The February 1938 Sunday Mirror Magazine section mentioned that after Katie Stege’s death, when her personal property was sold at auction, in addition to her 35 Persian cats, there were 48 rabbits, 17 ducks, 4 goats, 22 pigs, 19 sheep, 4 lambs, 99 chickens, 4 bulls, 5 cows, a horse and countless pheasants and wild turkeys roaming the place.
Does this look familiar to any of my Halfway Brook readers?
Austin Smith, the Highland Historian, mentioned it as the mill on the route from Barryville to Eldred. I find it curious that it is called the Holloway Sawmill when I have not seen that surname in Eldred in my research.
I wonder if somehow Halfway Brook morphed to Holloway in the postcard caption.
In random connections: my youngest’s wife’s maiden name is Holloway; and my husband’s baby photo (taken at a Studio in CA, 2,500 miles from my birthplace in western NY) has Austin printed on the lower right corner.
I did not know about the Bellom family when I wrote “Farewell to Eldred.” A special thank you to J. Meyer for sharing his 1959 Bellom Property photo and the following information:
It is my understanding that Bertha and Joe Bellom bought the property in the 1930s as a summer home. It was a very large tract running quite a distance up toward the lake. They had three kids: Joe, Irene and Madeline. When Bertha died after Joe, their son took over. They were originally from Jersey.
Joe Sr. kept a ’30s car in the garage in Eldred for summer use and I recall riding in it as a kid. The woman in the foreground in my maternal grandmother, Caroline Franke, who bought the property across the road. She and Bertha were friends.
So, that is how my mom got to Eldred from Queens, NYC. My grandmother rented a summer place up the road from the Clouse family after my maternal grandfather died in the early ’30s, and that’s where my mother met my father.
The Bellom property is in the far top right corner. The driveway is just above the “d” in “Rd,” which puts it just after that sharp bend.—J. Meyer.
This photo shows the Roebling Aqueduct as well as the slack water dam. The slackwater dam (to the right of the Aqueduct in this photo) caused a 1-1/4 mile calm section in the river. The photo was taken around 1880 from the New York side of the Delaware River.
Slackwater Dam
A six-foot high slackwater dam existed below the confluence or juncture of the Lackawaxen and Delaware Rivers before the Roebling Aqueduct was built in 1847. The dam, which caused a calm section over a mile long, was raised to 16 feet after the Aqueduct was completed. The extra height was helpful for the canal, but treacherous for the lumber rafters.
When a raft went over the dam, the bow oarsmen disappeared from the stern oarsmen under a swirl of white water. Many rafts of lumber were lost on this section of the river, and the Delaware and Hudson paid the damages.
In an attempt to aid raftsmen, the D&H provided guides to lead rafts through this dangerous section, but this was not done without a payment to the canal company.
—Osterberg, Matthew, The Delaware and Hudson Canal and the
Gravity Railroad, p. 53.
Once over the Aqueduct, canal boats made a sharp right at Minisink Ford, New York, and went through Locks 72, 71, and 70 (some of the lock numbers have been changed). There were 16 locks before they reached Port Jervis.
I found several more old Roebling Bridge photos, but I’ll save them for a later time.
When Rolf B. asked if I knew what years the Old Roebling Bridge Photos were taken, I went in search of an answer.
I did not find the date any of the photos were taken. But I did find five photos I didn’t have on the Library of Congress site, three of which I have posted here. I assume if the photo shows a bridge, it was taken after 1898 when the last boat moved over the aqueduct. The photos were listed as “the Delaware Aqueduct,” but they look like the structure was a bridge when the photos were taken.
As usual, for a larger image, click on the photos.
The Roebling Bridge in Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania, was designed and constructed by John A. Roebling as an aqueduct for D&H Canal Boats to cross the Delaware River. Mr. Roebling was the initial designer of the Brooklyn Bridge, NYC, the oldest suspension bridge in the U.S.
A more complete story of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge is found on the first link. All the links have been posts on the HalfwayBrook site and I hope are of interest to my readers. The Roebling Aqueduct/Bridge is just one of the stories I found fascinating as I researched the Halfway Brook Books.
The Great East River Suspension Bridge
1859 Roebling-Chauncey Bridge
Old Roebling Bridge Photos
View of Roebling Aqueduct/Bridge from the Delaware House
Roebling Aqueduct—Toll Bridge
Caisson Sickness
Here is the History of the Congregational Church in what is now Eldred, New York. The Church was built in 1835 and still stands. (Click on “Continue reading” to see the rest of the history.)
There have been some corrections written in the text, which I suspect were done by my great-aunt Aida Austin, the original collector of much of the history, letters, photos in the book which were fortunately saved by my cousin Melva and my mother. Click images to make them larger.
