HSM wraps up busy year with some old fashioned music

Nov 10, 2023 | 2023 Events, news archive

MARGARETVILLE – The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown concluded its programming season November 4 with a musical tribute to a home-town composer from the turn of the last century.

Following its annual meeting and luncheon, held at the Catskill Watershed Corp., HSM members and friends heard pianist Kent Brown play ‘Pakatakan Waltz’ and ‘Where the Catskills Lift Their Summits to the Sun’ by Alexander Grant Jackson. A short sketch of the composer, a printer-turned-forester who moved to the Northwest in 1906, was also presented.

The business meeting included the re-election of three trustees and the election of a new member of the Board, Eli Taylor of Margaretville. His fellow Board members are Doris Warner, Pat Moore, Agnes Laub, Josef Schoell, Gary Smith, Michael Fairbairn and Diane Galusha. Barbara Moses has stepped down as a Trustee after several years of service.

Treasurer Pat Moore reported that HSM is in a strong financial position. The operating fund is healthy, and the building fund has grown with significant contributions this year, including $75,000 from the O’Connor Foundation, $50,000 from the Pasternak Family Foundation, a $10,000 matching grant from Josef Schoell, and contributions from many members of our community. To date, 166 individuals, families, organizations, foundations and businesses have contributed a total of $353,888 to this effort.

President Diane Galusha noted that considerable progress has been made this year on the project — an addition to its Cemetery Road hall to house the HSM archives. The concrete foundation and floor were installed back in May. The 1100-square-foot addition is up and enclosed for winter. The walls have been insulated and sheet rocked. The building has been wired, and the electric line buried. The siding is going on soon, to be followed by installation of a heat pump system for heating and cooling both the addition and the hall. A covered entryway is being built. A new septic system is planned, and fixtures for the accessible rest room will be installed in the near future.

A number of programs were held during 2023: A history hike along the former U&D tracks in Highmount was held in April; the 10th Living History Cemetery Tour in June became an armchair tour when rain forced it indoors at the Open Eye Theater. In August, a program on major fires in Middletown was delivered, and in October 70 people turned out for Rick Brook’s presentation on the Hardenburgh Patent and the history of surveying. An exhibit on master builders of Middletown was displayed at the Cauliflower Festival in September.

Donations of historic materials over the past year have included scrapbooks, photos and records on several local families. Nearly a complete run of the Catskill Mountain News for 1968 was discovered in her attic by Anna Blish, who donated them to HSM. They will be digitized and added to the NYS Historic Newspapers website which now holds the searchable News from 1902 through 1985. Encouraged Galusha, “If you discover in a closet or attic old material you may not know what to do with, please call any of us on the board so we can have a look, because once it’s gone, it can’t be retrieved.”

Finally, the winner of the quilt made by Jackie Purdy was Peter Turer of Manhattan and Roxbury Run.

For articles, photos, events and more, visit mtownhistory.org.

Vintage Waltz To Be Played at HSM annual meeting Nov. 4

Oct 19, 2023 | 2023 Events, news archive

The annual meeting of Historical Society of Middletown members and friends will be held Saturday, Nov. 4 at noon at the Catskill Watershed Corp. on County Road 38 (Arkville cut-off road). PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF VENUE – the event will NOT be held at the Margaretville Fire Hall as previously reported.

Mary’s Cookin’ Again will cater the luncheon. Reserve your seat ($20) by October 27 by calling 845-586-4973.

Following the business meeting, which will include an update on the archives construction project and reports on HSM activities and finances over the past year, there will be a short musical history program. Accomplished keyboardist Kent Brown of Margaretville will perform “Pakatakan Waltz,” written in 1900 by Alexander Grant Jackson.

Jackson was a musician and editor of the Margaretville Messenger before he moved to Oregon. A copy of the sheet music for the waltz was recently donated to the HSM archives.

The musical interlude will be followed by a brief profile of the composer, and of W. A. Laidlaw, to whom Jackson dedicated the piece.

For more information on HSM and its activities, as well as many history articles and photographs, visit mtownhistory.org.

HSM holds Oct. 21 Program on Deciphering Surveys and Deeds

HSM holds Oct. 21 Program on Deciphering Surveys and Deeds

Oct 6, 2023 | 2023 Events, news archive

ARKVILLE – Rick Brooks, a long-time surveyor and historian of his trade, will present “The Hardenburgh Patent, A Surveyor’s Journey” Saturday, Oct. 21 at 3 p.m. in the Catskill Watershed Corp.’s auditorium on County Rte. 38 (Arkville cut-off road).

Admission to the program, offered by the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown, is by donation.

A third-generation surveyor, Brooks has spent his entire career in and around the Catskill Mountain region and is well versed in Patent history. He will also lead a field walk on Sunday, Oct. 22 to demonstrate tools and techniques and show how surveyors read and measure the land. To register for the walk (there is a $10 fee) call 845-586-4973.

On display at the October 21 event will be antique maps, survey instruments and chains used to spur settlement of the Hardenburgh Patent wilderness. The 1.5-million-acre patent was granted in 1708 by Edward Hyde (Lord Cornbury) to eight men, Johannes Hardenburgh among them. These patentees and their successors intended to enrich themselves by getting homesteaders to settle their lands and pay rent for the privilege. But first the patent had to be divided and mapped by intrepid surveyors such as William Cockburn and Jehu Burr, among others.

Brooks will offer a short history of the patent and its evolution, explaining how surveyors guided European development in the mountains where indigenous people had lived, fished and hunted for centuries. Attendees will learn how to interpret early maps and deeds, whose language has descended through the generations to today’s legal documents. He will also reference the work of more recent but no less legendary surveyors including his uncle, Ed West, and the late Norman VanValkenburgh.

Prior to the illustrated talk, the Catskill Water Discovery Center adjacent to the CWC auditorium will be open from 1 to 3 for those interested in learning about the New York City water system and watershed.

Richard C. Brooks was licensed to practice his profession in 1984. He currently serves as a Senior Project Manager for Control Point Associates, formerly Brooks & Brooks Land Surveyors. The firm was formed in 1990 when he and his wife Patricia P. Brooks, LS combined their respective family surveying businesses.

For information about the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown and its programs, and to view local history articles and photographs, visit mtownhistory.org.

Cauliflower Festival is Sept. 23

Cauliflower Festival is Sept. 23

Sep 19, 2023 | 2023 Events, 2023 News

Margaretville’s annual celebration of agriculture and rural life takes place Sat., Sept. 23 when the 19th Cauliflower Festival enlivens the Village Park with food, music, farm products and fun for all ages – including the first-ever Festival Cornhole Tournament!

A signature event on the Catskill Mountains Scenic Byway, the festival is sponsored by the Central Catskills Chamber of Commerce. It runs from 11 to 4. Admission is free.

From the early 20th century through the 1950’s farmers and businesses throughout the Catskills relied heavily on cauliflower harvests to support the local economy. The region’s climate and mineral-rich soils produced high quality cauliflower which was prized at markets in New York City and beyond. It is no longer grown commercially here, but the festival celebrates this important part of the region’s agricultural heritage.

Exhibits at the Historical Society of Middletown’s History Tent outline this unique history. This year there will also be a display on “The Builders” who erected many of the homes, hotels and commercial structures in the area more than a century ago.

Tractors, antique and modern, will parade around the Village Park around 11:30am. Vehicles participating in the Catskill Conquest rally of antique and contemporary vehicles will also stop for a short visit as they travel along the Scenic Byway to mark the 120th anniversary of an epic endurance automobile run held in 1903.

There will be crafts for kids hosted by the Pine Hill Community Center and the Catskill Mountain Christian Center, and face painting by the Margaretville Central School Art Club. The Catskill Mountain Quilters Guild will show off their stitching skills and Pak’s Karate students will impress with their martial arts prowess.

Build a bluebird box at the Catskill Forest Association tent and learn about the power of water at the Delaware County Soil & Water’s stream table.

Local farmers will have products ranging from maple syrup to cheese, jams to essential oils for sale in the Pure Catskills tent, where you might meet some friendly farm animals. Of course there will be fresh cauliflower for visitors to purchase.

New to the festival this year is the first ever Cauliflower Festival Cornhole Tournament. Open to both adults and youth, there will be blind draw, singles and pick your partner contests with 100% payout and trophies. Try your luck in a raffle to win a brand new professional cornhole set!

Performing from noon to 3 is a Pine Hill based band called The Pops. Featuring Jim Rauter, Jeff Entin, Chris Sterns, George Quinn, and Wayne Ford, they’ll play a mixture of blues, classic rock, and country swing. 

At the food court, guests can enjoy dishes – some of them featuring cauliflower! — such as Ruta Del Sol’s Ecuadorian fare, Bella Chow, Catskills Embers wood-fired pizza, Kimchi Harvest Kitchen’s bulgogi and a chicken bar-b-que supporting the Margaretville Central School’s girls’ soccer team. The Beer Engine, an antique fire engine outfitted with taps, will be on hand serving up local beers and hard cider.

Exhibitors include the Catskills Water Discovery Center, the Catskill Recreation Center, Heart of the Catskills Humane Society and many other local organizations who will offer resources on topics ranging from literacy to aging to energy and the environment.

Dozens of vendors will sell soaps and lotions, woodcrafts, handmade furniture, local spirits, books, gems and minerals, pottery and more.

For more information on the festival visit margaretvillecauliflowerfestival.org and check out the Margaretville Cauliflower Festival Facebook page for vendor and event highlights.

This event is funded in part by Pure Catskills Buy Local campaign, an economic initiative of the Watershed Agricultural Council with funding from NYC DEP, USFS and others. Support also comes from the Delaware County Tourism Bed Tax Grant Program through the Delaware County Economic Development Office.

Great Middletown fires topic of illustrated talk

Great Middletown fires topic of illustrated talk

Jul 25, 2023 | news archive

ARKVILLE – Fires that transformed the business districts of Margaretville, Arkville and Fleischmanns, and laid waste barns, hotels and other structures in the countryside, will be the subject of a slide presentation by local historians Diane Galusha and John Duda Saturday, Aug. 5 at 3 p.m. in Arkville.

“Ablaze!,” sponsored by the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown, will be held in the auditorium at the Catskill Watershed Corp., 669 County Route 38 (the Arkville crossroad or cut-off road). Admission is by donation. Attendees are also invited to view the permanent “Of Rivers and Reservoirs” exhibit at the Catskill Water Discovery Center adjacent to the auditorium, which will be open from noon to 3 p.m.

The program is offered in tribute to the hundreds of volunteer firefighters who have responded to alarms since local fire departments were formed in the late 19th century. Among the conflagrations they faced were the 1903 fire at the Ackerly Hotel on Main Street, Margaretville, where the rebuilt structure burned again in 1928; the 1939 and 1979 fires that leveled multiple buildings in Arkville, and the 1934 disaster that destroyed six buildings in Fleischmanns.

The talk will cover the burning of the huge Takanasee Hotel in Fleischmanns, the Sanford commercial and educational building in Arkville in 1986, and the 1979 Kelly Hotel fire in Margaretville which led to the creation of the MARK Project and the rejuvenation of Main Street.

Blazes that claimed barns and livestock and erased farmers’ livelihoods as well as rural character will also be featured.

FMI: 845-586-4973; history@catskill.net; mtownhistory.org.