_The Erie & Jersey Railroad Tunnel._--On August 10, 1905, Bennett & Talbott, contractors, of Greensburg, Pa., contracted with the Erie & Jersey Railroad Company to build twelve miles of railroad, eleven miles of grading, which would require about 1,500,000 cubic yards of excavation, and about 15,000 yards of concrete masonry, and one mile, three hundred and three feet of tunnel through the Shawangunk Mountains, between Guymard and Howells, N. Y. The road was to be completed within a period of two years. Work was commenced on September 4, 1905, by sinking a shaft at the center of the tunnel to a depth of 117 feet. Owing to a delay in getting the right of way, however, they were compelled to sink another shaft at the east portal of the tunnel to expedite the work, beginning on or about October 1, 1905. The west portal of the tunnel was begun on or about November 15 of the same year. The completion of the work was delayed somewhat on account of the suspension of work April, 1907. The excavation of the tunnel will now be completed on or about the first of March, 1908, while the arching will be finished some time in July, 1908. The excavation of solid rock required for this work was 180,000 cubic yards. The timber required to support the roof was 1,700,000 feet, while the amount of concrete sidewall was 8,000 cubic yards. The number of brick required was 8,000,000. The machinery used in the construction of this tunnel was two improved Style A Marion steam-shovels, known as the "45-ton." Alpha Portland cement was used for the masonry. Francis Lee Stuart was chief engineer of this work. _Finchville._--This hamlet is in the southwestern part of the town at the eastern base of the Shawangunk Mountains. It was founded by James Finch, the old settler, in whose honor the name was bestowed. But the precise date of this settlement is not accurately disclosed by the records. It was to this place that many terror-stricken women and children fled for refuge from the Mamakating Valley during the Indian troubles there. _New Vernon._--This is a small hamlet in the northern border of the town. In fact, part of it is in Sullivan County. It was named thus to distinguish it from Vernon in New Jersey. It had one church and some twenty dwellings in 1860, and has shown no very material increase in recent years. _Guymard,_ in the western part of the town of Mount Hope, was the culmination of the plan of the Gumaer brothers to have a railroad station nearer Gumaer's, which was on the Delaware & Hudson Canal. After the strenuous times of 1857, labor could be obtained at sixty-five cents per day, and the Gumaer brothers decided to build a road from the canal to the Erie railroad, and then the station was named Guymard.