Halfway Brook

“If you are raised on Halfway Brook water, you will always come back.”—Bertha Boyd Wilson to Melva Austin, 1943.

Farewell to Eldred resumes the narrative of Echo Hill and Mountain Grove, in the year 1920. Over a hundred years have passed since Charles Mortimer (Mort) Austin’s grandparents James Eldred and Hannah Hickok first settled near Halfway Brook in what was then the Town of Lumberland.

Almost ninety years previous the Leavenworth grandparents of Jennie Austin had put down roots near Blind Pond Brook, west of Halfway Brook, in what became Eldred, in the Town of Highland.

Farewell to Eldred, the last book in the Memoirs from Eldred, New York, 1900–1950 Series, continues the story of the Town of Highland’s five hamlets: Eldred, Highland Lake, Yulan, Barryville, and Minisink Ford; and the descendants of the original settlers—relatives, friends, and neighbors—first read about in Book 1, The Mill on Halfway Brook.

When Farewell to Eldred commences in 1920, Mort and Jennie Austin, my grandparents, managed Mountain Grove House on the east side of Eldred. Jennie’s father and three of her siblings resided at the Leavenworth’s Echo Hill Farm House on the west side of Eldred.

In the next thirty years newcomers, often from New York City, join the story. Some run Boarding Houses which continued to be the backbone of the area’s economy. Work was also available at the Erie Railroad, bluestone quarries, and private sawmills. And most unfortunately there is another war.

A phenomenal amount of photos, letters, postcards, diaries, old newspapers, and first hand stories from family and friends, tells the story of daily life—its joys and sorrows—in the Town of Highland from 1920 until 1950. Soon after 1950 my parents would depart from the home of my Hickok, Eldred, Leavenworth, Austin, and Myers ancestors.

Please join me as we return to Halfway Brook in 1920 and say a long farewell to the descendants of the original settlers and the newcomers in the Town we have come to love.

Hello Halfway Brook friends, Hopefully in a week “Farewell to Eldred” will be available for purchase. There were some changes that needed to be made to the first book proof. A new file was uploaded and a second proof copy should arrive within a week. I thought you might enjoy seeing the back cover. Louise

The year is 1920. Mort and Jennie Austin managed Mountain Grove House east of Halfway Brook. The Leavenworths resided at Echo Hill Farm House on the west side of Eldred, near Blind Pond Brook.

Farewell to Eldred concludes the story of the descendants of the original settlers introduced in The Mill on Halfway Brook, and newcomers (often from New York City) who lived in the Town of Highland’s hamlets: Barryville, Minisink Ford, Yulan, Eldred, and Highland Lake. Boarding Houses (first featured in Echo Hill and Mountain Grove) continued as the mainstay of the Town’s economy. The Erie Railway, Barryville Glass Factory (for a short while), and (later) Narrowsburg Lumber also offered employment.

Farewell to Eldred overflows with reminiscences of stills, baseball teams, radio KDKA, the arrival of electricity, flooding, the search for employment, and World War II, in the Town of Highland, 1920–1950. Daily life—its joys and sorrows—told through 1,100 photos, postcards, and documents, 150 letters, and four diaries (shared by over 100 contributors), is interwoven with World, National, and Local News; and Boarding House Ads.

Book 3, Farewell to Eldred, the culmination of the Memoirs from Eldred, New York, 1800–1950 Series, includes original maps of boarding house locations, an extensive Appendix (with 1920, 1930, and 1940 Censuses), and a 30 page Index of some 2,550 people, places, and events.

Farewell to Eldred concludes the story of the families who settled on either side of Halfway Brook, in the Town of Highland, New York, first read about in The Mill on Halfway Brook, and continued in Echo Hill and Mountain Grove.

Through the eyes of her Austin and Leavenworth relatives, Louise Smith weaves an account of the daily lives of the descendants of early settlers (Austin, Leavenworth, Eldred, Myers, Bodine, Bradley, Bosch, Clark, Gardner, Hallock, Mills, Boyd, Horton, Parker, Greig, Stege, Sergeant, and Tether) who still lived in Eldred, Highland Lake, Yulan, Barryville, and Minisink Ford—the five hamlets of the Town of Highland (originally Lumberland).

We meet newcomers (Frey, Hensel, Theuer, Pankow, Hainzl, Bertram, Lorphelin, and Mellan), often from New York City, who purchase and run established boarding houses still vital to the area’s economy. The Erie Railway, Barryville Glass Factory (for a short while), and (later) Narrowsburg Lumber also offered employment.

Some 50 first-person reminiscences tell of stills, baseball teams, radio KDKA, the arrival of electricity, boarding house life, destructive flooding, the Depression, the search for employment, and World War II, in the years 1920 to 1950. Daily life—its joys and sorrows—is told through 1,100 photos, postcards, and documents, 150 letters, four diaries (shared by over 100 contributors) interwoven with World, National, and Local News; and Boarding House Ads.

Farewell to Eldred, the culmination of the Memoirs from Eldred, New York, 1800–1950 Series, includes original maps of boarding house locations, an extensive Appendix (with 1920, 1930, and 1940 Censuses), and an Index of some 2,550 people, places, and events.

(There will be a post announcing when Farewell to Eldred is available. Thank you for your patience.)

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.