Happy Birthday, Alice!

I've been working on a post about the 1893 Chicago World's Fair (which is probably going to turn into two posts...) but couldn't let today pass without celebrating a very special occasion: It's Alice’s 151st birthday! Let's take a little tour through the life of our founder to commemorate the day.

A young and very serious Alice

Alice Trainer was born September 23, 1863 in Goderich, Ontario. She was the seventh child of Bernard and Louisa Saunders Trainer, and their fourth daughter. Louisa Trainer died in 1870, and Matilda, the oldest daughter, took on the responsibility of helping to raise her younger siblings.

Some time in the late 1870s or 1880s, Alice’s older brothers moved to Chicago for work, and in 1887 the rest of the siblings—Matilda, Bertha, Louise, Alice, and William—relocated there as well (Bernard Trainer had died in 1876).

Alice around the time she met Will Miner

While living in Chicago in the early 1890s, Alice met a young man named William H. Miner. How they met remains a mystery, but we know that they attended the Chicago World's Fair together and enjoyed “wheeling.” Alice and William were married in June, 1895.

At home in Chicago with one of her many canine friends

Alice and her fellow Kamby Mandolin Club members in
Jackson Park, Chicago

In March 1902, Alice gave birth to a son, William Henry Miner, Jr., but sadly the baby died when he was only two weeks old. Although they never spoke of it explicitly, it seems likely that William and Alice’s decision to embark on the ambitious project of creating Heart’s Delight Farm the following year was connected to this tragic event.


Over the following decades, Chazy and the surrounding area would come to play a very important role in Alice’s life as she and William expanded their activities beyond the farm to encompass the Chazy Central Rural School, the Kent-Delord House, Physicians Hospital, and of course, the Colonial Collection. Alice’s sisters eventually moved to Chazy as well, and after William died in 1930, Alice decided to live at Heart’s Delight year-round. 

Alice at Heart's Delight with a very small companion, 1934 

Alice presenting a new ambulance to Physicians Hospital, 1948

So, although it was William’s family ties that originally brought Alice to the North Country, she developed a close relationship with its people and places over the 50 years she spent here. Until the end of her life in 1950, she remained an active member of the Board of Directors of Physicians Hospital, the Women’s League of Physicians Hospital, and the Presbyterian Ladies’ Aid Society.




Alice also continued to add to the collection of the Colonial Home, turning it into the historical gem that it remains today! She wanted to make sure that local residents did not forget the history of their community, and I think Alice would be very happy to know how many people came to visit the museum during the Battle of Plattsburgh commemoration weekend.

Thank you, Alice, and a very happy birthday!

Busy Hands - The Barn Frame Loom

In March 1917 Alice Miner received a note from CE Hamilton, Manager of Heart's Delight Farm. He had recently fetched objects she purchased in Beekmantown and he listed them off in the note: "One red high chair (one arm off), One Rag Carpet, One high spinning Wheel (no belt), One low spinning wheel, One straight back rattan chair"... etc. The second page lists more acquisitions including: "One loom (one old board missing)"... This loom is a large Barn Frame Loom that now resides at The Alice T. Miner Museum in Chazy, NY.

The Barn Frame Loom in the Weaving Room

This is a miniature Barn Frame Loom with similar construction to the loom at The Alice

A Barn Frame Loom is constructed of large beams with mortise and tenon joints and dowels as fasteners. The construction is like that of a barn, which gives the loom its name. In our case the bench is built right into the loom and slightly tilted for comfort in the same way as the bench on the right of the miniature loom shown above. The machine is made in a way that keeps constructing and deconstructing relatively simple - in order to be taken apart and set aside when space was needed. Our Barn Frame Loom has been taken apart, stored and reassembled twice in the last eight years to make room for changing exhibits in the Weaving Room - its usual home.

Mortise and tenon joints - the only nails in our 

loom were those used to affix the replaced seat bench

Here in the museum there is space for this lovely, large work horse of a loom. And today would be a good day to sit at its replaced bench board and get some work done to stay warm! As I mentioned, this loom gets its name from the type of construction methods used to create it - like a miniature barn frame - and not because it may have been placed in the barn for use. Although it is large it would have been a very necessary tool for early homesteaders and afforded an honored place when weaving work needed to be done.

The bench can be seen at left - when constructed and placed in the museum in 1924 they managed to find an appropriately old strong board to serve as the weaver's seat

lovely details such as using a branch to hold tension on the threads

The three photos above were taken during one of the disassembly 

campaigns and show the solid construction of the loom

Another note in the archives indicates two names of women who may have once owned the loom - Mrs. Olive Culver and Mrs. Louisa Stilwell. The only information I found on either woman indicated them both as being born around 1830 in Beekmantown. Perhaps the loom was sold by later family members who no longer had a use for such a large machine in their home. The note also shows numbers next to various objects that were later crossed out - perhaps the purchase price? If so, it would indicate that Alice paid $60 for the Barn Frame Loom back in 1916 or 1917.

Museum legend talks about a friend of Alice wanting to contribute something to her museum. The woman had no appropriate antiques, but she did know how to weave. She sat down at the loom and wove a large rug that was then used in the Weaving Room for many years... Now in its old age it is safely stored away in the museum collection storage. The Barn Frame Loom serves as a handsome center piece to the museum Weaving Room. We are currently closed for tours, but come get acquainted with the loom in the spring!

A Legend in the Collection

There were many distinguished visitors who came to enjoy the tranquil setting Alice and William Miner created during the heyday of Heart's Delight Farm in Chazy. Many of these visitors signed guest books with eloquent messages. One such visitor was James Buchanan Brady. Perhaps you will know him better by his nickname, Diamond Jim.

Diamond Jim Brady was a salesman extraordinaire. He started out as a poor Irish boy in New York City working as a bellboy. Perhaps utilizing his charm and tenacity he secured a job in the railroad business, eventually selling railroad equipment, including Miner equipment. Fortune Magazine called him the "greatest capital goods salesman in American history" fifty years after his 1917 death. Clearly he was a great salesman, and a savvy investor in the stock market, relatively rapidly becoming a very wealthy man, estimated at one time to be worth at least twelve million dollars!

His penchant for jewels is what gained him the nickname Diamond Jim. One of his signature pieces of jewelry was a large ring with the image of a horse surrounded by diamonds. He also prided himself in dressing well and believed that one need look good to be successful, "If you're going to make money, you've got to look like money..." was an oft-quoted Brady axiom.

He was literally a larger-than-life figure in the Gilded Age. There are so many legends surrounding Diamond Jim that it is clear he really caught the public's imagination. He was called a gourmand for his incredible appetite. The legends about the volume of food he would eat at a sitting are truly amazing, and perhaps not totally accurate. Another story about Diamond Jim illustrates how he whole-heartedly embraced the new "safety" bicycles popular in New York City by ordering a dozen gold plated bicycles with diamond-encrusted handlebars for himself, his friends, and his longtime confidant, actress and singer Lillian Russell.

Diamond Jim loved to bet on the horses, and was a regular at Saratoga, New York raceways. Perhaps it was his trips to Saratoga that eventually brought him north to visit his friend William Miner at Heart's Delight Farm in Chazy. Legend has it that William played a little trick on Diamond Jim by hiding a canteen of orange juice (Jim's favorite drink), along with a few fancy glasses in the crook of a tree, which they "found" as Will led Jim on a hike about the farm on a very warm day. Will lured Jim into a chat about how nice it might be to have something cold to drink... when Diamond Jim concurred, Will reached around the tree and poured him a glass of orange juice!

William Miner and Diamond Jim both traveled the railroads for endless days selling railroad gear. William sold his own inventions, and Jim sold for others as well as for William. They became good friends along the way. Perhaps they crossed paths at the World's Colombian Exposition in 1893, where Diamond Jim and Lillian Russell turned heads with the sheer amount of corn they consumed! Diamond Jim was a very generous man, showering gifts on friends and donating a large sum to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, where he had once been treated. There are even a few wonderful objects in the collection at The Alice that Jim gave to his friend Will.

In the Miner Room on the third floor are displayed two matching American silver-overlay green glass decanters with stoppers. Made by the Gorham Manufacturing Company around 1895, the silver overlay is a scrolled Art Nouveau design with a monogrammed "WHM". With matching monograms, the other pieces consist of a four-piece set of men's hairbrushes made of silver. They are not the overly ornate gifts of legend, just handsome pieces suitable for a less showy person like William Miner. Wouldn't you have loved to be a fly on the wall during Diamond Jim's visit to Heart's Delight Farm? Oh, the meals they served, and the enjoyment they squeezed out of life!

Transferware in The Alice Collection

The story written by past Director/Curator Nell Sullivan suggests Alice T. Miner may not have become a collector but for the urging of her dear friend Emma B. Hodge. Nell Sullivan was the last of the Directors hand-picked by Alice to lead her museum. According to Mrs. Sullivan, Emma gave Alice a box holding a variety of china, with the intent of interesting her friend in the lovely things she could be collecting. Eventually this trick worked and Alice began collecting porcelain and glass, eventually expanding her interests well beyond what I will cover in this article. (Scroll down to previous blog posts to learn more!)

Alice Miner did not merely gather beautiful objects, she was also very interested in the history and background of the objects she acquired. Because of her voracious reading and self-education about the decorative arts, the museum's reference library relating to the collection is extensive. Many of the books the staff refers to regularly have the Miner bookplate in the front, and many have notes written in Alice's own handwriting. She also looked to her friend Emma Hodge for guidance and assistance, and in the summer of 1917, before the museum was even a drawing on paper, Emma B. Hodge came to Heart's Delight Farm to catalog Alice T. Miner's growing collection of pottery and porcelain!

Many of the pieces Emma catalogued that summer are referred to as transferware. This is a method of decorating on pottery, perfected as early as the 175os in England, in which copper plates are engraved with designs and printed on tissue paper. While the print is still wet the paper print is then transferred onto pottery which is in turn fired at low temperature to permanently affix the design. The most durable method was to transfer the design on to the pottery before glazing. Once the glaze was applied and fired it then served to further set the transferred image on the plate, cup, tea pot, etc. Before the development of this method of design, pottery had been laboriously painted by hand and thus was much more expensive to produce.

The early pieces of transferware were printed with black ink on white porcelain. It was soon found, however, that the color blue was both more attractive and less expensive to produce. Around 1835, as the popularity of blue transfer designs waned, other colors such as light blue, pink, green and purple became more prevalent.

One such blue and white transferware plate in The Alice T. Miner Museum collection is decorated in what is called the "States" design. In her 1917 inventory for Alice, Emma describes the plate - "Tea plate. This is what is known as the "States" plate design. Decoration, central medallion in blue transfer, of three story building in the distance and sheep in the foreground. To the left is the figure of "Justice" blindfolded, holding a portrait of Washington. On the right is the kneeling figure of "Independence". Festoon border containing the names of the fifteen states in the Union, with the stars above. Irregular lace border around edge. Mark "Clews warranted Staffordshire" in circle with crown impressed."

The figure Emma Hodge refers to as Justice is actually Liberty holding a staff with the liberty cap on top. The two figures stand or kneel on a short pedestal. Under Justice the pedestal says "AMERICA AND" and the pedestal on which Liberty kneels says "INDEPENDENCE", hence the confusion about what the figure represents. Included in the plate design is the Masonic symbol of the square and compass pictured on an apron worn by Justice, perhaps in honor of Washington, who was a Freemason. The plate was made circa 1820 in Staffordshire, England by Clews Brothers. James Clews was one of the best known of the Staffordshire potters here in the United States because he actually attempted to make his pottery in Indiana for a short time in 1836, but was not successful, ultimately returning to England.

In the Ballroom of the museum, Alice's collection of glass and porcelain is beautifully exhibited in cases built into the walls. The blue and white transferware pieces catch one's eye upon entering the room. Along with the "States" design one can see another popular Clews design of the Landing of Lafayette. This pattern depicts Lafayette's ship landing with great ceremony in Castle Garden, New York on his second and final visit to America, in 1824. Other makers' designs are represented, including views of Niagara Falls, unknown buildings, and various bucolic scenes. Alice Miner also collected red, black, light blue, green, purple, and brown transferware of all shapes from various manufacturers. Do come to The Alice for a tour of the museum, and examine and enjoy the Ballroom pottery!

Seville to Chazy in 400 Years

In 1918, before plans for a museum in Chazy had been drawn, Alice T. Miner purchased what would become one of the most extraordinary pieces in her collection. It is double-sided page, or leaf, from a gradual, (a liturgical book containing chants for the Christian Mass), created on vellum, framed with one side showing. This gradual leaf measures approximately 24" x 35". The book within which it was once contained was made large enough for the entire choir to read. The front of the leaf has four lines of text and line staves with musical notations. There is a wide illuminated panel border on all four sides, and the first letter of the first word is an historiated, or enlarged, initial letter "D", with a miniature of Saint Paul seated with pen and scroll. The "D" begins Psalm 69:1, "Deus in adiutorium meum intende" God, come to my aid...

Detail of Saint Paul seated with pen and scroll, The Alice gradual leaf

Alice Miner purchased the gradual leaf through her friend, Frank Gunsaulus, a 20th century collector of rare books, manuscripts, and decorative arts. The manuscript has resided at The Alice since the first years of the museum, and many visitors have marveled at its vibrant colors, showcasing the skill of the illuminator, and how the rich colors have survived all of these years. It was created in Spain between 1430-1490. Alice's gradual leaf was the work of the Master of the Cypresses, so named for the characteristic cypress trees that he created which appear in a series of more than 80 miniatures in twenty-two choir books in the Cathedral of Seville, Spain. Dr. Gunsaulus, a Presbyterian Minister and educator, donated another gradual leaf attributed to the Master of the Cypresses to the Art Institute in Chicago in 1916. Gunsaulus acted as an agent in buying two manuscripts for Alice T. Miner, the gradual leaf and a breviary. You may remember two previous blogs-posts about the breviary in The Alice collection.

http://minermuseum.blogspot.com/2009/03/manuscript-reborn.html & http://minermuseum.blogspot.com/2008/08/le-breviaire-dhenri-de-lorraine.html

Both manuscripts in The Alice collection were created on a type of parchment - actually on the highest quality of all parchment, vellum. Vellum is made from calf, sheep or goatskin that has been laboriously prepared by stretching, scraping and alternately wetting and drying the skin while stretched. A final stage of prepping the vellum with pumice and talc was often employed. This intense preparation was done to bring the vellum to the right thickness for book pages and to prepare the skin to properly receive ink.

Our Spanish gradual leaf is a stunning piece of art. The historiated initial is 6 1/2 inches tall, exhibiting the captivating detail achieved by the illuminator. The wonderful detail of illumination, the colors used, the very precise lines - all catch the eye as soon as one enters the Spiritual Exhibit. One cannot help but be drawn into the sumptuous initial and the soft expression on Saint Paul's face, his gesturing hand, and the lush colors and folds of fabric of his garb. The illuminated border is comprised of numerous swirling and multi-colored leaf forms.

If you visit the J. Paul Getty Museum in California, The Art Institute in Chicago, Princeton University, or even the Eastman School of Music at The University of Rochester you might view manuscripts created by the Master of the Cypresses. Closer yet, visit The Alice right here in Chazy, New York and enjoy the Spiritual Exhibit where you can study our Master of the Cypresses gradual leaf, or our other spectacular 15th century manuscript, Le Breviaire d'Henri de Lorraine.

The gradual leaf in the Spiritual Exhibit at The Alice

Emma and the Wedgwood Collection

In 1917 Alice and William were visited at their Heart's Delight Farm in Chazy by a dear friend from Chicago, Emma Blanxius Hodge. Emma had come that long way not just to relax, visit with her friends, and enjoy the fresh country air. She had also planned to catalog Alice's burgeoning collection of china. It was appropriate that Mrs. Hodge should offer her extensive knowledge of decorative arts to her friend in this way since she was responsible for getting Mrs. Miner started with the collection in the first place.

If one were to mention they collect Wedgwood, their statement might merely conjure some vague notion that they were interested in pottery. What the majority of us likely would not realize is the breadth of pottery designs such a collection might include. This is what I hope to illustrate with the newest exhibit at The Alice. My intent was to display some of the Wedgwood pottery Alice collected in the early 1900s, and in the process found a wide variety of the types of objects Wedgwood Manufactory sold starting in 1758.

Of the thirteen pieces I have chosen for our Wedgwood exhibit, ten are described in the 1917 inventory Hodge penned. Emma wrote descriptions, and labeled and numbered more than 350 objects for Alice that summer. Along the way she included information about each pottery type, and its style and manufacturer. The catalog consists of 116 typewritten pages of very detailed information about a collection now housed in the Ballroom of The Alice T. Miner Museum.

Emma wrote, "This compiled catalog is dedicated to my dear friends of Heart's Delight Farm, who, while they were laboring with the knitting needle for our soldiers at the front, permitted me to assemble these facts concerning the collection of pottery and porcelain in the Matilda Trainer collection, and furnished for me a summer of fragrant and unforgettable associations.

Emma B. Hodge.

Heart's Delight Farm,

Chazy, New York.

August, 28, 1917"

Alice Miner named her collection of British and American porcelain and earthenware in memory of her recently departed oldest sister Matilda, who passed away on February 14, 1917 - just weeks before her 65th birthday. Emma's visit probably helped to ease the acute loss Alice must have felt that summer. Twelve years older than Alice, Matilda was much more than a sister - she had stepped in to help raise the younger children after their mother died in 1870, followed too soon by their father in 1876.

The objects currently exhibited in the Dining Room of The Alice range widely in style, glaze and intended use, as well as in taste! Included is a handsome black basalt bust portrait of George Washington, circa 1790. It is the largest and most striking Wedgwood object in the collection. When you come for a tour you will also see an ironstone china teapot made by Wedgwood that once belonged to William Miner's grandmother Lydia that was given to Alice for her collection by his aunt Huldah Miner in 1917. One of the more whimsical objects is a small teapot shaped like a cauliflower, realistic enough that it made a docent who is allergic to cauliflower sneeze while helping to install the exhibit!

Another Chicago collector represented in this Wedgwood exhibit, Frank Wakely Gunsaulus, was a mutual friend of the Miners and Emma B. Hodge. Gunsaulus was a major collector of illuminated manuscripts, ancient texts, decorative arts, as well as Wedgwood, and his influence on Alice's collection can be seen in numerous extraordinary objects in The Alice's collection. Many of the objects he had gathered, including an Old Wedgwood collection, were donated to The Art Institute of Chicago. The Alice and The Art Institute each own one of a pair of matching flower vases once owned by Mr. Gunsaulus. He had originally donated both to The Art Institute, yet then removed one from their collection to give to Alice. They are Wedgwood jasperware vases described by Mrs. Hodge as; "Flower Holder. Light blue jasper with white figures in low relief of children playing blind man's buff. Classic borders and octagonal base with geometric border in white low relief. Circa 1785. From the Frank W. Gunsaulus Collection of 'Old Wedgwood' in The Art Institute of Chicago."

The Wedgwood jasperware flower holder at The Art Institute of Chicago,

photo used with permission.

The jasperware flower vase in The Alice collection.

There is truly something for everyone in this Wedgwood exhibit: from teapots to sculptures, plates to flower vases - with a variety of glazes - from wonderful green glaze, to black basalt, or merely "plain" white glaze. There are Queen's ware, jasperware, Flo Blue, daisies, cucumber leaves, cauliflower and crocus... I can see Emma Hodge, Frank Gunsaulus and Alice Miner gathered around the dining table admiring these beautifully made and lovingly collected objects. Come to The Alice, squint your eyes a bit, and find out if you can see those folks too... Or just come to enjoy the collection!

Gazing into the Future... and Other Rites of Passage

High school graduation is often the first significant secular ritual in the lives of young Americans. There are other rituals in which we may participate earlier in life - we celebrate birthdays, observe family traditions, we participate in religious ceremonies and rites... but walking across the stage, reaching out to shake the Principal's hand while claiming one's diploma is a distinctly individual accomplishment... It's a moment we have earned - and an important rite of passage.

The term "Rite of Passage" was coined by anthropologist Arnold van Gennep, and was the title of his 1909 book. He stated that passage rituals consist of three stages: Separation (from society), then Transformation, and finally - Return to society with New Status.

As I learn more about Chazy Central Rural School and it's traditions I have admired how they have managed to retain many of their traditions from the very early days of the school. There are numerous rituals CCRS students experience, either directly or as observers, over the course of their years at Chazy. In just a few weeks I hope to attend Class Day, which is a Rite of Passage for Juniors, and a very powerful ritual and Rite of Passage for graduating Seniors.

At The Alice we have a wonderful mercury glass gazing ball that has been in the collection since the 1920s. I think of rites of passage when I see the gazing ball in the first floor hall. For a number of years this object was used on Class Day to predict the future of graduating Seniors.



The story goes that William and Alice Miner's employee, John M. Maslowski, and another worker from Heart's Delight Farm would drive to The Alice T. Miner Museum, collect the gazing ball from the Director/Curator, drive around to CCRS (as Mr. Maslowski held the gazing ball gently in the back seat,) and deliver it to the auditorium stage - returning the object to the museum in the same careful way after the ceremony. For those of you who have not been to The Alice - walking with the object over to our neighboring school would have taken about the same amount of time - but was not considered a safe enough mode of delivery, I presume!

Mercury glass is not actually made with mercury, but is clear glass blown with a double wall and coated inside with a silvering formula inserted through the hole left by the punty rod (the rod attached to the glass while it is being blown.) The hole is then plugged and the object is complete!

This method of producing mercury glass was developed in Germany in the early 19th century and was used as an inexpensive type of silver substitute - one that would not tarnish. Many candlesticks, doorknobs, vases, sugar bowls, goblets, and gazing balls were produced using this method. One method of production did incorporate the use of mercury, but it was found to be too toxic and more expensive than the more popular lining.

Critics of mercury glass felt it looked too much like a mirror and not enough like silver - but proponents liked it for this very reason. And, any thief could tell when they were looking at inexpensive mercury glass, and not at silver!

These days Alice's mercury glass gazing ball tells no tales at CCRS of future conquests. It merely sits in a quiet corner of the hall until Christmas decorating time, when it often comes out to be graced by a garland and placed on a windowsill for maximum effect. Yet if one were to visit our museum and pause to gaze into it, oh the tales it might yield of both the past, and one's bright future!

An Ode to the Farmer and the Harvest

We have often seen a bumper sticker that says, "No Farms No Food." This may be interpreted in a few different ways, but - as have other professions - the farming community has been advertising its contributions to society for hundreds of years. As tools used on the farm have evolved, so have the methods of keeping the farmers' perspective fresh in the minds of the consuming public.

"Arms" Jug ca. 1800

We have just a few objects in the museum collection that would be used on the farm - a scythe or two, a beautiful hay rake, and milk collecting jugs. The museum also houses some interesting farm propaganda tools. The most charming is a two-handled mug (or jug as it would have been referred to) made around 1800. As mugs go, this one is large - holding approximately 32 ounces. The white exterior is decorated in polychrome colors and illustrated on one side with a farmer and his wife, various farm implements, animals and crops. On the opposite side is a twelve-line poem surrounded by a border of farm tools and products. The inside rim of our mug is decorated in a simple stylized design of wheat stalks and green leaves.

Book label pasted on the inside front cover of the above book. Alice and
William often had labels on the books kept at Heart's Delight Farm.

This style of jug was originally made by Richard Abbey (1720-1801) in Liverpool, England. Our copy of "The Old China Book" by N. Hudson Moore, published in 1903, mentions this was one of a series of "Arms" jugs created by Abbey. The museum copy of this book is well worn and has the Heart's Delight Farm library label pasted inside the front cover. This indicates it was one of Alice's personal reference books. Many of her tomes in the museum collection are reference books about decorative arts. Alice clearly wanted to know as much as she could about the objects she was collecting.

According to Moore there are Arms jugs for many professions; including the Blacksmith, with the motto "By Hammer and Hand All Arts Do Stand," the Baker, the Butcher, and even the Hatter. The motto on the Farmer's jug is "The Husbandman's Diligence Provides Bread." The lines on the back of the jug read;

"Let the wealthy and great
Roll in splendour and state.
I envy them not I declare it.
I eat my own lamb
My own chickens and ham.
I shear my own fleece and I wear it.
I have lawns I have bowers
I have fruits I have flowers.
The lark is my morning alarmer:
So my jolly boys now
Heres God speed the plough.
Long life and success to the farmer."

This poem has been used for many years in songs and odes under various titles: "The Farmer's Toast," "God Speed the Plough," and "The Farmer's Creed" being a few we have identified. It may have been borrowed from a popular song of the day, however, it's unclear to us which came first. The originator of the Arms mugs was a talented engraver who may have drawn on popular sayings or songs for the poem to support his design.

According to museum records this jug has been in Alice's collection since before 1917. That is the year Alice's dear friend and fellow collector, Emma Hodge, wrote a catalog of her porcelain collection. Undoubtedly, being the advocate he was for farmers and their hard working ways, William Miner also appreciated the sentiment this jug bears!

And so, in honor of the harvest which feeds us through the winter months, "Long life and success to the farmer!"

Carved in Stone... Cast in Bronze

I recently visited the cemetery in Chazy where Alice and William Miner are interred. Also buried at Riverview are William Miner's grandparents, Lydia and Clement Miner, and his Aunt Huldah and Uncle John Miner, who raised him after his parents died (Will's mother and father are buried in Wisconsin and Ohio respectively.) Entombed in the mausoleum with Alice and William is their infant child, William Miner, Jr., and Alice's three sisters Matilda, Bertha and Louise Trainer.

A note, written by William Miner in 1925, served to secure

the area for the Miner/Trainer mausoleum.

Riverview Cemetery was incorporated in 1920 but has been continually in use since 1811, possibly earlier. The land, and a few of the homes around the old cemetery, were purchased by William H. Miner in 1916, and he deeded the cemetery and one house to Riverview Cemetery, Inc. in 1920. In 1926 Alice and William built the stone chapel and in 1927 the mausoleum. The plans were drawn up by Frederick Townsend, the architect who designed The Alice T. Miner Museum, Chazy Central Rural School, Physicians' Hospital and many of the buildings on Heart's Delight Farm.

The earliest plans, drawn up by Townsend in 1918,
depict a rather stately structure.

Frederick Townsend's final drawing shows a more rustic building...
The Alice holds the sketches for the mausoleum, the
stone chapel and the museum in its archives.

For the first time I had the opportunity to see the inside of the mausoleum, a solidly built stone structure... I found the workmanship on the interior absolutely breath-taking, which was a surprise after studying the somewhat plain exterior of the building. The mausoleum is entered through a bronze gate with the initials "T M" which is repeated along with a bronze wreath inlaid in the marble floor.

As with all of the Miner structures,
the mausoleum was clearly built to last.

The plaque placed above the door to the mausoleum is inscribed with the
names of the members of the Trainer and Miner families interred within.

The interior of the mausoleum is beautifully decorated with mosaic tiles carefully handset in artistic designs, and seven colors of polished marble are arranged for the floor. The walls feature inlaid glass tile borders which are repeated throughout the space. The back wall is decorated with marble that was cut and then laid out as though unfolding a piece of paper, creating interesting rorschach images. The most interesting, yet subtle, image is just above a pink marble urn in the rear of the chamber. The urn may have been filled with fresh cut flowers from Heart's Delight Farm.

In the rear of the chamber, above a stained glass window, an
intertwined 'T' and 'M' are framed with a mosaic border.

The tiles used in the borders appear to be hand cut and are quite small - none larger than one inch. The room has a lovely domed ceiling with a glass and bronze light fixture. Clearly the best artisans available at the time were hired to create the lovely detail and lasting workmanship displayed is this final resting place for Alice T. Miner (1863-1950), William H. Miner (1862-1930), William Jr. (March 16, 1902 - March 30, 1902), Matilda Trainer (1851-1916), Bertha Trainer (1857-1928), and Louise Trainer (1861-1932).

Alice & Her Family

Alice T. Miner was from a very large family by today's standards. I have found conflicting reports on how many children her parents, Bernard Trainer and Louisa Saunders Trainer had, but there were ten or twelve children born from 1850 - 1868 (Alice in 1863.) One would expect that such a large brood would carry on to this day, perhaps contracting slightly with the changing times. And wouldn't it be interesting to have visits from the grandchildren and great grandchildren of Alice's siblings?

As far as I know, there have been no such visits since Alice passed away in 1950, that is, until 2007. That summer The Alice had a surprise visit from Helen Highley Matel and her family. Mrs. Matel visited with me long enough to tour the museum, a place she remembers visiting as a girl, but she does not live nearby and had not been to Chazy since the year Mrs. Miner passed away. The family connection is through Helen's grandfather, James Saunders Trainer, who was Alice Trainer Miner's older brother. James and his wife, Hannah, had one child, Helen Trainer Highley, Helen Highley Matel's mother.

James Saunders Trainer

It has been very interesting to continue a correspondence with Helen Highley Matel via email. Knowing that Helen was descended from Alice's brother I asked if she could send information about who he was, when he was born, what he looked like... The museum has photographs of Alice and a few of her sisters; Matilda, Bertha, and Louisa, but not one photo of her brothers; Bernard, James and William.

Helen Trainer Highley, Helen H. Matel's mother

What I received from Helen in return really surpassed all of my expectations! In late January I picked up a heavy padded envelope from the Post Office sent from Helen Highley Matel. I eagerly opened the parcel and was delighted to find a note from Helen and nearly thirty portraits of Saunders and Trainer family members, most of which I had never before seen! The following photo is the least formal of the collection, the rest seem to be studio portraits taken in Canada and the U.S.

Alice Trainer Miner, ca. 1898 near Chicago

At last some faces for a few of Alice's brothers, and some real surprises - three photographs of James Saunders (1792-1879) and a few with his wife, Jane Woolocott Saunders. James was Alice's grandfather who brought his family over from Crediton, England to Goderich, Ontario when Alice's mother was just a child. Goderich is where Alice and her siblings were born.

James and Jane Saunders

I had seen James Saunders face many times, in a painted portrait in the formal dining room of the museum. Now we are trying to determine if Jane's face is the same one looking out at us from a painted portrait in the collection that has previously remained unidentified.

Helen included a few rather romantic photographs of Alice, Bertha, and Matilda that I had never seen. Note the letter in Matilda's lap... She was the oldest child and raised Alice and her siblings after the loss of their parents.

Matilda Trainer, Alice's oldest sibling

Bertha Trainer, also older than Alice


William Trainer who was just a few years younger than Alice

In the accompanying correspondence Helen Highley Matel says she remembers meeting William Trainer once when she was very young. William was a pharmacist, scientist, civil servant, and author in Canada, the one person in Alice T. Miner's immediate family about whom you can find information on the internet.

The last photo I'd like to share is one of Alice at approximately age 15. She has very heavy bangs that make her look as though she has short hair - an unusual style for a girl at the time - but you can see what appears to be a thick braid of hair going behind her back. This is the youngest photo we have of Alice, note those light blue eyes... Many of the Trainer children have the very light eyes we have seen for years in photographs of Alice.

Alice Trainer Miner, ca. 1878

I'll leave you with some of Helen Highley Matel's recollections of her family,

"I do remember visiting Heart's Delight Farm when I was a little girl, probably twice it must have been in the late 30's or 1940. We drove up to Chazy from Medford during spring vacation, my mother, father and sister. Seward (Helen's brother) only remembers going once, he probably was too little the first time we went. We had to be old enough to behave properly in a formal setting. It was very exciting for us, my sister and I (to) be in such luxurious surroundings. I remember Aunt Alice as being a rather portly lady, of whom I was in awe..."

A Family Returns...

In the first week of August we were visited by a family with a connection to William H. Miner that stretches back to his childhood in the 1870s. Descendants of Carrie Eudora 'Dora' Oliver Simonds came to The Alice to tour the museum and reconnect with their ancestors. The family ties between Dora and Will are a little murky... but Dora was like a sister to Will.

Dora, Aunt Huldah, Will and Uncle John, ca. 1877

William H. Miner was orphaned by the time he was 10 years old. His step-mother wished to return to her native Scotland and take young Will with her, but his family feared losing him forever and he was sent to Chazy to be raised on the family farm. The couple who took him in - Aunt Huldah and Uncle John Miner, had no children of their own but were already raising their niece, Carrie Eudora Oliver. Dora and Will were close in age and kept in contact with each other throughout their lives.

When I began learning the story of Will Miner I heard about Dora and marveled at the kindness of Huldah and John, raising these two orphaned children with a combination of strong love and strong discipline. The only photo of Dora I knew of was the one shown above. I had no idea what she looked like, and did not know what became of her.

Through my work on the archives at Miner Institute I found unusual photos of the Simonds family. They stood out simply because they were portraits, with names written on the negatives. The majority of photos in the archives are of scenery, buildings and animals on Heart's Delight Farm. A very small percentage are photos of people, and even fewer of those actually name the persons pictured. But I did not know who the Simonds family were, or what connection they might have had to the Miner family.

A great-granddaughter of Dora, Diane, sent me three photos after she visited The Alice, along with some writings done by her grandmother, Anna Simonds and Anna's older sister Eva. These writings and photos have connected some seemingly unrelated fragments in the archives and have been very exciting for me! First, of course, is the name Simonds, Dora's married name. I had not known that I was looking at portraits of Dora's children (these two photos are from the Miner Institute archives)...

Diane sent three photos of Dora and a photograph of Huldah as a young woman. Finally I could see what Dora looked like! It was also wonderful to see Huldah when she was in her prime, I had only seen her photos taken after Will started building Heart's Delight Farm, when he was in his forties and Aunt Huldah was a gray haired senior.

Not only was that first photograph the only one I had ever seen (knowingly) of Dora, but also the only one I had seen of Uncle John, until this one sent by Diane:

Dora, Uncle John, and Aunt Huldah, ca. 1867

The photograph of Dora that really connected the dots for me is the one that gave me a first look at Dora's face. Note those pursed lips...

Carrie Eudora 'Dora' Oliver, ca. 1881

There was a portrait in the archives of a handsome family that I had been intrigued by... It did not show William and Alice, Aunt Huldah, or any of the few others I had seen formal portraits of... this was a family, perhaps three generations. But with no name on the negative... how frustrating to not know who they were! Until I looked closely at those pictured, and that is when I noticed Dora!

Dora is the woman seated on the left... and could that be Aunt Huldah next to her?

The Simonds family lived with Aunt Huldah for a few years and this portrait may have been taken at that time. Diane and I assumed that it was likely captured around 1893, based on the ages of the children. Anna Simonds had not yet been born (she was Diane's grandmother, born in 1902) but Eva is there, and she was born in 1889. Eva is the child sitting on Dora's lap.

One of the photos I shared with Diane was a real treat for her because she had known Eva Simonds, who lived well into her nineties, because Eva shared a home with Anna in their elder years. Diane and her siblings visited with them when they were children.

Eva & Anna Simonds

The last photograph to share is one of Dora Oliver Simonds taken in 1942. The way she held her mouth seems just the same in all three adult photographs. To me, the most important lesson in these discoveries is how necessary it is to write names on photographs, we cannot assume that later generations will know who everyone is by sight!

Dora Oliver Simonds, 1942

The narrative pieces Diane sent to me have also been incredibly valuable. Although some of the memories are faulty, there are a few wonderful insights into peoples lives. Anna Simonds seems to have had very accurate memories of William H. Miner and of the people who worked at Heart's Delight Farm. But it is Eva's recollection of the first time she met Alice T. Miner that I really enjoyed,

"I was about eight years old when I first remember seeing this boy now grown into fine manhood. My family was living with Aunt Huldah and he came to spend his honeymoon.

I think she was the prettiest girl I had ever seen. Light golden hair, beautiful blue eyes the color of the sky and it was June, the year was about 1896. (Alice and William were married in 1895). I remember her blouse; the sleeves were large at the top and tight at the forearm and wrist. Her skirt was long and with wide gores like my mother's. She was the youngest of the four sisters Mathilda, Louisa, Bertha and Alice."