IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY - UNITED STATES TREATY

Treaty Belt on Display

Currently on display in the Bullis Room at the Macedon Public Library is a reproduction of the Canandaigua Treaty Wampum Belt of 1794.  The original wampum belt was commissioned to symbolize the treaty between the United States and the Iroquois Confederacy.  This treaty is still commemorated today.   Treaty Day is on November 11 and officials from both governments will be on hand in Canandaigua for the commemoration.  The belt will be on display at the library until November 15.  Please stop by the library at 30 Main Street during normal hours to see the Treaty Belt. 

AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE

Current news on health care reminds us of Abraham R. Bullis, Jeanette A. and Charles R. 's grandfather, who was a physician in Macedon and Farmington in the mid-1800s.  Life was much simper then and so was health care. It was also much more affordable. And people back then did not have the option of health insurance.

From what we can find in various informational sources, health care insurance was first available around 1910 and HMOs grew in popularity in the 1970s. So how did people in the 1800s afford health care? Some folks were able to pay their doctor a standard fee upfront, of course. Others paid what they could, when they could. Still others used the barter system, giving doctors farm goods or services of one type or another.

You can get an idea of the 1800s health-care expense by looking at Dr. Bullis's account books that are in this collection. They contain amounts received but do not indicate any amounts that may have been owed. We're confident, however, that no one was refused medical care by Dr. Bullis or any of his colleagues due to their inability to pay. But then, as we said, those were simpler times.

WORLD POST DAY

Did you know that today, October 9, is officiallyWorld Post Day?  (We didn't!  Until a few minutes ago.)

Universal Postal Union (UPU) was established way back in 1874 in Bern, Switzerland, at the start of the global communications revolution.  In 1969 at the UPU Congress in Tokyo, October 9th was declared World Post Day, and it's been recognized internationally ever since.

Here in the Bullis Room today, we silently paid homage to World Post Day as we looked over the statistics for this blog. We are privileged to have visitors from Lithuania, Germany, Ukraine, Canada, China, United Kingdom, Russia, Kazakhstan, Poland ... and so many other countries as well as countless villages, towns, cities and states within our own borders.

So to all of our readers, near and far, we say "thank you" for visiting us here on this blog. And let's all be grateful for the global communications revolution back in 1874 as well as all the advancements in this field over the past 139 years.

WALKING TO SCHOOL

Today is International Walk to School Day -  and we've been musing about the change in that behavior that has occurred over the last century. What would Nettie and Charlie Bulls (and their ancestors) think about the fact that a special day had to be set aside for that purpose?

We have no indication how far any of the Bullises had to walk to school and how many hills they walked up and storms they braved in the process. We can only consider what other people of that era have recorded and assume that the Bullises seldom if ever were given a ride to their local elementary via horse and buggy.

Why the change? Well, there's the improvement in transportation for one thing. And another thing occurred to us in our rambling thoughts - it was a lot safer "way back then" to walk to school. There was much less traffic so walking along side the roadway was usually safe. And then there were the shortcuts through the open fields that often made the walk much shorter.

So International Walk to School Day is just another reminder of us here in the Bulls Room that these books that surround us came from a much simpler, safer world than the one in which we live. And although we value the advancements of the age in which we live, it's refreshing to occasionally take a mental trip back to those simpler days. Stop by the Bullis Room and take the journey with us.