Halfway Brook

Bradley Farm Boarding House, Eldred
Isaac M. Bradley, Proprietor
6 miles from Shohola. Conveyance, $1; 5 single, 12 double rooms; adults $6 to $8; children $4 to $5; servants $5 to $6; $1.50 per day; discount for season. Centre of trout, perch, and pickerel fishing; boats free; deer hounds and setters furnished; croquet grounds; headquarters for sportsmen; guides at hand; pine shade; 100 feet of piazza. Reference, Mr. James Smith, Cashier, Astor House, New York City.—Farmer, L.P., Picturesque Erie Summer Homes, N.Y., L.E., & W. R.R., 1890.

Wm. Hickok, Barryville
1 mile. 5 single and 6 double rooms; $6 per week; $1.50 per day; discount for season. Livery; good fishing.—Farmer, L.P., Picturesque Erie Summer Homes, N.Y., L.E., & W. R.R., 1890.

Ira M. Austin, Barryville
1 mile; 5 single, 3 double rooms; adults, $6; children, $3; servants, $5; $1 per day. Good livery and fishing; boats free.—Farmer, L.P., Picturesque Erie Summer Homes, N.Y., L.E., & W. R.R., 1890.

Lake View House, Highland Lake
Boarders wanted for September and October; fine locally; good fishing and hunting; terms moderate. For particulars address Myers, Mills & Co.—Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 4, 1892.

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Sullivan County has of late years almost been annexed to Brooklyn, so large is the Brooklyn exodus which sets in each year with the heat of summer for the crests of the Shawangunks and the picturesque valleys beside the sparkling Sullivan County streams…

Sullivan County is near and accessible. It gives mountain air, freedom, good fishing and charming rural drives at reasonable rates. Brooklyn men of moderate incomes can establish their families in a farm house there for the summer, visit them over Sundays and for their own vacations about as cheap as they could stay at home, and without the fatigue or annoyance of long railroad journeys.

The railroads have been important factors in bringing this region into popularity [with their] admirable volumes on Summer Homes along their lines…Another cause of popularity is the excellence of the farm board offered…

Dr. Bowdish Writes: “…Let me urge business men, bankers, brokers, merchants, mechanics and ministers, wearied in body and worried in mind, to halt. Rest, and try this trip. Get the health that will surely come to you in this mountain summerland.”

At Eldred: the Twin Lake House, the DeVenoge Mountain House, C.M. Austin & Co.’s Mountain Grove House, John Wait’s, and Mrs. Rebecca C. Eldred’s boarding houses…—Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 1894.

This was the scene looking out the window of the Kaese home. Washington Lake is in the background.

From 1886 to 1894, an Edward Prange is mentioned as owning Lake View Farm House, a boarding house.

Accommodate 20; 13 rooms; adults $7; children $3; servants $5; transient $1.25 per day. Discount for season. Transportation, $1. Raises vegetables. Plenty fresh milk, butter, eggs and poultry.

From 1904 to 1910 I found an A. (Alfred?) Kaese advertising Lake View Farm House, possibly the same as Edward Prange’s, in newspapers. I found ads again in 1934.

In 1888 to 1890, the Erie RR brochures included Chas. C. Racine as having a boarding house in Eldred.

10 miles [from Shohola which seems a little too many miles]; conveyance, $1. 1 double, 6 single rooms; adults, $7; children, half price; servants, $7; $1 per day; discount for season. Boats, $1 per day; own livery.

West Shore Cottage run by T.W. Racine in Yulan was advertised in 1907 through 1910 Brooklyn Daily Eagle and again in 1919 Republican Watchman.

West Shore Cottage; accommodates 40 on Washington Lake; rates $7, $10. T.W. Racine, Yulan.

Racine’s West Shore Cottage on Washington Lake would one day belong to the Cantwells.

There were several Crandall families in Highland who seem to be related.

Milton and Martha Crandall’s Cold Spring Farm (advertised in 1897) was just off Irishtown Road. Milton had hand dug wells and had run a pipe from the spring to the house.

The Spring House on the left was owned by George Layman in 1900.

During the last preceding summer and fall [1900], Stephen St. John Gardner renovated the structure [bridge] generally, added additional cables; laid a new floor, supplied new stringers, erected a new and improved railing and the bridge is now a safe passageway and a good source of income…

[Nearby] is the beautiful and valuable house buildings and premises of George Layman.

Mr. Layman has enlarged the house, improved and beautified the grounds and now presents a premises that, for its location and attractiveness, may vie with any in the land.

He employs it for summer boarding and entertainment of travelers and the comfortable entertainment and moderate charges combined, insures a general custom to his place.—Johnston, J.W., Reminiscencespp. 351–3.