Livingston Homesteads

It occurred to me when I was home that I do not have any photographs of the homes that my parents grew up in. I took these photos of the homes from my Mother's side of the family, The Livingston Family. Both of these homes are not far from my home.

The brick home (barn on the other side), is where my Grandfather grew up. I never knew my Grandfather Livingston. He died when my Mother was 7 years old. The photos of the white house, is where Mother’s family lived when he died. It was called “The big farm”, because it was a big farm. The barn is not in the photo, because the barn burned down many years ago. My Mother’s Uncle lived in her Dad’s home, see photo, which was just down the road from the big farm. One night there was a bad thunder storm, and her Uncle Ed got stuck on the side of the road where his car was parked due to all the rain, so my Grandfather was helping him to get out, and he stepped on a live electric wire that came down during the storm, which he of course, could not see. He was electrocuted. It was a terrible tragedy; he was only 32 years old, with a young family of three sons and a daughter (my Mother).

Grandfather Livingston was a well known man and well loved, in the county. I’ve been told that his funeral was one of the largest funerals in the county.

After he passed away, they had to move off of the farm, and lived in Churchtown. Grandma worked very hard to raise her family as a widow. She cleaned houses for people and worked at a sewing factory. When Mom was out of high school, she also worked at the sewing factory and saved the money to go to Harrisburg to Nurses Training. She became a Registered Nurse. Unfortunately, at age 7, Mom didn’t have a lot of memories of her Dad. She said she doesn’t remember a lot of the funeral, except she always remembered one song that was in the service, “Safe in the Arms of Jesus”. She asked me one time to try to find the song, as it wasn’t in any of our hymnals. She wanted it to be sung at her funeral. I was able to find it for her, and we had it at her funeral. When I told her brother, my Uncle Gilbert that she remembered the song, he said “isn’t it something, I remembered the other song that was done, and don’t remember that.” They each remembered a different song. What she especially remembered was how hard it was not to have a Father, and how hard it was for her Mother to raise the family.

After all her children were grown, Grandma married a widower, who farmed down the road from the big farm, and close by the home she grew up in. They moved to her home, which is the place that I always knew when I was growing up. I wish I had some photos of that home. One of my cousins told me she thinks her Dad had photos, and she will look for some for me. The home looks so different now, that I didn’t take a photos of it when I was home.

The brick home I always knew as Uncle Ed’s place (Grandfather’s brother). He was my Great Uncle, and I got to know him and Grandfather’s other siblings, because each summer there was a “Livingston” family reunion, and we always attended. Each side of both sides of my parents families all had yearly reunions. This was why I got to know all my relatives. Not many families now have reunions like this each year. It’s sad that today’s generation of children growing up may not get to know all of their relatives. We as parents, need to keep them in touch or at least talk about these relatives.