Fort Brewerton & Oliver Stevens Blockhouse Museum

10/30/2026

Museum Monday’s Mystery was a Victorian spring loaded candle desk lamp. These reading lamps had an internal spring that pushed up on the candle from the bottom. This meant that the candle burned at a steady height and burned up all its wax instead of dripping it. This belonged to a teacher in Brewerton named Flora Fay and is one of a collection of school artifacts we have from her. Unfortunately, it’s glass top that would prevent it from flickering is missing.

Some notes from J Elet Milton’s collection

“J. L. Wright, Miss Belle Ladd and Miss Flora Fay are the only teachers who can claim the proud distinction of having taught in both bulldings, and Miss Fay can undoubtedly be happy in the thought that she has taught more children in Brewerton school than any other one teacher, as she has reigned in the primary room for eleven consecutive years. ---Katherine H. Carter.
School Banquet, Disciples Church, June 1908”

“New School opened Sept. 1892.

1892-3
N, Leonard
Flora Fay
Mrs. C. Bicknell

1894
N. Leonard
Flora Fay
Myrtle Klock

1895
Allen Ryder
Mrs. C. Bicknell
Flora Fay
T. D. Blye (finished year)

1896
T. D. Blye
Flora Fay
C. L. Bicknell

1897
T. D. Blye
Flora Fay
Ruth Nichols

1898
T. D. Blye
Kathryn Beebe
Flora Fay

1899
T. D. Blye
Lena Orman
Flora Fay

1900
G. H. Butts
Lena Orman
Flora Fay

1901
Ceo. Butts
Flora Fay
L. May Dority

1903
J.L. Wright
Flora. Fay
Kate Carter

1904
J. L. Wright
Kate Carter
Laura Graves”

Flora Alice Fay rests in Riverside Cemetery in Brewerton

10/26/2026

Today’s Mystery! Guess the item from the Museum collections. Comment below what you think it is. I will post my answer on Friday!

10/24/2026

Get out of the house on this beautiful fall (Saturday) afternoon and see the archeological dig also the museum is open until 4!

10/19/2026

We at Fort Brewerton are saddened to learn the Jack Henke has passed. He was a longtime friend of our museum and we share wonderful memories of time spent at the Blockhouse, visiting and signing his books. Those books contain information from our reference library collections. We will miss his visits. Rest in peace Jack!

View Jack Henke's obituary, send flowers and sign the guestbook.

10/19/2026

10/16/2026

Museum Monday’s Mystery were beaver teeth chisels. When still installed on a beaver, their teeth are self sharpening. At some point long ago in prehistory, Native Americans observed these world altering animals cutting down trees with their teeth. Besides being an excellent source of fat, they used every bit of the animal and put those teeth to work as chisels and gouges for fine woodworking.
They didn’t know why those teeth could be sharpened so well and cut wood so efficiently without being destroyed like other teeth. It turns out that they have iron in them! The orange color on the front part of the enamel is caused by ferrihydrite and amorphous iron-calcium phosphate. This wears 2.5 times slower than the rest of the tooth enamel that does not contain it and is about as hard as non hardened iron tools. The rest of the tooth is made of a bunch of prisms that wear faster and break off in little enamel blocks. If the harder part does break off, it shears off clean due to its unique structure, and quickly re-sharpens.

More on their structure here:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1742706122008625?fr=RR-2&ref=pdf_download&rr=a4bad4831c91f3ba

To keep them honed, they can be ground against a smooth rock, where their unique properties make them easy to sharpen to a keen edge by hand. To this day, despite being in the ground for millennia, they still hold a remarkable edge and each one is a little different depending on how it was used.

Watch one of these tools being made in this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzJr_mfP9H8&themeRefresh=1

These tools were found at the Wickham site here in Brewerton in the mid 20th century and are part of the Denman collection.

10/12/2026

Today’s Mystery! Guess the items from the Museum collections (The orange ones). Comment below what you think they are and how the native Americans used them. Why are they orange? I will post my answers on Friday!

10/11/2026

We enjoyed hosting members of the Betsy Baldwin Chapter of the NSDAR today. Donny gave a brief talk and then they toured the museum. Please come back soon!

10/10/2026

It's a sunny afternoon at Fort Brewerton. Stop by! The men are here and happy to share what they are doing.

10/09/2026

Fort Brewerton Historical Society's Annual Membership Meeting will be next Saturday 10/17/26 at 1pm in the Blockhouse Museum.
Please come and hear what we are up to! Please come and share your ideas!