Ambrose Woodward Green, mentioned above, was born in the town of
Greenville in 1813. His father was Charles S. Green, and his
grandfather was Daniel Green, a soldier of the Revolution from Orange
County.
Ambrose W. Green settled in Otisville in 1835, and for a time carried
on the tailoring business, which he discontinued, and built the
Washington Hotel, now the Greenleaf Hotel, conducting it for some
time in connection with other business.
Before the Erie came to Otisville, Mr. Green owned a market wagon
route to Newburgh, going twice a week by way of Bloomingburg. While
Otisville remained the western terminal of the Erie, Mr. Green also
owned a stage line to Forestburgh, Sullivan County, connecting with
lines into Pennsylvania for Honesdale and other western points. He
was interested in building the Otisville and Wurtsboro turnpike. Mr.
Green sold the Washington Hotel and about 1850 built the hotel near
the railroad track. While conducting this hotel, he was engaged in
the lumber and coal business. From 1863 to 1870 he was extensively
interested in the lead mining operations on Shawangunk Mountain. The
decline in the value of lead after our Civil War caused the mines to
be discontinued, and Mr. Green later sold his hotel and removed to a
farm a couple of miles north of Otisville, where he died in July,
1888.
The coming of the Erie boomed Otisville for the next few years. A
Methodist and a Presbyterian church were built and a little later a
Catholic church. Several stores and many dwellings were erected.
Market wagons came here twice a week with farmers' produce for
shipment to New York. Previous to the building of the Midland
Railroad hundreds of teams throughout the winter, while the Delaware
and Hudson Canal was closed, came to Otisville from Sullivan and
western Ulster Counties, with leather from the tanneries, and
returned with the green hides for tanning. For many years, until the
introduction of refrigerator cars, Otisville was the western terminal
of the milk train.
George Strickland and Joel D. Northrup, residents of Otisville, were
the conductors--the latter for many years. The Orange County Express
for several years went no further west than Otisville. The gravel and
construction train for this section, with nearly a hundred employees,
had its headquarters at Otisville. Until coal was used as the fuel
for the engines of the Erie, Otisville for many years was the
principal point where the thousands of cords of wood were received
which the Erie consumed yearly. This wood was all sawed by hand, and
many men were employed. Many citizens of Otisville found various
kinds of employment with the Erie during these years, and much of the
prosperity of the village came from the dollars left here by the
monthly pay-car of the Erie.
TUBERCULOSIS SANATORIUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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