PINE PLAINS — Most people have tried square dancing at least once in their lives, usually during their elementary school years. However, square dancing is not just an activity for children. At the Seymour Smith Intermediate Learning Center on Academy Street in Pine Plains square dancing is a popular pastime for adults. The Tri-Mountain Western Square Dance Club has been gathering at the school for dances and classes longer than most members can remember. Every Tuesday night anyone can attend for square dancing classes, and then the first and third Friday of every month the club has dances where participants can test their skills. The dances are from 7:30 to 10 p.m., and all club members bring refreshments. One can either pay to become a member of the Tri-Mountain Western Square Dance club or they can pay a fee per dance, usually around $5, which pays the dance caller and for refreshments. “It’s the most inexpensive thing you can do,“ said Nancy Finkle, who has been square dancing with her husband, Gary Finkle, since 1976. The couple of 55 years is from Red Hook, and has square danced in Hawaii, Bermuda and aboard cruise ships in the past. “This is western style square dancing,” said Nancy. “The old-time dance, what they call the eastern style, you didn’t really have to go to lessons for because you started with one couple and then the next couple did the same thing, so by the time you got to the fourth couple you knew what you were doing. Here everyone kind of moves at the same time so you have to go to a year of classes [to learn the steps].”Nancy said the club usually has two or three squares at their dances. In square dancing there are eight people per square and each person has a partner. The caller is the person who announces the choreography and has a microphone to announce which moves to do in synch with the music. Internationally, square dance calling is always in English. During the dance dancers may switch partners and squares as they go along, however by the end of the dance one almost always ends up at their original square with their original partner. “The funny thing I’ve been finding out after all these years is that there are a lot of square dancers and callers that either are or were involved in teaching math,” said Sandy Corey, caller and teacher for the Tri-Mountain Western Square Dance Club. “They teach mostly high school math because of the symmetry of the square, which is what happens on one half of the square and then it happens on the other half. That’s what I wanted to do, I wanted to be a high school math teacher.”Corey is from Hopewell Junction and has been calling for square dances for 27 years; she started in 1985. “My parents started to square dance the year before I did. I went with my husband at the time as a thing to do to help our marriage,” said Corey. It didn’t help her relationship and she stopped taking lessons, but her parents continued, said Corey.“I went back the following year on my own and I loved it; I thought it was great,” said Corey. “About six years later callers in the area were getting older and many were moving south to the warm weather. Plus, there were not any new callers coming up since everyone was getting older. A local caller decided to have a class to teach some of us who were interested how to call.”From that group there is only one other caller who is still calling today, said Corey. It’s no secret to the members of Tri-Mountain Western Square dancers that the club is struggling to bring in new members.“It’s a dying thing. We used to have a good 15 squares years ago,” said Ethel Anderson from Hyde Park, who has been square dancing for 35 years.The majority of the club members are senior citizens who have been members for many years. None of them are from Pine Plains.Gary said he remembers when square dancing was extremely popular there would be 35 squares and the caller had to stand on an 8-foot ladder so he could see everyone and make sure they made it back to their original squares. “I hate to think it’s a dying thing,” said Corey. “What I think is the younger people are too busy. Either they are married; they are living up here and maybe working in the city; or they are just too tired. I think it’s also not really known that square dancing is out there. People think, ‘Well, I did that in high school.’ It has some of that negative connotation. But then there are some who liked it in high school and had so much fun and wish they could do that again. And then some people have never heard of it.”All of the club members said they look forward to their gatherings. “It’s a lot of fun, it’s good energy, good weight reduction and good exercise,” said Nancy.At the dances both the men and women dress up in costume. The women wear long skirts called prairie skirts and men usually try and match the color of their partner. Nancy says the club has tons of costumes from past members and she lays them out if people want to wear them at the dances. It’s a sight to see the members dressed up in their costumes, with bright smiles as they dance around the room, but joining in is even more fun. The Tri-Mountain Western Squares encourages anyone who stops by to try it out. “It’s just fun, it’s not hard and it gets easier as you go along,” said Nancy.
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One systemic consequence of slavery is the loss and obscuring of the histories of those who were enslaved. Records were often not kept about where Africans had been stolen from or who they were related to. Families were torn apart, leaving nothing but the faintest traces of the past. The delineation point, where genealogists can no longer trace histories back, is refered to this as the “document wall.”
Today, 250 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence and more than 160 years since the Emancipation Proclamation, there is a growing effort to restore some of the history stripped from enslaved people and their descendants. Among the leaders of these efforts is Mills, president of the Alex Breanne Corporation, a nonprofit organization that works to identify previously anonymous Black Americans from history and connect them with their living relatives.
The work began with Mills’ sister, who started digging into their family’s past in the 1990’s and introduced him to this emerging world of genealogy. Through that process, the Mills family discovered their great-great-grandfather, Ned Mills, who had been enslaved in Texas. His last name came from his final enslaver and remains the family surname. Through their research, they found that the document wall directly affected their ancestor, who learned of his liberation on June 19, 1865, now commemorated as Juneteenth.
“For the first time,” Mills writes on his website, “American slavery wasn’t something that had happened to anonymous people in a history book. It had happened to my family.”
The discovery gave Mills a familial pride he had been missing for years. That pride fueled his desire to help others find their own history. In 2023, Mills received his certificate in genealogical research from Boston University. He has used his expertise to help descendants of enslaved people uncover histories they never dreamed of learning.
To do this, he uses a process called “reverse genealogy,” identifying a person from the past and working forward to discover their descendants. Along the way, Mills has found some remarkable people who fought for freedom on American soil, some of whom were never freed.
Pay Bill for Robin Starr’s service in the Continental Army.Courtesy the Alex Breanne Corporation
At the Cornwall Historical Society event, Mills will present the stories of four Connecticut families: Job Lathrop of Norwich, the son of Pirmus Armes, about whom Mills has published a book; Prince Mortimer of Middletown, also the subject of a book by Mills;, the three sons of London Wallace of Simsbury; and Robert “Robin” Starr of Danbury, who later lived in Cornwall and Sharon.
A few years ago, Cornwall Consolidated School social studies teacher Will Vincent reached out to Mills for research guidance on a local history project his students were undertaking. Together, they learned about Naomi Freeman of Cornwall. After purchasing an acre of land on Great Hollow Road in 1828, Naomi Freeman became the first Black female landowner in Cornwall.
The students petitioned the town to rename a road after the historic Cornwall resident In April 2025, Great Hollow Road was officially renamed Naomi Freeman Historic Road. U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes joined Mills and the Cornwall Consildated School students for a presentation of their research.
Since then, Mills has guided the students in their quest to learn more about Starr’s story. Starr was a Revolutionary War soldier who joined the Continental Army to earn enough money to buy his own freedom, receiving the Badge of Merit in the process. The stories of his descendents’ services are equally worthy of their own books.
In recognition of Mills and the students’ work, First Selectman Gordon Ridgway proclaimed Feb. 8 as Robin Starr Day.
Preregistration is required for the event at the Cornwall Historical Society. To learn more about Mills’ work, visit
alexbreanne.org.
John Mills speaking at Quinnipiac University.Courtesy the Alex Breanne Corporation
Stephanie Saetta runs Charlie Chicken Bones, a sanctuary in Salisbury.
Dogs have been at the center of Saetta’s life since childhood. She remembers going to the library to research different breeds and trying to convince her parents the family needed a dog. She had her heart set on an Irish Wolfhound, but she was more than happy when her mom brought home a West Highland terrier.
After college, she adopted Charlie as a puppy from a rescue on Long Island. He was a hound-shepherd-Rottweiler mix who suffered from intense seizures. Some veterinarians recommended euthanasia, but Saetta wasn’t ready to give up on him.
When Charlie would have an episode, she would sit with him, nose to nose, talking him through it. She learned to look for the moment he began to come around — when he could smell her again and his tail started to wag.
“You only get one or two of these soul connection dogs, so I do this in his honor,” Saetta said. “I like to think that all the dogs that come through are going to have that person that they connect with just the same.”
Through a network of women working to rescue animals in Texas, she learned about the desperate situations facing many dogs.
With limited space, some public pounds euthanize even healthy animals to make room. Limited access to veterinary care leaves sick dogs or unvaccinated puppies especially vulnerable.
Saetta saw that reality firsthand with a puppy named Gus, a Labrador mix she fostered who has since been adopted. Gus and his sisters had been dumped beside a road, where they were living under an abandoned car. People would leave food for them, but no one would take them to the pound.
“Even the people who rescue animals down there were like, ‘sadly, the best place for them to be is on the side of the road,’” she said. “That’s safer. Someone might actually help them that way.”
Saetta knows that there are far more dogs than any one person can save, but she also knows that helping one dog means one fewer on the street.
Stephanie Saetta,with her rescue dog George and Blue (left), a shepherd mix awaiting his forever home.Madi Long
Charlie Chicken Bone Sanctuary operates entirely through foster homes, a model that Saetta believes is best for the dogs and the humans hoping to adopt them.
Rather than moving directly from a difficult environment into a permanent home, the dogs have a chance to settle into a quieter setting. They can learn what it’s like to live with a family, sleep somewhere comfortable and receive affection without fighting for attention. Fostering also allows the rescue to really get to know each dog.
“As fosters, we’re honest,” said Saetta. We’ll tell you everything that’s been bad, everything that’s been good. What their temperament is and how they’ve responded to all the things they’ve experienced.”
A successful adoption is not just about finding a dog a home; it’s about finding the right home where the dog and family can thrive together.
Saetta is looking for more people willing to open their homes to foster dogs. She understands that the thought of growing attached and eventually saying goodbye can feel daunting. But she sees that goodbye a little differently.
Fostering means being part of a dog’s journey, even if only for a short time. It gives dogs a safe place to rest, the chance to trust again and the love they have gone without for much of their lives. And when the time comes for them to leave, it is not really a loss. It is the reward of knowing they are moving on to a forever home.
Blue, Saetta’s current foster, is hoping to find his perfect home.
Blue, a 7 year-old Shepard mix, is waiting for his forever home. Madi Long
Now around 7 years old, Blue spent most of his life wandering the streets of Texas. People sometimes left food out for him, but his mangy, dirty coat kept them from stopping to pet him. Today, he has a chance to experience something different.
Blue is still waiting for his forever home. Saetta believes he would do best as the only dog in a household or alongside another senior dog. He will need someone willing to continue working with him on his training and understand that a dog with his history needs patience.
But what he gives in return is a whole lot of love.
“He’s so enthusiastic, he’s so excited for life, he’s so friendly, and he’s got such a good heart, and he loves to cuddle,” Saetta said. “He’s a good, good, good dog.”
For more information on adopting Blue or how to foster, visit ccbsanctuary.org.
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