7/31 - Gorham and Hopewell, NY

We went on a wild goose chase yesterday looking for the 50 amp circuit breaker fuse we need for the RV.  Found 30 and 40 amps but no 50 amp.  An RV parts place in Palmyra (55 miles away) was supposed to call and let us know if they had one but we didn’t hear from them.  With our terrible phone service here they may have tried to call us without getting through.

The parts chase was threaded in between looking for clues to the whereabouts of the ever elusive great-great-great-grandfather Edward Smith.  After fighting for the colonies in the Revolution he settled in the area around Gorham, NY, very near Canandaigua Lake.  As far as we can determine he spent the rest of his life here.  I didn’t think we’d get to visit Gorham today but we passed a sign saying we were only 3 miles from it so we took a detour.  It’s a lovely little town with not much “town” to it.  The only thing going on for miles around is farming and there are no farming-related businesses there.  In fact, there were hardly any businesses at all.  Most of the people probably work in Hopewell/Canandaigua which isn’t far away.

We have no idea why Gorham calls itself the “Bandstand of the Finger Lakes.”  Didn’t see any bandstands around.

We loved this tiny little post office with its antique mail boxes and woodwork.  The window is only open from 1 to 5 so we were way too early to talk to the postmaster about the possibility of Gorham having a Town Clerk.  I’m guessing they don’t have one because we didn’t see any official looking storefronts or buildings.  Even the Court building is only open when court is in session and the next session isn’t until 6:00 pm Tuesday.

Jim in front of the Gorham Post Office on Main Street.

A typical section of Main Street.  A very neat, clean and attractive little community.  

Farmland next to Gorham. 

After Gorham we went to the Ontario County Complex in Hopewell/Canandaigua where all the records are kept.  All except the vital ones…..birth, marriage and death…..which are kept in each individual municipality.  They weren’t required to keep vital records until well into the 19^th century so tracking down people earlier than the mid 1800’s is very difficult.  A much better job was done with land records, wills and probates, but we didn’t find anything in those records.  There were a lot of Smiths (of course), and some with names that could have been Edward’s sons but it would take a lot more time than we’ve got to gather all that information.  (He had 10 or 12 sons and we know the names of only five.)  

We did get one really interesting piece of information when the woman helping us located an 1833 newspaper mention of an inquest into the death of Edward Smith who was found in the Canandaigua outlet.  It was ruled an “accidental death by drowning.”  The outlet from Canandaigua Lake is very near where Edward may have been living when he died, and 1833 matches our guess that he died the same year his Revolutionary War pension was last paid. 

Tomorrow we continue the hunt for the circuit breaker fuse and hope it’s easier to find than Edward.