reply.

Sincerely,
Bob Pangborn

Critz Farms Debuts Hop House

The newest attraction at Cazenovia's Critz Farms is their Hop House, a replica hop kiln built with painstaking attention to detail. The Hop House is part of a Madison County Tourism driving tour of hop structures, and is an exciting addition to the thriving Critz Farms business.

See this Maltblog entry for a detailed description of the structure, including why it was built and how it relates to Cazenovia's past and future.