Tag Archives: Nancy Kelly

Researching 19th Century Documents #1 1/1/21

January 1, 2021 Bonnie's Research Leave a comment

#1 FROM THE ARCHIVES: MEN’S FASHION IN THE 1840S

Document: Peter Schultz Receipt dated 1843 #99-68-012.pdf http://rhinebeckhistory.org/ Rhinebeck Town Historian (RTH) Nancy Kelly

Resource: https://fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu/1840-1849/

Presented by Bonnie Wood of Keeping NY History Alive 01012021 https://keepingnyhistoryalive.com/

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Vintage Recipes

VINTAGE RECIPES: FROM THE COUNTRY DOCTOR

This is an excerpt. Click here to view full blog – Vintage Recipes: From the Country Doctor

Mustard Plaster (Dr. Cookingham)

1 teaspoonful of dry mustard
1 teaspoonful of flour
Stir to a medium paste with vinegar. 
Spread between two pieces of muslin cloth and warm before it is applied.
If a larger one is needed take larger equal portions of mustard and flour.
White of egg prevents blistering.

Cool Drinks for Fever (Dr. Morrison)

Cool Drinks for Fever

Juice of 2 oranges and 1 lemon and 1 quart of water
1 tablespoon cream of tartar
2 tablespoons of sugar

Tomato Cocktail
Large can of tomatoes with 1 cup of water
Put through colander.
Juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon of horseradish
1 teaspoon of worcestershire sauce
Pepper and salt

Imperial Drink for Illness (Dr. Cotter)

1 quart of water
Juice of 2 lemons
1 small teaspoon cream of tartar
Use as you would water.

VINTAGE RECIPES: FROM Auntie’s Kitchen

This is an excerpt. Click here to view full blog Vintage Recipes: From Auntie’s Kitchen

Auntie’s recipes dating from the early 1900s were well-used and spattered with years of good cooking yet preserved in this box.

Ruth’s Layer Cake

(Ruth may have been Ruth Coons of Barrytown, NY- the site of memorable July Fourth Family Gatherings.)

1 cup of butter or lard
2 level cups of sugar
4 eggs (separated)
1 cup milk
4 level cups of flour
4 teaspoons of baking powder
1 level teaspoon of salt

Bake in 4 layers.

VINTAGE RECIPES: FROM a farm stand

This is an excerpt. Click here to view full blog Vintage Recipes: From a Farm Stand

Canned Berries

Blackberries, blueberries, huckleberries, raspberries, loganberries, gooseberries and strawberries should be canned as soon as possible after picking.
Hull or stem.
Place in strainer and wash by lifting up and down in pan of cold water.
Pack into hot sterilized glass jars, using care not to crush fruit.
To insure a close pack, put a 2 or 4 inch layer of berries on the bottom of the jar and press down gently with spoon.
Continue in this manner until jar is filled.
Boiling water or boiling thin or medium syrup should be poured over the fruit at once.
Loosely seal.
Sterilize 10 minutes in boiling water.
Remove jars, tighten covers, invert to test seal and cool.

VINTAGE RECIPES: all about fruit

This is an excerpt. Click here to view full blog Vintage Recipes: All About Fruit

Strawberry Cocktails

Slice long, fine berries.
Cover them with orange juice and stand on ice.
Add a teaspoon of powdered sugar.
Serve in sherbet glasses.
            Mrs. Horace Dutcher

Peach Melba

Into sherbet glasses, put small squares or slices of plain cake or lady fingers,
half a preserved peach,
2 tablespoons of plain ice-cream,
juice of cooked fruit,
2 tablespoons of whipped cream,
and garnish with Maraschino cherry. 
Serve cold.
             Mrs. F. S. Rogers

Strawberry Shortcake

2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons Royal Baking Powder
3 tablespoons shortening
1 egg
1/2 cup milk

Sift dry ingredients,
mix in shortening;
add beaten egg to milk and 
add to dry ingredients to make soft dough.
Smooth one half of dough out lightly.
Put into greased deep layer tin;
spread with butter;
cover with other half of dough which has
also been smoothed out to fit pan.
Bake in hot over 20 to 25 minutes.
Split while hot and 
spread crushed and sweetened berries 
and whipped cream between layers;
cover top with whipped cream and
whole berries.
Dust with powdered sugar and serve.

Peach Marmalade

10 pounds peaches when peeled and cut small;
7 pounds granulated sugar;
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon;
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger;
1/2 scant teaspoon ground allspice;
1/2 scant teaspoon ground cloves.

Put all in preserving kettle on back of stove and melt down slowly. Bring to front of fire and cook until quite thick, stirring constantly. Remove any scum which may arise. If peaches seem tart, add a little more sugar. 
             Mrs. Anna B. S.

VINTAGE RECIPES: FROM THE pumpkin patch

This is an excerpt. Click here to view full blog Vintage Recipes: From the Pumpkin Patch

Pumpkin Pie (Auntie’s Recipe)

2 cups of stewed pumpkin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2/3 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon ginger
2 eggs
1 scant pint of milk
Bake 45 minutes.

Ephemera of the time enriches the collection of vintage recipes.

Apple Custard

Pare and core half a dozen very tart apples;
cook them in half a tea cup of water till they begin to soften;
put them in a pudding dish and sugar them;
beat eight eggs with four spoons of sugar;
add three pints of milk;
pour over the apples and bake half an hour.

Shared by Miss M. A. Hedden

Biscuits

Into a quart of sifted flour put two heaping teaspoons of baking powder and a pinch of salt;
mix together while dry;
then rub into it a piece of lard a little larger than an egg; mix with cold sweet milk;
roll thin;
cut with a tin cutter;
and bake a light brown in a hot oven.

Send to the table immediately.

More Vintage Recipes

The Farmer’s Wife- 100 Years Ago

“Black-and-yellow Wood-Warbler (Flowering Raspberry. Rubus odoratus.), John James Audubon, 1841 From the New York Public Library”

One Week in July 1905: Emma Coon shares her days as a farmer’s wife and young mother.

Sunday July 2, 1905~Rainy in am; Burton and his mother [Mary Cornelia Barker Coon] went to church.

Monday July 3, 1905~Warm; I washed Esther’s [Baby Esther Coon was born February 17, 1905.] things; picked cherries and raspberries- Burton sprayed potatoes.

Tuesday July 4, 1905~ Warm; 87 degrees; Papa [Burton], Mamma [Emma], and Esther went to Barrytown [NY] to spend the day.

Wednesday July 5, 1905~ Warm; I picked raspberries and cherries for Aunt Susie [Barker]; packed 2 cases eggs. Burton cultivated corn.

Thursday July 6, 1905~ Cloudy in am- warm; Burton went to Eighmeyville. Baby [Esther] and I went to along to Aunt Susie’s [Barker]. In PM, we went to Barrytown. We called to Mrs. Lasher’s.

Friday July 7, 1905~ Warm; picked cherries; washed; picked currants for jelly. In pm, Mrs. Ostrom and Ina came for cherries. Burton cleaned up cemetery and church yard.

Saturday July 8, 1905~ 90 degrees- showery, made currant jelly and cherry pie. Burton cleaned up cemetery and mowed weeds, cleaned wagon house, mended.

Sunday Jul 9, 1905~ 92 degrees- Burton and his mother went to church.

Transcribed from Emma Schultz Tipple Coon’s journals. (1869-1956)

Burton Coon Blog

Enjoy! This is just a sampling. Read all of my Burton Coon blogs at Milan NY History. One of my favorite parts of the Milan NY History site is the collection of oral histories.

Blog Post #15: 2019 Aug 1~ “The Old Camp”

What are your thoughts when you consider a summer morning and "the old camp"?

"I'm all packed up, ready to go."
Coon, Burton "The Old Camp".

Thoreau's Cove, Lake Walden, Concord, Massachusetts
"From The New York Public Library"

Summer Morning

"Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me" (Thoreau 84).
Thoreau, H. (2008). Walden. New York: Fall River Press.

I am an early riser especially in the Summer. I hurry to begin my walk as if I might be late for a meeting with Mother Nature. Viewing a chipmunk scurrying to plunge down a drainpipe before I get too close, a squirrel eating Doritos from a discarded chip bag- a treasure he has found in a trash can, a red fox walking up a driveway as if he will shortly be ringing the doorbell, a family of deer proceeding down a neighborhood road are all sights that I will miss if I delay too long past sunrise.

Since the relatively cool morning frequently now marks the beginning of a day where the temperature rises to between eighty and ninety degrees by midday, I remain outside to eat breakfast and tend to the garden. Once the temperature and humidity become uncomfortable later in the morning, I head home for a different source of inspiration- that derived from literature and history. As I have revisited Walden many times, I listen to Henry David Thoreau's Walden for a few minutes.

Thoreau's Hut at Walden Pond "From the New York Public Library"

"Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself. I have been as sincere a worshipper of Aurora as the Greeks... Morning brings back the heroic ages" (Thoreau 83).
Thoreau, H. (2008). Walden. New York: Fall River Press.

That desire to experience 'innocence' found within 'Nature herself' inspires me and inspired my ancestor Burton Coon, who was first and foremost a farmer. He was a farmer who trudged in from the fields each day for nourishment of the body and the soul. While he rested his body, his thoughts soared.

"The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life. To be awake is to be alive" (Thoreau 84-85).
Thoreau, H. (2008). Walden. New York: Fall River Press.

Burton Coon was 'awake' and 'alive' when he wrote "The Old Camp" for the Rhinebeck Gazette in the first half of the 20th century.

Note: "The Old Camp" is displayed here in Burton Coon's scrapbook. You may notice part of another article as well as parts of the words that were in the original text that he used as a scrapbook.

Perhaps tomorrow we can all experience "rosy-fingered Dawn" as Odysseus, "a Dawn in me" as Thoreau, and "watch the sun pick up the dew drops in the morning" as Burton Coon.

"For are we not all campers?"
Coon, Burton, "The Old Camp".

Image: Annual for the Year 1893, Epworth Gleaner Red Hook, NY. Donated to the Town of Milan by Mrs. Webster Coon.

Blog Post #13: 2018 JUL 16 ~ A Walk in Winter

“A Walk in Winter” by Burton Coon is the ideal article to read on an oppressively humid day. As we recall those winter days just a few months ago, we come to the same conclusion. Regardless of the day, when “you descend the hill, cross the barnyard and follow the little path up to the house, …you slip into the old armchair, tired but happy and conscious that after all ‘there is no place like home’”.

There is something about a walk to take away concerns and thoughts of responsibilities. Whether observing the deer and turkey families to the neighbor excitedly exclaiming that he saw a “large black bear” yesterday or the sound of “the woodsman’s ax which speaks of home and a cheerful fireside” in the winter, the path you choose will be the right one.

“Don’t plan to go anywhere. Just go over the hill and wander in whatever direction your fancy leads. You will know better where you want to go when you get in sight of it”. Take the first step to explore the familiar and sometimes the unfamiliar in this world around us.

Image: “Hello” Annual for the Year 1893 Epworth Gleaner Red Hook NY page 6.

https://milannyhistory.org/portfolio/burton-coon-blog/

Image: Annual for the Year 1893, Epworth Gleaner Red Hook, NY. Donated to the Town of Milan by Mrs. Webster Coon.

Blog Post #12: 2018 JUL 13 ~ The Garden of the Heart

Burton Coon writes about two gardens in his articles, “In The Garden” and “Memory of Mrs. David S. Funk”.

In the kitchen garden on the Coon farm, Burton straightens up to rest after hoeing and “‘Little Alf’, the Angora cat, runs up [his] back and over [his] shoulder”. The horses are in the pasture lot; the vineyard ‘is loaded with grapes”; and varieties of beans, beets, cucumbers and so many more vegetables are plentiful.

In his tribute to Mary Funk, a family friend, he describes his “surprise to find down among the weeds and grasses and vegetables [of the garden] the most beautiful flowers- roses and pinks and lady’s slippers and gladioli and zinnias. And their fragrance filled the air”. He likens this to those special friends living amongst us who give of themselves. “Thank God for the sweetening influence of their lives.”

Burton derives “satisfaction” from his work in the garden and describes how “in the garden of the heart there bloom the finest graces- love, tenderness, sympathy, neighborly -kindness, generosity, and that most rare and beautiful flower of all- self forgetfulness”. Let us nourish both gardens which provide such delight in our lives.

https://milannyhistory.org/portfolio/burton-coon-blog/

Image: Annual for the Year 1893, Epworth Gleaner Red Hook, NY. Donated to the Town of Milan by Mrs. Webster Coon.

Blog Post #11: 2018 JUL 11 ~ The Old Peach Tree and Old Friend

Burton Coon reminisces about the old peach tree “in the little lot back of the barn” and an old friend, the postman Robert G. Moore, in his article entitled “Here We Are, Robert”.

When he questions, “tell me why it is that we wait until our friends are dead and then kiss them”, we reflect on our own friendships and empathize with Burton. Perhaps “we take it for granted that our friends know our feelings toward them”. Perhaps we state simply, “I liked him”.

As time passes, “The old peach tree is gone- so is Bob”, and we realize “that bit of memory is very [so very] precious to [us]”. Like Burton, we may also have that stump or that artifact that triggers these “precious” memories.

For a synthesis of friendship and the farm garden, see Blog Post #12 for a discussion of “In Memory of Mrs. David S. Funk” and “In the Garden” where Burton acknowledges that “down in the garden of the heart there bloom the finest graces- love, tenderness, sympathy, neighborly -kindness, generosity, and that most rare and beautiful flower of all- self forgetfulness”.

https://milannyhistory.org/portfolio/burton-coon-blog/

Excerpts From My Books

Memories of Ol’ Red Hook From the Burton Coon Collection

Edited by Bonnie Wood

“Our memories of other days are like the moonlight. The incidents which have begotten them may seem far away as the moon, yet their light still comes to us, clear, mellow, enchanting, casting a magic spell over our spirits.”

Stray Notes:

“a grand time going over the past”

B. Coon called on D. S. Funk Thursday…And we had a grand time going over the past. We recalled many of the prominent people of Red Hook sixty years ago-

The oldest man around here is David S. Funk of East Red Hook, whose memory goes back to when the lower village was a provincial town and boots and shoes were made by hand, and you bought syrup by the gallon and calico by the yard. David is 82. He was a mail carrier when a boy.

The Hapeman homestead in East Red Hook must have been in the family for over a hundred years. George Hapeman once told me that he bought it of his father’s estate, when he was a young married man, for $80 per acre. That must have been nearly seventy years ago. His grandson now owns the farm and he has four boys, so that the family name is not likely to die out very soon. That makes the fifth generation living on the place.

Merrick Smith came up Wednesday and butchered a calf for Schaffer stores, Red Hook. April 27, 1938

Ben Shelley took a load of hay from Trail’s End to Red Hook for Mrs. Leon Shelley, Saturday afternoon.

Webster Coon butchered two pigs for the Schaffer store in Red Hook Tuesday.

John and Bart of the Krasdale store, Red Hook were up here Wednesday for hickory wood to smoke their hams. The village can’t get along without the country.

End Notes:

The Passing of the Years

I look back into the past and the pictures flash before my eyes- the early years- boyhood- school days and schoolmates and teachers- the ambitions of youth, and the disillusionments of manhood- a strange mixture of joy and sorrow, sunshine and shadow, pain and pleasure.

And still the kaleidoscope is turning.

and the figures are changing-

What next?

Copyright © 2019 by Bonnie Wood, Editor. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the editor.

The Back Cover Blurbs

“Pull up a rocking chair, pour yourself a tall, cool, refreshing glass of lemonade and don’t forget a sprig of home grown mint. Be prepared to be beguiled by Burton Coon’s Memories of Ol’ Red Hook. Reading Burton’s recollections is like listening to a master storyteller on a warm summer night under a starry sky. Memories of Ol’ Red Hook gives one a true sense of a simpler life in a rural, bucolic section of northern Dutchess County.”

~ Vicky LoBrutto, Town Historian, Milan, NY

“Burton Coon’s recollections are a treasure for anyone interested in the history of Red Hook. Bonnie Wood has done a marvelous job of amplifying this voice from the past for all of us to enjoy.”

~ Claudine Klose, President, Historic Red Hook

“Once again, Burton Coon’s wisdom is shown to be as relevant and entertaining today as it was a century ago. And once again, Bonnie Wood’s eye for what to choose of her ancestor’s profuse writings reveals her knack for knowing how to keep history alive. The combination gives us the perfect guide to what is worth remembering.”

~ Bill Jeffway, Executive Director, Dutchess County Historical Society

Stone By Stone

Building a Farm and a Family 1846-1988 The Coon Family at Trail’s End

Edited by Bonnie Wood

“Every stone of the soil has a language and a voice.”

Excerpt from Preface:

Just as his father erected a stone wall by first moving one stone, Burton began with one word as a young boy, added words each day, and word by word constructed images of his time and place in the world. Word by word, he loved his family. Word by word, he questioned and maintained his faith. Word by word, he cherished his community. Word by word, he shared his voice.

End Note:

“Some day, some day when I retire

I’ll pull off my boots and sit by the fire

And dream- and dream- and dream.”

Copyright © 2018 by Bonnie Wood, Editor. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the editor.

The Back Cover Blurb

“One of the hardest things in understanding local history in a relevant and engaging way is understanding the context of the time. Bonnie has such an understanding, learned through the family’s casual conversations and intentional oral histories. She artfully selects from her self-taught, rural ancestor’s prolific wisdom, and adds her own choice words. The reader is left thinking a comforting, “perhaps we have been here before”. A testament to a talent that seems to have a long run in the family.”

~Bill Jeffway, Executive Director, Dutchess County Historical Society. Founder, History Speaks.

Recommended Research Destinations

View the Portfolio for all Research Destinations blogs and Interviews.

https://www.nyhistory.org/

New York Public Library

https://www.nypl.org/

https://www.cchsny.org/

https://www.historicredhook.org/

http://guides.rcls.org/warwickvalleyhistory

Local History Writer and Researcher Shares Stories of the Past

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Barn at Trail’s End Farm in Shookville, NY. Built in ~ 1865. In 1939, Burton Barker Coon described his father William’s building of the barn, “The land had to be cleaned and cleared of stumps and stones and some of it ditched and drained. The stones were dumped into ditches, or laid into stone walls, and what could not be used that way were piled into great heaps on rocks or some out of the way place. These heaps of stones are in evidence today and are mute witnesses to the industry and perseverance of the pioneer. The basement wall of the barn at Trail’s End is 9 feet high and 100 feet long. That represents a lot of labor, besides the unnumbered loads of stones which it took to fill in behind it – perhaps a thousand in all. Where did they all come from? Who picked them up? How were they conveyed to their last resting place? All I know is that my father laid the wall and it stands today in almost perfect alignment. That was 75 years ago.”

Milan 50 Years Ago

In our mission to keep local history alive, we are posting each volume of the Milan Community Association Newsletter dating from 50 years ago in its entirety.

Bonnie Wood supplements these original MCA newsletters with her “More About History” column.

“More About History” Excerpts

Supplement to 11/1968 issue:

Shookville Church on Shookville Road remains a Milan landmark. For photos, Burton Coon’s history of the church, and additional details see Shookville Church on our local churches page.

In Stone By Stone, I reminisced in the Foreword …

As I walked from the Shookville Methodist Church along the stone wall erected from the surrounding fields, I paused to reflect on how this wall stood as a testament to my ancestors’ tenacity. As I stood beside it, I found a place to contemplate how the land might have appeared before any inhabitants. I imagined how my ancestors, descendants of Palatine immigrants, first stood here on soil that seemingly only grew rocks. Yet, they began by moving one stone. Stone by stone, these mighty souls persevered. Stone by stone, they overcame each burden. Stone by stone, they cleared the land. Stone by stone, they built a farm and a family.

and included Burton Coon’s paraphrasing of his father William Coon’s heart-wrenching diary entry:

The next year (1865), in September, diptheria invaded this quiet hamlet. The little daughter of Philip and Charlotte Coopernail was taken with it. She was about five years old and a great favorite with my father’s daughter, Jemima, who went down to see her. There was no quarantine in those days and disease must have been of a malignant type, for they both died, one on the 4th and the other on the 7th of September.

And they are buried inside the iron fence in the old Shookville cemetery, the little one at the feet of the older one. So they are together there in death. At the top of the little one’s stone is the figure of a broken rosebud, and underneath her name and age are the words: “Go with me.” Her friend went…

Supplement to 1/1969 issue:

Can You Identify?
Local musician, Ferris Jackson (far left) and local writer, Burton Coon (second from left)…? Who are the other men in the photo?

Ferris Jackson, an African American who lived with his sister Emma, served as organist of the Church and would arrive early every Sunday to provide beautiful music as the congregants arrived. Ferris also served as Church Treasurer and sang in the choir with his rich bass voice. Ferris and Emma were strict observers of the Sabbath. They walked to Church every Sunday so the horse could rest. At Church dinners, he would be the last to sit down – he would wait until he was sure everyone else had a seat. Ferris Jackson died in February 1940. His funeral was held in this Church on a day with a heavy snowstorm. Even with the storm, so many people attended his funeral that the Church was standing room only.

From Ryan Orton’s History of the Rowe United Methodist Church – Written for the 175th Anniversary Celebration 1838-2013

Check out “More About History” in the Milan 50 Years Ago blogs.

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