Relatively Speaking

This is the Congregational Church of Eldred, NY.

Felix Kyte was the pastor of this Congregational church at one time. My great grandfather, James Eldred attended the church. Felix performed the wedding ceremony for my Leavenworth Great Grandparents, Sherman S. Leavenworth and Maria Myers; For my Austin Great Grandparents William Henry Austin and his wife, Mary Ann Eldred. Felix also officiated at the wedding of William Henry’s brother, Alonzo who married Mary Ann’s half-sister, Phebe Eldred. Phebe and Mary Ann were both daughters of James Eldred.

Rev. Relix Kyte

Possibly Mrs. Felix Kyte

I was so excited to be able to go inside the Barryville Methodist Church where my mother’s father, Irwin Briggs, was pastor. Here are some photos.

I was pretty excited to receive my grandmother Austin’s ledger that Mom sent for me to copy. It is mainly poems and recipes glued into a ledger book that I am assuming they had used for their Mountain Grove boarding home. Here is the inside cover and I have typed up the poems.

At the top of the page:

Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me
And may there be no meaning of the bar
When I put out to sea.

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam.
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell
When I embark;

For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.

At the bottom of the page:

Home’s not merely four square walls.
though with pictures hung and gilded
Home is where affection calls
Filled with shrines it’s heart hath builded.

Isn’t it strange that princess and kings and clowns that caper in sawdust rings
And common folks like you and me
Are builders for eternity.
To each is given a bay of tools
A shapeless mass, and a book of rules
And each must make ire life is flown
A stumbling block or a stepping stone.

We visited the Eldred Cemetery in July. Since I have been writing about the Leavenworth side of my family, I thought you might be interested in the photos of their gravestones.

This is the Sherman Styles Leavenworth, his wife Maria and his sons, Martin and Truman.

I imagine that this is referring to Sherman Styles Leavenworth service during the Civil War.

In this plot is a memorial to Atwell and Hezekiah, Sherman’s brothers that died in the Civil War. There is enough room in the plot that I think it’s possible that Sherman Buckley Leavenworth and his wife Charlotte Ingram and their daughter, Julia Ann, (who we think died young) could be buried there. There are no markers, but I know of at least one other marker (Ralph Austin) that is not in the cemetery.

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~now1/eldred.html
Here’s a site showing Eldred Cemetery. It has my Austin relative gravestones, but no Leavenworth. It does have my Myers great great grandparents and my great great great grandmother, Elizabeth Van Pelt’s memorial stone.

I have posted a couple of these photos before, but I have better copies now, so thought I would post them again.

This is a photo of a photo of a painting of Elizabeth (Laselere) Van Pelt.
(I spell Elizabeth’s maiden name differently because I’m not sure how she spelled it.)

Cynthia and I are thinking this is a photo of Elizabeth Van Pelt.

This is the only photo I have of Jane Ann Webb Myers, the mother of the children in the next post. Jane is the middle lady and I am told that this was her home in Highland, NY.