2017-18 Dining Guide Web

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Students from Grades 1 and 2
at Newcomb Central School
were the first official visitors to the
Newcomb Historical Museum May
24 and 31, 2017. Dr. Joan Burke,
the Museum’s Director, scheduled
two visits for Mrs. Amanda Bush’s
classes to introduce the students
to Newcomb’s rich heritage and
history with pictures of places
and people, several old schools,
founding fathers, and with stories of
the life and times here in the 1800s
and early 1900s.
Dr. Burke showed them three small
tin-types and prints from archival
scans of the daguerrotypes from the
Leslie Rist Collection. First a print of
a young girl about their age, another
of her mother and baby brother, and
finally a group portrait of the girl’s
family. She explained how sweet
the girl looked with her freckles and
curly hair, and how sad for us that
they were all unknowns; almost
certainly connected to Newcomb,
but no information has been
provided about them. Dr. Burke
then asked each student to return
with a personal photograph and tell
us who they were with, what they
were doing, and where they were.
Important information is lost when
photographs are left behind without
details.
After hearing about Daniel
Newcomb incorporating the town
in 1828, a boy remarked that he
knew him. The passage of almost
two hundred years ago meant little
to a student who was impressed
with his horse-drawn wagon-ride
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into Camp Santanoni with “Mr.
Larry Newcombe”.
It was, therefore, not accidental
that the next visit started in front of
a timeline of bright blue painters’
tape divided into fifty-year sections.
A pointer for a tiny span indicated
the students’ own lives, hopefully
putting 100 years into some
perspective. After reviewing the
earlier events in Newcomb’s history,
students moved into the room
housing the Museum’s new exhibit,
“Mining Life in the Mountains: The
Tahawus Story” to consider the
history of Tahawus, the National
Lead mine, and eventually the
move to Winebrook. Here there
were pictures and artifacts from a
community that no longer exists:
old bowling pins from the YMCA,
sports trophies, a hard hat and a
photo of Bernie Killon (a Sinter
Plant employee) from Minerva
wearing his, mine dust from the
bottom of a miner’s locker, some
mail boxes from the Tahawus post
office, and much more. On another
wall was a large survey map of
Winebrook a year before the town
move and pictures showing some
of the students’ great-grandfathers,
then on the job for National Lead.
Toward the end of the day, students
watched parts of the 1963 film
of the move—big trucks pulling
and pushing homes, apartments,
churches, and the store into
Winebrook, where several of the
students now live. This concluded
their visit, and they asked to come
back! A successful event, indeed!
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