Orange Historical Society
Orange, Connecticut
History of Orange
The Schaghticoke Confederation - Basket Makers
Aunt Icy's Gathering Basket
Born
in
1800,
Isabella
Oviatt
endeared
herself
to
many
town
residents
over
the
years.
Lovingly
known
as
Aunt
Icy,
she
was
thought
to
be
the
oldest
woman
in
the
county
when
she
died
in
1902.
The
centenarian
was
said
to
credit
her
good
health
and
longevity
partly
to
to
her
"Indian"
blood
and
partly
to
the
fact
that
she
had
never
seen
a
doctor.
Many
Schaghticoke
Native
Americans
settled
in
North
Milford
(Orange)
from
Kent,
CT
during
the
Revolutionary
War,
living
and
working
alongside
the
farmers
and
laborers
who
made
Orange a successful community.
Isabella,
like
her
ancestors,
was
a
basket
maker
and
the
OHS
is
pleased
to
have
two
of
her
creations
on
display
in
The
Academy
Museum.
She
often
traded
them
for
vegetables
grown
on
the
Peck
farm
at
nearby
Chestnut
Ridge.
Her
daughter
Polly
was
an
excellent
cook
and
it
was
said
that
no
one
would
plan
a
wedding
or
a
large
party
without
Polly
to
make
the
cake,
which
was
her specialty.
At
left,
the
Oviatt
family
and
friends
celebrate
the
100th
birthday
for
Aunt
Icy
(seated,
center)
in
1900.
Middle:
the
family
plot
at
Evergreen
Cemetery
in
New
Haven.
Right:
New
marker
donated
by
the
cemetery
and
the
lettering
supplied
through
the
generosity
of
Nolan's Hamden Monument Co.
Marshallena Oviatt stone restored!
The
slender
marker
to
the
far
left
in
the
plot
is
that
of
Aunt
Icy's
two-
year-old
daughter
whose
1850
death
was
listed
in
the
Evergreen
Cemetery
records
but
with
no
stone
indicated.
The
absence
was
reflected
in
the
inventory
of
extant
tombstones
in
the
W.P.A.
project
led
by
Charles
R.
Hale
in
the
early
1930s.
During
an
OHS
field
trip,
the
stone
was
found
lying
six
inches
below
the
ground
in
the
open
space
where
Icy's
sons
John
and
George
are
supposedly
buried.
Apparently,
the
missing
stone
had
fallen
over
sometime
before
the
Hale
project
was
completed
here.
Evergreen
Cemetery
graciously
cleaned
the
stone
and
it
now
stands
upright
again
after
over
a
half
century
of
its
own
burial.
Although
listed
in
the
cemetery
records,
the markers for John and George appear to be missing.
Patty O. McIntyre... a mystery!
What
do
we
know
about
Patty?
With
extensive
research
of
census
records,
cemetery
files,
and
Beckwith's
Almanac
citations,
all
seven
of
Aunt
Icy's
children
have
been
identified
except
for
Patty
O.
McIntyre.
Her
stone,
seen
in
the
family
plot,
gives
34
as
her
age
at
death.
Nothing
else
is
known
of
her at this time.
Native American Display Case
This
case
at
The
Academy
Museum
contains
artifacts
from
the
Schaghticoke
and
Paugussett nations.
A Visit to Evergreen
After
several
snow
and
ice
delays,
May
15th
turned
out
to
be
a
banner
day
at
the
grave
site
of
Aunt
Icy
(Isabella)
Oviatt
in
the
Evergreen
Cemetery
in
New
Haven.
Last
year
Bob
Belletzkie,
Jan
Clarke
and
I
took
a
trip
to
find
the
graves
of
our
beloved
Schaghticoke
Native
American
who
died
at
the
age
of
102
in
1902.
Her
100th
birthday
party
picture
is
prominently
displayed
in
The
Academy
along
with
two
of
her
baskets.
The
family
members
show
up
on
various
census
records
in
many
combinations
of
children,
grandchildren,
husbands,
in-laws,
etc.
and
it
is
hard
to
find
a
continuous
line.
We
do
know,
however,
that
there
should
be
11
Oviatt
family
members
and
two
in-
laws in the site.
Being
told
that
sons
George
and
John
were
buried
next
to
their
sister,
one
on
top
of
the
other,
gave
our
team
the
incentive
to
look
for
their
stone.
We
did
find
a
stone
but
not
what
we
were
looking
for.
What
we
did
find
was
one,
not
listed
on
the
burial
card
but
belonging
to
two-year-old
Marshallena
whose
stone
was
buried
12"
below
the
surface
from
at
least
before
1934.
The
director
of
Evergreen
was
most
gracious in having this stone reset as well as two others that had fallen into the street in previous years.
He also donated a stone for Aunty Icy which apparently never existed.
Below
you
see
pictures
of
the
ground-penetrating
radar
system
that
looks
for
disturbed
soil
which
implies
a
burial
site.
Shown
in
the
diagram at the top, right are two possible graves depicted by two yellow ovals.
State Archaeologist Nick Bellantoni will return this summer to re-check the plots.
Bryan Andrew
History of Orange
The Schaghticoke Confederation - Basket Makers
Aunt Icy's Gathering Basket
Born
in
1800,
Isabella
Oviatt
endeared
herself
to
many
town
residents
over
the
years.
Lovingly
known
as
Aunt
Icy,
she
was
thought
to
be
the
oldest
woman
in
the
county
when
she
died
in
1902.
The
centenarian
was
said
to
credit
her
good
health
and
longevity
partly
to
to
her
"Indian"
blood
and
partly
to
the
fact
that
she
had
never
seen
a
doctor.
Many
Schaghticoke
Native
Americans
settled
in
North
Milford
(Orange)
from
Kent,
CT
during
the
Revolutionary
War,
living
and
working
alongside
the
farmers
and
laborers
who
made
Orange
a
successful
community.
Isabella,
like
her
ancestors,
was
a
basket
maker
and
the
OHS
is
pleased
to
have
two
of
her
creations
on
display
in
The
Academy
Museum.
She
often
traded
them
for
vegetables
grown
on
the
Peck
farm
at
nearby
Chestnut
Ridge.
Her
daughter
Polly
was
an
excellent
cook
and
it
was
said
that
no
one
would
plan
a
wedding
or
a
large
party
without
Polly
to
make
the
cake, which was her specialty.
At
left,
the
Oviatt
family
and
friends
celebrate
the
100th
birthday
for
Aunt
Icy
(seated,
center)
in
1900.
Middle:
the
family
plot
at
Evergreen
Cemetery
in
New
Haven.
Right:
New
marker
donated
by
the
cemetery
and
the
lettering
supplied
through
the
generosity of Nolan's Hamden Monument Co.
Marshallena Oviatt stone restored!
The
slender
marker
to
the
far
left
in
the
plot
is
that
of
Aunt
Icy's
two-year-old
daughter
whose
1850
death
was
listed
in
the
Evergreen
Cemetery
records
but
with
no
stone
indicated.
The
absence
was
reflected
in
the
inventory
of
extant
tombstones
in
the
W.P.A.
project
led
by
Charles
R.
Hale
in
the
early
1930s.
During
an
OHS
field
trip,
the
stone
was
found
lying
six
inches
below
the
ground
in
the
open
space
where
Icy's
sons
John
and
George
are
supposedly
buried.
Apparently,
the
missing
stone
had
fallen
over
sometime
before
the
Hale
project
was
completed
here.
Evergreen
Cemetery
graciously
cleaned
the
stone
and
it
now
stands
upright
again
after
over
a
half
century
of
its
own
burial.
Although
listed
in
the
cemetery
records,
the
markers
for
John
and George appear to be missing.
Native American Display Case
This
case
at
The
Academy
Museum
contains
artifacts
from
the
Schaghticoke
and
Paugussett nations.
A Visit to Evergreen
After
several
snow
and
ice
delays,
May
15th
turned
out
to
be
a
banner
day
at
the
grave
site
of
Aunt
Icy
(Isabella)
Oviatt
in
the
Evergreen
Cemetery
in
New
Haven.
Last
year
Bob
Belletzkie,
Jan
Clarke
and
I
took
a
trip
to
find
the
graves
of
our
beloved
Schaghticoke
Native
American
who
died
at
the
age
of
102
in
1902.
Her
100th
birthday
party
picture
is
prominently
displayed
in
The
Academy
along
with
two
of
her
baskets.
The
family
members
show
up
on
various
census
records
in
many
combinations
of
children,
grandchildren,
husbands,
in-laws,
etc.
and
it
is
hard
to
find
a
continuous
line.
We
do
know,
however,
that
there
should
be
11
Oviatt
family
members and two in-laws in the site.
Being
told
that
sons
George
and
John
were
buried
next
to
their
sister,
one
on
top
of
the
other,
gave
our
team
the
incentive
to
look
for
their
stone.
We
did
find
a
stone
but
not
what
we
were
looking
for.
What
we
did
find
was
one,
not
listed
on
the
burial
card
but
belonging
to
two-year-old
Marshallena
whose
stone
was
buried
12"
below
the
surface
from
at
least
before
1934.
The
director
of
Evergreen
was
most
gracious
in
having
this
stone
reset
as
well
as
two
others
that
had
fallen into the street in previous years.
He
also
donated
a
stone
for
Aunty
Icy
which
apparently never existed.
Below
you
see
pictures
of
the
ground-penetrating
radar
system
that
looks
for
disturbed
soil
which
implies
a
burial
site.
Shown
in
the
diagram
at
the
top,
right
are
two
possible
graves
depicted
by
two
yellow ovals.
State
Archaeologist
Nick
Bellantoni
will
return
this
summer to re-check the plots.
Patty O. McIntyre... a mystery!
What
do
we
know
about
Patty?
With
extensive
research
of
census
records,
cemetery
files,
and
Beckwith's
Almanac
citations,
all
seven
of
Aunt
Icy's
children
have
been
identified
except
for
Patty
O.
McIntyre.
Her
stone,
seen
in
the
family
plot,
gives
34
as
her
age
at
death.
Nothing
else
is known of her at this time.
Orange Historical Society
Orange, Connecticut
Bryan Andrew
