Here is a message and some great history from Rolf Reiss.
I recently came across a copy of Harper's Weekly from 1902 that contained an interesting little article about Snyder Hollow (Woodland Valley's former name). Unfortunatly, the authors name is not included. It begins
"September had arrived and the Catskill farmers were cutting their corn and buckwheat, digging their potatoes, and getting in their late millet.
My first long walk in the Catskills was up a half-wild glen that wound back among the mountains from one of the larger valleys for a distance of five or six miles. Snyder Hollow as it was called was hemmed narrowly in by wooden ridges, and sometimes the trees crept down and took full possession of all save the tiny ribbon of the highway. Most of the houses were of weather-worn gray and had never been painted."
The author stopped by a bridge to admire the stream and "noticed a little red house perched high on a slope above the road ( this is the house shown in the photo enclosed ) where some tomatoes were spread to ripen on the piazza which served as shelter for the family tubs. A woman in a calico sun-bonnet was the only person I saw about the place" He then observed the woman "picking a peck or so of scattered butternuts which she spread to dry on a thin slab of stone laid over the top of a barrel (see photo). Meanwhile the hens had gathered around her, hopeful of a feed, and she shooed them away with her apron.
The outlook over the woodland glen, with its flanking of green ridges and the silvery stream twinkling into view here and there was very beautiful, and I fancied she was admiring the scenery. But when I ventured the opinion that she must enjoy having a home in such a situation, she said she was so used to the scenery roundabout that she never thought whether it was pretty or not, and she would rather live in a village. She was watching the road for her son. He had been working in Massachusetts, but he was coming home to stay now. "It's a terrible place for malaria, Massachusetts is", she informed me, and he couldn't stand it there".
I just love this article and it's depiction of life here in the valley over a hundred years ago. Will post more of it shortly.
- Rolf
