Searching for Willet’s boyhood home

Willet's parents appeared to live on a property near Parish, N.Y., in the name of his dad's brother, Gideon Rathbun. You can see it listed on this 1854 map as G. Rathbun. Willet served in Company K of the 110th New York Infantry with several neighbors listed here, F. Whitney, H. Gardner, and A. House. Credit: Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division.

This is an occasional blog series about the Civil War and my great-great-great-uncle Willet Rathbun (1844-1864) of the 110th New York Infantry. I am researching Willet and his experience for a book.

In his letters home during the Civil War, Willet Rathbun recalled his days as a Northern New York farm boy. He inquired about the price of butter and wished to be home for chores.

I visited our family place in Northern New York, a short drive from the Oswego County farmstead where Willet lived before leaving for the Civil War at age 17. I found an 1854 map of Oswego County listing property owners, and with the help of a local historian located the estimated site on the current map.

By the wall of the barn and the ramp that would have led to the haymow with animals below.

My dad and I drove by the area of the Rathbun homestead last weekend. The rolling land is wooded, old farm fields long since overgrown with trees. The (very friendly) owner of the property was outside, so we stopped to talk. I explained I was writing a book about my great-great-great-uncle, Willet Rathbun, who died as a Union soldier in the Civil War. He then told how he discovered the remains of an old barn on his property. He believed it to be the original second property down from the nearby crossroad, the same as the Rathbun property. The site dates back at least a century with a cast iron wheel and hand water pump among the items amid the ruins. The site likely spans many generations and families.

Could this be the remains of Willet's boyhood home? I hope to find out...