Follow Up on the News

Old School Like New

Secondly, the occupants of the room were dressed more in accord with this calender year’s sense of fashion than with common costumes of the 19th Century.
And, finally, there was a stream of small punctuating clicks from a camera at the back of the room. Otherwise, the singing, the monologues, the oil lamps on the walls and palatable absence of electricity, the wood stoves at each side of the room, joining their exhaust pipes into a single exit in the ceiling, the plain wooden pews and austere, nearly empty walls, strongly suggested a setting in an earlier era.
"The church was founded just two months after the (Dutch) Reform Church (at Shokan) was founded in 1799 and they kind of worked in parallel for a few years," explained Eric Winchell, speaking of the Olive and Hurley Old School Baptist Church holding its annual meeting and service on September 26th. Winchell, whose family affiliations with the church trace back to that founding, became concerned with the neglected condition of the old building, contacted its trustees in 1998 and found himself spearheading a restoration project which has all but concluded this summer.
Originally constituted in Tongore, as Winchell notes in an undated essay titled "Ulster County’s First Baptist Church," the elders (as Baptists call their pastors) of the time adapted much of their theological tone from Calvinist doctrine with a liberal embrace of traditional hymns to augment their preference for the conservative ("old school") style of observance when doctrinal disputes divided the faithful into separate camps several decades later. "The Baptists had no central denominational authority," Winchell points out, "but were loosely connected through Associations consisting of nearby, like-minded churches."
From Tongore to Marbletown to Olive, the church reshuffled itself a few times before settling under its present title with the merger of the Olive and Hurley congregations in 1853, Winchell said, and started to build the current building in 1856 on property deeded by the DuBois family.
Finished the following year, it is said to be the only Olive church left standing when much of the center of settlement was submerged along with Olive City by the creation and flooding of the Ashokan Reservoir in September 1913. Local historian and poet, Bob Steuding, notes that ten churches in the upper basin of the reservoir alone had been dismantled or moved, including the stone Reform Church on Rt. 28 in Shokan, as the water project displaced about 2,000 people from the locale. Steuding, whose latest book, The Heart of the Catskills, was published last year by Purple Mountain press, surmised that almost as many must have been leveled in West Hurley’s lower basin.
With the Mexican War of 1846 having provided a large boost to the local tanning industry, the little church, called ‘meeting house" in Baptist parlance, had a congregation of over a hundred in the 1850s to around the turn of the century, which dwindled to around 30 by the 1940s, according to Winchell, and down to about 10 in 1970. The last member died just a few years ago, he said.
For decades the building remained unattended, with one meeting and service held a year to retain its tax exempt status and honor its historical significance (which was recognized by the National Register of Historic Places in 1998, the year the 11 year restoration project began.). When Winchell’s great-great-great grandfather, Jacob Burroughs, became pastor in the 1850s, Chauncey Burroughs, a Baptist elder from Roxbury and father of the renowned American naturalist and writer, John Burroughs [1837-1921], was a member of the Presbytery which approved him. John, himself, taught school at Tongore, where he met and married Olive native Ursula North (who predeceased him and was interred at Tongore Cemetery.)
The "bats in the belfry"episode was an adventure unto itself during the renovations which Winchell recalls vividly, having himself opened the 18"X18" hatch in the attic at the back of the building’s balcony and been greeted by an impressive fall of accumulated bat droppings. The decades of guana build-up, over a foot deep in spots, was a separate history left by the bats which, like tree rings, can be divided into months of the bat year by any microscopist who’d care to study it but, for Eric and church trustee John Secor, who donned respirators and protective suits to shovel it in to trash bags while dodging their flight patterns in the confines, there was little time for close examination as they scraped out the substance still highly prized as fertilizer by some gardeners.
"I don’t think anyone had been in that attic for at least fifty years," Winchell said as he recounted their work with shovels and shop-vacs. "We could never make it fully bat-proof. They can squeeze through the slightest holes. There were cracks in the wood of the belfry they had been through so much that the wood was actually polished and shiny. You’d see thousands of bats come out every night at 8:30 or 9:00 and there was no insect problem there while mowing and doing grounds work."
Outside, the porch is composed of huge bluestone slabs and without railings, situated at just the height appropriate to step down from the horse-drawn carriages in use when it was built. Inside, Elbert Robbins, a Baptist elder from Salisbury, Maryland and Andy White, a young perhaps elder-to-be from South Hampton, delivered sermons.
"The format is basically the same as it was in all Baptist churches 200 years ago-acapella singing and preaching-very simple; no Sunday schools or musical instruments, statues or images," Winchell said. "That’s really the way it was before 1800 in virtually many of the churches-not just the Baptists."
"I saw it a few months ago, while it was in upheaval and the renovation is marvelous," said Kingston’s award-winning Photographer Laureate, Phyllis McCabe, who is preparing a book on churches of the Hudson Valley called Lords of the Hudson, (with commentary by noted local journalist Hugh Reynolds) scheduled for release next year. It was McCabe’s camera which supplied the clicks from the back of the church as her lens recorded the moment.
Having visited more than 110 churches, synagogues, Buddhist temples and other places of worship in the area for a collection which follows books like "Uniquely Ulster," "To Kingston, With Love" and others (including a scenic exploration of China), McCabe said the Shokan building’s atmosphere most reminded her of Quaker meeting houses.
Olive town clerk Sylvia Rozelle, quick to declare that her own voluntary help had nothing to do with her town office and that she is a firm believer in separation of church and state, recalls projects like the Country Tears, City Water CD-Rom and other efforts which raised $10,000 toward matching funds to repair the roof. Financed by donations and grants, with the work of volunteers like Kevin Umhey the late Chet Lyon and others, the renovated site is being considered for future community activities, perhaps Civil War enactments or simple musical events, to repay the community’s contributions to its continued existence.
Councilwoman Helen Chase said she has spoken with Winchell about an Olive Historical Society focusing on the church in June of next year.
"Now that we’ve about finished, after 11 years, we’re hoping to make the building more available to the community," Winchell said.

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More Join The Marches

The crowd silently waited 15 minutes, when union leader Corey Cavallaro spoke in anger.
“This is why we are two years without a contract, there is absolutely zero respect for us tonight,” he said. “They knew — the board and superintendent — that we were going to be here tonight at six o’clock and this is how they treated us, not me - us.”
Cavallaro said the Onteora administration has “sowed seeds of distrust.” He said the board has asked for more time, but accused them of stalling.
At 7:00 PM, the board entered into public session. School board president Laurie Osmond immediately made a public statement.
“I want to make a point – this is a new board, three of us are new to the board within 14 months; four of us in less than six months,” she said. “This board respects our teachers and our staff. This summer this board replaced the negotiating attorney with our district attorney who has decades of successful experience with Onteora.”
Osmond continued, “The two parties met last night, including our newly appointed attorney and three board members who were at the table.”
She said they want to resolve the negotiations “as quickly and fairly as possible.”
In a separate meeting Cavallaro said the three board members were trustees Anne MacGillicuddy, Tom Hickey and Osmond. When Cavallaro was asked if Monday’s meeting proved fruitful he said, “If it were promising we wouldn’t be doing what we are doing tonight.”
In other business this week, the school board welcomed Jennifer O’Connor as Onteora’s new Middle School principal. She replaces Andrew Davenport who resigned after a year with the district. O’Connor is well known from having served as Onteora’s High School assistant principal. Her salary will be $103,500 a year.
Bus drivers who transport high school students to BOCES for vocational training complained to the school board following incidences of unruly student behavior that they believed went unchecked. According to Transportation Director Dave Moraca, part of the problem is when drivers write up referrals, there appears to be a communication breakdown between the driver and the district. The drivers are not aware if any disciplinary actions were taken.
The board requested that the district improve its line of communication with Moraca who will forward information to his drivers.
On two occasions bus drivers heading to BOCES were stopped by police because of unruly student behavior. In one incident a student threw trash out the window, landing on a police car, and in another a student opened an emergency exit door. There has also been damage done to seats.
Moraca said he would like to get more cameras to install on buses for monitoring, but he does have one bus at his disposal for problem route.

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Triple Crowner

The man’s lean, clear-eyed, well-spoken. He started hiking the Continental Divide Trail, down in the Boot Heel of New Mexico, last April 25. He finished his long walk in Canada’s Watertown Peace Park on September 24, 2700 miles later.
Wilderness Bob took his first long hike, of 2,147 miles, from April 4 to September 20, 2005, when he completed the Appalachian Trail south to north. He did the 2,650 mile Pacific Crest Trail two years ago, taking from April 20 to September 30. In between he walked Vermont’s Long Trail and, with his wife Brenda, the 480 mile Colorado Trail… to keep in shape.
On this last one, he crossed the headwaters of the Snake and Missouri, the Rio Grande and Arkansas rivers. He went back and forth over the Gila River, in New Mexico, over 100 times in one day, and 200 times total.
Up in the Wind River Mountain Range of Wyoming, Bob picked up a copy of an old trail journal by the early mountain man Osborne Russell and matched it to his own trail journal. He took a detour to climb what Russell called Sweetwater Mountain, now known as Mt. Gannett, the state’s highest at 13,800. 15 miles in for resupplies afterwards, 15 miles back out to the CDT; but what’s a five day excursion in the bigger plan of things?
As a side project, Wilderness Bob notes, he’s been trying to get up to each of the 50 states’ highest points. He’s made 33 so far – all of the East and much of the south and southwest, with the flatter Midwest and truly high Alaskan and Hawaiian peaks to go yet.
There’s also that trail he heard about from a man he met hiking, running 4500 miles horizontally across the country from the Finger Lakes to the Dakotas. The hiker’s trail name? Nimblewood Nomad.
“When I got to the Green River I was surprised to find that it wasn’t named for anyone named Greene, but was actually the color green,” he said, as excitedly as if he were still witnessing this subtle epiphany.
“I’m a Catskill native, born in Kingston. Spent a lot of time up here in the Catskills hunting and fishing as a kid. Lived in Mt. Tremper for a while. Now I’m over Olivebridge-ways,” Bob explains. “As an 18 year old I left for the military, where I ended up having a 24 year, 4 month, and 5 day career.”
That included 19 years in the Green Berets and tours in each Iraq War, plus every other conflagration our country’s been involved in since the mid-1980s.
So what happened?
During time stationed in Europe, Wilderness Bob picked up Bill Bryson’s popular “A Walk In The Woods” and started talking to folks about the Appalachian Trail. When he “got out,” as they say, he started training around the reservoir, on local roads and trails, and then took off on the Appalachian Trail, meeting numerous folks from his new sub culture of long distance walkers along the way. Like an 84 year old half-way, or a couple of 70 year olds. One triple Triple Crowner said you could never do just two of the big trails… you had to do them all.
That first time, he learned about over-training, and how to prepare for losing 40 pounds over a hike’s length. But he also learned how to handle a 65 pound pack with ease, learn how to gauge water usage and carrying weights, how to mail supplies ahead of oneself as one hikes, how to know when a few days in a motel made sense, as well as how to think things out day after day by oneself on a trail. How to face down and win over one’s demons.
“One of the things I’ve accomplished on these hikes is to come to terms with the life I led in the military,” Wilderness Bob says. “You can’t hide from things, but you can learn to live with them.”
He tells of how he met up with his son along his hike, as well as his daughter. The three of them, along with his son-in-law, climbed Arizona’s highest mountain, Humphries Peak, together. Then did several other reunions as well, with Brenda – his second wife – along.
In addition to covering 14,000 miles of the country with her on his Harley, Bob says he’s been getting her confidence up on mountain hiking on her own.
“It’s all a system,” he says of hiking as he now does. “You set distances. Use what you can, pass on what you don’t need.”
Take his time in the Chihuaha Desert. He carried a giant golf umbrella with him for months. Eventually, in the Great Basin of Wyoming, he handed it off to an old man who had become a follower, catching up with he and other hikes along the Divide Trail to deliver goods, aid, a friendly voice.
And it’s all a cache of great stories…
Like spending time at Georgia O’Keefe’s Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, or getting lost for days in the San Juans. In past days he’d take an IPOD with him, loaded down with a 1000 songs. But this past time Wilderness Bob listened to the world he was passing through, one of about two dozen to hike this trail each year.
He tells about the pocket knife he left in Colorado a year ago while hiking with his wife. Found it this time after weeks thinking about just where it would be. On a rock… right where he figured it would be. Same with a pair of sunglasses in a bush, which he then lost again a few days later. And will likely find, in another bush, next time he’s up near Pike’s Peak a few years hence.
There were many animals. But also ghosts… “which you can think about 40 ways before laying back to rest. This very conversation we’re having was thought out many times along that trail this summer.”
So what now?
Wilderness Bob’s thinking about utilizing the new G.I. Bill to get a new degree. Maybe move to Alaska for a bit. But also maybe start stewarding some local trails. See what he can do to finally get New York State’s own Long Trail usable.
He’s got his eyes on the Superior Lake Trail in Michigan. And going through his journals. Maybe piecing a book together.
He notes that some ask him why he’s not joined the Catskill 3500 Club and climbed the local peaks. That’s for his retirement days, he says.
But then he adds something very deep.
“I know one day I’m going to be back at some of these places with my grandchildren and I’ll be able to tell them how there used to be a glacier here, a grove of trees there,” he says, noting how many forests have disappeared out west from invasive species, let loose by climate change. “I think, all the time, of the old naturalists, of seeing what they saw. This wilderness is a treasure. That’s why I walk these trails.”
For more on Wilderness Bob, and other great hikers like him, visit www.trailjournals.com and look him up.
And get out there and hike a bit, yourselves…

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A Jar Of Olives...
Autumn

Perhaps there is a message there, for we never really appreciate what we have until it is taken away. A very quiet and reclusive man died this week, and I lament the fact that I did not know him even though he lived just two miles from me in Shokan. I knew him only through his very good friends, Cheryl and Joe Kosarek, and the words he left in his poetry and prose. In his passing, I learned a life lesson. Sometimes very quiet voices speak powerfully, and conversely, some boisterous people say nothing at all. Ralph Yodice spoke volumes in quiet words shared only with a few. I hope he will not mind if I share some with you. This is the first poem in a book entitled “Voices in the Wind:”

Autumn
The fields and forests had
shown then shed the works
and waves of Beauty which
Autumn once again
released to sing and dance
within the passing of
a brief but joyous
moment that returned
beyond the reach or touch
of mortal wonder,
beyond the woo and wail
of Winter’s watch that tried
but could not capture the
reflection of Autumn’s
beauty since time began.
Few can capture beauty. Artists try with words, with paint on canvas, with a camera, and with the arrangement of flowers. Barry De Baun and his mother Barbara have an exhibit at the Seven 21 Gallery on Broadway. Their artwork can be viewed on weekends during October. Speaking of art, Art Haver at the Boiceville Florist has a gift for creating arrangements that are a one-of-a-kind design. A florist uses color and texture, space and line to create beauty. A budding artist (excuse the pun) Sachiko Plitkins, Alex’s wife, is studying Ikebana, a Japanese style of flower arrangement with a 92 year old teacher who is imparting the ancient, elegant way to place flowers in an arrangement that follows the high, low, medium use of space and line. Floral arrangements, like the colorful leaves of autumn, give us only a temporary glimpse of beauty.
Fall is that brief reminder that winter is, at least in the Catskills, but a month away. This winter brings the threat of flu, so be sure to protect your family. There will be a flu clinic for seniors on October 27 from 9 a.m. until noon at the American Legion building on Mountain Road in Shokan. The cost is $20.00 for a flu shot and $35.00 for a pneumonia shot. Medicare should cover these costs.
Don’t forget the Odd Fellows production on Oct. 11 and the Samsonville Pork Roast dinner at the Samsonville Church on October 16. Come be entertained or sated with your neighbors. We need events like this to bring us all together during this intense campaign season where garishly colored candidate signs try to compete with the colors of fall. As political propaganda briefly divides us, please let the beauty of autumn unite us.