Customer Reviews

Chemung Valley, NY

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This book is a wonderful pictorial history of the Chemung Valley (a great majority of the photos from the late 1880s through the early 1950s are from Elmira) which will certainly give one a brief but vivid history lesson of the area in New York state's Southern Tier. I am pleased and even prouder to say I lived six terrific years of my adult life there (I was not born in the Chemung Valley), but quickly learned to seek out and appreciate this area's fascinating historical past and what the land and its people contributed to society in the United States. It is the burial place of Samuel Clemens, Mark Twain, (who's wife was from Elmira and the place where he penned much of his great work) and the home as well as the burial place of the late, Ernie Davis, the first African American Heisman Trophy winner in college football. (Several current Elmira residents have told me Ernie Davis was a gem of mankind this area can boast as its own.) Many of the photos show some of the neat little shops which existed in Elmira's downtown and the shop owners to boot--many of whom are identified. This treasure also includes many photographs of the recreational activities and sites residents enjoyed at a time we will likely never see again. If one grew up in the Chemung Valley (I envy you) it might be fun to compare how the area looks today to what it looked like in yesteryear. The captions with the photographs are wonderful as well. I feel very fortunate to have this hard-to-find softcover book in my collection. It reminds me of "home"--which it ALWAYS will be in my heart.