History, Natural History & the Arts
Fashion icon Ralph Lauren, who transformed a small necktie business into an international brand, joined elite company recently when he accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Joe Biden.
Lauren, known for his “preppy threads,” but whose fashion empire extends to fragrance and furniture and beyond, said in a statement that it was an “honor of a lifetime.” [Read more…] about Ralph Lauren’s Catskills Roots
New York Almanack regularly reports on wildlife rescues that take place around the state. Recently New York State Environmental Conservation Officers (ECOs) rescued a number of wild animals from around New York State, including a peregrine falcon in Manhattan, a whitetail deer fawn in the Catskills, ducklings from a storm drain on Long Island, a rattlesnake in Letchworth State Park and a bald eagle at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Graycliff in Erie County. [Read more…] about Wildlife Rescues: A Rattler, Falcon, Fawn, Ducklings & Eagle
Those familiar with Sullivan County, NY 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 founded the community they called Monticello, which upon the erection of the County a few years later becomes the County Seat and still later the first incorporated village in the county. [Read more…] about Monticello: A Saga of the Catskills & New Mexico
Dr. Ralph S. Breakey was the epitome of the country doctor. He was born in 1891 in Hurd Settlement in the town of Bethel, Sullivan County, NY, and graduated from nearby Monticello High School, then New York University and Bellevue Hospital.
He began practicing medicine in 1917, and was active for more than 50 years, serving nearly that long as Sullivan County Coroner. [Read more…] about Ralph Breakey: A Catskills Country Doctor
It was late November in 1959, and Sullivan County officials were lamenting a very slow start to whitetail deer hunting season, which had traditionally provided a much needed economic boost to rural economies.
After very strong seasons the previous two years, hopes had been high for another stellar deer take in the county, but 1959 would turn out to be an extremely poor season not just locally, but throughout New York State. [Read more…] about 1959’s Record Low Deer Hunting Season in New York State
On a wintry walk in the woods, the glossy evergreen leaves and bright red berries of American Wintergreen make a pretty sight against fallen snow. Plentiful in the northern U.S. and Canada, the low-growing Gaultheria procumbens is known for the pungent aroma and mint-like taste of leaf and berry — pleasing but hard to define.
Native Americans used the leaves to treat pain and fever, and introduced colonists to the custom of drinking wintergreen tea. This “teaberry” carried them through the Revolutionary War, when British tea was scarce. [Read more…] about Wintergreen Oil: Local Employer to Bootlegger’s Subterfuge
It was late August of 1968, and the people of Sullivan County, NY were all abuzz about the latest development in a long list of attempts to save their sagging economy.
The county’s Golden Age of Catskills tourism had ended three years before, and although no one likely realized yet how bad things would get before they got better, county officials and resort owners were trying desperately to right the sinking ship. True to form, however, all efforts to do so had been continually thwarted by a difference of opinion as to what course to follow. [Read more…] about 1969: A Catskills Convention Center Never Built
On July 15, 1869, Noah Bigelow of North Branch in the town of Callicoon, NY, became the third man to be hanged for murder in Sullivan County’s history.
Just three days earlier, New York Governor John T. Hoffman had announced that he would not commute Bigelow’s sentence, saying that the sentence was just and that he “had no right to set aside the provisions of the law, even if the culprit was weak of intellect.” [Read more…] about The Execution of Noah Bigelow
Women’s inexorable march toward equality in politics and government in this country has been one of small steps, and there have been many obstacles to overcome. Sometimes in looking back, it is difficult to believe that certain milestones along the journey took so long to achieve. For example, it wasn’t until 1937 that women were eligible to serve on juries in New York State. [Read more…] about Not Until 1937 Could Women Serve On Juries in New York
One of Sullivan County, NY’s first historians and most noted newspaper publishers, James Eldridge Quinlan, was a Copperhead, a pro-slavery Southern sympathizer, during the Civil War.
Anyone with any doubts about Quinlan’s leanings on the subjects of slavery, the abolitionists, and Abraham Lincoln need only peruse the pages of the Republican Watchman newspaper during the years leading up to the Civil War and during the war itself, to be convinced. [Read more…] about A Catskills Copperhead Strikes Against Lincoln & Abolition
Alfred Billings Street was born in Poughkeepsie on December 18th, 1811. He was descended from an Englishman, the Reverend Nicholas Smith, who immigrated to Connecticut around 1659.
His father, Randall Sandal Street, was a general in the New York Militia and served in the War of 1812. A practicing lawyer, Randall Street was also active in politics; he was a two-term district attorney and a Democratic congressman from 1819 until 1821. His wife, Cornelia, was the daughter of Revolutionary War veteran, Andrew Billings. [Read more…] about Alfred Billings Street: Albany’s 19th Century State Poet
Early in the morning on Friday, July 13th, 1962 fire was discovered in one of the buildings at Hankin’s High View House, just outside Liberty, Sullivan County, NY in the Catskills. Firefighters were on the scene within minutes and were able to contain the blaze, while hotel staff and ambulance personnel attended to the injured, but before it was over five people would be dead and one of the heroes of the tragedy would be in jail, charged with multiple counts of first degree murder.
In the aftermath, local officials would try in vain to tighten the fire laws governing small hotels. [Read more…] about The 1962 Catskills High View House Fire
Killing Time in the Catskills: The Twisted Tale of the Catskill Ripper Elizabeth “Lizzie” McNally Halliday (Self Published, 2019) by Kevin Owen is the true account of serial killer Lizzie Halliday (c. 1859 – 1918), who was responsible for several deaths in the Catskills area during the late nineteenth century.
In her late twenties, Halliday left behind a trail of failed marriages, bigamy, horse theft, arson, insurance fraud and multiple murders. She killed a nurse while institutionalized and is speculated to have killed her first two husbands. After her sensational trial in Monticello in Sullivan County, NY, Halliday became the first woman in the world sentenced to die in the electric chair. Although eventually locked behind bars for life, she managed to continue her crimes. [Read more…] about Killing Time in the Catskills: Serial Killer Lizzie Halliday
On Friday, August 8th, 1902, the surviving members of the 28th New York Volunteer Regiment held their annual reunion at the National Cemetery in Culpeper, Virginia.
Among those attending that day were two men from the Sullivan County, NY: John H. Waller of Monticello and William McIntyre of Mongaup Valley. [Read more…] about Company H: Catskills Soldiers At Cedar Mountain
For myriad reasons — perhaps most importantly the influence of the fortress hotels — the amusement park was never a big part of Sullivan County’s tourism industry.
There have been numerous attempts in the county over the years to capitalize on America’s love affair with places like Coney Island’s Luna Park, Disneyland, and Palisades Park, but none that succeeded for more than a few years. [Read more…] about Monticello Amusement Park: Some History
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