Hello, friends! Happy New Year? We hope you are all doing well. First, I want to apologize to those who did not receive our Fall/Winter 2024 newsletter. The newsletter went out via email but somehow never made it out by regular mail. If you have access to our website, you will find many past issues of our newsletter including Fall/Winter 2024. In the future, if you would like us to email our newsletter to you, just email me at rick@eastfishkillhistoricalsociety.org or subscribe here.

2024 was a very busy year that concluded with our annual Christmas Open House and Annual Holiday Tea. These two events were great successes this past December. Many new people and familiar faces stopped by to help us kick off the holiday season. Our holiday tea that helps us present a scholarship each year to a History Honor Society student from John Jay High School was sold out.

As we roll into 2025, we are looking forward to kicking off our Rev War 250 celebrations, as well as presenting our annual favorites. Please mark your calendars as we will be celebrating the founding of the East Fishkill Historical Society with a 65th anniversary Spring fundraiser on Saturday, April 5th at the home of Patrick & Christine Manning. The Mannings have graciously offered their event space, The Barn at Hopeland, for our fundraising event. In addition to drinks, dinner, and a silent auction, we will feature a presentation by our special guest, Dr. Benjamin Franklin of Philadelphia. Dr. Franklin will discuss his time in Paris negotiating to convince the French to aid our cause during the American Revolution. You will find detailed information and how to purchase tickets here.

The East Fishkill Historical Society along with our history colleagues from Beacon, Fishkill, Lagrange, and the town of Wappinger as members of the Dutchess County Rev War 250 Rombout precinct committee will be collaborating on several programs that will focus on actual events that occurred here in what was known as the Rombout Precinct during the American Revolution. The towns of East Fishkill, Fishkill, Lagrange, Wappinger and the City of Beacon were all part of the Rombout Precinct which after the war became the Town of Fishkill in 1788. Over the next 125 years each of these municipalities split from the Town of Fishkill. Lagrange, 1821, East Fishkill, 1849, Wappinger, 1875, and the City of Beacon, 1913.

We are greatly looking forward to the offerings that we will be presenting this year and what we will be planning for the next 7 years as we celebrate the founding of the United States.

Please consider becoming actively involved with the East Fishkill Historical Society. With the recent loss of several key people we welcome any and all help with big or small projects. We need help with running and presenting events, assisting with our school field trips, gardening, managing our collections, operating our general store, and other site work. Please share this with any high school students that you know who are looking to fulfill their community service hours prior to graduation. Please contact rick@eastfishkillhistoricalsociety.org if you are interested. Thank you.