INCLUDED IN THIS SITE:
     Employment, Local Institutions, Community Life, Farm and Household Life
    MORE HISTORY OF ERIEVILLE:
     Daisy Francis, Early Settlers

Erieville, New York during the 1930's

This ethnography was written by Larry J. Schmidt, 11/20/77

This ethnography describes Erieville as it was in the early (19)30's.  This began the last decade during which Erieville was comprised of mostly farm households.  By the early 40's, farms were being consolidated on a large scale and mechnization was replacing the crews of men that formerly did the harvesting.  Typical herd size in the early 30's was 15 cows.  By the early 40's this had doubled.  The smaller operations had begun to feel the pressure of rising prices of retail goods and the need form more cash by the late 20's, but many managed to hang on another decade until they were able to retire.  In addition, many local young men remained in the area because there were no jobs in the city until after the War began.

I would like to thank the many people who helped me with this piece especially Mildred Wallace, Mr. and Mrs. Ed Tainter, George Coling, Doug Card, Leon Hudson, Elizabeth Spaulding and Mr. and Mrs. Richard Hughes, all of whom sat through several sessions helping me put it together.  None of the blame for the final product lies with them however, as the drawing together and interpretation of the mateial is entirely my work.  An ethnography is a cross section of life at a given time period.  Doing this accurately is difficult and the same problem is always involved -- including activities from earlier or later periods.

I decided to get around this by ignoring it.  Some of the material may be from a slightly earlier or later period, but it is probably worth mentioning anyway as interesting details of local life are often not covered by historians.

Another problem is deciding whether to record people's most vivid memories or just the more typical everyday routine.  For my own purposes, I needed the everyday material, but since this is also basically a "fun" paper, I thought I'd include the "stories" also.  They might have been characteristic of a neighborhood rather than the town as a whole, but all are among the best memories of people who lived during that time.

I would also, at this time, like to thank all the people in Erieville who helped me with my study of commuting in rural areas and modern rural life in general by returning the questionaire and by sitting through a couple hours of interviewing.  Field research is not easy, but the kind of cooperation I received would make many of my collegues envious and I certainly appreciated this fact.  I didn't manage to get to everyone before the time came to draw material together, and I would also like to thank those who agreed to have an intereview that I wasn't able to visit.

The Village

Erieville was about the same size in 1931 as it is today.  Many of the houses standing then are still occupied at the present time.  Physically, the area was also not much different, except that there was more meadowland, the roads were much poorer, and the village streets were tree lined.  There were also only a couple dozen camps around the lake at that time.  Most of the lake property was owned by local farmers.  There was much more commercial activity then, however, and much more local life.  Ten businesses were clustered about the four corners.  Public buildings included a school, a Methodist church, a Grange Hall, and a township garage (this was the "little Methodist church," which burned in 1931).  The railroad also operated then.  There was no fire departmet, as it was started in 1936 after the bucket brigade was formed in 1935.  The school building and Methodist church still stand in 1977.  The arrangement of businesses for 1931 is presented at right

Local people purchased supplies almost exclusively in the village.  Little routine shopping was done in Cazenovia until later in the decade.  Farmers "drew their milk" into the village every morning, early enough to make the 10 o'clock milk train.  In the summertime this was done by auto. The cars were often customized to handle a couple extra milk cans.  This was quicker than hitching up the horses, which were used to draw in milk during the winter.

Farmers did a lot of their supply buying after leaving their milk at the creamery.  Some actually did all the grocery buying then.  Their wives would make a list for the grocer, who would collect the items himself and usually "put it on the bill" until the next milk check came in.  Credit extension was normal in both the general store and the feed store.  Most of it was of short duration, but some households ran up a heavy debt during the Depression.  Often the farmer would have eggs to trade in for credit on groceries.  Sometimes wood was traded also, but vegetable products usually were not.

The village was busiest in the morning because of the farmers drawing in their milk.  There was usually a line of 5 or 6 farmers in front of the creamery and 3 or 4 in front of the feed store.  Occasionally, the wife and children would come along.  For the children, it was a treat to go into the village with their fathers.

Despite the apparent bustle, seldom were there more than a couple dozen farmers in the village at any given time, except on unusual days.  In the winter when the village became crowded, there was a problem finding places to put the horses.  Sometimes the teams were put in the town garage or the blacksmith would take a couple.

On a typical weekday, most farmers would simply drop off their milk, stay ten minutes, and head for home.  Some would stay around much longer, especially if they had sons home to do the morning chores.  Farmers usually stayed in the village longer in the winter, as they were relatively free of field work then.

As can be seen on the drawing (above), the feed store was located just downhill from the railroad tracks.  It was run by a hard working couple who employed some temporary help.    Bulk items were gravity unloaded from freight cars, with the help of men shoveling.  Grain and coal were the most common incoming items.  The feed store was discontinued in the early 40's.

The general store handled groceries and hardware of all types, dry goods and pharmaceuticals.  Caskets were kept upstairs and supplies in the basement.  It was run by a Mr. Gage, who bought out a Mr. Maynard several years before.  He hired several clerks to help run the store.  It stayed open until nine or ten o'clock.  The barber shop also stayed open in the evening.  Mr. Gage also ran a funeral business nearby up north street from the store.

The blacksmith shop operated as a general repair shop and was a popular hangout.  People would come simply to talk and watch the blacksmith work.  Many repairs had to be made.  Replacement items for early equipment could also be hand forged by the blacksmith.

The hotel, run at the time by Frank Blair, contained only a boot and harness shop.  A doctor came over from West Eaton in the early 30's and held office hours in the hotel building.  From there he would make house calls.  The third floor ballroom was unused and no rooms were rented.  Later in the decade, it was bought by a man who tried to revive it as an entertainment place.  This apparently failed and soon after the building was burned.

At the turn of the century, the hotel was doing a fair trade.  Salesmen would stay overnight while they did their business.  Usually they would hire out a livery to take them over to the stores in Nelson.  The hotel also had dining facilities at that time.

The creamery was located alongside the railroad tracks not too far from the Grange hall.  It employed almost a half dozen men and also hired a large crew of temporary help in the winter to fill the ice house located there.  The local creamery had the advantage of being able to switch to cheese production on 24 hours notice.  This was especially advantageous during periods of statewide milk surplus.  Sometimes the switch to cheese lasted as long as two months.

The creamery, the general store, the blacksmith shop, the barber shop, and the feed store were the most active places in the village.  Other businesses included a small variety store operated by Charles Spaulding.  After Gage's general store burned, he built a larger building which operated as a Red and White store until fairly recent times.  A second, smaller blacksmith shop also operated during this era, as did the local telephone exchange.  Up the hill, east of town, was a sawmill owned by a Mr. Isbell.  He employed mostly relatives and a couple of extra men.

There was a large dance hall (Slabsides) at the edge of town.  Earlier, this had been occupied by a house standing near the water's edge.  This dance hall burned and was replaced by the Slabsides which stands now.  Outside of town there was a boat livery, an ice cream stand near the dam and operated by Mr. Wallace, and a hot dog stand on the northern tip of Tuscorora lake which operated during the summer.

The railroad was still operating, of course, in the early 30's. The first train arrived at 7:30 a.m., northbound for Syracuse.  The second arrived at 9, southbound for Earlville.  The milk train arrived at 10, bound for Syracuse.  The 9 o'clock train returned northbound at 11.  The next train arrived at 4 p.m. southbound and returned northbound at 6.  A freight train usually passed through during the afternoon in between the passenger trains.

Since auto travel was limited in the winter, local people depended partially on the train to take them outside of the community.  The expanded range of travel available by automobile had hurt the hotel business earlier and the railroad was begining to feel the pinch of competition from trucks.  The line was finally discontinued around 1937.

Erieville had a railroad depot and a loading dock.  The depot was operated by one man.  Most incoming supplies for the various businesses in town came by train.  Salesmen also came in to take orders.  Outgoing on the train were peas, cabbage, apples, potatoes, cider, pigs, sheep, horses, wood for fenceposts and especially bull calves for the veal industry.  The primary output was dairy products.  Rail activity should not be overstated, as non-dairy shipments were made only a couple of times a month.

The railroad employed three of four local men as part of a larger crew to keep the tracks in repair.  Temporary gangs were also hired whenever the railroad needed extra labor, for example, after a heavy winter storm.

Click here to learn about Employment in Erieville during the 1930's.

History needs a "keeper" to allow it to be passed on to future generations.  Erieville is lucky to have such a person in its Postmaster, Donna.  This document came from her file of information related to the history of the village. 

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