Halfway Brook

Mary Ann Eldred Austin kept a scrapbook packed with poems (one of Charles Dickens’s), articles (one of Mark Twain’s), pictures (mostly of children), colorful stickers, and newspaper clippings.

Along with the images shown here, Mary Ann’s collection (owned and shared by her great-granddaughter Melva) includes first hand newspaper accounts of the burial place of President Garfield who was assassinated in 1881; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s death in 1882; a photo of Rev. Henry Beecher and his sister Harriet Beecher Stowe; and a 1903 photo of President Theodore Roosevelt and his family.

The many poems include: three Mary Ann wrote, several of her daughter Emma Austin’s, and one of her son Lon’s, all published in papers in Solomon City, Kansas, 1879–80.

Eleazar Mitchell plays a role in Abby, Laurilla, and Mary Ann. He first married Olive Hickok. After Olive died, Eleazar married the widow Abigail Johnson Hickok, mother of Hannah Hickok Smith. Eleazar was the only grandfather the Smith sisters knew.

Mitchell Wedding Centennial Celebration, 1758–1858
In 1758 Olive Hickok wore a blue-brocade silk dress with matching shoes for her marriage to Eleazar Mitchell. After the ceremony, Eleazar and his bride rode to their new home on four acres in the midst of the Pootatuck tribe. The location was half a mile from the Great (Housatonic) River, a mile from any house belonging to a White person.

The newlyweds were accompanied by nearly a half-mile train of horses, two abreast. On each horse a gentleman sat in the saddle with a lady behind him on the pillion (cushion). The entourage took a meandering route, crossing the Pomperaug River three times. “The afternoon and evening was spent in joyous hilarity, feasting, and dancing.”

On October 5, 1858 the Mitchell Family celebrated the 100th anniversary of the marriage of Eleazar Mitchell and his first wife, Olive Hickok, in the old, uninhabited family mansion the descendants had decorated for the event.

The lovely wedding dress and matching shoes, 100-year-old embroidered linen curtains, an almost-150-year-old brocaded-silk blanket, and an oak chest from 1700 with the initials M.N., for Mary Noble, were arranged for guests to see. The chest had belonged to Abigail Johnson Hickok Mitchell, second wife of Eleazar. Mary Goodman Noble was her grandmother.

The 100 guests included fifty-eight Mitchell descendants from four different states. Mitchell daughter, Eunice Hinman, age ninety-seven, remembered being in her mother’s lap on a pillion with her father and oldest brother in the saddle—all on one horse for the four-mile trip to church.

The guests observed old customs. The oldest sat at the head of the table—men sat on one side, women on the other, according to age. Everyone stood at the start of the meal for the blessing; and at the end of the meal to give thanks.

Rev. Prudden (his children were related to the Mitchells) spoke about the progress made in science and mechanical arts, steamboats, railroads, the telegraph, and the trans-oceanic telegraph, in the last century. Before the Trans-oceanic telegraph cable was laid, he said, it took three weeks to communicate with New York.—Abby, Laurilla, and Mary Ann, pp. 28, 180–182.

A hundred years ago Our grandsire’s bridal train,
As Mitchell annals show, Crossed rock, and hill, and plain
Escorting here, with pomp and pride, His Olive tree—a new made bride.
The gallant horsemen, two abreast, Brought each a lady gaily dress’d,
On pillion placed. Thus, to and fro They rode, a hundred years ago.
—Excerpt from Sketch of an Anniversary Festival of the Mitchell Family, 11–13.

After Abby Smith and her sister Laurilla arrived back in Glastenbury, Connecticut, Abby and Mary Ann exchanged letters.

In one of her letters Mary Ann might have mentioned to Abby that finally, in 1856, there was a bridge across the Delaware River. The bridge replaced the crude rope-guided ferry which Abby and Laurilla had to ride to cross the Delaware River, after they had arrived at the Erie Railroad Depot at Shohola, Pennsylvania.

The suspension bridge designed by John Roebling (of N.Y.C. Brooklyn Bridge fame) was poorly built, at a cost of $9,000.
—John W. Johnston, Reminiscences, 321, 349.

Abby Smith wrote to Mary Ann in November 1854 and again in January 29, 1855. Many events happened in Glastenbury and the Town of Highland before Abby’s next known letter to Mary Ann, in 1866.
—Abby, Laurilla, and Mary Ann, pp. 177–179.

Justus and Mary Wells Hickok
Abby and Laurilla stayed in Barryville with Justus and Mary Wells Hickok, and their family. Abby mentioned their sons Robert and David Hickok in her letters to Mary Ann.

Abby and Laurilla had to stay longer at Justus and Mary’s home than they had expected because the train did not arrive on time. Mary Wells Hickok, we find out later, was not happy.

Abby and Laurilla’s Visit Ends
Finally, the train did arrive. The route to New York City (where Laurilla hoped to visit the Crystal Palace) offered some spectacular scenery (including the Hawk’s Nest) and an impressive view of the Delaware River. But Abby was not feeling well, so Laurilla helped her home to Glastenbury.

The New York Crystal Palace
In 1853 the first United States World’s Fair, “Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations,” opened in New York City.

In May 1854 a re-inauguration had featured abolitionist orators: Rev. Henry Ward Beecher and Elihu Burritt (who had visited the Smiths in 1836).

The Crystal Palace showcased marvels of science, art, and industry; paintings from Europe and America; and machinery and inventions.

Latting Observatory, a 315-foot-high wooden tower next to the “Palace” featured a 40- to 60-mile telescope view, which included Queens, Staten Island, and New Jersey.

In October Abby and Laurilla were able to explore the Crystal Palace. After the visit Laurilla went home and Abby went to the Water Cure Clinic at Oyster Bay.

Note: The Crystal Palace burnt down in October 1858.

Abby and Laurilla Smith were welcomed by Hannah Hickok Eldred, her daughter Mary Ann Eldred Austin, and her three daughters (ages one to four): Mary Henrietta, Edith Emogene (Emma), and Maria Adelaide Austin.

(In thirteen years Abby Smith remembers the first and middle names of all three little Austin girls when she replies to a letter from Edith Emogene.)

Though quite thin and not feeling well, Abby seemed to enjoy meeting her Hickok relatives. The sisters met Hannah’s husband James Eldred, Mary Ann’s husband Henry Austin, and possibly Henry’s parents Ralph and Fanny Knapp Austin.

Abby was very impressed with James Eldred. She grew very attached to Hannah Hickok Eldred and found her “perhaps most interesting.” Laurilla (age sixty-five, the same age as Hannah Eldred) was “the most interested” in Mary Ann because she seemed like their mother with three young daughters so close in age.

Charles C.P. Eldred and his wife Effa showed Abby and Laurilla around their new home, including the room with the Lumberland Post Office.
—Abby, Laurilla, and Mary Ann, pp. 170–172.

Abby Smith and her sister Laurilla Smith were brought up to think more of the Hickok relatives of their mother Hannah Hickok Smith, than their father’s. In 1854 Abby (age 56) and Laurilla (age 65) left their Glastonbury, Connecticut home, to visit their mother’s remaining Hickok first cousins. We join them after their visit with Louisa and Reuben.

On a summer’s day in 1854, Laurilla and Abby Smith said goodbye to their second cousins Louisa Hickok and her brother Reuben, in Pennsylvania.

The sisters then rode fifteen miles north to the Union Railroad Station at Owego, New York.* Abby and Laurilla planned to travel by rail to meet and reconnect with their mother’s other first cousins: Hannah Hickok Eldred and Justus Hickok, who lived in the Town of Highland, New York.

The one-hundred-twenty-mile, picturesque excursion to Shohola, Pennsylvania, first followed (mostly east) alongside the meandering Susquehanna River; then switched to the scenic route beside the winding Delaware River, as they traveled southeast.

On arriving at the Shohola Railroad Station, Abby and Laurilla walked to the nearby Delaware River to ride the old rope-guided ferry across the river to Barryville, New York.

Justus Hickok lived near Barryville, one of the five hamlets in the new Town of Highland. Hannah Hickok Eldred lived in Halfway Brook Village, four miles northeast.

Once on the New York side of the Delaware River, Abby and Laurilla climbed into one of the waiting stages which took railroad travelers to their destination.

The stage bounced and rattled northeast on the dirt Brook Road which paralleled Halfway Brook. After two miles the sisters passed the old 1812 Hickok Homestead of their mother’s uncle Asa Hickok and his family.

In another two miles they saw the 1830 Eldred home and sawmill. The stage soon turned right at the four corners of Halfway Brook Village, and proceeded southeast.

As they bumped along, they noticed the Congregational Church on the right. Felix Kyte was still the pastor. Close by were the Eldred barns. Opposite the barns, on their left, was the home of C.C.P. and Effa Eldred with a room for the Post Office.

The rough, miserable ride was almost done. After crossing the bridge over Halfway Brook, Abby and Julia soon arrived at the Austin home.
—Abby, Laurilla, and Mary Ann, p. 170.

* This is a possible scenario of Abby and Laurilla leaving Pennsylvania and traveling to visit their New York Hickok relatives.

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