The cast is rehearsing and the grounds are being readied for the 2013 Living History Tour of Clovesville Cemetery to be held Saturday evening, June 29.
Advance reservations for this popular event are required. Call 845-586-4736 to reserve a spot in one of seven tour groups who will be led through the picturesque cemetery to meet ten former residents and hear about their intriguing lives.
A 3 p.m. performance for those with mobility issues will be offered in the comfort of the handicapped-accessible hall of the Cornerstone Baptist Church next to the cemetery. Advance reservations are required for that as well.
Rain date is Sunday afternoon, June 30. The cemetery is located just west of Fleischmanns on old Route 28.
The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown is staging this event as a fundraiser.
Living History Cemetery Tour Sponsors include the Catskill Mountain News, Ulster County Chamber of Commerce, Phil O’Beirne, Purple Mountain Press, the Elliott Family, Miller’s Drug Store, Spillian, MTC, Riverside Pizza, Sluiter Insurance, NBT, the Flour Patch, the Cheese Barrel, LaCabana Restaurant, Erickson’s Automotive and Community Bank.
You’re invited to join us on Friday, July 12th at 4p.m. at Middletown Town Hall, 42339 State Highway 28, Margaretville, for the unveiling of a commemorative marker in celebration of Middletown’s 250th Anniversary of settlement.
Dr. Bill Birns will be speaking as well as Town Historian Len Utter. Let’s hope the weather cooperates in making this a moment to remember!
Stroll three blocks of Margaretville’s Main Street and SEE what you’ve been missing . . . Click on this link, print it out and take an awesome visual scavenger hunt. It’s fun, challenging and could win you a ticket to our Labor Day concert and community picnic! Thanks to Sharon Suess, Ros Welchman, Larraine Dunham, Becky Hubbell and our own HSM Trustee Anne Sanford for putting this together.
The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown (HSM) will host a Vintage Post Card and Ephemera Show and Sale Sat., June 8 from 10 to 3 at the HSM hall, 778 Cemetery Road, Margaretville.
Admission for HSM members is $2; all others $4. Light refreshments will be available.
Several vendors will offer old post cards, documents, maps, advertisements, flyers and other paper items. While the focus of the show is on old New York State views, dealers will also have topical, foreign, and holiday cards.
At 1 p.m., the dealers will provide short talks on distinct aspects of post card production and collecting.
The show is coordinated by John Duda of Fleischmanns, Secretary of the Kaaterskill Post Card Club.
“Barns of Middletown” an exhibit documenting the remaining barns in the town, will be on view, a last opportunity to see it before a new exhibition on Middletown in the Civil War opens July 4.
The public is welcome to spend a pleasant Saturday browsing among historic post cards, and strolling around the beautiful pond and grounds.
There is a mystery in Dunraven: Why would an iron jail cell have been set atop a concrete bunker built into a stone retaining wall on the old Smith farm on New Kingston Road (now the Blue Deer Center)?
The cell was made by the E. T. Barnum Wire and Iron Works Company in Detroit, which made all kinds of ornamental and functional tems, from fences to fire escapes, park furniture to mausoleum doors. Apparently, they were famous for their lattice work jail cells (“Highest award received at World’s Fair for Jail Cells” the company boasted in a 1924 catalogue.)
Barnum made double decker or single cells, equipped with food openings or hinged bunks, forged of “tool proof steel.” “A secure lockup or jail will conserve morals and lessen crime in your community,” claimed the catalogue, which offered a list of customers, including the City of Oneonta, and the villages of Deposit, Schoharie and Tannersville. In 1902, these cells cost about $217.
But why would one have ended up on the Smith Farm in Dunraven? Maurice J. Smith settled the place in 1821 and ran a prosperous farm and mill there, leaving the property in 1890 to his son Olney, who turned it into a popular boarding house which operated through the mid-20th century. A jail cell isn’t exactly a tourist draw.
Was this cell ‘rescued’ from a town that was tearing down its jail? Was it used as secure storage for valuables, explosives, livestock? The bunker below cannot be accessed by the cell above, but it contains a toilet and sink, purportedly for use by farm workers.
Ideas, anyone?
