141 White Road

By Dale White

A physical structure was torn down, demolished, last Thursday, the White family's "homestead". The place where my father Lincoln White was born, where his father Alex and his father Isaac worked a large dairy farm. The old house was cobbled together over the years and parts of it stood for probably a hundred fifty years.

I know it as "Grandma's house"--Alex died before I was born so my memories are of my Grandmother Rena White who lived there until she died in 1982. I can hardly imagine how she managed-- as a suddenly widowed woman-- to hold that house and farm together. She was truly the very definition of a strong Mohawk woman.

Grandma was the last resident of the homestead. My father tried to keep it up over the years but inevitably it became unlivable and abandoned.

The house fell to me after my parents passed away but it continued to deteriorate. I kept the grass mowed as much as possible, but the nearby woods encroached and it was soon surrounded by heavy invasive plants and tall brush.

At some point I realized the house needed to be removed mainly for safety purposes. I even heard it referred to as the "haunted house" on White Road. But it was a difficult decision. Probably one that many families face-selling or demolishing the treasured old family home. Or maybe it was procrastination, thinking it could be rebuilt, renovated? Leaving it stand was my way of dealing with it.

Fortunately, about five years ago the Tribe's Environment Division obtained a grant to help tribal members remove abandoned homes in an environmentally friendly manner. Best of all it was free. I signed up and began the process. I got reports from Environment on their progress on "141 White Road"-I didn't even know it had a street address.

That built up-delayed by COVID-19--to last Thursday and the inevitable. I only had a couple of days' notice of demolition-which was probably good. It was bittersweet-knowing the building was becoming a safety hazard that had to be torn down and thinking of all its memories housed there.

On that sunny day, the Environment Division staff was there waiting for the excavator. I gave them a quick tour inside, careful on weakened floor boards on the second floor. The inside was a shell of the former homestead, collapsing walls, old wall paper, little reminders here and there. I showed them the old "outhouse" off the kitchen back room. Someone said that a "fisher" had been living in it, delaying the demolition.

I had my picture taken outside for posterity and then Wally Ransom and his excavator arrived.

It took maybe two hours and the house became a pile of debris. It was almost surreal. It was difficult to watch. The excavator claw exposing the bedroom my brother and I slept in as teenagers. The old TV antenna falling from the metal roof. We joked about the days of 3 TV channels, one in French language. It was almost "gallows" humor-watching the death of a house.

Then, at the very end when only a sliver of the house stood I heard a yell. One of the Environment staff spotted the fisher jump out of the collapsing structure and run off into the high grass.

So, in the end, on that Thursday "high noon" a "physical" structure was torn down, the old boards and walls. Its last "resident" the trespassing fisher in a narrow escape now looking for another home.

As I drove away with all the memories flashing in my mind, I realized even though the house is down, the White homestead of Alex, Rena and their family still exists, certainly the memories of Grandma and all family and friends that made that house "alive" for 30 years. I'm lucky, my father left us with boxes of photos of those days I now have archived on Dropbox and share with my family. We can relive those memories and pass them on to our children and grandchildren. And in the final analysis, that bespeaks something that cannot be torn down, demolished or erased. It is those memories and lives of the occupants of the White homestead that are important and should be cherished. They will live forever.

Marilyn and Dale White express their 'thanks' to; Les Benedict (Assistant Director, Environment Division) was the one who was behind the scene for years getting the grant funding and building the capacity at Environment Division to do the work, Jessica Jock (Program Director, Remediation and Restoration (R&R) Program, Agriculture Program, and Solid Waste Program), Julie Jacobs (Project Coordinator), Craig Arquette (Site Safety Officer), Aimee Benedict (Project Communications), Colby Bowman (water trailer/safety assistance), Chris Adams and Wally Ransom (operators through our Agriculture Program) and Russell Phillips (debris hauling and disposal assistance through SRMT Solid Waste Program).