YESTERDAY AND TODAY...

An annotated trip along Ridge and Middle Roads with Jim Dann, August, 2003. This part of the trip starts at the corner of Smith and Middle Roads, and initially turns south.

The present- day Mann Farm at the intersection of Smith and Middle Roads was the Milo Bagley farm. . Jim remembers the day when the Revenooers raided several large stills in the woods farther below. He recalls the noise and smoke of the gunshots and the commotion as the place was broken up. The stills would have gone undetected but for the large quantity of mash that had been dumped into the ravine. It washed into the creek way below, and was killing fish.

Laurance's barn was where these few trees are now, behind the small utility pole. (the modern house near there is recent... You can just see Laurance's shop beyond it; see next picture) It was a low spot, and every three years or so the yard would have to be scupped out and refilled with gravel. The job of removing the stuff was unpleasant, but so too was hand- shoveling 40 loads of gravel into Laurance's dump cart. The gravel came from behind the barns that were behind the house.

Carriage house and shop at Laurance's farm.

presently 489 Middle Road...

Laurance's home from 1928 until he left farming. There was a windmill and cistern on the south side of it.

For more pictures of Laurance's farm press here. There are several old pictures in the snapshot file, as well.

Stanley operated this farm for a few years before Laurance, and Jim was born here in 1927.

presently 459 Middle Road...

Just below Laurance's there was a school on this site, the Vereran #11 school. Jim's mother (Phoebe) taught there, probably 1922- 1923, and Laurance was the trustee of this school in the late 20s and the thirties.

A Mile or so south of Laurance's farm is where his son Delos farmed until moving to Potter (in Yates County) and then to Ontario. The farm was at the foot of Roemmelt Road on Middle Road.

Looking north, from south of the Roemmelt Road intersection, this was Delos' farm. The house in the picture has replaced the original house. Delos built the second story and roof of the chicken coop with the help of Uncle Rip Westlake chicken coop west of the house, and the part of the red barn that has concrete block foundations. He also tore down a machinery shed by the road.

Delos bought the farm in the fall of 1944 and moved in in January of 1945, 21 years old. Married in April 1945. The farm was purchased from Fred Smith who ran the Rotary Gas station in Chemung. They sold the farm to Dewey in 1960. The back half of the farm was sold to Elmira College by Dewy, and it is now part of the "Golden Domes area.

This is a closer view of the previous picture

Turning around and heading north, well past the Smith Road, Middle Road intersects with Church Hill road on the right. The house northwest of this intersection was the Parson's school, where Laurance, Bob, and likely others went too when they lived at the Worden Farm.

This was the Parson's school, (Veteran #9 district) looking south from a position north of it. The Church Road intersection is in the background. The school is named for the several Parsons families that lived close by the school. See Jim's map of the area.

From the Parson's School, turn back south again and then turn west on Smith Road for the next two pictures.

Traveling down from Middle Road on Smith Road, the land on the left was once part of Laurance's farm.

This is the bottom of Smith Road, where it crosses Catharine Creek and then joins Route 14. This is where Stanley was injured.

At the time there was a steel truss bridge spanning the creek, and a nearby utility pole which tilted towards the road. The town was paving that part of the road, and the driver asked Stanley to jump up on the running board to make sure that the oil spreader manifold would clear the side of the bridge. With all the attention directed behind the truck, nobody noticed the pole as they approached it. His head was rolled between the pole and the truck, and the back of his skull was crushed.

He was sent to Rochester, where a steel plate was put on his skull... big stuff for the 1940s... but the Jim said that there was a blood clot that adhered to his brain, and his condition steadily deteriorated. He went on to say that Stanley's condition would imporve for a week when the doctor would inject air pressure into his skull. He lived for seven years after the accident.