140 Years Ago - 1884

It has been learned recently that Philip, son of Michael Leins of Callicoon, and Henry Weber of New York City, have formed a co-partnership at 191 Reader St. The produce commission business will be conducted as before, but under the firm name of H. Weber & Co.

A few days ago, while Joseph Frey was repairing fence along his premises he filled his Meerschaum pipe with tobacco and after smoking a few moments he laid it on a stone near the fence and went into his barn to feed his cattle. Soon after, he returned to the spot and to his great surprise, the pipe had walked away. In looking up the street he saw two young lads going towards home, and with whom the pipe had taken the liberty to walk with while Frey was in the barn. Frey went to the house where the boys were at home and found the “old gentleman” smoking the pipe that walked off. The gentleman returned the pipe, but the boys deny the story.

130 Years Ago - 1894

As Andrew Kohler, his sister and Miss Lizzie Neiger were driving down the hill by Mr. Hembdt’s Sunday evening, some part of the harness broke, letting the shafts down against the horse’s heel. It became frightened and ran down the hill. As it turned the corner the occupants were thrown out, injuring Miss Lizzie’s arm so badly that it was necessary to call a doctor. The others escaped uninjured.

A boy arrived at the home of A.E. Wenzel and wife of Callicoon Depot. A son was born to Valentine Hessinger and wife of Callicoon Center.

Youngsville — When Alanson Inderlied gets his wagon and hardware repository completed, together with the exterior renovation of his blacksmith shop, he will have made a very commendable improvement in the architectural appearance of this place.

Another crusade has started against cigarettes, and this time by the businessmen of New York City. They propose to discharge all boys in their employ addicted with the habit.

The Misses Nellie and Clare Barringer, who recently came to Youngsville from Muncy, Pa., on a visit to their brother, Austin, have concluded to remain there. They will open a millinery and dressmaking business in that village and have engaged rooms for that purpose in Himmelreich’s store building.

120 Years Ago - 1904

John Young of North Branch writes to the Record: “A man went through my yard Monday night, came around my yard, 6 feet high wire tore the hind part all to pieces, came out in front, left his basket and tools and his hat. I want him to come and fix the fence and get his tools.”

C. Otis Segar of Briscoe has bought the lot of George Lixfield which lies above the creamery road. Mr. Segar will build a house there some time this summer. It looks as if Otis were going to get married and settle down.

Jake Knell and Fred Bodens were trying the latter’s horse down South Main Street in the darkness Tuesday night, when they collided with Ern Marris’ horse. The wagons and everybody went up in the air, but came down again, a little ruffled but not hurt much. Ern, who is an expert horseman, says some people don’t know how to drive.

Arly Fulton, the Stevensville butter man and all around farmer, is the owner of an automobile which he purchased a few days ago at a cost of $2,500. Mr. Fulton is the only Sullivan County farmer sporting so expensive a runabout. After he becomes accustomed to manipulating the machine, Mr. Fulton will run it to the St. Louis Exposition.

Charming weather attended the spring fair, but many of the regular devotees of this event must have been still frozen up from a long hard winter. A horse trot between Frank Fulton of Kenoza Lake with a sorrel he got at Middletown, and Will Lawrence, driving A.N. Lemback’s horse, resulted in an easy victory for Fulton.

Ed Knise of Callicoon had both hands badly burned in trying to take a pan of blazing fat from the oven.

110 Years Ago - 1914

John Beck has come up again from Brooklyn and is cutting down the greater part of the fine grove of maple trees which were killed by the burning of his large boarding house in 1912. Fifteen of the trees have been cut down and will make a large quantity of good fire wood. But the grove has been greatly marred.

Brand New Arrivals — At Mr. and Mrs. John Eggler’s Swiss Hill, May 5, a daughter; at Mr. and Mrs. Theron Taylor’s, Kenoza Lake, May 5, a daughter; at Mr. and Mrs. John Bernhardt’s, Kenoza Lake, a son, the fifth one.

Pete Mathern had been using dynamite on road work in the Beechwoods and having a dynamite cap left over he put it in his lunch pail and brought it home. Mrs. Mathern, in ignorance of it, threw the contents of the pail in the kitchen fire and placed a steel frying pan on a stove hole. The dynamite cap exploded and tore a round hole through the bottom of the pan, a piece of which struck Mrs. Mathern just below the eye it is not thought that her eyesight will be affected, but it surely was a narrow escape.

Dr. Frank M. Woolsey of Hancock, president of the Livingston Manor Electric Co., will be in Jeffersonville in a few days to see about installing street lights. Hurry up, Doc.

Wm. B. March of New York, whose perennial arrival at Kenoza Lake has come to be as certain as the summer season, expects to be on deck at the noted watering place again as soon as he recovers from a bad fall he had.

Credit should be given to Wm. J. Brown, Superintendent of Highways, Town of Delaware, in selecting Adolph Schumacher as foreman over the roads in Beechwoods. Mr. Schumacher and his men are doing a fine piece of work. Places where there was always hard work for teams to go through are now in good condition, have been stoned from fences along the road. Wm. Allgeier gave a large part of his stone fence, as did Henry Huth and H.E. Pfeifer.

100 Years Ago - 1924

A couple of months ago, Referee Cooper of the state compensation commission, awarded to Herbert Grishaber of Jeffersonville $1,000 for facial disfigurement resulting from the explosion of a gasoline tank he was soldering at the C.G. Yager garage. The award was suspended for two months to determine whether the scars were permanent.

The lake on the Segar property at Briscoe, which was bought by the Clarke Water and Power Co. of Jeffersonville for water storage, has been enlarged by the replaning and raising of the dam. The water, which formerly covered a hundred acres, will now cover 140.

Fred H. Duttweiler, who bought the V.P. Scheidell house on Center Street for a home, has also bought of Mrs. H.G. Myers, the blacksmith shop lot opposite and will build a large garage to house his many buses and trucks.

Another exciting runaway occurred in Liberty. Clair Hawkins of near Watson had a number of horses in Wiekham’s stables. He and John Hanofee of Aden were trying to make a horse trade. The two men got in the platform spring wagon which was already loaded with 700 pounds of feed. On reaching Lake Street, the horses ran away and dashing down the street, plunged into a car going south of South Main Street. Hawkins was thrown over the horses, breaking his leg above the ankle. Hanofee went up and then came down head first upon the iron cover of a man hole. Hawkins and Hanofee were taken to the Thrall Hospital in Middletown where it was found that Hanofee has a slight fracture of the skull.

90 Years Ago - 1934

It appears that almost everybody wants to be appointed postmaster at Kenoza Lake, no less than twelve having taken the examination. The applicants were: Anthony Heidt, John Gempler, Mrs. Fred Poppe, Arthur Mueller, Fred Schwenger, George Raum, George Puerschner, Robert Covart, Alfred Misner, John Keegan, Veronica Winklestern and Miss Bernice Fuhrer.

Mrs. Marion Scheidell Moran, wife of Elliot Moran, who has been clerk in the law offices of District Attorney William Deckelman here for a number of years, has received the appointment of acting postmaster in Jeffersonville.

Governor Lehman has signed a bill requiring vehicles to come to a complete stop and then proceed with caution when meeting a school bus which has halted to receive or discharge passengers.

Roth’s Bakery in this village is rapidly extending its sales territory, the latest section to be served being Roscoe and Rockland and the surrounding neighborhood. Robert Tripp of Roscoe is driving the truck over that way.

Miss Helen Chellis, aged 16, has been confined to her home the past five weeks by undulent fever, which seems to be getting prominent in this section.

Local baseball is beginning to sprout and in a couple of weeks is expected to be in full bloom. Jeff expects to have several outside players on its roster this year. They will have Bill Milk of Fremont, Jimmy Mallon of Callicoon Center, and Red Pierson, Larry Thompson, Ken and “Babe” Fisk and Lefty Nelson, all from Liberty.

80 Years Ago - 1944

John H. Hembdt, retired city policeman who sometime ago bought a property between North Branch and Hortonville, has recently bought the Wedde house in Hortonville village, and he and his wife will make their home there.

Youngsville — Two grass fires northeast of here brought out the local and Jeffersonville firemen as well as many other men. The first fire started on the Plotsky farm and the other was on the Garfinkel place up Panther Rock Brook.

The 52nd wedding anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. Wm. P. Krantz (Elizabeth Schmidt) was celebrated at their home before Jeff on April 27. Cards were enjoyed and at midnight luncheon was served. A very pleasant evening was had by all.

Martin H. Anderson, proprietor of the Lake Tavern at Tennanah Lake, was overcome by shock when a grass fire caused the burning of a shed, three fuel tanks and diesel engines on his property across the street from the tavern, and died on the tavern porch of heart failure.

Their names do not appear in headlines but sharing in the credit for the success of the Eighth Air Force bombing attacks are the ground crew mechanics, skilled workers like Sgt. Howard F. Jacobs, 21, of Youngsville.

Anthony H. Bossley, who last year sold his farm across the Delaware River from Hancock, and since then has been visiting friends and relatives in Texas and Louisiana, returned home this week.

70 Years Ago - 1954

Jesse Brown of Kenoza Lake and Lois Komanchek of Bethel were re-elected to the Board of Education of the annual meeting of Central School District No. 1.

A group of local young people under the direction of Clarence A. Royce are busy practicing for a three-act comedy, “Grandpa’s Twin Sister.” Taking part are Helen Graham, Sylvia Perez, Florence Mirsky, Florence Antosh, Patricia Stephenson, Joseph K. Strawbridge, George Raum, Frank Leonardo, Salvatore Princiotta and John Atwood.

Conrad Schminke was the recipient of the $50 George Allison prize for college debating presented at the annual Price Day ceremonies at Union College.

Permission has been granted the DUSO Kennel Club by the American Kennel Club to hold a sanctioned Breed and Obedience Match on May 16th at the Grossinger Country Club. This is the first time, in the history of Sullivan County, for such an event to take place.

Miss Barbara Melnick of Swan Lake and Attorney Alfred Beck of Liberty were married Saturday noon at the home of Dr. and Mrs. Abraham Bromberg of Passaic, N.J., the uncle and aunt of the bride.

The first game of the Delaware Valley League will be Jeff Lions vs Callicoon Indians at the Lions Field Sunday. Peter Saulina, manager, says he has the strongest team that has been seen in Jeff for a long time. Included on the team are Joe Clifford, M. Erlwein, J. Gregory, J. Buchal, J. Schwatz, J. Kurey, L. Knickerbocker. W. Doetsch, S. LeRoy, H. Schroeder, A. LeRoy, M. Gaebel, C. Knickerbocker, L. Graham, J. Erlwein, A. Sims, H. Bose, A. Tonjes and D. Sims.

60 Years Ago - 1964

In separate special meetings held on April 23, 1964, the stockholders of the First National Bank in Callicoon and the First National Bank in Narrowsburg ratified the proposal to consolidate the two banks under the charter for the former and with the new name of Delaware Valley National Bank. The twelve directors will be Valleau C. Curtis, Percy W. Kohler, Alfred L. Long, W.L. Dodge, Irving Bershader, George R. Mills, Anthony L. Roos, presently at Callicoon, and Earl O. Barnes, Fred N. Hendrix, Marvin J. Barnes, N.G. Persbacker and Edward A. Downey, presently at Narrowsburg.

A four-pound silver beauty rainbow trout, nicknamed “Old Money Bags,” was released in White Lake last week. The lucky fisherman who brings in this tackle bustin’ old fighter after catching him on hook and line will be $100 richer.

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Lane of the North Road, Youngsville, are the proud parents of a baby girl, after three boys, born April 27 at Loomis Hospital.

Congratulations also to Mr. and Mrs. Robert Puerschner on the birth of a son last Wednesday at Loomis Hospital – their third.

Miss Jane Ellen Poley, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Earle Poley of North Branch, has been accepted at the School of Health and Physical Education at Ithaca College. She is now attending OCCC in Middletown.

Hyman Levine, Jeffersonville attorney, was appointed to the Committee of Unlawful Practice of the Laws by the president of the N.Y.S. Bar Association. Other appointments made include Mr. Levine’s brother, Lazarus I. Levine of Liberty, to the Committee on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar and Lawrence E. Lagarenne of Monticello to the Committee on Grievances. Appointed to the committee on Judiciary Court was Bernard Weiss of Monticello.

50 Years Ago - 1974

Martin Rosenblum, Project Coordinator for the new Community General Hospital facility at Harris, announced from Albany last Tuesday that the path has been cleared to award the bid to Murray Walter, Inc., of Johnson City. Total building cost will be $17,170,850 and includes the general contract and all 35 of the permissible options.

Sullivan County Community College will celebrate the formal dedication of its new 405-acre campus in Loch Sheldrake on Sunday, May 5, with a full day of open house activities.

Francis Fink of Hortonville was a recent winner of a recliner chair given away by Rasmussen’s Furniture Store in Narrowsburg.

Miss Debbie Hendrickson, sponsored by the Sgt. Andrew Brucher Post of White Lake, was chosen Sullivan County VFW Loyalty Day Queen Saturday evening. Nearly 300 attended the buffet and dance held at King’s Catering House in Livingston Manor.

Oscar Spielman of White Sulphur Springs was greeted by about 200 well wishers on the occasion of his birthday April 28.

Mr. and Mrs. William Milk of Callicoon celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary on April 28 with a family dinner at the Antrim Lodge in Roscoe.

The Red Barn Restaurant of Swan Lake recently contributed $1,000 to the Sullivan County Association for Retarded Children. The money was raised by their good luck wishing well. The wishing well was built by the Red Barn for the purpose of retarded of Sullivan County. Marc N. Brandt accepted the check from Mr. and Mrs. Harold Evans.

40 Years Ago - 1984

Priscilla and Robert Elias are the parents of a baby girl, Kathrine Jane, born April 5. Mr. and Mrs. Allan Kellam of Fremont are the proud grandparents and Eugene Kellam is the proud paternal grandfather.

It was a perfect day for a parade with clear blue skies overhead when approximately 40 organizations from Sullivan County participated in a Loyalty Day Parade, sponsored by the Woodridge-Mountaindale Post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars last Sunday. About 1,000 spectators cheered from the sidelines. Cindy Krum, representing the Dennis Akerley Post No. 8684 of Neversink, was chosen as Sullivan County Loyalty Day Queen at the judging held Saturday evening. Runner-up was Robyn Gannon of Liberty and Mary An Prokosch of Monticello was second runner-up.

Charlie Palmer of Lake Huntington caught a 24” rainbow trout which weighed 5 lbs. 14 oz. and registered 118 points in the Sullivan County Democrat’s trout contest . . . Richard Smalls of Monticello caught a 26” brown trout, weighing 6 lbs. 15 1/2 oz. while fishing at Swinging Bridge . . . Joe Purcell, Sullivan County Clerk, hooked into a 7 lb. 14 1/4 oz. shad Tuesday morning while fishing near Barryville. That’s just 1/4 of an ounce better than the New York State record shad which Robert Parks caught last year.

A new computer center is still under construction for the First National Bank of Jeffersonville. Built over the past winter, the new center will give the bank 7,000 square feet of new office space with half of it being used for the computer operations. An open house is planned for later in the spring.

A celebration to mark the 90th anniversary of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Liberty will be held Sunday, May 13, beginning with a service at the church. The Rev. Dr. James A. Graefe, Bishop of the Metropolitan New York Synod of the LCA will be the guest preacher at the service.

Teachers at the Jeffersonville-Youngsville Central School will continue to strike. An almost total lack of communication between representatives of the J-YCS Faculty Association and the Jeff-Y Board of Education continued to highlight the strike as the work stoppage entered its fourth day Thursday.

30 Years Ago - 1994

The Sullivan County community of veterans honored Isidor Gold at Community General Hospital’s Skilled Nursing Unit in Harris, with the presentation of two certificates Tuesday. Gold is one of five known living World War I veterans in Sullivan County. The founder of the Fallsburg Gas Company and a charter member of the Fallsburg Volunteer Fire Department, he celebrated his 100th birthday on March 4.

Lawrence H. Cooke, a member of the Monticello High School Class of 1931 and former Chief Judge of the New York State Court of Appeals was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame during the 100th anniversary celebration of the school. His father was a county judge in the 1920s and Judge Cooke has always followed his father’s personal credo in administering the law: “Be fair. Every favor creates an obligation. When in doubt about what to do, take the high road.”

A street fair, scheduled for July 30, will be themed to recognize the 125th anniversary of the Town of Delaware.

The Delaware Valley Job Corps Center in Callicoon is observing its 30th anniversary this year. The center will soon be opening two new dormitories to accommodate 200 males and 200 females. The open house is planned for May 20.

Shoppers at the Apollo Mall in Monticello had a chance on Saturday to see what the Sullivan County Community College can offer them at the Loch Sheldrake campus. Fredrich Klostermeir, associate professor in SCCC’s Hospitality Division, provided samples of chocolate confections, cakes and cookies baked by his students.

20 Years Ago - 2004

A sentence reversal in a three-year-old murder case sent shockwaves through the county last week when the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court said the jury should have been given the chance to consider the lesser charge of manslaughter in the case of Ronald Caruso, the Callicoon man who was convicted in 2002 of murdering his uncle, Gary Kays, in August 2001.

Bertha M. Milk of Callicoon, a lifelong area resident and a retired elementary teacher at the Delaware Valley Central School, died April 30, 2004 at her home at the age of 93. Born in 1910, she was the daughter of Edward and Amanda Engert McGuire, and the widow of William Milk.

Sullivan County’s newest chain superstore, Staples, opened for business on Saturday next door to the Home Depot in Monticello.

Scores of firefighters from nine Sullivan County fire departments responded to a fire on Old Route 17 in Harris Friday afternoon. Firefighters from Hurleyville, Liberty, Loch Sheldrake, Monticello, Rock Hill, Smallwood-Mongaup Valley, Swan Lake, White Sulphur Springs and Woodridge, battled the blaze for several hours. The Fallsburg and Youngsville fire departments were on standby, and tanker trucks from the Forestburgh and Kauneonga Lake FDs were dispatched to the scene. The fire reportedly began when ashes from a nearby brush pile ignited the three-story Victorian home.

10 Years Ago - 2014

Boy Scout Troop 102 of Glen Spey has sworn in five Eagle Scouts this year again, after four were inducted in 2012. Jared De Leon, Matthew Donnelly, Julian Gottlieb and  Jonathan Santoro all thanked their troop leader Brian Worzel in their speeches, as well as recognizing their parents and other Eagle Scouts’ parents’ role in helping them get where they are. 

Adeline Bodnaruik isn’t growing up on a dairy farm. She doesn’t even have a dairy farmer in her family. Bodnaruik has grown to love farming, grown to love telling a crowd about why milk, cheese, and yogurt are necessary pieces of a healthy diet. Bodnaruik’s crowning as Sullivan County Dairy Princess by New York State Alternate Dairy Princess Lindsey McMahon marks the 50th such event for Sullivan County’s Dairy Promotion Committee. As the number of dairy farms in the county has dwindled, so too has interest in the Dairy Promotion Court.  But 50 years in, the numbers don’t reflect the tenacity of the committee or the court. They’re still here, and they’re still in it for the right reasons.