The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown (HSM) is happy to announce that five more years of vintage Catskill Mountain News have been posted online.
Web users can now search and browse the Margaretville-based newspaper from July 13, 1902 to April 28, 1961. Visit http://history.catskill.net to find this treasure trove of history, made possible by several individual donors and the O’Connor Foundation.
HSM is steadily working to have the News digitized through 1973.
A sample newly posted front page, February 1, 1957, offers the following tidbits:
Lawrence Gilmour, English teacher at Margaretville Central School, was named principal of Fleischmanns High School; Mrs. Sydney Silberstein was elected President of Congregation Bnai Israel’s Auxiliary; polio shots were being given at Grand Gorge and Roxbury schools by Health Officer Dr. Julian Gaul; the US Air Force was planning to erect a radar tower on Craig Hill on the Gerry Estate in Andes; store owners in the Margaretville Chamber of Commerce decided against opening late Friday nights, but would keep the doors open on Saturday nights; a new architectural ornament – interlocking rings hung above the altar — was a gift of Armand Erpf to Sacred Heart Church of Margaretville.
There was also a story about George Graham, printer for the News, who suffered a bout of amnesia after hitting his head in a fall on Main Street, Margareville. He woke up two days later in a South Carolina hotel, with no idea how he’d gotten there.