From the Archives
HSM COLLECIONS OF HISTORICAL MATERIALS
Pictured here are a few of the thousands of items in the HSM collection of historical materials. The collection includes photographs, diaries, store ledgers, business records, school documents, yearbooks, maps, letters, records of civic organizations, advertising items and the like. The collection includes some artifacts too, such as signs, small tools, housewares, toys and the like.
It is the only history collection dedicated to Middletown and the surrounding area. HSM is committed to preserving these treasures, adding to the collection and documenting our holdings so that researchers may make use of them. These materials will also inform our programming and exhibitions into the future.
To donate items relevant to the history of Middletown and contiguous towns, please contact us:
history@catskill.net; 845-586-4973.
7th Annual Meeting a happy success
Mix a sunny autumn day, a beautifully prepared meal served on fine china, an awesome art exhibit and 35 local history lovers and you have the ingredients for a wonderful event. It was indeed a great day October 23 when the Historical Society held its seventh annual...
History repeats itself
1933 flood, Margaretville, Bridge Street It has been painful to watch the tragedy of Irene unfold – lives lost, people uprooted, businesses stopped in their tracks, buildings rearranged. Our hearts are with all of those whose lives have been profoundly changed. This...
Where was this school?
Unknown school and children This wonderful undated photo postcard of a one-room schoolhouse, with the teacher in the center of 17 students, was loaned for scanning by Bob Vredenburgh. His mother was a Shultis, and they had a farm on the Denver Road a mile or so up...
It was easy to know you were in Bedell . . .
I lived in Bedell, just “over the hill” to the west of Halcott. There were (and are) several ways to get to Bedell from Halcott. From the old Halcott Store and post office you could go west then north over the mountain into the head of Bedell, and Big Red Kill Road,...
Win this quilt!
A colorful queen-sized quilt in the log cabin design has been donated to the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown to raffle as a fundraiser. The quilt can be seen this Saturday at the HSM table at the Pakatakan Farmers Market at the Halcottsville Round Barn....
The Pakatakan-St. Augustine connection
More on the Native American conversation: Ethel Bussy, in her 1960 book History of Margaretville and Surrounding Area, noted that “In 1949, Willard Sanford (former Village Historian) took a piece of stone from the site of the ancient Indian village of Pakatakan near...
Andrew Miller’s heartache
Got a problem? Has a pile of woe been laid upon your doorstep? In a funk about life? Read on to learn what stoicism and perseverance mean. John Miller of Tijeras, New Mexico, is writing a book about his forebears who emigrated from Scotland to Bovina in 1819. He sent...
Those Indian caves
From time to time, tales have been told about ‘Indian caves’ in our area, rock shelters where Native Americans reputedly stayed while traveling through on seasonal hunting and fishing expeditions (see the Our Town page of the Communities section on this website for a...
Maypole Dance, Helen Ives
Maypole Dance, Helen Ives