Smallwood page with lots of old pictures and other information. There is also Woodstock information and pictures of lots of other things on The Town of Bethel site.. Be sure to give this a look.

..SMALLWOOD..

..Which came first? The White Lake Times or The New York Times?

..times..

Please sign my guestbook on my Sitemap page..thanks..

..sitemap..

Hit Songs of 1959..is your favorite one of them..??..

Big Hunk O'Love..Battle of New Orleans..Come Softly to Me..El Paso..Kansas City..Were these songs on the list??

..songs..

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ALL of the above mentioned songs were number one hits..do you remember who sang them?

Most of the pictures on here are in need of improvement..I have had my own scanner for some time..but have never learned to use it..I knew how to use my daughters..it just seems there is not enough time to do everything..I will soon be going to New York and who knows what I may find..so keep a watch and pray it is easy to learn how to use this scanner..

A copy of this was sent to the Historical Society in Hurleyville. There are more pictures included.

Smallwood Construction Company picture from 1936 added..!!..

We now have a picture of Mr Smallwood, I had never seen a picture of him before. Someone sent this to me and has OK'd the use for this page. I have enlarged the Smallwood postcard too, it is still not real good, but someone may be able to identify the two men on there.

..Mr Smallwood..

Someone has sent me a picture of the Forestine School which I now share with everyone. I have enlarged some of the pictures from Forestine, White Lake and Duggan Schools and the Bethel Cemeteries.

..Duggan..

..Forestine..

A few enlarged pictures of Old Bethel or Presbyterian Cemetery.

..oldb..

..A few of our pictures of the original Woodstock sight..

..Woodstock..

For more Sullivan Co information visit My Sullivan County page..send a post card..see old post cards..bridge pictures..more....SC..

Thanks for all the nice comments about this page..they are appreciated..

...maggie...

....Post card showing Guide's Lodge in Smallwood NY. This building is still there. The signs say STOP here for INFORMATION, present your admittance card.

I lost the Duggan School Year Book our class of 1955 made up. I was sure I would find this, but, now I do not think I will.

...The Town of Bethel...

The Town of Bethel was formed from the territory of Lumberland in 1809. At one time Bethel actually extended to the Delaware River. The population of Bethel in 1809 was 737 people.

Smallwood was originally called Mountain Lakes. In 1928 Arthur N Smallwood started to develop the area into a summer retreat with log cabins. He and his wife Ruth, are buried over by Minnie Falls in a tomb in a fenced in area.

The old Smallwood was a booming place. You had to live there to get into the area, or get permission. At one time there was a little building where they checked people right down from our house. It was just a little, small building for one person. This was located where Sgt Andrew Brucher Road and Gabriel Street currently meet. An arch was over the road.

The other check point was over on the other end of Smallwood where Gina Estates is currently located. The building is still there. It was called The Guides Lodge. There were two other large buildings, one on each side of Smallwood, this was where the dances were held and people stayed. The lodges. Mom says there were dances with live bands, loads of people came from the city on buses. Meals were served, there were tennis courts. People rode around on horses. There were mounted police even. It was a beautiful place. Down by Mosquito Pond were swings and slides for the children to use.

While we were children some of these buildings were still in use. On the west side was a beauty shop, barber, store and local post office, all in one building. You went up a pretty big flight of stairs to get to the post office. There were steps from each side. Across the street from the post office Mr Sabini had a store. At one time there was even a furniture store.

On the other side of Smallwood there were numerous buildings. One was by the lake, across the road was another store. We had the sweet shops, I am not sure if there were one or two of them. There may have been one on each side of Smallwood.

Mom can remember as children they walked from Black Lake over to her Grandmother Mattisons. They had dinner, then went for a walk. There was a big boulder out where Smallwood Lake is located. She remembers them making the lake. Mary Jane Mattison sold land, as many others did to Mr Smallwood.

....Broadway at night in Monticello NY.

....The Movies....

One of the earliest things I remember is going to the movies!!!!! Yes!!!! IN Smallwood!!!! At the time there were actually two places to watch movies. They were both outside. I do not recall seeing anything except movies in black and white. They were closed in by a tall fence to keep nonpaying patrons out. There were long wooden benches, quite a few actually. A big crowd was always there. Mom says it use to cost 10-15 cents to get in. All sorts of prizes were given away in years gone by when you went to the movies. You could buy pop-corn and drinks.

In those days you probably walked to the movie. It was a real treat. Afterwards we would go to a nearby store for ice cream.

From our house we could sit out on the porch and barely hear the movie. We enjoyed sitting out there listening.

Later on we did get an actual enclosed theater built out in White Lake by Leon Lapidus. The Ritz Theater. It was nice, open only in summer. We really enjoyed it a lot. First class movies were shown there. DR NO, another with Jimmy Cagney. I went all the time. Sister Donna recalls the first time our mother let her go to the show alone, she and Linda La Polt went to see Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window.

Next door was Schwartz's Delicatessen. You could get all sorts of goodies. Knishes, ice cream, especially good were the Italian ices.

In our teen years we went to Monticello to the movies, at the Rialto Theater. Just about every Friday night. For 50 cents you generally got to see a double feature. The place was packed. The Broadway Theater was in Monticello, it only opened in the busy, busy summer.

One memorable movie we went to see was The Blob. Some of us had gone to a nearby deli to pick up some goodies. During one of the suspenseful parts we handed one of those large kosher pickles in a brown paper bag to one of the group. She nonchalantly put her hand in the bag flinging the pickle and bag across the theater, screaming at the same time. We were almost thrown out, the whole bunch of us. Till this day I remember this and tell people about it. Donna remembers Mr Lavicki, the security man on duty, was real upset with us.

Then of course there were the drive-ins. We went to them a lot. They were only open in the summer. There was The Mountain Drive-In up towards Liberty in Mountaindale. This was where we usually went. Sometimes a bunch of us kids would go with whichever parent we could talk into taking us. If we did not fall asleep during the movies, we generally did on the long drive home. It seemed to take forever. We remember these movies being in color. There were cartoons for us to enjoy. Some of the movies we saw were with Roy Rogers, Gene Autry. The good old westerns. Shoot-em up!

There would be an intermission between two movies. They would show all the good food on the screen, everyone raided the snack bar at this time. The food was rather expensive but it really was good.

There were seats up in the front everyone sat on, but I think, there was more goofing off there than anything. I was one of those who actually wanted to watch the movie.

Later a Dairy Queen was built at the entrance to The Mountain Drive-In. We would go there before the show started. This was really super.

Another drive-in was out past Monticello in Rock Hill. The Rock Hill Drive-In . As we got older we went there more often. It was closer, so, we didn't have to drive so far after we were done working. We had a good choice of places to go to watch movies. Something good was always playing.

We went quite a lot, when we were kids it seems there was always an argument that the Mountain Drive-In was the best one.

..The Churches and Fire Departments...

....Firemen's parade. On fire truck are Grandma Lillian Brucher, Ron Smith, Carol Crumley, ?, Roger Mattison.

The churches and fire departments were an integral part of our town. There were the Kauneonga Lake, White Lake and Smallwood fire departments in our area. All would have penny socials, dinners, white elephant sales. The firehouses were used for baby showers, wedding showers and receptions, everything. At Christmas, Santa would arrive in the Kauneonga Town Square on a fire truck, then we would go to the Kauneonga firehouse for goodies.

For the penny socials, local businesses and people donated prizes to the organizations. These were placed on tables with a cup nearby. Little tickets were purchased. You then put a number in the items you liked best. A number was drawn, that person won the item. Afterward cake and beverages were served. Yum! Yum!!

For a long time the fire departments had the Firemen's Festival over in White Lake in front of the old school. The fun started on Friday night. Everyone was there. All sorts of games, prizes and food booths were set up. There were rides on the fire trucks. On Sunday afternoon was the parade.

The fire departments had a ladies auxiliary, they had the penny socials and dinners.

In September the big firemen's parade was held, usually in Monticello or Liberty. All the local departments would show up, others came from all over the state. There were contests for the best looking, who came the furthest. This was a big, big event.

The Convenenter Church put on a supper during winter time. The food had to be the best I have ever had anywhere. You would walk in, there were long, long tables piled high with food. The baked beans were especially good. There was so much food. The desserts were great. The whole town came, this was something we all looked forward to.

The church had a bible school in summer we all liked to attend. Ella Van Wert use to teach us all sorts of things. There was a big hall where we would all meet. Little cottages were on the grounds, in the back was a house. At the end we would have a great big picnic. What fun!!

....Firemen's Beach, Kauneonga. The fun we had there..!!..

The Kauneonga Lake Fire Department had a beach over on Kauneonga called Firemen's Beach. We went there a lot. They built a nice dock for everyone to enjoy. Most times on the week-end it was pretty crowded. We would try to go to the beach as late in the year as we could.

I have asked others to send a story to include with this. This was sent by Bill Crumleys wife, Barbara.

Bill says he didn't know anyone grew up in Smallwood, they just spent their time there. He can't tell any stories of Smallwood because he was never a kid.

Sounds like typical Crumley!!!

The Crumleys lived right down the street from us. There were the parents Doris and Bate with the children, Bill, Kenny, Donnie and Carol. We use to go to their house a lot. Many times when everyone was skating we would go there to get warn for a few minutes. We use to baby-sit for Carol...**note 2008 well I still see Bill..they came to Wilmington again in 2006..Bill said when leaving well Marge I guess I won't be seeing you anymore I just can't take this trip..well since then I was moved to Charlotte..and his son moved about 20 miles up the road..so they came last summer..now their daughter has moved here too..I said will we be saying this for the next 20 years**

...Activities...

ICE SKATING--SLEIGH RIDING...