History of Sullivan County classes return
Popular Six Week Course Begins March 13 with All New Material
BARRYVILLE—The Barryville based non-profit history education group, The Delaware Company and Sullivan County Historian John Conway have announced that the popular six-week long History of Sullivan County course will once again be offered this year after a four year pause that began with the COVID pandemic.
The new course will be offered by ZOOM only. Classes will be held on Wednesday evenings from 7 – 8:30 p.m. beginning on March 13 and will feature topics never presented in the six-week courses before. The cost of the classes is $15 per person per class or $75 for all six. Pre-registration is required, and must be completed by Friday, March 1. ZOOM links will be provided upon payment of the registration fee. All proceeds from the classes benefit The Delaware Company.
The topics to be covered during the classes will include Sullivan County’s role in the American Revolution and in the cultural revolution of the 1960s, including the 1969 Woodstock festival; a look at the impact of the Civil War on Sullivan County, including the activities of pro-slavery Southern sympathizers, known as copperheads, the tanning industry that provided the boots for the Union soldiers, the devastating train wreck that killed Confederate prisoners of war and Union guards in 1864, the regiments raised in the county during the war, and Stephen Crane’s famous book about the war, Red Badge of Courage; the story of the turf war between Meyer Lansky and Waxey Gordon, known in organized crime circles as the “War of the Jews” and how it ended in White Lake in 1933; and the impact of World War II on the county, including the fascinating account of the group of Nazis intent on overthrowing the U.S. government who trained for their mission here in the 1930s, a tribute the young Sullivan County man killed at Pearl Harbor, and of Moses Kove, the Hurleyville native and Fallsburg judge who prosecuted Nazis at Nuremberg after the war.
“We’ll be covering a wide range of topics over the six weeks, and it is all new content, never touched on in these classes before,” Mr. Conway said. “People told us they wanted new and different material, and we have tried to oblige.”
For information on the course click here and to register, email John Conway, Sullivan County Historian and president of The Delaware Company.