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The Maki Family on Rumsey Hill by Erin Doane, Curator

When photographer Jack Delano from the Farm Security Administration came to Rumsey Hill in northern Chemung County in 1940, he photographed nearly a dozen families living there. I wrote about his documentary project here on January 4, 2021. As I mentioned in that post, I wasn’t able to find out much about most of the people he photographed, but I did learn a lot about Urho Maki and his family.(READ MORE)

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Thursday, December 3, 2020

Today, I did some research into the collection of photos I wrote about yesterday and found some interesting stories. The girl pictured above is Ethel Maki. Among the images I posted yesterday was one of her holding a cat. In 1945, she, her brother George, and another child were swimming in Shepard’s Creek when her brother went under the water and disappeared. She ran home to get help but by the time they got back, he had drowned. Her mother Aina and father Urho believed that a neighbor with a grudge had killed the nine-year-old boy but no evidence of foul play was ever found.

The couple had repeated run-ins with the law a few years later as they battled Chemung County and the Lehigh Valley Railroad over highway projects and right-of-ways. Aina was arrested in Albany in April 1953 for disorderly conduct while trying to get an audience with Governor Dewey to discuss the property issues. Both Aina and Urho were arrested in their hometown of Van Etten in November 1953 for stealing a section of fencing put up by the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Their appearance in court included “Interruptions, screaming, weeping and a scuffle with state police.”

Here’s an image of Urho Maki from the 1940 Farm Security Administration collection: