Photo Courtesy of Dorothy Stacy
I have loved old houses since fourth grade, when my class
read a children’s ghost story. The
mystery of a house that had seen memories both good and bad – take the death of
that ghost for example – enthralled me.
What secrets could old walls provide?
Sometimes, people buy a house and live in it without ever
looking deeper than safety features (Is the roof good? Are the windows drafty?). Other people choose to uncover those secrets
of the past. A writer friend of mine who
purchased a house in Sauquoit did just that.
When you hear Dorothy Stacy, author of the Erie Canal Cousins series, talk about her home, a content glaze
drifts over her eyes and she smiles with the kind of pride that an old house
would relish.
Cruising up Dorothy’s driveway, you can picture a horse and
buggy clopping over pebbles and dirt toward the garage. Walking up to the house, I could imagine
carrying a basket and calling cards with me.
Then, actually stepping inside, you can imagine being greeted by a woman
in a hoop skirt and a man with a pipe and a bowler hat. The ballroom amazed me the most, with its
gentle colors and an exposed beam acting as a focal point.
“This used to be the ballroom,” Dorothy explained. “After Jerusha got her husband, Spencer, to
join the Methodist Church, they didn’t have any other dances here.” Now the room is divided down the middle by a
new wall, but the hardwood floor was just made for tapping your heels –
literally.
I suppose I should rewind and introduce you to this Lieutenant
Spencer Briggs and his wife, Jerusha Marsh.
Spencer Briggs used to own all of East Sauquoit. He and Jerusha lived in a small log cabin
until he built the house Dorothy now lives in, back in 1800, thereabouts. In a letter given to Dorothy when she and her
late husband purchased the house in 1077, “There was no saw mill near so the
timers are all hewn timers, some being the whole trunks of trees with the bark
on as can be seen in the cellar. It was
put up as a raising, same as a barn. The
frame was pinned same as a barn. The
great posts of red and white elm in all the corners. Then pinned with two-inch planks as high as
the attic floor. The original clapboards
were very wide. And all the nails used
were hand-made nails. The floors are
hemlock boards and were all lined floors.
The brick partitions in the cellar were made of the bricks taken out of
the old fashioned fireplaces many years ago.”
The letter also mentions that a Jared S. Allen repaired the
house in 1905. New floors were placed
over the old ones – how interesting to take up that floor and see what’s
underneath!
Spencer and Jerusha were quite busy. Spencer bought great portions of land, which
he later sold, and he also built another home, which he died in. They deeded land to the Methodist Church, and
a church was built on the corner of Pinnacle Road and Mohawk Street in
Sauquoit. A new church was built in
1842, this one of brick, and constructed over the graves, which had been
moved. The old church became the
Academy.
After Spencer and Jerusha gave up their home, now Dorothy’s,
it belonged to a Jared P. Todd, then to Mrs. Samuel Allen. It was passed to Julie and Jared S.
Allen. Now, concerning Jared Allen, one
Sunday in November of 1910, he and Julia were going to take a buggy ride to
Utica. Julia waited in the house while
her husband hitched up the team, but when it took him longer than usual, she
went out to check and found him hanging from a barn rafter. When I asked Dorothy if his ghost wanders the
barn, she said she doesn’t believe in ghosts.
Hmm, I may have to take some pictures in there someday to see if I catch
any orbs.
After the Allens, the house belonged to John and Agnes
Brayton, and then to Charlotte Hopkins.
The house ownership continued to Kenneth and Margaret Hillman, and then
to Sherrill and Margery Sherman. I have
a bit of Sherman blood in me…perhaps there is some relation there. John and Dorothy Stacy bought their house
from that last Sherrill Sherman. You can
find Spencer and Jerusha Briggs buried on Pinnacle Road. How comforting to know they get to stay near
the land they loved.
Now comes the most fantastic part – for me, a history lover,
at least. Dorothy showed me the
artifacts that had been found in her cellar wall. Her husband and children participated in
archeological digs to find things buried inside. I’ve always dreamed of finding wonderful
treasures somewhere in my house. Dorothy
took the items out of a box and actually let me hold them. I couldn’t believe I was able to touch the
eyeglasses owned by someone years ago.
Amongst the baubles were inkwells, a doll’s head, broken jewelry, and
dishes. At one time, the building had
been used as a nursing home, but judging by the amount of inkwells, it might
have been a school as well. I could
almost imagine what the late owners had been like when I held their old
belongings. A broken teacup might not have
much value to the common person, but to someone who has always loved the past,
it was as good as a diamond.
You never know what you’ll find when you start to explore an
old house. It may not be an actual item,
like an old watch, but the facts are titillating. Everything holds a story…what story is your
home waiting to tell?
