Elm Hill Farm (cont.)

So many changes have been made in the house, would we recognize it as it first was!

I’ve been told that at first what is now used as a dining room was the kitchen.  That makes it seem more reasonable to have the pantry and the cellar stairs where they were when I was very little.  They still had a big fireplace in the kitchen, and there was a big chimney between the front rooms that had two fireplaces both downstairs and upstairs, for heating the sitting room and parlor and the two big upstairs chambers.

If the family moved in 1834, young Jotham would have been fourteen, Louise eleven, James nine, Augustus seven, and Catherine, or Kate as she was known, five.

Though produce still had to be hauled for some distance the coming of the great Erie Canal, “Clinton’s big ditch”, had opened up a market for all that could be raised.  The land was new and fertile, no great rocks to be picked off the land, though of course stones always could be found, as a few stone walls testify. But they did not have to make miles and miles of wall to get rid of stones as in New England or a mountainous country. 

More people had been coming in all through the years, the little village of Moscow, 1 1/2 miles away was a thriving center, and Grandfather prospered.  There came a time when it would seem as though they reaped the round of their labors.  At least some of the things they had are greatly prized by their descendants like their solid silver, their mahogany pieces and some dishes. 

Jotham and James, as I have said seem to have had no “schooling” except what the red school house afforded.  Louise  went to some female seminary for a time, perhaps Catherine too.  But Augustus was the “smart” of the family and for him was given the larger opportunity.  He studied law, and some time went to Savannah, Georgia.  I was told, to my childish horror, that he owned slaves.  His picture used to stand in our sitting room - a young man with a serious face, a fringe of brown whiskers under his chin, and abundant brown hair, and wearing a stock.  I’m told he was fond of good clothes.

In May 1853, Augustus died of fever in Savannah. His body was sent home in a leaden box, and he was buried in the graveyard back of Taunton school house.  He was only twenty-six - just beginning - and I’m sure his death was a great grief to the family.  

As James matured his education was supplemented by wide reading of history and biography.  There must have been a real love of books and information in the family.  Grandfather had an unusual library for his day, all books of solid worth.  James even taught district school a few terms.  One place I know of was the school on the upper Mt. Morris road, beyond the John White farm.  Some time he went to Ohio, probably lived with his relatives, and taught.

Girls were interesting to him.  I’ve heard him tell of going to parties, quilting bees, apple parings, etc.  I’ve no doubt he was interesting to girls, too.  If he was as nice as a boy and young man as he was when I knew him, how could it be otherwise.  I remember saying to him, “I wish I had been young when you were, and you would have taken me to an apple paring.”

When he was twenty four or five he was “stepping out”, and his stepping took him down the road toward Moscow half a mile or more to see Mary Elizabeth Budrow.  Her home was just off the main road on one that went to the “bank”.  Mary was one of thirteen children.  When the thirteenth was born some friends came to see the new baby and the mother.  As she looked at the cradle in which the baby lay she said, “You ought to have a new cradle, there have been twelve babies rocked in that one.”  Mary’s mother was said to have a quick wit, and she flashed out, “Well, I’ve raised the first dozen in this cradle, I guess I can the second!”

James Lloyd Dodge and Mary Elizabeth Budrow were married Nov. 7, 1850; and went to live in the house on Teed’s Corners.  Sometime more land had been purchased on the corner, two parcels, on diagonal corners, and the house built, and there the new home was established.