Wallace Van Houten Retires as Schoharie County Historian;
Harold Zoch of Middleburgh Appointed to Succeed Him

Schoharie County Historian Wallace Van Houten of Fulton retired Dec. 31, 2001 after five years of service.

Harold Zoch of Middleburgh, a former chair and president of the Historical Society, was appointed by the Board of Supervisors on Feb. 15, 2002, to succeed Mr. Van Houten. Mr. Zoch is also the Society’s archaeology and historic structures consultant.

Wally feels his biggest accomplishment as county historian was sorting and finding a home for about 30 boxes of materials he inherited from his predecessor, Mildred L. Bailey. The job took two or three years. Wally and his wife Sylvia sorted the materials into seven categories. Mildred was also Jefferson town historian and Jefferson materials were returned to that town.

Genealogical materials were sorted and taken to the Old Stone Fort library, where 250 vertical files were added to make a total of about 650, Wally said.

Cemetery materials were used in the Historical Society’s cemetery project, which Wally lists as another of his accomplishments. But he said he would have been involved in the project even if he were not county historian. The project located over 400 cemeteries in the county and published a book listing them. If a cemetery had less than 20 graves, they were recorded.

Wally also held regular meetings of local historians, so they could exchange ideas and share experiences. Meetings were held semi-annually the first few years, then annually.

“I really enjoyed reading the letters,” Wally said, adding that he had already given four or five new ones to Mr. Zoch.

Harold said he has already taken care of two of the letters and loves one from a fourth grade pupil in Ithaca whose class is researching the state’s counties. “He is going to get a lot of leaflets,” said Harold.

Harold was a scientist at Knolls Atomic Power Lab before retiring but his avocations have been history, archaeology and architecture for years. A trustee of the Schoharie County Historical Society since the 1960s, he served terms as chairman and president, and was volunteer curator at the Old Stone Fort for two years and interim executive director for about six months.

He has been curator of the Best House medical exhibit in Middleburgh for 10 years and served as president of both the capital district’s Van Epps-Hartley chapter of New York State Archaeology Association and the Dutch Barn Preservation Society.

The letter from the Ithaca fourth grader fits nicely into one of Harold’s goals. He is interested in getting more history into education and plans to encourage schools and work with history teachers.

Harold chaired the cemetery project that Wally worked on and wants to enlarge the database and make it available by computer for genealogy research. “Its time to put it on the computer,” he said.

Our new county historian is also interested in protecting historic sites in the county, and he plans to talk with supervisors about what can and should be done in that area.

Although Harold does not now plan to continue the meetings of local historians that Wally started, he said he may do so later and he plans to support town and village historians as needed.

Mr. Zoch may be reached at P.O. Box 732. Middleburgh N.Y. 12122.

Lasell Hall Is Placed on the National Register of Historic Places

Lasell Hall, the home of the Schoharie chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, has been listed on both the state and national registers of historic places.

The attractive 1795 building on Main Street, Schoharie, was added to the state register last November. Town Historian Anne Hendrix was notified in January that it had also been added to the national register.

The building is situated on a 7.65-acre parcel and was originally a tavern. Over the years it has been a hat factory, home, and boarding house for academy students. It was given to the D.A.R in 1913 and since then has been used as a meeting house, public library and temporary school.

Three Different Internet Addresses Access Society’s Web Pages

Access to your Society’s site on the World Wide Web is now more direct and, we hope, easier. Three simplified Web addresses go directly to three different pages on our site.

WWW.SchoharieHistory.Org goes directly to the Society page while WWW.TheOldStoneFort.Org goes directly to the museum page. WWW.SchoharieHistory.Net leads into those and other pages on our site including a long list of links to historical and genealogical resources. During January and February, our site was visited more than 60 times daily, up from an average of 45 daily in December and 35 in November. The library pages and site search engine are being used extensively by genealogy researchers.