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Delaware County NY Genealogy and History Site

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HONEYWELL FARM & MYSTERY OF HEADSTONES

I recently purchased a farmhouse in Sidney and my husband and I are interested in finding out the history of the previous owners as we came across several old headstones in the barn that apparently were placed there many years ago. We believe precious occupants may be buried on the property. The house we bought was originally known as the Honeywell farm and as we are new to the area we have not met any of the locals yet.

These are a few pics of the house and property. Farmhouse built in 1840. The house is situated on 19 acres in Sidney. I don’t have any other info. I found the headstones in one of the barns after I bought the house a few months ago. Appears that the headstone is linked to a Honeywell daughter who passed at the age of 24 in 1867. I believe she was buried somewhere on the property and the previous owners may have moved the headstone to the barn in order to sell this house. There are two headstones. House is located at 13709 county highway 23. We are very interested in learning more about this property and past families who resided on it.

--Regards, Bonnie Shukofsky, February 13, 2018.

15 Feb - See Note Bottom of this page


Note: February 15, 2018

I was so intrigued about the mysterious gravestone that showed up in that barn in Sidney! I looked into it right away and it looks like the homeowner can rest easy, it appears that Alice is not buried on the property. I haven't yet discovered why that beautiful stone was there in the first place, but Alice is actually Mary Alice Honeywell Haight, 1852 to 1876, died at the age of 24. She was the daughter of Catharine Melissa Bassel Honeywell, 1834 to 1913 and Legrange Honeywell, 1823 to 1894---the "CM and L Honeywells" as seen on the stone. Alice's husband was James I. Haight, 1844 to 1918. Alice and James had one child, May A. Haight Rider, 1875 to 1943. They are all buried at the Evergreen Hill Cemetery in Sidney. The stone for (Mary) Alice is a blah small rectangular stone---very different from the beautifully ornate stone found in that barn!

I'm wondering if Alice was originally buried on the property and then exhumed and re-buried in the Evergreen Hill.....of course, it is also possible that the stone in the cemetery is merely a cenotaph.....

I'm going to pull the deeds on this property to see if there are Honeywells in its past, I am assuming so......

~~~Gabrielle Pierce, Delaware County Historian



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