An ode to the horse

Oct 18, 2014 | Tin Horn

The following remembrance , written by George D. Taylor in his 1950 memoir “These Hills are not Barren,” is full of affection and admiration for the animal that kept things running on the family farm before the advent of the tractor. A three-horse team is shown working on the Townsend farm in Bragg Hollow, Halcottsville in this photo from the collection of the late Bernice Spielman. Can anyone explain this piece of equipment?

Born and raised long before the advent of gasoline locomotion, I grew up among horses.

To put it more precisely, I grew up here because of horses. Because, except for them, there would have been no farm to grow up on. It would have been merely a tract of land. In the fairly recent days of my growing up, it was still the horse who provided all the facilities of locomotion for our livelihood and our life. He hauled the stoneboat and the log sled and the sap vat. He drew the plow and the harrow, the seed drill and the planter, the mower and the binder. He evenwalked uphill all day long on the old treadmill to make power for threshing, and for silo filling and wood sawing.

He took us to mill and to market, to church and to school. He brought the doctor to our birth bed in a hurry, and he walked sedately and slowly ahead of the hearse which carried our bodies to the grave. He plunged desperately through the snow up to his ears, on zero winter
days, to deliver his load and his master; and, drenched with sweat from ear tip to fetlock on busy, hot summer days, he stuck to his job till sundown.

He took all the kids on sleigh rides and hay rides. And last, but surely not least, he took his young master courting in the evening dusk; and if, perchance there came a signal to stop in a secluded byway, he stood complacently with his eyes straight ahead, either wise or incurious-or
perhaps both.

Ski history is topic at annual meeting

Oct 7, 2014 | news archive

An illustrated talk on the history of skiing in the Catskills will be presented Sunday, Oct. 26 at the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown’s annual meeting and luncheon.

This closing event of the 2014 season begins at noon at the HSM hall, 778 Cemetery Road, Margaretville.

New York’s first chairlift, Belleayre Mountain

Admission is $15 and reservations are required for the luncheon of ham and scalloped potatoes. Call 607-326-4817 by Oct. 20 to reserve your seat.
George Quinn is the author of two books, The Catskills: A Winter Sports Guide (Purple Mountain Press), and Skiing In The Catskill Region (2013 Arcadia Publishing). The latter is a pictorial history of the first 100 years of skiing in the Catskills. A special section of the book covers many ski areas that no longer exist.

The books will be available for purchase at the HSM luncheon.
Quinn moved with his family to Woodstock in the mid- 1950s and took to skiing immediately since his father ran a retail concession at Belleayre Mountain Ski Center. At home he enjoyed skiing the small, woody hills around the family house. This gradually took to a life-long obsession with cross country and back country skiing and winter hiking.

Quinn is still involved in the retail ski business at Plattekill Mountain and he continues to explore old trails and woods on skis, photographing and writing about his experiences.

Remembering Arena: 60 years gone

Sep 9, 2014 | news archive

An illustrated talk on the construction of the Pepacton Reservoir and its impact on displaced communities, particularly Arena, will be presented Sunday, Sept. 14 at 1 p.m. at the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown (HSM), 778 Cemetery Road, Margaretville.

Admission is $2 for HSM members, $4 for non-members.

Diane Galusha, author of Liquid Assets, A History of New York City’s Water System, will deliver the program titled “Remembering Arena: 60 Years Gone.” She will explain the City’s 20th-century search for reliable sources of water, the damming of the East Branch of the Delaware River to create the largest reservoir in the City’s supply, and the repercussions to 1,000 people in four communities who were forced to leave their homes, farms, and businesses.

The James Martin house is moved from Arena to higher ground in Dunraven.

Special focus will be given to the lost hamlet of Arena in the Town of Middletown. Photos of most of the buildings in the hamlet, many taken by Catskill Mountain News photographer Al Weiss, will be shown. Other communities claimed for the 21-mile-long reservoir were Shavertown and Union Grove in the Town of Andes, and Pepacton in the Town of Colchester. Those with photos and/or memories of these communities, or of reservoir construction, are encouraged to share them.

The speaker is President of HSM, a former journalist and editor of the Catskill Mountain News, 1989-96. She is employed at the Catskill Watershed Corporation.

In addition to Liquid Assets (1999), she has written several other books of local and regional history, including Another Day, Another Dollar, The Civilian Conservation Corps in the Catskills (2008); Through a Woman’s Eye: Pioneering Photographers of Rural Upstate (1991), When Cauliflower was King (2004), and As the River Runs, A History of Halcottville, NY (1990).

Animals on the Farm display at Cauliflower Fest

Sep 9, 2014 | news archive

Photos and stories of Animals on the Farm will be the featured exhibit in the History Tent at the Cauliflower Festival this Saturday, Sept. 27 from 10 to 4 in Margaretville Village Park.

Find out about Olive, a handicapped Hereford on the Bouton farm in Halcott; the obstinate churn dog remembered by John Burroughs who grew up on a Roxbury farm; and the disastrous consequences that befell Mike Todd of Dry Brook when he tickled the belly of an ox.

Photos of prized dairy cows, handsome work horses and much-loved cow dogs, barn cats, chickens and even a pet bobcat will be displayed.

A calf and a lamb, born this summer on Chris and Judy DiBenedetto’s farm in Halcott will greet visitors at the History Tent, sponsored by the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown. HSM will also mount its annual exhibit on the cauliflower industry, which flourished in the Catskills from the 1890s through about 1950, and continued on some large truck farms through the 1990s.

The eagerly anticipated DVD of the Third Annual Living History Cemetery Tour, held in June at Sanford Cemetery, Dunraven, will be available for sale. The video of the one-hour tour, featuring nine area players portraying people from Middletown’s past, was professionally produced by videographer Jessica Vecchione.

A sales table of beautiful glassware and other items will help raise funds for HSM.

Several regional history books will be available for purchase, including “When Cauliflower Was King in the Catskills.”

The Festival is sponsored by the Central Catskills Chamber of Commerce and area businesses.

Townsend-Farm-Bragg-Hlw-Mamie-Townsend-calf-001

Mamie Townsend and calf on the family’s Bragg Hollow, Halcottsville farm.

Honey Hill, revisited

Jul 27, 2014 | Tin Horn

Such a sweet name, but a place that came to signify hell on earth for hundreds of men who clashed there on November 30, 1864 just inland from the coast of South Carolina. The 144th Regiment from Delaware County was there. In the thick of it was Co. G, largely made up of Middletown volunteers. At the end of the day, Co. G casualties included James Craft, Daniel Myers and James Elliott who were killed, and Silas Blish, Anthony Brown, Sidney Dury, Joseph Fuller, D. W. Gavett, William Hubbell, Albert Hulstead, James Myers, Dewitt Philips and James Weighly among the wounded.

A tamer version of this battle was reenacted at the Delaware County Historical Association in Delhi July 26, when the newly established 144th NY Regiment of living history portrayers, along with several other units, ‘fought’ a line of Confederate reenactors in an attempt to take control of the Charleston and Savannah Railroad in support of Gen. William T. Sherman’s March to the Sea. Fog, bad maps and stubborn southern fighters spelled defeat for the Union forces back in 1864. The outcome was the same in 2014.

Cheers to Capt. Brian Cornell, who has organized this band of 144th reenactors to pay tribute to Delaware County’s role in the Civil War. The group will travel to South Carolina in November to participate in another reenactment of Honey Hill at its 150th anniversary. To learn more info@144thnewyork.com, or visit www.144thnewyork.com.

Among the reenactors who came to Delhi were four members of the Skinner family who live at Ridgeland, SC, near what used to be known as Honey Hill. Two of them camped on the Union side for the reenactment; two on the Confederate side, reflecting the split among their ancestors who fought on opposite sides during the war.

Also participating were several men representing the 54th Masasachusetts, a regiment of black men who fought beside the 144th at Honey Hill and were later massacred at Fort Wagner, the battle brought to life in the movie “Glory.”

The 144th was raised in September of 1862. Its casualties at Honey Hill two years later were 108, including Lieut. James W. Mack, the only commissioned officer of the 144th killed in action. Total Union casualties that day were 89 men killed, 629 wounded, and 28 missing. The Confederates, under Col. Charles Colcock, sustained much lighter losses: eight killed and 39 wounded.

Fighting at Deveaux Neck, SC on Dec. 9, 1864 left 37 men of the 144th killed, wounded and missing. In February of 1865, 44 men of the regiment were killed, wounded or declared missing at James Island. The regiment was mustered out June 25, 1865.

Middletown lost 13 men of Co. G to wounds or sickness during the course of the war: Capt. William H. Stone, James A. Baker, Aaron Close, James Craft, Cornelius Delameter, James C. Elliott, Daniel W. Gavette, Jacob Haner, Daniel Henderson, Jerome Morse, Daniel Myers, John F. Smith and James Y. Thompson.

HONEY HILL PHOTO GALLERY
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