Roy Noyes, father of Ken Noyes, stands in a tie and cap. For more than 60 years, the Noyes ran the Jonesville Country Store.
It was Jonesville's 25th annual clambake, and no one wanted to miss it.
For more than 60 years, the United Methodist Church hosted clambakes that united the town.
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Jonesville United
Methodist Church
Labor Day clambakes at the Jonesville United Methodist Church began in the 1890s and lasted well into the 1960s, according to Town Historian John Scherer.
The first clambake was not a success -- the church's directors had to pay $25 to cover expenses. But later clambakes raised as much as $1,100 for the church.
''You can see how many people were there,'' said Methodist Church Office Manager Sue Cole. ''It was unbelievable.''
Cole said many of those who attended the clambakes were not members of the church, who numbered only about 100 during its early years.
''It was people from all over,'' she said.
While it no longer hosts clambakes, the church still fills an important role in the community, hosting numerous events throughout the year.
The annual turkey supper last year attracted more than 620 people, Cole said. The church also hosts a craft fair in November at the church.
At a fall harvest fair, Shenendehowa Librarian Gail Winters saw the house of her dreams just across the street.
''I just took one look at that and said, 'That's where I want to live,''' she said.
Winters has lived across from the church for ''24 years this Sunday,'' she said.
Jonesville Academy
Carol Temple and her husband, Victor, also fell in love with a house on Main Street.
When the couple arrived in 1977, what is now their home was a school, the former Jonesville Academy.
Carol Temple said they bought the school not for its Jonesville location, but for the challenge of renovating an old building.
''Some kind of romantic notion about it being a lot of fun,'' she said.
It took three years, but the old school was finally made livable, to the delight of Temple's neighbors.
''People were pleased to see something nice happen to it,'' she said.
And while the Temples didn't know much of the building's history when they moved in, neighbors soon provided details of its past.
Jonesville Academy was built in 1840 as a private junior senior high school. The school closed in 1876, about 10 years after less expensive public schools became available.
Twenty-five years later, the school was sold for $220 to School District 9 of Clifton Park. It closed in 1953 when the districts were consolidated to form Shenendehowa.
Jonesville
Rural Cemetery
Many of the men and women in the clambake photograph were laid to rest in the Jonesville Rural Cemetery.
Dr. MacElroy, the wealthy Kennedy family and many headmasters of Jonesville Academy were laid to rest at the cemetery on the corner of Ushers Road and Main Street.
The Jonesville Cemetery is a credit to the community, said Frank Berlin, one of the cemetery's caretakers.
While it began as a neighbor-helping-neighbor routine, ''It's gotten to be a real job,'' Berlin said. ''Now we have bodies that come from Texas. We don't know them.''
Regardless, everyone is treated with the same respect. After the cost of the plot, about $50, services provided by the cemetery committee are free.
Years ago, some of the interned paid $5 for perpetual care, Berlin said. Others did not.
''Some (graves) were cut, some were like a field,'' he said.
Then Jack Davey came along. He decided to cut grass on all of the graves. That policy remains today.
The spirit of the cemetery is also reflected in its lack of regulations on graveside adornments.
''Catie (Hoch) is over there and her grave is decorated with balloons and flowers,'' Berlin said. ''Other cemeteries wouldn't allow that.''
Berlin credits the cemetery's resilience to John Davey, who inherited his duties there from his father, Jack.
After the death of the committee's president, Vernon Woods, a few years ago, Berlin said some of the history of the cemetery was lost.
Davey retains what is left, as does a quill-penned map of graves from the cemetery's earlier years.
Neighborhood
feeling
remains strong
Like the cemetery, the history of Jonesville is in its neighbors, Winters said.
But this knowledge wanes with each passing year.
''We've been surrounded by older folks,'' she said.''We lost so many in the last five years.''
Neighbors like Winters and Carol Temple are now filling this gap as two of Jonesville's many unofficial historians.
''I guess we've become the older generation,'' Temple said.
Winters, Temple and others who keep the community of Jonesville strong also try to protect the hamlet from development that has inundated the town in past decades.
People in the village demanded that new development along Main Street require houses face the road, Temple said.
When Country Knolls West was built just east of the village, Temple fought against an entrance off Main Street.
''We're always trying to make sure that we get taken into account into how the whole town of Clifton Park operates,'' she said.
