Martha Parsons Remembers-Part II

When the fire started, we three Parsons girls were at the little one room school on Terry Road. One of the boys thought he saw 'something' and got permission to sharpen his pencil so he could go to the window, enabling him to report a fire to the east. At first it was thought to be Babcock's barn on fire, Babcock's being the only buildings between the school and the Parsons farm at that time. The children begged to go to the fire and after much persuasion the teacher, Miss Allen, agreed, providing the children would promise to stay back from it. However, as soon as they saw it was the Parsons barn, the older boys, my cousin Herbert Parsons among them, raced to the fire, and my sister Grace followed. When Miss Allen tried to call her back, she said, with great emphasis, "I'm going home to comfort my mother."

Our Grandmother Parsons brick house about a quarter mile to the west [today, this is the Jim & Susan Jerome place...still in the family] was vacant, so our family lived there for the winter while the new house and barn were built on practically the same foundation as the old ones.

In the 1930s the old barn was demolished to make way for the houses on newly built Parsons Drive. The house still stands. [Corner of Parsons Drive and W. Genesee.]

Where there were open fields and orchards when I was a girl and young woman there are streets lined with houses, changing the whole area from farmlands to a Syracuse Suburb called Westvale.

Dear Readers~ If you have any knowledge of events or people around this time in Westvale, we would love to hear from you. Send your stories privately to the list moderator, or post as a comment to this posting, or any of the other postings that may jog your memory. Again, we would love to hear from you.