Bertha Burgett

Bertha Burgett entered Valentown's history when she bought it from George Pickering's daughter Mrs. James Benson.

The following paragraphs are recollections written by Lewis Fisher.

Bertha Burgett, who owned Valentown Hall for thirty years, was born in 1878, the fourth of five children—and first daughter—of a Bavarian-born father who immigrated as a child and a mother from a pioneer family in the Town of Rush, where she grew up. She graduated in 1902 from Elmira College, then for women only.

At Elmira she became an athletic standout. As a senior she won an event for basketball throwing and set a national women’s record for baseball throwing—181 feet—that was noted in the New York Times and stood for eight years. Said one commentary: “Miss Burgett’s excellence has aroused a tremendous amount of feminine pride, because it has shown that a girl can excel in throwing a ball. In the past ever so much fun has been poked at girls because they threw balls awkwardly and without force.”

The report added that she had an “excellent figure [she was] careful not to injure by wearing any binding or confining garments that may be dictated by passing fashion. In the athletic field [she wore a] knee-high skirt and bloomers, which allow the desired freedom of movement without giving the  carping any opportunity to criticize.”

She taught following graduation, but after a stint teaching mathematics at Phelps School for Girls in Wallingford, Connecticut she changed direction. In 1910 Bertha Burgett purchased the former Valentine farm in Victor, lived in the old home across from Valentown Hall, and became one of the few female farmers in the area. With aid of the hired hand taken away from her parents’ farm fifteen miles east in Rush, her first harvest of potatoes from the lot behind Valentown Hall yielded enough to pay for her purchase of the entire farm.

Bertha Burgett had Valentown Hall re-roofed and the original cupola removed, occasionally renting out space for community events but eventually using the building for agricultural purposes only. Equipment and perhaps crops were stored in the basement and on the first floor. At least one room on the second floor was used to breed rabbits, possibly Belgian Hares, popular for pets and exhibitions at fairs. A window was temporarily removed from the attic so one end of that space could be used for raising pigeons.

As she retired from farming, in 1940 Bertha Burgett sold the plot across from her home that included Valentown Hall to Sheldon Fisher and began selling larger sections of land to others while remaining in the house, which she willed to her Alma Mater, Elmira College. She died in 1963 at the age of 85.

The "yellow house" is still standing and an integral part of the history of Victor, New York and the  Historic Valentown Museum.

Image of Cowles Hall, Elmira Women's College, Kappa Phi Mu. 

Bertha served as Librarian for Phi Mu (1901-1902).

References

·  Cowles Hall Kappa Phi Mu, Elmira Womens College

·  Elmira College Yearbook 1901

 ·  Phi Mu List of Officers, The Sybil 1901

 ·  The Honeoye Falls Times 5 September 1963 — The NYS Historic Newspapers

 ·  The Rocky Mountain News June 22, 1902