"Farewell to Eldred" concludes the story of the families who settled on either side of Halfway Brook, in the Town of Highland, New York, first read about in "The Mill on Halfway Brook," and continued in "Echo Hill and Mountain Grove." Through the eyes of her Austin and Leavenworth relatives, Louise Smith weaves an account of the daily lives of the descendants of early settlers (Austin, Leavenworth, Eldred, Myers, Bodine, Bradley, Bosch, Clark, Gardner, Hallock, Mills, Boyd, Horton, Parker, Greig, Stege, Sergeant, and Tether) who still lived in one of the the five hamlets: Eldred, Highland Lake, Yulan, Barryville, or Minisink Ford, in the Town of Highland (originally Lumberland). We meet newcomers (Frey, Hensel, Theuer, Pankow, Hainzl, Bertram, Lorphelin, and Mellan), often from New York City, who purchase and run established boarding houses still vital to the area's economy. The Erie Railway, Barryville Glass Factory (for a short while), and (later) Narrowsburg Lumber also offered employment. Some 50 first-person reminiscences tell of stills, baseball teams, radio KDKA, the arrival of electricity, boarding house life, flooding, the Depression, the search for employment, and World War II, in the years 1920 to 1950. Daily life-its joys and sorrows-is told through 1,100 photos, postcards, and documents, 150 letters, four diaries (shared by over 100 contributors) interwoven with World, National, and Local News; and Boarding House Ads. "Farewell to Eldred," the third and final book in the "Memoirs from Eldred, New York, 1800-1950" Series, includes original maps of boarding house locations, an extensive Appendix (with 1920, 1930, and 1940 Censuses), and an Index of some 2,550 people, places, and events.

"Echo Hill and Mountain Grove" continues the story started in "The Mill on Halfway Brook," in the Town of Highland, Sullivan County, New York, from 1880 to 1920. It is an account of the change from lumbering, rafting, and bluestone quarrying, to that of running boarding houses in the picturesque hamlets of Barryville, Minisink Ford, Yulan, Eldred, and Venoge located near the Delaware River.

TheMill on Halfway Brookrecountsthe life and times of families who settled near Halfway Brook in the heavily forested original Town of Lumberland, Sullivan County, New York. It spansthe years from 1800 to 1880, and is the first in the series,Memoirsfrom Eldred, New York, 1800-1950. The principal families in the book (Eldred, Austin, Leavenworth, and Myers) built their homes in what became the hamlet of Eldred, in the Town of Highland. Some of their friends and kinsfolk (the Clarks, Gardners, Hallocks, Hickoks, Sergeants, Van Tuyls, and others)livedin nearby hamlets (Barryville, Pond Eddy, Glen Spey, Narrowsburg, Tusten, or Bethel). The story includes references to the neighboring Pennsylvania towns of Shohola, Lackawaxen, and Mast Hope. TheMill on Halfway Brookfollows the main occupations of the community, including lumbering, tanning, river rafting, working for the D&H Canal Company, and bluestone quarrying.The Civil War chapter mentions many of the men from the Town of Highland who fought in the war, and has major excerpts from 50 letters written by Corporal Sherman S. Leavenworth. Thenarrative weaves vignettes of townsfolk, preachers, Congregational and Methodist Churches, regional and national events with historical information, censuses, an 1875 biography, Church records, and familyland documents. The book has 300 photos and postcards, 17 old and new maps, and 200 letters (1845-1880). TheMillon Halfway Brookis fully indexed, with names of over 900 people, places, and events.