Henry started to build his store in about 1922. The first store was in the front part of his house. In order to support his family, he wanted to
be as useful as possible to the community and to those passing through, so he
immediately included gas for automobiles and purchased a bus to offer as
transportation for local folks. The 1923 papers remark that Henry was giving bus service into the town of Saugerties on Wednesdays and
Saturdays. In the winter, he cut back to
just Saturday.
There is a gas pump close to the road (now called Dutch Town
Road) in the foreground. The little
family group standing on the steps leading up to the store consists of
Grandmother Van Bramer, May Wilgus, Bill Wilgus and May Van Bramer Wilgus. The building on the right is a garage. Electricity had not reached High Woods as of that
moment, so there are no wires and no telephone poles. All work was done with
hand tools. The gas pump was a hand pump. From the beginning, Henry signed on with
Texaco.
Bill Wilgus and May Wilgus stand by storage tanks. May was often cautioned by her mother not to
pump gas too often as it would give her unsightly muscles in her arms. Her mother, May Van Bramer Wilgus is very
ladylike and neatly dressed as she sits behind the wheel of the Wilgus bus. A
cement mixer is visible under the house.
The house is up on piers. This
was probably for the installation of the coal furnace that eventually *went
under the house.
At First, Henry called his store “The Mountain View
Store”. He also had a sign that read
“H.A. Wilgus Ice Cream Parlor”. He was
selling Albany Ice Cream which advertised itself as “It’s Pure”.
I am not sure of the identity of the group of people in this
photograph, but they look as though they may be on their way to school. They appear to be carrying books. The school was within walking distance from
the store. May and Bill Wilgus walked to
school every day, and often walked home for lunch and then back to school for
the afternoon.
There are people seated by the window, and one boy on the
steps. It is summer in this
picture. Previous pictures were fall or
winter as evidenced by the leaves.
I have been browsing the 1923 newspapers and paying special
attention to the High Woods News sections.
My goal is to try to understand the issues of the time as Henry started
his business. His roots were in New
Jersey, therefore, according to my mother, he was often identified as an outsider by
local people. In a way, he created the
1920’s version of today’s Cumberland Farms or Stewarts. The same elements were there: a roadside stop for food, fuel and ice
cream.
In Saugerties, the local movie was a seven reeler. The movie changed weekly. There were many tales of sad deaths: Mrs. David Whitaker died leaving nine
children; There was a warning to take care because poison bootleg was around; A
child killed his cousin while playing with a real gun in the family barn. The library had closed for the winter because
they lacked fuel to heat the building.
It was mentioned that business prospects seemed good for starting a
mushroom raising facility. Two new
apples were developed.
People were apprehensive about foreigners. A new Ku Klux Klan branch was formed in
Middletown, but local people seemed not to favor them. On the other hand, a new
unit of the WCTU was forming, and seemed to get a good reception. People were learning to vote by machine for
the first time and practice sites had been set up. Fortune telling was forbidden within the town
of Saugerties. They also worried about
flu, smallpox, scarlet fever, diphtheria, whooping cough, typhoid, and
pneumonia as well as the condition called “scale” that was affecting some
apples.
There was talk of school consolidation and the benefits it
would bring like better teachers. This
did not move the High Woods population as yet.
The one room school had Byron Terwilliger as teacher and May and Bill
Wilgus would attend. There was some concern about teaching Darwin’s
non-scriptural ideas.
Notice was given that United Hudson Electric Corporation
would start extending service along the Woodstock-Saugerties road. Electricity, it was said, is a universality not
a luxury. Soon, all drivers would be
required to have a license, and a special department to issue said licenses was
forming.
