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.

Did you grow up in Middletown in the era of poodle skirts, air raid drills and rabbit ear antennas on top of the snowy TV? Do you remember ‘the ramp’ at Bussy’s Store, getting your tonsils out at the old hospital, playing basketball at Fleischmanns school or watching Elvis movies at the Galli-Curci (admission: $1.25)?

The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown invites you to bring your memories to the HSM hall Saturday, April 16 at 2 p.m. when it will hold its second program of the season, “Mid-Century Middletown: Remembering the Fifties and Sixties.”

Admission for HSM members is $2, non-members $4. Refreshments will be available.

A slide show featuring photos taken by Ethel Bussy c. 1950 will be augmented by other images from the ‘50s and early ‘60s. They will be interspersed with slides of front pages and advertisements from the Catskill Mountain News of the period.

County’ firemen’s convention in Margaretville, 1949

The Hall’s Bridge swimming hole

The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown and Fairview Public Library will collaborate on a program focused on women’s suffrage Saturday, April 30.

“Tea Time with Emma,” a classic afternoon tea with sweets, sandwiches and yes, Earl Grey tea, will start at 3 p.m. at Stick in the Mud in the Bussy Building on Margaretville’s Main Street. Those attending will meet Emma Keeney (above left), a local boarding house proprietor, who was a Margaretville activist in the movement to achieve the right to vote for women.

Emma will be portrayed by Connie Jeffers (above right), who will exhort participants to encourage their political representatives to allow women the right to vote in local, state and national elections.

Prior to the tea, the acclaimed film “Suffragette,” starring Meryl Streep, will be screened at 1 p.m. at Fairview Library next door to the Bussy Building.

Both film and tea are by reservation only: $25 for both, $20 for tea alone. Call 845-586-2860 by April 25 to claim your seats.

Scones, sandwiches and biscuits will be served by hostess Lizzie Douglas at this “suffrage tea” at Stick in the Mud, patterned after a fundraising event from 1914.

Emma Keeney, 1903