The oldest letter in the family collection was from my great-grandmother Mary Ann Eldred in 1845. It is excerpted below. Included in the old letters was an 1845 newspaper clipping about a mortgage sale for land of Abraham Mulford Eldred … Continue reading
In my mother’s wonderful eclectic collection of family treasures were letters from 1845 and 1848. The letters were folded into an envelope, and then addressed. The contents of the letters are typed out in Chapter 6 in The Mill on … Continue reading
Sherman B., or Buckley, as Sherman Buckley Leavenworth was called, was one of those lumberjacks. Buckley’s wife Charlotte, according to the family story, was the cook for the lumberjacks who lived in the bunkhouse. Possibly the old bunkhouse on the … Continue reading
Between Beaver Brook Mills and Halfway Brook Village, was Blind Pond, which had a brook of the same name. A mile or so southeast of Blind Pond was a sawmill powered by Blind Pond Brook. Blind Pond Brook. Photo courtesy … Continue reading
During the winter, large quantities of lumber from the Halfway Brook mills were drawn to Barryville, made into rafts, then taken to Handsome Eddy, two or three miles further down the river. There they waited for the spring freshets. At … Continue reading
You ask the probable amount we would raise per Sabbath. I think we could raise $5 dollars per Sabbath for a season amongst ourselves… At the place in which we live there is a school house in which we hold … Continue reading
The work of most people in the area was related in some way to lumbering. Each lumbering company had its small community of employees, most of whom lived in make-shift tenements, and some did not have a garden. But all … Continue reading
Sixty years ago in December just closed, Grandfather Eldred came to this neighborhood. At that time it was called Lumberland. Uncle C.C.P. Eldred was a little over seven years old. Came from Orange County, Wallkill Township to Halfway Brook on … Continue reading
It was the beginning of December 1815. A lone log house and sawmill stood silently on almost two acres of cleared land near the middle of Halfway Brook, in the Town of Lumberland, New York. There were no other buildings … Continue reading
“The Mill on Halfway Brook” is in final final editing stages before being sent to the printer. It is about 280 pages long. Here are the chapter titles. Chapter 1: The Town of Lumberland, 1798–1815 Chapter 2: The Mill on … Continue reading
