Memories of the Coes 5: Fossils, Flowers and the Miller Place

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 quantity of flowers of different kinds, and liked feathery grasses and fern like leaves. She would start with a center and wind the flowers with a string as she added them, till they were all together. Mary went to a boarding school at Gainsville when quite a young girl. I have wondered how many of her pretty refined ways were acquired while she was there. 

The Miller Place

The Miller Place must have been bought either by father or grandfather. It was a small place adjoining ours to the north. We used to go there occasionally, especially late in the fall to gather "frost peaches." These were mealy and tasteless. I think mother dried them for pies. Besides canning fruit, as we do today, mother dried corn, prunes, peaches, red and white cherries. The cherries were delicious in pies or in cakes and puddings as a substitute for raisins. 

There was no house at the Miller Place when I knew it, but a barn or barns which father later moved to the home place. But the Miller Place was one of romance and mystery to me. The story as mother told it, was brief. Mr Miller had incurred the enmity of an old Indian. One time the Indian was seen skulking round the Miller place, and then was never seen afterward. Other stories say that Mr. Miller managed to get into ambush and when in the dark the Indian moved toward the house, Mr Miller got the first shot. I used to wonder if the bones of the Indian might be underneath where we were walking, but I think no one ever found them. 

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Patty's notes on this entry

These were three consecutive short entries in the original manuscript. I combined them into one post since I wasn't able to document many items in any of the entries. 

George Murray - George Murray (1828-1896), son of George Murray and Jane Robb. He married Emily Whiteman. He lived in Pavilion and Le Roy, Genesee County for his entire life. 

Jerry Hill - There were several Hill families in Pavilion and Le Roy, Genesee County in the 1870s, but I have not been able to identify anyone who would have been known as Jerry. 

Charles Murray - Charles H. Murray (1857-1920) son of George Murray and Emily Whiteman. He lived in Pavilion his entire life. 

Sister Mary - Mary Isadore Coe (1851-1924), oldest child of Albert Coe and Deborah Prentice. She married George W. Sperry.

Boarding School at Gainsville - Mary Coe may have attended the Gainesville Female Seminary in Gainesville, Wyoming County, New York. The school operated from 1855 through at least 1870. Belva Lockwood, the first female attorney and first woman to run for President of the United States was the head mistress at the Gainesville Female Seminary in the early 1860s. You can read more about the Gainesville Female Seminary at http://sites.rootsweb.com/~nycgaine/SchGainesFemSem.htm

Miller Place - The only deed I can find between either Ezra Coe or Albert Coe and anyone named Miller is the purchase of land at Covington, Genesee County, New York by Ezra Coe from Jared Miller and his wife Betsy on May 2, 1831. If this is the property Elizabeth is referring to, it is the earliest land purchase I've found for Ezra Coe in Genesee County. 

Mr Miller - The only Jared Miller I can find in the records in Genesee County is a Jerad Miller living in Le Roy in 1820. According to the census - he was born between 1776-1794. He lived with a woman born prior to 1795 (probably his wife), 1 male between the ages of 10-16, 2 males under the age of 10, and 3 females under the age of 10. 

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