Mom's Memories

Kathleen Bradley and I crawled through the swampy parts of camp in September, making a list of plants we recognized.   By the time we made it down to Cook's Cabin, we were pretty whipped.  I flopped down on a ridge in front of the cabin and found myself eye to eye with a miniature, spiny pink seed pod hanging under a leaf.  I pointed it out.  Kathleen has an encyclopedic knowlege of plants, and she identified it right away as "Heart's A-Burstin".  The tiny pod had already split, liberating even tinier red seeds.  It did indeed look like a valentine heart that had burst open.  It's also called strawberry flower, but I like the first name better. 

My mother-in-law, Ele, is a fan of wildflowers.  She taught me most of the ones I know.   A day or so after the hike I told her about our hike and asked her if she had ever heard of "Heart's- A- Burstin".  She hadn't.  But she was very interested in where we had found it.  "Sunny may have planted it"  she said. "Not the Sunny you know.   Her real name was Mary Hoyt.  She used to run resident camp.  One summer, she planted a wildflower garden between Cook's Cabin and the creek."   

I asked Mom to tell me more.  Mom had been volunteering at camp and was stationed in the Nature Hut - the little cottage just off the path between Kirby and Hilltop.   Between visits from girls, she was poking through a stack of old camp newspapers.  In one of them she found a poem written by her daughter Cindy.  It was unexpected, and made her happy.   

She said there used to be a campsite on the far side of the lower lake.   It was called "Innisfree",  after the poem by W .B. Yeats 

     

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

"Innis" is Irish for "Island" . This particular campsite was isolated, beautiful, and high above the lake with the waterfall below.  One could imagine being on some misty Irish Island in a storybook time.  Naturally, the waterfall right below  was called "Innisfree Falls".  Logically enough - especially since it fits with the spirit of the poem,   listening to the sounds of the water.    

Mom later met another leader who had never heard of the poem, never heard of the old campsite, but had been on a hike one time and thought she heard it called "Industry Falls". So that's what she always called it, even though it totally made no sense.    
    

- Lynn

Ruth Freeman's Identity

......so far on " Camp Stories Not Suitable For Children" ...........   Milton R. Freeman is well known as the prosperous farmer who owned vast orchards including what is now the northern one third of Crowell Hilaka. Descendants of the neighboring farmer (in the middle third) have raised the suspicion that a couple of the children of a certain generation look a lot more like Mr. Freeman than their own illustrious ancestor. And it has only recently come to light that Mrs. Freeman's name was Ruth. According to her 1862 diary, Ruth was an extremly hardworking farm wife.

Today's installment:  Ruth's True Identity Revealed!

Not only was Ruth an Oviatt; she was one of the daughters of the land's previous owner - Nathaniel Oviatt. In my mind, this changes the whole perspective. It's not some bold adventurer, seeking his fortune, buying some land , and marrying a local girl to raise apples together. Now it's more like some guy comes along, finds out that the beautiful princess is heir to the kingdom, and marries her so that he can take over.

Well, OK. Maybe not that dramatic. Maybe Milton was a nice guy after all who just happened to fall in love with the daughter of a major landholder. I don't think they inherited - I think I have a deed upstairs showing that some money changed hands.

Not scandalous enough for you? In 1856, the owner of a large chunk of the middle (I'd guess from about Wonken Tonken up to the Adirondack Unit) was "R. Gargett". I showed this to Linda Fleming at the Richfield Historical Society, and she popped out with: "Oh yes - the Gargett's. They were part of that big murder story. - It was very famous. The last man to be hung in Summit County." To which I said, "They weren't murdered in camp, were they?" (You can see what my priorities are here.) She hastened to assure me that it was elsewhere in Richfield, and she isn't even sure how closely related these Gargetts are to those Gargetts. The Gargetts were the murderees, not the murderer. The murderer was, I believe, a doctor from Michigan named Hunter. He was was courting one of the Gargett daughters. When she soured on him, he couldn't handle it. But I will leave the details for someone else to google.

Lynn

Now we know how the mill worked!

New Treasures:   

the 1936 promotional flier to raise the money for Cleveland council to buy the West Richfield property for a camp.   It's called "3,000 girls depend on you!" and proceeds to list all the reasons why this is the perfect location.  Sunny Baddour had scored this from ebay many moons ago, and she lent me a copy.

A copy of the the application to register the mill on the National Register of Historic places.  It does not include technical diagrams. HOWEVER there is an 8 x10 close-up of the axle mechanism.  I stared at it for a million years and figured out that it doesn't look normal.  I showed it to Rob who figured out where the ball bearings would be & how that would work!!!!!!!  

They are enclosed in a sort of a donut that goes around the axle.  I thought all loose, Rob thinks maybe sitting in a groove.  Either way, the axle is actually resting on the ball bearings.  Since ball bearing are not a stable surface, anything sitting on them will roll off.  But the thing that it rolls off onto is the next ball bearing in the line and the line is enclosed by the donut.  So the axle doesn't slide off.  It just turns.  That's what made it turn so easily.   

PROGRAM - TIE IN:  Do I think girls are going to get excited over ball bearings?   Hell, no.  How will we demonstrate it so it makes sense?  We play games.  Ever see people log roll someone else?  I did - on stage - it was the coolest thing

Here's the demo:  first,  take a an 80 pound sack and drag it across the grass.   Heavy, isn't it?   Easier way?   Let's take this girl right here.  Now honey, we're going to drag you across the grass. That don't sound too fun, does it?   OK, let's get your troop mates to help.  The rest of you, you are all the ball bearings.  Your job is to roll.  Yeah, go ahead & roll down that hill for practice.  I'll wait.    

   

Now , if you were all the ball bearings in the millwheel,  you wouldn't be all rolling around loose.   You'd be in a line. [stage direction;  help girls lie down side by side ]   Ok now all turn together  [ they do it ]  now all together to move your friend.   [Axle girl gets to fly over all her friends & I can guarantee that they will all want to take turns trying it. } 

Follow it up with a quick synopsis of the physics, and that's enough formal education for the day.  Don't pile too much in at once---- leave 'em beggin for more

  

OK - back to the application - the person leading the NRHP registration effort was Clare Dowdall  (thank you, Clare, wherever you are)  Much typewritten correspondence.    In the margin of one of these, she scrawled a little note, " I'm sure you don't want us to mention the "ghost" but it might make it more interesting - Clare".  That's the only thing she says about it.  Too bad.   (Dammit,  Clare, we DO want to know about the ghost!)  

She also includes the name of the guy who built the mill:  "Mr. Pardee".  "The spokes and rim are made of cypress and the buckets are made of oak."

Signing off for now to read some more - just had to share because I'm excited!   

Lynn

Lynn,
> Excellent info! Thanks for including Sunny and me on your information list.
> Two other thoughts for possible info sources:
> Joe Prioreschi (sp) was incharge of all the camps  for awhile. He might be
> a good source of info.
> I think he likes the camps, too.
> Peg Gaggini did much of the research on the camps when we were working on
> "A Promise Kept".  She might be able to supply info or suggest where to
> look in the book papers to find info.
>
> I like your thoughts about an activity to help girls understand ball
> bearings. Your description sounds  like maybe ball were used to make what
> is now called a roller bearing.  Girls shape fits rollers. One would need
> to explain that balls were actually used when the mill wheel was built.
> Was a patent obtained on the idea of  increasing mill wheel efficiency by
> the use of this type of bearing?
> How about relating this activity dealing with ball and roller bearings to
> the STEM programs?  STEM is the current "in" terminology. Maybe money is
> available to do STEM activities. STEM means science, technology,
> engineering, and mathematics.
> I'm glad we spent some time on gathering this info.
> Luise
>

ah - I had not hear the term roller bearing before,  but it makes sense.
I know there are lots of ways to expand that concept,  either taking it in
the direction of industrial pieces/parts OR  the concept of taking what one
knows and tweaking it to apply to a new situation.    IS STEM actually a
specific program ,  or just a handy grouping of subjects?  Yeah - I
should have used that terminology in the property report.   I feel like I
could write a fat sequel with just the material that we found on
Tuesday!!!!!

If there was a patent on the mechanism Kirby used for the mill,  it was not
taken out by Kirby.   Rob & I hit the patent records when you suggested that
before.  We found tons of cool stuff - bt not that.  [Little known fact
that I don't feel I can announce publicly at this time:   Kirby's very
first patent was a vibrator. ]    Which begs the question- why not?   He
had patents on all kinds of everything.  Hypotheses [is that how you spell
the plural of hypothesis? ]  He may thought of it as an individual
solution, but not  commercially viable.  OR he may have designed it jointly
with the millwright -  Mr Pardee.   Maybe Pardee has a patent.   - something
I intend to check.

One of Mason Oviatt's relatives - not sure exact relationship- lived in
Richfield & had a bobsled factory& patented the design.   That's an
interesting story.  I sent it to the general FoCH group.  copied below

About 1878, the Oviatt Manufacturing Company was organized and suitable
buildings erected, south of the depot, for the purpose of manufacturing the
patented inventions of Mr Solomon  E. Oviatt, formerly of Richfield  -
Oviatt's thresher and separator, common sense wagon,  independent runner
sled, etc.   But though promising for a year or two, either from lack of
adequate capital, proper enterprise, or judicious management, the company
came to financial grief and the business was abandoned."       -page 840,
Fifty Years Later ,  by  Lane

More invention patents from our peoples!    Yowza.     Charles Brush lived
in Richfield, too.  What IS it with this place and inventors?    Maybe it's
something in the water.

After reading the info in Lane's book at the Historical Society,  I popped
over to Akron to take a look at the patents.
The first three inventions were from the years shortly before setting up in
Akron.  But the bobsled patent was from a while earlier - 1863.  It is well
known in Richfield history that Salmon Oviatt  (or Solomon)  had a bobsled
factory in town.   Evidently he was pretty successful, but then as his
repertoire expanded, he made the move to the big city.

While hunting up those patents, I accidently came across another one -  a
type of cook pot lid invented by Luman B. Oviatt of Brooklyn Village,
Cuyahoga County.   Here's the eerie part :   When the Lake Erie Girl Scout
council sold Camp Margart Bates, the title transfer lists all the previous owners

of the land.   The oldest deed transfer was from December 8, 1869.

......................... to Luman Oviatt

Lynn