The Golden Boots of Bainbridge

The Golden Boots of Bainbridge

Leo Nichols retells the story of the

"Golden Boots" at his farm near Bainbridge

They tell a fine tale in Bainbridge about the "golden boots" that spent one winter in a farmhouse attic.

Leo Nichols, who operates a fine dairy of 76 cows, just outside Bainbridge on the Afton road, tells it this way: 

"It's not really my story at all.  It was told by the late James Hyde, one of the pioneers of Bainbridge.

"You see, this farm of mine was once owned by the Higleys, a banking family of Norwich, who bought it from a Mr. Guthrie some 80 years ago.  The Higleys paid Guthrie in gold.  When he decided to go back to Connecticut for the winter, he placed the gold in a pair of his favorite leather boots.  he took the boots over to his neighbors, the Sumners,and asked if he could leave them in their attic for the winter.  The Sumner place is now the Leon Stewart farm.

"They said he was welcome to do so.  He also requested permission to place them in the attic with his own hands.  they apparently thought nothing odd about this request, for when he returned the next spring they had not been touched.

"Guthrie then turned them upside down and out poured $8,000 in gold."

Mr. Nichols, a congenial man who runs his farm with the aid of a son, Kermit, is proud of a gigantic elm tree on the property.  The tree is believed to be the famous council tree of the Indians in the stories of James Fennimore Cooper and is 23 feet in circumference at its base.

Mr. Nichols also has a remarkable collection of fiddles, an original mile-long deer rifle and other interesting items in his comfortable farmhouse.

This magnificent elm on the Leo Nichols farm is supposed to be the great council

tree of the Indians in James Fennimore Cooper's stories.  Auto provides comparison

 

 

Historic "Elms"

Bainbridge News & Republican, March 5, 1936

[slightly different version of golden boots story]

 

The "Elms" mentioned in last week's "Faded Page," was purchased by Walter Higley in 1837 for $8,000 in gold and remained in the family until 1909 when bought by George E. Nichols, from Jamhan Graham, who was mentioned in early 1800 town records.  He is also mentioned in church records.  The above Graham deposited the above gold, which was long before the Roosevelt confiscation, in a pair of old leather boots and left for safe keeping in the loft of the summer house, now the Stewart homestead.  This Graham, Higley, Nichols farm was a part of Lot 77, southeast corner granted to Reuben Church, a Vermont sufferer, in 1789.  Whether Church settled here, only a search of deeds at Norwich will prove.  He probably was a son of Dea. Timothy Church, who was granted six square miles or 3000 acres.  He had nine sons and one daughter.--G.E.N. [George E. Nichols]