By Howard Blue
Thanks to a congressional proclamation in 1987, March is Women’s History month. The designation came about as a result of the short shrift that women have traditionally gotten in many ways. Until 1839, for example, no American woman could own property. Then, in that year, Mississippi gave its female residents that right. Until […]
The arrival of the COVID-19 virus in America and the resulting state mandates in the Tri-State area advising residents to remain home and for non-essential businesses to temporarily close their doors has undoubtedly had an impact on those places that require foot traffic or the in-person experience to maintain viability. As the Northwestern Corner and […]
Anneke Jans – Dutch Colonial Trail Blazer and Woman Behind the Real Roeliff Jansen
Roeliff Jansen, a would-be explorer and colonist of Scandinavian origin, came to New Netherland from Amsterdam in service of wealthy Dutch Patroon Killian Van Rensselaer. As legend has it, in 1632 he discovered a major tributary to the Hudson […]
Elinor Mettler – Modern Trail Blazer
Women’s History Month is the perfect time to celebrate Elinor Mettler, who co-founded the Roeliff Jansen Historical Society (RJHS) in 1974. Elinor, known for her dynamism and seemingly limitless energy, was also a major force in saving and preserving the “Old Falls Copake Church,” built in 1892, now […]
The following cautionary tale was published in the November 24, 1881 issue of the Hillsdale Harbinger.
“The Badgerleys coming here to spend Thanksgiving?” said Mrs. Nettingley. “Not if I know it.”
Mrs. Nettingley was a close-fisted and calculating matron, who lived in a handsome house in a stylish neighborhood in New York and was one of those […]
Over the years, a number of celebrities have lived in or visited Hillsdale. Some were not famous when they lived here but achieved celeb status elsewhere. But Hillsdale was always “home.” A case in point was Hudson River School painter John Bunyan Bristol, who was born in Hillsdale but achieved prominence in New York City. […]
Agee left Fortune to join Time magazine as book reviewer and film critic. In 1942 he moved to The Nation where his film criticism found a growing circle of intellectual admirers, including W.H. Auden, who wrote “In my opinion, [Agee’s] column is the most remarkable regular event in American journalism today.” As a film reviewer, […]
James Agee was a commanding literary voice in mid-20th-century America: an extraordinarily versatile writer who in his lifetime won acclaim as a novelist, poet, and screenwriter. He is buried on a farm in Hillsdale.
That’s not big news. But we’ve also been told for years that he never actually lived in Hillsdale. That seemed odd. Why […]
By 1875, Hillsdale’s sheep farmers were producing some 17,000 pounds of wool per year. Several textile mills were built. One, operated by just two men, produced 600 pounds of flannel and cloth annually.
Iron ore was discovered in Hillsdale as early as 1800, although mining was never a big business here. But the furnace at the […]
Sometimes it’s easy to forget just how much history surrounds us everyday. We wake up, commute to work or school, drive down roads and pass by places that have become so familiar to us that they seem to only exist in our present. The truth is, however, the area we call home is so steeped […]