Spencers Towne

Charlie's mother was a Spencer from New York.  As with his paternal ancestors, his maternal ancestors arrived in North America in the 1600's.  We decided that during this trip we would drive to Spencertown, New York, to visit the place where his third, fourth, and fifth great-grandfathers lived.  Spencers Towne is now the borough of Spencertown within the town of Austerlitz.

Prior to our trip Charlie tried to connect via email with a Spencertown local involved with the historical society.  That didn't work out but our visit was more fruitful.  As we were exploring the area we came across the Malay Center, named after the town's Nobel Prize winning poet.  We were lucky enough to arrive at the center while an open-hearth cooking exposition was taking place.  Best of all, Charlie was given the contact information of the historical society expert to contact for information about the Spencertown's early settlers.

We walked through Spencertown Cemetery, circa 1760, located behind the Presbyterian Church.  We were only able to find one grave stone from the 1700's, that of Elizabeth Spencer who died in 1764.  I don't know what sort of stone her grave marker is carved from but it, and others from the same stone, has stood the test of time and remains easily readable. 










We stayed at a private campground nearby.  The campground itself was fine, but we were still irritated.  Firstly, we were told at check-in that it would cost us an extra $3 per day if we wanted to run our air conditioner.  Charlie asked and was told that even running a fan would cost the $3 fee.  I wonder what that works out to in dollars per kilowatt!  Then we awoke to a flat tire on the Ford.  Charlie changed it and we set out to find a local garage to fix the tire. 





We found a small garage owned by a fellow Charlie described as a gear head.  After the tire repair, Charlie toured the garage that held a fabulous collections of beautiful old cars, many of which were British sports cars - Charlie's favorite.  While he was doing that, I chatted with the nice woman who was busy detailing a car wearing cute wedge shoes and a fun necklace.  I liked that!

 They directed us to Dan's Diner, where we had breakfast.  The diner had been totally restored by Dan, right down to the ice box (now refrigerated).  We had a great time sitting at the counter listening to the locals gossip and joke with one another, even if my omelet was over-cooked.