Warm Barns

So I thought the Boxing Day Blizzard was going to represent the bulk of our snow this winter - but more than a month later we still haven't seen the ground. On top of the foot of snow that has blanketed the landscape for weeks now, we're bracing for another foot or two over the next couple of days. What is this - Norway? So how are we all coping? The cats stare longingly at the busy bird feeder but decline any invitation to venture outside. For them cabin fever translates into more wrestling matches. LeRoi even deigns to play with Koschka's toys when he thinks we're not looking. For us, lots of opportunities to practice cross-country skiing in the back fields. I admit to being transported by the vast stretches of untouched snow, the bracing air and last week, the sound of ice in the trees, tinkling like giant crystal chandeliers in the breeze. Then it's indoors to our cozy barn. On the farmstead, after lots of shoveling and plowing, life goes on fairly normally. Last night two ewe lambs were born and more are due this weekend. For the time being, hunkering down in a warm barn is a good idea for all of us.

Farm Animals: Life and Death

Little did our house guests the Trowsmiths know, when they presented us with an antique mug inscribed with a rural poem, that it was our favorite Farmer's Prayer, and that we would indeed soon be eating our own lamb. Two weeks ago eight fattened market lambs went to the slaughterhouse, and one is now neatly cut and wrapped in our freezer waiting to pulled out for festive roasts and winter stews. I admit to feeling fairly unsentimental about this. I enjoy learning about the difference between a foreshank and a shoulder roast and I marvel at how these creatures translate into tasty tender meat on our plates. I always was a carnivore...

And speaking of carnivores...our family has expanded by two...felines, that is, rescued from tough lives of survival on the 'street.' Three-year old LeRoi (pronounced LeRoy) has definite royal bearing and is a superb mouser, averaging one a day. I cringe when he catches the occasional chipmunk or sparrow but that's the price we pay. Koschka, the impish russian blue kitten, keeps us constantly entertained with his antics. He helps me make the bed and tie my shoes every morning and loves to prod LeRoi into wrestling matches. He specializes in crickets and flies but is vicariously learning to live up to his nickname 'Killmousky," -- he relishes grabbing LeRoi's mice and throwing them up in the air. Our Bethesda suburban cats never had it so good. 

The Gravestone Mystery Partially Solved

Thank you to Tibbie and Elizabeth for unearthing this issue of the Red Hook Journal describing the burial ground across the road from the farm! The stone house referred to in the article is the "Teator" house and there is no mention of our farmhouse. Also unclear is to which house the burial site was attached. However I suspect that we have incorporated in our fireplace hearth one of the stones this author found in 1890 and that Woody Sr. found more than half a century later. See photo below (note death date on top ... ANNO 1755 D then an 8 or & followed by AVEN B) and mention later in the article of a stone marked "1755 Aven B." Now all I need to do is hunt down traces of one Anna Maria Schmuck buried there in 1792! I would also love to know what the AVEN B marking means. Guesses anyone?

 

The Days Are Hot But We Are Not

 I haven't had a chance to post pictures of our completed barn home, so here are a couple. We love the way it looks and since we've been spending quite a bit of time indoors during this hot spell, we are also grateful for the insulation and the A/C! Infrequent thundershowers have brought little relief. Outside our windows we see yellowed lawns and parched pastures.  Unlike the city/suburbanscape we're used to,  our surroundings here are constantly changing reflections of the weather. Love that feeling of being closer to nature? Yes, but some protection is welcome too!

A Summer Trim

Everyone needs a trim to survive the hot summer days and at EVF that means lambs and trees at the very least!

Tractors, Sheep, Hay and Celebratory Parades

The bright orange Allis, with Steve at the wheel, proudly makes its annual trip to Red Hook for the Memorial Day parade, sputtering to a halt twice along the way but smoothly making it through the most important part, the roll down Broadway in front of the cheering onlookers. Olivia and friend Lois are the first to climb aboard the hay wagon, later joined by Deborah, Caitlin, Nicholas and Mr. Chris, all madly waving to the crowds. The fire trucks, town officials, kiddie hay wagons, vintage cars and school marching bands follow. What a wonderful reaffirmation of small town culture – Red Hook strutting its stuff, everyone friendly and appreciative.

Another event in late May – the giant catalpa bursts into full bloom. Its fragrance catches us by surprise as we walk the grounds, prompting us to suck in deep breaths and sigh. The sheep, dwarfed by the magnificent tree, are oblivious to its beauty and intent only on grazing but they add serenity to the picture.

Later in June, as the summer heat dries out the pastures and the first crop of hay is cut, it’s time to store bales in the barn, ready to be pulled down when the grass is sparse or disappears altogether. But for now, we revel in the fullness of early summer.

Looking Back

So I have been curious about the history of Echo Valley Farm and have begun some sleuthing. I started with this photo, which notes on the back that it was taken around 1885 and that the house was built by Henry W. Coon in 1868. It pictures Henry’s son Alvin and three of his seven siblings (and the Klose kids thought they were crowded!). So I started with some deed research, locating and copying deeds going back to 1839. Here’s what I’ve found so far…

David Pulver (certainly ancestors of our own Steve Pulver) and his wife Elizabeth sold 140 acres to Nicholas Pulver in 1839. The property includes what appears to be EVF but it’s hard to match given descriptions such as “..beginning at the stake on the east bank of the Sawkill and thence north eighty one degrees fifteen minutes… then three chains sixty three links to the white swamp oak..” In 1846 Nicholas D. Pulver and his wife Polly sold the farm (the description matches current deed exactly) for $6,421.27 to Jacob H. Myers , who turned around and sold it in 1848 to Henry W. Coon for $6,575.

[Note that Henry W. Coon’s grandfather was born Henrich KUHN and his ancestors trace back to a Johann Jacob Kuhn born around 1675, presumably a Palatine from southern Germany. At some point Henrich decided to Americanize his name. Wouldn’t it be something if I found a link between the Red Hook Kuhns and my Germanic ancestors who sought their fortune in Mexico?]

Henry W. Coon died in 1883 and his will directed that his estate be divided among his eight children once his wife Elizabeth died. Son Alvin H. married Frederica Metzger in 1889 and bought EVF from his siblings in 1893. Also that year their daughter Frederica was born. She later married Warren Rockefeller and had a son Phil, Woody’s classmate, who gave Wood the photo.

I also found photos of the farmhouse probably taken at the turn of the century (labeled Residence of Alvin H. Coon) as well as photos of the Coons as newlyweds and baby Frederica with two aunts (all with impressive headgear!).

As sole owner then, Alvin H. Coon sold the farm in 1929 to John B. Smith, who put $100 down, and assumed a mortgage of $9,497.19. John B. Smith and his wife Beatrice owned it until they sold to Woody and Virginia in 1943.

Some interesting bits from the deeds:

Although none of the deeds describe dwellings other than as “appurtenances,” both the 1846 and the 1848 deeds describe the land as“…containing one hundred and two acres two roods and thirty eight perches of land..together with grain growing on said premises.” In 1848, the buyer gets…”Also the rye straw on the mow overhead and on the east side of the barn and all the manure on the premises.”

Boilerplate that appears in all the earlier deeds include words to the effect that the new owners “shall and may at all times hereafter peaceably and quietly have hold use occupy possess and enjoy the granted premises…” (think we could resurrect the ‘peaceably and quietly’ part??)

Other standard language implies that wives were often coerced by their husbands, otherwise why have this? “… And the said [wife] in a private examination apart from her husband acknowledged that she executed the said conveyance freely and without fear of compulsion of her husband…”

So my next project is researching wills. The one I have found so far is pretty interesting. When Henry W. Coon died in 1883, an inventory was done and to his wife he left among other items “one spinning wheel, one sewing machine, five stoves and all the books in the house. Also ten sheep and their fleeces, one cow and two swine….” An inventory of the property appraised on the “homestead” (EVF) farm includes a looking glass, dinner bell, clock, churn machine, bottles of cider and vinegar in the cellar, and “a Lot of oats and corn in the wagon house..” Henry owned other farms, including the Staats farm (west of the Sawkill) where he kept “one brindle heifer, one red heifer, one yellow heifer and one spotted cow.” Another farm held 26 sheep, one small black horse, four steers and one bull.”

Apparently after the Erie Canal opened in 1830, local farmers switched from grain, (competition meant they could no longer sell down the Hudson), to livestock, dairy and fruit. The documents bear out this trend.

So stay tuned as I hunt down more EVF history!