CLIFFORD BUCK RECALLS . . . Karen Jones The following article was published in the September, 1971, issue of Pleasant Valley Life, the 150th Anniversary Souvenir Edition. The Year Book is very grateful to the author, Karen Jones, and to Dutchess Suburban Newspapers, Inc. for permission to print this excellent article about a member of our Trustees who is one of the County's outstanding historians. Karen Jones is the Managing Editor of the Dutchess Suburban Newspaper, Inc.
He wears black and white sneakers; sports suspenders attached to teal blue trousers. A recent growth of chin whiskers highlights a full-usually smiling-face. His eyes twinkle as he scans his memory for recollections of his past. He's Clifford Buck . . . and his age is seventy. He's a casual, relaxed man who nearly bounces from room to room in search of information to answer and illustrate my many inquiries. Once again I'm confronted with the realization of how meaningless age is . . . you can be thirty and dead of life or seventy and full of it! Buck is obviously a man of the latter category. Born in the Town of LaGrange on December 4, 1900, Buck traces his Dutchess County ancestry back to about 1710. Genealogy is his forte, and his expertise in the field is well known not only in this country, but throughout the country. "Mormons", says Buck, "are known for their interest in tracing back their ancestry." He noted that an organization in Utah has his name and from time to time requests that he trace a particular family thought to have lived in this area. Buck's interest in tracing genealogies began back in 1930 when he was overcome with curiosity about his ancestry. And if you've ever taken a look at the county tax records and early census, it's easy to understand that one has to be extremely curious to read, not to mention decipher, the early handwritten records. "Most of my ancestors lived in Dutchess County," says Buck. "They came in the 1710 immigration from Germany, and the first Buck appeared on the 1718 county tax list." Clifford explains that once he was interested in genealogy, it was not long before he quite naturally became involved in the history of the county. "You start finding out about the people and can't help but get interested in where they live and the history of these places." FAMILY FARMING Cliff Buck's early years were spent in assisting with the family farming, which he describes as pretty much the same everywhere. "Farms were mostly on a small scale. We had about a dozen cows and sold cream to the Creamery. Most of the farms, including ours, frequently hired a man, besides the boys in the family, to do the work. We raised corn, oats, hay and got our power from horses. 84
