“Ghosts on the Land” is August 17 program

“Ghosts on the Land” is August 17 program

“Ghosts on the Land: How Hardscrabble Farmers Changed History,” will be the topic of a program presented by the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown, 778 Cemetery Road, Margaretville on Saturday, Aug. 17.

Admission is by donation.

Essayist Jennifer Kabat of Margaretville will be the speaker and guide of this two-part exploration of the Anti-Rent War of the 1840s, its local impact and its connections to international social movements of the time.

Kabat will share some surprising findings of her research into the history of the land upon which she and husband David Rainbird recently built a home on Bull Run Road near Margaretville. The project led to the article “Ghostlands,” published in March 2019 by the British magazine Granta.

Presenter Jennifer Kabat chats with Rudd (left) and Burr Hubbell, descendants of Anti-Rent farmer-protestors

On August 17 at 5:30 Kabat will lead a short walk on her property at 1314 Bull Run Road to stone foundations of buildings that were once part of the Clum family farm (directions and info: jenkabat@gmail.com). The Clums were tenant farmers on lands owned by the wealthy Livingstons, part owners of the vast Hardenburgh Patent. They lived, worked and died on the rocky farm that they never owned, yet they apparently did not join their neighbors in the uprising Kabat describes as “violent, radical and profoundly ambitious.”

At 7 p.m. at the HSM hall on Cemetery Road, Kabat will present an illustrated talk about the tumultuous Anti-Rent War, when costumed farmers banded together and used guerilla tactics to overthrow the feudal land-holding system that originated in 18th-century England. She will trace the uprising’s connection to the international economic collapse of the 1830s, which spawned an anti-capitalist backlash. “Utopian alternatives were spun, and socialism spread across the country. People believed in possibilities outside of capitalism. Collective values were more important than the self,” she explained.

Some local Anti-Rent leaders aligned themselves with men like Charles Fourier, the French philosopher who espoused communal property and personal and political liberation, and Robert Owen, a Welsh industrialist turned utopian socialist who moved to the US to create one of the first intentional communities practicing communal ownership.

“What amazes me is how internationalist they were in their ideals,” wrote Kabat of Catskill farmers. “That they were drawing on politics from Europe, that this tiny seeming backwater became tied into much bigger politics.”

Jennifer Kabat’s essays have appeared in Granta, BOMB, Harper’s, Virginia Quarterly Review and The White Review. Her piece, “Rain Like Cotton,” was included in Best American Essays, 2018 and her essay “The Rainmaker’s Flood” was a finalist for Notting Hill Editions’ Essay Prize. She teaches at NYU and the New School and is working on a book about grief and modernism: As her parents are dying, she recreates their home in the Bull Run valley and digs into the larger histories of where she grew up and where she lives now, as well as her father’s work and commitment to rural America.

For more information on this and other upcoming programs, visit mtownhistory.org where you can become a member of HSM and donate to the Campaign for a Middletown History Center.

Melodrama brings campy fun to HSM

The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown will play host to some mid-summer silliness on Wednesday, August 14 at 7 p.m. when “It Happened in Middletown” will be performed by a troupe of local thespians directed by Marge Miller.

The playlet will be staged at the HSM hall, 778 Cemetery Rd., Margaretville, 12455. Admission is by donation.

The cast of the campy melodrama, set in the 1890s, includes Burr Hubbell as Reverend Trueheart Bubble, Katie Rosa and Erin Cure as orphaned sisters Aster and Petunia Fairbaby, Grant Cure as Chesterton Goodblood (known as “Chest” due to his renowned muscularity), and Jim Yaekel as odiferous villain Fred “Fartin” McMartin, tavern owner and well-known distributor of distilled spirits.

In this second original HSM melodrama by the prolific Marvella Mueller, whose script was discovered in a locked vault deep within the bowels of HSM’s archives, Aggie Laub will return as the town floozy, Lips LaRouge, a woman of questionable virtue and an even murkier past.

Kent Brown will provide incidental music. Audience boos, hisses and cheers are expected, all in good fun! Running time (depending on how much the cast hams it up!) is approximately 20 minutes.
For more information on this and other upcoming programs, visit mtownhistory.org where you can become a member of HSM and donate to the Campaign for a Middletown History Center.

HSM at Halcott Fair, seeks Grange stories

The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown will greet friends and neighbors at the Halcott Fair Saturday, July 20 from noon to 4 p.m.

The annual event will take place in the Halcott Grange hall where the Greene Valley Grange once met and held dinners, dances and other community gatherings. HSM is anxious to hear from former Grangers – from Halcott or other local towns – for a project documenting the aims and activities of this once prominent farm advocacy and assistance organization.

Amy Taylor, HSM Secretary and member of a family that was prominent in Grange circles, will give a program, “The Grange Revisited,” at the HSM hall, 778 Cemetery Rd., Margaretville on Friday, Aug. 23 at 5 p.m. The talk will be followed by a simple supper. Admission is by donation. Bring your Grange stories and photos!

If you have memories and items to share and can’t make the program, please bring them to the Halcott Fair, where HSM will also hold a one-day silent auction on a very special set of photography books by acclaimed photographer Mark Citret.
Collectible Halcott photo book.

Citret lived in Halcott for two years in the early 1970s. The images of people and landscapes he captured there are beautifully rendered in his book Halcott Center: A Catskill Mountain Valley. The book includes an introduction by the famed landscape photographer Ansel Adams, with whom Citret studied.

 A signed copy of the book will be auctioned with two others: Along the Way, a lush, hard-bound collection of 63 plates of Citret’s black and white images, including some from Halcott, and Signs Taken for Wonder, the catalog of a 2002 exhibition of his work at the Monterey Museum of Art in California, where he makes his home. FMI: mcitret.com.

Proceeds from the silent auction (bidding closes at 3:30) will benefit the Campaign for a Middletown History Center which aims to build an archives facility at the HSM hall. For information on the project and to make a donation, visit mtownhistory.org.

Cemetery Tour was a smashing success!

Cemetery Tour was a smashing success!

CEMETERY TOUR PHOTO GALLERY
Click for a larger view of each image…

The 7th Living History Cemetery Tour, sponsored by the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown, takes place Sat., June 22 (rain date June 23).

This year’s tour is at Margaretville Cemetery, on Cemetery Road, just off Route 30 (upper Main Street) in the Village of Margaretville. Tour-goers will meet 10 people from the past on one-hour guided tours that depart from the parking lot every 20 minutes starting at 4 p.m. There are seven tour times available; reservations are required and can be made by calling 845-586-4736. Admission is $20; children under 15 get in free.

The cast of local players, directed by Frank Canavan and Joyce St. George, includes Agnes Laub as nurse-historian Ethel Bussy Coulter; Kelly Keck and Dave Turan as WWI vets Bruno Metzner and Marcus Korn; Ann Saxon Hersh as Margaret Hallock Newton, proprietor of the Pakatakan Lodge; John Bernhardt as banker and school board chairman James Henry Hitt.

Also, Melissa Day as Eleanor Sands Marvin, the granddaughter of Margaretville power couple George G. and Catherine Moore Decker; Jim Rauter and Gretchen Walker as Dr. James and Harriet Allaben; Amy Taylor as farm wife and mother Abigail Clum, and Burr Hubbell as John Dickson, Jr., a timber raftsman on the East Branch who served in the War of 1812.

Docents Barb Atkin, Tina Greene and Eli Taylor will lead tour groups to meet these characters. Other people from the past will be spotted strolling, playing and picnicking in the cemetery.

More information on this event and other programs planned by the Historical Society is available at:

mtownhistory.org
history@catskill.net
or
845-586-4973.

Seeking info on schools, Grange, ’60s

The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown is searching for photographs, historical information and personal stories to add to its archives and to use in upcoming programs and exhibits.

Of particular interest this year are materials and memories pertaining to one-room schools in Middletown and vicinity; personal stories and artifacts related to the Grange; and images and accounts from local men and women who experienced the Sixties, and in particular 1969.

HSM would like to hear from elders who attended one- or two-room schools in this area through the 1940s. This is part of a year-long research project to document schoolhouse sites (there were as many as 26 school districts in Middletown in the mid-1800s) and to collect photographs, school records and school souvenirs. Interviews with long-ago students can be set up at their convenience. Call Barbara Moses, 586-3630.

The Grange (“Patrons of Husbandry”) was a large and influential organization for a century when farming was dominant in the Catskill region. There were several local Granges in the Middletown area advocating for rural and agricultural interests and serving as a social focal point for the community. Former Grange members and others with stories, photographs and memorabilia they’d like to share for a 2019 program and display about the Grange and its activities are encouraged to contact Amy Taylor at 586-1320.

It’s been half a century since the tumultuous year of 1969. HSM plans a display at its hall about how Middletown looked and felt that year, from school activities and businesses, to reverberations from Vietnam, national upheaval and the Woodstock Festival. Please contact Diane Galusha, 586-4973, if you have images or memories to contribute to this project.

Contact HSM at history@catskill.net to contribute to or participate in these projects. Visit mtownhistory.org to become a member and/or donate to the Campaign for a Middletown History Center.

The Past is Personal: Two Workshops

A pair of Saturday workshops April 6 and 13 will teach participants how to search for their ancestors, and then how to write about what they’ve found.

The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown will sponsor these workshops, to be held from 1 to 4 p.m. at Fairview Public Library, 43 Walnut St., Margaretville, NY. There is a $5 fee for each workshop. Participants may attend either or both sessions. Please register at history@catskill.net or 845-586-4973.

On April 6, genealogist and library director Doris Warner will teach “Genealogy for Beginners.” This workshop for novice family researchers will help answer the question “Where do I start?” Doris will cover basic and sometimes overlooked sources for vital statistics, residency, and personal information, and will offer tips on organizing data and linking with other researchers following similar trails.

The following Saturday, April 13, journalist and family history hunter Violet Snow will present “Your Family History: Writing a Narrative.” Violet is a freelance journalist who has written about her family history for The New York Times “Disunion” blog, Civil War Times, American Ancestors and the Woodstock Times.

Explains Violet, “You want to preserve your family lore and genealogical research in the form of stories your relatives can read. Maybe you’d like to write an essay for publication. This one-session class will help you decide where to start, or if you’ve been writing, it will help you move forward. We’ll talk about finding an emotional hook to focus your narrative, the importance of details, the historical setting, and what these stories mean to the living. Writing exercises will provide an easy way into the subject, and everyone will go home with a strategy for sharing the stories of their ancestors.”

Participants should bring pen and paper, and are invited to bring a few photos of ancestors and/or physical artifacts (historical documents or possessions), if available.