Trouthaven, Fred Rogers’ s house on right (today Adams/Wiser), the Osborns’ driveway in the foreground (today Levy), at the left in the distance is the Church, in the center is the back of Fred Banks’ barn (now gone). The road is Campsite Road; the flat area on the right has now been taken over by beavers who have created a large pond ideal for skating in winter.

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The story of Trouthaven on the Beaverkill has to start with Clear Lake. Charles and Grace Durland, friends of Marian Tobey, spent a month each summer with their two children, Janet and Jack, at Clear Lake from about 1930 to 1939. After Charles Durland was killed in an auto accident, Grace and the children continued to spend some time there in the summers.

Grace Durland remarried in 1943 to Frederick Rogers and in 1946 they purchased the old fishing club on the corner across from the Ackerly farm. The club had not been used in years. It had no electricity and no running water and was in horrible condition. However, Grace and Fred moved in and went to work on the restoration. In 1947 they opened Trouthaven and for five years ran it as what was then called a summer boarding house.

At the time they bought the property, the Beaverkill Church was in dire need of repair. The summer residents and the local ladies got together and held a bazaar on the lawn at Trouthaven each summer for several years and raised enough money to bring the little church back to life. Fred Rogers was also one of the founders of the Volunteer Beaverkill Fire Department in Lew Beach.

Janet was a good friend of the ‘Sharpless-Gordon Gang’ and she spent many afternoons visiting Jessica Foote. Jack was an ardent fly fisherman and learned to tie flies from Harry Darbee, who at one time lived in the Ackerlys’ big house. During his summers in college he worked at the Beaverkill Trout Club, stocking fish, driving members to various places along the river, general maintenance and cleaning hundreds of trout on Sundays. One summer he worked as a laborer at the trout hatchery New York State was building at DeBruce. They both would regularly attend the square dances at the community hall in Turnwood, where on several occasions they would take Irving Berlin’s daughter, Mary Ellen, with them.

Janet, after she was married, brought her three children to visit their grandparents in Beaverkill and they remember those days as the happiest and most magical times of their lives.

Grace died in 1965 and Frederick gave the lovely stained glass window in the church in her memory. He and Grace are buried in the Beaverkill cemetery. They both loved the valley and all the people in the surrounding area. Their continuing efforts kept the little church repaired for later generations.

As Marian Tobey wrote in her history long ago, “the everlasting hills are here, and the beautiful winding river, and no matter what changes may yet occur, they will always give happy thoughts to the generations that follow.”

The view from the Manor Road, across the Kinch pastureland on Campsite Road, with Trouthhaven clearly visible, the Ackerly house and barn (in the center and to the right), and on the other side of the river, Lone Tree Hill.     Enlargement