My Connection to Canadice

By Donald L. Stumbo for the Canadice Chronicle, 1996.

Rediscovered by Joy Lewis, Town Historian for Richmond NY in 2021.

I was raised on my grandparent’s farm in West Richmond, Ontario County, on Oneil Road, now 3972. Oneil road leads to South, becomes Reed road, then Huff road crosses Route 20A, then Purcell road and up into Canadice.

Every morning, I could look South to the beautiful hills of Canadice. I could see the first snowstorms of the fall passing through the highlands of Canadice before we had any snow. Often the hills would be white in the morning, while down here it would be still green.

My folks used to go up into Canadice to pick up Chestnuts in the fall and also to pick wild blackberries. My grandfather, Wilson L. Larned, and his sons, my uncles, were dealers in Livestock, hides, furs, and wool. I remember the horse-drawn wagons coming to our place from Canadice loaded with wool They also brought their livestock to the Hemlock Rail Road livestock yards, where my folks bought and shipped out livestock. At one time, Hemlock was the largest hay shipping point in the world.

My mother was Ruth Larned. My uncles Edward “Tub” and Harold “Cutch” Larned used to take me fishing and spearing in Canadice Lake. They were experts on tip-ups, setting lines, and spearing. Not always within the law but when the fishing was the best, contrary to the Albany Game Rules. The fish always tasted better out of season.

I started the 5th grade at Hemlock Union School. My uncles had walked the 5 miles to Hemlock to attend this same school. I stayed with my Uncle Cutch, right in town. My grandfather had died and Cutch took the Livestock business to Hemlock. Trucks were now, here and less Rail Road shipping except for wool.

The next summer, the Union School burned. I went to school in the Odd Fellows Hall, now gone. It sat on the East side of Hemlock Main St. right at the bridge. A new school was built, the Hemlock High School, now standing. This was the ultra in Schools, with its large Gym and Auditorium.

The small, one-room district schools in the area, contracted with Hemlock to teach the 8th grades. The Marrowback area, Livonia Center area, and schools in West Richmond and Canadice, all sent their 8th-grade pupils to Hemlock. It made a large school at that time.

September 1929, the new Hemlock High School opened and the busses rolled in from the surrounding schools with their 8th-grade pupils. I also was starting the 8th grade. These were not school busses as known today, but common cars that contracted to deliver the pupils. Some of us rode horses and bicycles to Hemlock. I had gone back to the farm and I rode a horse to Hemlock part-time for two years.

The day school started in September, it seemed kids came flooding in from all directions. A tall black hair girl sat just back of me and she caught my teenage eye. I found she was Elizabeth Caskey and came from the Barnard District, No. 8. The school sat on the corner of Route 20A and Purcell Road. Now the building is a home 4768 Huff road.

Earl Caskey, Elizabeth’s father, lived on the West side of Purcell Road, opposite No. 5003, the Hoag farm today. At that time it was owned by Mike Purcell. He had a large farm with a large herd of registered Jersey cattle. Earl Cakey had worked for Pucells since he was married and Elizabeth Caskey was born there. The house is now gone.

I was working after school in the Edward Riney Store in Hemlock. The store sat where a home is now, 4676 Main St. near the Post Office. The Junior Prom was comng and I wanted to take Liz to the Prom, my first date. Ed Rigney said: “Take my car, you can drive a car.” I had just got my Junior’s license. I took Liz to the Prom and every thing went well until we started home. Her family had now moved to Canadice to the Herb Buck farm. When I turned off Route 20A, onto a shortcut road that led back of the old schoolhouse to Purcell road, I was going too fast. I cut off 4 or 5 Guard posts on the left side of the road. Cars had better bumpers then and the White posts were old. I did no damage to the car. Those old white posts laid by the side of the road for years, reminding me of my first date.

I found through the years, that Elizbeth Caskey descended from the original Canadice families: Caskeys, Wrights, and Bucks.

Abijah Wright came into Canadice as a Methodist Circuit Rider Preacher. His son, Isaac P. Wright, was the father of Cora Ellen Wright, Elizabeth’s Grandmother. She married John Caskey. In the Canadice church cemetery, along the fence just south of the Church, is a lot of Wright’s graves.

The Caskey’s came up from New Jersey to Starkey, Yates County, South of Penn Yan. Joseph Caskey and his wife Maria had a son Henry Caskey. They moved from Starkey to Curtice road, which runs south from Routh 20A into Canadice. They settled on the last farm on the left at the Richmond-Canadice Town line, now No. 5295. Ace road at that time continued East to now County Road 37. Henry Caskey married Margaret Cratsley in 1837. He was the father of John Caskey that married Cora Wright. John and Cora lived at the West Canadice Corners, No. 5912. Earl Caskey, the father of Elizabeth, was born there. Also Clara Mastin, Earl Caskey’s sister, the mother of the Canadice Mastin’s, were born there. There are a lot of Caskeys buried in the Canadice Church cemetery.

Henry Buck came from England, his wife was Anna. They lived just south of Canadice and east of Taber’s Corners. His son Herbert Buck went with a group of boys to Phillipsburg, Penn. near Clearfield, to work in the lumber industry. Herbert married Jennie May while there and came back to Canadice with 3 children. They worked on various farms on shares, finally buying the farm No. 5632, where Wendell Coye lives now. They raised a total of 11 children. Mary, the oldest girl, married Earl Caskey, son of John and Cora Caskey. Elizabeth’s parents, Earl and Mary, lived at the Mike Purcell farm I described when Elizabeth was born. Also born were Leo, Norman, and Jennie. This is where Elizabeth lived when she first came to Hemlock High School.

After Herbert Buck died, Earl and Mary Caskey moved to the Buck farm and worked the farm on shares with Mrs. Herb Buck, Mary’s mother. It was right at the bottom of the depression. They had a dairy and raised potatoes. They dug the potatoes, carried them into the cellar, brought them out later and sorted and bagged them, drew them to the Hemlock Rail Road, and received 10 cents a bushel for the potatoes. This had to also be split with Mrs. Buck 5 cents for each one. The new road from Hemlock to Honeoye was being improved, also County road 37. The contractors bought a lot of stones from the Canadice farmers. They had to draw these stones to the road jobs with team and wagons but it brought in extra needed cash income. Earl drew a lot of these stones from piles on the Buck farm. There are a lot of Bucks buried in Green Gull Cemetery. Herb and Jennie Buck, Liz’s grandparents are buried n Honeoye.

Back to when Earl Caskey, Liz’s father, was growing up. Earl and his sisters and brothers, went to the one-room school at Canadice Corners, now the Town Clerk’s office. Earl worked later for the Canadice highway department. The men walked to the town sheds at Canadice Corners, laid a shovel acros their shoulders, walked over to and down the Cratsley hill to the Honeoye Lake road. Teams of horses on dump wagons drew the gravel for the road. The gravel was dumped and the men spread it with their shovels. At the end of the day, the same walk-up Cratsley hill and home. Can you see men today working this way for $1 a day? As mentioned before Earl Caskey later married Mary Buck and worked for Mke Pursell on the farm for $30 a month and feed for his horse and cow.

While the Earl Cakeys lived on the Buck farm, I became quite attentive to Elizabeth. That was when the Old Billy Story, printed in the Canadice Chronicle and bound also in this book took place. Yes, many things took place.

William “Bill” Luther, descended from the wealthy Frederick family, Rochester contractors. Bill’s mother, Mrs. Frederick, bought a farm on the very top of the North slope of Bald Hill. Now just off Route 15A, up on the left, on the old Bald Hill road. They were a fine, well-liked famly. Bill had a fine stable of saddle horses. He owned a beautiful Palomino parade horse that he rode and led the local parades for years. I rode many of his horses, showing and racing. He had an imported thoroughbred race horse from Ireland. I raced this horse successfully for him. He wanted me to take Red Cent, the horse’s name, home for the winter. He picked me up at the Hemlock School. I was a Junior in school. No one knew where I had gone. At Luther’s, we saddled up Red Cent and I started down Route 15A to Hemlock and home, about 15 miles.

Boy style, I turned off and down Purcell Hill road to Canadice Lake. I rode up the Burch hill to the West Corners and over to the Buck farm to see Elizabeth. I hung around a while and started the last 10 miles home. I rode into my grandparent’s farm, where I lived about midnight. Boy, was I in trouble. No one had seen me since Hemlock school. They found I had left Bill Luther’s on that high-spirited thoroughbred and I just had to be hurt somewhere. Well, no problem, just my grandmother got a little more gray hair and I chalked up another Canadice experience.

One night I borrowed a car from my uncle’s hired man. It was about a 1929 Ford coupe with a rumble seat. I picked Liz up at the Buck farm, drove over to Canadice Corners, and started up the steep hill to the south. It was just about dark. Halfway up the hill, a bunch of horses came down over a bank on the right. One horse jumped right on the car hood and rolled off into the road. The horse was badly hurt and had to be shot. Liz cut her nose on the inside mirror. The horse belonged to Lesley Paine, who lived right there. It was nearly 35 years old, but I had only a Juniors’ license and was driving after dark. I had to pay for the horse and also repair the borrowed car. I owned a few head-of-cattle which I sold to pay the bill and save my Junior’s driving license. Well, this was just one more Canadice experience.

Liz’s family moved to a farm on the corner of Route 20A and Curtice rod. While they lived there, Liz and I were married. Later her family moved to 9561 Purcell Hill road. The farm was owned by the Livonia bank and was a nice farm. Today it is all pine trees. I used to ride a horse from that farm up the Canadice West lake road for a nice trail ride. It was from this farm that we did a lot of spearing in Canadice Lake. We speared whatever we saw. Beautiful lake trout, big bass, giant bullheads, suckers, and pickerel. Liz’s brothers, Leo and Norman, and I used to climb up in the gate building, turned the wheel that raised the gates, and let the water out of the lake. When we thought enough lake fish had washed out into the creek, we closed the gates. Then while the water cleared, we speared the big fish in the shallow creek. This worked many times and we never had any problem with the law. The old watergate is now long gone and the entire area has changed.

Later years, with some friends in Richmond, we used to spear bags of Lake Trout in the Spring. Some of us ran up through the woods with the bags of fish. The rest of the group walked back to the cars talking loud and rattling their spears to call off the Game Wardens. It always worked.

Back a few years, there were lots of White Fish in Canadice and Hemlock Lakes. The stocking of Carp by the City of Rochester ended the White Fish. The Carp ate all the White Fish spawn eggs.

There were also many Smelt in Canadice Lake. One man from Honeoye got caught dipping Smelt and paid a fine. It was illegal to dip Smelt in Canadice Lake. I just do not know, I never read Game laws. Just good old country common sense to get a mess of fish.

At that time, many in the Canadice Valley were still driving a horse and buggy for transportation. Frank Ingraham, Florence Daniels and Charles Colegrove drove buggies. Florence Daniels always got a prize at Hemlock Fair on her Horse and Buggy. Walter Bacon lived with Charles Colegrove and he played in the Hemlock Town Band with me. One night his big bass horn fell out of the buggy and he ran over it. He straightened up the brass horn but it always had a buggy wheel track around the bell of the horn.

When Liz and I were first married, I already owned a flock of Sheep. Each spring, we took the sheep to pasture in Canadice Hollow, near 5621 Canadice Lake road now. It was owned by Charles Colegrove. The pasture ran way up to the top of the East side of the Hollow, starting at the road. In the fall we brought the sheep home to Richmond.

While going to school in Hemlock, we young couples used to go after ball games to Canadice house parties. The parents of some of the teenagers had the parties. The roads were mostly dirt and deeply rutted in the spring. If you got the car wheels in a rut, you did not need to steer to go to Canadice. Remember, cars were higher up from the ground than today’s cars. A car of today could not leave Route 20A and drive those roads.

Roy Swan played the fiddle. He, with friends that also played, entertained at the parties with Square Dancing. Later, Roy’s daughters learned to play instruments. With his sister-in-law, they made up a small band. Roy’s daughter Geraldine married Harold Cornish. Harold could call Square Dances and The Swan Band played for dances for many years. I often played banjo with them. Roy Swan was a wonderful person. He also was involvd in Canadice politics.

Earl Caskey’s health failed and his family moved to Honeoye Falls. That good Canadice Hollow farm is now just pine trees.

I bought the last team of horses in Canadice Hollow from John Costello, lived at now 5663 Canadice Lake road. John gave me the harness and wagon and I drove them home to Richmond. They were a wonderful Belgium team. Everett Affolter lived on County Road 37, just over the Richmond line. He owned the last team of horses in Canadice.

Asher Bailey lived about one-half mile up the Lawrence Hill road from the Purcell Hill road, on the west side of the road. Asher always introduced himself as Asher Bailey, the Stud Horse Man and he was. Asher owned a beautiful black Percheron stallion that he drove on a buggy and bred mares for the farmers in a 20 mile radius from his farm. Asher guaranteed a “stand and suck” colt for $5. Many of the beautiful teams in Canadice were sired by “Kimmy”, Asher always called him. I used to dread when I was a boy, holding our mares in my bare feet, helping Asher. He used to have a big white Percheron stallion before Kim.

Speaking about getting my feet stepped on, “Kimmy”, when Asher was an old man, did step on Asher’s foot. He developed Blood Poison and died soon after.

I was about 14 years old and Hemlock Fair was on. An old truck pulled into the Fairgrounds and unloaded a rough-looking saddle horse. The owner said he would bet two to one against any local horse that could race and beat his horse. During the fair, many local peole raced their horses against this horse and all lost. It was a really fast horse. The man that raced the horse was a tough half drunk and the horse got little good care.

Bill Luther, my uncle Cutch Larned and Fred Trimmer, a great horseman, said they were going to bring a horse down from Canadice and that they thought could beat this horse and put the owner in his place. My uncle said: “You are going to ride Bill’s horse in the race.” My uncle was always getting me into some mess, but he was always good to me while I was growing up.

The next day about noon, Bill Luther unloaded his horse at the Fair Grounds. Bill said, “His name is Red Cent, he was imported from Ireland. Red is a thoroughbred, he will not give you any trouble but he sure can run, so hang one”. They saddled up Red Cent and led him up to the race track where a big crowd had gathered to see Bill’s horse run. Bill had lots of friends and many had placed money on Red Cent to win. I just could not let them down. I was beginning to get a little nervous as I had never ridden a thoroughbred before or even raced a horse except in fun.

Bill helped me up on Red Cent and said: “Ride him around a little and get used to him, he is alright.” I rode him down past the grandstand and he rode as quiet as an old farm plug. I turned him to come back and found I now had my hands full. Red knew what this meant and we came back sideways and anyway with Red just jumping.

The other horse and his experienced rider were just standing quietly by the fence on the starting line. I finally quieted Red down enough to line up with the other horse. Fred Trimer said: “When I drop my hat and yell Go, the race will start”.

Fred said: “Ready - Go”. The other horse shot forward like a rabbit and was 4 or 5 lengths ahead of me before I could get Red’s leg legs untangled and running. But boy he sure was running. That fence looked to me like a buzz saw blade running and I knew what would happen to me if I fell off.

Red was gaining on the other horse and I was close behind him at the halfway mark. I rode up beside the other horse to pass. The other rider slapped Red in the face with his crop and we fell back. I tried to pass again. This time he hit red and swung at me with his crop. We fell back again. The other rider now was really whipping his horse. He knew I could beat him. We made the last turn north of the grandstand and I swung Red plenty to the right of the other horse. I just leaned out over Red’s neck and let him run. When we went by the finish line, Red and I were 3 or 4 lengths ahead of the other horse. The crowd was just jumping and cheering. Bill Luther’s horse had won the race and it paid 2 to 1.

The race was sure not over for me. I had to stop Red and he had no idea of stopping. The harder I pulled on him, the faster he ran. We went all the way around the track again. I slowed him a little when I went past the grandstand and the crowd waved their arms and I got Red stopped. I guess I was some kind of hero but was too scared to enjoy it. Anyway, Bill Luther’s Canadice owned thoroughbred, Red Cent, had won the big horserace. Later we watched the old truck, carrying the great traveling racehorse, rattle out of the fairgrounds.

I would like to add one more story to fishing in Canadice Lake. When our boys, Kermit, Keith, and Howard were kids, we made many fishing trips to Canadice Lake. Dale was born a little later. We would drive to the lake in the evening, when the day’s work was over, and fish off the various points along the lake road. The boys caught many strings of panfish, just using cheap poles and lines with worms.

The best part of the evening fishing trips was the visit to Quince Truehart’s Snowville, just East of Tabers Corners on the left. It was a rustic set of buildings, built to look like an old trading post, and it did. Quince cut a half-moon in the ceiling of the dance area with a yellow light shining through it. It really looked like a real moon. We always had our lunch in the Snowville Restaurant. At that time, they seemed like the best hamburgers I had ever ate, and the kids really enjoyed this weekly trip to Snowville. I later played for a few dances at Snowville.

Calfornia Ranch, on Honeoye Lake, was the only sort of amusement park in Canadice in the early thirties. It had a large roller skating rink where Elizabeth and I used to roller skate. After prohibition ended, the roller skating rink became a bar and restaurant.

About 1967, the Honeoye Winter Carnival held a large banquet at the Ranch. When all the dinner-dressed crowd was seated and the food was served, suddenly the old Skating rink floor dropped about two feet from the wall to the ground. What a mess of people and spilled food. Luckily no one was hurt but the management had a sizable drycleaning bill.