“1870. January 6. While over to Hudson City yesterday, Carrington I. Hayes told me Mr. Joel Bragg of Unadilla died last Monday.”
Mr. Hayes survived until 1894, when he died in Montclair, New Jersey, and as already stated, his body was brought to Unadilla for burial. Opposite the house in which he was born, has since been erected as a memorial a large and beautiful seat cut from granite. Standing there in a small park-like enclosure, overlooking the Susquehanna, it may well testify to the fondness Mr. Hayes always had for the village on whose soil he was born, and in whose soil he sleeps.
And so have passed away these pioneers—they and many of their descendants. A kind of desolation has indeed overspread this beautiful land, in the midst of which, even in broad noonday, one seems to hear “the footsteps of bygone generations passing up the village street.”
REMINISCENCES OF VILLAGE LIFE AND OF PANAMA AND CALIFORNIA.
1840-1850.
PREFACE.
These reminiscences were written by Dr. Halsey for “The Unadilla Times” and were printed in the columns of that newspaper in the spring and summer of 1890. In the following winter they underwent revision, with a view to their appearance in pamphlet form for distribution among his old friends. He had long been in failing health and on February 17, 1891, he passed away at his home in Unadilla. The last mental exertion in which he ever engaged occurred two days before his death and was connected with these papers.