Sidney Greene Miller stands for a portrait. The civil engineer, for whom Millerton was named, helped bring the New York and Harlem Railroad to the Town of North East in 1851, a development that spurred the village’s growth.
MILLERTON — The arrival of the railroad in the Town of North East in 1851 is heralded as the moment Millerton became a place — ushering in a boom period for the area that transformed it from a sparsely populated farming community into a hub of commerce.
That moment was brought about by Sidney Greene Miller along with his associate civil engineers in their work as contractors for the New York and Harlem Railroad. After his work, Millerton quickly grew from an insignificant hamlet in North East to the center of the town’s activity within just 25 years.
The railroad’s contribution to the village’s growth, along with Miller’s reported congeniality according to a 2001 history of the village produced by the North East Historical Society, led village founders Alexander Trowbridge, Col. John Winchell, Walter Wakeman, Platt Paine and Connecticut Governor Alexander Holley to name Millerton after the civil engineer when it was officially formed in 1875.
But other than that claim from the North East Historical Society, not much else is known about Miller. Sarah Hermans, an amateur historian who grew up in Millerton, said public documents on him are sparse, but she found enough to roughly map out his life from records available online.
Miller was born in New York City in 1817 where he was raised by Sylvanus Miller. An obituary for Miller when he died in 1900 said his father, Sylvanus, was a judge and census records list his profession as “lawyer.”
Miller became a civil engineer, serving as a partner of Morris, Miller and Schuyler when that company was contracted to expand the New York and Harlem railroad north from New York City to Albany. Records show Miller lived in New York City in the early 1850s when the Millerton stop was built, but he didn’t stay there long.
Census records indicate Miller left New York State within the decade. He, his wife and three children moved to Westport, Connecticut, in 1854 and then to Virginia in 1856. There, Miller and his wife, Sarah Williamson, had three more children.
Miller and his family were forced out of their home in Alexandria, Virginia, when the United States Army seized the house to use as a hospital during the Civil War.
By 1870 the family had moved to Savannah, Georgia. Documents from Miller’s life are sparse, but records indicate that building railroads caused him to move his family frequently. Within just ten years, Miller and his family, now including a grandson, were recorded as living in Chatham Township in New Jersey in 1880.
Digitized New York City directories from 1882 available at familysearch.org list a Sidney Miller, engineer, living at 205 S. 5th Ave., though it’s unclear if that’s the same Sidney Miller that helped build railroads across the country. Miller did move back to New York City at some point before his death in 1900, as shown by death records and an obituary published in the New York Times.
Miller was buried in Green-wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.
Hermans’s research on Miller started by accident, she said, while researching a friend’s family history. She said she thought Miller would have been a local before she started researching, but soon found out he never even lived in Millerton.
“I was delighted and shocked to find out that he was actually a ‘city person,’” Hermans said.
But there wasn’t much more that could be gleaned from online documents, Hermans said.
“If you want to find somebody, you better find somebody who the descendants have done work on,” she said.
Hermans said the biggest hurdle in her amateur historical pursuits is accessing primary documents. She relies on the internet to access digitized documents because she works almost exclusively from home. And not every historical record has been scanned.
Sidney Miller’s death certificate is one of decades worth of death certificates from Manhattan that have yet to be digitized. New York City has been working to scan birth certificates, death certificates and marriage licenses and publish them online, but large collections of the documents have yet to be processed.
“If you’re just doing it from your armchair, you’re limited to what has been scanned,” Hermans said. “What has been made accessible to you.”
Nathan Miller & Graham Corrigan
The Rea family — Darryl Rea’s mother, Susan Lasko, back left; Johnathan Rea, back center; Darryl Rea, back right; Cory Rea, front left; Olly Rea, center; and Levi Rea, front right — pose for a family portrait during a wedding at Faith Bible Chapel in Millerton on Saturday, July 25, just hours before Olly’s death.
MILLERTON — A 2-year-old boy died Saturday evening after falling into an unsecured septic tank at a church in Millerton.
The toddler, Olly Rea, was playing in the yard at Faith Bible Chapel on Silver Mountain Road at about 6:45 p.m. Saturday when he wandered away from his parents and fell into a septic tank with an unsecured cover, his parents, Johnathan and Darryl Rea, said.
The family had been attending a wedding at the church that day, which started around noon. Partygoers were cleaning up leftover food and packing up yard furniture following the reception when Olly disappeared, his parents said.
“We were sitting right there in the backyard and our little Olly was just walking around right next to us,” Darryl said. “Then all of a sudden he was gone and we couldn’t find him.”
Johnathan immediately began searching the area and enlisted help from the other guests when he couldn’t find his son. Darryl said the group began assisting in the search, driving up and down Silver Mountain Road and scouring through neighboring fields adjacent to the churchyard and across the road.
After several minutes of searching, assistant pastor John Wolfe reportedly decided to check the septic tank cover near the church after one of the guests informed him of a strange noise coming from the area.
“I mow around it, I walk across it — we never gave the septic tank a second thought,” Wolfe told the Millerton News. “I didn’t even know the lid could move. And then I lifted it up and thought, ‘that was entirely too easy.’”
Wolfe then discovered Olly inside the tank and lifted the child out by his leg. After Olly was pulled from the tank, medical personnel arrived at the scene and began life-saving measures, Johnathan and Darryl said.
“There was a doctor, there were medical students and retired nurses,” Darryl said. “Nobody could do anything.”
Dutchess County Sheriff’s Capt. John Watterson said in an email Monday, July 27, that Olly was reportedly in the septic tank for about 10 minutes before he was discovered. Medical personnel attempted to save his life both at the scene and at Sharon Hospital in neighboring Connecticut, but the attempts were unsuccessful and the boy was pronounced dead after arriving at the hospital.
The official cause of death has yet to be determined. No charges have been filed, and the investigation is ongoing, Watterson said.
Johnathan and Darryl said they have been attending services and social functions at Faith Bible Chapel for nearly four years. They described the congregation as their second family, a tightknit community that looked out for one another and socialized together often.
Olly had been a regular fixture at Faith Bible Chapel since he was three days old, his parents said. Olly’s bubbly and happy personality was a hit with the congregants.
“This wasn’t a new place for him,” said Wolfe’s daughter Bethany Wolfe. “He grew up here.”
They said about 50 people, including other children, were in attendance at the time of Olly’s disappearance, and there was no indication of any potential danger in the yard. The septic tank was located about 10 feet away from where most of the party had been taking place, Johnathan said.
“Not since day one did we ever fear anything there,” Darryl said.
The Reas described their son’s death as avoidable and questioned why the lid to the septic tank was unsecured. Wolfe said the tank was most recently pumped in March, and the church did not receive any notice from the septic company regarding the lid’s security.
Witnesses on scene secured the septic tank cover with screws after Olly was retrieved at the direction of first responders, his parents said.
Johnathan and Darryl said the church community has come together to support each other since the tragedy. The following Sunday morning, the Reas and other congregants gathered at the church for a prayer service for Olly and to celebrate the family’s oldest son’s seventh birthday in an attempt to find hope and peace despite the loss.
“We wanted things to be kind of normal for him as much as possible because you don’t want a tragedy to overshadow your son’s birthday,” Darryl said. “It was a lot of emotions but they tried their best to give him a good birthday along with us.”
Olly’s parents said they hope their son’s death can lead to a positive outcome. They called for greater attention and regulation of septic tanks, expressing frustration that such a hazard could exist in a public place that often hosts families and children.
“It’s just absolutely devastating and it’s horrific,” Darryl said. “You don’t want this to happen to anybody, let alone yourself.”
Nathan Miller
Screws secure the cover of the septic tank at Faith Bible Chapel after the death of 2-year-old Olly Rea.
MILLERTON — Just three days after he was born, Johnathan and Darryl Rea introduced their son, Olly, to their church family at Faith Bible Chapel.
Over the next two years, Olly became a familiar face at the church alongside his brothers, 7-year-old Cory and 10-month-old Levi. His parents said the congregation on Silver Mountain Road outside Millerton became a home away from home for their young family.
That close-knit church family gathered Saturday, July 25, for a wedding and reception. The celebration turned tragic when 2-year-old Olly wandered out of sight and fell into a septic tank. He later died after being transported to Sharon Hospital.
Now, the family and the congregation are mourning the loss of a bright, smiling boy whose parents said brought light and joy to the community.
“Olly was a light wherever he went,” Johnathan said. “If he smiled at you, you just had to smile. He was the most beautiful, loving little boy there was. He never cried, never. He loved everybody to death.”
Johnathan and Darryl moved to Millerton in 2020 shortly after the birth of their first son, Corey, to be closer to Darryl’s mother. The couple had been married for two years at that point, and the death of Darryl’s father in 2018 prompted them to move to the area to help care for her mother.
Darryl is a lifelong resident of Dutchess County, raised in Rhinebeck, New York. Johnathan was raised by his grandfather, a military servicemember, and moved around the United States through his childhood.
After moving to Millerton, Darryl stayed home to care for Cory, her mother, and a longtime family friend who now lives at The Fountains at Millbrook, an assisted living facility. Johnathan worked as a driver for Watson Livery until recently, when he returned to his passion for electrical work.
Over the past six years, Johnathan and Darryl welcomed two more boys to their family. Olly, in July 2024, and Levi last year in September. The family found the community at Faith Bible Chapel about four years ago, Darryl said, and they quickly became regular members of the community there.
“There’s a giant church family there,” Darryl said. “You walk through the doors and you just feel so welcomed and loved.”
Olly’s death on Saturday, just a day before his brother Corey’s seventh birthday, rocked the congregation. Bethany Wolfe, daughter of Faith Bible Chapel’s assistant pastor John Wolfe and a member of the church’s staff, said the toddler delighted congregants of all ages.
“I’ll never forget when they brought him here the first time,” she said. “He had his first birthday party here. He grew up here, and we would go out to the playground in the backyard every week.”
Wolfe said the church will host a celebration of life for Olly on Monday, Aug. 3, at 10:30 a.m. at Faith Bible Chapel. The church is located at 222 Silver Mountain Road outside of Millerton.
Additional reporting provided by Graham Corrigan.
Nathan Miller
The former Roe-Jan Center School on Route 22 in north Copake was abandoned in 1999. Developers are proposing turning the building into a resort and spa.
COPAKE — The long-abandoned Roe-Jan Center School could soon be transformed into a large hotel and wellness resort.
Engineer Alan Didio of Chatham and architect Paul Bennett of New York City are currently before Copake’s Zoning Board of Appeals with a proposal to turn the 41-acre site into a hotel and resort. The plans include a 97-room hotel in the former school building, 31 standalone lodges and cabins containing an additional 77 guest rooms, three restaurants, two bars, a spa, Pilates and yoga studios, a gym, saunas and steam rooms, a farm store with on-site greenhouses, retail shops including a bakery and an ice cream shop, two swimming pools, two hot tubs, a pickleball court, and a tennis court.
The school building was abandoned in 1999 when the Taconic Hills Central School District consolidated operations into a Craryville, New York, campus. It is currently owned by Markland Columbia LLC, which purchased the property for $500,000 in 2014.
The proposal calls for renovating the existing buildings on the property, with additions to the former school to accommodate hotel rooms, dining areas, and many of the resort’s amenities, including the spa, gym, bars, and retail space.
New construction will stretch around the outside edge of the property that sits along the west side of Route 22 between Copake and Hillsdale. Drawings show a planned road running around the perimeter of the property providing access to 15 lodges with between three and five bedrooms. Walking paths will lead to 16 additional smaller lodges, with one to two bedrooms each, planned to line a new retention pond that is to be located in the southern portion of the property.
All together, the lodge buildings will total more than 64,000 square feet of new building footprint on the property. That’s in addition to the 97-room, 82,000-square-foot hotel that is planned to occupy the abandoned school and an addition to the building.
The proposal is still in its early stages, having first been introduced to Copake’s Zoning Board of Appeals at that board’s May 28 meeting. The proposal is currently undergoing a public hearing at the Zoning Board of Appeals, which began on Thursday, July 23, at Copake Town Hall.
Gina White, who operates Mandala Yoga & Arts in a building just south of the abandoned school, said she’s waiting to watch the development move through regulatory processes before forming an opinion on the project.
Generally, though, White thinks the plans are likely to be positive for the area. “It’s a resort town,” she said.
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Joseph Brennan
George Bistransin points out a headstone marking the final resting place of Ephraim Paine in the Old Amenia Burying Ground.
AMENIA — When Amenia resident George Bistransin stumbled across a century-old newspaper account describing the arrest of a Revolutionary War spy in his hometown, he couldn’t stop thinking about it. That discovery inspired Amenia’s Spycatcher, an original historical play that will debut Aug. 21-23 at the Amenia Town Hall Theater as part of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration.
The play tells the story of Ephraim Paine and his wife, Mary, who are buried today in the Old Amenia Burying Ground on Mygatt Road. Bistransin wrote, directed and produced the play, hoping to transport audiences back to the late 18th century through historically accurate language, characters and settings.
“It was my hope that when people enter that theater that they are back in the 18th Century,” Bistransin said. “No anachronisms, only old-fashioned language.”
The inspiration struck after Bistransin, 70, read an article from a 1900 edition of the Amenia Times recounting the arrest of a Revolutionary War spy.
History has shaped much of Bistransin’s life. Before writing Amenia’s Spycatcher, he translated plays by Roman playwright Plautus for schools.
Bistransin said the play has occupied months of his life and is the latest expression of his lifelong fascination with history.
He said he wants Amenia to understand Paine and the conflicts in his life. “I think it is an examination of relationships,” Bistransin said. “Romantic love versus familial love, duty, the sacrifice you have to make for other people.”
Paine fled Connecticut to avoid paying taxes to a state church and went to sea as a whaler to avoid debtor’s prison. Bistransin based much of his tale on the account offered by Paine’s descendant, Martha Bockee Flint, who wrote the article recounting the story of her great-great-great stepmother, who risked her life for colonial freedom.
The playwright also drew on the journal of the wife of a German general who fought for the British at Saratoga and passed through Amenia as a prisoner of war.
Bistransin described the play as his gift to the town. He spearheaded the production with the help of a $15,000 Dutchess County grant secured by Betsy Strauss and the Amenia Historical Society. Bistransin took on writing, directing, producing and casting the play largely by himself.
Bistransin acknowledged a few key helpers along the way. Anna Bonelli illustrated the posters that now advertise the show across town. Town Hall custodian John Nowak found the scenery and lighting from local resident David Palmieri. Town librarian Victoria Herow helped research the obscure historical figure.
Long before this play, Bistransin started his professional career as a park ranger in Boston overseeing burial grounds. After a stint teaching Latin, he founded Theater Ludicrum, where he learned from Roman drama how playwriting works.
Eventually he grew tired of city life and sought broader pastures, bringing him to Amenia in 2016. While working as a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he remembers saying to himself, “I don’t want to die in a railroad apartment in Queens.”
He rode the train to the end of the line and found a place to raise goats like his sister did in Ohio. Since then, Bistransin has volunteered with the Amenia Historical Society. He also helps maintain the Old Amenia Burying Ground, where Paine and other Revolution-era Amenia residents are buried.
Bistransin jokes that he has been as stubborn as his billy goat, Ferdinand, in seeing the production through. He also knows that taking on nearly every aspect of the play leaves little room to blame anyone else if it falls short.
“An actor does a good job in a well-made play,” he said. “I made all the decisions. Not only am I comfortable with that, but I don’t want any interference. If it’s bad, it’s my fault.”
Despite the pressure, Bistransin said he feels fortunate to have had the opportunity to tell an overlooked chapter of Amenia’s history and hopes residents will come out to experience it. “I feel so lucky to have this opportunity,” he said.
Nathan Miller
MILLERTON — A local boarding school’s efforts to receive current formal approval for its buildings received support from neighbors and faculty of the institution at the first public hearing in the Planning Board approval process.
Olivet Academy, which took over the former Kildonan School campus in 2020, is seeking a special use permit, certificates of occupancy for all campus buildings, and approval of its existing septic systems to satisfy current state Department of Education requirements for private boarding schools.
Architect Ray Nelson, representing the school, told the Planning Board on Wednesday, July 22, that the state now requires schools to provide current certificates of occupancy for all campus buildings under the operating institution’s name. Because the campus predates modern permitting requirements, many of its buildings were never issued formal permits or certificates of occupancy.
The campus has operated as a school since it was built in 1940, first as the Barlow School and later as the Kildonan School from 1980 until the institution closed in 2019. Nelson said the current application is intended to formally document and legalize longstanding uses of the property rather than expand or substantially alter the campus.
Wednesday night’s meeting marked the first public hearing on the application, marking a step toward approval that will bring the historic school into formal legal compliance for the first time since its construction over 80 years ago.
Betsy Strauss, a longtime neighbor of the property, and her husband, Julian, spoke in support of the school and its efforts to obtain formal approval. She said Olivet has been a good neighbor and she’s delighted to live in a neighborhood surrounded by schools on both sides.
Strauss’s property is bordered on the west by Olivet Academy and on the east by the Webutuck Central School District campus.
“It’s very nice to know that we’ve got people who are serious about their work and are good neighbors,” Strauss said.
Milo Tsukroff — a Pleasant Valley, New York, resident and math instructor at the school — said he has taught at the school for five years and loves the community.
He said Olivet students excel in and out of school, and that the presence of the boarding school and Webutuck’s campus in such close proximity qualifies that section of town around Morse Hill Road and Haight Road as a de facto education district.
“Graduates return to this school and tell us they’re college math classes are too easy because they learned math at Olivet,” Tsukroff said.
Planning Board members opted to keep the public hearing open pending approvals from outside agencies for outstanding issues such as approval of an existing septic system and building department certification. The next public hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 12, at 7:35 p.m. at the North East Town Hall on Maple Avenue.
Madi Long
Ariel Grald rides Adagio’s Nobility around the showjumping ring at the 41st annual Millbrook Horse Trials on Sunday, July 26. The Millbrook Horse Trials is an annual event that combines dressage, showjumping and cross-country.
Ariel Grald rides Adagio’s Nobility around the showjumping ring at the 41st annual Millbrook Horse Trials on Sunday, July 26. The Millbrook Horse Trials is an annual event that combines dressage, showjumping and cross-country.
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