y o m i n q by Harry S. Douglass - Old Fulton History

April 1954 Page 81
CURRIERS THROUGH THE YEARS (cont.)
Grupe, 1906-12,° Theodore L. Leverett, 1912-11+; Gilbert H„ Hamilton,
1915=19; George W. Zartman, 1919-21; George ¥. Stephenson, 1922-21+;
John Mann, 1921+-27; E. E0 Warner, 1927-35; Lynn R. Williamson,
1935=36; E. George Northey, 1937-i+l; Forrest F. Freeman, 191+2=1+1+?:
George W. Stephenson, 191+5-1+8; and George Van Derven since 191+8.
Rev. Oscar Moses Smith, son of Moses Jr., has been the only member
ordained, and he was the father of Mrs. Jean D. Lyford, deaconess of
the church for over 1+2 years, for more than fifty years, elected
organist, and church clerk for a half-century. Since the organization
of the Java Village Congregational Church in 1888, the two have
shared pastors.
As Curriers looks forward to the centennial of its church this
summer, it is noteworthy that several members have been communicants
more than fifty years. Mrs. Julia Kibbe Twiss, who joined Jan. 8,
1881, is the oldest member, and together with Miss. Alice Twiss,
entered in December 1881, has a membership record of 73 years.
Others are Mrs. Sarah Hodgins, 67 years; Mrs. Martha B. Nichols,
Mrs. Alice G. Rogers and Archie Geer, 60 years;and Mrs. Jean Dickson
Smith Lyford, 50 years. The church has an average membership of
100 and a Sunday School attendance of sixty.
From a frontier outpost 137 years ago,the story of the Curriers
community has unfolded through its rise and eventual decline as a
trading center. Its remaining institutions are yet factors in the
social and economic life of the surrounding farming country, the
generations that have resided there have made an art of living a
commonplace career on the soil which their fathers tilled. The full
story can never be recalled but there flashes back memories of hoppicking
days on the Michigan Road;of George Henry carrying the mails
from the depot to the postoffice; of the Sunday School picnics; of
the long lines of teams at mill, shop, creamery and stores; of
Barney, the rag peddlar who traveled the countryside trading shiny
tin pots and nans from his wagon for rags; of the traveling umbrella
menders; of the A. & A, snowbound; of the great Calf Club sale of
1*21; the burning to death of Mrs. Eunice Scripter in her home one
bitter night in winter; the erection of the transcontinental telephone
line and how the younger children used to imagine they could
hear the wires "talking"; the story of the man west of Currier? who
was always asked by his mother, "James, how shall I cut the pie?"
and his answer, "Once in two, Mother;" maple-sugar making, silo
filling and threshing; the excited farmer girl who saw the first
traction engine coming and ran to announce, "Mother, the T. V's got
off the track and is coming down the roadl the singing-schools;the
church "socials" and concerts by the Java Village Band. All these,
and many more, have made 'Curriers Through the Years.®
Acknowledgments Beer's History of Wyoming Co.; files of the Arcade
Times, Wyoming County Times, and Western New-Yorker; interviews with
the late Asahel E„ Nichols, with Mrs. Julia K. Twiss, Mrs. Jean D.
Lyford, Mr. & Mrs. D. D, Rogers, Mrs. Orpha S. Rosier and Mrs. Eva
So Douglass. The Congregational Church history is largely drawn
from church records and an historical account written with the aid
of Mrs o Lyford in 191+1+. To all, who through the years have contributed
bits of history,our appreciation, and especially to Mrs0 Olive
Bo Burrows for the use of older photographs.