Before the installation of his water power, not the least of the irksome tasks about the farmhouse was the daily filling and cleaning of kerosene lamps and lanterns; and the wood was sawed, and the cream separator and churn in the dairy room were operated, by hand. Five sons contributed in no small measure to the prompt disposal of the daily tasks. But the boys went forth into the world and acquired lines of activity and interest of their own. Only the oldest son remained to live on the farm. Another son studied electrical engineering, a third chose mechanical pursuits, a fourth became a civil engineer, and a fifth took up commercial work. [Illustration: Electric Coffee Percolator] After coming in touch with the outer world and the great modern achievements of science and invention, especially of a mechanical or engineering character, the boys quite naturally set their wits to work to devise some way in which the daily labors of those at home might be made less burdensome. Through the farm flows Oriskany creek, which ripples over its gravelly bed in a channel from twenty to thirty feet wide. The boys said to their father, “Why not harness the creek and make it do some of the work?” There was no precipitous fall of the creek on the farm, but the boys proposed to concentrate at least a portion of the fall by constructing a dam. This they intended to do primarily for the purpose of developing enough power to light the homestead and farm buildings with electricity and to saw the wood and do away with some of the other tiresome farm tasks. The elder Miner was not enthusiastic at first, but was finally persuaded by the boys, who made surveys and plans for a water-power development, and in October, 1905, with the assistance of three of his boys and two day laborers, Mr. Miner began the construction of a dam across the creek. This was to be no ordinary structure. The creek, while peaceful enough at most times, had a habit, well known to Mr. Miner, of bursting its bounds every spring and rushing through the farm in a torrent. So the dam was built in such a way that, while it would raise the water to a certain height during periods of ordinary flow, it would not cause the floods to rise perceptibly higher than before the dam was built. Accordingly, it was designed so that a part of it could be lowered at flood times to allow free passage for the swollen stream. [Illustration: Dam of E. B. Miner, Oriskany Falls, N. Y. Main dam at left; flood spillway at right]