Maureen Koehl's Archives

Keeping History Alive
By Lewisboro Ledger on August 9, 2012

Thank you, Ms. Koehl!

“My interest in local history has blossomed over the years,” Town Historian Maureen Koehl told The Ledger last week at her charming 1809 home in South Salem hamlet. “Part of my job involves teaching and answering inquiries from the public, but I have found out over the years that I have learned as much from people as they have learned from me.”

Ms. Koehl, a retired elementary school teacher, and her husband, Al, have lived in their historic home since 1969.

“Both of us wanted a vintage home and the price was right,” she said. Perched on a small hill above the junction of Spring Street and Boutonville Road, the barn-red home has nine rooms and five original fireplaces. The Koehls raised their four children there and have lovingly restored the structure, dubbed “The Funny Farm,” over the years.

Photo: Lewisboro Town Historian, author and journalist Maureen Koehl. Credit: Maureen Koehl.

First steps
Ms. Koehl’s path to becoming the town’s long-term historian began when she joined the fledgling Lewisboro Historical Society, headed by Lillian Bason, town historian at the time.Town Historian Maureen Koehl, at her home in South Salem built in 1809, is busy working on a number of written documents that will relay and record some of Lewisboro’s rich history.

“This sparked an interest in local history that just kept going and going,” Ms. Koehl said.

“The society died out in the early 1970s and I was totally involved with raising our three girls and a boy. I put history on the back burner, but my interest had been awakened.”

Things picked up when former Town Supervisor Al Jordan was appointed town historian in 1980 and enlisted Ms. Koehl’s assistance in compiling and publishing A History of the Town of Lewisboro, 1731-1981.

“This was a major effort that involved many people and it was designed to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the town of Lewisboro,” Ms. Koehl said.

Her official duties as town historian began in 1985 when then-Town Supervisor Robert Neukirch interviewed Ms. Koehl for the spot and she was appointed by the next supervisor, Joann Simon. “This was in 1986 and it was a one-year appointment,” Ms. Koehl said. “I have been reappointed every year since.”

Myriad duties
Ms. Koehl said her duties as town historian cover several areas.
“First, there is research and writing about the history of the town, what I call the interpretation of the past,” she said. “I also do programs in the schools and make public presentations on aspects of town history. Then there is historic preservation of things like archives, deeds, manuscripts, diaries and day books. Finally, there is something called ‘organization and advocacy,’ where I lobby for state initiatives in the area of history that might be of benefit to the town.”

Ms. Koehl said she spends the most time on research and writing and answering genealogical questions. She also wrote a regular column for The Ledger for a number of years.

Writing is a facet of her work that Ms. Koehl thoroughly enjoys. She has published three books: The Images of America — Lewisboro; Lewisboro Ghosts; and Remembering Lewisboro, a collection of her Ledger columns. She is now working on a fourth book — Images of America, Ward Pound Ridge Reservation.

“I am now looking for old photos of the reservation, so anyone reading this could help me out by contacting me if they have anything on hand,” she said.

Ms. Koehl said all of her books are richly illustrated with historical photos. “I enjoyed doing all of them and would love to do Lewisboro Ghosts, Part Two. I am also currently working on compiling the collection of diaries of former Cross River Postmaster Chapman Miller. He has several books that span the 1930s and 1940s and they contain some wonderful historical information about the town and its people.”

Yet another project Ms. Koehl has in the hopper is preparing the 550-page Getty Van Norden manuscript for publication. The Rev. Van Norden, who headed the South Salem Presbyterian Church for a number of years starting about 1892 and later owned the Horse and Hound Inn, was very active in the local real estate market, buying many properties in the area, including what was then called Truesdale Estates.

“The 550 pages are typed out on a 1927 typewriter and are a treasure-trove of information about many of the houses built before 1850 in the South Salem hamlet area,” Ms. Koehl said. “There is a lot of information for people that own homes of this era and I think it is a very valuable document.”

Ms. Koehl is now in the process of getting the document retyped, footnoted, indexed and then published.

More projects
The industrious Ms. Koehl is also working with the town’s cable television coordinator Henri Wolfe on a video series called Walk Around Lewisboro.

“Basically, we are shooting videos of each individual hamlet,” she said. “We are focusing on historic elements, but modern ones as well. So far we have completed South Salem, Cross River and Lewisboro Hamlet, with Goldens Bridge, Waccabuc and Vista to come. We are going to do a final one on all the places we may have missed and are open to suggestions. They will all air on LCTV, Channel 20.”

Ms. Koehl said she also enjoys getting out into the community to teach and lecture.

“I love to talk to the different Scout troops, seniors and other community groups,” she said. “I have made presentations at the Lewisboro Library and am always happy to do more. I would also love to do more programs in our schools.”

On the town front, Ms. Koehl said she is hoping to convince officials to rehang a historical fresco depicting the original 1872 Keeler House back on a wall of the “new” Town House. “The fresco originally hung over the fireplace in the old Keeler House and I think the time has come to put it back up,” she said.

Another initiative Ms. Koehl would like to pursue is acquiring better storage space for the town records and archives under her care.

“We need space that is temperature-controlled, waterproof and fireproof,” she said. “Our archives are currently at my office at Onatru, under tarps, and hopefully safe during ongoing construction. But we need something better — this is for the whole town and its collective history and memories. It should be properly preserved.”

Information: 763-3326 or funnyfarm2.ss@verizon.net.

It is both an honor and a privilege for the entire Lake Kitchawan community to have Lewisboro Town Historian, author and journalist Maureen Koehl's works from her years at the Lewisboro Ledger now available for all readers of this website to enjoy.

Many thanks to Ms. Koehl for her generosity and eagerness to provide the Lake Kitchawan Association with her comprehensive authorization to republish, on this website's pages, all of her work from that newspaper during her time there.

Initially, our goal is to reproduce her Lake Kitchawan-related pieces here over the course of the next few months (see those story links, down below, as they're made available on our web pages); then, moving forward, to provide the balance of her Ledger articles on the website.

Ms. Koehl has also granted us, on a case-by-case basis, the right to reproduce portions of her four books here at LakeKitchawan.com. We are selling those books on her behalf over at the Lake Kitchawan Online General Store (see links, down below). Obviously, one of the most tangible ways we could acknowledge our gratitude to Maureen would be to purchase them. So, what are you waiting for? Here's THE LINK to our General Store.

Again, Ms. Koehl, a big "thank you" from the many hundreds of us that call this neighborhood our home. Indeed, our very understanding of the meaning of the word, "home," would be greatly diminished were it not for all of your efforts over the years to fully convey to us a much richer definition of it.

Most sincerely,

The Entire Lake Kitchawan Community