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July 2025

All-digital Hurley Heritage Society Prologue

President's Message

Spring at the Hurley Heritage Museum

Despite a very wet Spring our museum opened on May 3 with rave reviews for our new exhibit The Wynkoop House: Inspiring the Arts Across the Centuries. If you have not yet seen the exhibit, please come and visit on Saturday or Sunday from 1 to 4 PM. The museum also houses our permanent exhibit, a typical Dutch Colonial room, as well as Post Offices of Hurley 1837 to the Present, our popular recreation of a vintage post office, which is in its final season.

We started the season by celebrating our many volunteers with a Pizza Party at the Hurley Mountain Inn. The Hurley Heritage Society operates as an all-volunteer organization, we could not do what we do without you! We welcome new volunteers. If you have an interest in volunteering as a museum greeter, a tour guide, working in the gift shop, or any other capacity, please stop in and talk to one of our volunteers during our open hours or visit our website at https://www.hurleyheritagesociety.org/volunteer/  

May was a busy month at the museum. We were delighted to host visits of two school groups. They were treated to a tour of our vintage post office by our very own postmaster, Mike Rice, who shared stories of post office life. Our post office boxes are always filled with ‘mail’ for children who visit, so please plan to stop in.

We also saw the return of our ever-popular annual spring plant sale which saw record breaking orders. Proceeds from this sale go towards maintaining our museum building and grounds. Thank you to the plant sale committee of Flo Brandt, Pat Findholt, Barbara Zell and Cathy Dumond, and to the many volunteers who helped on pick-up day. I’d like to extend my personal thanks to the community who supported the sale.

Our on-line auction returns this October, featuring a variety of art, antiques, gift baskets, jewelry and certificates. We welcome donations from our members and the community, particularly if they pertain to Hurley life. See how you can help later in this Prologue.     

The museum and our gift shop at 52 Main Street, Hurley, are open free of charge from 1-4 PM on Saturdays and Sundays from May through October. Walking tours of Historic Main Street are available on the fourth Sunday of each month; reserve your space by signing up on our website.  

 A heartfelt THANK YOU to our members, volunteers and the community. It is through your generosity and support that we continue to grow. 

Diane Blakely

President

Hurley Heritage Society

dianemblakely@gmail.com

Hurley Heritage Society in the Memorial Day Parade

Look who we spotted in the Memorial Day Parade!

HHS volunteers Mike Rice and Lise Hopson.

Local Students Visit the Museum

This May we were excited to host 2 school group visits to the museum. The first group of children and their parents visited from the West Hurley Library. The second group was the Myer School second grade class accompanied by Miss Spooth and Mrs. Koch. A variety of activities included a tour of the vintage post office with our own honorary postmaster, Mike Rice, an opportunity to open a vintage mailbox for a gift, and a postcard writing session. Students also learned a bit about life in the Colonial Days in our Dutch Room, with a scavenger hunt. I think we had as much fun as the children! Private visits can be requested by contacting Diane Blakely at dianemblakely@gmail.com

How Did That Street Get It’s Name?

Foertner Street

If you look very closely you will see the name of the street is Foertner. This is a street in Old Hurley. Our online exhibit, “Winslow Homers’ Hurley”, caught the eye of two Hurley Heritage website visitors. One was from Honolulu and the other from Wayzata, Minnesota. They sent the HHS a letter explaining to us that their mother used to love to spend summers in Hurley with relatives. It turns out that their mom’s parents were Esther Foertner and Frederick Foertner. Their paternal grandparents were Johann Foertner and Elizabeth Foertner.  All now are now interred in the Hurley Cemetery.

At one time this was the site of the Foertner family homestead.

We would like to thank the two sisters for sharing their heritage with us. And especially thank you for becoming lifetime members of the Hurley Heritage Society. As a heritage society we love hearing of Hurley’s history.

Hurley Heritage Society 2025 Scholarships Awarded

This year the Hurley Heritage Society decided to begin a scholarship fund for eligible Town of Hurley graduating seniors from Kingston High School and Onteora High School. We received eight applications. After much consideration we are incredibly happy to congratulate our two recipients of the scholarships.

Henry Shannon and Kayla Jacob are both graduates of Kingston High School. Henry graduated with a GPA of 99.38, 11^th in his class of 433. He will be attending Skidmore College in the fall.

Kayla graduated with a GPA of 95.24 and will be attending Penn State in the fall. They each received an award of $500.00.



In addition to inspiring artists across the centuries, the Wynkoop House once again became a hub of creative activity when Dustin Hoffman,  Jessica Lange and Charles Durning came to Hurley in 1981 for the filming of the movie Tootsie.  The Wynkoop house and the Hurley Mountain Inn were featured in the film. 

In conjunction with the museum’s exhibit on four artists who painted at the Wynkoop Hose in the late 1800s, The Hurley Heritage Society and The Hurley Library are sponsoring a screening of the movie Tootsie.  The event is scheduled for  Sunday, August 24^th, 4PM at the Hurley Library, 48 Main Street, Hurley, N.Y.   Cindy Gill Lapp will be on hand to introduce the movie and give a glimpse of what happened during the filming.



The HHS Museum will be open from 1 to 4 PM that day if you would like to view the Wynkoop House exhibit, which includes a Tootsie display, before seeing the film.

Admission is free. Seating is limited, and registration is required. Register online at the Hurley Library website to reserve your seat.   http://hurleylibrary.org/ 

 Our Spring Plant sale saw record breaking pre-orders this year. Thank you to everyone who supported this annual event, the proceeds of which are used to help us maintain our building and grounds. The beautiful plants grown by Saunderskill Farms in Accord, and vibrant planters from Boice’s Farm in Saugerties, filled our yard with color, and is always a great way to kick off the Spring planting season. Thank you to our plant sale committee: Flo Brandt, Pat Findholt, Barbara Zell and Cathy Dumond and to the many volunteers who helped on distribution day. Watch our website for information on the Fall Mum sale, when we offer beautiful, colorful mums for your Fall gardens.    

April was National Volunteer Month, and the Hurley Heritage Society recognized our many volunteers who supported us last year with a Pizza Party held at the Hurley Mountain Inn. Our volunteers worked in the Museum Gift Shop, as exhibit docents, assisted with our annual fundraisers, and helped maintain the museum building and grounds. They were also key to the success of the three very special events we held to celebrate our 50^th anniversary last year. We are so very grateful for everyone who so generously donated their time to support us.



Presented originally by Zoom in March, the HHS hosted this past March Kara Keene of the West Hurley Library to present 'Visiting Old West Hurley'. It is now available to view online

The Hurley area of New York underwent extraordinary changes during the early1900s to build a safe drinking water system for New York City. To create the manmade reservoirs necessary to gather the water for this endeavor, New York City claimed the right of eminent domain. Within the township of Hurley, the hamlets of Ashton, Glenford, and West Hurley were removed and the area flooded to construct the Ashokan Reservoir. The city condemned these towns, paid compensation to property owners, forced people from their homes, and cleared the land. Construction began on the dam in 1907.

The Hurley Heritage Society hosted Kara Keene from the West Hurley Library who presented the story of two cousins, Hobart and Allen Rowe, who became interested in researching one of these former hamlets – West Hurley. The cousins contributed in separate ways to the preservation of knowledge about the town. Hobart Rowe created a scale model, which unfortunately does not exist anymore. However, the library does possess a videotaped interview with Hobart Rowe and slides of some of the homes. Allen Rowe’s research was compiled by his family into a book called “Old West Hurley Revisited: A Nostalgic Tour.” The book was formatted as an imaginary tourist visit to the little village. This presentation acted as an introduction to these collections.



Haying at Ike Roosa’s field in Hurley with John Kaufman's wagon 1995. Josh Vogt and Tony Stephano on the hay wagon, Jeff Vogt driver and Fred Klun? on the ground. Photo courtesy of Dale Bohan.

The hay field on Zandhoek Road was all cut, tedded, raked, and baled. The two-string square bales were all ready for loading and hauling back to John Kaufman's barn on Hurley Mountain Road. It was late Saturday and rain was forecast for Monday. I was working for Johnny helping with his haying that Saturday. At the end of a long day in the hay field, I was speaking with Johnny about the plan to finish bringing in the hay. He declared, “It's going to rain on Monday, and we don't work on Sunday.” I offered helpfully, “I don't mind working on Sunday so I could load the bales and drive them back to the barn myself.” He then replied firmly, “If you bring in the hay tomorrow, you would be working for me, and we don't work on Sunday. And if God wants it to rain on the hay then it will get rained on.” I was concerned because if rained-on hay is not again dried fully, mold and mycotoxin can grow which puts livestock health at risk. Furthermore, baled wet hay can combust due to the temperature increase caused by microbial action, creating risk of a barn fire. Happily, the Monday weather was a very light sprinkling and the bales dried before we loaded them the following week.

Beginning in the very early 1950s, John Kaufman and his wife Anna operated a dairy farm on Hurley Mountain Road for a stretch of over twenty years, and he was very active in community historical and charity organizations. When dairy farming waned in the area, Johnny became a professional carpenter specializing in the restoration of colonial buildings. He had gained valuable experience caring for his own colonial-period stone house and his original Dutch colonial barn. He worked at his construction business for over thirty years retiring in 2002 at the age of 78. Owners of early Hurley homes were fortunate to have such a skilled craftsman working on their historic homes for which Hurley is so famous. Johnny was a sociable and multifaceted person. During the nearly sixty years that I knew him, I always admired his principles, honesty, knowledge, and work ethic. Most of all I loved speaking with him and hearing him launch into a story that provided his unique insight into the topic of conversation. He was an avid square dancer and well-versed in traditional New England square dance music.  When my wife Gail and I started playing for square and contra dances in the area, we were pleased to spend more time with him at dances and traditional music events.

John Kaufman appeared to be “forever young.” It almost seemed that everyone else was aging faster than Johnny. Hard work no doubt contributed to his health and robustness. The entire community was devastated when he and Anna were both killed in a tragic automobile accident at the intersection of Wynkoop Road and Route 209 on September 22, 2013.

My employment as a hired farm hand began one day unexpectedly when Johnny knocked on my parents’ door one summer morning and asked if they would allow him to offer me a job helping to bring in the hay. He thought I was big enough to take his pickup truck and work by myself loading and hauling hay bales that were ready for pickup in the hay fields around Hurley. My parents said that I was only fourteen years old and didn't have a driver's license. Johnny assured them that if I was working for him then I was farming, and I would not need a driver's license for farming. I already had experience haying on a couple of other farms, and Johnny knew I could handle the bales. In fact, I usually used two hay hooks, one in each hand in order to carry two bales, or used two hands for one bale. But the thought of driving a truck at fourteen years of age was the most exciting. My parents agreed to the arrangement, and I eagerly accepted the job. Driving that pickup around Hurley and down Main Street was a thrill not soon forgotten. The hardest part of the job was tossing the bales on top of the nearly fully loaded truck. Normally there were one or more farm hands on top of the load catching and placing the bales. Working by myself, I had to both drive the truck around the field, stop, hook the bales, and toss them up to the top of the load. I'd then have to climb to the top of the load of bales and secure them. After a day of haying when I’d finally get home, my muscles ached all over.

Farmers had been making hay in Hurley for centuries using the technology of the period. Baling the hay was a big improvement over handling loose hay as had been done until the twentieth century. It would not have been possible for me to load and loft loose hay by myself, especially using a team of horses as in the historic photos of haying on the Wynkoop-Warren farm.

In the early 1960s, when the dairy farm next door to my family home went the way of so many other small farms and fell idle, its tall silo was no longer needed. The Saxe family who owned the farm agreed to let Johnny take the wood-stave silo. Not one to shrink from hard work, Johnny accomplished the feat working by himself. He climbed the outside of the silo and loosened all the hoops holding it together. He then said that he would wait for the wind to take it down. The wind cooperated a few days later on New Year's Eve. Amazingly, very few of the tongue-and-groove wood staves were damaged when it came crashing to the ground. Johnny never rebuilt the silo, and last I knew, the parts were all still stored in his old Dutch barn on Hurley Mountain Road.

Many folks have seen the massive 12-foot bluestone slab in front of the Hurley Library on Main Street, distinguished by four deep grooves worn into it from metal-clad wagon wheels. Few know how it got there. It was part of the Ulster and Delaware Stone Plank Road that fell out of use in 1912 after serving for many decades as a main route for bluestone wagons carrying stone from the quarries in West Hurley and Glenford to the stone yards along Rondout Creek. This huge stone was one of two that bridged Keator Brook near the end of Hurley Mountain Road. The stone was cast aside when a culvert was installed at the brook crossing. Johnny was a strong supporter of local history being a charter member of the Hurley Heritage Society and the Dutch Barn Preservation Society. One day in deep winter when the Hurley Flats were covered in snow and ice, Johnny rigged a logging chain to the stone slab and dragged it with his 1951 John Deere tractor to where Town of Hurley workers could pick it up and move it to the Hurley town dump property for safekeeping. In 1976, to honor the Bicentennial, it was moved to Main Street where it has been on display ever since. A plaque identifies it as a “section of roadbed” which strikes me as a rather uninspired description of a 2000+ pound stone that once carried horse-drawn bluestone wagons across a rushing Keator Brook.

In more recent years, Johnny and his wife Anna were by far the most loyal listeners at the “Folk-n-Fiddle” jam sessions at the Senate House in Kingston. There, local musicians would gather on Wednesdays at noon to play and sing together under the trees. Johnny never passed up a chance to enjoy his favorite music. He loved to tell the story about one Friday when his truck was loaded with plywood and lumber in preparation for a roofing job on Monday. In a burst of spontaneity, Johnny decided it would be nice to have a square dance in his friend's field on Saturday night. So he hired a caller and a fiddler and hammered together a dance floor in the field using the supply of roof sheathing and framing lumber from his truck. Dancers were invited, and a square dance was held on the impromptu floor. After the dance, Johnny dismantled the floor and reloaded his truck. Come Monday the temporary dance floor became someone's roof. As far as I know, the owners never found out their roof had been, for one rollicking Saturday night, a square dance floor. The shoe and boot prints are forever hidden beneath the new shingles.

As a grade school kid from Hurley Mountain I would frequently play with other Hurley Mountain Road kids like Henry Paul, Donny Cashdollar, and the Finch brothers John and Bruce. Johnny’s Cow Herd's waterfall was a frequent destination, and we often would run around in his yard. Near the end of his life, when Johnny reflected on us enjoying his property, this is what he had to say, “I'd rather have a bunch of children running around in my yard than have perfect grass growing in it.”

The other kids and I called Johnny’s waterfall “Coward’s Falls.” The story was that if you did not climb to the top of the falls and hang over the edge to look down at the floor of the gorge, then you were a “coward.” However, as explained to me by Johnny, the actual name is “Cow Herd’s Falls.” When the Hurley Flats were dairy pastures, herds of cows would be attracted to the shade and coolness of the narrow gorge on a hot summer day. It seems that over time, the name “Cow Herd’s Falls” morphed into “Coward’s Falls.” Confusion over the name of Kaufmans’ falls persists to this day.  

For years and years Cow Herd’s Falls was used as a shooting range. We young boys in the neighborhood all had a big box of spent brass cartridge casings that we would pick up. Johnny tried various ways to discourage the shooters, but they persisted. The final straw was one day when Johnny found a human silhouette target riddled with bullet holes propped up in front of the waterfall. Johnny posted a no trespassing sign until he positioned large boulders to limit the space for cars to pull in. He landscaped the floor of the gorge, planting flowers and adding a bench to create a relaxing space for enjoying the waterfall. Johnny said he wanted to make the area nice to keep people from abusing it. For many locals it provides a scenic destination and shady rest stop for bicycle rides along Hurley Mountain Road. The cows were certainly wise to pick this location for their midday respite. 

Johnny was a master story-teller. I enjoyed his insightful, humorous, and witty stories for the nearly sixty years that he was my neighbor. During the decades that I knew John Kaufman he would often stop his important work to tell one of his great stories. One time as he was driving Gail and me from a square dance, he actually pulled to the side of the road and turned off the engine so he could concentrate on the story he was telling. I can say with confidence that Johnny was an important influence on my becoming a memoirist!

photos below:

John and Anna Kaufman November 30,1997. Photo courtesy of Dale Bohan.

Hay hook. My favorite technique was to hold the handle with the shaft between the middle and ring finger, one in each hand.



After a one-year hiatus as we celebrated our 50^th Anniversary, our Autumn Auction returns by popular demand! This year’s online auction will take place from Friday, October 17^th, through Sunday, October 26^th. As always, we will feature a wonderful array of high-quality merchandise to include artwork, jewelry, furniture, antiques and historic items, gift baskets and certificates, and much more. We even have what may turn out to be our last full set of ceramic Hurley Stone Houses! Right now, we’re asking for help from our membership and the community at large as we curate a treasure trove of appropriate items. 



If you have an item you would like to submit for consideration in our Autumn Auction, would like to make a donation to help fund one of our specialty baskets, or would be interested in assembling a specialty basket, please send an email to auction@hurleyheritagesociety.org.

Be sure to stop in the gift shop next time you visit the Hurley Heritage Society Museum! We’re excited to offer new gifts featuring pictures of the roosters painted by local artists for HHS’s 2024 Rooster Auction, which was part of our 50^th Anniversary Celebration. You’ll find a lovely selection of cloth rooster shopping bags ($18.00 each), as well as beautiful rooster note cards ($2.50 each, five for $10.00).



We also have a new book, Patriots and Spies in Revolutionary New York by local author A. J. Schenkman. The story of Lt. Daniel Taylor, who was imprisoned at the Spy House on Hurley’s Main Street in 1777, is included in the book. And we just ordered more copies of the ever-popular The Island at the Center of the World by Russell Shorto, which tells the epic story of Dutch Manhattan and the forgotten colony that shaped America.

Another new offering in the gift shop is several signed copies of The Story of Historic Kingston by Stephen Blauweiss and Karen Berelowitz. Local history enthusiasts will treasure this book, which features 950 images and has been described as “like a documentary film in print.”

Also available, thanks to a generous donation from Reilly Rhodes, are two beautiful Homer Winslow books. (Volume 1 Winslow Homer From Poetry to Fiction - The Engraved Works: Illuminated with Period Photographs and Volume 2 Winslow Homer From Poetry to Fiction - The Engraved Works: An Illustrated Checklist with Interpretative Notes). Homer fans will not want to miss these!

You’ll also find some of your favorite items, including Hurley rooster mugs, Hurley ball caps, Hurley tee-shirts, porcelain Hurley Houses, and Hurley books by Deana Decker. We look forward to seeing you at the Hurley Heritage Museum Gift Shop!

The Hurley Heritage Society offers walking tours of historic Main Street on the 4^th Sunday of the month, May - October. Knowledgeable guides share unique stories, as you view the exteriors of stone homes 230-330 years old in this National Historic Landmark.

Tours begin at the HHS Museum, 52 Main Street, Hurley, at 2PM. Donations of $5 are payable at the door, children under 12 are free. For more information and to register  please visit our HHS website at  guided Walking Tour of Hurley's historic Main Street. Registration is required in advance to ensure we schedule a tour guide.  

Main Street Hurley is compact and small enough for easy walking to view many of the historic locations, and other properties are only a short distance away. Please download or print our Walking Tour Brochure for a self-guided tour map which identifies 27 historic sites in and around the village of Hurley.

Contact us at Info@hurleyheritagesociety.org to arrange for private or group tours.

 If you have a passion for Hurley and local history and are looking for a way to become more involved in the community, the Hurley Heritage Society offers many opportunities! Founded 50 years ago, our mission is to protect and preserve materials, documents and artifacts pertaining to the Hurley area, and raise awareness and educate the public of the town’s special heritage through events, lectures, programs, tours and community initiatives. 

We are an all-volunteer organization, and sponsor a variety of activities including walking tours of historic Main Street, our popular ZOOM  and in-person lectures on local culture and history, children’s activities in partnership with the Hurley Library, and informative demonstrations. We also operate the Museum which remains free and open to the public, and houses the Dutch room and gift shop. Our current exhibit , Post Offices of Hurley:  has been popular with our visitors. 

Volunteers are always needed to greet visitors, volunteer in our gift shop, assist with events, and maintain our collections, the museum, and grounds. If you are interested, please go to the volunteer link on the HHS website: Hurley Heritage Society | Hurley Heritage Museum | Hurley NY

We are still accepting membership donations for the 2025 season. If you would like to renew your membership, or become a new member, please use the form below, or join through our website at https://www.hurleyheritagesociety.org/join/

The Hurley Heritage Society maintains and operates the Hurley Museum, which is free and open to the public from May through October. We strive to collect and preserve materials, documents and artifacts pertaining to the Hurley area, including Old Hurley, West Hurley and Glenford. Our mission is to raise awareness and educate the public of the town’s unique heritage through events, lectures, programs, tours and community initiatives.

Your membership dues enable us to maintain our museum building and to continue to provide activities for the community and visitors to our beautiful historic Hurley. You will also receive our periodic newsletters with advance notice of planned activities, our quarterly Prologue, discounts in the museum shop and discounts to HHS sponsored events.  

Please help by sending your tax-deductible donation to :

Hurley Heritage Society

PO Box 1661

Hurley, NY 12443

Dues and donations can also be made through our website using PayPal 

https://www.hurleyheritagesociety.org/join/

Membership levels are as follows:  

(  )     Single                    $30

(  )     Family                    $40                        

(  )     Patron                        $175

(  )     Lifetime Supporter    $300

(  )     Donation                     ____