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Ruth Abram: Fiona Lally

There are two kinds of people who live in rural America: those born here, and those who moved here. If you think it odd that people would abandon the attractions of big city living and move to rural America as family farms disappear, consider the case of Fiona Lally.

Fiona and her family live in the old Elm Tree Flour Mill, a 1752 grist mill in New Lebanon, New York. It’s the reason they came to town.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, The Elm Tree Mill helped make New Lebanon prosperous, and famous. President Theodore Roosevelt insisted that his pancakes be prepared only from Elm Tree Mill buckwheat. Today, the Mill is a beloved historic site; locals are proud of its legacy. Some recall their childhoods, when its companion sawmill was powered by a turbine that had replaced the old giant water-wheels.

A trained archeologist, Fiona had become enamored of old mills, and even dreamed of owning one. As a newlywed, she shared her dream with her husband Joe Ogilvie. He agreed to try it. So, after visiting the Berkshires, Joe returned with a real estate magazine. The Elm Tree Mil was featured on page 2   One week later, much to Fiona’s mother’s dismay, they bought the abandoned building and began the monumental task of restoring it and making it habitable

Then, they looked up and asked themselves, "Where are we"?

At the time, Google Maps might have answered, "Nowhere."

After several years as part-time residents, and with a growing family, the time had come to pull up or set down roots. Fiona and Joe decided to stay.

Accustomed to the city, where they could choose their environments, find what they wanted at any time and surround themselves with people with obviously shared interests, they soon discovered Country life was quite different. Even mysterious.

On top of that, they were now stewards of an historic American building.

As country life, with its defined seasons and peculiar rhythms moved around them, Fiona and Joe realized the cycles of country life were fixed.  For instance, Fiona explained, “You cannot choose to pick strawberries anytime you want in the summer time.  It’s a short season.” It can take many years for this to dawn on the transplant.

And they were puzzled about something else: where was everybody? Was anything going on in New Lebanon, with its one blinking stoplight?  A town you could drive through in the blink of an eye?

It was when Fiona and Joe decided to involve themselves in civic organizations that the town began to open to them. And, of course, they discovered that not only was there a lot going on, but it was all being carried out by people of tremendous diversity...people with admirable skills and knowledge, and resourcefulness— most of whom they would never have gotten to know in city life. “Knowing them,” they tell me,” has turned out to be the best part of country living.”

“As residents of a small rural town,“   Fiona explains, “we’ve really come to appreciate who’s there with us, and what we can do for each other.”  Some work with old traditions; some are injecting those traditions with ultra-modern concepts; it’s all just happening quietly in country homes like Fiona and Joe’s.

Getting to live in the historic, old mill was a romantic wish fulfilled for Fiona Lally, and it still is. Beyond that, she has come to realize that it is also a testament to what prevails, season after season, two hundred years of surviving and thriving in this town. Joe, Fiona, and many others cherish their opportunity to re-discover and experience rural America today.

Ruth J. Abram is founder and president of BEHOLD! New Lebanon, the living museum of contemporary rural American life. A historian and social activist, Abram was also the founder of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in Manhattan, the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, and the National Women’s Agenda and Coalition. She is a resident of Columbia County, New York.

The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.

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