2/5/12

Goose Island


It's not on the map anymore.  In 1802, it became South Lima, New York.  At one point it was called Hamilton Station, that's when there was a train up to Rochester running through. It's near Bronson Hill, which is technically in Avon.  It's all so confusing because New York state was just getting started. Nobody knew what to call anything. The Seneca had their names for places, and some of them stuck. Conesus. Geneseo. Canandaigua. 


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OK we're still underground. Worm's eye POV.  Notice that the soil feels extra moist. This area used to be swamp. Geese loved it here. We're bumping into other worms, chunks of old glacier, composted vegetation, here a potato, there a carrot, then smack dab into an extra large onion. The size of root vegetables grown in this neck of the woods became postcardworthy. They owed it all to goose dung, the magic ingredient. 
 
Henry Osborne raised children as well as potatoes.  By 1871, the year my great-grandfather entered the picture, Henry had seven children already. He was in his fifties. He'd been farming his 3.5 acres for 30 years. Three daughters were still living at home. So was his wife.  So was the mother of my great-grandfather, not his wife.