Historical Society of Middletown
Town of Middletown, Delaware County, NY
Welcome to the home of the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown (HSM)
The only website dedicated to the history of our town, located in Delaware County, in the Central Catskill Mountains of New York State
To donate items relevant to the history of Middletown and contiguous towns, contact us at historicalsocietyofmiddletown@gmail.org; or 845-586-2400.
HSM is dedicated to preserving the heritage of the villages, hamlets and the contiguous area of Middletown:
The Town of Middletown, in eastern Delaware County, includes two incorporated Villages, Margaretville and Fleischmanns; several hamlets — Arkville, Dunraven, Halcottsville, Kelly Corners, and New Kingston; and outlying settlements with their own unique histories — Redkill/Bedell, Millbrook, Dry Brook and the Denver Valley.
Because history doesn’t always follow political boundaries, HSM also collects and preserves stories and historic materials from contiguous towns — Roxbury and Andes in Delaware County, Hardenburgh and Shandaken in Ulster County, and Halcott in Greene County (which can only be reached through Delaware County). And of course we seek to preserve the heritage of a Middletown community that is no more — Arena, lost more than half a century ago to the Pepacton Reservoir.
WELCOME to the MIDDLETOWN HISTORY CENTER
Recent Updates…
NEWS:
Recent Press Releases
HSM will clean headstones during May
Memorial Day is right around the corner and the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown wants to help you pay tribute to your loved ones by offering a unique headstone cleaning service.
Margaretville celebrates 150th birthday in 2025
The Village Board will observe the milestone when it meets May 8, the day a public vote in 1875 approved the formation of a system of governance for what had been an unincorporated hamlet. An illustrated program, to be held Sunday, July 13 at 2 p.m. at the Middletown History Center
The celebration will begin with a 2 p.m. ribbon cutting on the doorstep of the expanded facility which includes an archives and reading room named for HSM benefactor Nicholas J. Juried.
TIN HORN:
Observations & Discoveries
The Battle of Shacksville, March 14, 1845
This is the general area where the Battle of Shacksville is presumed to have happened. That’s the East Branch of the Delaware River at center left crossing under the bridge on what is now Briggs Road. Town of Roxbury collectionThe Battle of Shacksville, March 14, 1845...
In The Prime of Their Lives
Young people in the prime of their lives are reflected in these undated portraits, c. 1870, from an album scanned by Steven Morse. The cigar-smoking men are cousins Eugene Crosby and William M. Bellows and the women are Will’s sisters, Sarah Idell Bellows and Orrie...
WARK: Home-grown TV
WARK: Home-grown TV Back in the Dark Ages, before you could whip out your cell phone, shoot some video and in an instant post it on the internet for all the world to see, there was ‘local access’ cable television. In the Margaretville-Arkville area, it was known as...
EVENTS:
2025 Calendar
MAY 4
Kids Kingdom 35th Reunion! – Exhibit, videos, food, fellowship!
JUNE 8
The D&N: Ghost Railroad of the Each Branch –An illustrated talk by railroad historian John Duda
JULY 13
Margaretville at 150 –Celebrate the Sesquicentennial of the incorporation of the Village.
JULY 26
Birthday Block Party and Community Portrait! — Celebrate Margaretville’s 150th birthday on Main Street.
AUGUST 23-24
Armchair Cemetery Tour — Meet eight people from the past in air-conditioned comfort!
SEPTEMBER 20
Annual Cauliflower Festival — Food, music, fun, exhibits in the History Tent.
OCTOBER 19
All Things Pumpkin! — Pie, bread, cookies, soup – bring your specialty! Biggest, ugliest, most unique pumpkin contest. Pumpkin painting and more!
NOVEMBER 2
Annual Meeting — Guest speaker photographer William Abranowitz with an illustrated talk. Annual report, board election.
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FEATURES
Middletown Family Farms, c. 1950
This map was produced by Ira McIntosh who in 2006 worked with local elders in each section of town to identify the locations of dairy farms that were operating in the late 1940s-early 1950s. It shows 187 family farms. In 2015, there were just two dairy farms still...
Obituary For a Newspaper: History As It Happened
HISTORY AS IT HAPPENED A program presented by the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown on August 12, 2017, and posted on its website March 27, 2020 in tribute to the Catskill Mountain News which ceased publication January 15, 2020. INTRODUCTIONA weekly...
Images of Historic Arkville
Take a look at these wonderful pdf documents of historic Arkville photos! Enjoy this peek back in history — 138 photos are divided in to 5 pdf documents to help speed up your download time!
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Collections
Publications
Our Town
Civil War Soldiers
History Links
Projects
“Man is a history-making creature who can neither repeat his past nor leave it behind.”
W.H. Auden, The Dyer’s Hand
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