The average driver in the passing parade of vehicles on Latta Road can’t help but notice the stately brick farmhouse on a slight rise, not far east of Dewey Avenue. For more than 160 years, the farm and house would be known at “the Fleming Place.” Joseph Fleming was the first of the family to purchase the property in 1853 and completed the double-wall, brick farmhouse in 1854. Successive Flemings inherited the farm and buildings; Joseph E. Fleming was the last, giving up farming in 1955 and selling off acreage for street development. The Town of Greece designated the Fleming House a town landmark in 2013.
Are we getting off track? What about the milk pail and photo album? Recently our museum was offered a milk pail (or milk bucket or dairy pail is correct) that was found in the basement of the cow barn on the Fleming farm prior to it demolition in 2008. That intrigued me, since the Flemings had milk cows at least since the 1890s. At one point they had about 25 in the herd. The cows were only one part of the operation. They had goats, pigs, and chickens, plus a kitchen garden for the family. Fruit trees and an occasional nut tree rounded out the collection.
Now the photo album! That was even more intriguing to me personally. Last year one of our members (a history buff and collector) contacted us that he had purchased a vintage photo album that had once belonged to Joseph E. Fleming of 985 Latta Road. It is from about a five-year period from 1916 to about 1921 when Joseph was a teen. The album is now 100 years old and still in good condition. The covers are leather with a small metal emblem in the center with his initials. The nearly 140 photos are various sizes, the greater part being 2″x3″ size. Obviously, it was Joe’s first camera, as he photographed everything around the farm and a bit beyond. The grandparents, mom, dad, cousins, friends, and horses, pigs, goats and favorite cow, plus his dog “Shepi” are all there. Many carry a title or quip in white ink, but just as many of the close family members are not identified. Why bother … everyone knew who they were!
My personal interest is that the tract I live in was part of the Fleming apple orchard. Until 2011, I could look across the street and see the red barn and silo, now gone. The milk pail will soon take its place in our museum agricultural exhibit and the album photos are now scanned and the album is preserved in a special archival box in our archives to remind future generations of farming life in Greece many years ago.
