Village of Aurora Historical Society

Christmas in Aurora was so much fun, we’re doing it again this weekend! Saturday, December 12th, AHS will be open 10:30 am - 1:00 pm. Come for the exhibits - Scoundrels and Scamps and New Acquisitions - and stay for Christmas shopping for unique Aurora gifts. Here’s a sampling, but there’s more. Many gifts under $20, too. Rob LoMascolo is working hard on several commissions, but window shop virtually at www.rlfinepress.com and call for an appointment. Check in with Jodi Baldwin at Historic Howland House on Facebook. This weekend is predicted to be rainy, but if there’s something in the works for the next one, you’ll know. And don’t forget, you can visit the Aurora Free Library, Jane Morgan’s, Vintage Lighting, and Trader Rose too.

Giving Tuesday has filled our email boxes all day, and this post aims for a change of pace: what your gifts have done over the past year for this organization and this community. At this time last year, work on Patrick Tavern was underway, with little idea of when it might actually become the community space intended. In March, just when construction should have resumed, the whole world ground to a halt. Eventually, work could begin again, but there was suddenly a raft of ...protocols, even for essential services, that had to be mastered. The Mobile Market format was ideal for this special need, but pre-ordering one’s groceries was very unfamiliar to most customers. Finally, in October, the building received the Certificate of Occupancy, and the Tuesday market could move indoors. Suddenly, everything seemed to kick in: the right mix of vendors, the rhythm of ordering ahead, and word-of-mouth advertising. So today was our first Beef Day: a visit from Cris Loomis, with organic, grass fed beef by both pre-order and drop-in sales. There was bread and jam from baker Alicia Kirk, potatoes and squash from Benlauck Farm, beans and the last harvest of chard and beets from Centurion Farm, and beverages, dates, nuts and chocolate from San Pedro: the makings of a complete meal, especially with blueberries from last week’s special event. But the soul, too, must be fed, and requires art: the silver jewelry of Dan Hill, and the letterpress work of Rob LoMascolo. It was too busy a day - constant, though never crowded - for me to take pictures, but here’s a very brief sampler from a few weeks ago. Even as the market drew to a close at dusk, families lingered outdoors, enjoying a few minutes’ conversation. Barring a blizzard, this little market - the thing that seemed an impossible goal in the spring and summer - will run on Tuesdays until Christmas. Your gifts did it; thank you! See more

There’s a time to turn off the news and relax. The pleasures of a good, simple meal are more than physical nourishment. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BveXvC_UVyc

I stopped this afternoon at Jane Morgan’s Little House to see what Haley might have planned for Saturday. So much is not feasible this year, and many of the shop’s most loyal customers are avoiding travel, but she does have something absolutely wonderful: a special offer on prints by J. J. Lankes, plus the famous Aurora from the North Poplars, 1848. Originals of the Lankes prints used to hang in the front entry of the old Jane Morgan’s; Lankes taught art at Wells, rather ...reluctantly to be honest, in Jane’s student years, I think. Some years ago a set was printed from these originals, perhaps by Jacobs Press. There are two views of Main Building, and one of the very building where Jane Morgan’s is today. How cool is that! The sale makes these prints, both matted and unmatted, ridiculously inexpensive. Stop in and buy some, or if you live away, look up the store, call Haley and see about ordering them by mail. This is what’s wonderful about small businesses: they keep a special part of local memory alive. So here’s Haley, with the marvelous print display. See more

There’s a lot of excitement on this page about Cindy Avery’s book. (See previous post) Please visit the page devoted to the book for more: https://m.facebook.com/journeywithbaldy/

It’s happening! Thanks to the initiative of Rob LoMascolo, the first Saturday in December will again be Christmas in Aurora at three local museums. Savor a safe, relaxing day, with fun for all ages, unique gifts and - what a treat! - live music.

Remember that the previous post promised some treats in store? Well, here’s a very big one. Cindy Avery’s book of her father’s experiences has just been released and has already risen to #7 of current WWII books! Even those here not privileged to know Baldy Avery in person have gotten to know him at least a bit through AHS. This story of his wartime experiences was part of the very moving and unforgettable museum show on WWII a few years ago. He also wrote a delightful house-by-house memoir of Aurora people and places, Aurora as I Knew It, that was the basis of another show. It also remains the essential resource on the Village (and some of the Town) from the 1920s through the 1970s. Congratulations to Cindy, along with heartfelt thanks for sharing this important story. PS. Yes, it’s available on Amazon

Happy Halloween, readers! During this pause-for-more-research, there are some treats coming your way. First is from John Miller, who recalled the escapades of Halloweens past in Aurora. A few examples reached the status of legend: the stagecoach was spirited to the roof of the (then) firehouse (today’s PO); a car appeared wedged in the narrow passage between said firehouse and the District School (when it was the PO). Of course, there was a VW bug on the Glen Park bridge (mor...e than once). I heard that one year a coin slot was painted on the roof of the Bank. Anything that was not nailed down or put away was fair game, and all the College workmen were sent out on Nov. 1 to try to get the Village back to normal. Certain well-known and distinguished personages of today are said to have been responsible for some (or most?) of these colorful incidents. Do you have a story? Better yet, do you have a picture? Please share! See more

The year 1867 was a pivotal one for the Shorter family. Alsie recalled it this way: in 1867 the family moved to Sherwood, near Auburn, N. Y. Before leaving Washington, Alsace says, his father wanted to return the ‘borrowed’ mule team to his former master in Maryland. But he was told not to ‘bother about it.’ After a year at Sherwood, the [Shorter] family moved to Poplar Ridge, N. Y., five miles north of King’s Ferry. There Alsace grew to young manhood, his parents later ...Continue reading

Now we’re going to take a look at early Reconstruction from the viewpoint of the plantation owners. Peter O’Connell sent the following: I also attach a listing of the names and ages of Blandford family slaves in 1864, the year that Maryland adopted a new state constitution that freed Maryland slaves. My great grandfather, Stanislaus Blandford, died in 1867. As part of probating the will, his son William Benson Hall Blandford filed paperwork with the County Slave Commission...Continue reading

Tomorrow, our friends at the Frontenac Historical Society will be unveiling three new historical markers in Union Springs. The event starts at 4 p.m. at 8 Homer St. the home of suffragette Zobedia Alleman, and moves on from there. Congratulations to everyone involved! When the event concludes, stop by the Farmers' Market at Patrick Tavern, open until 5:30 pm; pie pumpkins, apples, fresh tortillas, English muffins, honey and more will be available.

Here are a couple of photos from the book cited in the preceding post. (The exterior and interior are different buildings; this is just a sampler from Wellman’s book.)

Emily Howland’s contributions are always of interest. In the post just below, Bren Hill asked about the early photographs of Friends meetinghouses that are in Swarthmore’s collection. A few have been reprinted in Judith Wellman’s excellent book, Uncovering the Freedom Trail in Cayuga County, available on line. There is a long essay under the meetinghouse known as Brick Church that outlines the history of the local meetinghouses. I’ll add a couple of photos from it in the next post, but urge you to go here to read much more: https://www.cayugacounty.us//Uncovering-the-Freedom-Trail-

Emily Howland's album of photographs, begun at Camp Todd, is on line. This is the album with the famous picture of Harriet Tubman. Enjoy it at http://edan.si.edu/slideshow/viewer/ Still more closely related to this story is Emily's own sketch of the teachers' quarters at Camp Todd, accessed from http://arlingtonhistoricalsociety.org///1995-2-Alladin.pdf Hello to another AHS, Arlington Historical Society!

When Thomas Shorter drove the farm wagon with its hidden human cargo over the bridge to Washington DC that early morning in 1861, the family joined a rapidly growing number of fellow freedom-seekers. There was not yet any consistent policy on how to handle those who escaped enslavement. Union Gen. Benjamin Butler soon created one by refusing to return escapees to the South, claiming them as contraband of war, that is, Southern property who had been used to advance the Confe...Continue reading

If you have been following the story of the Shorter family’s flight to freedom from enslavement, you might have noticed that I refer to Alsace (Shorter) Blandford, whose 1938 interview is so interesting. In connection with this unusual use of two different last names by Alsace, and the previous entry on churches, I asked archivist Colleen Puterbaugh the following: what were the norms about the enslaved attending (white) RC churches? (In upcoming episodes I’ll be getting int...o the Shorters’ church connections in their life here.) By the way, as far as I can tell, Alsace was the only one of his family to use the Blandford surname. (As well as the Shorter name.) Thomas Shorter and his family used their own surname, Shorter, on censuses and anywhere else I’ve seen. (And that’s the name reported on William Blandford’s application for reimbursement of the loss of slaves.) At least in this area, freedom seekers rarely if ever used the plantation name, in contrast to what Alsace told the reporter in 1938 or the reporter assumed. (If a freedom seeker’s path here led through Philadelphia, s/he might get an entirely new surname, as with Harriet Tubman’s family.) Of course, using the Blandford name had a lot fewer associations for Alsace than for his older siblings, who could remember enslavement. Colleen replied, I’m actually not aware what the norms were for the enslaved attending white churches in this area specifically, so I’ve also reached out on that. I know it varies greatly between areas, and I’m just not sure if they would have attended with their enslavers when the travelling priest came through, or if they conducted their own services elsewhere on their free day. What you say [about names] makes sense to me with what I know about the habits of the newly freed and their desire to recreate themselves in their own image and not the image forced upon them by enslavers. More soon! See more

Apologies for the delay in the next episode; a time-sensitive assignment suddenly came up that required a very intensive week of research. So I hope that you did have fun exploring the Surratt House site, as noted in the post below, and thank you to Colleen Puterbaugh for looking into the churches associated with the Blandford family. There were indeed two St. Mary’s: St. Mary’s Piscataway, that I think was attended by the Stanislaus Blandford family, and St. Mary’s Bryantown, attended by Dr. Mudd’s family. That is where John Wilkes Booth met Dr. Mudd. Mudd would improvise a splint for Booth’s leg the night of the Lincoln assassination.

The game is afoot, friends! Peter O’Connell, whose query initiated this latest story, has connected me with Colleen Puterbaugh, Collections Manager and Archivist at the James O. Hall Research Center of the Surratt House Museum. We three are pooling our resources and learning much more about the lives of the enslaved in Maryland, of plantation owners, of freedom-seekers, and of the Friends’ role with freedmen and women during and immediately after the Civil War. You’re going to want to check in to see new episodes posted, as often as I can manage and as new information comes to light. In the meantime, take a look around the Surratt House and the James Hall Research Center. https://www.surrattmuseum.org/surratt-house-museum