The Walworthians: Ginegaw, Harold and Virginia

The Walworthians: Ginegaw, Harold F.

A collection of telephone interviews published in the Wayne County STAR Newspaper and Wayne County MAIL Newspaper, 1994-209

by Kate Chamberlin

~Harold F. Ginegaw

January 31, 1996

Harold F. Ginegaw is one of the people in our neighborhood.

“If you think this is cold,” he told me when our temperature was in the teens. “You should have felt it in ’34 when it was 24 degrees below!”

Harold was born May 17th in the farm house on the northwest corner of Routes 350 and 441. His older brother and sister and he helped care for 7 cows, many chickens and tended all kinds of fruit trees:  pear, apple, cherry and even prune (plum).

“After that big freeze in ’34,” he remembered. “I’d wrap my feet in newspaper and then shove my boots on to go chop the fruit trees for firewood.”

The Ginegaw’s lost several hundreds of their trees because the severe cold split the trunks. The trees were standard, 25-foot tall varieties, not the dwarf hybrids.

“We used to get 44 bushels of fruit from each tree,”  he said.

In 1936, he and his brother dug a mile long ditch to drain the land that is now Ginegaw Park. They grew spinach, onions and potatoes in the rich muck land.

One of the few farm machines they used was a 4-horse drawn manure spreader they’d bought from Don Howard.

They didn’t get their first tractor until 1939, so, the horses were also used to pull the tank holding the spray for the fruit trees.

Harold remembers going to Duell’s where they had big blocks of ice. They’d use an axe to chop the ice for ice cream.

Harold attended the Walworth Academy and likes to say that the only way his brother got out of first grade was by the building being torn down.

While the new school was being built, Harold attended classes in the Grange Hall. He studied Agriculture in High School but ended up working for Xerox for 13 years and Garlock for 21 years.

He and his wife, Virginia, have lived in their Main Street home for 50 years. They set up housekeeping right after their February 2, 1946 wedding.

Harold and Virginia have restored the home Yeoman built in 1834. Many of the hand-hewn beams, with bark, are still visible.

Their used to be a Hat Shop next to their home. They have several hat molds that will eventually be put in the Walworth Historical Society’s Museum.

One of Harold’s (and, presumably, Virginia’s) accomplishments is the raising of their 8 children.

“Seanna, Daonna, Nancy, Gregory, Carol, Ginny, Clarence, Amy.”  he said one by one. There, is that eight?”

I decided not to ask him to name all the grandchildren!

He says his hobby is being with his family and working on his home, but will readily admit that he also likes to go to the Finger Lakes Racetrack.

He is very proud of his wife for being the Methodist Church’s Historian for so many years.

He is delighted that the park bearing his family’s name is kept up and he feels the new Town Hall, although expensive, is quite an accomplishment.

You’d never know he’d been through two open heart surgeries and a kidney removed unless he told you. He is a prime example of a good neighbor. He is often seen bopping around from shop to shop with a friendly, “Hello.”

Thank you, Harold. You are a Walworthian with the accent on worth.

Up-date, November 01, 2017: Harold and Virginia are buried side-by-side in the Walworth Cemetery.

Harold F. Ginegaw, 1924-2007

Virginia C. Ginegaw, 1916-2013