An informal parade calling to mind the marches of a century ago in support of women’s right to vote will be held Wednesday, July 26 at 7 p.m. on Main Street in Margaretville.

Inez Milholland

The sidewalk Suffrage Parade, coordinated by the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown (HSM) will begin at Binnekill Park opposite NBT bank. All are welcome to participate and encouraged to wear traditional white. Bring a sign if you choose.

Marchers will proceed behind the “Votes for Women” banner to the Open Eye Theater to meet the characters in the new musical “Seneca Falls,” including Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone, Susan B. Anthony, Henry Blackwell and Sojourner Truth. Parade participants who purchase tickets that evening for the show for July 28-30 will receive a 20% discount.

An illustrated program by the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown (HSM) on the roles, work and lifestyles of women at the turn of the last century will kick off a series of July programs observing the centennial of women’s right to vote in New York State.

“A Woman’s Place,” with presenter Connie Jeffers, will be offered Sunday, July 9 at 3 p.m. at the HSM hall, 778 Cemetery Rd., Margaretville, 12455. Admission is $5 and includes tastings from several recipes drawn from the 1886 Woman Suffrage Cookbook. An abridged reproduction of the cookbook, compiled by designer Trish Adams, will be available for purchase.

The program will look at the lives of women, both urban and rural, from 1880 to 1920, when the decades-long effort to gain access to the ballot box culminated in the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution guaranteeing this right nationally. New York women had won the vote in 1917.

Connie Jeffers will discuss gender roles, women’s work both in and outside the home, domestic and social mores as depicted in magazines of the times, and how the industrial revolution, politics, the economy and war changed society and propelled the advance of women. A slide show will include photos of area women at work in the home and on the farm.

The talk will also explain how cookbooks were used to generate both revenue and support for the Suffrage movement and for charities. A description of the physical kitchen in the age before electricity will place in context the look and flavor of foods to be tasted after the program.

Connie Jeffers is a retired elementary school principal who moved to Margaretville from California nine years ago. She and husband Tom lived in an historic home in the village where they are often seen toodling about in a 1930 Model A named Henry.

The third in a series of Sunday Cemetery Strolls will be offered by the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown Sunday, June 25 at 2 p.m. at Bedell Cemetery, Little Redkill Road, outside the Village of Fleischmanns.

Admission is $5 per person; children 12 and under may take the tour for free.

Reservations are not necessary. Participants are advised to wear sturdy shoes and expect some uphill walking.

Guides from HSM will introduce tour-goers to several cemetery residents, including legendary outdoorsmen Burton Tubbs, a licensed guide who sold hunting and fishing supplies from his Margaretville Army-Navy store; hunter and trapper Luman Searle, and Bryan Burgin, a state Conservation Officer who starred in a 1955 short film, “The Game Warden” with other local residents.

Bedell is also the resting place of renowned fiddler Hilton Kelly, Denver farmers and boarding house keepers John and Martha Hewitt, and many others whose lives added color and character to our community.

The last Sunday Cemetery Stroll in the series will take visitors to a pair of cemeteries in Dry Brook and Millbrook on August 27.