Halfway Brook

Post card of Erie Depot and Hotel Oakland, Narrowsburg, N.Y., in the Austin Collection.

Excursion tickets were valid for continuous passage either going or returning on the date of issue or anytime within the next 30 days.

Package tickets of 10, 20, or 25 were good for either direction until used.

Commutation tickets were valid for continuous passage between the stations named on the tickets, if the train stopped at said station. The limit was 60 rides between the stations during the month named on the ticket.

Miles from New York City
Callicoon, New York, 136
Cochecton, New York, 130.75
Deposit, New York, 177
Goshen, New York, 59.75
Hancock, New York, 163.75
Hankins, New York, 143
Hawley, Pennsylvania, 127
Honesdale, Pennsylvania, 136
Lackwaxen, Pennsylvania, 111
Long Eddy, New York, 146.75
Lordville, New York, 153.5
Middletown, New York, 67
Narrowsburg, New York, 122.25
Parkers Glen, Pennsylvania, 102.25
Paterson, New Jersey, 16.75
Pond Eddy, Pennsylvania, 99
Port Jervis, New York , 88.25
Shohola, Pennsylvania, 107
Sparrowbush, New York, 90.75
Tuxedo, New York, 38.5

Sherman B. Leavenworth’s receipt for $15.59 for taxes paid to the Town of Highland on 195 acres of land in 1880. Copy of receipt, courtesy of cousin Cynthia.

Currier & Ives Chromolithograph, 1885. Grand birds eye view of the Great East River. Library of Congress: 03205r.

Close-up view of construction of Brooklyn Bridge over East River, New York City. Library of Congress: 3c08446r.

The Great East River (Brooklyn) Suspension Bridge, the first land connection between Manhattan and Brooklyn, was also the first steel-wire suspension bridge. It was the longest (5,989 feet) suspension bridge in the world from 1883 (when it opened), until 1903.

John A. Roebling, who designed and constructed the Roebling Aqueduct in Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania, was the initial designer of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Very unfortunately, Mr. Roebling’s foot was crushed when he surveyed a possible bridge site. His toes had to be amputated. Soon after, he died of a tetanus infection.

John’s son, Washington Roebling, was then put in charge of the bridge. Washington and his wife Emily had gone to Europe as newlyweds. There they learned how to use caissons (watertight structures) to work on the foundation of the bridge. Continue reading →

Switchback railroad in Pennsylvania’s Moosic Mountains.

The most novel and pleasurable summer excursion route in this country is that offered by the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railway over the famous Gravity Roads of Northern Pennsylvania.

These Railroads are a series of inclined planes and reach an altitude of 2,500 feet above tide. They traverse a country of rugged mountains and glens; waterfalls, gorges streams and valleys greet the tourist in magnificent variety.

One of these novel roads connects with the Erie at Honesdale, Pa. It is owned by the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company and climbs the Moosic mountains to Carbondale by one route, and returns to Honesdale by another—both offering continuous delight to the tourist…. Continue reading →

There are a number of grocery book ledgers in the
Austin collection. The following groceries were
bought from Abel S. Myers who had a store in town.

January
443 lbs. B. flour: $8.86
18 bushel oats: 9.00
3 dozen eggs: .54

February
333 lbs. B. Flour: 6.66

March
5 lbs. 2 oz. butter: 1.28

April
4 lbs. butter: .68
4 dozen eggs: .60
4 dozen eggs: .60

May
4 dozen eggs: .50
1 egg beater: .30
1 illustrated Lord’s Prayer: .40
6 bushels potatoes: 3.00

August
Work on road, District No. 13
Team: 6.5 hours: 2.44

September
1 cow: 25.00
Goat to Wm. Gallagher: 67.50

Aida Austin shopped at Lord & Taylor in New York City according to her 1881 Diary. It would be interesting to know if Aida knew that her neighbor in Eldred, Jane Ann Myers, was a niece to George Washington Taylor who along with Samuel Lord started the store.

Elizabeth Van Pelt (my great-great-great-grandmother), mother of Jane Ann Myers, was Mr. Taylor’s half sister.

Jane Ann Myers named one of her sons George Washington Taylor Myers. George W.T. Myers and his wife Martha Mills would have a large, beautiful boarding house on Hagan Pond (Highland Lake).

George W. Taylor, of Lord & Taylor, died at age 72, in March of 1879, in Manchester, England.

Opening Day at Lord & Taylor at Broadway and 20th Street. Ladies Ascending in the elevator. Wood engraving in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, v. 35, Jan. 11, 1873, p. 289. Library of Congress: LC-USZ62-121663.

Cover of “Summer Excursion Routes,” Erie Railway, 1881.

The Shawangunk Mountains cross the state of New York in a north eastward direction through the counties of Orange, Sullivan and Ulster. They are a continuation of the Blue Mountains of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The main line of the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad begins the ascent of the Shawangunks 65 miles from New York, and crosses them at Otisville, at an elevation of 1,500 feet above tide… Continue reading →

Echo Hill and Mountain Grove hopefully available in September.

Jennie Louisa Leavenworth and her future husband Charles
Mortimer Austin lived near brooks on opposite sides of the
charming village of Eldred, Town of Highland, Sullivan
County, New York.

The Leavenworth home near Blind Pond Brook on the
west, would become Echo Hill Farm House. The Austin
family would build Mountain Grove House near Halfway
Brook, on the east side.

Echo Hill and Mountain Grove is an account of the change
from lumbering, rafting, and bluestone quarrying, to that
of running boarding houses in the picturesque and healthy
hamlets of Barryville, Minisink Ford, Yulan, Eldred, and
Venoge, located near the Delaware River.

Echo Hill and Mountain Grove is bursting with anecdotes
and stories of townsfolk, boarding houses, occupations,
and events in the years 1880 to 1920. It includes accounts
on Shohola Glen, Shohola House, the Pelton Soda Factory,
the Roebling Bridge, the Congregational Church Centennial,
Zane Grey, two presidential assassinations, and World War I.

The narrative draws on information from many families,
censuses, church records, land documents, a diary, Erie
Railway booklets, newspapers, grocery books, scrapbooks,
as well as over 900 photos and postcards, maps, and
numerous letters, including 130 written during World War I.

Echo Hill and Mountain Grove is fully indexed, with names of
well over over 1500 people, places, and events. It is the second
book in the series, Memoirs from Eldred, New York, 1800–1950.