Although the number of Sullivan County hotels open during the winter months increased significantly beginning in the 1940s, there were attempts to market the county as a winter resort long before that. [Read more…] about The Borscht Belt in Winter: Catskills Winter Resorts
Sullivan County
One Not-So-Benign Influence Of The D&H Canal
The positive impacts of the Delaware & Hudson Canal on Sullivan County were indisputable. With its opening in 1828, the 108-mile-long waterway made it possible for the first time to easily transport goods in and out of the area, and directly led to the growth of the tanning and bluestone industries. Entire communities, such as Barryville, Wurtsboro and Phillipsport, owe their very existence to the D & H, and while the canal was in operation, each was among the largest communities in the county in terms of commerce and population. [Read more…] about One Not-So-Benign Influence Of The D&H Canal
Sullivan County D&H Canal History Highlighted With ‘Kate Project’
During the month of December in 1824, brothers William and Maurice Wurts were diligently planning a presentation to potential investors in their ambitious project to build a canal connecting their coal fields in northeastern Pennsylvania to the Hudson River. [Read more…] about Sullivan County D&H Canal History Highlighted With ‘Kate Project’
1868: Lynch Law Averted; Due Process Death Prevails
On September 8th, 1868, upon returning from work to his North Branch home in the Catskills for his noontime meal, Alanson Seager discovered that his ten-year old daughter was missing. [Read more…] about 1868: Lynch Law Averted; Due Process Death Prevails
Teddy Roosevelt In The Catskills
On October 23rd, 1914, several thousand people heard former president Teddy Roosevelt address separate gatherings in Liberty and Monticello, in Sullivan County, in the Catskills.
Just two years removed from his near assassination while campaigning for president in Milwaukee, and a scant few months after his ill-fated trip down the River of Doubt which had left him severely weakened, Roosevelt was touring on behalf of the Progressive Party candidate for governor of New York, Frederick M. Davenport. [Read more…] about Teddy Roosevelt In The Catskills
Suffragists in Sullivan County Virtual Program
The Time and the Valleys Museum is set to host a virtual program by Sullivan County Historian (and periodic contributor to New York Almanack) John Conway entitled The Suffragists: Fight for the Vote in Sullivan County, on Sunday, August 23rd. [Read more…] about Suffragists in Sullivan County Virtual Program
Story of New Netherland Virtual Talk
The Time and the Valleys Museum in the Catskills, has announced a virtual program The Story of New Netherland: Dutch Colony 1624 – 1664, set to be held on ZOOM on Sunday, July 12th, with historian and former teacher Thomas Riley of New Jersey. [Read more…] about Story of New Netherland Virtual Talk
Nathaniel Sackett: Godfather of American Intelligence
On May 23, 1789, Nathaniel Sackett sent a long, rambling letter to newly inaugurated president George Washington. The letter informed Washington that Congress had denied Sackett’s proposal that he be granted federal lands in order to create a new state bounded by the Ohio, Scioto, and Muskingum Rivers and Lake Erie. [Read more…] about Nathaniel Sackett: Godfather of American Intelligence
Monticello Steamship Company
Online auction sites regularly offer a number of collectibles — postcards, brochures, tickets, even china — bearing the name and logo of the Monticello Steamship Company of San Francisco.
Most of these items offer little information about the company, and the average collector would have little reason to believe that one of the most well-known enterprises on the West Coast around the turn of the 20th Century had any connection at all to Sullivan County, NY.
But it did. [Read more…] about Monticello Steamship Company
Elnathan Sears: Thirteen Months in Hell
Late in the month of January in 1840, Elnathan Sears returned home to the town of Mamakating, then part of Ulster County, NY, after an exhausting trip to Washington, D.C. There he had presented an impassioned argument to Congress in hopes of procuring the military pension he had earned as an officer in the Revolutionary War.
A few days later, on February 2, he was dead. [Read more…] about Elnathan Sears: Thirteen Months in Hell