The life & times of Rondout transport tycoon Thomas Cornell
The Cornell Steamboat Company’s fleet was the dominant towing operation on the Hudson from 1880 to the 1930s, peaking at more than 60 vessels.
Local History
Written in stone: The surprising career of Pine Hill’s scientist/philanthropist Henry Morton
In 1870 Morton became the first president of the newly founded Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, and used his own personal wealth to equip its labs with steam engines, tools and electrical equipment. He experimented and published widely, and was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences. He also spent summers in the Catskills, and in 1897 he established Pine Hill’s first library.
The Heart of the Matter: The Unknown Hervey White
Part IV in a series on Hervey White. Erroneously named “founder” of Woodstock by Life magazine in 1938, White [1866-1944] is better described as godfather of a town he personally transformed into America’s most famous Bohemia, earlier even than 1920. But despite this fact, and although admired by artists and farmers alike, Hervey lived and died an enigma. Some knew part, but none knew all his secrets.
Historic Saugerties farm up for sale
The historically significant Snyder Farm, located on Rt. 212, includes the family’s stone house built in the 1800s, a farm house across the road, one of the few remaining barns built in the Dutch manner, and of course its sledding hill used by generations of Saugerties youngsters each winter.
Remembering the old Kingston Post Office
Wednesday, Dec. 11 from 4-7 p.m. at 63 Main St., Friends of Historic Kingston and Blauweiss Media are hosting an open mic where the public is invited to a free event to share memories and anecdotes about the Old Post Office in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of its demolition.
$17M expansion of National Purple Heart Hall of Honor in New Windsor now underway
The Purple Heart is the US military’s oldest medal, created here by General George Washington toward the end of the Revolutionary War to recognize meritorious service. New York governor Andrew Cuomo is touting the museum’s improvements as part of a multifaceted campaign to make New York State, home to nearly 750,000 military vets, “the most veteran-friendly state in America.”
Lenape/Delaware Native American Center concept to be discussed in Stone Ridge
Sat., Nov. 23: The indigenous inhabitants of Lenapehoking, the area stretching from the mid-Hudson Valley in the north to Delaware Bay in the south – including the entire state of New Jersey – were collectively known as the Lenape, meaning “real people.”
“Requiem for Ashokan” opens at Olive Free Library
Olivebridge resident Kate McGloughlin’s family goes back 12 generations in Ulster County, and her maternal ancestors were among the 2,000+ people displaced when the Ashokan Reservoir was constructed between 1907 and 1915. Twelve communities were inundated when a 12-mile stretch of the Esopus Creek was impounded and flooded to provide drinking water for New York City.
FDR site screens new documentary on Frances Perkins, architect of the New Deal
Sunday, Nov. 3: Even if Frances Perkins hadn’t been the first woman ever to serve in a US presidential cabinet, or the longest-serving Secretary of Labor ever (12 years), she would still deserve a shining place in 20th-century history. She was a suffragist, worked with Jane Addams as a Hull House volunteer, advocated passionately for female workers after witnessing the horrific Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911, became the highest-paid woman in New York State government as Industrial Commissioner, taught Sociology at Adelphi University, fought against child labor and for unemployment and a minimum wage – all before she even joined the FDR administration.
How Jack acquired his lantern
The custom of scaring people by carrying a lit candle inside a hollowed-out vegetable is far older than Colonial America.
