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Author: Tim Larkin

Published on Leave a comment on A Sketch of Caroline’s Early History
Ithaca Journal, July 19, 1870

The following full history of the Town of Caroline, from the pen of a valued correspondent, we gladly transfer to our columns.1.

The town of Caroline occupies the southeast corner of the county of Tompkins, and alphabetically heads the list of its nine towns. It is bounded on the north by Dryden, (originally township No. 23 of the Military Tract), east and south by Richford, Berkshire, and Candor in Tioga county, and west by Danby. The general surface is hilly and upland, broken into long, gentle ridges of arable land admitting of cultivation from the valleys to the hill-tops, which frequently attain an altitude four or five hundred feet.

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Published on Leave a comment on Man Half Starved Found in Woods

Ithaca Daily Journal, August 20, 1904, p. 6

SLATERVILLE RESORTERS MISTAKE HIM FOR A SAVAGE.

Claims to be A Now Arrival from Gormany Who Had Lost His Way While Walking from the Sea To Villace In Pennsylvania.

The finding of a half starved foreigner in the wood near Slaterville Springs, who had lost his way and because be could not speak English had been unable to make people understand that he needed food, caused quite a sensation among the fashionable summer people in that village yesterday,

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Published on Leave a comment on Fatal Runaway Accident

Susan Elizabeth Linn Sage (1819–1885) was the wife of Henry W. Sage. Her genealogy and a few biographical facts have has been laid out in a previous post about the Linn family. She was first cousin to Frances Peters, wife of James Richard Speed of Slaterville, who was the son of Dr. Joseph Speed, an early settler of the town.
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Published on 1 Comment on The Linns
Henry Linn Speed

I have been spent many an hour recently swimming in the great sea of genealogy at Ancestry. For much of that time I was exploring the roots and branches of the descendants of Dr. Joseph Speed, a prominent early settler of Caroline. Henry Linn Speed was the son of James Richard Speed (1815–1864) of Slaterville and Frances Peters of Philadelphia (1818–1901). (James was the son of Dr. Speed.) When I read in his obituary that he was the great nephew of Mrs. Simeon De Witt, I decided to find the details of this connection.

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Published on Leave a comment on The Goodloe Harpers of Slaterville

Back in June I read an article in the New York Review of Books about the infamous Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. The article mentioned Robert Goodloe Harper, who supported the act on the grounds that “freedom of the press did not allow ‘sedition and licentiousness’”.

This name tripped a switch in my memory. Before going into that, I’d like to report a bit about Harper, who was prominent in his day, but has now been almost totally forgotten, as is the fate of most prominent people.
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Published on Leave a comment on Meetings Resume!

The Community Center spaces are once again open for use by small groups!

The Caroline History Club will meet again this Saturday, November 7, at 10:00 AM in the South Room of the Old Firehall.

I have a short talk about Robert Goodloe Harper (1765–1825), the Federalist Congressman from Maryland, and his connection to one of the leading families of Slaterville Springs.