This May 1997 photo of Joyce M. Tice was taken by Joan NASH O'Dell.
The location is the old stone wall on the Amos Mudge /Lucy Bronson property,
right where it meets the stone wall that divides it from the Obadiah SMITH
/ Ann WELCH property. This shows on the map on the right side of the Gray
Valley Road in the southern part of the Elk Run District between the A.
Mudge and O. Smith labels. Lucy and Amos are great great grandparents of
Joyce, and this property was in the Mudge family from the 1840s until 1954
when Great Uncle Harold died. To get to the school, children from this
area had to go all the way down the hill of Gray Valley Road to Elk Run
and then up the very steep hill to the school. I can picture my grandmother,
Mildred Mudge, herding her younger siblings, Helen and Harold, down the
hill and up the next in the 19teens. While my father approached from a
different direction, (See the D.T. Smith label on the 1875 map) he too
had to climb that hill (1920s/30s) and remembers "bawling" all the way
pleading for his older brother and his friend to wait for him, which they
never would do. Those who came from the direction of Tears Corners had
an equally steep climb, but what GREAT sledding in the winter.
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