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 […]

From Hillsdale’s earliest days, farming was a major occupation, although not an easy one to pursue. The rocky, thin soil and the hilly contours of the land made Hillsdale a less-than-perfect spot to grow crops. In fact, the steep population decline Hillsdale experienced in the latter years of the 19th century and early 20th century […]

By Howard Blue

For decades starting in 1934 Carroll Rheinstrom and his wife Irene had a huge farm in Craryville. Actually it wasn’t a farm because most of it was woods. It started with just a dozen acres, but over the decades, thanks partly to Irene’s work as a real estate agent, […]

For over forty years the Roe Jan Historical Society has made its mission to preserve and celebrate the stories and traditions of our local area. After being founded in 1974, the society has successfully kept the community connected with its past through exhibitions featuring historic pieces from the towns of Hillsdale, Copake, Ancram, Taghkanic, and […]