Short Homestead - Main Street Hemlock NY

“What I’ve heard or remember about it” by Bill Carlson

The Phillip Short family moved from Connecticut and settled in Hemlock around 1790, which was about the time of General Sullivan’s March through the area. This is from the grave marker in the Short Family Cemetery; I think it is on a red stone marker. I was told they owned over 1,600 acres. This information is from the real estate realtor’s husband when we purchased the house. When Nathan Short, son of Frank and Kittie Short married the Hemlock School teacher, they gave them the land to build a home north of the Homestead. (Kittie, Frank’s wife’s name found on 1900 Census report) That is the two story square house about 100 yards north of your home. The farm was in the family until 1927. The head of the family, Frank Short, was killed in a machine accident in the red barn in 1927. As I understood it, they had installed a mechanical feed distributor for the animals and he some how was caught in it. At that time the farm land was separated from the house, the Homestead. The doctor in town purchased the land around the home. That included both barns and the house to the south before the creek as well as the fields on both sides of the highway. (I understand the doctor passed away a few years ago) Five acres were sold with the house. Later, two one acre lots were sold off of the five acres. What was left really is the same as you have now but at that time the land was measured to center of the road. Now the measurement was from the edge of the state right a way rather than the center of the road, so the remaining lot is less than the five minus 2 acres, more like 2 and a half acres ith the rest on the highway. The house just north of 4881 was there when we moved in in 1972, but the second house, north of it was built after we left Hemlock. The third house was the Nathan Short house.

When the farm and house were sold by the Short family in 1927, we do not know who purchased the house and five acre lot. Because some of the people around Hemlock said they used to call our house the haunted house, I assume it was not occupied for some period of time between 1927 and 1950. We do know that in the 1950’s it was used as a three unit apartment house. That is when the Rath’s lived in the living room area with the kitchen in the wing off the living room. The rest of the downstairs was a second unit and the upstairs, with the kitchen in the back near the shed and back stairs was the third. There was one bathroom that was shared by all. That time is when the electric system with circuit breakers and three 220 volt wiring for the kitchen ranges was installed.

Later Comments

The garage was there when we purchased the place. It was in bad shape, the roof was rotten and the walls sloped. But it was still useful. The drive toward the “mud room” was also there.

The porch on the north side of the shed —mud room- was rotten and I think I tore it down but I’m really not sure, I know the floor would not hold anything, you would fall through if you stepped on it.

We replaced the bulkhead doors and the concrete block entryway to the cellar. We hired a mason to do it as I did not have time. It took about 5 years and the blocks started to fall down so I braced them with wood to hold them apart so they would not collapse.

The grass area north of the house across the creek (about 50 feet wide) we mowed as lawn. I also had a vegetable garden there several years. The picture was taken from the neighbors drive so it does not show their house.

On the south side of the property the line ran up the drive and through the center of the grass circle and then past the garage up the fence line as it does now. We did not have the barn or barn yard. Mr. and Mrs. John Hassler ran a horse boarding and training business and they also had race horses which were seldom kept at the farm there. When we moved in in June 1972, the new septic tank had just been installed between the house by the bulkhead doors and the creek and the ground was not graded or planted to lawn. We had brought several tulips with us in pots and moved them into spots right away so they show in several pictures.

I’m not sure what you refer to as the “cellar door”? The bulkhead is on the north side and it is still there (in our pictures when we visited a few years ago, painted blue). There is an access door from the floor of the big south porch to get under the kitchen which I’m sure you found. When we moved in the new floor had been put over the porch floor and no access was available. When I needed to get under the kitchen because the pipes froze, I was ready to cut a hole in the kitchen floor. As a last resort I decided to try to cut a hole in the porch floor and by LUCK cut in exactly the place the hole and trap door had been. We heard that the Short’s used the area under the porch as a firewood storage area. When we had the wood/oil furnace installed we ran the new heat run under the kitchen to the sink which stopped the pipes freezing, at least while we were there.

The shed with the bell tower used to be in the backyard and was moved and attached to the house.