28 ==fQ Cll ct TOV~NS OF WAYNE AND URBANA North Scale 1 inch to 1 mile Are~ 3 x 7 miles 1. Grove Sprimgs 2. Old Homestead Thomas I Margeson 3, Tanglewood Thomas II 4. Hammondsport Hill 5. Mt.Washington 6. North Urbana Center 54 Highwy Bath to PennYan 54 A via Hamm.ondsDort 94 is County Hwy North Urbana-Grove Spr. KEUKA. LA.KE Head of URBA~"f~ bLake HAMMONDSPORT Town o WAYN C ''\ 41 Town of Bradford 29 THE TOWN OF WAYNE This little map is fitting for a l ittle town, Strangely this small unit of land could mean so much to our big family. A rec- tangle of three by seven miles encloses this area. To break down our descri ptions , we have cut a north and south centerline down the map and now start with the e aster n portion. Here are memorialized three Revolutionary War Heroes; Baron Steuben, General Philip Schuyler and 11Mad Anthony 11 Wayne. The •rown of Wayne faces- the ·.rown of Tyrone in Schuyler County and the Village of Wayne rides astr ide the county line. Wayne Village had a population of some 7~0 in its hey day. It was a stagecoach stop, with its tavern, Town Hall, Post Office, stores social centers, four blacksmith shops, two h orse racing tracks and plenty of activities of all sorts. The " Old Bath Road 11 f rom Penn Yan, thru Wayne, Wayne Four Corners lead south thru Bradford to Bath at the Fairgrounds. Bath being the Hub of County government, civic, social, public and private business. Margeson youngmen discovered happy hunting ground in this area, their prime catches being brides to help establish new homes. (Proof' of this in your family charts of Part Two of your fa.iaily hi s tory. Margeson men, first off, found emp l oyment in this general area, Hork to sup)l ement the scant produce of their small farms, Ira had his blacksmith shop in Dundee, Cyrus a nd John boat building south of Watkins , Monroe on the new railroad building south toward Corning and his bro t her Alva A., his final retirement at Reading Center . Time now t o turn back west. One stop, worth visiting, about in the center of the town, was the 11Aisle of .Pines" built in 1865, and occu_ried originally b y the Hallett f'arnily. 'rhe multipl e- storied 11 big house 11 had an observation platform on its roof. From that vantage point , the visi tor·s cot:tld see the two lakes (Wanita and Lamaka, and all of Wayne VillaWe . '.l'urning wes twar d were the two white churches and the 11 Centerr of North Urbana . Beyond tnat were the blue waters of Keuka. Using a telescope one may even bring into view the White buildings on -c;op of Bluff' Point . The ~arallel rows of tall pine t rees, the caretakers house and the formal "Gates 11 at the entr .s..nce served t o f'rarne a picture of elegance und gracious living. Samuel Hallett, as a y oung bus iness man had become involved promoting and financing many railroads then building in the West. He was Chief Engineer of the first section of the Kansas Pacific Railr oad . While so engaged, Hallett was shot and killed on the street of Wyandotte, Kansas, July 27, 1864. Credit Rich Thompson, a news reporter for his story in the Elmira Telegram on Aug . 1, 1965, here we turn to the ~ayne -Urbana Line and add to our Historian on our Staff, THREE other authors of' our Margeson Story. 30 For the purposes of Our Family Story, we appear to have f ound 11 the action 11 mainly along the Lake and ·,1estern part of Wayne. There were however several other second, third even f ourth gener- atio'ti Margeson · homes to the East. Let us "stand aside 11 f'or a while, and let FOUR t rained -experienced local historians present their contributions. The f'irst "interview 11 was with Mrs . Kate Wood, in her home at the crossroads. Katy was Town Clerk fo p 24 years, had the care of many hist orical documents besides h aving the Wood family connection that t raced down f'r om the earli es t days . It may have been a casual remark but pr•obably correct, that "Kate I s mother was a Margeson. 11 Mrs. Wood was custodian of historical records, since the separate functions had not been separated by State Law in the new of'fice of •rown Histor ian. We may not label every historical detail to the persons of historians, but the sources are still underlying. A f'ew personal de t ails by Margesons, past or present, may 11 corne closer to home .u So thank you Katy Wood. Following Mrs. Wood came Mrs. Bertha M. liose, a graduate of Geneseo College, a n experienced teacher, l L~ years 'fax Col lector, had been a newsparer correspondent 25 years and then the first e l ected ·.roi-m Historian. Using such professional qualif'ications and with the aid of a fellow reporter, prepared an excellent summary of' the history and points of interest of Wayne. T:1is brief history was given f'ull page s:Jace in the Sunday, August 1, 19o5 Elmira ·Telegr am. We shall make good use of this article as source material for a numbe r of the small details in our Descendants. Mrs. Rose's successor was ~Jr . Alderman Gleason. Alderman Gleason, while a native in Wayne, is at heart a New England Yan.lrne. It would fill a whole p age to list this man's achievements. He has been Town Supervisor, Member of' the Steuben County Board of Su~ervisors, Justice of the Peace, and now Town Historian. 'Thus he has a separate 11hat" for every day of the week. Gleason has been a near nei ghbor of t he Margesons at the Old Homestead and a f'riendly critic of' their behavior. Without his help, we may not h ave picked up many details of our story. He has located sites for old lanilinarks and is, himself almost a living landmark . Woven into this history as they are, we shall f'ail many times to 11give credit, ·where credit is due. 11 31 The next, and also present time, assistant Family Historian, 1°.J>. Earle Ne Gowan, joined our staf:" 1)f ,,..eporters. Three genera- tions had been ·involved thru marriage, with the .Marge sons. Even though not always so labelled, many intimate details bear the McGowan label . Born, brought up and a lifelong resident of the Wayne-Steuben area, Earle served as guide and map-maker and also an authority on the Tanglewood Margeson farm of 'l'homas & Deborah, and Br·adley property. He became the μext to last or present owner. Together we decided to provide a few homemade maps to clarify our own thinking and have our map s serve as Visual Aids to accompany The Landmarks of the North Urbana Area. We (this time Earle and A.E.M.) iaake good use of local histories, such as Landmarks of Steuben County, New York by Hon. Harlo Hakes, pub. H396. Pages 172, Wayne 'rownship, includes Margesons, Woods etc. 'I'wo old maps dated 1844 and 1857 show Margeson property holdings. Details of 1806 to 1857 largely not shown due to the moving out of most III and IV generations members of our family. Many visits to _this site have freshened our early memories of people and places. Our memories are written together in a series of homemade maps. These maps are not merely 11 Conversation Pieces," but firm products from frequent conferences. We hope the reader may find bits of information as well as old fashioned humor in our map making project. 32 The first maps cover North Urbana and the trading post at the II Center 1 •1 The next shown will be maps of the two remaining farms; Tanglewood owned by Thomas II and Deborah and t he Old Homestead farm of Thomas I and Nary Margeson . These maps are DATED 1850 or 60 . A single exception shown is t he modern Highway 54, included as a visible guide f or visitors. There are no visible lan&narks, r oad or street guides. Only the 11lay of the land 11 , lake, g orges, or ~ul:!-5.es and a f ew old roads are visible. The log houses · and most of their replacements are in sight (in 1970) as they were in 1850 . The vineyards, you'll see, are the successors of t h ose planted originally by Marge sons and others in t he e arly 1849 & 50 1s. Som& of the vines, you see, h ave been producing grap es for sixty years. Con sult Alderman Gleason and visit the Finger Lakes Wine Museum at Hammondsport. It will b e time well invested.