Mrs. Jennings Talks of Old Residents
Afton, Chenango Co., NY
Afton Enterprise, May 17, 1957
Blessed by Diaries! What a fund of knowledge comes from the old ones!
I've wondered who the first Postmaster was and was pleased to learn that it was Cornelius Atherton, who still has descendants in Afton. Mr. and Mrs. Atherton were the kind of lovely old people the children love.
The Postmaster I remember was Mr. E.M Shay. He owned the "Shay Block" recently rebuilt by Attorney Sam Whitman. As one went into the present Beauty Parlor, the Postoffice was on the left and his grocery store on the right. Mr. Shay was a quiet, kindly man liked by everyone. There were three children, Jennie, Martina and Ina Catherine, always called "Kitty." Two sisters of Mrs. Shay lived with them, Beolia Clapper, who was an invalid, as long as I can remember, and Amelia Clapper, a musician. She played the organ at St. Ann's as long as she was able and had music pupils. Miss Charlotte Shay, Mr. Shay's sister was a school teacher for many years and spent the vacations with the Shays.
The present doctor's office was used by Mr. and Mrs. O.N. Swift. He was Afton's jeweler--his bench in the front window and Mrs. Swift kept a fine supply of yarns and taught the women to make it up. The basement was used by Andrew Fisher and Wirt Newley for a meat market. I must have been about four years old which I went to do errands for my mother. Nothing around those days to harm children. I don't know the age of the Shay block, but it was older than either D.A. Carpenter's house and store, now the Town Clerk's Office or the Riley Ester house, now the home of Miss Mildred Merrell. They were built about 1850. Both were used as family homes until the early 90s.
The Handy home was one of the old buildings and back of it was one still older. I think it belonged to Mr. Champlin and family in my time. The Dr. Cook house, now the home of Mr. and Mrs. Jere Jenks must have been built about the same time as the Easton and Carpenter houses and possibly H.R. Caswell's was at that time.
The oldest house in Afton now standing, is the one built by Heth Kelsey in 1804-5 on a grant of land from the government, as he was a Revolutionary soldier. It is now the home of Mr. and Mrs. Clifton Cook. In the Cook home one finds the construction to be much as it was in the old days, with plank walls, heavy timbers which are visible in the attic fastened with wooden pins. In the ground floor rooms are still to be round some of the original hand blown window panes. Some of the flooring in the upstairs rooms is laid with foot wide boards.
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Notes From Sketch by Mrs. Mae Liggett
Afton Enterprise, May 23, 1957
The Sash and Blind factory run by Adison Brewer and Billy Wright was another busy place. Here one listened to the constant buzz of the machinery where timber was sawed while the yard lumber wagons brought the large logs of pine and hemlock which were piled for sawing.
In front was the carriage shop of Coggins and Merrill and in back of the building was the blacksmith shop of Jack Swift. Here one saw horses waiting to be shod and saw the sparks from the anvil as the shoes were being made and thrown into the tub of cold water. At the back of this building was the place where the staves and barrels were made by George Champlin. All day long men came and went. It was a happy place as one listened to the sound of the whistle re-echoing through the town and heard the laughter of those who worked.
In front of the wagon shop was the town pump and here small boys and girls assembled not only to get a drink of water but receive a ducking if one was not very careful.
There stood the Sentinel Building where the town paper was published by Mr. Seaman and it was here one leaned of the important happenings in Afton. Mr. Seaman's son had received some distinction as a tight rope walker.
Mary and Sally remember the stories told by their mothers and grandmothers of the times when the pioneer settler were living in their log homes with the great fire places and brick ovens where all the food was cooked. They told of the times when they killed their own meat and how the Indians came during the butchering and brought them salt (in return for a share of the meat) saying, "My squaw she love them." The Indians knew of a secret place where it could be obtained and gave it to the white people. Conkopet was their chief and they were tall and brave. One time their grandmother had prepared a dinner for the noon-day meal and put it in the open window for a moment but when she turned it was no longer there, but was being carried away by a number of indians. The streams were filled with fish and the woods with deer and bears and all kinds of wild game which they shot with bows and arrows.
The Landers family lived in a little home built of logs above Afton near the bank of the Susquehanna. It was a cold morning in winter when Philander and his brother Hial started for the woods on the hill to cut wood. They had commenced to cut down a large tree with a hollow at the bottom when suddenly a big black bear appeared. As the bear commenced to slowly come toward them they realized their danger. Hial ran to the house to get his gun, while the little brown dog remained with his master, barking and yelping at the bear, which grabbed it, throwing it in the air, but all the time getting nearer. Philander realized that Hial would return too late. he raised his sharpened axe and struck the bear a piercing blow which cut its head open. Standing on its hind feet it put its two front paws to its head holding it together and with the most pitiful cry died, leaving the little cubs which the boys took home.
Mary and Sally were familiar with the story of the two little Indian boys who lived with their tribe on Cunahunta Island (now owned by Charles Arnold, known as the Chamberlain Island) and one summer day caught a very large grasshopper and a dispute arose as to the ownership as each claimed it. All the children of the tribe took part in the dispute, relatives joining in the fight, and still the quarrel continued until several different tribes came and a battle was fought known as the Grasshopper War. Each generation finds the arrows still left in the ground telling of the struggle.
Then came the time when wagon roads took the place of the trails through the forests which had been marked by the Indians.
Down the years these stories of these early days had been carried down the generations in the families of these early settlers of the beautiful Susquehanna Valley.
Selected and edited for the Afton Centennial Committee May 10, 1957 by Frances Fenner, Afton, New York from writings of Mae Caswell Liggett preserved by Celia Landers Liggett.
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