110 years ago - 1912

Dr. Augustus Meyer of Callicoon has purchased an Alpena Auto of William H. Lawrence of Jeffersonville.
The ice in the Delaware River broke up on Wednesday and from Dexter’s Crossing it nearly all went out. On Friday, following the heavy storm, the water rose 10 feet and when it hit the dam at Bush’s it tore it apart and also took the ballast from the eastbound track for quite a distance. About 100 people went on the bridge to witness the spectacle, and it was worth witnessing as the huge cakes of ice, as large as 20 feet across and nearly 3 feet thick, were borne on the crest of the rushing water and ice. When they hit the piers it resembled heavy thunder. At Jeffersonville, the creek clogged up at the stone arch bridge and flooded North Main Street doing considerable damage to cellars and yards. Kohlertown was also flooded. The new cement dam which was erected at Cook’s Creamery could not stand the pressure and gave way. At Petersburg the water rose over the wooden bridge and flooded the old barns and lower lots on the Peters Farm. At Roscoe an ice jam formed in the Willowemoc and started to flood most of the town. Dynamite was resorted to and 50 lbs. was used before any relief was had. Adam Rutz came near losing his life.
The Eagle Hotel in Jeffersonville, owned and conducted for the past 31 years by Charles Homer, was sold to the forepart of last week to Thomas C. Conklin of New York. The price paid is $50,000.

100 years ago - 1922

Volney and Julia Bently Skinner have marked 64 years of married life. They are tenderly cared for by their daughters, Florence and Bessie.
Bischoff Bros. received last week by parcel post 1,000 baby chicks, the first big batch of the season. — Cochecton Corresp.
Preparations are underway for the rebuilding of the area burned over in Bloomingburg in the fire of two weeks ago that did $100,000 damage.
Jos. J. Gerhardt, one time baseball star with the Giants and later hotel keeper in Liberty and Monticello, dropped dead of heart disease in Middletown Saturday. He was born in Washington in 1885.
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Thorwelle of Callicoon sailed from New York Saturday morning on the Ward liner “Sidney” for Nassau, Bahama Islands. After a week there, they will sail on to Havana, Cuba, for a week or ten days. This is Mr. Thorwelle’s second cruise to the West Indies.
Thomas Keegan, 53, postmaster at Ferndale eight years and reappointed in December died Saturday.
A daughter was born to Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Meyers on March 10.
Herb Buddenhagen has sold a Studebaker Light Six to Osmer Graby of near Petersburg.
The eddy in the Delaware River at Narrowsburg is filled with spoch ice that came down the river during the last storm. The heavy rain of last Tuesday caused many people to recall the flood of August 15th, 1920, when the brook that runs from the back of the Western Hotel in Callicoon, underneath the railroad to the river, became stopped up and threatened to do some damage to the Western Hotel. A gang of men rushed to work and, after some time, the water was flowing freely again. It went alright until it reached the barn in the rear of the Delaware House where it became stopped up again. The stones came down so fast that the few men available were unable to do anything, and the rushing water forced its way through the barns. The water rose rapidly, and it was necessary for Henry Engert to remove all of his horses which he keeps there.

90 years ago - 1932

Constable Benjamin Bullis of Long Eddy learned the other night that the parents will prefer to do their own spanking. Bullis had been trying for some time to break up a custom of peeping by Long Eddy boys while girls were at basketball practice in the school gymnasium. Curtains placed on the gym windows only inspired the boys to erect a moveable scaffold that would allow them to look over the curtains.
The Echo, a magazine published quarterly by the pupils of the Callicoon High School, ranked 3rd for merit among senior high schools publishing magazines with an enrollment of less than 300. The announcement was made at the 8th annual convention of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association at Columbia University.
March 29 and 30 has been set for the annual spring opening and informal party. Full details for the party have not been announced as yet.
Miss Pauline Graebner of Elmira is now superintendent of schools in the first supervisory district of Chemung County. She has been principal of the Wellsberg High School since 1928.

80 years ago - 1942

The ice moved out of the Delaware River March 9 with no danger along the river.
Mr. and Mrs. W. Lloyd Dodge of Callicoon have announced the engagement of their daughter, Elaine, to William Davidson of Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Henry “Buddy” Koster, well-known young Narrowsburg musician, has had a song, “Carmellia,” accepted by the United Recording Artists Bureau and in the near future it will be published for songsheet music.
At a meeting of school superintendents attended by Frederick J. Lewis of the first district, Charles Button, second district, and J.E. Smith of the first district of Delaware County, an order was issued dissolving the common school districts No. 12, Town of Fremont (Buck Brook), and No. 4 Town of Callicoon (North Branch). At the same time these districts were annexed to the Delaware Valley Central School District.
Mr. and Mrs. Milton Labar of Lookout, Pa., are the parents of a boy born March 7 at the Callicoon Hospital.
According to all reports the blackouts in Hortonville and Callicoon Tuesday evening were a complete success.
Principal Charles Lewis, Miss Rae Stern, Marion Bauernfeind, Elsie Rodgers, Mary Graby and Elizabeth Eschenberg left this morning to attend the press conference at Columbia University, New York City.
Mr. and Mrs. John Eldred of Damascus have named their newborn son, Glenn Leman. This is their second child.
Rose Marie, 12-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Wormuth of Lake Huntington, had a narrow escape on Saturday when she, together with several other girls who had been at their sewing circle, went on the lake to see where ice had been cut. She stepped on a cake of ice which had been cut and frozen fast again and finding it held her with one foot, tried the other foot too, and went down. She was pulled to safety by her companions, none the worse for her cold bath.

70 years ago - 1952

Fire of undetermined origin destroyed the “old” section of Honesdale High School last Thursday evening causing damage which may reach $200,000. Thirteen fire companies fought the blaze.
Mr. and Mrs. Frank Kinch of Beaverkill celebrated their 61st wedding anniversary last week.
Wm. Dirie Jr. was re-elected chief of the Hortonville Fire Department at the annual meeting last Thursday. Lawrence A. Mauerer was elected assistant chief.
Tom Schick of Fremont Center, one of the few remaining blacksmiths in the region, carries on his work daily.
A resolution calling upon the Board of Supervisors to purchase the Minisink Battleground near Minisink Ford along the Delaware River, was unanimously passed by the Sullivan County Historical Association at the court house in Monticello last evening. Thirty-five attended the meeting.

60 years ago - 1962

The Hortonville Grange Co-op, feed and farm supply store at Hortonville, was looted of at least $250 worth of merchandise on Tuesday evening after three burglars failed to open the safe.
Mrs. Josephine B. Keener, who operated the Antrim Lodge in Roscoe for 47 years with her husband, died March 9 in Middletown.
The Roscoe Central School will resume single session classes on March 26 when they occupy new classrooms and a new cafeteria.
Sullivan County’s recreational bounties were exposed for 97 hours to 166,215 visitors at the National Sports, Vacation and Travel Show in the Coliseum, New York City. The county’s “Old Country Store” exhibit outdrew them all and resulted in a tremendous volume of publicity.
Livingston Manor pulled out a narrow 52-51 win over Chester to gain them position to play Jeff-Youngsville for the Class D Section 9 playoff. Jeff-Y beat Tuxedo 76-55 Friday night.
The old mill dam at Livingston Manor will be filled in for the new DeBruce road for the Manor bypass on Route 17. The old dam formerly held water for the old Gray grist mill which ceased operations in the late ‘20s.
The Martin Hermann Lumber Co., now in its 73rd year of operation, will celebrate the grand opening of a 3,000 square foot display and showroom with open house this Saturday, March 17. There will be prizes and refreshments.
The Staten Island Farms said this week that it will close its milk receiving station in Roscoe April 1st. Eighty-four dairy farmers have been supplying the station with 500 cans of milk daily.

50 years ago - 1972

Paula Bitter, a sophomore at the Tri-Valley Central School, representative of Sullivan County 4-H Clubs, met with State Senator Warren M. Anderson at a breakfast on March 7 in Albany. Mary Ann Smithers, Sullivan County Cooperative Extension Agent, accompanied Paula.
Rudolph G. Noetzel and Henry Sandlas IV, both of North Branch and freshmen at Grahm Junior College in Boston, are members of their college championship basketball team. The 1972 Lions took the Massachusetts State Junior College tournament and have a 14-5 record, a new record.
At the Liberty-Loomis Hospital, it was a girl, Randi, March 3, to Mr. and Mrs. Jario DeAranj of Liberty; a boy, March 4, Russell Lee, to Mr. and Mrs. Russell Turner of Loch Sheldrake; a girl, March 6, to Mr. and Mrs. Franklin Ross of Livingston Manor; a girl, March 7, to Mr. and Mrs. Walter Jones of Liberty.
It was a son, Joseph Frederick, to Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Fischer of Fosterdale on March 11 at Community General Hospital in Monticello.
The stork was mighty busy at the Liberty-Loomis Hospital this past week: February 27, a boy to Mr. and Mrs. Lee Rasmussen of Youngsville; a boy to Mr. and Mrs. Warren Krum of White Sulphur Springs, February 28; a boy to Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Irwin of White Sulphur Springs; a girl to Mr. and Mrs. John Weber of Swan Lake; a boy to Mr. and Mrs. Dennis Baim of Youngs­ville; February 29, a boy to Mr. and Mrs. Earl Jacobs of Roscoe and a girl to Mr. and Mrs. Homer Salisbury of Roscoe; March 1, a girl to Mr. and Mrs. Donald Benjamin of Rock Hill, a girl to Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Taylor of Ferndale, a girl to Mr. and Mrs. Alvin Ruff of North Branch, a girl to Mr. and Mrs. Richard Helms Jr. of Livingston Manor; and March 2, a boy to Mr. and Mrs. Bryon Smith of Neversink and Mr. and Mrs. William McDoal of Livingston Manor.
Two Bogner-Seitel Homes salesmen, Nat Karasik and Arthur Mautner, have recently joined the “Million Dollar Circle” awarded to them by the National Association of Home Builders. Each man has sold over $1,000,000 of homes in 1971 for Bogner-Seitel. Mr. Karasik has been with the firm just over a year, and Mr. Mautner has been associated with them for eight years. He has previously sold this amount of homes, but it is the first time Mr. Mautner has received the award from N.A.H.B.

40 years ago - 1982

At the annual meeting of the New York Press Association held in Albany, March 6 and 7, the late Bruce H. Wells was awarded a First Prize for Best Newspaper Column in 1981. The award was for a series of articles describing his own experience as a cancer victim. The Sullivan County Democrat shared in Wells’ prize as the newspaper which published his regular column for more than a decade. The Democrat also received Honorable Mention for Best Spot News Coverage of the Year for its reporting of the disappearance of Mr. and Mrs. John J.J. McGough of Yulan over the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming in October, 1980, and the subsequent unsuccessful air search for their downed light plane.
A 280 foot long chicken coop, located just outside of Callicoon Center, was partially destroyed Wednesday night when the roof of the structure collapsed under the weight of a heavy accumulation of snow. The coop is owned by the H. Frank Poultry Farm and at least 140 feet of the building fell to the ground trapping about 30,000 chickens.
The Delaware Valley cheerleading squad was awarded first place in competitions held at the Orange County Community College in Middletown on Sunday afternoon. Nearly 1000 people attended the competition between schools in Sullivan, Orange, Ulster and Rockland counties.
Annemarie Henderson, the reigning Miss Catskill USA, was crowned Miss New York USA Sunday at the Halloran House in New York City.

30 years ago - 1992

Tri-Valley sophomore, Kate Landau, became the first indoor track athlete in school history to win an individual medal at the New York State indoor state meet when she claimed first in the 300 at Saturday’s meet at Cornell University. Landau’s 9:47:6 broke her own school record from the week before and moved her up to fifth fastest ever on the state list. The mark also rates Landau 17th best ever in the nation for prep 3000 runners.
Lou Soracco was honored for 70 years of service to Liberty Hose and Truck Co. No. 2 at the annual officers’ party. More than 120 attended the event in which Steve Johnstone was named Fireman of the Year.
The 7th annual skate-a-thon raised $3,740 in pledges for the Delaware Community Center last Saturday. They plan to meet again next year.
Andrew Lubin, 16-year-old junior from Liberty High School, is currently cross-country skiing with the United States Mid-Atlantic team in this year’s Junior Olympics. Held in Rumford, Maine, from March 6 to the 15th, he will race against the best teenage skiers from all over the United States.
Students from Sullivan County schools took part in the academic triathlon in the Fallsburg High School this past week. The competition, which challenges students to think and reason, coupled with simple manual dexterity, ended in a tie between Fallsburg High School and Delaware Valley Central High School.
Ground was broken Thursday for the new county landfill to be located in the Town of Thompson.
Although the weather was cold and blustery, the 21st annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Yulan was well attended. Dr. Kunwar Nagpal rode a 1,500 pound Spanish bull.

20 years ago - 2002

A company called Calpine has expressed some interest in opening a power plant on less than 20 acres behind the Sullivan County Landfill in Monticello. Some of that property is owned by the county.
A two-alarm fire claimed the home of the Jennings Family in Callicoon. Eight were left homeless after the blaze tore through the mobile home on Seminary Road.
Sullivan County’s inmates may become some of the healthiest in the state. Thanks to a new policy at the county jail, no smoking is allowed anywhere in the facility. That means inmates, corrections officers and other employees have all sworn off tobacco products from now on (at least while on duty).
Jeffersonville’s Father Robert Nee, OFM, was ordained on March 17, 1962, and in great style a standing-room-only group of parishioners, friends and well-wishers celebrated the 40th anniversary.

10 years ago - 2012

The Cable Center in Boston, Mass. announces that cable pioneer Alan Gerry of Liberty has been named the 2012 Bresnan Ethics in Business Award recipient. Gerry will be presented the industry award, honoring the late William J. Bresnan, longtime chairman of the board of The Cable Center, at the Cable Hall of Fame Celebration in Boston, in conjunction with The Cable Show 2012.
The Halls Mills Covered Bridge in Claryville is sitting on just a few of the uppermost rocks on one pier. The Neversink River, provoked into a rage by Hurricane Irene last August, sliced away much of the right side of the pier. Donna Freeland, president of the NYS Covered Bridge Society, and Christie Toohey have begun an effort to save the bridge. They got FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) to take a look, along with the state, town and county. FEMA allocated $400,000 to complete repairs, but as always, that came with a requirement that the state and county split 25 percent of the cost.
LPN students from Sullivan BOCES recently visited each school district to provide a series of Give Back to School Districts events. At the events, students provide materials and blood pressure screenings for staff and talking to various science classes about the importance of a healthy life-style.
DEATHS: Howard Schuchman, the retired owner of Cochecton General Store and a dedicated community leader, died Monday, March 19, 2012... Jessie May Townsend, a business manager for Townsend Farms in Cochecton, died Sunday, March 18, 2012.