Joel Kimball Diary - April 1874

Wednesday, April 1, 1874

"Went on the hill with steers and drew out some rails, wood and logs. Drew load of wood home. After noon went on the hill and cut wood."

Joel Kimball

When ideal conditions existed at a "sugar bush" the making of maple syrup became a hectic, full-time endeavor. Each spile location needed to be visited often and regularly, the troughs beneath constantly drained and the sap gathered hauled to a central collection trough. Here, the sap was boiled within a large pan, the fire underneath needing continuous attention until the sap was finished off to syrup. - Fred

George Kimball was the thirteenth of the fourteen children of Levi and Abigail Kimball, the earliest settlers at Westfield Flat. George married Elizabeth Hitt in 1816 and they themselves had twelve children. All twelve survived well into adulthood, an unusual feat during this era for such a large family. All were born Kimball's Beaverkill farm and all of the daughters, of which there were nine, were married on the same farm.

The youngest of the girls, Hannah, married Hiram Borden. A veteran of the Civil War, Hiram had enlisted with the 143rd New York Regiment at Liberty during the organization of this local unit. Even though General Lee had surrendered his Confederate Army on April 9th, 1865 at Appomattox Courthouse, the Union Army commanded by General Sherman still campaigned through North Carolina. Hiram was captured by the opposing Rebel army on April 12th, but soon hostilities ceased and was paroled along with the final truce between the opposing armies.

Taking advantage of the government land program offered to veterans, Hiram and Hannah eventually moved from the Town of Rockland to the then wilderness forests of Michigan. Hiram was the brother of Oliver Borden, the shoemaker, who was in turn married to Catherine Hodge, Joel's mother's sister. - fred

 

Elizabeth Hitt Kimball, wife of George D. Kimball, died in December of 1855 at the age of 58, leaving her husband to care for the two youngest children, Levi and Hannah, on their Beaverkill farm. According to the Kimball family historian, George remarried in 1859, to Eunice Appley at Linn County, Iowa. How he came to be on the prairie is unknown but he soon was to return to the hills and forests of Rockland; the 1860 census place him, his new wife and his youngest son, Levi, back on the farm along the Beaverkill River.

The distant drumbeat of war stirred excitement into the young Kimball boy, along with other young men from Sullivan County. The War of the Rebellion had yet to have any serious confrontations when the first call for volunteers in Sullivan County was made in May of 1861. John Waller, the publisher of a Monticello newspaper, recruited 94 of the local boys, including Levi Kimball and Seth Allen Rose [more on Rose at a later date], and by the end of the month, this recruitment reported to Albany to become Company H of the 28th New York Volunteers. - fred

Early spring brought freshwater fish migrating up the rivers and their tributaries to spawn. Suckers, not particularly noted as either a game or food fish, would gather in large numbers at pools and eddies during this seasonal ritual. Though small scoop-nets were sometimes used to capture these fish, the more popular sport was that of spearing. Blacksmiths would sharpen and reconfigure old horse-shoes into a fork, which was then attached onto a pole. Standing either along the shoreline or wading within the pool, the challenge was to thrust the spear into the water and impale its target. - fred

The Davidson families of John and Thomas [Jay's father] came to the upper Beaverkill valley from Delaware County during the mid 1840's, the brothers both being engaged in lumber and rafting. Thomas bought the lands of the Samuel Waterbury farm just below the tannery at Beaverkill.

In 1835, Samuel and David Waterbury formed a partnership to establish a tannery and sawmill along the Beaverkill River. Joining them in this firm was Elias Hunter and John Kierstad, who helped provide the monetary backing for the endeavor. The partnership was, by agreement, to dissolve at the end of five years and the Waterburys became the sole proprietors of the tannery at that time. Their tenure was not long, though, for in 1844, they sold the tannery property to Albert Babcock and Osmer Wheeler of Prattsville and their adjoining farm back to Elias Hunter  -  fred
 

Thomas Davidson was a big man in many ways; tall in stature, great in strength and full of ambition. Never having a formal education, he strived to educate himself, often by traveling on foot from his family's Delaware County farm to the school at Liberty. This mode of travel he would continue up to his final days, often walking up to thirty miles to visit a family member or old acquaintance no matter what the weather.

Thomas came onto the Waterbury farm in 1847 where he pursued the lumber business. He would raft his lumber down the Beaverkill and the whole length of the Delaware River to Philadelphia, earning himself the nickname of "Water Dog" for his persistence and stamina. He was a carpenter by trade and is credited for being the finest of cabinet-makers and, along with his brother John, the builder of both churches at Shin Creek. In 1861, his family removed to Westfield Flat where he became a merchant in a general store while still continuing his interest in the lumber business. He and his family, including his son Jay who was now nineteen years of age, were residing here in 1874.  fred
 

Though Joel had mentioned "concluded not to raft anymore" in an earlier diary entry, he still has been keeping his eye on the river. The previous weeks' storms of rain and snow were now melting with the April warmth and his neighbor, Hiram Rose, was readying his lumber to take advantage of the coming freshet.

Hiram was a veteran of the Civil War, enlisting August of 1862 into the locally organized regiment, the 143rd NYV. As many young men would soon learn, war was not as a romantic endeavor as newspapermen and political leaders promoted and battle wounds were not necessarily received on the field of battle. While his regiment was encamped around the Washington D.C. area in the winter of 1862-63, they were put to work on building fortifications around that city when Hiram became afflicted with a respiratory ailment. Though the sickness was not debilitating enough for a discharge, he received light duty throughout the remainder of the war, remaining with his regiment through all of their military campaigns. The war would end, but the symptoms remained, and followed him throughout the rest of his life. - fred

Henry Mott, son of John Mott, the lumberman who drowned while rafting the Willowemoc, was the millwright at the Cochran sawmill at Westfield Flat. Immediately after the war his brother, John S. Mott, who helped operate the family sawmill at Purvis, moved his family to the loamy bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River. The community of Postville, Iowa, had little more than fifty residents at the time but with the recently completed spur railroad line in 1864, the rich soils of that section of the plains now became accessible to Mississippi River traffic. The first business along this new railroad route was the erection of grain silos by a partnership that included "Diamond Joe" Reynolds, who began his illustrious career in the grain business with the building of the mill at Westfield Flat. As far as John Mott, being the old lumberman that he was, he soon erected the first sawmill in the vicinity and in need of a millwright to operate the saw, induced his brother Henry, along with his family to move to Iowa.

Little is known of Hiram Rose's movements immediately after the war. Perhaps in an effort to alleviate the symptoms of his medical condition he acquired during the war, he traveled to the dryer climate of the upper plain and maybe found work at his former neighbor's sawmill. Whatever the reason, he wound up at Postville where he married Henry Mott's daughter, Helena, who was perhaps a childhood sweetheart before the war, at Postville in 1869 and both soon returned to his father's farm along the Willowemoc. - fred
 

Julia Munson, Joel's sister, was expecting her and Dave's first-born this coming June and it appears that on Joel's return from Westfield Flat, he walked into the midst of a baby shower.

The ladies at the shower were Abigail Vernooy, whose family resided at the top of Little Ireland. Mary Jane Dougherty's family was a neighbor to the Vernooy's. She had just recently married Aaron Purvis the previous year, the same Aaron Purvis Joel had defeated in the recent general election for town clerk. Mary Jane was back living on the family farm as she was now caring for her elderly parents. Ellen Moore, the daughter of Colonel Moore and now the wife of Thomas Collins, was probably the school teacher of the one-room school at Buck Eddy when Julia was in attendance. Ida Sheeley would be the daughter of John Sheeley, whose farm was near the Buck Eddy school.

Harriet Rose was the younger sister of William P Rose. The farm of her parents, Lawrence and Lucy Rose, also was located in the Little Ireland section where she had met John Crippen. After their marriage, they at first remained on her father's farm but were now living near the Cochran mill at Westfield Flat. - fred

 

After the war, James Wallace Davis returned to the family farm located on the flats between Old Morsston and Purvis. Sensing the coming properous future for the community, he would later be recognized as the proprietor of two of the the most successful hotel ventures at the Manor. His start into the business world would begin with the purchase of the old Purvis Hotel in 1870. Soon, realizing the potential impact that the completion of the new railroad line will have, he quickly sold the old hotel, which was three-quarters of a mile from the railroad line and purchased Edward Livingston's country mansion in 1874.

Since the death of Livingston in 1864, his small country mansion had seen little use. The railroad purchased a large portion of the farm for its tracks and yards and the new depot was erected within one-hundred yards of Livingston's front porch. Though Cyrus Meade had begun the conversion of the manor house into hotel accommodations, it was "Wal" Davis, who had taken possession during the middle of April and took the stately house, its interior designed and crafted with rare and imported woods, who turned this handsome structure into one of the most popular stopping points for the traveling public along the Midland's rail-line. - fred

 

John Sherwood of Parksville became the proprietor of the Purvis Hotel; assisting him in the business was his former Parksville neighbor, Sylvester Carr. The Purvis Hotel was the favorite, along with the only drinking establishment for miles, accommodating the rough crowd of local lumbermen and bark-peelers and "Vet" Carr, big in stature, was quite capable of controlling his customers.

The mill community of Purvis also consisted of Ira Peets' blacksmith shop, a wagon shop and Peter Akins' shoe shop. For supplies, residents traveled to John DuBois's store at Old Morsston or Alphabet Decker's store over at Purvis Post Office until the early spring of 1874 when Joseph Purvis commenced to build a new store at that section, which was to open on May first.  -  fred
 

"Well we sailed around old Butler, and nothing did we fear
Until we came to sawmill Rift, and plunged against the pier."

The ride down Sawmill Rift often had unplanned, exciting results for the raftsmen. During the April freshet of the previous year, coincidentally on April 24th, a large raft strayed from the safe passage of the river's center and smashed onto the rocks, ripping the raft completely in two. One portion had one man remaining on it with but one oar for steering. For five miles he maneuvered the craft until he was finally able to land it safely. The second portion, with the remaining crew, continued one mile farther downstream, where it wrecked upon the rocks and broke-up into pieces.

Three days before this incident, three large rafts from Sullivan County that were lashed together, ran aground at Sawmill Rift, one of the rafts breaking up and its lumber washed downstream and lost. The year of 1873 was noted as being particularly harsh on Beaverkill lumbermen, sustaining heavy monetary losses with these and other accidents along the river.
fred
 

Joel's raft was now below the Delaware Water Gap when the storm came up. High winds along the wider, lower Delaware river often created havoc with rafts, blowing them onto the shore, into bridge piers or stranding them on sandbars and rocks, causing substantial losses in both time and material. Knowing the dangers, the crew waited out the storm at Labar's while a second raft from Cochran's mill at Westfield Flat caught up with them.

George Labar had a long life; by 1874 he was close to one hundred and twelve years of age, with hardly a day of sickness throughout his many days. During the Pennsylvania State Fair held at Easton the previous fall, George was one of the novel side-shows, exhibited in a tent where he would marvel the crowd with his sharp memory and told stories of times gone by along with Revolutionary war tales. Sitting next to him was his young daughter, now well into her eighties, who was in charge of the coins that were dropped into her father's felt hat. fred

 

After yesterday's ride through Foul Rift, Joel's crew pulled the raft ashore at Sandt's Eddy outside of Easton and bedded down at the hotel there. The eddy was over two miles long, allowing the lumber rafters to pause and relax with the hotel's accommodations for a spell, or in some cases, gather-up the remains of their raft now floating in pieces lazily in the calmer waters.

The Eagle Hotel was long a favorite stop-over for rivermen. The old stone, family run hotel was now under the proprietorship of Theodore Sandt, who also was the dealer in general merchandise in this small riverside community. By 1874, about a dozen dwellings lined along the river, most of them owned by the Sandt family members. During the busy lumber-rafting season, two to three hundred guests would lodge at any given time at Sandt's Eddy, those not staying at the Eagle Hotel would find accommodations amongst the other Sandt families, or in many cases, sleeping on boards in outbuildings, or outside.  - fred

Just as Joel had thought, yesterday's reported demise of Jefferson Campbell was a bit premature, by about forty-two years. The young twenty-year-old friend of Joel's worked on the river, as so many other young men during this era, along with being a carpenter. Jefferson would later become a dealer in general merchandise, being a partner of a business concern in the growing community of Roscoe. His most noted achievement, though, was the building of a hotel on the hill overlooking Roscoe. The Campbell Inn was the first of the large summer boarding houses in this area and, to some limited extent, is still in operation today. - fred

Back home from his adventure down the Delaware, Joel is back to tending to the family farm. Spring is calving season and it appears that two of his young heifers gave birth while he was away, adding to his herd and producing two more milk-cows. - fred

Barbed wire, strands of woven wire with short twists of sharply pointed wire interspaced within the strands, has just recently been patented and beginning to make an impact between farming and ranching methods and the coming range wars in the west, but has yet to have much effect on the small farms back east. Joel still used what natural resources he could find on his own farm to use as material for fencing; rocks for stone walls or timber for rail fences

The lumber that Joel has been cutting from "the hill" is from a fifty acre lot behind his parents smaller farm lot down by the river. The lot has now been cleared enough to harbor his few cattle and steers, with the less marketable timber being cut and split into lengths to be used for split-rail fencing. - fred