Merritt Family Artifacts Return to Sheridan, by Way of Cornell University 

By Virginia Becker

The Covid pandemic raised havoc among educational institutions, shutting down most to the public. With no in-person visitors to serve, many institutions devoted extra time to evaluating their collections. Sometimes duplicate examples of artifacts are discovered in an inventory, and it may be beneficial to deaccession (remove) the items from the collection. Such was the case for the Cornell Fashion and Textile Collection in Ithaca, N.Y. with eighteen pieces of children’s clothing and shoes that had been donated to Cornell several years ago by a graduate from Sheridan, N.Y.

Initially, the collection’s curators offered the items to the Chautauqua County Historical Society at the McClurg in Westfield, N.Y. As it happened, the McClurg was also conducting an inventory and found it had enough examples of this type in its textile collection. But since the items were originally worn by Sheridan residents in the early 1900s, a representative of the McClurg suggested the Sheridan Historical Society as a suitable home. In the fall of 2022, Lisa Romano, a trustee for the society, drove to Ithaca to pick up a box that included children’s booties, shoes, stockings, a bib, a bonnet, cotton dresses, and a nightgown. All of the items were part of a large collection of clothes and patterns donated to Cornell in 2009 by representatives of Rachel Merritt. They had been worn by Rachel and her brother as young children.

Rachel Alice Merritt (1904 – 1995) was the daughter of James Tooke Merritt and Luella Moon Merritt, the second of four siblings. Her mother died shortly after Rachel turned three. She and her brother, James Manley Merritt, appear to have remained with their father, while their older brother and younger sister, Nelson Herbert Merritt and Barbara Grace Merritt, went to live with their grandparents, Nelson G. and Alice T. Merritt, and Aunt Bessie Merritt. Barbara was just 4 months old at the time. Rachel subsequently had four half-siblings after her father remarried.

In addition to being a thoughtful preserver of family artifacts, Rachel was also a distinguished graduate of Cornell University, which was no small achievement for a woman of her era. A brief biography on Rachel’s Findagrave.com page states that she graduated from Cornell University in 1928 and received a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Teachers College. She taught homemaking in Alexandria Bay, N.Y. and was a home demonstration agent near Massena and for Broome and Otsego Counties. She served with the New York State Cooperative Extension Service for 32 years and was Assistant State Leader of Home Demonstration Agents when she retired in 1963.

Rachel was brought home for burial near her mother and father in the Sheridan Center Cemetery. Over one hundred years after they were worn, a portion of Rachel’s childhood clothing made it back to Sheridan as well.

Snippets from the Late Leo Tucker’s Memories

By Leo F. Tucker

The year after we moved to Sheridan [1923], the Main Road was paved from the corner east toward Silver Creek. The following winter we had quite a bad ice storm and the boys were able to ice skate to school [District #6] two days on the pavement. It was not dangerous because there was very little or no automobile traffic. During the winter there were a number of bobsleighs on the roads as there was generally snow on the ground from late October until late March. Usually the bobs were hauling wood, hay or feed. The boys spent a good lot of their free time on their sleds hitching rides behind the bobs for a ways up or down the road and then catching another bob going in the opposite direction.

At that time there had not been as many wooded areas cleared. The trees provided protection against strong winds and the lake froze over smoothly for a couple of miles out.  We used to go ice skating off the end of Center Road.  After skating, we went to the Light House and Frank Kraft, the owner, would make us an oyster stew. Ray Tuttle, who lived along the Lake Road, told me that when they were kids going to District #2 school, the boys used to go skating during noon hour on the lake. They would skate out to meet other skaters from Canada, return to home shore, and get home at the regular time from school so their parents did not always know of their trip on the ice.

Over the years the climate in the Sheridan area has changed a lot. At one time the snow was so deep that kids could walk on the drifts along Center Road and touch the telephone wires. It took the county plow almost all day to clear the road between Route 20 and Route 5. Of course, heavy snow removal equipment was not available at that time. As I remember, I think it was in February of 1934 that the temperature did not get above zero, even at noon with the sun shining.

Local Historian shares tale of disaster on Lake Erie

By Virginia Becker

A full house of local residents gathered at the Historical Center on September 22 to hear Louis Pelletter, Village of Silver Creek historian, share his research regarding the steamship George Washington. The ill-fated vessel burned on Lake Erie about three miles off the harbor at Silver Creek, NY.

Pelletter prefaced the horrific story by explaining that his journey in uncovering the facts was fraught with inconsistencies. He cited several examples of reports that did not agree. In particular, which way the ship was headed, was it her maiden voyage, what was the actual date, who was the captain, how many were on board, and how many perished? Ferreting out the true details of an event make the journey of the historian all the more interesting, if not at times frustrating, and also make for a fascinating presentation.

After much research with many sources, the truth of the event began to emerge. The George Washington was a side-wheeled wooden steamship built with a boiler in 1837-38 in Ashtabula, Ohio. This was an early age for ships powered by steam and not all the new technology had been worked out. On June 16, 1838, the ship was traveling west from Buffalo to Cleveland with Captain Brown in command and some estimated 80 to 100 passengers. Sometime between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m., it was discovered that the Washington was on fire, probably starting in the boiler. The attempt to point the ship towards shore was thwarted by the wheel rope steering mechanism. The ropes burned through thus leaving the ship uncontrollable and finally stranded. As an aside, Pelletter stated that the steering ropes in steamships were being replaced by iron rods. Had the iron rods been installed, the event might have had a different ending.

Pelletter explained that Silver Creek had a wharf built by Oliver Lee in the 1820s off Jackson Street. The harbor was deep enough at that time to allow lake ships to load and unload cargo. Someone on horseback alerted the people of the community to the fire, and several came to assist in the rescue using their own boats moored nearby or at the dock. The steamship North America was on the lake at the time and returned to assist as well. Meanwhile on the ship, passengers tried to escape the fire anyway they could. Some loaded onto a small onboard boat. As luck would have it, the ropes jammed. When it eventually slammed into the lake, some of the passengers spilled out. Others on the ship jumped of their own accord to escape burning to death, yet succumbed to the cold Lake Erie waters and drowned. Still others remained on the ship and were severely burned. The exact number of victims is not certain, but it’s been estimated that about 50 people died in the incident. Because the ship’s manifest and passenger list was lost to the fire, not everyone could be accounted for.

As with most tragedies, there was an investigation as to what went wrong and who was responsible. Some blamed the ship’s poor construction, others the owners and management or Captain Brown (who survived) and his crew. But in one rather weak rebuttal, it was stated that had the passengers remained calm, they all could have been saved.

Pelletter applied for a grant to purchase a historic plaque commemorating the tragedy of the steamship George Washington. He will place the plaque near the “Burning of the Steamship Erie” plaque at the George Borrello Park on Front Street in Silver Creek, N.Y.

After the presentation and questions, visitors remained to greet each other and share stories. Refreshments of cookies, brownies, pumpkin cake, and lemonade were served on the porch.

For greater details on this historic event and many more related facts about early Silver Creek, visit Louis Pelletter’s Facebook post at: https://www.facebook.com/2071493269600058/posts/the-tragic-end-of-the-steamship-george-washingtonby-louis-f-pellettersilver-cree/4939289689487054/ or by Googling “The Tragic End of the Steamship George Washington” by Louis F. Pelletter.

“Age of Homespun” Comes to Life in Early 19th Century Coverlet

By Virginia Becker

It’s hard to imagine today, in this era of machine-made everything, the amount of time and craftsmanship that went into making one particularly beautiful heirloom that found its way to the Society this past year.  The woven wool coverlet is an impressive artifact of the early nineteenth century “Age of Homespun” with a stylish floral pattern in blue and white (pictured above). It arrived with a set of equally interesting treasures, including a hand-woven linen tablecloth, a silk shawl, a daily journal, and a family history of the White and Gould families to whom they belonged.

The journey of how they came to Sheridan is an interesting one that spans five generations. To tell this tale, we must initially acknowledge former Sheridan Town Historian, Mary Gould Miner, her brother Benjamin B. Gould, as well as several other descendants for keeping and sharing their histories over the years.

A pivotal person in this story is Mary Jane White who married Newell Gould of Sheridan in 1839. They made their home on a King Road farm that was crossed by the Erie Railroad. Prior to marriage, Mary Jane lived with her parents, Benjamin and Deliverance (sometimes Dilla or Delia) White and with three sisters (Catherine, Eliza, and Juliaett) on a Harmon Hill farm in Pomfret, N.Y. Eliza married James Renne, but upon his death, returned to live with her sisters and mother. Catherine and Juliaett never married.

A letter from St. Louis dated August 24, 1960 and written by Ben B. Gould after the death of his sister Mary Gould Miner describes the coverlet beautifully as:

a homemade woolen bedspread, large and heavy, of double
thickness. I think that there is no doubt that it was made of wool that
was grown at home, and was spun and woven at home. Woven in
two of the corners is the label ‘Catherine White – 1837.’ It is rather
dark blue and white. Wherever it is blue on one side it is white on the
other. Part of the pattern looks like small trees but the main figures
are daisy-like flowers with eight petals. It has at some time been
slightly damaged by moths but there are no holes in it and you would
have to search carefully to fine any traces.

Whether Catherine did all the work on the coverlet herself is not known for certain. During the 1830s there were local professionals who could provide services for carding, dyeing, weaving, and dressing cloth. An 1835 advertisement by Charles Simpson, an itinerant weaver who seemed to have settled in the area, states: “The subscriber informs those who have heretofore patronized him, and the public generally, that he has again commenced the weaving business at Laona in the building directly in front of the brick Woolen Factory, where he will be to attend promptly to all calls in the above line. Having for a good many years made this his business he has no doubt of his being able to give the best satisfaction. His prices will be moderate and terms of payment easy.” At other of Simpson’s earlier locations in the state we learn that he used a Jacquard loom for coverlet weaving.

Since Laona was just a short ride down Harmon Hill and Webster Road from the White Farm Catherine might have used Simpson’s services. The fact that Catherine’s name and date were woven into the piece also suggests she may have done the weaving herself, much like a sampler being signed by the stitcher. A second supporting fact for Catherine being the weaver is a linen table cloth that the family is sure she wove. Although a different type of loom would have been used, it does establish the craft as one she knew. However it came to be, the coverlet is beautifully done and recognized by all as “a wonderful antique.”

Family history suggests that Catherine came to live in Sheridan with her sister Mary Jane and her family. Censuses through the years have her placed on the farm in Pomfret through 1870. She died in 1872 and is buried with her parents in the Webster Road Cemetery. It is believed that she had cancer and perhaps came to stay with Mary Jane during her illness. Eliza and Juliaett, who stayed on the Harmon Hill Farm for a few years after her death, are enumerated in Sheridan with Mary Jane Gould by the 1892 New York State Census. It is certain that if the coverlet had not already resided in Sheridan at that point, it came with the sisters at this point along with the linen tablecloth and the silk shawl.

Julius and Martha Gould and their children (Mary, William, Benjamin, and Elizabeth) lived in the Gould homestead on King Road. Though Benjamin Gould never knew Catherine White, he did know Eliza Renne and Juliaett White because they “made their home with Grandma in the Gould house, keeping house in the west wing of the house.”

After the death of Julius Gould in 1925, Mary Gould Miner had the responsibility of disposing of all the Gould family possessions. The coverlet came to Benjamin. When Mary died in 1960, Ben wrote a letter to his niece, Mary Jane Brender Niemann, offering the coverlet to her. In turn, it came to her daughter, Nancy Niemann Palmquist, who made the trip from Indiana to donate it to the historical society. From its creation on a hand-operated 19th-century loom to its hand delivery by a 21st-century caretaker, the coverlet is a testament to the dedication of all the individuals who have played a part in its story.

The following article appeared in The Sheridan Settler publication of 1954, which commemorated the 150th anniversary of the Town of Sheridan’s first recorded settlement. Although Sheridan no longer has an organized town band, music is still in the air this summer. A community band concert is planned from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. July 27th at the town’s Municipal Complex. Plan on tapping your feet to some classic Sousa marches! Historical Society volunteers will also be selling hot dogs and beverages for those interested.

From The Sheridan Settler, 1954

A generation and a half ago Sheridan had many native musicians and took justifiable pride in its well-organized and colorfully outfitted band which led every Memorial Day parade and performed on various occasions.

Brother Odd Fellows [from the Sheridan chapter of the Independent Order of the Odd Fellows] also boasted of an orchestra with Henry Miller playing the “fiddle,” Alfred DeLand the “bass viol,” Will Craswell the flute, Will Johnson the trombone and John Griswold adding harmonizing chords on the piano.

Barn dances, the popular amusement of that period, were well patronized on Saturdays. The town furnished its own musicians and callers for these occasions.

Little Edith DeLand went to Dunkirk one Saturday night with her father. They were unusually late in getting home. The only explanation which was forthcoming that night was that the berries hadn’t sold well and peddling had taken more time than usual.

The next morning strange noises were heard in the kitchen. First there was a stomping of small feet, then a childish shout, followed by more stomping. Mother went to investigate. Upon questioning, Edith explained that the night before on their way home from Dunkirk Papa and she had stopped at the Newell homestead where there were some musicians and a lot of people. Papa was urged to stay. First he would holler some silly thing and all the people would hop one way. Then he shouted something else, and everyone hopped in another direction. It was great fun, and Edith was merely showing her little sister how it was done. Needless to say Edith did not accompany her father on his next Saturday night trip to Dunkirk.