CANASTOTA — There will be a ceremony on Monday, April 3 at 5:30 p.m. in Canastota in dedication of Old Phoebe Bradley.

“Old Phoebe Bradley was a legendary, colorful, and eccentric wanderer who traveled the back roads of Northern Madison County during the late 19th century,” Canastota Historian David Sadler said.

Old Phoebe dressed in old clothes, cowhide boots, gingham aprons, and sunbonnets. She carried all her worldly possessions in a bindle sling over her shoulder. Old Phoebe was a well-recognized local who stuck to the roads of Madison County, rain or shine.

While Phoebe’s birthdate is unknown, there are people who attested that she was the oldest woman in Madison County at the time of her death in 1905. And until the end of her life, a 14-mile walk from Chittenango to Canastota and back did not phase her.

While Old Phoebe lived the life as a pauper and wayfarer, she holds a claim to fame in the art world. Fred Plumb photographed Old Phoebe and Edward Barlow turned the portrait into an oil painting that’s the prized possession of an art collector in San Francisco.

The marker was paid for with a grant from the W.G. Pomeroy Foundation, which was applied for by Sadler after submitting several pages of research on Old Phoebe.

The Marker is installed in Patane Park in front of the municipal building.