The Holton family took a trip east to Niagara Falls, Watkins Glen, Corning Glass Works, and to the chapel where Mom and Dad were married in Ithaca, New York. We also visited some "shirt-tail cousins" (Dad's term) in Niagara Falls. My sister Susan kept a diary. With her permission, I share it here. Interestingly, there are no pictures from this trip in Mom's and Dad's photo albums.
Photo about 1960
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July 16, 1961
We left at 7:30 A.M. -destination-Niagra [sic] Falls.
The first stop of the day was Gnadenhutten State Park and Cemetery. This was the site of a Christian Indian massacre which took place in 1782. The total number of 90 Indians were killed. A memorial has been erected to them in the cemetery. The next Historical place we visited was Schoenbrun or “Beautiful Springs.” This was the first missionary town in Ohio. In this historical place many, many years ago the first white child in Ohio was born. The rebuilt cabins included a church with a large fireplace about 10 feet long and five feet wide and as high as the actual church. There was also an old cemetery behind it with markers made of plain stone. The missionaries taught and converted the Indians who in turn went to different places to convert their own people. The Indians killed at Gnadenhutten were these Christian Indians.
We arrived at Erie at about 6:15 their time and went to the Lawrence Hotel where we are to spend the night. After supper we went to the harbor and looked at boats and the bay. The boat “The Niagra [sic]” was on one of the shipping grounds that we went passed. [sic] We also saw various large anchors such as used in 1813.
Note: The ship “Niagra [sic]” was built in 1813.
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July 17, 1961
We left the Lawrence Hotel and went up around Presque Isle. There was some very beautiful scenery on this penninsula.[sic] At the end of the penninsula [sic] there was a monument to Admiral Perry. From there we went to Niagra [sic] Falls on the freeway. We checked into our hotel, the Waldorf Niagra [sic] about 1:30 and then went to Canada to see the falls from the Canadian side. We saw the rubber ball in which a man recently~ went over the falls. It surprisingly has only one dent of any size. In a building on the Canadian side a tower was built just for replicas of the Crown Jewels of England. They were excellent copies and were very beautiful.*
We went around the park & saw other beautiful sights. We came back to our hotel and got washed up to go to Aunt Eva’s for dinner. After dinner all of us and Francis walked to the observation tower and saw the falls illuminated. They were very beautiful. We also walked down near the falls and got very wet from the mist of the falls. On the way back we stopped at a cafeteria for hot chocolate.
*Dad, Julie, Tom and I went across the whirlpool on an Areo [Aero] Car. It was very exciting and interesting.
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~ jht notes
- Check link for account of person going over falls just two days before we were there.
I have a vague memory of visiting Dad’s “shirt-tail cousin”, James (Jim) Sconce on this trip. I have no memory of anyone else. Eva probably refers to his mother, Eva Fisher Sconce. James' father, Harvey Sconce was Celia Sconce Cathcart Holton's uncle, brother of her mother Anna Sconce Cathcart. Anna and Harvey grew up in the big house between Indianola and Sidell, Illinois.
Francis – usually this spelling is for a man but Susan may not have known the difference between Frances and Francis. Jim Sconce had a niece Frances Macdonald. I don’t know of another related Frances who might have been living with them at that time.
1960 City Directory for Niagara Falls, New York 1960 shows Eva F. Sconce, widow of Harvey J. Sconce, living at 714 Buffalo Avenue, Niagara Falls. Same address as her son in earlier directories. James is not listed in the 1960 directory.*
*Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
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July 18, 1961
We went over to the falls soon after breakfast. Later we went over to Goat Island and went on the Cave of the Winds Tour. We had to put on these p.j. type outfits made of flannel. Next they gave up [sic] raincoats to wear. We had to wear these old burlap shoes which were a little flimsy. The guide took us to a platform at the side of the American Falls. After looking a bit more at the falls, next we drove to “Old Fort Niagara” and looked through it. We saw the old chateau, the cannons, the drawbridge and many other beautiful sights. Among the most beautiful items in the castle were the hand-woodcarvings in the Jesuit Capel [Chapel]. From many places in the fort there was a beautiful view of the lake.
From Old Fort Niagara we came directly to Elmira, New York, and checked into our hotel.
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July 19, 1961
Immediately following breakfast at our hotel we left for Watkins Glen. There, we hiked a very scenic trail. Along the trail we saw many beautiful water falls. After reaching the top and resting a while we hiked down on old Indian Trail led right past a small cemetery.
Following that trip we went to Corning, N.Y., and the Corning Glass Works. There, we saw the first attempt at the glass disk for the telescope at Mt. Palomar [Palomar], California. The huge disk was 200” in diameter.
We saw the making of glass articles. Among others I saw the making of a large glass bowl, some cups and other things. We also saw the talented men that make the engravings in the glass. These figures are the thing that make the glass articles so very expensive.
I have never seen a more interesting place in a long time.
After dinner at our hotel we all saw “Carry on Nurse” at a nearby drive-in. The movie was very good.
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jht notes:
Watkins Glen - Evidently a certain sister and brother decided the sister was going to be a dog and the brother would walk the dog through Watkins Glen. Then this certain sister decided, dog or girl, she'd had enough walking and wasn't going to go one step further. I don't remember either of these events from the actual time but Mom liked to tell the stories decades later.
Corning Glass Works & etched glass - I wonder if this is where Mom and Dad first became interested in etched glass figures. Over the years they collected quite a few pieces.
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July 20, 1961
We left our hotel, the Mark Twain Hotel, right after breakfast. Our destination was Ithaca, New York, where Mom and Dad were married. We walked around the campus and went to a nice bookstore where Julie got some books. After looking around some more, Dad figured out that the chapel had been turned into a bookstore. After this trip we rode until we reached McKee’s Motel, where we spent the night.
jht note - click here to see pictures of the chapel & Mom & Dad on their wedding day
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July 21, 1961
We left McKee’s Hotel and had breakfast at the Garden Gate Restaurant where we had had a buffet dinner the night before. On the way home we stopped at a small store near Columbus where we got some cheese and cider. We got home around noon.
McKee's Motel - 5 miles west of Butler, Pennsylvania
July 19 - added photo of Janet, Tom, Susan & Julia Holton
