130 Years Ago - 1895

Levi Layman of the Beechwoods district, who gained notoriety some time ago by announcing that his death would occur upon a certain day – long since passed – foretold to him in a dream, is now attracting the attention of his neighbors by eating grasshoppers.

Plans are now completed for a new creamery, 36’x140 feet to be erected near the O&W depot in Liberty. It will be one of the most modern in its arrangement of the many milk establishments along that railroad. Messrs. Jordan and Pound will be the owners.

The team of Ernest Bauernfeind, the North Branch miller, was standing on the switch at Callicoon Depot Friday while some mill stuff was being unloaded from a car. An engine engaged in switching some cars about the yard came along and ran into the team, injuring one of them quite badly.

The report of the state superintendent of public instruction for the school year just closed shows that there are 184 school districts in the county, employing 212 teachers. The whole number of licensed teachers is 280 of which 194 are females.

Charles Scheidell cut a large field of oat stalks down for hay the other day. The grasshoppers got the grain. Talking about grasshoppers, Casper Fuhrer, the Swiss Hill butcher, tells me he was held up by them the other day on the road from Youngsville to Briscoe, not exactly in a knight of the road style, but the clouds of insects were so dense that it was difficult to make his way through them. “That’s the truth.” Then along comes “Sheriff” Hank Wagner, telling about some grasshoppers picking up a scythe and mowing down a field of grass, or something like that — I have forgotten the exact story, but that’s a d--- lie, but as Hank is duly licensed, why it’s all right.

120 Years Ago - 1905

A city gentleman, aged 70 years, stopping at Polster’s Anchor Farm, has been relieved of a hiccoughing spell which he took eleven days ago through the efforts of Dr. Davidson Friday.

Scheidell and Myers of the Sullivan County Dairy Co. on Saturday, closed a deal whereby they secured control of the creamery at Galilee, Pa. This creamery is a very important one, with a large supply of milk. It manufactures butter chiefly and last month turned out 35,000 lbs.

Situated on one of the highest hills in this county, amid maple and locust trees, rises the Fosterdale Heights of Kilian Mueller. But not alone in the location because city folks seem glued to the place by the fine hospitality of Mr. and Mrs. Mueller. During the summer season various amusements are held at the house but the greatest celebration is the birthday of Mrs. Mueller on July 17.

Sullivan County exchanges are telling about a dead man who recently sang at his own funeral. A phonograph was placed on the lid of the coffin. When the religious ceremonies were over, the phonograph was turned on and the mourners listened to the dead man’s voice rendering one of his favorite hymns.

Francis M. Hartmann, professor of physics in Cooper Institute of New York, was a visitor in town Monday. The Record not long ago carried a sketch of this brilliant young man, showing his rapid rise from a farmer boy in Cochecton to a professorship chair in Cooper Institute.

110 Years Ago - 1915

The Jeffersonville Board of Education, at a special meeting with four members present and one absent, voted unanimously to employ council to protect the interests of the Jeffersonville  School District in the matter of the appeal of the outside districts from an order of school consolidation issued by Charles S. Hick and Frederick Lewis. Robert McGinn has been engaged.

The execution of Charles Becker, set for yesterday, has been put off until tomorrow by the prison warden at the request of Supreme Court Justice John Ford of New York, who has Becker’s appeal for a new trial under consideration. Justice Ford decided that he had no power to grant a new trial.

The Sarah Winslow property of Callicoon was sold at public sale to Henry Engert of that place.

Mrs. John Wagner Jr. of Jeffersonville received the sad news that her brother, Edward Gatens, had lost his life in the overturned excursion steamboat Eastland at Chicago. Fully 1,000 persons were trapped between the three decks and went to death with no chance to escape.

Mr. and Mrs. Edward Phillips Armstrong of Norwich, Conn., announce the marriage of their daughter, Elizabeth, to Arthur George Beck on July 23.

Herman Molusky of Callicoon and Miss Minnie Fromm of Hortonville were married at Callicoon Center parsonage, July 18.

Farm Folks, the rural drama, again drew a full house at Masonic Hall under the auspices of the Presbyterian Willing Workers, a local cast. The characters were taken by Raymond Kohler, Edwin Weber, Fred Seibert, Philip Metzger Earl Allington, Miss Bertha Schmidt, Mrs. Conrad Metzger, Miss Irene Kocher, Mrs. I.H. LaValley, Mrs. V.P. Scheidell and Mrs. Louise Ranft.

100 Years Ago - 1925

The village trustees are having notices sent to all users of the village water, warning them not to use the water for sprinkling, automobile washing or other outdoor purposes, under penalty of having the water shut off from their premises in addition to the fine provided. A number of families in the village are without water on account of increased consumption and low pressure.

Father Louis of St. Joseph’s College, Callicoon, has started the organization of Callicoon Troop No. 2 of the Boy Scouts of America in Jeffersonville. Registered scouts are Frederick Bohn, Paul Keyser, Lee Wolf, Vincent Mullally and Frank Pramberger. Not registered are Irving Wagner, Bert Mullally, Bernard Wolf and Joseph Alpy. Scoutmaster is Frank Wagner, Patrol Leader Paul Keyser and Assistant Patrol Leader Frederick Bohn.

The Neversink Water Company last week filed a deed in the county clerk’s office covering the water rights of the Neversink River at both  Cuddebackville and Hackledam. This company proposed to erect a large dam at Hackledam and a modern plant at Cuddebackville to provide 66,000 horsepower.

Rev. I. William Hones of Roscoe has been engaged to preach in the Jeffersonville Presbyterian Church every Sunday  morning and evening for a period of six months.

90 Years Ago - 1935

The truck which delivers the daily papers here for the Kissen News Agency of Port Jervis, turned upside down a couple hundred feet below Charles Stecker’s house in Delaware, after it had run off the road into the ditch, hit the concrete curbing on the sluice, and knocked over two concrete posts.

When Ralph Gaeto, aged  32, of Cadosia was brought to trial in Broome County Court in Binghamton last week on a bail jumping charge, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to seven years in Attica prison.

The board of education of Kenoza Lake grade school has engaged Leo Wolff of Kenoza Lake for principal in place of Herbert C. Griffin of Olean, who declined re-engagement. Fred A. Hust is retained for the primary department of the school.

Sixteen Jeffersonville firemen are now acting as village traffic cops during the evenings. They get fifty cents an hour and the money is placed in the fire company’s treasury. Those volunteering have been duly appointed by the village board and include Mark Kohler, Earl Kohler, August Lott, C.M. Peterson, Edwin Keyser, James Holmes, Arch Freer, John Reyman, Leonard Hess, John Mages, Otto Bollenback, Edward Knack, Harold Leave and Al Townsend.

Mrs. Catherine Gedney of Jeffersonville, who last April was awarded by Justice Foster a judgment of $5,754.54 against the First National Bank of Jeffersonville, J. Ostrum Gedney, Joseph Welsh, the Callicoon National Bank, John S. Sutliff and Minna Williams, as her life interest in the Gedney House boarding house and farm at Kenoza Lake, assigned the judgment in the Jeffersonville bank for a consideration which does not appear in the record.

80 Years Ago - 1945

The Shady Lawn rooming house of 29 rooms, owned by Mrs. Helen Abrams of New York, and located on the former  Casper Van Berger farm on Swiss Hill between here and Kenoza Lake, was burned to the ground last Saturday. The fire spread so rapidly that the building was soon enveloped in flames and leveled to the ground with all its contents, in little over half an hour.

Traveling about the country one notices piles and piles of hay cut and rotting in the fields, because it has not been dry enough to store. Some farmers are turning it into manure and others into bedding. Still others are putting their hay into silos green, having given up hope of the sun every coming out again long enough to dry crops.

Bertha Marjorie Miller of Narrowsburg and Leonard Guy Smith of Honesdale, Pa., were married July 21 at the Presbyterian Manse.

Heavy rains last week did considerable damage to roads and gardens around here. The Delaware section of this village was flooded. The garden of Leonard Huff on the Briscoe road was completely ruined, as were several others in this section.

“Smiling Jim’s Tavern” is the new name for the Delaware Inn, just taken over by James Manzolillo of Beechwoods who bought out the Joseph Brownsteins. The Manzolillo family moved from the farm and the Brownsteins have moved into the Paterson house in Delaware.

A son, Dennis Lee, weighing 8 lbs. 5 oz. was born to Mr. and Mrs. Henry Schaefer (Edith Schwatz) at Liberty Hospital July 22.

70 Years Ago - 1955

Fire of undetermined origin destroyed four buildings, four heifers and 1,000 chickens on the property of Ed Zieres at North Branch on July 22.

Leonard Inderlied of Youngsville who suffered a skull fracture in a fall at the Concord Hotel, Kiamesha Lake, last November 8, is improving at a N.Y. hospital.

Hobbies from stamp collecting to rattles (brought by Matthew Graham) were exhibited at the Lions Field last Friday, July 22, for the hobby show sponsored by the youth recreation center. All children received prizes. Colorful decorated bicycles and a carriage were shown later in the float show.

Ronald Sprague, 16 years old, of Livingston Manor, is in the Maimonides Hospital in critical condition with a broken neck and fractured skull, following a dive into the Willowemoc River on Sherwood’s flats on the Hazel road, when his head struck a projecting rock as he was diving. The boy’s body is paralyzed.

George Hahn of Cheshire, Conn., spent a few days last week at the home of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Hahn.

Peter Seibert, 7-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Ludwig Seibert of Youngsville, underwent an emergency appendectomy at Liberty Loomis Hospital over the weekend.

On Wednesday, August 3, N.Y. State will launch  its own music festival, at present being organized on a scale to rival the famed Berkshire Festival of the Boston Symphony in Lenox, Mass. The Empire State Music Festival, as it is called, will open with the Symphony of the Air as its orchestra and Edward VanBeinum as conductor.

60 Years Ago - 1965

The rocky bed of the Jeffersonville branch of the Callicoon Creek is all too evident in these days of prolonged drought. Where the fish are lying to keep their backs wet is a mystery. The situation is becoming more desperate as each rainless day passes. The fields are seared and brown after first crop hay is removed. The danger of forest fires increases hourly. Oh, for a week of rainy weather!

The piers which will carry the Expressway 64 feet over the Willowemoc River below Livingston Manor are nearing completion. The bridge will be 434 feet long and will have twin spans.

Mrs. Claudine Nearing of Pea Brook enjoyed going for a motorcycle ride with Alfred Feltman of New York City this past week. Claudine was a young 82 on her last birthday.

A mattress factory was completely destroyed and a Kiamesha Lake apartment building was seriously damaged Sunday.

The Sullivan  County Farm Bureau held an old-fashioned family picnic Sunday at the Liberty Park grounds with many local folks in attendance.

The gang was all there last Saturday morning at the Erie-Lackawanna station in Callicoon. The Community Improvement Committee, with help from many volunteers, painted nearly all of the station barn red. Thus far the beautification of Callicoon proceeds well with shrubs, flower barrels, library painting and now station painting. A reliable source reports a marked increase in the sale of paint thinner and turpentine Saturday afternoon.

50 Years Ago - 1975

Warren Sausmikat, 45, a clerk at the Callicoon Post office, died July 22. He was a member of the Callicoon Fire Department and is survived  by his wife, Janet, two daughters, Patricia and Karen, and a son, Gary, all at home, and his parents of Hortonville.

Dr. Arnold Bennett of Narrowsburg, a dentist with offices in Callicoon, died suddenly at his home on July 17. Among his survivors are his wife, Bertha, and two daughters, Beverly and Sharon.

More than 900 chicken barbecue dinners were devoured, 600 dozens of clams were dunked in golden, melted butter and were washed down with 40 kegs of beer as an unknown number of people gathered at Callicoon to make the 8th Annual Upper Delaware Canoe Regatta, sponsored by the Callicoon Volunteer Fire Department, a record smashing event and a day of pleasure for the throngs of people who attended. Cathy Martin of Narrowsburg yielded her crown to pretty Debbie Armbrust of Mileses. Jeanne Manzolillo of Callicoon was runner-up.

August H. “Gus” Knack, 76,of RD 1, Callicoon, was accidentally killed Tuesday afternoon, July 29, when he was knocked from a tractor he was driving, into a hay crimper that he was pulling.

Sullivan County hotelman Joseph Kutsher, 62, died unexpectedly last Friday at his home. He and his brother, Milton, operated Kutsher’s Country Club in Monticello, a resort started by his father, Louis, and his uncle Max in 1907.

Mr. and Mrs. Harold VanAker of Livingston Manor recently celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary at a party given by their daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Lee Ellmauer of Youngsville.

Mr. and Mrs. Robert Grund and Mr. and Mrs. Martin Baxrainer celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary at a joint chicken barbecue on July 6, given by their families in Cochecton Center.

Preston Burris Jr. guided Silk Stockings to the finish line in 1:57.3 to capture the Monticello-NYC OTB Classic Inaugural on July 27, and at the same time set a new world mark for fillies and mares of any age on a half-mile track and a new track record for the Mighty M, besting the former 1:58.1 made by Columbia George in 1970. It was harness racing’s richest event with a purse of $230,521.

40 Years Ago - 1985

Village of Liberty Mayor Pearl Bern signed a declaration honoring the Little Big Horns Drum and Bugle Corps on the occasion of their thirty-third year of existence. The Corps began to take shape at the instigation of members of the Russell D. Sprague Post of the American Legion as a way to get kids off the streets and interested in something productive. The name came from a director who saw a young bugler playing a rather large baritone bugle. Currently the Corps has 27 members. They played at 20 different parades during the past year and have won many trophies and awards which can be seen on display at the Elks Club. Membership is not limited to Liberty residents.

Three sets of twins were born at the Wayne Memorial Hospital in Honesdale, Pa., during the week of June 10: a girl and boy to Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Snyder of Beach Lake, Pa., twin boys to Mr. and Mrs. Greg Morcom of Waymart, Pa., and a girl and a boy to Mr. and Mrs. James Litzenbauer of Damascus, Pa.

Floyd Canfield of Narrowsburg retired from the NYS Troopers after 20 years of service, having spent the last eleven years assigned to the Narrowsburg barracks.

30 Years Ago - 1995

Paul and Lillian Long of West Yarmouth, Mass., celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on July 15. Former residents of Callicoon, they are the parents of six children, Paul Long Jr., Kathy Eschenberg, Richard Long, Patty Long, Michael Long and Terry Gagnon, and have 12 grandchildren, who hosted a party in their honor.

Fort Delaware will celebrate its 25th anniversary of operation on August 5. Special presentations will be made during the day.

For Connie Baum, he knew exactly where and when he lost his class ring. He was throwing snowballs in the winter of 1972, just weeks after getting his ring. A  search in the snow revealed nothing and it was thought to be lost forever. Just 23 years later, Mark Hess, 17, an incoming senior at J-YCS, thought that he would test out his new metal detector around the grounds of the school. Sure enough, the ring showed up and was returned to Baum when Hess went to his Three-A Automotive Shop in Callicoon Center. Baum was grateful for the efforts of the young man.

Robert Hanslmaier of Swan Lake has been named superintendent of the Woodbourne Correctional Facility. He has been employed by the Department of Corrections for 25 years.

The Liberty BOCES graduated its first LPN class with 16 students being pinned. Special honors were awarded to Alberta Hillriegel, Laurie Buday, Linda Hern and Linda Lyons. The students are now eligible for the state LPN boards, the final step toward licensure.

Rev. Michael Mahoney is the new pastor of the Hankins Assembly of God Church. Rev. Anna Herscher has been assigned to the United Methodist Church at White Sulphur Springs, taking over for the recently retired Rev. Bill Robertson.

The 4th Annual Jeffersonville Jamboree will be held August 5. Following a parade at noon, the events will take place at the Lions Field from 1-6 p.m.

The Gieger Farm in Jeffersonville will host the Saturday, August 5, Down-on-the-Farm Day, giving demonstrations of everyday farm work and life. Julie Raymond, Sullivan County Dairy Princess and her court will be on hand.

20 Years Ago - 2005

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg took a tour of the Catskills on Sunday in an effort to reach out to the large New York City summer community here. Currently in the midst of a re-election campaign, Bloom-berg kicked off his first official visit with a stop at Kutsher’s Country Club in Monticello, before visiting an Hasidic community in Woodridge, then finally an orthodox girls camp in Liberty.

Gavin DeGraw, arguably Sullivan County’s most famous homegrown musician, drew over 3,000 fans inside the nightclub of Kutsher’s Resort in an energetic performance Saturday evening. The show was clearly a smashing welcome home for DeGraw, the 28-year-old native of South Fallsburg, whose album, Chariot, has sold over one million records worldwide since its release in 2003. On this night, his older brother, Joey, accompanied him on guitar, although he is not currently touring with him.

The Shandelee Music Festival kicks off its 12th season this Thursday, August 4. Most noticeable to those who have already seen the schedule of concerts is that only two feature solo performances, and those two will still offer multiple musicians demonstrating their mastery of the piano. “We will have a lot of chamber music,” explained Shandelee Music Festival founder and president Daniel Stroup.

Wilmer Sipple, the Ontario & Western Railway Museum’s founder and curator, presided over the recent two-day O&W Festival at Roscoe’s O&W Museum. Roscoe is the only area community with a museum dedicated to the railway, which ran through Sullivan County  until closing operations in 1957.

10 Years Ago - 2015

Louis Dirie of Youngsville celebrated his 100th birthday at the Sullivan County Adult Care facility in Liberty on July 26. He shared the day with his son Clyde, 77, who was born on his father’s birthday. Lou and his six siblings attended a one-room schoolhouse with an outside privy. He married Maybelle Boettger, whom he met and ignored when they were children. He was also one of the most popular square dance callers in the area. In the 1960s, Louis Dirie perfected the skill in water dowsing which he had begun experimenting with when he was a youngster. With a forked stick, preferably from a tree that has bore pitted fruit, or two galvanized rods, Louis has located water veins and the best spots for wells for hundreds of people from as far away as Binghamton. He said modestly, “I can tell them how deep and how much water there is.”

The fear that the Cannonsville Dam near Deposit was being undermined has passed, and by tomorrow (Wednesday), the NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) expects water release levels to be back to the normal 500 cubic feet per second (cfs). The DEP was releasing water from the upstate reservoir into the west branch of the Delaware River at a rate of 1,500 cfs for most of July, after workers discovered water gushing out of test bores for a coming hydroelectric facility. Inspections and 24-hour monitoring proved the dam is “safe, stable and uncompromised,” according to DEP spokesman Adam Bosch, and federal regulators gave permission on Saturday to slowly resume normal releases from Cannonsville, which as of Sunday had 25 billion gallons of water remaining.