My first memory of encounter with the Kinch family must have been around 1930 at age four, looking up from the bottom of the well in front of the Beaverkill Trout Club. If our own family tradition is to be believed, I had climbed down into the well, likely with the assistance of Hank Kinch, Frank Kinch’s younger son, who was repairing it. My babysitter was distraught when she saw me in the well and

Frank at the dining table.  Ageless, he might be 70, 80, or 90.  Enlargement

wailed, “Mr. Plumber, Mr. Plumber, please send me up my little boy.” Hank Kinch was the first I met of the Kinch family. After my family bought the houses next to the Church, I ran into Mr. Kinch and Ike, Frank’s older son, many times. I came to know the Kinch family well over the years.

As a number of accounts in this volume attest, although there were several other farmers in Beaverkill area in the ’20s and ’30s – including the Trout Valley Farm (until about 1939), Andrew Ackerly, Jewett Allen (on Berry Brook), the Butler Farm (at the west end of Clear Lake), the Hardenberghs, and Wilbur Miner – Frank Kinch was the local farmer, at least for summer residents – the one who supplied the butter and eggs and the firewood, who plowed gardens and pulled cars from the ditch, all in addition to running his substantial farms.

Frank’s influence rested mainly on his character and personality, but, in addition, reflected the fact that from 1920 into the 1940s he was one of the largest landowners in the valley who successively owned and personally operated two large farms. The second farm will be very familiar to all who have visited the Covered Bridge. The white house above and the red barn below the Campsite Road are still standing and have been the recipients of some careful restoration over the years. They are owned by Larry and Anna Lise Vogel and are located not quite halfway down the Campsite Road. This was a substantial farm, but was preceded by an even larger farm, known as the Beaverkill Tannery Farm, that Frank Kinch purchased in 1920 and operated until 1934 when he sold that farm and bought the farm on Campsite Road.

The Kinch Family, probably at Isaac’s farm on Berry Brook. Front: Nettie Kinch (Frank’s wife) and father Isaac. Back: Frank; Mary Jane Shaver (Frank’s sister, called “Jane”); then Frank and Jane’s brother, Sherman. The two children are Frank’s: Ike (seated) and Mary (standing). Enlargement

The Tannery Farm has particular significance in the history of Beaverkill, but before looking at it, let me turn for a moment to Frank’s own history. He was born in 1871 and grew up on his father’s farm in Berry Brook. We are still trying to find the location of that farm. His father, Isaac, died in 1923 at the age of 83 and was buried in the Berry Brook Cemetery. according to his death notice “he was the oldest person“ in Berry Brook. Frank was the youngest of four children. One of his brothers died at the age of two, but his brother, Sherman, and a sister, Mary Jane Shaver, lived to a full age. Frank himself missed 100 by a whisker.

Frank married Nettie Whitcomb of Spring Brook in 1891 in Downsville. They were both under twenty and eventually had four children - Mary E. born 1892, died 1967; Isaac W. (“Ike”) born 1893, died 1974; Henry (“Hank”) born 1895, died 1981; and Emma born 1897, died 1929. Frank and his family continued to live and work on his father’s farm in Berry Brook for some time. We don’t know whether he ever owned or farmed another farm elsewhere, but in 1920, when he was 49, Frank bought the Beaverkill Tannery Farm.

Tanning, The Beaverkill Tannery
and the Tannery Farm

Frank in his prime, probably at Berry Brook Farm before 1920 Enlargement

If today you stand by the Covered Bridge and look across the River towards the Berry Brook Road, you are confronted by a large forested hill, quite steep, bounded on the left by Berry Brook Road and on the right by Ragin Road. The Tannery Farm included all of Kinch’s Hill that you can see and both sides of Ragin Road for about .6 miles from the bridge and about .2+ miles along Berry Brook Road to the Hamerstrom property. The portion between the Berry Brook Road and the river was sold by Mr. Kinch to the State in 1927 to become part of the Campsite. The land on the river side of Ragin Road included a flat river meadow just north of the bridge and a wagon trail down to the meadow; north of the meadow was steeper land used mostly for pasture. The original farmhouse still stands, little changed, now owned by Bebe Loizeaux and her children. The original barn on the river side of the road (now owned by me) is pretty much the same as it was when Frank Kinch bought it. I compare it to the barn in the pictures and I see that the barn was extended to the north about 25 feet and a dormer with a large door was added on the south side of the roof. They were both, undoubtedly, the work of Frank Kinch.

In the 1940s Kinch’s Hill was essentially cleared ground, used as a large hayfield with one or two trees at the top of the hill. (Tim Foote refers to it as “Lone Tree Hill”) One time, in about 1943, my younger brother and three or four of our younger sisters hiked up to the lone tree at the top. My brother climbed high up in the tree while doing something else and hurt himself quite badly. I ran all the way down the hill as fast as I could and fortunately I found a ranger who helped carry him down. We took him to a local doctor who said that he had a minor concussion and he would soon be ready to go up the hill again.

If today you stand by the Covered Bridge and look around, you see the surrounding hills covered with forests. However, one hundred years ago these hills were cleared for fields and the area surrounding the bridge was the town of Beaverkill, which had a large tannery.

The tanning business started in the northeast Catskills about 1785 after tanners found that the hemlock bark was better in many ways than the oak bark tanning process that had previously been used. Tanneries were first sited there because they were close to some of the largest forests of hemlocks, good water and road transport for bringing in hides (mostly South American) and for delivering the tanned leather product. It was learned many years before that the economics required the hides to be brought to the hemlock bark and not vice versa. After a number of years the eastern hemlocks were all gone and tanners had to go further west for hemlock bark.

In about 1833 the price of leather dropped precipitously but in the early 1840s business started to improve. The Beaverkill Tannery was built by Linus B. Babcock in 1840, just before the Mexican American War in 1846, which was a great boon to the tanners.

In 1851 the New York and Erie Railroad was completed to Elmira, N.Y. along the Delaware River through Callicoon, greatly shortening the route that the green hides and the tanned hides took.

Powell and Barnhart’s Beaverkill Valley, a Journey Through Time at page 86 states that, after the railroad was constructed, “teams of oxen then transported the hides by wagon through Fremont, up the Swamp Ridge Road to Rockland and up to the Babcock and Ellsworth tannery . . . , the teams making but two trips a week because of bad roads.”

In 1862 William Henry Ellsworth had become a partner in the Beaverkill Tannery and the tannery was thereafter called the Babcock and Ellsworth Tannery. Ellsworth was thirty-three at the time and had been working for eight years at the Hammond & Benedict tannery in DeBruce, which was the largest in the U.S.

Although it is uncertain whether Linus Babcock lived in the Beaverkill, Ellsworth purchased an existing home (possibly from a Samuel Waterbury and now owned by the Adams) and settled there with his family. This home was part of a farm of approximately 50 acres with many farm buildings. This farm and its outbuildings are visible in the 1883 picture printed in Volume I and reproduced here.

This was a time of great prosperity for the tannery because the Civil War created a huge demand for leather. James Quinlan, the Sullivan County historian, stated that “the Civil War was fought on boots made of Sullivan County leather.”

After the Civil War, there continued to be a need for leather and the tannery prospered. There was a great demand for horses as well as for farm goods for the many workers at the tannery. Between 1869 and 1882, Babcock and Ellsworth purchased 307.5 additional acres across the river from the farm owned by Ellsworth. Both of these farms are designated as a ‘Beaverkill Tannery Farm’ on their deeds and it is possible that the Ellsworths’ farm was a family farm and the farm on Ragin Road was considered a part of the tannery. This farm would be an important part of the tannery operation to pasture and feed the many horses and oxen needed to transport the hides to and from the railroads and to bring the hemlock bark to the tannery.

After Mr. Babcock’s death in 1881, his executors deeded his interest in the farm to Ellsworth, and he became the sole owner of both farms. Ellsworth lived in Beaverkill long after the tannery was gone. He ran a boarding house in the Ackerly/Adams house. He died in 1912 and he and others of his family are buried in the Beaverkill Cemetery. His executors sold the family farm to Andrew Ackerly and the upper Beaverkill Tannery Farm to Frank Kinch in 1920.

The Tannery Farm included all of Kinch’s Hill that you can see and both sides of Ragin Road for about .6 miles from the bridge and about .2+ miles along Berry Brook Road to the Hamerstrom property. The portion between the Berry Brook Road and the River was sold by Mr. Kinch to the State in 1927 to become part of the campsite. The land on the river side of Ragin Road included a flat river meadow just north of the bridge and a wagon trail down to the meadow; north of the meadow was steeper land used mostly for pasture. The original farmhouse still stands, little changed, now owned by Bebe Loizeaux and her children. The original barn on the river side of the road (now owned by me) is pretty much the same as it was when Frank Kinch bought it. I compare it to the barn in the pictures and I see that the barn was extended to the north about 25 feet and a dormer with a large door was added on the south side of the roof. They were both, undoubtedly, the work of Frank Kinch.

The article by Leslie C. Wood, based on an interview with Frank Kinch in 1960 when Frank was 88, states that “for nearly a half-century he [Frank] lived on a 300-acre farm just inside Sullivan County, up Berry Brook near Beaverkill.” Actually, Frank Kinch bought the farm in 1920 and sold it in 1934. That leads me to believe that (i) he might have been the tenant farmer or renter on that farm for some time, before he bought the farm in 1920 or (ii) at age 88, sharp though he was, he may have forgotten how long he worked that farm.

I’m quite sure that he did have 35 cows on that farm because I now own the barn on that farm. There are stanchions for at least 35 cows in the barn. It is interesting that he also had 15 head of young stock and three horses.

Frank and Nettie loved to square dance and sometimes went to the dances in Pepacton when they were on his father Isaac’s farm in Berry Brook. Even when they were farming the Tannery Farm, Frank and Nettie would sometimes milk all the cows in the afternoon, then hitch up the horse and buggy, drive all the way to Pepacton, dance until the end, then drive back to Beaverkill, milk the cows in the morning, and then finally go to bed. Quite a feat for a couple in their fifties.

Frank’s two sons, Ike and Hank, bought the Lew Beach blacksmith shop from Jay Butler in 1921. The current newspaper noted that ‘the Kinch brothers have had some years as machinists in Bridgeport, Conn.” They continued to run the blacksmith shop along with a garage until February, 1927 when Hank bought Ike’s interest in the partnership.

Later Ike returned to Beaverkill. Ike was an excellent carpenter as well as blacksmith and an experienced farmer. He built several houses on Ragin Road. After Frank sold the Tannery Farm to the Woelfles 1n 1934, Mr. Woelfle wanted to keep the farm going. He needed a tenant farmer and had Ike build a small house on the property for a tenant farmer. Ike also built a couple of other houses on the property. See Jack Obecny’s story, “For the Love of – Beaverkill!!” in the Friends of Beaverkill Community web site to learn more about the tenant/farmer arrangement which didn’t work out. After Mr. Woelfle gave up the idea of tenant farming, he rented out his houses to summer people for a few years. Ultimately, however, the houses were sold: one to the Obecnys and the other to the Passaros. Eventually my wife and I bought that house from Leonore Casagrande, Passaro’s daughter.

Family House - Tannery farmhouse in the 1920s or early ’30s

Unfortunately, Ike’s wife (formerly Lena Burton) had a serious nervous breakdown in 1929 and eventually she and their children, Lulu Marie and Harry, separated from Ike. I believe that Ike lived much of his life in his father’s house.

Hank continued operating the garage and was an excellent plumber. Powell and Barnhart included a newspaper report of 3/1933 that Mrs. F. Kinch was in Lew Beach caring for the Henry Kinch family who were all ill. He eventually sold the garage to Cliff Stewart and his wife, Florence, in the late 1930s.

When I was about six or seven, we rented a cottage in Lew Beach and I used to walk to the garage and watch Hank working. Frank Kinch frequently would go up to the garage and talk with the men. He always said “I’m going to the Beach.” He never said “Lew Beach.” That day there were probably four or five men talking together and they all called Frank by his first name. I observed it all. Some time later my father was with me when we saw Mr. Kinch again. I said in a happy voice, “Hi Frank!” My father was shocked. He told me in no uncertain terms that he was “Mr. Kinch!” to me.

Hank Kinch had a few cows that he would milk in a small barn or shed behind the garage. I used to watch Hank and his wife, Grace, or his daughter, Henrietta, doing the milking. One time Hank asked me if I would like to try milking. He showed me how and after considerable effort, I finally got some milk coming. Hank took over after a little while.

Shortly before the end of Prohibition (circa 1931 or 32) there was a still near Lew Beach in Joscelyn Hollow, later known as Whitcomb Hollow, now owned by Ralph Shaw. The still was raided by Revenuers who destroyed the still. Hank Kinch had been hired to do some plumbing and was the only person there at the time of the raid. Unfortunately, poor Hank may have spent a short time in jail. In 1936 my family rented one side of a two-family farm house above Lew Beach, just before the Ulster County line. Chuck Ackerly, the younger brother of the farmer’s wife, and I heard about the old still and we hiked across the Beaverkill and found the rusty remains of the burned-up still.

Bringing in the hay at Tannery Farm. Enlargement

Frank Kinch never drank alcohol. One time in the early 1940s I was talking to Mr. Kinch about how hot it was and he was then haying Kinch’s Hill.(An arrangement between Mr. Kinch and Mr. Woelfle who didn’t want the hay, but did want the hill hayed so that no brush or trees would invade the hayfield.) Mr. Kinch said that he sometimes would drink some methelgin when he took a rest from hot haying. He said it was made from honey and was a very refreshing drink. I had never heard of it; but I checked it out on Google and discovered that it was a mead and indeed made from water, honey and herbs or spices. It does ferment and contains some alcohol. Well, Mr. Kinch was a wonderful old man who was universally liked. Certainly no one would begrudge him a refreshing drink while haying, even if it might contain a little alcohol.

The Sale of the Beaverkill Tannery Farm
and the Purchase of the Sturgis Bulkley Farm

On September 11, 1934 Frank Kinch sold his big farm, the Beaverkill Tannery Farm, to Frederick and Mary Edna Woelfle and about two weeks later purchased the Sturgis Bulkley farm, now owned by the Vogels.

Tannery Farm spread along Ragin Road from the meadow flat west of the river. Farmhouse at left. Enlargement

A local newspaper article dated 2/21/1925, included in the Powell and Barnhart, “Beaverkill, A Journey Through Time”, states that “the place known as the Bulkley property was willed to the Beaverkill Methodist M. E. Church by the late Emily Bulkley after the death of her brother, the late Sturgis Bulkley, has been for sale since his death last fall. There have been several bids for the property and it has finally been sold to Stanley Burton, a son-in-law of Frank Kinch of Beaverkill.” According to the deed, the price was $3,500. Mr. Burton planned to take possession in June, 1925 and to make repairs and be ready for boarders the following year.

Stanley Burton’s wife, Emma Kinch Burton, died in December, 1929. On September 24, 1934, Stanley Burton and his new wife, Ella Burton, sold the farm to his father-in-law Frank Kinch and wife, Nettie. The consideration was $2,750 and the deed recited that this property, comprised of six presumably contiguous parcels, was willed to the Beaverkill Church by Emily Buckley and sold by the Trustees of the Church to the grantors of this deed. The deed also stated that a blacksmith shop formerly owned by Richard Moffett was included in the sale.

I have no idea why the Kinches wanted to sell the big farm and buy the smaller Campsite Road property. Certainly, the depression was hard on all dairy farmers (as well as the rest of the country). Frank Kinch may well have wanted to run a smaller farm with fewer cows. His son-in-law, Stanley Burton, had planned in April, 1926 to have some boarders in his new farmhouse. In 1929 his wife, Emma Kinch Burton, died and Stanley remarried shortly thereafter. I imagine that it was also difficult to run a boardinghouse during those depression days. Probably, selling the farm at a reduced price to Frank Kinch was advantageous to both families.

Mr. Kinch had previously sold off parts of the Tannery Farm: (i) to NY State in 1928 for part of the campsite (probably a fairly large parcel between Berry Brook Road/Ragin Road and the river from just north of the bridge extending southerly as far as the Dr. Keyes property, also sold to the State); (ii) to Burr Sherwood in 1930 just across the covered bridge, now owned by McDermott; (iii) to David Derringer in 1925 (near the former Burr Sherwood property); (iv) to Emma Michel in 1928; and (v) to Edwin Whitehill in 1928, now owned by Ellen Loizeaux.

In September, 1936, my parents bought the two small houses just south of the Church, one now owned by my sister, Sally Shea, and the other by Pat and Hal Enger. I was then 10. We saw a lot of Mr. Kinch over the years. He supplied us, and most of our neighbors, with milk and firewood for our kitchen stove and another stove; he plowed our garden every year. Later we had two (and sometimes three) horses that Ike Kinch shod when necessary. Mr. Kinch also sold us maple syrup for a while. (He also made maple syrup on the Tannery Farm.) There was a large maple tree on the Campsite road just below the farmhouse and he always tapped that tree as well as the others up the hill behind the house. During the season when the sap runs, he would often walk by the big tree and drink some of the sap right from the bucket. I believe that tree is still there.
Ike did quite a bit of carpentry work for us. One time when I was helping Ike some time after my father had died in October, 1939, Ike told me that my father used to pick him up and drive him to Masonic meetings sometimes. I didn’t even know that my father was a Mason, but my mother later confirmed it.

Frank Kinch’s Children and Family

Frank sawing firewood 1943; the secret of longevity

Mary E. Kinch, the eldest child, married Jason Cammer, a Beaverkill blacksmith, in 1910. They moved to Roscoe in 1913 where Jason continued blacksmithing. I believe they later moved to Living-ston Manor. They had one child, Nettie, who married Harry Wood. Nettie and Harry had three children: Harry Wood, Joyce O’Keefe, and Patricia Fietta. After Jason’s death in 1953, Mary lived with her parents in Beaverkill and we saw her often.

Isaac (“Ike”) Kinch married Lena Burton; they had two children: Lulu Marie, born 7/12/1923 and Harry. Lulu married John Carlson and they had two children, Joan Fredenberg and John (who was adopted by Lulu’s second husband, Millard C. Dumund). Lulu and Millard had a daughter, Debra Johaneman. Harry Kinch and his wife Charlotte live in Rochester; they have four children: Terry, Mary Lou, Vickie and Tom.

Henry (“Hank”) married Grace Spencer (1896-1973); they had three children: (i) Henrietta (born 1924) married Russell Moore, (ii) Mildred Sherwood and (iii) Arthur Kinch.

Emma Kinch married Stanley Burton, as mentioned above. They had one child, Walter Burton. Emma died in 1929.

After Nettie’s death in 1952 Frank continued to live and work at the farm on Campsite road. He lived alone or, from time to time, with his son Ike. He was winding down the farming and at some point gave up the dairy but always kept two horses. He seemed particularly comfortable with a team, and a number of the pictures we have of him show him over the years posing sturdily with a sturdy pair. The last horses he stabled were named Bill and Nell. When Nell died Bill became disconsolate, at one point pinning Frank in a stall, possibly to keep him as company. He was ultimately given away into the care of an owner who kept horses who could provide some friendship for Frank’s long time companion. Frank also kept a substantial flock of chickens and continued to provide eggs for the neighborhood.

He lived on for years in the house, quite independently, until he was taken to the hospital in his final illness, very shortly before his death. He died in the spring of 1971. Had he lived to midsummer, he would have been a hundred. He lived a very long life of useful self sufficiency on the land he loved and husbanded, surrounded by family and numerous friends. He remains a great monument for the best of Beaverkill.

Frank hauling winter wood behind his team. Celebrated woodpile at his back. Taken October 13, 1941.