"Family Stories" by Elizabeth Marie Goodermote Barrows, G-granddaughter of Jesse Goodermote
I have a few stories and I am sure I will remember more as I think of them. I have heard these stories from my dad and from his cousins when I went to the family reunion last summer and plan to go this summer when they decide to have it again. The first thing to let you know that Charles and Wealthy's son Jesse married Esther Milhizer and they ended up getting the Milhizer farm in Poestenkill, (Rensselaer Co.) New York which I pass all the time. It is quite rundown on the outside but inside has been remodeled over the past few years. My great uncle Bert and great aunt Elaine live there now. The farm was bought for $1600.00 in 1912. The Guthermuth's or Goodermote's came to America in the 1860's from Germany.
I was told mostly of Jesse and Esther , how Jesse cut ice in the winter and burned down trees and turned it into coal. The coal pit where he used to do that is now Cherry Plain State Park. I have been to the coal pit which is now a mile hike to see it. Jesse grew up in Berlin and his brother owned the general store. Occasionally he would help him. Jesse liked his white wine. Jesse met Esther or sometimes written Esteor, in a dancehall across from the church on the corner which you cant miss if you drive up there. The dancehall building is still there and is now someone's house. Esteor got her license to drive and turned it in 1920-1930's and never told anyone she could drive. I guess that it was not proper. Jesse was a old fashion German man. His fields were plowed with horses and not by tractors of the day and always dressed very proper in suits from the 1920's. His grandchildren saw him as kind of strict but caring. Esteor was a proper women and together they ran the farm and had a large family.
I met Irma sister to Jesse at the family reunion. She was a frail old women married to a frail old man. She could remember her brothers and sisters names and the names of her aunts and grandparents. She became quiet and looked out to nowhere and seemed sad to remember. She is the only one left of that generation.1129