Swarthout Visit
Between the Lakes
Ovid, New York
September 3, 2006
On Sunday morning Mark's family loaded up and headed to the homelands of his ancestors. He wasn't hunting Swarthout's this time, he was hunting Fairchilds, but wouldn't mind bagging a Swarthout or some other relation in the process. Thanks to Diane and Sally, they had the name of the top guide in the area.
We drove south through a bit of a misty rain. Not great weather for gravestones. We decided to pop into Sampson State Park, a large expanse that had served as one of the US Navy's boot camps in World War II. Later it served as a US Air Force training center during the Korean War. Located on Seneca Lake, some of the property was owned by Swarthout's before the government took it over. Art Swarthout recalls seeing the jeeps with their machine guns patrolling the fence lines of the Base and the nearby Army Depot.
 |
We went to the waterfront and Heather and Lindsay enjoyed some play time. |
 |
 |
The periscope can be seen in the window below where you could step up to the eyepiece and spin it around. |
| Mark spent a half hour in the Sampson Naval Base museum. A handful of eager veterans provided a quick orientation of the museum and the history behind it. They even have a full sized periscope mounted in the building! | |
 |
We proceded South to Ovid. After a quick lunch (unfortunately the diner was closed!) we headed to the home of the Ovid Historian. Gail Snyder was a gem!
Digging through the records we soon had found a number of great bits of information. Gail knew what books to pull out and what indexes to have us check. A map of the cemetery we wanted to visit narrowed down the search to a specific section, a big time saver in the rain!
|
After taking us around to the Corydon Fairchild house so that I could take a picture or two, we proceded over to the Print Shop. After a number of fires in the main business blocks of Ovid, the print shop moved to the white house on the hill on Main Street. Here one finds some of the equipment used for many decades, some of the type fonts could have been used in the publication of the Ovid Bee! Mark's Uncle Jack worked in the print shop when he was a young boy in the early '40's. See My First Job. It was pretty cool to see David Fairchild's 5th Great Granddaughter being shown the type box and the various letters by the current Ovid Printer, Wayne E. Morrison, Senior (right). Wayne has spent a great deal of time putting together histories for the local communities. Using the History of Seneca County, he had added in numerous quotes from the Ovid Bee and other local publications as well as gathered a large number of photographs and pictures to make it a unique collection of historical information. I purchased a copy of his book, The History of Ovid. I'm still kicking myself for not having him autograph it! His lovely wife compiled name indexes for all of the books. I was able to acquire pictures of three 3rd GGrandparents that I didn't have before! Conversation revealed some interesting tidbits about the family that weren't really publishable! I've already shared with the cousins. |
 |
