I recently read The Sesquicentennial Anniversary of Nelsonville, a small book put together in 2005 by the Nelsonville 150 Committee. I am teaching a 10 week class through the Brewster Community Learning Center on Putnam’s history and hikes, and I am an admitted amateur. I like history, but I am just a local guy that finds this stuff interesting and I like to share it will other people. No history training. Heck, I failed history in high school (maybe more than once) because I refused to do homework. So I needed to brush up on my local history.
I got in touch with Nelsonville’s town historian, Jon Bradley, and he gave me a copy of the book. It’s a quick read, but does a good job of conveying the community of Nelsonville and its history – how and when the village started, the history of the local Masonic Lodge, local churches, the Fish & Fur Club, the Fire Department, the Post Office, local businesses, local stories and local heroes – like Albert Ireland who received NINE Purple Hearts from WWII and Korean War service. It also has a self-guided walking tour you can use to tour the town, and has some great photos of old places and people of Nelsonville.
I’ll see what I can do about getting a PDF of the walking tour. I’ll post it here if I do.