Emma Austin Would Like a School

by Louise Smith Posted on July 23, 2023

Halfway Brook Village in Lumberland hosted quite a number of teachers in the 1860s–1870s, as Libby Kyte mentioned. Edith Emogene or Emma Austin, as she was called, had attended school in New York City, and stayed with her Austin relatives. Emma seems to have also attended Monticello Academy, as Libby Kyte had done.

In early 1868 Emma, age sixteen, wrote to Abby Smith, in Glastonbury, Connecticut for advice on a place to teach. Abby and her four sisters (all well-educated) were second cousins to Emma’s mother, Mary Ann Austin. (In the 1870s Abby and her sister Julia wrote letters and spoke at suffrage meetings, advocating property and voting rights for women.)

Abby Hadassah Smith and Julia Evelina Smith. Emily Howland photograph album, p. 11: “The Smith sisters, Glastonbury, Conn., 1877.” Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division: 2018645010.
Abby Hadassah Smith and Julia Evelina Smith. Emily Howland photograph album, p. 11: “The Smith sisters, Glastonbury, Conn., 1877.” Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division: 2018645010.

January 31, 1868
Dear Cousin, I have just received your letter and to show how much interest I still take in your mother, I have seated myself, immediately to answer it.

You say you would like a situation to teach next summer; and I think it would be very improving for you. But we are now so advanced (ages eighty-one, seventy-six, and seventy-one), that we have not felt that interest in the schools that we used to years ago, and I should not know where to apply.

Had we descendants or near relatives, we should have retained it longer and known much more about them. As it is I am unacquainted with any of the instructors…Yours with much affection,
Abby H. Smith
—Abby, Laurilla, and Mary Ann, p. 194.

November 9, 1868, Monticello
Dear Emma,
I have just finished eating, so for the third time, I’ll try to write. I expect the school bell to ring any moment, but will write till it does ring. This is the third day I have passed at school.

I enjoy it as well as can be expected. I have not got classed much, yet, but think after I get better classed and acquainted, I shall like it first rate. There are 14 boarders here now, all but 3 or 4 are scholars. There are but 2 lodge boarders besides us.

It is nearly 8 o’clock in the evening, so I will again endeavor to write. I have had more fun today than I have before since I have been here…

So good bye from your dear friend Alice. Don’t forget me.
—The Mill on Halfway Brook, p. 140.

1868 Halfway Brook Village, Lumberland
In the fall of 1868, Emma, now age seventeen, seems to have attended school in Lumberland. There was a new school teacher!

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1866–7 Halfway Brook Village and Barryville Schools

by Louise Smith Posted on July 16, 2023

One-room Barryville Schoolhouse built in 1867.
One-room Barryville Schoolhouse built in 1867.

Barryville Schoolhouse, year unknown.
Barryville Schoolhouse, year unknown.

1866 Halfway Brook Village School
On July 29, 1866 Tina Austin, in New York City wrote her cousin in the Village (Halfway Brook/Eldred).

Dear Cousin Emma, So you are going to School in the village? Do you like it as well as you did going here?

1867 Barryville Schoolhouse
In 1867 a one-roomed schoolhouse was built in Barryville. Behind the schoolhouse were falls known at one time as Fish Cabin Falls. Grades one through eight were taught there from 1867 until 1949. My mother attended school there in the mid-1930s. The building is still in use, but not as a school.
—The Mill on Halfway Brook, pp. 136 and 137.

Note: My great-aunt Aida Austin saved a number of color postcards and the Barryville Schoolhouse is one of my many favorites.

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Schools: 1864 Letters

by Louise Smith Posted on July 9, 2023
Net Austin, 1867.
Net Austin, 1867.

Parents in Halfway Brook sometimes sent their children to school to live with relatives, as Libby Kyte mentioned in the last post. At some point there was an Academy in Monticello.

Mary Ann Eldred (later Austin) had lived with her sister in Middletown while she attended school, in 1848. In January 1864, Henry and Mary Ann Austin’s daughter, Emma Austin, age thirteen, lived with her Eldred-Austin cousins in New York City, while she attended school there.

January 31, 1864, New York City, Nettie Austin to her aunt Mary Ann
Emma gets along first rate at school. She is at the head of her class.

The school teachers in the 1800s often lived with a family in the community where they taught. From Sherman Leavenworth’s letter home, it sounds like the school teacher would board with his family.

May 17, 1864 Sherman Leavenworth, U.S. Transport Arago
Write if the school teacher has been to board with you yet.

In these next three letters, Sherman wrote to his brother John, to encourage him to take school seriously.

June 21, 1864, Beaufort, South Carolina, Sherman Leavenworth
Dear Brother John,
You wrote that you was going to school. You must learn all you can.

August 1864, Beaufort SC, Sherman to his brother John
Work good while at home and when you go to school, learn and [don’t be] excited by amusements and you will accomplish more than it ever lay in the power of one of them to do, and if us boys live, you will get a present for being persevering.

October 24, 1864 Morris Island, SC, Sherman to his brother John
I suppose that you will go to school this winter. If you do, I shall look for a good deal of improvement in your writing, spelling, and composing.

If you should be in the army a while, you would see the use of learning. So study as diligently this winter as you must have worked this summer and you will get rewarded for it.
—The Mill on Halfway Brook, pp. 113, 116, 117, 119.

SS, Arago.
S.S. Arago.

Note: In the late 1700’s and the 1800’s letters, I have often read the phrase, “you was.” Some writers were well educated. Since “you” is both singular and plural, I wonder if at the time it was correct to say “you was” if one was referring to a specific person.

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Libby Kyte’s Teachers

by Louise Smith Posted on June 30, 2023

Libby Kyte, daughter of Rev. Felix Kyte.
Libby Kyte, daughter of Rev. Felix Kyte.
I went to school at home until 1861.

Then for two or three years I attended at Shohola and Barryville.

My teachers were Miss Ellen Beakey, George and Albert Stage, George Dubois of Bethel, Harriet Leavenworth, George Egbert Mapes and Theodore Mapes. I attended school here until I was 9 years old. I boarded with Mrs. C.P. Fuller.

I went to New York City to live with my brother Francis to go to school, but stayed only three months when I was taken with the measles.

In the fall of 1865, I went to see my brother Joseph who then lived at Waterford, Maine.—Elizabeth (Libby) Kyte, daughter of Rev. Felix Kyte.
Excerpt from The Mill on Halfway Brook, p. 90.

Note: The next few posts are about the early schools and scholars in Halfway Brook.

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More Postcards

by Louise Smith Posted on June 18, 2023
Eckhart's Store, Barryville.
Eckhart’s Store, Barryville.
Maplecrest, Yulan, NY, 1952.
Maplecrest, Yulan, NY, 1952.
Ferncliff Lodge.
Ferncliff Lodge.
Yulan Hotel.
Yulan Hotel.
Times Square, Yulan, 1944.
Times Square, Yulan, 1944.
Halfway Bridge on Brook Road, Barryville, NY, 1947.
Halfway Bridge on Brook Road, Barryville, NY, 1947.
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The Colonial

by Louise Smith Posted on April 30, 2023

The Colonial
The Colonial.
In answer to a previous question, The Colonial and Highland Cottage were different Boarding Houses.

Highland Cottage, Herman Umbreit, Proprietor.
Highland Cottage, Herman Umbreit, Proprietor.
The Colonial
The Colonial.
The Colonial.
The Colonial.
The Colonial 1946.
The Colonial.
The Colonial Postcard.
The Colonial Postcard.
The Colonial.
The Colonial.
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1922 Summer Season

by Louise Smith Posted on April 23, 2023
Early view of Highland Cottage from Washington Lake.
Early view of Highland Cottage from Washington Lake.

The season at Highland Cottage on Washington Lake, Yulan, this year, is the most successful in the history of that establishment.

Probably the greatest night was an ambitious show and lawn party held at the end of last week…Estella Waterman performed the diving Venus act from the center cupola on the cottage roof.

At Eldred, the whortleberry season is on and thousands of the summer vacationers spend their time in picking the delicious fruit from the blue
laden bushes.

Although the season is just beginning, so plentiful is the crop that it is drawing hosts of summer folk who otherwise would not go to the wooded region.
—The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Sunday, July 30, 1922.

HglndCott2

Posted in Boarding Houses, Farewell to Eldred | 1 Comment

1922 Halfway Brook News

by Louise Smith Posted on April 16, 2023

Yulan Cottage, 1921.
Yulan Cottage, 1921.
Yulan Social Club
Last Saturday night the Yulan Social Club held its regular monthly dance and supper at the Yulan Cottage.

The affair was well attended and was a large success both socially and financially. Dancing, singing and games were played. The feature of the evening was the elaborate supper which was served at midnight…

Much credit is due Chef Cantwell and his able assistants, the young ladies of the Club…The people started for home at 2 a.m. All…eagerly looking forward to the next social event…in May.—Republican Watchman, April 25, 1922.

Eldred Retaliates over Yulan in Second Game this Spring
The Eldred baseball team, undaunted by their defeat at the hand of the Yulan team on April 16, again met the Yulan team on the Eldred diamond and defeated them 12–8.

Although the day was raw and chilly, with occasional snow flurries, many spectators turned out to root for both teams. The game featured the fast base running of Johnny Steward of the Eldreds.

Both teams now have won a game from each other this season. Yulan’s star pitcher “Speed B. Hazen,” having left his speed home, retired early in the game.

Louis Hensel, having thoughtfully brought his speed with him, took to pitching, making a creditable showing and would no doubt have won the game had the rules permitted more than eight men to assist him.

Eldred Pitcher Timmerhoff and Catcher Myers, did splendid work considering this was the first game together.—Republican Watchman.

—Excerpt from Farewell to Eldred, p. 29.

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