If you are knowledgeable about the Town of Highland, you may have said to yourself, “I don’t think Louise knows what she is talking about with these photos.” And you would have been correct.
My mother has informed me that these photos actually have to do with blasting the rock in Pond Eddy to use the stone for building Route 97, which was completed in August 1939. The bridge was completed in fall 1941.
Note: I have been told that this map is not accurate for the Highland Lake area. There was at one time a road (shown by the dotted line) that connected Proctor with Stege Road (starting before Halfway Brook). Though I don’t know if it is accurately shown on this map.
April 1940
Apparently, working on two houses in the family was not enough to keep Garfield Leavenworth busy. On Monday, April 1 (a rather cruel joke), Goldie’s roof heaved because of the ice, so Garfield helped his son. Two days later Goldie borrowed his parents’ ladder as the roof was leaking.
Jim turned 18 on Tuesday. Jennie Austin was at Garfield and Ella’s all day. Lottie Meyers stopped in for a bit.
Friday Lee Hansen took the menfolk—Garfield, Goldie, and Jim—to Shohola to look over a stove.
The second week of April, Lee and Garfield helped Oliver Dunlap. Lottie and Madelyn Meyers called on Ella.
Saturday Ella wrote: “Our new Kalamazoo combination range came.” Ella baked her first layer cake in the new stove on Sunday.
Book update: The above is an excerpt from the upcoming “Farewell to Eldred” which is in the final editing stage—interspersed with family visits and helping a family member move to a new apartment.
Tuesday, November 13, Maggie Dunlap, 61, died at the home of her sister Miss Emma Bauer at Beaver Brook. Maggie was the widow of the late Walter Dunlap. Her three sons: Charles and Harold of Eldred, and George of Middletown.
There was a thank-you card from the Dunlaps sent to Lon Austin in the Austin Collection. The Austin and Dunlap families had known each other at least as early as 1856. In a January 1857 letter Lon’s grandmother Fanny Knapp Austin wrote (from Halfeway Brook) about the marriage of Walter’s parents “Oliver Dunlap and Caty Devenport” on New Year’s Eve.
June 5, 1944, U.S. troops entered Rome.
Lost in the Catacombs
Art Austin arrived in Rome with the Fifth Army. He and his friends decided to visit the Catacombs. They managed to persuade the guard on duty at the catacombs, to let them explore where the early Christians had hid.
There was no electricity in the area, so there was no lighting in the Catacombs. But Art’s friend said not to worry as he had been a Boy Scout.
When they passed the same area more than once, Art decided he’d have to go with a better plan or they’d never get out. Since the men weren’t supposed to have been allowed there, Art figured no one would look for them in that location. Art reached up over his head and found the electric wires that were used to light the place before the war. He hung on to and followed the wires, until finally the group found their way out.
Art Austin, Salerno, Italy
My dad Art Austin was with the 5th U.S. Army when they sailed on the Duchess of Bedford on September 9, 1943. They were a part of the assault waves of the landing at Salerno. The Duchess landed at Paestum south of Salerno.
The excitement started a few nights after the Paestum landing. I was comfortably relaxed in a bed in Baron Ricciardi’s castle—the first bed I had seen in months on end. My but it was grand! The Colonel winked when he gave me permission to guard the office that night, ‘if I felt like it.’ Without the proper authority, a foxhole, as usual, would have been my home. Of course, I felt like it—an understanding man, that Colonel.
Near midnight, however, a messenger rushed through the room wildly proclaiming, “The Germans are coming! Burn all secret papers.”
A groan from across the room proved that the Master Gunner, who was sharing the office defense with me, had heard the bad news. We hesitated a few moments. One who has not seen a bed in months, does not get up readily under any circumstances. But duty and self preservation demanded action.
We looked for clothing, secret office records, emergency chocolate rations; hunted for the absent Colonel’s belongings to take along (might as well be captured as to leave them behind); searched all night long until daylight found us in a safe location. Still, it was not a total loss. From that time on, everything missing on inspection days had been lost at the Baron’s.—Art Austin.
