Halfway Brook

February and March 1934
Garfield got his oak boards from John Love to make chairs. Clinton had finished his County job before Christmas and worked several days for John Love in March.

Jim Leavenworth visited his aunt Charlotte Leavenworth one day and another time stopped by the Austin’s, perhaps to play baseball with his cousin Bob.

Austin Smith continued violin lessons. Carl Wolff had his first violin lesson.

The Eldred Postmaster
When Franklin D. Roosevelt became President, Emily Stevens was re-appointed Postmaster in Eldred, because the Democrats were then in office.

In the 1920s the Post Office had been moved from the Parker Hotel to the northwest corner of Eldred where Arthur Wilson’s A&P store and the butcher shop were.

When Emily became Postmaster (yes it is correct to call her Postmaster) again, she kept the Post Office at the Corner location for awhile, but later moved it back to the Parker Hotel.

My dad Arthur Austin had taken a Civil Service test in July 1933. His average percentage as typist was 84.30.

By the spring of 1934, Arthur Austin worked at the Eldred Post Office for Postmaster Emily Stevens. The Eldred Post Office had been moved back to the Parker Hotel, or it would be soon.

March 1933
Wednesday, March 1, Garfield took Frank Sergeant to the doctor. Clinton drove John Love’s team of horses when the Leavenworth men drew their wood.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was inaugurated on Saturday. It was a clear, warm day in Eldred. In the evening Mary and Alvah Sergeant were at the Leavenworths until after midnight. Alvah was Ella’s cousin.

Every Saturday night we were home and Mary and Alvah Sergeant and family were here or we were there to visit and listen to the Grand Old Opera. The older ones would play pinochle until around eleven o’clock and then the women would go in the kitchen and make a pot of coffee and usually oyster stew.—James Leavenworth.

Tuesday March 7, 1933, Thelma Hill started taking mandolin lessons from Garfield.

Friday there was a magnitude 6.4 earthquake in Southern California; 120 people died and there was about $50 million of damage.

Wednesday, March 15, Anna and Kate Love went to Jennie Austin’s. The Leavenworth men went to see Hawk’s Nest Road, a section of N.Y. Route 97 which was being constructed.

Saturday Henry Graf’s Pine Grove House on Highland Lake and the Davis houses burned.

Homes burning down may have meant that old wood needed to be cleared from the wooded properties. At some point in 1933, the Civilian Conservation Corps cut firebreaks and cleared land on the Boy Scout properties.

There was no school on Wednesday, March 22. The electric light line was broken so the school had no water.

Thursday the Leavenworths celebrated Frank Sergeant’s birthday at his house. He was 72. The next week Clinton and Ella visited with her dad. Clinton started working for the County.

• Japan, China, the Dutch East Indies, and Siam formed the Great Asia Association. It was under Japanese leadership.

• Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. He withdrew Germany from the League of Nations.

• President Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated. His speech included, “We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.” Roosevelt’s Fireside Chats began. He also introduced the New Deal (social and economic legislation) from March to June.

• The Civilian Conservation Corps was authorized under the Federal Unemployment Relief Act.

National news Tuesday evening, March 1, contained the upsetting story of the abduction of Charles Lindbergh Jr., 20 months old.

Tuesday at the Eldred School, Mrs. Styles gave her student Jim Leavenworth a certificate saying he had passed the New York State Test for the first semester of fourth grade.

At the beginning of March, Ella was given an electric washer from Lottie Meyers who had gotten the machine from Mrs. Sidwell, a neighbor.

Friday, March 19, the men went to Henry Graf’s on Highland Lake to play for the first dance. Austin Smith and Dot spent the evening at the Leavenworths.

Monday Clinton went for Doc Gutfruend as Ella’s Aunt Lou Kelley was very sick. Aunt Lou was a sister to Frank Sergeant, Ella’s father.

“They haven’t found Lindy’s (Lindbergh) baby yet,” Ella wrote on Wednesday, the day the Highland schools were closed because of scarlet fever.

Friday Austin Smith was in for a violin lesson. Stan Myers and William McBride were at Leavenworths for the evening.

The last Sunday of March, Nick Rohman was up to play with Jim; Austin Smith and Tom Hill were there for violin lessons.

Towards the end of March Albert Wolff married Ruth Foster, daughter of George and Jennie Hallock Foster.

Albert and his brother Norman would soon buy the house near the old Ira Austin house where Ed and Mabel Austin Smith and their son Austin Smith lived. The Wolff’s “new” home had been sold to Charles Frace in 1868.

Close to and adjoining the premises of Mrs. Frace is the house and premises of Ira M. Austin a wagon maker, blacksmith and general mechanic. The house was first erected by Abraham Russel…—Johnston, J.W., Reminiscences, p. 328.

Grant and Charlie Sergeant, and Herman Bosch were at the Leavenworth home in the evening.

Herman’s uncle Julius Maier and his sister aunt Annie lived nearby on Crawford Road.

[Does anyone recognize other people in the photo? Click the image to make it larger.]

The Wolff brothers visited on Monday evening. Friday Anna was down to the MacIntyres. Garfield bought a ton of hay from Averys for $15 and also fixed the brooder coop.

Frank Wolff was over the third week of March for advice on buying a house.

Ella finished Mary Sergeant and Bertha Wilson’s dresses on Tuesday, March 24. Charlotte, Garfield’s sister, was there for supper later that day. She visited them again the next day as did Minnie and Archie Myers.

The end of the month, Charlie Dunlap stopped by for a visit.