140 Years Ago - 1884

Charles Scheidell’s plum trees look tempting, but the look is better than the taste.

Another very severe freeze was experienced here Sunday night, which finished all that was left from the frost of last week. Buckwheat and corn are dead.

On Friday night several of our young people from this vicinity accompanied by some from Pike Pond went to J. Ludwig’s in Callicoon for a social dance. They were joined by some from that vicinity and had a very good time. That is the way to have fun.

Some moving has or is to take place in this village soon. Among those coming to our notice, Henry Wood will move into the German M.E. Parsonage; C.L. Pendell is moving into the J. Faubel house and a new tenant is in the vacant rooms of the Von Arx building. Other changes are in contemplation.

The potato crop in this section is the largest that we have had for years. One man reports 300 bushels from 5 bushels planting. Some of the farmers complain of finding many rotten ones, and we hope for little of that. Now is the time to dig them while the soil is dry. If left until the fall rain comes, the labor is double and the quality injured.

130 Years Ago - 1894

The acid factories at Emmonsville, DeBruce and Willowemoc resumed work on full time last week. The workmen in the Emmonsville factory were cut $2 a month, and at DeBruce and Willowemoc $6 a month.

Owing to excessively low water in the Liberty reservoir, the water commissioners placed a pump in the creek near Ira Devine’s and pumped water into the reservoir through the main. The pump was operated with the stone crusher engine and had a capacity of about 8,000 gallons per hour. 

Frank Albee is engaged in painting Fred Sherwood’s farmhouse on East Hill.

Phil Faubel has purchased the large Weyrauch house and lot in this village, paying $1,300 for the property.

R.C. Maltby has been relaying the stone walk in front of his residence. There are other walks in town that also need straightening up a bit.

Frank Kahl has taken a position as bartender in H.W. Berringer’s Hotel at Roscoe. His wife has moved from J.C. Abplanalp’s house to her folks on the island. Frank Laufersweiler is laying a water pipe from Scheidell’s Hill to his house, a distance of about four hundred feet. Frank means to be supplied with water in dry times by tapping one of the numerous springs on the hill.

W.F. Grishaber, our tinsmith, is in trouble again. Some party or parties, just for a little devilry, perhaps, removed a sewing machine from his shop stoop Friday night and deposited it elsewhere. Will is sure he knows who cut up the caper, and says if the two ladies will bring the machine back he will put it in repair for them.

120 Years Ago - 1904

The Monticello Watchman has issued an illustrated post card in honor of that village’s centennial.

William E. Halladay and sister, Miss Ida, of Callicoon Depot, have gone on a trip to California and other points, taking in the St. Louis Fair.

Frank Yager and Thomas White Jr. of Livingston Manor, have gone to Baltimore, Md., to enter St. Joseph’s College to study for the priesthood.

Frank Benson, who had charge of the grocery department in H.J. Sarle’s department store, has bought out Messler and Matzinger’s grocery store in Liberty.

Youngsville: Rev. Muery officiated at a christening at the home of Henry Spielmann Jr. Sunday afternoon when the latter’s young daughter, Emma, was baptized.

Swiss Hill: A surprise party was given for Miss Bertha Glasser at the home of her uncle, Philip Eltz, last Friday evening in honor of her twenty-first birthday. Louis Mall furnished music for dancing. Lunch and refreshments were served and everybody had a good time. Miss Glasser accompanied by her sister, Ada, returned home to Rochester Saturday after spending several weeks with her grandfather, Frank Eltz.

A number of our citizens attended Monticello’s centennial celebration on Monday. It was a big day for Monticello.

Mrs. Marie Greiner, who has lived with her niece, Mrs. Fred Scheidell, the past year, left yesterday for Chicago, her former home, where she will take up her residence again.

110 Years Ago - 1914

A surprise party on the event of the seventeenth anniversary of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. William Bernhardt of Jeffersonville was largely attended by the various members of the Welch family and friends, who came to the Bernhardt residence in automobiles from various parts of Sullivan County, New Jersey and New York City Tuesday night.

A force of carpenters under contract of John Lowe of Hortonville last week tore down the Catholic Church building in Jeffersonville, to make way for the new, larger and finer edifice to be erected on the site of the old one. The church furniture has been moved to Eagle Hall, where services will be held until the new church building is completed. The preparation of the new structure is in charge of John Miller of Roscoe and Charles Wilfert of this place is foreman on the carpenter work.

Proprietor Coslin of Eagle Hall offered a set of tango beads and pins to the lady, and silver watch and chain to the gentleman holding the largest number of admission tickets to the dances at the hall this summer. Wm. Menges of the Mansion House force won the gentleman’s prize with 69 tickets and Miss Josephine Wetzel of this place and Miss Edna Welch of Kenoza Lake were tied for the lady’s prize. Miss Welch very graciously waived her claim to Miss Wetzel.

100 Years Ago - 1924

Narrowsburg is soon to be lighted by electricity.

The Jeffersonville storekeepers have decided to close at 7 p.m. beginning next Monday evening.

Jacob Maslow and family returned to Brooklyn Sunday. The family spent the summer here.

Police Sgt. John Miller and wife and his uncle, Henry, of Staten Island, are guests of the former’s mother, Mrs. Mary Miller. They will run up to Susquehanna and Binghamton this week to visit relatives.

Wesley Hardenburgh, en route to Chicago after a few days visit with his parents at White Sulphur Springs, dropped in to see friends here Sunday. Wesley is with the Meat Packers Institute in Chicago, and from the way he’s growing, you’d think he ate nothing but fat pork.

The Roth brothers who have operated a bakery successfully in Jeffersonville the past couple of years, have purchased a lot of Dave Babcock next to the post office building in Lake Huntington and will erect a bakery thereon for next season. The Roths have a large two-oven bakery in Jeffersonville, which has turned out over 2,000 loaves of bread a day this summer, and yet was unable to supply the demand.

Dr. A. Zeh of New York spent a few days with his family at their summer home here. On his return Monday, he was accompanied by his daughter, Miss Marie Zeh. Mrs. Zeh will remain here until the cold weather drives her out.

90 Years Ago - 1934

Joseph K. Strawbridge of Rome is the new teacher of Latin and history and has taken board with the John Wohltjen family.

Isidore Rudolf is home from New York on vacation.

Mr. and Mrs. William Lieb leave this morning to attend the annual meeting of the New York Press Association at Syracuse, and will be accompanied by the Rev. L. William Hones of Roscoe, a former president of the association. Mr. and Mrs. Fred W. Stabbert of Callicoon are also going up. The publishers and their wives will meet, eat and sleep in the university buildings, as guests of the university’s School of Journalism. The meeting opens tonight and closes Saturday.

Herbert Hassis is running one of the Roth bakery wagons in place of Lester Gute, who is taking a couple weeks’ rest.

Miss Vera McKay of Swan Lake, who, while assisting at the Fimpel home in this village, attended high school from which she was graduated last spring, has gone to attend a business school in Middletown to prepare for a secretarial position.

Ben LeRoy and family, who have been living with Mrs. John Yager on Sixteen, will move to Callicoon where Ben is employed in the kitchen of St. Joseph’s Seminary.

80 Years Ago - 1944

Mr. and Mrs. William Mall returned to New York Sunday after spending ten days with Pa and Ma Mall in this village.

Miss Dorothy Schumacher returned to Adelphi College, Garden City, this week, after spending a week’s vacation with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. George Schumacher, who bought the James Robisch place in Beechwoods. Dorothy also attended summer school at Adelphi where she will graduate next year, after which she expects to teach German and social studies.

Jeff firemen were called out between 2:30 and 3 last Thursday afternoon to put out a grass fire in the rear of the home of August Segar on East Main Street. The fire was quickly subdued by the aid of chemical tanks.

Beechwoods: Mr. and Mrs. Frank Mastay and daughter of Jersey City are spending a week at the home of the Philip Schaefers.

White Sulphur Springs: The large new barn on the Mrs. Flora Grant farm here is nearing completion. Stanley Grant of New Jersey, eldest son of Mrs. Grant, has been in charge of the work.

Youngsville: Of the high school graduates last spring, Donna Snyder has gone to visit her mother in South Dakota and will take an office job in Philadelphia. Wilbur Kespert is in an Army camp in Missouri. John Menges expects to enter the Navy, Rose Kaminer has taken a commercial job in New York and Nancy Patterson will take a home economics course in Cornell. 

70 Years Ago - 1954

Otto Hillig, 79, who was knighted by the King of Denmark after having made a flight across the Atlantic on June 25, 1931, to Copenhagen with Holger Hoiriis as his pilot, died on Sunday at the Liberty-Loomis Hospital.

Miss Janet Lindsley, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Lindsley of Loomis and Richard Fersch of Liberty were married at the Liberty Methodist Church on Sunday.

Miss Claudine Heidi Rapp, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Rapp of Cochecton, and August Munich, son of Mrs. Ruth Munich of Brooklyn, were married Sunday at the Presbyterian Church in Lake Huntington.

Students enrolled in the new parochial school, Our Lady of Angels, here in Jeffersonville are: Francis Armstrong, Joseph Caldiero, Dennis Crandall, Douglas Crandall, Lawrence Edge, Linda Freer, Janet Keeler, Sharon Mathern, Douglas Mullally, Nancy Mullally, James Mullally, Michael Nakao, Betty Peters, John Achiavone, Mary Shaara, Marianne Stadtmuller, Raymond Stadtmuller, Mary Margaret Tegeler, Anne Terlik, Edward Wahl, Patricia Wahl, Ruth Weissman, Jane Williams, Thomas Young and Vincent Young.

The Youngsville students attending the school are: Gloria Bernhardt, Charlie Cuciti, Douglas Harder, Fred Hick, Norman Jamieson, Wayne Klumpp, James LeRoy, Carmen Mayenzet, Kevin Mullally, Kevin Rogler, Joseph Simora and Gary Wagner.

Samuel Yasgur of Bethel won the grand championship in the dairy type judging of pure breds at the Grahamsville 4-H Youth Fair.

The four Luchs brothers are holding their 15th annual reunion here this week at brother Art’s home. The brothers are John of San Diego, Calif., Fred of New York City, William of Rochester and Art. They were all born in what is now the Schmohl house on Swiss Hill Road but they won’t say when.

Mrs. Mae Kratz and Mrs. Nancy Levitt of the Beechwoods are in the Callicoon Hospital.

Practically all of Youngsville visited Monticello during the 150th celebration.

60 Years Ago - 1964

Miss Barbara Ruth Segar, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Allen O. Segar of Jeffersonville, and Francis S. Keery, son of Mrs. Louise Keery of Binghamton, were married August 22, 1964, in St. Mary’s Assumption Church in Binghamton.

Edward C. Sykes has filed a records-breaking number of signatures with the Election Commissioners in Monticello last Friday, thus assuring himself a spot on the ballot this fall. The total number filed was 2245, more than twice the number filed for either major party for the upcoming general election.

The Chopin Singing Society of Passaic, N.J., will visit this area once again when it makes its annual bus ride to Joseph Bekarciak’s Valley View House in Kenoza Lake on September 20. Mr. Bekarciak is an associate member of the Society. A High Mass will be offered at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Callicoon in memory of the Society’s deceased members.

The local veterinarian, Dr. George Hahn, was uninjured but his International Truck was demolished in an accident which occurred on Sunday morning on Route 52, about a mile south of Jeffersonville.

First Lieut. Patrick M. Tobin, son of Mr. and Mrs. Neil J. Tobin of Callicoon, has arrived for duty with the U.S. Air Force Hospital at Osan AB, Korea.

50 years ago - 1974

The Callicoon Cougars, in their first season of existence, not only attained the championship of the Mountain League but also had the honor of having six of their players selected for the All-Star Game at Schautz Stadium in Scranton in October. Their 3rd baseman, Scott Makela of Hankins, was named as the League’s Most Valuable Player.

Vincent P. Zanetti has been elected to the office of Executive Vice President of the United National Bank in Callicoon. Other offices of the bank are located at Narrowsburg, Sparrow Bush and Cudde-backville. Mr. Zanetti is a resident of Grahamsville.

Mr. and Mrs. Harold Wilcox of Damascus, Pa., announce the engagement of their daughter, Ruby Diane, to Scott W. Milk, son of Mr. and Mrs. Dewayne Milk of Long Eddy.

At the annual clambake of the Callicoon Volunteer Firemen, held Sunday, Chief William Schultz presented a 51-year badge and lapel pin to William Metzger, and a 50-year badge and pin to former Chief Charlie Engert.

The Irvington Hotel of South Fallsburg, a local landmark for 54 years, was leveled in a spectacular fire, visible as far away as Ellenville, just hours after the last guests left on Wednesday evening of last week. Nearly 100 Fallsburg and Monticello firemen fought the blaze for four hours.

Karen Faberman of Parksville won a Chevy Nova Notchback at a drawing held at the Fallsburg Family Festival at Morningside Park on Labor Day. Proceeds from the raffle went to the Sullivan County Cerebral Palsy Children’s Rehabilitation Center in Liberty.

Peggi Frazier, daughter of Mrs. Sally (Mudge) Frazier of St. Croix and Durwood Frazier of Florida, was married to Joseph Johnson on August 31 at the home of her mother. The bride is the granddaughter of Mrs. Belle Mudge of Callicoon.

40 Years Ago - 1984

Nearly four years after the disappearance of John J.J. McGough and his wife, Jimmy, of Eldred, wreckage of their private plane was found Wednesday, September 5, in the rugged Bighorn Mountain Range of Northwest Wyoming, just 100 feet from the top of the ridge. The McGoughs, both experienced pilots, had flown from Sullivan County International Airport en route to their ranch in Wyoming. They encountered a severe snowstorm which it is believed confused them in their flight pattern. According to authorities, the plane could very well have been covered with snow since the fatal crash on October 18, 1980.

Col. Terrence L. Roche, son of Marion Roche of Hortonville and the late James Roche, and past commander of Fort Drum, was awarded the Legion of Merit, the second highest peace-time award presented by the United States Department of Army. He has been on assignment three times to Europe, once in Paris as executive officer and commander of Headquarters Company in 1963, and as a student at the British Staff College in Camberly, England, in 1971. Although he did not originally plan to make the service his career, Col. Roche says he has enjoyed the time he has been there.

Fallsburg’s Benjamin Cosor Elementary School opened its kindergarten program Wednesday with five sets of fraternal twins on the enrollment.

Miss Lisa Marie Covart became the bride of Steven G. Sauer on August 18, at a ceremony held at the Lake Huntington Presbyterian Church. 

Judith M. Berger and Steven R. Sugarman were married at the Ahavath Israel Synagogue in Liberty on August 12.

Karen Lee Hill and Thomas Michael Darbee were united in marriage at the United Church in Roscoe on August 4.

Jeffrey Graham, son of Mr. and Mrs. Leo Graham of Jeffersonville, has entered the Franciscan Order in Connecticut. Graham was a teacher in Delaware Valley Central School from 1981 to 1983.

30 Years Ago - 1994

In observance of Grandparents Day, the Kenoza Lake Firemen hosted a pancake breakfast last Sunday at the firehouse.

Max and Arlene Schwartz, former 35-year residents of Livingston Manor won $8,000 in lieu of a car at the raffle sponsored by the Rotary Club for the youth fund. Max’s cousin, Marty Schwartz, won the raffle last year.

Mark and Carla Kutsher were presented with the Anti-Defamation League’s 1994 Americanism Award Sunday at a dinner held at Kutsher’s Resort. Attorney General Robert Abram was given the William and Naomi Gorowitz Institute Service Award, given to an outstanding member of the law enforcement community, at the dinner.

Helen I. Harsh, national president of the Ladies Auxiliary to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, will attend the testimonial dinner and fall conference of the Department of New York Ladies Auxiliary to be held at the Villa Roma. Sandra Flynn of Callicoon is state president and will preside at the meeting.

The 9th annual Doll and Teddy Bear Show will be held at the Liberty VFW Hall on September 25.

Ron Gozza, mayor of Liberty, has announced that he will not seek a second term in the March election. He has decided to run for village justice and to continue helping the Greater Liberty Chamber of Commerce succeed.

20 Years Ago - 2004

In the beginning, hosting the Woodstock Music Festival was just a business decision for struggling Bethel farmer Max Yasgur, son of Sam and Bella Yasgur of Maplewood. He ended up fighting for the rights of people with whom he shared little in common, including matters of opinion. Yet he championed the hippies’ right to assemble, speak and perform on any topic pertinent to them. The Sullivan County Historical Society posthumously awarded Max Yasgur its History Maker Award during the society’s annual dinner Sunday at Mr. Willy’s in Monticello.

Fred Stabbert III, publisher of the Sullivan County Democrat, has been named the newest president of the New York Press Association (NYPA), a 382-member association of community newspapers across New York State. A 10-year member of the NYPA board of directors, Stabbert was installed as president at the annual meeting at Dansfords-on-the-Sound in Port Jefferson.

Tony’s Family Restaurant in Woodridge went up in flames Tuesday along with an adjoining apartment house that was home to three families, including the owner. All residents except a kitten got out safely.

The Catskill Mountain Business and Professional Women’s Club is proud to announce their 26th year’s honorees: Melissa Lanza, who is 2004 Woman of the Year, and Susan Hamlin, who will receive the Community Service Award.

Edythe Johnson of Callicoon, who celebrated her 101st birthday on September 6, took a ride in a Harley-Davidson sidecar through town on Sunday, driven by Phil Long and accompanied by her daughter, Joan. Mr. Long’s wife, Brenda, assisted in making the “Biker Lady” comfortable.

10 Years Ago - 2014

Police beefed up their presence in the Delaware River valley area of Sullivan County yesterday as the manhunt intensified for suspected cop-killer Eric Frein. The 31-year-old is accused of shooting two Pennsylvania state troopers in neighboring Pike County, PA, Friday night, killing one and injuring the other.

This Monday, the official ribbon cutting signifying the completion of the Sullivan Regency will take place and Charles Brodsky will proudly take guests through the luxury condominium complex. The seven-story building is located at 685 Broadway in Monticello, overlooking the Catskill Mountains to the west.

She made her entrance into the world before the Model T Ford, before the first airline came into being, before women could vote. But she’s still a modern-day woman, Sullivan County’s Marie Zalesky, who will mark her 107th birthday on Sept. 20. She is not one to dispense advice cavalierly, but when asked about the ingredients for living a significant life, Zalesky lists work, friends and staying active. She volunteered for more than four decades at Grover Hermann Hospital in Callicoon, offering beverages, snacks and good cheer to hundreds of patients.