The cast is rehearsing and the grounds are being readied for the 2013 Living History Tour of Clovesville Cemetery to be held Saturday evening, June 29.

Advance reservations for this popular event are required. Call 845-586-4736 to reserve a spot in one of seven tour groups who will be led through the picturesque cemetery to meet ten former residents and hear about their intriguing lives.

A 3 p.m. performance for those with mobility issues will be offered in the comfort of the handicapped-accessible hall of the Cornerstone Baptist Church next to the cemetery. Advance reservations are required for that as well.

The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown (HSM) will host a Vintage Post Card and Ephemera Show and Sale Sat., June 8 from 10 to 3 at the HSM hall, 778 Cemetery Road, Margaretville.

Admission for HSM members is $2; all others $4. Light refreshments will be available.

Several vendors will offer old post cards, documents, maps, advertisements, flyers and other paper items. While the focus of the show is on old New York State views, dealers will also have topical, foreign, and holiday cards.

The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown has announced the cast of the 2013 Living History Tour of Clovesville Cemetery to be held Saturday evening, June 29.

Rain date is Sunday afternoon, June 30.

Area residents will portray ten people who are interred in the main cemetery, and in the Irish burial ground across the road. The players, some of them descended from their subjects, will step briefly into the past lives of these historical figures to describe their families and work, struggles and joys.

Costumed docents (Barbara Atkin, Jackie Purdy, Harriet Grossman and Anne Sanford) will lead tour goers through the cemeteries to meet each character.

Tickets to the tour ($10) will be available by reservation only this year. Early birds can come to the HSM table at the Fleischmanns Street Fair May 25; phone reservations only will be taken from May 26 through June 24 at 845-586-4736.

Welcoming folks to the cemetery will be Matthew Griffin, lawyer, politician, postmaster and founder of Griffins Corners (now named Fleischmanns). He will be portrayed by John Bernhardt.

Caroline Stone, widowed mother of ten who nursed soldier son William through the illness that killed him during the Civil War, will be played by Agnes Laub.

Revolutionary War soldier and local pioneer Samuel Todd (John Hartner) will converse across the decades with grandson Augustus Todd, Fleischmanns entrepreneur, played by descendant Ward Todd.

Talman Beadle, one of the last Kingston-to-Delhi stage coach drivers, will be played by descendant Ken Taylor.

John M. and Delia Garrison Blish, who were closely tied to the Fleischmann family after selling the Blish homestead lands to them for their elaborate family compound, will be played by Fred Margulies and Anne Saxon-Hersh.

Mike Todd, legendary Catskill mountain man, will be played by Joe Hewitt, who will be remembered for his portrayal of timber raftsman Erastus Clute in the popular 2012 cemetery tour.

The last stop on the Clovesville tour will be the tiny Irish cemetery where visitors will meet a pair of immigrants from the olde sod: 10-year-old Maggie McGuire, who perished with two siblings during a disease outbreak in 1877, and 34-year-old Thomas Dwyer, a worker at a local tannery, who died in 1868. They will be played by Niamh Walsh, and her father, Brian Walsh, a native of Ireland.

Got plants?

The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown is seeking perennials from area gardens to populate new beds being established around the HSM hall.

Gardeners are invited to drop off plants at the HSM table at the May 11 all-day Margaretville Garden Fest. Both shade and sun loving plants are welcome; irises and day lilies that would thrive along the pond would also be appreciated.

The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown (HSM) is gearing up for a busy season of programs, projects and a major exhibit on the Civil War.

The first program of 2013 will be held Saturday, April 20 at 10 a.m. at the HSM Hall, 778 Cemetery Road, Margaretville when homeowners in Margaretville and Halcottsville share the secrets of their houses and the people who lived there.

Andrew Goldberg will share what he’s uncovered about the Bragg Hollow farmhouse he recently purchased, and Connie and Tom Jeffers will describe the backstory of their beautifully restored Victorian in Margaretville.

Friends of Middletown Cemeteries will gather Monday, April 22 at 6 p.m. at the hall to discuss several possible cemetery restoration projects. All cemetery lovers are welcome.

The Second Annual Postcard and Ephemera Show and Sale is scheduled for June 8 at the hall, 10-3. Several vendors will have vintage materials on display and will make brief presentations.

Plans are speeding along for the Second Annual Living History Cemetery Tour, to be held June 29 in Clovesville, near the Village of Fleischmanns. Ten former residents will be profiled, including a 10-year-old girl, the last of the stage coach drivers, and famed bear hunter Mike Todd! Stay tuned for an announcement of the cast for this ambitious event, which was hugely popular last year when it debuted.

The local face of the Civil War will be presented at a summer-long exhibit which will open July 4 and will be available for viewing every Saturday from July 6 through September 1 from 11 to 2. Photos, artifacts, and individual information sheets on more than 300 Middletown area soldiers who served the Union will be featured. The Delaware County Historical Association will loan portions of its exhibit, “Delaware County in the Civil War,” for this observance of the War’s sesquicentennial.

HSM is still seeking photographs, letters and information about local Civil War veterans and their families for this exhibit. Please email history@catskill.net, or call 845-586-4973 if you have family history to share.