Excerpt from ‘The Story of Our Esperanza’ by Lucy Creevey, 1959

“There is another picture in my mind. I have thought of it so often. Clara Louise Kellogg had come to New Hartford and she and her husband built a lovely house on a hill near the village. She was having a house-warming, and of course the Esperanza house-party was invited. And of all the vehicles in the barn, they chose to drive down in the two-wheeled ox-cart. Mr. Rood drove up to the mounting block with his immaculate team of oxen, Berry and Bright. The cart was painted a beautiful cerulean blue, and scrubbed to the last inch. A framework had been built from which dangled a dozen Japanese lanterns, ready to light their homeward way. The Esperanza people climbed in with much laughter. Mr. Rood flicked at the oxen, and they pushed into their yokes and swung off. I remember that the little brass knobs on the ends of their horns reflected a quick gleam of light from the setting sun. I watched it all spell-bound. The cart lumbered along with its unusual burden, and just as they disappeared over the brow of the hill I heard them swinging.”

This was probably in the late 1880’s, when Lucy was around ten years old.  Clara Louise Kellogg was one of New Hartford’s more notable residents.  The Kellogg’s were one of the oldest and largest families in town, Pine Meadow (one of the small villages) was originally Kelloggsville.  They had owned and farmed numerous tracts of land throughout the town, including a portions which would become parts of Esperanza and Yellow Mountain, and had also run several taverns and inns.  Clara was an opera singer, and one of the first American sopranos to earn acclaim in Europe.  No small feat.

Mr. Rood and his family ran the farm from the 1880’s into the early 1900’s.  The Rood children were schooled alongside the family in the summer, and there are a number of pictures of them together.