Day 8--Niagara Falls to Indiana Dunes State Park

Niagara Falls, NY.  October 2, 2012

Breakfast at Indiana Dunes

Dad has a viral something…fever, sneezing, headache, sore throat.  With a little aspirin, he feels much better, and luckily, we are past the main activity of this trip and on our way home.  He slept pretty well last night, and the rest of us are loading up on vitamins.  Our campground was only about six miles from the Famous Niagara Falls.  We were there before 9am.  It was slightly rainy for just a few minutes, but cleared for us to walk around the park and get some good pictures. Early October has to be the best time of year to hit this tourist destination…absolutely no crowds.  It’s a fun stop if you are sort of in the area…!  Then it was a shuffle-off-to-Buffalo, where we checked back with the Wal-Mart we’d stopped at the night before, to pick up pictures they’d developed from Janet’s camera.  Jan and I spent an hour or so on the road loading almost 500 photos into two albums.  Mom and dad are so surprised and excited to have printed pictures to show their friends as soon as they get home.

As we passed Erie, Pennsylvania, Mom saw a sign for Cracker Barrel and wanted to stop for lunch. Yum…meatloaf, pork chops, salad, and blueberry pancakes!  We could have eaten in the RV, but it was great to sit still for a bit.  Dad got a good nap in afterward.

This driving is a lot faster and easier than our Lincoln Highway.  Interstate 90 goes along the whole east side of Lake Erie from Niagara, NY; through a corner of Pennsylvania; and to Cleveland, Ohio.  Then it turns west to Toledo, Ohio and Indiana, where it curves around the south end of Lake Michigan.  We’ve been in light rain most of the day, with grey skies.  We are spending the night in the Indiana Dunes State Park—an RV camp with showers, electrical hook-up sites and separate dump/water locations.  The Park has 3 miles of sandy beach right on the lake. 

Here’s some views on the best parts of the trip:

Mom says--

“the area around Port Byron and the cemeteries--the Nye family cemetery was amazing… and Bye and Bye Hardware. “It’s hard to choose just one thing.  It was almost like going to Alaska the first time.  Every time you went around a corner there was another more gorgeous view! One of my favorite memories of the trip will be walking across the Erie Canal in Lyons and Keith breaking into song.”

Dad says—

“It’s hard to say the best part…probably, the trees in northern Pennsylvania, and the people we happened to meet. “

Keith says—

              “the fall colors in the Alleghenies, and seeing the Ewald graves.”

Jan says—

“seeing Honey Gram’s grave, and all five of us being on this bus  together.  Everyone we came in contact with was so friendly, helpful, and excited about what we were doing.”

Marcia says—

“the Ewald cemetery in Lyons, spending time with the family, the surprising ease and appropriateness of the RV rental, and experiencing the history and geography of so much of our country.”

This statue of Nicola Tesla, inventor of Alternating Current
is outside the entry gate to the Falls, where lots of electricity
is generated with hydroelectric power.

flowers at the Falls

We passed Progressive Stadium where the Cleveland Indians play. 

Mom and Dad enjoying the trip

Successful Mission!

Successful Mission 

Warning:  This report will be long, because mom wants to have all the details.  It's okay to skip all the Biblical begats and just see the photos!

     After breakfast in the RV, we headed to the Boeheim-Pusateri Funeral Home in Lyons to see what burial records they might have to locate the gravestones of mom’s parents and grandparents.  The mortuary door was locked, but there was an official looking red phone on the porch.  Keith dialed the given number while I went across the street to the old fire hall building, which now houses the courthouse and police station.

Sal Colatarci
Town ofLyons, NY

At least four people were hanging around the window, following our activities, and wondering what was going on with that big bus parked out front.  Larry Hartwell, the town justice, told me we needed to see Salvatore “Sal” Colatarci at the Town of Lyons offices, 43 Phelps Street.  He warned me, with a wink, that Sal was difficult to get along with.  We walked in and asked for Sal, a jovial Yankees fan, who printed out a map of Lyons Rural Cemetery, and marked lot # 470 for us.  We had been 20 yards from it the night before, but Mom and Dad remembered it as being a flatter landscape than the Rural Cemetery. 

Marilyn & Cliff Meyers were friends of Mom and Dad when they lived in Oakland, CA before 1961.  These Meyers had moved to Binghamton, NY by 1965, when our folks flew the Mooney (N6859U) from Kansas to NY for the wedding of Howard and Judith Meyers (Judy was my cousin, as far as we know, no relation to Cliff and Marilyn!). On the way back from the wedding, they stopped to see these friends, who took them to Watkins Glen and on up to Lyons.  This would have been the only time, other than when mom and grandma brought grandpa’s body back to Lyons when he died in 1950, that mom had been to this cemetery. Today was the first time Mom had ever seen the headstone of her mother, Evalyn Gilman Ewald, who died July 26, 1975 (b.12-6-1891).  I had just finished my first year of college, and I am the oldest of four children.  Grandma had known how busy mom’s life was with kids activities and helping to run the veterinary business, so she had everything pre-arranged for cremation, inurnment, and headstone, making no travel required upon her death.

Honey Gram

Grandma Ewald, lived with us in Kansas from 1962-1971, then moved to an apartment 3 blocks away.  So, we all have close ties.  She used to call Keith her “honey boy” and he called her “honey gram”.  It was an emotional morning for me.  My favorite moment, other than seeing Mom so pleased, was seeing Keith touch the headstone and say, “Hello Honey Gram!”  Then he sat down “on great-great,-great-grandpa” to enter information on ancestry.com with his iphone.  He had thought ahead and had a tripod to take photos of all five of us in the cemetery!

The front of the large Ewald stone had the following names:  Matthias Ewald (1792-1864), (father of) Rev. Peter Ewald (1856-1900), his wife, Clara (1856-1934), their son Dr. Paul Ewald (1889-1950, and his wife, Evalyn (1891-1975)…my grandparents.  The back side of the stone listed John M. Ewald (1858-1860); Anna M. Ewald (1859-1891), Peter Ewald (1831-1895), and his wife, Mary (1861-1906).

The hour we spent in Lyons Rural Cemetery brought on a flood of memories from Mom which follow…some unexpected, some recalled from the journals of her grandmother.   While we stood there trying to place all the names in the family tree, she recalled 77 Phelps Street as a possible address for her grandparents when they lived in Lyons.  We went by there, but that home had been remodeled a bit and was not familiar.  Later in this trip, Mom had a revised image in her mind that it was probably #79 Phelps Street!

Her grandfather, Peter Paul Ewald was a minister. At one time he was preaching in Punxsutawney, PA.  The rocking chair Mom has in her house now, was a gift from that congregation when he left.  They moved west when Rev. Peter developed tuberculosis.  His wife, Clara Sheffer Ewald had a brother, Samuel, who lived in Minneapolis, KS.  She stayed with her brother while Peter was riding the circuit through north central Kansas and south central Nebraska.  Mom has a letter that Peter wrote Clara between Minneapolis and Alma, NE.  Mom’s dad, Dr. Paul Peter Ewald was born in Orleans, NE.  The family moved back to New York when Rev. Peter’s TB got worse.  He died when Paul was 11 years old.  After Paul graduated from High School in Lyons, NY in 1907, Clara, Paul, and younger son, Mark went back to Kansas, where she bought a boarding house in Lawrence.  Uncle Samuel had moved to nearby Bonner Springs, where he had a drugstore that Paul worked in for a while when he was in college at KU.   

My great-great-grandma Clara Sheffer Ewald was born in Clarion County, PA.  The family term, “strueble hair,” (stru-bul-ee), meaning all-out-of- place, or a happy way of saying bad hair day, comes from Clara and her Pennsylvania Dutch background.  The humidity we faced on this trip gave me constant strueble hair!

Mom’s sister, Margaret Studer Ewald Nelson (1920-1977) was named for an aunt on Clara Sheffer’s side of the family…(not sure what "Studer" means...was Margaret, or Studer the name of the aunt?)

Hotchkiss Crystal

We’d stopped earlier at a historical building and found a number for Patti Alena of the Lyons Heritage Society.  She met us at this H.G.Hotchkiss Essential Oil Company building, where we did not find any family history, but learned a lot about Lyons.  1890-1918 was the height of this business located right on the Erie Canal.  At that time, 90 % of the land in Wayne County was planted to peppermint.  Hotchkiss clarified, bottled, and distributed the essential oil for Beechcraft gum, and dental products, with economic advantage of location, location, location.  The prize of this little museum is a 4 foot tall hand blown, etched crystal decanter with 3 separate bottle layers that was found packed in a box several years ago.  Photos showed how it would have been displayed at places like the St. Louis World's Fair.  On the walk across the Erie Canal bridge to the peppermint building from our RV, Keith was singing: “low bridge, everybody down…low bridge, cuz we’re comin to a town…you’ll always know your pal if you’ve ever navigated on the Erie Canal.”  Mom asked who wrote that.  Keith said, “I don’t know, I think Grandma Ewald taught it to me.  Inside the Hotchkiss building, we found a wonderful children's book by Peter Spier, with the words and music to the song!

Singing...on the Erie Canal...

Patti directed us to the City historian…this seems to be a major government position in every town around here.  I went in there to see if we could more specifically locate the home of Rev. Peter’s family.  My background was sketchy at this point, and I did not find an address.  Probably should have asked for just Clara.  But the clerk of this office did find the surrogate for the will of Peter Paul Ewald,  I got pictures of about a third of the 120 page document from the PDF file on their computer, which includes many signatures of Peter and Clara. 

Dessert at Magdy's, Port Byron

We left Lyons and headed back to Port Byron for dessert at Magdy’s restaurant.  I had rice pudding in a parfait cup with whipped cream.  The others had pumpkin cake, white cake, chocolate cream pie, and 3-layered mint chocolate cream pie!  The Historian’s office was only open on Thursdays and Fridays, so we went on past to the Mount Pleasant Cemetery, where we talked to the groundskeeper and quickly found two more sets of family stones. 

Taylor/Hayden obelisk in Mt.Pleasant Cemetery,
Port Bryon, NY

First, was the impressive obelisk of the family of John Adams Taylor (1794-1879), a soldier from the war of 1812, and his wife Sarah (1796-1881)  This is about 50 yards northeast of Mt. Pleasant’s Cemetery Avenue and Avenue D.  They are my great X 3 grandparents!  Also in this plot were their children [1] Lucy E. Taylor (1839-1918), her husband, Samuel Hayden (1839-1878), their sons Cassius C. Hayden (1862-1884) and Hallam L. “Hal” Hayden (1865-1938); [2] Lydia O. Halstead (??-1853); [3] Daniel D. Taylor (1831-1880) and his wife Margaret J. Hyslop (1839-??).

Satisfied, we almost left when just 30 yards southeast of the same intersection, Jan found the family plot of James Dixon Nye (1830-1920, the son of Samuel, who we found in the trees at the soybean field yesterday) and Nancy Cornelius Townsend Nye (1834-1925) with their children: Frank S. (1856-1932), his wife Augusta E. (1856-1943) and daughter Jenny C. (1884-1897); Charles D. (1856-1943)and his wife Louise J. (1872-1952).  James and Nancy were married in a double ceremony with her brother Robert and his wife.  Mom has a photo of the whole family at their double golden wedding party.

Recalling Memories At The Ewald Cemetery 

Peppermint Oil House

James and Nancy Nye plot in Mt.Pleasant Cemetery, Port Byron, NY

Taking notes on Mom's memories, Lyons Rural Cemetery

Erie Canal

Sitting on great great grandpa to upload info

Tacos for supper at KOA

Day 6--Exploring Mom's Family in Up-state NY

Historic Mentz Methodist Episcopal Church,
Montezuma,  NY

I haven't mentioned that Keith has been on ancestry.com and found a lot of information that we are following.  Mom also has a ton of stuff, including a 40 page hand-written family history and memory log that my Grandma Ewald did on both sides of yellow legal pad paper in 1973, a well worn composition book (written by Great-Grandma Ida Evelyn Gilman in 1943) with information, and a notebook with newspaper obituaries and family photos.  We spent 3 hours after supper at Hejamada RV campground going through information and listing places to look into.

We got to the Historic Mentz Church before 9:30 and called the phone number posted on the fence for more information.  Even on this Sunday morning, Paul Baker was there in minutes to let us in.  He lives just down the road and is really proud of this church where he and Bunny celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.  We checked out the gravestones around the grounds, but did not see any ancestors.  So, while we waited for Paul's friend Cheryl Longyear, the Montezuma town historian to arrive, we headed west and hiked up a steep hill to another obscure cemetery.  This one we only new of because Paul had stumbled upon it while tracking a deer in the snow 25 years ago. No familiar families there either, but Cheryl arrived and knew where the Nye family cemetery was.  We all followed her for several miles and pulled alongside a soybean field with a raised island of trees in the middle of it.  She'd warned us it would be a hike, and it was a ways out, in a slightly muddy field at near harvest time.  Though Cheryl was aware that a right of way exists to get to cemeteries, we decided it would be better if there weren't seven of us disturbing the beans. So we sent Keith in with a camera.  At this point, hours later, I'm almost regretting that all of us did not see it in person, but the photos are great.  He found the stone of Samuel Nye (1808-1876) and his wife, Mary Faatz Nye.  They are my great-X-5 grandparents!  While Keith was spelunking, Cheryl and I went through a book she'd brought along with all the births, deaths, and marriages in the city records.  I wrote several of these items in my journal.  Meanwhile, Mom was talking to Paul, who had also followed us to this site, and found out his daughter is a master at tatting, a little-known lace-making art which Mom also enjoys.  Ginny had just returned from a tatting convention in Australia.  So we followed Paul back to his house to meet Ginny and her lace.  This side trip also offered an experience of 12" diameter puffball mushrooms that Paul's son, Robert. had just hunted down, Bunny's collection of  rabbit figurines, and their huge collection of cast-iron cookware, as well as Snowflake, the white cat who played with Dad's foot, and a good internet connection where Keith got some more family info!

The home at 408 Park Street, Fulton, NY,
where Great Grandma Gilman lived.

From there we headed to Sennet and checked out some other cemeteries, then to Fulton, where Mom's Grandmother lived after her husband George Gilman died.  She knew the address and we found the old house!  On our way we passed a city library that almost took Mom's breath away with the overwhelming memory of being in the really cool, lower level children's room at the age of about 4.  She thinks that may have been the only time she was in Fulton--with her mother, to visit the family.  She also remembered playing in a sandbox on that trip with a boy named Toby Lavender, and thinking that was such a great name!

The Fulton cemetery is huge and the phone number given took us to voice message.  It was also raining, so we headed to Auburn.  The Ft. Hill cemetery there is one of the most beautiful and interesting old cemeteries I've ever seen.  Joseph Taylor is buried there, but it is also very large, and the office is open weekdays 9-1, so we may go back.   On our way through this town, we stopped at the nursing home where Ginny Baker Weathers works, to see her framed tatting pieces in the entryway, then went into another facility that houses elderly because it was called Faatz-Crofut Home, and Faatz is in the family line.  I found some Taylors and Nyes on their history records, but probably not direct descendants.

We stopped in Auburn to buy blankets at Wal-Mart.  It's been pretty cold at night.  All these places we stopped are within a few miles of each other, but we really needed to get to Lyons, where my my Ewald Grandparents and other ancestors are buried.  It's about 25 miles further north, so we headed there.  Our fearless leader was determined to see more.  It was 5pm when we hit town, but we scanned stones in 3 cemeteries before dark, with no luck.  We fixed pototo soup in the RV at the Quality Inn parking lot where we are spending the night.  Tomorrow will begin with tracking down the burial records for these Ewalds.  1499.3 miles so far!

The Nye Family Cemetery is in that island of trees
out in the soybean field

This is what Keith found under the trees!  The obelisk has fallen from the
top of a stone for Samuel and Mary Nye

Close-up of the Great-X-5 Grandparents headstone

Across the river, the large building by the orange tree is the
library Mom recalled being in at the age of 4.

Ft. Hill Cemetery, Auburn, NY