Delaware County NY Genealogy and History Site

Here is one of my true stories that you should enjoy. --Allan Davidson, January 2, 2004

At the farm where my father was born and bought up, there were six pine trees in the front yard; two on either side, and one on either side of the steps next to the road. The two next to the steps were gone by the time I arrived on the scene, but I do remember the other four.

By last winter there were only two remaining. One on either side of the lawn. The County Highway Dept. decided they were a hazard to navigation and should be removed; which they proceeded to do (at no expense to the present land owner). I stopped when I was passing by and measured the stumps and found them to be 42 inches in diameter. My cousin, Charlie LaFever, (Ray LaFever's father) and I decided that the first warm day we would go and count the rings to determine the age of the trees; which we did after brushing a couple of inches of snow off the stumps. Our original plan was for me to count the rings of one stump while he counted the other, then we would change stumps and make another count. However, after we had each made one count we met in the middle of the lawn and I said to Charlie, "How many did you count?" and he said, "a hundred and thirty-seven." I replied, "I got a hundred and thirty-eight!"

Now we had already agreed that all the trees were probably planted at the same time, so we realized that another count would be useless. Later when talking to a relative, and before I told them about counting the rings, they told me that they had heard that my great grandfather came home from the Civil War and planted those trees. And it was only then that I subtracted 138 from 2003 and came up with 1865, the year my great grandfather, J.R. Hoy, came home from the Civil War. How much closer can you get?