Culled from February 1907 issues Of The Andes Recorder

 THE NEWS IN AND ABOUT ANDES

Events of a Week as Chronicled by the Man on the Street

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This week Alex Liddle completed the deal for the purchase of the Polly Thomson house from Mrs. Opie.  The price paid was $400.

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 The severe cold after letting up for a day and snow falling, returned again Saturday with renewed vigor and Sabbath morning it was 20 degrees below zero.  At Kingston and several other points it was 30 below.  Winter weather has continued thru the week and on Thursday morning it was 14 below.

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 We learn that there are several improvements to be made on the different estates around town, especially on the fine property of Harry Dowie.  The supply of water will be doubled and brought from his private reservoir thru tile pipes, supplying the house, all the other buildings, fountain, etc.  Other things which we are not now at liberty to mention are hinted. [NOTE:  Jim Andrew’s identifies the Harry Dowie house at that just above the cemetery—at the end of Forest road—where Ellie Contrini lived, and which is now owned and refurbished by Mark and Bobbie Howell.  The top floors burned off around 1927.  It was a Queen Anne Style Victorian with a large tower.  J. F. Searing, who built the D&E railroad, stayed there when he vacationed in the Catskills.  Harry Dowie was responsible for coordinating the butter shipments from Andes (the building housing the present Cantina was at one time Dowie’s Store) and he donated the funds to construct the cemetery wall.  His parents were the owners of the Dowie Mill that is now Ballantine Park.]

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 William C. Laing has received intelligence of the death of his nephew, Robert G. Laing, at Dallas, Texas, on January 15, 1907. He was 38 years old and had suffered with consumption …He was a son of Dr. and Mrs. James G. Laing and was born in Andes, leaving here when but a child.  He is survived by his parents and one brother, Henry M. Laing.

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 On Sabbath Drs. Gladstone and Wight amputated the second toe on Robert Laing’s foot, which was badly injured some time ago by a cake of ice falling on it.

 [NOTE:  Jim A. assumes that the Laings mentioned here are descendents of the first minister of the Presbyterian Church (then the Associate Reformed,) James Laing, 1834-1858.  Rev. Laing’s house was located across the street from the old creamery.  The assumption, therefore, is that Rob Laing, Janis Lynn Jacques, Joanne Boerner and others now in town  are related to these Laings.]

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 Saturday was ground hog day and the old bear could see his shadow if he wished.  This, according to an old saying, means six weeks more winter and “half your wood and half your hay” should yet be on hand.

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  Twenty-two bents of the big Muir trestle are now up.  When the bents are all up the work will only be about half done.  In each of the bents there are 149 bolts and in the trestle there will be over one million feet of lumber.

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 T. C. FitzGibbons, who expects to be the Delaware & Eastern station agent at Andes, was here on Thursday looking over the town. He desires to rent a house and move his family here soon after he assumes his duties, but found none vacant that are suitable.

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 The Andes depot is being rapidly pushed toward completion and work on the exterior is nearly completed.  The windows are in and some lathing has been done.

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  The bents are all up for the Muir trestle and the trestle will be ready to cross in about three weeks.

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 Next Monday the high school will be transferred from the old building to the new Hilton Memorial High School building.. [NOTE: Jim A. confirms that the “new” Hilton Memorial High School is the same building that was taken down in the late  1930’s.  The Hilton Building, he tells us, was refurbished as a high school when Manetho Hilton died and his family deeded the school grounds along with the former Andes Collegiate Institute (the HMS building  that was constructed in the 1850’s and sat empty for 20 years) to the town along with a financial donation adequate to modernize it for a school.  The old high school was situated on George Ballantine’s land on lower Main Street.  It had been enlarged around 1904 because it was about $1,400 cheaper to add on to the old school than to buy the Hilton building.  The old school subsequently became a creamery—eventually burning.]~