What a Trip!

         We saw upstate New York at its finest.  Ten days of great weather and gorgeous autumn color.  Beautiful lakes, rolling hills, farmland. No tacky billboards shouting Adult toys! Big Ed's Fireworks! Find Jesus! like some other interstate highways I know of.  And dear little Roscoe, unchanged, a little shabbier, but hey, they've got a micro-brewery now.  AND, where there used to be a string of houses including my father/grandmother/gr. grandparents' house - on Railroad Avenue….

The house on Railroad Avenue

there's a little park! With a plaque marking the beginning of the street where the famous Roscoe Hotel used to be (before my time).  I walked a certain distance under a canopy of trees beside the Willowemoc River, pass where the Dudley house once stood, a little further to where I felt the Jones' house had been.  I looked down at the bank of the river and there were the railroad ties that my gr. grandfather had installed to form a kind of dock! The view from that spot was just as my dad had photographed it with his little Kodak box camera when he was a kid and just as I remembered it from decades ago.  So to me, that little park was like a memorial to my Roscoe ancestors!             As soon as we arrived in Roscoe, hubby and I paid a visit to the Roscoe Free Public Library where I had made an appointment to meet with the librarian/local historian. We had a blast. Learned a lot about the area's history (thank you Joyce!), looked at and exchanged copies of old photos and vintage post cards. I  shared photos from my collection that I had brought, noting surnames written on the backs that the librarians recognized:  Sprague! They owned the department store!  Mootz! Barnes!  I went to school with a Barnes!  Dudley! My mother spoke highly of the Dudleys! 
       And thank you Alice! for running home and returning with this amazing photograph:
                     

It's a 1914 photo of the students who attended Roscoe's single building schoolhouse. I immediately recognized my grandmother, Elizabeth Jones!  There she was, seated 3rd from the right. I saw her face, the strong cheekbones that we were always told reflected her Indian heritage. It's a beautiful picture.  And someone had written the identities of all the students!!!  Probably at a class reunion years later.  

     

     We also visited nearby Liberty and Livingston Manor, trekked through five cemeteries - in Roscoe, Sidney & Unadilla,  searched for ancestors' graves, found a few.  Talked to local historians and average folks who knew a lot about history and some who were just plain fun to talk to.  A lovely couple who owned an antique store in Gilbertsville told us to be sure and go to the small church just up the street.  Just walk on in, go down a hall, you'll see a closet door on the left. That closet had a secret passageway which led to a shelter for escaping slaves on their way to Canada. We went inside - this on one of the very few gray, drizzly days.  Looked around, didn't find the closet but this was the place, somewhere beyond those ceiling beams perhaps, where frightened people sweated, held their breath in the dark, and hoped. 

The Smiths of Gilbertsville

Mrs. Hannah Smith 
W. R. Smith, Photographer
Gilbertsville NY

Carrie Smith Died 1881
W. R. Smith, Artist
Gilbertsville NY

I find these two portraits intriquing. They are both well-worn and handled and both identified on the back, which leads me to believe that whoever wrote the messages in soft pencil, was very fond of them.  The photos provided me with the surname Smith, which also appears as the photographer, and the town of Gilbertsville NY, so I started doing a little digging. By locating graves and accompanying bios and reading past issues of the USCTI Civil War Digest,  I was able to make some possible connections, starting with the the earliest:

I.  In 1816, James and Hannah Carpenter sold land (part of the Hannah Smith Tract of Burlington Township NY) to a black man named Cato Freeman and his wife Amelia. Cato Freeman had fought in the American Revolution.  This may or may not relate to Hannah Smith in the photo.

II.  There was, however a Hannah Lucas Smith b. 1805 d. Feb 18, 1879, Chenango, NY  

- spouse: Rufus C. Smith (1800-1874) 

- children:  William Randolph Smith (1832-1913), Leila Smith (1846-1848)

- burial:  Sunset Hill Cemetery, Guilford, Chenango, NY

III.  William Randolph Smith (1832-1913), son of Hannah & Rufus Smith

- in 1860 married 1st wife : Mary Jane Coye Smith of Butternut NY

- their child:  Carrie S. Smith (1861-1881) age of death 20   

- cemetery: Oak Hill Cemetery Geneva, Kane Cty IL              

More info: b. Norfolk CT, son of Rufus & Hannah (Lucas) Smith and grandson of Corkins Smith - a veteran of the Revolutionary War.  Raised, schooled in NYS.  Mastered the jewelers trade, moved to Geneva IL, was a merchant  (no mention of photography or art).  He remarried and moved to FL.  When he died, he left 2 nieces in NY.  His Siblings:  Rufus C. Smith  (Jr?) (1840-1911), Leila Smith (1846-1848) and half sibling Marvin A. Smith (1844-1910).  

IV.  Carrie S. Smith b. 1861 Gilbertsville NY d. 1881 Elgin IL  Cemetery: Oak Hill Cemetery, Geneva IL  Per FindaGrave bio, which cites her obituary in The Elgin Advocate, Saturday June 25, 1881: Carrie moved to Elgin IL the last year of her life to be with her father and step mother: Dema Reser Smith.  Cause of death: "general debility" with chronic diarrhea, indigestion etc.

Conclusion:  I still don't know if W.R. Smith the photographer was related to Hannah or William Randolph or Carrie.  But maybe back then photography was taken up as a vocation, not a trade and maybe before he became a jeweler, he ran a photography studio in Gilbertsville NY where his daughter Carrie and her grandmother/his mother Hannah Smith (from the photo) lived.