Fall 2015 Messenger - Greene County Historical Society

The Messenger
Fall 2015
MEMBERSHIP NEWSLETTER
OF THE
G R E E N E C O U N T Y H I S T O R I C A L S O C I E T Y, I N C .
Heritage Craft Fair Oct 4
In this Issue
Remembering our friend and longtime Trustee
Harvey Durham
Letter from the President
Greene County Historical Society
Board of Trustees
Dear Members & Friends:
AS AN HISTORICAL ORGANIZATION
we often do a great deal with events
that happened 100, 200 or 300 years
ago. This past summer we have dealt
with a more recent time period. Do
you remember your father, or grandfather or an older neighbor who used
a hand pushed cultivator? A wooden
handled one with a big wheel and several times used to cultivate the garden. How about a scythe? The long
handled wooden type with small handles and a blade at the bottom. How
about a grinding stone? In order to
sharpen the blade of the scythe, or
other cutting items, a grinding stone
wheel was a common item on farms
and in garages. And what barn, garage
or freight business was not equipped
with several blocks and tackles used to
hoist heavy items? Greene County was
once a major fruit farm area and what
Hurlihey’s
drink do apples become? Cider! And
Drug Store
how do you make cider? With a press!
Phone
All these items were common ones over 60
Booth
years ago and now they are in our collections thanks
to recent contributors.
As a more local memory, how many of you remember Hurlihey’s Drug
Store on Reed Street in Coxsackie? A druggist, with a soda fountain, and
other retail items for sale, Hurlihey had a specially made wooden pay phone
booth in his store for his customers. We now have that phone booth in our
collection. Did you happen to use that phone booth?
Please keep this letter in mind as you begin to go through your
garage, attic or are cleaning out a neighbor’s or relative’s
house. Items that once were commonplace but now are
rare could be donated to the Greene County Historical
Society. I will say it again: “If we don’t begin to work to
deal with some of the items of the past fifty years or so,
they may not be preserved for future generations.”
Joseph Warren, Chairman
Robert Hallock, President
Jim Planck, Vice President
David Dorpfeld, Treasurer
Thomas Satterlee, Financial Secretary
Ann Hallock, Recording Secretary
Christine Byas
Robert D’Agostino
Karen Deeter
Wanda Dorpfeld
Rick Hanse
Stefania Jozic
Emily Dorpfeld Kunchala
Matthew Luvera
Richard Muggeo
Dennis O’Grady
Barbara Spataro
Judee Synakowski
Staff
Shelby Mattice, Bronck Museum Curator
Jennifer Barnhart, Operations Manager
Linda Hunt, VRL Librarian
Jason & Amanda O’Donnell, Caretakers
The Messenger
Published Semi-annually by
The Greene County Historical Society, Inc.
PO Box 44, Coxsackie, NY 12051
The Bronck Museum: 518.731.6490
Vedder Research Library: 518.731.1033
http://www.gchistory.org/
Jennifer Barnhart, Editor
David &Wanda Dorpfeld, Copy Editors
Contributors
Christine Byas, David Dorpfeld,
Wanda Dorpfeld, Ann Hallock,
Robert Hallock, Shelby Mattice
Sincerely,
Bob Hallock, President,
Greene County Historical Society, Inc.
Apple Cider Press
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Beecher Scholarship
Winner
from Coxsackie-Athens High
School, was awarded the 2015
Raymond Beecher Scholarship.
Christopher’s article was on the
importance of the ice harvesting
By Christine Byas
industry along the riverfront
towns in Greene County. He
THE
GREENE
COUNTY included detail about the harvestHISTORICAL SOCIETY established ing process, the dangers involved
the
Raymond
Beecher
Scholarship in 2007 to honor Dr.
Raymond Beecher’s 90th birthday. Each year it is awarded to a
Greene County high school senior
based on an article on local history.
In the spring of 2015 two students submitted applications for
this prestigious $1,000 scholarship. As I read through each local
history article I couldn’t help but
be impressed by the research completed by both students. Each
made extensive use of the
resources at the Vedder Research
Library at the Bronck Museum.
After much deliberation by
members of the Scholarship
Christopher Welch,
Committee, Christopher Welch, Beecher Scholarship Winner
New Board Member
AT THE 2015 ANNUAL MEETING
of the Greene County Historical
Society, Matthew Luvera was
nominated to serve as a new
trustee.
Matt was born and raised in
Catskill; attended St. Patrick’s
Parish School and graduated from
Catskill High School. He received
an Associate’s Degree in Science
from
Columbia-Greene
Community College, a Bachelor’s
Degree in Elementary Education
from SUNY New Paltz, and a
Master’s Degree in Education
from the College of St. Rose. Matt
has been a fourth grade teacher at
Catskill Elementary School for
over twelve years. Community
service has always been important
to him. He has been a volunteer at
the Matthew 25 Food Pantry in
Catskill since 2010. He is part of
the Town of Catskill Republican
Club, serving as President from
2013 to 2015, and the Chairman of
the Town of Catskill Republican
Committee since 2013. He served
his church community at St.
Patrick’s Church as an altar server, youth leader, religious education teacher, Director of Liturgy
and Music, as well as current
member of the Knights of
Columbus Council #572 and
Greene County Knights of
Columbus Assembly #2253.
Currently, he is an organist at
Sacred Heart Church in Cairo,
organist at St. Paul’s Lutheran
Church in West Camp and cantor
at St. Anthony’s Friary in
Catskill. He has been involved in
his school community at Catskill
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and the eventual decline of the
industry. Christopher commented
on the delivery of ice by the iceman saying, “Icemen were entrepreneurs, owning a family business; run by several family members including fathers, brothers
and sons, immensely similar to the
concept of the milkman.” From
his research it is clear he has
gained a deeper understanding of
how vital this industry was to the
economies of the towns along the
Hudson River.
Congratulations go out to
Christopher, his parents and the
Coxsackie-Athens Central School
District.
I would like to encourage
Greene County senior high school
students to submit an entry for
next year’s 2016 Beecher
Scholarship. Maybe there is some
family history that might suggest
an interesting topic.
Your
research is guaranteed to increase
your knowledge of the beautiful
and interesting area in which we
live.
Elementary School as a professional practices committee member, past-chairman of the school
discipline committee, past building representative for the Catskill
Teachers Association, member of
the district technology committee,
and currently the extracurricular
advisor to the Business Club and
Yearbook Club.
Remembering
Harvey Durham
ON JUNE 10, 2015, our dear
friend and GCHS Trustee
Emeritus Harvey Durham passed
away.
Harvey served on the GCHS
board for 25 years and was just
recently named a Trustee
Emeritus. He and his wife
Kathleen came to work as volunteers in the Vedder Research
Library where they both worked
faithfully for many years particularly with the files of photographs. Harvey also helped at the
Bronck Museum where he served
on the Museum Committee for
many years, helped at events and
assisted with school tours. Harvey
and Kathleen were staunch supporters of the Society and generous contributors to saving the 13
sided barn. He took loving care of
the interior exhibits in the barn
Harvey with his wife Kathleen volunteering at the Vedder Research Library.
cleaning out the annual collections of black walnut hulls left by
the squirrel visitors. Harvey
worked closely with Ray Beecher
to author one of our best selling
publications "Around Greene
County and the Catskills." He was
an excellent amateur photographer and often presented slide
shows of his photos from Greene
Harvey and Kathleen were staunch supporters of the Society.
They were the driving force behind saving the 13-sided barn.
They particularly enjoyed being docents in the barn at the
events. Pictured above, Harvey describes the construction of
the barn to a visiting fourth grade school group from
Coxsackie/Athens.
County sites at Annual Meetings
and other locations around the
county. President Bob Hallock
said, “Harvey is in the same category as the late Raymond Beecher
and Olga Santora - people who
were willing workers that gave
their all to the Society.” We will
miss him dearly...
Just a few of the comments on the GCHS Facebook
page on Harvey’s passing. He will be missed by many.
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Ask Shelby
Q. Was Pieter Bronck a “Farmer”?
A. In the Spring Messenger I said that it was more
likely that at any time prior to the Bronck family’s
arrival at Coxsackie Pieter would have bartered for
the food his family needed, but what about after
their arrival at Coxsackie?
Establishing farming in the North American
colonies in the 1600s would not have been easy even
for those who had farmed in Europe. Holland,
which imported almost all its grain from the Baltic
area, hoped that New Netherland would be able to
produce significant amounts of grain. Concept and
reality are often at odds. There were several challenges, beginning with the climate. The first
European settlers to come to America arrived in the
middle of what climatologists call the Little Ice
Age. Between the late 1300s and the early 1800s the
northern hemisphere experienced an extended period of unstable weather marked by extreme changes
in temperature and precipitation. There were years
without summers, frost killed crops in July. The
extended periods of rainy weather during the Little
Ice Age devastated grain crops. Then there were the
considerable differences between farming the old
established fields of Europe and the newly clear cut
forest floors in the colonies. Several of the tradition-
Education Programs
al European grain crops refused to grow or produced
such poor yields that most colonial farmers began to
rely on Native American corn as their basic grain
crop. Shortages of oxen and horses in the colonies
impacted the amount of land that could be planted,
hindered the proper preparation of the land for
planting, and led to shortages of manure for fertilizer. Finally there was the fact that farmers from
Holland were primarily dairy farmers, not well
acquainted with grain farming on either side of the
Atlantic. European crops, livestock and the landscape of the American colonies would need to
undergo serious modification before European style
agriculture could be successful in America.
As a general matter farming, at least during the
Dutch colonial period, was far from successful, and
there were times when the colony could not provide
sufficient food for its own population.
So where does this leave Pieter Bronck? There is
only one brief report of Pieter working in his fields.
Even so, this might indicate that of necessity Pieter,
a lifelong sailor, was trying his hand at farming.
The distance from the market at Beverwijck and
Pieter’s difficult financial condition probably forced
him into what is called subsistence farming. Indian
corn may have been his crop of choice it was relatively easy to grow and well suited to his land and
skill level. For the period between the family’s
arrival at Coxsackie in 1663 and Pieter’s death in
1669 there is no surviving documentation which
offers any firm answer to this question. But by 1680
Pieter’s son Jan had purchased the machinery for a
gristmill which would seem to indicate that the family or the neighborhood was now producing sufficient amounts of some kind of grain to warrant the
expense of building a gristmill.
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FA L L 2 0 1 5 M E S S E N G E R PAG E 5
5.
The Bronck Museum
2015 Fall Special Events Calendar
EACH YEAR as summer draws
to a close Bronck Museum begins
its preparations for the autumn,
the season of abundance on an
early American farm. It is entirely understandable that rural
Americans chose the fall as a season of celebration.
Farm
kitchens were bursting with fresh
food. The mellow sun of late
summer was ripening the field
corn. Apple trees were groaning
under the weight of fat red
apples. Bees left the farm’s rye
straw bee skeps to visit the last
blossoms of the flower garden
and then patrolled wild spaces to
seek the remaining golden pollen
of the season. The sale of field
crops provided extra income and
farm women purchased sugar and
spices in preparation for the coming holidays. Fall mornings grew
chilly and the cider mills grew
busy. The cellars and attics were
close to bursting. As November
waned and the sun grew cold and
pale the butchering would begin.
Bronck Museum’s special
events calendar too is a celebration of the affable sociability and
abundance of autumn in the
Hudson Valley. The last of the
2015 Bronck Family at Home
programs “Busy with the Bees”
will be held on Sunday,
September 13th. Dick Muggeo
our bee keeper will make full use
of the museum’s newly installed
demonstration bee hive to tell the
story of the bee keeping, and its
importance on the farm.
Autumn in the country was a
time to sell whatever you had in
abundance and buy those things
you needed for the winter ahead.
The Bronck Museum Heritage
Craft Fair, on Sunday October
4th continues this venerable fall
tradition. Crafters offer their
goods, from pumpkins to pottery,
aprons to apple jelly, wool to
whatnots, honey to hand towels
candles to maple candy. Add
great live music, mulled cider,
grazing sheep and horse drawn
wagon rides and you have a
delightful way to spend an early
autumn afternoon.
Sad to say not all events can
be a celebration. On Saturday,
October 24th the Bronck
Museum offers visitors the opportunity to observe the rituals of a
traditional
Dutch
funeral.
Shutters closed, the house is dark
and still, the departed waits on
the stiffening board before a cold
fireplace. The sin eater hovers
beside the open door awaiting the
clang of the bell and the solemn
procession to the nearby Bronck
burying ground.
One of the most popular of all
Bronck Museum’s special events
is the season’s last. The Chilly
Willy Winter’s Eve weekend will
be held on November 14th and
15th . It is fair to say that early
Americans were frequently
“party people” even the pious
Pilgrims were open to hosting a
big celebration for the neighbors.
As late autumn approached
Dutch colonists expected to host
and be hosted by family and
friends during a season of celebrations stretching from midNovember to early January.
Bring your mittens, put on your
jacket, stroll past the Lucy bundle step through the Dutch door
and back in time more than three
hundred years. Join a costumed
guide to experience the celebration of the nearly forgotten holidays of Martinmas, St. Nicholas
Day and St. Lucy Day. The
Bronck houses will be decorated
with the bounty of field and forFA L L 2 0 1 5 M E S S E N G E R
PAG E 6
est fashioned into ancient symbols, old legends will be told, and
traditional sweets will be served.
The Chilly Willy Winter’s Eve
weekend is a great way to begin
your own holiday celebration. As
autumn comes to the beautiful
Hudson Valley we can truly say
that the best is yet to come at the
Bronck Museum.
2015 GCHS Fall Schedule of Events
Spet 10 Boarding Houses & Resorts in
the Towns of Greenville, Freehold &
Durham, presented by Don Teator & Mary
Lou Nahas. Vedder Research Library, 7pm
Sept 13 Bronck Family at Home Getting
Things Done, “Busy with Bees,” Explore beekeeping and the uses of bee products in the
early American household. Tours begin at 1pm
& 3pm, Adults $7, Members/Children $3.50
Oct 4
Heritage Craft Fair, exhibit & sale
of traditional American crafts, live music,
food, silent auction, wagon rides. 12–5pm, Free
Oct 15
Ronald Dombrowski’s book on
Palenville, Vedder Research Library. 7pm
Oct 24
A Great Sorrow, An early
American funeral. Tours begin at 4pm, 4:45pm
& 5:30pm, Adults $7, Members $3.50.
Nov 5
Baseball during World War II,
Vedder Research Library. 7pm
Nov 14 & 15 Chilly Willy Winter’s Eve
Tours, cold season tour with costumed guide.
11am, 1pm & 3pm each day, Adults $8,
Members $4
New Exhibit
Mr. Duncan’s Meat Wagon
A NEW EXHIBIT is currently
under development at the Bronck
Museum. The exhibit will showcase a meat wagon owned by
Sylvester L. Duncan of Greene
County.
S. L. Duncan of Scottish and
Irish descent was born in 1850 and
lived in the South Cairo-Leeds
area, where his shop was located.
He married Sarah Cooke, circa
1894, and had 2 sons and 2 daughters. He died in 1916 and was
buried in the Cairo Cemetery.
Other members of the Duncan
family lived in this area and were
Above: Sylvester L. Duncan with his meat wagon. This
picture was taken on Second Street in Athens. This
meat wagon will be featured in the new exhibit. It was
donated to the Society by Emily Carl Slocum in 2004.
Right: An early line drawing of the layout of the new
exhibit. The meat wagon will be in the center of the
exhibit with reader rail up front for visitors.
Bottom: A view of the text on the reader rail. It will
contain biographical information on Mr. Duncan’s life
and meat business. In addition, there will be questions
on either side of the rail that visitors can then flip up to
see answers underneath.
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involved in separate meat businesses.
The horse-drawn wagon featured in the exhibit was used to
deliver beef and lamb to cash customers in Athens from his meat
market. It appears that Mr.
Duncan promoted his business
mainly by “word of mouth” since
no advertisements have been
found in the newspapers of the
period. The wagon was donated to
the Greene County Historical
Society by Emily Carl Slocum in
2004.
The exhibit is scheduled to be
in place by the end of this
Museum season. The meat wagon
will be the center of the exhibit
with a life size figure of Mr.
Duncan standing in front. Also, a
reader rail will be installed up
front for visitors to view some fun
questions and answers.
Civil War Sesquicentennial
Outstanding Performance Award
REGINA DALY was awarded a
certificate of appreciation for her
outstanding performance in connection with Greene County’s
Sesquicentennial Commemoration
of the American Civil War.
Ms. Daly compiled and edited
a series of four books that summarized newspaper reporting as it
appeared in three Greene County
Newspapers; the Catskill Recorder
and Democrat, the Catskill
Examiner, and the Windham
Journal. This work took countless
hours of her time and resulted in a
comprehensive record for those
interested in how the war was
reported in our local papers. In
addition, each year throughout
the four year commemoration,
special Memorial Day ceremonies
were held in different parts of the
county. Ms. Daly helped in the
planning for these events and
always appeared at them in period
dress. Other events also occurred
during the period which she supported and on occasion gave talks
about aspects of war. In one case
she played the role of Greene
County diarist Elizabeth Miller
who wrote extensively about her
reactions and feelings about the
war and death of Abraham
Lincoln. One of Ms. Daly’s greatest achievements during the commemoration was the organization
of five Civil War Battlefield Bus
Trips.
These
trips
to
Pennsylvania, West Virginia,
Maryland and Virginia have
received great reviews and some
people have attended every one.
Lastly and most importantly, Ms.
Around the County
Zadock Pratt Museum Fundraiser
LAST YEAR the Zadock Pratt Museum held it’s
first Annual Honoree Fundraiser. The fundraiser
was held to benefit the museum and move them
towards their ten year goal in bringing the museum
back to full restoration after the flood waters of
Irene.
Daly has asked that all profits
from the sale of her books and the
bus trips be designated for the
refurbishing of a Civil War Battle
Flag.
The 2nd Annual
Honoree Benefit will take place
on Saturday, October 17th in the Club Room at
Windham Mountain. The museum is proud to
announce that Greene County Historical Society
Trustees Robert and Ann Hallock and Trustee
Emeritus Charles Schaefer will be honored at this
year’s event.
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2015 Annual Meeting and
Volunteer Recognition Event
New Acquisitions Cataloged at VRL
July - December 2014
•
Journal 40th Annual Athens Street Festival
July 12, 2014 (from Stanley Whitbeck)
•
Genealogies - Elisha Smith/Reuben Pulver
(from Wayne W. Wright)
•
2 scrapbooks & misc material - Greene County
Visiting Nurses/Health care (from Doris Vedder)
•
Research material; stationery (from Bodil
Donald)
•
Poster “Major William Plimley August 11 and
12, 1984” Memorial Celebration (from Thomas &
Joan Satterlee)
•
Framed map 1881 Catskill Mtns. Van Loon;
Framed Engraving after Thomas Cole - Catskill
Mountain House; Directory Boarding House 1881;
Book - American Journal of Science Vol 19-20 1880
(from David Sherman)
•
The Swedish American Historical Quarterly
April 2014 (from Shelley Olson)
•
Books - History of Minisink Region/The
Mohawk Valley/The Firekeeper; GCHS Home Tour
6/6/2009; Calendar - Athens Bi-centennial;
Newspaper clippings (from Anonymous)
•
Files from Mabel Parker Smith; Files from
Lester R. Smith, Material from Barbara Rivette
(from Barbara Rivette)
•
Industrial Site Survey of Greene County (from
Robert Hallock)
•
Book - Picturesque Catskills R.L. DeLisser
1894; Newspaper Catskill Daily Mail March 16, 1972
(from Audrey Toolan/Frances Monaghan)
•
Book - The Barent Jacobsen Cool Family
Benson, Richard (from Julia C. Moore)
•
23 color glossy photographs of Greene County;
Bicentennial 2003; Romance Map of the Hudson
River Valley (from Susan Wathens)
•
Photographs and slides - Palenville parade &
Butterfly Museum Durham (from Robert Harrison)
•
The Book of Knowledge/The Children’s
Encyclopedia (from Doris H. Jenkins)
•
Disc of Pratt Museum Fundraiser October 18,
2014 (from David Dorpfeld)
•
54 b/w photographs of Leeds Bridge 1936-1937
(from Roger Lane)
•
Book - Out Windham Way Tompkins, Larry;
Pamphlet - 3rd Annual Wall of Honor Gala (from
David Dorpfeld)
•
Binder on Cape Cod Canal Chief Engineer
Derke Mulder (from Wanda Traver)
•
Binder including information on Worthy Tolley
trial, ancestral summary of Kathryn Hallenbeck
Newman, Assessment Roll Athens 1912 (from
Kathryn Hallenbeck Newman Schongar)
•
“Patent Map of Greene County” (from Forrest
King)
•
Greene County’s Good News Letter and
envelope August 3, 1942 (from Robin Smith/Mary
Alice Lacy Pardee)
•
Christmas Card - Rip Van Winkle House 2014
(from Marilyn & Robert Carl)
•
Book - Ordinary People, Our Blakeley and
Mierow Families in America, 1635-2013 (from Brian
L. Blakeley)
•
Booklet on early New York (from Barbara
Spataro)
•
Booklet - Lyman Treman, Lawyer - Statesman
(from David Dorpfeld)
•
CD - Images for Dombrowski presentation at
Researching New York Conference, November 20,
2014 (from Harrison Hunt)
•
Copy Inscription from gravestones at
Lexington, NY (from Wayne Wright)
•
Medallion - 125th anniversary Greene County
Bancorp Inc. (from Thomas & Joan Satterlee)
•
Book - Legendary Locals of Greene County
(from David & Wanda Dorpfeld)
THE
GCHS ANNUAL MEETING AND
VOLUNTEER RECOGNITION EVENT was held at
St. Luke’s Church in Catskill this past May.
At the event, President Bob Hallock and
Trustee Wanda Dorpfeld did an interpretation
based on the Civil War diary of New
Baltimore resident Elizabeth Miller. After the
presentation many of our volunteers were
then recognized for their contributions to
GCHS.
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Greene History Notes
When Uncle Sam Lived in Catskill
By David Dorpfeld, Greene County Historian
Reprinted from newspapers in Greene County the week of July 21, 2014
THE CITY OF TROY, NEW YORK claims Samuel
Wilson (1766 – 1854), the man who became one of
our national symbols – “Uncle Sam.” In
downtown Troy there is even a
statue of him and he was buried
in a modest grave in the city’s
Oakwood Cemetery. What many
people may not know is that Sam
Wilson lived in Catskill for a time
and that we can lay claim to him in
a modest way.
To many Americans, the
image of Uncle Sam is
merely folklore, an image
that is used for propaganda to
increase nationalism and
instill patriotism. The man the
image is based on was
born in Massachusetts.
In 1789, he and his
brother Ebenezer left
Massachusetts and
went to Troy in search
of work. By 1793,
Sam and his brother
had amassed enough
money to open a
meatpacking company
called
E&S
Wilson. They built a
slaughterhouse on
the Hudson River
which they used to
ship meat to New York
City and other stops
along the way.
Andrew Bittner writing in the
Summer 2011 “Greene County Historical Journal”
says the following: “In 1805 E&S Wilson’s
Meatpacking Company had two larger slaughterhouses and was slaughtering 150 heads of cattle per
day and employing 100 men. The company continued to develop but the true turning point in Uncle
Sam Wilson’s life came at the onset of the War of
1812.”
As the oft told tale goes, there was a government
requirement that meat-packers stamp their names
on the barrels of food they were sending to the
troops. Besides being a meat-packer, Wilson also
worked as an inspector for meat packed by Elbert
Anderson. Inspected barrels of meat were
stamped “E.A.-U.S.,” for Elbert Anderson and
the United States. When one of Wilson’s workmen was asked the meaning of the letters, he said
they stood for Elbert Anderson and Uncle
Sam Wilson. Henceforth, the nickname
for the United States has been attributed
to Sam Wilson. The most iconic image of
Uncle Sam appears on a World War I
recruitment poster where he is encouraging citizens to join the army with the
words “I WANT YOU FOR U.S. ARMY.”
So, how can we lay claim to
Uncle Sam Wilson? Our
claim arises from the
fact that between 1817
and 1822, Wilson left
Troy for a time helping his brother
Nathan run a meat
packing business in
Catskill. After his
brief
time
in
Catskill, he moved
back to Troy where
he died on July 31, 1854
at the age of 88. Today
the bridge that carries traffic on Bridge Street over the
Catskill Creek is named in his honor
and the house he lived in still stands
on West Main Street. This is the same house
where Martin Van Buren, our eighth president, married Hannah Hoes in 1807, but that is another story.
David Dorpfeld’s column, Greene History Notes, appears weekly
in the “Daily Mail,” “Windham Journal” and “Greene County
News.”
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Windows on History Update
Your Help is Needed!
THE WINDOWS ON HISTORY
CAMPAIGN has supported the historic restoration of the Bronck
Houses over the past 5 years
including the following:
• Building new shutters for the
1663 House;
• Rebuilding the north wall of
the 1690 House; and
• Restoration of the northwest
corner of the foundation of the
1738 House.
The 2015 efforts will be
directed at the three windows in
the north gable of the 1738
House including installation of
three new windows into the timber frame of the house and
restoration of the brick units
under
those
windows.
Handcrafted bricks have been
obtained for the work. We antic-
Please support the
following businesses that support the
Greene County Historical Society
GCHS Business Friends & Supporters
The Bank of Greene County
Box 470.
Catskill, NY 12414
ipate
that the work
will be started in September and
be finished before winter.
These windows, which are
between 20 to 35 feet above the
lawn, have been witnesses to 277
years of history including the
Coxsackie
Articles
of
Association; the sending of food
stuffs and other supplies to the
troops
in
the
American
Revolutionary War; and the
establishment of Greene County.
Please contribute to “Windows
on History” when you receive the
latest Campaign literature. It is
only with your help that the
Society can maintain and operate
the Bronck Museum.
Bavarian Manor Country Inn & Restaurant
866 Mountain Ave.
Purling, NY 12470
Black Horse Farms
155 Fountain Flats Rd.
Coxsackie, NY 12051
Braine Building & Restoration
13 Brick Row
Athens, NY 12015
C.A. Albright & Sons LLC
13640 Rt 9W
Hannacroix, NY 12087
Chalet Services, Inc.
3206 Route 81
Surprise, NY 12176
Coxsackie Antique Center
12400 Rt 9W
West Coxsackie, NY 12192
Dimensions North Ltd
112 William St.
Catskill, NY 12414
George’s Electric & Plumbing
PO Box 151
New Baltimore, NY 12124
Greene County Septic Cleaners, Inc.
PO Box 29
Climax NY 12042
Hilscher & Hilscher,
Attorneys at Law
2 Franklin St.
Catskill NY 12414
Hinterland Design
1 Mansion St.
Coxsackie, NY 12051
Robert Ihlenburgh, PLS
451 E. Allen St.
Hudson, NY 12534
Max S. Wood Equipment
11945 Route 9W
West Coxsackie, NY 12192
National Bank of Coxsackie
3-7 Reed Street
Coxsackie, NY 12051
North River Research
155 Edison Timmerman Rd.
Cairo, NY 12413
State Telephone Co.
46 Reed Street
Coxsackie, NY 12051
Washington Irving Inn
6629 Rt 23A Box 275
Hunter, NY 12442
The three windows in the north gable of the 1738 house will be restored in
the next phase of the Windows on History campaign.
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Williams Lumber & Home Centers
6760 Route 9
Rhinebeck, NY 12572
Trading Post to
Open for Craft Fair
WE’RE ONCE AGAIN looking
for items to sell at the Trading
Post on the grounds of the
Bronck Museum. The store will
be open during the Heritage
Craft Fair on October 4th. Please
drop off any donations to the
Bronck Museum during regular
Museum hours. Donations can
include glassware, dishes, pictures, knick knacks, etc. No
clothing, please. Thank you for
your support.
Chilly Willy Winter’s Eve Tours Nov 14 & 15
Non-Profit
Organization
US Postage Paid
Newburgh, NY 12550
Permit No. 1491
Fall 2015
Greene County Historical Society, Inc.
c/o T. Satterlee
164 High Hill Road
Catskill, NY 12414-6411
Return Service Requested
GCHS Beecher Award Winners
EACH YEAR, the society presents the Beecher
Award, named in honor of our late benefactor and
pillar of the society Raymond Beecher. The award
is a silver bowl and is given to someone who has
made a significant contribution to the society over
an extended period of time. At the 2015 Annual
Meeting of the Greene County Historical Society it
was presented to Jean M. Bush and Kenneth E.
Mabey. Jean and Ken have been involved with the
Historic Register Committee since its inception. The
committee, the brainchild of Raymond Beecher,
was established in 1990 for the express purpose of
identifying sites of cultural value in the history of
the county. The culmination of Jean and Ken’s
efforts, along with those of Natalie Daley’s and
other members of the committee, was the publication of the book “Historic Places in Greene County.”
Jean and Ken have also been active for decades in
many other society programs.
Jean M. Bush and
Kenneth E. Mabey receive Beecher Award
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