The Sullivan County Historical Society invites you to the opening of its new exhibit commemorating the centennial of World War I titled “The Great War – World War I”. The opening will take place on June 16 and 17.  

At 2 p.m. both days, there will be a special performance by the Catskill Readers Theatre. Members of the theater group will perform music of the era and read archival letters sent to the folks at home during the war. Some of the veterans writing home came from Monticello, Fallsburg, Middletown, Glen Wild, Liberty, and Parksville.  

The program will be held at the Sullivan County Museum and Cultural Center, 265 Main Street, Hurleyville. The exhibition and performance will look back at World War I and the Sullivan County families who had relatives that served. The event will include a video of images relating to the war.

We recently undertook the project of digitizing our collection of the Republican Watchman Newspapers from 1909 and 1910.

These are now available for viewing at the Sullivan County Museum. We also have some from the Sullivan County Record

All of these newspapers are searchable and indexed for ease of finding information and subjects that appear in them.

$1,000,000 FIRE IN MONTICELLO

BUSINESS SECTION GUTTED

Seventy-Four Places of Business and Residence Go Up in Smoke-—A Sorry Spectacle—But Monticello Will Build Again.

The larger part of the business section of Monticello is In ashes. It's glory has departed. At S:30 o’clock on Tuesday night, the power house of the Murray Electric Light & Power Co., was discovered to be on fire and was in a mass of flames before the fire bell had made the necessary strokes locating the fire section.

With surprising rapidity the flames spread and in an hour the entire village seemed to be doomed, and but for the persistent fighting of the firemen there would have been saved to no one a place to rest his weary head.

As it is, some have lost all they had, and no loss, as far as wo have been able to learn, was covered entirely by insurance.

From the power house the fire Quickly swept buck to the Palatine Casino, and in less time than it takes to chronicle it. that place of masquerade, frolic and fun was in a mass of flames. The Palatine, P. C. Murray’s fine hotel, stands directly in front of the Casino, and that was the next building to go up in smoke and flames, and a sorry sight it was indeed. It swept across the street to Strong's Block, destroying Strong & Co’s, book store, S. L. Strong’s grocery store, T.H. Dougherty’s harness store, and John .D. Lyon’s law office. The telephone central office, standing in the rear of tile Strong Block, caught on fire and with it went W. C. Oddo’s tailoring and furnishing store, Preston’s bar-J her shop, and Frank Ray’s household goods

Court Room Burned. ,

A high wind fanned the flames into a roaring, raging' wall of fire which swept down Broadway consuming everything before it

The following is an exceprt from our new Digitized collection of the Republican Watchman 1909.

To read the rest this story and see even more from of our Newspaper collection, Please visit the Sullivan County Museum.

Sunday March 4^th will kick off a new, free program at the Museum called Songs and Stories of the Sixties. The event will take place on the 1^st Sunday of each month from 2:00 to 3:00p.m. Guest musicians will perform songs from the sixties and the famous Woodstock concert. Guest speakers will, talk about their experience of the changing culture, the Woodstock Festival and the music.

Little Sparrow will host the event in the “Time Line /Woodstock Theater room at the Sullivan County Museum. For more information please call 845-434-8044