Remembering Corinth, Part 4-Our Corinth Family

DFH Volume 1 Issue 13

Remembering Corinth, by Dave Hayes, is a ten-part series about Dave’s remembrances of Corinth in the late ‘50s.  Dave, a retired elementary teacher and guidance counselor (36 years), and part time adjunct professor in the Counseling Dept. at nearby West Chester Univ. (24 years-8 after his “first” retirement) lives in Pottstown, PA.  He and his wife, Kathleen, had four children, Heather, Jeremy, Emily (d.2008) and Benjamin.  He descends from Wilber Sr. as follows: Wilber Sr., Rev. Charles “Chop” Dayton, Isabelle “Izzie” [Dayton] Hayes, David Hayes

Part 4 – Our Corinth Family

            The best thing about living in Corinth in 1959,while dad was on a hardship tour in Greenland, was that we were surrounded by family—grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and lots of new church friends!  Grampa was now my pastor (from father to grandfather…now there’s a switch) and Gramma Jo was my pastor’s wife.  My Aunt Cammie (really, more like a cousin in terms of age and relationships) was a constant companion and new best friend.  Then there was Uncle Paul and Aunt Ruth and their kids—my “new” cousins—who lived across town and Uncle Chip & Aunt Lib, who lived just a few doors up from us on Walnut Street.  Not only did we see Cammie & Jimmy and the other cousins on Sundays and weeknight prayer meetings, but we saw them passing in the hallways in school and we played with them as “instant family friends.”  Jimmy was a year older than I, so we got to explore and bike and run around the town together.  After we moved again, a year later, I didn’t see Jimmy until we were in Houghton College together 8 years later!  But our time in Corinth cemented our cousin-friendship! Jimmy & Cammie introduced us to the behind-the-scenes places in Corinth, like the supposed Indian burial ground at the top of the hill from the church.  Local legend, according to the Corinth kids, was that Indians were buried underneath the big rocks that were on the hillside.  We ran around, jumping from rock to rock, thinking that we were somehow part of ancient history.  They also showed us the famous Stewart’s Ice Cream shop, where you could eat the toppings off of your make-your-own sundae and then add more on top.  Now that’s a yummy memory!  And we learned that the town beach (swimming in the Hudson) was next to the town library and just down the street from the center of town.  We loved the small town feel and being surrounded by family—all in all, a great place to be for a year!

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The Charles Alexander Dayton Family

DFH Volume 1 Issue 11

Much has already been written in previous publications of this newsletter about the Rev. Charles A. “Chop” Dayton, long-time pastor and administrator in the Wesleyan Methodist Church.  However very little has been written about the rest of his family.  Charles married Gladys MacDonald Feb 3, 1926, in Corinth.  Gladys was born in Schroon Lake.  They had daughters Isabel “Izzie” (1926) and Doris “Dorie.” (1930).  The young Dayton family moved to Chittenden, Vermont, in 1932, when Charles entered the ministry.  Chittenden was a small, out-of-the-mainstream, church where unproven pastors were sent to be tested.  He proved himself very quickly.  Three years later, he was called to Glens Falls, New York, the largest church in the Champlain Conference.  The family also pastored in Watervliet, New York, and Springfield, Massachusetts, before Charles became Champlain Conference President of the Wesleyan Church in 1946. His wife Gladys, a loving partner in his ministry, was never physically very strong and passed away in 1949 at age 43, due to “heart failure”

In 1948, Izzie and Quentin “Kent” Hayes were married in West Chazy, New York.  Kent began Marion College in Indiana, where both sons, David and Keith were born. Seminary then took the young family to Wilmore, Kentucky, for three more years. Following his commissioning in1957, it was on to Fort Hood,Texas, as a career officer and chaplain in the U S Army. The Hayes family moved a lot. Among other places, the family spent three wonderful years in Italy in the 1960’s. Kent served a one-year tour in Greenland, while his family stayed behind in Corinth. Dave Hayes speaks to their military adventures in the series “Remembering Corinth” elsewhere in this newsletter. Izzie was graduated from Houghton College before her marriage, did graduate work at several universities and enjoyed three exciting careers: social work, teaching and editorial work on a Chesapeake Bay magazine.

Younger sister Doris “Dorie” was married to John Lamos in 1951. John joined the US Army a./ s a band member for General MacArthur in Post-War Japan. Following his graduation from Marion College in Indiana and his ordination, he served several churches including Springfield, MA, Plattsburgh Turnpike Church and Corinth, NY. Dorie’s career choice was nursing. After earning her R.N. and B.S., she worked for a time in several hospitals. She was probably known best as the mother of five lovely children, four of whom have served, or are still serving, as pastors in the Wesleyan Church.

Charles’ first wife Gladys, a loving partner in her husband’s pastoral work, was never physically strong. She succumbed to heart failure in 1949 at age 43 .

The following year, Charles married Josephine Fisher.  Josephine was the sister of Donna Fisher who was Wilber Jr.’s wife. Yes, the Fisher sisters married Dayton brothers.  Jo graduated from Asbury College in Wilmore, KY, and taught elementary school before joining the flood of young professional women to our nation’s capital during WWII, to help the war effort. She got her master’s degree at Northern Baptist Seminary in Chicago and taught at Nyack Missionary College. In 1951, Camilla was born to “Chop” and “Jo”  during Charles’ time as pastor in Springfield, Massachusetts.  A year later, the family moved to Corinth, New York, where Charles pastored the Wesleyan Methodist Church.  Charles had come full circle, and he was home again.  The family remained in Corinth until 1960, when once again, he was elected to another term as President of the Champlain Conference. 

Cammie graduated from Houghton College, where she met her future husband Jack Luckey. Following their marriage, they moved to Washington, D..C.; Jack completed law school and began his career as an attorney at the Library of Congress. Two children were born to that marriage, J.C. and Alexis. After a Peace Corps assignment in Africa, Alexis, the younger daughter, will be married this fall. J.C. has a very rewarding career as a spokesperson for a conglomerate of hospitals in the Tampa, Florida, area. It was those two young sons, Hayden and Joe, that influenced Grandpa and Grandma Luckey, i.e., Jack and Cam, to locate in retirement in nearby Clearwater. Cammie spends large blocks of time in Israel where she is cataloging and writing a book about antiquities at the Jerusalem Library. Jack, despite a heavy-though-delightful commitment of time

to his grandfatherly duties, recently published a book of his spiritual journey. It’s well organized, extremely readable and one tender description of a man’s seeking and finding truth and meaning in life. Despite my short attention span, I didn’t want the book to end. The title: Relationships, The Real Estate of Heaven. The author: John Luckey.  Address: 1828 Union Street; Clearwater, FL 33763 Ave. (amazon.com)

Remembering Corinth-Part 1 How we Came to Corinth

DHF Volume 1 Issue 10

Remembering Corinth, by Dave Hayes, is a ten-part series about Dave’s remembrances of Corinth in the late ‘50s.  Dave, a retired elementary teacher and guidance counselor (36 years), and part time adjunct professor in the Counseling Dept. at nearby West Chester Univ. (24 years-8 after his “first” retirement) lives in Pottstown, PA.  He and his wife, Kathleen, had four children, Heather, Jeremy, Emily (d.2008) and Benjamin.  He descends from Wilber Sr. as follows: Wilber Sr., Rev. Charles “Chop” Dayton, Isabelle “Izzie” [Dayton] Hayes, David Hayes.

Our family moved to Corinth in the fall of 1958.  My father (Quentin “Kent” Hayes), a new Army chaplain, had been stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, for a year and a half when he got orders to report to Thule, Greenland, for twelve-month unaccompanied tour.  In the service, this is considered a “hardship assignment,” since the family cannot be there with him.  So we (Mom—Izzie Dayton Hayes, my brother Keith and I) needed to live somewhere for a year.  It seemed only logical to relocate to Corinth since Mom’s father was then the pastor of the Wesleyan Church there, and she had other relatives in the same town.  Besides, that’s where she had been born, so it really was like “coming home.”  The three of us moved into a recently-constructed apartment at the bottom of the hill on Walnut Street and settled into our new home-for-a-year in Corinth.  I was in 4^th grade, and Keith was in 2^nd . We entered Corinth Central School as the “new kids” half way through the year.  Mom got a job as a case worker in Ballston Spa with the Saratoga County Social Services Dept., returning  to the work she had done in Clinton County near Plattsburgh, NY, following her graduation from Houghton College and subsequent marriage.  We settled in, and became absorbed into small town life in Northern New York State, while Dad was north of the Arctic Circle in frigid Greenland.

Next week Part 2-Going North, Y’all