Barryville Glass Factory, Dam, and workers around 1920. Photo courtesy of Ed Wolff.Glass cutters top row: George Liebla, Pat Palmer, Albert Wolff Norm Wolff; bottom row: Harold Quick John van Eastenbridge, Howard Pelton, Irving Quick, Frank Wolff, and an unknown man. Photo courtesy of Ed Wolff.
Town of Highland Occupations
Boarding houses were the main “industry” in the area, but there were still sawmills (belonging to Harry Wormuth, John Love, and others) and bluestone quarries which needed workers. The Erie Railroad employed many men.
The Barryville Glass Factory employed some 15 local people. Earl Palmer (who also was the bridge tender for the Barryville and Pond Eddy bridges) was a polisher and his wife Kate worked in the Glass Factory Showroom showing glassware for sale. The glass cutters included Albert, Norm, and Frank Wolff, sons of Charles and Janette Kerr Wolff. (We first met the Wolff family in Echo Hill and Mountain Grove.)—Farewell to Eldred, pp. 4 and 6.
Parkers Glen bluestone dock in the early 1900s. PHoto courtesy of Minisink Valley Historical Society.Cart loaded with a large bluestone from the Golbe Quarry in Rio, New York. The stone was sold to Alexander’s Hotel in Sparrowbush. This photo, taken between 1905 and 1907, is courtesy of Minisink Valley Historical Society.
Washington Lake 1954. Photo courtesy of Doris S.Rowing on Washington Lake, 1958. Photo courtesy of Doris S.Swimming in Washington Lake. 1958. Photo courtesy of Doris S.
Photo of some of Mr. Keller’s wonderful creations. Photo courtesy of Doris S.
Mr. Keller—the Swiss friend of the Wolffs—had a wonderful, magical backyard. His place, on the road between Barryville and Yulan, had wooden creations that worked with flowing water. Cookie remembers yodeling music and waterfalls.—Information courtesy of friends Doris S. and Cookie W.
Alfred and Helen Wolff bought Hillside Inn (formerly Metzger’s Bowling Alley and Dance Hall) and ran it as a restaurant. Postcard Courtesy of Kevin M.Hillside Inn, 1954: Maria Fuchs, Alfred and Helen (L to R) in the back of the group (the others are my father, some friends from NJ, me and Cookie). Photo courtesy of Doris S.Group of folks who had immigrated from Waiblingen Germany to the US in the 1920s standing on steps of Hillside Inn. Photo taken around 1964 courtesy of Doris S.
Doris Stegmaier Schmidt recently left a comment on this Halfway Brook site. She emailed me some more memories and photos relating to Hillside Inn which I thought Halfway Brook would enjoy reading and seeing. (Click on photos to enlarge.)
I think of the old days and the Hillside Inn a lot. About 10 years ago, my husband had found an article on Google that the Inn had burned down. My parents and I spent a lot of time there in the summers, and took other friends there also.
My mother, Clara Stegmaier, grew up with Helen Fuchs and Maria Fuchs (sisters) who immigrated to New York from Waiblingen, Germany. Maria worked at the inn as waitress and she had a house near the crossroads.
Louise (Cookie) Wolff, daughter of Helen and Alfred of the Hillside Inn, and I were together in the summers when my parents drove us from Philadelphia to Yulan.
The “German cuisine” (see comment), and my mother’s cooking was identical (Schwaebisch). My father loved the Rheingold beer, that I remember. Continue reading →
This post is a little late in wishing Mom (a major player in the Halfway Brook Books) a Happy 90th Birthday on this site.
My three siblings expertly planned what was hoped to be a surprise (and it was) weekend of events for Mom. Family from six states were in on the plan.
I supplied photos for a DVD one of my sisters put together. And (enjoyed in Arizona) the surprise as it unfolded with texts and photos sent to me, as I recuperated (and still am) from a broken leg.
Parkers Glen Railway Station. Photo courtesy of Minisink Valley Historical Society.
Carr’s Rock, Parkers Glen
Parkers Glen was originally named Carr’s Rock. Carr, a raftsman, had been stranded there one night after his raft had been wrecked, according to George J. Fluhr, Historian for Pike County, Pennsylvania.
In April 1868, there had been a terrible train accident at Carr’s Rock. Forty people died and 75 were injured. To try and erase that memory, the name was changed to Parkers Glen to honor Elijah Strong Parker, a partner of John Fletcher Kilgour.
Parkers Glen [has] a stone plant for the purchase, manufacture, and sale of building and other stones.
There is a number of tenement houses, a store house, a depot of the Erie Rail Road Company, a well equipped stone mill for planing, rubbing, and shaping stone after almost any required pattern.
Connected with it is a large tract of land from where a vast quantity of stones have been quarried and hauled to the mill and the dock.
The business was first put in operation by John F. Kilgour, who soon after persuaded a Mr. Parker, formerly of New York City, to become his partner.
Parker was an honest, confiding man, who…by reason of his naturally innocent…disposition, was the least of all men fitted to enter such a partnership with safety…After 2 or 3 years trial, he left it a poor man…From him the place was named…—Johnston, “Reminiscences” pp. 224, 225.
