Bolivar Breeze, Aug. 26, 1909
IN THE EARLY DAYS
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Young Cuba Mother Rode on Horseback With Baby to Canandaigua
in 1820. Three Days Trip - (From the Cuba Patriot.)
The writer, a few days since, enjoyed a brief chat with the venerable Seth
H. Tracy of Belmont. Mr. Tracy is a son of Ira Tracy, who kept a public house (a long structure) which stood nearly opposite where the Howell condensory now is, along about 1821-2, and was Cuba's first town clerk in 1822.
Seth H. came near being a native born Alleganian, the interesting event of
his birth occurring at Canandaigua, the former home of the Tracy's and to which he returned after a few years of pioneering here.
Recalling some of the stories of the early days in Cuba, Mr. Tracy told
how his mother made the journey with her first born in her arms, and on horseback, back to the old home, to show her mother her baby. It must have been about 1820, and the roads in western New York were not by some degrees as good as they are today.
The first day she reached Angelica, where she found a former neighbor with
whom she remained over night.
The next morning the journey was resumed, night finding her one and a
half miles down the creek from Dansville, where another acquaintance had founded a home. Her welcome was cordial and the visit was greatly enjoyed, her friends looking upon her with surprise and admiration as one direct from the very verge of civilized occupation.
Resuming her place in the saddle at an early hour in the morning, the hard
journey was forgotten almost, when at dark her faithful steed was reined up at the door of her home, and her mother in an ecstasy of delight, grasped her little grandchild in her arms and smothered her daughter with kisses.
