The Vedder Research Library

Greenville Free Academy, pre-1906

The Surprise store and post office, circa 1910, stands empty today one-half mile inside the eastern edge of the town on Route 81. The building was bought from Omar Losee by Robert H Blenis who ran the store from 1912-1954, followed by his son Gordon from 1954-1985. The post office closed in 1988

The Gayhead store, as many small stores did, served as an anchor for the southeast corner of the town. Store owners included Jay and Nellie Ungvarsky (1930s-early 1970s), preceded by Ray Waldron (1920s,) Arthur Story (early 20th century) and Mose Palmer (late 1800s). The building still stands as a private home

Gerald Weeks, Sarah Weaver, teacher Miss Jessie Boyd, Florence Noirot and Raymond Losee pose in front of the King Hill schoolhouse on King Hill Road about 1915. The building in the background is the King Hill Methodist Church, the town’s earliest Methodist church, established in 1812. Only the schoolhouse remains today, part of a private home, today owned by Irma Piantinida, opposite the King Cemetery.

Ellie King, Clair and Clinton Weeks, Bertha Weeks, Obadiah King, Fanny Nelson and Fanny’s mother, pose, about 1900, in front of King Hill Cottage on King Hill Road, one quarter mile from today’s Rt.81. The farm still remains in the Gerald Weeks’ family.

A vanishing architectural form, this large red barn of the Kieszkiel farm near the corner of Rt. 67 and Mountain View Road still reminds modern Greenville of a way of life not too distantly past.

Chief observer Fred Kaiser stands in front of the observation post located on Murder Bridge Hill (just above and opposite the West Road - Rt. 81 intersection) in mid-April, 1943. Along the Atlantic Coast, hundreds of ordinary citizens were trained as spotters to identify shapes of potential invading enemy warplanes, should such a situation arise. Tens of Town of Greenville residents assisted at the post and the others located at Norton Hill and King Hill.

About fifteen schoolhouses dotted the Greenville map throughout the 1800’s and early 1900’s. With the centralization movement of the 1920’s and 1930’s, many of these structures were converted to other uses. This one in Surprise, on the corner of Willowbrook Drive and Willowbrook Road, is the residence of former Surprise postmaster Gordon and Dorothy Blenis, who have owned it since 1938.

King Hill’s Clair Weeks throws hay up to a farm hand as haying was done in the nineteen-teens. Sons Clinton and Gerald are on the right. Clair’s wife was Bertha King, a great-great-granddaughter of Obadiah King and Abigail Rundle, two of the earliest settlers in the area (1791).

The Kaiser tin shop, on the corner of Rt 81 and Surprise-Result Road, was built in June 1920 and operated into the 1930s by George Kaiser and later with his son Fred. The building was demolished in April, 1965 to make way for the widened Rt 81. The Kaisers would make tin utensils (bread boxes, filing cabinets), and would install ceilings and canisters. A kiln was used for the painting of the tin, and the machinery was foot-operated. In the winter, a bobsled would take the products to Coxsackie for sale.

Harnessing the power of the Cobb Creek tributary that flows through Surprise, this sawmill operated until it burned about 1920. Posing for this photo were: and unidentified man, C. Boyd, L. Boyd, Theron Hart, Ford Milkins, Andrew Hughes, Milton Whitmore, W. Boyd, Leonard Hughes, and Jr. Smith.

The residence of Phil and Barbara Flach anchors the southwest corner of the intersection of Newry Road and CR 38, the center of the area known as Newry, a stagecoach/mail stop in the 19th and early 20th centuries. This house was constructed by Nathan Swartout in approximately 1850, and later owned by Emery Palmer. Before Phil and Barbara bought the house in 1970, Phil’s parents - Joe and Elizabeth Flach -had owned the house since 1948.

Although located outside the Town of Greenville’s boundaries, Vince Anna’s represents the many businesses and people who are part of our local history. In 1939/1940, Vincent and Anna Eufemia bought a dairy and fruit (apples and pears) farm from John Seymour. In 1945, they created Vince Anna’s Restaurant which, with the help of their three children – Jim, Charles, and Ginny – has serve the areas culinary and entertainment needs. Jim assumed a major role in the business in 1965, and, he, along with his wife Brenda and daughter Teresa Eufemia-McNerney, continue the tradition.

This photo was inadvertently used. This Red Mill is located in Claverack, Columbia County. The caption as used:—-Located on Red Mill Road, almost a mile south of the intersection once known as West Greenville (four corners of Rt 81, Ingalside Road, and Red Mill Rd), the Red Mill is one of the area’s last vestiges of our early history of water-powered industries. Earlier calendar pages (Sep 1991, Mar 1993, Oct 1996) have shown the importance of the structure, along with the adjacent sawmill, to the local area.

The King family and their descendants farmed the King Hill area from the 1790s until the 1990s. This family pose shows (back) Obadiah and Ella King with Ella’s mother, “Grandma” Cowell, on their left. In front sit Obadiah and Ella’s daughter and son-in-law, Bertha and Clair Weeks, and grandson Clinton Weeks.