If the only prayer you would say in your whole life is "Thank you," that would suffice.
                                                                                     Meister Eckhart
                                                                                     13th-century Christian mystic

Since my last newsletter closed with my departure for vacation,  I  guess I should open this one with a vacation report.
(No, you don't need to sit through my slides!  Instead I will give you links to some of the places we visited. Gotcha!)
And we are not getting any kickbacks for these recommendations; we just like to share. 

[Note: You can always scroll down past all the fru-fru  -- and go directly  to the nitty-gritties -- like recent additions, etc.] 

		Here's where we stayed on Glen Lake (near Lake George) in upstate NY.  Glorious!  The lake is beautiful, the accommodations were simple, clean and something we could afford! Note: The fact that we arrived the day after Labor Day meant lower rates and smaller crowds.
		Lowell National Historical Park The history of America's Industrial Revolution is commemorated in Lowell, Massachusetts. The Boott Cotton Mills Museum with its operating weave room of 88 power looms, "mill girl" boardinghouses, the Suffolk Mill Turbine Exhibit and guided tours tell the story of the transition from farm to factory, chronicle immigrant and labor history and trace industrial technology. The park includes textile mills, worker housing, 5.6 miles of canals, and 19th-century commercial buildings.
		You have got to visit this place!        It's a fascinating magical time tunnel.     We spent one full day -- and needed another.     Be sure to take the on-line tour.
		Fort Ticonderoga                 National Historic Landmark                     Revolutionary War Reenactment Each year on the weekend following Labor Day, Fort Ticonderoga focuses its attention on the American Revolution. Over 400 re-enactors come together at the Revolutionary War encampment to highlight Fort Ticonderoga's pivotal role in the early war years.
	The Bennington Museum	Grandma Moses Gallery Features the work of  Anna Mary Robertson Moses (1860-1961), who became known to the world as Grandma Moses, one of America's most noted folk artists.
	OK, OK ...     I give up: Uhmmm, just two personal snapshots ... couldn't resist!	This is my son, Andrew, mugging for the camera outside the only remaining original building on the grounds of the Washington County Poorhouse in Argyle in upstate New York. And visiting the grave of the adopted brother of my great great grandmother Emma.  Charles is buried in the cemetery at that poorhouse where she was an inmate and later "bound out" (indentured) as a child. This is where it all started for the PHL! (including The POORHOUSE STORY website) He was very gracious about my dragging him 2000 miles to see it  for himself for the first time.   Andy, "Thanks!" Mom

... and with my dose of Grandma Moses reminding me that we are never "too old" to start anything new (yesss!)
we came back to the twenty-first century.  I had a totally wonderful time in New York, Vermont, and Massachusetts. Now I am even more behind on getting The POORHOUSE STORY work done; but you knew I didn't need a vacation to find myself in that situation. 

Happy Thanksgiving!
Linda 

REFLECTIONS

For some reason ... I can't seem to get this section going right now.  
(Guess I am solidly in a doing rather than reflecting mood.)
So...I'll give you two things to reflect on for yourselves: 

Two things you can be thankful you are not doing for the holidays!

The Salem News
Salem, Mass
Wednesday, September 11, 2002

carried the article 
mentioned below

for which we hope to gain permission to copy soon

Poorhouse document donated to 
Peabody Essex Museum

by Tom Dalton
Staff writer

This was an interview with PHL and William La Moy, librarian,
during the visit to make the donation.  (See Newsletter 17 )

We've gone international!

Check out our page for
CANADA

FEATURED ARTICLES
(We didn’t create them; 
we just show them!)

The Illinois Regional Archives Depositories (IRAD) on-line has microfilmed many important poorhouse records, and they have also listed on their website many other records which they have in their holdings. But the most exciting news is that they have provided an on-line searchable name index to several of the Almshouse Registers!!!  

Hudson County NJ

A controversy over the highway department's plan to run a highway exit through an old cemetery (which was used for the old poorhouse, a mental hospital, and a jail) -- relocating
those 3500+ remains to a mass grave -- has resulted in a court decision requiring a month long delay to study alternatives.  Two descendents have protested and a petition is being circulated in print and on-line.  For more information, click on the link to NEWS ALERTS.

Note of Thanks:  She's done it again!   

Our thanks to Brenda Fleming for having updated the Cemetery Pages -- 
which had not been touched since a year ago when this "retired" teacher 
last took time out from her tutoring to help us get caught up.  

Here's Brenda smiling about turning in her "teacher" keys.  
Little did she know how much we had waiting for her to do for all of us!

(Note: You can view her project by returning to the homepage and clicking the Cemetery link.)

More Than A Roof:
The Development of Minnesota Poor Farms
and Homes for the Aged

By Ethel McClure

Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul  1968

(currently out of print; but available from many sources 
through InterLibrary Loan program)

REVIEW by PHL

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