Country Store : North Colesville Boasts Real One
At the Crossroads in Peaceful Valley
Binghamton Press, July 23, 1950
Did you ever wish that you could get away from all the talk about war and atom bombs, the rush and noise of city traffic and the yakity-yak of a lot of people that you don't know talking all at once? Do you long for days on your grandfather's farm when time seemed endless?
At the foot of a long, steep hill, a few rods off Route 79 lies Peaceful Valley, known to the more prosaic as North Colesville. The unpaved road crosses at one end of a little mill pond and at the edge of a deep and rocky glen is an old fashioned crossroads store kept by Henry (Hank) Paddleford and his sleek black and tan foxhound, Major. The store, which has been in operation for more than 50 years, occupies the first floor of the North Colesville Grange Hall. At first it was run by the Grangers and opened only on Grange night: then a Grange Mercantile Co. was formed which took over for a number of years. Mr. Paddleford has been there since 1923 and although the store lacks some attributes of early times, it still retains the flavor of an old country store.
The cracker barrel has given way to packaged products, but men still gather around to talk. Hank, 72, is an old-time hunter and trapper and during the deer season it is not unusual to find 15 or 20 hunters sitting around the store eating their lunch at noontime. Until last year when a serious illness took its toll, Hank used to get some obliging neighbor to take over while he joined the hunt and he can still break his share of clay pigeons, when a gang come up and gets out his old trap.
Hank has lived all his life within a stone's throw of the store. He was born in the homey little house just across the spillway where he and Major keep bachelor's hall. The sawmill which his father, Hanford Paddleford, built when he came back in 1865 from serving with the First New York Cavalry in the Civil War, is gone now and the log yard is a soft carpet of green grass with graceful trees framing the house at the back. A white picket fence and roses blooming in front give the place such an idyllic setting that cars occasionally stop and their drivers ask if the place is for sale.
The first mill was build by John Wylie about 150 years ago. He used to walk over from Coventry on the Ithaca Turnpike to cut and hew out logs for his house and mill. The first mill dam was an earthen one which used to wash out in time of high water. Wylie sold out to Watson Watrous, whose descendants still live nearby.
A few rods farther on is the location on which Hank's grandparents settled. The house is gone now but the barn still stands. When Hanford was done with fighting and returned home, he married Sophronia Burrows, and built him a house and the sawmill all at about the same time. The mill was built on solid rock and the dam made of huge stones which in later years have been reinforced with concrete. "Hanf" is said to have been a real sawyer, able to saw out lumber to the exact measurements. The story is told that when Charlie Holcomb built his house up on the other road, he took a load of lumber away to be sized. The carpenter said, "Don't you know that if old Hanf sawed that it is right; It isn't two inches at one end and three at the other. No sir." So Charlie carted it right home again.
When Hank was a boy his first job helping at the mill was to pile shingles and to work the gate which conserved the flow of water. In those days North Colesville was a bustling little village with a post office, cooper shops to make butter firkins, a cheese factory, blacksmith shop and Red Man's Hall. Then the store bought sugar and crackers by the barrel, good "squirtin" tobacco was five cents a hunk, coffee beans had to be ground by hand and there were lamp wicks where the electric light bulbs are now. When the store first had a telephone there were 15 or 20 parties on the line so there was no need for a local newspaper; people just listened in to find out what was happening.
The store carries a great variety of articles; everything that you expect to find in a country store. On the wall are hunting pictures and an unusual bird's nest that someone brought in. A few years ago Hank gave the old showcase that Watson Watrous used to the Museum in Cooperstown. When the creamery was running, the hitching rail out front used to be full of horses--almost every farmer could think of something he needed for an excuse to stop and "set for a spell" and talk over the weather, crops and politics with his neighbors.
From one end of the store porch there is a view of the glen with its waterfalls and moss-covered stones. All around the pond black and yellow swallowtail butterflies hover over buttercups and red clover blossoms. As the shadows lengthen a half-dozen cars often coast down the hill and shortly fishing lines are dangling in the water as their owners sit and smoke and wait for a bullhead to bite. For the time being the H-bomb is forgotten and Peaceful Valley is all they want.
They Also Serve--Hunting friends wait in the North Colesville store, coaxing Hank Paddleford, left, to shoot clay pigeons. Left to right seated, Sam Watrous, Binghamton; Earl Holcomb, Greene; Nelson Watrous, North Colesville, and Undersheriff Ross Cooley, Binghamton. In back is Vinson Quinn.
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