Today I took a walk through the snow in Flewellyn Park. Some of you may not know where the park got its name. Formerly the site of a stately Victorian house, the park was owned by Laura Flewellyn, a well-known and beloved schoolteacher. In St. Mark's Church: A History, Helena Rutherfurd Meade writes the following of Miss Flewellyn:
"Miss Laura Flewellyn was one of the finest teachers in the local
school. Her family was Welsh. Four Flewellyn brothers, who were millers,
came with their trade and settled near Kirby Pond. There they had their
mill and ground the grain of the local landowners. Ultimately that
Flewellyn land became Leonard property and is now, of course, Leonard
Park. The pond must have been large, for it covered all the flat lands
where the tennis courts, etc., are now. Later, the Flewellyns moved to
Crow Hill Road, and continued to live there for many years. Crow Hill
Road is one of the oldest roads in the area. Revolutionary earth works
may still be seen, many of them on the property belonging to Mr. Percy
J. Ebbott.
"Miss Flewellyn's grandmother was a Purdy of
Purdy's Station, as it was called. She was brought up in the beautiful
Purdy house with its great center chimney, truly a house of distinction.
"Miss
Purdy married a Flewellyn, had a large family, and named her first son
Eisenhart Ezekiel Purdy Flewellyn. So, up on Crow Hill, Miss Flewellyn
lived and from there she was confirmed at the age of 13, she thinks by
Bishop Henry Godman Potter. To her young eyes, Saint Mark's was a lovely
Church with 'our motto' over the Chancel arch. However, on most of her
Sundays she could walk to a chapel of Saint Mark's at Kitchawan, called
The Chapel of the Good Shepherd ...
"Miss Laura's
amusement as a young child was to jump in and out of the Revolutionary
entrenchments near the family house. In later years she would walk to
the village to watch the baseball games because she wished to see her
rector, the Rev. Egisto Chauncey, play. He was, she said, a great
athlete and a delightful person ... "
Born in 1882, Miss Flewellyn never married or had children, but worked at the local public school for 62 years. Village historian Oliver Knapp was in her fifth grade class of 1918. When she died at the age of 89, Miss Flewellyn left her property to the village with the stipulation that it must be maintained as a public park. The village, which wanted to turn the property into a parking lot, fought vigorously with the terms of her will. Miss Flewellyn had designated three other potential heirs should the village choose not to accept the property, but stipulated that the heirs could only sell it back to the village for a sum of $800,000. That was more than the village was willing to pay, and so the property became a park.
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