Events
HSM CALENDAR 2022
Hauling steel for the Balsam Lake Mountain fire tower, 1919
Read an eye-witness account by Russell Todd (1908-1975), provided by Betty Baker.
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...
Honoring Civil War dead
Annual Memorial Day observances at Fleischmanns and Margaretville on May 30 will include a reading of the names of 35 men from the Town of Middletown who died during the Civil War. The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown (HSM) has prepared this tribute to...
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...
History Hike
Hikers, nature lovers and history buffs are invited to tramp to the summit of Balsam Lake Mountain Saturday, May 14 in an outing sponsored by the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown (HSM). Laurie Rankin, volunteer coordinator at the Balsam Lake Mountain Fire...
Maypole Dance, Helen Ives
Maypole Dance, Helen Ives
The News, from 1863
Orson Allaben was an educated, principled and influential man. A man with character. Money. And opinions. An early developer of the Village of Margaretville, he was a doctor, a businessman, and, in the 1860s, started a newspaper called The Utilitarian, “A Family...
Winter into Spring
As the new season struggles to overcome the old, it’s worth remembering that ‘twas ever thus. Evidence of this can be found in the diaries of James Thomson, a New Kingston farmer who kept track of his family’s activities from 1838 to 1903, a remarkable 65 years, with...