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.
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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.

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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.

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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 →

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Mills Boarding House

by Louise Smith Posted on November 29, 2011
George Mills Boarding House near Highland Lake. Photo courtesy of Kathy T.

Around 1850 Alexander and Margaret Gillies Mills built their home on Highland Lake, north of the lake’s “little finger.” The home was added on to and at some point became a boarding house.

(The Mills children—Martha Myers, Margaret Boyd, Mary Wait, George Mills, and Christina Wilson who died in 1895—all play a part in the story.)

In 1900 (the year Alexander died) George and Elizabeth Gillespie Mills ran the boarding house. George Mills was also a farmer.

George and Elizabeth Mills’ children in 1900: Belle, James G., Agnes, and baby Alexander.

Little Alexander would one day be the proprietor of the Spring House in Barryville. The Spring House was originally owned by George Layman. It belonged to Chris and Meta Meyer by 1910. Alexander Mills would marry their daughter Minnie Meyer.

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Town of Highland Postmasters

by Louise Smith Posted on November 28, 2011

Barryville Postmasters
James A. Ozenbaugh 08/24/1885
Menzo Quick 09/12/1889
James A. Ozenbaugh 11/24/1893
Menzo Quick Postmaster 04/23/1897

Eldred Postmasters
Robert Kelso 12/23/1885
Abel S. Myers 5/01/1889
Moses B. Eaton 11/24/1893
Isaac M. Bradley 1/18/1896
Charles W. Wilson 8/27/1897

Yulan Postmasters
The first Postmaster: John Metzger Sr.
James A. Ozenbaugh 8/24/1885
Menzo Quick 9/12/1889
James A. Ozenbaugh 11/24/1893
Menzo Quick 4/23/1897

Venoge Postmasters
James Boyd 6/18/1897
Venoge became Highland Lake on 12/4/1911.

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