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Awards ceremony set on June 3
A rare weaving together of the varied and rich threads of Dutchess County history will come together at the historic 1840 Collins Estate, a private home in Union Vale, on Saturday, June 3. While the main purpose of the event focuses on the three traditional Dutchess County Historical Society (DCHS) Awards for 2023, the site, and the site's family history, is extraordinary in and of itself.
A direct descendant of the Collins family that built the home, Fredrika Simpson Groff, will attend with t\vo daughters from her home in Colorado. Groff is central to the cohesiveness of the varied and intricate threads that reveal our county's distinct history. Her careful distribution of items among the DCHS, the Adriance Memorial Library, the Loeb at Vassar College, and the current owners and stewards of the home, Frank and Jennifer Castella, is a model of historic preservation. This preservation involves the home, family histories and genealogy, and objects that range from fine art to photographs and diaries to furniture.
The builder of the home was George Collins (1788-1848) and wife Elizabeth Borden Collins (1795 to 1865). One of the interesting dynamics of the story is the tension caused by the Quaker insistence on simplicity while the couple and their descendants became increasingly successful in business and society.
A family fascination with growing things, and manufacturing things, is reflected in a diary entry of Fredrika Graff's grandmother, Elizabeth Borden Campbell (DCHS Collections). When she attended the US Centennial
Layers ofDutchess County history are exposed in a rare personal setting
Dutchess County
Historical Society
Exhibition in Philadelphia she spent the first day in the Horticultural Hall and Machinery Hall. On Friday, June 16, 1876, she wrote, "One large machine runs all the machinery in the building," and goes on to list all the things she saw, like silk wallpaper, "made entirely by machinery." A respect for the integrity and importance of agriculture, while developing and embracing revolutionary technologies, is a major thread in the family story. Campbell's husband, Albert Adriance Simpson, was a descendant of the well-known Adriance family.
Elizabeth Borden Campbell's sister, Ada, also married into the Adriance family. She married Isaac Reynolds Adriance who was involved in the Adriance, Platt & Co. and Moline Plow Company that at one time employed 1,500 people in Poughkeepsie. We may underestimate today how profound an impact a new type of farm plow could have. Adriance led the effort among his siblings to create Adriance Memorial Library.
The Loeb will have on display for the month of June, the portrait by Rembrandt Peale of Elizabeth Borden Collins, the first resident of the house. It was gift of Fredrika Groff. That portrait, along with its companion of husband George Collins, also by Peale, will be featured as reproductions at the June 3rd event.
TheAwards
The DCHS will carry on its longstanding tradition of giving awards to both recognize and encourage best practice in support of local history in historic study, engagement of the broader community, and in business.
The OCHS Business of Historic Distinction Award is given for a longstanding tradition of service & conunitment to Dutchess County residents. The
by Bill Jeffway
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