Mike's West Castleton Journal

Photos - Page 18     #487-511

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487.  Historic map of Southfield, ca. 1880, from the Chemung County Historical Society, showing location of Kinsman farm in Lot #113 south of Elmira.

488.  Historic Map of Ashland (formerly part of Southport), ca. 1890, from the Chemung County Historical Society, showing location of Kinsman farm in Lot #113.

489.  Detail of historic map of Ashland, showing farm of Mrs. A. Kinsman in Ashland.

490.  Page from the Town of Southport Records, Marriages 1847, extracted from the Elmira Gazette by the Chemung Co. Historical Society: 

"July 1.  Sheldon Kinsman, Southport, and Eliza Tuthill, 'stran.', by the Reverend Wetherby, Veteran; no ages given."

491.  Directory of Chemung & Schuyler Counties, 1868-69, by Hamilton Child, showing Ashland, p. 89:  "Kinsman, George (Southport), proprietor sawmill & farmer 300 [acres]; Kinsman, Kelsey B. (Southport), farmer leases 300; Kinsman, Mary (Southport); Kinsman, Merritt (Southport), farmer 50; Kinsman, Ryland E. (Southport), carpenter & farmer 30."  From the Chemung County Historical Society.

Searching for George Kinsman's Farmstead in Southport NY

491a.  Detail of historic map of Southport (photo no. 489, above) showing location of Kinsman farm.

491b.  Detail of field-ravaged 2007 map of Ashland (formerly Southport) with Mike's best guesstimate of the location of Kinsman farm circled (same map he's holding in photos 493 & 494, below).

492.  To the field!  Photo of what remains of the railroad ties on the hillside next to the old rail bed that ran past George Kinsman's farm starting in the 1850s.

493.  Mike standing in the creek in Lot 113 of Old Southport, orienting himself on the map and searching for signs of George Kinsman's old homestead.

494.  Eureka!

495.  Land boundary marker next to the creek (and keeping an eye pealed for a mother bear and her two cubs, which the landowner kindly told him were in the area).

496.  Creek bed.  Hark!  What's that??

497.  What looks to be some kind of buried treasure!

498.  It is a buried treasure!

499.  A magnificent find!

500.  Getting all the necessary visual documentation.

501.  Breathtaking!

502.  Dry creek bed adjacent to what I think was George Kinsman's farmstead.

503.  From the farmer's field, recently planted with corn, looking toward the creek bed.

504.  Same place, another angle; very stony, rocky soil.

505.  On the northern edge of the farmer's field, a set of ruins he told me about, dating to much more recently than the 1850s (probably 1960s or 1970s).

506.  Same set of ruins.  Nothing to indicate that anything tangible remains of George Kinsman's old farm house, except some markings on some old maps, and perhaps some buried foundation stones somewhere nearby.  And our knowledge that it was here, somewhere among these fields & forests & creek beds, that Nellie was born and spent her first 8 or 9 years of life.

Union Cemetery, East Smithfield PA  (Tues June 5)

507.  Bourdette.

508.  Wilcox.  Lots of Wilcox's in this cemetery.

509.  Bourdette.

510.  Bourdette.  Sadly, no traces of Mary Eaton Kinsman's headstone could be found.

Homeward Bound!

511.  Northern PA; last photo taken on the trip, Tues June 5, with my muffler securely wired to the undercarriage (Thank You Dave at Dave's Autocare in East Smithfield!) and my just-discovered treasure of an old hay-picker wheel from the creek bed near the place of Nellie's birth securely battened down to the roof rack.  Tom will love this thing!

This is the end of the May 2007 Photo Pages.  A second set of pages begins on the next page (Page 19), titled "WCJ2" (West Castleton Journal 2), with photos from my trip of August 11-18, 2007.  Enjoy!