Hollisterville A stone smokehouse with the date 1845 carved on the side of the building is located on the property of Mrs. Joseph Conway in Hollisterville. (Mrs. Conway is the mother of Wayne County Judge Robert Conway.) Upon entering the smokehouse, a smoky smell is evident although the building has not been used in many years. The building is 6 feet by 8 feet and the stone walls are 9 inches thick. Mrs. Conway recounts that area residents took turns using this smokehouse. The responsibility of the person using it was to keep the fire burning. Generally farmers smoked meat in a wooden smokehouse built on their property and community smoke-houses were rarely seen. Smoked meat goes back to the early settlers. Farmers butchered hogs and cows in the fall. The meat was canned or preserved in crocks of lard. Ham, bacon and sausages were smoked. The smoked process consisted of the meat first being "cured" by putting it in a brine solution. After removing the meat from the brine, it was hung in a smokehouse. A controlled fire kept the temperature around 200 degrees. Hickory was considered the most desirable wood. Apple. maple. and cherry were also used. The smoke from the wood determined the flavor of the meat. The stone smokehouse in Hollisterville is truly part of our rural Wayne County history.

From 1993 through 2008 the Honesdale National Bank published an annual wall calendar, each featured 13 historic sites. The sites were chosen and researched by a committee of the historical society and artwork was commissioned to Judy Hunt and William Amptman by the bank.

This page was one month of the calendar and was made possible through the Wayne County Commissioners and a Tourism Promotion Committee’s Tourism Grant.