news article
A glimpse inside UNY Archives: Hidden treasures revealed and restored
April 15, 2024 / By Shelby Winchell, UNY Director of Communications / .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
The Upper New York (UNY) Archives is full of archived information from documents to artifacts. Located in the United Methodist Center in Liverpool, the UNY Archives is run by a group of volunteers and part-time Archives Assistant, Reilly Callahan, who aim to record and preserve United Methodist history in Upper New York, dating back to before the formation of UNY.
Many items and documents are reviewed and cataloged in a database, but not everything is archived. Regardless, each item is a piece of history and has a story.
One item that can’t be archived is the Birchenough Cross from the now closed Slingerlands United Methodist Church, once located in Albany County. The cross is six feet tall and four-and-a-half feet wide across and is in search of a new home.
The cross is centered on the Birchenough family in Slingerlands, a hamlet in Bethlehem, NY. Records indicate Robert H. Birchenough, Sr. and his first wife, Ethel, were active members of Slingerlands UMC. The cross was commissioned to be built sometime after 1998 by their two sons, Dr. Robert H. Birchenough and David Birchenough, in memory of their parents.
Robert H. Birchenough, Sr. married Ethel Kattrein on Oct. 16, 1937 in Albany and moved to Slingerlands in 1939. Ethel was a 23-year member of the Bethlehem Public Library in Delmar, including serving as a board member and president of the library. (She even donated a grand piano to the library.) She also served as a volunteer to the American Red Cross during World War II and was a Red Cross board member, honorary trustee, and a national field volunteer. She died on Jan. 2, 1986 and is buried in her family’s lot in the Albany Rural Cemetery.
After Ethel’s death, Robert married a widow named Virginia Peters. She taught in the Bethlehem Central School District for many years until her retirement in 1986. She was on the Women’s Council of The Albany Institute of History and Art. She died on Dec. 26, 2012 and is also buried in the Albany Rural Cemetery.
Robert was a graduate of Albany Academy and Cornell University and was a certified public accountant. He established Jennings and Birchenough CPAs. He was an honorary life member of the University Club of Albany and a longtime member of the Albany Rotary Club. He died May 4, 1998 and is buried in the Albany Rural Cemetery next to both his wives, Ethel and Virginia.
Records indicate the cross was designed and constructed of brass tubing by Robert Jensen of Schenectady. The cross was hung on the wall above the main altar of the church until the church closed. It was then sent to the UNY Archives to be given to a New Faith Community.
Any UNY New Faith Community interested in having the cross should email Reilly at archives@unyumc.org.
Disintegrating and recently restored was this hat box, once belonging to William T. H. Bayford. According to his obituary, William Bayford was born on March 14, 1869 in Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England and began preaching at the age of 14. When he turned 19 and until 1913, he was regularly appointed to preach in circuit chapels. After marrying Maud Mary Greenwood in 1894 and following the birth of their two children, the Bayford family relocated to the United States in 1913. Bayford served several Upper New York churches, including Naples UMC, Dansville UMC, Medina UMC, and more. He died on Nov. 26, 1944.
The hat box was restored by Reilly using leather honey and wax. Today it rests in the UNY Archives.
The Conference Commission on Archives and History has boxes of items that aren’t and can’t be archived, so members of the Commission are going to give them away for free during the 2024 Upper New York Annual Conference, to be held May 30-June 1 at the SRC Arena on the campus of Onondaga Community College in Syracuse. If you’re looking for offering plates, altar vases, candlesticks, wood and metal crosses or would like to have a bust of John Wesley, lamp oil dispenser, and more, head outside to the outer parking lot during lunchtime. The archive giveaway will be next to the car trunk book exchange. For more information, contact Sue Slenker at jslenker@twcny.rr.com or Reilly Callahan at archives@unyumc.org.