Narrows Burgh, March 1848

by Louise Smith Posted on September 24, 2009

Note: I don’t know who wrote the following letter. “fs” is read as “ss”.

Narrows Burgh, March 1848
To Mifs Mary A. Eldred, Lumberland
My dear Friend,
I thought I would spend a few moments this day noon in writing to my long cherished friend. The scholars are playing outdoors and I am left alone in the schoolhouse. So my thoughts naturally run on home to home friends. This is a beautiful day, and this is a very pleasant place.

The school house is pleasantly situated a short distance from the river on a hill. How I wish you and Hezekiah would come up here; it would just be a pleasant ride for you when it is good going. But the traveling is very bad at present.

I should like to go home and make a visit, but am afraid if I go now, I shall mifs seeing the river break up. They say it is quite a curiosity to see the ice go through the eddy.

I like it here very much so far, and I like the people. I meet with some once-in-a-while that inquire all about Mr. Eldred and his family and some that used to be acquainted with my father…

I have just returned from a walk…it is another damp dark day…the lady that was with me gave an account of the Big Eddy bridge going off last spring and of a number of accidents that have happened.

Near the bank of the river where we were walking is a large hill which they roll their lumber down and has caused many accidents. It is called Peggy’s Runway. It derived its name from an old woman who lived at the foot of the hill many years ago, when it was thick swamp. To go upon this hill and take a view you can see a great distance off, is delightful.

How I wish you were here…I think of going home on a raft as far as Barryville. There will be a number of rafts going from here and I wish you would come up to go down with me…

PS Please direct your letter to Narrows Burgh, Sullivan Co., NY. The post office is acrofs the river. We have to travel over a large new bridge to get there and people have to pay three cents for walking over, but I can go free—good says I.

Posted in The Mill on Halfway Brook | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Freshet

by Louise Smith Posted on September 24, 2009

“A freshet is a sudden rise in the level of a stream, or a flood, caused by heavy rains or the rapid melting of snow and ice.” I dutifully copied the dictionary definition well over a year ago, when first starting the narrative of this book.

The resources I had been reading talked about both the necessity of “freshets”—a term I had never heard—to float the rafts of lumber to market, and the devastation a freshet could cause.

…in the days of plentiful lumber, the surface of the Delaware was literally covered at the time of raging freshets and the consequent catastrophes to the rafts and lumber piles.
—Johnston, Reminiscences, p. 253

So wasn’t I excited when my mother sent me a third box of “treasures” that included an 1845 letter to my great Grandmother Mary Ann Eldred (before she married Henry Austin), from her half sister Phoebe Maria Eldred Austin, which talked about the freshet in Halfway Brook.

Here is an excerpt from that letter:

Lumberland, July 13, 1845
To: Mifs Mary A. Eldred, Middletown
Dear Sister,
I have delayed writing longer than I intended, but these lines will inform that we are well at present and I hope they will find you the same.

There’s been a freshet in the Halfway Brook. It has done much damage. There is not a bridge or dam left between here and Barryville. It has damaged us more than fifty dollars.

The Mongaup was very high. There was a young man drowned in that stream. It was James White and old Mrs. Skinner was buried last Thursday. Mifs Margette West has been married…

The children are all sleepy and make such a noise, I must say good night. From your affectionate sister, P. M. Austin

Posted in The Mill on Halfway Brook | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sawmills in Lumberland

by Louise Smith Posted on September 22, 2009

In 1798 when it was created, the Town of Lumberland was a rugged wilderness with 300,000 acres of continuous forests, interspersed with ponds, lakes and streams. The brooks and streams flowed into the Delaware River, which was the southwest border between New York and Pennsylvania.

A number of sawmills were built on the streams which flowed into the Delaware River. Streams with such names as Ten Mile River, Mongaup, Beaver Brook, and of course Halfway Brook. I have read that there were 8 or nine sawmills on Halfway Brook.

So which mill is The Mill on Halfway Brook talking about? Well, that will be a question that will be answered in the book, which I hope will be published in a couple months.

Posted in The Mill on Halfway Brook | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Kitchening 9/21/2009

by Louise Smith Posted on September 22, 2009

Kitchening isn’t a word you say? Well, you may be correct, but that’s what we’ve been doing here at the Smith Family Fun House. For a year now, we’ve been remodeling our home. Well, actually, my husband has done the remodeling.

We’re at the kitchen stage now (have been for a while), putting in IKEA cabinets. I had hoped to be starting the final edit of “The Mill on Halfway Brook” today, but that was not to be. I’m close, but putting the kitchen back together has precedence over the writing of a book.

And when you find out that somehow the notification process didn’t notify us that our 17 doors were in, and that today was the last day to get the doors, well, you make the hour trip down to IKEA to get the doors.

Posted in Ever Your Cousin | Leave a comment

Welcome to Halfway Brook!

by Louise Smith Posted on September 16, 2009

Welcome friends and relatives to Halfway Brook, shown in the photo above.

There are many Halfway Brooks in North America. This Halfway Brook is in New York state and is a nine mile stream (I have read) which flows into the Delaware River in the gorgeous scenic Upper Delaware River Region.

Halfway Brook was first the name of the stream that flowed into the Delaware River, and later the name of a Village, now called Eldred. It was here that my father, his parents, grandparents, and great grandparents lived.

I am able to tell the story of my relatives, their neighbors and Halfway Brook Village that became Eldred,  because of photos, postcards, diaries, letters, poems, scrapbooks, research, and information that has been shared with me by my relatives, and added to by friends in Eldred.

The story expanded to over 600 pages and is now to be a three part series. I am hopeful of the first book, The Mill on Halfway Brook, being printed within a couple months. The Mill on Halfway Brook stops at 1880.

Well you know some about Halfway Brook now. What about the Mill you ask? Well that is for another post, but I will give you a hint. Halfway Brook flowed through the Town of Lumberland  initially. (The brook didn’t move, but the brook is now in the town of Highland.)

Posted in The Mill on Halfway Brook | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments