Volume 13.1 Spring 2011 has an article on George Decker by Kevin Berner, who then goes on to tell how he obtained the genealogical details. Many came from the Historical Room in the Middleburgh Public Library, a resource that is then described by Steve LaMont. There are 3 related stories on the blacksmiths of Gilboa and Conesville in 1850 with illustrations by Eric Sloane, and "They Lived in These Hills" has anecdotal histories of the Nickersons and Newell and Goldie Miller. Janette Reynolds tells of the area's flirting with silent movies; Jeremiah Reed’s Letters from the Civil War are continued; and Emily Schultes has converted her PowerPoint school project on Churchill Hall to a fascinating essay.
     And finally, there is an article on the Internet availability of two 19th century books on the history of Schoharie County: Roscoe:History of Schoharie County and Simms:History of Schoharie County and Border Wars. Searchable PDF files of these two books are freely available.      
The on-line PDF has been bookmarked, so you can click on the title of a story and go directly to it. To return to the table of contents on page 1, click on the red radio button on the top of each page.

Volume 12.4 Winter 2010 is the fourth issue of the Gilboa Historical Society Newsletter — a break with the tradition of publishing three issues per year. This issue is groundbreaking in another way as well — it is written entirely by students from Conesville and Gilboa. This is a pilot program with students attending Gilboa-Conesville Central School and additional articles by Gilboans attending Stamford Central School and a part-time resident attending Oceanside High School on Long Island. These students have a common love for the area and its history, and have brought their talents to bear on documenting it for us. While we have had occasional articles from students in the past, our future goal is to have student involvement in all issues of the Newsletter and to promote student involvement in local history throughout the el-hi curriculum. Please work with the historical society and our children’s teachers to make this goal a reality.

Volume 12.3 Fall 2010 is oriented to the people of Gilboa and Conesville, with an article by Joan Mullen on the people of the Pinochle Club; the recollections of the Coast Guard in World War II by Ed Bilinski; and a new regular feature:They Lived in these Hills(a series of vignettes on people, couples, families, and [yes] even a pet cemetery). The letters of the Reed family are continuing thanks to Bob Morrissey, and it has been greatly expanded by the family documents of Scott Reed. Holiday celebrations are also in abundance, with the history of Flat Creek's July Fourth celebration and Carlton Lewis's recollections of turkey shoot festivities of past and present. For outdoor activities, there is an article on building a hiking trail on your own property by Clarence Putman (NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, and the Long Path Hiking Trail); and a final follow-up on the Minekill Bridge from the perspective of the Overlook.

Volume 12.2 Summer 2010 has articles on Nick Juried's recollections of his family buying a farm in Gilboa in the early 1940s; four articles on the importance of cauliflower to the agriculture of the area by the 1850Farmer's Every-day Book, Diane Galusha, Bill Snyder, and a reprinted "obituary" for cauliflower from the 1978Mirror Recorder; the yet-to-be-named trails on the mountaintops of Gilboa, Jefferson, Stamford, and Harpersfield by Velga Kundzins-Tan; Maude Haskin's recollections from the 50s; another of the letters that Jeremiah and David Reed wrote home from the Civil War [Note:we have heard from the family and hope to have more on the families of these Union soldiers in future newsletters]); folklore and folknames of Gilboa and Conesville; copyright issues for people dealing in local issues; a celebration of the new Juried Memorial Barn (an addition to our Gilboa Museum to house agricultural history); and an overview of the archeological digs conducted by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection.

Volume 12.1 Spring 2010   has articles on The Great Flood (ghosts and hauntings from the building of the reservoir); War Letters from the Front; The Three P's of Genealogy (Persistence, Patience and Pennies); Sugaring in the Northern Catskills; Construction of the New Bridge over Minekill Falls; Volunteers on the Long Path Hiking Trail; Wartime on the Home Front; Spinning and Weaving in our Hills; The Days of Burlap; Resources Available in Local History; and the first chapter fromThe Hill Folk of Schoharie County from 1912, by Emelyn Elizabeth Gardner.

Volume 11.3 Fall 2009   Hops Farming in the Schoharie Valley in the pre-Prohibition age is described by Mary Bowers (the historian of the Town of Seward), recounting the life and times of hop farming at its height; and a reprint from theKnickerbocker News describes the music played at the end of hop harvests at that same period of time.
       The topic of hops farming came to mind because ofMark Simonson's article in Oneonta's Daily Star covers hops in Middleburgh after the end of Prohibition and until the 1950s, and we have a pdf of William Pindar's article “ Hops in Schoharie County ” from the Schoharie County Historical Review on gilboahome.
      Old Gilboa's lead story shows Gilboa as it was in 1870, before the encroachments of the twentieth century, and was written in 1964 by the town historian, Katherine Harrington.
     We also have the second article in the series on the DEP's excavation of sites around the Gilboa Reservoir: "Various [smoking] Pipes Found at the J. Reed Site" by Richard A. Kastl; and a letter from Kristen Wyckoff of the Museum Committee in correction to an earlier DEP article on the "Archeology of the Village of Gilboa."
      Letters from the Front is a new multi-part series from Bob Morrissey, who has shared a number of letters that Jeremiah and David Reed, wrote home from the war starting on November 28, 1862. (Note: the transcriptions maintain the spelling of the original letters but have added punctuation for clarity.) The full four pages of this letter are on the gilboahome.com web site. Over the next several months, we will be"sending" these letters to you so that you can look forward to them much as Mother, Father, and Daniel Reed did.
      Genealogically speaking, Teena Schroeder covers the wide variety of reports and charts that a genealogy program can offer (a few are included as examples in the Newsletter, but over 20 more report formats are also available as a.pdf for your review;Hiking for this issue is on the Huntersfield Mountain portion of the long trail and has spectacular views. We will be adding full color panoramas this fall at the gilboahome.com web site, so keep in touch; andMaude Haskin's Recollections continues with the 1940s — as women went to work outside of the home and little girls grew up (her recollections of the war years will be covered in a separate issue).Weather or not: George Wilson's thoughts on this year's hay and corn crops in light of the wettest July in history.

Volume 11.2 Summer 2009  This summer's issue features the first of three articles on the archaeological exploration of the village of old Gilboa, conducted by the Public Archaeology Facility of SUNY Binghamton — a fascinating look into our past. Other articles include three articles on music in the nineteenth-century churches and hamlets of our town; an introduction to genealogical software (Family Tree Maker and others); and two articles on farming using loose hay. Bee Matice introduces us to the early nineteenth-century Shoemaker Rake and Handle Factory, and we are continuing articles from Maude Haskin (this story on living in the Gilboa of the 1930s) and on hiking trails in the area (an easy trail for the observation of the bluebird, the state avian of New York).
       We also bring you up to date with Society activities, including a hoped-for expansion of the museum and a cost-cutting plan for this Newsletter. And, as part of that plan, please look at the links to the icons above: a registry of individual articles from past and future issues of the Newsletter, podcast interviews, and pictures and information on the residences and shops of the village. Volume 11.1 Spring 2009  This spring issue is a bit longer than usual and the content is a bit broader. It covers historical lifestyles — including three articles on airplanes in early Gilboa and first-person accounts of mundane activities like walking to school, playing on the Gilboa-Conesville baseball team, or being a teenager in the 1920s. Historical technology is represented by a small cannon used for splitting logs (clickfor additional pictures of the splitting gun in action), and there is a detailed analysis of the changes in a community (Cornell Hollow) in the nineteenth century.
     In addition, there are tips on using Internet Web sites for genealogical research; and scrapbooking as a way of making genealogical dissemination easier. We have two articles on hiking (history and trails of the Long Path, and a very easy trail just north of NYPA). The headline story on this issue is by Diane Galusha and covers the overwhelming need for water in the New York City of 1800 – 1920. This article will be a keystone for the next few issues that will feature articles on the history of the lands around and under the reservoir.

Volume 10.3 Fall 2008  Power in the area in the early nineteenth century: the early commercial generation of electricity in the village of Gilboa (and sale of electricity to Prattsville, Stamford, and Grand Gorge); the use of hit-and-miss engines in rural areas; the use of acetylene gas and Delco glass batteries for lighting of farmhouses; and the coming of electricity with the Rural Electrification Act. There is also a recollection of the life of a teacher from a one-room schoolhouse, and the history of ice-cream socials in Gilboa (complete with tried-and-true ice cream recipes).

Volume 10.2 Summer 2008  The vacation economy in mid-nineteenth-century Gilboa, with an overview by Flora Del Hubbard leading to stories on the area railroads (both the Delaware and Ulster, and the stillborn Delaware and Northern), the dayline Hudson River steamships, and stories on the maintenance and use of early roads in town.

10.1 Spring 2008  More on preservation techniques for books and papers, the final report on the archaeological day school, and stories of trucking in the twentieth-century northern Catskills.

Volume 9.3 Fall 2007  A general interest overview of preservation techniques, plus stories on baseball, the Broome Center store, an archaeological day school, plus artifacts from early twentieth-century schools — including the New York State tests for students in grades 5 – 7 in reading, spelling, and arithmetic.

Volume 9.2 Summer 2007  Farming: the Decker-Starheim barn, two articles on farms that have been operational for generations, how farming has changed over the years, and new insights into the Gilboa fossils. This issue also ran a preliminary version of the Gilboa Tourism Map, and the updated version is available on-line.

Volume 9.1 Spring 2007  The Owlsville and Forks-in-the-Road schoolhouses, reports on school districts from the early nineteenth century, and the demise of the one-room schoolhouse.

Volume 8.2 Fall 2006  Attending the Shew Hollow Schoolhouse.