William and Jane (Livingston) Carson (my great great grandparents) lived in West Bethany, NY on the farm they called Rural View. Bought in 1880, the Carsons owned Rural View for forty years. A huge horse chestnut tree, which sheltered many a Carson Reunion, was begun by Jane who plucked a horse chestnut, scooped out a bit of dirt near the back right of the house, and planted the chestnut. The tree grew, and grew!
Carson Rural View, circa 1912
Their farm was on a road now named West Bethany
Road, at one point also called Creek Road (the 1915 NY State Census).
1904 Bethany, NY Map with Rural View
As we wrote in our blog post about Jane:
she and William raised their eight children at
Rural View.
-Albert
Livingston Carson was the oldest. He was a wanderer. He settled, for a time, in
the Chicago area and married, then went on to Oceanside, CA.
--Our Emma was next—as we know, she married B.W. Taylor and had an eventful life in Oakfield. She died at Woodlawn at age 55 after suffering a stroke.
--Our Emma was next—as we know, she married B.W. Taylor and had an eventful life in Oakfield. She died at Woodlawn at age 55 after suffering a stroke.
--Mary Elizabeth was the next
oldest. Reading through Emma’s journals, Libbie was her favorite sister. At age
36, Libbie died of a burst appendix.
--Theodore William was the next in
the family, four years younger than Albert.
--Anna Margaret was next in the
family line. She married and had three children. She died in 1949 at age 82.
Libbie, Emma, Anna
--George Grant was William and
Jane’s sixth child. He died in 1946.
--Edward Everett married and had
four children. He was born thirteen years after the oldest, Albert, and six
years after Anna.
--Harry Hayes was the youngest, born
eighteen years after Albert, and seventeen years after our Emma. Harry married and had one daughter.
Except for Albert, the siblings remained in
fairly close proximity through the years, so family tragedies must have hit
even harder for them.
Rural View’s house had room for two households,
and as the parents aged—the smaller apartment in the home—off the porch and
through the back door, was where William and Jane lived, at least by the 1900
census.
William and Jane Carson
In the 1900 Federal Census, William (aged 70)
and Jane (aged 65) were living with their son Theodore and his family. Given
William’s age, we have to expect that Theo was doing most of the work on the
farm.
In October, 1906, Theo was 43 years old. By this time, he and his wife Eunice had two
children, Charles and Marion. He became very sick with pneumonia and after
taking too much laudanum (in confusion or depression), he died at Rural View.
Theo and Eunice, 1897
Our Emma Carson
Taylor lived at Woodlawn, in Oakfield, about fourteen miles away. Her journals
are filled with trips that she and B.W. and the boys made to Rural View to help
for a day of thrashing, planting, etc.
We know from the
1910 census that sometime after Theo died, his brother Edward and his own
family moved in to work the farm.
Youngest son Harry and his wife and daughter were
living in Cincinnati in the 1910 census, but he came down with tuberculosis;
since he and his wife did not want their baby daughter to catch tuberculosis,
Harry came back to Woodlawn in Oakfield to ‘cure’. While with Emma and her
family, he often made the trip to Rural View to see and visit with his parents.
Unfortunately, the cure did not
take, and Harry died at age 36, in 1913.
Harry and Blanche Carson, 1899
William Carson died
in 1911 at age 81.
In the NY State 1915 census, Edward and his
family are still living with Jane on Rural View farm. Also in the 1915 census,
brother George and his wife Jennie are living on Francis Rd, less than two
miles away from Rural View.
Edward wanted to buy Rural View, his family
farm, but his father’s will stated that for a sale to occur, all children must
agree. His sister Anna refused to allow Ed to buy it. So, Ed continued to work
the farm, as he had for over seven years, but did not own it.
In March of 1917, after many hardships and
disappointments—three horses died, his wife hated living in the country, his
oldest son didn’t like to farm-- Edward took his own life in the barn.
Ed Carson, Six Months before his Death
(with one of the horses that died?)
(with one of the horses that died?)
After Ed died, George and Jennie moved in to
Rural View, at least long enough to be registered in the 1920 census.
George and Jennie Carson
By this time, Jane had left to live with her
daughter Anna at her home. In the 1920 census Jane, aged 85, can be found
living with Anna and her family in Concord, NY.
In early October 1921, Jane Livingston Carson
died at age 87. Then, in
February of 1922, George Carson, executor of the estate, has an auction for the
farm. While horses, cows and hens are auctioned, as well as all sorts of
farming equipment and tools, there is no mention of the house and the land.
Most likely they too were sold very soon after the auction.
Just down the road from Rural View farm is the
West Bethany Baptist Church, the Carsons’ church. Across the street is the one
room school house which the youngest four Carsons attended, and later in early
adulthood, both Anna and Theo taught at.
One Room School House, 2017
Behind the church is the West Bethany Cemetery.
Here we find the graves of William and Jane, and four of their children—Albert
(note that Albert does not have a gravestone, rather his ashes are buried at
the base of the Carson monument), Libbie, Harry, and Theo and his wife, Eunice.
Even in death, they are very near to Rural View.
West Bethany Baptist Church, 2017
For more than
forty years, the house, barn, outbuildings and land had sheltered and
maintained the Carson family. Rural View certainly saw its heavy share of
tragedy; we can only hope that joy brimmed over more brightly for the Carsons.
Rural View, 2017
Rural View, 2017
As I think about the towering horse chestnut
tree, with its branches thrown wide toward the sky, I wonder how many times
Jane looked out at her horse chestnut tree and remembering its tiny beginnings,
felt peace that from so small a piece of nature, such monumental things could
grow.
Rural View Dog, taken by Ruth Carson, Ed's daughter
----Many many thanks to my brother Jim, for his 'Taylor Ancestor Tour' booklet which I used while writing this story, AND to Evelyn Taylor and her daughter Pam for making the trip to Rural View in February for these current pictures--Terrific! Thank you also to Linda Schmidt, the Bethany Town Historian for all of her help with this story.
Jane Carson at Rural View--We've used this picture
before, but I love it!
5 comments:
Mom/ Aunt CB writes:
In the background of William and Jane's picture, there is a tree! Could that be the Horse chestnut tree? We have been looking at the various trees, but hard to tell right now with no leaves on the trees!
Grand write up about Aunt Florence (Florence Taylor Doran is sister to our Lloyd and Floyd)’s grandparents! She was the one who told me they were the MOST fun!
Such an interesting story. Thanks to everyone for all the research done to give us this story.
I have been emailing back and forth with the Bethany, NY Town Historian, Linda Schmidt. She told me she laughed out loud at the picture of Rural View's dog on a chair. She has chairs just like it, bought at the local antique shop---perhaps they are the Carson chairs!
Aunt CB says,
I must post another comment to tell you that Great Grandpa used to write letters to the twins, Lloyd and Floyd telling them news and also how much he enjoyed their visits and letters!
Such charming stories !! What a wonderful gift to have family tell tales and be able to record them for your descendants for the ages. I wish you a wonderful happy, health year to come.
Paulina Knibbe (friend of the Herdegs)
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