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Jane Ann Falvey (nee Killough)

Glenmont, NY

1955

Interviewed on March 7, 2024 at BPL, by Eric Bryant w/ Bill Ketzer & Tim Beebe present.

Jane is the youngest daughter of Wilson Wallace Killough and Clara Bromirski.  Wilson (1904-1999) owned and operated Killough’s Filling Station on Route 9W in Glenmont, and both the business and family home sat next door to Tougher Plumbing & Heating.  Clara (1911-1988), the daughter of Polish immigrants, had an Antique Shop in the basement as well.  Jane and her sisters Mary and Sandra came into the world later in their parents’ lives, and by the time she graduated from BCHS in 1973, her dad was almost 70 years old.

The Killough property was originally purchased by her paternal grandfather, James Killough (1878-1959) in 1913.  James came to the United States with his parents and many siblings in 1895 from County Antrim (Northern Ireland). They originally settled in Troy and later Albany, but by 1910 he was farming in Bethlehem with a family of his own. Being a truck farmer – growing produce and transporting the wares to urban markets outside of town – was often hard work.  According to Jane, her grandfather grew a variety of vegetables but also raised pigs, horses and chickens, and she has vivid memories of her childhood on the farm, including her grandfather’s more traditional poultry processing routine, which included headless chickens sprinting around the barnyard before being plucked. She also indicated that beams from her grandfather’s many barns can be found in the homes at Colonial Acres, which was developed in the 1960s.

The Killough farm sat on about (40?) acres of land, about a half mile south of Comstock Corners in Bethlehem Center.  The Martin blacksmith family property bordered it to the north.  The expanse spread east just past the where the Thruway was constructed in the 1950s, so like many farmers in Bethlehem he felt the impact of government land procurement by eminent domain. Jane has the original Edward Boutelle survey map from 1960, which shows the late 1930s subdivisions at roadside on 9W for the homes of her parents, as well as those soon occupied by her uncles, Joseph and Vrooman.  These houses still stand near the bend in the state highway, but her childhood home was demolished in 2020 to make room for a large expansion of Glenmont Self Storage.

Today, Jane lives in Guilderland with her husband Michael, who is the only son of longtime BCSD administrator John J. Falvey.  A tank commander in World War 2, Falvey was a teacher at the Bethlehem Center School after the war, and became principal of Clarksville Elementary School from 1950 to 1954. He is best known, however, as the first principal of Hamagrael Elementary School, a job he held for 22 years.

Enjoy Jane’s recollections of the Glenmont hamlet when it was distinctly rural, during a time when residents went to Delmar to shop by necessity and most of the land was still in agricultural production.  We sure did!

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