110 years ago - 1912

The creamery properties of the Dairy Products Company at Youngsville, Jeffersonville, Kenoza Lake, North Branch, Callicoon and Hankins are advertised to be sold at public auction at the courthouse in Monticello on April 11 at 11 a.m. in the closing out of the company’s affairs by the receiver for the benefit of the creditors.

The town people of Cochecton have been cutting ice loose around the bridge piers to evade damage if possible when the ice starts going out, which is very thick, measuring 30 to 32 inches.

James Percival of Hancock, employed the past 8 years by S.N. Wheeler and Sons Co., will move to Callicoon about the 15th of this month and establish a hardware and plumbing business, having formed a partnership with J.L. Bush.

Mrs. Ora M. Bush has purchased the stock of millinery of Mrs. O.F. Traynor and will hereafter conduct the store.

C.H. Valentine has purchased the undertaking and furniture business of George C. Abraham at Damascus, Pa., taking charge last week.

William Bollenbach of Jeffersonville, whose gristmill was totally destroyed by fire three weeks ago, will rebuild the mill with the work to be started in a short time. It will be built of concrete, 36x48, and George DeLap of Kenoza Lake will be in charge of construction.

Maple sugar from the bush of Fred Gager of Cold Springs, Pa., is on the market. It is delicious and the first of the season.

The long talked of electric road between Jeffersonville and Liberty may be built if the Liberty side can raise their share of the still unsubscribed stock which was found to be $4,400 at the last meeting of the businessmen’s association held at the Liberty House.

100 years ago - 1922

Fire discovered shortly after midnight Sunday night by a watchman did $1,000 worth of damage to the Liberty moving picture theater in Liberty. It is said that it will be several weeks before the village again has moving pictures. Woodwork in the basement, the first floor and the first row of seats were destroyed.

Postmaster Charles Bergner of Callicoon was awakened at about 4 o’clock last Wednesday morning by the reflection of flames through his bedroom window. Awake, he smelled smoke and knew his own handsome dwelling was on fire. The flames were making headway in the bathroom. Seizing a fire extinguisher that had been in the house 15 or more years, he made a desperate attack on the fire. The extinguisher worked and by the time Mrs. Bergner and their son, William, reached the scene, Mr. Bergner had the flames subdued.

Webster Orth, dealer of Overland and Willys Knight automobiles, advertises four touring Overlands, F.O.B. Toledo, for $550 each; Runabout, $550; Coupe $850; and Sedan, $895. The Willys, f.o.b. Toledo, can be bought for $1375 for a Runabout; $1875 for a Coupe and $2095 for a sedan. Look at the Low Price! Compare Values Offered. Phone 60-F2 for free demonstration.

90 years ago - 1932

Charles M. Mitchell, well-known Wayne County resident of Tyler Hill, Pa., was drowned in the Delaware at Damascus early Sunday morning, March 6, when his Buick sedan left the highway and ran over an embankment into the water.

The Wurtsboro World reports that former Sheriff, Fletcher E. Rhodes of Westbrookville, had the misfortune on Tuesday to sustain a broken leg when he fell from a truck.

At the Callicoon Hospital – a 7 lb. baby girl was born to Mr. and Mrs. Harold Thony of Jeffersonville last evening, March 8. Dr. J. Cameron Gain of Jeffersonville was attending physician.

Henry F. Gardner of Callicoon has been appointed by County Judge George L. Cooke as special district attorney in an appeal taken to the county court by Jacob Wingert, 73, of Fremont, convicted of disorderly conduct for using profane language before a woman.

The music at the Curtis home was not sponsored by the Women’s Literary Club but more correctly is sponsored by twelve women from the vicinity who are not at all connected with the club.

Miss L.B. Barnes of Stalker, Pa., and Miss Nettie Tyler of Hankins were callers at the newspaper office last Thursday. They are making the rounds of Sullivan County newspapers in the interest of the Sullivan County Unit of W.C.T.U. of which Miss Barnes is president.

The Long Eddy senior students of Callicoon High School held a card party in the auditorium of the Long Eddy school with proceeds to help finance a trip to Washington, D.C., during the Easter holidays.

Miss Eileen Cuddihe of Lordsville entertained a number of guests Saturday evening in honor of her 17th birthday including the Misses Jesse Fitzpatrick and F. Goodrich of Hankins and Patricia Bear of Mileses, and Carl Henke and Thomas Gilroy of Callicoon.

Born to Mr. and Mrs. Fred Beecher of Rock Valley, a daughter.

80 years ago - 1942

Dr. Thew J. Ice was in the county jail at Monticello waiting sentence Monday that carries a maximum term of forty years provided for conviction of arson in the first degree. After nearly fourteen hours, the jury returned with a verdict that declared him guilty of having conspired in a fire that resulted last October 15th in the burning of the Silver Grill, a tavern he operated in Bloomingburg. He was sentenced to fifteen to twenty years for his part in the crime. Dr. Ice, a retired Army dentist, filed for a certificate of reasonable doubt and will have a hearing before the Supreme Court on April 4. Jack Rason, Army deserter who confessed to having set the fire, left Monticello Tuesday for Dannemora to begin service of a sentence of 7 1/2 to 15 years for his part in the first degree arson.

Don L. Albee, chairman of the Sullivan County Defense Savings Committee, completed this week the organization of a county staff with the appointment of a committee chairman for each of Sullivan’s fifteen townships as follows: Bethel, John A. Fine; Callicoon, Mrs. Henry Knack; Cochecton, Stephen Wormuth; Delaware, Valleau Curtis; Fallsburg, Earl Stratton; Forestburgh, Bernath Klein; Lumberland, Dr. A.K. Smith; Highland, Frederick Lewis; Neversink, Robert Many; Mamakating, Philip Stanton; Liberty, Joseph Fersch; Tusten, Norman Persbacker; Thompson, Alvin O. Benton; Rockland, Roy C. Johnston of Livingston Manor and M.C. Knickerbocker of Roscoe. Eighteen 4-H Club members have ordered a thousand trees for planting in Sullivan County. With this year’s order, over 110,000 trees have been planted in the county since 1937.

There was about two feet of snow in Monticello today. Looks like winter there.

It is rumored that Clifton Mathern of Jeffersonville has been wounded overseas and is being brought back to the continental United States to recuperate.

About $150 was realized from a dance of the American Legion held in the school. The proceeds will be used to finance the air raid lookouts.
Mr. and Mrs. Peter Stelling of Brooklyn purchased the Alfred Kastner farm near Callicoon Center and expect to take possession April 1.

Philip Warner, president of the senior class in Long Eddy School, has been notified by the American University, Washington, D.C., that he has been awarded a foundation scholarship in the College of Liberal Arts in the amount of $250 a year or $1,000, if he completes the course.

Three youths were in Monticello jail at Monticello awaiting Grand Jury action on burglary charges because they waived examination when arraigned before magistrate Otto Meyer at Lake Huntington. They are charged with having forced a window in the Fosterdale Diner last weekend, removed fifteen cents from a pinball machine and $1.35 from a Red Cross collection box.

70 years ago - 1952

A Supreme Court justice has ruled that five White Lake boat liverymen are not entitled to use 226 acres of White Lake, Inc. He has granted an injunction restraining the liverymen from using the waters for boating, bathing or fishing.

At the Callicoon Hospital it was a girl to Mr. and Mrs. Fred Baer in Callicoon; a daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Franklyn Bartle of Yulan on March 2; a daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Robert Sillery of Greeley, Pa., March 2nd.

Mrs. Paul Rasmussen of Beechwoods announces the engagement of her sister, Dorothy Boyle, to Harvey Buddenhagen of the Beechwoods. The wedding will take place April 20 in Hoboken, N.J.

Miss Lorraine Simon of Rock Valley became the bride of Edward Hasser of Hancock on Saturday. Rev. John Swords performed the ceremony, and he and Mrs. Swords offered special music.

Mr. and Mrs. William Coe of Damascus were feted on the occasion of their 25th wedding anniversary at the home of their daughter and husband, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Decker of Tyler Hill, Pa. About 75 relatives and friends joined them.

Rev. and Mrs. Morris L. Husted, former Methodist minister and his wife, have been praised by Poughkeepsie officials for their work in running a detention home.

60 Years Ago -1962

New York’s Mayor Robert F. Wagner will be the speaker at the annual Jeffersonian dinner in Sullivan County this spring or early summer.
A small sum of petty cash was stolen from the office of P.S. Gottschalk Feed Store in Hankins some time Saturday night.

Howard Stewart of Callicoon is building an addition onto the new Victory Store at Jeffersonville to house a laundromat which will contain 15 washers and 5 dryers.

Miss JoAnn Chellis and Elliott P. Moran of Jeffersonville were united in marriage on March 3 at the Jeffersonville Presbyterian Church.

A Hurleyville house, in which a rebuilding project was virtually completed, burned from a fire of unknown origin at 12:35 p.m. Saturday. Hurleyville Fire Chief, Abe Jacobson, said that there remained only two more day’s work on the house, which was owned by Jack Fleischer, one of the operators of the Roxy Hotel and was located on Hill St.

The Rev. George Beimler has accepted a call to the Liberty Presbyterian Church.

Mamakating Supervisor Kenneth Godfrey returned to his Bloomingburg home on Friday after spending four days at Hamilton Ave. Hospital from injuries suffered when he was kicked by a cow on his farm.

The White Lake Fire Department tried out its new Ford pumper which was received on Friday in a temperature not far above zero.

50 Years Ago - 1972

The Delaware Valley Eagles captured the Western Sullivan League basketball crown defeating Jeff-Y 53-46 before a jam-packed house at the Livingston Manor Central School Wednesday evening. On the team are Steve Ropke, Tom Flynn, Bill Graby, Tom Kobylenski, Craig Reimer, Allen Wachter, Phil Long, Mike Long, Doug Fink, Gene Flynn, Bernard Henke and Bradley Layton. Stan Kobylenski is the coach. They lost to Chester in Section 9 playoffs.

Sheriff Joseph Wasser is convinced the body of Charles Conklin, 64, of Orangeburg, is still somewhere under the snow in the Willowemoc vicinity. His car, locked and with the fanbelt broken, was found along Woodard Rd., three-quarters of a mile off the Parksville-Willowemoc county highway.

Sullivan County’s participation in the Camping and Sports Show at the New York Coliseum, beginning last Saturday, has been noted on at least three TV news programs and in the New York area press. This year, the Publicity and Tourism Department of the county used an Indian theme with the cooperation of the Indian League of the Americas, the group which has a mini-reservation at Barryville.

St. Joseph’s Seraphic Seminary in Callicoon, which opened its doors 70 years ago, will cease to operate as a Minor Seminary as of June 1972. A dwindling number of students and the financial outlay required to operate the institution were among the more cogent reasons which led to the decision to close the facility.

“Flower Drum-Song” will be presented by the DVCS Chorus and Band on March 16 and 17 at the school.

40 Years Ago - 1982

The Bethel Town Board Wednesday accepted a bid of S21,844 from the VanKeuren Construction Corporation of Narrowsburg to renovate the Bethel Medical Building in White Lake which is to be converted in May to a new town hall. The existing town hall, located in Kauneonga Lake, is to be converted into new town justice courts when the town offices are transferred to White Lake.

Mickey Barnett and his band will provide the music for the Annual St. Patrick’s Firemen’s Dance of the Callicoon Volunteer Fire Department on Saturday evening, March 13, at Hermann Hall in Callicoon.

Former Liberty residents, Seymour and Dolores Levine Seller, are now practicing law in South Miami, Fla. She is the daughter of Liberty attorney Lazarus Levine. He was a practicing architect in Liberty before entering a new career in the practice of law.

A check in the amount of $2,362 was presented to the Firefighters Burn Treatment Fund by the Neversink Fire Prevention Committee from proceeds of a show presented by the Black Velvet Band.

Gorgeous Red Velvet, an Australian Shepherd, bred and owned by Mrs. Ralph F. Williams of Long Eddy, won a five point major on February 28th. She won Winners and Best of Winners at the Australian Shepherd Club of Texas Winter Show held in Conroe, Texas, beating 49 dogs. . . A total of 1500 dogs were entered for judging at the Monticello Kennel Club’s fourth Annual Dog Show held Sunday at the Monticello Raceway. Carl Burns, show chairman, said that representatives from Canada and Maryland attended the show and one entrant came from Australia. Since the show is in Monticello, none of the Monticello Kennel Club members entered the show.

30 Years Ago - 1992

Jackie Ward, a South Fallsburg High School honor student, showed her style on ice skates to an appreciative crowd at an ice skating party and figure skating exhibition held at the Pines Hotel in South Fallsburg on Sunday. Jackie placed second in the recent Eastern Regional finals and third nationally in her class. Dee Sherb of Monticello, 15-years old, also performed.

The 95th anniversary of the founding of the National Parents-Teachers Association was marked with a special program at the Liberty PTA meeting in February.

New York City Comptroller, Elizabeth Holtzman, was a guest speaker at the March as Women’s History Month program at the Sullivan County Community College. The youngest woman ever elected to the United States Congress and the first woman ever elected as a district attorney in New York City, she spoke on “Women and the Law.”

Ricki Helene Kaplan, daughter of Ben and Harriet Kaplan of Rock Hill, became the bride of Dr. Steven Lacy on January 11. The wedding was performed at the historic Pierce House in Lincoln, Mass… Deborah Clark became the bride of Edward Noecker of Liberty on December 28 at St. Peter’s Church in Liberty.

The engagement of Michael Wade Krutman and Michele Andrea Gaber has been announced by their parents, Sue and Robert Krutman of Woodridge and Dorine and Louis Gaber of Matawan, N.J.

Ray and Nolua Dexter of Damascus, Pa., celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with a gathering of friends and relatives at the Damascus Volunteer Ambulance building on February 22. About 175 guests attended.

Cory Rezukas of Woodbourne caught a rare (for this county) 36 inch, 10 lb. 12 oz. pike on Echo Lake.

With all the style and grace of the great Winter Olympics in France, the Special Winter Olympic’s downhill ski races lit the Olympic torch last Sunday and Monday at Holiday Mountain with talent that sometimes surpassed their counterparts overseas for sheer nerve and daring. Like the winter games in Europe, the Special Winter Olympics pitted some of the best athletes from around the state to find the region’s representatives to the National Special Winter Olympics at Steamboat Springs. Colorado, next month.

The New York State Banking Board has conditionally approved an organizational certificate to form the Community Bank of Sullivan County to be headquartered in the Monticello Mall in the Town of Thompson.

Mary T. Burgio of Carbondale and Joseph J. Pilny of Jeffersonville were married February 15, 1992 at the First Presbyterian Church in Jeffersonville.

The 44-year-old Callicoon Theater has undergone considerable renovation with the installation of new and wider seats, more leg room and new carpeting. It reopened February 28 with the showing of “My Girl.” Jim and Barbara Kayton are the owners of the popular entertainment spot.
The 11th annual All Breed Dog Show was held at the Monticello Raceway on Saturday. There were 1,700 dogs entered in 133 breeds or varieties as well as another 175 obedience entries.

Kate Landau of Tri-Valley recorded the seventh fastest 3000-meter run in state history when she ran the fastest 3000 time to qualify for the New York State Intersectional indoor championships to be run Saturday at Cornell University in Ithaca. She lapped the field to win the Section IX Qualifier and broke her own school record of 9:52.3. The state record is 9:36.6. According to Missy latauro, Landau is aiming for the 2-mile at the National Indoor Championship in Syracuse on March 15.

20 years ago - 2002

Columbia Development Corporation, which owns the Ames Plaza in Monticello, is looking to add a Home Depot and an Applebee’s to the location despite the closure of the Ames store. The plan is to demolish the Ames store. The gift shop that is there would relocate to another store in that plaza, joining a Subway sandwich shop.

In danger of losing the Delaware Youth Center, the youth of the area hosted a dance with the band “The Unseen Scene.” The event was put together by Sullivan West/Delaware Valley graduate John Streever. The youth center savings have been depleted by necessary renovation projects over the year.

In recent years Latinos have surpassed African Americans as the largest minority in Sullivan County. With about 7,000 Hispanics living in the area, they represent an estimated 9.2 percent of the county’s population and are an economic and political force. A group of approximately 80 people, mostly local Latinos, gathered together at the Neighborhood Facility to discuss issues affecting the community, under the auspices of Somos la Llave de Future, or We are the Key to the Future.

The “Unusual Year” hampers maple syrup production this end of winter, as local maple farms are tapping trees, just a bit earlier than usual, due to the unpredicted warmer weather.

The Monticello Elks Club held a ceremony to honor those who protect and serve the public. A big focus of the evening was the 9/11 Attacks. Twenty-five service organizations were honored at the dinner. Congressman Gilman also offered his thanks.

Ideal Snacks in Liberty is expanding its local business, adding a 38,000-square-foot building, and 50 new positions. The company already employs 60 people. Construction began in October and all work is being completed by local contractors. The project is expected to be completed by May of this year.

The Sullivan County Community College Generals began their quest for a fourth NJCAA Division III National Championship in Dehi.

10 years ago - 2012

In front of cheering hundreds, Entertainment Properties Trust (EPT) and Empire Resorts officials vowed to make the county not just a gambling but vacation mecca. Emanuel “Manny” Pearlman, chair of Empire’s board, which oversees Monticello Casino and Raceway, said, “There’s going to be a large component of non-casino development on the property.” That property is more than 1,500 acres encompassing the bulk of the former Concord Resort in Kiamesha Lake.

Catskill Regional Medical Center in Harris has announced the following births: a daughter, Stephanie Michelle Fox, on February 27, to Jessica Myers and Russell Fox, of Swan Lake; a daughter, Isabella Julia Deans, on February 28, to Jennifer Wowk and Michael Deans, of Livingston Manor; a son, Connor James Joseph Casey, on February 29, to Jaime Snow and Joshua Casey, of Youngsville; and a son, Tristan John, on March 1, to Melissa and Zachary Travis, of Narrowsburg.

The Livingston Manor Wildcats will be playing Section X champion Madrid-Waddington at the Glens Falls Civic Center on Friday at 11:45 a.m in the state Class D Final Four. The Wildcats earned their trip to the Final Four with a 69-53 victory over Bridgehampton (9-12) at SUNY New Paltz. Leading Manor (16-5) to the win was senior guard Troy Correa, who scored a career-high 40 points. Just four-days earlier, Correa recorded his previous career high of 31 points in the Wildcats’ 86-54 triumph over Greenburgh Academy.