Meet six people from Middletown’s past on a one-hour guided walk through Margaretville Cemetery. Walking tours offered in six time slots from 4-6 p.m. Reservations required. Details to come.
If you would like to be an at-large, silent vignette player, call Diane Galusha at 845-586-4973.
Early bird performance 2 p.m. on stage at the Open Eye Theater to accommodate those whose mobility issues may prevent their enjoyment of the on-site event.
March 28, 2023
MARGARETVILLE – The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown (HSM) has announced cast members for its 10th Living History Cemetery Tour to be held Saturday, June 17 at Margaretville Cemetery.
In addition to the walking tour, offered in six time slots from 4 to 6 p.m., there will be a special early bird performance at 2 p.m. on stage at the Open Eye Theater to accommodate those whose mobility issues may prevent their enjoyment of the on-site event.
This year’s tour will feature portrayals of six people from Middletown’s past. Tour goers led by costumed guides will meet these spirits and learn about their lives while strolling through the scenic cemetery with its beautiful views across the East Branch valley.
HSM welcomes two actors new to the tour: Rebecca Newman will portray Mary Elizabeth Osborn, professor, poet and author whose novels reflected people and places from her home town; and Kevin Bewersdorf playing Howard Baker, who served with the US cavalry in Cuba before his tragic death in a railroad accident.
John Bernhardt is returning for his 10th cemetery tour, this time portraying Amos Sperling who was a cook for circus man Charles Ringling. Another veteran tour actor, Agnes Laub, will appear as Huldah Allison Austin telling of the changes that rocked her world in the mid-19th century.
Gary Falk will portray Herman Henry Rotermund, a German immigrant wagon maker and Civil War veteran. Ken Taylor will play Margaretville farmer and creamery manager Calvin Davis.
Connie Jeffers will roam the grounds as a peripatetic ‘gypsy’ whose like traveled through Middletown in the early 1900s. Yet to be named are other at-large players who will appear in silent vignettes throughout the cemetery. If you would like to be one of them, or a tour guide, please contact Diane Galusha at 845-586-4973.
Directors of this year’s production are Frank Canavan and Joyce St. George, back for their eighth tour. Scriptwriters include Diane Galusha, Erwin Karl, Sue DeBruin, Mary Barile, Amy Taylor and Ellen Stewart.
Reservations are required for both the tour and the Open Eye performance. Details will be announced. For more information on HSM events and to become a member, visit mtownhistory.org.
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 Bellows.
The Bellows siblings were children of Merrick and Amelia Morrison Bellows of Bedell. Eugene was a son of Thomas and Jemima Morrison Crosby. Their lives would diverge and come back together over the next 60 years. The Crosby family migrated to Illinois, Missouri (where Jemima died in 1877) and finally Nebraska, where Thomas died in 1906. Eugene, who never married, returned to Halcott in the 1870s and evidently had his portrait taken with his cousin Will.
Will Bellows married Lizzie Mead in the 1880s. She died tragically in 1908 when a kerosene lamp ignited her dress and, despite Will’s attempt to smother the flames, she succumbed to burns the next day. The young widower retreated in grief, leaving their seven-year-old daughter Ellen in the care of his sister, Orrie and husband Dewitt Avery. They lived in Armstrong Park, Fleischmanns, which Dewitt had subdivided and where he had several homes constructed.
Eugene and Will, both carpenters by trade, would later find themselves under the loving care of Idell, who had lost her husband Justus Fellows in 1915. She provided a home for several siblings and other relatives as they aged, including Will who was paralyzed for his last three years.
Eugene died in Oneonta in 1923, Will in 1930, Orrie in 1936 and Idell in 1938.
A walking tour of Pepacton Cemetery, where the remains of 1,525 people from burial grounds in the Pepacton and Cannonsville Reservoir basins were moved in the 1950s and ‘60s, will be held Saturday, July 9 at 10 a.m.
The cemetery, maintained by the NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), is located on NYCity Highway 30A in the Town of Andes.
There is no admission to this event and reservations are not required. In the event of heavy rain at 9 a.m. the walk will be held Sunday, July 10 at 10 a.m.
Attendees are advised to bring water and sunscreen. The grounds are mostly level but sturdy shoes are suggested. The tour will take a little over an hour.
Tour guides will be gravestone conservator and Delhi Town Historian Marianne Greenfield, and Middletown Historical Society President Diane Galusha. Greenfield will explain the history of the cemetery’s development and the restoration of 305 headstones and 80 unmarked graves that she coordinated under contract with the DEP 2016-18.
Visitors will then learn about some of the men, women and children whose remains were relocated to this site, part of the former Ken Sprague farm that the City acquired for this purpose. Remains were removed from 12 burial grounds before those cemeteries were inundated by the impounded East and West Branches of the Delaware River.
Among the individuals tour-goers will learn about are:
Many early settlers are buried at Pepacton. A number of their headstones were inscribed by the itinerant stone carver known as Coffin Man, whose story will be related to tour-goers.
The unidentified remains of as many as 30 people believed to have been enslaved by Alexander Cole of Colchester are buried in the Cat Hollow section of the cemetery. Here Galusha will share some of her research into slavery in Delaware County.
Directions to Pepacton Cemetery: From Margaretville, take NYS Rte 30 south to Shavertown Bridge; at the Shavertown Bridge turn right on County Rt. 1 (Tremperskill Rd.), then left on NYC Hiway 30A, 4 miles, cemetery on left. From Andes take County Rt 1 (Tremperskill Rd) to NYC Highway 30A, turn right, 4 miles, cemetery on left. From Downsville turn left on NYC Highway 30A at the DEP facility on Rt 206/30. 11 miles, cemetery on right.
For more information, call 607-267-2708.
MARGARETVILLE – Reservations for the Historical Society of Middletown’s 9th Living History Cemetery Tour are now open.
The popular tour will be held Saturday, June 18, 2022 at Margaretville Cemetery. Rain date is June 19.
In addition to the walking tour, offered from 4 to 6 p.m., there will be a special early bird performance at 2 p.m. on stage at the Open Eye Theater on Main Street to accommodate those with mobility issues.
Reservations for the staged or on-site performances are required and can be made by calling 845-586-4736.
Tickets are $20; those 15 or under get in free.
This year’s tour will feature portrayals of eight people from Middletown’s past. Tour goers led by costumed guides will meet these spirits and learn about their lives.
They include a pair of newspaper editors reflecting on memorable local events of the late 19th and early 20th centuries; the valedictorian of the first graduating class of Margaretville High School in 1896, and Italian immigrant storekeeper, baker and labor recruiter Pasco Dilello.
A barber, a game warden, and a suffragist will be portrayed, as will an early emigrant from New England whose family arrived in the Dunraven area in 1796.
Directors of this year’s production are Marge Helenchild and Michelle Macau.
For more information on HSM events and to become a member, visit mtownhistory.org.