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j SPLINTERS \r Walter H. Moffitt -fliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiifRecently this column s't.ated that Abe Maybee .was a slave but our memory has been corrected in a letter from Clarence B. Scoville, P. O. Box 457, Amagansett, N. Y.“Dear Walter:Your articles in the Elli-cottville Post entitled ‘Splinters’ are interesting and I enjoy reading them.I agree with you in not trusting the Communist government of Russia to keep treaties. They have already broken a number of them. Abe Maybee was a Northern negro and had * been in the South only while serving in the Union army. He told me that his father or grandfather (I’m not sure which) was a Jslave to a man near Cana-joharie. It seems doubtful ^that there was slavery in New York state in Abe’s own lifetime. In the. early part of his life he made his ]home with the Coit family, north of Ellicottville. The parents of Marshall Sheffield, on the other hand, came from the South and may have been born in slavery. “Marsh” was the father of Ed, Elmer, Will and daughter Jessie. He was the sexton of the Methodist ehureh and I presume also of the old Jefferson Street cemetery. You are correct in stating that segregation has never been a problem in Ellicottville.If it existed, it certainly was not much in evidence.Jessier Sheffield was' accept-' ed by her fellow-students in high school as an equal and Fred Sheffield, Marsh’s grandson, was for a time superintendent of the Presbyterian Sunday School. Besides the negro people you mentioned in last week's issue of the Post, I remember a numjber of others. Thedeswas George Dilliard, husband of Abe Maybee’S sister, Liz, whom we both remember. The Dick Brown family and the Scotlands whom Dexter A. Ball, a Seventh Day Adventist minister brought to Ellicottville from the Islands of Antiqua and Barbados in _ the West Indies. Mrs. Scot- I land was a nurse. Mr. ^Scot- ■ land had a daughter Louise. ■ The Browns lived in a red house at the junction of Mechanic and Elk streets. There was a son Jim and at least two of the daughters had fancy names, Pearl and Pansy.”Sincerely,Clarence Scoville.
Newspaper Details
Ellicottville Post
Ellicottville, New York, US
Wed, Oct 16, 1963
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Ellen F.
NY, USA 03 Apr 2024
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