The ‘‘Our towns’’ column is compiled each month by Carol Johnson of the Haviland-Heidgerd Historical Collection. The entries have been copied from the November issues of the New Paltz Independent. To get a closer look at these newspapers of the past, visit the staff of the Haviland-Heidgerd Historical Collection at the Elting Memorial Library at 93 Main Street in New Paltz, or call 255-5030.
Mr. and Mrs. Millard K. DuBois delightfully entertained ten of their friends at a Hallowe’en party. The quaint attic of their artistic home was beautifully decorated with oak boughs, chrysanthemums and Hallowe’en suggestions and weirdly lighted by Jack O’lanterns and candles. Dinner consisted of pancakes, Ulster County sausage, pumpkin-pie and coffee. All voted Mr. and Mrs. DuBois ideal entertainers.
The election Tuesday resulted in a landslide for President Coolidge and the re-election of Governor Smith. Coolidge has an increased majority in congress to back him. Smith is the only Democrat on the state ticket to be elected and faces a legislature in control of the Republicans. Orange and Ulster Counties made a clean sweep for the Republican ticket electing all candidates.
On Wednesday, November 5, Mr. Beebe of the Normal School took two busloads of Normal students to Napanoch to visit the reformatory. It is a reformatory for men only. The institution consists of several large stone buildings surrounded by a high wall, on top of which are stationed guards, whose duty it is to see that no prisoners escape over the wall.
Raymond Hasbrouck has had charge of the planting of trees on the library grounds — flat cedars near the building and a half-dozen poplars along the east side of the grounds.
The planting that has lately been done in the Jean Hasbrouck Memorial Park under the direction of Raymond Hasbrouck includes setting out a row of mountain ash trees between the tennis court and the road. Barberry bushes have been set out south of the tennis courts. There will be a privet hedge bordering the south side of the park, a planting of yucca in the north east corner and various trees in the space at the north end of the tennis courts.
Owing to the scarcity of water in times of fire, two dams have been constructed in the stream running through Gardiner village. Since this water is not available for all parts of the town, a large cistern is being built on the Reformed Church property, which will supply water for that section.
There have been many forest fires throughout the state. Thousands of acres have been burned over. No sooner would the fire rangers get one fire controlled than they would be called on to fight another, but at last reports all fires were under control. The fire seen from our village near the mountain top between Mohonk and Minnewaska, which was especially conspicuous on Sunday night, has been safely put out. In state forest preserves, hunting is still forbidden. The forest floor is nearly a foot deep in tender dry leaves, twigs and pine needles, and only rain or snow can make hunting safe.
Visitors and guests to Mohonk next year will observe with considerable surprise, no doubt, the pains in which have been take to beautify the section around the New Sky Top Emergency Reservoir and Drive. Toward the later part of November, it is expected that the reservoir will be in readiness to have the water pumped into it. First from the lake to one of the two reservoirs near Pinkster Path, then direct to the new emergency reservoir.
Owing to the long drought and a strong north wind which swept the water downstream with the tide, the Hudson River reached its lowest level on records Monday night — three feet below sea level. A troy navigation was hindered for several hours and it was possible to walk across the stream with high rubber boots.
Kenneth DuBois kept an average 833 hens last year. They laid 145,000 eggs or 175 eggs per bird. These eggs if placed end to end would have made a line just about five and one half miles long or would have nearly covered the distance from his residence to Modena.
The weather bureau reports the coldest pre-Thanksgiving Day weather on record in the state. In our village the thermometer registered less than ten degrees above zero on Monday morning and about the same on Tuesday and Wednesday. Children have been skating on ponds and brooks and ice on the Wallkill has been thick enough for walking across. The sudden change from mild autumn weather to mid-winter was something of a shock and much damage was done to harvested and unharvested crops, according to reports coming in. Apples left in barrels or under trees were frozen. Cabbage and cauliflower suffered the same fate and much produce, which it is customary to leave in the fields or store out-of-doors until Thanksgiving Day, has been ruined by the cold.
Trial of the action brought by Charles Davidson of New York against the Po’keepsie and Highland Ferry Company for $10,000 damages for injuries alleged to have been received when the automobile in which he was a passenger backed off the deck of the ferry company at Highland two years ago was before Arthur S. Tompkins and a jury at Po’keepsie, last week. One of the chief witnesses was Dr. Charles Sandler of New York City, a psycho-analytical physician, who attended Mr. Davidson after the accident. He stated that Davidson came to his office a few days following the accident in a highly nervous state which he describes as similar to shell shook. He said he gave him medicine for one week and then resorted to psychoanalytical treatment. Mr. Davidson, he stated, was slightly improved from the time when he first saw him, but he was still suffering from shock, and this he thought would continue for some time. His trouble, the doctor stated, was entirely mental and caused him to lie awake at night and would rouse him from deep slumber with the feeling he was drowning and cause him to gasp for breath. In the accident at Highland, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Shuttrick, of Springtown were drowned.
Last Friday night the Boys Athletic Association gave a dance in the gym to raise money for new basketball suits. A large number of young people tripped gaily to the strains of a lively orchestra, so many at least that the boys cleared about twenty-five dollars. They should be able to get the socks anyway.
A book that has attracted considerable attention this year is Cat O’Mountain, recently written and published by Mr. Arthur O. Friel. The scene of the story is laid around Mohonk and Minnewaska and deals with the old-time characters who frequented Ulster County in the early days of The Trapps, The Clove, Dickie Barr, etc. It is a story which holds your interest to the last, and, as it deals with the section of the country which we all love, everyone should have an opportunity to read it.
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