Cornelia McFalls

One of our newest donations is a book of poems titled Forget-me-nots and Other Poems by Cornelia McFalls a local poetess. She was born May 10, 1831 in Rossie to Louis and Charity Pierce. On her 20th birthday she married Dr. David McFalls. She won some fame for writing campaign songs for the Hayes and Wheeler ticket in 1876. She died October 1909. Just before she died she had just completed the book but it was not published until after her death by Ruchard G. Badger, The Gorham Press Boston Mass.

Here is an except. It's a poem titled BIRTH-DAY POEM (this is how it was titled in the book) that she wrote to her daughter Alida when she turned 14.

"Now fourteen summers round your head

 Dear "Bobbin" thus, have quickly fled

 And all, the world to you, will seem

 Like one, continuous happy dream.

 To thee dear darling, I impart ;

 The love that fills my inmost heart;

 The cherished hopes, the fond desires,

 To which a mother's heart aspires'

 I read within your little face

 The father's likeness I can trace

 All the deep love that heretofore

 Had filled my heart in days of yore;

 And now again returns in thee

 Looks sacred, then in memory ;

 Time never changes, youth must glide

 From chilhood's hour to Woman's Pride!

 And Love, that presence, must Divine!

 Some time, dear child

 Will too be thine!

 Oh! God! I pray! this change

 May be a reign of bliss, dear one to thee."

Silas Wright at Martin Van Buren's House

Sorry it has been a while since I last updated this blog. I have been working on a lot of projects. My Family and I went to Salem MA for Vacation and on our way back we stopped at Lindenwald Martin Van Buren's Home in Kinderhook NY. We had been there in the early 1990's before we even heard of Silas Wright. The tour guide asked us a little bit about ourselves and my dad mentioned that I volunteered at the Silas Wright House and the tour guide said Silas had visited Van Buren there. When we went into the President's bedroom there was a small photo of Silas on top of the fire place. I took a few photos.

Hotels

Sorry I have not posted in a while, I was trying to come up with ideas for topics. I thought that it was summer and people are going in vacation that I would post photos of old hotels in the County. Of course in the olden days there were not the chain hotels we know today. Sadly most of them are not around anymore.

The 1st one is the Racquette House in Stark near Colton

It was built by Jerry Reynolds. His son William ran it for a while. Sometime late William McKizer ran it with his wife. In the 1930's it was owned by Northern New York Utilities. In 1935 a fire destroyed the building.

The 2nd hotel is the Hotel Wanakena in the town of Fine

 It was constructed by the Rich Lumber Co. At first it consisted of the center section and two wings. The east wing was enlarged in 1906.

The 3rd hotel is the St. Lawrence Inn in Gouverneur

It was built in 1894.  It is five stories it has a frontage of 46 ft. Robert Murphy opened it on July 1, 1895. Later owners/managers included the Getman Brothers of Theresa, Everett J. Peck, J.H. McLear and a corporation with (F.M. Pratt, C.R. Dewey, Mr. White and Carl Mayhew), Fred McCarney, G. Murray Holmes, Emerett A. Green who formed a corporation with his wife, and her brother H. Walter Lee, The Watertown Mattress Co brought it and made it into a store. During Mr. Mayhew's time more rooms with baths were added, phone service among other things was added.

The 4th hotel is the Hermon House or Hotel Hermon

All the info came from Newspaper Articles I found on the Northern New York Historical Newspapers Website.

Happy Birthday Silas Wright!!!!

Sorry it has been a while since I last posted I was at an archives conference in Gettysburg.

Anyhow today is Silas Wright's Birthday. He was born in 1795. We are lucky to own his former home so people can and come and visit it and learn about Silas.

Thank You

I want to thank Connie Sterner for the photos she send me. Check out her great site on North Country History at http://www.northcountryny.com.

Added some of our favorite links

Photos

I am also working on a finding aid for our People Photo Collection. While I am doing it I am also looking for their obituaries on the Northern New York Historical Newspapers Website. I think its interesting to learn about the people whose photos we have. I thought I would share some photos of people whose stories I have found interesting.

This is John Lavier. He died in Canton at the age of 86. He was from Waddington. Mr. Lavier was a well known river guide and fisherman. When he was younger he was an acrobat for the Main Brothers Circus for 20 years. This info cames from his obit in the Ogdensburg Journal from Friday April 10, 1942 pg 2.

This is Silas Malterner.He had the first automobile in Canton. He build it himself. It was small. The wheels were pneunmatic with steel spokes. It was somewhat styled like a old fashioned buggy. It did not have a top. It was steered by an arm at the side of the driver's seat. It ran on both steam and gas. To read more about Mr. Malterner and his automoblie search for Silas Malterner in the Northern New York Historical newspapers site. It was on the Massena Newspaper.

I will be posting other photos and stories soon.

Help

One of the Exhibits I am working on is 30 Years of Wooden Miniatures. Each year we sell three wooden miniatures of buildings around the county. I am researching the history of each building and trying to find photos of each building to use for the exhibit.

The buildings that I cannot find good photos of are:

1. Cranberry Lake Presbyterian Church
2. The Doane-Roberts House in DeKalb really Richville
3. Old First National Bank of Gouverneur
4. Hammond Presbyterian Church
5. The New York Central Depot at Massena Springs
6. The United States Hotel in Massena Springs
7. Pickens Hall in Heuvelton
8. Pierrepont Brick School
9. The Constant Wells House in Pitcairn
10. Rossie Hotel
11. The Parish Agency House in Parishville
12. The Old Brasher and Stockholm High School

I found some in some books but it was hard to get them scanned so I could use them in the exhibit. Also I scanned some postcards of some and when I printed the scan out it was hard to see. I hope you guys can help me.

Introduction

Hi my name is Adam. I am a volunteer at the St. Lawrence Co. Historical Association. I will be the main person behind this blog for a while. I am at the Association each Thurs and Fridays and some Saturdays. I am planning on scanning some photos from our collection to share with you sometime in April probably after Easter.

I am also going to ask you guys for help sometime like when I am working on an exhibit and I have trouble with finding information or photos I will ask you for help. I will also ask for your help when we have trouble figuring out what an artifact is. Another thing we will ask you guys is to figure out who someone is in a photograph if we do not know etc.