Memories of the Coes 26 - Schools, Academy, Ingham, Roads, Care of Roads
In Le Roy was an Academy, as well as Ingham University, famous in the early days as one of the first institutions of learning for women in the United States. Mary had been to a girl's boarding school at Gainsville before I can remember. Both she and E.F. had been to the Academy five and a half miles with roads frequently impassable in winter's snow, and almost so in the mud of spring. i think it would be hard for our grandchildren to conceive the condition of the roads in those early days. A covered carriage was very rare till after the '70s. I do not remember when had we our first one.
In those days the roads in each locality were in charge of a "pathmaster" appointed by the Highway Commissioner - elected by the town - from some one in the road district. This "pathmaster" had charge of the patch to be kept in repair. It was expected he would take particular care of the road which he had to travel most. These repairs, of course, varied. They usually consisted mainly in drawing in gravel and rounding up the roads. Sometime they would be so narrow and so round that one would be in fear when meeting another "rig" and be obligated to turn out. Farmers worked out their road tax by drawing gravel or doing whatever there was to do. A man counted for a days's work. A team and wagon for two day's work. A man was assessed according to his other assessment. The road work usually lasted three days. It was often done in June in the lull of pressing farm work. The path master seldom held the office longer than two years. This method of caring for the roads was done away with more than twenty years ago, about 1910, - and the care of the roads has since then been under the Town Superintendent.
Charles has a story of Mike Buckley, a neighbor on the North road which bounds the farm on the east. One year "By Farley" at Millsville, was appointed the pathmaster. Buckley said, "All the work on the road this year will be done back of my woods, - where there is not a tone of stuff drawn in a year. Never mind, I'll have a camp meeting over in my woods so the road will be used!" He was _ a good old Catholic.
Trucks instead of teams began used in road work from 1920-25.
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Patty's notes on this entry
Le Roy Academy - Le Roy Academic Institute founded in 1864 and operated until 1891. The school provided classical and business education programs.
Le Roy Academic Institute photo c 1876
Ingham University - Ingham University operated in Le Roy, Genesee County, New York from 1837-1892. It was the first women's college in New York and the first charted women's university in the United States.
Mary - Mary Isadore Coe (1851-1924) oldest daughter of Albert Coe (1827-1907) and Deborah Prentice (1833-1910). She married George W Sperry (1853-1933, son of Platt T Sperry and Rebecca) in 1879
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
E.F. - Ezra Frank Coe (1853-1942) son of Albert Coe and Deborah Prentice
Charles - Charles Joslin Call (1859-1939) son of Robert Call (1831-1913) and Charlotte Joslin (1834-1908). He married Elizabeth Ann Coe (1862-1956) daughter of Albert Coe and Deborah Prentice in 1884. Charles Joslin Call served as a pathmaster in 1901 and 1906.
Mike Buckley - Michael Buckley (1835-1913) born in Ireland, immigrated to the U.S. in 1853. In 1858, he married Mary Gaynor (1838-1914, also born in Ireland). The Buckley's were living in Stafford by 1870.
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