Joel Kimball Diary - May 1874

Dynamite was a farmer's favorite tool when clearing off his land for fields and pastures. Besides breaking up large boulders, tree stumps were blown out of the ground. In poorly drained areas, dynamite sticks were placed in a line. When exploded, each charge would set off the neighboring charge. As the exploded dirt, rock and sod finally settled, a crude ditch has been formed which would hopefully help drain the field. - fred

Joel had recently erected a barn on his lot "on the hill", and was now using the leftover slab lumber to repair fences. The new barn allowed him to store last year's cutting of hay. With the new spring grass now beginning to sprout, the hay was no longer needed and he was able to sell the excess to his neighbor. - fred
 

Yesterday's visit to the shoemaker at Purvis became a painful experience. Peter B. Akins was the village shoemaker at Purvis. The forty-five-year-old cobbler began this trade at the southern Sullivan County township of Forestburgh before moving to Purvis with his wife of twenty-three years, Phoebe. He also studied law and eventually began a legal practice in the community, opening an office on Pearl Street. The soon-to-be lawyer not only fixed the soles to your shoes, but gave legal advice to boot. - fred
 

"The consumption of alcohol was considered by those who were part of the temperance movement to be the source of society's problems. Though their push for outright statewide prohibition lacked the majority's support with the legislature and court at Albany, they did have minor success with the passage of the Liquor Excise Law of 1857, prohibiting the sale of alcohol outside of a building used for hotel purposes. The hope of the temperance leagues with the passage of this law would be that it was the beginning of "restoration" of those "victims" of alcoholism.

The Excise Law, soon to be amended later in the coming fall, banned the sale of alcohol on Sundays and election days and required a saloon proprietor to obtain a license from the local board of excise commissioners. To obtain such a license, the applicant had to prove that his establishment had at least three spare beds and stable space on the premises and a voucher had to be submitted that attested to the good, moral character of the applicant, signed by twenty respectable, resident landowners. James Wallace Davis, who had just become the proprietor of the old mansion house of the late Edward Livingston, came before the board and received his license. - fred
 

Oliver James Maffett's grandfather, Robert Maffett, was one of the early settlers near the Old Morsston area, moving here around 1798 onto what was to become the family farm, located up the small valley that later would be known as Benton Hollow.

Oliver Maffett married Lovila Borden, Joel's cousin. Lovila was the daughter of Oliver Borden (the Westfield Flat shoemaker) and Catherine Hodge (Joel's mother's sister), her young family now residing near Hancock, Delaware County. -fred
 

Many of the local landmarks acquired the names of creatures the early settlers found inhabiting that particular locality, names still used today; Beaverkill, Buck Brook, Fox Mountain, Panther Rock Brook, Wildcat Mountain, Porcupine Ridge and, just above the Robert Maffett place, Elk Point. Here, at the very head of Benton Hollow, is a steep escarpment overlooking the valley below with a commanding, wide panoramic view clear to the state of Pennsylvania. When Robert Maffett first came to the yet untamed Benton Hollow section, Elk were still known to winter on this precipice. Maffett was known to be an excellent hunter, these early settlers needed to be if their families were to survive this rugged territory, and these noble animals represented, besides the challenge of outwitting these wary and elusive beasts, food on the table for his family. With the likes of Maffet and his neighbors, elk soon vanished from the local scenery.

Feeding the Benton Hollow Maffett family was indeed a challenge for it was a large family. Twelve children were born to Robert and Sarah Maffett, nine of them being boys. Most of the children remained within the area of the townships of Liberty and Rockland, two of the brothers marrying Levi Kimball's granddaughters [see January 9th], and one of these couples, John and Sarah Kimball Maffett, were the parents of Oliver James Maffett, the source of this particular discussion. - fred
 

Like Bishop VanGaasbeck, the blacksmithy at Purvis Post Office, one of the Maffett boys also seemingly worked the same profession. George Maffett, another son of Robert Maffett of Benton Hollow, married Olive Banks and first resided on a backwoods farm in the high country above Shin Creek known as the Barkaboom until 1869, when they moved onto a portion of the William Overton farm along the road to Debruce, a mile outside of Purvis. Here, in 1874, he supposedly operated a blacksmith shop.

George Maffett also had another occupation of sorts, one of a more unsavory kind. Since the Maffett's moved back into the Purvis area, chicken thievery became a common occurence. Tubs of butter, left by farmers on loading docks for shipment by the railroad, disappeared. Merchants soon noticed the petty theft of stock items such as shoes and boots. George Maffett, his boys and other rowdies were suspected of this crime spree but had yet to be caught doing the misdeeds. Besides his two sons, Eugene and Uriah, the "Maffett Gang's" other members included William Finkel, Thomas Turner and Will French, and the young woodsman who married George's daughter, Matt Brown. - fred

"Diamond Joe" Reynolds' business affairs began to amass a fortune for himself. He invested in several silver mines in Colorado and Arizona, granite quarries at Arkansas, owned the Malvern & Hot Springs Railroad and operated the "Diamond Jo Line" of steamboats that navigated the Mississippi River. He accumulated wealth that was thought to be up to twenty million dollars.

It was generally thought that the name "Diamond Joe" came from his numerous mining ventures in the west but, according to Joe himself, this was not the case. He told the story that when still in the business of the trading of pelts, he would ship the hides in crates stamped with the initials of "J R". When he found that another supplier was using the same initials, he included a figure of a diamond and changed the "R" to an "O", becoming known thereafter amongst his business associates by the signature stamped on the crates; "Diamond J O". - fred
 

While converting forested lands into fields and pastures, farmers often made use of fire. Forests recently harvested into lumber would have a great deal of slash, or fallow, left behind which was burned, reducing the slash to ash and removing unwanted vegetation. Older clearings used for pasture lots would soon find tree saplings sprouting up, reclaiming what was once their's. Fires were set to reclaim the clearing. The danger of this method of clearing land can be imagined, neighboring farms and all of the surrounding area put at risk. - fred

Neither George Maffett or his gang of rowdies were ever proven to be in any way connected with the series of fires on that April evening. Perhaps it was just a coincidence that three barns and the village blacksmith shop were destroyed on the same evening, but beginning in 1869, with incident after incident coinciding with the arrival of George and his boys, these events seemed more and more than just bad luck, and in some cases, there was evidence of human involvement.

Arriving home about midnight from a town meeting in mid-March of 1871, David Waters found the barn doors on his Little Ireland farm wide open. Upon further investigation, Waters discovered the flooring of the barn to be on fire. Battling the blaze, he was able to extinguish the flames when he soon realized that the barn belonging to his neighbor, Lawrence Rose, was also ablaze along with the sighting of someone in the glow of the fire fleeing the scene. Though sounding the alarm, the fire had gained such headway that little could be done before help arrived, except save what livestock that could be saved. It was a complete loss for Rose, losing eleven head of cattle and ten tons of hay, besides the complete destruction of the structure. Waters and Rose were able to get the flock of sheep away from the inferno, their wool being scorched off of their backs. The constable, William French, had no suspects so no arrests were made following the fire, but the townsfolk had their suspicions - fred
 

The large farm of Erastus Sprague is located next to the covered bridge on Mott Flat. Helping the aging farmer with the work is the Moshier family; James, along with his son's family. While at the  VanGaasbeck blacksmith shop on Monday, Joel ran into James and his grandson, fourteen-year-old Abram. Since Johnny Collins had earlier ceased working for the Kimballs and with the planting, and soon the harvesting, seasons now fast approaching, Joel is in need of assistance to help with the farm work. The result of the blacksmith shop meeting was the hiring-on of young Abe to work on the Kimball farm. - fred
 

Though Joel would never mention it in his daily entries, James Eldridge Quinlan died yesterday at his home near Monticello. To his contemporaries, Quinlan was well known as being the editor of the Republican Watchman, perhaps Sullivan County's most popular newspaper. He was also the author of the earlier published book titled "Tom Quick", a collection of tales about this legendary Delaware valley hunter and Indian fighter.

His last literary endeavor, just recently published last fall, will eventually have a much greater impact on the inhabitants of Sullivan County. Quinlan's "History of Sullivan County" is now considered to be the authoritative source of early historical information that relates to the county. This voluminous work, a collection of facts and tales, of people and places, township by township, represents an era in the county's early development, a time when little else had been recorded, preserved or survived. Stricken with the effects of typhoid fever during his later years, he worked throughout this sickness to complete this work and lived to see it published. He was only in his fifty-fifth year when he died. - fred
 

Benjamin Hardenburgh, the young baggage master on one of the Midland Railroad's mail trains, has just married Carrie E. Green, the daughter of Joseph Green, proprietor of the Rockland House at Westfield Flat. Traditionally, friends of the newlyweds would gather outside of the married couple's home and all join in with a "skimelton", a rousing celebration of noise and song. "Rusticus", the correspondent for the local newspapers, best describes this particular evening;

"... On the night of the wedding, the other good fellows and boys of the village gathered together all the bands of Westfield; consisting of the tin horn band, cow bell band, light artillery (or shot-gun) band and the heavy artillery (or anvil) band and proceeded further to serenade the young couple in a lively manner."  - fred
 

Reverend Sanderson is the pastor of the Methodist Episcopal congregation at Sandburgh, a small Sullivan County community along the line of the Midland railroad. This Sunday, he was filling in with the Westfield Flat congregation as a temporary minister, but by the coming September, Sanderson took over the pastoral duties full time.

The Methodist church at Westfield Flat was built on land donated by Austin Dodge five years earlier. The church's bell up in the belfry over-top the structure was donated by Mary and Joseph Reynolds. Engraved upon this gift was the well-known signature of "Diamond Joe", a shape of a diamond with the name "J O" etched inside. - fred
 

Diamond Joe's bell atop the Methodist church at Westfield Flats sounded the calling for Sunday services since the church's dedication in August of 1869; until the morning service of January 20th, 1901. With the conclusion of Sunday's worship that cold, winter morning, members of the congregation, as they were leaving the church, noticed thick smoke billowing out of the belfry. The bell, often rung to call out the local hose company onto a scene of a fire, now needed to toll to save itself.

Mr. D.L. Dodge rushed back into the building, grabbed the bell's rope and began pulling to sound the alarm. No sound came from the belfry and with a second pull, the rope came down on top of him, having been burned completely through by the flames. When the firemen finally arrived, the building was completely engulfed in flames. The bell crashed down through the charred remains of the belfry into the conflagration below and became consumed by the fire's terrific heat. - fred
 

When searching the old records, William P. Rose should not be confused with William Rose, though both similarities and differences exist between the two men. William P. Rose lived on a farm in the Town of Rockland; William Rose's farm was partially in the Town of Rockland but he lived in the Town of Callicoon. William P. Rose was a lumberman who rafted on the river; William Rose was a lumberman who rafted on the river. Amongst fellow raftsmen, William P. Rose was known as "Tucker"; William Rose was known as "Deacon". William P. Rose was twice married; William Rose was twice married. William P. Rose's grandfather was John Rose; William Rose's father was John Rose. William Rose was the uncle of William P. Rose.

John Rose's brother, a great-uncle to William P. Rose and uncle to William Rose, was also named William. Their family first settled near the vicinity of Schoharie, near the Mohawk valley, where they resided until the American colonies resisted British rule and declared their independence. During the conflict, the British enlisted the help of Indians to raid, burn, murder and terrorize settlers within this area. William was captured in one such raid and kept in captivity for seven years. - fred
 

Since their move to the Midwest, Mary Ester Morton Reynolds returned to Westfield Flats to visit her brother, Jay Morton, and friends on a regular basis, often with the accompaniment of her husband, "Diamond Joe". On one visit back east, Joe was on his way to his old grist-mill when he came upon two young girls playing about the mill. At his feet were two unusual, colorful pebbles, which he picked up, giving one to each of the girls, telling them to "Send these to me when you are married."

Well, time went by and the young girls became young ladies. One of the girls had kept the pebble that "Diamond Joe" had given her so many years earlier. After her wedding day, remembering the words of Diamond Joe and in accordance with his instructions, she sent the pebble off to him, not knowing the consequences. Soon, she received a "substantial" wedding gift from Joe.

The other girl had not kept the pebble, so after her wedding day she was not able to complete the deal that Joe had made with her. Mary Reynolds soon got wind of the arrangement that her husband had made with the two young girls. One morning at the depot at Roscoe, a large, heavy crate was dropped from the mail train, addressed to the newlywed. In the crate was a handsome piano, a wedding gift from Mary Reynolds to the new bride. - fred
 

John B. Oakley was the proprietor of the wagon shop at Purvis, who became another victim to the infamous Maffett gang; more than once. One evening, after leaving his shop, he was viciously attacked by ruffians in an effort to relieve him of his money. Oakley fought off his attackers and escaped with all his money, though he was somewhat battered and bruised. Oakely, who was pretty sure that the thugs were members of the Maffett gang, reported the incident to the town constable, William French. After an investigation, French's conclusion was that since Oakley was not actually robbed, that perhaps he fabricated the incident to frame members supposed members of the gang. French's report stated that Oakley "suffered from escapes not assaults." - Fred
 

Perhaps it was the accusations, the lawlessness, or just the increased brashness of the thieving gang, but John Oakley's troubles were far from over; along with the rest of the Purvis community. On the evening of the 25th of July, 1877, fire was discovered at Oakley's wagon shop. Efforts to contain the fire were unsuccessful and the building became a complete loss. Besides the loss of all of his tools, the shop contained numerous wagons that were in various states of repairs and wagons he was in the midst of building, all being consumed by the flames. Since he had not operated the stove inside for quite sometime, the community had little doubt to the cause of the combustion; incendiaries. - fred
 

The Midland was beginning to handle more freight along its line. Prices for logs and lumber rafted down the Delaware to the Philadelphia market remained low as lumber was steadily becoming overstocked at the city's wharfs. Meanwhile, the lumbermen who used the Midland found that the new railroad opened new markets for their lumber, offering higher prices. Also, a special express freight was added on the line this spring, riding from Norwich to Middletown to handle dairy products and livestock from the farms between these two railroad hubs. Labor and money still were a problem to this railroad company but now, even as it was just beginning to become more prosperous due to the increased traffic, other problems emerged.

Due to the difficult topography the railroad line traveled over, and perhaps the less than satisfactory original construction work, the tracks required constant attention. Washouts and soft spots would shift rails, leading to numerous derailments and other mishaps. To upgrade the railroad's bed, the Midland had crews from the gravel trains working continuously to maintain and fixing the tracks throughout the spring of 1874. These work trains themselves presented a hazard; the line having only a single track, they were often in the way of the ongoing traffic. At Cadosia, this congestion became deadly. On the previous Thursday, as the gravel train was running back to the depot at this Delaware County community, it ran into cars of another train on the tracks. The work train was thrown off the tracks, killing two laborers. - fred
 

The Midland's tracks were in such a desperate state of disrepair during the spring of '74 that passage over the line, especially between Morsston and Cook's Falls, became hazardous, and at times impossible. The events during the afternoon of March 25th was an indication of the problems the money-strapped railroad company was now facing [see March 25].

The west-bound mail train had already passed through Westfield Flats that afternoon when, further down the line at Cook's Falls, it ran into difficulty. With the railroad bed under the line's tracks soft with the late winter thaw, the position of the rails shifted under the weight of the locomotive, causing the trailing cars to jump off the tracks. Though the baggage car was somewhat destroyed, none of the crew or passengers were injured.

News of the wreck quickly made its way back to Westfield Flats, where the gravel train and work crew were sent down the line to the disabled mail train. With the engine facing south-bound, the work train sped off towards Cook's Falls, traveling backwards with the engine's tender in the lead. Speeding down the track, the tender jumped off the track two miles below Westfield Flats, destroying the car, derailing the engine and tearing up a long section of tracks. Again, fortunately, nobody was hurt.

And then, later that same day, two cars of the north-bound Express Freight derailed at Buck Eddy, between Morsston and Westfield Flats. This was the accident that Joel and Bishop VanGaasbeck visited. The results of the day's events along the railroad line shut down rail service until the accidents were cleared and tracks repaired. - fred
 

It has been a cold, dry spring in these parts. The grass crop has been slow in growing, leaving farmers little choice but to continue feeding their livestock with last year's hay, and if they had none, to  rely on extra hay from their neighbor. Recent cold mornings resulted in heavy frosts and a shortened growing season, the latest killing frost occurring on the 23rd, which damaged many potato crops and other early plantings. Normally, apple trees would now be in full blossom but the cold weather has either delayed or killed off this spring's swelling buds. Snow was reported throughout the county on this day. On a day when white apple blossom petals would normally be falling, instead the sky was filled with white snowflakes, certainly not the weather expected for this time of year when planning a wedding.

"Alphabet" Decker, the popular post-master and merchant at Purvis Post Office, married Samantha Sprague, the daughter of the popular past post-master and merchant at Purvis Post Office, James Emmett Sprague. They were married at Parksville. Decker was born and raised in the Brown Settlement area above Willowemoc. After the war, he and his brothers returned home to engage in numerous business ventures at Willowemoc, forming the mercantile business of Matt Decker & Co. "Alphabet" soon moved to Purvis and the Sprague household where he assisted at Sprague's store and post office, now becoming the proprietor and new post-master. - fred
 

Joel and his parents' farm consisted of over one-hundred acres, of which forty-five were considered, for assessment purposes, as being "improved". This would include cleared land that is now in use as pasture, meadows and tilled ground. Joel spent the last week plowing and preparing four acres on the flats next to his parents' house which were to be planted in crops that would be stored or milled for winter use. One acre was devoted to potatoes, where in the coming fall, he would gather over forty bushels. Another acre was planted in Indian corn, in which he would later harvest over 30 bushels. - fred
 

Coming into Westfield Flats, Joel may have noticed the improvement to the cemetery there; the placing of an iron fence around the old cemetery. The original portion of the Westfield Flat Cemetery is situated on land donated by Robert Cochran, who joined the early settlers already living in the Beaverkill valley in 1791. Coming from the Westfield, Massachusetts, area, Cochran and his family journeyed here with Henry Shaw, who lived with the Cochran family until his early demise on March 6, 1796. His burial upon this portion of the Cochran lands would become the first grave within the Westfield Flats Cemetery.

For the past year, residents of Westfield Flats were worried about the deteriorating condition of the community's burying grounds. Doctor Leroy Wheeler's farm was located on one side of the cemetery while his pasture lot for his cows on the other, the cemetery being the cow-path in between. Though the earthly residents of the cemetery were not ones to complain over a few plops on their plots, those who were more lively thought the trampling over ancestors' graves a disgrace. With the completion of the fence around the cemetery, Doc Wheeler's cows now utilized the highway to get to their destination, the road becoming hazardous to the lively's foot traffic as bovine deposits were now littered along its route. The good fence had only transferred the neighboring problem, from the dead to the living. - fred
 

On his way home, Joel would have passed another improvement at Westfield Flats. With the coming of the railroad, Westfield Flats was now becoming popular with anglers as passengers, along with their fishing gear, arrived seemingly on every train. The James Murdock farm, situated along the banks of the upper Beaverkill, advertised the finest fishing grounds in the area and attracted many who would brave the harrowing ten mile streamside wagon ride up the valley from the depot. Montgomery Dodge's hotel at Westfield Flat, one mile from the depot, was the most popular of the area's early fishing resorts, but it was soon to have competition.

George Hunter, the founder of the Midland Hotel within the village of Liberty, decided to build a hotel at Westfield Flat. Hoping to attract anglers, along with the general traveling public, the hotel was built along the rail-line, with the Willowemoc Creek nearby, just below the depot. By the end of May, the finishing touches to the building had been completed and the hotel opened to the public, known as the Blue Fish Hotel. For reasons one can only surmise, the hotel's name was soon changed within the month, its new, more conservative name being the Willowemoc House. - fred
 

May 30th is Decoration Day. This day of remembrance was designated in 1868 by General John Logan, Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), the newly organized national veteran's organization, to remember those who died in defense of their nation during the recent war, both Union and Confederate, by decorating their graves with flowers or in some other fashion. In 1874, the day was honored at local towns such as Port Jervis and Monticello with parades of veterans, community bands and long-winded patriotic speeches by long-winded patriotic dignitaries. Other towns would not yet participate in the observance. The town fathers of Hancock decided that the village would not observe Decoration Day since there were no veterans buried within the local cemetery.

Joel hints, indirectly, that Westfield Flats also did not officially observe the holiday in 1874. Being a member of the community band, he had just recently visited the village where he practiced with the band. If the community observed this day with a ceremony, it would seem highly likely that the band would have been asked to perform. Joel left for home the day before the holiday, without a word within his diary of the band participating in any Decoration Day observances. - fred

 

The beginning of the custom for decorating the graves of veterans who had fought in the recent war had been the claim of numerous communities throughout the nation, from both the North and the South. The most likely candidate for this claim, though, would be the story of Mary Anna Williams, considered to be the "Mother of Decoration Day."

Mary was the wife of Charles Williams, a colonel with the first Georgia Regulars, a unit that served with the Army of Virginia. While with his regiment, Colonel Williams contracted  a disease from which he died in 1862 and was buried back home in Columbia, Georgia. His wife and young daughter would visit the gravesite every day, often decorating it with flowers from the season. While Mary would be deep in thought next to her husband's tombstone, her daughter would visit the unmarked graves belonging to the unknown soldiers buried nearby, pulling the weeds and decorating the markers with wildflowers.

The daughter soon took ill and died, the grieving mother now having double the reasons for visiting the cemetery. To honor her daughter, Mary took charge of her daughter's practice of decorating the unknown graves along with her husband's. It was then suggested to her that perhaps a day of remembrance should be set aside each year that would continue the tradition that she had begun in which "love may pay tribute to valor". In March of 1866, Mary made this proposal to the Soldier's Aid Society for the creation of a national memorial day to honor the fallen soldiers, and its custom of decorating the graves with flowers.

Mary Anna Williams died on April 15, 1874 and was buried with military honors. - fred