The Murray Brook Frog: The House on the Hill

By Brandyann Phelps

Caption: Ola and Lola Annis were born in 1888 on West Lake Street in North Bay. Their mother, Mertie Auchard Annis born in 1857, was also a twin.

With the great advances in science multiple births have become a common occurrence. That wasn’t so in the early years, when medicine was precarious at best and child birth was oft times visited with sadness.

In the early 1800s Nathan and Amanda Auchard moved to North Bay and purchased the easterly half of Lot 95 of Scriba’s Patent. They had three daughters, Jane, born in 1850; Amanda and Mertie were twins born in 1857.

Jane married James Louden; he had the first store in North Bay; located on the corner of West Lake St. and Route 49.

Amanda married Merritt Balch; they had two sons; both of whom died early in their infancy. Years later Amanda had a stroke and moved in with her elderly father who was by then living on West Lake Street in North Bay. Balch ran off with the maid, she was 20 years younger than him. They wound up living in Utica, got married and had two children.

January 2nd, 1878 Mertie married Albert S. Annis in the Methodist parsonage in North Bay. Albert was one of nine children, his parents moved to Oneida County in 1862. A ship builder; his factory was on Oneida Lake east of Murray Brook in North Bay. They had three daughters, Edith born in 1883 and twins Ola and Lola born in 1888.

They lived on West Lake St. just a short piece from their Uncle James Louden’s store. “Jimmy Low’s” must have been an exciting place for a kid; his general store carried everything from candy to calico and was a center for local gossip.

1907 Lola married Earl Penoyer and in 1909 gave birth to triplets; Ruth, Reta and Ruby. Unfortunately Lola and two of her daughters died with-in a week; only Ruth survived. A large gathering of family and friends attended the funeral. Lola age 21 wore her wedding dress from that happy day just one year before. Beside her on either side lay her sweet daughters Reta and Ruby; so many remarked it looked as if they were just sleeping.

Nettie Rogers married Francis McClanathan on June 12th, 1895; they had one daughter Mina.

Mina married Orville Brown; Orville’s father was Albert Brown, he owned a cheese factory in Vienna.

Mina and Orville lived with Mina’s parents, Nettie and Francis and had 14 children which included two sets of twins. The first set of twins, two boys; were still born and were buried in the flower garden.

On October 23, 1885 the Loomis triplets, Oliver, Eugene, and Crawford, were born on East Lake Street in the second house on the right facing north; their father Charles was a farmer. Sixty one years later I was born and I grew up in the same house, “the house on the hill.” I was not a twin or a triplet, but I feel like I have lived at least three lives, each chapter a book unto itself.

Through the years during hard times and good my greatest pride has always been that I was raised by good folks in a little town in New York State that nobody ever heard of. North Bay, New York is a very little town, to its credit it lies beside the shallow blue waters of Oneida Lake and though I’ve lived many places across these United States, North Bay is my home and always will be. I am enthralled, excited and inspired by the rich history of its people and the resilient beauty of its natural resources.

The Murray Brook Frog is written by Brandyann Phelps, author and Historian for the Town of Vienna.

One Comment on "The Murray Brook Frog: The House on the Hill"

Charles E. Page on Sat, 19th Sep 2009 9:03 am

I can understand the appeal of the north shore vicinity and it’s still “small town” atmosphere. It seems removed from the hustle of the south shore and the bigger towns of Oneida, Canastota, Chittenango, etc.
My Page ancestors, Ira and Laura Page and their children moved to “West Vienna” in 1835 from Swanzey, N.H., no doubt influenced by their neighbors, the Jewells who came a few years before. The Jewells probably wrote “home” telling stories of that wonderful area.
Charles Page, Oneida

The Murray Brook Frog: The House on the Hill

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