OLD HOMESTEAD 



In the year 1899, my brother John and m3^self were visiting 

 the old homestead. We discovered that the then tenant had 

 broken into the old mound at the upper ashery and had found, 

 after going through the turf, that the old leached ashes were in a 

 condition to be of value as fertilizer, having retained their virtue 

 for eighty years. The man on the farm said that he had made 

 the experiment not thinking there would much come of it, but 

 found that a liberal application of these old ashes on the run- 

 out clay soil of the hill meadows had increased the crop of grass 

 from one-half a ton to a ton or more per acre. There were ap- 

 parently a thousand or more loads to be had from the old 

 mound, which had never given us any curiosity except as a 

 home for woodchucks and skunks that lived in the dry little hill 

 in great numbers. 



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ON THE LINES, 1812-1814 



By 1 81 2 the town of Lorraine had become well settled. The 

 war with England and the laws then existing made every man 

 of military age a soldier, and along the front they were well or- 

 ganized, and among them was enrolled Silas Lyman. Although 

 but seventeen years of age, he was made a non-commissioned 

 officer and served, as called upon, along the frontier, at Sandy 

 Creek, French Creek, Sacketts Harbor, and other points when- 

 ever alarms were given. His company was known as the Lor- 

 raine company and was under Captain Elisha Allen and at- 

 tached to the regiment of Colonel Clark Allen. Sacketts Har- 

 bor was an important military post, watchfully guarded by 

 our government and eagerly desired by the enemy on account 



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