The arrowhead was found on Gilbert’s grandfather’s Waterboro Hill Road farm.
LAKEWOOD — From the moment you enter Roger Gilbert’s Lakewood home, you’re immersed in history.
The first thing that catches your eye is a grandfather clock made in 1941 by his maternal grandfather, Carl E. Speer, who lived in Conewango, New York, and owned a number of businesses there. The most unique part of the clock is the face made from an aluminum pie plate. A clockmaker, Speer had many talents, one of which was woodworking. Two finely crafted pieces by the same craftsman are displayed in lighted cabinets a few feet apart in the living room. One is a three-masted ship with cannon and crew. The other is a model Erie Railroad locomotive with coal cars attached.
Hanging a few feet away is the first telephone used by Gilbert’s paternal grandparents on their farm in Waterboro Hills. In the early days of telephones, neighbors all shared the same line. When a call came in, each household rang at the same time. Each household had its own ring tone, with different lengths and number of rings, such as one long ring and two short rings.
“My parents instilled in me a great love of family and local history. When we were young, they would take the family on vacations to visit historical sites,” says the 87-year-old. “My history teachers at Randolph Central School furthered my interest in history.”
Two oil paintings by his wife’s grandfather, depicting a waterwheel and a lighthouse, hang on the dining room walls. The cupboards are filled with his great-grandmother’s dinnerware set, including many pieces of crockery, including two soup tureens. Mr. Gilbert still uses these beautiful heirlooms on special occasions.
The clock was made by Gilbert’s grandfather, who was a woodworker and jeweler.
Both of his parents’ lineages traced back to the Mayflower. His mother’s son, William Brewster, distinguished himself as a leader when the Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth in 1620, and who, according to Gilbert, delivered the first prayer of thanksgiving. Gilbert’s son, Samuel Fuller, was also on the ship and was the first physician in the colony. Gilbert was also related to Ethan Allen, leader of the Green Mountain Boys.
The museum continues into Gilbert’s basement living room and into the World War II area, which displays rationing stamp books. Stamps were issued by governments and used to purchase certain items that were in limited supply during wartime.
Also on display is his mother’s Air Warning System pin badge, a gift from her when she was an aircraft spotter. During World War II, spotters waited in observation towers to identify planes flying in their area. They could identify them by comparing the planes to picture cards. Mrs. Gilbert and another woman would call Buffalo to report enemy aircraft spotted in the Ellington area. Her son went from house to house along Wade Hill Road looking for anyone with information or who knew the location of the observation tower his mother had climbed decades ago, but no one was willing to help. He met a woman in another area whose mother had set up a spotter.
Waterboro Hill’s Bemus School House keepsakes are in an area set aside for education. On display are stone slabs, a list of teachers who taught there from 1865 to 1879, and student rosters from the late 1800s. His mother was the last teacher at the school when it closed in 1945 after the state required it to be consolidated into either Falconer or Randolph. Hill residents chose Randolph, where its only remaining student, Eunice Hill Speta, attended. The school is now a private home.
Eighty-seven years later, Gilbert still has the dollar bill a neighbor gave him when he was born in 1936. The framed silver certificate hangs on the wall next to a pencil drawing of his grandmother, done by a traveler who stopped by her parents’ house on the morning of her wedding, after hearing that her daughter was being married that day. The young bride wasn’t very happy with the result; years later, her grandson found what he thought was the drawing in the attic, beneath a framed picture of a horse.
Retired school administrator Roger Gilbert has converted his home into a museum of community and family history. Photo by Beverly Kehe Rowland
The family walls feature generations of photographs of Gilbert, his wife and children, as well as photos of other family members and stories about their lives.
Three cases containing arrowheads found by Carl Speer are on display among other artifacts. In this same basement is a round table in the shape of a tiger’s paw that belonged to his grandparents, Gilbert. Also on display are small flags of all the countries they visited. A yoke of oxen hangs over the fireplace. On or near the hearth are milk cans, ceramic jars of various sizes, candle molds, and a washboard. Several oil lamps hang on the wall.
Across the room is a miniature version of a grain yard that was made and sold by Gilbert’s great-grandfather, W.D. Spear. This was used to remove ears of grain at harvest time; the small model was used to promote the full-size version. Nearby is a spinning wheel and another device used for winding thread; all of these items were found in the attics of the family’s various homes.
Education has played a big role in Gilbert’s life. His mother taught elementary school students in Randolph in the 1930s, but during the Great Depression restrictions were passed stating that only men and single women could apply for teaching jobs. Married women could only be considered if there were no men or single women available.
He met his wife, Marian, while they were both studying to be teachers in Fredonia, and Marian taught in Kenmore, Falconer, Pine Valley, and Jefferson in Jamestown.
Gilbert was a sixth grade teacher at Samuel G. Love and was later hired to “prepare Love for a new principal” after the death of Love’s principal, who was his father-in-law, Arvid Mitchell. When the school was ready to accept resumes, several trustees urged him to apply for the position, even though he had no intention of doing so. He became principal at Love at age 27. He then became principal at CV Bush and Washington, the first schools to transition from middle schools to become K-8 schools. He then returned to CV Bush, retiring after a 34-year career in education.
Gilbert cared for his beloved wife, who battled multiple sclerosis for more than 30 years until her death in 2001. Marian co-founded the Chautauqua Area MS Society with Dr. George Lawn and two others.
“She fought MS for 34 years,” her husband said. “She never gave up.”
Gilbert has three children, Elaine, Scott and Jane, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. He is proud of his entire family and loves to talk about the adventures he has with his granddaughter Allie and her future husband Johnny. The incident occurred when the couple, both commercial pilots, were flying to an air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin in their classic plane. On the way back, while flying over Chicago, the plane lost 90% power. In the process of making an emergency landing, they had to fly under the pedestrian bridge over Lake Shore Drive.
“Even though the accident happened during rush hour, commuters saw what was happening and moved into the middle of the road,” the grandfather explains proudly.
He likes to show his guests clips from the news that aired on all the major TV networks on that day in July 2018. His granddaughter now teaches others how to fly airplanes at Ohio State University.
The educator has written three books. His first, “A Simpler Time,” was published in 2003 and given to the family. “Ellington and Its People,” about the history and stories of the town and its people, was published in 2010. Proceeds from the book benefited Ellington’s Furman Library. His last book, “The History of the Land and Building-9 West Summit Avenue, Lakewood, NY,” tells the story of the Quonset hut-like building that has served a variety of purposes over the years, including a movie theater, hardware store, community center and fitness center. It was published in 2015.
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