The Fox House
Probably no other one home has served its community in more capacities than has the Fox House. This house is not particularly significant because of its age or early architectural features; its interest lies in the part it has played in the life of the town. So simple in its lines and unobstrusive in its general appearance, this low lying house at 2 Burgess Street would not be suspected of having a varied past.
The "Fox House" as it is still called, though now the home of the Penix family, was not always a house. It had more modest beginnings as Mr. Kelloway's barn.
Mr. Kelloway, the proprietor of the jewelry store overlooking the park (now Elliott's Jewelry) lived in the double house at the corner of Main and Burgess Street. The building of the barn was a logical step as Mr. Kelloway had acquired a horse.
Affluent as the Kelloways may have been, they did not keep a horse and barn merely for the purpose of status. Mr. Kelloway also owned a small vineyard outside of the village. The horse was a necessity for carrying pickers back and forth and for hauling the crates of grapes during harvest season. The barn was used as a packing house. The horse passed out of the picture at some unremembered date leaving the barn to its future varied destiny.
In 1896 the village recognized the problem of crowded classrooms in the Dunkirk Street School (site of the present Municipal Building). Since there were no facilities for expansion, a second building for grade school children was proposed. In the interim, the Kelloway barn was chosen as a temporary school house.
Little in the way of structural changes was needed to convert the barn into a school. The double doors were done away with, an appropriate entrance was made, and windows were installed in the side walls. With the addition of desks, hooks for the coats, and a shelf for the water pail, it was an adequate schoolroom. There are people in town today who can recall sitting in those seats and drinking from that tin dipper; but not many! In the fall of 1898 the Babcock Street School opened (on the site of the present Main Street School parking lot), and there was no further need for this Burgess Street improvised school building.
At the time there were not the many churches that characterize the village now. There was no Baptist Church although there were many Baptists in town. These Baptists met from time to time for their own services in a private home although they regularly attended one of the other churches on Sunday.
As the weeks passed, the sight of the barn-school building standing unoccupied began to fire the imagination of this group. There it was, needing no structural changes, with its one large rectangular room, windows on either side, and improved vestibuled entrance. The idea caught like wildfire and in no time arrangements were made with Mr. Kelloway. The one time barn and erstwhile school was now a church - a church with dignity, respect, and reverence.
Services were conducted on Sunday afternoons by Baptist ministers from neighboring towns. Weekday prayer and other devotional services were held regularly and church life was as vigorous as it could be without a resident minister and leader. For the first winter and summer enthusiasm ran high, but by the end of the second winter the fact was reluctantly accepted that the group was too small to support a resident minister. The church was languishing. There was no alternative but to give it up.
Once more the building was vacant. Mr. Kelloway converted it into a most acceptable house with a hall, parlor, sitting room, dining roon, pantry, and kitchen on the first floor and with five bedrooms on the second floor. This was the beginning of a new era for this building.
Among the first occupants of the house were Dr. and Mrs. Herron. He was Silver Creek's first veterinarian, and he used one section of the house as an office and treatment room for his animal patients.
After the Herrons left town, Mrs. Christina Fox, a widow, with two sons, Montford and Eugene, bought the house. Mrs. Fox rented the unused bedrooms to teachers from the nearby Babcock Street School and provided them with meals.
In 1914 Mrs. Fox moved to the Dr. Burgess home on Main Street, and her son, Gene, kept the home for himself and his family. Gene and his wife, Edith Ellicott, had three daughters, Evelyn, Jean, and Elizabeth. The "Fox House" became a popular dropping in place for Edith's old school crowd - Helen Morse across the street, Julie Martin (Howson), Helen Quale, and Alice Montgomery, all from Main Street. With Sadie Chapman Cleeten, this group made up the "Stitchery", an afternoon sewing club, which gaily rocked on verandas, with work bags and embroidery hoops in the foreground.
The above article from Once Upon a Time, Silver Creek, Chautauqua Co., NY History, Marion Thomas, pp. 99-101, 1987.
Kelloway, W. M., p.o. Hamilton, was born in Hamilton, Madison county, NY, a son of Isaac Kelloway and Ann Maria Elliott, natives of England. He was educated in the old academy under Professor Campbell, and began his business career as a dry goods clerk for A. T. Slocum, and subsequently studied medicine for a time with Dr. Oakes; but the death of this physician terminated Mr. Kelloway's medical studies. He then opened a restaurant and became a prominent caterer. In 1882 he embarked in the grocery business, which he has since conducted successfully. Mr. Kelloway is one of the oldest Masons in Hamilton, having joined that order when twenty-one years of age. He is a member of the Blue Lodge, Chapter, Commandery and is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason; he is also a member of the order of Odd Fellows. On June 28, 1872, Mr. Kelloway married Hattie M. Foster, and they have one daughter, Lyra C., who is a trained nurse in the Utica hospital.
The above article from Our County and Its People, Madison Co., NY History, John E. Smith, pg. 165, 1986.
On April 7, 1834 Isaac Kelloway, age 30 arrived in New York from London, England on board the ship "President". His occupation was listed as a joiner. He settled in Madison Co., NY and married Ann Mariah Elliott. They had the following sons; James born about 1840, William born about 1843, Charles born about 1847, and Franklin J. (about whom this article is written) born about 1853. Isaac is found listed on the 1860 and 1870 Madison Co., NY census, Hamilton Township. He apparently died before 1880. Frank is listed on the 1880, 1900, 1910 and 1920 Chautauqua Co., NY census. He married Mary Cushman and had one child, a daughter Gladys. He apparently died before 1930 as Mary is listed as a widow on the 1930 Chautauqua Co., census.
The "Fox House" as it is still called, though now the home of the Penix family, was not always a house. It had more modest beginnings as Mr. Kelloway's barn.
Mr. Kelloway, the proprietor of the jewelry store overlooking the park (now Elliott's Jewelry) lived in the double house at the corner of Main and Burgess Street. The building of the barn was a logical step as Mr. Kelloway had acquired a horse.
Affluent as the Kelloways may have been, they did not keep a horse and barn merely for the purpose of status. Mr. Kelloway also owned a small vineyard outside of the village. The horse was a necessity for carrying pickers back and forth and for hauling the crates of grapes during harvest season. The barn was used as a packing house. The horse passed out of the picture at some unremembered date leaving the barn to its future varied destiny.
In 1896 the village recognized the problem of crowded classrooms in the Dunkirk Street School (site of the present Municipal Building). Since there were no facilities for expansion, a second building for grade school children was proposed. In the interim, the Kelloway barn was chosen as a temporary school house.
Little in the way of structural changes was needed to convert the barn into a school. The double doors were done away with, an appropriate entrance was made, and windows were installed in the side walls. With the addition of desks, hooks for the coats, and a shelf for the water pail, it was an adequate schoolroom. There are people in town today who can recall sitting in those seats and drinking from that tin dipper; but not many! In the fall of 1898 the Babcock Street School opened (on the site of the present Main Street School parking lot), and there was no further need for this Burgess Street improvised school building.
At the time there were not the many churches that characterize the village now. There was no Baptist Church although there were many Baptists in town. These Baptists met from time to time for their own services in a private home although they regularly attended one of the other churches on Sunday.
As the weeks passed, the sight of the barn-school building standing unoccupied began to fire the imagination of this group. There it was, needing no structural changes, with its one large rectangular room, windows on either side, and improved vestibuled entrance. The idea caught like wildfire and in no time arrangements were made with Mr. Kelloway. The one time barn and erstwhile school was now a church - a church with dignity, respect, and reverence.
Services were conducted on Sunday afternoons by Baptist ministers from neighboring towns. Weekday prayer and other devotional services were held regularly and church life was as vigorous as it could be without a resident minister and leader. For the first winter and summer enthusiasm ran high, but by the end of the second winter the fact was reluctantly accepted that the group was too small to support a resident minister. The church was languishing. There was no alternative but to give it up.
Once more the building was vacant. Mr. Kelloway converted it into a most acceptable house with a hall, parlor, sitting room, dining roon, pantry, and kitchen on the first floor and with five bedrooms on the second floor. This was the beginning of a new era for this building.
Among the first occupants of the house were Dr. and Mrs. Herron. He was Silver Creek's first veterinarian, and he used one section of the house as an office and treatment room for his animal patients.
After the Herrons left town, Mrs. Christina Fox, a widow, with two sons, Montford and Eugene, bought the house. Mrs. Fox rented the unused bedrooms to teachers from the nearby Babcock Street School and provided them with meals.
In 1914 Mrs. Fox moved to the Dr. Burgess home on Main Street, and her son, Gene, kept the home for himself and his family. Gene and his wife, Edith Ellicott, had three daughters, Evelyn, Jean, and Elizabeth. The "Fox House" became a popular dropping in place for Edith's old school crowd - Helen Morse across the street, Julie Martin (Howson), Helen Quale, and Alice Montgomery, all from Main Street. With Sadie Chapman Cleeten, this group made up the "Stitchery", an afternoon sewing club, which gaily rocked on verandas, with work bags and embroidery hoops in the foreground.
The above article from Once Upon a Time, Silver Creek, Chautauqua Co., NY History, Marion Thomas, pp. 99-101, 1987.
Kelloway, W. M., p.o. Hamilton, was born in Hamilton, Madison county, NY, a son of Isaac Kelloway and Ann Maria Elliott, natives of England. He was educated in the old academy under Professor Campbell, and began his business career as a dry goods clerk for A. T. Slocum, and subsequently studied medicine for a time with Dr. Oakes; but the death of this physician terminated Mr. Kelloway's medical studies. He then opened a restaurant and became a prominent caterer. In 1882 he embarked in the grocery business, which he has since conducted successfully. Mr. Kelloway is one of the oldest Masons in Hamilton, having joined that order when twenty-one years of age. He is a member of the Blue Lodge, Chapter, Commandery and is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason; he is also a member of the order of Odd Fellows. On June 28, 1872, Mr. Kelloway married Hattie M. Foster, and they have one daughter, Lyra C., who is a trained nurse in the Utica hospital.
The above article from Our County and Its People, Madison Co., NY History, John E. Smith, pg. 165, 1986.
On April 7, 1834 Isaac Kelloway, age 30 arrived in New York from London, England on board the ship "President". His occupation was listed as a joiner. He settled in Madison Co., NY and married Ann Mariah Elliott. They had the following sons; James born about 1840, William born about 1843, Charles born about 1847, and Franklin J. (about whom this article is written) born about 1853. Isaac is found listed on the 1860 and 1870 Madison Co., NY census, Hamilton Township. He apparently died before 1880. Frank is listed on the 1880, 1900, 1910 and 1920 Chautauqua Co., NY census. He married Mary Cushman and had one child, a daughter Gladys. He apparently died before 1930 as Mary is listed as a widow on the 1930 Chautauqua Co., census.
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posted by DFM | 8/02/2004
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