Old Museum Village of Smith's Clove

OLD MUSEUM VILLAGE OF SMITH'S CLOVE

Old Museum Village of Smith's Clove, Monroe, New York, began as one man's hobby many years ago when Roscoe W. Smith started to collect and to preserve 19th Century American tools and equipment which he observed were being discarded and lost. Mr. Smith had the aid of Mrs. Smith whose expert knowledge of American glass and china has brought to the Museum a very rare and beautiful collection of old American wear.

Mr. Smith, who celebrated his 92nd. birthday in August 1969, founded the Orange and Rockland Electric Company in 1905 when he was twenty eight. In the half century following the founding of the company, it grew steadily as Mr. Smith acquired many of the utility companies of the region. In 1958 the Orange and Rockland Electric Company merged with the Rockland Light and Power Company, resulting in the formation of the present Orange and Rockland Utilities.

Old Museum Village of Smith's Clove is situated at Monroe, Orange County, New York and is on U.S. Route 6 three miles west of the New York Thruway exit #16 at Harrison, New York. The Village consists of forty buildings built on a thirty acre tract of land. Mr. Smith's interest in collecting tools and American artifacts grew to monumental proportions. His penchant for mechanical devices, their invention, adaption and development, spurred him to collect extensively throughout New York, New Jersey, New England, and even throughout the Southeastern region of the United States.

Although he collected everything from textiles and porcelain to horsedrawn vehicles, Mr. Smith primarily collected the tools and machinery that were commonly used by the "average" American before the turn of the Century. As the years passed his collections grew to the point where he ran out of storage space. His basement was filled; his garage was filled; and several warehouses in Orange County were packed to overflowing. He realized that if his collections were to be preserved and viewed by the public, special accommodations would have to be developed. This was the beginning of Old Museum Village of Smith's Clove. As the site of his Museum, Mr. Smith chose the farm-site of his great-grandmother, Abigail Smith, which is located about one mile west of the village of Monroe.

Old Museum Village was built to house Roscoe Smith's extensive collections. It is not, as are some museums, a reconstruction or replica of any particular community. The museum developed as a village which is repre• sentative of those which existed in 19th Century Orange County.

The term "Smith's Clove" seems to baffle many people. "Clove" is an archaeic Saxon word meaning "cleft" or -valley." Monroe is located in a

Note: the Editor of the Year Book is very much indebted to the Director of Old Museum Village of Smith' Clove, Jerome D. Talbot, the Assistant Curator, M. Susan Thurston, and the Vice-President of the Board of Trustees, Mrs. Richmond F. Meyer, for the information about the Museum contained in this article.

wide valley of the Shawangunk Mountain Range which, during Revolutionary War days was referred to as The Clove, or even Smith's Clove. Since Roscoe Smith's ancestors first settled this region, it seemed appropriate to give his museum a name with such closely related historic allusions.

Various buildings are clustered around the Village Green: a Bootmaker's shop, a one-room School House, Weave Shop, Blacksmith's Shop, Tin Shop, Fire House, Livery Stable, and the General Store.

Of particular interest to those in the Poughkeepsie area is a hose cart given in 1951 by Edmund Van Wyck of the Town of LaGrange in Dutchess County, as well as a Goose-Neck Hand Pumper which was used by Young America Hose Company #6, of the Poughkeepsie Fire Department. Made in 1856, the pumper was operated by a crew of men after the tank had been filled with water by a bucket brigade. When the pumper was in use at least a dozen members could participate in the pumping. The prize in the fire house is the 1820 Washington Pumper which is still used on occasion to demonstrate fire fighting techniques. Other items that originated in Dutchess County that are on display at The Old Museum Village is a collection of men's hats from the Van Kleeck Hat store ( 1799-1964), several stoneware jugs and crocks of the Redinger and Caire pottery, and a horse-drawn ambulance which was used for many years by Vassar Brothers Hospital. The large collection of wagons, sleighs and monogrammed harness came from the estate of Frederick W. Vanderbilt. Hyde Park, New York. Recently, through a gift from Edmund Van -Wyck, two fine wafering irons were added to the Smith's Clove collection. One with a candelabra and dated 1751 is now a prized possession of the museum.

Many other highlights are located in buildings around the green, including a most unusual cigar store indian with a female figure and a papoose looking over her shoulder. Actually the museum owns five fine examples of 19th Century cigar store indians.

The collection in the General Information center, off the parking lot, includes a collection of over fifty 18th Century and 19th Century copper tea kettles. In the weave shop next door is a Shaker loom as well as a rare verticle spinning jenny used in New England during the early 19th Century. Also included in the Weave Shop are many fine coverlets woven by James Alexander and dated 1825, commemorating the July 4 visit of General Lafayette to the United States in that year.

Recently the museum came across an 18th Century brass mold for producing tat-tail pewter spoons and through a grant from the New York State Council for the Arts, the museum demonstrates the making of these fine spoons. Another unusual item on the Village Green is an old stone Goshen sign post with a pointed finger designating the direction and distance.

Perhaps the most popular visit on the green, particularly by children, is the Pioneer Log Cabin with its primitive living utensils and furniture, including a senile cradle.

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There are many examples in the museum of things produced by the Shakers during the late 18th and 19th Centuries in New York State. The museum possesses Shaker broom-making machines and old brooms and fiber boxes which were produced by this religious sect. While the Shakers did not inhabit Orange County, the Quakers were active and in 1967 a replica of the 1830 Quaker Meeting House at Grahamsville was built on the inuseum grounds a short distance from the green. This meeting house is used once a year for services by the Quakers principally from the Cornwall area.

Some distance from the green are farm buildings with many of the old farm tools, including 18th Century plows, tread mills, sulkies and a Conestoga wagon.

In the Dress Emporium are two unusual objects. One is a tin top hat, and the other is a marriage certificate dated 1865, commemorating the tin anniversary.

Many visitors are intrigued with the fine collection of Bennington, Vermont, Pottery as well as Victorian Art Glass and Pattern Glass pitchers in the Glass Shop.

In the Candle Shop is a very rare pottery candle mold capable of producing 144 beeswax candles at one time. This mold has been used during the early part of the 19th Century by professional candle makers. The Candle Shop, which in operation demonstrates both molded and dipped candles, has one of the finest collections of lighting devices in the area.

The school house, which is a reproduction of one Mr. Smith attended, has a quill pen weather vane, which came from the Noah Webster School in Goshen, New York.

Many other objects can be cited, such as the rare peddler's wagon in the Tin Shop, a sleigh owned by President McKinley, and a Rockaway Carriage, used by General U. S. Grant. The carriage collection of the museum includes one of the finest groups of Victorias and surreys in the F. W. Vanderbilt collection which came from the Hyde Park estate.

Projecting back 10,000 years to an ancient time is the reconstructed mastodon found in a field three miles from the museum in 1952. For two years, Mr. and Mrs. Smith were in the unusual position of having a mastodon in the cellar. In 1954 it was decided to build a large museum for the mastodon and all the scattered natural history material. The Smith mastodon is complete with the exception of several very small bones. It may seem strange that a historical museum owns one of the top three mastodon skeletons in the country, but Orange County has been one of the main sources for mastodon material ever since Charles Willson Peale collected his specimen in 1801.

Since Roscoe Smith's collections consist primarily of tools, a logical development of the Museum was the initiation of a craft program. Throughout the season, which runs from April 15 through October 31, staff members, using old implements, continually demonstrate their several crafts to

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the public. Among the craft people are potters, candle molders, tinsmiths, weavers, and broom makers. This year the pewter craft was added to the regular program.

For the past four years, the crafts program has been expanded during the month of October with a Fall Festival, which is in operation on each October weekend. Old crafts which relate to preparing for winter are added to the regular schedule. Wool is colored with natural dyes; soap is made from grease and lye; the old cider mill is put into operation and samples are doled out to the museum visitors; and apple butter, which requires seven hours cooking-time, is prepared in large kettles and stirred constantly with a long paddle which was originally designed for this purpose.

Many of the Museum's buildings which house the collections have been named after craftsmen and companies which were in existence during the 19th Century in Orange County and the immediately surrounding area. There are the Benjamen Barry Cooperage, the Vernon Apothecary and the Balknap and McCann Candle Shop which originally were located in the Town of Wallkill, the village of Florida and the City of Newburgh, respectively.

Old Museum Village is governed by an eighteen-member Board of Trustees. Leland A. Smith, son of the founder, is President of the Board. Roscoe W. Smith continues his interest and his advice to the management and serves as Vice-President and Treasurer. Mrs. Margaret Smith Meyer of Salt Point, Dutchess County, Mr. Smith's daughter, and Frederick Neuburger are Vice-Presidents, Frederick P. Todd, Secretary, Mrs. Edna S. Seaman, Assistant Secretary, and R. E. Denton, Assistant Treasurer. Other Trustees include T. Mitchell Bundrant, Frederick Hulse, Joseph P. Monihan, Joseph W. Rake, Harry Rigby, Ina A. Smith, C. Guy Stephenson, Neil A. Swift, Peter Stern and Mrs. Meta S. Bushnell. Jarold D. Talbot is the Director of Old Museum Village of Smith' Clove, and during the past season his staff included Donald H. Sachs, Curator, M. Susan Thurston, Assistant Curator, and Mrs. Sirvart P. Kachie, Registrar. During the 1969 season April 15th through October 31st, over 127,000 visitors came to Old Museum Village of Smith's Clove and 858 schools sent groups of children from far and near.

In 1961 the Museum was given non-profit status by a charter granted by the New York State Education Department and that same year Roscoe Smith was presented with a Certificate of Merit from the Freedoms Foundation for his "outstanding achievement in bringing about a better understanding of the American way of life." Other awards include the George Washington Honor Medal for Village Restoration and an honor Certificate from the Freedom Foundation again in 1963. The Mid-Hudson region is indeed fortunate to have such an outstanding Museum in the area commenced by the vision of one man and carried on through the years by both Mr. and Mrs. Smith, a splendid group of Trustees, and a staff of very knowledgeable men and women.

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