My father died about the time you found his photograph, kinda strange the way things happen old lucky making it through the war with a couple of close calls only to come home and die of an industrial disease.
My father would have been about twenty three or four when the photo was taken making him one of the oldest people in his air crew. If you see a lot of photos from the Pacific war every one looks like they have a great tan, it really is the medicine they are taking to fight topical diseases staining their skin a yellowish brown.
Thank you again for the photo
James Benedict Q.E.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Recent Response to the Photo of Raymond Benedict
Yes, that is a photo of my father Raymond Benedict when he was in the Army air core (380th bomber group) in world war II. I am not sure why my brother Joel did not recognize the photo because he and my father looked so much a like. My father's air group was originally was suppose to fly in the European theater where they were expecting to last about six months before being shot down. However just before the group was shipped over seas to Europe the Japanese were threatening to to invade Australia so the Bomber group was sent there instead.
My father told me he thought he was the luckiest man on earth when they handed him a summer uniform instead of a winter one, because he knew he was going to be shipped to Asia and not Europe. He said that when they handed him the summer uniform he thought "well maybe Mrs Benedict's little boy will make it through this war after all". The first uniform my father had after joining the Army air core was a WWI left over uniform with leggings and a mess kit with a picture of a WWI battle craved into it because there were not enough new uniforms to go around. The position on the air crew my father had was the ball turret gunner on B-24, I asked him once why did he take the most dangerous position on the flight crew ( any mechanical problems or battle damage on the plane could cause the turret gunner to become trapped in the ball preventing him from bailing out or be crashed by the plane during a crash landing) he said it had the best view.
The picture shows my father in his flying helmet, goggles and high altitude jacket, since the B-24's were not pressurized the crews flew in subzero temperatures inside the planes during missions even thou they were in the tropics. The crews had a lot of problems with their equipment freezing up from the topical moisture in the planes interior condensing and freeze while they were climbing to altitude. At times fog banks would form inside the planes making it difficult to see inside the plane. The one fear my father had was being wounded during a mission and freezing to death because his blood would reduce the insulation properties of his flight suit.
I think the photo you have was taken by the Army to be sent back home to the papers and was probably given to the VFW by the paper or my family to be posted in their hall to show the Veterans the people who were in the service.
Thank you for saving my father's photo and I hope this e-mail gives you a little more information about it.
Sincerely
James Raymond Benedict
My father told me he thought he was the luckiest man on earth when they handed him a summer uniform instead of a winter one, because he knew he was going to be shipped to Asia and not Europe. He said that when they handed him the summer uniform he thought "well maybe Mrs Benedict's little boy will make it through this war after all". The first uniform my father had after joining the Army air core was a WWI left over uniform with leggings and a mess kit with a picture of a WWI battle craved into it because there were not enough new uniforms to go around. The position on the air crew my father had was the ball turret gunner on B-24, I asked him once why did he take the most dangerous position on the flight crew ( any mechanical problems or battle damage on the plane could cause the turret gunner to become trapped in the ball preventing him from bailing out or be crashed by the plane during a crash landing) he said it had the best view.
The picture shows my father in his flying helmet, goggles and high altitude jacket, since the B-24's were not pressurized the crews flew in subzero temperatures inside the planes during missions even thou they were in the tropics. The crews had a lot of problems with their equipment freezing up from the topical moisture in the planes interior condensing and freeze while they were climbing to altitude. At times fog banks would form inside the planes making it difficult to see inside the plane. The one fear my father had was being wounded during a mission and freezing to death because his blood would reduce the insulation properties of his flight suit.
I think the photo you have was taken by the Army to be sent back home to the papers and was probably given to the VFW by the paper or my family to be posted in their hall to show the Veterans the people who were in the service.
Thank you for saving my father's photo and I hope this e-mail gives you a little more information about it.
Sincerely
James Raymond Benedict
Monday, July 12, 2010
Dave Porvaznik's Recollections
Yes, feel free to post my message. That is my brother, when he was in High School he worked for your grandfather milking cows after school and over the summers, must of been 1960 to 1962 when he graduated. I will send him the photo and ask him if he would like to share some memories of your grandparents and the farm with you. It's great to preserve our history while we can, now that I am older I wish that I had thought to ask more questions of the then old timers and taken more photos.
Dave Porvaznik’s Recollections of the Fair Meade Farm.
Hi Robert,
reading about your Grandfather's farm was interesting to me because though I worked on that farm back in the early '60s, mostly during haying seasons, I didn't know much of its history. I remember that "coop" for farm hands and a farm hand at that time, Ed "Pee Wee" Jenkins who lived in there. Your grandmother called it his "Sugar Shack", that was the name of a popular song on the radio back then. I remember a very old refrigerator in there, the kind with the coils on top.
Dave
reading about your Grandfather's farm was interesting to me because though I worked on that farm back in the early '60s, mostly during haying seasons, I didn't know much of its history. I remember that "coop" for farm hands and a farm hand at that time, Ed "Pee Wee" Jenkins who lived in there. Your grandmother called it his "Sugar Shack", that was the name of a popular song on the radio back then. I remember a very old refrigerator in there, the kind with the coils on top.
Dave
Monday, July 5, 2010
Fair Meade Farm, New Milford Road, Warwick: A History
Within the past year (2009), this well-known farmstead was razed to make way for a supermarket and other businesses on Rt. 94, which links the Township of Warwick, NY with a state border and nearby Vernon, New Jersey. The buildings of this farm once consisted of a large Dutch Colonial style farmhouse, a horse stable and carriage barn, a well house, 2-car garage, 5-car garage, two 2 1/2 story tenant houses, an ice house, a granary, a 4-stall wagon barn, a fieldstone smoke house, a main barn and ell, an attached milk house and two wooden corn silos. The only original structures to the farm that remain are a circa 1880s three story carriage barn and a ground-level roofed well that may have served as a location for milk cooling in a much earlier dairying scenario (a mortarless, hand-laid stone cistern within still holds water).
Less than 50 miles from Manhattan this Orange County dairy farm dates to the early eighteenth century when Thomas Blain purchased the site, cleared it of ash, oak, chestnuts, and other hard and softer woods. The site was in proximity to a local Native American settlement , and what became later hay and corn fields have yielded many flint arrowheads which evidence the site's use as a hunting ground. Legend has it that the site's grave plot of reputedly some 60 graves still extant was once an "Indian burial site." Although there is no record of Thomas Blain's burial on the farm plot, his son John's grave is well-known and there are a number of gravestones of family members from subsequent owners of the farm.
The earliest documented gravestones on the site are those of "John Blain 1816" and "Jain Blain 1817" ; the spelling and inverted "N" s on the crude fieldstone evidence that the family member or workman hired for the purpose of making the grave marker had access to little education a little over a mile outside the Village of Warwick in the early decades of the 19th century. The Village of Warwick, and its outer environs had habitations as early as the late 17th century and by the mid-18th century had a concentration of residences, businesses, and churches along the Waywayanda Creek. A early wagon road which later became New Milford Road (Rt.94 now and as I recall Rt. 40 something earlier) stretched through the 200 hundred plus acre farm of Thomas Blain linking it to the Village of Warwick and points south in New Jersey.
The earliest view of the well-known farmhouse, "the foundation laid in 1730 [ as a penciled in caption states on an early 20th century photo of the front of the house revealing the half-circle driveway that once came to the front porch] ," had it situated on a large plateau that climbed some 12 feet above the surface of the present day road bed. This earlier hill landing was reached by a natural and gradual incline that began about a hundred yards down the one-time dirt road from the direction of the Village of Warwick. The hill came to a flattened height where the front of the farmhouse stood facing it and 50 yards opposite the conveniently situated front doors of the still extant horse and carriage barn.
Given the heights that were necessitated in constructing a fieldstone veranda off the back of farmhouse in the 1950s it is likely that pre-existing natural hill dropped dramatically off the back of the main farmhouse. When the veranda and large barbecue chimney was constructed by Paul Miller a root cellar that could be entered from the interior basement of the house was filled in for the footings of the significant fieldstone and mortar patio structure. The laid stone door lintel from this root cellar remained visible in the basement until the house was razed. This root cellar was cut into the ground ,and one could stand upright in it, according to the late Emma Miller. It was also related that a further justification for filling it in during the patio construction was that the walls were continously crumbling making it necessary to shovel and remove the fallen earth through the series of rooms that made up the spacious cellars of the farmhouse, and the original living spaces of the oldest version of the house.
In the 1930s New Deal road improvements divided the house from the horse stable and carriage barn. The road that came to be in front of the house was excavated and leveled to its current location. The original house had only consisted of a below ground first floor where large, dressed fieldstone blocks evidenced the location of the a large kitchen cooking hearth. A second story was probably first a sleeping loft and later, with the construction of greater pitch to the roof, two rooms divided by a central hall with a fireplace facing south in each. In fact, the sunburst design mantel pieces in these rooms [that are similar to those found in the Pelton Farmhouse on Rt.1], and that are now in the collection of the Warwick Historical Society, were likely from a renovation in the first decade of the 19th century as was the cast iron firebox to the most southerly room which has a relief of a spread winged eagle that was reputedly cast in the Ringwood Ironworks responsible for the great chain once stretched across the Hudson River during the Revolutionary War [links of which can be seen at Museum Village in Monroe, NY].
The Blain family were responsible for these renovations to the farmhouse; it was during Milton Sanford's ownership of the farm, after the Blains had inhabited the property for more than a hundred and fifty years, that the house took on its Dutch Colonial style with a full second story with faux half timber and stucco dormers looking out onto the road, a third story crawlspace attic, a wrap around porch with Doric style columns of mahogany, spindles and balustrade on two sides of the house and a front portico with matching architectural details. The charred remains of the spindles and balustrade removed to the carriage barn where it remained until recently and a charred narrow interior staircase linking the cellar kitchen with the floor above still extant but blocked by a newly constructed faux fireplace in the dining room until the houses razing evidenced a fire sometime after the 1880s Dutch Colonial re-model. The fire was likely during the Raynor's ownership.
The farm eventually passed to F.C. Raynor [?] who opened a grocery in the nearby village. Here he sold and delivered milk produced and bottled at the farm as well as other food staples [ see the doors of one of his early delivery wagons on this blog]. Ironically, Paul Miller's brother-in-law , Aaron Hasbrouck grew up on the farm as a ward of the Raynors. His bedroom was located in what would become the new kitchen of the house in later years. In the 1970s a visiting Raynor family member, who had long since moved away from the area, related that he accidently fired a 30/30rifle shell through the door of the room when he inhabited it; there seemed to be no signs of such a mishap and the doors had all likely been replaced in a remodel after that.
The future owner of the property, Paul Miller, grew up on a farm rented by his father and mother, Peter and Elizabeth Paffenroth Miller, on what was known for many years as the Parks Farm and is now the site of Pennings Orchards. The small farmhouse that remains at the beginning of the climb up Moe Mountain, as it was called, housed the elder Miller's thirteen children [Elizabeth Miller died in childbirth in 1936]. Paul, who was the first child and born in 1913, grew up literally in the shadows of that large dairy farm that he eventually would own after renting the Sanford Farm from 1938-1947, and before that he worked with his father-in-law Phillip Kiel on his farm in Little York from the time of his marriage to Emma Kiel in 1936 raising the first of his own herd of Holstein dairy cows.
In 1943, Fair Meade Farm was bought by Brooklynite Otto Nagel from the Raynors. Nagel, like others from the city found farms to purchase and run in nearby Orange County during the Second World War. Although the rationale for these purchases can never be fully verified some reputedly used farm ownership as a means to avoid the draft as farmers received a dispensation from military service as agriculture was a necessity both in peace and war. Nagel hired the Raynor's foreman to run the dairy for him.
In 1947, Paul Miller, partnering with his father-in-law, Philip Kiel, now a retired dairy farmer, purchased the farm from Nagel for 50,000 dollars. Kiel would eventually set up a produce stand ( constructed from a World War II surplus qounset hut purchased) on some of the farmland that would later become the site of Stan Meduski's Supermarket, Lloyd's, and, finally, Shop-Rite. Quickly, Miller set to work modernizing the farm. His wife Emma started the equivalent of one of today's bed and breakfasts offering home-made meals and lodging in the spacious 9 room house to tourists. According to legend, Tex Ridder and band members once stayed at the house on their way through the state.
Produce, meat, and dairy were all produced on the farm. The fieldstone walls that once divided the farm into small fields from a time of horse drawn implements were buried during Miller's tenure, and the farm fields were opened up for modern tractors and machinery. A cement block milkhouse with stainless steel fixtures and bulk tank were created and a glass pipe milking system installed in the large barn that dated from the mid-19th century. A modern barn cleaner was installed into the brick and concrete floor of the cow barn and an addition was built onto the earliest barn structure ground floor.
This early barn structure became the site for the young stock of Miller's purebred Holstein herd that eventually grew to 76 milking cows,but their were also numerous young stock housed on the farm and on the Ott Farm (located on the site of the present Old Brook Estates), leased for the purpose. The earliest barn structure of the Miller farm, which was attached to the later 19th century main barn and a roofed structure built by Miller off that main barn for the purpose of allowing the barn cleaner to empty manure to an awaiting manure spreader parked below, was likely built in the 18th century. This early date is evidenced by =the beams and large planks visible in the hay mow and exterior. Some of these were 24 inches wide or more. Seemingly, many of the original exterior boards were still in place when the enirety of the barns was recently razed.
In 1964, the year after paying off the entirety of his mortgage on the farm, and being a leading Orange County farmer and member of the New York State Dairymens' League, Paul Miller passed away at age 51. According to family legend, Paul Miller was posthumously awarded "Farmer of the Century" at the Warwick Centennial celebration in 1967. The dairy went to his son who continued the business until 1971. What remains of the farm remains in the ownership of Paul Miller, Jr. and Robert Schmick [ son of the late Cheryl [Miller] Schmick, 1944-2004 ] sometimes leased out to tenant farmers for hay and corn crops. Less than one third of the original farm remains having been sold for commercial development over the past 63 years.
Less than 50 miles from Manhattan this Orange County dairy farm dates to the early eighteenth century when Thomas Blain purchased the site, cleared it of ash, oak, chestnuts, and other hard and softer woods. The site was in proximity to a local Native American settlement , and what became later hay and corn fields have yielded many flint arrowheads which evidence the site's use as a hunting ground. Legend has it that the site's grave plot of reputedly some 60 graves still extant was once an "Indian burial site." Although there is no record of Thomas Blain's burial on the farm plot, his son John's grave is well-known and there are a number of gravestones of family members from subsequent owners of the farm.
The earliest documented gravestones on the site are those of "John Blain 1816" and "Jain Blain 1817" ; the spelling and inverted "N" s on the crude fieldstone evidence that the family member or workman hired for the purpose of making the grave marker had access to little education a little over a mile outside the Village of Warwick in the early decades of the 19th century. The Village of Warwick, and its outer environs had habitations as early as the late 17th century and by the mid-18th century had a concentration of residences, businesses, and churches along the Waywayanda Creek. A early wagon road which later became New Milford Road (Rt.94 now and as I recall Rt. 40 something earlier) stretched through the 200 hundred plus acre farm of Thomas Blain linking it to the Village of Warwick and points south in New Jersey.
The earliest view of the well-known farmhouse, "the foundation laid in 1730 [ as a penciled in caption states on an early 20th century photo of the front of the house revealing the half-circle driveway that once came to the front porch] ," had it situated on a large plateau that climbed some 12 feet above the surface of the present day road bed. This earlier hill landing was reached by a natural and gradual incline that began about a hundred yards down the one-time dirt road from the direction of the Village of Warwick. The hill came to a flattened height where the front of the farmhouse stood facing it and 50 yards opposite the conveniently situated front doors of the still extant horse and carriage barn.
Given the heights that were necessitated in constructing a fieldstone veranda off the back of farmhouse in the 1950s it is likely that pre-existing natural hill dropped dramatically off the back of the main farmhouse. When the veranda and large barbecue chimney was constructed by Paul Miller a root cellar that could be entered from the interior basement of the house was filled in for the footings of the significant fieldstone and mortar patio structure. The laid stone door lintel from this root cellar remained visible in the basement until the house was razed. This root cellar was cut into the ground ,and one could stand upright in it, according to the late Emma Miller. It was also related that a further justification for filling it in during the patio construction was that the walls were continously crumbling making it necessary to shovel and remove the fallen earth through the series of rooms that made up the spacious cellars of the farmhouse, and the original living spaces of the oldest version of the house.
In the 1930s New Deal road improvements divided the house from the horse stable and carriage barn. The road that came to be in front of the house was excavated and leveled to its current location. The original house had only consisted of a below ground first floor where large, dressed fieldstone blocks evidenced the location of the a large kitchen cooking hearth. A second story was probably first a sleeping loft and later, with the construction of greater pitch to the roof, two rooms divided by a central hall with a fireplace facing south in each. In fact, the sunburst design mantel pieces in these rooms [that are similar to those found in the Pelton Farmhouse on Rt.1], and that are now in the collection of the Warwick Historical Society, were likely from a renovation in the first decade of the 19th century as was the cast iron firebox to the most southerly room which has a relief of a spread winged eagle that was reputedly cast in the Ringwood Ironworks responsible for the great chain once stretched across the Hudson River during the Revolutionary War [links of which can be seen at Museum Village in Monroe, NY].
The Blain family were responsible for these renovations to the farmhouse; it was during Milton Sanford's ownership of the farm, after the Blains had inhabited the property for more than a hundred and fifty years, that the house took on its Dutch Colonial style with a full second story with faux half timber and stucco dormers looking out onto the road, a third story crawlspace attic, a wrap around porch with Doric style columns of mahogany, spindles and balustrade on two sides of the house and a front portico with matching architectural details. The charred remains of the spindles and balustrade removed to the carriage barn where it remained until recently and a charred narrow interior staircase linking the cellar kitchen with the floor above still extant but blocked by a newly constructed faux fireplace in the dining room until the houses razing evidenced a fire sometime after the 1880s Dutch Colonial re-model. The fire was likely during the Raynor's ownership.
The farm eventually passed to F.C. Raynor [?] who opened a grocery in the nearby village. Here he sold and delivered milk produced and bottled at the farm as well as other food staples [ see the doors of one of his early delivery wagons on this blog]. Ironically, Paul Miller's brother-in-law , Aaron Hasbrouck grew up on the farm as a ward of the Raynors. His bedroom was located in what would become the new kitchen of the house in later years. In the 1970s a visiting Raynor family member, who had long since moved away from the area, related that he accidently fired a 30/30rifle shell through the door of the room when he inhabited it; there seemed to be no signs of such a mishap and the doors had all likely been replaced in a remodel after that.
The future owner of the property, Paul Miller, grew up on a farm rented by his father and mother, Peter and Elizabeth Paffenroth Miller, on what was known for many years as the Parks Farm and is now the site of Pennings Orchards. The small farmhouse that remains at the beginning of the climb up Moe Mountain, as it was called, housed the elder Miller's thirteen children [Elizabeth Miller died in childbirth in 1936]. Paul, who was the first child and born in 1913, grew up literally in the shadows of that large dairy farm that he eventually would own after renting the Sanford Farm from 1938-1947, and before that he worked with his father-in-law Phillip Kiel on his farm in Little York from the time of his marriage to Emma Kiel in 1936 raising the first of his own herd of Holstein dairy cows.
In 1943, Fair Meade Farm was bought by Brooklynite Otto Nagel from the Raynors. Nagel, like others from the city found farms to purchase and run in nearby Orange County during the Second World War. Although the rationale for these purchases can never be fully verified some reputedly used farm ownership as a means to avoid the draft as farmers received a dispensation from military service as agriculture was a necessity both in peace and war. Nagel hired the Raynor's foreman to run the dairy for him.
In 1947, Paul Miller, partnering with his father-in-law, Philip Kiel, now a retired dairy farmer, purchased the farm from Nagel for 50,000 dollars. Kiel would eventually set up a produce stand ( constructed from a World War II surplus qounset hut purchased) on some of the farmland that would later become the site of Stan Meduski's Supermarket, Lloyd's, and, finally, Shop-Rite. Quickly, Miller set to work modernizing the farm. His wife Emma started the equivalent of one of today's bed and breakfasts offering home-made meals and lodging in the spacious 9 room house to tourists. According to legend, Tex Ridder and band members once stayed at the house on their way through the state.
Produce, meat, and dairy were all produced on the farm. The fieldstone walls that once divided the farm into small fields from a time of horse drawn implements were buried during Miller's tenure, and the farm fields were opened up for modern tractors and machinery. A cement block milkhouse with stainless steel fixtures and bulk tank were created and a glass pipe milking system installed in the large barn that dated from the mid-19th century. A modern barn cleaner was installed into the brick and concrete floor of the cow barn and an addition was built onto the earliest barn structure ground floor.
This early barn structure became the site for the young stock of Miller's purebred Holstein herd that eventually grew to 76 milking cows,but their were also numerous young stock housed on the farm and on the Ott Farm (located on the site of the present Old Brook Estates), leased for the purpose. The earliest barn structure of the Miller farm, which was attached to the later 19th century main barn and a roofed structure built by Miller off that main barn for the purpose of allowing the barn cleaner to empty manure to an awaiting manure spreader parked below, was likely built in the 18th century. This early date is evidenced by =the beams and large planks visible in the hay mow and exterior. Some of these were 24 inches wide or more. Seemingly, many of the original exterior boards were still in place when the enirety of the barns was recently razed.
In 1964, the year after paying off the entirety of his mortgage on the farm, and being a leading Orange County farmer and member of the New York State Dairymens' League, Paul Miller passed away at age 51. According to family legend, Paul Miller was posthumously awarded "Farmer of the Century" at the Warwick Centennial celebration in 1967. The dairy went to his son who continued the business until 1971. What remains of the farm remains in the ownership of Paul Miller, Jr. and Robert Schmick [ son of the late Cheryl [Miller] Schmick, 1944-2004 ] sometimes leased out to tenant farmers for hay and corn crops. Less than one third of the original farm remains having been sold for commercial development over the past 63 years.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Little York, Pine Island
The following came in an April 11, 2010 response to all the previous entries in this story entitled "Little York, Pine Island." My guess is that the author is actually a cousin of mine (my father's first cousin) [the response was sent anonymously], who I have likely never met, but this response identifies many of the people mentioned in the original inquiry regarding past owners of and relationships to a house located in Little York.
Because the "comment" was sent anonymously I have no way of responding, but if the person who sent the following sees this he/she can email me at: rpschmick1@aol.com. This past Tuesday I listened to a presentation about the history of the US Census. The fact is that the census results are only published some 70 years after the information is collected. The Church of the Latter Day Saints has taken on the task of digitilizing US Census information from 1880 on, so this is why this information can now be found on the Internet. I only learned this recently, so I plan on visiting some of the sources that this anonymous respondee has mentioned. I may add that the passage on the SS Bulgaria from Hamburg occurred in 1898. I had also believed, and perhaps wrongly, that "Conrad," brother of Johann had set out for the US many years before making his way to the Warwick area.
Hi,
I was reading your posting concerning the Schmick's of Pine Island. My grandfather was John (Johannes) and my grandmother was Catherine (Catherina).They went from Yagodnaya Polyana for Hamburg Germany. They left Germany on the SS Bulgaria with their four sons Alexander,Phillip, John, and Peter. Also traveling on the same ship was his brother Conrad his wife Maria (Mary) children Heinrich, Martin, Maria, their mother Maria, brothers Peter, Heinrich and sister Anna. On the Ellis Island web site their name is spelled SCHNICK. The written manifest from Hamburg looks like Schnick, but if you look closely it is Schmick.
They are buried in Little Brooklyn Cemetary. John died 1943, Catherine died 1956. Conrad died 1938 and Mary died 1945.
In 2002 my sister and I visited St. Paul's now Pine Island Bible Church, St. Peter's and the cemetery. I was not able to locate the farm my mother was raised on. I am surprised it is still in operation.
A lot information I found was on the Later Day of Saints web site. I went into the library and picked the films I wanted to view. Also Faith of Our Fathers by Susan M. Yungman is also on file. I was able to make a copy of it.
I would like to hear from you and maybe exchange some information.
Anonymous
Hello,
I was browsing the web tonight and came across your Warwick hometown blog after searching keywords "Little York". I own circa 1900 home on the road and have been diving into the local history of the house, Little York, & Pine Island. On your blog you have pictures of snowstorms on Little York and mentioned your grandfather owned a house there in the 1920's. I have old deeds to my home on Little York and were curious if they are also your relatives. Perhaps I have some information you would be interested in and you may have photos or information I would be interested in.
Here's what I have:
Deed from John W. Simpson to Conrod Schmick 1905
Deed from Conrod Schmick & Catherine Schmick to John Sirkable 1905
mentioning of John Schmick & Mary Schmick owning property in 1911
Deed from Peter Schmick & Elizabeth Schmick to Henry Gerlitz 1913
Are these also distant relatives? I have these deeds, then there is a gap and I have records from 1966 - 1980's. Is it possibly your grandfather lived in the house I own? Perhaps there are pictures or documents we could share?
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Dear …[Anonymous], Thanks very much for making the connection. I will have to work on tracking down the names and the connections but the Schmicks of Little York were all related in some way, and often related to the others of the area like the Schlagels, Paffenroths, Lufts,… etc. The fact is that they all immigrated from one of several small villages in the Volga River region of Russia ( around the city of Saratov, specifically) where there was a large settlement of ethnic Germans who actually immigrated to Russia as a group of some 60 families in 1763-4 from Germany near Frankfurt and many came from the town of Budingen, a medieval fortress town. Both sides of my family originated from this group. The pics I have of Little York are of my maternal grandmother's parents' farm---[Johann]Phillip and Katherine Schlagel Kiel. The farm and farmhouse looks the same as in the pics which date from the “Snowstorm of 1947 [ one that probably paled to Warwick’s latest snowstorm]; you probably recognize the farm because it is set back from the road. I recently saw that someone had arranged a quantity of glacial erratics near its roadside.
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I have many pics of that farm that I haven't posted. Among the names you include there is Conrad ( rather than “ Conrod” that appears on your document) Schmick. I believe he was one of the earliest to settle in the black dirt region. Often a family member came to the US, scouted out a region to settle, and eventual bought a small farm. Later, others from the same family, or extended family, followed them to the US and, ultimately, in this case, found their way to Little York in later decades. Conrad may have come as early as the 1870s. My great grandfather John ( or Johann) came to Little York in 1898 from Russia; he was not the Johann or “John” of your document; I know of another “John” in Little York of this time. But unlike Phillip Kiel, Johann Schmick came straight to Little York rather than worked elsewhere before finding his way to it. Schmick was in his 30s and Kiel was in his early teens when they made the journey to the US. Check the online records of St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Little York. I also remember reading that Conrad Schmick and Peter Miller ( there were many Peter Millers---one of my great grandfathers also had this name but not the same one paired with Conrad, were the first to take a loan from the Warwick Savings Bank in the 19th century. My great grandfather John [Johann] Schmick's wife's name was Katherine Schadt Schmick, as I recently learned. John had been a soldier in the Russian army in his youth; he immigrated in his early 30s with a large family which eventually grew to include 14 children, I believe. He had a farm in Edenville eventually, and that farm still is operating and is owned by the schlagels [ that circumstance may have changed?]. I have gotten much feedback from this blog, and the information is still evolving. I will send this on to a second cousin of mine whose father, I believe, was Peter Schmick ( maybe the same?), and the dates would match the time frame of his young adulthood.
Any chance of sending a scan of these documents with the names on them? FYI There is a cemetery next to the Pine Island Elementary School that has many of the Schmicks buried in it, and this, I believe, to have been a second parish of evangelical Lutherans in Little York, St.Paul’s. There is another cemetery, I believe, connected with St. Peter's in Little York village, but I have never visited it.You might find some of these names in your document in these two places. I will get back to you with what info. I can drum up. Sincerely, Bob
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Thanks for the information. I have never been to the cemetery next to Pine Island Elem, but have seen the one right on Little York. I would be very interested to see pictures of the Kiel farm/house... I'm not sure which one it is on the road, perhaps the house we are currently living in. I've checked the 1903 maps of Little York and saw that "C. Schmick" is listed as owned of multiple properties.
I'll see what I can do about scanning those deeds... it might take a week or so but I'll send them over to you. Can you e-mail a photo of the Kiel house? Thanks, hope to hear from you.
---[anonymous]
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Dear [anonymous],
Attached are some pics of the brick house and the barn without the later silo in front [ and i may add that there were many dairy farms at one time in this area, although it is known for produce. On the uplands of Little York, there were dairy farmers including Phillip Kiel, my great grandfather and my great uncle Henry ["Huck"] Miller whose farm burned and was located across from the location of the Kiel farm on County Rt. 1 . These [photos] may be in the late 1930s. The ……….. owned this house in the 70s right up until I left Warwick in the early 80s after graduating. …….was in my class. I have a hand crank door bell to the house some place and more pics, if this is your house. Bob
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Robert,
Thank you for sending those GREAT pictures so quickly!! I believe that house is on the corner of County Rt. 1 and Horseshoe Lane... my house is on Little York near the Lutheran Church. The house certainly is still there though there is quite a bit of foliage in front of it. I'll work on getting the deeds scanned for you and I would be curious if the former Schmick owners of my home are indeed your relatives.
---[anonymous]
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The C. Shimck that Ryan is refering to might be Clarence Schmick who always lived in the Little York area. Helen Ernhaut might be able to put some insight into this ." Schmickie" as we called him , if still alive , would be 85 years old , or there abouts . Just a tidbit ! [ anonymous two ]
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Dear [anonymous]: I read back through our emails. I have shared these emails with other relations who have connected with me as a result of the blog. The Kiels ( Johann Phillip Kiel and wife Katherine Schlagel Kiel (1896-1965) who lived in that house were my great grandparents not my grandparents as you state in one email. I was only 2 or 3 when both of them passed away. And by the way I got those pics and many others from my great aunt … who still lives in Warwick and is 86 years old. She grew up in that brick house in Little York. Her father, Phillip Kiel lived from 1889-1966. He and his wife came to the US from Saratov, Russia both around the same time---1901--1902. I have copies of their Russian passports. They were ethnic Germans whose first language was German but Phillip spoke and wrote some Russian, I believe. I have his "Die Bibel" that he carried with him to the US, and he wrote his name in Cyrillic in this book. I have recorded all this family history in blank pages I had sewed into it when I had it rebound so getting more info. is my incentive and your inquiry and others often motivates me to learn and find out just a little bit more.
Phillip came to the US by himself in 1901-2; Katherine came with her parents and siblings; Phillip's older brother Heinrich or "Henry" had come to the US a few years before him. They left a sister, and perhaps other siblings?, back in Russia who were never heard from again when the 2nd World War broke out ( before that Phillip would send them care packages and received correspondence from them), so they were likely sent to Siberia and died there or were shot as many ethnic Germans in Russia were at this time. The ethnic Germans weren't very popular with the Russians during the war of course and whole villages with ethnic Germans were wiped out. Initially, when Phillip came to the US he worked delivering ice in Coney Island, Brooklyn, ( there's a pic of the ice wagon he worked on in the blog with him standing next to it, circa 1907) and eventually found his way to Little York with other Volga-Germans like himself.
I would guess the two brothers knew about this "Little York" enclave before they left Russia because most of the people of Little York came from Saratov and its environs.The older brother Henry Kiel bought a farm in Kinderhook, NY eventually, and Phillip eventually bought this farm in the pictures, but he was in his 30s or older by the time he could afford to buy it. He had worked at many jobs including a long stint with the Lehigh and Hudson Railroad / or the Central Railroad of New Jersey that used to run through Warwick. He sold the Little York farm sometime around the end of the 40s and moved to the village of Warwick and later built a new house on West Street Extension near the later middle school.
One of my relatives weighed in that "C. Schmick" might be Clarence Schmick, but I think that's not right. You have written "Conrod," and it was definitely "Conrad" because he was a prominent member of the community. There are records from St. Peter's Church in Little York online. You can find Conrad Schmick, the year he came to the US, how old he was, and his children etc. I believe. If you can't find it let me know.I have the url address recorded but it should come up in a google search. There have been history articles in past years in The Warwick Dispatch that mentioned “Conrad Schmick.” I will find something eventually for you. FYI there is a new historical society formed for your community, and they might have some information to share with you. I have some email addresses to connect with them as they have also found my blog out and contacted me. Sincerely, Bob
Because the "comment" was sent anonymously I have no way of responding, but if the person who sent the following sees this he/she can email me at: rpschmick1@aol.com. This past Tuesday I listened to a presentation about the history of the US Census. The fact is that the census results are only published some 70 years after the information is collected. The Church of the Latter Day Saints has taken on the task of digitilizing US Census information from 1880 on, so this is why this information can now be found on the Internet. I only learned this recently, so I plan on visiting some of the sources that this anonymous respondee has mentioned. I may add that the passage on the SS Bulgaria from Hamburg occurred in 1898. I had also believed, and perhaps wrongly, that "Conrad," brother of Johann had set out for the US many years before making his way to the Warwick area.
Hi,
I was reading your posting concerning the Schmick's of Pine Island. My grandfather was John (Johannes) and my grandmother was Catherine (Catherina).They went from Yagodnaya Polyana for Hamburg Germany. They left Germany on the SS Bulgaria with their four sons Alexander,Phillip, John, and Peter. Also traveling on the same ship was his brother Conrad his wife Maria (Mary) children Heinrich, Martin, Maria, their mother Maria, brothers Peter, Heinrich and sister Anna. On the Ellis Island web site their name is spelled SCHNICK. The written manifest from Hamburg looks like Schnick, but if you look closely it is Schmick.
They are buried in Little Brooklyn Cemetary. John died 1943, Catherine died 1956. Conrad died 1938 and Mary died 1945.
In 2002 my sister and I visited St. Paul's now Pine Island Bible Church, St. Peter's and the cemetery. I was not able to locate the farm my mother was raised on. I am surprised it is still in operation.
A lot information I found was on the Later Day of Saints web site. I went into the library and picked the films I wanted to view. Also Faith of Our Fathers by Susan M. Yungman is also on file. I was able to make a copy of it.
I would like to hear from you and maybe exchange some information.
Anonymous
Hello,
I was browsing the web tonight and came across your Warwick hometown blog after searching keywords "Little York". I own circa 1900 home on the road and have been diving into the local history of the house, Little York, & Pine Island. On your blog you have pictures of snowstorms on Little York and mentioned your grandfather owned a house there in the 1920's. I have old deeds to my home on Little York and were curious if they are also your relatives. Perhaps I have some information you would be interested in and you may have photos or information I would be interested in.
Here's what I have:
Deed from John W. Simpson to Conrod Schmick 1905
Deed from Conrod Schmick & Catherine Schmick to John Sirkable 1905
mentioning of John Schmick & Mary Schmick owning property in 1911
Deed from Peter Schmick & Elizabeth Schmick to Henry Gerlitz 1913
Are these also distant relatives? I have these deeds, then there is a gap and I have records from 1966 - 1980's. Is it possibly your grandfather lived in the house I own? Perhaps there are pictures or documents we could share?
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Dear …[Anonymous], Thanks very much for making the connection. I will have to work on tracking down the names and the connections but the Schmicks of Little York were all related in some way, and often related to the others of the area like the Schlagels, Paffenroths, Lufts,… etc. The fact is that they all immigrated from one of several small villages in the Volga River region of Russia ( around the city of Saratov, specifically) where there was a large settlement of ethnic Germans who actually immigrated to Russia as a group of some 60 families in 1763-4 from Germany near Frankfurt and many came from the town of Budingen, a medieval fortress town. Both sides of my family originated from this group. The pics I have of Little York are of my maternal grandmother's parents' farm---[Johann]Phillip and Katherine Schlagel Kiel. The farm and farmhouse looks the same as in the pics which date from the “Snowstorm of 1947 [ one that probably paled to Warwick’s latest snowstorm]; you probably recognize the farm because it is set back from the road. I recently saw that someone had arranged a quantity of glacial erratics near its roadside.
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I have many pics of that farm that I haven't posted. Among the names you include there is Conrad ( rather than “ Conrod” that appears on your document) Schmick. I believe he was one of the earliest to settle in the black dirt region. Often a family member came to the US, scouted out a region to settle, and eventual bought a small farm. Later, others from the same family, or extended family, followed them to the US and, ultimately, in this case, found their way to Little York in later decades. Conrad may have come as early as the 1870s. My great grandfather John ( or Johann) came to Little York in 1898 from Russia; he was not the Johann or “John” of your document; I know of another “John” in Little York of this time. But unlike Phillip Kiel, Johann Schmick came straight to Little York rather than worked elsewhere before finding his way to it. Schmick was in his 30s and Kiel was in his early teens when they made the journey to the US. Check the online records of St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Little York. I also remember reading that Conrad Schmick and Peter Miller ( there were many Peter Millers---one of my great grandfathers also had this name but not the same one paired with Conrad, were the first to take a loan from the Warwick Savings Bank in the 19th century. My great grandfather John [Johann] Schmick's wife's name was Katherine Schadt Schmick, as I recently learned. John had been a soldier in the Russian army in his youth; he immigrated in his early 30s with a large family which eventually grew to include 14 children, I believe. He had a farm in Edenville eventually, and that farm still is operating and is owned by the schlagels [ that circumstance may have changed?]. I have gotten much feedback from this blog, and the information is still evolving. I will send this on to a second cousin of mine whose father, I believe, was Peter Schmick ( maybe the same?), and the dates would match the time frame of his young adulthood.
Any chance of sending a scan of these documents with the names on them? FYI There is a cemetery next to the Pine Island Elementary School that has many of the Schmicks buried in it, and this, I believe, to have been a second parish of evangelical Lutherans in Little York, St.Paul’s. There is another cemetery, I believe, connected with St. Peter's in Little York village, but I have never visited it.You might find some of these names in your document in these two places. I will get back to you with what info. I can drum up. Sincerely, Bob
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Thanks for the information. I have never been to the cemetery next to Pine Island Elem, but have seen the one right on Little York. I would be very interested to see pictures of the Kiel farm/house... I'm not sure which one it is on the road, perhaps the house we are currently living in. I've checked the 1903 maps of Little York and saw that "C. Schmick" is listed as owned of multiple properties.
I'll see what I can do about scanning those deeds... it might take a week or so but I'll send them over to you. Can you e-mail a photo of the Kiel house? Thanks, hope to hear from you.
---[anonymous]
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Dear [anonymous],
Attached are some pics of the brick house and the barn without the later silo in front [ and i may add that there were many dairy farms at one time in this area, although it is known for produce. On the uplands of Little York, there were dairy farmers including Phillip Kiel, my great grandfather and my great uncle Henry ["Huck"] Miller whose farm burned and was located across from the location of the Kiel farm on County Rt. 1 . These [photos] may be in the late 1930s. The ……….. owned this house in the 70s right up until I left Warwick in the early 80s after graduating. …….was in my class. I have a hand crank door bell to the house some place and more pics, if this is your house. Bob
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Robert,
Thank you for sending those GREAT pictures so quickly!! I believe that house is on the corner of County Rt. 1 and Horseshoe Lane... my house is on Little York near the Lutheran Church. The house certainly is still there though there is quite a bit of foliage in front of it. I'll work on getting the deeds scanned for you and I would be curious if the former Schmick owners of my home are indeed your relatives.
---[anonymous]
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
The C. Shimck that Ryan is refering to might be Clarence Schmick who always lived in the Little York area. Helen Ernhaut might be able to put some insight into this ." Schmickie" as we called him , if still alive , would be 85 years old , or there abouts . Just a tidbit ! [ anonymous two ]
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Dear [anonymous]: I read back through our emails. I have shared these emails with other relations who have connected with me as a result of the blog. The Kiels ( Johann Phillip Kiel and wife Katherine Schlagel Kiel (1896-1965) who lived in that house were my great grandparents not my grandparents as you state in one email. I was only 2 or 3 when both of them passed away. And by the way I got those pics and many others from my great aunt … who still lives in Warwick and is 86 years old. She grew up in that brick house in Little York. Her father, Phillip Kiel lived from 1889-1966. He and his wife came to the US from Saratov, Russia both around the same time---1901--1902. I have copies of their Russian passports. They were ethnic Germans whose first language was German but Phillip spoke and wrote some Russian, I believe. I have his "Die Bibel" that he carried with him to the US, and he wrote his name in Cyrillic in this book. I have recorded all this family history in blank pages I had sewed into it when I had it rebound so getting more info. is my incentive and your inquiry and others often motivates me to learn and find out just a little bit more.
Phillip came to the US by himself in 1901-2; Katherine came with her parents and siblings; Phillip's older brother Heinrich or "Henry" had come to the US a few years before him. They left a sister, and perhaps other siblings?, back in Russia who were never heard from again when the 2nd World War broke out ( before that Phillip would send them care packages and received correspondence from them), so they were likely sent to Siberia and died there or were shot as many ethnic Germans in Russia were at this time. The ethnic Germans weren't very popular with the Russians during the war of course and whole villages with ethnic Germans were wiped out. Initially, when Phillip came to the US he worked delivering ice in Coney Island, Brooklyn, ( there's a pic of the ice wagon he worked on in the blog with him standing next to it, circa 1907) and eventually found his way to Little York with other Volga-Germans like himself.
I would guess the two brothers knew about this "Little York" enclave before they left Russia because most of the people of Little York came from Saratov and its environs.The older brother Henry Kiel bought a farm in Kinderhook, NY eventually, and Phillip eventually bought this farm in the pictures, but he was in his 30s or older by the time he could afford to buy it. He had worked at many jobs including a long stint with the Lehigh and Hudson Railroad / or the Central Railroad of New Jersey that used to run through Warwick. He sold the Little York farm sometime around the end of the 40s and moved to the village of Warwick and later built a new house on West Street Extension near the later middle school.
One of my relatives weighed in that "C. Schmick" might be Clarence Schmick, but I think that's not right. You have written "Conrod," and it was definitely "Conrad" because he was a prominent member of the community. There are records from St. Peter's Church in Little York online. You can find Conrad Schmick, the year he came to the US, how old he was, and his children etc. I believe. If you can't find it let me know.I have the url address recorded but it should come up in a google search. There have been history articles in past years in The Warwick Dispatch that mentioned “Conrad Schmick.” I will find something eventually for you. FYI there is a new historical society formed for your community, and they might have some information to share with you. I have some email addresses to connect with them as they have also found my blog out and contacted me. Sincerely, Bob
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