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Remembering Grace Fenno

by

Helena Howard

Grace L. Fenno was Sarah Perry Fenno's second daughter. Grace Fenno never married and lived nearly all of her life in Altay. She wrote on the title page of her manuscript Cuttings from Sara on Life's Adventure by Grace L. Fenno of Matthew-Malvina Perry Family.

I believe everything that Grace wrote about her mother's childhood. Sarah would have found a way to have fun wherever she was. The house where Sarah was born must have stood just west of Altay on the south side of Rt. 226 across from the Parker's house that she mentions.

When I was a little girl, I would go along whenever Dad had an errand at the Fenno's. It was a wonderful place. There was always a project of some kind in the making. I remember a party, when they opened up the entire house. I had never seen the company rooms, as the two women used just a common room and 2 bedrooms. The party was a grand success, and during the evening Grace took all the young people upstairs and opened trunks of clothes and we all dressed up as different characters and then paraded through the house.

At other times the two women would set up a printing press and print books and papers they had written.

They made, or I should say remade all their clothes. Aunt Sarah, as everyone called her, had a basic little gray hat, but every season it sported a different flower or veil and nothing could hide the glint and smile in her eyes.

They never wanted to be indebted to anyone, and never took anything from anyone, even a ride to Church. We went right by their house, but Grace would say "No, thanks" to an offer of a ride and continue to walk.

This was during farm depression times when it was very hard for two women to make a living on a farm. There was always the smell of beans cooking as there was always a large pot cooking for the stock and animals.

However, there were things on the farm that the ladies could not handle. Cows had to be bred. It was for things like this that Dad would receive a post card. I wish I could remember the ways that they would delicately put the situation. You had to know what they wanted to understand the message. Dad and my brother Carl would take our bull over and turn him into their pasture. The bull was very friendly. I have pictures of Dad and Carl riding him along the road. Carl had to hold his feet up to keep them from dragging. They said it was best to feed him before starting out, because if he put his head down to get a bite you were going over his head, there was nothing to hang on to.

There were many tales of the livestock that the women raised; their animals never saw men. Both Grace and Aunt Sarah always wore dresses, and had very soft voices. When they did sell a cow it took a lot of gentle persuasion to move out of the barn such an animal who had never before been near a man. In one case an animal became so frightened that its new owner had to have it butchered.

Old Altay Store

On April 1, 1870, Geo. Clark and his wife sold the store to Lewis and Ansyl Littell. They also bought the boot and shoe shop west of the store and the tannery south of the store of F. W. Littell and Co. April 5, 1875, Ansyl Littell and wife sold out their share of the store to Lewis Littell and his wife, Millicent. In October, 1883, Lewis Littell and his wife sold the store to Frank H. Fenno and his wife, Sarah.

The dates 1819 - 1899 appeared on the building, but it was probably built in 1848. Daniel Childs Jr. opened the first store in 1819 at Altay, then known as Kendall Hollow, sometimes called Sap Tub Hollow, and Tobehanna, when the post office came in 1861.

By 1822 the store was a stage stop on John Magee's line between Bath and Jefferson (now Watkins Glen). Subsequent storekeepers were Shepherd and Jackson, Jackson and Clark, George Clark and Son, Lewis and Ansyl Littell, then Lewis Littell, and in 1883, Frank and Sarah Fenno. They purchased the store for $1700. After Frank Fenno died in 1892, the Clark family took charge of running the store and the peddle wagon which was a part of the business. The store went out of business in 1899 but Grace Fenno continued to live in the residence part of the store building. Sarah Fenno lived there with her daughter the last years of her life.

The store part of the building was moved to the Genesee Country Museum in 1970 and the exterior restored. The shelves and counters were intact and are now stocked with goods that correspond to the merchandise listed in the records of the 1840s, 50s and 60s that were found in the attic.

When I was little, Grace once took me into her rooms and let me look into the store area through a connecting doorway. The furnishings were there just as they had been when they had finished the last day of business. I can remember seeing bolts of cloth, scales, and a lot of merchandise.

The last time I visited with Grace she was staying again in the living quarters of the store. The Fenno place had been in poor condition for many years, and nothing had been done to the building at the time Grace moved back. She was glad to see my sister Dot and me, but before she offered us a chair she tested the floor and made sure each chair was placed where a supporting beam was underneath. Then we sat and had a wonderful visit. She was happy to be back where she was born.

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