January 18, 1895

by Louise Smith Posted on January 25, 2012

Chas. Metzger, Tannersville, N.Y., to Mort Austin, Eldred
January 18, 1895
Dear Friend Mort,

I heard the other day that you was in winter quarters so I have concluded to drop you a few lines. I suppose you saw Rob before you left Eldred and heard all about our trip to New York.

I have been working for the last 8 days and I guess I am good for all winter. We only get in 8 hours a day, but $10.80 is better than a snow bank each Saturday night. Talking of snow, we only have a couple of inches. It acts as if we were going to have a thaw.

Well, January is more than half gone and soon Spring will be here again, and you and I are not in the West yet. I am getting the fever again (quite bad) and if work plays out here in the Spring, I expect to make a break.

There is certainly no use to go back to Eldred looking for a job. I feel sure that we will fetch up out there yet don’t you?

Hoping to hear from you soon.

I am your sincere friend,
Chas. C.R. Metzger

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Ready, Set, It’s time

by Louise Smith Posted on January 25, 2012
Louise—Is she really ready to start Book 3?

Hello Halfway Brook Friends,
It’s time for me to start work on the next book in my Memoirs of Eldred Series.

Last week I started to record information from the Eldred yearbooks of 1939 to 1950. I recognized many names and enjoyed reading about the students and organizations of those years.

Today I started organizing my many paper files. I’m also archiving email.

Recently, two different people contacted me with memories of summer vacations at boarding houses, or homes of relatives in the Town of Highland.

I plan on doing another post regarding the boarding houses in the years 1920 to 1950. But today I have a question for my readers. One of the writers mentioned being told about ice boat racing on a lake near Yulan.

I remember my dad talking about ice boat races, though it was probably on Highland Lake, closer to where Dad grew up. I remember a photo of a boat with two runners and a sail on a frozen lake. Unfortunately, I have not been able to locate it. I’m thinking the races were held in the 1920s or 1930s.

Have any of my readers heard stories of ice boat racing on lakes in the Town of Highland?

You can post a comment here, or email me: info (at) halfwaybrook (dot) com

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Panic of 1893

by Louise Smith Posted on January 24, 2012

The Panic of 1893 was a serious economic depression similar to the Panic of 1873 and the worst depression in the U.S. until the Great Depression.

The panic was caused by railroad overbuilding and shaky railroad financing which set off a series of bank failures. Along with market overbuilding and a railroad bubble was a run on the gold supply and a policy of using both gold and silver metals as a peg for the U.S. Dollar value.—wikipedia.org.

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Eldred: Main Street looking north

by Louise Smith Posted on January 22, 2012

Main Street looking north.

On the right is the second Parker Hotel built by J.Y. Parker. The building in the middle of the photo (on the northeast corner) was at one time the W.H. Wilson Store.

To the right of the Wilson store was the first Parker Hotel and bar which was owned by the Autenrieths around 1900. By 1910 the hotel belonged to the Straubs.

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Mountain Grove House

by Louise Smith Posted on January 19, 2012
Mountain Grove House owned by the Austin family.

C.S. Bok, Hackettstown, N.J., to Mort Austin, Eldred
June 11, 1894
My dear Friend,

Enclosed kindly find eight of your pictures and I kept the other four and did with them accordingly what you told me. I have also seen Dr. Whitney about your bill, but he told me that he will not charge anything this time.

Hoping you will keep well and be successful in your business. Kindly remember me to your partner.

I am your friend,
C.S. Bok
30 East 7th St., N.Y.

Perhaps Mort’s business referred to by his friend C.S. Bok, was the Mountain Grove House, which seems to have been completed by 1893. An ad for the house appeared in the summer 1894 newspaper, with the contact name, C.M. Austin & Co.

Mountain Grove House Ad
New house; cool rooms; good board; elevation 1,400 feet; fishing and boating. For particulars apply to C.M. Austin & Co., Eldred, N.Y.—Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 4, 1894.

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C.S. Bok

by Louise Smith Posted on January 18, 2012
A postcard of Chinatown in NYC where C.S. Bok lived.

C.S. Bok was a friend Mort Austin met at Centenary Collegiate Institute. Mort attended the Seminary only a year due to health or financial reasons, but C.S. Bok and Mort continued to correspond and visit each other for a number of years.

One of the many Austin postcards shows Chinatown in NYC, where Dr. Bok lived, according to the note on the back of the card. The card must have been sent in 1907 or later, as 1907 was the first year writing on the back of Postcards was allowed by the U.S. Post Office.

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1890 Centenary Collegiate Institute, Hackettstown, New Jersey

by Louise Smith Posted on January 15, 2012
Letter from George Whitney President of Centenary Institute.

Mort Austin received an acceptance letter from Centenary Collegiate Institute, a seminary in Hackettstown, New Jersey, in October 1890.

Centenary was founded by the Newark Methodist Episcopal Church in 1867. It was built at a cost of $200,000. George H. Whitney, D.D., was president from 1869 to 1895. In September 1884 the tuition and board was $275 for 36 weeks.

Geo. Whitney, Hackettstown, N.J., to Mort Austin, Eldred
October 20, 1890
Dear C. M. Austin:
My Dear Sir:
Your favor is rec. We shall be glad to have you come on the 3rd of Dec., the day of our term opening.

I enter your name for that time, we shall be glad to do what we can for you.

Sincerely yours,
Geo. H. Whitney, President
Centenary Collegiate Institute

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Chapter 6: An Old Bachelor

by Louise Smith Posted on January 14, 2012
Mort Austin (right) and unknown friend.

Jennie Leavenworth Austin. Photo courtesy of Cynthia.

Mort Austin wrote to his brother Lon:

“I have made up my mind to live an old bachelor the rest of my days. Don’t you think I would make a good one?

“But I think you would do well to take Nell for I guess she is a real good girl and I think you would be better off with a good wife than single.”

Life as you know, does not always work out how we think it should.

Nell, though she loved Lon, married a man she did not love at the request of her father out of a sense of duty to him.

My grandfather Mort Austin, fortunately for me, met and married Jennie Louisa Leavenworth. But in 1890, the year chapter 6 starts, Jennie was 10 years old, and Mort Austin, 25, started Centenary Collegiate Institute in Hackettstown, New Jersey.

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