130 Years Ago - 1896

Mrs. Elizabeth Huether died at Callicoon at the age of 79.

A fine weather vane, surmounted by a handsome trout, has been placed on the O&W Station at Roscoe. It was a gift of J.S. Underhill of that place.

The erection of a Catholic Church at Livingston Manor will be commenced on May 1 on a lot donated by A.P. DuBois. The edifice will cost $3,000, one-half of which has already been pledged.

120 Years Ago - 1906

The Jeffersonville meat market will be under new management May 1. W.A. Lixfield has sold out his business to men of Liberty. Mr. Lixfield has leased a store in the Grishaber building where he will open a gents’ furnishing business.

Homer’s Hotel in Youngsville has been sold by Edward Homer to Fred Huff of Hoboken, a former Youngsville boy.

Swiss Hill – Anthony Heidt is enlarging his house for the accommodation of more city boarders. Theiss and Kehrlie are doing the carpenter work.

Callicoon – Kratz and Girard, who were painting at Chris Schrumpf’s last week, are now painting Chris Maus’ boarding house at Tennanah Lake.

The Anslee mill in Tar Hollow has been sold to John Meyer of Buck Brook.

110 Years Ago - 1916

The action of Wm. B. Townsend of Briscoe against David and Benjamin Gordon of Pine Bush, to recover pay for a couple of cows, over the condition of which there was a dispute, was not permitted to come to trial in the count court of Monticello. The parties to the action got together without the knowledge of their attorneys and settled the case. 

Mr. and Mrs. Herman Reinshagen, daughter Gretchen and son Wm. of Hurd are removing to Waldwick, N.J. where they formerly resided before Mr. Reinshagen bought the Darling farm at Hurd. Mr. Reinshagen was formerly a theater musician and will again take a position in a city theater orchestra. His son Herman is with a symphony orchestra in the city and is considered the best bass viol player in the country.

Philip Neff of near Fosterdale has bought the Rockefeller farm of 131 acres near the Pump Station for $1500. This farm was owned by Mrs. Wilhelmina York, who married Albert Rockefeller, a city man, who boarded with her. He, it was claimed, compelled her to sign the place over to him at the point of a pistol, and in September 1914, he sold all the personal property, skipped out and has not been heard from since. 

100 Years Ago - 1926

The Cherokee Game Club held its monthly meeting last Saturday night at the Fosterdale home of William Kabat. Among those who attended were Dr. and Mrs. H .C. VanKeuren and Arthur Van Schoick of Jeff, and Mr. and Mrs. G. H. Raum of Kenoza Lake.

Among the postmasters appointed in Sullivan County were Truman J. Burr, Cochecton; Wirt N. Moulthrop, Kenoza Lake;  Ella Babcock, Lake Huntington; Milton C. Armstrong, Long Eddy; and William B. Voorhees, Roscoe.

The Lorraine, a large summer boarding house at White Lake, owned by Julius Sternberg of Monticello, was burned to the ground with all its contents, at 11 o’clock Wednesday night of last week.

Mr. and Mrs. Fred Schadt and daughter, Katherine spent a few days over Sunday at Curry, Town of Neversink, where they  helped Oscar Royce manufacture and sample maple syrup.

90 Years Ago - 1936

Henry Bernard Lentz, aged 60 and well known druggist at Lake Huntington, died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 11. He came to Lake Huntington 21 years ago, buying the pharmacy of Dr. Augustus Mayer.

The high school commencement speaker will be Rev. Frank R. Wilson, pastor of the Grace Episcopal Church at Hyde Park, which is attended by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his family. Graduation will be on Monday night, June 22.

Among those home for Easter were the Misses Marguerite and Elsie Behnken from Brooklyn; Miss Ethel Soule from New York; Miss Ethel Gain from Blumfield; Harold and Mildred Uttweiler and Hugh Fitch.

Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Wilfert celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary on Easter Sunday.

80 Years Ago - 1946

J.C.S. played host last weekend to 150 students and coaches of the National  Forensic League. Arlene Baum of Jeff placed second in the humorous field, losing first by one vote. In debate, the Jeff teams placed third, the affirmative of Dick VonBergen and Robert LeRoy being victorious in four contests, and the negative, composed of Seymour Paget and Jean Peterson, winning one and losing three.

Four local weddings are scheduled for Easter Sunday and Monday. Rita Faubel and Walter Yewchuck will be married at the Presbyterian Church; Marion Layman of the Beechwoods and Anthony Manzolillo of Jeff will be married at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Callicoon; Frances Kohl of Hortonville and Edward Keeler of  Youngsville will be married at Hortonville; and Ludmilla Tuhy and George E. Raum of Kenoza Lake will be wed at Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

The engagement of Eleanor, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Doetsch of Callicoon, to Albert Duenigo of Middletown has been announced.

70 Years Ago - 1956

At a special meeting at the  Roscoe Firehouse a planning committee was appointed for a Community Hospital in Roscoe. Named to the committee were Myron Friedman, Livingston Manor, chairman; Dick Lake, Roscoe; Don Feinberg, Horton; Art Geiselman, Roscoe; Fred Haas, Livingston Manor;  Ronald Albee, Roscoe; Fred Knack, Buck Brook; Nelson Johnston, Roscoe; Elmer Hesse, Roscoe, P.H. MacFarlane, Roscoe; Eleanor Knack and Margaret Weiss, Buck Brook.

Sullivan County has received $57,010 from the state for flood damage repair projects for damage caused during the 1955 floods.

Mrs. Winfield Hessinger was struck by a car while in Albany and in the hospital there with a broken leg.

Mrs. Genevieve Inderlied, who died last week at Youngsville, came from a family of pioneer settlers in this area. Her grandfather, Follin Stoddard, together with George DeWitt and Olney Borden brought the present Town of Callicoon into existence.

60 Years Ago - 1966

An all-time record for Lake Trout in White Lake was broken Saturday when Harold Knapp Jr. of Mongaup Valley (formerly of Callicoon) with an assist from his father, landed a mammoth 38-inch 16 1/2 pound fish. Largest previous Laker taken from White Lake was a 34-incher weighing 12 pounds 14 ounces hooked last year by George Misner of Liberty.

The children of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Zieres of North Branch will honor their parents on the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary with an open house.

Miss Elizabeth Knapp of Bethel will retire at the end of the school year after a teaching career of 52 years. She teaches the third grade at Duggan School in White Lake.

Assemblyman John S. McBride, R-110, announced today that he will not seek the Republican nomination to run for the assembly in the new 113th Assembly District.

50 Years Ago - 1976

According to  Supervisor Sam Rosenshein of the Town of Fallsburg, who is chairman of the Education Committee, the long-awaited return of the Bookmobile to readers in Sullivan County will come on the first of May.

The former Peter Pumpkin Store on Main Street, Callicoon, became the new butcher shop-supermarket-canoe livery-boating supplies home of Ten Mile River Enterprises. Bob Lander will transfer his Callicoon canoe livery to the new store. Art Lester will be the manager.

The Rev. Ralph Ramsey, minister of the United Methodist Churches of Callicoon, Fremont, Hankins and North  Branch, was found dead alongside his car at the car wash in Hortonville Monday afternoon. He was 50 years of age and had been on the local charge since last June.

A simultaneous, nationwide ringing of bells on July 4th will herald the country’s entrance into its third century.

Firemen from Liberty and Livingston Manor fought a blaze in Parksville early Monday morning. The building, owned by Salvatore Linarello, was unoccupied but the heat of the blaze caused the buildings in the village to suffer damage through cracked window panes.

Mr. and Mrs. George Cargin of Lisle celebrated their 56th wedding anniversary on April 21 as well as Mrs. Cargin’s natal day. She is the former Ella Henderson of Hankins and he was brought up in Stalker, Pa.

The Jeffersonville basketball team won the Intersectional Championship over Section 4. They earned their 3rd straight Section 9 Class C title.

Vic Gordon, manager of the Holiday Mountain Ski Facility in  Bridgeville, was named Rotary Man of the Year by the Monticello Rotarians.

40 Years Ago - 1986

Grossinger’s Hotel remains closed for renovations, but the resort’s management, Hotels International, Inc., is moving ahead with other plans for the property. The Town of Liberty is consulting on the possibility of building a sewer plant for the resort which proposes to build 2,000 condominiums.

Mrs. Irene Wale of Liberty  has retired as systems manager of Farkill Communications in Liberty and  Mrs. Ruth Decker of Livingston Manor has retired as of April 1 as a cashier at the Sullivan County Motor Bureau Department in Monticello, with a combined 38 years of service. Mrs. Wale is regent of  Court Mary Anthony #883, Catholic Daughters of the Americas in Liberty and Mrs. Decker is a trustee.

Gladys Olmsted was honored at a retirement dinner attended by 125 people Friday night at Bernie’s Holiday Inn and awarded for more than 30 years of service as a public health nurse. She more recently held the position of director of Patient Services and Home Health Agency for Sullivan County.

A pre-constructed portion of the new Blue Horizon diner and restaurant, scheduled to open soon, has been placed in position on  Route 42, across from the Jamesway Mall.

Dr. Joseph Nebzydoski has announced the opening of a practice of veterinary medicine and surgery in Sullivan County.

Ed Fink, a retired route driver for Pelton’s Dairy in Monticello and an  American Legion stalwart, died Saturday, April 19, 1986, at his home. He was 86 years of age.

Ralph Coney of Liberty scored the first 300 game ever in the Sullivan County Democrat bowling tournament last Saturday.

30 Years Ago - 1996

The Sullivan County Chamber of Commerce presented the Fifth Annual “Pride of Sullivan County” awards at a champagne brunch held at The Club at Villa Roma. Joyce Salimeno, president of Gersten-Hillman Agency, Inc. of Monticello, was honored as “Business Person of the Year.”

Town recipients of “pride” awards were:  Bethel, Herman Bressler; Callicoon, Joseph Winski; Cochecton, Heinle’s General Store; Delaware, Edward T. Sykes; Fallsburg, Mountain Services/Distributors, owned by Steve Altman; Forestburgh, Evan Mack, age 14; Fremont, Arnold Armstrong; Highland, ndrew Boyar; Liberty, Delbert Van Etten; Lumberland, The Friends of Cycling of the Upper Delaware River Valley; Mamakating, Old Valley Restaurant and Luncheonette; Neversink, Earl D. Sheeley; Rockland, Bob Grossman;  Thompson, Theodore Stroebele; and Tusten, Milton “Bud” Stranahan.

Enhanced-911 emergency dispatch system project director Kevin Karn told the Sullivan County Supervisor’s Association the project is “moving along smoothly,” still headed for its projected deadline of the latter part of 1997 and on budget as well.

Jeffersonville First Aid Corps symbolically had a shovel full of dirt turned over at the new site of their ambulance building.

Several members of the three Liberty-area fire companies showed up at Monday’s joint village and town public hearing to voice their opinions on forming a joint fire district.

Two local fishermen got the surprise of their lives Friday afternoon when they peered inside a delapidated shack near a pond in White Lake and found the dead body of a man later identified as Sanford Abrams, 74, whose last known address was the VA Hospital in Bath.

Robert D. Mastropiero, 59, the son of Robert Mastropiero of Monticello, died April 8, 1996 in Stamford, Ct.

Josh Schwartz of Liberty pitched a three-hitter game that gave his team a 7-2 victory in the Mid-Hudson Athletic League over John A. Coleman last Friday.

Jim Pammer, formerly of Monticello, has been chosen from over 3,000 applicants to participate in the upcoming 1996 Olympic Torch Relay for the Olympic Games. Pammer will be a primary escort for the flame.

20 Years Ago - 2006

Five days a week, Bill Huggler wakes up at his White Sulphur Springs  home and journeys to the center of the earth—or 586 feet under Manhattan, to be exact. He and his brother Ralph, of Callicoon Center, are key members of the huge team digging the third tunnel which will one day supply New York City its drinking water from the aqueducts upstate (including the Neversink reservoir). The Hugglers are following the lead of their father, Edward, who was all of his life what those above and below ground affectionately term a “sandhog.”

The town of Fremont recently razed the landmark that was once the Fremont Center Post Office (what later became Arnie’s Scrounge Lounge).

At the 128th annual meeting of the Callicoon Cooperative Insurance Company, Ruth K. Baxter was honored as a 50-year director of the company.

Alicia Marie Gilbert, daughter of Kevin and Susan Gilbert of Cohoes, was married August 13, 2005 to Peter Karel Hornicek, son of Charles and Mary Hornicek of Hortonville.

10 Years Ago - 2016

The New York State Town Clerk’s Association (NYSTCA)  recently honored Town of Delaware Town Clerk Tess McBeath as the 2016 District 2 Town Clerk of the Year at their 34th annual conference. District 2 includes Sullivan, Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Ulster and Westchester Counties.McBeath was honored for her high degree of professionalism, making strong contributions to her community and serving as a role model to her peers.

A brush fire took over part of the Black Lake Estate in Bethel on Thursday afternoon. The flames were quickly contained within twenty minutes by the local firefighters. “The conditions have been very dry and this fire started by a powerline burning against a tree, sending sparks to the ground below,” said White Lake Fire Chief Brendon Cunningham.

Though he won’t leave until a replacement is found, Government Center snack shop operator Larry Houman Jr. plans to retire – again. He did so for what proved to be a temporary period back in 2013, but this time the blind White Lake resident’s permanent departure seems certain. With him will depart the Commission for the Blind, a state agency which serves as the official lessee (though the county does not charge rent). The Commission told the county it has no need of or interest in the spot. Legislators in the Government Services Committee informally agreed to put out a request for proposals from any interested nonprofits, particularly those who provide the disabled with employment opportunities.