Emma Austin’s Christmas 1876 & New Year 1877

by Louise Smith Posted on December 25, 2009

Emma Austin was a sister to my grandfather Charles Mortimer Austin and my great Aunt Aida Austin. This next letter seems to be written from New York City where the Austin Cousins lived.

January 1, 1877
Dear brother Lon,
Holidays of all descriptions are dull days with me and this which began so pleasantly this morning, that I thought it was going to prove an exception to holidays in general is certainly dark and stormy enough to make one feel dull this afternoon. But it gives me some leisure for writing…and wishing you with all love and sincerity, A “Happy New Year” I will proceed with my answer to your letter.

Mother is very well and apparently enjoying her visit as much as me. O if we were all here. It was a shame not to bring poor little Do (her youngest brother). I will send a box directed to Father to Shohola Thursday. I suppose it will be there Saturday…

You will find a little but not much for you. I did not have much to give though Santa was pretty good to me. I got seven books, a whole set of Scotts’ novels beautifully bound and a history of the Centennial. Ida got four books and Addie gave her a work box and a box of perfume and a nice tie. You will think it pretty late for a Christmas box, but better late than never I suppose. I could not get it ready before, there was so much sewing to do.

Write me soon, Lon, best wishes from all from your
Emma

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Aida Austin’s 1880 Christmas

by Louise Smith Posted on December 25, 2009

Aida Austin was the sister of my grandfather Charles Mortimer Austin. In a letter she wrote to her brother Lon, she told about her 1880 Christmas in New York City with her Austin cousins—two of whom she mentioned—Ida and Ad (Addie).

Sunday January 23, 1881
Dear Brother Lon,
How did you spend your Christmas and New Years? I had a very good time each day and got some nice presents. We had a little Christmas tree for the children and I dressed up as old Santa Clause. My hair which I had for whiskers, I caught on fire, but Ida and Ad put it out so quick that it did not do much damage. The children were greatly pelased and believe faithfully in Santa Clause.

We did not receive calls New Years. Harry and I went to the Park in the evening to skate, but there was no skating, so we came back and stayed at Mrs. Braisteds until ten o’clock. I have a splendid pair of skates, but cannot skate very good yet.

Write soon. With much love, I remain your affectionate sister,
Aida

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1832: Cholera

by Louise Smith Posted on December 18, 2009

Partially because of the cholera epidemic in New York City, in 1832, Felix Kyte and his family sought a new location and by the end of the year were living in Lumberland.

Cholera must also have been in Lumberland as Almira Austin Hooker (sister to my great-great-grandfather Ralph Austin) and her son died from Cholera in August of 1832.

Cholera, also called Asiatic Cholera, is caused by a bacteria. It is an infectious gastroenteritis transmitted to humans through contaminated food or water.

Cholera was originally found in India. The disease spread by both land and sea trade routes to Russia, then Western Europe, and on to North America.

John Snow (1813-1858), a physician and self-trained scientist, found the link between cholera and contaminated drinking water in 1854.—wikipedia

1832 Preventatives of Cholera!
Be Temperate in eating and drinking.
Avoid Raw Vegetables and Unripe Fruit!
Abstain from COLD WATER, when heated, and above all from Ardent Spirits, and if habit have rendered them indispensable, take much less than usual.
—1832 Hand bill from the New York City Board of Health

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1832: Rev. Felix Kyte

by Louise Smith Posted on December 17, 2009

In 1832, the Congregational Church of Halfway Brook had been without a pastor for six years—since Rev. Stephen Sergeant had left and gone to the Presbyterian Church. The congregation was meeting in the small school house at Halfway Brook, known as The Village, and the membership had dropped to 50.

The deacons, including James Eldred and Sears Gardner, had taken over the pastor’s responsibilities, and thought the church needed a full time pastor. Sears Gardner, had seen Felix Kyte’s advertisement for a position as minister of a Congregational Church in the New York Observer, and encouraged James Eldred to respond to the ad.

Felix Kyte, a schoolteacher from Lydd, England, was living with his wife and two sons in New York City, where there had been many deaths due to the cholera epidemic. Left with fewer students to teach, Felix was considering leaving.
Continue reading →

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Congregational and Methodist Churches

by Louise Smith Posted on December 17, 2009

In 1799, Isaac Sergeant helped organize the Narrows Falls Congregational Church, which eventually became the Congregational Church of Eldred. In the early years, the church met in log cabins, barns and sawmills.

From 1816 Stephen Sergeant, son of Isaac and Mary Sergeant, held revival services in the barn of Asa Hickok. In 1818, Stephen was asked to be the pastor of the Lumberland (former Narrows Falls) Congregational Church.

Stephen and his wife, Anna Penney had five sons in 1818. The descendants of their son Ethel are part of this story, and some grew up or still live in the town of Eldred. In 1826, Stephen Sergeant left the Congregational Church for a Presbyterian Church.

The Congregational Church of Lumberland was still struggling without a preacher in 1830, when, circuit riding preachers from the Methodist Episcopal Church, traveling mostly on foot or horseback, began teaching in areas and villages on both sides of the Delaware River.

Mr. Grace and Mr. Street, came every two weeks to the town of Lumberland, preaching in homes or public places. Services were conducted every night and visitations made during the day time.

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1829: Doctor Perkins arrives in Lumberland

by Louise Smith Posted on December 8, 2009

There was still no good way to travel on land in 1828. Whether you walked or rode a horse, the roads were rough and through the wilderness.

Whether by foot, horseback, canal or all three, Doctor Perkins left Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1829, and managed to arrive in Lumberland, where he would be the only physician for over 300 square miles. Fortunately, the people were usually healthy.

Doc Perkins treated disease with one of five or six prescriptions—if he could find the description in his book. He did not like the homelike, superstitious ideas, and notions that prevailed at the time.

Doc Perkins first boarded at Robert Land’s house at Beaver Brook, four miles back from the river and canal. The fun loving, agreeable doctor, always wore a suit of heavy winter clothes, and traveled on horseback without a padded saddle or coated stirrups.

“Thus for 24 years, he traveled many thousands of miles over the rough highways, the narrow timber roads, the cow paths; over hills and through valleys, through dark, dense wildernesses and groves of lofty timber, during night and day, amid sunshine and storm, cold and heat…”

Doc Perkins charged twenty-five cents for a visit to the village or the area nearby, with the option to pay or not. A visit to Ten Mile River from Barryville (eleven miles through the woods), was seventy-five cents. One family of 5 children and a mother, he contracted for $5 a year. Some families never paid the doctor, though he had called on them for 18 years.

The good doctor married Comelia Dabron in 1832, and they moved into the old Hickok farmhouse, two miles from Barryville on the way to Halfway Brook Village.—Johnston, Reminiscences, pp. 340, 342, 343

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Book 2: Echo Hill and Mountain Grove, November 18, 2009

by Louise Smith Posted on November 18, 2009

Book 1, The Mill on Halfway Brook, starts off in the town of Lumberland, the main occupation of the people there relating to lumber.

Before 1880, when Book 2 starts, the work base has shifted to work on the canal, railroad, bluestone quarries and running boarding homes, though there are still some sawmills in the area.

The boarding homes will be a main feature of book 2 as my Leavenworth great grandparents ran Echo Hill Farm House and later my Austin relatives had a boarding home called, Mountain Grove.

Hence the name of Book 2: Echo Hill and Mountain Grove. It will cover years 1880 to 1935.

There were many other boarding homes in the area, many of which seem to be much larger than the Leavenworth and Austin homes. I am planning on including these homes also.

I have photos/postcards of some of the homes, thanks to my mom, Cousin C., Mrs. M., and Mr. & Mrs. R. But I can use more, and don’t have all of the homes.

If you have information, interesting stories, memorabilia, or postcards on any of these homes, that you would like to share, please contact me at this site, or email me: weezy at halfwaybrook.com or weezy at weezy.info

Does anyone know when Abel Sprague Myers’s boarding home (I think called Orchard Terrace), which became a school, was built, and if he built it?

Also, does anyone know anything about Gallaghers on the 1870 Beer Map.

Thank you.

Ever Your Cousin,
Louise

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Book 1 Update, November 18, 2009

by Louise Smith Posted on November 18, 2009

You may be wondering when/if Book I will be published this year. I know I am.

Book I is in Book Limbo at present. Gary has done some awesome maps that will be so helpful as you read the story. But then life took over, so the book is on hold.

By “life taking over,” I mean things like:

    • the continual remodeling of our home, of which the kitchen is now done except lighting, and currently the raising of the living room floor. There are a couple other possible projects, then hopefully the inside will be done.

    • the rebooting and/or formatting (or whatever it is called) of my computer which likes to crash—today for the third time.

    • most importantly, there has been paying work, and that is a plus as I (we) have a bad habit of liking to eat and to have a place to be shielded from the elements.

At this point, it would seem the earliest The Mill on Halfway Brook could realistically be available would be the end of December. Hopefully, at least by mid-January. This seems to be the book which is always two months away. Continue reading →

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Lord and Taylor 1826

by Louise Smith Posted on November 15, 2009

Lord & Taylor, based in New York City, New York, is the oldest upscale department store chain in the United States.

Lord and Taylor began in New York in 1826, as a small dry goods store owned by cousins Samuel Lord and George Washington Taylor, immigrants to New York. They located their store near the North River waterfront in New York’s Greenwich Village.

The store later moved to a place uptown on the Ladies’ Mile, which catered to the wealthier clientele of the “carriage trade.” The enterprise became a major fashion retailer, and the first major store on Fifth Avenue.

Note: George Washington Taylor was the half-brother of Elizabeth Lazerlier Van Pelt, my great-great-great-grandmother. George Washington Taylor Myers was the grandson of Elizabeth Lazerlier Van Pelt. It would seem his parents, Martin D. and Jane Ann Van Pelt Myers named him after his Grandmother Elizabeth’s younger half-brother.

Lord and Taylor History

Lord and Taylor History

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School 1825

by Louise Smith Posted on November 14, 2009

Sears Gardner was the Town of Lumberland’s supervisor in 1825, when a school was started for children in the area of Halfway Brook Village and Barryville. James Eldred, was the Town Clerk, Commissioner of Highways, and in July, Town Marshall.

The community felt a school was needed, and as was done in those times, a subscription paper was circulated to see if there was enough interest to start a school.

Francis Quick circulated the subscription document which stated that school would be for three months of the year at a time, and would be taught every week day, and on alternate Saturdays. People were to add their signatures and the number of children they were responsible for if they were committed to supporting the school.

Nine parents signed up twenty-eight students. The Francis Quick family, and the Van Tuyl family (Daniel and Rebecca), each had five children. The Calvin Crane family had four as did Jane Johnston, the widowed mother of John W. Johnston. The Levi Middaugh Family had three; so did James and Almira Hooker. Daniel Pool had two children. The Nicholas Morris Family and David Quick’s Family each had one. Continue reading →

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