Truck Farming on Stone Road – The Thomas Farm

Seventeen-year-old WIi­liam J. Thomas immi­grated to Greece from Cheddar, Somerset County, England, in 1882. The following year, he purchased 11 acres of farmland on Stone Road, not far west of the intersection of Eddy Road (now Mt. Read. Boulevard).

At that time, the average size of a Greece farm was less than 100 acres, only rarely exceeding 200 or more acres.

By the late 19th century, Greece farmers were principally raising root vegetables, such as car­rots, beets, turnips, parsnips, etc. Some farms with larger acreage had apple and peach orchards as well

The Thomas farm had a large greenhouse, kept warm by hot water piping, the heat coming from a coal-fired boiler. Here, early spring crops such as radishes were raised.

A large root cellar (an insulated building, partly underground) stored the root vegetables through the winter. Gradually, these vegetables were, taken to market all through the non-growing season.

Several times a week, the horse-drawn wagon (shown in the circa 1912 photo with William at the reins) would be loaded with produce and taken to the public market or sev­eral wholesalers in Rochester. The wagon left at 4 am for the market, and the wagon and driver often did not return until early afternoon.

By the late 1930s, tractors were replacing horses for farm work, and by the 1950s, horse-drawn equip­ment and wagons were completely gone.

Through the years, more farmland was added to Thomas’ original 11 acres, and his three sons con­tinued to operate the farm after their father’s death in 1938.

By the 1960s, however, it was apparent that a moder­ately large-sized farm could no longer be profit­able in Greece. After more than 65 years, farming finally ended on the Thomas property in 1960.

By 1963, the land had been sold to developers.

Similar to the majority of former farms in Greece, only the sturdy 2½-story farmhouse remains, shielded from the road by tall shrubs. These farm­ houses remain as ghosts of an important era in local history.

Photos of the Thomas farm from Mr. Frank Thomas, the grandson of Willam Thomas.

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Back to School in 1911 – From the Historian’s Desk

As the Greece kid of 1911 were headed for the first day of school It doubtful if they were singing a popular song of the day, “School Days”. The refrain asks one to “take a trip on memory’s ship back to the bygone days” – “sail to the old village school… The chorus follow after a few more lines with “School days, school days, dear old golden rule days” -“readin’ and ‘ritin’ and ‘rithmetic – taught to the tune of a hickory stick”.

The cover for the sheet music "School Days" by Cobb & Edwards.

The cover for the sheet music “School Days” by Cobb & Edwards.

District school # 17 at Latta Rd. N.E. of Long Pond Rd. still stands there.

Already the small, sometimes cramped, one room school was seen as an object of noatollga. But the one or two room school was still thenorm for Greece. In the late 19th century Greece had almost nineteen seperate school districts, each with one school. The village of Charlotte had a two story brick grammar school built In the 1870’s and a new high school had been opened in 1908.

A four-year high school education was not what a farm child would expect. Eight grades were considered enough with perhaps two years of further education. Farm boys often went right from the eighth grade to work on the farm or employment with the ever-expanding company on Lake Avenue at Ridge Road, The Eastman Kodak Company. The extra income helped the farm family to survive The teachers, usually, women, were sometimes hard to supply for still rural sections of Greece. She taught all eight grades unless the school was a newer two-room building. Then two teachers would split the grades between them. It was expected a teacher would leave her position if she married. In addition to the three “R’s” of what was considered the basics in the 19th century, there was added Geography, English grammar, world, national and local history. Several of the early one-room schools were replaced with four or six-room schools, and they often had central heat plus electric lighting. Gone were the coal stove In the center of the room and a few wall-bracket Kerosene lamps.

1908 Charlotte High School with the 1869 Grammar School behind. The Roch. Fire Dept. now stands there.
District School Number 9 with a larger class size in front of the school
Lane’s Corner, Joint School District No. 14

Though it was evident that larger and more adequate schools were needed It took another almost twenty years before the start of consolidating school districts began in Greece. By World War Two few of the old district schools were left. The last few were gone by the early 1950s.

Our museum exhibit of a mall one room school gives a fair approximation of a school room of the early 1900’s. You brought your lunch and ate at your desk or outdoors. Drinking water was from a nearby well. The privy was well away from the well and the school. The long desks with several students In a row on a long bench had given away to the Improved individual desks by the 1900″s. Sports, were usually simple games, or a rude baseball diamond was fashioned on a plot of relatively flat ground. Each district school had textbooks and a small library. These were the property of the district. Writing on or defacing a book was not tolerated and parents were often assessed for such damage.

Frisbee Hill on the ground of the Frisbee Family
Jane’s Road

Some of the venerable school building were converted long ago to business or private dwellings, while others just vanished. Few Greece resident’s of today can boast that they attended a small village school of fewer than four rooms.

Frederick Lay’s Two Room School #11 at N.W. corner of W. Ridge Rd. & Mt Read Blvd.
Class photo of District #11, located on Ridge Road (where Home Depot is currently located), 1906. William Britton is far left, back row.

Photos, Data supplied by Alan Mueller, Greece Historian’s Office, Greece Historical Society. A full look at the Common School Districts of Greece New York is now available to look at in the following two Bicentennial Snapshots:

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