Bee
to
Noah Mundy
1881
From the personal collection of Sylvia Hasenkopf
Envelope:
From Haines
in Catskill Mts.
Posted from Catskill, NY
Sep 7, 3pm
3 cent stamp
Reverse: New York Transit
Sept 7 81, 9pm
To: Mr. Noah Mundy
Metuchen, N. Jersey
Tuesday 10:50am
1st day
Dear pa, ma and everybody
It takes so long for a letter to get from here to you that I must write one to leave here I I this house tonight. I’d rather wait till I had more to write about but suppose you are anxious to know just how we are located etc. So after I’ve told you that I needed to write again in a week or so, ahem.
Well to begin at N.Y. Ben met us where we landed, boarded the steamer & sailed up to 22d sl with us leaving a box of candy to keep his memory sweet. All that was very nice. On the river we had arm chairs on the rear deck nice as could be only couldn’t see anything at all distinctly for the cloudy or smoky or hazy state of the atmosphere. And one time for a few minutes it rained real smart. About half way up the Hudson everything began to look more green. pasture is beautiful all over these parts & Sat night it rained hard here all night. Roads muddy in places. At Catskill Will at once found Mr. Kerr who looks like his character by the way, exactly. Something such looking man as Alex Noe only not so broad shouldered & square looking with a kindly drawl & a perfect knowledge of every stone and twist of the road. Has gone over it for 20 years & could do it with his eyes shut. Stops at almost every house to receive a message or leave a mail bag or something & seems to be the trusty & trusted man of the mountains. Beside our party there were only a gentleman & wife who got off before we entered the Clove & a little girl sent up from the village to Palenville. From there for over two hours we had the carriage to ourselves. In Catskill we stopped to water the horses. So to take up the little girl. Right next door to Dr. J.B. Sr. church. Saw nothing of him but felt just like getting out & going there. We arrived here about 8 I guess. The most romantic part of the way passed over by moonlight. Too bad. There are fires somewhere so that for a week the atmosphere has been just so smoky, you can’t get an extended view at all. All the way till we entered the clove, which is a tremendous gorge in the mts. the Catskills towered up in the sky ahead of us looking like the merest outline of a cloud. While the foothills just always in front & all round showed quite plainly. But all the grandeur & awesomeness was left to our imagination. We were too sorry and disappointed. The Clove road is very wild & romantic & beautiful takes us past or thro Palenville & Tannersville & past Haines Falls house which is large & lighted up looked so pretty. There were lights all thro the mts twinkling out so cunning. This part of the Mt is 2100 feet above the Hudson last hour was steep climbing & frequent halts Right here it is rather level with mts all round esp. in front where the very highest peak of the range lifts up its head. Two of the highest, High P. & Round top. There are only 4 here beside ourselves a lady, gentleman their boy of 12 & another lady. Seem pleasant but out acquaintance has not professed very far yet.
Enclosed you will find a drawing of H.P. cottage & annex done by Miss J. Wen. She & Will each went across the road & sketch being better nor his. I send hers. And now did ever such fortunate people exist as we for do you believe it that Annex is ours!! That door in the door in the middle opens into a little hall with a room on each side two windows in each room 1 front & 1 rear, too cosy & cunning for anything. Will & Cad have the one on the right as you enter. Jess and I the left. & that’s all of it. Beat that if you can! Dahlias grow right up in my window & the well of delightful water so near & Bec forgot to say that we can get up &go to garden at all hours of the night. Gate opens mts the street directly opposite our door We have ingrain carpet, nice yellow bedstead & chairs & a washstand wide with three drawers. Glass like ours at O.G. only it makes me much better looking. The Cottage has a piazza across the front, large nice parlor rocking chairs etc. & a lounge on the piazza for lazy folks. Good table I guess. Cream for coffee & oatmeal at breakfast the a.m. delicious biscuits, steak, fish, potatoes in milk, homemade butter good & pot cheese for tea last night. “Hannah” who waits on table is about 50 & to the mountains born I think. Mr. & Mrs. H. are over 60 & never been in a steam car or steam boat & never farther from home than Poughkeepsie I believe. Very clever people & characteristic of these parts. Oh I wish you all were here. Cad says did I come up here to write letters. An ice cooler stands ready for use. But the weather is real hot, ther. was 70 on the piazza this a.m. after breakfast. Even Will is warm now. After dinner just up from it. We had boiled lamb or something real good. potatoes, string beans very tender & so good, squash, cucumbers & onions cut together, blackberry pie, delicious, watermelon, pears. Everything good. Its real farm fare & all done so quietly. “Hannah” talks to us while she is waiting our table & tells if theres anything in want to ask for it, shes more forgetful than she used to be. We will walk a little this p.m. after tea. Well we undertook to walk to the Fawn’s leap but it was too hot. But we found a pretty little water fall with a board seat across it & all the water is cool drinking water & we take a cup & have a nice time. One of the ladies here has dyspepsia dreadfully when she is home. here she can eat anything & gets fat. Cad says tell you this is the last letter you get in some days. Business begins tomorrow, guess will walk to Haines Falls in the a.m.
Love to you I’m having a lovely time we all are It seems
too mean for me to be here & not the rest of you. It cools off here nights –
quick. Theres a good deal of passing here, long vans full of people. Our Mr.
Haines talk something as Uncle David used to, we all notice it. That pie for
dinner cad says was blackberry & elderberry. It seemed to me the best I ever ate
in my life but I couldn’t tell what it was beside blackberry. Now the dusk grows
fast so good night from loving
Bee
All send love