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Welcome!
Greetings Cousins from
Rochester, New York:
This is Chuck Bliley,
great-great grandson of Charles and Mary Jane Bliley of Harbor
Creek Township, Erie County, Pennsylvania and coordinator for
the Bliley Family History Tour on July 30th. This Web site will
bring you all up-to-date on the activities planned for the tour.
A simple request by cousin
Dave Wagner for directions to aid him in driving by the old Bliley
farmhouse in Erie has turned into something much more. While
much of the house can be seen on my family history site, there
is nothing better than standing inside the house of such a successful
and loving family, walking the hallways they walked, and placing
your hand on the barn door that they walked through every day.
Fortunately for us, the current owner of this 140 year-old house,
Dan and Melissa Toperzer, have agreed to our visiting them for
a few hours and opening up their home and property to us.
I have tried to arrange for a tour of the retirement house for
several months, but that was impossible to arrange.
The content of this e-mail
will be duplicated on the Family History Tour Web site at www.Bliley.net/farm/.
If you have any questions
or comments on the arrangements, please call or write me.
Thank you.
Chuck
Updated: July 4th, 2005
ABOUT THE TOUR
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Several people have offered
to provide background stories on the community of Harbor Creek
and religious activities during Charles and Mary Jane's lives.
These informal presentations will be offered before we begin
the tour of the farm and house.
TOURING THE HOUSE
AND CEMETERIES
Farmhouse and Property
Tour
Tours of the interior
of the house will be conducted while we are having our lunch.
Groups of five or six will be taken in at a time. This is a large
house and one occupied by a young family with plenty of toys
around and other things to navigate over or around.
Following the tour of
the property, we will assemble for a caravan tour of several
sites important in Charles and Mary Jane's lives as well as visit
two cemeteries in which several family members are buried including
Charles, Mary Jane, and two-thirds of their children.
Road Tour
The tour would be more
practical if those of us with larger vehicles or are familiar
with the Erie area providing rides or navigation assistance for
other members of the family from out of town or without room
to spare. Several people are planning on bringing small multi-passenger
vans. Those of you not driving can leave your vehicle on the
farmhouse yard free-of-charge! We will stop back at the end of
our road tour.
Communicating on the
Road
If you have any Family
Radio Service (FRS) radios, please bring them along. They could
prove useful in keeping us in touch while we travel the streets
of Erie. OK, we can use cell phones but they are not quite as
easy to use and it is impractical to simultaneous notify all
groups in the caravan.
Accessibility for
the Physically-Challenged
The house is two stories
and has an uneven dirt floor in the basement. The barns are hundreds
of feet from the house. As a result, the property may be challenging
to those with physical limitations. The cemetery plots are on
relatively flat land.
SHARING A BITE TO
EAT
A simple picnic-style
lunch will be provided which will consist of assorted submarine
sandwiches, soft drinks and iced tea. A local grocery chain will
prepare these. If you have any dietary restrictions please let
me know and I will try to assist you if possible. I am assuming
there are no vegetarians among the attendees.
The homeowner will proved
two picnic tables for use, but we may need more that that. If
practical, please bring along lawn chairs and a card table. Shelter
from the sun, or God-forbid, rain, will be provided. I know some
of you are traveling by airplane or in rented vehicles and such
things are impractical to pack.
Thinking that we may
want to share our impressions of the day's events, I have made
reservations at a Ponderosa Restaurant a few miles Northeast
of the farmhouse on Buffalo Road (PA Route 20). It will not be
a private room or such, but a large block of tables and booths
will be reserved for us near the buffet. You will be responsible
for your own expenses at Ponderosa.
THINGS TO SHARE
Please bring along any
family photos, letters or other items relating to the family
to show to other and perhaps to share.
SOUVENIR BOOKLET
I am preparing a booklet
of old photos and written material about the family, some of
it in their own words, that will be distributed to those attending
the tour. One brochure is offered per person or two per family.
Additional copies will be offered for $5 each. OK, so I do not
know what will be in the brochure for sure, but I have had many
things printed at Kinko's and it is not cheap. Being significantly
under-employed, I cannot afford to carry the cost of the publication.
Electronic copies will be available on the Bliley Family History
Web site in PDF format.
Until we all get together
in Erie, I would recommend preparing for the visit by reading
the memoirs of Charles A. Bliley and Mary Jane Mead Bliley on
the Bliley Family History site. These will tell you a lot about
their lives and family.
EXPENSES?
A donation of $10 per
adult or $20 per family would be appreciated to cover the cost
of the food and printing costs for the brochure. This is a nominal
charge and I doubt there be any surplus.
ARE YOU COMING?
I hope so. In order to
minimize expenses for food and printing the brochure, I need
to know who intends to attend and how many printed copies of
the brochure you would like. Reservations must be in by July
20th.
OTHER THINGS TO DO
It is Summer and Erie
is on Lake Erie. The most popular local tourist site is one of
the Great Lakes' greatest stops--Presque Isle State Park--known
to the locals as "the peninsula". It is 12 miles of
all kinds of water-based activities, plus wonderful walking trails
and a dozen life-guarded beaches. And...there are the usual museums
and historical sites. Look over the following Web sites for further
information:
GoErie.com-- http://www.goerie.com/
Convention and Toursit
Bureau--http://www.visiteriepa.com/
Weather Forecast--http://www.weather.com/weather/local/16509?GO=GO
SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES
11:00--Assemble at the
farmhouse at 3767 Station Road, Harborcreek, PA. Begin with introductions
of family members and homeowner.
11:15--Background presentations
on Harbor Creek, the Bliley Family, and religious lives of Catholics
in the area.
11:30--Tour of the property
and barns.
12:00--Lunch and tours
of house begin.
2:00--Head out on driving
tour.
5:00--End driving tour
and return to farmhouse.
TOUR ITINERARY
Stop 1: Retirement
Home (1892-1913), 3323 South Street, Wesleyville, PA [Drive-by only, 2 miles]
Stop 2: Saint Mary's
R. C. Church, 315 East 9th Street, Erie, PA. One of only two Catholic churches
in the Erie area at the time of Charles and Mary Jane' marriage
in this church in 1847. The church was rebuilt in 1934, but you
can see gain an appreciation for the great distance it is from
their home and the urban nature of the location. [Drive-by only,
+10 miles]
Stop 3: Erie Cemetery,
26th and Chestnut Streets--Large
cemetery located in central Erie. Location of graves of two of
Charles and Mary Jane's children: Wilfred and Frank, and several
of their children. [+3 miles]
Stop 4: Trinity Cemetery,
West 8th (PA Route 5) and Peninsula Drive, Erie (Millcreek),
PA. Bliley family
plot with graves of Charles and Mary Jane Bliley, brother Andrew
Blila, and several of their children. [+9 miles]
Stop 5: Return to
Bliley Farmhouse.
Pick up our cars, say goodbye to those not headed to the Ponderosa
Restaurant.
RELATED ITEMS OF INTEREST:
These links are provided
to help you prepare for the tour.A test will be given at the
farm house before the tour begins. Do not embarrass yourself
in the presence of family. Study and be prepared. ;-)
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