Pondering the Past July 2011

PARISH TOWN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
NEWSLETTER
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Ponderin
July 2011
Upcoming Events
July Event The 154th Oswego
County Fair was held Thurs.
June 30 - Mon. July 4. The
Parish Town Historical Society
showcased a display of "Artists
and Craftsmen of Parish". You
will have another chance to
view this display at the Parish
Olde Home Days on August 6.
August Event The Parish Olde
Home Day will be held on Sat.
Aug. 6 at the corner lot (Rte 69
& 69A) from 9 a.m.- 4 p.m.
The Parish Town Historical
Society will have the "Artists
and Craftsmen of Parish" display along with the drawing for
the 2-shelf with mirror étagère
crafted by Clark DeMassey.
See page 3 for more information.
September 14
There will be a regular meeting.
Tickets for the PTHS Summer Raffle
Are included in this issue for your
purchase or to sell. Send your
stubs and money to PTHS P.O.
Box 145, Parish, NY 13131
The Parish Town Historical Society’s Annual Cemetery Walk was held at
the historic Pleasant Lawn Cemetery South Railroad Street/Route 69A at 1
PM on Saturday, June18. The Pleasant Lawn Cemetery is the largest of the
Parish, NY cemeteries. It was established in 1806 and has an active cemetery
association.
The program began with Parish Town historian Bridget Swartz giving a
brief history in the front of the chapel. The oldest section of the cemetery was
donated by Rev. Gamaliel Barnes. The settlement was commenced in Parish
by Rev. Gamaliel Barnes and his son-in-law, Stephen D. Morse, in 1803. Rev.
Barnes took the thirty cemetery walk guests back to the time when he first
prospected here in Parish in 1802 and through the life span of his multiple talents and the many other firsts he had here in Parish. Rev. Gamaliel Barnes
was portrayed by Steve Stelmashuck, supervisor of the Town of Parish.
The fascinating lives of Samuel F. Mills and Nathan A. Petrie were portrayed by Doug Carver and Dan Dalin. Mills and Petrie were first cousins
from each sides of their family. Both Parish and Ashton, Illinois were home
to both Mills and Petrie with equal time spent at both towns. In a double ceremony, Petrie married Sarah E. Howard and Mills married Louise Getman.
Every day Parish residents and visitors drive, walk around or utilize the
legacies left by Mills and Petrie. Pleasant Lawn Cemetery is the site of the
brick Tudor Gothic style Mills and Petrie Chapel (1917) and the Mills and Petrie Mausoleum. The mausoleum, completed in 1899, is the final resting place
of Parish philanthropists, Nathan Albert Petrie and Samuel Franklin Mills and
their wives. Other contributions to their hometown of Parish that still stand
today: the Soldiers monument (1911); Parish Public Library (1922); chime
clock (1923) and the Memorial Gymnasium (1925).
PAGE 2
PONDERING THE PAST
Pat and Ethan Rusaw
Pencil drawing
by former
Parish resident,
Mrs. Pat Rusaw
Syracuse Post-Standard, Feb. 15, 1948
Your old time railroader was a rugged
individual. He had a tough job to do; and
when he worked, he worked hard; and
when he relaxed he relaxed - easily and
with enthusiasm. For all I know, the present breed conforms to these same specifications, but it is inevitable that they
have changed in many ways.
For instance, I wonder how many
modern "hog-heads," "shacks" and 'brass
-pounders" are willing to admit that they
believe in ghost trains?
In the early years of this century you
could always start a caboose conversation by a casual reference to the "White
Flyer" of the Hojack or the "Midnight
Drag" of the D.& H.
I am sorry to admit that during more
than 20 years of telegraphing on more
than a dozen railroads from the Connecticut coast to the sage-brush of Oklahoma,
I was never privileged to behold this
phantasmagoria - but I recall one night
when I came mighty close to it!
In 1901 I was a green night telegrapher at the Hojack depot in Parish. In
those days there was a big water-tank
there and it was one of the night-man's
duties to run the steam pump and keep
the water supply adequate at all times.
Just Around the Corner
Generally, however, we did our
pumping in the daytime, so we could
get some "shuteye" at night.
The night man worked from 7
p.m. to 7 a.m. After midnight the rail
traffic became rather thin; quiet settled down on everything and the low
hum of the outside wires was conducive to a longing for officiallyforbidden sleep. And, sometimes,
when a fellow really got into the
very depths of slumberland, even a
passing train would fail to awaken
him.
However, Frank Haynor who
had preceded me on this particular
job, was a man of attainments and
vision. He had perfected a device an idea, rather - which was guaranteed to produce results; and he
passed this invention on to me when
he left.
Frank had bored a small hole in
the casing of the bay window, facing
the tracks. Through this hole he ran a
length of fishline out to the main
track. Then, he fastened one end to a
wooden peg about six inches long,
which he drove into the ballast on
the INSIDE of the rail. within the
By Bertrande Snell
office, the coal hod, half filled with
anthracite and rounded out with a
half dozen empty cans was tied to
the other end of the string and balanced on the edge of the telegraph
desk by the tautness of the line.
With this arrangement, the weary telegrapher could relax in slumber on bench in the adjacent waiting
room, secure in the knowledge that
any passing train was bound to
break the string and send the loaded
coal hod bouncing to the office floor
with appropriate sound-effects.
Late one August night in 1901,
I ascertained that the line was clear
of trains from Pulaski to the Salina
tower, and prepared to snatch some
slumber. I rigged up the contraption
described above, turned out the kerosene lamp in the waiting room and
laid me down to dream. It was a rather warm, cloudy night. The air
was still and a heavy mist hung like
a curtain beneath the stars.
As I found later by checking
back on the time, I slept for nearly
two hours, when I suddenly found
myself wide awake. I ran through
(Continued on page 7)
PAGE 3
PONDERING THE PAST
Annual Local Artisan Raffle
The Parish Town Historical Society
is pleased to announce that once again
we will be holding a raffle for a handcrafted item from a local community
member.
This year’s raffle item is a two-shelf
with mirror étagère donated by local
Master Craftsman/Artisan Clark
DeMassey. Each year for the last five
years, the Society has been lucky to
have an item donated to them by very
generous, talented members of the community.
The drawing will be held on August
6, 2011 at the Parish Olde Home Days.
Tickets are $1 each or 6 for $5.
See PTHS member for tickets.
Ada LaRock passed this photo on to Gretchen Harter Sayer, later it was given to Nancy Bookheimer with the following message “Ben DeWolf's Bus. Picture taken about 1916. He met the 7am, 4pm and 7pm trains, took the
people to and from the village. The people in this photo are Ben DeWolfe, Ada's mother, brother and another passenger. Ada’s brother died in 1916 from polio, the time when Carl House and so many people had it. Ada was
born 2 years after her brother died. Ben De Wolf lived in the first house toward the railroad tracks presently the
apartment buildings on 69A.”
In 1870-71 the Syracuse Northern Railroad (now the R. W. & 0.) was built and opened, the first train being run over it
on November 14, 1871. To aid this work the town was bonded for $35,000, the most of which remains unpaid.
Nancy Weaver Bookheimer’s Grandfather retired from the Rail Road and she has the lunch pail he carried.
PAGE 4
PONDERING THE PAST
Syracuse Post-Standard, April 11, 1948
Just Around the Corner
O harken, now, to my saga of the Hojack - a song of the
days, long gone, a song that I sing from the heart and a tale
that I tell from the soul.
And, listen too, ye modern Hojackers; for you, also. O
fledglings, when twilight comes, will have a tale to tell and
a song to sing of these, your days. And the gist of it and the
swing of it will be even as this of mine.
For as long as a man shall live, Age will sing of Youth and
Youth will dream of the future.
Hope for the young; memory for the old - what a blessed
thing of life!
Ballad of the Hojack
Come, all ye old-time railroad hams, And listen now to me;
I'll sing you a song of the Hojack days
In nineteen-two or three Before the rails got rusty;
When the safety-valves were tight And a "day's work" meant you worked all day
And most of the blasted night!
When you pounded brass for thirty-a-month
And your uniform of blue
Made you pals of the village gals,
Who always fell for you!
You took your rest in the waiting-room
When the morning hours were small
And you slumbered away till the break of day;
Nor heeded the frantic call
Of the sounder, there on the office desk
As the train dispatcher tried
To make a meet for twenty-one
Ere her running time had died.
You carried your lunch in a big tin pail
Whose top was a coffee can;
And you raided the freighthouse for beer and gin
Like a regular railroad man!
The clickety-clack of the sounding brass
Was music to your ears
And you laughed aloud in the joy of youth
Not rocked of the fleeting years.
Now, these were the boys in the days of old
Who gave us their Morse-code skill
From West Shore crossing, just out of the yard
To Richland, over the hill
There was Jimmy Duell at Liverpool
At Woodard were Foster and Maine.
And every day you'd see at Clay
Charlie Zoller and Billy McCane.
By Bertrande Snell
At Brewerton station, all the Rogers' relation
Could handle the telegraph key Old Charlie was agent, and "Coon" was the clerk,
With others in close harmony.
From there you would fare to old Central Square,
Where Covell and Sprague did their stunts;
Then came this old-timer, the "Mallory rhymer,"
(Who wasn't an old-timer, once!)
At Hastings, John Benedict labored
And as onward to Parish we flit,
We greet George Murphy and Frank Haynor, too Both men of good humor and wit.
Fred Nicholson next, at old Union Square;
And at Fernwood we noted Bert Shear;
While Pulaski had Austin and handsome Will Pond
To keep all the business clear.
Too many, too many of whom I rhyme
Have gone where there's no overtime;
Where clicking sounders don't intrude,
But we who wait the Super's call
(Which comes to one, which comes to all).
Forget them not - for they were men
We fondly hope to see again!
No more the singing wires sing,
No more the "bugs" their message fling.
Thru all the world's expanse
They killed the Morse code and they trod
Upon the corpse, all prone.
"For now, you see," they yelled in glee
"We run the trains by phone!"
As o'er the Hojack's rusty rails
The few sad drags still go,
The roadbed cries in agony
Beneath the weight of woe.
And from the churchyarda, near and wide
We hear a low, sad moan:
"They're runnin' the trains by phone, me lad.
"They're runnin' the trains by phone."
Now this is my song of the Hojack,
And this is my bid or fame That, among the old-time Hojack hams,
You'll find my written name:
That I knew these men and loved them
And that I'm proud to say,
"I too, worked on the Hojack,
PONDERING THE PAST
PAGE 5
Gretchen Harter Sayer
As children, Gretchen and her
friends would buy teaberry gum at
the Parish train station; the whole
place smelled of delicious teaberry
gum for years.
Gretchen also remembers as a
kid going over to the station and
putting a penny on the tracks and
the train would flatten it as it went
by, The penny would be blistering
hot, too. The main reason they went
over to the train station was to
watch; a particular train did not
stop and our train master would
put the mail in a sack and place it
on a post by the track and the man
inside the train had a large hook
and would snare it as the train thundered by. We all waited for him to
miss or drop the mail; but he never
did.
When Gretchen was teaching
and learned that the passenger train
route through Parish would be ceasing by the end of the summer.
Gretchen thought it was now or
never, so she took her 3rd grade
class and Mrs. Rowlee [then] her
4th grade class on a special field
trip. They got on the train in Parish
and rode to Brewerton. An
A.P.W. bus met them in Brewerton
for their return trip to Parish. Before heading back to Parish and
school, they stopped at McDonald’s
for lunch at the golden arches
Carol Anne Rudat Horning
Harry Rudat, Sr. was a substitute
mail carrier. Ron Horning remembers riding with him in 1955 in the
big snowstorm.
Some time between 1955 and
1960 at night between 11:00 and
12:00, Harry would take three or
four bags of mail to the train depot.
The train would stop and he would
put the mail on it. When the man at
the depot had a message for the
conductor, Harry would put it on an
arm with a string and the conductor
would stick his arm out and get the
message without stopping the train.
David L. Clark (1864-1939) was born
in Ireland and came to America when
he was only eight years old. He entered the candy business working for a
small manufacturer in New York. After three years as a salesman, he
bought a wagon, horses, and merchandise and went into business for himself.
The D.L. Clark Company was founded in 1886 when Clark started
manufacturing candy in two back rooms of a small house in Pittsburgh’s North side. He began selling his candy in the streets of Pittsburgh. During his lifetime, his company became a leading candy manufacturer.
By 1920 the D. L. Clark Company was making about 150 different
types of candy. Clark was also manufacturing chewing gum in a
building across the street from his candy factory. In 1921 hey incorporated Clark Brothers Chewing Gum Company as a separate business.
The Clark Brothers Chewing Gum Company made Teaberry and
Tendermint gum. B 1931, the candy bar business was so large that
Clark decided to sell the gum company and it was renamed the Clark
Gum Company.
_________________________________________________
Excerpt from
Reflections of the Town of Parish, 1915– 1950
by Clara Spicer Ellison
...I remember when you could take a passenger train out of
Parish at 8:30 a.m. to Syracuse and shop or keep appointments and an evening train back to Parish arriving at 7:15
p.m. This train brought the last mail– which was sorted and
available at the post office until 8:00 p.m. each evening...
William Carley ready to board train at Parish,
Oswego County in 1890. For many years Mr. Carley
was the proprietor of a general store in Parish and every
year he journeyed to New York to buy supplies. He
passed away in May 1901, at ripe age of 86.
PAGE 6
PONDERING THE PAST
PAGE 7
PONDERING THE PAST
Syracuse Post-Standard, Feb. 15, 1948
Just Around the Corner
By Bertrande Snell
my fumbling fingers could begin to
the office door and found my alarm spell out the question, veteran telegramachine still intact - the hod balpher Sherm Coville's clear, deliberate
anced delicately on the edge of the Morse code informed me: `
desk, and the tight string passing
"Yes, she just went by - hightailin' for Brewerton - ain't she a
through the hold to the outside.
beaut?" "What was it? I asked, "I didn't
There was no sound from outside
and the telegraph was silent as the
see or hear a thing."
"Why, you dummy, that was the
grave.
Rushing to the outside door I
White Flyer, making her yearly run
took a quick look up the track, east- tonight - first time I've seen her since
'87 and I wouldn't have missed it for a
ward. No sound, nothing to see.
Then, I gazed west through the mist month's pay!”
Later reports showed that the four
and I glimpsed twin flickers of red
other night offices between Richland
beyond, far beyond, the limits of
and Salina had watched the phantom
the switch-target. In a moment the
train go by - nobody had missed it but
faint gleam was swallowed by the
me!
mist or was carried around the
Roxy Dunham at SX Tower
curve as it sped toward Hastings
depot. But as sure as death and tax- (Salina) reported that he saw the
blamed thing vanish into nothingness
es - the two red lights I saw that
just as it was crossing the West Shore
night were the rear markers on a
intersection in front of his office. The
caboose!
report which he forwarded to the diviLantern in hand, I stepped to
sion office at Oswego mentioned that
the main track and closely examined the rails. The little stake attached to my fishing line was
still in place - but on the instant, I saw something else.
As I have told you, the
night was misty, and the
roadbed was saturated with
dampness - but, there in
front of me, the twin rails
were absolutely dry! Even as
I gazed, the iron began to
gather dampness again - and
it was then, brother, I realized I was scared! I returned
to the lighted office and
called Central Square, the
next open office, west. Frantically, I clicked out - "CQ,
CQ, CQ." and after an agonized century of delay I got
an answer - "I-I-CQ." Before
(Continued from page 2)
the train was made up of engine, tender, two flat cars and a caboose - all
glaring white through the misty
gloom. The engine got so close to
him before it disappeared that he noted the brass bell swinging on the
dome and the steam shooting from
the safety valve - but there was no
sound!
Forty years ago, I could have
found you a hundred Hojackers who
would swear to having seen the famous White Flyer wheeling its ghostly, soundless way over the silent rails.
But all my own memory has to cherish is that one fleeting glance of two
red markers shining dimly through
the mists of the years.
As Trainmaster Jimmy Halleran
remarked when I told him about it:
"Bertrande, my experience with you
leads me to believe that you're always
a little too early, or a little too late.
By the way, do they make any rectified cider around Parish these days?"
Train Trestle at Red Mill 1917 2:30 pm. train
PTHS seeking
suggestions for
2012 calendar
Theme.
Send ideas to
address below
Parish Town Historical Society
P.O. Box 145
Parish, New York 13131
http://pths.parish-ny.com
P ar
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