Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook Vol 059 1974

PRESIDENT'S REPORT The 1974-75 year was a time of much work accomplished by the Society. The Board meetings and special meetings were exceptionally well attended by the people involved, with many ideas considered, argued and acted upon.

Mr. Franklin Butts of the Historical Society and Mrs. Emily Stout, President of the Stanford Society, organized and ran the special pilgrimage to the Stanford area in June.

Over ninety people attended the program, and it was enjoyed by all. A footnote to be noted is that at Stanford a total of three railroads junctioned there. Prior to the start of the pilgrimage there was a flag raising ceremony at Glebe House in which the Bennington Battle Flag was raised and has been flown day and night since. This is done to indicate the start of the observance of the Bicentennial celebrations.

The May meeting of the State Bicentennial Committee was held in Poughkeepsie with over 150 people attending from eleven counties. This meeting and program was arranged by Mr. Walter Averill. During the same month a tour of the historical homes in LaGrange was enjoyed by many.

Mrs. Lawrence McGinnis and Mrs. John Smith chaired the plate committee for the Historical Society and their project will consist of a series of commemorative plates that will be issued by the Historical Society as part of our Bicentennial program and fund raising for the refurbishing of the Glebe House. The details of this program were presented at our annual meeting at the Holiday Inn, and were well received by the general membership. At that time, Mr. John Jenner reported to the membership that our auction of antiques to help defray the purchase of the Chalanda Collection of antiques was only partially successful and the finance problem will remain until we can raise more money from gifts, donations or the sale of duplicates in our possession. The Board asks all of you for your help in making us successful in the complete refurbishing of the Glebe House by the end of 1976.

It is to be noted that we have raised the dues for the 1975-76 year moderately, but this increase will probably be eaten up by the additional printing costs of our yearbook. As the parent society for the county, we have endeavered at all times to assist and help the town societies; notably, our financial support to the Fishkill Digs, which has been well recorded and reported to our Society by Mr. Felix Scardapane.

At our annual meeting, Mr. Roscoe Balch introduced the speaker, Mr. Joseph Norton, a colleague of his at Marist College who conducts a seminar on Dutchess County history. His topic for the afternoon was what the county was like before the Revolution and how the wealth was distributed. Mr. Norton told the group that he had researched all of the available old tax records of Dutchess County. He said that in 1720 there were 151 taxpayers. In that year the upper 17 percent of the population controlled 21 percent of the wealth, so that there was a fairly good distribution of wealth. Then, in 1770, on the eve of the Revolution, there were 3446 taxpayers and the top 17 percent of the population controlled 45 percent of the wealth. Twenty-three percent of the population in that year held 53 percent of the wealth with the community being heavily oriented toward commercial enterprises. He told of the difficulty in researching the Loyalists who left the county after the Revolution, since it is difficult to find records of losers.

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