1890 House

 September 22, 2022

Country Hills CG site 26

Marathon, NY

Chester Wickwire has been deceased for over a century, but is still remembered for his creativity.  Chester ran a merchandise shop.  In 1873, he received a carpet loom, 2 dozen dog muzzles, 3 dozen egg beaters and 2 rat traps as settlement/payment for some plant stands. Enjoying tinkering, he set the loom up on the second floor of his store and creatively adapted it to weave wire,  producing wire cloth, which he sold to customers as fly screening.  

He soon outgrew the store and built an ever expanding factory in Colgate, NY with an expanding collection of wire products such as popcorn poppers, wire baskets, soap holders, etc.

This led to the need for more workers than were available in the area so Chester Wickwire would travel to New York City to offer imigrants jobs.

On one of his trips to New York, he chanced by a home that took his eye.  He boldly stopped and inquired about the structure and discovered the home belonged to Bailey of Barnum and Bailey Circus.  Bailey shared the name of the architect and Chester hired him to draw up plans for a mirror image of the stone home to be built in Colgate.

The guided house tour gave an impression of wealth with parquet floors, stained glass, elaborate woodwork, silk wall coverings and raised painted wallpaper.  

Attention to detail was viewed throughout the home.  Even the drawer pulls were designed with a woven wire design.

Chester shared his wealth with the community donating money for community improvements such as the hospital that he built.  

Unfortunately, the last relative to live in the house passed on in 1973 so the items in the house were sold off only to become the project in later years of trying to recover those objects to take their places back in the home which is now toured as a museum.

Momma said it was an interesting morning activity, traveling back into a earlier period of time.  She wished the trip to Colgate would have been more colorful, but it is still too early for Mother Nature's colorful fall display.

With the temperatures in the 50's today and off and on rain showers, there is no desire to stay in the area much longer.  The warmer temps of the south are calling, but we will only travel as far as Tunkhannock, Pa tomorrow.

I'm Chloe