A history of two hamlets on the Sauquoit Creek

TheRoots of Our Community

Name: The Roots of Our Community: Chadwicks & Willowvale, NY, Throughout the Years
Price: 19.95 USD
Author: Connie Puleo Griffin

Chadwicks & Willowvale, New York, throughout the years

by Connie Puleo Griffin

The mills, the families who built them, the people who worked in them, and the school, churches, stores and neighbors that made two small villages a community. Connie Puleo Griffin spent more than ten years gathering these stories, many of them told to her from the chair of her family's beauty salon in Chadwicks.

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Paperback, 8½ × 11 in.Over 140 photographs

Colored-pencil drawing of a tall elm and a weeping willow side by side, their roots spreading underground. — **The elm and the willow.** Cover drawing by Lisa Weeks Finnegan.

On the cover

Two trees, two villages

The willow

Willowvale is named for a riding whip. When the Mosher family came from Pepperell, Massachusetts, in 1791, a sister, Mrs. Grimes, rode the whole way carrying a switch cut from a willow at the old homestead. She pushed it into the wet ground by the Sauquoit Creek. It grew into a great tree, cuttings from it were planted all along the valley, and the place took the name.

The elm

The Rogers Elm stood on Oneida Street in Chadwicks, part of the avenue of elms and maples that once lined the road through the valley. It was planted in the 1700s and measured seven feet across at the base. Charles Rogers paid the state $75 for its perpetual care. Dutch elm disease finally took it, and it came down in 1991.

Contents

Inside the book

Nineteen chapters, from the creek that powered the mills to the last graduating class of Chadwicks High School.

Reflection6
Why the history of these few streets is worth keeping.
The Beginning7
Abner Brownell, Ira Todd, John Chadwick and the Eagle Factory.
The Powerful Sauquoit Creek8
The Moshers, Kuhn's Falls, Rogers' Glen, the Rogers & Spencer revolver and the Historic Elm.
The Chadwick Family16
John Chadwick, the Honorable George W. Chadwick, Mary Ann Wrigley Chadwick, and Helene Chadwick of the silent screen.
Communities of Chadwicks & Willowvale27
Shirt-tail Bend, Goatville, Pennyville, Checkerville, Coupeville, and the Chadwick homes.
The Chadwick Business Empire34
The Eagle Mill, the Standard Silk Mill, the Chadwick Two-Wheeler and the Chadwick Hotel.
Manufacturing43
The Willowvale Bleachery, its company houses, clubhouse and fire company.
Elm Street63
Johnson's Busy Store, the post office, the candy store and the Wakefield saw mill.
The Railroad67
The Lackawanna, the wreck of 1906, and the Chadwicks depot.
Oneida / Main Street71
The Willowvale Diner, Pylman's Bakery, the Old Spain Hotel, and the stores along the way.
Farming in Chadwicks & Willowvale81
The old farms of Grange Hill and Oneida Street, and Collins Knoll Farm today.
Caring for a Community83
The town doctors, Edwards Ambulance and the Willowvale Fire Company.
Education: The Core of the Community90
One-room schools, Chadwicks Union Free School, Mary Kaut's 1984 address, sports, music and reunions.
Faith in Chadwicks / Willowvale115
Willowvale Methodist, St. George's Episcopal and St. Anthony of Padua.
Chadwicks in Service to Our Country130
Clonan Post 1000, Medal of Honor holder Joseph Keene, and the 1944 roll of honor.
Notable People136
Mary Daly, Del Stauring, Mary Kaut, Florence Jones, the Pylman sisters, Bob Barrett and Tom Browning.
Senator James H. Donovan147
An Elm Street neighbor who served in the State Senate from 1966 to 1990.
Stories and Reflections from Others164
Childhood memories, and Chadwicks athletics from the 1960s to 1984.
Author's Note175
Forty years in the family beauty salon, and the friendships that came with it.

Page numbers are from the 2017 paperback edition.

Excerpts

Read a few pages

Six short passages from the book, in Connie's words and in the words of the people and old histories she gathered.

The village map

Chadwicks and Willowvale, early 1900s

A village map from the early 1900s, printed in the book. Willowvale is at left and Chadwicks at right, with the Lackawanna tracks and the Sauquoit Creek running between. Select a number to read about the place.

Black-and-white village map labeled Chadwicks and Willowvale, showing the Utica Willowvale Bleaching Company, the Standard Silk Company on Elm Street, the D.L.&W. railroad, the Sauquoit Creek and the Bridgewater Pike, with houses marked by owner's name.

Scroll the map sideways to see all of it.

Photographs

From the book's pages

A sample of the photographs, postcards and portraits in the book, many lent by Chadwicks and Willowvale families and the New Hartford Historical Society. Select a photo to see it larger.

Timeline

Two centuries on the Sauquoit

1791
The Mosher family arrives from Pepperell, Massachusetts. A willow switch planted by the creek gives Willowvale its name.
1813
John Chadwick, Abner Brownell and Ira Todd found the Eagle Cotton Factory on the creek.
1844
Lightning burns the Eagle Mill to the ground. John Chadwick rebuilds it in stone.
1858
John Chadwick passes away. His son George W. Chadwick runs the mill until 1885.
1865
Rogers & Spencer of Willowvale contract to make 5,000 revolvers for the Army.
1870
The railroad through the valley, with George W. Chadwick on its board, is leased to the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western.
1881
George W. Chadwick and three partners incorporate the Utica-Willowvale Bleachery.
1890
St. George's Episcopal Church, Mary Ann Chadwick's memorial to her husband, is consecrated.
1900
The Chadwick mill is sold to the Standard Silk Company.
1906
A Lackawanna passenger train derails at Chadwicks on June 30.
1908
St. Anthony of Padua Church is dedicated.
1914
Chadwicks Union Free School opens. Its first class graduates in 1922.
1917
Helene Chadwick, granddaughter of George W., begins her career in silent films.
1924
The Willowvale Fire Company No. 1 is chartered.
1952
The Standard Silk Mill closes and moves its work south.
1964
Demolition of the silk mill begins. The land later becomes the Chadwicks town park.
1966
Jim Donovan of Elm Street takes his seat in the State Senate, where he serves until 1990.
1971
A Thanksgiving Eve fire destroys the school gym. The community rebuilds it.
1984
Chadwicks School merges with Sauquoit Valley Central School.
1988
The Chadwicks depot is given to the Town of New Hartford and restored.
2017
The Roots of Our Community is published.
2019
Connie closes Alice's Beauty Salon with a holiday open house on December 27.
2021
Connie retires in May.

About the author

Connie Puleo Griffin

Connie Puleo Griffin grew up in Chadwicks and graduated from Chadwicks High School with the Class of 1970. She spent forty years at Alice's Beauty Salon in Chadwicks, the shop her mother, Alice Puleo, founded in 1979, and many of the stories in this book were first told to her from the salon chair. She closed the salon with a holiday open house on December 27, 2019, in tribute to its founder, Miss Alice. Connie then rented a booth at Romeo & Juliet’s Salon in Washington Mills until she retired in May 2021.

In the summer of 1970 she worked as an intern for State Senator James H. Donovan, drafting and typing replies to his constituents' letters on a manual typewriter. Years later, as a school and church volunteer, she worked with him again during the Chadwicks school merger.

Her interest in local history goes back to the early 1980s, when she and her friend Nedra Confer asked the historical society about the Chadwick family and were told that the last hundred years of small-town history like theirs had not been recorded. She spent more than ten years on this book, working with Barbara Couture of the New Hartford Historical Society.

Connie and her husband, John Griffin, also of the Class of 1970, live in Sauquoit. They have three children and three grandchildren.

“Throughout the years of compiling stories and information, usually from the chair of my beauty salon, I have acquired friendships that have given me a lifetime of joy.” From the Author's Note

Get a copy

Buy the book

Cover of The Roots of Our Community: Chadwicks & Willowvale, NY, Throughout the Years, by Connie Puleo Griffin, with the elm and willow drawing.

The paperback

$19.95paperback

The first edition, published in July 2017. 8½ × 11 inches, with over 140 photographs. Copies are available by mail from the author.

By mail

Send a check for $24.95 ($19.95 plus tax and shipping) with your mailing address to:

Connie Griffin
PO Box 231
Sauquoit, NY 13456