This month I am featuring events that happened in July from my three Halfway Brook Books. This post includes text from The Mill on Halfway Brook.
July 22, 1779
The only major Revolutionary War battle in northern Delaware Valley was fought on the plateau above Minisink Ford, six miles south of Ten Mile River.
Dr. Tusten gave emergency treatment during the battle to the wounded men. Dr. Tusten and seventeen patients were massacred.
—The Mill on Halfway Brook, p. 2.
July 13, 1846
“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…”
—Phebe Eldred Austin letter, The Mill on Halfway Brook, p. 57.
July 2, 1859
On the evening of the 2nd of July 1859, an unusual gust of wind from the North struck the bridge, over came the guys, turned the structure upon the edge and demolished it. The bridge was reconstructed at a cost of $4,000.
—The Mill on Halfway Brook, p. 81.
July 4, 1859
Methodist Church was dedicated by Rev. J. O. Wisner.
—The Mill on Halfway Brook, p. 85.
July 16, 1861
George Eldred and Ira Austin enlisted at Newburgh.
—The Mill on Halfway Brook, p. 92.
July 8, 1862
“Thare is not much news around here. Now we lay about a mile from the James River. Our troops are preparing to make a stand here. We lay under cover of the gunboats.
“The guns on the boats are the largest kind of gun. Some of the guns carry balls and shells weighing 2 pounds. If you should hear the shell go screaching through the air as they go flying back in the country 3 or 5 miles, you would not wonder the rebels dread them. They will shoot 5 miles.”
—Sherman Leavenworth letter, The Mill on Halfway Brook, p. 94.
July 1–3, 1863 Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Samuel C. Myers was severely wounded on July 2 and died at the end of July.
—The Mill on Halfway Brook, p. 107.
July 24, 1863 Folly Island, South Carolina
“We lay about three miles from Fort Sumter. I would like to have you hear the cannons thunder as they do now. I tell you it is a sight to look right over in Charleston Harbor and see the shell burst.”
—Letter of Sherman Leavenworth, The Mill on Halfway Brook, p. 109.
July 15, 1864
There was a terrible train accident near Barryville. A train carrying 833 Confederate prisoners of war (many of them captured at the battle of Cold Harbor), and 128 Union guards, were on their way to the federal prison at Elmira, New York.
The train was on a blind curve just north of Shohola when it collided with an engine pulling 50 loaded coal cars. One account said the train had been mistakenly waved through Lackawaxen by a drunken dispatcher. Five Confederate prisoners escaped in the chaos.
Over 100 injured soldiers were taken to Shohola and Barryville for treatment. At least 51 Confederate soldiers and 17 Union guards were killed. Many of them died from their wounds. The dead were buried in a mass grave along the tracks.
A cemetery behind the original Congregational Church in Barryville, known at one time as the Union Church, was the resting place for several Confederate soldiers. Source: National Archives and Records Administration.—from several sources including “Times Union, Albany, N.Y.,” June 21, 2009.—The Mill on Halfway Brook, p. 117
July 1865
Several men from the town of Highland returned home.
—The Mill on Halfway Brook, p. 131.
July 4, 1879
“They are putting a bell on the Congregational Church which is to ring by the fourth of July.
“The Methodists are putting in a new roof and a social to raise money for a lamp and carpet…They raised a hundred dollars, painted the church, but they can not account for all the money.”
—Mary Ann Eldred Austin letter, The Mill on Halfway Brook, p. 211.
July 10, 1879 Solomon City, Kansas
Ell Austin worked for $1.25 a day. Lon was to get $500 a year. If Lon had a team of horses he could earn from two to four dollars a day. Teachers would get $35 a month.
July 22, 1879
There was a Centennial celebration of the Minisink Battle on the actual Battlefield.
