Looking Back at Milan’s History ~ through the lens of the Milan Community Association Newsletter started in November 1968…
Local author Bonnie Wood, editor of Stone By Stone and creator of the Burton Coon blog, writes “Reader’s Notes” and “More About History” to supplement the original MCA Newsletters.
Milan Community Association Newsletter Vol. 1 No. 2 December 1968
Can You Identify This Place?
Local artist, Oswald Stippa, Academy Hill Road, has contributed this sketch of a Milan landmark. How many residents recognize it?
See Historical Quiz below the Newsletter for the answer.
Reader’s Notes~
In response to Chairman Carl Sardaro’s Interest Questionnaire, groups as diverse as music and ballet to investment, hiking, and woodcraft were formed. Check out the names of the local residents who joined each group 50 years ago on page 4.
MCA Meeting Note December 1968: Mrs. Gallagher, the former Ethel Fulton, gave a presentation on the Fulton homestead located on Turkey Hill Road, Town of Milan. See More About History below for Mrs. Gallagher’s interview with Reverend Roger Leonard.
Historical Quiz The sketch on page one shows the Jackson Corners General Store, presently operated by Mrs. Gaddis. Built as a colonial inn about 1773, it was a stagecoach stop on what was then Nobletown Road. In addition to its present use it has also served as a doctor’s office, hotel and as the former Jackson Corners Post Office.
More About History~
#11 The Old Gaddis Store is located “at the corner of Turkey Hill Road and Jackson Corners Road. This ‘Colonial Inn’, built around 1773, was once used as a stage coach stop, post office, and doctor’s office”.
Town of Milan Early-American Architecture Self-Guided Driving Tour
#13 The Fulton homestead was “built in 1858 by E. Fulton and is located on Turkey Hill Road. This ‘Eyebrow Colonial’ was in the Fulton family for many generations”. Click on the Fulton Homestead link for Reverend Leonard’s interview of Mrs. Gallagher, the former Ethel Fulton, in Oral Histories.
Town of Milan Early-American Architecture Self-Guided Driving Tour
More About Jackson Corners:
At one time, the hamlet of Jackson Corners included: a post office open from 1835-1930, a school, a Methodist church, a general store, a hotel, and a railroad depot. Similar to some of the surrounding hamlets, industries included a grist mill, a saw mill, a wagon shop, a distillery, a cooper, and possibly a fulling mill. After Michael Bathrick discovered a ledger for the Milan Fulling Mill dated 1838 at a garage sale on Jackson Corners Road, he contributed copies which included entries such as “to full dye black, to full dye snuff, to dye 1 brown only”. Local mills and the general store were a necessity to the nineteenth century farmer in Jackson Corners.
Another essential commodity for the farmer was his horse. Over a hundred years of Secretary’s Minutes for the Jackson Corners Vigilante Association meetings have been recorded. The first meetings were held in private homes until 1872 when the Association began meeting at the Jackson Corners General Store. These “Notes are from the first book of Secretary’s Minutes, December, 1871, Norman Stall, Sec. We whose names are herein inscribed. Agree to form a society to be known by the name of Jackson Corners Vigilante Association formed this twelveth day of September 1868 for the recovery of horses stolen from the members of this society and for the apprehension of the thieves and to be governed by the following rules and regulations.”
More than one hundred years later on the third of November, 1973, President Henry Sherwood’s memory was recorded in the minutes of the meeting. “Henry Sherwood told stories about the good old days when the meetings were held in the old Jackson Corners Grange, upstairs over the blacksmith shop. The back of the building was propped up with poles and the whole thing swayed when they were dancing.”
“The oyster stew was cooked downstairs on an old black cookstove and the only lights were kerosene lamps. One night when the stew was ready to be served, it was discovered that a frog had jumped in, or was helped in by some prankster. What to do? The frog went out the window, the stew went up the stairs and no one knew the difference.”
Milan NY History 