Lois O'Connor was a feature writer for the Ithaca Journal, well known for her Crossroads Comments. In this article, published on August 30, 1956, she describes her visits with several Caroline families: Malcolm and Jean Sloan, Bessie Barnes, Meredith and Hazel Brill, and Florence Henry.
Crossroads Comment By Lois O'Connor
Sea Captain Drops Anchor at Farm in Caroline
“I can’t imagine a farm in New York. It sounds as silly as a cow in a skyscraper.”
So a friend in Dublin, Ireland, wrote to Mrs. Malcolm Sloan when she heard that the Sloans had purchased a farm in Upstate New York. “Over there, they can’t imagine what New York State is like outside of New York City, Mrs. Sloan told me when I visited her at Anchor Farm on the Midline Rd. out of Slaterville.
“In all the books, no one ever tells how wonderful Upstate New York is,” said Mrs. Jane Tayler, Mrs. Sloan’s mother, who is visiting here from Donaghadee, County Down, Ireland.
Such “sweet talk” about my favorite part of the world was double strength soothing syrup.
“How do you ever find out about the people you visit,” is a question that I am often asked. Crossroads this week is a good illustration of how it sometimes happens. About two years ago, Peter Simmons, president of the State Hotel Corp. which operates the Clinton House, said, “I think I have a good lead on a story for you.”
He told me that a sea captain and his wife had come to Ithaca looking for a farm and that they were a very interesting couple. I filed away the suggestion. Then several months ago a friend, who was in the hospital reported on meeting “a very interesting person, whom you should visit,” а Mrs. Sloan, whose husband is a sea captain.
Each time I wondered why a sea captain wanted to come so far inland to settle. This thought was nudged along last week when I visited Mrs. Charles Koon in Sherwood and she told about the whaling captains from New England, who in the mid-1880s came to settle in that section. Her explanation was that when they quit whaling they wanted to get far away from the seas and the base of whaling operations.
Apparently this attitude persists for Captain Sloan once said, “I’m going to put an anchor over my shoulder and walk until I find a place where no one knows an anchor. Then I’ll drop it and stay.”
Although retirement may be some time away for the captain, the Sloans feel that they have “dropped anchor” in the right place. “I decided it must be when I couldn’t find anyone to put an anchor on the side of the barn,” Mrs. Sloan said.
They bought the 156-acre farm in February, 1955, from Mrs. Jennie Wright. Last year, Mrs. Sloan—Jean—took a five months’ trip around the world with her husband before the arrival of their son George Andrew, now one month old. Mrs. Tayler is staying now with her daughter and hopes to remain for some time if immigration tangles can be smoothed out. Mrs. Tayler’s father, a Scot from Inverness, was a tea planter in India and Mrs. Tayler was born in Calcutta. She is therefore an Indian and not permitted emigration to the United States, although she has lived for years in England and Ireland. The late Mr. Tayler was a manager of the Imperial Bank of India and Jean was born in Darjeeling. When Jean was five her health was not good so they returned to England. It was not until 1946, that they moved to Donaghadee.
Around 1920, Mrs. Tayler, who then lived in Moulmein, Burma, was correspondent for the Rangoon Times. At the request of the Times she often entertained officials and celebrities who came into the Moulmein area. When a letter of introduction came for Lowell Thomas it didn’t mean much because “no one in that part of the world had heard about him at that time.” He was scheduled to be in Moulmein for some type of exhibition.
“The minute I shook hands with him I knew the man was ill,” Mrs. Tayler told me. It was only a matter of minutes until Thomas was hustled off to bed and was receiving medicine for fever. He insisted that he couldn’t miss his appointment the next day. He kept it but for several days after was quite ill and was cared for at Mrs. Tayler’s home.
“When he returned to America, I had a wonderful letter from his wife,” Mrs. Tayler said.
“I thought that was the end of it, but will you believe it, he has sent me copies of all of his books and a Christmas card every year since then.” When Mrs. Tayler came to New York last December, Thomas was in India but he had made several arrangements for her entertainment in New York. Mrs. Tayler said she had been a bridesmaid at the wedding of Mrs. Gertrude Hartley, now a famous London beauty specialist. The name doesn’t mean much until you know that Mrs. Hartley is the mother of Vivien Leigh. “Mrs. Hartley is much more beautiful than Vivien,” Jean said, “she is absolutely exquisite.”
I was lucky that my visit came at a time when Captain Sloan was home on leave. He is in the merchant marine and captain of the Flying Spray. A native of Sayre, Pa., he was living with a sister in Sayre, Pa., when at the advanced age of 13 he ran off to sea and shipped as a deck boy on the Bibbco.
It is with permission that I tell about the meeting and marriage of Jean and the captain, which, I think, can be called a “love at first sight” romance.
Jean was a WREN during the war. After she finished military service, she was undecided what to do so signed up for a trip as a ship’s stewardess. The situation on the boat was most unsatisfactory, so bad that the inebriated cook blew up the galley through improper handling of a gasoline stove.
Jean had to assist in cleaning up the mess and got covered with soot and grime. “There were no good bath facilities on the old boat so when I saw a fine American ship alongside I went over and asked if I could have a hot bath,” Jean explained. She was sent to the captain-Captain Sloan, of course.
He invited her to dinner. She had been so poorly fed on her ship that the excellent dinner the captain ordered made her ill. The next day the boats went on their respective ways.
The story then jumps to Donaghadee—five years later. “My father was reading the Belfast News,” Jean said, “and told me that someone had written a letter to the paper asking the whereabouts of Jean Tayler. At first, I thought he was making it up but there it was—a letter from Malcolm.”
Captain Sloan, unable to forget Jean, had tried to locate her. She answered the query and later, when he was putting into Genoa, Italy, for three days, he asked her to come there to see him. The attraction still held and eventually Jean came to America to marry the captain.
And how did they ever find a farm in Tompkins County? The captain knew that as long as he remained in the merchant marine, he could be home only at irregular intervals. So he told Jean to decide where she would like to make a permanent home. They were in Virginia at the time. She very systematically set about finding a home-place. First she traveled into Pennsylvania where there was one interesting spot. Then she went to Albany, took a bus into the Finger Lakes section, getting off at every stop to look around.
“When I reached Ithaca, I just loved it,” she said. As soon as Malcolm, had a leave, they came back to look for a farm. And now they have it—a fine location that is part of the graciously rolling slopes of Caroline township.
It was a delightful morning that I spent at Anchor Farm. My only regret is that in the writing I have no way of reproducing the lovely, lilting accented speech of Jean and her mother, nor the doting smile Captain Sloan has for the wee son.
During the rest of the day, I visited with “Mom” (Bessie) Barnes and had one of her cheeseburgers which are the best for miles around; Mrs. Rachel Crispell, who lives near the “magic spring” that colors glass; Mr. and Mrs. Meredith Brill; and Mrs Alton Henry.
Rachel and Herbert Crispell live on the Middaugh farm located at the edge of Slaterville. At the back of the house the huge stone chimney and fireplace of the log cabin first built on the property is still standing. We went out to look at it with the six-year old, most attractive twin girls, and the baby boy coming along too.
A flock of sheep were grazing nearby and Rachel said that she had been crossing Shropshire ewes with Suffolks. She began raising sheep when she was in 4-H. There are 63 in the present flock. The lambs are sold through the Watkins Glen lamb pool and the wool through the annual Tompkins County wool pool.
I couldn’t go through Slaterville without stopping for a few minutes with Meredith and Hazel Brill. They have both been active in a variety of community affairs for many years. Hazel told me that she has tentatively started collecting material on the history of Biggs Hospital and has consulted Mrs Edith Fox, curator of the Regional History Collection at Cornell, about it.
“It has held too important a place not to have its history and accomplishmnts documented,” Hazel said.
Meredith is currently preparing a directory for Alpha Omega Alpha, honor medical society founded in 1902 by Hazel’s father Dr. William W. Root. No directory has been published since 1936. Meredith is the society’s assistant general secretary-treasurer and managing editor of Pharos, published three times a year. The society has 23,000 living members—15 Tompkins County physicians among the membership.
Meredith, a descendant of the Widow Earsley who was the first settler in Caroline, recently inherited letters and other material pertaining to the family history. W. Gleen Norris, county historian, has them at present to check some of the geneological data.
I arrived at the Alton Henry home as Mrs. [Florence] Henry was in the midst of making apple jelly. Fortunately for me, the preparations was at a stage permitting Mrs. Henry to take time out to talk and to show me the house.
The Henrys, who had lived in New Rochelle, bought the 138 acre farm from John Wilk in 1943. It is on the same road as the Sloans. Mr. Henry was a civil engineer with a yen to have a dairy farm. Mrs. Henry had been in advertising.
“We knew nothing about this part of the country,” Mrs. Henry said, “but we did want to. locate near an agricultural college. We have had wonderful help from Cornell.” The Henrys have a dairy of some 40 head of Holsteins, 26 milking at present.
Mr. Henry, a justice of the peace in Caroline township, is well-known in the county for he has headed several of the farm organizations.
The most unusual feature of the house is the parlor ceiling which was handpainted probably in 1886. Mrs. Henry has never been able to find out anything about the artist. The colors are still brilliant, particularly the azure blues and the floral medalion in the center.
I have seen several other painted ceilings but they were all much more delicate in coloring and less complicated in design.
Mrs. Henry has talked with someone in the village, who vaguely remembers that when she was a child a foreign artist came to live at the Schutt’s (original owners of the Henry place) and painted there.
The ceiling has been photographed by Miss Janet McFarlane, former curator of the New York State Historical Assn. museums at Cooperstown. She did find the Roman numerals for 1886 on a part of a corner medalion of the god Mercury.
There are many other things about the Henry home that I should like to tell about—the tiny pottery turkeys made by Mrs. Henry’s sister, Mrs. Charles Biddle of Augusta, Ga., the Henry German Luthern family Bible, the Pennsylvania Dutch quilts and a rejuvenated spinning wheel.
Rolling Acres the Henry’s call their farm, which, like the Sloans’, is part of the ever-beautiful Caroline hills.