Historical Societies of Dutchess County

HISTORICAL SOCIETIES OF DUTCHESS COUNTY

Over the years, the Dutchess County Historical Society has enjoyed the hospitality of some of the other historical societies of the county and has always been impressed with the wealth of information which is avaliable and has been gathered in the rural areas. After visiting the Little Nine Partners Historical Society of Pine Plains in the fall of 1965, the trustees of the Dutchess County Historical Society have thought that its members would be interested to learn of the activities of some of the other groups and have asked the officers of the seven existing societies within the county to tell something of their organizations, their aims and accomplishments.

In the local newspapers of 1845 and 1846 there are references to the organization of a Dutchess County Historical Society. A number of prominent residents of Poughkeepsie, Hyde Park and Fishkill were interested and became members and officers. It is a matter of regret that the organization which got off to a good start in the 1840's seems to have left no record, other than a few newspaper items, but it is assumed that it was absorbed into the Lyceum, which already owned a cabinet of minerals and a library. The present active society was organized in 1914 and celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 1964.

A brief account of each of the other historical groups has been furnished through the cooperation of officers of the organizations: Mrs. Oakleigh T. Cookingham, Sr., president of The Historical Club of Upper Red Hook; Mrs. Fred C. Daniels, a trustee and former president of the Historical Society of Quaker Hill and Vicinity; Mr. Albert McClure, secretary of the Hyde Park Historical Association; Mr. Theron Van Scoter, president of the East Fishkill Historical Society; Mr. Howard H. Cramer, president of the LaGrange Historical Society; Mrs. Willa Skinner, Town of Fishkill Historian and Mrs. William B. Jordan, president of The Little Nine Partners Historical Society.

THE HISTORICAL CLUB OF UPPER RED HOOK was founded in 1901. The first year was devoted to the study of Holland. The histories of many foreign countries have since been studied, as well as our own country, New York State and Dutchess County. In addition to history, the club has studied Shakespeare for two years, Biographies, Sciences and Inventions, and other subjects. So, while we are called an historical club, we are more accurately a study club.

Our list of members includes one charter member, four honorary members, ten associate members and twenty-four active members. The active members write papers on subjects assigned to them by the Program Committee. Occasionally, we have a speaker, or slides to supplement our papers, and we have made pilgrimages to places of historic interest.

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For several years we have contributed to CARE, American Field Service, the Red Hook Library and the Red Hook Central School Student Loan Fund.

The President is Mrs. Warren W. Rockefeller; First Vice-President, Mrs. John Katrulya; Second Vice-President, Mrs. Terence Thompson; Secretary, Mrs. Arvine Bathrick; Treasurer, Mrs. George Michael. There are several committees: Program, Social, Sunshine, Pronunciation, Legislation, Publicity and History.

THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF QUAKER HILL AND VICINITY (Pawling), is the outgrowth of the Quaker Hill Conference meetings which were held annually in August from 1898 to 1908. Beginning on Tuesday evening, the program each year covered five days of religious, educational, agricultural and social functions. Saturday was known as "Quaker Hill, or Old Home Day," with papers of historical interest and displays of local Americana. The papers were published as the "Quaker Hill Series."

In 1909, the Akin Hall Association offered the large room on the second floor of Akin Library to be used as an historical room and museum. The next year the historical society was organized and in due time it was incorporated.

By 1920, the "Historical and Old Home Day," held in August, had become an annual event. Programs on local history and related subjects were arranged. The society had assumed custody and made repairs to the Oblong Friends Meeting House, which was erected in 1764. In 1936, the society accepted from the Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, New York City, title to the above premises situated on Quaker Hill.

During the ensuing years many speakers of note have added special interest to the meetings. There have been numerous benefits, including a pageant in 1932, for the Meeting House Repair Fund. In 1960, the society celebrated its fiftieth anniversary with an evening program at the Quaker Hill Country Club.

In 1965, the land directly across from the Oblong Friends Meeting House, on which the first meeting house was built in 1742, was acquired, landscaped and appropriately marked. There was a formal dedication.

The organization has continued the "Quaker Hill Series" with its occasional publications of historical monographs. The twenty-first pamphlet, My Reminiscences, by Annie M. Thomas, will be issued in 1966.

Meetings are held from May to September, inclusive. Mrs. Geoffrey O'Hara is president of the society which has a membership of about one hundred and fifty.

The Dutchess County Historical Society has held meetings in Pawling township in 1920, 1939 and 1953.

THE HYDE PARK HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION was organized in 1947 and received a permanent charter in 1949. The members of the board of trustees are as follow: The Reverend Gordon L. Kidd, Mr. Erden Ackart, Mr. Arthur Smith, Mr. Benjamin H. Davis, and Mr. Albert McClure.

The elected officers for the current year are: President, Miss B. Fredriksen; Vice-President, Mr. Arthur Smith; Treasurer, Mrs. Robert Drabble; Membership Secretary, Miss A. Van Curen; and Executive Secretary, Mr. McClure.

The purpose of the association is (a) to conduct and coordinate information and interpretive services for visitors to Hyde Park and adjacent areas, (b) to foster the preservation of historic sites in Hyde Park and vicinity, and (c) to provide facilities for historical research and the publication thereof. The association has been designated by the National Park Service as a "Cooperating Association" and as such is in a position to implement the Service's interpretive program in various ways.

Future plans of the association call for continued assistance to the National Park Service in its Interpretive Program.

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THE EAST FISHKILL HISTORICAL SOCIETY was granted its provisional charter in 1961 and application has been made for an absolute charter. It has a membership of 155 persons. It has regularly held six meetings each year, most of them open to the public, and on a rotating basis in the several communities of this town of fifty-two square miles, with the purpose of sharpening the interest of our entire constituency.

The society has sponsored an annual field trip to historic sites of the town, one of which was repeated as its annual pilgrimage for the Dutchess County Historical Society, in 1961. Over the years, meetings have been held in cooperation with other nearby societies, or with these groups as guests, in what is believed to be a growing network of organizations in this area to promote greater enthusiasm in its historical heritage.

In addition to close liaison with other historical societies, a number of meetings have been organized to include special cooperation with Boy Scouts, farm groups, local veterans and, most particularly, the Wappingers Falls Central School District. Noteworthy in this last respect was the invitation proffered by the school board in 1964- for the society to submit names for two new schools being constructed in the town. The names "Van Wyck Junior High School" and "Gayhead Elementary School" were recommended, with supporting historical evidence for the choice. They were unanimously accepted by the school board. When the schools opened in September 1965, the society sponsored a flag-raising ceremony at each school which met with such signal success that the school board voted to make it a permanent custom. Interest in the ceremony has been expressed by school boards and historical societies in other counties and it is reported that the Daughters of American Colonists in New York State is planning an effort to make it a state-wide requirement for new public schools. When the schools were dedicated the society, with the assistance of several museums and organizations, arranged an historical exhibit of considerable educational value.

As an important aid in its work, the society in its early days obtained a tape recording machine and now has a valuable collection of recordings made by the old-timers of the town. It has also a rapidly growing file of pictures, scrapbooks of clippings and a reference library with sources of local material card-indexed for quick availability.

A periodic newsletter keeps the membership informed of the society's activities and plans.

Another focus of the society is the preservation and protection of early-day cemeteries. In a community threatened by the dislocations of rapid industrial development, this responsibility has involved considerable alertness and interpretation.

During the course of these several years, a wide variety of historic documents and articles have come into the society's possession. Explorations are constantly under way as to a permanent home and exhibition hall for the society, a strong possibility for the future.

Other future plans include continuing most of the current activities, but it is particularly hoped that the sociey may be even more helpful to a rapidly growing population of children.

The present officers of the society are: President, Mr. Theron Van Scoter; Vice-President, Mr. Elton V. V. Bailey, Sr.; Treasurer, Dr. George Stringham; Recording Secretary, Mrs. William Douthett; Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. Mary Alley; Finance Officer, Mr. Victor E. Nelson; Librarian-Curator, Mr. Jeremiah D. Fowler; and Trustees: Mrs. Bertha Van Anden, Mr. Wright Jackson, Mrs. Frederick Heaney, Mr. Frank Denning, Mrs. Barbara Nicoll, Mr. Kurt Von Brand and Mrs. J. Manfred Finkel.

THE LA GRANGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY is an outgrowth of the LaGrange pageant presented at Baird State Park in 1959. The event was the town's contribution to the Hudson-Champlain celebration in that year. After the event, one of the original objectives was to keep vivid the history, past, present and future, of this community.

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The constitution of the LaGrange Historical Society was adopted by provisional charter, granted the society by the New York State Board of Regents in 1962.

The purposes for formation are: (a) To promote and encourage historical research and to foster interest in the history of the town of LaGrange and surrounding area; (b) To gather and preserve records, documents and relics related to the history of the town of LaGrange and to the inhabitants thereof; (c) To present, in the form of plays, dialogues, pantomimes, manuscripts and essays, events and episodes relating to the history of the area.

The society meets and holds its activities in the old red schoolhouse near 'Wade's market in Freedom Plains. This landmark was acquired in 1962 and now, after rehabilitation, accommodates the events of its present 125 junior and senior members.

The most recent contribution of the society to the community was the designing of the official seal of the town of LaGrange. Dr. Karl Sandbank and Mr. Arthur Sudler, both instrumental in the origin of the society, share with pride the seal which is displayed in the LaGrange Town Office and in the Dutchess County Office Building.

The society looks forward to a continued expansion of membership and activities through its extension or replacement of an absolute charter in 1967.

The present officers are: President, Mr. Howard H. Cramer; VicePresident, Mr. Arthur E. Sudler; Treasurer, Mrs. Fred Policastri; Secretary, Mrs. Edwin A. Sprague.

THE FISHKILL HISTORICAL SOCIETY was founded in July of 1962, after widespread interest was aroused by the finding of Revolutionary War artifacts when construction of Route 84 was undertaken a few miles below the village of Fishkill. There are at present 133 members in the society, including a number of junior members, ages 12 to 18. One of the aims of the group is to work closely with schools and PTA's in order to stimulate interest among young people.

Projects undertaken by the society have been a tour of historic homes in the southern Dutchess area, a costume ball and a musket shoot, held last summer.

Uppermost on the list of projects is the eventual restoration of the historically important Wharton-Van Wyck House at Routes 9 and 84-, built 1732 by Cornelius Van Wyck and used as gEcerE' cua-t-2rs during the Revolutionary War.

A sizeable collection of Revolutionary War material has come into the possession of the society through the efforts of the "dig" crew, who have continually worked with pick, shovel and trowel at the Fishkill encampment site on the Albany Post Road, south of the village. Items found include military buttons, coins, pottery, pewter buckles and cooking utensils used by the soldiers. It is hoped that a permanent display site can be found for these treasures.

Officers of the Fishkill Historical Society are: President, Mr. Radford Curdy; Vice-President, Mr. Alexander Rogers; Treasurer, Mrs. Alexander Rogers; Finance Officer, Mr. George O'Donoghue; Recording Secretary, Mrs. Donald Yellen; Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. George O'Donoghue ; Curator, Mrs. William Brandt; and nine trustees: Mr. Laurence Hancock, Mrs. James Brockway, Mr. John Matte°, Mr. Foster •Ortman, Mr. Robert Guex, Mrs. Donald Lachowicz, Mrs. Joan Sullivan, Mr. Kenneth Kreuz and Mr. Henry Mosher.

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THE LITTLE NINE PARTNERS HISTORICAL SOCIETY was organized in the spring of 1963 under a charter from the New York State Board of Regents in order to ensure that the study of the history and tne preservation of the landmarks of the L:ttle Nine Partners Patent area would continue. In commemoration of the original patentees, nine founding trustees were elected to carry the organization through its critical first years: Mr. Huntting Winans, Miss Muriel Pulver, Mrs. 'William B. Jordan, Jr., Miss Natalie Barton, Mrs. Lester Aroh, Mr. David Mann, Mrs. Philip Lyons, Mr. Robert Palmatier and Mr. Richard H. Bliss.

Since that first spring, the soc'ety, under the able leadership first of Mrs. Lyons and at present under Mrs. Jordan, has grown to a membership of about 160. In its second year, it acquired by gift the old lip rris-Hustcd house of Hammertown and moved it about one-quarter of a mile south to a beautiful site, also a gift, st.addling the old mill run and fronting on Shekomeko Creek. A considerable number of members have donated time to the restoration of this house, as a typical small farm house of the early nineteenth century. The house will be the headquarters of the society and wi:1 provide spare for a growing collection of records and artifacts in special work and exhibit rooms on the ground floor.

Just ahead of the bulldozer, which tragically olorterated all that was lea of the old scythe works at Hammertown, members of the society, under the guidance of Professors Harry Shapiro and Junius Bird of the American Museum of Natural History, worked carefully through the debris in an effort to make sure that all materials available at the s:te would be saved. The old works which manufactured bayonets for Washington's army and scythes for hundreds of surround'nfz, fa- mers was carefully surveyed and mapped so that its correct position would always be known.

A beginning has been made in tape recording the reminiscences of some of our older citizens and an editorial committee plans to publish the first set of research papers on cur area next spring. Work on genealogical records and family histories has, of course, gone forward and several collections of letters and records have been calendared and preserved in our bank deposit vaults.

We have had excellent papers and talks by Dr. Henry Noble MacCracken on "James Alexander," Gould Colman, director of the Cornell Oral History Program, and Walter Davis on "George Clark," one of the original patentees. In four joint meetings with the Pine Plains Garden Club, we have undertaken to discover something about the natural history of the area. These talks were given by Maxwell MacPherson, Dr. Harry Shapiro, Dr. Phyllis Busch and Miss Grace Hoysradt.

Over the past three years, we have sponsored two antique shows and two tours of the historic houses of our area. In October of this past fall, we were host to the Dutchess County Historical Society on its annual pilgrimage. Next June we will present our first annual Henry Noble MacCracken essay award to a student in our area for original research. Judges for this research essay award will be Mrs. James Bourne of Rhinebeck, former Dean and Professor of Sociology at Bard College; Clyde Griffen, Dean of Students and Assistant Professor of History at Vassar College; and Mr. Clifford M. Buck of Salt Point, local historian. It is hoped that this award idea for local research will spread to the other societies and that eventually it will be sponsored by all the historical societies in the county.

To finance the various projects, the society has organized and carried out three annual Stissing Mountain Music Festivals (1963, 1964, 1965). These festivals, largely under the leadership of Mrs. Lyons and Mr. Frank Buckhout, have not only brought a great deal of pleasure to the people of northern Dutchess, but have also carried us immeasurably further along toward our project goals.

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