A federally funded project designed to replace a bridge and culvert over Route 97 near Utley Road has led to a discovery of a gnome family, their home, and working gristmill dating back to 1682.
As construction began in November, Department of Transportation (DOT) workers had difficulty completing simple tasks, as some of their tools mysteriously disappeared and a portion of the previous days’ work was sabotaged. Cameras placed around the project led to sporadic sightings of a gnome family, and finally of a well-camouflaged, but fully working gristmill.
After weeks of careful negotiation, involving members of the Governor’s office, a deal was struck to move the Ebenezar Bakker Button Family up a 1/2 mile to a well-fitting niche at the Pribble’s recently reconstructed dam. Ebenezar’s wife, Eliza (Hammond) has already made fast friends with famed bakers Laurie Pribble and Trent Montgomery’s Little River Bakery with fine flours for their specialty products.
After learning of the nature of the project, Ebenezar was inclined to help the DOT, as he had worked many years to help stabilize the bank. With this winter’s torrential rains, destabilizing the hillside’s stones and gravel, he was tempted to give up and move. “We’ve spent almost two hundred years here. This was my mother’s father’s mill. When he came here from Holland, he made fast friends with the Nipmuck, as they observed him as a respectful steward who would keep the water clean, and have a good product to trade. They were also greatly appreciative of my mother, who helped their medicine people discover and make natural remedies to help with the small pox that the English brought.”
“This winter has been especially hard on the wildlife, and those living in Fuller Brook. Just yesterday, Eliza and I had to make a warming waterlily broth for the frogs.”
Asked about his longevity in Town, Ebenezar demurred, but slyly commented, “it’s in the water”. Continuing about his experiences with Town characters, he regaled this Gazette writer with historical insights and fond memories of those who made a difference.
Eliza gently reminded him to mention the ones they had helped and those who had helped their family in kind.
“Well, there were those nice women up the road who had trouble with that fellow building that big place on the hill. He was a nasty one. He used to follow them around threatening them with his walking stick. We got him good one night—set the stick into the horsehair wall and covered it with plaster. He kept complaining, but they finally got the better of him.”
Eliza remembered the many kind farmers who would share their harvests and recipes: “One special evening, I brought my mother’s diary with me down to the Loew Farm. Eva was milking one of their more difficult bossies, a big girl with one horn named Octavia. I poured a little Valerian tincture into the hay in front of her. After a snort of that she settled down. It was lovely of Eva to help me translate some of my mother’s letters from the German. What a surprise when we found a little ditty from Muti’s dear friend, Wolfie, a wild joker and musician who died too young.”
Eliza continued, wagging her finger at her husband playfully: “And then there was the time Andy Woodward saved your bacon when you decided it might be fun to slide in the mud down to the pond and almost ended up as goose feed!”
“Not true!”, growled Ebenezar, “I slipped when I was trying to fix the waterwheel.”
“Pish-posh,” snapped Eliza, her face softening with a smile. “They were good neighbors, the Woodwards, we loved watching the boys grow up and helping Mrs. Woodward with her poultry. She taught all of my children to read, write, and do their math in her kitchen.”
“Speaking of schoolteachers,” Eliza continued, “That Catherine Ameer girl was Some-thing! She could play almost everything, and even if she couldn’t we thought she could! Remember when the neck to your fiddle cracked and you thought the world was going to end? She sent you right over to that charming Mr. Davis and his smiling Alison. All fixed and we had a proper little party to celebrate on the porch there looking out on their fields, making music and listening to the cows across the way.”
“So many people”, Ebenezar recalled fondly. “I remember when little Peggy Marcus (Fox) first found us after school was out, and wanted to take us home to play with her cat. We had a hard time convincing her it was not a good idea. The people who moved there after were good, too. Edwin and Nellie were always sharing their stories with us”.
“Hampton has been good to us,” offered Ebenezar. “There have been some tough times, but we’ve had good neighbors, especially some of the more colorful ones! We’re looking forward to our new home at Little River Farm, Paul has already drawn up plans for the move and a home under the waterfall better than Frank Lloyd Wright’s! We’ll miss our gracious neighbor, Arlene Becker always with good cheer when she pops out to feed her birds. But it just might be a faster ride down to get maple syrup at Bright Acres. Now where’s my kayak?”
Mary Oliver