Wandering Around The Family Tree

I think we were considerably nearer Pavilion village than Le Roy which was five and a half miles away, but Le Roy was our trading point and post office. Living on a north and south road, the road was often blocked in the winter. When the storms would subside our man and the neighbors would have a kind of bee digging out the snow. They would have big bob sleighs and hitch strong horses on, and drive through when possible, digging when necessary. They would come in rosy and snow covered, and I think, there was quite a lot of fun with the hard work. Our father had cousins in Phelps who visited their cousins in Le Roy and Pavilion quite frequently as I recollect. Among them were two brothers Fletcher and Salvo Helmer, young men, extreme contrasting types. Fletcher was all masculine, sturdy, dark curly hair, while Salvo was slender, fair, did fancy work like the women. I remember a nice piece of cross stitching I think he was working. We heard of him later as keeping a millinery store and s...

Another family gathering I remember was at uncle Emory Coe's on the farm. He afterward retired from farming and lived in a number of years in Le Roy on Leak St., where his daughter, cousin Nellie, and just now (1936) the second daughter Fannie, now live. i can remember hardly anything Grandmother Coe said, but that day uncle George Coe, a Methodist minister was there. In a quiet interval, grandmother, whom I think was an unusually silent person, said, "George, they tell me you are a Mason!" In a nervous, flurried way uncle George replied "Who said it?" Well. I'm not!" This, of course, was after the great anti-Mason movement occasioned by the Morgan episode. Brother E.F. says that at one time a relative or relative-in-law was visiting us who had trouble with his wife and was talking of divorce. He had been talking of his affairs when grandmother said "So and so, do you expect to get to Heaven?" "Why, yes, I expect to." "Well, if ...

In those early days before the family was too large, we Coe's used to have family gatherings at holiday time. I remember one at uncle Cyrus Sperry's. i thought it was at the old house a mile east of Le Roy, burned down during my schooldays. E.F. Coe thinks it was before they moved there. Uncle Cyrus afterward moved to Le Roy to the house on Myrite (?) St. where his granddaughter-in-law Mrs. Wilbur Sperry, now lives. Cousin Philo, the only child, sold the home farm to Dr Graney, who has a very pleasant home there. Uncle Cyrus had a hare-lip. When he was quite an old man, in his 60's I think, he had gangrene in one leg. It was his life or amputation. It seemed very serious, in those days, but he survived the loss of his leg for many years. He was well-to-do. Father estimate he was worth $ 100,00 in those days.  _______ Patty's Notes on this entry  Cyrus Sperry (1810-1895) Marion's blog with Coe photos is at  https://mlsperry.blogspot.com/2020/07/coe-family-this-post-p...

Pastors Among our pastors whom I remember, - names at least, - was Mr. Plumley. Rev. Philip Houseknect had a very large family. I think nearly or all grown up when he preached for us. I believe he lived in Batavia after he retired, and died a very old man, and that there are many of his descendants in the country around. The last pastor we had was Rev. J.A. Brown, whose wife was a great friend of sister Mary. They had one child Ernest, about my age. They were good singers. They used to testify how wild they had been, dancing, card playing, all worldly amusements, and how wonderfully they had been converted. They had a covered carriage, - (top buggy,) among the first I had ever seen. The family used to visit at our house nearly every week. I would see the buggy going along the road when I was at school.  Church Division Before I can remember, there was a split in the the Methodist Church in the vicinity, and a good many became Free Methodists. Among those who went were Aunt Libbie (...

Schoolmates Among my schoolmates at the little white school house were Carrie Robertson, and her little sister Jennie who lived in the house on the corner where you turned to the school house. The Robertsons had a big black dog that chased me and nipped my leg once when I was going to school alone. Carrie and I were at Ingham together, then she went to Brockport Normal, graduated and taught. Afterward, Will Stowell came back from the West, and, I suppose arrangements were made, and in a little while he came back and took her west with him. He edited a newspaper for a time, and I think she must have been a great help to him. They had two fine children, Frank and Helen whom they brought east with them to visit. Frank is married and has two children. Helen is a business woman in their home Garden City, Kan. Carrie had a long severe illness and has been dead several years. I was at their wedding 50 years ago, on Jan 28, 1888.  Then there was Cora Anderson, who roomed at Mrs. Shaw's yea...

Fossils One thing I remember with great interest is the fossils in the hillside north of George Murray's. There were lots of them and of great variety. I think the hill had been dug out in the making of the road, and no grass had yet grown on it so the fossils were easily reached. There were shells of different sizes and shapes, I call some butterflies, - and what may have been sedges were easily separated into sections the center showing symmetrical patterns. As I recollect these were loose in yellow clay soil. Jerry (?) Hill's gully, a little south west of this, is noted for its fossils. This gully is on the first road north of our old home.  Flowers Charles Murray once brought me some poppy-silk, as we called them - plants which he had pulled up to thin. I tended them carefully, and had blossoms, tho poppies are very hard to transplant. I think this was first experience in gardening.  I used to watch sister Mary make her old fashioned bouquets. She would gather a great quan...

Mother taught me my letter and to read in the Primer before I went to school, I suppose the winter after I was six. One time the "pie" was in my spelling lesson, and she said "You can't have any pie for dinner until you learn to spell it!" No danger, it was "easy as pie" for the young student. I think I was quite elated when I could spell such a long word as "butterfly" with nine letters in it. The next summer I went to the little white school house on the second corner, No. 7 Pavilion, north of us, which seemed a long, long ways. My first teacher was Miss Lucy Grisson. She was very sweet and pretty, and that helped to make school life pleasant. I do not know whether that was her first and last school or not, but she called at our house afterward, not long before she was married to Felix Strouts. I think i have never seen an article of apparel that looked so beautiful and elegant as the hat she wore that day with its long drooping white ostri...

I was early taken to church and Sunday school. I don't remember when I first went. In those early days our Superintendent would assign a passage of scripture for the next Sunday's lesson. Prizes were given to those who learned the most verses. Some learned a great many, - chapters and chapters. I think I never learned so many, tho I have often wished I had. However, one way or another, I became very familiar with the scriptures. Later I read it through, - lists of names and all, a few times. We always  had family prayers. Father would read a chapter, and then we all knelt while he led in prayer. My mother was always very devout, and when I looked at her, perhaps between my fingers, here eyes were pressed shut and her lips moving as she joined in prayer.  I feel we were very fortunate children to be brought up in such an atmosphere. One stormy day the most of the family did not go to church, and when brother Ezra returned, he said "A colored man preached to-day!" I fea...

Of course my share in the household duties, mostly dish wiping and dusting for the little girl, - and later dishwashing. But the task I remember as a real  task was picking berries. Father set out a nice pear orchard south of the house, and between them were black raspberry bushes. It seems to me that I picked them very faithfully, and a great many of them. I know I would get very tired. The hot sun has always tired me. I wonder if I ever had a slight sun stroke. _____ Patty's notes on this entry The entries in the Memories of the Coes tend to be shorter and more disjointed than the ones in Memories of the Calls, so there will likely be more shorter posts for the Coes.  Blackberries. Photograph by Enrico Strocchi. Used under a Creative Commons license.  Picking Blackberries. Photograph by Amber Karnes. Used under a Creative Commons license.  Blackberry Cobbler. Photograph by Jessica Merz. Used under a Creative Commons license.  Previous Post in the Memories of t...

Elizabeth Ann Coe, namesake of both grandmothers, Elizabeth Ann Smith Prentice , who died in 1846, and Elizabeth Ann Sornberter Coe, who died in 1887, was born Oct. 9, 1862. My father, Albert Coe, was the son of Ezra Coe, an early settler in the county, who took up land there. In a house built shortly before the birth of my father, 1837, were born my father, his two younger brothers and all of my father's five children. The deed of the farm I have seen, - brother E.F. Coe had it - it was bought of the Dutch Patroon (?) to whom it was originally granted. Father sold the farm in 1872. It has since passed though the hands of several men. It was last bought by Donald Woodward, who built a tower on a light hill-top, and name the place The Tower. The house is still standing, very much as originally built, I believe.  A book entitled "Robert Coe, Puritan," was re-published after our marriage in 1884, giving the Coe ancestry. I believe our marriage is included in this book. Arthu...