Section I - Chapter
1
Carrie
Jane Fredrick, the second child of Avery Henry Fredrick and Ruth E. Allis
Fredrick, was born July 29, 1910, in a farm house in the small community of
Kendall Mills, Monroe County, New York State. (http://history.rays-place.com/ny/orle-kendall.htm)
Kendall
Mills is not on the map. Located four and a half miles from Lake Ontario on the
Monroe-Orleans County line, it used to have two churches, one two-room schoolhouse,
two stores, a blacksmith shop, a grist mill, a saw mill, and a hotel. I remember
walking to school on the opposite side of the street for fear of drunks staggering
in and out of the hotel and laying around on the ground. In my memory, we used
one church; a Methodist Protestant. The other, a Free Methodist, stood empty
for years and later was sold for a dance hall. The 2-room school
accommodated all eight grades in one room. I remember when one store burned and
the hotel became a dwelling. Our home and barn were set back from the road with
an “in” and “out” driveway and a big garden in between, on a 7-acre plot of
land. A large creek flowed through the property on the other side of the road,
which was dirt or mud. In the winter, we children slid down the creek bank and
out onto the ice on our sleds; we skated, and drew the younger children on their
sleds. We fished and played in the water in the summer. Our workable land was
about five acres. We raised strawberries, raspberries, and popcorn to sell, and
mostly for our use: apples, pears, quinces, grapes, vegetables and lovely
melons. We had about 50 bushel of popcorn all picked by hand and husked by
hand. What a job!
Our home had four
bedrooms, living room, kitchen, back room, woodshed and a little house farther
away called the back house. We had no piped in water, but carried water in from
a cistern pump and a pump at the well. What we used, we had to carry out and
dump. We had no electricity or telephone. We had a wood kitchen stove and a kerosene
oil stove to use in summer, and oil lamps; a coal heater in living room with
pipe going up through my sister Marion's and my room and it was always cold
before morning. Before bedtime, we would heat soap-stones and put them in the
bed to make it warm. We had one horse and one cat. The horse,
"Billy", helped eat the sweet corn, stalk and all, and carrots.
My Dad, born December 12, 1884, had always
lived there. His father, Henry Fredrick, died when my Dad was twelve, so he had
very little schooling because he had to work hard. Dad's father, Henry, born in
1860, came from Germany and got his citizenship papers October 4, 1880. Dad's
grandparents, Margaret and George Fredrick, were in Germany.
When Mother and Dad were
married, they lived on the homestead. Dad's mother was Eliza Jane Mowers and
lived on a dead end lane, and we used to call on her cross lots.
Mother's mother was E1ecta Irene Morse Allis, died 1894; her father was Thomas Wells Allis, born October 4, 1849, died February 25, 1911. When Mother was nine years old, her mother died, so she came to West Kendall in
Grandma Potter's first husband was Benjamin Bartlet Morse, born Nov. 23, 1816 was the first
white man born in the town of Kendall. He married Eunice Barton Morse in 1846,
and died in 1890. Sometime later, she married Grandpa Potter. She was left a
widow. Grandma Potter died in 1915 when I was five. I have my mother's family
record that goes back to 1613 when William Allis was born. Mary Bronson, widow
of John Graves, came to America July 1, 1630 on the third trip of the
Mayflower. 