130 Years Ago - 1894

The political strife in Sullivan County, as in the state, is going to be a bad one till election day. The result promises to be a mite “close” if we balance up the opinions on both sides and made due allowances for the overconfidence in both the Republican and Democratic parties. Member of Assembly and Sheriff are the only county offices which occupy the attention of the voters in Sullivan County this fall. Henry Krenrich, the Republican candidate for Member, is a well-known businessman in this section. He has spent 58 years on Mother Earth, and a good many dollars among the farmers and others throughout the western part of the county. For 25 years, he has been engaged in the mercantile and produce business here. This is his second trial for a seat in the Assembly from Sullivan. In 1891, when the county was considered a little Democratic, he ran against Dr. Beakes of Bloomingburg and came within two votes of being elected. Sorry we are unable to present here a portrait of the Democratic candidate for the Assembly, Oliver Hofer – because he never had his “picture took.” “Ollie” was born in Jeffersonville and is popular in the western towns of the county. He is a carpenter and wagon maker by trade, but of late years has turned his attention to surveying. He has been our village squire for a number of years, but his political aspirations never extended any further until the Democratic party began looking around for a good stick of timber to place at the head of their county ticket this fall.

John Murphy is Republican candidate for sheriff and John N. Watson of Neversink is the Democratic nominee.

G.I. Russell, who formerly conducted Ross’ grist mill in Jeffersonville, now has the mill at Stevensville running in good shape.

Jeffersonville is soon to have another store. Fred and Charles Schmidt of Jeffersonville purchased the Faubel store at the lower end of the village. The building was originally the blacksmith and wagonmaking shop of Jacob Faubel, but in later years it was used for general store purposes by different parties.

Joseph Norris, the enterprising blacksmith, wagonmaker, undertaker, postmaster, justice of the peace, and church trustee at Roscoe, is at work on the foundation for a store building on his premises alongside his residence.

120 Years Ago - 1904

Edward F. Kohler, one of Jeffersonville’s industrious men, was united in marriage yesterday with Miss Ida, daughter of Ira Mapledoram of Monticello, at the home of the bride. They will make their home in the house built a couple of years ago by Mr. Kohler at the lower end of this village.

Spencer Hardenburgh and son, Willie, of near White Sulphur Springs, were butternutting on the Dewitt Flats this side of Youngsville Saturday when the boy saw a snake at the side of his father’s leg, its head sticking up. The boy struck the snake with a stick and killed it. When they started for home, Mr. Hardenburgh suggested they take the snake home with them as a sort of trophy, and it was not until then that they discovered that the snake was a diamond rattler with three rattles. This is the first rattlesnake known to be in this immediate vicinity.

One hundred and fifty of the goats have died since they were brought from Mexico a month ago to Mr. Ward’s ranch near Livingston Manor.

The first number of the New Hurleyville Sentinel, published by Sidney Pendell, recently of Monticello, came out last week.

Elmer Winner of Liberty has declined the Democratic nomination for state senator, tendered him by the convention in Sidney.

110 Years Ago - 1914

Franklin H. Neuberger of Jeffersonville and George Mosher of East Branch narrowly escaped being drowned like rats in the Delaware River near East Branch Sunday evening at 7:15 after the steering knuckle of Mr. Neuberger’s Metz car had broken and the car had rolled over and down a forty foot embankment and landed on its right side in five feet of water, about 12 feet from shore, with the two occupants imprisoned in the car by the closed top, which had been crushed down on them. Mr. Neuberger had gone to East Branch Sunday to supply the Methodist pulpit.

Three young couples of this section will launch on the sea of matrimony today and take life partners for better and worse. Two of the brides will come from one house, the home of Mr. and Mrs. John H. Bauernfeind of Beechwoods, who will give the hands of their daughters, Anna Marie and Caroline Amanda, in marriage to Louis Walter Hubbert and Walter Lockhart Stewart, industrious young farmers of North Branch. The double wedding will take place in the Bauernfeind home. Rev. Waugh, Methodist minister, will officiate. The third couple to take the leap today are Roy August Hess, son of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob (Barbara) Hess of Jeffersonville, and Miss Katherine Cavalla of New York. They will be married at the Callicoon Center parsonage by Rev. J.E. Straub.

Louis P. Faubel, cigar manufacturer and Mrs. Lene VanBerger Seibert, also of this village, were married at the Presbyterian parsonage last evening by Rev. J.K. Stadelmann. They were attended by Clyde Betts of Fosterdale and Miss Viola Armbrust of Kenoza Lake.

100 Years Ago - 1924

Jeffersonville has decided to try  incorporation and take its place in the march of progress. The proposition was voted on at the firehouse Tuesday and carried by the vote of 63 to 50 – a 13 majority.

A quiet wedding was solemnized at the home of former Sheriff and Mrs. Jacob Dietz at Callicoon Center last Sunday, October 2, when their daughter, Mrs. Amelia D. Marks, was united in marriage with Edward Kastner of Brooklyn, by Rev. John E. Straub of St. Paul’s Church.

Frank Doughty of Jeffersonville, long an active member of the Liberty unit of the American Legion, has been nominated for county commander without opposition.

A son was born Saturday to Dr. and Mrs. Harvey W. Myers of Jeffersonville. Warren Harvey is the new arrival’s name.

Yesterday afternoon at the Callicoon Center Parsonage, October 14, Rev. John E. Straub united in marriage Alfred Kastner and Miss Clara Brey, both of that place. They were attended by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wachendorf, who bought the Mme. Drees-Girtanner place at the Center. The bride is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Brey.

DAHLIA — Henry Starkweather and family moved from the Hotchkin Farm to a place two miles north of Parksville, where he has employment cutting wood during the coming winter.

90 Years Ago - 1934

In the Supreme Court at Goshen recently, Mrs. Louisa Weintz, an aged woman of Middletown and well known in Jeffersonville, was awarded a judgement for $1,000 for personal injuries sustained in an automobile accident on Bloomingburg mountain August 21, 1932.

Thirteen Sullivan County farmers have received payments from the federal government under the hog reduction plan.

80 Years Ago - 1944

Barbara Carol, infant daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Karl Ebers of Eldred, was christened at St. James Episcopal Church on Sunday, October 15, by Rev. Sidney Newhouse. Following the ceremony, the grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Herbert C. Persbacker of Callicoon, entertained 19 friends and relatives at a dinner at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Hoffmann.

On Saturday, October 14, Miss Catherine Sendlein, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John G. Sendlein of St. Albans, N.Y. became the bride of Herman A. Stabbert, son of Mrs. Carrie Stabbert of Obernburg.

Albert E. Mitchell, for the past 23 years manager of the Hortonville Grange Co-op Assn., Inc., resigned last week. Ernest V. Miller of Hortonville was named to succeed Mr. Mitchell.

Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Townsend of Cochecton are the parents of a baby girl, born October 14 at the Callicoon Hospital. Also on the same date, a baby boy was born to Lieut. and Mrs. Warren Miller of Hortonville.

News from the Servicemen: Mrs. Jack Niflot, Long Eddy, received the Purple Heart Award last week which was given her son, PFC Ralph Gott, who is now somewhere in Germany. No citation accompanied the award which was inscribed “Military Merit” and bore three stars.

Paul Hermann writes from France that he has been to several dances and doesn’t have to worry about stepping on the girls’ toes when they are wearing wooden shoes. He has twenty months overseas and has met up with Charles Behringer twice just before leaving Italy. He states that he has been in three invasions and hopes that the next one will be New York and soon.

Lt. Warren Miller, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Miller of Hortonville, formerly a navigator on a B-24 bomber, has been a prisoner of war in Germany since last Spring. He had apparently injured his right arm or hand and his first letters home were written from his left hand. A recent letter was written with his right hand again indicating that he has recovered.

70 Years Ago - 1954

Mr. and Mrs. Edward F. Kohler celebrated their 50th anniversary last Sunday with an open house given by their children in the Presbyterian Church parlors in Jeffersonville. About 200 of their relatives and friends attended.

While painting the Duttweiler school bus and truck garage last Friday afternoon, Jacob Schumacher, an employee, fell and broke one of his legs and the knee and four toes of the other foot.

Richard Clifford, son of Joseph Clifford of Jeffersonville, and a sophomore at the New York State College for Teachers in Albany, was recently named to the Dean’s List for the Spring semester of the college year.

At the meeting of the Town of Callicoon Democratic Club last Friday at the Hotel Clair, Youngsville, the large group in attendance heard talks by Fred W. Stabbert, candidate for Member of Assembly, and Fred W.V. Schadt, local attorney. A resolution was adopted at the meeting to support Charles S. Hick for county historian.

Field work in the 1954 census of agriculture gets underway locally on October 18, 1954, with a force of enumerators who will start visiting every farm in the area, according to Field supervisor Edward I. Amann. Walter Weiss, former Town of Callicoon supervisor of North Branch, will be census enumerator for this town.

60 Years Ago - 1964

The chiropractic office of Dr. Barry Bodenstein is being readied in the Amber Building in Jeffersonville.

Miss Nancy Lott, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. August Lott of Jeffersonville, has been enrolled as a student at the Presbyterian United Hospital School of Nursing, United Hospitals of Newark, N.J.

The unanimous decision by five judges in the Appellate Division Supreme Court in Albany has reversed the lower court decision of Justice DeForest Pitt and declared valid the independent nomination petition of Edward Sykes for the Assembly in Sullivan County. Mr. Sykes’ name will appear on the ballot in November’s election, opposing the present Republican Assemblyman Hyman Mintz and the Conservative Party candidate, Albert Johnson.

Mr. and Mrs. William Gasko celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary on October 7. About 90 attended a party in their honor.

A baby girl, Mary, was born October 3, 1964 at Callicoon Hospital to William and Claire Schultz of DelVue, Callicoon.  The latest addition to the Schultz family joins three brothers and a sister, James, John, Kathy and Joe, at home.

50 years ago - 1974

Mrs. Susanne Annunziata and her three daughters, Diane, Eileen and Susan, were injured when their car slammed into the rear end of a loaded logging truck near Fosterdale on County Road 114, the Newburgh-Cochecton Turnpike. Miss Diane was reported having a fractured skull and was transferred to Wayne Memorial Hospital in Honesdale, while Mrs. Annunziata and her other two daughters were treated at the Callicoon Hospital.

Alfred L. Long, 83, of Hortonville, a dairy farmer and a vital force in community affairs, died Wednesday at the Grover Hermann Hospital in Callicoon. He was a past member of the Delaware Valley Central School Board and prior to that of the Callicoon School Board, having served both organizations as president.

The Town of Liberty board unanimously resolved at their Thursday meeting to change the name of Dixie Lake Park to the Francis “Stretch” Hanofee Memorial Park in honor of the late Democratic leader and County Clerk.

Brian Rosenberger will represent the 9-year-old class and David Fisk will represent the 11-year-olds at the Pass, Punt and Kick regionals to be held in Dover, N.J. Both boys captured first place in their respective classes in local play-off.

40 Years Ago - 1984

Joe Block, a longtime Monticello resident and the former owner of Mountain Dairy, died suddenly at his home on Sunday at the age of 72. His brother, Seymour Block, a Monticello Village Trustee and fleet manager of the Rhulen Insurance Agency in Monticello, died last Tuesday, October 10, at the age of 63.

Gloria and Gordon Winarick were honorees at the Hebrew Day School banquet held September 23 at the Homowack Lodge in Spring Glen.

A group of Monticello youth will perform in an exhibition of break dancing at the Monticello Raceway on Sunday. The crew consists of Eric Eisenberg, Abe Alvarez, Alan Alvarez, John Fasce, Larry Armstead and Dwayne Robinson.

Two bodies were found in the rubble of a fire on School Street in Narrowsburg which occurred early Sunday morning. The home was used as a weekend retreat and summer residence by Andrew and Nelida Saulo of the Bronx. They had no idea of the identity of the two men whose bodies were found in the building. John Tucker and Allan Reith, members of the Narrowsburg Fire Department, were treated at the Wayne Memorial Hospital in Honesdale for burns and a foot injury sustained during the fire fighters’ time at the scene.

30 Years Ago - 1994

The Reformed Church in Grahamsville held a 150th anniversary service at the church on October 17, as part of its 18-month celebration.

Bishop Forrest C. Stith will be guest speaker at the sesquicentennial anniversary service at the Monticello United Methodist Church on October 21.

The Lester White American Legion Post No. 566 in Livingston Manor observed its 75th anniversary on October 17. The post was named for Lester White who was killed in France during World War I, on March 28, 1918, in the Battle of Picardy. It is believed that the U.S. Government never found his grave.

August and Mary Kahn of Liberty recently celebrated their 53rd wedding anniversary. At their wedding in 1941, they were attended by Justus “Dutch” and Nellie Asthalter.

A son, Scott Raymond Jr., was born to Scott and Twila Herbert of Callicoon on September 18 at the Horton Memorial Hospital in Middletown.

The MOB of Bethel (Mothers of Bethel) donated $5,000 to the Bethel Volunteer Ambulance Corps, funds gathered from a “bakeless cake sale.”

20 Years Ago - 2004

An annual Poker Run held last month yielded $26,000 to benefit two local children, Aiden Hanley and Gracie Hillriegel, with $13,000 apiece going to defray medical costs, as they both are suffering from serious medical conditions. President Jay Meddaugh of the Sullivan County ATV Association said that this is the sixth year that the event has been held.

Tusten Highway Superintendent George Kinch noted that so far he has estimated the recent flood damage suffered in the town cost $81,395.91 in damage to roads and he is anticipating another $250,000 will be needed before all roads in the town are repaired.

Alan Berg was honored by the Town of Bethel board last Thursday for his 12 years of service as postmaster at the Kauneonga Lake Post Office.

Marie Zalesky, longtime volunteer at Catskill Regional Medical Center, recently celebrated her 97th birthday with some fellow hospital volunteers and staff at the Grover Hermann Division of CRMC at Callicoon.

It was homecoming at Sullivan West this past Saturday and the Bulldog football team hosted Tri-Valley in a non-league game. During a half-time ceremony, Brian Lopez and Amanda Conley were named king and queen, respectively. Lopez then returned to the field to help the Bulldogs record a 28-2 victory over the Bears.

10 Years Ago - 2014

St. George’s Church in Jeffersonville marked the centennial of the church building  Sunday, October 5. Before the Centennial Mass with Archbishop Dominick Lagonegro officiating, the crowd of 120 sang hymns at a smaller shrine to the Sacred Heart of Jesus erected last year. 

SullivanArc, a non-profit organization that provides support to people with developmental disabilities, will honor Marc Brandt with the Ruth Bennett Humanitarian Award at SullivanArc’s annual Community Recognition Dinner. Brandt was SullivanArc’s Executive Director from 1971 to 1982, and has recently announced his retirement as NYSARC’s Executive Director, where he has served since leaving SullivanArc. When he joined SullivanArc, the agency served 40 children in a four-room schoolhouse in Parksville. Under Brandt’s direction, the agency began expanding, adding hundreds of adults to their program by bringing back Sullivan County natives who were in institutions all over New York State. The annual President’s Award will be presented to Bob Landau of Neversink, also a former employee of SullivanArc, as well as BOCES. Since Bob’s retirement, his desire to assist people with disabilities led to the development of the Sullivan County Faith Inclusion Consortium, an innovative program that offers many benefits to people with disabilities.