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Map views courtesy Google Maps. Approximate location is Google Earth confirmed; 43°02'56.12"N 76°58'50.09"W.
Town of Lyons and Wayne County Maps
"The Midbury House is near Lyons also." states Dorothy Wells Pease in her paper "The Cobblestone Houses of Upstate New York", compiled by Dorothy Wells Pease. Research done in collaboration with Hazed B. Jeffery, supplemented with material furnished by Carl F. Schmidt, 1941. Reference the third paragraph on page 28.
This short statement and a Pease Collection photograph labeled "Midbury, Lyons Township, Wayne Cty." are the only known evidence of this structure.
Editor's Note: As of 6/24/2022 the entire Cobblestone Info Base had been reviewed and no match to this structure was found. Searches of Town of Lyons information have not found any match to the name Midbury; however, possible name variations Medberry and Medbery have been found, yet nothing to link these names to this or any cobblestone structure has been found.
Assuming DWP listed her findings as she encountered them, her route coming to the "Midbury" house would have been from the south of the village - ARC-7 (545 Vienna Rd), - due west ARC-4 (5598 Pardy Smith), then north crossing Rt 31 LYO-5 (1961 Brandt), then east GAL-8 (8841 Lock Berlin) then potentially south and west to the Midbury house, before continuing west to LYO-4 (824 Old Preemption Rd). You could draw a rough circle around this route. If you did so, the "Tom Rooke" house would be on that path. "Rooke" does show up on the old maps. Karen Crandall 6/24/2022 email.
Thomas Rooke House history sheet, and research notes. From the personal research of cobblestone historian Karen Crandall.
I've spent the last several days weeding out the volumes of research notes I've accumulated for the Thomas Rooke house. I've consolidated and pared to the quintessential minimum necessary to explain the story. I've watermarked these "Research" so as to differentiate them from other history sheets which are generally able to be verified satisfactorily. I've done this primarily to give a head start to someone who might take an interest and look into it at some future time.
There are two documents - one a history sheet type format which is strictly a high level overview of the bare basics in a condensed format. It clearly directs the reader to the other one, the actual detailed research document for the structure. Karen Crandall 11/30/2024 email.
 1853 Wayne County Lyo-14 Excerpt MapA.jpg ¹ |  1858 Wayne County Lyo-14 Excerpt Mapb.jpg ¹ |  IMG_20220610_0012.jpg ² Pease Collection 1940-41 |
¹ 1853 Wayne County Lyo-14 Excerpt MapA courtesy Library of Congress.
² 1858 Wayne County Lyo-14 Excerpt MapB courtesy Library of Congress.
³ Image courtesy Cobblestone Museum.
