by Leisa Strabel
Offering glimpses of a more genteel age, a Brockport family is sharing the collected works of Lucy Snyder Barrus with the community. Her 400 essays, poems and reflections written between 1948 and 1955 have been published with copies entrusted to the Seymour Library and the Brockport Baptist Church.
Lucy Snyder was born in the neighboring Town of Clarendon in 1898, one of 11 children. In 1920 she married Milford Dewey Barrus, a World War I veteran and Purple Heart recipient. The newlyweds soon settled in Brockport, purchasing the wood-frame house at 183 Park Avenue. The couple had five children: Janet, Marjorie, Ruth, Robert and Patricia.
According to Robert Barrus, his mother was a smart, loving woman and a strong disciplinarian. As was more typical in that time, each child in the family had chores and was held accountable for his/her behavior.
“She was a Christian woman, very active in church, very generous in giving of herself.” Barrus recalls that “hobos” rode the train during the Depression Era, often getting off in Brockport. “My mother would always feed them,” Barrus said, “she couldn’t turn anyone away. But then she would have them do a little work in the yard or around the house so that they would feel good about themselves, feel that they had earned their meal.”
In 1948, with all the children grown and gone except the youngest, Milford took a job as a part-time patrolman for the Village of Brockport working the evening shift. Lucy filled those evening hours by sitting at her spinet desk in the front living room of the Park Avenue house, writing out in long-hand her observations on family, faith, nature and country. She wrote in essay form, poetry and even a few short stories. The works number about 400 separate pieces.
Lucy passed away in 1977 and her various notebooks, journals, sketchbooks and accountings pads were packed away. Recently, the three surviving children, Janet, Robert and Patricia, decided to compile the writings and have them published to share with the 20 grandchildren, extended family and other interested community members.
At first the siblings tried to arrange the pieces by theme, then they decided that chronological order would be best. Many of the pieces are dated, some are not so the order is approximate. A few photographs have been added to offer a visual connection to the author. The brother and two sisters spent months revising the order and layout of the writings. The result is a book entitled “My Old Spinet Desk; The Collected Writings of Lucy Snyder Barrus.”
Robert said the 20 grandchildren have been presented with a copy – the project had been kept quiet so most of them were surprised – and they have all been “thrilled and touched” to receive the piece of family history.
“My mother was someone who devoted her life to her family, her church and her community,” Barrus said. “This book lets us all remember her and remember what one Brockport family’s life was like during that time.”
