My journey started on the 19th of June 2024, as I departed from Wilmington, NC, for a “trip back in time” to the place my 4th great-grandparents once lived, loved, and married, Laurens, New York, and the house where my 4th great-grandmother grew up. As I had looked for a place to stay nearby, I would never have thought I would be able to book a room in a bed and breakfast, the Brookside Inn, which was the very house that my 5th great-grandfather, William Comstock, had built and where his daughter, Rosepha Comstock Tripp, born 1804, grew up. (photos of the Brookside Inn by Rebecca Chipman)I have to pause and say I had in my possession the deed where Rosepha’s husband, James Tripp, had bought the property before they married, and the date on it was just a few days shy of exactly two hundred years since it was drawn. And now it was going back to where it came from. The deed describes Josepha’s father’s property, the lands of William Comstock, the brook running beside his house, and the creek on the other side. This was the very property William Comstock owned, and this was where I would stay! How surreal and cool is that! The moment I arrived at the house, my eyes panned the surrounding landscape and the hills in the distance. I found myself on the large porch, opening the door to the house. It was like part of me had come home. I felt nothing but warmth as if I was being hugged by my ancestors from centuries past, as if they were eager to meet me. It was as if I could feel their presence around me. The owner gave me a tour room by room, explaining the time period of each and what had been changed. My room was on the main floor with most of the rooms upstairs already occupied. I have to say I had the best night’s sleep! (Dining room below)The next morning, I had coffee on the front porch, after which it was off to the historical society in the small library run by two wonderful ladies whose families had been there for over a century. I shared family documents and deeds, and they shared what hey knew about my family. They also gave me a book written in the 1970s about the town and the early settlers. We talked for hours. I then made my way to the cemetery, where I found some of the family’s headstones and paid my respects. It was wonderful to visit my ancestors’ home and town! Travelogue: Rebecca Chipman’s Trip Back in Time, continued then I said goodbye to Laurens and made my way to Cooperstown, NY. You see, that was another reason I made this trip. I wanted to donate some correspondence and deeds and a handwritten cookbook to the Fenimore Art Museum’s Research Library. My family had kept and passed down many documents and letters from one generation to the next. I had become the keeper of the documents. After long discussions with my brother, we agreed that some of the documents and letters needed to return back “home.” Some were letters between Sarah Sabina Cooper Comstock, the niece of James Fenimore Cooper, the author of The Last of the Mohicans, and William Cooper, founder of Cooperstown and a politician. I’ll save that story for another installment of Travelogue.
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