The Irish of Clovesville

Feb 11, 2012 | Tin Horn

There is a small burial ground in Clovesville that harbors a forgotten immigrant history of our area. Known locally as the “Irish” or “Catholic” cemetery, it is located across Old Route 28 from the larger Clovesville Cemetery. Whether those interred wound up there by choice, or because they were denied admittance to the Protestant burial ground is not clear.

Roger Davis took the following headstone inventory of the Irish Cemetery in August of 2001. The cemetery was in bad shape then, and is even worse now, with the steep bank below it cut away by flood and excavator, leaving some of the graves in a precarious situation.

Headstone, 3 children who died within one month in 1877

The annotations in parentheses after each headstone inscription were prepared by Ed Stewart in 2009 in an attempt to provide a little more information about these folks. Says Ed, “I suspect there may be many more people buried in this cemetery than we realize given the significant number of Irish around in the 1840-1880 censuses, and the high mortality rates of those years particularly among the tanneries and the quarries.”

Many Irish immigrant men are known to have worked at the Clark Tannery in Dunraven around 1850, for example, and it can be assumed that the J. D. Elmore tannery, shown on the 1869 Beers Atlas map of Dunraven, employed Irish as well. The coming of the Ulster & Delaware Railroad in 1870 no doubt attracted a later tide of Irish laborers.

Interestingly, the Beers Atlas does not show either of the cemeteries that existed in Clovesville in 1869.

If you have any information about or are descended from these nearly forgotten people, or if you would like to help repair this cemetery, please email us at history@catskill.net.

John M. (Mc) Mullen, d. Sept. 18, 1877 aged 61 yrs. (Listed in the 1870 Census as John McMullen residing Town of Middletown with Bridget his wife. Listed in the 1850 Census as born in Ireland 1818 – probable son of Catherine)

Rachel Kelly, wife of John O. Kelly, b. March 6, 1820 d, Jan. 3, 1864 (Listed in the 1850 census Town of Shandaken as a 26 year old female born in Ireland along with John Kelly, 29 b. Ireland; William, 6, Thomas, 4, Edward, 1, Gerald Grace Kelly, 2, children all born NY)

Edward Kelly d. Oct. 6, 1894 (listed in 1850 census of the Town of Middletown as a farmer born in Ireland age 32 – also in household Thomas 30, Margaret 57, Mary 20, Sarah 14, George 17, and Anna Maria 13 with George being the first listed as born in NY))

William Kelly d. Sept. 18, 1847 aged 63y – 3m – 17d

Margaret Byrne, his wife, d. Sept. 29, 1857 aged 65y – 4m – 8d (in the 1850 census listed with Edward Kelly as a 57 year old female born in Ireland)

Rachel Barker, wife of John Kelly, d. July 8, 1847 aged 95y – 4m – 13d

John Dwyer, d. Nov. 5, 1865 aged 17 years (Listed with parents, James and Mary, both born Ireland, in 1860 census Town of Middletown, aged 13, b NY)

Mary, wife of Hugh Riley, d. Feb. 26, 18(65) aged 80y – 8m – 1d (Listed 1850 census Town of Shandaken, female born Ireland, aged 65, with Thomas, aged 24, laborer born Ireland)

Maggie d. Oct. 14, 1877 aged 10y – 14d, John d. Nov. 1, 1877 aged 5y – 1m, Burnie d. Oct. 22, 1877 aged 6y – 9m – 23d, Children of John and Bridgett McGuire (John possibly listed 1850 census, Town of Shandaken, as male born Ireland 1822)

Julia, wife of John White, d. April 14, 1846 in her 27th year

Julia, daughter of John and Julia White, d. Oct. 22, 1845 aged 4y – 4m – 2d

Alexander McMullen, d. Nov. 29, 1844 (Connected to the family of Catherine McMullen, see below, listed 1840 census, Town of Middletown, Delaware County)

John McMullen, Native of Ireland, d. May 7, 18(38) aged 51yrs

Catherine McMullen, Native of Ireland, d. Feb. 2, 1869 aged 95yrs (Listed 1850 census Town of Middletown, female aged 72 born in Ireland with John McMullen, farmer aged 32 b. Ireland, Sally McMullen, aged 25, b. NY; and Bridget McMullen, aged 34 b. Ireland)

Augustine Quinn, d. March 18, 1872 aged 20y – 11m – 2d (Possibly listed 1860 census Town of Colchester, male, age 9, with Timothy, 45, b. Ireland, and Mary A., aged 18, housekeeper b. NY) 

Michael McCormick, d. Feb. 12, 1873 aged 50 yrs (Listed in the 1850 and 1860 census town of Middletown as a 32 year old farmer born in Ireland along with Mary 32 b. Ireland, Catherine 12, William 10, Nicholas 8, Mary 5, Michael 3, Bridget 6/12, children all born NY)

Thomas Dwyer, Native of Roscommon County, Ireland, d. June 25, 1868 aged 34 yrs (Listed 1850 Census, Town of Shandaken, 18 year old, b. Ireland, listed with John Dwyer, Catherine Dwyer, Michael Dwyer, and Dennis Dwyer, all born in Ireland. Prior family listed is that of John Dwyer, 35, b. Ireland, Margaret Dwyer, 28, b. Ireland, Mary Dwyer, 7, b. Ireland, John Dwyer, 3, b. NY, and Michael Dwyer, 1 b. NY)

John Dwyer, d. June 10, 1886 aged 71y – 6m – 16d

Mary, wife of John Dewair (Dwyer) d. Sept. 6, (1859) aged 37yr – 6m

Michael Macan, d. July 12, 1859 (Listed in 1850 census Town of Shandaken (present Hardenburgh) as a farmer age 55, b. Ireland, along with Jane, 60, b. NY, Edward, a farmer, 23, b. NY, Abraham, a farmer, 21, b. NY) (On prior page is Peter McCan, 27, b. NY; Sarah, 39, b. NY; Mary, 2, b. NY; Patrick, 1, b. NY)

Jane, wife of Michael Macan, d. March 7, 1855 in her 68th year

1950s CMNews now online

Jan 25, 2012 | news archive

HSM is pleased to report that the latest batch of Catskill Mountain News microfilm has been scanned and posted online. They run from Sept. 2, 1949 through Jan. 28, 1955. What a wealth of history these newspapers contain! And they’re searchable! http://history.catskill.net

Phase 1 of this project involved microfilming and digitizing bound volumes of the CMN from 1902-1937. The second phase is digitizing microfilm of the years 1938-73 held by the NYS Library. The work is being done by Hudson Microimaging in Port Ewen, in cooperation with Northern New York Library Association. Funding for the current phase has been generously provided by the O’Connor Foundation of Hobart and an anonymous donor.

The next five years – through 1960 – is expected to be available by spring.

HSM has a new home!

HSM has a new home!

Jan 16, 2012 | news archive

The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown (HSM), established in 2005, finally has a home of its own, thanks to the generosity of the New Kingston Valley Grange (NKVG).

The Grange has donated its clubhouse and seven acres on Cemetery Road, Margaretville, to HSM which will use it for programming, special events, exhibits and office space.

NKVG Master Marian Schimmel emphasized that the Grange, which has occupied the site since 1994, is not disbanding. Its members will continue to meet at the Margaretville-New Kingston Presbyterian Church.

“Although we are a little saddened at leaving our hall, we are happy to be turning it over to the HSM and wish them a long and fruitful occupancy,” she commented.

For the past seven years, the Historical Society has held its programs and meetings at various sites around town, and has kept its files in Board members’ homes. The move to a central location will provide the Society with an identity, and room to consolidate and grow.

“This property has so much potential and we are very excited about making it a center for the community to come together to have fun and celebration local history,” remarked HSM President Diane Galusha. The one-story clubhouse has a spacious rustic interior with a local stone fireplace and a commercial kitchen. The property features a pond, expansive lawns, a small garage and a barbecue pit. Attorney Gary Rosa supplied pro bono legal services in its transfer from the Grange to HSM.

A committee has been formed to discuss how to use, develop, promote and support the facility, and to explore options for long-term housing of the Society’s collection of historical materials, which is currently lodged in the Middletown Town Hall. The committee includes Gary Atkin, Sandra Bowen-Greene, Brian Ketcham, Eleanor and Chuck Mager, Steve Miller, Craig Ramsay and Ed Stewart.

HSM’s new headquarters 

 “The community has been very supportive of everything we have done over the past seven years,” Galusha continued. “We are grateful for this generous gift by the Grange, and hope that it will inspire continued support from members, friends, neighbors and history lovers as we establish a physical center for our activities.”

If you are interested in volunteering with HSM, or have ideas for exhibits or programs, please contact Galusha or any other board member: Carolyn Konheim, Marilyn Pitetti, Lucci Kelly, George Hendricks, Phil O’Beirne or Roger Davis, or send an email: history@catskill.net.

 

Property history

The Cemetery Road property was once farmland that was purchased in the 1940s by Julius and Frieda Meinstein and deeded in 1950 to Stephen Meinstein. In the mid-1960s it was sold to the Catskill Mountain Chapter of the Izaak Walton League.

The IWL, a conservation and sportsmen’s group which was established in Margaretville in 1927, had built a clubhouse on NYS Route 30 in 1938. (The windows had once graced Bussy’s Store in the village, and the hardwood flooring was taken from the former school on Church Street that was vacated in 1937 for the current Margaretville Central School.)

Scenic entrance to property

The widening of Route 30 in the 1960s prompted IWL to move its headquarters to the Meinstein farm site just up the hill, where the avid fishermen soon added a pond. A memorial stone to its founding president, F. Lee Keator, remains nearby.

When the chapter disbanded in the mid-1990s, it gave the building and surrounding acreage to the New Kingston Valley Grange, which had been established in 1968. The Grange made significant improvements inside and out.

For many years NKVG met monthly for pot luck meals, game nights, songfests and speakers. It held fund raising activities to benefit the Margaretville Memorial Hospital Auxiliary and needy local families, and to provide an annual scholarship to a graduating Margaretville Central School student. A group of Grangers has also made countless lap robes for nursing home residents, and stuffed toys for hospitalized children.

The Pond

Both IWL and NKVG rented out the building and grounds for special affairs, and many area people remember it as the site of family parties, wedding receptions, alumni gatherings and other functions.

“We hope to continue the tradition of welcoming the community to this special place,” said HSM’s Galusha. An open house, with a barbecue and a slide show of images of historic Margaretville, is planned for May 19.

Buried, and uncovered, by Dry Brook

Buried, and uncovered, by Dry Brook

Jan 16, 2012 | Tin Horn

The waters were cruel in our region late last summer. They claimed buildings, land and one precious life, and left a legacy of ruin that will take months, even years, to repair. But the flood also uncovered a bit of the past in a section of Dry Brook on the property of Gene Rosa.

Submerged water wheel that once ran a Dry Brook sawmillChiseled hole in old streambed for post of sawmill

The rusty remnant of an old water wheel bears mute testimony to the many mills that once thrived along Dry Brook, as well as to the power of the tempestuous creek that regularly destroyed them. Lester Rosa remembers hearing about this one. It powered a sawmill on his grandfather William Vermilyea’s farm (on the sharp curve 3.5 miles up Dry Brook Road from Arkville), where there was also a blacksmith shop and forge on the flat. Lester, who dug up artifacts from the blacksmith shop while gardening on the site over the years, speculates that the water wheel may have been made at that forge.

Water wheel jutting out of pool in foreground; former streambed to right

Lester’s paternal grandfather, Andrew Rosa, who died in 1915, was a sawyer who worked at this and other mills. It’s not clear whether it was abandoned before or after being washed off its moorings by some flood in the past.

It was one of no less than five sawmills that are depicted on the Beers map of 1869 on the Middletown end of Dry Brook – no doubt many more took advantage of the water power further up the stream in the Town of Hardenburgh. In 1869, this site belonged to Orson Allaben, a physician who helped develop Margaretville, served in the NYS Assembly and started a school. He also apparently dabbled in small industry. An article in the Nov. 26, 1948 Catskill Mountain News about the history of Arena (Lumberville) said this: “As in the case of (Asa) Grant, many of the wealthy men owned sawmills in connection with their other interests. One of them was Dr. Allaben of Margaretville, who owned several such mills in the various hollows of the section.”

Lester Rosa said deeds to his grandfather’s farm referred to it as the “Allaben Logging Reserve.”

Can you add information to this story? Write to us!

Chiseled hole in streambed for post of mill building

What’s going on here?

What’s going on here?

Jan 4, 2012 | Tin Horn

Mystery photo, What’s happening here?

The image above is one of 21 glass plate negatives found above Miller’s Drug Store in Margaretville years ago and donated to the Historical Society of Middletown by Al and Naomi Weiss. Several of the negatives were scanned and restored by Ed Kirstein of Roxbury. They were printed and framed by the Historical Society in 2007, and can currently be seen at Fairview Library’s conference room where the Historical Society will mount rotating historical displays.

What do you think is happening in this photo? What covered bridge is that in the background?

“Coming out of the ball smiling,” — is this the same event?

Is this postcard image, provided by Lynda Stratton, the same event? Is the clothing of the same era? Perhaps a daredevil sailed down the river in a flexible ball of some sort? Maybe the retaining wall at right (upon which the photographer must have been perched) offers a clue as to the location.