This photo, donated to HSM by Ed and Janet Vermilyea, shows the Margaretville Fire Department at the 1909 Hudson Fulton Celebration in Kingston.

What today is known as the Woolheater house, on Maple Street across from the fire hall was once located on Main Street where Suites on Main (formerly Royal Cleaners) stands. In the 1880s it was Will Mungle’s harness shop, situated above the Binnekill between the shoe shop of Asa Akerly and the home of Mary Jane Ballard. Masonic Lodge #389 met on the second floor, according to Richard Connell’s book, “An Oyster Stew: A History of Freemasonry in Middletown Township 1796-1996.”

Will Mungle, a native of Scotland, sold his leather and harness shop to his brother James and got into the insurance business. He died in 1911. When and why the building was moved up the block is a question that requires further research.

Back in the days when bus seats were made of wicker and the driver was often the mechanic too, a pair of brothers named Merrihew ran the area’s best known ‘mass transit’ operation, the Pine Hill-Kingston Bus Corp.

Russ Merrihew, who learned all about vehicles serving in a motor transport unit during World War I, and his brother Levan “Bub” Merrihew, sons of an Olive Bridge blacksmith, grew up when horses ruled. But for more than four decades their name was synonymous with bus travel in our region. 

In 1922 the brothers teamed up to purchase the Pine Hill-Kingston bus corporation which was started by John B. Winne operating a Stanley steamer to carry folks between those two communities. The Merrihews in 1927 bought the Longyear bus line which served the Woodstock area, and later extended to Margaretville: In 1931 they offered direct service from Margaretville to New York City — two buses daily in each direction.

The brothers did the mechanical work, driving and management of the company themselves for many years. A home made snowplow attached to the front of the bus was the only way to get through snow-clogged roads in the early 1930s.

In 1949 the Greene bus line was purchased so riders could now go to Oneonta, and when the Richfield Springs line ceased operating, Bub Merrihew seized the opportunity to extend to Cooperstown.

You’ll enjoy this video, created by Fred Margulies, of a program we held in April 2016. We asked the audience to chime in with info about people and places highlighted in a slideshow.

Hope you enjoy this communal trip down memory lane. Please contribute your own recollections if the spirit moves.