Round Pond
Southeast of Hagan Pond (today’s Highland Lake) was Round Pond (now Lake DeVenoge), a lake fed entirely by underground springs, and 60 to 80 feet deep at the center.
The de Venoge family from Epernay, France was listed in the 1855 census. They had plans for a vineyard in the area, but the climate did not cooperate.
Dr. Leon de Venoge encouraged people that the area would be helpful for those with tuberculosis, and ended up owning quite a bit of property.
Dr. de Venoge provide some type of medication for Emma Austin who had consumption/tuberculosis and eventually moved to Kansas to be with her brothers in hopes that the drier climate would help.
Sometime after 1916, a golf course was created on what had been Dr. de Venoge’s land. The golf course played a part in World War II.—The Mill on Halfway Brook, Chapter 7, p. 83.
Dr. Leon, his wife Catherine, and daughter Mary lived on over 1,000 acres. They had three servants and a boarder, in 1880. The de Venoge Mountain Lake Boarding House was advertised as early as 1885.
The DeVenoge’s Boarding House
• Boarding Houses 1885–1889
L. de Venoge, M.D., Eldred, N.Y. 7 miles from Shohola; transportation $1.60 double rooms; adults $8 to $12; servants $8; discount for season. Good fishing; boats free.
• Homes in the Mountains, 1888
Mr. Leon de Venoge, importer of New York, has a handsome Summer mansion and an estate of 2,000 acres…—The New York Times, “Some of the People Summering in the Catskills,” Middletown, N.Y., August 11, 1888.
• 1889 DeVenoge Boarding House
L. de Venoge, MD, Eldred, N.Y. 7 miles from Shohola, transportation $1.60; double room, adults $8 to $12; servants $8; discount for season. Good fishing; boats free.
• 1894 De Venoge Mountain House
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle includes the De Venoge Mountain House and several others at Eldred in their 1894 article.
• 1900 Louis and Mary de Venoge Miller
Both Dr. de Venoge and his wife Caroline died in the late 1890s. Their daughter Mary de Venoge Miller and her husband ran a boarding house in 1900.—Echo Hill and Mountain Grove, p. 157.
• 1916 Henry Asendorf
Louis and Mary Miller had run the Highland Lake Inn since 1900. “Hard times fell upon the couple in 1916, and Mary left a portion of the estate and the inn buildings to the care of a neighbor, Henry Asendorf, in exchange for the management of her financial affairs, personal well-being, and funeral expenses.”—John Conway, “The deVenoge Family and its Legacy are Rediscovered,” Retrospect. Sullivan County Democrat, January 13, 2006.—Farewell To Eldred, p. 19.
• January 1942
“The Japanese took Manila,” Art’s aunt Ella Leavenworth wrote on Friday, January 2.
The warm start to January ended the third day with a storm. Life in the Town of Highland seemed to stay the same.
But there was a heightened sense of danger and the unknown. Highland townsfolk took different shifts to watch for planes at the golf course on Lake DeVenoge. Garfield and Mr. Lochner watched on January 7; Garfield watched again six days later.
