Joel Kimball Diary - March 1874

By the end of winter, road conditions were most likely a problem. Throughout the snowy season, road crews would send a roller over the roads to pack down the snow to allow for easier sledding. Now with the weather turning warmer, this packed snow is turned into ice, making roadway travel dangerous for both man and beast.

The winter of '74 was the first year that through traffic travelled along the Midland railroad, the route being kept free of the winter's snow by plowing and shoveling. Keeping the tracks clear of snow, warm rays of the sun and warmer weather cleared the railroad bed of snow, allowing an easier and safer walkway. Instead of traveling the roadway from Purvis, George, Bishop and Joel returned home from their political jaunt via the railroad tracks. The only trouble, the rail-line passed on the opposite side of the river from their homes.

By Joel's entries, the winter of '74 appears to have been relatively mild, with no mention of any major snow-storms or prolonged cold weather. As a result, since the flood of early January, the Willowemoc Creek probably remained ice-free the rest of the winter, allowing boat passage. At the eddy across from Purvis Post Office, on the farm owned by James Emmett Sprague, the Midland's rail-line joins up with the channel of the Willowemoc, becoming the river's southern bank. Here, the boys maintained a boat for fording the river, and thus able to utilize the snow and ice free railroad bed for passageway to and from Purvis and the depot. - Fred
 

With the coming of the railroad, its tracks became a popular route for traveling. But these track walkers, both man and beast, needed to be wary of the danger that loomed when sharing the road with the "iron horse". The rural route of the Midland's line traversed, unfenced, through fields and pastures of local farms which created an immediate problem. No sooner had the train service begun in the summer of 1873, the locomotives' cowcatchers would dislodge, dispatch, disembowel and discard grazing sheep and cows on an all too frequent regularity, much to the dismay of the farmer and the displeasure of railroad employees.

Switch sidings were particularly dangerous. To escape the operations of coupling and uncoupling cars at the siding, walkers and workers, often distracted with the noises at the scene, would unsuspectingly step onto the main line, only to be plowed over by an express train. George Preston, the Democratic party's candidate for town justice in 1874, unwittingly stepped onto the main line in front of an oncoming engine nine years later, being run over and completely mangled in an unimaginable fashion under the train's wheels.

Along the railroad tracks across the river from the Kimball farm, Lafayette Houghtaling, an aged man who lived in the neighborhood, was walking the track back home, during the summer of 1888, when he heard the train bearing down on him. Though he stepped aside, he did not venture far enough away from the rails and was sideswiped by the passing locomotive, throwing him fifteen feet down over the embankment with multitude broken bones and deep lacerations, injuries that he would not survive.

Philip Smith, an employee on the O&W and father-in-law of the town barber Charlie Fallon and Manor station agent David Fitzgerald, and father of Frank Smith, the town's first veterinary, while working at the Livingston Manor yard sidings uncoupling cars during the summer of 1893, stepped off the main line onto the siding to let the express train to pass by. The freight train backing onto the side track struck Smith, knocking him under the wheels and crushing his leg, which required amputation. The shock of the accident was too severe, though, and Smith succumbed to the injuries. Similar incidents of track walker-train collisions became more numerous when the railroad line was double-tracked in 1904. -  Fred
 

Johnny Collins, eighteen-year-old young man, had been living with the Colonel Moore family for the past three years. The Collins family doesn't appear to have been the traditional family, where the parents and youngsters all live under one roof; in fact, the opposite appears to be true.

John D. Collins was the son of Morris Collins and Margaret Foley. Census records taken during this period show his siblings residing with other families throughout the area, the sisters working as "domestic" help. Thomas, the older brother, in 1860 at the age of thirteen, was living with the David Purvis family. As for John, when he was nine years of age, he was living with the family of his older sister, Joanna, now the wife of John Cotter, the same John Cotter from Little Ireland mentioned just recently in the diary. At the age of fifteen, young Collins moved to the neighboring farm of Colonel Moore.  -  Fred

 

George Sturdevant was the proprietor of the other hotel at Parksville. The Sturdevant family was living near Mongaup Valley when George was born in 1840. George's father, Elias, would later move to the towns of Cochecton and Callicoon, where politically he became a prominent citizen. He died at North Branch in 1864.

George Sturdevant himself had become a prominent figure, prior to 1874, within the locality. Residing at Briscoe, in the Town of Bethel, he was the post master of that cross-road community as well as being the proprietor of the local inn, the Briscoe House. He had just recently relocated to Parksville, operating the hotel in the center of town, that snowy March day when Joel passed through on his way over to Neversink to exchange cattle with his uncle. - Fred
 

At the end of January, Joel and his Uncle Asa Hodge had come to an agreement on swapping cattle, Joel to give up his yearling steer for his uncle's bull calf. Joel's trip to Neversink was for the purpose of closing the deal.

According to the entries into Joel's diary, the winter of '74 had relatively mild weather, especially since mid-February when several periods of warm weather, resulting in snow melt, were recorded, and by early March, sleighs were no longer needed. Leading his steer as he traveled on foot, a March snow storm came upon them midway through their journey.

For the return trip the next day, Joel's cousin hitched up the oxen to the Hodge sleds, loaded Taurus the bull on board and started back on roads now covered with the newly fallen snow. Midway up the hill that forms the divide between the Willowemoc and Neversink valleys, they stopped at the Stickles place to secure a better sleigh, perhaps one with side fenders allowing better travel accommodations for Taurus. As for the ladies who rode along on the sleigh with Taurus, hopefully they knew what end of the sleigh to sit on, or what end of the bull to sit next to. Either end, though, seems to have some disadvantages. - Fred
 

Samuel Clemens was early in his career as a writer of humor and political satire when Joel read Clemens' second published book, a collection of letters written while Clemens traveled through Europe, published in 1869. He soon would become the most popular American writer during this era.

Clemens and Joel did have one thing in common, both being river pilots in their younger days; Clements on steamboats up and down the Mississippi River while Joel piloted lumber rafts down the Delaware River. - Fred
 

John Collins, who was now working for Joel helping out with the chores, spent the weekend visiting with his brother, Thomas Collins. Tom, as were so many other young men from that era, was a Civil War veteran, but was decorated as few others had been by being awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. On his return home after the war, he married the daughter of Colonel Moore, Ellen, and built a residence and small farm on the land of Cyrus Gray, between Purvis Post Office and the Moore farm. Gray, the Parksville merchant, was involved in numerous business ventures in the area, among being the ownership of several woodlots along the Willowemoc, one of which Tom and his bride became tenants of. By 1874, Tom began negotiating with Gray for the purpose of purchasing the small farm. - Fred
 

Joseph and Lavina Green were the proprietors of the Rockland Hotel at Westfield Flat, the site known today as the Rockland House. The original farmhouse was considered to be the first establishment to accept summer boarders in the area. Associated with the hotel was a large farm, covering an extensive portion of the Beaverkill flats, which managed a large herd of cattle and had much of the fields kept in grain. The Greens had two children of note; George, the village blacksmith, and a daughter, Ahiva, who eventually took over the business from her parents. - Fred
 

Joel's excursion to Westfield Flat was mainly a business trip, associated with his new role as town clerk. Ambros Rockwell, the retiring superviser for the Town of Rockland and who most likely maintained his office at Westfield Flat, was probably receiving town-business related mail at the post office there. Now that John Davidson, who resided near Shin Creek, was newly elected as superviser, Joel changed the address for this mail to be sent to Alphebet Decker's post office at Purvis Post Office.
 

Thomas Seeley resided on the old Joel Hodge homestead [Joel Kimball's grandfather] along the road to Westfield Flat, at the base of Burnt Hill. The forty-three year old man was active in the Rockland's political affairs, serving many elected offices of the township, but during the recent election of 1874, running as a Democrat for Justice of the Peace, was defeated.

Thomas Seeley became the "overseer" of town highway district 15, which included a portion of the road that went from Purvis to Westfield Flat. Work done to repair this road after January's flood was costly, both in material and labor. The residents who did the repair work handed over their bills to the overseer and with an upcoming board meeting, Joel, the new town clerk, met with Seeley for the preparation of this warrant which was to be submitted before the Town Board for approval.  - Fred
 

Thomas Seeley's ancestral family consisted of a long line of Seeleys, ... or Seely, ... or Seelye, ... or Seley, variations of the surname used by the different family generations. Some given names within this family, however, would follow through each generation. Those who have researched their family's genealogical history often find one or more given names that were passed on from one generation to the next. As for the Seeley, ... or Seely, ... or Seelye, ... or Seley family, the given name of Abner was like a common thread woven through each generation. Thomas' great-grandfather's name was Abner; Thomas' grandfather's name was Abner; Thomas' father's name was Abner. Though Thomas had no siblings with the name Abner, he would continue the old family traditional name with his first-born, named Abner.

Abner, the great-grandfather, served in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, joining Seth Warner's Green Mountain Boys, commissioned as captain. Much has been said about families being divided during the American Civil War, with brothers joining opposing armies. The same was true for the Seeley family. While Abner became a patriot, his brothers, Joseph and Justus, remained Loyalists, joining the British army. - Fred
 

Cyrus was the great-grandson of Thomas Mott, another veteran of the Revolutionary War who was enticed to purchase farm lots from the aristocratic family of John R. Livingston in the wild and unoccupied valley of the Willowemoc. Four generations of Motts cleared the land and established the finest of the early farms within the area. With the Willowemoc River running through the farm, its waters were used to operate the Mott sawmill erected along its banks and used to send the lumber to market by raft down river.

The farm was also the location of the area's first common burial grounds, used by the Mott family and other early settlers in the valley, where Thomas now lies. His life is condensed into one sentence, now indelibly written, almost two hundred years ago, on a slab of weathered sandstone;

"Sacred to the Memory of Lieut. Thomas Mott, a Revolutionary Patriot who died June 18, 1813, aged about 70" - Fred

 

Joel introduced us to Charlie Sheeley early in his diary [see January 1st] when the boys borrowed Sprague's dog [see January 15th] and Decker's gun [see January 5th] to go rabbit hunting. Charles and Sidney were the sons of John Sheeley whose farm was just done the road from the Kimball's, across from the one-room school [see February 20th].

The road that was built from Joel's grandfather's farm [now Thomas Seeley] [see March 13th] at Buck Eddy, over Burnt Hill to the Beaverkill valley [see February 21st] now gave easier access to the former woodlots on the hillside. Henry and Barbara Ronalder were German immigrants who finished clearing the logged off lot into a small farm at the crest of the hill. Henry and William ["H. and B. Ronalter"] [see above] were their boys. - Fred
 

John Collins ended his employment with Joel. Collins, when at the age of sixteen years, moved to Colonel Moore's in 1872, eventually spending the rest of his life on the farm. He married the Colonel's daughter, Martha, in 1881 and the couple took over the farm in 1886.

John died at the farm in 1924. His obituary states that he lived by the motto "Give a little more than you were paid for", a creed that he followed throughout his life. Apparently, he felt that his employer should follow the same principle. - fred

 

William Rose, the forty-eight-year-old lumberman who was the immediate neighbor to the Kimballs, was also assembling his lumber into colts along the river. Logs would be placed side-by-side and held in place by "lash poles", smaller tree saplings, that were laid perpendicular to the logs. Sets of two-inch holes were then bored into the end of the logs, into which wooden dowels, or stakes, would be driven. These dowels would then be used to fasten the pole to the logs, holding both the logs and the pole in place.

Back on January 7th, William Rose borrowed the raft augur from Joel. The raft augur had a two-inch bit, turned by a crank that could have been up to five feet in length. Rose returned the augur the next day, but there is reason to believe, though it is not mentioned, that it may have not been returned in the best of condition. Throughout the rest of the winter, Joel had helped Bishop VanGaasbeck at the blacksmith shop, one project being the making of an augur crank, perhaps fixing his own augur, which was finished on February 23rd. - Fred

In early spring, lumbermen watched the river as the winter's snow-pack melted, raising the water level, in anticipation of launching their rafts of lumber into the current. Misjudgment of the river's flow, from normal high levels to freshet to outright flooding, can lead to disastrous results. During the early rafting season of the previous spring [1873], rapid snowmelt and spring rains raised the rivers' level to flood conditions creating havoc with raftsmen and their rafts up and down the Beaverkill and Delaware rivers.

During the winter before this episode, an unusual amount of lumber had been stacked along the riverbanks. In an attempt to rush as much lumber as possible to markets downriver, lumbermen were anxious to start the rafts of lumber early, too early. As the rivers quickly swelled to flood stage, the swift currents made the rafts unmanageable, many of them smashing onto the rocky shores, bridge piers or river islands and breaking up. - Fred
 

Raft pilots needed to learn everything about the streams they were rafting, an education that had to be treated as if their life depended upon it. Geographic landmarks would map out the stream in their head, hint at the height of the water level, warn of mid-stream obstructions and forewarn the experienced pilot of dangerous currents ahead. Tributary creeks feeding into the main river could bring dangerous cross-currents that would throw the vessel cross channel onto the opposite bank. At sharp bends in the channel, an outside route would could catch the raft in a current that would slam the raft against the bank, the raft and contents subject to any danger that may exist there.

John Mott's family operated a sawmill along the shores of the Willowemoc below Purvis. On the morning of April 12, 1839, John set out with a colt of milled lumber on a trip the experienced pilot had taken many times before. He was only in the water for a short distance when he came upon the bend in the river in front of the Kimball and William P. Rose farms. To keep from being hung-up on the shoal inside of the bend, Mott steered the raft along the swifter outside current, riding alongside the outside bank. Unknowing to Mott, recent river conditions had toppled a tree from the bank into the creek, its branches sifting the waters as they passed through. As Mott's raft came upon the tree it became entangled underneath, the tree's branches acting like a broom, sweeping everything clear off of the raft and into the current. Mott, now in the water, became caught in the branches like a fly in a spider's web, the rushing current holding him underwater where he perished.

John Mott was the grandfather of Cyrus Mott. - Fred

J.D.W.M. "Alphabet" Decker was the enterprising merchant and post master at Purvis Post Office. His duties as clerk for both positions usually kept him quite busy. One morning, during a lull in his store, he noticed that he was missing one bag of flour. Being preoccupied all morning with customers he had failed to note who had walked off with it, so he decided to bill each of the twenty customers that he served that morning. Decker, being known as fair, honest and upright in his dealings with his customers, received payment for the flour from nineteen out of the twenty. It was now obvious who the culprit was; the one "left holding the bag." - Fred
 

The first meeting of the town board since last month's elections was held at the store of Alphabet Decker's. Joel would probably have done more than just "attended" the meeting, for being the newly elected town clerk, he would have been responsible for recording the minutes. Little of the town's records have survived from this era, one reason being that records were not required to be saved before the 1880's.

Two of the appointments by the town board included that of John C Wilson, who had a farm along the Beaverkill River, and William French, a carpenter from above DeBruce, as constables. - Fred

The location of the depot along the Midland's line at Westfield puzzled many of the local residents, as it was placed in the flood-prone valley section of the Willowemoc. Many thought that it should be moved to the higher ground near the Callicoon Turnpike railroad crossing. Besides being above the flood plain, it also had the advantages of being along the main highway between Purvis and Westfield and near the small industry community that had developed there.

Asa Appley and William Cochran began a small tannery operation along the shores of the Willowemoc at the Turnpike's crossing of the Willowemoc. Forming the firm of Cochran & Appley, they also erected a sawmill in the same location. These operations resulted in the formation of a small settlement which included, besides the homes of the families who worked at the mill and tannery, a blacksmith shop, wagon shop, merchant store and hotel. - Fred
 

George Crippen's family resided across the river from the Cochran & Appley mills. He was raised at Cannonsville in Delaware County coming to the Town of Rockland after the Civil War. He, like so many of the other men during this era, worked the lumber and rafting industry along with being a carpenter. In the winter of 1874, the forty-five year-old man built a wagon shop and began a career as wagon-maker. - Fred