Cable Wood Industries

Cable Wood Industries, Horton, NY

Samuel W. Cable bought 2,000 acres on Russell Brook in 1880 and started a wood products business. Hemlock and hardwoods were used to make clothes pins, shingles and wooden pegs to hold the soles on shoes. Cable employed one hundred people. His complex included a blacksmith shop, boarding house and several houses for his workers. A series of five dams were built by Cable to power his factory, one of which was one hundred feet wide near Russell Brook Falls.

Once the timber was depleted on Cable’s land the wood products business closed.  Cable then tried to take advantage of the new sport of fly fishing in the Catskills by starting a fee based fishing business.  He built a series of three artificial fishing ponds stocked with trout and the Roscoe Rockland Review reported that they were known, “as the best stocked trout waters in this section,” of the Catskills.  The venture failed to be a paying investment and the Cable property was sold to the Leighton Co. of Cooks Falls in 1905 for $12,000.  The following year, on June 14, 1906, Samuel W. Cable drown in the Delaware River in Walton, NY.

June 14, 1906

Roscoe Rockland Review

“Word was received here Saturday of the death of Sam Cable of Russell Brook, by drowning in the Delaware at Walton, where he was stopping with his brother, Edward.

“Mr. Cable was in an asylum at Binghamton last winter and as his condition improved his brother Edward, who owns a farm near Walton, removed him from the asylum to his place about a week ago. Saturday afternoon the two brothers were out in the field near the river working and Mr. Cable appeared to be quite rational. His brother, whose health is poor, became tired and went into the house to rest, leaving him alone. Returning to the field later, he missed his brother and upon investigating, found his hat on the bank of the river and later discovered the body in the water.

“Mr. Cable has lived on Russell Brook for about 25 or 30 years where he owned a large farm of over a thousand acres. At one time he was a very prominent lumber man on Russell Brook, running a saw mill and a peg factory, employing a number of hands in the latter. He failed in business a number of years ago and since that time his main hobby seemed to be the building of artificial fish ponds of which he now has three on the place, well known to be the best stocked trout waters in this section. This last venture failed to prove a paying investment and last year his brother sold the farm of about 1,200 acres to the Arthur Leighton Co of Cooks Falls for $12,000.

“Mr. Cable was about 60 years of age and is survived by his wife, one daughter, Mattie; three sons, Chandler, Bert and Warner; two brothers, John of Harvard and Edward of Walton with whom he was staying.”