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A photo of a steam engine taken at Tabor Corners NY circa 1910. The photo was taken by the Johnson Brothers of Springwater NY.

Photo and information courtesy of Douglas Morgan.

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Still gay in the 1880’s, the old tavern that played a big part in the life of Tabor Corners. The photo, one of the few of the buildings in existence, was snapped when the afternoon crowd was lolling about its veranda on a sultry mid summer day.

The white bearded man has brought his horse for shoeing. Grandma, Agnes Colegrove, is looking out the upper window. On the left step, Charles Colegrove holds his son, Harlow who grew up and became the father of Otis Colegrove, born 1904. On the right step is George Peabody and in the lower window is his wife, Belle. They were the parents of Ray Peabody.

Photo and information presented courtesy of Douglas Morgan.

The Deserted Villages of Western NY.

By Ward S. Miller in 1936 (an excerpt).

Rediscovered by Douglas Morgan.

Tabor Corners is another extinct village. Like Richmond Mills, it is redolent with memories, but unlike Richmond Mills it didn’t die of water-power failure, and Rochester didn’t kill it. Unlike Richmond Mills, too, it is beginning to come to life again. A teacher who lives in Middletown, Kenneth V. Higgins, started a boys’ camp there this summer and named it “Camp Wilderness.” It has a real log cabin for its capitol.

Death came to Tabor Corners at the hands of a railroad, old timers say. Modern progress again - half a century or more ago. Its main “industry” was taverns and Tabor Corners was a “metropolis” on the old stage road from Rochester to Bath. It was almost half way between and the coaches changed horses at the grand tavern right on the corners while the passengers had meals inside. The route was shorter than the shortest automobile road which now exists between Rochester and Bath.

Tabor Corners is high - 1850 feet above sea level and twice as high as Springwater. That is precisely why settlers staked out claims and bought up land there. The heavily wooded villages of the rivers, including the Cohocton, were miasmic. Ague and malaria haunted them.

George Higgins of Springwater is one man who knows all about this deserted village. He was born there. So was his father and his grandfather. Another who knows the story is Wirt Wetmore, who lives in what is left of what was once the famed tavern on the stage from Rochester to Bath.

That was in the 1850’s when it was new (1854) and glamorous. In addition to the dining room downstairs and the ballroom upstairs, there was a court room where country lawyers argued minor cases eloquently.

A dog fight outside always adjourned the court immediately, automatically and informally. Higgins told how one time during such a recess the defence lawyer chewed the arrest warrant to pieces. Without it the prisoner could not be held any longer and had to be released.

It was near that landmark, remembered now as the Capron Tavern, that the “Republican Pole” was erected as elections approached. Several of the longest poles obtainable were spliced together, and with the names of the candidates on banners at the top, it was hoisted to the accompaniment of band music and wild jubilation.

Only four houses are left at Tabor Corners. A few rods down the road toward Springwater a heap of rocks almost covered by meadow grass in any but a dry year marks the spot where another gay tavern stood.

Washington Hall was its name and Ebenezer Robinson of Springwater pointed out a quaint invitation to its house warming on Jan. 25, 1857.

It wasn’t such a dull life at Tabor Corners as one might imagine. Everybody “knocked off” Saturday noon and had an afternoon of ball games, horse races and feats of skill along the stretch form corners to Washington Hall. One night, according to Mr. Higgins, the revellers had too “hot” a time and the tavern burned down.

Besides the taverns - three in all - there was an ashery where soap was made from potash in wood ashes and a cheese factory. The village blacksmith shop still stands - almost in ruins.

George Peabody, who was born in one of the four houses that now remain, lives yet in the vicinity. He remembered “cooning currants” and told of the time when The Democrat was a weekly and how delighted everyone was when it began to come out twice a week, following the innovation of the New York World.

Ghostly remnants of the past - these ancient buildings. But not only have they played their part in the history of the United States but their part in its culture too.

What manner of men were those who came to wrest a living out of the wilderness? And what gifts have they bequeathed in us today even though the villages they once built are lying deserted. They lived honest lives and asked nothing more than the right to earn their own living by their own efforts. Such was the bequest they left to their children.

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A photo of Frank Perkins and his steam engine taken at Tabors Corners NY circa 1910.

The individuals, from left to right, are: Verne Schwartz, Unknown, Frank Perkins, Unknown, Ried Robinson, Pearl Shafer, Unknown, George Brokaw and Dale Straight.

Photo courtesy of Joyce O’Neil.

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A photo of a steam engine taken at Tabor Corners NY circa 1910.

Photo courtesy of Douglas Morgan.

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A photo of a steam engine taken at Tabor Corners NY circa 1910. The scene is believed to be in Springwater NY.

Photo courtesy of Douglas Morgan.

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A photo of a steam engine taken at Tabor Corners NY circa 1910.

Photo courtesy of Douglas Morgan.

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A photo of a steam engine taken at Tabor Corners NY circa 1910.

Photo courtesy of Douglas Morgan.

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A photo of a steam engine taken at Tabor Corners NY circa 1910.

Photo courtesy of Douglas Morgan.

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A photo of a steam engine taken at Tabor Corners NY circa 1910.

Photo courtesy of Douglas Morgan.

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A photo of a steam engine taken at Tabor Corners NY circa 1910.

Photo courtesy of Douglas Morgan.