Halfway Brook

4. What is the News? October 29, 1869

by Louise Smith Posted on August 9, 2023

On October 29, 1869, Chester answered Emma’s letter. She had asked him when he would be in Lumberland. Apparently, there had been a problem before with Hina (possibly Henrietta, Emma’s oldest sister).

Chester asked about his Halfway Brook students, many of whom are mentioned in The Mill on Halfway Brook.

Maria Myers before she married in 1874. "Where is Maria Myers, and all of the schollars that came to school last winter?" — Maria Myers before she married in 1874. “Where is Maria Myers, and all of the schollars that came to school last winter?”

Last page of Chester's October 1869 Letter. — Last page of Chester’s October 1869 Letter.

October 29, 1869
Walton, New York
Friend Emma,
I will now spend a few moments in writing to you. I s’pose you have thought many times that you would never hear from me again. But I will disappoint you once.

You wish me to let you know when I would be in Lumberland again. I do not know at present. I have just returned from the Institute…

I guess I must stay all night if I come out ever again. As to the excitement I care nothing about. The more the better I am pleased. If I stay at your house you will have to make it all right with Hina before I come. What is Hina doing now?

I suppose you are teaching ere this. Tell me where and how much you get per week.

I shall teach again this winter if I can get a school to suit me.

How did school meeting pass off? Who is trustee and who teaches your school this winter.

Maria Young, where is she? I suppose Adda Eldred is teaching now, also Rebecca [Eldred]?

Where is Jane [Eldred], R. James, Maggie Hills, Maria Myers, and all of the schollars that came to school last winter?

If you will send me one of your pictures I will try and return the compliment.

Write when you get this given the news. Give my love to Hina.

Yours truly, Chester Beers

Note: Adda, Rebecca and Jane Eldred erre daughters of Emma’s uncle C.C.P. and aunt Effa Eldred.

Previous Posts
1. Is that the New Teacher?
2. The Math Tutor
3. Chester Beers to Friend Emma, Correspondence Continues

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3. Chester to Friend Emma Correspondence Continues

by Louise Smith Posted on August 6, 2023

The Letters of Chester Beers to Emma Austin, 1869–1878
Emma Austin continued to write to Chester. They correspondeded off and on through 1878. Even though the Civil War had been ended only thee years in November 1868, there is no mention of it in the letters.

Except for one letter Emma requested to be returned, we read only one-side of the correspondence, and can only guess at what Emma wrote to Chester.

Along with updates on the current teacher and Chester’s former pupils and some snide comments, Chester and Emma taunt and tease each other, sparring with words and phrases about a photo exchange and hair curls.

Emma seems conflicted about Chester. She doesn’t agree with him on some issues and wants him to say things a certain way when he writes her.

Chester, who often included poems or poetic-like description of the seasons in his letters, tried to clarify and correct Emma’s sometimes conflicting thoughts and actions.

Chester and Emma’s banter is somewhat reminiscent of Darcy and Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice. Their correspondence, however, ends much differently than Jane Austen’s novel.

Could the schoolhouse be the tiny building in the middle of the photo? Courtesy of C. Myers.

Halfway Brook Village in 1868
Halfway Brook Village of 1868 was much different than in 1900 when more postcards and photos were available. Neither Church had a steeple. The Methodist Church was not even ten years old.

The Congregational Church is on the left and the Methodist is the next white building in the photo above (year unknown). Halfway Brook flows on the other side of the stone wall.

I was told that the barns belonged to the Eldreds. The house on the right belonged to Emma’s uncle C.C.P. Eldred and his wife Effa. Their children Rebecca, Adda, and Jane were mentioned in Chester’s letters.

Is that little building near the Congregational Church the schoolhouse? In later letters to her mother Mary Ann, Emma has nothing good to say about that school building.

Previous Posts
1. Is that the New Teacher?
2. The Math Tutor

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2. The Math Tutor

by Louise Smith Posted on August 2, 2023

When school was done in March 1879, Chester, now age twenty-seven, returned to Walton, New York and continued to farm.

Emma Asks a Math Question
Emma Austin, now eighteen, wrote Chester. She asked for help with a math problem. The answer came at the end of April.

Walton, April 28, 1869
Friend Emma,
Yours came to home last night. I now proceed to solve the problems for you.

10th example, page 247. As we glance at the rule under Art. 210 we find 2 ways to do the example.

From the 2nd clause of the rule we get the following statement:

There is 1 or 2 other ways to do this ex., but hoping that this will suffice, I leave them now.

I think you can understand the above without any further illustration.

It will ever give me pleasure to help you in your examples when necessary.

Yours etc., Chester Beers

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1. Is That the New Teacher? Sunday, November 29, 1868

by Louise Smith Posted on July 30, 2023

“Is that the new teacher?”

Children and adults whispered the question as Chester Beers, six feet four and one-half inches tall, stepped into the Lumberland Congregational Church, on Sunday, November 29, 1868.

Chester, age twenty-six, was a farmer from Walton, New York. He became known for his “fine butter, maple sugar, and nice vegetables.” Along with farming, he liked to fish.

Chester was also fond of books. He attended Delaware Literary Institute, in Franklin, New York.

In the winter months Chester taught school. In the summer season he worked on the Walton farm (his preference) where he grew up.

From November 1868 to March 1869, Chester taught at Lumberland’s Halfway Brook Village School—a memorable time for him.

Friend Emma, 1868–1878
I invite you to revisit Halfway Brook in the years 1868 to 1878 through the letters Chester Beers wrote “Friend Emma” Austin, combined with letters of the Austin family in The Mill on Halfway Brook.

In his letters to Friend Emma, Chester often asked about his Lumberland students, including: Maria Myers, almost 15, Adda Eldred, 21, Sarah Jane Eldred, 16, Maria Young, 16, Will Kyte, and Julia, 16. (Ages given are from 1868.)

Teachers stayed with a family in a community. Several of Chester’s letters indicate that Chester may have lived with the Austin family while he taught. His letters suggest he stayed with the family when he visited some years later.

In November 1868 the Austin home harbored a bustling family of two parents and eight children (ages 2 to 18): Henrietta, 18, Edith Emogene (Emma), 17, Maria, 15, James Eldred, 13, Lon, 11, Aida, 7, Charles Mortimer, 3, Henry Ladore, almost 2. Randolph arrived in mid-December.

Note: This online series of posts will be posted under “Friend Emma” in the Category Section on the left.

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Emma Austin Would Like a School

by Louise Smith Posted on July 23, 2023

Halfway Brook Village in Lumberland hosted quite a number of teachers in the 1860s–1870s, as Libby Kyte mentioned. Edith Emogene or Emma Austin, as she was called, had attended school in New York City, and stayed with her Austin relatives. Emma seems to have also attended Monticello Academy, as Libby Kyte had done.

In early 1868 Emma, age sixteen, wrote to Abby Smith, in Glastonbury, Connecticut for advice on a place to teach. Abby and her four sisters (all well-educated) were second cousins to Emma’s mother, Mary Ann Austin. (In the 1870s Abby and her sister Julia wrote letters and spoke at suffrage meetings, advocating property and voting rights for women.)

Abby Hadassah Smith and Julia Evelina Smith. Emily Howland photograph album, p. 11: “The Smith sisters, Glastonbury, Conn., 1877.” Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division: 2018645010.

January 31, 1868
Dear Cousin, I have just received your letter and to show how much interest I still take in your mother, I have seated myself, immediately to answer it.

You say you would like a situation to teach next summer; and I think it would be very improving for you. But we are now so advanced (ages eighty-one, seventy-six, and seventy-one), that we have not felt that interest in the schools that we used to years ago, and I should not know where to apply.

Had we descendants or near relatives, we should have retained it longer and known much more about them. As it is I am unacquainted with any of the instructors…Yours with much affection,
Abby H. Smith
—Abby, Laurilla, and Mary Ann, p. 194.

November 9, 1868, Monticello
Dear Emma,
I have just finished eating, so for the third time, I’ll try to write. I expect the school bell to ring any moment, but will write till it does ring. This is the third day I have passed at school.

I enjoy it as well as can be expected. I have not got classed much, yet, but think after I get better classed and acquainted, I shall like it first rate. There are 14 boarders here now, all but 3 or 4 are scholars. There are but 2 lodge boarders besides us.

It is nearly 8 o’clock in the evening, so I will again endeavor to write. I have had more fun today than I have before since I have been here…

So good bye from your dear friend Alice. Don’t forget me.
—The Mill on Halfway Brook, p. 140.

1868 Halfway Brook Village, Lumberland
In the fall of 1868, Emma, now age seventeen, seems to have attended school in Lumberland. There was a new school teacher!

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1866–7 Halfway Brook Village and Barryville Schools

by Louise Smith Posted on July 16, 2023

One-room Barryville Schoolhouse built in 1867.

1866 Halfway Brook Village School
On July 29, 1866 Tina Austin, in New York City wrote her cousin in the Village (Halfway Brook/Eldred).

Dear Cousin Emma, So you are going to School in the village? Do you like it as well as you did going here?

1867 Barryville Schoolhouse
In 1867 a one-roomed schoolhouse was built in Barryville. Behind the schoolhouse were falls known at one time as Fish Cabin Falls. Grades one through eight were taught there from 1867 until 1949. My mother attended school there in the mid-1930s. The building is still in use, but not as a school.
—The Mill on Halfway Brook, pp. 136 and 137.

Note: My great-aunt Aida Austin saved a number of color postcards and the Barryville Schoolhouse is one of my many favorites.

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Schools: 1864 Letters

by Louise Smith Posted on July 9, 2023

Parents in Halfway Brook sometimes sent their children to school to live with relatives, as Libby Kyte mentioned in the last post. At some point there was an Academy in Monticello.

Mary Ann Eldred (later Austin) had lived with her sister in Middletown while she attended school, in 1848. In January 1864, Henry and Mary Ann Austin’s daughter, Emma Austin, age thirteen, lived with her Eldred-Austin cousins in New York City, while she attended school there.

January 31, 1864, New York City, Nettie Austin to her aunt Mary Ann
Emma gets along first rate at school. She is at the head of her class.

The school teachers in the 1800s often lived with a family in the community where they taught. From Sherman Leavenworth’s letter home, it sounds like the school teacher would board with his family.

May 17, 1864 Sherman Leavenworth, U.S. Transport Arago
Write if the school teacher has been to board with you yet.

In these next three letters, Sherman wrote to his brother John, to encourage him to take school seriously.

June 21, 1864, Beaufort, South Carolina, Sherman Leavenworth
Dear Brother John,
You wrote that you was going to school. You must learn all you can.

August 1864, Beaufort SC, Sherman to his brother John
Work good while at home and when you go to school, learn and [don’t be] excited by amusements and you will accomplish more than it ever lay in the power of one of them to do, and if us boys live, you will get a present for being persevering.

October 24, 1864 Morris Island, SC, Sherman to his brother John
I suppose that you will go to school this winter. If you do, I shall look for a good deal of improvement in your writing, spelling, and composing.

If you should be in the army a while, you would see the use of learning. So study as diligently this winter as you must have worked this summer and you will get rewarded for it.
—The Mill on Halfway Brook, pp. 113, 116, 117, 119.

Note: In the late 1700’s and the 1800’s letters, I have often read the phrase, “you was.” Some writers were well educated. Since “you” is both singular and plural, I wonder if at the time it was correct to say “you was” if one was referring to a specific person.

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Libby Kyte’s Teachers

by Louise Smith Posted on June 30, 2023

Libby Kyte, daughter of Rev. Felix Kyte.

I went to school at home until 1861.

Then for two or three years I attended at Shohola and Barryville.

My teachers were Miss Ellen Beakey, George and Albert Stage, George Dubois of Bethel, Harriet Leavenworth, George Egbert Mapes and Theodore Mapes. I attended school here until I was 9 years old. I boarded with Mrs. C.P. Fuller.

I went to New York City to live with my brother Francis to go to school, but stayed only three months when I was taken with the measles.

In the fall of 1865, I went to see my brother Joseph who then lived at Waterford, Maine.—Elizabeth (Libby) Kyte, daughter of Rev. Felix Kyte.
Excerpt from The Mill on Halfway Brook, p. 90.

Note: The next few posts are about the early schools and scholars in Halfway Brook.

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