Secretary's Minutes, November 1, 1928-October 31, 1929

ILLUSTRATIONS

Montgomery Place, West façade

Montgomery Place, East facade

An Old Parsonage An Inscription on a Dutchess County Window Portrait of Philip J. Schuyler

Plan for the Village of Tivoli

The Wall built by Peter DeLabigarre at Tivoli

Opp. page 28

Opp. page 30

- Opp. page 34

- Opp. page 36

Opp. page 42

Opp. page 52

Opp. page 54

7

SECRETARY'S MINUTES

MEETING OF BOARD OF TRUSTEES

DECEMBER 29, 1928

A meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Dutchess County Historical Society was held at the Amrita Club, December 29, 1928.

Present: Mr. Reese, Dr. LeRoy, Miss Reynolds, Mr. F. J. Poucher, Mrs. H. N. Bain, Mr. Chester Rusted, Mr. Edmund Van Wyck, Mr. George S. Van Vliet, Mr. Henry Booth, Mr. John J. Mylod, and the Secretary. The assistant treasurer, Mrs. George B. Waterman, met with the trustees.

Mr. Frederic Barnard, Professor James F. Baldwin, Mrs. Frank H. Van Houten, Mr. Herbert Shears and Miss Mary J. Elsworth reported that they were unable to attend.

Miss Reynolds reported that the 1928 Year Book had been mailed, also that her volume of marriage and death notices was fast approaching completion.

The President appointed Dr. Poucher, F. J. Poucher and J. J. Mylod a committee to circularize the book which is to be sold for $5.00 per volume. Dr. Poucher moved that Miss Reynolds proceed with arrangements for printing as soon as the manuscript is ready, the society to finance the work.

This book has grown much larger than was anticipated. It will contain approximately 4,000 marriage and death notices from the old newspapers of Dutchess County during the period between 1783 and 1825.

President Reese was named as a committee to draft resolutions on the death of Mr. William E. Ver Planck. The President appointed Mr. Van Vliet and Mr. Mylod as a committee to prepare resolutions on the death of Judge Frank Hasbrouck.

New members elected include: Mr. George S. Beckwith, Mr. Alexander R. Wilson, Mrs. William D. Haight, Mrs. James 0. Schoonmaker, Mr. Thomas H. Ransom and Mrs. Edward C. Smith.

MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

MARCH 30, 1929

A meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Dutchess County Historical Society was held at the Amrita Club, March 30, 1929.

Present: Mr. Reese, Mrs. Bain, Mr. Barnard, Dr. Baldwin, Miss Elsworth, Mr. Hasbrouck, Dr. Le Roy, Mr. Mylod, MT. F. J. Poucher, Mr. Shears and the Secretary. The assistant-treasurer, Mrs. Waterman, met with the trustees.

9

Mir. Reese presided, quorum present.

It was moved and seconded that the society proceed with the publication of the book of marriage and death notices from old newspapers which is being prepared by Miss Helen Wilkinson Reynolds. After some discussion, it was decided to print 200 volumes, 125 copies to be bound.

The plan offered for the spring meeting and luncheon was to invite representatives from neighboring historical societies and hear of their work. Mr. Mylod, Miss Reynolds and the Secretary were appointed a committee for arrangements.

The annual pilgrimage was discussed and an invitation from General John Ross Delafield to visit his country home "Montgomery Place" at Barrytown, was accepted for the week following September 20.

The following new members were elected: Mrs. Harvey Brett, Mr. Paul Challon, Mrs. Paul Challon, Mr. Charles 0. Conger, Mrs. Charles J. Corbally, Miss Anna G. W. Dayley, Mr. Frank Greene, Mr. Henry Joseph Haviland, Jr., Mrs. Albert F. Kerley, Mrs. H. I. Mac Glasson, Mr. James G. Polhemus, Mr. John H. Roche, Mrs. Herbert Shears, Dr. S. M. Strong.

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned. J. WILSON POUCHER, Secretary.

ANNUAL MEETING

MAY 17, 1929

Meeting at Vassar Institute was called to order by the President, Mr. Reese, at 11 o'clock.

The Secretary read the minutes of the previous meetings which, with one correction, were approved. The correction provided that the name of the Dutchess Couty Society in New York should be substituted in the minutes of the meeting held October 19, 1928, where mention was made of the New York Historical Society. The Dutchess County Society in New York was referred to in connection with the possibility of having a portion of a certain fund spent in Dutchess County in preserving milestones.

Miss Reynolds, for the Nominaing Committee, and in order to save time, moved that the present officers be re-elected as a group. This was seconded and carried.

Miss Reynolds nominated Miss Amy Crary, a descendant of Madam Brett, as vice-president for the town of Fishkill. Seconded and carried.

Miss Mary J. Elsworth, Mrs. H. N. Bain, Mr. Henry Booth and Mr. Thomas Newbold were re-elected trustees for a term of four years.

The Treasurer's report was given by the assistant treasurer, Mrs. Waterman, and was accepted. It follows these minutes.

Miss Reynolds reported for the Pilgrimage Committee that the plans were not yet complete but

10

that a visit would be made to the home of General Delafield, "Montgomery Place." Major Herbert Stanley Smith, rector of St. John's Church, Barry-town, invited the society to stop at St. John's Church to re-assemble before visiting "Montgomery Place".

Miss Reynolds reported for the Year Book Committee that plans were well in hand for the 1929 issue which would be published after the October meeting.

The Secretary reported the following list of members who had died since the October meeting: Miss Elizabeth R. Beckwith, Mr. Smith I. Broas, Mr. William B. Dinsmore, Mr. Willet E. Hoysradt, the Hon. Frank Hasbrouck, Mr. Henry Lloyd, Jr., Mr. David Hugh MacKenzie, Mrs. George D. Olivet, Mrs. Peter F. Potts, Mr. William E. Verplanck. The Secretary also reported the following resignations! Mr. Sidney J. Barnes, Mrs. Sidney J. Barnes, the Rev. Bernard Iddings Bell, Mr. Charles L. Cole, Mrs. Charles L. Cole, Dr. Alexander G. Cummins, Mrs. Alexander G. Cummins, Mrs. Frank S. Dickerson, Miss Amy B. DuBois, Mr. Benjamin M. Fowler, Mr. Walter C. Guilder, Miss Mary A. Hart, Mr. Ward C. Moon, Mrs. Albert C. Rust, Mt. N. Collins Smith, Miss Lavinia Wallace, Mrs. James T. Watts, Dr. Jacob Weber, Mrs. Jacob Weber.

The Secretary reported the following contributions to the society: Historical Sketch of the Town of

Clermont (autographed copy) by Thomas Hunt. Year Book of Holland Society of

New York. Year Book of the Early Settlers

Society of Albany. Westchester County Historical Society Quarterly. New York Historical Society Quarterly. Utah Historical and Genealogical

Quarterly Magazine. New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. Copy of Poughkeepsie Telegraph,

Nov. 28, 1854, the gift of

Robert M. Tripp.

The Secretary reported that the society had been invited to attend the annual gathering at the homestead of Mr. Poultney Bigelow in October and that several members had attended and had very much enjoyed the day.

An invitation to attend the annual pilgrimage of the Westchester County Historical Society to be held on May 25, 1929, was read.

A motion was made, seconded and carried that a vote of thanks be extended to the secretary for the wonderful work he had accomplished in the purchase of the Glebe House.

Miss Gretchen Schickle of the Junior League made a plea for assistance in the restoration and furnishing of the Glebe House. She asked that a committee be appointed from the Historical Society to work with a similar committee of the Junior League to make a study of houses of the period of the Glebe House so that whatever is done and whenever it may be done, shall be historically correct.

The President announced that a

11

committee of five would be appointed to work with the committee from the Junior League.

The following new members were elected: Mr. Chauncey P. Colwell, Miss Cornelia Fulton Crary, Mrs. Thomas N. Gjobye, Mrs. John B. Grubb, Mr. Milton T. Ham, Miss Alice Ham, Miss Augusta Mac Glasson, Miss Jennie Southard, Mrs. E. A. Underhill.

The resolution drafted by the president, Mr. Reese, in reference to the death of Mr. William E. Verplanck was adopted. A copy of the resolution follows:

We record, with sorrow, the death of our fellow member in this society, Mr. William Edward Verplanck, who died at Princeton on December 18, 1928, at the age of 72 years.

The Verplanck name is an illustrious one in the annals of this country and it seems fitting that this resolution for our society should embody, if only in a very limited way, a few facts concerning the past history of this prominent family since Abraham Verplanck, the founder, arrived in this country, from Holland, about the year 1638. The historical data for the resolution and some of the wording were obtained from the "History of Dutchess County" by James H. Smith; from William E. Verplanck's publication entitled: "The Site of the Assay Office on Wall Street:" and from an article written by Miss Helen Wilkinson Reynolds and published in the Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, December 21, 1928.

Abraham Verplanck's son, Gulian, purchased August 8, 1683, jointly wtih Francis Rombout, a tract of land on the east side of the Hudson River from the Wappinger Indians. It comprised about 85,000 acres and extended from Fishkill Creek, on the south, to the southerly boundaries of the Town of Poughkeepsie, north of Wappingers Creek. The very interesting and unique deed, giving a perfect transfer of title and executed with the marks of twenty-three savages, is recorded on page 72, volume 5, Book of Patents. It was confirmed October 17, 1685 by King James II, and the property that it conveyed was known as the Rombout Patent.

The second Gulian Verplanck in this country, born 1698, who became the owner of a third of the Rombout Patent, the fourth in line from Abraham Verplanck, built a short distance north of Beacon, about the year 1740, the historic house which he named Mount Gulian, after his grand-father. The following is a short description of the dwelling by Mrs. Verplanck, in her pamphlet "The Verplanck Garden." "The style is Dutch Colonial, built of stone covered with stucco. The roof has a fine line and slopes down with a graceful curve to form the piazza roof, which is supported with the columns of the Colonial period.

An old double Dutch door with interesting locks gives access to the wide hall which runs straight through the house to another double door onto another piazza overlooking the river. Large

12

square rooms with low ceilings and deeply set windows open off the hall. This older structure was added to in 1804 at the time the garden was laid out. The addition has the high ceilings, solid mahogany doors and large windows; the woodwork has the classic details of the period. In this addition is the usual guest room on the ground floor, and this room was occupied by Lafayette in 1824 when he made his visit to this country after his return to France following the

Revolutionary War. The style of the 1804 addition is a vivid contrast to the earlier Dutch construction and adds to the interest of the interior of the old homestead."

Gulian's son, Samuel, born 1739, whose wife was Judith Crommelin of Amsterdam, lived in New York and was a very rich man for those days. He built a large house with a frontage of forty feet, on a plot seventy-five feet wide, on the north side of Wall Street, close to Nassau Street, on land which he inherited from his father; and it is interesting to know that it covered the site of the Assay Office of the Federal Government in New York City. There is an attractive drawing, by Grimm, in Valentine's "Manual" 1856, which shows old Trinity Church, Federal Hall and the Verplanck mansion in 1789. Samuel Verplanck supported the cause of the Colonists during the Revolution and was elected a member of the Committee of Safety, a body of citizens chosen to take charge of the City Government in 1775. He inherited Mount Gulian from his father and during the war he turned over the house to the Continental Army and it became the headquarters of Baron De Steuben, the distinguished Prussian-American general appointed by Washington, Inspector General, in 1778 and who was a great help in the military training of the American soldiers. It is interesting to record that, in this house, the organization papers of the Order of the Society of the Cincinnati were finally signed on May 13, 1783. There is a portrait of Samuel Verplanck, by Copley, owned by Matilda C. Verplanck, at Fishkill.

Daniel Crommelin Verplanck, born 1762, was the only son and heir of Samuel. He sold the family house on Wall Street to the Bank of the United States, for the then large sum of $40,000. After the sale he lived at Mount Gulian and laid out, in 1804, the beautiful old flower and vegetable garden with formal box-edged beds, which originally covered six acres of ground. He was a member of Congress and a judge in Dutchess County. His portrait, by Copley, also described by Mrs. Verplanck in her pamphlet, "a little boy in a red suit playing with a gray squirrel, is hung over the fireplace in the dining room of the old house at 1Vtount Gulian." He is buried in the Verplanck vault, back of the chancel of Trinity Church, Fishkill.

Daniel C. Verplanck's son, Gulian Crommelin, the third Gulian, born 1786, was the author of sev-

13

eral books on politics, etc., and a practicing lawyer. He was president of the Emigration Commission for many years, before it was taken over by the Federal Government, a member of Congress from 1825 to 1833, Chairman of the important Committee of Ways and Means and in public service over fifty years. He was, at one time, president of the Century Association in New York City and one of its founders. An ardent Democrat, it is of record that on July 4, 1867, he made an address and laid the corner stone of the Wigwam, Tammany Hall, on Fourteenth Street, in his 81st year.

The late William Edward Verplanck, the ninth in line from the founder of the family in this country, grand-son of Gulian Crommelin Verplanck, was a practicing lawyer in New York City for a number of years. He inherited Mount Gulian from his father, William Samuel Verplanck, where he and Mrs. Verplanck spent their summers. The Hudson River had a great fascination for him, as it must have had for his ancestors, and it was his delight to cruise about in his sail-boat, sometimes as far as Albany, when he could spare the time from his other activities. He was a gentleman of the old school and it was always delight to meet and talk with him. His mind was stored with many interesting facts in connection with the early history of Dutchess county which he was always glad to sht.re with any one who cared for those things and he could have written, if he had been spared the time, a most interesting book describing many of the customs and traditions of the early settlers along the river. As a young man he had an acquaintance with some of the last of the Indians who lived in a tiny village called Baxtertown, near Beacon, and could graphically describe their manner and dress. More than most men, he loved to talk about the very important part Dutchess County played in the War of the Revolution and the momentous struggle between the opposing forces that took place in the valley of the Hudson River which prevented the British from securing control of this important ground which would have separated New England from the rest of the country. He was the moving spirit in the planning of the celebration at Fishkill, September 5, 1926, in commemoration of the 150th Provincial Convention which took place at Fishkill in September 1776. In politics he was a Democrat, following the tradition of his family, and at one time he was nominated on the Democratic ticket for the Assembly and at another time for State Senator. He was the author of three books; "The Verplanck Family," "The Sloops of the Hudson," and "The Site of the Assay Office in Wall Street." Mr. Verplanck cared a great deal for our society and was always most gracious about showing Mount Gulian whenever our autumn Pilgrimage turned south towards Beacon. He is a great loss to us and we shall always miss him. Miss Reynolds reported progress on the volume of newspaper no-

14

tices.

There being no further business the meeting adjourned to the Nelson House where over 200 persons partook of lunch and listened to the messages from neighboring historical societies.

The list of speakers included the following: Miss Helen Wilkinson Reynolds, who welcomed the guests. Miss Martha A. Taber, representing Quaker Hill Association of Pawling, N. Y. Mrs. D. Webster Wilbur, representing the local chapter of the D. A. R. Mrs. Charles J. Come of North

Chatham, N. Y., representing

the Columbia County Historical Society. Mr. Abram E. Jansen, New Paltz, representing the New Paltz Huguenot Memorial and Historical Society. Colonel Thatcher T. P. Luquer of Bedford, N. Y., representing the Westchester County Historical Society. Mrs. John R. (Dorothy Canfield) Fisher. Excerpts from these addresses are on file. Meeting adjourned with a rising vote of thanks to the speakers. J. WILSON POUCHER, Secretary. MEETING OF THE B OARD OF TRUSTEES

JULY

Present: President Reese, Trustees Barnard, Booth, LeRoy, Mylod, Reynolds and the Secretary.

Miss Reynolds reported that the volume of marriage and death notices would be printed some time in the fall.

The President appointed as a committee on the Glebe House: Miss Reynolds, Mr. Mylod, Mr. E. C. Smith, Mr. T. Rae Kilbourne and Dr. Poucher.

Miss Reynolds moved that notice of a State Historical Association meeting to be held in Elmira, September 25-28 be printed on the notice of our annual pilgrimage and sent to our members.

The Pilgrimage committee reported progress on plans for the pilgrimage in September, the date to be decided upon later.

The Year Book committee reported that the book is in prepara13, 1929 tion and will be ready for distribution in November. Miss Reynolds moved that the Secretary write a letter of sympathy to the family of Mrs. Carrie B. Bain. Carried. Mr. Mylod moved that on printing the notice of the pilgrimage each member of the society be requested to present the name of at least one new member. The following new members were elected: Mrs. 0. M. Buffinton, Newton D. Armstrong, Miss Emily Atkins, Mrs. Edgar V. Anderson, Mr. Selden H. Hall, Mrs. Selden H. Hall, Miss Marion G. Ogden, Miss Lina G. Slee, Mr. Thomas S. Townsend, Mrs. James Turnbull, Miss Katherine Turnbull, Mrs. William C. Mattern, Mr. Joseph Cassidy. There being no further business, the meeting adjourned. 15

1 1

MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

SEPTEMBER 28, 1929

Present: The President, Mr. Reese, and Trustees, Mr. Barnard, Miss Elsworth, Mr. Hasbrouck, Mr. F. J. Poucher, Miss Reynolds, Mrs. Van Houten, Mr. Van Vliet, Mr. Van Wyck and the Secretary. The Assistant Treasurer, Mrs. Waterman, was also present.

Letters, regretting that they could not attend this meeting, were read from Mr. Husted and Mr. Mylod.

Miss Reynolds reported upon the success of the Pilgrimage and that letters had been sent to General Delafield, Mr. Crosby and Dr. Bell thanking them for their courtesy and their efforts in behalf of the society.

The matter of speakers for the October meeting was discussed and the Secretary was requested to correspond with certain 'gentlemen inviting them to attend.

Miss Reynolds reported that the Year Book was being assembled and that it would be ready for distribution some time in November.

Miss Reynolds also reported progress on the volume in preparation consisting of marriage and death notices from early Dutchess County newspapers.

The President read a letter from Mr. A. R. Wilson ,of 71 Broadway, New York City, President of the Dutchess County Society in New York, suggesting cooperation on the part of this society with the organization he represents in an historical essay contest by children of the public schools of Dutchess County.

Mr. Baltus Barentzen Van Kleeck was elected a member of the Board of Trustees to fill the vacancy left by the death of Mrs. H. N. Bain.

The following new members were elected: Mr. Herbert Buckley, Mrs. Herbert Buckley, Mr. Charles E. Carpenter, Miss Mary Corliss, Mr. George B. Foote, Mrs. Harry H. Hill, Mr. Frank S. King, Mrs. Frank S. King, Mr. Lamont Dominick, Mrs. Gerald Morgan, Miss Florence Nepfel, Miss Martha Nepfel, Mr. Harris S. Reynolds, Mrs. Harris S. Reynolds, Mrs. Eva Sarner, Mrs. Leonard J. Supple, Mrs. Webster Wagner.

On motion the meeting adjourned.

J. WILSON POUCHER, Secretary.

SEMI-ANNUAL MEETING

OCTOBER 18, 1929

Meeting at Vassar Institute was called to order at 11 o'clock and was presided over by the VicePresident-at-large, Dr. Baldwin, in the absence of the President.

The Secretary read the minutes of the previous meetings, which were approved.

16