Fenton Historical Advisory Committee

03/25/2021

In Honor of Lawrence Peters and Lester Stone

National Medal of Honor Day is observed every year on March 25 and is is dedicated to recipients who have earned this highest of military honors.

01/22/2020

Surprise, surprise….it’s really cold, cloudy, slushy, etc, etc. It is winter after all and we live in the north. Certainly there are nicer places, weather wise at this time of year; but they have weather problems during the year that I am happy to not endure. Speaking of endurance, let’s travel back one hundred ten years to a Fourth of July celebration from 1910 in our area
This story is not only a Town of Fenton story. It would start in Binghamton and make its way through Fenton.

Binghamton was celebrating the Fourth with outdoor programs that included an Athletic Meet, a parade, a regatta, balloon ascension (minus the balloonist) and the motorcycle endurance run.

Automobiles and motorcycles were a new passion in the early 1900’s; and subsequently, roads were mostly still tailored for horse and wagon. Some roads had been paved with macadam but many were still basic dirt roads. Notwithstanding, clubs had been created for the new “sport”. The Binghamton Automobile Club and the Broome Motorcycle Club came into existence in response to these new modes of transportation.

By June 17, 1910, with only a couple weeks before the Fourth, the route for the motorcycle run still had not been determined. Routes going to the west towards Owego were under consideration as well as a route more to the northeast. The problem was the condition of the roads.

Finally, by June 23, the route for the “free-for-all” event had been chosen. Instead of a 50-mile course, a smaller 28-mile, and hopefully challenging route had been mapped out as follows:

Leave the Court House, going west on Court Street across the Court Street bridge.
Turn north on Front street and continue on past the Broome County Farm.
Continue on this road until you reach Kattellville hill and follow on until you come to Chenango Forks.
Continue through Chenango Forks and turn right at the bridge, then take a sharp left and over a sharp hill.
Follow the steep grade into North Fenton and then turn right.
Follow this road into Port Crane [at this time, Rte 369 did not exist as we know it and the bikes would have come through Port Crane on Canal Street to the four corner intersection].
At the four corners, turn right and continue down the towpath to Port Dickinson and then stay on Chenango street to the finish at the Court House.

There were scheduled control stops where each rider had his card marked for time. Penalties were given for stopping unless at the control, pedaling on the hills or causing another rider to have to stop.

Seventeen entries set off at 8:00 a.m. on the 4th of July. From less than an hour to closer to 2 hours, these riders made their way around our area. Some didn’t quite make it. Three of the riders would receive special gold medals for their efforts riding an Indian or Harley-Davidson.

While the image of these bikes racing along seems quite passive by today’s standards, I am sure my 15 year old grandmother looked out her window onto Canal street with great excitement and trepidation as these loud and fast motorbikes went speeding by.

10/14/2019

Our beautiful Chenango Valley State Park. As always, an outstanding time to get out for a walk in autumn.

10/12/2019

Have you been wondering who shot Charles Carman and why? I bet it has kept you up late at night wondering!! Well FINALLY the followup Fenton history booklet has arrived. It is now available for purchase ($6.00) at the Town Hall. We will let you know of additional locations when they are set up.

09/11/2019

HILLCREST RECALLS –PART 2

The Residents were mostly working-stock families from a variety of nationalities. There were plenty of Irish and Italians among them, mostly young families with children. Parents worked at Link Aviation, IBM, the State Hospital and Botnick Motors. The Botnick family lived on Hotchkiss Avenue. Also a family of note residing at 21 Hotchkiss was the Hathaway family. Mr. Hathaway was the golf pro at Chenango Valley State Park, and the family would live six months here and six months in Florida…a very exotic lifestyle for the times!
Hillcrest was a self-sufficient community. Most of what you needed could be found within its borders. As noted by one of the early residents, the community seemed to have an abundance of dentist offices. Two grocery stores operated here; Grand Union on Chenango Street, which is now an electrician’s business along with Laura’s Restaurant. There was also the A & P in the plaza on the Service Road; now containing My Uncle’s Place, North Pointe Church and a motorcycle store. Within that same plaza were several little specialty shops including a branch of Dick’s Sporting Goods! A hardware store was located in the back of what is now St. Francis Church [?] A business by the name of Wolfingers sold electrical supplies and appliances out of a black brick-fronted building; which now is a dog groomer and hair salon. Should you need a bit of a treat; next door to Wolfingers was the Soda Spa run by the parents of Jeff Kraham. If you needed a special outfit, you could shop at O’Connor’s Dress Shop across from Wolfingers. Russ Cooley ran the local gas station/garage across from what is now the Sunoco station (later Dick’s Garage). On Nowlan Road, a real old-fashioned general store by the name of Cornabys could be found. They sold a variety of things; from deli meat to penny candy, when candy really sold for a penny and sometimes two for a penny! Upstairs from that sat Betty Moppert’s Dance Studio, along with space for a theatrical group. Thompson Dairy Bar was famous for its ice cream and was a popular stop after picnics at Chenango Valley State Park.
These are the memories of long-time residents of Hillcrest. Feel free to send us your memories of any of these moments.

08/19/2019

Recently a small group of “mature” long-time Hillcrest residents sat and reminisced. After a wonderful evening of sharing stories, this is some of what they had to say. These are their memories, and of course, everyone remembers events differently. So, if you have a memory of any part of these recollections, please feel free to add to them; they are always welcome. I will be sharing this in four installments. There is no particular timeline of events; it is as they offered the information.

Once upon a time in HILLCREST ………
In the early 1940’s, most of the houses on Hotchkiss Avenue and the surrounding streets had coal furnaces. A small window in the front cellar wall would have a chute to the basement where you would accept the trucked in coal delivery, the coal sliding into a bin storing it for future shoveling into the furnace. The furnace was sooty black, and it had several ducts emanating from the fire box, each going to a different room to conduct the heat. To make it all fit, the installers would have the ducts twist and turn over each other giving rise to the nickname, “the octopus.” Coal was banked at night to make the heat last, and ashes needed to be removed each morning and hauled to the street for pickup. Unfortunately, the warmth from coal was uneven and not too toasty warm.
The large school yard associated with Hillcrest Elementary school was originally a huge corn field. A farm house sat squarely where the school is now located. When the town took over that property, the house was literally moved to the end of Hotchkiss Avenue. The Macomber family retained life use of the land.
In virtually every backyard home in Hillcrest was a Victory Garden. Summer produce was diligently canned for the winter. Fresh tomato sandwiches, sometimes with onion greens on top, fed the kids before peanut butter and jelly became a staple; and they drank Guernsey Milk which had to be thoroughly shaken to mix the cream that had risen to the top.

07/28/2019

This event is not from the past, it is current time, August 3, in our wonderful, historic State Park. Bring your children, gr/kids, nieces or nephews and enjoy the day. Don't forget your swimsuits!

06/22/2019

Now here is a blast from the past! Remember Home Ec class at Chenango Valley? These are pix from the very first class in 1958, made up of 4 boys/4 girls; all seniors with Mrs. Henderson as instructor. Check out the girls showing the boys how to use a sewing machine. I remember this room as pretty much the same 10 years later. Cooking, sewing, entertaining…..everything to make us all the fine homemakers we are today. I guess I missed the part of the class where a box grater could be used to make a lovely centerpiece for your table. Well all the rest is spot on. Oh wait a minute; I don’t even own an iron anymore. The memories are still fun, and I’m sure everyone acquired something from the class that you still do today.

06/02/2019

The First Baptist Church has traveled by canal barge from Binghamton and seen many visible alterations over the years as it served its congregations in Port Crane. On June 8 from 11:30 until 1:30, the church will celebrate with the community it's latest renovation which has covered the last two years. All are welcome.

03/21/2019

02/07/2019

During our greatly appreciated respite from the polar vortex, let’s look back 100 or so years. These pictures are from the Charles Vanamburgh collection. Mr. Vanamburgh was born in Port Crane in 1862 living there most of his life. In 1902 he was elected Town of Fenton Supervisor, but really made his mark beginning in 1908 when he became the Broome County Highway Superintendent. After serving in that position for ten years, he was made Third Assistant in the NYS Highway Dept; supervising the construction of all town and county roads in the state. His collection contains many photos of roads from somewhere????….; but some are recognizable. These were taken in March 1910, after an epic spring flood. In one picture Crocker Hill is seen in the background from the Chenango Bridge side of the river. The ice jam has left most of the river but you can still see its remnants. Along the towpath, large chunks of ice wait for a warm sun. Alas, the bridge connecting Fenton to Chenango was no match for the water and ice.
Well for today, the ice on the Chenango has quietly loosened its grip; and we hope not to have a repeat of 1910. Keep thinking spring; it is only 40 days away!

01/30/2019

Happy Toasted Cheese Tuesday 🧀 serving until 8pm, taproom open until 9pm! Come embrace the beautiful snow with a beer and some grub 🍻

12/22/2018

Here it is the busiest travel day of the season. Plane, train, car….everyone is rushing off to spend time with their family and friends. Tennessee Williams said, “Time is the longest distance between two places.”, and so our story begins.
This story of our history was brought to my attention by Dick White, retired CV teacher. In an article from the Schenectady Evening Star & Times of 21 August 1868, a gentleman known only as J.J.M., was recounting his recent trip from Albany to Elmira, NY, in a group of seven to attend a State Sunday School convention in Elmira. They began their trek from Schenectady by carriage at 6:25 a.m. to reach the railroad station at Knowersville, a small town outside of Albany that had developed around the railroad station. At 8:17 a.m., the train arrived from Albany, and they were on their way along the Albany and Susquehanna (6’ broad gauge) line. From here, according to J.J.M., they were, “flying through the vallies, skimming along the sides of the mountains, rumbling over bridges, crossing ravines, stopping at all the various little towns and village distributed along the line. There are many beautiful towns and villages along the line of this road and much that a traveler fond of natural scenery would call picturesque… Cobleskill, Richmondville, Worcester, Collins, Oneonta and Unadilla.” Very soon, at 1:20 p.m. they arrived at Harpursville (yes I said soon), the end of the railroad at that time. (The railroad line would not be finished to Binghamton until 1869)
After a short meal respite at a hotel in Harpursville, the group all loaded into a horse-drawn coach, including their luggage of course, and continued on towards their destination. Here J.J.M. describes the ride “through a rough, wild and billy country……a FIVE HOUR ride down to the valley of the Chenango River to the village of Port Crane.” At Port Crane, they left this coach to travel in an even smaller coach to Binghamton which they finally reached at 7:00 p.m. But wait they are not done. For the final leg of their journey, they boarded the New York & Erie RR in Binghamton at 8:37 p.m. reaching their destination of Elmira at 11:45 p.m.
So as much as I dislike having I-88 in my backyard, the convenience does have pluses, though I would love to see the railroads return to service. The final thought for this story is by Roy T. Bennett,: “Don’t waste your time in anger, regrets, worries and grudges. Life is too short to be unhappy.”
Everybody have a Merry Christmas and Great New Year!!

11/05/2018

A heartfelt thank you to all of you who read our posts and hopefully enjoy them. Fenton is a great place to live and preserving it's history is important. Maybe George Washington never slept here, but our history still matters. Thank you for helping us hit the 400-likes milestone. 😍

11/04/2018

As I leave Port Crane and drive along on I-88, I glance over at the state workers with their heavy equipment attacking the first waterfall coming off Crocker Hill. I suppose with all the rain we have had this year and the subsequent flooding, this will somehow alleviate the flooding in the future. Sadly it is just one more “improvement” that has been made in our area that is removing what once was. Before I-88 and even before Route 7, this was part of the location of the Chenango canal and the towpath that ran alongside the canal. The canal hugged the mountain and the towpath was created along the riverside. When the canal met its demise and the prism was filled in, people still used the 12-foot wide towpath to go to Binghamton and eventually build along this narrow strip of “land” below the mountain. Near the above mentioned waterfall, at one time stood the Tow-Path Rest (not restaurant, just rest). It was a small building where passersby could have lunch and a cool drink. Around the building were picnic areas and walking trails up and near the falls. All of this I relate to you second hand, told to me by the late Paul Youngs; his recollections from his father, Ernie, and the explorations of a young boy. As you see on this advertisement, the falls were locally known as Buttermilk Falls. I know of no photos of this little bit of our history; maybe someone out there has one……?

10/20/2018

Bring your child, grandchild, niece, nephew. You don't have to live in Fenton, this park is for everyone in our area.

09/23/2018

First weekend of fall at Chenango Valley State Park.