In his 1945 essay about the village of Monticello, Adelbert M. Scriber, Sullivan County’s first official County Historian, wrote about the many changes that had taken place in the village since …
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John Conway
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7/26/24
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Dan Myers says the Battle of Minisink is very personal to him.
His fourth great-grandfather, also named Daniel Myers, fought in the battle on the desolate Barryville hilltop on July 22, 1779 and …
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John Conway
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7/19/24
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It used to be a well-kept secret that Cushetunk, the first European settlement in the Upper Delaware River Valley, was populated mostly by Tories in the years immediately preceding and during the …
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John Conway
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7/12/24
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In June of 1896, the face of Sullivan County was changed forever, as the Loomis Memorial Sanitarium for Consumptives just outside Liberty admitted its first 12 patients.
The original five …
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John Conway
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6/14/24
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Decoration Day, Tuesday, May 30, 1939, turned out to be a day Melvin Holt and George Dubner, two boys from Brooklyn vacationing with their families in Loch Sheldrake, would never forget.
Holt …
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John Conway
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5/31/24
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By most accounts, Memorial Day as it is presently celebrated has its roots in the tradition begun on May 30, 1868 of decorating with freshly bloomed flowers the graves of those soldiers who gave …
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John Conway
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5/24/24
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He was born in Southold, Long Island on December 11, 1743, and moved with his family to the banks of the Otterkill near Goshen just three years later. His father, a Colonel in the New York State …
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John Conway
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5/17/24
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Those familiar with the history of the Sullivan County resort industry are well aware of the process. After a long, dormant winter, the resorts awakened in the spring to prepare for the summer …
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John Conway
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5/10/24
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Neversink, Minisink, Mamakating, Shawangunk-- most people who have lived in Sullivan County for any length of time, or have visited here regularly, are aware of these rather strange sounding place …
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John Conway
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5/3/24
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In his ‘History of Sullivan County,” published in 1873, James Eldridge Quinlan labeled Cushetunk resident Nathaniel Evans a “mischief making fellow and a nuisance” to his …
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John Conway
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4/26/24
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The summer of 1929 was a significant one in the history of Sullivan County’s resort industry.
In Fallsburg, the Flagler Hotel, perhaps the most prominent of the County’s hotels at …
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John Conway
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4/19/24
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On April 26, 1849, the first boat crossed over the newly built wire rope suspension aqueduct on the Delaware River designed by John A. Roebling for the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company.
…
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John Conway
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4/12/24
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Catherine Staigele was born in Brooklyn in 1870, but spent nearly all of her professional life in Sullivan County. She was as accomplished during her lifetime as perhaps any woman in the area, and …
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John Conway
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3/29/24
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Back in 2005, author Yvonne David set her first children’s book, “Out of the Apple Orchard” in the hamlet of Mountaindale in 1910. The book told the story of a young boy named Adam …
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John Conway
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3/22/24
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On March 8, 1908, Daniel Bennett St. John Roosa, one of New York City’s most prominent doctors and a native of Sullivan County, suffered a major heart attack and died.
Few men from the …
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John Conway
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3/8/24
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The fact that since 1987 the month of March has been celebrated as Women’s History Month in this country provides an interesting perspective on the recent announcement by Assemblywoman Aileen …
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John Conway
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3/1/24
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In many ways, Sunset Acres in Parksville was typical of a small 1960s Sullivan County resort, offering guests “beautiful lobbies, filtered swimming pool, a comfortable large dining room, tennis …
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John Conway
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2/23/24
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Henry Clay Jackson of Wurtsboro lived one of the most eventful lives of any resident of Sullivan County ever, and yet few today are familiar with his name.
For one thing, Jackson, an African …
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John Conway
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2/16/24
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For decades, Fannie Harden worked alongside her husband William to build the Forestview Lodge near Swan Lake into a successful business, carrying on alone after his death. When she passed away, the …
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John Conway
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2/9/24
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On June 2, 1892, an angry mob of several hundred men dragged Robert Lewis nearly half a mile through the streets and hanged him from a tree.
Lewis, also known as Robert Jackson, was an African …
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John Conway
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2/2/24
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Those familiar with Sullivan County history likely know the story well: the brothers Samuel Frisbee Jones and John Patterson Jones, born in Connecticut, came here from Columbia County around 1804 and …
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John Conway
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1/12/24
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The great division of eastern and western Sullivan County has reared its head politically several times over the years, perhaps no more so than in the heated controversy over moving the …
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John Conway
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1/5/24
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Even before New York Governor Kathy Hochul cleared the way last week for a new village to be formed in Sullivan County—a referendum on January 18 will determine the fate of what is proposed to …
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John Conway
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12/29/23
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It was December 14, 1917, and a Christmas miracle-- and the diligent work of local firemen-- prevented a good portion of the hamlet of Narrowsburg’s business district from being incinerated. …
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John Conway
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12/15/23
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With another holiday season nearly here, it is time for this column’s annual reminder that books about Sullivan County’s rich and colorful history always make great gifts, but especially …
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John Conway
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12/8/23
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