Greenville Pioneer - 2021-11-05

By Mary Lou Nahas
“Beers History of Greene
County,” published in 1884, tells
the Town of Durham] was probably
Gideon Brockway, who kept
a store on Meetinghouse Hill, in
1789. In 1806, Benjamin Kirtland
had a store in Broadway [that
would have been on what is Hwy
day]. In 1811, Alfred Hand had
a store in Durham village. The
W.W. Burhans, T. P. Hull, Schuyler
Ives, and Joseph Porter.”
Some of these I have no information
on. A book about all of
them would be wonderful. Today,
I’m going to share pictures and
stories of a few and tell the story
of others on another day.
In 1980 Frederick Hull,
back remembered especially two
buildings, which had a number
of owners over his lifetime. First,
he says, the grocery store owned
by William and Anna Falk’s was
a good small general store. The
building was later owned by
Anne Seymour who ran a seamstress
shop, opened a small store
and brought in fresh bread from
the Cairo bakery. It came two
times a week by mail. Everett
Matthews and wife Natalie Hull
ran it as a market until the mid-
1940s. Then Natalie became post
mistress there until 1978. The
barber shop was upstairs run by
Fred DeLaMater.
The second store in town was
used to be DeLaMater and Hay.
Uncle Fred Hay was a partner for
a while, but had gone to Northville
as an undertaker. It was a
real good general store – kept
more clothing than Bill Fawkes.
Dad shopped at Fawkes. After
and Ethel ran a good general store
until Fred died of a heart attack
ship with his uncle William Hann.
The store known in this period as
solved the partnership and con-
Fred died, Ethel sold the store
immediately to Marshall and then
Bell. They prospered well. It was
known as Bell’s store. Marshall
store for one year to Lora Leatherman
Hulbert.
You begin to see a pattern:
members of the family took over
the business; other businesses
also occupied the building; the
store.
Oak Hill had at least two
early general stores: Tripp’s and
Ford’s, both which housed the
1884 says: “Isaac Utter Tripp is a
prominent merchant in Oak Hill.
He succeeds his father Alfred
who died at home on March 7,
1881.The store business was takyears
old.”
torian architecture store built on
the site of the old store, which
was moved to the back and
turned sideways to function as a
warehouse. His workmen were
cost of painting the new store
was $80.The apartment above
the new store was soon rented by
the town’s dentist Byron J. Hunt
who maintained his practice
there. Hunt and his wife Lonie
lived there the rest of their lives,
reportedly at a monthly rent of
Isaac’s sisters Hattie and Carrie
were married in a joint ceremony
to Byron Hall and Calvin
Burnett at the Tripp home Sept.
26, 1900. By 1920, Hall and Burnett
were successors to I.U. Tripp
ership of the property, which he
left to his nephew, Alfred Tripp
Burnett. Hall and Burnett were
the last individuals to run the
business as a general store. Tripp
family ownership ended July 7,
Ford’s Store was operated
by members of the Ford family
general merchandise there when
he was in partnership with G.M.
and Hallenbeck. Emerson Ford
had two sons: Ernest E. and N.
Dwight. Ernest E came into store
in 1898; which he ran helped
by his wife Bertie Conran from
Preston Hollow. Emerson’s other
son N. Dwight married Millie B.
Mackey and moved to Nebraska,
where they had a son named
Theodore Leo. Leo helped at
the store during the summers of
full time in 1928. He became a
the store was known as Ford and
Ford. Last Fords at the store were
George and Lionel, sons of Leo.
The business also housed the post
upstairs.
The Potter’s Hollow store was
built in the late 1800s. Nicholas
Hallenbeck owned it about 1900
but soon closed it on account of
ill health and moved to Hudson.
it was for sale. He rode his bicycle
to Catskill, took the ferry to Hudson,
bought the store and bicycled
back home the next day. This was
a general store and stocked most
anything that local people would
need. The Makelys operated the
erson.
store in Potter’s Hollow, which
burned in 1917. Makely sold his
who operated the store until 1944
when daughter Lela operated it
land and Flo Young. Mrs. Young
sold it to Mr. and Mrs. James Albrecht.
In its more prosperous days,
Cornwallville boasted two stores.
Smith, who built the general
store in 1892, says that an earlier
store on the site burned down,
described Smith and his brother
as having “conducted a large
business for a place of this size,”
and noted that Smith also served
as postmaster. That store, too,
other was built on the site. By the
turn of the 21st century, only the
The hamlet of East Windham
According to Mrs. Olsen, a descendant
of the Butts family, a
general store and residence was
built by H.A. Butts for Warren
Griffen around 1900. This bethe
Butts family until 1986, when
it was sold to William Donovan.