Name/Title
Anton and Samuel Rush Family Gift and ArchivesEntry/Object ID
2021.2.77Scope and Content
This entry documents probably the most extensive, generous, and amazing collection of early 19th through early 20th-century artifacts ever donated to SLHS and the Town of Sand Lake. The collection was donated by descendants of the Roesch/Rush family and includes everything from baby clothes to detailed school manuscripts detailing the meticulous manner in which early schools taught reading, writing, and arithmetic. Specifically, Antoni Roesch first came to the Town of Sand Lake to work in the Glass Factory located on Glass Lake soon after the Town's founding in 1812. He subsequently Americanized his name to Anton Rush, built a home located at 186 Glass Lake Road that still stands to this day, eventually became a part owner of the Glass Factory, and had a son named Samuel who built a home that still stands as well and was recently restored to a working farm located on the northwest corner of Crystal Lake and Miller Hill Roads in Averill Park. Per the donation letter included below, descendants of Samuel, including Nancy Booz Macy of Boulder Creek, California, eventually moved across the country to seek their own fortunes. Specifically, Nancy's father, Francis Freeman Booz, was the second son of Louise Rush Booz. Louise was the daughter of Samuel Rush's son Francis Rush. Throughout the years and their travels, the Rush descendants maintained an amazing collection of Rush family artifacts and memorabilia dating all the way back to their earliest days in Sand Lake, NY, carefully preserving them for generations to come. Fortunately for the Town of Sand Lake, the collection was eventually entrusted to Nancy Booz Macy who decided to ship it to the Sand Lake Historical Society in July of 2008 in consideration of how much the Town of Sand Lake obviously meant to her ancestors and family. Then SLHS President Mary D. French and Sand Lake Town Historian Judy Rowe subsequently inventoried the collection and recommended that the Town, rather than SLHS, receive the donation given its importance and extensive scope and size. The collection largely remained locked in storage, other than its use to help inspire an Amazing Graves vignette in 2016, until 2022 when the advent of this system finally enabled the Town and SLHS to fully appreciate and display its content. As a suggested starting point, consider reviewing the short Amazing Graves video and/or script about the history of the Rush family that is available in the Web Links portion of this entry and then reviewing the donation letter and its included inventory of the collection. Note that one must be fully logged into the system to download the PDF entries.Cataloged By
Michael Frederick PerryAcquisition
Accession
2021.2Acquisition Method
FoundLocation
Location
* Untyped Location
TOSL Historian's Storeroom Shelf 3BDate
July 14, 2022Created By
curator@slhstrustees.orgCreate Date
July 14, 2022Updated By
curator@slhstrustees.orgUpdate Date
July 21, 2022
