HSM announces 2018 schedule of programs

Apr 2, 2018 | news archive

The Historical Society of Middletown has a busy schedule of talks, tours and special activities planned for 2018.

The season will start with a friendly battle of wits when HSM sponsors its first Trivia Challenge Saturday, May 5 at 7 p.m. at its hall, 778 Cemetery Rd., Margaretville. Teams of two and four will compete for awards. Door prizes and libations will be offered. Register your team ($25 per person) at 845-586-4689.

The Second Annual Underground History weekend for metal detectors will be held June 2-3. This ‘relic hunt’ will happen at select sites throughout Middletown. To participate (there is a fee) contact mrmetaldetector@aol.com.

On Saturday, June 9, a free, illustrated talk, “Trees, Skis and the Triple Cs,” will discuss the lasting contributions made by the New Deal Civilian Conservation Corps camps in the Catskills. The talk, by Diane Galusha, begins at 10 a.m. at the HSM hall, and will be followed by a walk through a local CCC plantation.

The 6th Living History Cemetery Tour will be held at Halcottsville Cemetery Saturday, July 7. One of HSM’s most anticipated events, the tour introduces visitors to former community residents who share their stories of life, love and loss. Reserve a tour time at 845-586-4736.

Celebrated photographer Art Kane will be the subject of a free, illustrated talk, “Marking Time,” by his son, Jonathan Kane, on Saturday, July 21, at 7 p.m. Kane, who lived in Margaretville in the 1960s and ‘70s, was noted for his fashion, celebrity and editorial photographs and was considered among the most influential visual artists of the 20th century.

Autumn events include a Family History Afternoon Sept. 8, the Margaretville Cauliflower Festival Sept. 22, the Annual Meeting and Luncheon Oct. 20 and, on Nov. 3, an observance of the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. “Middletown in the Great War” will feature a slide show with photos of many local veterans, and readings of soldier letters, by members of Open Eye Theater. This program will take place at Middletown American Legion Hall 216.

Rafting down the Delaware — audio history

Nov 16, 2017 | Tin Horn

Bill Horne’s presentation at the HSM Annual Meeting Oct. 23 gave us a chance to hear voices from the past, namely Mike Todd, legendary hunter and woodsman, and Orson Slack, a former raftsman on the Delaware. Horne’s book, The Improbable Community: Camp Woodland and the American Democratic Ideal, chronicles the relationship between the youngsters at the Phoenicia summer camp (1939-1962) and culture keepers like Todd and Slack.

Camp Woodland documents and recordings are preserved with the papers of Norman Studer, the camp’s founder and director, at The M. E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives at SUNY Albany. Give a listen to Studer’s 1944 interview of Orson Slack as he described the process and experience of poling rafts of logs and lumber from Arena to Trenton. He made the trip as a teenager, following his father, Richard Slack, who made more than 50 trips despite wearing a wooden leg, a souvenir of Civil War service.

Middletown in the Civil War now online

Nov 11, 2017 | news archive

The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown (HSM) is pleased to make available a new online collection detailing the lives and service records of 242 Civil War veterans from Middletown.

Visit Projects/Middletown in the Civil War on this website. The five-year project to document all Middletown Civil War veterans was begun in 2012, the 150th anniversary of the start of the war, and was completed and posted on Veterans Day 2017.

The collection features an alphabetical spreadsheet with names, birth and death dates, parents’ names, military units and other information on the veterans, as well as what happened to them during and after the war. Further details are provided in individual profiles. An introduction explains the project. A gallery of photographs and a list of sources rounds out the collection.

 

The individual profiles were compiled using information from census records, online and published family and community histories, pension files, newspaper accounts and other sources. The backgrounds of 306 men that were shown in various accounts to be Middletown veterans were researched and their profiles are included, although just 242 turned out to have significant enough connection to Middletown to be listed on the spreadsheet.

HSM requests that additions, corrections or omissions be sent to history@catskill.net.

Research conducted by HSM President Diane Galusha with assistance from volunteer Jim Goehlke showed that 38 Middletown men were killed in the war, or died of disease. Many are buried in national cemeteries near where they fell.

Forty-two men were wounded or disabled, and several endured months in Confederate prisoner of war camps. A few were shown to have deserted, or simply disappeared from the record.

 

The war was a family affair; 39 sets of Middletown brothers served. Two families (Close and Morse) sent four young men; five families sent three siblings, and nine fathers went off to war with their sons. Four fathers did not return.

A number of Middletown veterans were natives of other countries – Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Prussia and England. While the majority of veterans returned to raise families, resume farming or run shops or businesses, many ex-soldiers left Middletown after the war to settle in Kansas, California, Texas and other states. A number of local men ended their lives in veterans’ homes from Ohio to Maine.

Explained Galusha, “Each of these names has a story behind it that reflects both the price paid by this one small town, and its ability to nurse the wounds and carry on after the most divisive and destructive war in the nation’s history. We are proud to share what we’ve learned about these men, their families and Middletown’s role in the Civil War.”

Margaretville’s Finest

Margaretville’s Finest

Oct 11, 2017 | Tin Horn

This photo, donated to HSM by Ed and Janet Vermilyea, shows the Margaretville Fire Department at the 1909 Hudson Fulton Celebration in Kingston.

Identifications penciled on the back of the photograph by Ed’s mother included:

front, l to r., Nealy Ackerley, Harry Eckert, ?, Chan Squires, ?, Earl VanValkenburgh, ?, ?, Charles Boyd. Rear: John Dickman, ? Froman, Ralph Mungle, Tom Edwards, Jay Gulnick, Stanley Bussy, Homer Shaver, Don Stewart, Will Delameter, Dr. Allaben, Harold Baker and Pete Cramer.

Local legends and a remarkable camp

Local legends and a remarkable camp

Oct 2, 2017 | news archive

The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown (HSM) will hold its Annual Meeting and Luncheon Saturday, Oct. 21 at its meeting hall, 778 Cemetery Rd., Margaretville.

The luncheon, catered by Anna Blish, will begin at noon. Seats are $20; reservations may be made by calling 845-586-2860.

A brief business meeting and annual report will start at 1 p.m.

Following the meeting, Bill Horne, author of The Improbable Community: Camp Woodland and the American Democratic Ideal, will provide an illustrated talk, “It ain’t nice fer purty: Tales from the age of homespun.”

The talk will focus on Orson Slack of Arena and Mike Todd of Dry Brook who became close friends of Camp Woodland, a remarkable summer camp near Phoenicia that operated from 1939 to 1962. Young urban campers came to know many of their mountain neighbors through a program of collecting songs, lore and local history.

Orson Slack demonstrates a tool for Camp Woodland youngsters

A grizzled Mike Todd was a favorite of Camp Woodlanders

In the mid-1940s, camp director Norman Studer drove a group of campers along the East Branch of the Delaware River to meet and learn from residents who remembered the homespun era. Orson Slack welcomed them into his carpentry shop and related tales about lumber rafting on the Delaware and winters in the woods. Mike Todd captivated campers with stories about bear hunting and his woodsman’s skills and entertained with harmonica tunes accompanied by the rattle of hardwood maple bones.

 

Once, when someone complimented Mike on a tool he had forged, he said, “It ain’t nice fur purty, but it’s hell fur stout.”

Annual Folk Festivals organized by Studer and music director Herb Haufrecht were held nearly every summer of the camp’s existence, and featured storytellers, fiddlers and artists from the Catskill region. In 1948, Orson Slack told stories and recited his poems alongside folksinger Pete Seeger and many others. Mike Todd appeared at the 1954 festival, held at Simpson Ski Slope.

The Margaretville program will include audio recordings of the period. An Improbable Community will be available for purchase.

Bill Horne is an attorney who practiced in Washington, DC and Boston. He grew up in Queens and was a camper at Camp Woodland from 1950 to 1960.

For information on HSM programs and to become a member, visit www.mtownhistory.org.