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All pictures below can
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The Kinfolks Olde Country Store in North Cohocton, NY.
Bill's and my grandfather worked in this general store in his
youth in the 1880s or so. He used some of the experience
gained here to establish a hardware store Kiowa, KS and then in
Minco, Indian Territory (later called Oklahoma).
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Bill's wife Virginia and my wife Betty on the
Republican bench at the Kinfolks Olde Country Store. |
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The home of my grandfather's sister and her husband,
whose dad owned the general store. This home is three
houses from the store. Grandfather boarded here while
working. |
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Several miles down the road, grandfather's older
brother Samuel had this mansion. It is now a beautiful bed
and breakfast called "The
Villa Serendip", owned and wonderfully operated by Fran
Ambroselli.
We stayed at The Villa
Serendip two nights in
The
Empire Suite.
The B&B is strategically located near fine tourist sites.
This view is looking from the northeast. |
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This is how the mansion looked in the 1800s.
Grandfather's brother Samuel and wife are in the picture.
This is a view from the southeast.
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Fran is a wealth of knowledge and entertainment.
In this picture, she is showing us the old oak bucket that she
found in a back part of the house. |
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Fran discovered, through a visitor, that Samuel
(original owner of the mansion) had a cabin up at Lake
Canandaigua, one of New York's finger lakes. She also
provided a copy of the guest book, and that guest book showed the
dates that my grandfather and father visited there. Fran
guided us to the cabin.
Our dad had recalled those visits there at the cabin as some
of the most enjoyable of his life. Bill and I never had any
idea we would find this information, material, and actually see
the cabin. |
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Here is a view of Sam's cabin from the back. |
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And here is the lady (on the left) that provided
a copy of cabin's guest book to Fran, who in turn provided a copy
to Bill and me.
It was wonderful to see when our parents had visited, and who
else had. It also helped to date some pictures taken
"back east" of our dad in his youth.
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View of Lake Canandaigua from the beach in front of
the cabin. |
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In the Olde Country Store, Bill and I accidentally ran
across a map of the farm our great grandfather owned east of
Cohocton. So we made a beeline for the place and found it
easily. Later
we discovered the farm was twice as large as we thought, and the
map showed that he owned two homes on the property, one down the hill to the left, and the
other about 3/4ths of a mile north which is flat.
In this picture, the land on the left drops off sharply, with
a flat location about half way down the hill for a home and barn,
which then drops off again to a road and creek. It would
have been a struggle to get the horses and machinery up the
hill. A review of literature indicates that he lived
at the home on the other end of the property, which was on a main
road and closer to town.
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It was a fine, productive, fun trip. |
The end |
