Life in Galway

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Also in this issue: A Word from the Editor; Don Carpenter,

Galway’s Cartographer, The Light of the First Christmas, Signs of

the Times

Winter 2012, Issue Eleven Good News for You to Peruse!

Free – take one!

A Word from

the Editor

Recently, Martha and I spent a

weekend in New England. One

stop was the quaint little village

of Litchfield, Connecticut. In

addition to an enjoyable lunch in a restaurant on the village green

we took in the historical sights: the Tapping Reeve Law School

(America’s first), a history museum, and best of all to me as a

minister, the Congregational church. I was looking forward to

seeing the church because I knew that Litchfield was where the

famous minister, Lyman Beecher, preached. He was the father of

a large family. His most notable son, Henry Ward Beecher, also

became a prominent minister, and his daughter, Harriet Beecher

Stowe, wrote one of the most talked about books of the

antebellum period in American history, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

I went to the church office and asked permission to go into the

meeting house and look around. While there, I went up to

Beecher’s pulpit, and to my amazement what I saw reminded me

of the view from my own pulpit here in Galway. Martha and I love

history and we travel to

see historical places;

however, the view from

the Beecher pulpit

reminded me that every

week I preach in a rich

historical setting. The

Baptist meetinghouse in

the village of Galway

dates back to pre-Civil

War days. View from pulpit – Baptist church, Galway, NY

Copyright © 2012 by Wayne R. Brandow. All rights reserved

The pews in the photo, at one time, had doors to help keep feet

warm with the aid of portable foot warmers brought from home. I

often think about Galway’s past residents who would gather

together in this sacred space. I also think of a heavenly gallery of

saints and angels and even God Himself, circling the church and

peering in with interest at the goings-on each Sunday. In this ever

changing modern world, there is a connection for me each Sunday

with the old paths of the faith. It is the same faith. There is a solid

consistency. I draw deeply each week from the wells of past

ministers in my weekly sermon preparation and cannot help to

sense solidarity with Christians of a by-gone day.

This issue of Life in Galway brings us in touch with Galway’s past.

“Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” explains why the people of Galway, as

well as the entire Northeast, looked forward to winter. Also, we

have a first-rate map-maker and historian in Don Carpenter, to

whom you will be introduced. “Signs of the Times” will feature a

pictorial display of current signs around Galway, which will give

people in future years a little insight into our own day.

I am truly grateful to the Dockstader Charitable Trust for their help

with Life in Galway by providing partial funding for the community

information regarding the people and organizations of Galway.

They have renewed the grant for next year; you can look forward

to the Spring edition to be out on March 21, 2013.

Thanks, too, for the following people who contributed to Life in

Galway since the Fall 2012 edition, which came out on October

21st: Don and Debbie Baldwin, Geralyn and Gerry Minkler, Virginia

Sawicki, Ron and Sue Surdyka, and Ken Weldon, as well as those

who contributed through the collection box at Galway Market.

So friends, get out of the cold, and get comfortable, for I have a

few stories to tell, stories of life in Galway

– Wayne R. Brandow

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Why in days past people looked forward to the winter snow.

In the most recent issue of Early American Life, Tom Kelleher

wrote about the benefit of a good snowfall in a pre-automobile

world.1 Snow actually made the travel easier. Dirt roads would

mean mud in the spring, and when the roads were dry, they’d be

bumpy. Optimum travel conditions ensued once the snow-covered

roads were “broke out.” This was often done by the use of teams

of oxen or horses pulling a weighted-down log. To add to the fun,

sometimes the log would be weighed down by the boys of a

family. The resulting slick surface made a fast expressway for

horse drawn sleighs and sleds.

With the plowing, seeding, and harvesting done and the rewards

of earthly toil stored away in the barn or pickled in jars in

cupboards or root cellars, there was a little more time to be

1 Tom Kelleher, “Dashing Through the Snow” in the Life in Early America

section of Early American Life (December 2012), 54-59.

sociable. More free time plus the good travel conditions of winter

made it ideal for visiting with neighbors and for courtship. Winter

was a time to get out of the house. It was not a time for holing up,

that is unless a very heavy snow left you snowbound for a time.

Pleasure rides were another reason to look forward to snow.

Elizabeth Gemming wrote that, “Winter was absolutely the only

season for pleasure drives; in spring the roads were thick with

mud, and the rest of the year they were too dusty for comfort.” 2

Sleighs would zip through the countryside with their bells ringing.

Why sleigh bells? Sleighs traveled swiftly and silently through the

snow. The bells warned others of the sleigh’s approach. A swift

sleigh ride sounds like a lot of fun to me. No wonder they were

“laughing all the way,” in the popular song that speaks of dashing

through the snow in a one-horse open sleigh.

Snow also benefited work. Logging and the movement of heavy

freight over land was also done in winter. The loggers needed

deep enough snow to get the logs out of the woods.

You may have

heard of General

Knox transporting

cannons from

Fort Ticonderoga

to Boston during

the Revolutionary

War and, like me,

felt sorry for

Knox’s men that

they had to do this in the winter. Although it was a spectacular

feat, it was actually the best time of year to move them overland!

2 Eizabeth Gemming, Huckleberry Hill: Child Life in Old New England.

New York; Thomas Y. Crowell Company,1968, 28.

Snow for kids is always fun no matter what the era. Sledding, ice

skating on ponds, building snow forts and snowmen, throwing

snowballs, all add to the delight of childhood in the Northeast.

Arlene Rhodes shared with me how as a girl walking to her one-

room school house in nearby Greenfield, she would take her sled

and slide down two hills on the way to school. There were not

many cars on the road in those days. The fathers would already

be at work and many families did not own a car.

In our day there are many who love the snow, such as skiers and

snowmobilers. However, for too many of us now-a-days, winter is

a time to be endured rather than enjoyed. I think we all need a

swift sleigh-ride! What do you think?

Freshly Made

Cider Donuts! A Tasty Weekend Treat

Photo: In the

backroom of Galway

Market with fresh cider

donuts are Sandi

Bellinger, who does

the cooking and Mike

Claypool, who does

the eating.

Lion’s Club Songfest, Feb 9th

“50s Do-Wop Music”

Candlelight Christmas Eve Service, 8 PM at the Bible

Baptist Church of Galway, 2095 East Street, Galway

Past issues of Life in Galway at http://lifeingalway.wordpress.com

Don Carpenter

Galway’s Cartographer

Map of Galway Village 1838 that hangs in the dentist office of Dr. Carrozza on

South Street, Galway. Photo of Don from the late 1990s.

I met Don years ago. He is the fellow who makes the maps that

portray Galway’s history. How did he become interested in maps

in the first place? He told me that it was his love of history and his

desire to see where things happened.

I enjoyed a visit with Don this past fall, in which I learned a little

about his life. A man of multiple interests, Don showed me a large

mounted head of a water buffalo he shot, photos of an antique

tractor he had rebuilt, and a map of the Kayadrosseras Patent, of

which Galway was a part. He talked about his growing-up years,

studying at RPI, and his work as a land surveyor. In this article I

want to focus on his love for maps and history.

If you want to know something about Galway, look over his maps.

I have one of Don’s maps of the Town of Galway in 1792. I use it

We are told that one man proficient with an axe could chop, log,

burn, plow, and sow seed at the rate of ten acres per year. The

value of ashes, timber for home consumption, and maple syrup

and sugar would exceed the monetary value of the crops

raised. It was the axe that made the money. – Don Carpenter,

The Mosher Furnace of Galway, New York, page 9.

to learn about families in our church records. From his own

historical research in court records and deeds, he has made these

valuable maps that delineate the property lines of Galway’s

earliest families. They are absolutely fascinating and provide

much detail.

Don has also put his penchant for detail to good

use in giving us an excellent history of the

Mosher Plow Factory. It occupied the present-

day building of Waterwheel Village, a small

country store that now specializes in cheese,

hard candy, homemade pies, and other items,

located on Route 29 at Barkersville Road. Don

wrote about the Moshers, a Quaker family, and

the settlement of their Quaker neighbors as well as the plow that

they built. His book is called The Mosher Furnace of Galway,

New York: A Small Town Plow Factory.3

Don begins his book with a description of how a settler in Galway

would have cleared his land. He explains what could be harvested

from the woodland for a cash crop before the land was ready for

plowing. Once the land was cleared, crops could be grown. He

then goes on to write about the building of saw mills and flour

mills, highways, education, entertainment, and items of everyday

life. In this book Don has given us a thought-provoking glimpse

into the early settlement of Galway. You can learn more about

Don and how to get this book at

http://cdoncarpenter.blogspot.com/.

3 C. Donald Carpenter, The Mosher Furnace of Galway, New York: A

Small Town Plow Factory. Galway: C. Donald Carpenter, 2010.

The Light of the

First Christmas

My earliest knowledge of

Christianity came not from

church, as I did not grow up

in a church-going home. It

came from public school. It

was in elementary school

that I learned and sang the

Christmas carols and participated in Christmas pageants.

As kids, we played the parts of Joseph or Mary, the shepherds or

angels, and of course there were the wise men who made their

entrance accompanied by “We Three Kings of Orient Are.” We

painted a backdrop, donned our costumes, usually bathrobes,

practiced our lines and put the star of the show, a baby doll Jesus,

into a manger of straw and we’d be ready to go. The Christmas

story was as much a part of the Christmas fun at school as the gift

exchange and Christmas party on the last day before Christmas

vacation.

If you would like to read the traditional Christmas story from the

Bible to your family this year, it is found in Luke 2. It is the same

passage that is read in the Charlie Brown Christmas special. In

Luke 2 you will find the story of Mary and Joseph coming to

Bethlehem and not finding room in the inn and then Jesus being

born in a stable and placed in a manger. It also includes the

angelic announcement to shepherds, who were keeping watch

over their flocks by night and how they ran to see baby Jesus. If

you’d like to read the story of the wise men, who came to see the

Christ child, that account is found in Matthew 2.

There is a third and lesser known passage in the Gospel of John

that fills out the story of the first Christmas even more by clearly

telling us why the birth of Jesus is so important. It was written by

the apostle John near the end of his life. He, of all people, really

knew Jesus, as he was one of the 12 disciples and part of the

inner circle of three of the 12 that were closest to Jesus - Peter,

James, and John.

The other three Gospels - Matthew, Mark, and Luke had been

circulating for years. No doubt, reading them brought back great

memories of .the days of his youth when John actually lived with

Jesus day by day. One feels a sense of awe and excitement that

was still found deep down in his soul concerning those days when

he recollected them in the opening lines of his first epistle, written

around the time of his Gospel. He wrote the following:

That which was from the beginning,

which we have heard,

which we have seen with our eyes,

which we have looked at and our hands have touched,

this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.

This life appeared;

we have seen it

and testify to it,

and we proclaim to you that eternal life,

which was with the Father and has appeared to us.

We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard,

So that you also may have fellowship with us.

And our fellowship is with the Father

and with his Son, Jesus Christ. (1 John 1:1-3)

What John adds to the Christmas story is quite amazing. He tells

us that Jesus did not come into existence on that first Christmas.

Before being born of Mary, Jesus already existed. He had a pre-

existence. He was God!4 Therefore, when Jesus came into the

4 More precisely, God the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity.

world, God Himself was entering into the creation that He had

made.

No wonder John was so excited in the opening verses of 1 John

above. He realized that he actually heard, saw, touched – God!

Jesus was God in the flesh. How awesome it must have been to

be by his side for three years and to be one of His friends!

In the last issue of Life in Galway, I explained how light appeared

on the first day of creation before the sun was made on the fourth

day. The light was God Himself entering into the creation that He

had made. God was with Adam in the Garden of Eden.

The statement that John made about Jesus being the true light

and that He was coming into the world is in effect another way of

saying that Jesus is God. (See Isaiah 60:19, “the LORD will be

your everlasting light” and Revelation 21:22-23, 22:5).

Comparison made by John in his Gospel with Genesis.

John 1 Genesis 1 Comments

1 In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 3 Through him all things were

made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 9 The true light that gives light to

every man was coming into the world. 14

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling [Greek, tabernacle] among us

1 In the beginning God .

. . created the heavens and the earth. 3 And God said, "Let

there be light," and there was light. N.B. - God dwelt among His people in the Old Testament in the tabernacle and temple

Word = God (Jesus) Created all Jesus = God the light of the world coming into the world God (Word) became flesh

Why did Jesus the Son of God come into the world? See last

year’s Christmas edition at http://lifeingalway.wordpress.com.

Signs of the Times

A Sampling of Some of the Signs in Galway Village 2012

For a complete selection of signs, go to lifeingalway.wordpress.com.

Special thanks to my proof-readers: Martha Brandow, Evelyn Hanna, Arlene

Rhodes. / Would you like to help with printing costs? Make your check to Bible

Baptist Church of Galway, and send it to PO Box 112, Galway, NY 12074.

Printing thanks to Local Living In – at locallivingin.com..