Events
HSM CALENDAR 2022
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...
Genealogy Lunch April 2
HSM hosts second Genealogy Lunch The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown, Delaware County, will host the second in a three-part series of Genealogy Lunches Saturday, April 2 at Fairview Public Library, 43 Walnut St., Margaretville. The event will begin at 11...
Friends of Cemeteries to meet March 19
Friends of Middletown Cemeteries will hold its annual spring planning meeting Saturday, March 19 at 10 a.m. at Fairview Public Library’s Community Room, 43 Walnut St., Margaretville. This informal group of cemetery lovers will discuss projects that might be...
HSM hosts first Genealogy Lunch
The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown, Delaware County, will host the first in a three-part series of Genealogy Lunches Saturday, March 5 at Fairview Public Library, 43 Walnut St., Margaretville. The event will begin at 11 a.m. in the library’s Community...
Historical Society Plans 2011 Activities
The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown, Delaware County, with six successful years of programming and preservation projects under its belt, is making plans for its seventh season celebrating local history. Members will receive a detailed calendar of events...
It was a hot time in the old barn that night
In answer to the question, “What on earth did people do before TV and computers?,” we offer the following item from the Catskill Mountain News of July 4, 1947:Six Hundred Attend Barn Dance at Dunraven About 600 people attended the barn dance at the Frank Trowbridge...
Who were the Odd Fellows?
An interesting stash of books and records found by Brian Sweeney in 2004 when he acquired a large building on High Street in Arkville sheds some light on a once-prevalent fraternal organization with a pretty strange name: The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF)....
Bragging rights
While researching the origins of the Ulster & Delaware Railroad (first named the Rondout and Oswego and then the New York, Kingston and Syracuse), Burr Hubbell came across a description of the line from Kingston to Roxbury in the July 4, 1872 Kingston Freeman. It...