The Vedder Research Library

Greenville Free Academy, pre-1906

Vern Smith’s sawmill on the left and Galatian’s gristmill on the right testify to the power of local economy on Red Mill Road in West Greenville. Power for the mills was created by the mill pond damned in the 1800s. Remnants of the dam are still visible. Building on right is still today recognized as Red Mill; the sawmill no longer stands.

Rod Talmadge poses with his taxidermy in the Talmadge house, 200 yards north of the Ingalside farm barns on Ingalside Road. The taxidermy collection passed to the buyers at a 1960 auction upon Rod’s wife’s (Mary Hickok Talmadge) death; the house was razed soon thereafter.

Before refrigeration was common, the cutting of ice from local ponds and mill dams allowed for the storage of perishable foods. Here, the Red Mill mill pond just above the present day Red Mill on Red Mill Rd, West Greenville, provides ice for this necessary activity about 1910.

The massing of logs on both sides of Red Mill attests to the activity of Vern Smith’s sawmill which stood only yards north of the Red Mill. The house beyond the logs is the Evans Griffin house which burned in the 1980’s.

In 1901, Rhue and Burdette Griffin, Bloomer and Francis Griffin, and Caroline Griffin pose in front of their house called Marble Pillar. Oral history suggests a whitish stone gave its name to this area. This old hotel, which stood on the eastern corner of Rt. 81 and Ingalside Road, was deserted by the 1920’s and was taken down by the 1930’s

The West Greenville area, active in part because of the Red Mill (shown in the background) and Vern Smith’s saw mill, has been the topic of several calendars. The man shown here is tentatively identified as Joseph Goff.

In 1921, Cornelius (“Neil”) and Bertha Baumann opened Baumann’s Brookside, one of the handful of resorts that have endured the boarding house peak of the mid-1900s. Bought from Eleazer Abrams, the main house (shown above) was enlarged in 1930, with a pool and the other buildings to follow during the ensuing decades. Son Russell and wife Rose Denowski joined the business in 1945; when Rose died, Russell’s second wife Vivian Calapa Callahan joined the business in 1951. Russell and Rose’s daughter Carol and her husband Richard Schreiber entered the business in 1965, who have since been joined by their daughter Rosemary Schreiber and husband Kevin Lewis in 1994, thus making four generations of family inn-keeping tradition. Located on the corner of Red Mill Road and Johnnycake Lane, Baumann’s Brookside can entertain 150 guests

Andrew Roe bought this property on the southwest corner of today’s Rt 81 and Red Mill Road in 1873, and built this house by 1875. Andrew and his wife Ida had a daughter Jenny (born 1872) who married Charles Simpson. Standing in front of the house are Andrew Roe, Ida Roe, Jenny Roe, and an unidentified person. Jenny would live in this house until 1960. Today Mario and Carol Panzarino, who bought the house in 1986, operate the house as the Homestead Bed & Breakfast, welcoming guests from around the world.

A family with a sense of humor, the Griffins pose among the ladder rungs in front of their house on Red Mill Road, about 200 yards north of the Red Mill. From left to right, father Bert Griffin holds daughter Ruth (m. Harry Eisert) on his lap, Margaret (m. Otto Fuegmann), Louis (m. Margaret Smith), Max (m. Edna Heinick), Evans (m. Esther Spaulding), Elmira (m. Carroll Booth), Burdette (m. Evangeline Snyder), Estella (m. Charles Leslie Abrams), Elizabeth (m. Alfred Burnett), and mother Rhue Evans Griffin. The Griffin family in Greenville dates back three more generations before Bert – his father Bloomer, grandfather Smith, and great-grandfather Marcus.

Ingalside Resort started as many area boarding houses did. In 1914, Warren and Margaret Ingalls began taking a few borders a week on the farm they had purchased the year before. After a disastrous Christmas day fire in 1924, the Ingallses rebuilt, added a ballfield in 1928-1929, indoor plumbing (1925), a pool (1933), electricity (1932, self-generated since 1922), and many building additions until a full house neared 200 guests. Son Gerald and his wife Annella assumed management in 1948, eventually selling in 1972 to Franklyn and Joyce Roth, who in turn sold to a New York investment firm in 1990.

Rod and Mary Talmadge enjoy a carriage ride, possibly near their home on today’s Ingalside Road, just a few hundred feet north and across from Ingalside resort. Rod’s taxidermy was featured in the 1992 calendar. Roswell (“Rod”) Charles Talmadge (1858-1941), son of Charles Roswell Talmadge and Elizabeth and Hickok married in 1901 Mary Vanderbilt Hickok (1883-1960, only daughter of Addison Hickok and Carolyn Reed. Mary’s death in 1960 led to one of the legendary house auctions in Greenville history.

The family of James and Elizabeth (Purinton) Evans lived on Ingalside Road, approximately one-third mile from the Rt. 81 intersection. In the back row are sons George and Lewis, daughter Rhue (later married Burdette Griffin, Sr.), and son Arthur and his wife Flora (Sanford). In the front are Elizabeth and James Evans’ daughter Elizabeth (sitting; later married Grover Brown), and James’s sister Maggie (Evans) Cathcart who lived across the street in the house today owned by Joan Rice. The house, which stood on the west side of the road, burned on February 19, 1913, leaving only the stone foundation as evidence.

Man and machine tame the fields of Ingalside, home for Gerald “Jerry” Ingalls (1912 to 1995). Gerald’s family operated Ingalside farm on Ingalside Road from 1914 to 1972. Photos of agriculture in the 20th century are sparse in the Historian’s files, and the loaning of photos to be duplicated would be appreciated

Playing key roles in the late-19th century economy of West Greenville (intersection of today’s Rt 81, Red Mill Road, and Ingalside Road), Vern Smith’s saw mill, as well as the Red Mill grist mill (about one-half mile south of the intersection), are open for business. The Red Mill has been memorialized in past photos, and remains remarkably similar in look (inset); the saw mill seems to have been razed before current memory can recall.