About Halfway Brook

Hello to Halfway Brook Friends and Visitors!

Author Louise E. Smith.
Author Louise E. Smith.
My name is Louise (Austin) Smith (not to be confused with Austin Smith, the Town of Highland Historian).

I have completed the three books in the Memoirs from Eldred, New York, 1800–1950 series: The Mill on Halfway Brook, Echo Hill and Mountain Grove, and Farewell to Eldred.

The Memoirs from Eldred, New York series tells the story of my Leavenworth and Austin grandparents, their relatives, friends, and neighbors, and the hamlets they lived in in what was once the Town of Lumberland, Sullivan County, New York.

Memoirs, newspapers, diaries, censuses, documents, letters, grocery books, scrapbooks, biographies, photos, and postcards shared by my Austin and Leavenworth relatives, and over 100 friends of Eldred, help tell the history of the Town of Highland, New York, and its townsfolk. (Not to be confused with Highland, New York.)

My husband Gary Smith designed the book covers and interiors, created maps, adjusted a couple thousand photos, and updates the layout of this website.

Halfway Brook
Halfway Brook is the stream where my great-great-grandfather James Eldred settled with his family in a cabin with a sawmill at the end of 1815.

The current hamlet of Eldred was first called Halfway Brook Village, a much preferred name, to me. The U.S. Post Office wanted a shorter name.

Halfway Brook is the name of my publishing company.

A few names of the main families in Books 1 and 2
Austin, Bosch, Bradley, Briggs, Bunce, Carmichael (two different families), Clark (two different families), Crabtree, DeVenoge, Eldred, Gardner, Hallock, Hickok, Hulse, Ingram, Knapp, Kyte, LaBarr, Lazerlier, Leavenworth, Myers (4 or 5 different families), Parker (3 families), Rider, Schoonover, Sergeant, Straub, Tether, Van Pelt, Van Tuyl (not all are my relatives).

Some Towns: Lumberland, Highland, Bethel, Tusten, and Cochecton

New York Hamlets and Villages
Eldred, Yulan, Barryville, Highland Lake (Venoge), Minisink Ford, Pond Eddy, Mongaup, Glen Spey, Sparrowbush, Port Jervis, Cochecton Center, Callicoon, Bethel, Narrowsburg

Pennsylvania Hamlets and Villages
Shohola, Lackawaxen, Hawley, Honesdale, Mast Hope, Mill Rift, Parkers Glen, Dingman’s Ferry

You can contact me under the Comments page above.

Thanks for stopping by!

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