140 Years Ago - 1884

The contract for rebuilding the old red bridge in Jeffersonville was let on Saturday last to the lowest bidder, who was Oliver Hofer. The price is $290.

The Sunday News of Middletown has gone to shades. The project was not a good one so far as money is concerned.

Our middle church sexton has a style of ringing the bell at sunset on Saturday evening and again at sunrise on Sabbath morning. This is a very pretty custom and we hope it may be continued, for the sound rings good thoughts into the minds of the people whenever it is heard.

Our Callicoon stage leaves Jeff now at six o’clock a.m. in order to catch the early train. That is getting around early in the morning, but the ride at that time of day will be delightful.

The several towns surrounding us are moving in the matter of organizing the town board of health in compliance with the law. Why does not this town do the same? No need of it? Well, it may be possible that Jeffersonville contains all the wisdom of the county. It is found necessary in the surrounding towns.

130 Years Ago - 1894

The restaurant in the Livingston Manor station is being changed into a ladies’ waiting room.

Charles S. Starr of Monticello has secured control of the lake known as Dutch Pond, one of the most beautiful lakes in the country, and is organizing the “Mountain Lake Club” of Sullivan County to develop the property into a summer resort.

Commencing the first of August, the Livingston Manor Dramatic Society will give a series of plays, the aim being not only to develop the talent, but provide a place of amusement where the poor as well as the rich can pass a few hours pleasantly at a very little expense.

During the agitation that has been kept up in favor of good roads for the past year or two, a good many people have been included to attribute the most of the talk on this subject to the makers of bicycles, and many times it has been intimated that their efforts in behalf of better roads were not altogether disinterested. Be this as it may, a new factor is rapidly coming to the front, and the bicycles is that factor, though instead of agitation beginning with the makers of bicycles and working toward the people who are to make the roads or pay for them, the process is reversed and the good roads talk is coming from the users of bicycles in the country.

During the last year, thousands of bicycles have been bought by the young people who live on the farms of the country, and these are naturally anxious for good roads that they may ride their wheels as early and as late in the season as possible. The purchase of bicycles by residents of country districts is increasing, and it will not be long until every farmer’s boy and girl will feel as if they were not up to the times unless they can sport a wheel, and then these same young people will bring a pressure for good roads to bear that will give those who believe in them a majority and the problem will be solved in the near future.

120 Years Ago - 1904

Don’t forget your decorations for coaching day at Jeffersonville, Monday, August 15th. The persons who don’t get in line this year will be a back number. The committee of arrangements is working hard to make this the greatest event ever. The prizes have been ordered, a greater number than last year, and will be placed on exhibit as soon as they arrive. Two or three bands will be engaged for the parade, which will be started promptly on time this year. The weather favorable, you will see on August 15, the greatest spectacle and largest gathering ever held in this section. Fall in line!

The Liberty correspondent of the Middletown Times says there was a home run made at the Wawanda-Liberty ball game at Liberty Saturday which does not appear on the score card. When the game was half completed, a horse, hitched to a fine wagon, without a driver, broke through a crowd on the first base line and ran swiftly for the second base, thence to the left to center, to the right foul field, to first base, and when midway from first to second, having made a complete circle, the wagon tipped over, precipitating the horse violently to the ground. It lay prone upon its side a moment, a shiver traversed its shapely form and death came within the moment. The horse had been driven to Liberty from Hurleyville and belonged to Liveryman Lee Durland of that place.

Rev. Herman Blaschke, pastor of the Jeffersonville Presbyterian Church, has been engaged to supply the pulpit of the new Presbyterian Church at Lake Huntington and will hold his first service there next Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Services will be held alternately in German and English.

The Jeffersonville Gas Company has its street pipe line about completed and will soon put up the machine which arrived Tuesday night. The company is to be commended for the excellent shape in which it has left the streets after laying the pipe. The finishing touches in replacing the ground along the line were attended to by Victor Hofer, the efficient Maple Avenue path master, and he has done a nice job to the great satisfaction of the abutting property owners and the traveling public. The company expects to have the gas plant in operation soon.

A new piano has been purchased for the Presbyterian Sunday School room.

 Cochecton will petition the state to build a dike to insure its property from future floods.

110 Years Ago - 1914

The storm of Tuesday abated sufficiently to permit the ceremony of laying the cornerstone of the new St. George’s R.C. Church in Jeffersonville at 2:30 p.m. by Bishop Thomas F. Cusack of New York, assisted by Rev. Fr. Bernadine of Obernburg. Rev. Frs. Clement and Maurice of St. Joseph’s College, Callicoon, and Rev. Fr. E. Snyder, pastor of the church also assisted. Despite the threatening weather, a large crowd was present.

The new St. George’s Church will be erected on the site of the present one, but will be considerably larger. The cost will be nearly $7000. The contract has been awarded to John Lowe of Hortonville, the lowest bidder, and the building is to be completed by January 1 next. Phillip Erdman of this place will do the mason work. The three pine trees which stood at the front of the church have been removed to make room for the new building, the erection of which will be commenced in September.

Chester G. Yager of Jeffersonville is the auto king of this section. Up to the present time this season he has sold thirty-five cars of various makes and models. The greatest number of these were Fords. The price of Ford cars has taken a drop since the beginning of the year and another drop of $90 is said to be scheduled for August 1.

At the ball game at the Polo Grounds in New York on Monday, John B. Foster, secretary of the New York Club, announced that the Giants have signed Stephen W. Royce, the sensational young pitcher of Hamilton College. The new recruit witnessed the game from the box with Secretary Foster. Royce is the son of Postmaster Solomon Royce of Liberty, where he began his baseball career, playing with the locals. Steve attended Hamilton College the last few years and was graduated this past spring. He pitched for the college ball team and last spring he set the college world on fire by striking out everybody in sight. Steve will soon get a chance to show his wares to Manager McGraw of the Giants.

Youngsville: Frederick N. Westphal, who has been vacationing for the past four weeks at Miss Sophie Vallertson’s, leaves on Friday for a twenty day trip to Massachusetts where he will spend two weeks in the D.L. Moody’s School at Northfield and the remainder of the time visiting friends in the Berkshire Hills, after which he will return to Youngsville for the remaining weeks of his vacation.

Christian Sander and his 75th birthday anniversary were the cause of a happy gathering of relatives and friends at the Sander home on East Main Street last Thursday night, and believe us, Chris was the youngest on the list. The porch and lawn were nicely illuminated with various lights, some colored, and some resembling electric lights, the beams of which reflected beautifully out upon the placid water of Lake Bollenbach. It is needless to say Mr. Sander, who is just as young as he used to be, furnished most of the amusement with his storehouse of anecdotes, his character delineation and endless antics.

Dr. LaVallee has bought of C.G. Yager the Buick runabout formerly bought and run for a short time by Conrad Metzger. Doc has put his horse out to pasture.

100 Years Ago - 1924

The following Sullivan County boys are at Plattsburgh Barracks, attending the Citizens Training Camps there: Barlow L. Hill of Liberty, Co. B; Harold C. Myers of Eldred, Co. D; Hugh Myers of Eldred, Co. G; Fred  Durland of Hurleyville, Co. K; and Robert Benson of Liberty, Co. A. The beginning of their fourth week in the training camp finds them on the rifle range learning to use the army rifle and trying to win the medals offered by the War Department. All of the county boys have been doing splendidly and are feeling fine except Robert Benson, who had the misfortune to contract a cold and be sent to the hospital for ten days.

Ground has been broken for a bungalow on the Jefferson Avenue side of W.J. Grishaber’s Eagle Hotel lot. The new building will be occupied by Mr. Grishaber’s son, Herbert, who recently took unto himself a wife.

Raymond Wells has been granted permission to operate a bus line between Barryville and North White Lake, a distance of 18 miles.

All roads did lead to Jeffersonville last Sunday afternoon when about 2,000 people from every corner of the county gathered at Baseball Park in Jeff to see the New York Bloomer Girls cross bats with the Jeffersonville athletics. The girls had driven all the way from New York that day for the game and were more or less tired from the long trip. But they were able to hold our strong team to a 9 to 4 victory and they didn’t use a male catcher either. 

Misses Dorothy and Henrietta Scheidell have gone to spend a month with Mr. and Mrs. W.H. Dickerson at Salem Center, Westchester County.

Youngsville: An enjoyable time was had on Sunday at the reception and dance for the guests at the Abplanalp Cottages. Music was provided for the guests by Bill Abplanalp, Cappie and Miss Barbara Weber at the piano, with vocal selections by Mrs. Kelly who was in fine voice. Her singing of a new song entitled “Fish” was very well received. Ray Miller and Charlie Brown, in a monologue on “Topics Up to The Minute,” went big. Pop Miller’s recitation, “Ten Barrooms in a Night” was a scream. [Editor's note: The latter might have been a parody on the temperance novel, Ten Nights in a Barroom, written by Timothy Shay Arthur in 1854.]

Irving Krum, son of Mr. and Mrs. George Krum of Jeffersonville, and Mrs. Elizabeth Hauschild, widow of William Hauschild of Shandelee, were married at the Presbyterian parsonage by Rev. A. A. Casper, Saturday, July 19.

90 Years Ago - 1934

Prompt action by a bucket brigade and the ready response of the Jeffersonville firemen saved the destruction by fire of Villa Eden, the large three-story boarding house and home of Andrew Glassel in Beechwoods last Monday afternoon. It was about 2 p.m. when Mr. Glassel discovered fire between an outbuilding, used for storing wood, coal and ice, and a toilet only a couple of feet away. Members of the family and guests formed a bucket brigade but were unable to check the fire which had attacked the story and a half storage house about 20x24 feet in size. From neighbor Polster’s house, word was telephoned to other neighbors and the Jeffersonville fire department. When the fire alarm sounded here at 2:15, our firemen dropped their working tools and in a few minutes were on their way to the Glassel home, about three miles distant, with one of the fire trucks. When they arrived there, the storage house was all aflame, and the bucket brigade was working hard to keep the main house, only eight feet away, from catching fire. The wind blowing from the northeast favored them. While using their chemical extinguisher, the firemen pulled the hand pump out of the outside well and put in their 2 1/2 inch suction hose and then for a time played a heavy stream of water on the fire. The well, about thirty feet deep, was nearly full of water and furnished a good supply. Then to conserve the water, the 3/4-inch chemical hose was used on the flames and the main house, while the firemen tore down the burning framework of the building and thus saved the main house from destruction.

The farmers are finishing up their haying, which is reported to be in only about a half a crop this year, with some of the meadows that are not kept in good condition, furnishing less.

The rainfall in Jeffersonville this year up to July 18 was only 16.24 inches, according to records kept by Charles Wilfert, government weather recorder here. The rainfall last year for the same period was about two inches greater.

Miss Emma Jean Schriber, daughter of Publisher A.M. Schriber of the Monticello Watchman, and Murray Brown, employed by the Bell Telephone Co. at Canton, N.Y., were married at Elmira on July 14. The bride, a graduate of New Paltz Normal, has been teaching school at Roscoe, and will return there next year.

A passenger bus from the Mansion House at Shandelee went into the reservoir of Livingston Manor’s water system on the Cattail Creek near the Manor the other day. The driver failed to make a turn and the coach went into the pool. The driver escaped through a window.

The Jeffersonville Fire Company have added to their equipment and efficiency by procuring what they call a canvas dam, by means of which they can quickly dam up water in the creek and provide a reservoir for fire fighting. The canvas is 30 feet long and makes quite a dam in a very short time. It has been tried out in the village creek and works very well. The shortage of water in our village reservoir was the incentive for the canvas dam. Necessity, you know, is the mother of invention, and our active firemen are always on the alert for something to increase their efficiency.

80 Years Ago - 1944

Rev. Robert O. Flechtner of Newark preached in the Lutheran Church last Sunday as a candidate for the pastorate made vacant by the recent resignation of Rev. Fred Foerster, who went to Connecticut after serving here 19 years. Mr. Flechtner is a native New Englander and now has a church in Newark.

The village trustees of Jeffersonville will cause the arrest of any persons tampering with the fire hydrants without permission, or dumping garbage on village property or along the streets or highways in the village. Complaints have been made of riling the water by the unnecessary use of the hydrants, and the village maintains a public dumping ground for those who do not care to pay for their garbage removal.

Mr. and Mrs. Ray Shaara are entertaining his sister and family, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Petto, daughters Cecelia and Joan, and son Anthony, of Jersey City.

 White Sulphur Springs: The plane that flew low over the village Monday night was piloted by Lt. Bruce Benton, son of Mr. and Mrs. Grover Benton of Fairfield, Conn., former residents of this place.

North Branch: Mrs. Charles Dycker Jr., son and daughter of New York, are spending their vacation at the Zieres and Ellersick home.

Kenoza Lake: Last Sunday evening the guests at a well attended outdoor service on beautiful Kenoza Lake’s shore heard the Rev. Dr. Ralph M. Houston, the new superintendent of the Methodist Church’s Newburgh District. After the services, a quarterly meeting of officers of the Kenoza Lake circuit churches was held on the parsonage lawn, with Dr. Houston presiding.

Leo Hick’s telephone above Youngsville went out of order last week and when the repairman came, he found that the family goat had taken a share in the party line and chewed it in two. Add one more food to the diet of a goat.

Erwin L. Baker, SK1c, recently transferred from the Great Lakes Naval Training Base, sends “Greetings from sunny California where I have been transferred since Memorial Day. By the time you receive this note, I’ll be on my way overseas. Best wishes to you and the folks at home.” Mr. Baker is on the USS Bauxite, and his address is care of Fleet P.O., San Francisco, Calif.

70 Years Ago - 1954

Mr. and Mrs. William Fillippini of White Lake have announced the engagement of their daughter, Dorothy Marie, to Kenneth Rapp, son of Mr. and Mrs. Roy Rapp of Highland Falls, N.Y.

Abraham Goodman of Brooklyn, who had been vacationing with his brother, Nathan, in White Sulphur Springs, was seriously injured Sunday when he fell from the top of a hay truck.

Immediate work on a by-pass to divert Rt. 17 traffic around the village of Liberty was urged at an informal session of Liberty officials.

Mrs. Leo Graham presented coloring books to the blue ribbon winners of the costume contest at the playground activities this week. Winners were Sharon Halloran, Cooky Holt, Joyce Halloran, Barbara Loche, Mary Knack, Jim Hyatt and Betty Peters.

Other contestants in the costume party contest and the parts they presented were: Larry Edge, Audry Toboroff, bathing beauties and Miss America; Catherine Halloran, Billy Tegeler, Marcia Feigenbaum, Sally Hyatt - cowboys and cowgirls; Linda Stecker, Dennis Knack, tramps; Doug and Dennis Crandall, party girls; Bethany Fuller and M. Jacobokitz; Sea Nymph, Mary Tegeler; Bugs Bunny, Robert Bernhardt; Soldier, Howard Feigenbaum; Farmer, Milton Sonsky; Salome, Judy Maier; Pirate, Stephen Maier; Indian, Peter Hyatt; Little Bo Peep, Vicky Edge; Baby New Year, Michael Biodolillo; Housekeeper, Sally Segar; Fisherman, Cleve Segar; Tiger, Willard Schadt; Baseball Player, Gary Mathern; and a family, Nancy Lott as the baby, Michael Krongel as the little brother and Barbara Krongel as the mother.

Sue McOmber and Lester Hogencamp, both of White Sulphur Springs, were married last Sunday afternoon by the Rev. James J. Benson in the White Sulphur Springs Methodist Church.

Frank A. Pecsi of Jeffersonville has been accepted for admission to Clarkson College of Technology in Potsdam.

 Sullivan County’s first case of polio this year was reported. The patient is a nine-year-old Livingston Manor boy who is being treated at home according to Dr. John A. Degen, the District Health Officer of the New York State Department of Health.

Fire of undetermined origin destroyed the main building, garage, storage shed of the Monticello Lumber Co. Sunday. Damage was unofficially estimated at $100,000.

60 Years Ago - 1964

Miss Sandra Bertholf of Divine Corners was chosen Miss Sullivan County Catskills of 1964. Runners-up were Miss Barbara Cranel of Liberty and Miss Linda Quartaro of Wurtsboro.

Miss Bernice Fuhrer of Kenoza Lake sent an interesting letter to the editor about meeting Manager Margaret Nabel of the New York Bloomer Girls baseball team in Hollywood, Calif., and included a picture of the team as it appeared in Jeffersonville in 1924.

State Assemblyman Hyman E. Mintz, Republican of South Fallsburg, has been subpoenaed to testify before a New York County Grand Jury concerning circumstances surrounding approval of the construction of the Finger Lakes Racetrack. The 55-year-old Assemblyman was in the Monticello Hospital this week and was unable to appear.

A large crowd gathered at the North Branch Firehouse Wednesday evening, July 15, for a surprise shower given in honor of the newlyweds, Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Chellis (nee Marilyn Schmidt).

On Saturday evening, Willis Armbrust Jr. was enjoying a bit of roller skating at DYC when he fell and broke his arm. On Wednesday, July 1, while Willis was working on the farm with the tractor, which caught fire, his foot became lodged but somehow he managed to get off just seconds before the gas tank exploded. Now he is on a little vacation. Get well soon, Willis. 

50 Years Ago - 1974

Former Town of Callicoon Supervisor Oscar Will of Jeffersonville, 75, was one of three men seriously injured last Friday when a building they were dismantling at the former Crystal Lake Camp in Fremont collapsed and crushed them beneath its roof. Also injured were Fred Hubert, 62, of Jeffersonville, and Dale Schumacher, 15, of Callicoon. Escaping without injury Osmer Geib, 64, Chris Karadontes, 41, and Andy Karadontes, 16, all of Jeffersonville, aided in rescuing the injured victims.

Miss Jacalyn Mahon and Keith Robisch were married July 13 at St. Joseph’s Church in West Winfield, N.Y.

Arthur E. Keesler, vice president of the First National Bank of Jeffersonville, has been accepted for enrollment in the 1974 session of the Bankers School of Agriculture, sponsored by the New York State Bankers Association in cooperation with Cornell University, Ithaca. Classes will run for one week.

Elaine Neer, daughter of Ralph and Betty Neer of Callicoon Center, has completed nine years of perfect attendance at JYCS, without ever having been absent or late since she started kindergarten there. Besides her perfect attendance, she is also on the Honor Roll.

A baby boy was born to Mr. and Mrs. Gary Young of Livingston Manor on July 10 at Liberty Loomis Hospital. . . A baby boy was born to Ray and Rosaleah Leek of Eldred at the Horton Memorial Hospital. He has been named Scott Vincent.

40 Years Ago - 1984

Pastor Dick Moore will ride to church in a horse and buggy as Hurleyville Methodists observe Homecoming Day on July 22 at the Hurleyville Methodist Church. Rev. George Moody, former pastor, will assist in the worship of the day.

Mary Elizabeth Leana and Peter Joseph Ng were married June 9, 1984, in St. Peter’s Church, Monticello. They will live in Kiamesha Lake after a wedding trip to Acapulco.

Mr. and Mrs. August Vukek of the Pennsylvania side of Callicoon celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary at the Western Hotel in Callicoon on July 7. Their four children hosted the party.

Paula Nelson of Lake Huntington was named Miss Lake Huntington during the recent field day sponsored by the Lake Huntington-Cochecton Fire Department.

A torrential downpour belted Sullivan County the weekend of August 15, 16 and 17, 1969. Not exactly a newsworthy event. But it was, back in 1969 when that rain drenched 500,000 rock fans packed into a small farm located at the intersection of Hurd  Road and West Shore Road in the Town of Bethel. The Woodstock Festival — a promise of three days of peace and music — was a momentous event, not just for the Town of Bethel, but for the entire nation and much of the western world. That was 15 years ago. Today, although some Sullivan County maps mark the spot where the Woodstock Festival was held, there is not a single piece of evidence that anything other than the yearly growth of corn and rye grass and the grazing of horses and cows has occupied those fields. The Woodstock generation has grown up. Just beyond a quiet little evergreen grove, situated on the edge of Filippini Pond is a home built by one of that generation. It was while lying in a hospital recuperating from a broken back (suffered in a rodeo) that Steve Dubrovsky, a four-time bulldogging champion, designed the dream house which he and his wife, Linda, and son Mark, now live in.

The house is almost entirely underground and the heating system runs off a centrally located atrium which is supplied with heat from the sun. Once you get below frost level, explained Mr. Dubrovsky, “the temperature of the earth remains constant at 55 degrees, so you won’t have as much trouble heating the air if you’re underground.” He says he spent $125 on heat last winter. Fans blow the warm air into the house. In the summer the fans are reversed. Pictures and explanations of the construction of the home in the July 24, 1984, issue of the Sullivan County Democrat show a beautiful modern home.

30 Years Ago - 1994

Mae and Irving Kratz celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary with a gathering of family and friends at the Hortonville Presbyterian Church.

Todd and Kari Canfield of Lookout, Pa., became parents of their first child, a daughter Kaelin, at the Wayne Memorial Hospital in Honesdale, Pa.

The Sullivan County Democrat announces that it will publish its Woodstock 25th Anniversary Edition on August 9. The press run for this souvenir edition will be  20,000. Nine of the original performing acts have signed for appearances at the upcoming event: Richie Havens, Country Joe, Melanie, John Sebastian, Mountain, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Canned Heat, Iron Butterfly and Sha Na Na. Also joining the bill will be Judy Collins, Fleetwood Mac, Chambers Brothers, Tom Paxton and Leon Russell. Tickets are selling for $94.69 and also requires a donation of four items of clothing and four non-perishable food items in keeping with the 1969 festival’s emphasis on peace and compassion.

Melinda Sue Buchman of Rock Hill will compete in the Miss Junior American Preteen Contest to be held in Rye Brook July 23.

Visitors are flocking to the Apollo Mall where they can view the moving wall replica of the Vietnam Wall monument which is located in Washington, D.C. The exhibit opened June 20 and it is estimated that at least 10,000 people have passed in review. The traveling wall, a half-size 240-foot replica of the actual monument which uses photos to highlight the 59,191 names engraved on the many panels, will be at the mall until September 4. Visitors may leave mementos, photos, notes, etc., which will be delivered to the Washington site and then go to the Smithsonian Institute.

20 Years Ago - 2004

Jeffersonville is ready for an overhaul, and the cable television network The Learning Channel (TLC) is coming to Sullivan County to do just that. Jeffersonville is the first village in the nation to have captured the eye and imagination of Genevieve Gorder, a designer whose previous credits include TLC’s “Trading Spaces.” According to Mayor Ed Justus, Gorder will spend a number of weeks this summer in the village to put together an initial six-episode run.

Riverfest 2004 was the usual gigantic hit in Narrowsburg on Sunday, featuring vendors and visitors from all over.

The deadline passed yesterday and Roy Howard and Jeryl Abramson did not meet with Town of Bethel officials. July 26 was the final day the Bethel couple could meet with the town to address their concerns. The town created a list of 14 conditions upon which the planning board would base the approval of a special use permit to legally host a Woodstock reunion on their Route 17B property.

Christine and Drew Coan of Chadds Ford, Pa., announce the birth of their son, Alexander Andrew, born June 30. The proud grandparents are Betty and John Eschenberg of Callicoon and Sue Coan of Bedford. Alexander joins a sister, Katherine, at home.

John and Dawn Hauschild of Jeffersonville announce the birth of the second son, Gavin John, born July 19, 2004 at Wayne Memorial Hospital in Honesdale, Pa. Gavin has a brother, Collin Roy, at home. The proud grandparents are Carl and Peggy Hellerer and Donald and Barbara Hauschild, all of Jeffersonville. Lois Ronan of Grand Forks, N.D. is the great-grandmother.

10 Years Ago - 2014

Well, it finally happened: Dottie Schlegel has retired as secretary of  the Cochecton Preservation Society after 15 years of service! The CPS held its election of officers and directors at last month’s meeting: Joe Manaseri, President; Pamela DeMan, Vice President; Larry Richardson, Treasurer; Peggy Richardson, Secretary; and Obbie Fuller, Robert DeMan and George Blaso as Directors for two year terms. After the program on “The one and only Blackout in Cochecton and Sullivan County,” presented by Art Hassis, the members joined in celebrating Dottie’s 15 years as secretary.

The Western Sullivan Public Library has recently seen some longstanding volunteers retire from their duties with the library. Beth Peck retired from the Board of Trustees for the WSPL. Beth was a founding member of the Tusten-Cochecton Branch in Narrowsburg and has served tirelessly for over 20 years. Elvira Brey has retired as volunteer for the Jeffersonville Branch. Elvira has also served her role of volunteer for nearly 20 years.