Delaware County NY Genealogy and History Site

Note: - Bernice Mable Graham Telian has been Historian for the Town of Meredith in Delaware County since January 1997. She has published 3 books, one, a 450 page Bicentennial Book in 2000 - Two Hundred Years of Rolling Suns. Bernice used Hannah Munn's epitaph to inspire the title of this bicentennial book. She calls it a miracle - the first time she went to the cemetery, the stone was not there. After the workers had cleared the cemetery of tremendous brush, etc. they found it, broken in two. When she went back, she was able to read it.

One thousand copies of the book , a Town of Meredith Board Project, were printed. There are some still available at a cost of $30.00 plus $5.50 shipping. Orders should be sent to Bernice Graham Telian, Historian; 10413 County Highway 14; Delhi, NY 13753.

Following is the review that was in "Kaatskill Life."

From "Kaatskill Life"
BOOKS IN REVIEW

Pages of History

Two Hundred Years of Rolling Suns
Meredith Township 1800-2000.
Bernice Mable Graham Telian
(The Reporter Company, Inc., softcover, illustrated 450 pages. $30)
reviewed by Marilyn Milow Francis

Bernice Mable Graham Telian has accomplished the kind of task that most of us promise to tackle some day but which few actually complete: to organize family photos and recollections into a keepsake album for future generations to cherish. Her undertaking was especially monumental, and thus noteworthy, in that she took on the history of an entire town.

Written for this year's bicentennial celebration of the founding of the Town of Meredith in Delaware County, Two Hundred Years of Rolling Suns is Telian's biography of the town of which she is a lifelong resident. Telian began the project with the backing of Meredith's Town Board and her accomplishment was to be the realization of the dream of Pearl Barker Johnson, Telian's predecessor as town historian. As Telian explains in her Preface, She had talked of it for years. When her health began to fail, she prevailed upon me to do the task. Pearl had been Meredith's original historian for eighteen years. Pursuant to her recommendation, I was appointed historian in January 1997.

Pearl never knew how deep my roots are in our history. My devotion to the history of Meredith is real.

To convey the scope of the town's history from settlement in 1800 to present day, the author compiled family histories in both written and visual form. Included is copious material (letters, documents, archival-type photographs, etc.) gleaned from contemporary descendants of early Meredith settlers. That the author extends apologies to families she may have inadvertently overlooked hardly seems necessary because of her efforts to be all-inclusive. To these recollections, Telian adds her own, including talks she has given and articles written on a range of subjects about Meredith's history.

In one of her articles, "Naming Meredith," Teiian makes the case for correcting the belief that the town was named for one Samuel Meredith of Philadelphia. She contends it was named after Reese, Samuel's father, who was a wealthy Philadelphia merchant and a personal friend of General George Washington. The story is told that Reese Meredith once saw George Washington at a coffee house in Philadelphia and was so impressed with his humble and genteel demeanor, he invited him home to dine on fresh venison that evening. They were bonded in friendship the rest of their lives... When George Washington become President he appointed Reeses son, Samuel, as the first Treasurer of the Union, she writes.

The progression of a township's life and times, from earliest settlement to present day, best comes alive through photographs of its residents - those families and individuals who through sheer hard work forged a strong community - and its buildings (those that still stand and others but a memory). Its sacrifices and losses are indelibly etched on the rolls of those men and women who lost their lives fighting for their country and in the poignant headstones in small rural cemeteries. Its successes and failures, commerce and industry, happy times and sad occasions meld together over the years to connect today's generation to its predecessors. By presenting all these elements in her book, Telian's home town comes alive for the reader.

For a township to continue to thrive, its citizens must recall the past that provided the building blocks for the path ahead. This will be the legacy of Two Hundred Years of Rolling Suns, which will be an important resource for researchers. It is unfortunate that neither a table of contents nor index is included, which would make it easier to quickly refer to family names, for example.