More local newspapers posted online

More local newspapers posted online

Dec 21, 2023 | news archive

More than half a century of the Roxbury Times and 12 more years of the Catskill Mountain News have been added to the New York State Historic Newspapers website, created and administered by the Northern New York Library Network in partnership with the Empire State Library Network..

Their placement online allows anyone anywhere to search, read and print these valuable chronicles of local history. The Times and the News are among 19 Delaware County titles on the website, NYSHistoricNewspapers.org.

Roxbury Town Historian Anthony Liberatore coordinated the digitization of microfilm of the Times from Sept. 19, 1895 to June 16, 1951. The O’Connor Foundation, the Town of Roxbury and historian/author Larry Zuidema funded the Roxbury project. The original newspapers were transferred to microfilm in 1967 through the efforts of Steve Enderlin, and have been available to read on a microfilm viewer in the History Room at the Roxbury Library. Thanks go to Wendy Morrison for getting that microfilm to Potsdam for digitization.

“I was hesitant to ship the microfilm for fear of it being lost in transit, so I was going to take a five-hour drive, one way, to drop it off in person,” the historian said. “The night before I was going to go, someone mentioned to me that Wendy, a Roxbury resident, was taking her son Brett back to Clarkson University, which is also in Potsdam. She agreed to drop off the microfilm which saved me from driving the 10-hour round trip!”

The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown had previously preserved the CMN from 1902 through 1973. In 2022, HSM arranged to have the bound issues from 1974 through 1985 microfilmed at Advantage Archives in Iowa. That microfilm was scanned at Potsdam and added to the previously posted issues.

Thirteen HSM supporters contributed more than $1,500 towards this phase of the CMN project. In 2024, the previously missing 1968 News will be added to the historic newspapers site. Nearly a complete run of that year’s paper was discovered this year in a local home whose owner donated them to HSM.

The hard-bound volumes of the News are housed at Fairview Public Library. The microfilm and digital versions are protected in the HSM Archives. FMI: mtownhistory.org.

 

HSM wraps up busy year with some old fashioned music

Nov 10, 2023 | 2023 Events, news archive

MARGARETVILLE – The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown concluded its programming season November 4 with a musical tribute to a home-town composer from the turn of the last century.

Following its annual meeting and luncheon, held at the Catskill Watershed Corp., HSM members and friends heard pianist Kent Brown play ‘Pakatakan Waltz’ and ‘Where the Catskills Lift Their Summits to the Sun’ by Alexander Grant Jackson. A short sketch of the composer, a printer-turned-forester who moved to the Northwest in 1906, was also presented.

The business meeting included the re-election of three trustees and the election of a new member of the Board, Eli Taylor of Margaretville. His fellow Board members are Doris Warner, Pat Moore, Agnes Laub, Josef Schoell, Gary Smith, Michael Fairbairn and Diane Galusha. Barbara Moses has stepped down as a Trustee after several years of service.

Treasurer Pat Moore reported that HSM is in a strong financial position. The operating fund is healthy, and the building fund has grown with significant contributions this year, including $75,000 from the O’Connor Foundation, $50,000 from the Pasternak Family Foundation, a $10,000 matching grant from Josef Schoell, and contributions from many members of our community. To date, 166 individuals, families, organizations, foundations and businesses have contributed a total of $353,888 to this effort.

President Diane Galusha noted that considerable progress has been made this year on the project — an addition to its Cemetery Road hall to house the HSM archives. The concrete foundation and floor were installed back in May. The 1100-square-foot addition is up and enclosed for winter. The walls have been insulated and sheet rocked. The building has been wired, and the electric line buried. The siding is going on soon, to be followed by installation of a heat pump system for heating and cooling both the addition and the hall. A covered entryway is being built. A new septic system is planned, and fixtures for the accessible rest room will be installed in the near future.

A number of programs were held during 2023: A history hike along the former U&D tracks in Highmount was held in April; the 10th Living History Cemetery Tour in June became an armchair tour when rain forced it indoors at the Open Eye Theater. In August, a program on major fires in Middletown was delivered, and in October 70 people turned out for Rick Brook’s presentation on the Hardenburgh Patent and the history of surveying. An exhibit on master builders of Middletown was displayed at the Cauliflower Festival in September.

Donations of historic materials over the past year have included scrapbooks, photos and records on several local families. Nearly a complete run of the Catskill Mountain News for 1968 was discovered in her attic by Anna Blish, who donated them to HSM. They will be digitized and added to the NYS Historic Newspapers website which now holds the searchable News from 1902 through 1985. Encouraged Galusha, “If you discover in a closet or attic old material you may not know what to do with, please call any of us on the board so we can have a look, because once it’s gone, it can’t be retrieved.”

Finally, the winner of the quilt made by Jackie Purdy was Peter Turer of Manhattan and Roxbury Run.

For articles, photos, events and more, visit mtownhistory.org.

Vintage Waltz To Be Played at HSM annual meeting Nov. 4

Oct 19, 2023 | 2023 Events, news archive

The annual meeting of Historical Society of Middletown members and friends will be held Saturday, Nov. 4 at noon at the Catskill Watershed Corp. on County Road 38 (Arkville cut-off road). PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF VENUE – the event will NOT be held at the Margaretville Fire Hall as previously reported.

Mary’s Cookin’ Again will cater the luncheon. Reserve your seat ($20) by October 27 by calling 845-586-4973.

Following the business meeting, which will include an update on the archives construction project and reports on HSM activities and finances over the past year, there will be a short musical history program. Accomplished keyboardist Kent Brown of Margaretville will perform “Pakatakan Waltz,” written in 1900 by Alexander Grant Jackson.

Jackson was a musician and editor of the Margaretville Messenger before he moved to Oregon. A copy of the sheet music for the waltz was recently donated to the HSM archives.

The musical interlude will be followed by a brief profile of the composer, and of W. A. Laidlaw, to whom Jackson dedicated the piece.

For more information on HSM and its activities, as well as many history articles and photographs, visit mtownhistory.org.

HSM holds Oct. 21 Program on Deciphering Surveys and Deeds

HSM holds Oct. 21 Program on Deciphering Surveys and Deeds

Oct 6, 2023 | 2023 Events, news archive

ARKVILLE – Rick Brooks, a long-time surveyor and historian of his trade, will present “The Hardenburgh Patent, A Surveyor’s Journey” Saturday, Oct. 21 at 3 p.m. in the Catskill Watershed Corp.’s auditorium on County Rte. 38 (Arkville cut-off road).

Admission to the program, offered by the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown, is by donation.

A third-generation surveyor, Brooks has spent his entire career in and around the Catskill Mountain region and is well versed in Patent history. He will also lead a field walk on Sunday, Oct. 22 to demonstrate tools and techniques and show how surveyors read and measure the land. To register for the walk (there is a $10 fee) call 845-586-4973.

On display at the October 21 event will be antique maps, survey instruments and chains used to spur settlement of the Hardenburgh Patent wilderness. The 1.5-million-acre patent was granted in 1708 by Edward Hyde (Lord Cornbury) to eight men, Johannes Hardenburgh among them. These patentees and their successors intended to enrich themselves by getting homesteaders to settle their lands and pay rent for the privilege. But first the patent had to be divided and mapped by intrepid surveyors such as William Cockburn and Jehu Burr, among others.

Brooks will offer a short history of the patent and its evolution, explaining how surveyors guided European development in the mountains where indigenous people had lived, fished and hunted for centuries. Attendees will learn how to interpret early maps and deeds, whose language has descended through the generations to today’s legal documents. He will also reference the work of more recent but no less legendary surveyors including his uncle, Ed West, and the late Norman VanValkenburgh.

Prior to the illustrated talk, the Catskill Water Discovery Center adjacent to the CWC auditorium will be open from 1 to 3 for those interested in learning about the New York City water system and watershed.

Richard C. Brooks was licensed to practice his profession in 1984. He currently serves as a Senior Project Manager for Control Point Associates, formerly Brooks & Brooks Land Surveyors. The firm was formed in 1990 when he and his wife Patricia P. Brooks, LS combined their respective family surveying businesses.

For information about the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown and its programs, and to view local history articles and photographs, visit mtownhistory.org.

Great Middletown fires topic of illustrated talk

Great Middletown fires topic of illustrated talk

Jul 25, 2023 | news archive

ARKVILLE – Fires that transformed the business districts of Margaretville, Arkville and Fleischmanns, and laid waste barns, hotels and other structures in the countryside, will be the subject of a slide presentation by local historians Diane Galusha and John Duda Saturday, Aug. 5 at 3 p.m. in Arkville.

“Ablaze!,” sponsored by the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown, will be held in the auditorium at the Catskill Watershed Corp., 669 County Route 38 (the Arkville crossroad or cut-off road). Admission is by donation. Attendees are also invited to view the permanent “Of Rivers and Reservoirs” exhibit at the Catskill Water Discovery Center adjacent to the auditorium, which will be open from noon to 3 p.m.

The program is offered in tribute to the hundreds of volunteer firefighters who have responded to alarms since local fire departments were formed in the late 19th century. Among the conflagrations they faced were the 1903 fire at the Ackerly Hotel on Main Street, Margaretville, where the rebuilt structure burned again in 1928; the 1939 and 1979 fires that leveled multiple buildings in Arkville, and the 1934 disaster that destroyed six buildings in Fleischmanns.

The talk will cover the burning of the huge Takanasee Hotel in Fleischmanns, the Sanford commercial and educational building in Arkville in 1986, and the 1979 Kelly Hotel fire in Margaretville which led to the creation of the MARK Project and the rejuvenation of Main Street.

Blazes that claimed barns and livestock and erased farmers’ livelihoods as well as rural character will also be featured.

FMI: 845-586-4973; history@catskill.net; mtownhistory.org.

 

Cemetery Tour: Turning Lemons Into Lemonade

Cemetery Tour: Turning Lemons Into Lemonade

Jun 29, 2023 | news archive

MARGARETVILLE – Our 10th Living History Cemetery Tour was an example of making lemonade from lemons, or in this case creating a special theatrical experience despite a weekend of wet weather.

The June 17 tour was moved from Margaretville Cemetery to the comfort of the Open Eye Theater, where more than 80 people enjoyed the performances of six actors, two at-large players and three docents who introduced each of the characters.

Directors Joyce St. George and Frank Canavan pulled a staged performance seemingly out of the hat and the audience raved.

Photos of the talented participants can be found here:

Download Cemetery Tour PDF