The Kinsellas have a family newsletter three times a
year. Along with updates of each person, we all write about a special topic.
One ‘2846’ the special topic was: ‘What is your Favorite Island?’ Everything
from Oahu to St. Maarten to islands in Ontario’s Christie Lake and Otty Lake to
islands off of the coast of Maine were chosen. But here we will just highlight
Aunt CB and Uncle Jack’s choices, as I think the cousins would know or
appreciate these two.
From
Aunt CB:
Hopefully everyone has a place in their head that
they can escape to when peace is needed, a Quiet Place. When I need to move my
mind away from whatever my body must endure, I go to Center Lisle and the Baker
farm. This, of course, is tied in with my buddy cousin, Gladys and it is with
her that I found my favorite island.
Dudley Creek is more the size of a small river and
runs through Center Lisle and on through Lisle to join still another large
river. In 1935 the various waterways in the area ran amok and flooded the area,
smashing houses, ruining barns, drowning people—to the point where the U.S.
Army Engineers stepped in and decided to control them by building a dam in
nearby Whitney Point. Thus the scene was set for our discovery. Dudley Creek
was drained to the lowest point.
Main Street of Center Lisle--Aunt Lil's Store is in front
of Church
Was the year 1936, 1937, 1938? Unimportant—we were
ten and seven. There we were, Gladys, Harold and myself, a lovely sunny warm
day in midsummer, sitting on the steps of Aunt Lil’s store, by the gas pumps
and wondering aloud what to do with our day. We decided to start by viewing how
far down the creek had gone since our last perusal the previous day.
Much to our amazement we could not only see bottom
and multitudinous stones but there was an island that appeared directly in the
middle, big enough for us to build on and close enough for us to wade to!!
The creek itself ran by the store and in its flood
turmoil had darn near demolished the store and its merchandise, but that is
another story.
Down we scampered to the island and spent the day
picking up stones, building forts and houses. We each had an area, and then
we’d visit one another. Really, the day wasn’t long enough and the day was all
we had, for the next morning the creek had become fuller, the engineers had released
more water and our island was no more.
However, in my head, it still exists and the pure
joy of innocent childhood fun along with it, a memory to help me when future
events call for a peaceful place to be.
From
Uncle Jack:
My favorite island is in Waterloo where the old
Distillery buildings stood. It is fittingly called ‘Distillery Island’. It is
bounded on one side by the Seneca-Cayuga Canal (later the Barge Canal) and on
the other by the Seneca River. But first, some history is in order.
I don’t know when the first distillery building was
built but it was a thriving business by the time the Seneca-Cayuga Canal was
built around 1840. It was called the Columbia Distilling Company. From the
picture I have of it in the ‘Bird’s Eye View Map of Waterloo’, it consisted of
numerous buildings and warehouses. I presume it was a very profitable business
but Dad told me that it could have been more profitable in its early days if
supervision had been tighter. He said the whiskey ran through a tube from the
brewing room on the second floor to the bottling room on the first floor.
Dad's Walk from his home at 16 Clark Street to Gorham Street Bridge and
Onto Distillery Island
A portion of this tube ran between two walls where
it was out of sight from everyone. An enterprising worker figured out a way to
get into this area and one night installed a spigot that could be turned on and
off. He would then occasionally go there (maybe frequently) and fill up the
bottle from his lunch bucket and share it with his fellow workers. I guess the
tipoff to the bosses that something was awry was the productivity usually slowed
down in the afternoon. Eventually the spigot was discovered and that was the
end of the extended ‘Happy Hour’.
The Columbia Distillery was famous for its ‘Seneca
Chief’ whiskey, named after the first boat to traverse the entire length of the
Erie Canal from Buffalo to New York City.
The Columbia Distilling Company was eventually sold
to Walter Duffy, owner of the Duffy Malt Whiskey Company of Rochester, NY.
Duffy moved to Waterloo; he had grand ideas and built a large new manufacturing
plant that utilized all the latest techniques of whiskey making. Before it was
completed, he was paid a visit by the owner of a large distilling conglomerate
from Kentucky who suggested that if Duffy would retire without ever opening the
distillery he would make him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Duffy took the offer
and became a man of leisure ever after.
The result was that decades later, the distillery
buildings were decaying but still there and were the most wonderful places to
play hide and seek in. On rainy days we would walk over from the Gorham Street
Bridge and spend hours cavorting around those old buildings.
The 100 foot smokestack that proudly displayed the
words ‘Duffy’s Malt Whiskey’ could be read from 16 Clark Street (where Uncle
Jack lived). It was such a challenge as we played there that Billy Currvan and
I, noticing that iron rungs ran up the inside of the chimney, decided to climb
to the top. We both made it but I will admit, sitting up on the top of the
chimney was the scariest I have ever been. Grand view, but it was scary!! One
of the neighbors must have seen us there and called the cops who promptly
showed up and ordered us down. We were only too glad to oblige.
