50 Objects for 50 Years
The Ulysses Historical Society is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2025. To mark the occasion, we are sharing the stories of 50 objects from our collection – many of them not currently on display in the museum. Each object represents a piece of the history of Ulysses and the surrounding area and was a gift to the Society from community members.
It's been a long journey since our beginnings in 1975, when a group of local women set out to preserve and share our local heritage, securing a basement room in the Masonic Lodge in 1976 before moving to our current building in 1998, thanks to the generosity of the Pearsall family and the people of Trumansburg. The founders of the Society were Hope Bower, Gertrude Carman, Isobel Duddleston, Ruth Farrell, Ellen Hall, Marion Hoffmire, Margaret Huckle, Sarah Payne, and Ruth Wolverton. Lydia Sears and Georgianna Stevenson also played prominent roles from the start, as have so many people over the past 50 years that we could not possibly name them all. We hope you enjoy seeing some of the treasures that they worked to save and preserve for future generations.
#1
Souvenirs of Trumansburg
Just as tourists do today, travelers of the 19th and 20th centuries came to Trumansburg to enjoy the village, the lake, and the wonders of Taughannock Falls – and to buy souvenirs to take home. These mementos include postcards, pins, decorative tiles, plates, etched glasses, engraved spoons, and even gravy boats and miniature glass coal scuttles. This small globe with milk-glass base is filled with shells and dates to 1904. Items like these would have been made elsewhere and personalized for sale in many towns.
Souvenir glass coal scuttle
#2
Pocket Watch and Engraved Coin (A Murder in Podunk)
In Podunk, on the evening of St. Patrick’s Day, 1888, Richard Barber stopped by the home of his neighbors, an elderly couple named Dick and Ann Mason. After some pleasant conversation, Richard Barber picked up a piece of wood and savagely attacked Dick Mason, then went into the bedroom where Ann Mason was sleeping and beat her to death. After that, he set fire to the house and left.
Dick Mason managed to crawl outside and was discovered by a neighbor, Milt Cuffman, who was woken by the light of the flames in his bedroom window. Dick Mason was transported to the home of another neighbor, Orrin Clark, and was able to relate what happened. Richard Barber was arrested and brought before the burnt, bloodied, and beaten Dick Mason, who was able to identify him.
Don and Hilda Cretser donated these objects related to the shocking events of March 16 to the Ulysses Historical Society. The watch is believed to have belonged to Dick Mason and was found, in this burnt condition, in the ashes of his house. The half-dollar coin, which was smoothed and tethered to the watch with a heavy string, names the Masons, and below is a crude drawing of Richard Barber being hanged.
Richard Barber was convicted and sentenced to hang, but in a subsequent appeal was sentenced to life imprisonment at Auburn. He remained a mild-mannered individual, a model prisoner, and never could explain his murderous rage that night. He gained parole after 20 years at age 50, married, and moved to Jamestown, NY, where he made his living as a talented cabinetmaker. Dick Mason never recovered from his injuries and died within the year.
If you would like to read more about the murder in Podunk, there is a chapter on it in Joe Baldwin’s Tales of Old Trumansburg and Harold Jansen's This Way to Podunk.
Closeup of coin
#3
Adrian O. Pearsall’s Desk
The Ulysses Historical Society building is dedicated to the memory of Adrian O. Pearsall (1875-1953) and was endowed by his sons, Adrian and Richard. Adrian O. Pearsall was headmaster of the Searsburg one-room school, a farmer, and operated a lumber business. He also served as school board president in Trumansburg. This rolltop desk was once in Pearsall’s office at the Carman-Pearsall Lumber Company on Cayuga Street. We are grateful for the generosity of the Pearsall family in helping us to preserve the history of Ulysses.
#4
Halseyville Covered Bridge
Traveling the main land route from Ithaca to Trumansburg has always required crossing Taughannock Creek. The current Route 96 was once a dirt road that, in 1829, led to a log bridge located near Halsey House. That bridge washed away in a flood in 1833 and Lewis Halsey built the covered bridge. The Halsey family were early pioneers – moving here in 1808. The covered bridge was in use until 1927 when it was replaced by a modern bridge, bowing to the need for a larger and stronger bridge as cars and trucks replaced horse-drawn carriages. The covered bridge also served as a billboard of sorts, advertising local and Ithaca businesses. In addition to many photos, we also have in our collection a sign from the bridge warning travelers to cross no faster than a walk.
Speed warning sign from covered bridge
#5
Marsh and Jones Chocolate Box
Chocolate for eating, as opposed to drinking, didn’t become common in the US until the 1870s when Swiss innovations removed the grittiness of earlier solid chocolates. This small cardboard chocolate box is from Marsh & Jones, a drug store that operated in the 1880s in the Opera Block on Main Street. The Opera Block, built in 1871 and located where Tompkins Community Bank is now, was named for the opera house on its third floor. For 50 years it was a center of social activity in the village, hosting dances, meetings, plays, concerts, and musicals. Sadly, this building was lost to a fire in 1922.
Opera House Block, location of Marsh and Jones shop
#6
Bicentennial Name Quilt
In 1991, several UHS volunteers visited a quilt exhibit at Cornell University. Inspired by what they saw, they decided to create a quilt that would be the Society’s contribution to the 1993 Village Bicentennial Celebration and serve as a fundraiser for the Society. In addition to drawings of local landmarks by Aileen Baldwin (transferred to the quilt by Ruth Farrell), the opportunity to add your name to the quilt was offered at $1 per name. Over 1000 area residents are commemorated on the quilt. Ruth Wolverton carefully penned the names onto each square. The quilt was assembled by Hope Bower, Alanna Fontanella, and Joan Grove, with the quilting done by UHS members and friends.
#7
Diaries
We are fortunate to have quite a few diaries from the 1800s and early 1900s in our archives. The three in this picture are from the Covert, Bodle, and Kellogg families. Old diaries sometimes contain personal reflections or comments on events in the wider world, but more often are records of the simple things of everyday life: the day planting started in spring, who came to visit on a particular Saturday, the condition of the roads after a heavy rain, who was getting married, who had passed away. Through these records, we can learn about how our ancestors lived and see more clearly what about our lives today is the same – and what is very different.
#8
Child’s High Button Shoes
These leather shoes are a child-size version of the high button shoes that were popular in the Victorian era and into the 20th century. In the late 1800s, children often wore small versions of what adults wore – suits for boys and dresses for girls, although with shorter pants and skirts. It wasn’t until around 1910 that clothes were designed more specifically for children. These tiny shoes might have been fairly easy to fasten, but the taller and more tightly fitting shoes women wore required a button hook to fasten the long row of tiny buttons.
Button hook from Mosher & Sears shoe store, Trumansburg
#9
Wooden Grain Shovel
This beautiful grain shovel stands just over 3 feet tall and is hand-carved from a single piece of wood. Before the invention of the motorized farm equipment we see today, all farm work was done by hand and by horse. The first step in the very early days of grain harvesting was reaping, cutting the stalks with a sickle or scythe. The grain stalks would then be tied into bundles and stood on end to dry. The next step was threshing, where the bundles would be beaten with a wooden flail to knock the grain off the stalk. The final step was winnowing, tossing the mix of grain and bits of stalk into the air to allow the lighter stalks (the chaff) to blow away. The grain shovel would be put to use moving the grain from one place to another – a grain bin or the back of a wagon. In the mid- to late 1800s, horse-drawn reapers and threshers would greatly speed up the harvesting process. Donated by Marion Hoffmire.
#10
The Flood of 1935
Weather-related tragedy struck Tompkins County and the region in July 1935. Overnight from Sunday, July 7, to Monday, July 8, almost 15 inches of rain fell in the lower Finger Lakes region. The rain followed the season’s worst heat wave. Houses and people were washed away, including in the village of Trumansburg. Items from shops and houses were found on the shores of Cayuga Lake. This photo was taken near the intersection of Main and Union Streets. The two three-story brick buildings on the right in this photo are the current-day Creekside Café and New York Pizzeria. The building to the left, which was built over the creek, was destroyed, as was the Holton Pharmacy across the street. The photos in our archives are an important record of both significant and everyday events in our past.
#11
Hair Combs and Hat Pins
These hair combs and hat pins are examples of what many women in the late 1800s and early 1900s would have owned (though not all as fancy as these). Although short hair became more popular after WWI and the 1920s, most women had long hair that they wore up in various styles, secured by pins and hair combs made from tortoiseshell, horn, ivory, celluloid, metal, or wood. In addition, when women went out of the house, they often wore hats. Earlier in the 1800s, women wore bonnets tied on with a ribbon, but in the mid-to-late 1800s, they increasingly wore hats that had to be secured to their hair with a hat pin. The long and sharp pins (6 to 12 inches) could also be used as a self-defense weapon.
#12
Trumansburg Fireman’s Helmet
This fireman's helmet is from the Excelsior Engine Company No. 1 of Trumansburg and was donated to UHS by the Trumansburg Fire Department. The fire departments were formed after major fires in the mid- to late 1800s severely damaged the business district. Excelsior Engine Company was formed in 1872, followed by Gregg Hose in 1882, and Chemical Engine Company in 1902. In 1884, the Free Press described the terrors of a fire on Main Street and the bravery of the firefighters:
“Several casualties occurred, the most serious of which was to W P Biggs who was thrown from the roof of the old Douglass shop upon a pile of rocks below suffering a cut on the back of the head and a dislocated wrist. Foreman Camp of the Excelsiors got a finger in the way of danger and is suffering in consequence. Foreman Holton of Gregg Hose was quite badly burned on the hand, most of the hook and ladder and hose men were more or less scorched.
“It is idle to speak words of praise for the gallant men who fought this fire to a successful issue. Their deeds speak louder than words, well may Trumansburg be proud of its fire department. This town cannot do too much for these preservers of life and property.”
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