One historian’s curious journey into the past|
brings the Hilltown community along for the ride



BERNE — After two years of searching through attics and cellars, making countless phone calls, and having conversations with many in the community, Will Osterhout smiles to remember the discoveries he made, the relationships he formed, and the stories he heard while gathering information for his book.

Life Along the Way, A Pictorial History of the Hamlets of Berne, the second of Osterhout’s books on local history, is a compilation of photographs and artifacts from Berne and its neighboring hamlets covering a century from the 1850’s to the 1950’s.

The book will be on sale this Saturday during Berne Heritage Day — a celebration of the town’s history that includes everything from food and music to fireworks. Osterhout will be on hand to sign his book.
"I got just as much out of making the book as anyone else who reads it," Osterhout said.

The project, which began with a photo album collection provided by Allen and Millie Burton, led him to learn more in two years than he had learned in the last 34, he said.
"And when I was younger, history was the farthest thing from my mind," he said.

In putting the book together, Osterhout himself took a journey, learning about his family’s past and his community’s heritage.

Help from the community

Creating the book was an adventure, Osterhout says. His quest for material and artifacts took him to many homes, places, and many people he wouldn’t have known existed.

Throughout the process of gathering material, Osterhout visited many people, most of them between the ages of 70 and 90. The oldest man he spoke with was 93, the oldest woman 92.

Osterhout says many family collections contained more than photographs. Residents also stumbled upon items they did not know still existed — restaurant menus, legal papers, bills, ledgers, hand-written notes, journals, and old recipes and remedies.
"It’s amazing what people found, what they kept," he said. "And it’s exciting to find a new source; it’s very rewarding."

Osterhout, who is retired, says there wasn’t a set schedule in acquiring artifacts from contributors. It would take months for certain people to uncover what had been stored away and forgotten.

Whenever people found artifacts from their family collections, he said, the interest was great, and they’d continue looking and find more and more.
"People got very excited to see that I was excited about the photographs they had. Many people were afraid of what would happen to the photographs once they were gone," he said.

Throughout his search, Osterhout said, he discovered each person had the same problem with the photographs they found — there were family members they couldn’t identify.
"It’s important to write down what you know when you know it," he said. "It’s sad," he added, "that these people are gone, and nobody remembers who they are. It’s as if they didn’t exist."

Though he doesn’t yet have a plan for a third book, Osterhout is continuing his search throughout the community for artifacts, and encourages Berne residents to bring him anything they have.
"I don’t want anything left behind," he said.

He encourages members of the community to jot down what they know, especially the names of their relatives, and to share their artifacts so that a historical account can be preserved.

The artifacts, he said, are aging, quite brittle, and soon will be unidentifiable.

To make Life Along the Way, Osterhout scanned ephemera and photographs onto his computer, even the pictures which were printed on glass and tin.
"People were so great, so gracious," Osterhout said of those who took the time and made the effort to gather their family’s artifacts for publication in his book.
"The pride all these folks had — that was so impressive," he said.

The Berne Historical Society, Osterhout said, also played an essential role by providing him access to its archives.
"They were gracious to let me look at what they had. Their cooperation was key to this book being what it is," he said.
The difficulty, he said, was determining what would be included in the book. "It’s 440 pages," he said. "It had to remain affordable."

The hefty paperback book has eight-by-ten pages and is over an inch thick. It sells for $35.

While most of the book is pictures and ephemera, the last two chapters feature reminisces of long-time residents and excerpts from early editions of The Altamont Enterprise.

Discovering the past

The countless photographs and artifacts led Osterhout to uncover many things, the most important being his own heritage.

He discovered the habits of Berne residents, the ways people used to remedy illnesses, and what they did for recreation. He also discovered the entrepreneurial spirit of his great-grandfather, Milton Hart, who built the first hotel on Thompson’s Lake, and he learned of the marriage of one of his ancestors to a Warner, the name of another local lake.

At the beginning of the 20th Century, Osterhout said, whole families posed with their automobiles and were photographed by roving professional photographers.
"Often, these were the first cars they owned," he said.

Throughout his journey, Osterhout also discovered a lifestyle and a time period which no longer exists.
"Things have changed," he said.

Many of the buildings, which had brought tourists from afar and which generated a great deal of revenue for the hamlets, are no longer standing.

The Restseekers Inn, a popular East Berne restaurant, is no more. Neither is the Lakeview Hotel, which was erected in 1876 and attracted guests to the area from London, Paris, and throughout the States.
"The hotels — these were large hotels, and they attracted people and generated enough business to sustain themselves," he said.
"Those days are gone," Osterhout said. "Kids go to Europe now for vacation. They don’t go to the lake."

Burma Shave

Osterhout, who was involved in every aspect of Life Along the Way, from finding artifacts to designing the book’s layout and cover, says he really wanted to take people back in time.
"That was why I used Burma Shave slogans on the cover of the book, and why I put them throughout. Back then, there were 7,000 Burma Shave slogans. My generation remembers them," Osterhout said.

Burma Shave, he said, was first in mass advertising. Burma Shave signs — with a series of rhyming slogans — lined freeways and travelers could get involved in the company’s advertising and be rewarded for their ideas.
"You could send in an idea for a Burma Shave slogan, and if yours was chosen, you got a case of Burma Shave," he said.

The well-remembered signs, he said, will be lining the streets near the entrances to town park this weekend on both sides.

Berne Heritage Day

This Saturday, Life Along the Way will be available for the first time to the public, and Osterhout will be signing copies. The event, which was rained out on July 22, will be at Berne Town Park.
"We’re going to be there with an old, red flatbed truck," Osterhout said. "And the Burma Shave signs are going to be on both sides as you come in."

Heritage Day will kick off at 2 p.m. with the re-enactment of a photo on the cover of Osterhout’s book. Descendents of the Bassler family pictured in the antique car will drive into the town park in a 1912 touring car dressed for the period.

Heritage Day will offer an antique car show, a Hilltown Marketplace with local produce and crafts, historical and educational displays and demonstrations, music and games, and a chicken barbecue by the Friends of the Berne Library.