education

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History of the Town of Day

4266558On Tuesday, October 17 at 7:00 p.m the Edinburg Historical Society will hold its monthly meeting at the Edinburg Community Center on Military Road. Dave Davidson, Town of Day Historian, will talk on the town’s history.

Day is a beautiful scenic town bordered by Edinburg, Hadley and Corinth. The Sacandaga enters the town of Day at its southwest corner, and flows in a northeast by east course across it. The Kayadrossera range of mountains are in the southern part of the town, and north of the river there are high hills. There are three small lakes, Mud, Sand, and Livingston. Oak and Bald mountains reach an elevation of nine hundred feet above the river. Rockwell’s mountain, near Day Centre, is a stony elevation of some seven hundred feet, and affords a lovely view up the valley. From the hills back of Huntsville a beautiful view of the valley, the Mayfield Mountains, and the distant Catskills can be seen, and from other hills the Green mountains of Vermont show plainly in clear weather.

copeland-covered-bridge-edinburg-ny-ray-summers-photographyBuy a share in the Copeland Covered Bridge to memorialize a loved one. Shares have been purchased by Joey and Maureen Raiola in memory of Rob Selfridge and by Rosemary Miller and Valerie Kaye in memory of their brother John E. Kaczmarczyle who died in 1965 at age 17. A donation was received from Carol J. Fortin to help EHS restore and maintain the bridge. Shares may be purchased for $25 for yourself, as a gift, or in honor of a loved one. A certificate is sent to the recipient and the name is posted at the Copeland Site. Send your request to the Edinburg Historical Society, P.O. Box 801, Edinburg, NY 12134. Forms are available on our website.

 

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Wagon Wheel Barn Quilt Square Installed at the Rural Museum

RuralMuseumQuilt

Barn Quilt installed on the front of the Rural Museum.

The Edinburg Historical Society wanted a barn quilt for the front of the Rural Museum. The Wagon Wheel design was chosen because Barker’s Store was supposedly part of the Underground Railroad. Robert Tyrrell agreed to paint the barn quilt square. Bob Tyrrell, 88, is descended from the Arad Copeland and Anna Trowbridge who built the bridge to get his cows to pasture. His aunt Nellie Tyrrell was a school teacher in Gloversville and became the first Edinburg Town Historian and Curator of the Nellie Tyrrell Museum.

Bob lived in Gloversville all his life and has a camp in Edinburg. He was a carpenter learning the trade from his father Lewis owner of E L Tyrrell & Son in Gloversville. Bob inherited the business and now Bob’s son Tim is continuing in his father and grandfather’s footsteps running the business.

Bob and his wife Betty donated the Copeland Covered Bridge to the Edinburg Historical Society in 1997. The Copeland Covered Bridge is the only queenspost truss bridge in New York State and the only covered bridge in Saratoga County and was placed on the NYS National Register in 1998.

The Wagon Wheel also called the Carpenter’s Wheel was a signal to slaves to pack the items needed to travel by wagon or things needed while traveling. It could also mean to pack the provisions necessary for survival, as in packing a wagon for a long journey, or to actually load the wagon in preparation for escape. Some records indicate this symbol meant a wagon with hidden compartments in which slaves could conceal themselves to soon be embarking for the trip to freedom.

Slaves could not read or write and it was illegal to teach a slave to do so. Codes, therefore, were part of the slaves’ existence and their route to freedom, which eventually became known as the Underground Railroad. Most quilt patterns had their roots in the African traditions the slaves brought with them to North America when they were captured and forced to leave their homeland. There is still controversy among historians and scholars over the quilt code theory and whether slaves actually used codes concealed within quilt patters to follow the escape routes of the Underground Railroad. Oral histories leave no written record but the stories passed down through the generations from the slaves themselves, following the code of secrecy, these stories were never told.

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William ‘Roy’ Pearsall

The Society wishes to express condolences to the family of Roy Pearsall on his passing. The children of Edinburg learned so much from visiting the one-room school house he maintained. His effort was a great public service to us all. Roy will be greatly missed. For more about Roy’s life, see this Leader Herald article.