Local History by Dede Terns-Thorpe - SKETCHES OF CATSKILL RECORDER AND DEMOCRAT OFFICE 1868 Author

CATSKILL - JAMES D. PINCKNEY, with articles by Thurlow Weed, Edwin Croswell, S. Sherwood Day, and Joseph Hallock.  (This article is abbreviated for space concerns.)

As you walk among any of our local cemeteries, you’ll probably see your own family name (or relatives) and think about the ways they may have altered our history. Whether businesspeople, teachers, craftsmen, policemen, hospital workers, or workers in other fields, they made a difference. As Justine Hommel, our past historian always said, “It’s people who made our history.” As an example, the Haines Family Association (spearheaded by Nancy Haines McGowan) placed new markers near 5 or 6 headstones in the Evergreen Cemetery: reminding people of the history brought by the Haines Family to the Town. Above is one of the new markers for Samuel Haines Gravestone, the first settler in the Town of Hunter.

August 6, 1863 –

A section from this small booklet is about a cemetery that we frequently pass. This cemetery, the Village of Catskill Cemetery, is on the corner of Thompson and Spring Street (Route 385), sitting high about the village.

The author talked about his first memory of a Catskill Cemetery, an old graveyard at the corner of Broad and Livingston Streets. He said the remains of those buried were moved to the ground on the hill. The author remembers assisting his father in surveying and laying out lots on Thompson and Spring. This cemetery has frequently increased its boundaries in this “City of the Dead.”

The author talked about how the present Cemetery must have been selected by a person possessing a love for beauty in Nature. Looking West takes in the whole range of mountains; up the hillside rises the hum of the busy Catskill Village, and Northwest a view of which Thomas Cole would paint.

Cemeteries and Death reduce all men, and here the rich and the poor, the haughty and the humble “lie down, alike, in the dust.”

Next week we’ll continue with some further information from the Sketches of Catskill, and share the author’s thoughts on the Hop-o-nose.

Thanks for reading.

Dede Terns-Thorpe/Hunterhistorian@gmail.com