Halfway Brook

I imagine that a number of my Halfway Brook friends have a copy or have at least heard of Reminiscences written by John W. Johnston around 1900.

Reminiscences is Johnston’s first hand (often caustic) account of the people who lived along the Delaware River from Pond Eddy to Narrowsburg in the 19th Century. It includes a helpful historical account of the D&H Canal so vital to the area at one time.

Reminiscences was a source for the history of Lumberland and many of the families mentioned in The Mill on Halfway Brook and the first 20 years of Echo Hill and Mountain Grove.

It is fascinating to go back and reread Reminiscences now that I know who many of the people were. Though there is a bit of a cringe factor when reading the book if there is any relative that Johnston mentions.

Johnston, a lawyer, accurately discusses where different families lived (his signature is on a couple land deeds I have). He comes across a bit arrogant and often negative, judgmental, and unforgiving in his personal evaluation of the townspeople.

Still it seems to be an accurate history that can not be found elsewhere.

Reminiscences (two volumes in one book including old photos); 360 pages plus a very helpful index, can be purchased for only $12.95 (plus shipping) from Minisink Valley Historical Society’s Gift Shop.

I am much more knowledgeable about a section of early American history after reading (and thoroughly enjoying) Richard Berlith’s book, Bloody Mohawk: The French and Indian War and American Revolution on New York’s Frontier.

This well written and researched history of the battles fought in the vicinity of the Mowhawk River, discusses in depth the background and interactions of the people—natives, Dutch, English, Palatines, and Irish—who lived along the Mohawk River.

I found that sides taken during the Revolutionary War—British/Loyalist/Tories versus Continentals/Patriots—was much more complex than I had understood before.

The narrative ties the history of the area’s battles with Joseph Brant and the July 22, 1779 Minisink Battle (briefly mentioned in The Mill on Halfway Brook) and Dr. Tusten.

Also mentioned and related to the “Mohawk Wars” was the Wyoming Massacre in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania which apparently sent my Austin relatives back east for two or three years. (The Austins weren’t mentioned specifically.)

Richard Berleth creates an exceptional narrative here that is forever driven by the unique geography of the Mohawk Valley, as well as by the people who settled there from the powerful Iroquois, to avaricious European fur traders, to the colonials who fought in and ultimately won a series of devastating eighteenth-century wars. –Robert Weibel, New York State Historian & Chief Curator New York State Museum.