1950s Middletown farming at Cauliflower Festival

Sep 12, 2016 | news archive

A look back at the mid-20th century when there were nearly 200 family farms in the Town of Middletown will be offered in the History Tent at the Cauliflower Festival Saturday, Sept. 24 from 10 to 4 in Margaretville Village Park.

Sponsored by the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown, the tent will feature an exhibit that highlights farming in the 1950s. A numbered map of the town, created ten years ago with input from several area elders pinpointing the locations of some 188 farms, is accompanied by a key with the names of farm owners. Photos from the era will also be on display.

An exhibit on the history of the cauliflower industry in the region will once again be mounted.

The eagerly anticipated DVD of the Fifth Annual Living History Cemetery Tour, held in June at Halcott Cemetery, will be available for purchase.

A sales table of glassware, home decor, history books and other items will help raise funds for HSM, as will ticket sales for a “Lottery Tree” raffle. The winner of $100 worth of Lottery tickets will be drawn at the end of the festival.

HSM seeks photos of 1950s farm life

Sep 2, 2016 | news archive

The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown is preparing to mount an exhibit focused on farming in the 1950s in the History Tent of the Cauliflower Festival September 24.

If you have images you’d like to share, contact Diane Galusha, 845-586-4973 to arrange to have them scanned, or email your scanned photos to history@catskill.net. Photos showing people at work or play, as well as landscapes, farm buildings and livestock would be most appreciated. 

About ten years ago, HSM worked with local elders to develop a map of the town and contiguous areas showing the locations of nearly 200 family farms c. 1950. The map will be put on display again at this year’s festival, along with photos of some of these farms, and images of businesses and community life of the late 1940s-early 1950s. 

The exhibit also expands on an April 16 slide show and memory sharing program at which a number of residents helped document mid-century Middletown.

September is Membership Month at HSM. To become a member, or renew yours stop by the HSM table at First Friday in Margaretville September 2 from 5 to 8 on Main Street, or visit www.mtownhistory.org. Memberships will also be taken at the Cauliflower Festival.

One tired farmer

One tired farmer

Aug 28, 2016 | Tin Horn

Percy Haddow didn’t even get his barn boots off before falling asleep in a big upholstered chair with his old dog at his feet in his undated photo, supplied by Carol Haddow Gates. Percy was born in Arena in 1880 to Robert and Mary Jaquish Haddow and continued the family farm in Millbrook until auctioning off the 40-cow registered Guernsey herd in 1947.

The rather elegant farmhouse, below, was acquired by the Tuscarora Club and burned in the 1950s. Percy married Ada Reichard and died at the home of their son, Robert, in Morrisville March 3, 1961.

Melodrama, Pie Social August 20

Aug 14, 2016 | news archive

Some old fashioned entertainment will be offered by the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown Saturday, Aug. 20 when a troupe of local players presents “Middletown! A Melodrama” at 1 p.m. at the HSM Hall, 778 Cemetery Rd., Margaretville.

The short play, with music, will be followed by a pie social. Admission of $5 includes a generous slice of home-made pie (HSM bakers will make all kinds!), along with coffee, tea or cold beverage.

“Middletown!” is an original comic and campy play, the kind that used to be screened in silent movie houses and vaudeville stages. Written and directed by Marjorie Miller. it features Pat Gonzalez as maiden Daisy Fairbaby; Michael Fairbairn as Rex Hendrickson, pure-hearted farmer; Agnes Laub as Luce Bustle, a dancer at McMurray’s Tavern; Dave Riordan as Snidely Jeepers, villainous landlord, and John Bernhardt as Rev. Doright Huggable, local pastor.

Music will be provided by Monica Liddle.

John B. Hinkley of Halcottsville

John B. Hinkley of Halcottsville

Jul 10, 2016 | Tin Horn

This broadside for the auction of John B. Hin(c)kley’s dairy herd and equipment is in the Roxbury historian’s collection. It paints a good picture of what the average farm contained in 1917, and what the average farmer considered important. Top of the list was Mr. Hinkley’s “entire dairy of forty cows, all in good condition, young and A No. 1 dairy.” And his team of horses, weighing about 2,500 pounds, in their prime at eight years old, “true in all harness, good workers in any place.”

Up for auction were a rubber tired wagon, a lumber wagon, sulky plow, big pot ash kettle and more. Attendees were even treated to a free lunch!

John Burton Hinkley was 61 when he retired from farming on the back river road in Halcottsville. His wife Emily (Keator) had died just two years before. They had six children (Everett, Ella, Edward, Mae, Archie and Vertie). Archie was only 32 when he was killed in a blasting accident while dynamiting stumps with neighbor Arthur Miller in 1923. He left his young wife Elsie (Sanford) and two little girls, Hazel (Mead), 8, and Doris (Stahl), 5. Elsie was pregnant and delivered their third daughter, Emily (Schuman) a month after Archie’s death.

John B. Hinkley (who later married Prudence O’Connor and lived in Bragg Hollow) was one of eight children born to Edward (1830-1911) and Sarah Caroline Pulling Hinkley (1831-1894), a couple that saw more than their share of sorrow. Twins Ephraim and Abram, born Sept. 25, 1859, died within a week of each other the following February. Elmer, born in 1862, died at 14 months of age. Mary, born in 1865, was just nine when she passed away in 1875. And five years later, Everett died at age 12. Grant lived long enough to marry Ida Carroll, but was only 38 when he died in 1900.

John B. and his brother (Winfield) Scott Hinkley who lived in Meeker Hollow with wife Mary Cantwell, were the only siblings to live to old age. They died within weeks of each other in 1943. John was 87 and Scott was 72.