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The following excerpts from The Millerton News were compiled by Kathleen Spahn and Rhiannon Leo-Jameson of the North East-Millerton Library.
January 11, 1934
‘3,000 Now at Work Under CWA’; Approximately 3,000 are now listed on the Civil Works Administration payroll in Dutchess County, it was announced last Thursday by T.A. Corby, executive officer of the county CWA organization. Only a slim margin of 100 are to be added under the present quota, but it is hoped that the quota may be increased.
‘At the White House Party’; Russell B. Hosier, son of Mr and Mrs. Charles Hoslier, of Millerton, an officer at the White House in Washington, D. C., with Mrs, Hosier and their two children, Richard and Warren, attended the Christmas reception given by President Roosevelt for the officers and their families.
‘Telephone Operator Suffers Broken Ankle in Fall’; Miss Claire Diegnan, telephone operator on the Millerton exchange, suffered a broken ankle Saturday night when she slipped and fell on the icy street in front of Bloch’s store. Miss Diegnan was taken to Sharon Hospital where a cast was placed on the injured ankle. Miss Diegnan is under the care of Dr. H. A. Richardson.
January 9, 1975
‘Millerton Couple Have 1st Baby Of New Year’; Mr. and Mrs. John Sawchuck of Millerton are the parents of the first baby born in 1975 in Sharon Hospital.
Their daughter, Michaelene, made her debut at 8:55 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 3. The baby, who weighed 4 lbs. 4 oz. at birth, is the couple’s first child.
‘Police Guard Leads Parade’; The New York State Police Honor Guard under Troop-Commander Major P.G. Emden will lead off the Millerton Centennial Parade, according to Dick Valentine, a member of the celebration committee.
Mr. Valentine said that the July 27 parade will feature a number of other groups to be announced as soon as plans are final. The “Century Celebration” will take place on July 25, 26, and 27.
‘North East Historical Society Promotes Millerton Growth’; The North East Historical Society greets 1975 as Millerton’s Centennial year. The celebration of Millerton’s incorporation (1875-1975) is being ushered in with the new year. We take great pride in all our members who have contributed their efforts in the public study of their community in the past year, said Eileen Banks of the Historical Society.
The Historical Society is making plans for the town, with the help of Millertonian Richard Valentine. The time bomb [sic], complete with artifacts, will be buried on the Green in August. The Block Dance and the renaming of Parking Street also will take place this summer. “So ladies,” said Eileen Banks, “start making your colonial gowns. And gentlemen, how about the sideburns?”
The Society would like to publicly thank the Millerton Diner for making the lights available for the Christmas tree.
January 13, 2000
‘Tour of MES Reveals Substandard Conditions’; MILLERTON — As a reminder to the public about the deteriorating conditions in some of its buildings, the Webutuck School Board led audience members on a tour of Millerton Elementary School (MES) this week.
If the board was looking for a venue to showcase the need for facilities improvement, it found it in MES — a mildewed, Depression-era grotto with rusting pipes and dangling tiles.
Former MES Principal Gene Brooks came out of retirement to lead the tour. Just outside the auditorium where the Monday night School Board meeting took place, Mr. Brooks pointed out none of the fire alarm boxes were currently working.
‘Webutuck H.S. Computer Lab Open to Public’; AMENIA — The Webutuck Central School District has announced the availability of the high school computer lab to the community. The facility will be open beginning Tuesday, Jan. 25, until March 7. Technicians will be available to ensure everything is working well and to provide technical help.
Microsoft Office 97 and a high-speed Internet connection will be available.
Registration is required. Contact Barbara Bagomolny at the district office of Webutuck High School by Jan. 19.
‘Letter To Editor — Food Pantry Says Many Thanks for Holiday Generosity’; On behalf of 75 families in the Millerton/North East area who received a Holiday Food Basket, The Millerton Food Pantry would like to thank all the individuals, merchants, adult and youth civic groups for their generous donations of money, food, vehicles, time and hard work.
Mariley S. Najdek
Beverly H. Gordon
Millerton Food Pantry
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Paul Winters announced his candidacy for Amenia Town Supervisor on Friday, Jan. 3.
Provided
AMENIA — Accepting a request from the Amenia Town Republican Committee, councilmember Paul Winters announced on Friday, Jan. 3, his candidacy for the position of town supervisor. The election will be held in November.
Winters has served several town committees and other local volunteer endeavors. Since January of 2024, Winters has been serving as a councilmember on the Town Board.
Volunteer service positions include ten years, beginning in 2010, of coaching youngsters playing with the Amenia Minors team. Winters has been an active member of the Amenia Lions Club since 2014.
Between 2021 and 2024 Winters concurrently served on two town committees, the Recreation Commission and the Wastewater Committee, before his election to the Town Board.
In a statement announcing his candidacy, Winters detailed short and long-term town accomplishments and goals to harness the innate energy and innovation which he senses amongst Amenia’s residents.
In the past year, Winters cited progress in attempts to lower the average age of town committee volunteers. Plans to build a new town garage are moving ahead.
Goals to be pursued, Winters said, include attracting new business opportunities, addressing town employees’ pay scales, initiating term limits on the Town Board, and working to change the community’s demographics to a lower average age, achievable through offering affordable and workforce housing opportunities for younger families.
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Seth Rogovoy at the screening of “A Complete Unknown” at The Triplex.
Natalia Zukerman
When Seth Rogovoy, acclaimed author, critic, and cultural commentator of “The Rogovoy Report” on WAMC Northeast Public Radio, was asked to lead a talkback at The Triplex in Great Barrington following a screening of the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown,” he took on the task with a thoughtful and measured approach.
“I really try to foster a conversation and keep my opinions about the film to myself,” said Rogovoy before the event on Sunday, Jan. 5. “I want to let people talk about how they felt about it and then I ask follow-up questions, or people ask me questions. I don’t reveal a lot about my feelings until the end.”
The film, directed by James Mangold and starring Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan, portrays young Dylan’s arrival in Greenwich Village during the early 1960s. The film depicts his interactions with key figures like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, and Suze Rotolo (called Sylvie Russo in the film), while also exploring Dylan’s evolution from performing traditional folk songs to writing his own, including iconic tracks like “Blowin’ in the Wind.” The narrative touches on his struggles with fame, identity, and the pressure to conform, culminating in his controversial electric performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
“I went into seeing the film with an open mind,” said Rogovoy, “recognizing that this film is not for me. It’s not for ‘Dylanologists,’ for experts. It’s a Hollywood film. I don’t think it does harm, but I think it doesn’t do a lot of what it could have done.”
The film presents a sentimental narrative with many historical inaccuracies. “According to Elijah Wald, whose book the film is based on, he said he likes the film but that it’s entirely fictional,” said Rogovoy.
The talkback itself was lively, with audience members sharing their thoughts on the film’s nostalgic appeal and its historical inaccuracies. Several attendees mentioned how the film helped them relive the cultural transformation of the era.
“It brings to mind the first time I heard that music, and the change it had on our culture,” shared one audience member.
Another attendee, who was just a baby during the time period depicted in the film, said, “I loved how much of his music they did play. It wasn’t just one verse and then cut away. I really got a renewed appreciation for his genius. I’m going full Dylan when I get home.”
While Rogovoy’s approach during the talkback was to facilitate discussion, audience members were eager to hear his analysis. His 2009 book, “Bob Dylan: Prophet Mystic Poet” explores Dyan’s connection to Jewish liturgy. In contrast to “A Complete Unknown,” Rogovoy offered a reminder of “I’m Not There,” the 2007 experimental musical drama co-written and directed by Todd Haynes where six actors portrayed different facets of Dylan’s persona. He described the film’s nonlinear narrative as offering what he called “a Dylanesque portrayal” of the artist, capturing more of the complexity of Dylan’s identity. Rogovoy characterized Chalamet’s portrayal as “one note.”
“And how do we know about the essence of Bob Dylan at that time?” asked Rogovoy. “Well, because there are a number of documentary films with footage of that time, which I’m sure that they (the filmmakers and cast) all viewed again and again. My understanding of Chalamet’s preparation was that he really immersed himself in everything to be a credible Bob Dylan. But in the end, I just found him to be entirely monochromatic.”
The screening and talkback provided a nuanced platform for discussing “A Complete Unknown”—a film that, while not without flaws, ignited a conversation about Bob Dylan’s influence and his enigmatic role in shaping American music and culture.
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On planting a Yellowwood tree
Jan 08, 2025
The author planted this Yellowwood tree a few years ago on some of his open space.
Fritz Mueller
As an inveterate collector of all possibly winter hardy East coast native shrubs and trees, I take a rather expansive view of the term “native”; anything goes as long as it grows along the East coast. After I killed those impenetrable thickets of Asiatic invasive shrubs and vines which surrounded our property, I suddenly found myself with plenty of open planting space.
That’s when, a few years ago, I also planted a Yellowwood tree, (Cladastris kentukea). It is a rare, medium-sized tree in the legume family—spectacular when in bloom and golden yellow in fall. In the wild, it has a very disjointed distribution in southeastern states, yet a large specimen, obviously once part of a long-gone garden, has now become part of the woods bordering Route 4 on its highest point between Sharon and Cornwall.
It has always intrigued me that so many species, whose native ranges today are much further south, grow so well here. Besides Yellowwood, that includes, for example, the Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum) of southern swamps whose natural range reaches into southern New Jersey. However, it also grows in Litchfield hills gardens and, incongruously, even as a street tree in New York. Among others are PawPaw (Asimia triloba), Carolina silverbell (Halesia carolina), American snowbell (Styrax americanus), Redbud (Cercis canadensis), and Sourwood (Oxydendron arboreum), a good-sized tree with white flowering racemes and outstanding brilliant, deep red fall foliage. Besides our local swamp and Pinxter azaleas, others that are very hardy here include the early-flowering Pinkshell azalea (Rhododendron vaseyi) of the North Carolina mountains and from the mountains of Georgia, the rare-in-the-wild, July-flowering Plumleaf azalea, (R. prunifolium). Robust and larger in habit and most stunning of all is the Flame azalea (R. calendulaceum), which historically grew as far north as southeast New York, where it is now extirpated.
After some research, I learned that Cladastris kentukea might have grown over a much wider and more northern area, but during the last glaciation episode, it survived in the wild only in those isolated southern locations. That it survived at all so close to the glaciers edge is in itself an indication of cold hardiness. It is estimated, based on fossil plant and pollen records, that with the retreat of the icecap around 16,000 years ago, trees migrated again northward at a rate of approximately 50 km per century. This may apply to prolific sprouters such as maples, ashes and oaks, but it could be much slower, I suspect, for the many rarer plants which don’t get around by wind, squirrels, and birds, or are—unlike our common trees—finnicky to sprout from seeds. I can also imagine how many of the rarer trees and shrubs, for example Fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus), became collateral damage during the 19th century clearcutting for charcoal and farming. In any case, Yellowwood didn’t manage to recolonize its former range, and a similar scenario may apply to those other woody plants with a more southerly distribution today but that are perfectly hardy up here.
Climate change, which used to occur over millennia, now seems to happen within half a century. Birds, like the Carolina wren, can adapt quickly and become abundant after just a few warm winters—but plants are stuck. They need help to keep up with such rapid change. In the case of trees and shrubs, human gardeners can assist them in expanding their ranges into areas that are now warm enough for them to live thrive again.
I bought a sapling Water tupelo (Nyssa aquatica), native to southern swamps, from a Missouri nursery. It has survived two winters so far—albeit quite mild ones—in a woody swamp here at 1100ft elevation. One hundred years from now, who knows—ugar maples, which thrive in cold, snowy winters, might be replaced with sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua), a more southern hardwood.
I found space for trees by clearing thickets of invasives. The modern trend of transforming excessively large lawns into natural meadows also provides an opportunity to plant native trees with an understory of shrubs and ferns, whether as a stand-alone copse or a forest edge. This is not meant to replace flowers and grasses but to complement them, based on the understanding that, in our region, the primary ecosystem is forest—an exceptionally species-rich one to boot, with over a half dozen oaks alone.
Compared to watching grass grow, watching a tree—any tree—grow is almost exciting, given a bit of patience. Early on, protection against deer is necessary, but later, maintenance is relatively minimal; the leaves can simply fall and stay where they may.
Fritz Mueller lives in Sharon.
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