Preserving cemetery history

Aug 8, 2013 | Tin Horn

Preservation of the history contained in burial grounds is relegated to a small group of dedicated caretakers without the resources, time and often energy to take care of the sacred places with which they are entrusted. HSM member Ed Stewart passed along an article from Nebraska about a woman who has made it her life’s work to repair and restore monuments that ‘belong’ to no one else.

http://www.telegram.com/article/20130803/NEWS/130809977/1052

Her idea to establish a non profit with a mission to take care of abandoned cemeteries is worth considering for our area. Anyone interested? There are SO many local burial grounds that need attention — can someone step forward to organize restoration projects? There is a core of interested people in Friends of Middletown Cemeteries, but no one to lead the charge . . . Please contact HSM if you’d like to be that person! history@catskill.net.

Marianne Greenfield of Delhi is a local cemetery steward who cares deeply about preserving the names and life histories of the dead by taking care of their resting places. Hers is a commercial service with a historical mission:

Marianne Greenfield
Gravestone Cleaning Service
607 267-2708
www.gravestonecleaningservice.com

Women’s roles and wardrobe in the Civil War

Women’s roles and wardrobe in the Civil War

Aug 2, 2013 | news archive

The roles of women during the 1860s will be the topic when Juanita Leisch Jensen, a noted historian of civilians in the Civil War era, delivers an illustrated talk at the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown (HSM) Saturday, Aug. 10 at 1 p.m.

The program, “Women’s Roles and Wardrobe in the Civil War Era,” will be held at the HSM hall, 778 Cemetery Rd., Margaretville. Admission is $4 ($2 for HSM members).

The hall will be open at 11 a.m. so that visitors can see a special exhibit on Middletown in the Civil War. The exhibit is on view every Saturday from 11 to 2 through Labor Day.

Juanita Leisch Jensen is a nationally known speaker and author of two books, An Introduction to Civil War Civilians and Who Wore What: Women’s Wear, 1861-65. Each went through eight printings.

Leisch’s research is artifact-focused, which has led her to amass collections of clothing, photographs and artifacts which she shares through speaking, writing, and lending to museum exhibits. She served as guest curator for two 3,000-square-foot exhibits at the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, PA, and has artifacts on loan to the American Textile Museums’ “Homefront and Battlefield” exhibit which is currently touring the US.

Leisch was named a Fellow by the Company of Military Historians, and is a 50-year participant in the North South Skirmish Association. She and her husband, military historian Les Jensen, began their celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War by travelling to and giving talks for the American Civil War Round Table of Melbourne, Australia.

Civil War exhbit opens July 4

Civil War exhbit opens July 4

Jul 29, 2013 | news archive

A new exhibit detailing the impact of the Civil War on the life of residents of the Town of Middletown will open with a flag raising ceremony by area Scouts Thursday, July 4 at the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown, 778 Cemetery Rd., Margaretville.

The ceremony will be held at 9:45 a.m. outside the hall, where the exhibit will be open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. that day. From July 6, through September 1, the hall will be open every Saturday from 11 to 2, as well as during special programs to be held throughout the summer on Civil War themes.

The first program will be Saturday, July 13, when Ken Nichols, representing a Regimental Surgeon with the 125th NYS Volunteer Infantry, will provide a talk and demonstration on battlefield medicine at 12:30 p.m. At 2 p.m. that afternoon, Christian Heidorf, LTC (Ret), and his Morgan horse Rebel, will explain the roll and experience of the horse in combat.

Harvey Hubbell, one of nearly 300 Middletown men who served the Union

In “Middletown in the Civil War,” photos and artifacts will shed new light on the impact of this tumultuous time on our area, and on hundreds of local families whose lives were upended by the war. Careful research has revealed that 282 men from Middletown and the immediate vicinity enlisted or were drafted to serve the Union. Thirty-three of them did not return; many more were wounded, or suffered debilitating illness that plagued them for the rest of their lives.

In this small town, nearly everyone had a relative or neighbor in the service. Thirty-six sets of brothers wore the Union blue; two families sent four siblings off to war. In four households, both the father and a son left the rest of the family behind to join the Army. All four fathers perished, leaving wives and younger children to manage homes and farms.

The experience of individual soldiers will be told in their own words, taken from letters and diaries. Visitors will learn where they fought, how they lived in the field, and how they felt about the war. Several local men spent time in prisoner of war camps which will be graphically described.

The exhibit will also document the anti-war fervor of the local “Copperheads,” the hidden history of slavery in this area, and the efforts by many local businessmen and community leaders to avoid going to war by hiring substitutes.

The post-war lives of veterans will be examined as well. A surprising number left their hometown to settle in the west, others spent time in newly established National Homes for Disabled Veterans. Many became active in the GAR – the Grand Army of the Republic, a veterans fraternal organization. Middletown’s local GAR chapter was formed in Arena and was named for James Elliott of New Kingston, who was killed in action in South Carolina. His brother Thomas also died of wounds.

In recognition of the sesquicentennial of the war, HSM volunteers have been working to compile individual information sheets on every Civil War soldier who was born in Middletown, or lived here for much of their lives. This important new historical resource will be available for browsing by exhibit visitors.

Sponsors of the Civil War exhibit and related programming this summer include the Catskill Mountain News, Ulster County Chamber of Commerce, Phil O’Beirne, the Elliott Family, Miller’s Drug Store, MTC, Riverside Pizza, Sluiter Insurance, the Cheese Barrel, the Flour Patch, Community Bank and NBT.

For details on programs and activities of the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown, and to contribute toward the preservation of local history, please visit www.mtownhistory.org.

Raising Lincoln’s Army is topic July 25

Jul 20, 2013 | news archive

The transformation of farmers, blacksmiths, merchants and students into citizen soldiers during the Civil War will be the topic when the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown (HSM), welcomes historian and author Frank Waterman Thursday, July 25.

The 7 p.m. program, “Raising Lincoln’s Army,” will be held at the HSM hall, 778 Cemetery Rd., Margaretville. Admission is $4 ($2 for HSM members).

The hall will be open at 6:30 so that visitors can see a special exhibit on Middletown in the Civil War. The exhibit is also on view at the HSM hall Saturdays from 11 to 2 through Labor Day.

During the Civil War, the responsibility for raising troops for the Union Army fell to the towns of Delaware County, each of which was given a quota following Lincoln’s repeated calls for more troops. If the quotas were not met, deficiencies were to be made up by a draft. However, there was such a strong anti-draft sentiment at the time that the towns went to great expense to avoid having their men drafted by providing generous bonuses to volunteers.

Furthermore, during the latter part of the War, towns and the state helped men avoid the draft by providing them with funds to hire substitutes.

Speaker Waterman authored a book on this subject, Raising Lincoln’s Army. He also wrote one titled Mother, You Mustn’t Worry So About Us, a collection of 168 letters Clark and James McDonald wrote home to their family in Meredith during the Civil War.

Waterman is currently President of Meredith Historical Society and Town of Meredith Historian. He is a retired Professor of Medical Physics who returned to his hometown where he now devotes much of his time to researching, writing, and teaching the history of the town of Meredith.

250 years and counting

250 years and counting

Jul 14, 2013 | Tin Horn

The 250th anniversary of the first European settlement of the Town of Middletown back in 1763 was observed with the dedication of a historic marker at the Town Hall July 12. HSM is proud to have facilitated the marker’s placement, and pleased to have had a small part in the ceremony. It included comments by former Supervisor now Town Historian Len Utter; former Town Historian and current Margaretville-New Kingston Presbyterian Church pastor Shirley Davis, and retired English teacher and local historian Dr. Bill Birns.

Other speakers were Nate Hendricks, 9th generation descendant of one of the original settlers, and State Asssemblyman Pete Lopez.

Adam and Nate Hendricks, 9th generation descendants of one of the first Middletown settlers, unveiled the historic marker with their aunt, Lori Hendricks Ballard. Photo by Roger Davis

The occasion recalled the emigration of a troupe of five Hudson Valley Dutch men: brothers Harmonus and Peter Dumond, Johannes Von Waggoner and Peter Hendricks and Hendricks’ teenage stepson Frederick Kittle. The initial ‘settlement’ was made up of their four farms, all along the East Branch of the Delaware River that had until then been the seasonal domain of the Lenni Lenape (Delaware) Indians.

Several more families came in the years leading up to the Revolution, but conflicts among Indians, Tories and Whigs sent them all back to the Valley until hostilities ceased. After the war, emigration began in earnest and folks arrived bearing surnames that still identify Middletown families: Yaple, Carpenter, Green, Utter, Craft, Mead, Ackerley, Grant, Delameter and many others.

In her prayer of blessing, Pastor Davis said, “We thank you for the first inhabitants of these hills and valleys and for the courage and wisdom You gave them to face the many hardships and dangers they encountered in taming some of the wilderness of these beautiful Catskills Mountains. These brave men – and women – came to this land with hopes and dreams of their own – the hope of new freedoms and new life, dreams of having a place to call their own, a home and community in which to raise not only their children, but a place for future generations to call home and community as well. And we, my friends, gathered here today in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Town of Middletown, are part of those future generations.”

Dr. Birns pointed out that in the decades since these people put down roots, Middletown has been a haven for people of all religious, political, ethnic and social persuasions. “A town that started out with Hendricks, Dumond, Von Waggoner and Kittle has ended up with a big and fairly diverse US – It’s the US we celebrate today, along with those first families.”