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as Village President 1872-1875 and 1878-1879. Several interesting stories survive regarding Mr. Sweet. Besides being a hotel, Sweets was also a stage depot which served Sullivan County before the railroad was built there.
One day, Mr. Sweet sold a woman traveler a seat on the stage. The woman boarded the stage, took the wrong seat, and refused to give it up. As the story goes, Mr. Sweet "whispered to the driver to go back to the yard, hitch the horses to the second stage kept for emergencies, and let the woman alone. The driver did so, drove the other stage to the front of the hotel, the passengers got in, and away they went. When the woman later inquired of a passerby when the stage would start, she was informed that it had gone long ago. There was a mad woman in Middletown, you can bet. Going up to Sweet she demanded an explanation. His reply was something akin to this: Madam, you were told that seat was enga to listen to reason, so I made up my mind you could sit in it the whole afternoon." This story, by the way was told by Charles J. Boyd in 1925.
Mr. Sweet, a politician as well as a hotel-keeper, was famous for Sweeping his sidewalk around election time. When someone he wanted to speak to passed, he would "accidentally" nudge them with his broom, and a political discussion would follow. Over the years, the hotel was known by a variety of names, these being the Railroad House, Sweet's Hotel, Old Stage House, Continental Hotel, and the old Homestead. In 1881, Mr. Sweet sold the hotel to the Bells, who called it the Bell House. Halstead Sweet (born in 1806) died March 4, 1886. The hotel apparently operated until early 1897, being offered for sale in March of that year. On September 30, 1897, the hotel, along with its barn and sheds were sold at auction for scrap. The hotel building itself, except for the brick and stone work, was sold to Noah Gregory for $52. Sweet's Hotel was torn down in early October, 1897. Two known photos of the structure survive. The later photo, taken from Roberts Street, looking across the tracks, was apparently made by Pharmacist Photographer - X-ray pioneer, Harry C. Ogden. The earlier photo was taken by Alphonse Pasquet of the Parisian Photographic Co. (Pasquet, with a "p" is the correct spelling of the photographer's name. His name was misspelled by the author on several occasions due to misreading of the rather elaborate handwriting). In any event, the photo with the people posed in it, is considered famous because Horace Greeley, the newspaper publisher and a friend of Mr. Sweet, is in the photo. Unfortunately, there seems to be disagreement as to which person is Mr. Greeley. Another historian would not commit himself either way. There is disagreement as to the date as well. The event may very well have been recorded in the newspaper and simply awaits re-discovery.
Another photograph taken by Mr. Pasquet c1871 shows Coe Robertson's Steam Brewery which stood on Linden Avenue (then called Division Street) at the corner of what is now Franklin Street (named for Franklin Houston) across from the church. Historians