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."
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Historical association celebrates Otsego County's hop history
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