The story of Dr. Mildred Alexandra Miller Landis and her many contributions to Alfred NY
By Chrystal Dodge
It all started after Dr. Mildred Alexandra Miller Landis (“Alex”) came to town. She was born in 1902, resided in Niagara Falls until she was seven, and then her family moved to Kingsland, New Jersey.
Alex told me about some of her life and more information came from letters she wrote to a friend in California who put them in a binder for her grandchildren and me. Alex, as she preferred to be called, dropped out of school, married and had two boys. She talked proudly of her two sons. Bill, the oldest, “flew the hump” as it was called—”China-Burma-India”; and Bob flew fighter airplanes off carriers. Sadly, Bill was killed in the war, and I believe Bob had also passed when I met Alex.
She returned to school at some point and attended several universities and eventually earned her doctorate from Harvard. Her resume was three pages long and included time at Columbia, Alfred University and a French school associated with Middlebury College among others. She taught in many places from Miami to Alaska.
Alex came to Alfred in 1939 from Edgewater, New Jersey to work with Irma Hewitt on jewelry and metal work, but was also here in 1935 to attend the University. While they were driving around the countryside, Alex saw this old Greek revival farmhouse and fell in love with it. She paid $250 down with a mortgage of $750 and would pay $25 per month. It had 100 acres of land. The house wasn’t livable, so she hired help to fix the foundation and chimney. She returned to live here in 1973. People had questioned why she would want to live up in those hills. How in the world would she get up there in the winter and how would she get out? After the flood that came to the valley in 1972, she said she heard no more comments about living on the hilltop.
Alex’s first project after she moved to Alfred was to plant a large vegetable garden. She planted every variety of vegetable she could think of including a packet of zucchini seeds. The garden grew well and living alone, what was she to do with it all? She tried giving it away but in this rural community many people had their own gardens. The zucchini seemed to be producing a bushel a day and it just kept producing. It was overwhelming. She had to come up with a solution and she did. She put a table in the village to place assorted vegetables on and of course, the zucchini. The university students who had apartments were happy to get fresh vegetables.
There was a lady named Hazel Humphreys who ran the library in town and supplied all the textbooks to the students. She was an animal lover and knew that the village had a serious deserted dog and cat problem. Students left pets behind and passersby seemed to think the library was a good place to drop them off. Hazel often cared for several at a time. Alex was also an animal protector, especially dogs and she thought the library lawn would be a good place to put the vegetable table. She contacted Hazel and together they decided to call their project Planned Animal Life or PAL. It was a table with a box so people could donate and make change. Hazel would collect the money each night and the money would be donated to the SPCA. All went well until Hazel went on vacation. Alex asked another lady who lived nearby to pick up the money. The lady did okay for a few days but then called Alex to say, “We can’t do this. There was money in the box this morning and tonight, it was empty.” Alex thought the history of Alfred was “trust” and wanted to keep on with it.
Hazel returned and barely got the door opened when two girls appeared. They wanted to apologize, saying they had taken the money. Their father had added a dollar, so they wanted to return it. Hazel simply said thank you with no reprimand. A few days later they were back explaining a boy had been with them. They made him give them what he had left; it was 78 cents.
At some point, Alex asked Clarence Klingensmith to build a better stand with some protection from the weather. They also decided to bolt a heavy, old steel army box in the middle for the donations. Thanks to timely upkeep, this original stand remains today. Someone tried to get the steel box open with a battery-operated drill once, but it was no match for that steel.
One time Alex caught a man trying to fish money out of the box. He claimed he had put in a ten by mistake. Alex opened the box and there was no ten in it. I doubt that man ever came back after the “talking to” he got from Alex!
*Editors Note: This is part one of a four-part series to be published on Friday with the keen assistance longtime Alfred resident Joan Schulze
