RoadNotes: Roots

Buckaloon NF Campground, Warren, PA – June 30 through July 1, 2015

Off and on my brother and father have mentioned that if we ever got to this part of the country we ought to investigate a little family history. My brother even gave us directions to the Putnamville Cemetery ( now known as the Thompson Hill Cemetery ), and suggested we drop by the Warren Historical Society.

With that in mind we began searching for a place to camp for a week. Campgrounds in these parts are scarce come weekends they are packed with locals.

So this means that we get to break out the computers again and burn those data bits looking for a place we can reserve. Buckaloons is the only campground with electric hookups in the area and according to the concessionaire website there’s only one or two sites that haven’t already been reserved. Try as we might, we are unable to use their reservation system to hold a site for us. Something about not enough lead time. So the morning of June 30, we get on their website one last time and find out those 2 spots are still available (we hope ).

We arrive at Buckaloons and find the camp host, an introvert who doesn’t like people ( his words ), who won’t stop talking. He tells us at least half the sites are open even though the reservation website says they’re not. He takes me around the campground in his golf cart and shows me all the spots that are available and I pick a couple of possibilities. We return and he tells us he’ll be around later to do the paperwork and collect the money.

Ej and I drive the Element around and I show her the ones that would work for us and we pick one. There’s lots of trees around, and that coupled with the amount of rain this area has gotten meant most of the sites were pretty damp and mucky. The one we chose was surrounded by trees but open to the sky and sun above, so it had dried out sufficiently.

The first order of business is to hookup the power so we can run the air conditioner since it is warm and muggy out. EJ checks the voltage and makes sure it wired properly and hooks us up. But there’s no voltage inside. Long story short, the electric box we connect to has a bad breaker in it. Sooo, a little creative electrical work happens and before too long we’re back in business.

Now that everything is hooked up and leveled out we get the inside squared away too. EJ even has red, white and blue flowers for the 4th of July.

The next day we venture over to the Historical Society were I found out Warren County is covered with Putnams. I also find out via social media some of my friends have roots in this area as well.

We met the nicest 2 ladies in there and they were extremely helpful in tracking down books and personal documents for us. After spending several hours there, we took a break and walked downtown for some food. We found a new york style deli and had a couple of their pizza slices. Man was it good!

After we finished our research, we went in search of the cemetery where eleven ( near as we can determine ) Putnams were laid to rest.

Putnamville came into existence when “In the spring of 1829, Jesse Putnam, seventy-nine years old, arrived at this place with his two sons, Daniel and Edson, from Boston, New York, where they had settled upon arrival from Brattleboro, Vermont, some years earlier.” The only physical evidence in the area that remains to identify Putnamville is this sign.