An illustrated talk on the Delaware County Poorhouse will be presented Saturday, Oct. 22 at the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown’s annual meeting and luncheon.

The event begins at noon at the HSM hall, 778 Cemetery Road, Margaretville. It will include a report on HSM’s activities over the past year. Current and prospective HSM members are most welcome.

Admission is $20 and reservations are required for the luncheon of roast turkey with dressing or vegetarian lasagna. Call 845-586-2860 by Oct. 14 to reserve your seat.

The program, which follows a short business meeting and HSM trustee election, will be given by Delaware County Historian Gabrielle Pierce. “Down and Out at the Delaware County Poorhouse” will reflect on lives lived (and lost) during the years that the Home existed, c. 1828-1965.

Pierce has been County Historian since 2010 and has done considerable research into this almost forgotten Delhi institution where hundreds of area residents spent months or even years. Her presentation will utilize narration, photographs and interviews with individuals who lived and grew up at the Home, and will also cover the cemetery at the site.

The Poorhouse, located on Arbor Hill Road, was home to poor, homeless, and indigent families and adults from all over the county, including Middletown. It also housed the “feeble and insane,” the disabled and the sick (there was a special section for those with tuberculosis).

Unmarried pregnant women and those whose husbands had left them lived there with their infants and children, many of whom were born and died there. In later years people without heat who could not stay in their homes during the winter found shelter at the Home.

Headwaters History Days 2016 features programs, exhibits, concerts, open houses, tours and workshops from Olive to Andes along the newly designated Catskill Mountains Scenic Byway (NYS Route 28).

Fifteen historic sites and organizations will celebrate the history, culture, folklife and landscape of the Central Catskills in this Signature Byway Event of the Town of Middletown. For a map, schedule and description of all activities, as well as a trio of short videos from last year’s event, visit www.headwatershistorydays.org.

This is the third annual Headwaters History Days. New venues this year will host concerts featuring original and traditional music: Halcott Grange and Town Hall will ring with the music of the John Burroughs Memorial Locust and Wild Honey Orchestra at 7 p.m. Friday; while Country Express will close out the weekend on Sunday at 2 p.m. at the newly refurbished Andes Train Depot with a history-themed program, “Looking for the Past.” A walk on the adjacent Andes Rail Trail will precede that concert at 12:30.

Railroad buffs will also be pleased to note that two former depot museums — in Roxbury and Phoenicia – will be open both days with exhibits on the Ulster & Delaware Railroad. There will also be a talk by Dakin Morehouse of the Empire State Railway Museum in Phoenicia about train service in John Burroughs’ day at Woodchuck Lodge in Roxbury Saturday at 1, and a film, “Railroad Man,” on the life of Roxbury native Jay Gould at the Roxbury Methodist Church at 2:30 p.m. that day.

A genealogy workshop for beginners will be offered at Fairview Public Library, Margaretville Friday at 3 p.m.

The Olive Free Library on Route 28A not far from Boiceville will host an illustrated presentation by Gina Giuliano on “The Diaries of Elwyn Davis” at 2 p.m. Saturday. John Duda will deliver a talk on the Fleischmanns family Saturday at 4 at Skene Memorial Library, Fleischmanns. A third talk, at 7 p.m. Saturday, will cover a century of Margaretville Telephone Company history. That talk will be given at the Historical Society of Middletown in Margaretville.

 Hubbell Homestead Farm in Kelly Corners will offer farm tours and sawmill demonstrations Saturday afternoon. There will be a walking tour of the hamlet of Roxbury Saturday at 10 (meet at Gould Church). Tours of the Roxbury Methodist Church clock tower will also be offered that day from 10 to 2. The beautiful and historic Jay Gould Memorial Reformed Church will be open as well.

An illustrated talk, “Can you hear me now? Margaretville Telephone Company at 100,” will be presented Saturday, June 4 at 7 p.m. at the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown, 778 Cemetery Road, Margaretville.

The free program, a collaboration between HSM and MTC, celebrates the centennial of the family-owned company. Vintage equipment and memorabilia will be on display and the hall will open at 6 p.m. for those who’d like to come early and have a look. Former employees and others with stories or photographs to share will be warmly welcomed. 

John Birdsall started the Margaretville Telephone Exchange in 1916

In 1933, the company passed to the Birdsalls’ son Sheldon and his wife Madeline (Madge), and in 1963 to Shel and Madge’s daughter Dawn Roadman and her husband Keene. The Roadmans’ children, Larry and Karen, continue as Directors of MTC, which is one of 23 independent, family-owned telephone companies in New York State. 

The talk will show how MTC persisted and expanded through wars, storms, recessions and the claiming of the East Branch Valley for the Pepacton Reservoir. Hear how operators slept on a cot next to the switchboard to provide night service; how linemen have been tested by the worst weather Mother Nature can dish out, and how repair crews learned to expect the unexpected, like snakes in the coin box.

This presentation is part of Headwaters History Days, the Catskill Mountains Scenic Byway Signature Event of the Town of Middletown For more information, visit www.headwatershistorydays.org.