Getting Started

It's beginning. I started out by wandering through my library, developing a bibliography. I found so much --

• 3 Histories of New York State and one of Central New York
• An 1836 New York State Gazetteer
• The Encyclopedia of New York State
• Three (count 'em, three) books about place names (two specific to New York, one to the whole country)
• A regimental history of three New York Civil War regiments (including the one my great-grandfather fought in), written in 1899
• A modern history of another local Civil War regiment
• A previous, badly written history of the village
• Histories of three other local villages
• My great-grandmother's scrap book started in 1895
• The same great-grandmother's diary from 1898
• My great-grandmother's collection of assorted papers -- deeds, building specs, coal bills, you name it -- all windows into daily 19th century farm life
• A crate full of my mother's diaries from the 1930s through the 1980s
• Mom's collection of newspaper clippings (she didn't get so far as to paste them into a scrapbook)
• And a lot of other stuff I haven't pulled together yet.

Yesterday, I wandered through some patent searches. Theodore Timby, who invented the revolving turret used on the USS Monitor during the Civil War, lived in the village for a while, and while there patented three improvements for water wheels (he had lots of patents, from his teen age years through until his eighties).

I found four other locals with patents, as well. The man who drove my school bus patented a device that keeps seaweed from getting entangled in outboard motor propellers, and two village engineers had many patents between them, all assigned to their employers in Syracuse (General Electric and Carrier Corporation). My nephew, Eliot, also has several patents, all but one assigned to Carrier. The one that's all his is for some software controls for traffic signals.

Today was the beginning of Civil War research. There were four (actually three: one shifted from infantry to artillery and started over) regiments that recruited locals. One, the 111th NY Volunteers, was a storied group that started out badly. They were at Harper's Ferry almost as soon as they were recruited, and as yet had no training. They were cowards and ran. But by the time of Gettysburg, they turned the tide of the battle as heroes, losing a large proportion of their membership. There
is a wonderful monument to them at Gettysburg.

I’ve been going through muster rolls, and it’s hard to keep the tears away when reading things like these:

• age, 21. Enlisted 8 Aug 1862 at Cato. Wounded in action 2 Apr 1865 at Petersburg, VA
• age, 20. Enlisted 31 Jul 1862 at Sterling. Wounded 5 May 1864 at Wilderness,VA.
• age, 23. Enlisted 8 Aug 1862 at Ira. Wounded in action 2 or 3 Jul 1863 at Gettysburg, PA.
• age, 18. Enlisted 4 Aug 1862 at Sterling to. Missing in action, 6 May 1864, at The Wilderness, VA.; no further record.
• age, 33. Enlisted 30 Aug 1764 at Sterling. Captured while on picket 30 Oct 1864 at Petersburg, Va. Died of dysentery 10 Dec 1864 at Salisbury, NC. [as prisoner of war]
• age, 23. Enlisted 8 Aug 1862 at Ira. Deserted 19 Sep 1862 at New Market, MD.
• age, 18. Enlisted 30 Jul 1862 at Ira. Killed in action 2 Jul 1863 at Gettysburg, PA.
• age, 18. Enlisted 7 Aug 1862 a Ira. Captured while on picket 1 Dec 1863 at mine Run, VA.; died of starvation 3 Jun 1864, while a prisoner of war.
• age, 21. Enlisted 7 Aug 1862 at Ira. Killed in action 18 May 1864, at Spotsylvania, VA.
• age, 33. Enlisted 5 Aug 1862 at Victory. Captured in action, 2 Oct 1863 at Lewinsville, VA.; died 28 Jan 1864, at Richmond, VA.
• age, 23. Enlisted at Cato,. Died of disease, 27 Jan 1865, in hospital at Annapolis, MD.
• age, 24. Enlisted 30 Aug 1864 at Sterling. Died of chronic diarrhea, 6 Dec 1864, in First Division Hospital;

And the list goes on and on. There are hundreds more on the list – there are just some of the local boys from the village and farms around it. Of course, many of them came home. One, Newman Eldred, lived in the village, and as an old man wrote his chronicle of experiences. His story of Gettysburg gives me chills even thinking about it. Hell has nothing on the sort of thing he went through there.

I'm beginning to think about how I'll structure this whole thing. I think I'll have a graphic timeline that gives significant dates, but that the rest of the book will be vignettes devoted to a series of topics -- such as the Native Americans who preceded us, the treaties that secured the land to become military land grants for Revolutionary War veterans, local inventors, businesses, local celebrities, village traditions, churches, the local geography, farming, local institutions, wars, etc.

If I’m not careful, it’ll be a large tome – there is so much material.