Madison Co. Historical Society, Part 3

I’ve written in Part 1 and Part 2 about our visit to the Madison County Historical Society, housed in an 1849 historic home in Oneida, NY. The place is phenomenal! It’s like walking back in time, to the early 1850s. Most of the house has been updated and restored, and contains a lot of treasures and everyday articles of home life of a pre-Civil War, prosperous American family.

We’d seen the downstairs and were headed to the less formal upstairs. On display up here were many curiosities and personal effects. There are several enormous glass cabinets in the hallway, filled with dozens and dozens of stuffed birds. The hallway was too dark for a photo– how I wish I could have snapped one! The displays were spectacular. In one of them stood a huge stuffed bald eagle, trapped at Lewis Point (by Oneida Lake). This pufferfish (is it?) was displayed at the top of the cabinet.

Another cabinet was filled with cigars, cigar boxes, and cigar-smoking accessories. The man of the house was very fond of Napoloeon brand cigars. It’s interesting to note that the people who occupied this house were old enough to have lived while Napoleon was still alive (Napoleon died in 1821).

Our tour guide, Carolyn, showed us the various sleeping rooms. This house has eight bedrooms Read more

Madison Co. Historical Society, Part 2

I’m continuing about our trip to Oneida, NY, to see the lovely Cottage Lawn house that is now the Madison County Historical Society. You can read the first part here.

The house was built in 1849, property of the Higinbotham family in Oneida, a prominent family in pre-Civil war era. Believe it or not, the town bank was in this house! Mr. Niles Higinbotham was the first bank president and owner of the Oneida Valley Savings Bank. The bank opened in 1851 with $105,000 in capital, in a room in the house.

Two additional rooms for the bank were added in 1853-54, before the bank was nationalized in 1865 and moved to downtown. There was a vault room built in the 1870s, and it had metal shutters and walls 18″ thick! I just cannot imagine having a bank with the townspeople’s money in my own home! How times have changed, haven’t they!

Here’s the vault lock on a steel door.

The bank room is filled with Read more

Madison County Historical Society, Oneida, NY

Almost two weeks ago, on a soggy, dreary day, the girls and I took a drive out to Oneida, NY, to see the Madison County Historical Society home. It was once the gracious home of the Higinbotham family of Oneida. The home was built in 1849, and remained in the family up until 1930s, when one of the daughters donated it to the Madison County Historical Society. So the house remains in near-pristine condition, with some of the original family heirlooms on display. I love houses like these: it’s like walking back in time, and you can really get an idea of how life was like 150 years ago in America!

The home was named “Cottage Lawn” by the mistress of the house, Eliza Randall Higinbotham, after the writings of A.J. Downings. The house is lovely. On first glance, it appears to be Gothic Revival, due to its pointed windows and doors and steeply-pitched roof. Architect Alexander Jackson Davis called it “English cottage style.” And it does have a lovely, cozy cottage feel to it. We’ve been to a lot of historic homes, and none were as “homey” and warm as this one. We could envision young children playing games in the parlor, with the smell of fresh bread and coffee coming from the kitchen.

The Higinbotham family were a family of philanthropists and socialites. They were close companions of Gerrit Smith, that famous New York abolitionist with his fascinating history (I wrote about him, here and here). His benevolent presence is felt throughout the house, as there are numerous portraits of him and his wife that hang in the rooms. And there is a unique sculpture of two intertwining hands, that of Smith and his wife. It was sculpted by a freed and grateful slave (Smith ran the Underground Railroad here in New York State). This sculpture was originally at the Smith’s home in Smithfield (we visited the site here). But the Smith home suffered a fire that destroyed the home– yet, this sculpture was saved. It sits on a marble fireplace mantel in the South Parlor of Cottage Lawn.

Oddly enough, Smith’s wife, Ann Carroll Fitzhugh Smith, was a relation to George Fitzhugh, a Virginian who wrote extensively in defense of slavery. Fitzhugh and Smith, friends and relatives, wrote frequently to each other about the slavery issue, among other things. But it is notable to mention that these two men from opposite spectrums of the slavery issue could even maintain a friendship, when the Civil War was a mere breath away.

Well, I’m getting ahead of myself here. But this area is so stock-full of history it is overwhelming at times! Read more