June 4
Society Meeting
The speaker at the June 5 meeting of the Hoosick Township Historical Society will be Jonathan Daniel. Mr Daniel is creating an ambitious museum of his own in the old Daniel Store building at the corner of Church St. and John St. He has already set up the old store as a museum, and is working on setting up an old-time print shop in another room of the building. He has plans for other rooms in the building, and for other surrounding buildings, which he will discuss in his talk. Mr. Daniel is also very knowledgeable about Hoosick history, and will discuss many aspects of old Hoosick Falls in his talk.
The program begins at 7 pm, and refreshments will be served afterwards.
Note: Mr. Daniel was scheduled to speak at the May meeting, but had to cancel at the last minute because of a death in the family, so his talk has been rescheduled for the June meeting.
May Society Meeting
After the talk by Mr.
Daniel was canceled, a program on Harriet Hoctor was offered instead, built
around a short video made by Phil Leonard of clips from her movies showing her
dancing. Margaret Frazier recalled
seeing Harriet Hoctor dance in Washington DC when she was a girl, and she spoke
of the big impression that it made on her.
Farm Exhibit Opening Was May 5
A grand opening event was held May 5 for the museum’s new
farm exhibit. About 20 people came to
the opening, and exchanged stories about farms and farming in Hoosick, some of
it recorded on videotape and some not. The
exhibit consists of an updated version of an exhibit first put together in 1991
on farms in the Buskirk-West Hoosick area, along with an exhibit of old farm
journals and tools from local farms.
The Buskirk-West Hoosick study was designed and produced by Ned Pratt
with contemporary photographs by Constance Kheel and Dunja Marton.
Also on display is a selection of model tractors from the
collection of Charles Filkins, and posterboards on the selection of farm
implements available from the Walter Wood Company. The exhibit will remain on display through the summer.
School Exhibit Planned
The Louis Miller Museum
is planning to mount an exhibit on the history of the Schools in Hoosick. We are now gathering materials for the
exhibit. We are particularly interested
in pictures of the old District Schools and the teachers who taught in
them. If you have pictures suitable for
such an exhibition, please give us a call at 686-4682.
Grafton Historical Society Visit
The museum hosted a
visit on May 17 from 18 members of the Grafton Historical Society. Museum Director Alex Brooks offered a tour
of our exhibits, and talked about the Walter Wood Company and the regional
growth of which it was a part, following the opening of the Erie Canal. Members of the Grafton Society said that
they had greatly enjoyed their visit and hope to come again.
Louis Miller Museum at Riverfest in Williamstown
Historical Society
President Gilbert Wright and Museum Director Alex Brooks manned a table at the
River Festival put on by the Hoosic River Watershed Association. Despite some heavy rain, over a thousand
people came to the Festival, and there was steady traffic past our table all
afternoon. The table displayed some of
the pictures from our exhibit on bridges, and some views of the Walter Wood
plant and of Walter Wood machinery.
Many people complimented us on our display, and many people learned
about our museum for the first time at this event.