Cemetery Tour Reservations Open

Cemetery Tour Reservations Open

May 31, 2023 | news archive

MARGARETVILLE – Reservations for the Historical Society of Middletown’s 10th Living History Cemetery Tour are now open.

The popular tour will be held Saturday, June 17, 2023 at Margaretville Cemetery. Rain date is June 18.

In addition to the one-hour walking tour, offered six times between 4 and 6 p.m., there will be a special early bird performance at 2 p.m. on stage at the Open Eye Theater on Main Street to accommodate those with mobility issues.

Reservations for both staged and on-site performances are required and can be made by calling 845-586-4736.

Tickets are $20; those 15 or under get in free.

This year’s tour will feature portrayals of six people from Middletown’s past. Tour goers led by costumed guides will meet these spirits and learn about their lives.

They include German immigrant wagonmaker Herman Henry Rotermund, portrayed by Gary Falk; farmer and creamery manager Calvin Davis, played by Ken Taylor; Huldah Allison Austin, who witnessed the coming of the railroad age as a farm wife and mother, played by Sheila Ayres; author and college professor Mary Elizabeth Osborn, portrayed by Rebecca Newman; Howard Baker, who served in the cavalry in Cuba, played by Kevin Bewersdorf; and Amos Sperling, a cook aboard circus man Charles Ringling’s yacht, played by John Bernhardt.

Connie Jeffers will roam the grounds as a mysterious Roma (‘gypsy’), and Dan Ayres, as photographer Ward Carman, camera in hand, will document the event.

Returning as directors of this year’s production are Frank Canavan and Joyce St. George. Script writers were Erwin Karl, Amy Taylor, Diane Galusha, Sue DeBruin, Ellen Stewart and Mary Barile.

Tour guides will be Eli Taylor, Emily Vieyra and Sally Scrimshaw.

For more information on HSM events and to become a member, visit mtownhistory.org.

HSM Offers Headstone Cleaning

HSM Offers Headstone Cleaning

Apr 28, 2023 | news archive

Before

After

April 24, 2023

MARGARETVILLE – Memorial Day is right around the corner and the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown wants to help you pay tribute to your loved ones by offering a unique headstone cleaning service.

A team of HSM volunteers is ready to clean monuments at cemeteries in and around Middletown this spring, using a safe and very effective cleansing agent and method. A donation of $30 cleans a single one-sided headstone; a $50 donation will clean two headstones or a two-sided monument.

Before-and-after photos will be provided to those who take advantage of this offer, available only during the month of May.

Send a check and contact information to HSM, PO Box 734, Margaretville, NY 12455. Someone will be in touch to collect details.

FMI: 845-586-4973 or history@catskill.net.

Information about HSM events and programs can be found at mtownhistory.org.

Sat., June 17, 2023 — 10th Living History Cemetery Tour

Apr 4, 2023 | 2023 Events, news archive

Meet six people from Middletown’s past on a one-hour guided walk through Margaretville Cemetery. Walking tours offered in six time slots from 4-6 p.m.  Reservations required. Details to come.

If you would like to be an at-large, silent vignette player, call Diane Galusha at 845-586-4973.

Early bird performance 2 p.m. on stage at the Open Eye Theater to accommodate those whose mobility issues may prevent their enjoyment of the on-site event.

Historical Society names 2023 Cemetery Tour cast

Historical Society names 2023 Cemetery Tour cast

Mar 31, 2023 | news archive

March 28, 2023

MARGARETVILLE – The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown (HSM) has announced cast members for its 10th Living History Cemetery Tour to be held Saturday, June 17 at Margaretville Cemetery.

In addition to the walking tour, offered in six time slots from 4 to 6 p.m., there will be a special early bird performance at 2 p.m. on stage at the Open Eye Theater to accommodate those whose mobility issues may prevent their enjoyment of the on-site event.

This year’s tour will feature portrayals of six people from Middletown’s past. Tour goers led by costumed guides will meet these spirits and learn about their lives while strolling through the scenic cemetery with its beautiful views across the East Branch valley.

HSM welcomes two actors new to the tour: Rebecca Newman will portray Mary Elizabeth Osborn, professor, poet and author whose novels reflected people and places from her home town; and Kevin Bewersdorf playing Howard Baker, who served with the US cavalry in Cuba before his tragic death in a railroad accident.

John Bernhardt is returning for his 10th cemetery tour, this time portraying Amos Sperling who was a cook for circus man Charles Ringling. Another veteran tour actor, Agnes Laub, will appear as Huldah Allison Austin telling of the changes that rocked her world in the mid-19th century.

Gary Falk will portray Herman Henry Rotermund, a German immigrant wagon maker and Civil War veteran. Ken Taylor will play Margaretville farmer and creamery manager Calvin Davis.

Connie Jeffers will roam the grounds as a peripatetic ‘gypsy’ whose like traveled through Middletown in the early 1900s. Yet to be named are other at-large players who will appear in silent vignettes throughout the cemetery. If you would like to be one of them, or a tour guide, please contact Diane Galusha at 845-586-4973.

Directors of this year’s production are Frank Canavan and Joyce St. George, back for their eighth tour. Scriptwriters include Diane Galusha, Erwin Karl, Sue DeBruin, Mary Barile, Amy Taylor and Ellen Stewart.

Reservations are required for both the tour and the Open Eye performance. Details will be announced. For more information on HSM events and to become a member, visit mtownhistory.org.

In The Prime of Their Lives

In The Prime of Their Lives

Mar 31, 2023 | Tin Horn

Young people in the prime of their lives are reflected in these undated portraits, c. 1870, from an album scanned by Steven Morse. The cigar-smoking men are cousins Eugene Crosby and William M. Bellows and the women are Will’s sisters, Sarah Idell Bellows and Orrie Bellows.

The Bellows siblings were children of Merrick and Amelia Morrison Bellows of Bedell. Eugene was a son of Thomas and Jemima Morrison Crosby. Their lives would diverge and come back together over the next 60 years. The Crosby family migrated to Illinois, Missouri (where Jemima died in 1877) and finally Nebraska, where Thomas died in 1906. Eugene, who never married, returned to Halcott in the 1870s and evidently had his portrait taken with his cousin Will.

Will Bellows married Lizzie Mead in the 1880s. She died tragically in 1908 when a kerosene lamp ignited her dress and, despite Will’s attempt to smother the flames, she succumbed to burns the next day. The young widower retreated in grief, leaving their seven-year-old daughter Ellen in the care of his sister, Orrie and husband Dewitt Avery. They lived in Armstrong Park, Fleischmanns, which Dewitt had subdivided and where he had several homes constructed.

Eugene and Will, both carpenters by trade, would later find themselves under the loving care of Idell, who had lost her husband Justus Fellows in 1915. She provided a home for several siblings and other relatives as they aged, including Will who was paralyzed for his last three years.

Eugene died in Oneonta in 1923, Will in 1930, Orrie in 1936 and Idell in 1938.