Scotchtown Notes

By Charles Alex Comfort

It appears that the village of Scotchtown developed after the building of the church. Mr. George Houston is said to have received from his father, James Houston of Neelytown, a tract of 300 acres of land in 1787.

In early December 1795 George Houston called a meeting of substantial citizens of the Town of Wallkill together who decided to issue a general call to all the inhabitants between the Wallkill River and the great swamp to meet at the Houston house on December 24, 1795 to consider the building of a church. They decided to (1) build between the roads along side of the Houston house and (2) That it should be Presbyterian.

Mr. Houston soon laid out and sold lots along the different roads crossing in the village which he sold at a fair price. The community had a schoolhouse built in 1814, and built larger in 1842. This larger school continued in use for 100 years until 1942. He laid out a road across his property to make a more direct road to Circleville which would make his land more accessible. His land extended to the entire hill area of Wallkill and apparently bordered the Patrick Bodle farm on the west, John McWilliams on the northwest, and James Moore on the east. Jacob Mills purchased the land to the west side of this Goshen-Wallkill turnpike and sold to Mr. Houston the Patrick Bodle land on the east side of the turnpike. Houston sold 140 acres to Methuselah Baldwin for his home while he operated the farm and preached the gospel as first Pastor for over 40 years. In 1839 he sold a tract of over five acres for the parsonage land at the top of the hill. He sold to John McWilliams, on the same day, over four acres of land up to the road too. Houston retained a tract of land bordering the turnpike suitable for building. He doubtless sold lots in the village which were a post office and store, a home for a carpenter, and a tavern, a small lot for a civil war veteran, a half acre for a wagon makers shop, and a blacksmith shop, and a doctor, a store keeper, a workman who kept the cemetery, dug graves, made gardens and other work. On the west side of the village he sold a lot to his son-in-law, and two homes and a schoolhouse were added from the Mills land.

When I first remember there was Mr. And Mrs. John E. Hatch. He was a handy man and carpenter, a horse doctor and a general workman while she kept a little store and the Scotchtown post office. Mr. Martin Carmody had just built a blacksmith shop on the south corner of the Millsburg road on land owned by a Mr. Armstrong and a house with a small grocery store selling some liquor on the side.

The next house was owned by the Crans family. Mr. Jeptha Crans was an old carpenter. His son Fonda died out in a grain field on a hot day. Fonda’s widow Mrs. Addie Crans and her son, Fonda Beattie Crans, lived there. Beattie worked among his neighbors and became a brakeman on the O & W Railroad and was killed in the freight yards. He pumped the pipe organ in church. Later he cared for the work around Dr. Santee’s barn and cared for his horses and drove for the doctor in the winter. The barn was hit by lightning and ran through Beattie Crans body. The doctor was in Circleville at the time. Young John Hatch rode a horse to Circleville past our house to get the doctor. Beattie recovered from the shock.

Next to the Carmody blacksmith shop was the home of Mr. And Mrs. Henry Deyo. Mr Deyo was a civil war veteran and received a pension. He had to be examined by an army physician to determine his degree of disability and is said to have been badly crippled as he arrived for his examination. Perhaps it required two or three men to get him out of his wagon and in to see the doctor. When his examination was completed and he got back in his wagon, and his pension had been determined, he could move much more easily. He had a two-seated wagon and drove to Middletown every day taking two or three neighbors for shopping. Perhaps he charged 25 cents to take them in the morning and bring them home at 3 or 4 o’clock with their purchases.

His son Horatio was a strong man, a good workman, a very ingenious man, very accommodating man. He helped neighbors, sawed woodpiles and helped gather ice, butcher and eventually ran a repair shop. Horatio Deyo died in 1933 of a malignancy. He was liked by all his neighbors. He drove a model T Ford. In 1929 the city of Middletown installed red lights on every intersection. Horatio drove to town not being instructed about red lights, so he drove like he had always done. The policeman who stopped him was kind to him, and after instructing him all about the lights, he said, “What lights?” Only then did he see the lights, when they were pointed out to him. This house is now owned by W. James Casterline, whose father, James, purchased it from Horatio Deyo.

The next house has been our home since 1958 when we left the farm. We purchased it from Jessie Puff who acquired it from Mrs. William Hammill, widow of Egbert Sherwood. His father Egbert S. Sherwood Sr. purchased it from Mrs. Joshua Hornbeck who had built it in 1826. Dr. John A. Hornbeck was an early physician who died in 1858.

The next property was the home of the wagon maker, Alexander C. Sloat. He worked in the shop mostly. Mrs. Sloat and the children milked the three cows, made butter for their own use and sold milk and butter to neighbors, and they kept a horse. They also kept chickens, several apple trees and a garden. They also bought and fattened two hogs a year for their winter food supply. He died at the age of 78 in 1900. Their 4 children all were college graduates. The family then sold the property to Mr. and Mrs. John Illenberg, their daughter Mrs. Honek still owns it.

The next house now owned by Mr. Victor Scale, a surveyor, has changed hands a number of times. When I first remember it was the home of Mr. And Mrs. Daniel R. Clark, an old blacksmith who died about 1896. The shop had been built by Mr. Henry Puff, grandfather of Jessie Puff, and was his home where his son William H. Puff was born September 26, 1846. Mr. Clark sold it to Mrs. Mary Sinsabaugh, she and daughter Anna lived there for some years and kept boarders. Later Mr. And Mrs. Thomas Dunn lived there. Percy Wilkin died there. Mr. And Mrs. Homer Nutt lived there many years while their children were in school. Others lived there, Mr. And Mrs. MacCready, Mr. And Mrs. Fred Germain and perhaps others.

The next house was the home of Mr. I. Lee Jennings and his daughter Phoebe. Mr. Jennings was rather elderly and Phoebe helped people clean house, prepare dinners and after her father’s death she lived with Mr. And Mrs. Edward Mittendorf of Pine Bush where she died well along in her 80s. The home is now owned by Mr. And Mrs. Francis Frank who purchased it of Jessie Puff who purchased it after the death of Mrs. Eva Courtright. She was found dead in her chair by the stove with the fire out, and the kerosene lamp empty.

The last house down the hill is now owned by Mr. And Mrs. Andrew Toombs. Mr. Toombs worked on a sawmill near the maples. This was the home of Mr. David B. Scott. He was a workman with no particular skills that I know of. He mowed the cemetery once or twice a year, dug graves, helped farmers butcher, and was janitor of the church. He entertained us boys after church by catching a handful of wasps and releasing them one by one. He claimed they never stung him, but his hands were heavily calloused. He wore leather boots and soled them himself with soles nearly an inch thick. My father and his hired help also wore leather boots when I was young. Later felt boots were used in winter. Father gave my grandfather Alexander Sloat a pair of felts – the first I remember. Grandfather suffered from chillblains from frosting in the winter and enjoyed the comfort of the felts.

The one house on the west side of the road surrounded by the Houston’s garden and the two cemeteries was the house of Dewitt Bogardus and their young son Harry. Mr. Bogardus was a cattle buyer for William Brown and rented the home from Mr. Brown. He kept a very nice Guernsey cow and three horses and had a butcher shop where he sold fresh meat. His older son Edward married the schoolteacher Miss Jessie Morris Howells and rented the Clark property across the road which was the occasion for some fun by the other young men. I believe the lock on the door would not work. Some one had poured in some melted lead. The stove smoked too. Some one had stuffed the chimney with some cloth. Ed always got attention on Halloween also. He had always played jokes on them and they were just getting back at him.

The home of George Houston was doubtless the oldest in the village and had a porch on two front stories as it had been a hotel many years earlier. The Houstons were farmers and developers and had sold the lots for the other houses in the village. They owned an old store building in what is now the garden. This building had not been used as a store for many years, but it was used as a store when mother was a girl, during and soon after the Civil War. Thieves sometimes broke in. They went into my grandfather’s wagon shop and got tools to break in with. The Houston family lived almost along side the church. They were careful to be still during church services. They had an old cabriolet in the wagon house and a dog tread power to run a churn which were interesting to me. They also had a string of sleigh bells which had small bells at the top and longer bells below the horses belly. They were the only set of bells of that type I remember seeing. John, the oldest son, began a retail milk route in Middletown by the time I started school and continued the business for his lifetime. He was a great tease and had me fearful as I walked home from school and was some fun for him.

Mr. Houston kept some hogs in a yard between their horse barn and the schoolhouse. The schoolhouse, Town of Wallkill District No. 9, was in a deplorable condition when I started. The school had seats for 20 or more and had seats for ten or twelve more added when District No. 8 closed their school and paid tuition for their pupils in our school. There was a library which was set in the hallway in the dark where it was never used or looked at. Blackboards were at the front and perhaps one on the side of the room. Two pupils were sent for a pail of water each morning. The dipper was for the entire school and was like we used in our homes. We had a new teacher every year.

The church was heated with two furnaces, one of which did not work much of the time on account of bent grates. There was a long row of sheds holding 30 rigs and a short shed holding perhaps 3 rigs. There were tie posts also in front of the church. There were cushions on the seats and footstools and a carpet in the auditorium. Downstairs there were wooden benches for seats which were later replaced by chairs. A narrow passage led from the Sunday School room to the back kitchen and furnace room. A four-hole kitchen stove was used for oyster suppers. The entire Sunday School classes were held in this room.

On the west side of the church lawn are three houses. Nearest the church is the home of the Jacob Telefus family. That was the home of the three Boak sisters, elderly daughters of Mr. and Mrs. James Boak. The three sisters died in perhaps a year or two before 1900 and are buried in the old yard.

The second house, home of Harold and Irene Wilkin, was the home of Mrs. Mary Sinsabaugh and her daughter Anna. Anna assisted neighbors put on big family dinners. She was through school by the time I began, but she did walk part way home with me when I was afraid to go alone. Mrs. Sinsabaugh was the sister of Mr. John E. Hatch who lived across the village and had the post office and small grocery store. Edward Bogardus purchased the home of Mrs. Sinsabaugh and renovated it extensively.

The third house was the home of Dr. A. C. Santee. Mr. Santee had purchased of the estate of Mrs. Theron Lybolt who had lived there with her daughter Catherine, who was deaf. She died in Old Ladies Home. Dr. Santee had come to Scotchtown previous to the blizzard of March 12, 1888. Several persons were ill around Circleville and the road was badly drifted. A number of young men hitched a yoke of oxen to a heavy straight sleigh of William Bull’s to go to Scotchtown for the doctor. They shoveled enough banks so it was 4 p.m. when they reached the foot of our hill with nearly a mile of bad drifts ahead to reach the doctor. In time they returned with the doctor and his satchel of medicine. They returned to Circleville and he was there three days before returning to Scotchtown. Above Circleville was an old man trying to walk the fence but falling frequently. They called to him, “Who is sick?” He said, “Nobody is sick, I’m out of tobacco.”

Mrs. Santee knew the Morse code and soon a telegraph line was set up to connect the railroad at Circleville with the O. & W. at Crystal Run and Dr. Santee’s office so people could contact him from Circleville or Crystal Run. A few years later it became a telephone line and gradually telephones increased. When Ed Bogardus and George Houston had phones in we could not understand why Scotchtown needed so many. It was perhaps about 1906 when we got a phone.

The doctor kept three horses so as to have a fresh horse for morning, afternoon and night. He also had a cow which ran with the herd of Houston cows as well as the Bogardus’ cow. The doctor and Ed Bogardus were great bicycle riders and once rode to Boston and back. The doctor also bought a Shetland pony and cart for his children to drive but it was a runaway. The doctor rode his bicycle to Sullivan County to get the pony but after sometime decided to ride the bicycle back and hold the rope in his hand. That went alright but it was tiresome to hold the rope so he tried tying the rope to the bicycle and riding that way. That was better until something scared the pony and he jerked the bicycle from under the doctor and took it over the fence into a field. The new Columbia bicycle was wrecked and the doctor bruised. I guess someone had to lead the pony home. It never was safe for a child to drive the pony.

In winter the doctor wore a fur cap, a heavy fur coat and gloves and had blankets and a fur robe around him as he drove around and took care of the ill and injured over a mile area. For many years he served on the Board of Trustees of the church, was health officer for the Town of Wallkill and served at times as the Trustee of the School District. In 1919 he sold his home and office and moved to Middletown where he became Chief of Staff of Horton Memorial Hospital. He eventually became ill and died in 1933. Mrs. Santee lived only three weeks after his death when she passed away too.

About the same time John Dewitt Bogardus also moved into Middletown and by 1921 Martin Carmody the blacksmith moved to Maybrook to be blacksmith for the railroad shop at more wages than he could make in Scotchtown and then Scotchtown seemed almost deserted.

Most of the houses were built before 1850. As children, we boys had a good time with very little expense. We played ball, and riding downhill, skating, and snowballing were our winter activities.