Historical association celebrates Otsego County's hop history

On the Bright Side

Related Photos

CSSE5ED.jpg

Discussion

COMMENTING ON STORIES:

Welcome to our story comments feature. We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including the unpopular ones. We only ask that you keep your conversations clean, civil and on the topic of the story you are commenting on.

Coinciding with our websites redesign, we launched our new story comments feature through Disqus.

Disqus gives users the ability to log into our story comments feature so that they may be able to track their conversations, receive emails when their comments get a reply or to even have your comments update onto your Facebook or Twitter accounts.

For the time being, our story comments feature will continue to have the ability to post comments anonymously. We reserve the right to require registration in the future using your name and verified email address.

Not all comments are deemed printable. Some are disqualified at the newspaper’s discretion for a number of different reasons. Please follow our Online Rules of Conduct at all times.

RULES OF CONDUCT:

We reserve the right to remove comments that are unacceptable, to wit:

1. False and inacurate statements.
2. Personal attacks. Explicit name-calling.
3. Harassing, harmful, vulgar, obscene and defamatory language.
4. Threatening statements or statements that suggest violence.
5. Hate speech of any kind.
6. Intolerant comments on religion, race, age, gender, sexual preference or disabilities.
7. Accusations of criminal activity.
8. Content that is harmful to children and minors in any way.
9. References to any type of sexual activity and other private matters.
10. Random and inflammatory statements that are off topic.
11. Advertising of any kind.
12. Typing in all caps.

WE ENCOURAGE REASONABLE AND COURTEOUS COMMENTS THAT:

1. Create conversation on issues of interest and concern to fellow readers and local community members.
2. Express opinions and contrarian views.
3. Stimulate debate with respectful language.
4. Stay within the boundaries of these rules.

WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO SUSPEND OR TERMINATE ACCESS FOR:

1. Violating any of these Online Rules of Conduct.
2. Deliberately disrupting discussions with repetitive messages, meaningless messages or spam.
3. Misrepresentation of identity or impersonating another user.

WE WELCOME:

1. Flagging violations of these rules that you observe to our attention.

MONITORING:

We monitor comments regularly Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Approval of comments outside of this time (including weekends) will be sporadic.

comments powered by Disqus

June 4, 2012

Historical association celebrates Otsego County's hop history

By Mark Simonson Contributing Writer The Daily Star Mon Jun 04, 2012, 03:30 AM EDT

Several hundred history enthusiasts enjoyed a step back in time Saturday to an era when hop growing was a bustling agricultural business in Otsego County.

Visitors took tours of the recently restored Beardslee Hop House just east of New Berlin, as part of the first annual "History Today and Tomorrow" festival, coordinated by the Otsego County Historical Association and hosted by the Beardslee family.

Albert Bullard of Milford spoke on the development of the hops industry and how the Beardslee Hop House related to that era.

Hops were grown throughout the region and sold for use in brewing beer in the Midwestern states. Brewery Ommegang provided beer tastings to let visitors experience how hops affected the taste and flavor of beers.

More than a half dozen local historians were on hand to answer personal, historical and genealogical questions about their localities.

The festival grounds were once the site of a six-acre hop farm, today owned by William and Nancy Beardslee and their children, and has been in the family for nine generations, dating back to the 1790s.

William Beardslee played the role of his great-great-grandfather, Jesse Beardslee, as "Hop Master" of the day Saturday, sharing hop stories and historical vignettes of the area.

Beardslee explained that his ancestors built a hop barn on today's site in the 1840s, and expanded it in the 1860s to what it appears like today, with a tall, pyramid-like roof. The Beardslees hop barn took in hops from several area hop yards in the New Berlin area, where they were dried, packaged and brokered. When it was hop harvest time, the hop barn was busy day and night.

When the region's hop business went on the decline in the early 20th century, the hop barn was converted into living quarters for hired hands to work on the Beardslee family farm. About ten years ago, William Beardslee hired two master craftsmen to rebuild the hop barn to the authentic look in its heyday. Both the hop barn and the Beardslee homestead are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

OCHA President Anna Buell said this is the tenth anniversary for the group. The intention is to make this festival an annual event, she said, but the site will change every year to places of historic significance across Otsego County.

"The goal of the Otsego County Historical Association," Buell said, "is to foster the history that is unique to Otsego County, and we've been true to that mission over the last ten years."