The Church

My great-grandparents on my mother’s side lived in Hoosick Falls, Rensselaer County, New York for some portion of their married life, and are buried there. They appear on the 1880 census in Chatham, and in 1900 in Hoosick Falls, so they arrived in Hoosick Falls sometime between those dates.

They were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Hoosick Falls, and one of my goals on my trip to New York was to attend church in that building myself.

The Methodist and Presbyterian church joined together some years ago, and use the building as their home today; the congregation is called First United Church, Presbyterian.

The building is beautiful, and I noticed the heavy wooden doors my mother had remembered and told me about. I attended the service with my first cousin, once removed who lives in Hoosick Falls. She is a wonderful lady, who has been very gracious since I wrote her several years ago. She remembered my mother as a small child, and was the only person connected with that family who even knew who Mom was.

My great-grandparents, Orlando William Palmer and Libbie Winn were the parents of five children, Nellie E., 1875-1890; Lillian S., 1878-1888; Edwin Ernest, 1884-1943; my grandmother, Helen Lois, 1891-1966; and her twin, Hazel Sarah, 1891-1947. A window in the church honors Lillian, and I especially wanted to see that again.

My visit to the church was a reminder that we do stand on the shoulders of those who come before, and a concrete reminder that they were here on this earth. It is especially meaningful to me, since I never met any of my mother’s family until I found the cousin I mentioned.