Halfway Brook

Bradley Farm Boarding House, Isaac M. Bradley, Proprietor

6 miles from Shohola. Conveyance, $1 each. Accommodate 35; 22 rooms; adults, $5 single; $1.50 per day.

Center of trout, perch and pickerel fishing. Boats free. Deer, bear, partridge, rabbit, woodcock, wild pigeon shooting. Deer-hounds and setters furnished; $2 per day. Croquet grounds. Meet parties at Shohola when notified. Headquarters for sportsmen. Fresh vegetables, milk, eggs and butter. Guides obtained. —Erie Railway Brochure, 1886.

Isaac M. and Joanna Brown Bradley and their children were country neighbors of the Leavenworth Family, and lived on property which had access to Washington Lake from the northeast.

Letters indicate that Isaac M. Bradley had built a house for his family during the Civil War.

Isaac M. and Joanna Brown Bradley had 7 children—Amelia, Viola, Mary Francis, Isaac N., Lottie, Atwell, and little Nora—all play a part in this story.

Isaac M. Bradley was a farmer. In 1880, Isaac had 70 acres. (He was listed with 368 acres in 1875). He had 3 milch cows which produced 300 pounds of butter. His 20 poultry, or at least the hens, laid 100 dozen eggs.

Isaac had 2 acres planted in buckwheat, 5 acres were planted in Indian corn, and 1 acre was planted in Irish potatoes.

The Bradley farm had 60 apple trees. His hives produced 50 pounds of honey and 3 pounds of wax. Isaac owned 2 horses and 1 mule.

George Layman, proprietor of a large Summer boarding house at Barryville, Sullivan County, tied a rope around his neck, to which was attached a large stone, on Wednesday, and then waded out into the Delaware River to drown himself. His movements were observed, and he was dragged ashore.

This greatly incensed Layman, and seizing a large stone, he threatened to kill anyone who interfered with him. His menaces were so alarming that the crowd fell back, and he then plunged into the river again. Finally, the man was rescued and taken home. Layman has been acting irrationally of late, and is believed to be insane. He has no business or domestic troubles so far as ascertained.—The New York Times, June 4, 1886.

Later it would be learned that Mr. Layman suffered many years from Bright’s disease. Perhaps Mr. Layman was experiencing severe pain in the event reported in the June 1886 news article.

Spring House, George Layman, Proprietor, Barryville

1886: 5 minutes’ walk from Shohola. Accommodate 35; 18 rooms; adults, $7 to $8; children under 12, half price; servants, $5; transient, $1.50 per day. Discount for season. Raises vegetables. Plenty fresh milk, eggs and poultry.—Erie Railroad Brochure.

1889: 10 double, 15 single rooms; adults $8 to $10; no children or servants taken; transient, $2/day; discount for season. Good fishing and gunning.
—Erie Railroad Brochure.

George Layman had first opened Shohola House (now Rohmans) in Shohola, Pennsylvania. In 1877, Shohola House was advertised in Charles Hallock’s, The Sportsman’s Gazetteer and General Guide:

Shohola, 108 miles from New York, is beautifully located among the mountains, overlooking the Delaware. It is in the heart of the famous hunting and fishing regions of Pike and Sullivan counties.

There is but one hotel, the Shohola House, kept by George Layman. It is a new and commodious hotel, near the depot. Detailed information as to the locality, and terms, may be obtained by addressing the proprietor. Take the Erie Railroad.

By 1886, Mr. Layman seems to have sold Shohola House to Mr. Kilgour, the “bluestone king,” and was the proprietor of the Spring House, across the Delaware from Shohola, in Barryville, New York.

The Spring House was originally built around 1850 and was first a farmhouse. The location was ideal—very close to the bridge (5 minutes walk) on
the New York side.

Gardner Forgerson had sold the property to Hiram Quick via Joseph Y. Crane in July of 1845. Hiram Quick built a home, barn and well on the land and added 4 more lots for a total of about 3 acres.

The premises was beautifully located, the land smooth and well shaped; but Hiram possessed neither the requisite taste nor money for its improvement. He became involved, conveyed the property to N.B. Johnston and removed to Virginia where he died.—p. 352, Reminiscences.

Quite sadly, Napoleon (N.B.) Johnston commited suicide in August of 1884. His son, John W. Johnston (nephew of the author of Reminiscences), became the owner of the property in 1880. John built a good new house, but failed in business.

George Layman then became the owner of the property which became the Spring House in Barryville. It was very close to the Barryville-Shohola Bridge.

The Spring House was made larger and offered guests, an excellent waterfront, well-shaded lawns, and everything conducive to health and comfort.

There was an interesting news item in the June 1886 edition of the New York Times, which will be the next post.

1886 Austin Ledger
1 barrel of flour: $6.50
100 pounds of meal: 1.35
10 pounds of sugar: .70
2 pounds of coffee: .50
6 yards of shirting: .72
1 rake: .25
1 broom: .35

45th Street and Grand Central Depot, New York, Blizzard, March 1888.
Photo courtesy of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce.

Thomas Brady was a friend of my great uncle Lon (Albert Alonzo) Austin. Mr. Brady’s mentioned the Blizzard of ’88 in a letter.

Brooklyn, April 5, 1888
Albert A. Austin, Eldred, New York
Friend Albert,
I tell you, we had a hard time of it through the storm.

Thos. F. Brady

Brooklyn, New York, Blizzard March 14, 1888. Photo courtesy of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Department of Commerce.

In March of 1888 there was a terrible winter storm on the east coast. It was so bad that it was remembered by an Eldred neighbor, Tom Collins, in a letter to my grandfather Mort Austin in 1908:

It was like the storm we had in ’88. You remember it snowed all day and night and oh, the wind how it did blow—raise the hair off your head.—T.K. Collins.

The Great Blizzard of 1888 or the Great White Hurricane, as the snowstorm was called, dumped 40 to 50 inches of snow on parts of New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. It paralyzed the East coast from Virginia into the Atlantic provinces of Canada.

Winds were recorded at 40 miles per hour with gusts from 54 to 80 miles per hour. Snowdrifts were 30 to 40 feet with the highest drift recorded as 52-foot snowdrifts.

The storm, which started March 12 after midnight, was preceded by mild weather with heavy rains. As the temperature dropped, the rain turned to snow, and the storm continued for a day and a half.

Albany, New York recorded 48 inches of snow and New York City recorded 22 inches.

Over 200 ships were grounded or wrecked. Travel by roads or Railroads were impossible.

Property was damaged and lost due to fire because fire trucks were immobilized,

The melting snow later caused severe flooding. One comment said that 400 people died including 200 from New York City.

The storm disabled the telegraph infrastructure for days after which, the telegraph and telephone lines began to be placed underground.—wikipedia/Great Blizzard of 1888

The second week of January 1888, an unexpected blizzard hit the Plains states. It had snowed on the northern and Central Plains January 5 and 6. The next four days had been terribly cold, so when the temperatures increased from 20 to 40 degrees the morning of January 12, people in the area thought it safe to leave their homes for town, school or just be outside.

But the weather played a cruel joke. An arctic cold front collided with the warm, moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, and the temperature dropped over 50 degrees, to 20 below zero.

High winds and heavy snow accompanied the fast moving storm that first hit Montana early January 12. It swept through the Dakota Territory and reached Lincoln, Nebraska at 3 p.m.

Thousands of people died, and many schoolchildren got caught in the blizzard.

The story of the Schoolhouse Blizzard as it has been called, made such an impression on my maternal grandmother, Myrtie Crabtree Briggs (born in 1891 in Nebraska), that it was one of the stories she repeated to her children and grandchildren.

Part of Grandma Myrtie’s story was about a school teacher who had gotten her students to safety by holding on to a rope.

Ida Higginson, Myrtie’s mother, was a school teacher in Nebraska in 1888. Ida and her family were homesteaders. Ida Higginson would marry John Crabtree at the end of 1890. John and his family were also homesteading in Nebraska.