The Way We Were
Culled by Judy Garrison From The Andes Recorder
100 Years Ago
Week In and About ANDES
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Events of a Week as Chronicled by the Man on the Street
With commentary by Jim Andrews
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John E. Gladstone is here from Cornell University to spend a part of his Easter vacation.
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Mrs. W. I. Gill has had a new tin roof put on her building this week. [Jim Andrews: This is the old post office building at the corner of Main Street and Delaware Avenue. At one point this building was owned by two different people at the same time. Mrs. Gill owned the lower half which housed her millinery business and her residence and “Print” Miller owned the upper half which housed the Recorder printing office and a residence. Maintenance was not done on both parts at once (as I supposed the different owners had varying financial means) so that sometimes only half of the building would get painted. It was said that the Gills did a better job of keeping up the building than the Millers did.]
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Luella Burroughs and her mother, Cilla
Mrs. Burroughs and daughter, Miss Luella, left Tuesday for Davenport to take up their residence and care for her sister. George E. Scott has moved into their house here, from rooms in Dr. Frisbee’s house. [JA: Luella was a teller in the First National Bank of Andes and also gave music lessons and had a mandolin club. They owned the house now owned by the Ron Boerner family on Lower Main Street. According to Helen Bruce Richter (photographer Dave Bruce’s daughter), Miss Burroughs was a surly, unpleasant woman who taught music with an iron hand. Helen once told me that she took lessons from Luella and that during one lesson, Luella smacked Helen’s knuckles with a ruler to force her hands into position over the keyboard. That was enough for Helen, for she informed her mother that she would no longer take lessons from “that mean woman”…and she didn’t! She taught herself to play and ended up being a better pianist that her sisters Elizabeth and Marge who continued to take lessons from Miss Burroughs. The piano that they played is now in the parlor of the Hunting Tavern.]
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Charles Spiers and William Glendenning started on Monday for Alberta, Canada, where they expect to take up homestead claims.
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A fire was only averted at the building occupied by the pool and billiard rooms by the timely discovery of fire in a box filled with paper standing at the rear of the building. How the paper caught fire is not known…[JA: These were housed in what is now Apple Tree Realty.]
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W. J. Howland is at the Gerry estate near Lake Delaware, surveying the John C. Oliver farm which Gerry’s recently purchased. The old deed gives no distances only lot number of great lot so and so.
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William H. Maynard, of Bovina, is here with his stone crusher, crushing the stone for the concrete and for the concrete blocks which he will make for E. J. Turnbull’s new hardware store. David Worden furnishes the power with his traction engine.
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Cabin Hill Church circa 1910
The new church on Cabin Hill was opened on Easter Sabbath, March 27, with communion services. Rev. E. H. Thompson, the pastor, preached the first sermon in the new edifice on Saturday and Dr. Bruce, of Andes, preached on Sabbath. Cabin Hill people have reason to be proud of their new house of worship. The interior decoration was done by W. B. Satterly, of Andes, shows that he is a master of the art. It is expected that the church will be dedicated the latter part of May.
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Miss Margaret Calhoun has sold the twelve acres of land adjoining her house and lot on Delaware avenue, to William Clement. This land adjoins the six acres of the Lewis place which he owns. Mr. Clement is preparing to build a barn on the land and we understand will later erect a house. [JA: The Calhoun house on Delaware Avenue now belongs to Ron Guichard. The 12 acre hillside mentioned was added to the adjoining former Ali Inn property which was then owned by Billy Clement. He indeed did build a barn and kept 8 or 10 cows. He delivered the milk to the local creamery in a hand-drawn cart. Clement remodeled and enlarged the early Ali house and added the current front porch. Old photos of the house show this porch to be shingled at the bottom in the Craftsman style. Clement also had owned the former Bob Miller house on Main Street and added the porch to that—very similar to the Ali porch. He must have had a thing for Craftsman porches! As an aside (I always have an aside!), I believe Margaret Calhoun was the daughter of Peter Calhoun who, I believe, built the house in 1892. Bessie Bruce, former owner of Buffy Calvert’s house, reminisced that when she and her sister Mary Linn were small, they used to travel from Yonkers to Andes to spend time with their Grandfather, Rev. James Bruce. Rev. Bruce felt that it was appropriate for the young girls to pay a visit to Mr. Calhoun, who was a revered Elder in the Presbyterian church which Rev. Bruce pastored. The girls always dreaded the visits since their grandfather also thought that it appropriate for them to give Elder Calhoun a kiss….and he had, according to them, a long and disgusting beard! Interestingly though, they had no problem kissing their grandfather, who also had a very long beard!]
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The will of Francis Heimer, late of Andes, provides that the uniform, sword, commissions, general orders, badges and all articles pertaining to his military service during civil war, be given to the son Wm. D Heimer, who is urged to preserve them and at his death give them to his son, Stanley, it being the wish of the testator that they be kept in the family. [JA: Francis Heimer was a local folk painter who not only produced art work, but also painted window shades for businesses in Andes and Delhi, painted the backdrop for the stage in the old Andes Town Hall, painted Victorian scenes in false fireplaces (the Mel Ruff house and the John Hopkins house both boast Heimer paintings in their mantels) as well as painting wagons and carriages in his barn. He owned the house on Delaware Avenue now owned by the Walt Baker family. In 1858 he had built the Andes Hotel as a paint shop.]
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