Libby Kyte, daughter of Rev. Felix Kyte. I went to school at home until 1861.
Then for two or three years I attended at Shohola and Barryville.
My teachers were Miss Ellen Beakey, George and Albert Stage, George Dubois of Bethel, Harriet Leavenworth, George Egbert Mapes and Theodore Mapes. I attended school here until I was 9 years old. I boarded with Mrs. C.P. Fuller.
I went to New York City to live with my brother Francis to go to school, but stayed only three months when I was taken with the measles.
In the fall of 1865, I went to see my brother Joseph who then lived at Waterford, Maine.—Elizabeth (Libby) Kyte, daughter of Rev. Felix Kyte.
Excerpt from The Mill on Halfway Brook, p. 90.
Note: The next few posts are about the early schools and scholars in Halfway Brook.
Early view of Highland Cottage from Washington Lake.
The season at Highland Cottage on Washington Lake, Yulan, this year, is the most successful in the history of that establishment.
Probably the greatest night was an ambitious show and lawn party held at the end of last week…Estella Waterman performed the diving Venus act from the center cupola on the cottage roof.
At Eldred, the whortleberry season is on and thousands of the summer vacationers spend their time in picking the delicious fruit from the blue
laden bushes.
Although the season is just beginning, so plentiful is the crop that it is drawing hosts of summer folk who otherwise would not go to the wooded region.
—The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Sunday, July 30, 1922.
Yulan Cottage, 1921.Yulan Social Club
Last Saturday night the Yulan Social Club held its regular monthly dance and supper at the Yulan Cottage.
The affair was well attended and was a large success both socially and financially. Dancing, singing and games were played. The feature of the evening was the elaborate supper which was served at midnight…
Much credit is due Chef Cantwell and his able assistants, the young ladies of the Club…The people started for home at 2 a.m. All…eagerly looking forward to the next social event…in May.—Republican Watchman, April 25, 1922.
Eldred Retaliates over Yulan in Second Game this Spring
The Eldred baseball team, undaunted by their defeat at the hand of the Yulan team on April 16, again met the Yulan team on the Eldred diamond and defeated them 12–8.
Although the day was raw and chilly, with occasional snow flurries, many spectators turned out to root for both teams. The game featured the fast base running of Johnny Steward of the Eldreds.
Both teams now have won a game from each other this season. Yulan’s star pitcher “Speed B. Hazen,” having left his speed home, retired early in the game.
Louis Hensel, having thoughtfully brought his speed with him, took to pitching, making a creditable showing and would no doubt have won the game had the rules permitted more than eight men to assist him.
Eldred Pitcher Timmerhoff and Catcher Myers, did splendid work considering this was the first game together.—Republican Watchman.
James Fuller Queen. Souvenir of the Coldest Winter on Record. Scene on the Delaware River at Philadelphia during the Severe Winter of Pennsylvania, 1856. LOC:2021670393.
In searching for my husband’s ancestors who arrived from Prussia in the 1850s, I found this image on the Library of Congress site. When I checked The Mill on Halfway Brook for the terrible winter, I found a sidebar titled, “Winter 1857,” on page 77, which I assume referred to the Winter of 1856 to 1857.
Winter 1857
The winter of 1857 was particularly disastrous to the Erie Railroad on the Delaware Division. There were extraordinarily deep snows and heavy ice in the Delaware River.
“On February second the ice went out with a big flood, and carried away the railroad bridge east of Narrowsburg, New York.
“The river froze up again and another flood came February 18th. The railroad bridge that the previous flood had demolished was well along toward restoration, but most of the new one was carried away by the second flood.
“J. Hardenbergh, bridge foreman, was working next to the Pennsylvania bank when the flood came, and the timber broke up and crashed away behind him as he ran for the shore, his feet being scarcely lifted from one timber before that timber would fall before the flood. His escape was miraculous.
“Pending the replacing of the railroad bridge below Narrowsburg, through traffic over the Erie was virtually suspended. Local passengers were ferried across the Delaware.
“Livestock was a great item of traffic on the Erie in those days.
“While the bridge was gone, cattle, sheep and hogs were unloaded at Narrowsburg and driven through Wayne County, Pennsylvania, to the junction of Honesdale and Mast Hope turnpike, sixteen miles, and thence back over the turnpike to Mast Hope, a total distance of thirty-five miles, where they were reloaded on cars in waiting at that place for them.”—Edward H. Mott, Between the Ocean and the Lakes: The Story of the Erie, 1899, p. 441.
View from the Bluff of a train traveling along the Delaware River.
Mort Austin driving to get boarders at Shohola.Sunshine Hall Free Library built around 1920 courtesy of the Sunshine Hall Free Library.
Barryville-Shohola Bridge
In the 1920s some summer guests arrived at their favorite summer vacation place by automobile. Others still traveled by railway to the Shohola Station in Pennsylvania.
After disembarking from the train, the vacationers crossed the Barryville-Shohola Suspension Bridge (built in 1856) to get to the New York side, where chauffeurs waited to take them to their Boarding House location.
Barryville to Eldred
Mort Austin had been chauffering guests to and from the Shohola Station almost 30 years in 1920. From Shohola Mort drove to Barryville, and took Brook Road north past the Barryville
Schoolhouse and the Barryville Glass Factory.
Almost four miles north of Barryville, Mort passed through the village of Eldred. On the east side was the Parker Hotel. Set back behind the Parker Barn, south of Abel Myers’ Orchard Terrace House, was the home where Mort’s grandparents James and Hannah Hickok Eldred once lived—near the sawmill on Halfway Brook.
On the northwest corner of Brook and Proctor Roads was a structure built by Charles Wilson. Arthur Wilson’s A&P would be housed in his father’s building sometime in the 1920s.
The road to the west passed the Methodist Church (built in 1859) and headed towards Leavenworth’s Echo Hill Farm.
On the northeast corner of Eldred was the store of William H. Wilson, the brother of Charles Wilson.
East Eldred
At Eldred’s Four Corners, Mort Austin turned right (southeast) onto Proctor Road. On the right or south side was the schoolhouse, the Congregational Church, Sunshine Hall, and what would soon be the Sunshine Hall Free Library.
On the north side (left) of Proctor Road was the William H. Wilson Store, the Straub Hotel, the Von Ohlen Store, and (next to Halfway Brook) the home where Mort’s uncle C.C.P. Eldred had once lived.
After crossing Halfway Brook, Proctor Road continued southeast. Mort Austin continued a short distance after the Y to his Mountain Grove House.—Excerpt from “Chapter One: Most Pleasant Time of All,” Farewell to Eldred.
Congregational Church in Eldred where Felix Kyte preached.Methodist Church in Eldred.Methodist Church in Barryville, NY.
Congregational and Methodist Churches
In 1799 Isaac Sergeant helped establish what became the Eldred Congregational Church. Descendants of Rev. Isaac and his wife Mary Richards Sergeant resided in the Town of Highland in 1920. As did several relatives of Felix Kyte.
Rev. Felix Kyte was the well-respected pastor when the Barryville and Eldred Congregational Churches were built in 1835.
Five years earlier Mr. Grace and Mr. Street, Methodist circuit riders, had preached every two weeks in the Town of Lumberland. In 1859 the Methodists built a church in Eldred. Later, Barryville and Pond Eddy each had a Methodist Church.
St. Bernardine Catholic Church in Highland Lake and St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Yulan were conveniently located for summer boarders. Shohola, Pennsylvania was home to both a Lutheran and a Catholic Church.
Town of Highland Occupations
Boarding houses were the main “industry” in the area, but there were still sawmills (belonging to Harry Wormuth, John Love, and others) and bluestone quarries which needed workers. The Erie Railroad employed many men.
The Barryville Glass Factory employed some 15 local people. Earl Palmer (who also was the bridge tender for the Barryville and Pond Eddy bridges) was a polisher and his wife Kate worked in the Glass Factory Showroom showing glassware for sale. The glass cutters included Albert, Norm, and Frank Wolff, sons of Charles and Janette Kerr Wolff. (We first met the Wolff family in Echo Hill and Mountain Grove.)—Excerpt from “Chapter One: Most Pleasant Time of All,” Farewell to Eldred.
Barryville Glass Factory, Dam, and workers around 1920. Photo courtesy of Ed W.
