1892 Dry Goods, Groceries

by Louise Smith Posted on December 9, 2011
C.M. Austin in account with M. Quick and Co., Dealer in Dry Goods and Groceries, Hardware, Crockery, Hats and Caps, Boots and Shoes, Clothing, Fancy Goods, Notions, Etc.
September 1892.

Building supplies
35# hammer 2.80
3 cans paint .75
30 gal. paint 42.00
1 boot oil .10
5 L. nails .75
1 bbl. lime 1.50
4 bbl. lime 6.00
5 bbl. lime 7.50
3-1/2 plaster Paris .35
5 gallon b. oil 3.25
2 cans shellac 2.00
35 Bricks .35
10-4D nails .40
77-10W nails 2.31
5 gall. b. oil 3.25
1 w. hand oil .60
1 turpentine .60
3 cans paint .75

Food staples
1 b. powder .15
3 b. powder .25
2 cans beef .50
1 can beef .25
5# butter 1.25
3 cake .37
4 cinnamon .10
2 coffee .50
2 coffee .60
2 doz. eggs .40
4 ginger .05
5# lard .50
100 meal 1.35
50 meal .25
4 mustard .10
25 sugar 1.50
10 sugar .60
1 tea .50

Posted in Boarding Houses, Echo Hill and Mountain Grove | Leave a comment

Christmas New York City 1881

by Louise Smith Posted on December 8, 2011

From Aida Austin’s 1881 Diary.

N.Y.C., Saturday, Dec. 24, 1881
Net out this forenoon. Maria and I over to Macy’s this afternoon. Harry and I have just got in from Ridley’s.

N.Y.C., Sunday, Dec. 25, 1881
Quite pleasant. We went to Willett St. after all, speaking and singing.

N.Y.C., Monday, Dec. 26, 1881
Net, Baby, and I around to Ad’s this afternoon to the Christmas tree. It was very nice. We all got some nice presents.

Ida, Uncle Gustus, Aunt Maria, and I went around to the Baptist Church to Lizzy Brown’s wedding. Back to Ad’s. I had to dress up as Santa Claus.

1886 lithograph of a busy scene on Broadway in New York City entitled, “A glimpse of New York’s dry goods district; The largest in the world, covering a space of 135 acres; containing 4,500 firms; employing $800,000,000 capital.”—Source: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division: LC-USZ62-2662.
Posted in Aida Austin Diary, Echo Hill and Mountain Grove | Leave a comment

1880 Christmas Gifts

by Louise Smith Posted on December 6, 2011
“On the back road to Barryville from Yulan.” Postcard shows Yulan Road near Barryville, possibly near where the Schoonovers lived at one time. Courtesy of Kevin M.

(The memoirs of Daniel Rowlee Schoonover play an important part in the story told in “Echo Hill and Mountain Grove.”)

It was in 1880, and I was 8 years old that things was pretty tough: no work anywhere and Pa who was good at most any kind of a job, hired out to a man named Madison who lived over on the back road to Barryville from Yulan.

Butcher wagons went through the country for those days you had to buy everything from the peddler wagons. There was John Bower, the butcher, and Joe Sturns, the peddler, with everything from crown combs to Jew’s harps and they took all the rags, bottles, and boxes that we had saved up in part payment.

So we moved over to the Madison Place and Pa did the butchering and what a big time Em and I had. I remember we had the attic strung full of bladders blown up and dried. And Ma used to bind the tops with red tape and put strings in them and give them away for tobacco pouches for Christmas presents.

The family stayed that winter and came back home to Eldred early the next spring, for Pa would never let a spring go by without going down the river on a raft.—Daniel Rowlee Schoonover.

Posted in Echo Hill and Mountain Grove, People | Leave a comment

Roebling Aqueduct—Toll Bridge

by Louise Smith Posted on December 3, 2011
The aqueduct was converted to a private toll bridge. The towpaths were sawn off; the wooden trunk walls dismantled. Photo: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division; Historic Engineering Record: HAER PA, 52 LACK,1-11

In 1898 the last boat moved over the waterway [of the Roebling Aqueduct] and the following year the physical plant of the system was liquidated.

Of the four suspension aqueducts that Roebling designed as part of the major enlargement operation, only the Delaware had any apparent adaptive usefulness. The spans over the Lackawaxen, Neversink, and Roundout were all simply abandoned and eventually demolished.

The Delaware Aqueduct was purchased privately and converted into a highway bridge. The tow paths were sawn off, a low railing was run along the downstream side of the trunk floor to provide a separated pedestrian walk, a toll house was built at the New York end, and some grading was done at each end for accommodation to the existing roads…

The first private owner was Charles Spruks, a Scranton lumber dealer, who specialized in the heavy timbers used as supports in the area’s coal mines. His principal timber lands being in Sullivan County, N.Y., he purchased the aqueduct primarily to afford a simple means of getting the logs across the Delaware to the railroad in Lackawaxen. The collection of tolls from common road traffic was actually a side line.—From Edward H. Huber, Scranton; Roebling Bridge, HAER No. PA-1, 52, LACK; page 7.

Posted in Bridges, Echo Hill and Mountain Grove | 2 Comments

Aida Austin, Dr. Edward Austin Sheldon, and Oswego Normal School

by Louise Smith Posted on November 30, 2011
Photo in Album of Aida Austin courtesy of Mary A.
State Normal School, Oswego, N.Y. 1879–1913, Aida Austin’s Album, courtesy of Mary A.

Aida Austin attended State Normal School (a teacher’s college) from about 1884 to 1887. In one of her several photo albums (courtesy of my mom) were photos of Welland Dormitory where Aida stayed, the school, Dr. Edward Austin Sheldon, and several photos of Oswego. There was also a letter that Aida wrote to Dr. Sheldon.

Dr. Sheldon founded Oswego Primary Teachers’ Training School in 1861 to prepare future educators to teach based on the “object teaching” methods of Johann Pestalozzi (1746 to 1827). Some of Pestalozzi’s Principles were still taught when I took education classes in college some 100 years later. You can read about those principles on p. 99 in Echo Hill and Mountain Grove.
Continue reading →

Posted in Echo Hill and Mountain Grove, People | Leave a comment