Halfway Brook

Washington Lake House
Joseph Tether, Proprietor

4 Miles from Shohola; transportation $1. 2 single, 16 double rooms; Accommodate 30; 20 rooms; adults, $7 to $8; children, half price; transient, $1.25 per day. Discount for season.

Lake of 200 acres only two minutes’ walk. Perch, pickerel, bass; boats free; Surrounded by forest. Raises vegetables. Plenty milk, eggs, butter and poultry.—Erie Railway brochures of 1886 and 1889.

Joseph and Ann Barber Tether ran Washington Lake House, which was built around 1865, on Washington Lake.

At one point, Joseph Tether owned 220 acres on the east side of Washington Pond. In the early 1900s Joseph built Washington Beach House.

Washington Beach House was at the north part of the property; and the Washington Lake House was on the south.

Washington Lake House, would become the Nancy Lee. The Hensels would call the boarding house the Colonial in 1927 when they first owned it.

Joseph, his parents, Edward and Elizabeth Peat Tether, and several siblings arrived from England in 1850 and settled in Highland around 1860. They are shown on the 1870 map just south of Washington Pond.

Josephs’s sister, Elizabeth Tether Owen and her husband Robert Owen were ancestors of my Austin cousins.

Joseph and Ann Tether’s daughter Jessie would marry a son of Isaac M. and Joanna Brown Bradley. Their son Walter Tether would run the Washington Beach House.

It’s been busy crazy times here, but I am gradually working my way through the Echo Hill and Mountain Grove manuscript the 4th time, and 500 pages.

Above is my wonderful workspace powered by tea.

• 2 monitors, the left one shows 2 pages from Chapter 9 which I am currently working on

• tea, on stacked bins (not on computer table) as a safety precaution

• books used as resources and new Maier/Bosch info on my footstool

• tax and boarding house, census, and other information on the table

• lots of sticky notes to remind me what I want to include in the chapters

• calculator to compute ages

• spiral notebook with notes taken down from phone calls

• old postcards and maps with helpful information from cousin Cynthia

I have wonderful new photos and information from several families that make a great addition to the book.

Hopefully, Echo Hill and Mountain Grove will be ready to print by June 2011.

Mary DeVenoge Miller. Photo courtesy of M. Austin.

Dr. and Mrs. DeVenoge’s daughter, Mary DeVenoge married
Louis Miller. Louis and Mary Miller had a boarding house
around 1900. Perhaps it was the one Mary’s folks had had
that was featured in the Erie R.R. brochure in 1889.

My mom just happened to have a photo of Mary DeVenoge,
in her amazing collection.

L. DeVenoge, MD, Eldred, Sullivan County, N.Y.

7 miles from Shohola, transportation $1.60
double room, adults $8 to $12; servants $8; discount for season.
Good fishing; boats free.

Dr. Leon DeVenoge owned a lot of property around Round Pond, which would one day be called Lake DeVenoge. The DeVenoge Boarding House was featured in the 1889 Erie R.R. brochure.

Aida Austin mentioned Dr. DeVenoge several times in her 1881 Diary.

Dr. and Mrs. DeVenoge died before 1900. They were buried in the Old Eldred Cemetery.

DeVenoge Marker in Old Eldred Cemetery.
Photo courtesy of Cousin Cynthia.

Bradley Farm Boarding House, Isaac M. Bradley, Proprietor

6 miles from Shohola. Conveyance, $1 each. Accommodate 35; 22 rooms; adults, $5 single; $1.50 per day.

Center of trout, perch and pickerel fishing. Boats free. Deer, bear, partridge, rabbit, woodcock, wild pigeon shooting. Deer-hounds and setters furnished; $2 per day. Croquet grounds. Meet parties at Shohola when notified. Headquarters for sportsmen. Fresh vegetables, milk, eggs and butter. Guides obtained. —Erie Railway Brochure, 1886.

Isaac M. and Joanna Brown Bradley and their children were country neighbors of the Leavenworth Family, and lived on property which had access to Washington Lake from the northeast.

Letters indicate that Isaac M. Bradley had built a house for his family during the Civil War.

Isaac M. and Joanna Brown Bradley had 7 children—Amelia, Viola, Mary Francis, Isaac N., Lottie, Atwell, and little Nora—all play a part in this story.

Isaac M. Bradley was a farmer. In 1880, Isaac had 70 acres. (He was listed with 368 acres in 1875). He had 3 milch cows which produced 300 pounds of butter. His 20 poultry, or at least the hens, laid 100 dozen eggs.

Isaac had 2 acres planted in buckwheat, 5 acres were planted in Indian corn, and 1 acre was planted in Irish potatoes.

The Bradley farm had 60 apple trees. His hives produced 50 pounds of honey and 3 pounds of wax. Isaac owned 2 horses and 1 mule.

George Layman, proprietor of a large Summer boarding house at Barryville, Sullivan County, tied a rope around his neck, to which was attached a large stone, on Wednesday, and then waded out into the Delaware River to drown himself. His movements were observed, and he was dragged ashore.

This greatly incensed Layman, and seizing a large stone, he threatened to kill anyone who interfered with him. His menaces were so alarming that the crowd fell back, and he then plunged into the river again. Finally, the man was rescued and taken home. Layman has been acting irrationally of late, and is believed to be insane. He has no business or domestic troubles so far as ascertained.—The New York Times, June 4, 1886.

Later it would be learned that Mr. Layman suffered many years from Bright’s disease. Perhaps Mr. Layman was experiencing severe pain in the event reported in the June 1886 news article.