The New 1940 Combination Range

by Louise Smith Posted on August 8, 2013
Ad for a Kalamazoo range, a few years after Ella got hers.

April 1940
Apparently, working on two houses in the family was not enough to keep Garfield Leavenworth busy. On Monday, April 1 (a rather cruel joke), Goldie’s roof heaved because of the ice, so Garfield helped his son. Two days later Goldie borrowed his parents’ ladder as the roof was leaking.

Jim turned 18 on Tuesday. Jennie Austin was at Garfield and Ella’s all day. Lottie Meyers stopped in for a bit.

Friday Lee Hansen took the menfolk—Garfield, Goldie, and Jim—to Shohola to look over a stove.

The second week of April, Lee and Garfield helped Oliver Dunlap. Lottie and Madelyn Meyers called on Ella.

Saturday Ella wrote: “Our new Kalamazoo combination range came.” Ella baked her first layer cake in the new stove on Sunday.

Book update: The above is an excerpt from the upcoming “Farewell to Eldred” which is in the final editing stage—interspersed with family visits and helping a family member move to a new apartment.

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November 13, 1934

by Louise Smith Posted on August 6, 2013
To Mr. A.A. (Lon) Austin, Eldred. Thank you card from the sons of Maggie Dunlap who had died in November 1934. Card courtesy of Melva.

Tuesday, November 13, Maggie Dunlap, 61, died at the home of her sister Miss Emma Bauer at Beaver Brook. Maggie was the widow of the late Walter Dunlap. Her three sons: Charles and Harold of Eldred, and George of Middletown.

There was a thank-you card from the Dunlaps sent to Lon Austin in the Austin Collection. The Austin and Dunlap families had known each other at least as early as 1856. In a January 1857 letter Lon’s grandmother Fanny Knapp Austin wrote (from Halfeway Brook) about the marriage of Walter’s parents “Oliver Dunlap and Caty Devenport” on New Year’s Eve.

Posted in Farewell to Eldred, The Mill on Halfway Brook | 1 Comment

Lost in the Catacombs, June 1944

by Louise Smith Posted on July 31, 2013
Smiling Italians approve the Allied entry into Rome. Fifth Army. Rome area, Italy. 5 June 1944. National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland (111-SC-190313) courtesy of http://wwiiarchives.net.
American vehicles of the Fifth Army pass the ancient Coliseum as they begin to occupy Rome, Italy. June 5, 1944. National Archives and Records Administration (111-SC-190312) courtesy of http://wwiiarchives.net.

June 5, 1944, U.S. troops entered Rome.

Lost in the Catacombs
Art Austin arrived in Rome with the Fifth Army. He and his friends decided to visit the Catacombs. They managed to persuade the guard on duty at the catacombs, to let them explore where the early Christians had hid.

There was no electricity in the area, so there was no lighting in the Catacombs. But Art’s friend said not to worry as he had been a Boy Scout.

When they passed the same area more than once, Art decided he’d have to go with a better plan or they’d never get out. Since the men weren’t supposed to have been allowed there, Art figured no one would look for them in that location. Art reached up over his head and found the electric wires that were used to light the place before the war. He hung on to and followed the wires, until finally the group found their way out.

Posted in Farewell to Eldred, World War II | 2 Comments

1943 Barone Ricciardi’s Castle

by Louise Smith Posted on July 17, 2013
Barone R. Ricciardi’s card courtesy of Mary A.

Art Austin, Salerno, Italy
My dad Art Austin was with the 5th U.S. Army when they sailed on the Duchess of Bedford on September 9, 1943. They were a part of the assault waves of the landing at Salerno. The Duchess landed at Paestum south of Salerno.

The excitement started a few nights after the Paestum landing. I was comfortably relaxed in a bed in Baron Ricciardi’s castle—the first bed I had seen in months on end. My but it was grand! The Colonel winked when he gave me permission to guard the office that night, ‘if I felt like it.’ Without the proper authority, a foxhole, as usual, would have been my home. Of course, I felt like it—an understanding man, that Colonel.

Near midnight, however, a messenger rushed through the room wildly proclaiming, “The Germans are coming! Burn all secret papers.”

A groan from across the room proved that the Master Gunner, who was sharing the office defense with me, had heard the bad news. We hesitated a few moments. One who has not seen a bed in months, does not get up readily under any circumstances. But duty and self preservation demanded action.

We looked for clothing, secret office records, emergency chocolate rations; hunted for the absent Colonel’s belongings to take along (might as well be captured as to leave them behind); searched all night long until daylight found us in a safe location. Still, it was not a total loss. From that time on, everything missing on inspection days had been lost at the Baron’s.—Art Austin.

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May 1942 Flooding

by Louise Smith Posted on June 30, 2013
“We are all down on the bridge.” Caption and photo by Irwin Briggs.
The 1942 flood at John the barber’s house, past the Spring House. Photo of Irwin Briggs.
Flooding on the Delaware River in front of the Barryville Methodist Church. Photo by Irwin Briggs.

Monday, May 18, 1942, Aida Austin was disappointed she could not get her cracked wheat bread at the A&P. She stopped in at Andrew Parker’s for a paper and saw Bertha Sullivan and her sister.

When Aida was at Randolph’s on Tuesday, she and Marge Parker had a long talk about the war.

Thursday brought quite the thunderstorm and flood along the Delaware River. Anna Leavenworth in Islip was relieved to talk to her sister Christina Hirsch in the evening and find out she was OK.

The paper on Saturday, May 23, reported terrible flooding in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, where Carl and Annie Walters and their son died in a flash flood. Annie Walters was a sister to both Bill Meyers Sr. and Joe Meyer.—From the upcoming Farewell to Eldred book.

Posted in Brooks and Ponds, Farewell to Eldred, Letters and information | 2 Comments

Eldred-Austin Cousin Descendants

by Louise Smith Posted on June 28, 2013
Eldred-Austin Cousins at the Austin Farm on Proctor Road. Photo courtesy of Austin Family.

It’s been like Christmas here for several days. I did find a descendant of Justus and Mary Wells Hickok.

I have been pursuing for several years and I now have a third descendant of the Eldred-Austin Cousins (children of Augustus and Phebe Maria Eldred Austin) who wrote such lively letters in the 1860s.

Here are the Eldred-Austin Cousins whose descendants I have been searching for:

Alonzo Eugene and Isabelle Camp Austin (Descendants would be through Joseph G. and Olinda Austin Ayers.)

Mortimer Bruce and Mary Millspaugh Austin (Found!)

Henry and Net Austin Clinton (Their daughter married Francis Deal.)

Thomas J. and Addie E. Austin Thompson (Found!)

Edward D. Austin (Unknown if he married.)

Randolph and Tina Austin Laing (Unknown if they had children.)

Archibald and Rand Austin Paton (Found!)

James and Ida Belle Austin Brown (Unknown if they had children.)

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