We had Jerseys, but did lose a few to hunters. My uncle, who lived in Salt point, closer to you, had Guernseys. Did you show at the Rhinebeck Fair? My uncle was in charge of the livestocvk show for many, many years. My grandmother slept in the gorl's dorm and enforced curfew when I was young. We lived in southern Columbia County. I was on 55 a couple of weeks ago going to check out my great-grandparents graves in Pleasant Valley--I was staying with a cousin still in Columbia County. He is in the northeast part. The Parkway didn't go that far when I was growing up. It ended at Red Hook. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Barbara Barbara L. de Mare, Esq. Historian, genealogist and attorney 155 Polifly Road Hackensack, New Jersey 07601 (201) 567-9440 office BarbaradeMare@yahoo.com (home) http://historygenealogyesq.blogspot.com/ ----- Original Message ---- From: quillpen1 <quillpen1@optonline.net> To: nywestch@rootsweb.com Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2007 9:22:53 PM Subject: Re: [NYWESTCH] Mystic Tunnels/Mystery solved! I think you're right Barb. We lived near Route 55 and it was basically the only state road in the area. The Taconic (which we locals simply called the Parkway..and still do among ourselves) was far away and 82 also....so drivers coming and going to and from NYC used 55 most of the time. Later when the Taconic became popular with hunters there were a lot of State Police stops for "deer" that were proudly displayed on the fenders of cars going to NYC. Actually they were cows. Our neighbor who had Jerseys painted signs on them saying "COW". We had only one Jersey for personal use and kept her near the barn during deer hunting season. The rest of ours were Holsteins .......with a couple of Guernseys which we kept out of sight too...... especially after the time I was hanging clothes and several bullets went thru the garment in my hand. When I ran for the house the idiots kept shooting at me. Found out later they were from NYC. Maureen ----- Original Message ----- From: "Barbara de Mare" <barbarademare@yahoo.com> To: <nywestch@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2007 8:52 PM Subject: Re: [NYWESTCH] Mystic Tunnels/Mystery solved! >I grew up on a farm, and our cows weren't that dumb either. They knew >where they were supposed to go and went there. At least in my rural >neighborhood drivers knew they had to stop for cows crossing the road. >Sounds to me like someonew had more money than they knew what to do with. > > Barbara L. de Mare, Esq. > Historian, genealogist and attorney > 155 Polifly Road > Hackensack, New Jersey 07601 > (201) 567-9440 office > BarbaradeMare@yahoo.com (home) > http://historygenealogyesq.blogspot.com/ > > ----- Original Message ---- > From: quillpen1 <quillpen1@optonline.net> > To: nywestch@rootsweb.com > Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2007 8:39:01 PM > Subject: Re: [NYWESTCH] Mystic Tunnels/Mystery solved! > > Thanks, Jean Ann. > > It had occurred to me that perhaps the tunnels were used for cattle moving > from pasture to pasture...... except my thought was that a busily > trafficked > road might have been the reason. > > I grew up on a dairy farm and when farmland was taken for state and county > roads it often dissected the pastures used for cattle to eat. "Cattle > Crossing" signs usually sufficed for county roads back then but many > people > traveling thru on state roads to and from NYC hadn't a clue as to what the > signs meant......and when they were told were absolutely amazed that > CATTLE > had the right-of-way.LOL. > > Our cows moved just fine on grass and didn't stop when they weren't > supposed > to. Either that guy had really stupid cows or he was a "gentleman farmer" > who knew nothing about them. LOL. I've often found that the "dumb" animals > are not as dumb as the people labeling them. > > Maureen > > > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Jean Ann Lupinetti" <jeanann@bestweb.net> > To: <NYWESTCH-L@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2007 2:33 PM > Subject: [NYWESTCH] Mystic Tunnels/Mystery solved! > > >> Hi all, >> >> This is the Reader's Digest version of what the tunnels are. I spoke >> with >> Norman McDonald, president of the Ossining Historical and he told me he >> knows all about the tunnels and what they are. >> >> >> >> The area of the site, Riverdale Farm, was owned by Orlando B. Potter, a >> huge dairy farmer. The farm was 100 acres. The tunnels were built about >> 1871 to be used for several different things. Some rooms were to store >> cattle food, some rooms were a root cellar and it was also a path for >> cattle >> to get to different pastures. Seems you can't move a herd of cattle over >> grass or they stop to eat the grass. Since the brick was on the bottom >> on >> the tunnels (paved) it was easy to move the cattle through the tunnels to >> different pastures! >> >> Potter died in 1915 and his two daughters began selling off sections of >> the farm. The Ossining Historical Society has maps of the farm and also >> has >> pictures (taken my Norman) before the mansion was torn down. It was in >> the >> area of St. Augustine's Church. The mansion had 30 marble fireplaces! >> >> >> >> Norman spoke to a reporter and the entire story should be in the >> newspaper >> in a day or two. Now someone has to decide if the tunnels should be >> saved! >> >> Jean Ann >> >> >> >> *************************************** >> Have you checked out the Westchester County GenWeb site yet? >> http://www.rootsweb.com/~nywestch/ >> *************************************** >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >> NYWESTCH-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the >> quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > *************************************** > Have you checked out the Westchester County GenWeb site yet? > http://www.rootsweb.com/~nywestch/ > *************************************** > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > NYWESTCH-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > > > *************************************** > Have you checked out the Westchester County GenWeb site yet? > http://www.rootsweb.com/~nywestch/ > *************************************** > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > NYWESTCH-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message *************************************** Have you checked out the Westchester County GenWeb site yet? http://www.rootsweb.com/~nywestch/ *************************************** ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NYWESTCH-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message