Hi, Mike, Carol, and others, Jessie Lyon lived across the road from us (Hoboken, NY) for ten or 20 years. She never married and lived with her mother. Her mother died at age 100 or a little more. Alberta says Jessie didn't make it that long, she got only to her late 80's or early nineties. Buried in Glenwood Cemetery in Oneida, NY. Jessie was a "little different". in some ways she seemed smart enough, but she was in most ways sort of "child-like"--as if she never grew up. Maybe she was tied to mother so much she was never allowed to grow up. We lived about 4 1/2 --5 miles out of Oneida, and Jessie would think nothing of walking downtown for groceries, to see her lawyer, etc. ( I think smeone had been appointed as her guardian to handle her money) I don't think she was rich, but had enough income to get by on. As she got older, often, she would walk to town, but then try to get a ride back with someone. It was harder for her to walk both ways. Often when I worked in Oneida for the Ralston Purina Co. I would come into the office from the feed mill in mid afternoon, and there would be Jessie sitting there, waiting for me to go home. It might be a couple of hours that she had to wait. But she did what she had to do. She didn't want to bother anyone to make a special trip for her. One summer we looked over to her house and saw she was "up a tree" (litterally). She had climbed high up in the peach tree that grew by her back door! She wasn't going to let a single peach go to waste. Another time when the highway dept. scraped the roadsides and hauled the sod away, she went out and scolded the men, saying that was "her dirt" they were taking and made them dump it back on her property. Although she never had any use for it. One year when we were tapping our maple trees and making syrup, she let us tap the few tree in her yard. As the season ended and the sap began to taste "buddy". we pulled our taps to quit for the year. We started to pull the spouts in her trees, and she said " Oh, no, the sap is still running and will go to waste". So we left the taps in her trees and she collected the sap and took it in the house to boil down on her oil stove. A few days later Alberta visited her and found she had every pail and container she owned, filled, and was trying to keep up with the running sap by drinking it as fast as it ran.! She finally realized it was a lost cause and gave it up. She was generous and good hearted, and a few times she stayed with our kids if we went out for an evening. This was after our kids were really old enough to take care of themselves ( we didn't think it wise to leave her with little kids). She was a good and interesting neighbor. Chas

Thanks, Charles for the stories. These vignettes put "meat" on the bones of the ancestors for whom we search. ----- Original Message ----- From: charles page To: NYMADISO-L@rootsweb.com Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2005 9:15 AM Subject: [NYMADISO] Jesse Lyon Hi, Mike, Carol, and others, Jessie Lyon lived across the road from us (Hoboken, NY) for ten or 20 years. She never married and lived with her mother. Her mother died at age 100 or a little more. Alberta says Jessie didn't make it that long, she got only to her late 80's or early nineties. Buried in Glenwood Cemetery in Oneida, NY. Jessie was a "little different". in some ways she seemed smart enough, but she was in most ways sort of "child-like"--as if she never grew up. Maybe she was tied to mother so much she was never allowed to grow up. We lived about 4 1/2 --5 miles out of Oneida, and Jessie would think nothing of walking downtown for groceries, to see her lawyer, etc. ( I think smeone had been appointed as her guardian to handle her money) I don't think she was rich, but had enough income to get by on. As she got older, often, she would walk to town, but then try to get a ride back with someone. It was harder for her to walk both ways. Often when I worked in Oneida for the Ralston Purina Co. I would come into the office from the feed mill in mid afternoon, and there would be Jessie sitting there, waiting for me to go home. It might be a couple of hours that she had to wait. But she did what she had to do. She didn't want to bother anyone to make a special trip for her. One summer we looked over to her house and saw she was "up a tree" (litterally). She had climbed high up in the peach tree that grew by her back door! She wasn't going to let a single peach go to waste. Another time when the highway dept. scraped the roadsides and hauled the sod away, she went out and scolded the men, saying that was "her dirt" they were taking and made them dump it back on her property. Although she never had any use for it. One year when we were tapping our maple trees and making syrup, she let us tap the few tree in her yard. As the season ended and the sap began to taste "buddy". we pulled our taps to quit for the year. We started to pull the spouts in her trees, and she said " Oh, no, the sap is still running and will go to waste". So we left the taps in her trees and she collected the sap and took it in the house to boil down on her oil stove. A few days later Alberta visited her and found she had every pail and container she owned, filled, and was trying to keep up with the running sap by drinking it as fast as it ran.! She finally realized it was a lost cause and gave it up. She was generous and good hearted, and a few times she stayed with our kids if we went out for an evening. This was after our kids were really old enough to take care of themselves ( we didn't think it wise to leave her with little kids). She was a good and interesting neighbor. Chas ==== NYMADISO Mailing List ==== To post to this list - send email from the address you subsribed to the list with to this address - NYMadiso-L@rootsweb.com