My Valley
Introduction
"My Valley" is not intended to be a history. It is only the gossipy account of the recollections of an old lady now nearly in her dotage of what she remembers as a small child growing up in a back woods rural community. It is intended principally for my grandchildren and is undertaken with many a chuckle and grin as I recall the days of my childhood.
My thanks are due to Son-in-law Maynard who suggested the Title and to both him and daughter Mary who gave unstintedly of their time that this might be a better written book, than if I had been left to my own devices.
My Valley 1875-1890
The valley where I spent my childhood lies in the sleepy foothills of the Catskill Mts. in Sullivan County , N.Y ., about 100 miles slightly Northwest of New York City.
Seventy-five or one hundred years ago it was a place of importance boasting an industry that reached out to the four Corners of the earth. Now it is in the path of thousands who summer or winter, find vacation grounds in these foothills only two or three hours from New York City.
My ancestors found the valley with greater difficulty. William Gillespie as a young man starting from Connecticut made his way to New York, and set up a business on Lispenard St. for which he paid $400.00. Later he sold it at $450.00 and with this large sum of money and a large family he loaded his family and household goods on to a Hudson River packet, sailed up to Newburg and made his way on up into Sullivan Co. .when that section was a dense forest.
While living in New York he had met and married at the age of 21 years a widow of either Dutch or Danish lineage named Morris, ten years his senior, born Mary Van Riper, mother of six children, who subsequently bore William six more, of whom William II my grandfather was the eldest. There were two other sons Alfred and Milton and three daughters. How many of this large family of Morrises and Gillespies accompanied him into the Wilderness it is difficult to say, also what the ages were I have no idea, but probably they were adult or nearly so. In those days one did as his father told him, and I suppose my ancestor was as domineering as his ancestors were, or any of his friends and acquaintances. Indeed, I have heard that my grandfather stood greatly in awe of his father even after he was a married man himself and father of children. When he looked down the road and saw his father's old horse ambling over the flat below, he would run and hide his pipe and tobacco and the little children would scurry around to get into shoes and stockings before their grandfathers arrival. However, his strength of character and personality was sum that he soon became a man of affairs and was elected County Judge, which office he held many years.
| This page has been visited |
|
times |
Designed by Alexander Pereluka - "Orion Service"