A Country Store: Henry starts his store in High Woods

    

     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.