Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook Vol 064 1979 by D C H S

Year Book Dutchess County Historical Society

1979

Mary Beatrice d'Este, the only daughter of Alfonso IV, Duke of Modena, was born October 5, 1658, at Modena, Italy. In 1673, she married James Stuart, Duke of York, upon whom his brother, King Charles II, had conferred rights of Proprietor of the Province of New York. She was Dutchess of York for twelve years and for three years Queen of England. When the Protestant revolution overthrew the Smarts, James II and Mary fled to France. She died at St. Germains, May 7, 1718.

The Colonial Laws of New York, Volume 1, pages 121-122, "AN ACT to divide this province and dependencies into shires and Countyes." Passed November 1, 1683: "The Dutchess's County to bee from the bounds of the County of Westchester, on the South side of the High-lands, along the East side of Hudsons River as farre as Roelof Jansens Creeke, & East-ward into the woods twenty miles." Portrait by William Wissing, National Gallery, London.

L. Gordon HamersZey, Jr.,Editor William P. McDermott, Associate Editor The Year Book is published after the end of the year and includes reports of the activities of the society during the year. Copies are mailed to those members whose dues are paid for the current year. Address: The Dutchess County Historical Society, Box 88, Poughkeepsie, New York.

DUTCHESS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY MEETINGS — MEMBERSHIP — DUES

MEETINGS: At least two meetings of the Society are held each year, the annual meeting in the spring and a meeting and pilgrimage in the fall. Other meetings and social gatherings are arranged from time to time. MEMBERSHIP: Anyone with an interest in history is welcome as a member. Membership in the Society may be obtained by making application to the Secretary, Box 88, Poughkeepsie, New York. Upon the payment of dues, members are elected by the Trustees or at a meeting of the Society. DUES: Annual dues, $7.00; Joint membership (husband and wife), $10.00; Life membership, $75.00. Annual dues are payable on January 1st. of each year. These payments carry with them the right to vote, to hold office, and to take part in the proceedings of the Society. YEAR BOOK: Upon the payment of dues at time of election, a new member will be mailed a copy of the last published Year Book. Year Books are mailed only to those members whose dues are paid to date. One copy is mailed to a joint membership.

DUTCHESS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Incorporated under the laws of the State of New York December 21,1918 Certificate of Incorporation filed in the office of the Clerk of Dutchess County Book 10 of Corporations page 153

TABLE OF CONTENTS Board of Trustees and Vice Presidents for Towns and Cities

Secretary's Minutes

Treasurer's Report

President's Message

Curator's Report

Glebe House Report

In Brief

24 A New Period, Melodye Andros

Historical Society Leaders, Joseph W. EmsZey

Sixteen-Mile Riverfront Historic District

Clinton House:

Central New England Railroad Cartoons, Ed Ross

• • •

Hell's Acres, Louise Tompkins

A Touch of Darkest Treason, Radford Curdy

A Welfare Administration in Revolutionary Dutchess County, Jonathan Clark

The Flagler Cemetery at Green Haven, Robert Pierce

A Brief Account of Cruger's Island, Magdalen Island, The North Bay, and Adjoining Uplands, John Winthrop AZdrich

Reminiscences of Old Time Blacksmithing

The Cook Mills A Century Old

The Old Plantation, Burton Coon

Uncle Tom, Burton Coon

The Big Parade, James L. Lumb

Hacketts and Cunneens

112

Historical Talk on the Occasion of the Inauguration of Jack Economou as Mayor of the City of Poughkeepsie, Clyde Griffen

115

The Freight Terminal at Fishkill Landing, Eunice Hatfield Smith assisted by Collin M. Strang . . . .

122

Attempts at Mining in Pleasant Valley, Clifford M. Buck

127

Widow Allen, William P. McDermott

131

Exerpts from Let Us Be A Company poems by George Flowers and illustrations by Jerome V. Deyo. .

146

Appointed Historians of Dutchess County .

152

Presidents of Historical Societies in the Towns of Dutchess County

156

Membership - Dutchess County Historical Society • •

157

BOARD OF TRUSTEES Franklin A. Butts Felix Scardapane Mrs. Robert Hoe, Jr. Hubert C. Spross Eunice Hatfield Smith Melody Andros L. Gordon Hamersley, Jr. William P. McDermott

President Vice-President Secretary Treasurer Curator Assistant Curator Editor Associate Editor

Terms ending 1979: Herbert S. Roig Kenneth R. Toole Mrs. Ralph E. Van Kleeck Mrs. Arthur F. Wollenhaupt

Terms ending 1981: John Jenner Nathan Dykeman Mrs. Peter Andros Mrs. J. Edward Johnson Ezra R. Benton

Terms ending 1980: Mrs. Kenneth R. Briggs Radford B. Curdy John V. Kane Mrs. Harold V. Klare

Terms ending 1982: Jonathan Clark, Ph.D. Mrs. Robert Kendall Mrs. S. Velma Pugsley William McDermott, Ph.D. Terms ending 1983: Tim Allred Dr. C. Colton Johnson Collin M. Strang Nelson Tyrrel

VICE PRESIDENTS REPRESENTING TOWNS AND CITIES Mrs. Catherine F. Leigh Ludwig G. Ruf Miss Bernice Dodge Putnam Davis Mrs. Richard Reichenberg, Jr. Mrs. Charles Boos Mrs. Hilda Vinall Donald McTernan Mrs. E. Stuart Hubbard, Jr. Mrs. John Losee Chester Eisenhuth Mrs. Marita Rack Henry Grant Frank Andrew Hubert C. Spross Mrs. Lawrence M. McGinnis Willard J. Arbuco Mrs. Richard Coons Mrs. Craig D. Vogle Mrs. Karel Stolarick Mrs. George T. Hemroth Miss Louise H. Tompkins

Town City Town Town Town Town Town Town Town Town Town Town Town Town Town City Town Town Town Town Town Town

of of of of of of of Of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of

Amenia Beacon Beekman Clinton Dover East Fishkill Fishkill Hyde Park LaGrange Milan North East Pawling Pine Plains Pleasant Valley Poughkeepsie Poughkeepsie Stanford Red Hook Rhinebeck Union Vale Wappinger Washington

DUTCHESS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY SUMMARY OF 1978-79 MINUTES September 12, 1978 All those present were asked to identify themselves by President Butts, and he asked that news be reported from other societies. Betty Klare announced a joint meeting of their Society with the local Garden Club. Slides of Williamsburg were shown. The new President is Helen Netter. Helena VanVliet reported that her group in Clinton were working on gathering old pictures of the Town and getting them into book form. Hubert Spross reported that we will soon have an addition to our old movie. It will be about 200 feet long, is being given by Central Hudson and is about the riverfront. Ezra Benton reported that he and Clifford Buck will attend a meeting in Albany about "New Dimensions for Historians." President Butts said he is anxious to gather together all the old papers and records of the Historical Society. He asked Mrs. Hoe to contact Van Cunningham, the previous Secretary, to pick up any old records and minutes that he may have. Mr. Curdy said there were some old minutes in the Library. President Butts reported that both Wilhemina Powers, the curator, and Mary Jane Hayes, the Assistant Curator, have resigned. He asked that the current nominating committee which reported at the annual meeting in June be reactivated to fill both positions. President Butts said we had declined an offer from the Arts Council for a booth at the Dutchess County Fair because of a lack of time. He brought the Board up-to-date on our co-sponsoring the making of a film about Poughkeepsie. The other organizations involved in sponsoring are AAUW, Dutchess County Landmarks and the Junior League. The film committee would like us to write a letter of endorsement for this project, so that it can be used to request funding for the project. A motion was passed that the Secretary write such a letter. President Butts reported that the Arts Council is interested in publishing a cultural calendar listing all cultural events in the area. He has written letters of endorsement for such an undertaking. Norma VanKleeck reported that a carpenter had been employed to correct some leaks in the upper hall of Glebe House. He will also install some shelving in the cellar for storage. Some painting touch-ups will also be necessary. Radford Curdy mentioned various manuscript material which had been given to us from the late 18th and 19th century belonging to the Bogart family. Also, Paul Deuell had given a book of geneological value. President Butts complimented Tim Allred for his planning of the July 15 celebration in Eastman Park in memory of Harvey Eastman. He urged members to go see our exhibit in the Arts and Science Center (the old City Hall). He said that it had been suggested that we have a winter meeting and that he planned to appoint a committee to arrange it.

President Butts mentioned that we are having a problem with communication with the members. Marist College, who has been doing our mailings, is now unable to do it for us. He will contact Herbert Roig, Membership Chairman, about solving the problem. President Butts announced that the Fall Pilgrimage will be on October 14 in the Town of Washington. Buses will leave from the Savings Bank as usual and will go to the Federated Church in Millbrook for refreshments and a short talk about the tour. Radford Curdy made a motion that Louise Tompkins and Wilhemina Powers be made honorary members of the Society. The motion passed. Hubert Spross presented a Certificate of Appreciation from the U.S. Coast Guard for our sponsoring the program "Operation Sail" at the Bardavon. Mrs. Andros reported that Clifford Buck is copying an old minute book of the Nine Partners for research material. Radford Curdy made a motion that the Dutchess County Historical Society apply to the National Historical Publications and Records Commission for funding under their grant program, to catalog our research material for the ultimate setting up of a union catalog. The motion passed. October 10, 1978 President Butts read a letter from Wilhemina Powers resigning as Curator of the Society as of November 1. The resignation was accepted with regret. President Butts announced the appointment of Trudy Briggs, Emily Johnson, and Ludwig Rufas as a committee to plan a winter meeting. He said Mrs. Briggs and Mrs. Johnson were unable to serve and he asked for suggestions for replacements. Mr.Curdy said he had nothing to report about the grant we are applying for but expects to be in contact with the State Archivist very soon. President Butts said that Mrs. Powers not only had been the Curator of the Historical Society but had been the County Historian. He asked the Board for suggestions for a County Historian. He will find out whether or not a salary is given for the position. Mrs. Andros reported that our Library committee had written a letter to the Adriance Library Board requesting a meeting with them in November to discuss our storage at the Library. Norma VanKleeck stated that she had met with the contractor who had done the restorative work at Glebe House. She has requested him to write a letter stating the extent of the damage caused by leaks in the roof and to what extent he feels responsible. President Butts showed the Board a sample of the Cer.:. tificate being given to the Honorary Members of the Society. He said these Certificates had already been given to Mrs. E. Sterling Carter, Wilhemina Powers and Clifford Buck, and a Certificate will be presented to Louise Tompkins, who has been elected to Honorary Membership, in the near future. Gordon Hamersley reported on progress of the Yearbook and read a list of Town Historians and Presidents of area Historical Societies for any possible corrections. President Butts announced that our mailings will now be done by Dutchess Community College and that we are working on getting the list up-to-date.

President Butts said he has been researching our ByLaws and read to us the 1969 revision which seems to be the latest change. There is a question about whether or not the Town Vice-Presidents may vote at Board meetings. He mentioned that if they do vote, it might be difficult to secure a quorum particularly at the winter meetings. Emily Johnson stated that she would like to see the government officials invited to see our exhibit in the Art and Science Center. The exhibit is supposed to be there through October, but she suggested extending the exhibit for another month. Mr. Hamersley made a motion that we do approve the extending of the deadline through November assuming that conditions of security can be solved and that the legislators can be invited during November. After discussion the motion was defeated. Mrs. Andros mentioned that parts of the exhibit could be moved and displayed at other locations, and copies could be made of the original material. President Butts said that to date there are about 80 reservations for the Pilgrimage. He said the women at the church in Millbrook only plan to serve coffee and asked whether or not we should purchase dessert. A motion was passed that we purchase dessert for those on the Pilgrimage. November 14, 1978 President Butts said the women of the Millbrook Church had furnished pastries and dessert for those on the Pilgrimage and that we had sent them a check for $100 which was in excess of their bill. A letter of appreciation was sent from them. The winter meeting was discussed. Melodye Andros suggested that an appropriate time might be the first Saturday night in January which is 12th night. A motion was passed to have the meeting. Mrs. Andros said that the Alumni House is available on January 6 if the committee decided. President Butts asked Mrs. Hoe to serve on the committee. President Butts announced that Betty Klare, Clara Losee, Marilyn Hoe, and he would represent the Society at a meeting in Rhinebeck on December 2. He further arinounced that he, Melodye Andros and Radford Curdy would go to Millbrook on November 15 to present Honorary Membership to Louise Tompkins. President Butts saiu that he had received a letter from the Hudson River Psychiatric Center asking our assistance in forming a Hudson River Psychiatric Historical Society. Radford Curdy will be our representative at their meeting on November 28. Dr. Butts said that he had a letter from a Mr. Lucas who has some old letters which he would like to either sell or loan. Mr. Curdy will contact him and see precisely what he has. President Butts told the Board about receiving a letter from Robert Pearce, who is interested in some artifacts willed to the Society by Mary B. Cary of Millbrook in 1967. Mr. Pearce wants them returned to be made part of a museum in Florida where other family artifacts are. Mr. Curdy felt we should first consult the executors of Mrs. Cary's estate. Mr. Curdy made a motion that the executors of Mrs. Cary's estate be contacted about the request and that Mrs. Matthews be contacted to ascertain her opinion.

The motion was passed. Dr. Butts will write Mr. Pearce and also contact the others. Norma VanKleeck told of a letter she had received from a Mrs. Giles concerning a portrait in Glebe House which had been given to the Society by a Mrs. Reese. The portrait is of Mrs. Cornelius VanWyck. Mrs. Giles feels the portrait should hang in the VanWyck house. A motion was passed that we not give up anything which has been willed to us, although this motion does not preclude a loan if details are worked out. Motion passed and the secretary will notify Mrs. Giles. Norma VanKleeck reported that a carpenter is making some shelving in Glebe House and will be paid from the Glebe House Committee budget. She said she has not received any word from Walter Knapp, the contractor for the restorative work, about the roof leaks. John Kane said he would take the matter up with the City, recommended that the Glebe House Committee also write a letter to the City concerning the problem, since the City owns the property. Dr. William McDermott requested the secretary to write some thank you letters on behalf of the Society for assistance with our exhibit in the Arts and Science Building. He said that we had rented a projector from Arax for the exhibit for $300, and that for an additional $150 we could buy it. A motion was passed to purchase. He suggested that perhaps some of our Trustees could be appointed to attend meetings of other local Societies in the interest of encouraging better communication. He also suggested that one of our members might be willing to serve on the Board of the Arts and Science Center. He handed out a Publication Proposal to those present for consideration at the December meeting. The book is entitled "Eighteenth Century Records of the Nine Partners Patent" and was compiled by Clifford Buck and Dr. McDermott. December12, 1978 Treasurer, Peter Van Kleeck reported that second notices for dues have not yet gone out, and that sales of our publications are down because we have no one yet representing us at the Library. Melodye Andros announced the winter meeting of the Society at the Alumni House on January 6, 1979. She said details of the meeting are in the Newsletter and that no extra mailing was necessary. Dr. Butts reported on his attendance at a meeting at the Hudson River Psychiatric Center. He said they plan to have a museum including all their historical memorabilia at the Center and plan to establish an Historical Society. There will be another meeting there next month and Dr. Butts and Radford Curdy plan to attend. Mrs. Andros told the Board she plans to meet with Mary Roig about membership soon, and to inquire about whether or not second notices are going out. She feels acquiring new members should be a top priority. Dr. Butts said that John Kane had been in touch with the City about the leaks in the roof at Glebe House. A copy of his letter to the City was sent to us for our files. Dr. Butts told of recent developments with regard to Robert Pearce's letter about the Cary artifacts. He said he had found a document having to do with the Cary Estate in our files. he read Article 13 which said that our Society could not sell any of the things without consent of

a majority of the trustees of the Estate. He has written Robert Pearce about this condition and has also written the lawyers of the Estate asking what is the termination of the Trust having to do with the artifacts willed to us and what are its restrictions. Mr. Curdy feels the collection contains important documents which should not be relinquished. Mr. Hamersley expects to have the Yearbook out in February. Radford Curdy mentioned that at a recent auction at Smith's the Glebe House Committee and the Historical Society had purchased some artifacts. Some had belonged to Lt. David B. Sleight, who was the last officer to be killed in the Civil War. Eunice Smith, who had been introduced at the beginning of the meeting as our new Curator, told about some of the inquiries received by her as Curator, and asked about having a complete list of Town Vice-Presidents and Town Historians to mail out in answer to various inquiries. Mr. Curdy suggested that some of these people making inquiries might be interested in purchasing some of our Yearbooks, if a form were mailed to them. Mr. Hamersley made a motion that at either a Fall or Spring meeting of our Board, that our Board be hosts to all Presidents of local Historical Societies and that their Vice-Presidents be invited to attend our meeting to exchange information. The motion passed. Mr. Hamersley reported that Bill Wing, Jr., who runs the Energy Option Shop has some old newspapers dating from 1778. Melodye Andros told the Board that a Michael Steffan had written her asking our Society to write a letter to the State endorsing his interest in buying and restoring the old William Rowe house, built around 1839 on Route 376 near Diddell Road. The motion passed that a letter be written. Mrs. Andros mentioned a letter from Jane Dow Bromberg, inquiring about the lack of identification of murals in the Rhinebeck Post Office. The letter will be acknowledged and referred to the Rhinebeck Historical Society. The publication proposal of the book compiled by Clifford Buck and William McDermott called "Eighteenth Century Records of the Nine Partners Patent" was discussed. The discussion included cost, methods of distribution and advertising. Dr. McDermott made a motion that the book be published and sponsored by the Society. The motion passed. Mr. Hamersley made a motion that a committee be appointed by the President to work with the authors concerning its publication. Motion passed. Dr. Jonathan Clark volunteered to serve on this committee. Emily Johnson announced that she had a list of slide presentation programs which can be rented for a possible future program.

SUMMARY OF 1979 MINUTES January 9, 1979 President Butts said Jonathan Clark, Lemma McGinnis, and Gordon Hamersley had been appointed to work with authors

Clifford Buck and William McDermott on publication of "Eighteenth Century Records of the Nine Partners Patent." Dr. Butts announced that he plans to appoint a committee to study the present By-Laws. In the matter of the Mary B. Cary Estate, Dr. Butts reported that the trust under which the Historical Society received some artifacts does not terminate until the year 2000. The Society is responsible for any loss or damage to the artifacts, loans may be made but not to individuals. The trustees must approve any loans. A motion was passed that the Society not loan the materials requested by Mr. Pearce because of the conditions of the trust. Dr. Butts briefly reviewed a letter from Walter Averill of the Hudson River Valley Association. He said he is being replaced and that the Association will be put in the hands of a Westchester Advertising Agency. Velma Pugsley has consented to represent the Society on the Dutchess County Arts Council. President Butts announced the appointment of Radford Curdy as County Historian. Mr. Curdy reported on a meeting at the Hudson River Psychiatric Center. He said they have a great many artifacts which would make a very good museum. He advised the group on who to contact at the State level for assistance. President Butts complimented the committee for the winter meeting in January, and said he would be in favor of a winter meeting each year. On the matter of membership, Melodye Andros said that Emily Johnson is now working on our membership list and is trying to correct omissions on the mailing list. Mrs. Johnson said this has involved matching membership cards with the labels list from Dutchess Community College. It is a time-consuming job. Second notices for dues have gone out. Various suggestions were made for increasing membership, such as Board members having membership blanks, having one mailing to all members of local societies soliciting members, inserting an information sheet about the Society in various other mailings. Dr. Butts commented that we should consider the original purpose of the Society and see whether or not our present interests and energies fit the purpose stated in the original By-Laws. He said we have discussed from time to time the establishment of a museum or research center, and the Vassar Institute has been mentioned as a possible site Melodye Andros feels we must make a decision soon in view of the fact that Adriance Library has requested our removing some of our artifacts and has expressed their need for more space. She said the Direction Committee feels that we should pursue the use of Clinton House as a possible site for our artifacts and as a future research center. She says the State seems receptive. Emily Johnson made a motion that we pursue the avenue of obtaining Clinton house rather than Vassar Institue. The motion passed. Dr. McDermott said that financial considerations for maintaining any project must be considered now. Dr. Butts will appoint a nominating committee at the next meeting. Dr. Butts asked Dr. William McDermott to write some-

thing for the record on the contributions of Helen VanVliet to our Society. He asked for suggestions at the next meeting of possible sites for the next Pilgrimage. He commented that the Annual Meeting would be in early June and he would like some suggestions for a possible program. February 13, 1979 Dr. McDermott announced that his and, Clifford Buck's book is being typed presently for publication. Melodye Andros reported that we have 3 new members of the Society, Donald McTernan, Dr. Jean Stevenson, and Suzanne Horn. Emily Johnson would like to have some kind of form printed so that it would be easier for people to pay their dues. Felix Scardapane reported that most likely the Spring Pilgrimage will be to Beacon. May 12 is the proposed date. Melodye Andros suggested that we raise the price for the Pilgrimage to cover our expenses. After a discussion a motion was passed that the charge for the Pilgrimage be $5.00, and $2.00 if they take their own car. There was a discussion about plans for the Annual Meeting. A committee will be appointed to assist Felix Scardapane, who is in charge of the meeting. Dr. Butts said he would notify Robert Pearce of the motion which was passed at our last meeting relative to the Mary B. Cary Estate. (The motion stated that the artifacts requested by Mr. Pearce would not be loaned by our Society to him as an individual, due to the conditions of the Trust.) Dr. Butts reported that Tim Allred and Elizabeth Carter are presently trying to organize a City of Poughkeepsie Historical Society. Melodye Andros reported that we are waiting for the State to send us a sample lease having to do with Clinton House. She said that all our artifacts have been moved from Adriance Library, and she requested some help in transporting the remaining boxes of old Yearbooks. President Butts reported that he had been contacted by Jesse Effron to meet with him, Hamilton Fish and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. They are all vitally interested in expanding the programs which the Historical Society could sponsor. Mr. Effron is specifically in favor of utilizing Vassar Institute. A further meeting was held with Mr. Roosevelt, Radford Curdy, Melodye Andros, Dr. Butts attending. Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Fish are confident that a large sum of money could be raised for a dynamic program. The feeling of our Board was that we proceed cautiously, that we begin small. President Butts asked for discussion about how we would make use of Clinton House if we were to decide to move our things there. Radford Curdy said that it could become a research center and that we could begin to establish a union catalog under one roof. Melodye Andros feels it is very important to maintain good relations with the Adriance Library, since it would be most desirous to keep all of our research material and theirs together. Dr. McDermott suggested that letters be written to Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Fish thanking them for their interest and telling them that we will keep them informed of our plans.

President Butts expanded the present Direction Committee toinclude Dr. McDermott, Gordon Hamersley and Jesse Effron. President Butts appointed a nominating committee of Norma VanKleeck, Ezra Benton, and Betty Klare. President Butts announced the appointment of Emily Johnson, Hubert Spross and Herbert Roig to the By-Laws Committee. Dr. Jonathan Clark reported that he is currently doing an inventory of our publications. He said there is little value in some of them, and that our supply of old Yearbooks is very uneven. There are many of some years, and few or none of others. He favors reprinting some of those so that complete sets could be sold. He suggested sending out a flyer to interested parties announcing what we have for sale. Ezra Benton announced that he had 3 extra copies of a xeroxed reprint of "Baptisms and Marriages." The cost per copy is $6.50. The motion was passed that the Society purchase one copy. Nancy Logan, who is a Librarian at Roosevelt High School, would like to purchase as many old Yearbooks as we have for the School Library. The Board approved the sale to the Library for $50.00. Mrs. Andros said that Clara Losee is acquainted with a man who has many old photographs of the Hudson Valley which he wants to sell. The Acquisition Committee will investigate and make a recommendation. Mr. Curdy reported that Adriance Library has a collection of old newspapers published in Poughkeepsie which they are going to dispose of. He said the Acquisition Committee is working on obtaining the collection. Dr. McDermott read a Resolution about Helena VanVliet. It read as follows: The Dutchess County Historical Society mourns the loss of its long time active Board member, Helena VanVliet. Her contributions to the history of Dutchess County and her Town of Clinton were many. But beyond these, she contributed much to her fellow man as a nurse at home and in China. Her loss as a fellow historian, humanitarian, and friend is deeply felt by all who knew her. The resolution was adopted unanimously. Mrs. Andros will write a resolution for Ralph VanKleeck. March 13, 1979 Clara Losee corrected last month's minutes relative to the old photographs of the Husdon Valley. She has the negatives of these old photographs and they can be reprinted if we wish to do so. A copy of the Resolution on the death of Helena VanVliet which was written by Dr. William McDermott, read at the last Board meeting and unanimously adopted, will be sent to her brother, Henry Richard VanVliet, by the Secretary. Dr. McDermott announced that he and Mr. Buck are now working on the index of their book. Felix Scardapane reported that the Pilgrimage to Beacon is now set for Saturday, May 12. A separate mailing will go out about the Pilgrimage. Jonathan Clark reported that he is investigating various publishers which we might be interested in using in the future. 1 n

Tim Allred said that he and Mrs. E. Sterling Carter are planning a meeting for next week to start a City of Poughkeepsie Historical Society. They plan to accumulate a list of names of people who might be interested in becoming charter members. John Kane reported that he had written a letter to the City concerning the leaks in the roof at Glebe House and he plans to meet with the contractor and a representative of the City soon. With regard to Clinton House, Melodye Andros reported that she had met with the DAR to inform them of our plans. She said that one of the stumbling blocks in drafting a lease satisfactory to both our Society and the State is the matter of security. She said that we now have removed from the Library all the things we were asked to remove. Velma Pugsley reported that the Arts Council is having a lecture on March 21 on "Conservation and Protection of Art" which might be of interest to our group. She mentioned that an old painting of the Hudson Valley had recently been discovered in a local firehouse. It is now at Barrett House and plans are being made to restore it. Emily Johnson reported that Gay Kendall has consented to work with her on revising our By-Laws. She said one of the primary concerns was to clarity the role of Town VicePresidents and whether or not they should have a vote. Felix Scardapane asked for suggestions on speakers and places we might hold the June Annual Meeting. It is usually held the second or third Saturday in May. Gordon Hamersley is to help with the plans. President Butts asked that the nominating committee consider possible candidates for Honorary Membership. There was a discussion about possible uses of the Clinton House. Melodye Andros said that once we have a definite place we can begin to acquire materials for display. She said one of the rooms could be used for reading and reference, and perhaps a closed stack area. The DAR will continue to have the use of an upstairs room. The plan would be to start out using volunteers, but a custodian is expected to be hired at some time in the future. It was mentioned that various groups could join with us in various activities. Dr. Butts showed the Board a booklet put out by the Junior League about existing grants, how to apply for them and all related information. Dr. Butts appointed Marilyn Hoe as chairman of a social event to be given in the near future at which the Presidents of the local Historical Societies will be guests. Melodye Andros read the following Resolution on the Death of Ralph VanKleeck: Whereas Ralph Van Kleeck passed away on January 11, 1979 and Whereas Mr. VanKleeck was a longtime member, and former President of the Dutchess County Historical Society and for many years a proponent of the objectives of the Society and Whereas this Society and the Community have lost in the passing of Mr. VanKleeck a valued member and supportive friend whose interest and concern will be greatly missed, now therefore be it

1-1

Resolved that the members of the Dutchess County Historical Society put on record an expression of their sincere sorrow with the death of Ralph Emerson VanKleeck, and it is further Resolved that this Resolution be included in the minutes of this meeting and a copy thereof be delivered to the members of his family. The Resolution was unanimously adopted. There was a discussion about the various problems and delay in getting the Yearbook published. It was felt that getting it published and distributed early in the year should be a priority. There was also a discussion about old Yearbooks, how they could be sold, at what price. A committee will be appointed to discuss this matter and to make recommendations. April 4, 1979 President Butts announced the Annual Meeting on June 23, 1979, at Rogers Point Boathouse. He said Hubert Spross and Gordon Hamersley were co-chairmen. Parking is adequate there and Mr. Spross will put up signs to direct the members. Notices will go out about the May 12 Pilgrimage as soon as the mailing labels are ready. Emily Johnson reported 7 new members of the Society since the last meeting. Mr. Spross presented the idea of sponsoring a Gilbert and Sullivan show at the Bardavon on May 18, as a moneymaking project. After discussion the Board felt there was not time to organize for a May showing, but that at some future time it might be possible. A motion was made that a small committee be appointed to set-up, several times a year, a program sponsored by the Society for the membership. The motion carried. Melodye Andros handed out a flow chart to each member present. She said the chart might be helpful in explaining the proposed "take-over" of the Clinton House. This will be the topic for the next Board meeting. The Nominating Committee is working on completing their list of new Trustees, Officers and Town Vice-Presidents. It was noted that there is to be a meeting in New York City on May 4, 1979 on Archives, with a fee of $25.00 or $30.00 for attendance. A motion was passed that the Society send a member. A motion was passed not to join the Hudson River Valley Association. There was a discussion about whether or not to issue membership cards, whether to have a roster or directory for use of the members. It will be put on the agenda for a future meeting. President Butts read a letter from Adriance Library stating that they would be interested in sharing the use of Clinton House with us. After discussion it was decided that since we have not settled our position with New York State yet that we should answer them to that effect. A motion was passed approving this action. A motion was passed that a copy of the minutes and a Treasurer's Report be sent to each Board member, President and Vice-President, as soon after each Board meeting as possible.

Hubert Spross reported on recent showings of the 1912 film in the area. May 8, 1979 Dr. Scardapane reported that about 100 people planned to go on the 2 buses on the Pilgrimage to Beacon. About 20 planned to drive their own cars. All are to meet at the Dutch Reformed Church in Beacon for an orientation. Dr. Butts reported that the Annual Meeting will be at Rogers Point Boathouse on June-23, 1979, with luncheon being served by the Ladies Auxiliary of Rogers Point. The charge will be $6.50 for the luncheon of 4 hot entrees. The Society will pay $125.00 for the use of the hall. Norma VanKleeck said that our Dutchess County plates will be used for the luncheon and will be offered for sale afterwards for $5.00. Dr. Jonathan Clark suggested that the 1916-18 Yearbook which has some articles in it about a pilgrimage to Beacon, might be offered for sale on our May 12 Pilgrimage. Clara Losee and Emily Johnson will sell them. Gordon Hamersley expects this year's Yearbook to be out by the end of next week. Velma Pugsley announced a meeting on May 15 sponsored by the Arts Council to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of having funding for the arts in the County. Mrs. Andros reported that the Up-To-Date store will have a display in their windows of outfits and memorabilia that we purchased from the VanKleeck Estate. President Butts had an inquiry about having someone speak to two classes at Arlington High School on the growth and development of this area from about 1875 into the 20th Century. He will ask Mrs. Sterling Carter if she could speak to the groups. President Butts turned the meeting over to Melodye Andros who led the discussion about Clinton House. She reviewed the sample lease which had been submitted to us by the State for our approval. She stated that Arthur Gellert had volunteered his legal services and she discussed with those present some of the wordings which we would like to have clarified in a final lease, as well as some of the changes Mr. Gellert felt should be made. Many of the changes involved determining responsibilities. There was ample discussion. Peter VanKleeck spoke of our financial status and reminded us that involving ourselves with Clinton House means incurring a yearly expense. Radford Curdy does feel we can get some grants and foundation money when we are in operation. At the conclusion of thediscussion the following motion was passed: That the Society do enter into an Agreement with the State of New York for the use of Clinton House by the Dutchess County Historical Society as a Research and Educational Center; and that the said Agreement be hereby approved aubject to such changes as have been suggested by the Society, Counsel and the Direction Committee; and that the parties be hereby permitted to sign the Agreement provided the aforementioned changes have been negotiated. There was one abstention.

June 12, 1979 Dr. Butts read a letter which he has written to Waino Lana, who has been the projectionist for the 1912 movie of Poughkeepsie, He has participated in over 50 showings with Hubert Spross to various groups in the community. The letter extended to him a year's honorary membership in the Society and invited him and his wife to be our guests at the Annual meeting on June 23. A motion was passed approving of the letter. President Butts reported on a letter received from Mr. Brock of Adriance Library. Mr. Brock would like us to move all our things out of the Library by the end of the year, and he inquired about the prospect of having a branch of the Library at Clinton House. President Butts will answer the letter that it is highly unlikely that there would be room for a branch library. Also, he will mention that there has been some damage to our things by workmen at the library. A motion was passed supporting this action. Dr. William McDermott suggested that an award be presented to Melodye Andros for her work on the Clinton House and for the Newsletter. A motion was passed that a book be selected for her and that it be presented to her at the Annual Meeting. Emily Johnson and Velma Pugsley will select the book. Dr. McDermott feels we should go on record with the County Executive and the legislators supporting the work of the County Historian in preserving and conserving our heritage. There was discussion about the best procedure. Dr. Scardapane's suggestion was adopted thatPresident Butts make a public statement in this regard, and that subsequent to this, that a letter be written by the Society to the County Executive. After a discussion a motion was passed that 1979 members of the Society may purchase the 1978 yearbook at a 25% discount. Emily Johnson stated that she would like a reaffirmation of our plan to issue a Yearbook by the end of each year. Mrs. Johnson told the Board about the work being done by the By-Laws Committee, made up of herself, Gay Kendall, Herbert Roig and Clara Losee. She displayed a large chart and handed out some material indicating the Committee's thinking with regard to the workings and makeup of standing committees. She said that the mailing announcing the Annual Meeting will include fact sheets about matters to be discussed at the Annual Meeting. Dr. McDermott proposed that we have a summer Board meeting after the Annual Meeting. The meeting will be held at the regular time (second Tuesday at 4p.m.) in July. Annual Meeting, June 23, 1979 The Annual Meeting of the Dutchess County Historical Society was called to order at 2:45 p.m. after luncheon had been served by the Ladies Auxiliary of Rogers Point. President Butts welcomed everyone and was pleased at the big turn out. President Butts introduced Mr. and Mrs. Waino Lana who are our quests. Mr. Lana has been the projectionist for each showing of the 1912 Poughkeepsie film, assisting Hubert Spross.

There was a moment of silence in memory of Frank Mylod, Helena VanVliet and Ralph VanKleeck. President Butts told the group that our own commemorative plates were used for the luncheon and that anyone desiring to purchase one for $5.00 could see Norma Van Kleeck or Hubert Spross after the program. He announced that the Yearbook would be in their hands in a matter of days. President Butts introduced Radford Curdy as County Historian. Mr. Curdy urged the members to help preserve our heritage. He appealed to the members to volunteer their time for our new undertaking at Clinton House. President Butts read the names of the Town Historians and mentioned that Mary Ann Grace is the new Historian of Eyde Park. Norma VanKleeck gave the nominating report. Others on her committee were Betty Klare and Ezra Benton. She said the Town Vice Presidents are elected for 2 years, and that we have 16 Trustees who serve 4 years. Four are elected each year. The new Trustees presented to serve until 1983 are: Tim Allred Dr. C. Colton Johnson Collin M. Strang Nelson Tyrrel The slate of officers presented are as follows: Dr. Franklin A. Butts President Felix Scardapane Vice President Mrs. Robert Hoe (Marilyn) Secretary Hubert C. Spross Treasurer The New Town Vice-Presidents presented are: Miss Bernice Dodge Town of Beekman Putnam Davis Town of Clinton Mrs. Richard Reichenberg, Jr. Town of Dover Mrs. Hilda Vinall Town of Fishkill Chester Eisenhuth Town of Northeast Mrs. Marita Rack Town of Pawling Frank Andrew Town of Pleasant Valley Willard J. Arbuco Town of Stanford Mrs. Karel Stolarik Town of Union Vale All were elected as read. President Butts said that a Historical Society is being formed in the City of Poughkeepsie through the efforts of Tim Allred and Mrs. E. Sterling Carter. Mr. Allred told the group that in September they hope to have a big organizational meeting. They plan to study the various ethnic groups that have a large population in Poughkeepsie. Emily Johnson of the By-Laws Committee said that there were information sheets at each place setting, that revising the By-Laws was needed to clarify the role of the Vice Presidents, that it was an opportunity for Vice Presidents as well as members of the Society to become involved. She said the proposed changes in the By-Laws will be acted upon in the Fall. Dr. William McDermott showed some slides of various landmarks in the County. The last slide was of Clinton House. Melodye Andros then spoke about Clinton House and our plans for its use. She thanked her committee and Arthur Gellert for his legal assistance and said the Agree-

ment with the State will commence on January 1. President Butts then presented a gift to Mrs. Andros for all her work on Clinton House as well as for being Editor of the Newsletter. The meeting was then adjourned. Felix Scardapane introduced Don McTernn and Helen Fink who presented a slide lecture on the Archibald Rogers Estate on the Hudson.

ANNUAL TREASURER'S REPORT 1978 Balance - December 31, 1977 (Checking Account) Receipts Dues Wells Fund Transfer Adams Fund Transfer Pilgrimages & Meetings Plates, Books, & Refund Reynolds Fund Transfer

$3,334.00 3,035.45 1,753.65 922.50 72.82 500.00 $9,618.42

186.76

9,618.42 $9,805.18

Expenses $ 182.93 Acquisition Source Material Donation Rhinebeck Historical Society 100.00 Fees 600.00 Office Supplies 223.59 Postage 304.00 Pilgrimages & Meetings 1,800.53 2,068.39 Yearbook 1,500.00 Glebe House Maintenance 398.00 Internal Revenue 575.00 Accounting 110.00 Dues 450.00 Equipment 528.00 Publication 458.49 Exhibit 260.00 Newsletter 25.00 Petty Cash 6.42 Safe Deposit Rent 54.26 Miscellaneous $9,644.61 Balance - December 31, 1978

9,644.61 $

160.57

53.30

2.89 56.19

General Fund Balance - December 31, 1977 (Savings Account) Receipts Interest Balance - December 31, 1978

2.89

Helen Wilkinson Reynolds Fund (Publications) Balance - December 31, 1977 (Savings Account) Receipts Sale Publications Interest

$22,642.03

$ 466.20 1,187.05

Disbursements Transfer to Checking Account Balance - December 31, 1978

500.00

$ 1,653.25 $24,295.28

$ 500.00 $23,795.28

William Platt Adams Fund (Interest for Glebe House Support) $25,022.18

Balance - December 31, 1977 (Bonds at Investment Value) Receipts Interest

Disbursements Transfer to Checking Account Balance - December 31, 1978

$1,753.75

1,753.75 $26,775.93

$1,753.75

1,753.75 $25,022.18

Wells Fund (General Purposes) $123,283.28

Balance - December 31, 1977 (Bonds, stocks at investment value, savings accounts) Receipts Interest & Dividends Donation Plates

Disbursements Transfer to Checking Account Balance - December 31, 1978

$8,433.13 30.00 25.00 $8,488.13

$3,035.45

8,488.13 $131,771.41

3,035.45 $128,735.96

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE Without a doubt this is a crucial year for the Dutchess County Historical Society. Our many years of association with the Adriance Memorial Library in Poughkeepsie have ended. We can no longer enjoy their facilities and the services of their staff. All of the things that have been done previously in conjunction with the Library must henceforth be carried on by the Historical Society alone. It should be understood by our members that this action was instituted by the Library because of its need for more space. This decision by the Library made it necessary for us to find a new repository for all of our possessions which previously had been kept in the Library. In this connection we have negotiated with the State of New York for the use of the Clinton House in Poughkeepsie, and will be able to take advantage of its facilities by December 1, 1979. Our membership should understand that occupation of the Clinton House creates several problems. To care for our records and memorabilia, and to make them available to students and researchers, we will need furniture and equipment which we do not presently possess. In order to secure the things we need we intend to request financial assistance from foundations and governmental agencies. We will also need to supply the personnel which were formerly furnished by the Adriance Memorial Library staff. The operation will require a full-time director as well as the services of volunteers. It is obvious that there will be profound changes in our operations and that both financing and membership services are involved. We will need the cooperation of all of our members, and would welcome any suggestions as to how the project can be successfully implemented. Any volunteers for service at the Clinton House will be greatly appreciated. Please let us know when you might be able to serve. In answer to many questions, our association with the Glebe House will not be changed. Franklin A. Butts President

CURATOR'S REPORT The most important acquistion during the past year has been the Clinton House, the new home of our collection. Until we are operational there, which we expect to be by late Spring 1980, our collection will be seen by appointment only. During the last year over 175 letters requesting genealogical information were answered. At the same time membership blanks are sent to the inquiring genealogist. This procedure has resulted in several new members for the Society. This year the Society attempted to advertise its publications a little more and the result was quite successful. Ten complete sets of our yearbooks have been sold as well as numerous single copies. In addition we have sold 28 Record of Marriages and Deaths and 5 copies of Old Gravestones of Dutchess County. Miscellaneous other publications account for 11 sales. Our collection has increased during the past year by both acquisitions and gifts. The acquisitions committee purchased: several Sleight family belongings at an auction, 800 bound volumes of Poughkeepsie and scattered Dutchess County newspapers, copies of 1909 Hudson-Fulton celebration photographs, 4 doctor's account ledgers of Bartholomew Noxon and miscellaneous legal documents of Martin Hoffman. From the estate of Lillian Hassett we received souvenir programs from the Beacon area and a copy of Smith's Guide and Directory to Poughkeepsie and Dutchess County. Michael Karet gave a 19th century account book from the Town of Milan. Our Eastman College collection was enhanced by gifts of workbooks and catalogues from John M. Parker III and Collin Strang. The largest collection of manuscripts was a collection of papers from the estate of Mrs. A. Curtis Bogert. The collection included letters, documents and account books, from the 18th and 19th centuries and pertaining mostly to the Pawling-Dover area. The Society was also privileged to receive office equipment and Dinsmore family safes from the estate of Mrs. Lytle Hull through Mrs. Janos Scholz. Paul Deuell gave photographs and a Poughkeepsie Hotel ledger. Mrs. S. A. Moore donated miscellaneous papers and Miss D. M. Lawlor donated papers relating to the construction of the railroad bridge. The Society has also taken steps in the direction of more professional care of our holdings. Several members of the Society have attended workshops on the care and preservation of documents and the agreement with the State of New York concerning the Clinton House also offers us the technical assistance of the State paper conservator. Our museum items have been photographed and we have started restoration work on our portrait collection. The Society appreciates our members and their constant support of our efforts. Without their gifts our holdings could not continue to grow. We beg your indulgence as we move our collection to its new home. Melody Andros Assistant Curator

GLEBE HOUSE REPORT This year the Glebe House Committee continued to provide the community with a varied program of seminars and displays. The seminars were well attended, and many people visited the house to view the displays. The Annual Christmas Open House was a success. Evangeline (Van) Reilly was hired as the guide/caretaker and has contributed greatly by handling many of the details that are necessary for a smoothly run house. The committee explored ways to commemorate Glebe House's upcoming fiftieth year as a joint project of the Junior League of Poughkeepsie and the Dutchess County Historical Society. Alice Flint, Chairman Glebe House Committee

GLEBE HOUSE COMMITTEE 1978-1979 Alice Flint, 125 High Acres Drive, Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Melodye Andros, 6 Merrick Road, Poughkeepsie, New York. Anne Mitchell, 250 Grand Avenue, Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Barbara Bogle, Beekman Road, Hopewell Junction, N.Y.

Chairman Co-Chairman Secretary Treasurer

Murray, Brita Petrovits, Randi Potter, Ellen Ringwood, Barbara Seridan, Dixie VanKleek, Norma Wilhelm, Sharon Wright, Nancy

Hill, Donna Butler, Diana Case, Jean Hart, Ellen Jamin, Robin Kerin, Kit Mavodones, Zinas (Zeke) Mitchess, Betty *

Glebe House Number

454-0605

Glebe House Hours

Sunday, Tuesday-Friday 1:00 - 4:00

Guide/Caretaker

Evangeline Reilly

471-7074

IN BRIEF In the very center of this issue is a map showing a portion of Hudson River shoreland mentioned in an article on Cruger's Island by J. Winthrop Aldrich, Red Hook Town Historian. We are indebted for a reproduction of the map to Miss Helen Harden, Society member and Deputy County Clerk, who controls important records in the County Clerk's Office in the Dutchess County Office Building. Clifford M. Buck, who has contributed to many Year Books, provided our introduction to Miss Harden and both of them helped increase the interest of this issue. James J. Lumb created a delightful article about the Henry Hudson - Robert Fulton Celebration held in 1909. Quite coincidentally we received through J. Winthrop Aldrich a collection of photographs including the Half Moon and Clermont replicas which proceeded up river in that celebration. The Year Book is fortunate to have received from Trustee Collin M. Strang a rare series of cartoons about the operations of the Central New England Railroad. They are amusing reminiscences of a past mode of movement in the county. Clara W. Lossee of Rhinebeck sent us several nostalgic news articles about northern Dutchess County and gave the origins in a letter from which we quote: "The article on Cook's Mill and on Blacksmithing were written by Giles Cook of Tivoli. Mr. Cook was a surveyor. He also wrote many articles which were published in the old Red Hook Journal which was published weekly (on Friday) from April 29, 1859 to July 20, 1917, when it merged with the Tivoli Times and was then published weekly in Tivoli as the Times-Journal. This paper was purchased in 1923. "Burton Coon lived in the Town of Milan and was sort of unofficial Town Historian. His articles were published in the Red Hook Advertiser and the Rhinebeck Gazette for many years." The articles are grouped together in this issue We are pleased to have Associate Editor William P. McDermott participating in this issue of the Year Book. Starting with the 1980 edition he will be Editor and he brings to the position valuable credentials. Dr. McDermott is a Trustee of this Society; former president and a current Trustee of the Town of Clinton Historical Society; editor of the Clinton Historian; editor of Eighteenth Century Documents of the Nine Partners Patent, compiled by Clifford M. Buck and William P. McDermott; a past and current contributor to the Year Book; and a member of the committee which negotiated the agreement which brought use of the Clinton House in Poughkeepsie to the Society as its headquarters. Dr. McDermott has trod an historic road familiar to many since our country's beginnings-from Brooklyn to Dutchess County--and he seems a most appropriate person to welcome as future Editor of our Year Book.

CLINTON HOUSE: A NEW PERIOD by Meloyde Andros In January of 1778 when Poughkeepsie became the Capital of New York State there were approximately seventy-five dwellings within easy access of the Court House, the focal point of legislative activity. That the house known today as the Clinton House existed then, in some form, is generally accepted, however details regarding the structure and its use have long confounded historians. The property on the corner of North White Street and Main Street in Poughkeepsie was originally part of the 1686 Crown Patent to Harmense & Sanders, and from them passed to Jan Oosterum in 1707. Oosterum held the property for eight years after which it was transferred to Frans LaRoy. LaRoy's heirs sold the parcel in 1762 to John LaRoy who two years later passed the property to Clear Everitt. Clear Everitt first appears on the Poughkeepsie tax lists in 1744/45 and served as the High Sheriff of Dutchess County from 1754-1760. Everitt appears to have been somewhat of a land speculator and assessment rolls for this period indicate he was quite successful at it. Apparently Everitt immediately broke up the parcel into four house lots with the section in question passing to Hugh Van Kleeck the husband of Clear Everitt's daughter Maria. Hugh, the son of Ahasuerus and grandson of Barent already owned the part of Barent's homestead which lay south of the present Main Street and ran from Cherry Street to Worrall Ave. Encompassing 50 acres, the homestead parcel lay across the Filkentown Road from the lot Hugh received from Everitt. Hugh VanKleeck married Maria Everitt in the autumn of 1763 and began paying taxes in 1765. This coupled, with the facts that an existing map of 1770 at the office of the State Engineers shows a house on the property, and an existing lintel stone which appears to be marked HVK, has led historians to conclude that VanKleeck built the house after receiving the property from his father-in-law in 1764. VanKleeck's story is somewhat mysterious and is open to much speculation. He remained on the tax lists from 1765 until 1774. In 1775, 1776 and 1777 the property is listed as Hugh Van Kleeck's place, a practice usually involving an absentee owner. If Van Kleeck was away, he seems to have returned, for in 1778 and 1779 the property is again listed under his name. In 1778 Van Kleeck was a Captain in Col. John Freer's 4th Dutchess County Militia, but he must have experienced some difficulties, for on March 4, 1780 he was cashiered out, a practice similar in concept to the contemporary dishonorable discharge. Shortly thereafter in October of 1780 the house and property were sold. The use of the Clinton House during the Revolution has long been debated and not until the articles written in the 1920's by Helen Wilkinson Reynolds for the Yearbook was anything clearly defined. With the movement of the Capital to Poughkeepsie in 1778 unusual circumstances concerning housing evolved in the Village. Not only was Governor Clinton among the new arrivals, but the Senate accounted for approximately twenty-five men and the Assembly included approximately sixty-five others. These legislators, in addition to other military and political personages swelled the existing popu-

This postcard shows The Clinton House after late 1800s renovation.

A view of the Clinton House after acquisition in 1903 and period restoration by New York State.

lation to such limits that any and all available housing was pressed into service. Considering these circumstances, it is likely that Van Kleeck's house was used as military and/ or political headquarters during and after his occupancy. Oral tradition has also supported the theory of the use of the house as a place of confinement for well-known and respected Tory prisoners. Gov. Clinton had been a frequent visitor to Poughkeepsie prior to his removal here in late 1777. His brother-in-law Dr. Peter Tappen lived in the area of the present Washington Street, and Clinton was also interested in overseeing the boat construction at the Poughkeepsie Shipyard at Mine Point. Speculation had previously centered around the fact that Clinton had used the Clinton House as his residence during the government's tenure here. In 1922, Reynolds put that theory to rest, concluding instead that Clinton had resided in the unoccupied home of Tory Bartholomew Crannell, a short distance west of the Clinton House. It was a logical way to protect family interest since Crannell's daughter Elizabeth was married to Tappen, thereby establishing family ties to the Clintons as well. Udny Hay, the 1780 purchaser of the house was a Scotsman who had migrated to America from Canada and had served from 1776 to 1780 in the Quartermaster Department of the Continental Army. In 1780 he resigned his commission, accepted a position as purchasing agent for New York State and moved with his wife to Poughkeepsie, the State Capital. While Hay was living at the Clinton House it apparently fell victim to fire, although the extent to which it was damaged has never been fully assessed. On April 14, 1783 a permit was issued for Continental Artificers from Newburgh to assist Hay in the rebuilding of his home. After the repairs Hay held the property until 1786 when having been seized for debt the parcel was sold to Melancthon Smith and Hendrick Wyckoff. In all likelihood the original house built by Hugh Van Kleeck was considerably altered in the reconstruction after the fire. Foundations in the basement indicate that the original structure was probably oblong, as opposed to the almost square contemporary dimensions. What, if anything of the original structure remained after the fire is unknown. The house was apparently changed again late in the 1800's with the addition of a mansard roof. These 19th century modifications were removed after the Daughters of the American Revolution and the State of New York became involved with the house. Throughout the 19th century the Clinton House passed through a number of owners until 1900 when the then recently formed Mahwenawasig Chapter of the DAR took possession of the house. Shortly thereafter the DAR transferred ownership of the house to the State of New York and operation of the Clinton House remained in the hands of these two organizations until 1979 when the Dutchess County Historical Society was licensed by the State of New York to operate the Clinton House as a local history center. This center, as the Society visualizes it, will be a repository for historical manuscripts and other primary source materials, as well as printed materials relating to Dutchess County and the mid-Hudson Valley. Our plan is to establish a small museum area with rotating exhibits and to coordinate through this center

various other historical activities. Today the Clinton House has been returned as much as possible to the character of the period when it probably enjoyed its greatest activity. Hopefully with the help of all members of the Dutchess County Historical Society it will soon enter into another period of activity. As Poughkeepsie and Dutchess County once served as the center of Revolutionary activities for the State, let us now turn this building, held as a fitting memorial to New York's first Governor, into the center of historical activities for our county.

Dutchess Co. Historical Society Yearbook 1922 Dutchess Co. Historical Society Yearbook 1925 Platt, Edmund, Eagle's History of Poughkeepsie, Poughkeepsie, 1905. Reynolds, Helen W., Dutch Houses of the Hudson River Valley Before 1776, New York, 1929.

HISTORICAL SOCIETY LEADERS By Joseph W. Emsley Supporters of the Dutchess County Historical Society are often reminded of the high regard in which the organization has been held down through the years and the valuable contributions of many of its leaders. The writer is frequently reminded of the outstanding contributors to the society's Year Books back in the 1940's and the valuable support of others, who, like them, were lost to the organization by death during the same period. We like to recall the late Helen Wilkinson Reynolds as probably the most highly regarded and valuable Dutchess historian of the modern period, and, joining with her, the late Dr. J. Wilson Poucher through similar years. The outstanding support of others who were lost to the society during the same period are also recalled. Miss Reynolds died Jan. 3, 1943. Members of the County Historical Society, expressing the organization's "sincere sorrow and heartfelt loss" over her passing, set forth that "no tribute which we feebly compile will ever adequately express the extent of Miss Reynolds' contribution to this society. A member nearly 30 years, she was a vitalizing spark which gave impetus and motive to our society's research and programs. For more than 20 years, she was editor of the Year Book." President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a loyal member of the society and a staunch and loyal friend of Miss Reynolds, gave the opinion that she "knew more about the history of Dutchess County than anyone I know." Dr. Poucher, ;71-10 was secretary of the Historical Society during most of the years from its beginning in 1914, died Feb. 16, 1948. One of the finest tributes to Dr. Poucher was that of Dr. James F. Baldwin, member of the Vassar College faculty, and a member of the Historical Society since its first meeting. He said of Dr. Poucher that "he will be remembered not merely as a great physician, or even a gifted historian, but in a still larger sense, as a true humanitarian. Facts about President Roosevelt's death remain widely known. The 31st President of the United States, he died at Warm Springs, Ga., April 12, 1945. He was a member of the County Historical Society from its beginning and its vice president from his home town of Hyde Park since 1926. An ardent and enthusiastic student of county history, Mr. Roosevelt contributed material for the historical society Year Books and edited a number of publications under the society's auspices. It was President Roosevelt who persuaded the British Admiralty in London to furnish certain documents and logs of British ships which engaged in a raid up the Hudson River in October, 1777, during which the City of Kingston was burned. These documents were published in the County Historical Society Year Books of 1935-36. Among other highly regarded supporters of the County Historical Society who were lost to the organization during the decade of 1940 was William Willis Reese of the Town of Wappinger, president of the society from 1928 until his death March 28, 1942. A committee of the Historical Society, in a resolution on Mr. Reese's passing, wrote that his unexpected death was an "irreparable loss" to the community as well as

Helen Wilkinson Reynolds Died January 3, 1943

J. Wilson Poucher, M.D. One of the founders of the Dutchess County Historical Society Died February 16, 1948 11

the society of which he had been a member 26 years. A descendant of the Livingston, Beekman and Kip families of the early days of the area, the house he lived in was a midnineteenth century home of his grandfather, William Henry Willis. The resolution on his death said of him that he possessed a sterling character and high standards. Mr. Reese was collaborator with Miss Reynolds of an early compilation of facts about southern Dutchess County, including a highly valuable listing of the names of early settlers of that area. Miss Reynolds, a Poughkeepsie native, was born at 341 Mill Street, the home of her grandfather, George Wilkinson, second mayor of Poughkeepsie, and from 1881 to 1918, the home of his widow and their descendants. From the age of 15, Miss Reynolds was self educated as a result of being forced to withdraw from school because of a spinal ailment. Her early literary work included a history of Christ Episcopal Church. Miss Reynolds was probably most widely known for her book, "Dutch Houses in the Hudson Valley Before 1776" which contained an introduction by President Roosevelt. Also widely valued has been her "Dutchess Doorways." Both books continue as highly regarded illustrated volumes. President Roosevelt wrote concerning the "Dutch Houses" book that it directed attention to "the mode of life of the first settlers of New Netherlands and their immediate descendants." He wrote that "One fact that stands out clearly in the text and in the illustrations of this book is that the mode of life of the first settlers of New Netherland and of their immediate descendants was extremely simple, a statement which is true not only of the smaller landowners but of many of the patentees of large grants. From high to low their lives were the lives of pioneers, lives of hardship, of privation and often of danger." And concerning a woman's right to tell about developments among interesting persons of her own sex, Miss Reynolds wrote, among her last articles, about Poughkeepsie's prosperous days of the same period directing attention to an appraisal of the goods and chattels of the estate of Mrs. Catharine Reade. Miss Reynolds wrote that Mrs. Reade, during the last years of her life, lived in a small house on the west side of Market Street, a short distance south of Church Street, property which later became Hulme Park. The Reade house was graced for many years with three large Sycamore trees which are no longer there. Listed in the accounting of the estate were such furnishings in the Reade house as: tea table with Claw feet, $15; 12 curled mapled chairs, $40; stair carpets, strips of carpeting and two hearth rugs, $83; four feather beds, four Bolsters, 8 pillows and linen sheets, $39.50; eight muslin sheets, $44.50; Madeira wine, 18 gallons, $54. The value of household furniture, as a whole, was fixed at $936.79, wrought silver, $745.69. Inventory and appraisal total as a whole was $1,682.45. Miss Reynolds made known that Mrs. Reade was the daughter of Robert Gilbert Livingston of New York City and a cousin of Major Henry Livingston, Jr. She married John Reade who, first at Tivoli and next in Poughkeepsie, owned and operated typical river landings with storehouses and boats. River traffic was Reade's souce of income and his

success gave his widow, in addition to inheritances in lands, the comforts she enjoyed after his death. The writer said Mrs. Reade's household goods may be assumed to represent "what was the best in Dutchess in 1830." The Historical Society Year Book contains one of Miss Reynolds' most fascinating references, that being to the tradition that Henry Livingston, Jr., not Clement Moore, was the author of the well known lines of "Twas the Night Before Christmas." (Progress has been reported recently on the conversion of the Town of Poughkeepsie Post Road property of the late Miss Annette Young into a National Historic Site. Improvements are being made to the grounds and the historic house on the property - a house which during one period was the dwelling of Samuel F. B. Morse, probable inventor of the electric telegraph. Interesting also is the confirmation that the historic boulder near the entrance gate to the property will be retained. The boulder contains the reference that it marks the one-time site of Henry Livingston's farm property.) Miss Reynolds' article contains a few of the poetic gems among Livingston's writings. We like the one about a little serenading wren's death. An accompanying note said that "A child of Henry Livingston, Jr., Catherine Breese Livingston, born in 1809, died in 1814, and the stone at her grave was inscribed with a verse assumed to have been written by her father." The verse: "Hasty pilgrim stop thy pace Turn a moment on this place Read what pity hath erected To a songster she respected Little minstrel all is o'er Never will they chirpings more Soothe the heavy heart of care Or dispel the darkness there. I have known thee e'er the sun Hath on yonder mountain shone, E'er the sky lark hath ascended, Or the thrush her throat distended; Cheerful trill they little ditty As the singer, blithe and pretty, Labor stood, half bent, to hear, Study lent a lis'ning ear, Dissipation stop'd a while, Grief was even seen to smile Ambition-but the gushing tear O'erwhelms the stone and stops me here." Before turning to some of Dr. Poucher's highly interesting historical contributions, attention is directed to a joint work of Miss Reynolds and Dr. Poucher: "Old Gravestones of Dutchess County," completed in 1924. Nineteen thousand inscriptions were completed by the two historians, involving painstaking inspections of graves in all towns of Dutchess County. The edited results are set forth in a single volume in Poughkeepsie's Adriance Memorial Library. Separate results for all townships were tabulated in the book as follows: Amenia, 2,216; Beekman, 647; Clinton, 539; Dover, 668; East Fishkill, 1019; Fishkill, 2,704; Hyde Park, 1,000; LaGrange, 742; Milan, 441; North East, 1,418; Pawling, 33

415; Pine Plains, 1,270; Pleasant Valley, 1,445; Poughkeepsie, 1,696; Red Hook, 978; Rhinebeck, 1,693; Stanford, 1,155; Union Vale, 904; Wappinger, 792; Washington, 655. Any review of Dr. J. Wilson Poucher's accomplishments must start with his early years. He was born in the Town of Claverack, Columbia County. His father, Peter, was a small farmer. The ,family moved to Berkshire County, Massachusetts, where his early boyhood activities in farming and schooling were experienced. Back to Columbia County, he attended the Hudson River Institute as a part of his early education. Dr. Poucher's reminiscenses, contained in a small book, noted that his first interest in the practice of medicine was made possible when Dr. Richard Beebe in the Berkshires, invited him to study with him. Noted in his book was his activity at Albany Medical College where Dr. Albert VanderVeer took him into his office and a boy's leg was amputated. By this time, Poucher was headed to Modena, Ulster County, where his cousin, George Hatch, helped him financially to acquire a horse and buggy, thus opening his career as a country doctor. And, before long, an opportunity developed for Dr. Poucher to go to Heidelberg University, Germany, for his advanced education in medicine, including activity in Berlin, as well. Upon his return to Dutchess County and Poughkeepsie, Dr. Poucher opened a two-room office at 18 Garden Street. Noting his association with other practitioners, he wrote that the older doctors were Drs. Parker, Campbell, Payne and Hasbrouck. Dr. John Haidlauf, who was educated in Germany, was a "very good friend." Other close friends included Drs. Charles E. Lane, James E. Sadlier and Robert K. Tuthill, who was a leading physician. Other doctors he mentioned as practicing in Poughkeepsie were Peter and Jerome Deyo. On June 2, 1892, Dr. Poucher married Miss Catherine LeFebre. Then, with the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, the doctor was commissioned as a first lieutenant and assistant surgeon, and he noted developments at Camp Black, Long Island, and his activity in combatting an outbreak of scarlet fever. Recalling his most important development in his practice back home, Dr. Poucher completed his first Caesarian operation which was also, he noted, the "first ever in this vicinity." He went with Dr. John S. Wilson to visit the involved patient. Two other doctors there found "an obstruction, and deformed pelvis and no chance for mother and child except a Caesarian operation." The patient was taken back to Dr. Poucher's private hospital and a 19-minute delivery was completed by the doctor, bringing into the world "a fine baby boy." Among articles appearing in the 1942 Historical Society Year Book was Dr. Poucher's fascinating review of Poughkeepsie's water supply. No problems were encountered among the early settlers, he pointed out. Early residents dug wells and every well was filled with excellent spring water. The first problem, he noted, was a supply of water to put out fires. A large well was dug at the courthouse corner - this after 1799 when Poughkeepsie became a village. Then in 1803, a second large well was dug in Main Street at a lane now Garden Street. A third well was dug at the cor-

ner of Main and South Hamilton Streets. Each householder was required to have five water buckets and male inhabitants were to turn out and form bucket lines in case of fire. At about the same time, a fire engine was provided and housed in the barn of James Emott in Market Street. During one period developments providing an adequate supply were slow, even for fire fighting. And there was an early reluctance to use water supplied from the Hudson River. Directing attention to such prejudices, Dr. Poucher reported that in 1907, when an epidemic of typhoid fever broke out in a downtown street and "practically every family in the street was infected, I as a physician was called to attend several of these families. When asked whether she used the city water, the first woman he met replied, 'That old river water? Sure we don't. We have the finest well you can find.'" Dr. Poucher found a wooden pump near the street used by everybody in the block. A specimen of the water was taken by the doctor to his friend, Dr. David H. Ward, described as an able bacteriologist. "Teaming with typhoid germs," Dr. Ward reported, and Dr. Poucher, noting his immediate intentions, wrote, "It did not take me long to get to the Board of Health and the pump was torn down and the well filled to the top with stones." This well, the doctor made known, "started an epidemic of 168 cases of typhoid with 30 deaths, the worst in the history of Poughkeepsie." Calling attention to improvements in the city water supply system, Dr. Poucher pointed out that in 1902, as part of a modern system, a new river intake system was extended 110 feet farther out into the river where the water was 42 feet deep at low tide. Then a new sedimentation basin was built in the pumping station. This increased the capacity to 3,000,000 gallons. Dr. Poucher detailed developments about reservoirs on College Hill and a sharp decline in typhoid fever cases from 1907 to 1940 ranging from 168 with 30 deaths to 10 and two deaths, and no cases and no deaths recorded in the years from 1938 to 1940 and only a few deaths each year since 1925. Dr. Poucher was the first writer of historical articles about Dutchess County and its early residents to fasten down the fact that the German Church at Pinks Corners, about two miles north of the Village of Rhinebeck, was probably the first church in the county. His research revealed that the northern Dutchess church dating back to 1716, ante-dated that of the Dutch Reformed congregations at Poughkeepsie and Fishkill by about seven years, the latter bodies being established simultaneously. The congregation at Pinks Corners was made up of German Lutherans and German Calvinists whose early homes had been in the Palatine area on the upper Rhine. The Lutherans and Calvanists remained together until 1729 when the Lutherans withdrew to organize and build by themselves. The Calvinists retained the church property. About 1800, the church building at Pinks Corners was abandoned and the congregation built a new one at Red Hook village four miles north from the first. At Pinks Corners, nothing remains to mark the site of the church but a few gravestones. However, in Dr. Poucher's article, is included an "Account of the Alms Committee" and thus data about individual

members of the former congregation. Involved were numerous transactions involving monetary aids to individuals and settlement of the obligations. Dr. Poucher wrote that the extensive list involved records that might be of interest to descendants of the families concerned. What better way to wind up a tribute to the late Dr. Poucher than to mention a few of his suggestions related to nature. I was fortunate to have received a copy of his small book, "Stories of the Wild Flowers," published in 1911. The book was prefaced with these words, "To all my friends who love the flowers, the birds, the green woods and everything that grows to help make our earth a pleasant sojourning place, this little book is dedicated." Possibly some good may yet result from passing the word along of Dr. Poucher's repeated admonitions to flower protectors to help cut down wanton destruction of wild flowers and shrubs. A few references to some of the opening lines of his book - "I want to protest," he wrote, "against the rapid destruction of about the last of the wild flowers and shrubs that remain anywhere in our woods and fields." "I remember well, when a boy," he wrote, "I used to wander through the woods of the Berkshires and the Taghkanics in eastern Dutchess and Columbia Counties, in early spring when the ground was carpeted with trailing arbutus, that most beautiful little spring flower, and the air was filled with its perfume." "A little later," he continued, "every valley and mountain crag was covered with laurel and rhododendron in bloom; every creek and lowly marsh-land abounded with lady slippers and moccasin flowers and many other beautiful plants; the low-land meadows with nodding meadow lillies. Then in the fall the incomparable fringed gentians - but where are they now? Practically extinct, from the mistaken zeal of socalled flower lovers." Dr. Poucher explained that when every flower is plucked, many plants lack seed for propagation for the succeeding year's crops. "Only the hardy rhododendron and laurel were left and we felt that many of these were safe in the remote woods and mountains." "Alas," he continued, "a worse fate is fast overtaking them." They were being sacrificed to the commercial greed, he wrote. Many of them end up in wreaths or general decorations, but what is worse, he noted, others are sold in bunches wired to some gaudy flower made of wax or paper flowers. Turning to other flowering shrubs, the writer called attention to the pink azalea which, he noted, is a member of the rhododendron family, but is not an evergreen, "for which perhaps we may be thankful." Dr. Poucher, in an encouraging note, wrote that "Everybody who drives along the secluded roads or goes into the woods in June must know this beautiful flower which every spring blossoms on almost every shaded hillside throughout New York and New England." This is the "Pinkster bloeme" of our Dutch grandmothers, he noted, adding that the Germans call it "Pfingsten" and that it is the English "Whitsuntide." This shrub, he wrote, "suffers severly when pruned or broken down for its flowers." Dr. Poucher wrote that there are still hundreds of miles

of narrow, curving, hilly, shaded country drives where nature has planted her own little flower gardens which, with the first warm days of April, begin to blossom with hepaticas, bloodroot, anemones, columbines, violets, dandelions and many other little wild flowers. Many owners of adjoining lands, he suggested, could be encouraged to cooperate with any movement to make and keep these roadsides beautiful. "Our county agricultural society," he noted, "at its fair every year offers prizes for the best pumpkins, cows, dogs, and almost every kind of produce. Why not offer prizes for the best improved roadsides along farms and home sites?"he asked. He pointed out that it might be difficult for a time if dogwood, laurel, viburnum, bittersweet, shadbush and wild flowers of the rarer sort were growing along the highways, to keep marauding parties of automobilists from plucking and destroying them, but, he said, "I believe that in a short time there would be enough real lovers of these beautiful things who could create a sentiment that will protect them and make them as safe as they are in our gardens."

SIXTEEN-MILE RIVERFRONT HISTORIC DISTRICT In March, 1979, the Secretary of the Interior approved inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places of the sixteen miles of Hudson River shorelands extending from the Columbia County line southerly through the Village of Tivoli and the Towns of Red Hook and Rhinebeck to the Hamlet of Staatsburgh in the Town of Hyde Park. For the most part comprised of historic country seats, this district is believed to be one of the largest in the nation to have received such recognition. Most of the local documentation required in the nomination process was the work of members of Hudson River Heritage, Inc., a not-for-profit conservation and preservation organization active in the vicinity. (Some of the structures involved had already been documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey under the sponsorship of Dutchess County Landmarks, Inc., and the Rhinebeck Historical Society.) The district soon became even larger when in May 1979 a contiguous area was approved for inclusion on the Register, extending for two miles northerly from Clermont State Historic Park to the Germantown line and comprising eight estates (one of which, Oak Lawn, was the childhood home of Eleanor Roosevelt). Meanwhile, during the past several years an intermunicipal body named the Hudson River Shorelands Taskforce was created by the local governments affected by this district, in an effort to address preservation planning and adaptive use for these properties. Privately funded, the Taskforce has recently hired Dr. Harvey K. Flad, formerly an Assistant Professor of Geography at Vassar, to serve as the full time Executive Director. There follow the "Description" and "Significance" summaries which formed a part of the nomination of the Sixteenmile historic district in Dutchess County. Description Dotting the wooded shores and bluffs of the eastern bank of the Hudson River mid-way between New York and Albany, the occasional pillared portico, gothic gable, castellated turret emerges, usually set off by a verdant expanse of lawn or meadow. Thirty contiguous Hudson River estates stretching through four townships - Clermont, Red Hook, Rhinebeck and Hyde Park in Columbia and Dutchess Counties - form the Sixteen Mile District. Between the great estates the riverfront portions of three village clusters or "landings" - Rhinecliff, Barrytown and Tivoli - are also included within the district's boundaries. Approximately three hundred sites and buildings are situated within the district. In several cases a single estate may include between ten to twenty outbuildings tenant houses, gate houses, barns, carriage houses, chicken houses, water towers - in addition to the main house. A major property owner within the district is Bard College which owns a total of sixty-one buildings. The college campus includes two of the great houses, Blithewood and Ward Manor, their dependencies, a large number of small nineteenth century vernacular farmhouses, a series of brick and stone Gothic and Jacobean-style college buildings dating from the

1860's through 1920's, as well as some modern collegiate architecture. Twenty-nine of the three hundred buildings within the district are modern intrusions on its overall character. Another thirteen are modern buildings judged either to be assets or at least appropriate to the area. Three estates Clermont, Montgomery Place and Rokeby - have already been listed on the National Register, individually. (Clermont is a National Historic Landmark.) The estates, today, range in condition and type of ownership. Some, like Montgomery Place, Teviot, the Pynes, Callendar House, Edgewater, Rokeby, Mandara (Steen/Valetje), Wilderstein and Wildercliff, are privately owned and survive with the main house and related estate buildings intact. Two of the district's major houses in private hands - Ankony and Leacote - were lost due to fire or demolition during 1977. Another, Wyndclyffe, is in seriously deteriorated condition. Three estates are owned by the State of New York - Clermont at the northern extremity of the district, and the Mills Mansion and the Hoyt House, both in the Ogden and Ruth Livingston Mills Memorial State Park, at the southern end of the district. Other estates have been taken over by institutions. The Catholic Workers own Rose Hill; Bard College owns Ward Manor and Blithewood; the Unification Church owns Massena. These institutions have retained the main houses and many outbuildings as well as built new structures of their own. Only the outbuildings survive at three of the major estates in the southern portion of the district. At Ferncliff, Stanford White's "casino" or tennis court building and a striking complex of stone and brick French Provincial-style farm buildings by Harrie Lindeberg stand on grounds now owned by the Archdiocese of New York. The halftimbered farm buildings at Hopeland and the decorative board and batten barns at The Locusts are similarly significant groupings of outbuildings on properties where the main house has been removed or replaced. Aside from the architecture of the great estates, another group of unusually significant buildings within the district are the simple stone and frame eighteenth-century dwellings of Dutch and German Palatine settlers. Some of the best examples of these are the Keane House onAnnandale Road, Spurr Cottage at Montgomery Place, the Mohr House on River Road, Feller Farm at Mandara, Orlot Cottage, Ferncliff Pond Cottage, the Century House and the Abraham Kip House on Long Dock Road. Running the length of the district along the river are the old Hudson River Railroad tracks, now maintained by Conrail. The right-of-way dates from 1851, and the second track was laid in 1863-4. Along the route are numerous causeways with small bridges, as well as the Clifton Point Tunnel and the Rhinecliff Railroad Station. Areas of archeological significance for Wappinger and Iroquois encampments and battlegrounds are Sycamore Point at Callendar House, Magdalen Island, Cruger Island (also significant for its mid-nineteenth century ornamental ruins), Matambesan at Orlot, and sites on the old Huntington and Mills properties. The boundaries of this riverfront district delineate the great estates with the minimum of intrusions in the 39

connecting areas and on the adjacent roads. The village of Tivoli and the hamlets of Barrytown, Rhinecliff and Staatsburgh have been excluded except those few buildings which directly relate to the river or the railroad. Amendments to the district may be made pending further surveys underway in Barrytown and other areas adjacent to the district. In cases of existing National Register properties - Rokeby, Montgomery Place and Clermont - the district boundaries follow those already listed. In general the boundaries include land that not only has historical association with the architecture described but also forms the appropriate setting in which the buildings should be seen. Certain road rightsof-way with planted allees of trees and stone walls punctuated by picturesque gateways are important elements of the visual scene and are included as such in the district. Significant tidal marshes, wooded ravines, waterfalls, oldage woodlands, river islands and other documented ecological resources all enrich this district. Beginning at the north end of the district the boundary follows that of the existing Clermont State Park and follows Woods Road as far as St. Paul's Church at which point it jogs west to Tivoli Landing to avoid modern development in the village of Tivoli but to include the Callendar House property. The boundary emerges on Kidd Lane to encompass the Italianate Ham House and its picturesque, Gothic Revival carriage house. Skirting modern development on the ridge along 9G, the boundary crosses the flat low farm land of the old Ward Manor property and returns to 9G at the Cruger Island road along the Bard College frontage. At the Annandale triangle it meets the existing National Register property lines of Montgomery Place. South of Montgomery Place the boundary includes the eighteenth-century Mohr House and the Massena property but excludes the hamlet of Barrytown except along the river. South of Barrytown the Edgewater and Sylvania estate buildings are included as well as the Frear and Whitfield House on River Road. At Rokeby the boundary follows the existing National Register designation on both sides of River Road. At this point south for the next 3 1/2 miles River Road becomes an important scenic feature with its trees, Walls, and gates. From N.Y. Route 199 to the Rhinecliff Road, River Road forms the eastern boundary. At the Rhinecliff Road the boundary jogs west to Long Dock including two important eighteenthcentury houses - the Century House and the Abraham Kip House and from here runs south along the railroad right-of-way taking in only the Rhinecliff Railroad Station and the river edge and excluding the rest of the hamlet of Rhinecliff. Proceeding south along Morton Road, the boundary excludes the modern complex of the Pius XII School but takes in the Gothic Revival Ellerslie Schoolhouse at the junction of Mill Road and Morton Road. Mill Road becomes the eastern boundary for the next one and one-half miles encompassing the properties of Wilderstein, Wildercliff, Wyndclyffe, Whispering Pines and Linwood. The boundary then follows the shores of Vanderburgh Cove, avoiding Cove Road where a modern subdivision is underway. Returning to Route 9 it encompasses the Hopeland and former Locusts properties, then jogs west at the Mills State Park boundary to include

the Mills Man4on and its adjacent farm buildings west of the Old Post Road. The southern boundary follows the legal boundary of the immediate Hoyt House grounds excluding an area of the state park which has been developed for intensive recreational use. The western boundary follows the Dutchess and Columbia County lines up the mid-point of the Hudson River to the place of beginning at Clermont State Park north property line. Significance Extending sixteen miles along the east bank of the Hudson River from Clermont to Staatsburg is a green swath containing the country estates of many leading families in our nation's history. The district encompasses a dazzling collection of buildings designed by several of America's architectural giants of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Here within this exceptional historic corridor lies a magnificent natural landscape tamed in places by the foremost American landscape architects and immortalized by the Hudson River School of painters. "There is no part of the Union where the taste in Landscape Gardening is so far advanced, as on the middle portion of the Hudson", wrote the great landscape architect, Andrew J. Downing, in 1841. The sixteen miles of historic properties on the Hudson River trace their origins to a single source, the marriage between Judge Robert R. Livingston and Margaret Beekman which in 1742 joined the vast Beekman landholdings in Dutchess County with Robert Livingston's 13,000 acres in southern Columbia County. Margaret and Robert Livingston raised their ten children at Clermont (built 1730, burned by the British in 1777 and rebuilt by 1782) which is the earliest and perhaps most historic of the twenty-one mansions within the district. Their eldest son, Robert R. Livingston, later famous as Chancellor of New York State, inherited Clermont in 1775. Over the next several decades his nine younger brothers and sisters built a series of new river-front farming estates south of their ancestral home. Years later when guiding a tour through the area in 1918, Stephen Henry Olin explained that in 1812, "If you had taken then the drive you are taking today, you would have been seldom out of sight of the farm of one or another of the four brothers and six sisters (all Livingstons) who lived along the river from Staatsburgh to the boundary of Columbia County..." Several of this generation of Livingston houses still stand within the Sixteen Mile District, notably The Pynes (c. 1790); Callendar House (1794); and in a much altered form, the Mills Mansion (built in 1832 for Gertrude Livingston and her husLand, Governor Morgan Lewis, enlarged in 1895 by Stanford White for their granddaughter). By the mid-nineteenth century, two more generations of Livingston descendants married to Astors, Delanos and other prominent families, had built new estates including Teviot (1843), Edgewater (1820), Steen Valetje (1851), Leacote (1848), and the Hoyt House (1855). Historian Benson T. Lossing remarked in 1866: From the lower border of Columbia County ... to Hyde Park in Dutchess County ... the east bank of the Hudson is distinguished for old and elegant country seats, most of them

owned and occupied by the descendants of wealthy proprietors who flourished in the last century, and were connected by blood or marriage with Robert Livingston ... While the Sixteen Mile District is best known for these country estates, other themes significant in American history are represented within its boundaries. The bluffs, coves and islands of the Hudson within the district are dotted with Indian sites known to amateur archeologists through local tradition, and the ancient Sepasco Trail is thought to have followed today's Rhinecliff Road down to the river at Long Dock Landing. While no thorough survey and testing has been made for all the archeological sites within the Sixteen Mile area, the late Woodland Stage sites at South Cruger Island have been professionally documented. Aside from the imposing eighteenth-century Livingston houses, the Sixteen Mile District includes several humbler eighteenth-century stone or frame houses of Dutch, English and German Palatine settlers. Hundreds of Palatine refugees from the Rhineland region of Germany came to the Hudson Valley in 1710 under a British plan to encourage immigration. Initially placed in settlement camps in Ulster and Columbia Counties outside the Sixteen Mile District, and indentured to make tar and pitch in payment for the cost of their passage and board, the Palatines were forced to establish their own homes after the original plan failed. Moving into the Sixteen Mile District area the Palatines named Rhinebeck for their native land and built houses such as the Mohr House on River Road. In the history of transportation development, the Sixteen Mile District holds a special place. The first successful steamship in history, Robert Fulton's "Clermont," was developed by Chancellor Livingston, and it plied the waters of the Sixteen Mile District on its maiden voyage in 1807 before landing at the Chancellor's dock at Clermont. The ensuing rapid proliferation of scheduled passenger and cargo transport during the ice-free months both built up the riverfront landings and made the estates more accessible and attractive to New York City society. These trends were heightened by a later transportation development -- the construction of the Hudson River Railroad line in 1851 which could operate year round. Running along the bank of the Hudson River the railroad had a direct impact on each of the riverfront estates. In most cases the tracks cut off the main property from the waterfront except at Edgewater, the Hull estate, Mills Mansion and the Hoyt House. "A decent respect of the Hudson," novelist Henry James (whose uncle owned Linwood) wrote sourly, "would confine us to the use of a boat," but in time the sudden screech and racket of the railroad became an integral part of the atmosphere of these Hudson River estates. In the early twentieth century, an appropriately elaborate railroad station was built in the midst of the Sixteen Mile District at Rhinecliff, allegedly due to the influence of Col. J. J. Astor of Ferncliff, who was a large stockholder in the New York Central Railroad.

The great estates of the Sixteen Mile District contain a remarkable concentration of buildings by America's foremost nineteenth and twentieth-century architects. The work of A. J. Davis is conspicuous among these. Davis was responsible for alterations and numerous •decorative outbuildings at Edgewater, Montgomery Place, Blithewood, and began work for John James at Linwood. A number of other buildings such as Teviot, the octagonal library at Rokeby, the Gothic Revival Ellerslie Schoolhouse and Leacote show Davis's influence even if they are not products of his own hand. Richard Upjohn's Ludlow-Willink House is now the centerpiece of the Bard College Campus, and Calvert Vaux designed the Hoyt House which is documented as design Number 26 in his book Villas and Cottages (1857). Vaux also worked for the Bartlett family (whose estate, Miramonte, is now part of the Bard College campus), designing a crypt known as the Bartlett Tomb and their stables (now in ruins). Vaux landscaped the grounds of Wilderstein where John Warren Ritch's Italianate villa (1853) became a picturesque turreted Queen Anne mansion with the alterations of Arnout Cannon Jr. in 1889. The picturesque movement in landscaping and architecture spearheaded by Andrew Jackson Downing had a marked effect on the mid-nineteenth century riverfront estates of the Sixteen Mile District. A Hudson River resident himself, Downing actually landscaped the grounds of Blithewood and Montgomery Place, and admired many of the other estates including Clermont which he described as "the showplace of the previous age." With a similar "spirited irregularity," advocated by Downing, Louis Augustus Ehlers landscaped two Astor properties, Rokeby and Ferncliff in the mid-nineteenth century. In Downing's romantic vein, estates were given evocative names like Wyndclyffe, Ferncliff, Wildercliff, Rokeby and Blithewood. On his island estate, John Church Cruger epitomized the picturesque movement of Downing and the Hudson River School of painters by creating a ruined "folly" of stone arches into which he set Mayan sculptures. In the early twentieth century, novelist and architectural observer Edith Wharton remembered her aunt's house, Wyndclyffe, as "an expensive but dour specimen of Hudson River gothic." More appealing, no doubt to her more measured modern taste, was Stanford White's lavish neoclassical enlargement of the Mills Mansion (1895), and his design for the Ferncliff Tennis Building (1902) inspired by the Grand Trianon at Versailles. Other important early twentieth-century buildings in the Sixteen Mile District are Charles A. Platt's Sylvania (c. 1904), Hoppin and Koen's Blithewood (1900), Ward Manor House (1918), and Bard Memorial Gymnasium (1921), as well as alterations to the interior of the Hoyt House (c. 1905 by junior partner, Robert Palmer Huntington), Harrie Lindeberg's Ferncliff barns (1918) and Delano and Aldrich's outbuildings at Rokeby. Several of the modern buildings within the Sixteen Mile District, especially the Ravine Houses and unfinished Theater at Bard College and the Shafer House on Annandale Road by Baker and Blake, continue the high architectural standards set within this extraordinary historic corridor over the past three centuries.

HUDSON RIVER HERITAGE, INC. Hudson River Heritage, Inc. is a private, not-for-profit organization, with membership open to the public, whose goals include the historic preservation and natural resources protection of the Hudson River Shorelands. The primary geographical focus of this group has been the 18-mile National Historic District that extends from the Town of Clermont south to the Town of Hyde Park. Though not a lobbying organization, HRH has involved itself with many issues of importance to the Hudson Valley Region, including proposed legislation, management plans, land use, water resource planning, and the establishment of protective easements and covenants. Hudson River Heritage publishes a quarterly newsletter for its members and regularly presents films and lectures, which are open to the general public. *

Officers President Madeleine Post Box 225 Rhinebeck, N.Y. 12572 876-7775

Vice-President Dr. Michael Rosenthal Bard College Annandale-on-Hudson, New York 12504 758-6822

Secretary Kay T. Verrilli River Road Rhinebeck, N.Y. 12572 876-6462

Treasurer Cheryl M. Gold 36 Cherry Street Red Hook, N.Y. 12571 518-537-4240

Membership Secretary Caroline V. Rider, Esq. 43 East Market St. Red Hook, N.Y. 12571 876-2703 Those readers interested in a Hudson River Heritage membership are invited to contact the Membership Secretary. ( w

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HELL'S ACRES by Louise Tompkins When the survey was made of the Massachusetts State Boundaries, one corner of that commonwealth extended over the Taconic Mountain Range to the west. The corner comprised about 400 acres of arable land and some 1,500 acres of mountain land. This corner was completely isolated from the rest of the state by a practically impassable mountain. By traveling around about 12 to 15 miles in another state, a person might get to this fragment of "Nowhere". For many years, there prospered in this corner, a little community, a virtual Republic. The residents paid no taxes; went to no polling places to vote; but governed themselves; supported a school, and kept up religious. One day, an enterprising Yankee came to the community and opened an Inn. Soon after that, travelers appeared, were entertained at the Inn, and went on their way without making their business known. These guests turned out to be fugitives from justice in three states; the boundaries of these states joined near the community. These fugitives were wanted for chicken stealing and other local offenses in their states. In a short time, the eyes of law breakers were drawn to this happy haven of criminals which soon became known as "Hell's Acres". A gang of horse thieves made Hell's Acres their headquarters. They stole horses from farmers living in the surrounding countryside and took them quickly to the little land of Nowhere. The enraged farmers often saw their horses disappearing into the wilderness, some said through a tunnel in the mountain, and there was absolutely nothing that they could do about it. Once on the other side of the mountain, the thieves changed the appearance of the horses by dyeing them a different color. In this way, the thieves prevented the horses from being identified when they sold the animals in another state. In 1811, John Armstrong selected Hell's Acres as the best place to fight a duel because, there, he was immune to the law enforcement of either state against duels. Things went on as usual for half a century until an event occurred which led to action being taken by New York State, Massachusetts and the National Government. The event took place on October 12, 1852, when a heavily loaded railroad train discharged its passengers from New York City at Boston Corners, a station on the newly completed Harlem Valley Railroad. Boston Corners derived its name from the fact that one of the roads which met at the corners, led on the King's Highway (still called that since the Revolution) to Boston, Massachusetts. Other trainloads of passengers from Albany and Troy were dumped off at the same point. They were the roughest set of rowdies that ever put a foot on any soil. The people came from the surrounding countryside in wagons and on foot until, with the train passengers already there, the crowd was immense. The center of attraction was two men. One of them was 41 years old and he looked old enough to be the father of the other man, who was 22 years old. The younger man was

the taller by three inches and he looked like a giant standing beside the older man. The older man was Yankee Sullivan who had been for a long time the champion prize fighter of America. Yankee's escort was Billy Wilson, and their friend. The younger man was John Morrisey and his "seconds" were Tom O'Donnell and "Awful" Gardiner. The prize for the fight was $2,000 a side which was a small fortune in those early days. Forcibly preempting the first convenient dwelling house, the escort and the seconds brought the fighters there and quickly dressed them for the battle. In a field adjacent to the house, there was an abandoned brickyard. On the grounds of this old brickyard there was a large level plot of land which was selected for the site of the battle. It was quickly roped off to form a boxing ring. Then Yankee Sullivan and John Morrisey stepped into the ring. They fought 37 bloody rounds with their bare fists:: Yankee Sullivan seemed to have the better of his opponent all during the fight until the very last round when he was thrown violently against the ropes and failed to recover before time was called. John Morrisey, who had not moved from his place in the ring during the fight, was proclaimed the victor. After the fight was over, the hungry hordes of spectators made a frightful raid on the helpless village of Millerton that lay to the south on the railroad line. It was a mere hamlet and locked up tight at the time the raid began. Locks meant nothing to the hungry raiders. They forced their way into the houses and stole the food right out of the pantries. Nothing was respected that came between the raiders and something that they could eat. Hogs were taken out of their pens, killed, and roasted in the highway and eaten in the highway until nearly all the hogs in the vicinity were gone. Millerton never forgot that prize fight nor the invasion of the hungry spectators at Boston Corners. This event broke down the independence of the Boston Corners "Republic". The people clamored to be annexed to some civil authority able to cope with the powers of evil to the end that never should such scenes be repeated. The year following the fight, Massachusetts ceded the triangle to New York State. The concession was accepted by the State of New York on July 21, 1853 and the transfer was confirmed by an Act of Congress on January 2, 1855. The unique little Republic had passed into history and the former citizens were law abiding ever after. BIBLIOGRAPHY The account of Hell's Acres is found in the chapter on the Town of Northeast in Hasbrouck's History of Dutchess County, published in 1909.

A TOUCH OF THE DARKEST TREASON by Radford Curdy September 22, 1780, a date that will live in infamy in American history; the blackest hour, a moment of the most sinister treachery when the hopes for a nation hung in the balance - the meeting of Arnold with Andre. Poughkeepsie on that treason Friday was a struggling country village, as yet unaccustomed to the new responsibility of being the State's seat of government. Several days would pass before Governor George Clinton would be devastated, astonished by the news of Arnold from Washington's headquarters. Col. Udny Hay, the state agent, then resident at the Clear Everett house, was engulfed in supply business and a quarter of a mile east on Filkintown Road, at the Glebe House, Col. Andrew Bostwick was preoccupied with exercising his duties as Deputy Foragemaster General of the army. One cannot help wonder however, if he did not, from time to time, glance out the Glebe House windows in a thoughtful gaze to the south. September 22, 1780 was a day like any other during that September in Poughkeepsie - no one at that moment knew of what had happened 30 miles to the south or of the strange association it would have with the village. No one except perhaps maybe, just maybe, one man. Col. Andrew Bostwick, son of a Connecticut minister and in-law relative of General Alexander MacDougal, had been rescued by patriots from a debtor's prison in Goshen, N. Y. in 1776. He served the American cause throughout the Revolution and during the latter part of the conflict was Deputy Foragemaster General for New York. He settled after the war in New York City and was for many years a successful merchant. Duties as State Foragemaster General brought Bostwick to Poughkeepsie early in 1780. He rented the Glebe House from the Episcopal Consistory from April 13, 1780 to November 12, 1783. When he left, he could not settle his 75 pound debt, forcing the consistory on November 22, 1783 to accept a negro slave in satisfaction of the arrears. There ends, however, the picture of a struggling dedicated patriot. No one ever really will know for sure the rest of the story, nor probably at this time, 200 years later, ever unravel the mysteries surrounding Col. Bostwick, his family and their involvement with the treason of Arnold. It began in January, 1780, when Major General William Heath wrote Washington that a strange letter had just been handed him and that he suspected intercourse with the enemy. The letter to an unknown recipient was from Bostwick and according to Heath appeared to be in a cipher. Headquarters did not confront Bostwick, deciding instead to direct Bostwick's brother-in-law, Col. Hawke Hay to keep a "watchful eye on him". Bostwick was either not guilty or took more precaution, because no further letters were apparently intercepted. Bostwick had been stationed at Fishkill immediately before arriving in Poughkeepsie, and it was to Fishkill Col. Hay had gone when his Orange County farm was devastated by the British. Hay was Colonel of one of the Orange County Militia regiments and lived at Fishkill in a farmhouse east ,

of the village near Col. Derick Brinckerhoff's house. He would appear to have been a devoted patriot throughout the war. Bostwick and Hay were married to sisters, Ann and Martha Smith of Haverstraw. The sisters had two relatively prominent lawyer brothers, Thomas and Joshua Hett Smith. Brother Thomas, known for his loyalist leanings, had a son, James Scott Smith, a devoted favorite of his Uncle Joshua. Joshua Hett Smith knew nearly every major figure in the patriot cause. He was a close friend and devoted associate of Arnold and thus was the stage set for September 22, 1780, the day which earned for him the label "Arnold's damned accomplice". On September 18, 1780, Joshua Hett Smith had breakfast with Arnold. It was a cordial breakfast with much banter and'joking, accompanied by whispering and conversations intended not to be overheard. Smith left Arnold's headquarters at Robinson House during the morning and accompanied by his wife and nephew James Scott Smith, journeyed to his brotherin-law Hay's at Fishkill. That afternoon, Smith rode on to Poughkeepsie to see Bostwick at the Glebe House and Governor Clinton. Smith's brother Thomas was seeking a pass to see his loyalist sons Abraham and William, but Clinton did not look favorably on the idea and told Joshua he had to deny the request. Smith went back to see Bostwick and then returned to Fishkill. It was raining on September 20th when Smith arrived back at the Robinson House. Arnold greeted him warmly and they immediately went into secret conversations. Aides would later testify that something seemed to be brewing, that Arnold had some kind of plan. It was this close association which has led historians, lacking concrete evidence, to speculate on the true nature of Smith's involvement. Was he really a traitor, a phony patriot, a slick liar or was he really a naive dupe of Arnold? Whatever may have truly been the case, the treason was hatched. On Thursday the 21st of September, Smith was at his home overlooking Haverstraw Bay, a house which has come to be known as "Treason House". He awaited orders. The dispatch did not come until that evening. The rest is history. During the darkness of the night of September 21-22, he rowed out into the lower Hudson where, from a British ship, he picked up one "John Anderson", in reality Major John Andre, British Adjutant General at New York. He brought Andre back to his home where the meeting with Arnold took up most of the 22nd. Following instructions from Arnold, Smith took Andre across the Hudson to Verplanck's Point where they were stopped by Col. James Livingston. Smith told Livingston he was going to Poughkeepsie and the colonel prevailed upon him to deliver two letters, one to Arnold and the other to Clinton. The night was passed at Crampard and Smith and Andre parted after breakfast in lower Yorktown on the morning of September 23rd. Andre rode south, rode on, confident of the success of his mission, to a fateful capture at Tarrytown. Smith turned north, back over Crampard Road and into the Hudson Highlands to Robinson House. He delivered Livingston's letter to Arnold but did not tarry. He rode over to the Post Road and on to brother-in-law Hay's at Fishkill. On September 24th,

there was a violent thunderstorm in Fishkill. Generals Washington and Knox were in the village and Smith decided to pay his respects. He was invited to dinner and spent the evening in idle conversation with the Commander-inChief. Monday, September 25th, dawned a cool day and Smith was off early in Hay's phaeton to Poughkeepsie. He went first to the Glebe House where he talked for some time with brother-in-law Bostwick. He then went to see Clinton with Livingston's letter and then was back at Bostwick's. In the middle of the afternoon of his last day as an innocent man, he returned to Fishkill. At 1:00 a.m. on Tuesday, September 26th, loud, persistant raps on the door to the Hay residence at Fishkill woke everyone in the household. A French officer, Lt. Col. Jean Baptiste de Gouvion, with a detachment of Massachusetts Militia had a warrant for the arrest of Joshua Hett Smith. James Scott Smith watched in horror as his uncle was taken away. Col. Hay, stunned by the accusation, dressed quickly to accompany his brother-in-law to Robinson House. Smith was tried on a treason charge, jailed in Orange County and then escaped. He made his way to New York and then England where he later wrote a book in an attempted vindication of himself and Major Andre. He lived the rest of his life in obscurity and disgrace, though he finally did return to New York where he died. Hay never could believe what happened. Bostwick was never successfully implicated. James Scott Smith remained devoted to his uncle. He was 15 when he watched Joshua taken away and he too fled the patriot lines. In 1781, at 16, he was commissioned an ensign of the 64th British Foot Regiment. He studied law with his Uncle Joshua and then just barely 20, he returned to America. James Scott Smith first practiced law for a short time at Red Hook, N. Y. and then in 1785, settled in Poughkeepsie. He was a pewholder at Christ Church from late 1785 to 1798 and was a subscriber to the bell purchase in January 1789 and the erection of a steeple in 1797. The most notable local accomplishment of James Scott Smith stemmed from a fleeting interest in politics. He was the first Mayor of the Village of Poughkeepsie, serving in that office in 1799, the year of the village incorporation. Smith subsequently moved to New York City and died on December 26, 1810 at his uncle's "Treason House" overlooking Haverstraw Bay where the end had its beginning.

A WELFARE ADMINISTRATION IN REVOLUTIONARY DUTCHESS COUNTY By Jonathan Clark The documents reproduced on pages 58-60 were preserved by two neighbors to the VerValen farm, Joseph Mzq Wyck (1858-1937) and his son, Edmund Van wycj<, of LaGrange. Between them, they served as officers of the Dutchess Cowl:* Historical Society for a period that spanned more than fifty years. Emily Johnson, LaGrange Town Historian, provided copies of the documents for the Year Book. Most of us have heard of John Jay and Robert R. Livingston, for they were important men in the Revolution. Such is not the case with Eleanor. Johnson, Elizabeth Ham, Catherine Stevenson, Esther Harris or Eleanor Smiley. They and their families belonged to the large body of common people that historians, who love a misnomer now and then, have come to call "the inarticulate." Yet those five women, about whom we know so little, had something in common with the two well-known men. Decisions made by the Convention of Representatives on Thursday afternoon, May 8, 1777, had an impact on each of their lives. Intense political maneuvering must have preceded the Convention's afternoon session on the eighth. New York's first state constitution had been proclaimed only sixteen days before, and months would pass before elections could be held and the new government organized. So the Representatives (Gilbert Livingston in attendance for Dutchess County), as their main order of business that afternoon, appointed a Council of Safety to govern the state until the duly elected legislature could convene. They did not stop there, but actually took it upon themselves to fill every major appointive office provided for in the new constitution. The silence of the records suggest that any questions involving the propriety of that action had been resolved before the Convention went into session. Apparently, so had the nominees for the various offices. Contests had undoubtedly taken place, for the Representatives anticipated that the constitutional Council of Appointment would in the future give their temporary appointees permanent status. But the political give and take that resulted, on May 8, 1777, in the appointment of Robert R. Livingston as the Chancellor of the State of New York and of John Jay as its Chief Justice, had gone on beforehand and out-of-doors.1 The decision that would touch the lives of the five women had been reached earlier that same afternoon. Without discussion, the Convention had passed a resolution designed to confront a new and growing welfare problem. "WHEREAS," began the resolution, a regard to the sacred cause we are engaged in, as well as common justice and humanity, dictate the propriety of adopting some relief for such of the inhabitants of this state, as have, by the cruel hand of tyranny and injustice, have been driven from their habitations, and deprived of their substance, and r

thereby rendered unable to support themselves and their families..,2 and at last got to the "Therefore," which was neither as hi01-sounding nor as vague as the "WHEREAS." The "Therefore" established Commissions in various counties to "take the general superintendence and care of all such poor."3 For Dutchess County, the Convention appointed Frederick Jay and Ezra Thompson to serve as Commissioners for the Poor.4 As Commissioners, the two men were authorized to draw up to £500 from the state Treasurer to help meet the needs of the poor, and each would receive ten shillings for every day he spent working as a welfare administrator.5 Frederick Jay, the younger brother of the new Chief Justice was not, in fact, a permanent resident of Dutchess County. His family had moved to Fishkill only in 1776.6 There, because of his brother's frequent and extended absences, Frederick had to assume the burden of caring for their aged and ailing father. Not surprisingly, since he had his own ambitions, Jay began to chafe under that responsibility: "I have suffered too much," he wrote plaintiJely in 1779, "I would with pleasure undergo ten times more than I have done on account of the Family but reason tells me its [sic.] high time to take care of myself. Had it not been on their account I might have done as well as otaers."7 If such indulgent self-pity seems a bit childish in a thirty-two year old man, it does not remove the possibility that he may have been right. The Revolution did, after all, open up careers to men of less prominent families and no greater talents. On the other hand, Jay's early political activities (he had, in 1775, served on New York City's revolutionary Committees of Sixty and One Hundred)8 led to nothing more than a five year stint in the state Assembly representing British-occupied New York County.9 The Convention that made his brother Chief Justice offered Frederick, only two years younger, a job that amounted to little more than a local overseer of the poor. The point was not lost on him, and when in 1779 he asked his brother's help in launching a new career, he warned John Jay not to expect too inch: "I have spent much time and expense in the Cause," he complained, "and have never had the offer of even the lowest Commission in the State."1° By then, perhaps, he had forgotten all about the Commission for the Poor. But that mattered little, for he had declined to serve on it anyway.11 Ezra Thompson, who lived in the northeastern part of Charlotte Precinct, was a different sort of man. While he had none of the advantages of the Jay name or the Jay contacts, and though reputedly "very deliberate and slow of speech," he was a solid citizen of more than moderate means.12 Eleven years later, in 1788, he would be elected to the New York ratifying convention as an Antifederalist. Had he not taken ill and left Poughkeepsie before the quest:.on came to a vote,13 he might then have followed the lead of: his relative by marriage, Gilbert Livingston, and in the end have cast his ballot in favor of the United States Constitution.14 Ironically, his son, Smith Thompson, who married Livingston's daughter, would later serve as an

Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court under the aegis of the very Constitution his father had once opposed.15 But back in 1777 Ezra Thompson, like Frederick Jay, had turned down his appointment as Poor Commissioner.1° That spring he may have simply been too busy to take on the added responsibilities the Commissioner's job entailed. His neighbors had just elected him supervisor of Charlotte Precinct (as they would continue to do for the next two years).17 At the same time he was helping superintend mining operations in the northern area of the county.18 A few months earlier, the Committee of Safety had named him to a Commission charged with changing the minds of militiamen living in Rhinebeck and Pawling Precincts who had simply declined to march. The Commissioners, leading a detachment of two hundred troops, were empowered to shoot on the spot any militiaman who proved "refractory" and "obstinately" refused to obey orders.19 Such stern measures had become necessary because some men in the militia remained stubbornly delinquent and others preferred to do their fighting for fun and profit. Men like Thompson soon found themselves faced with the increasingly difficult problem of just keeping the home front safe. In the summer of 1778 he and several of his neighbors would petition Governor Clinton for permission to raise a company of men capable of overpowering lawless gangs - made up in part of disgruntled militiamen - that plagued the people of Northern Dutchess.2° When Thompson and Jay refused to serve on the Commission for the Poor in 1777, the Council of Safety did not delay long in finding replacements. On June 4, Robert Benson, who had served with Jay on the Committees of Sixty and One Hundred, who had since emerged as perennial secretary to Provincial Congresses and Committees and Councils of Safety, and who would within four months become clerk of the New York Senate, 21 informed Abraham Schenck and Gideon VerValen of their appointment to the Commission.22 With the new Commissioners came a new system of payment. Instead of the ten shillings per day offered to their predecessors, Schenck and VerValen would receive a lump sum of forty pounds per year.23 Assuming the Council intended the rate of pay to remain the same, the problem of poor relief had reached the point where each Commissioner might be expected to spend eighty days out of the year working on it. Relatively little is known about the two new Commissioners. Gideon VerValen, a descendant of one of the original patentees of New Harlem, lived in Rombout Precinct along Wappingers Creek.24 He was a near neighbor of Zephaniah Platt, who resided on the Poughkeepsie side of the Creek and who sat on the Council that appointed VerValen to the Commission.25 Thirty-four years old in 1777, VerValen had played an active role in the revolutionary movement at least since the spring of 1775 when news of Lexington and Concord reached Dutchess Count .26 That summer he had signed the New York Association,2 and in October had received his commission as a second lieutenant in Dirck Brinckerhoff's regiment of militia.28 Three years later, in the summer of 1778, undoubtedly due to his position as Commissioner for the Poor, VerValen joined the Associated Exempts along with

other public officials excused from militia service.29 Abraham Schenck lived in the Fishkill area. His father, Guisbert, had served in the First Provincial Congress and would be elected to a term in the State Assembly in 1780.30 From 1775 to 1778, Abraham Schenck's career almost mirrored that of Gideon VerValen. Like VerValen, he had signed the New York Association in Rombout Precinct.31 He, too, had been commissioned a second lieutenant in Brinckerhoff's regiment.32 He, too, as Commissioner for the poor, joined the Associated Exempts in 1778 as captain of the very company into which Gideon VerValen enlisted.-53 Schenck's service on the Commission for the Poor was not his last foray into public affairs; before his death in 1800 he would also represent his district in the New York Senate.34 John Schenk, who recommended the five women to the "Charity of the State"35 was one of Poughkeepsie's leading Whigs. He had represented Dutcbess County in two Provincial Congresses, including the Fourth which had tardily declared New York's independence on July 9, 1776.36 Back in Poughkeepsie, Schenk chaired the Precinct Committee of Safety and would, short weeks after he wrote the letter to Jay, be appointed to the Commission for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies.37 While John Schenk remained unaware of the personnel changes in the Commission for the Poor for over a month, he knew full well the kind of people the Commissioners would most readily take under their wing. The women on whose behalf he wrote, both he and Jay agreed,38 came from the ranks of the deserving poor. They and their families were hardworking people reduced to indigence by the consequences of the Revolution. It helped, of course, that their husbands, "gone out to Sea,"39 undoubtedly sailed on the Whig side of the cause - the "hand of tyranny," like that of beauty, being often in the eyes of the beholder. If the Commissioners acted favorably on Schenk's recommendation (and there is no reason to think they would not have), it did not mean those five families could live out the war on what we think of as welfare. The Convention that established the Commission had no intention of offering even the most worthy among the poor an extended free lunch. To the eighteenth century mind, unemployment led to idleness and idleness invariably led to vice. Though the Commission was charged with supplying the poor under its care "with necessaries and such other things as they [the Commissioners, of course] shall judge necessary for their comfortable subsistence-, from time to time," it also had the duty to "keep them employed at such business as they shall be able to perform, and as the said commissioners shall judge most advantageous to the said poor and public."40 The Convention had armed the Commissioners with sufficient authority to ensure that the recipients of their beneficence did not become members of the idle poor. The Commissioners had the power to relocate those they helped anywhere within the county "for the convenience of keeping them employed" or to more easily supply them with necessities. Moreover, they could at their discretion, "bind out to trades, or other occupations, the children of such of the said poor as were objects of public charity," boys until age twenty-one,

never before been on the public dole could be bound out if their parents consented.41 The Commission's primary function, as the Convention's rigorous guidelines made clear, was to keep the poor fed, clothed, sheltered and busy, not to make them happy. But then, being poor has never been fun, except in the dim memories of people who no longer are.

Copy In Council of Safety for the State of New York Kingston June 4. 1777 The Council being informed that Frederick Jay and Ezra Thompson who(,) where by a Resolution of the State Convention passed the Eighth Day of May last appointed Commissioners in the County of Dutchess to take the General Superintendance & Care of all Such Poor Inhabitants as have by the hand of Tyranny & Injustice been Driven from their Habitations and Deprived of their Subsistance & thereby Rendered unable to Support themselves and familys(,)*declined Executing the Business Committed to them by the Said Resolutions Resolved that Mess Abraham Schenck and Gideon Verveelen be & they are hereby appointed Commissioners in the Stead of the Said Frederick Jay and Ezra Thompson for Executing the Said Resolutions in the County of Dutchess & that they be Each of them allowed the Sum of Forty Pounds per Annum for their Trouble & Expence therein in Lieu of any other Compensation Extract from the Minutes (s) Robert Benson Secry(.) *Ed. note: Note the slight changes in wording between this version of the resolution and that quoted on page 53.

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Sir The within mentioned Persons are recommended to me by MI. John Schenck as worthy of Puplic Benevolence(.) as you have now the management of that business, I make no doubt you'l readily give them that assistance which their present situation requires - They are well known by me & I think they are deserving the Character given them by 141- Jn9 Schenck -I am Sir with Esteem Your Most Hb (?)* Servant (s) Fred Jay Fish Kill To MI'

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Sir I would Recommend M Ellenor Johnson. Elizabeth Ham. Catherine Stevenson. & Ester Harris & Elenor Smiley to the Charrity of the State(.) their husbands are all gone out the-way to Sea(.) I would further Inform you that they are very Industrious and with all they can de ern they are not able to maintain themselves & their children and that they repea(te)dly hgve sold off their Effects for maintanance which is now almost Expended. I am Sir with Respect your Most Obet* (s) John Schenk To Mr Frederick Jay Fishkill *Ed. note:

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2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

13. 14.

15. 16. 17.

A reading of the Journals makes it clear that the Representatives had worked out the organization and agreed on the officers of what they called the "temporary plan of government." They also specified that their appointees should receive permanent status if the Council of Appointment approved. For Dutchess County, the Convention appointed Ephraim Paine, Anthony Hoffman and Zephaniah Platt, Judges; Melancton Smith, Sheriff; and Henry Livingston, County Clerk. The propriety of appointing Sheriffs was least open to question, since the Sheriffs' duties included holding elections for the Governor, Senate and Assembly in accordance with the new constitution. Incidentally, the Council of Appointment did later put its stamp of approval on all of the above appointments. Journals of the Provincial Congress. Provincial Convention, Committee of Safety and Council of Safety of the State of New York, 1775-1777 (Albany, 1842), Vol. 1, 916-917. Ibid., 916. Ibid., 916. Ibid., 916. Ibid., 916. Charlotte Cunningham Finkel, "The Jay Family in Fishkill (now East Fishkill), 1776-1781," East Fishkill Historical Society, 1967. Frederick Jay to John Jay, July 7, 1779, in Richard B. Morris, ed., John Jay: The Making of a Revolutionary (New York, 1975), 611. Carl Becker, The History of Political Parties in the Province of New York, 1760-1776 (Madison, 1909), 168, 197. Franklin B. Hough, The New York Civil List, from 1777-1858 (Albany, 1858), 157-161. Frederick Jay to John Jay, January 12, 1779, in Morris, ed., John Jay, 528. See "Extract from the Minutes," signed by Robert Benson and reproduced on page . The quotation is from Isaac Hunting, History of Little Nine Partners, of North East Precinct, and Pine Plains, New York, Dutchess County (Amenia, N.Y., 1897), 379. Also see, J. Wilson Poucher, "Smith Thompson," Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book, XXV, 1940, 26. Henry Noble MacCracken, Old Dutchess Forever! The Story of An American County (New York, 1956), 445. For the ratifying convention and Livingston's role in it, see Linda Grant De Pauw, The Eleventh Pillar: New York State and the Federal Constitution (Ithaca, 1966), and Staughton Lynd, Antifederalism in Dutchess County, New York (Chicago, 1962). See Poucher, "Smith Thompson." "Extract from the Minutes." Franklin Delano Roosevelt, ed., Records of Crum Elbow Precinct, Dutchess County, New York, 1738-1761, together with Records of Charlotte Precinct, 1762-1785... Collections of the Dutchess County Historical Society, Vol. VII (Poughkeepsie, 1940), 93-96.

18. Hugh Hastings, ed., Public Papers of George Clinton, First Governor of New York, 1777-1795, 1801-1804 (New York, 1899), Vol. III, 395. 19. Berthold Fernow, ed., Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York, Volume 15; States Archives, Volume 1 (Albany, 1887), 143. 20. Hastings, ed., Public Papers of George Clinton, Vol. III, 676. 21. Becker, Political Parties, 168, 197; Journals of the Provincial Congress, 2!ssim; Hough, Civil List, 122. 22. "Extract from the Minutes." 23. Ibid. 24. Henry Pennington Toler, The New Harlem Register (New York, 1903), 50. Also see "Map of the Town of Fishkill, 1798, by Henry Livingston, Jr.," Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book, Vol. 10, 1925, opp. 34. 25. Ibid.; Journals of the Provincial Congress, Vol. I, 916. 26. VerValen was among the forty freeholders who, upon learning of Lexington and Concord, met in Fishkill on May 5, 1975 to take precautionary measures for the defense of Rombout Precinct. See the document reprinted in "May, 1775: Area Freeholders Meet to Decide Future," Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book, Vols. 61 and 62, 1976-1977, 31-32. 27. Peter Force, ed., American Archives, Fourth Series (Washington, 1837), Vol. III, 598. 28. Calendar of Historical Manuscripts Relating to the War of the Revolution (Albany, 1868), Vol. I, 140-141. 29. Hastings, ed., Public Papers of George Clinton, Vol. IV, 235-236. Though VerValen may not have minded, a number of persons offered ingenious spellings of his surname. One common variation, "VerVeelen," was used by Toler, New Harlem Register, 50. Force, ed., American Archives, 4th Ser., Vol. III, 598, spells it "Ver Velon." It appears in the Calendar of Historical Manuscripts, Vol. I, 141, as "Van Velen." And it is rendered "Ver Vailing" in the document reprinted in "May, 1775: Area Freeholders Meet....," 32. 30. Hough, Civil List, 62. 31. Force, ed., American Archives, 4th Ser, Vol. III, 598. 32. Calendar of Historical Manuscripts, Vol. I, 140-141. 33. James A. Roberts, New York in the Revolution as Colony and State (Albany, 1898), Vol. I, 154. 34. From 1796 to 1799. Hough, Civil List, 115-116. A newspaper obituary described Schenck as "a respectable Farmer and late a Senator from the Middle District of this State." Helen Wilkinson Reynolds, comp. and ed., Notices of Marriages and Deaths, About 4,000 in Number, Published in Newspapers Printed at Poughkeepsie, New York, 17781825, Collections of the Dutchess County Historical Society, Vol. IV (Poughkeepsie, 1930), 91. 35. John Schenk to Frederick Jay, July 7, 1777, letter reproduced on page . I do not know the precise relationship between John Schenk and Abraham Schenck (though I have every confidence they knew). The suggestion appears in William P. McDermott, "The Schenk Mill and Store at Pleasant Valley, 1763-1770," Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book, Vols. 61 and 62, 1976-1977, 75, that the different lines of Schen(c)ks who lived in Dutchess

36. 37.

38. 39. 40. 41.

County can be identified by the way they spelled their' surnames (one branch ended the name with a "ck", the other with "k" alone). That may be correct. Ultimately, its verification would have to depend solely on the actual signatures of the Schen(c)ks in question. The variety of spellings to which the VerValen name was subjected makes the point more vividly: systems of standardized spelling were still in their infancy in revolutionary America. Notice that the letter from Frederick Jay, reproduced on page , which contains spelling as systematic as some student essays I have read, renders John Schenk's name "Schenck." Hough, Civil List, 64-65. Minutes of the Committee and of the First Commission for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies in the State of New York, December 11, 1776-September 23, 1778, Collections of the New York Historical Society, 1925 (New York, 1925), Vol. 11, 354-355. John Schenk to Frederick Jay, July 7, 1777; Frederick Jay to Abraham Schenck, July 9, 1777. John Schenk to Frederick Jay, July 7, 1777. Journals of the Provincial Congress, Vol. 1, 916. Ibid., 916.

.63

THE FLAGLER CEMETERY AT GREEN HAVEN by Robert Pierce The late Jean Flagler Matthews was the youngest daughter of Harry Harkness Flagler, her sisters being Elizabeth Flagler Harris of Philadelphia and Mary Flagler Cary of Millbrook. Harry Harkness Flagler was the only son of Henry Morrison Flagler, Standard Oil tycoon and Florida East Coast developer. No father and son were more dissimilar in dispositions and tastes; Henry the driving industrialist and Harry the placid votary of the performing arts. Music and local history were Harry's special diversions. He was a patron of the Metropolitan Opera Association and the New York Philharmonic Society, of which he was at one time president. He belonged to several historical groups, the Dutchess County Historical Society being one. He was a friend of Miss Helen Wilkinson Reynolds and of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He also cultivated a liking for genealogy and family history. Of the three daughters only Mrs. Matthews showed a real fondness for exploring the origin and annals of the Flagler family. In Dutchess County she discovered a rewarding field, as the first of her family in America were natives of the County. Stimulated by information derived from Dr. J. Wilson Poucher's "Old Gravestones of Dutchess County" and encouraged by many local people, Mrs. Matthews and the writer began an in-depth survey of county records with especial attention to graveyards. The exposure largely by means of pick and shovel of twenty headstones at the site of the first Flagler burial ground on the Garlando (formerly Brill) farm in Green Haven gave Mrs. Matthews the idea of assembling as many family markers as could be found in the county. Legal technicalities on state, county, and town levels were formidable, but finally resolved; and the gathering of stones in one spot was begun in 1972 and completed four years later. Mr. James Foster of Patterson did the exhumations, the Presby-Leland Monument Company moved the stones, the late George Martin of Hopewell Junction built the fieldstone wall, the wrought-iron entrance gate was designed by Mr. Karl Fisch, and his firm, the County Ornamental Iron Works, erected the six-foot fence surrounding the half-acre plot. At present, on the well-groomed lawn - tended by Keith and John Klein of Green Haven - within the enclosure are 71 stones of many sizes and shapes, arranged in rows, the oldest graves being at the back of the lot. Efforts were made to keep family members together, with parents and children as near one another as possible. A formal dedication of the cemetery, which is on Frog Hollow Road, took place on 9 October 1976. A marble plaque mounted in the wall at the main gate reads as follows: "To the glory of God and in thankful remembrance of the many members of the Flagler family whose earthly remains are gathered here, this cemetery is set apart in honour of Zacharaiah Flagler, their progenitor, who came to this country from the Palatinate, Germany, in 1701 and settled in Dutchess County. It has been the privilege of one of his direct descendants, Jean Flagler Matthews to make possible this dedication. A. D. 1976." 65

LIST OF STONES FROM ORIGINAL INTERMENT LOCATIONS Flagler Yard at Green Haven Name

Birth

Death

P. Flagler Zacharias Flaglr Catharine Townsend Flagler Shadrach R. Flagler Jerusha Emigh Flagler John W. Flagler Cornelia Flagler Monfort Peter I. Monfort Catherine Collins Flagler Elizabeth Flagler Jane Doughty Flagler Phebe Dennis Flagler Phebe Maria Cury Philip F. Flagler Philip Flagler Sarah Cornell Flagler Solomon Flagler Zacharias Flagler Emeline Flagler Edward Albert Flagler

1720 1821 1809 1800 1791 1800 1795 1767 1771 1761 1776 1829 1731 1756 1733 1773 1763 1840 1858

1795 1798 1843 1851 1854 1876 1825 1834 1853 1801 1846 1841 1831 1801 1841 1803 1850 1839 1850 1865

Dodge Arlie Isaac Tamer

1713 1744 1745

1798 1790 1827

1822

1847

Philip Solomon Flagler Anna Winegar Flagler Philip Flagler Nany Dygert Flagler Isaac Dennis Flagler

1701 1692 1828 1810 1791

1766 1764 1891 1853 1863

Dutch Churchyard at Hopewell Adeline Flagler Charlotte DeGroff Flagler Edward Flagler Elizabeth Bedell Wortman Flagler Elizabeth Brinkerhoff Flagler Gertrude B. Stockholm Flagler Jane Eliza Flagler John Flagler Dinah Hasbrook John Philip Flagler Sarah Flagler Tamer Dennis Flagler Thomas F. Flagler Zacharias Flagler Elizabeth Rapelje Flagler Morris

1808 1819 1806 1821 1816 1793 1801 1797 1750 1817 1810 1774 1765 1769 1856

1889 1878 1882 1888 1855 1853 1859 1798 1827 1872 1833 1795 1849 1824 1917

Farm at Beekmanville De Long Dennis Brundage Dennis

Union Church at Green Haven Irena Flagler Beekman Cemetery at Poughquag

Friends' Ground at Arthursburg Name Anna Lossing Flagler Catharine Palen Flagler Paul Flagler

Birth 1804 1791 1770

1863 1858 1851

Methodist Ground at Potter's Corners Zachariah Solomon Flagler Patience Wilkinson Flagler

1797 1798

1849 1837

Death

Pittsbury Presbyterian Church at Washington Hollow Amelia Flagler 1779 Eliza Wilson Flagler 1807 Esther Ostrom Flagler 1761 Martha Flagler 1767 Solomon Flagler 1760 Zachariah S. Flagler 1795 Maria S. Flagler Purdy 1792

1841 1857 1813 1827 1839 1870 1836

Presbyterian Church at Pleasant Valley Eunice Jones Flagler Jane Ward Flagler Maria Ostrom Flagler Pater Flagler Simon Flagler William Flagler

1767 1793 1747 1745 1768 1800

1809 1820 1813 1823 1813 1826

Friends' Ground at Pleasant Valley Anna Flagler Benjamin Flagler Hannah Farrington Flagler Maria Strait Flagler

1774 1796 1816 1832

1857 1877 1889 1894

Presbyterian Churchyard at New Hamburg Miriam Drake Flagler

1786

1817

Methodist Ground between Pleasant Valley and Salt Point Mary Flagler 1847 1850 Marie E. Flagler 1836 1845 Presbyterian Yard at Bellevue, Ohio Rev. Isaac Flagler Elizabeth Caldwell Flagler

1789 1794

1876 1861

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MONUMENT NUMBERS, NAMES, AND DATES IN THE FLAGLER GREEN HAVEN CEMETERY

Row A

Monument Number 5 6

Birth & Death Dates

Name PHILIP SOLOMON FLAGLER ANNA MARGRET WINEGAR

1701-1766 1692-1764

10 11

PHILIP F. FLAGLER SARAH CORNELL

1731-1804 1733-1802

ARLIE DELONG MARGARETA FLAGLER

1719-1798 1719

P. FLAGLER

-1795

ELIZABETH FLAGLER

1772-1801

23 24

ISAAC DENNIS TAMER BRUNDAGE (Parents of Phebe Dennis Flagler #B26 and Tamer Dennis Flagler #B44)

1744-1790 1745-1827

DINAH FLAGLER DANIEL HASBROOK (Parents of Catharine Hasbrook Flagler #B29)

1750-1827

17 18

PATER FLAGLER MARIA OSTROM

1745-1823 1747-1813

31 32 33

MIRIAM DRAKE 1 wife THOMAS E. FLAGLER GERTRUDE B. STOCKHOLM

1786-1817 1765-1849 1793-1855

39 40

JOHN PHILIP FLAGLER ELIZABETH BEDELL WORTMAN

1817-1872 1821-1888

43 44 29

ZACHARIAH FLAGLER TAMER DENNIS 1 wife CATHARINE HASBROOK 2 wife

1769-1824 1774-1795 1775-1862

JOHN FLAGLER

1797-1798

27 26

SOLOMON FLAGLER PHEBE DENNIS

1773-1850 1776-1841

SIMON FLAGLER

1768-1813

CATHARINE FLAGLER

1812-1899

61 60 62 63

ELIZABETH BRINKERHOFF (1) EDWARD FLAGLER (2) CHARLOTTE DE GROFF EDWARD ALBERT FLAGLER (Son)

1816-1855 1806-1882 1819-1878 1858-1865

2 wife

Row

Monument Number

Birth & Death Dates

JANE ELIZA FLAGLER

1801-1859

ADELINE FLAGLER

1803-1889

66 58

JANE WARD ISAAC DENNIS FLAGLER

1793-1820 1791-1863

56 57

CORNELIA FLAGLER PETER I. MONFORT

1800-1825 1795-1834

ZACHARIAS FLAGLER SARAH BARTON (Parents of Solomon Flagler #7D)

1720-1798 1731-ca 1771

9 7 8

MARTHA OSTROM (1) SOLOMON FLAGLER (2) ESTHER OSTROM (Parents of the Rev. Isaac Flagler #E14)

1761-1827 1760-1839 1761-1813

EUNICE JONES ABRAHAM G. FLAGLER

1767-1809 1769-1852

PAUL (PAULUS) FLAGLER CATHARINE PALEN #H36

1769-1851 1781-1858

34 35 73

(2) ELIZA WILSON (1) AMELIA (?) ZACHARIAS S. FLAGLER (Son of Solomon & Esther Flagler)

1807-1857 1779-1841 1784-1870

Name

No inscription REV, ISAAC FLAGLER (Son of Solomon & Esther Ostrom) ELIZABETH CALDWELL (3) (Parents of Henry Morrison Flagler)

1789-1876

1794-1861

MARIAH S. FLAGLER JOHN PURDY

1792-1836

WILLIAM A. FLAGLER

1800-1826

MARIA E. FLAGLER (Daughter of Stephen E. & Caroline Flagler)

1836-1845

MARY S. FLAGLER (Daughter of Stephen E. & Caroline Flagler)

1847-1850

Row

Monument Number

Name

Birth & Death Dates

IRENA MARIA (RIGGS ?)

1822-1847

ANN LOSSING (Sister of Benson J. Lossing) JOSEPH FLAGLER

1804-1863

MARY STRAIT ENOCH D. FLAGLER

1832-1894 1810-1878

BENJAMIN FLAGLER MARY BURTIS (1) MARY HULL (2)

1796-1877

HANNAH FARRINGTON SILAS E. PLAGLER

1816-1889

45 46

ZACHARIAS FLAGLER CATHARINE COLLINS

1763-1839 1767-1853

NANCY DYGERT PHILIP S. FLAGLER

1810-1853 1799-1843

49 50

JERUSHA EMIGH JOHN W. PLAGLER

1800-1854 1791-1876

54 53

PATIENCE WILKINSON (1) ZACHARIAS SOLOMON FLAGLER (2) PHEBE SHERMAN

1798-1837 1797-1849 1798-1860

1810-1833

SARAH FLAGLER SLINGUS CURY PHEBE MARIE CURY

21 22

PHILIP FLAGLER JANE DOUGHTY

1756-1841 1761-1846

ELIZABETH RAPELJE FLAGLER WILLIAM MORRIS

1856-1917

47 48 75

CATHARINE TOWNSEND SHADRACH R. PLAGLER EMELINE FLAGLER (Daughter of Shadrach and Catharine Flagler)

1821-1843 1809-1851 1840-1850

ANNA BOGART (BOBART) JOHN ZACHARIAH FLAGLER

1774-1847 1771-1840

CATHARINE PALEN PAUL FLAGLER #D20

1781-1858 1769-1851

1829-1831

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A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF CRUGER'S ISLAND, MAGDALEN ISLAND, THE NORTH BAY, AND ADJOINING UPLANDS by John Winthrop Aldrich Red Hook Town Historian

These two sizeable and moderately elevated, completely wooded Hudson River "islands" (the former is actually a peninsula) have long been recognized as rich archaeological sites, where significant quantities of Indian artifacts and skeletons have been unearthed over the years. It is believed by scholars that for countless generations prior to the arrival of the European settlers these islands - nominally within the territory of the Wappinger, Esopus and Sepasco tribes of the agrarian, non-nomadic Algonquin nation - were in fact regularly used as principal congress and combat grounds by the hunting, nomadic Indians of the "Six Nations" (Iroquois), who used the Hudson as a natural transportation route in making forays by canoe from central New York to exact tribute from the natives in the south. The last great conflict between Indians in eastern New York is said to have been waged on these islands in the 17th Century. It involved hand combat between chosen warriors of each of the Six Nations, with only one from each tribe in the arena at any one time. The Mohawks finally won supremacy by employing a classic feint: they pretended to retreat from Cruger's Island to Magdalen and to encamp for the night; but when the Tuscaroras - their principal rivals - attacked under cover of darkness, the Mohawks sprang the trap and slew them all. These islands are therefore regarded as the most important sites with Indian associations yet identified in the region. During his epochal voyage of discovery, Hendrick Hudson anchored the Half Moon off the north end of Cruger's Island for one night, according to the Mate's diary; the crew traded in a modest way with the local Indians and found refreshment in sweet water and berries. About 1652, the first settlement in the region occurred in the neighborhood of Kingston, across the River and some eight miles to the south. Sometime thereafter an Albany merchant and Colonial official named Colonel Pieter Schuyler acquired from the local Indians title to most of what is today the Township of Red Hook - including, of course, the property under discussion. In 1688 Schuyler was granted a patent to this land by Governor Dongan on behalf of the British Crown. Schuyler, who was the first Mayor of Albany, evidently never resided upon the patented lands, however, During the following forty years Schuyler's Patent was partitioned several times and sold to various investors. A tract of several thousand acres in the neighborhood of the North and South Bays was acquired by Barent Van Benthuysen; he soon began settling farmers on the land and having it cleared for cultivation, and he established his own family in what later became known as "Van Benthuysen's Castle" a large dwelling located about 3/4ths of a mile inland and just off the Cruger's Island access road (the building has long since disappeared). A map dated 1747 shows the structure as being the home of Captain Abraham Van Benthuysen. This same map indicates that as early as a century before the construction of the Hudson River Railroad (now Conrail) trestle/causeway, the North Bay was 8ilted up and 73

was known as the "Vly" - as distinct from the open water of the South Bay. By the middle of the 18th Century a mill had been constructed near the mouth of the White Clay Kill (now known as Stony Creek) where it enters the North Bay after coursing through a spectacular, deeply wooded gorge - one of two such striking features that the Ward Manor property can boast. In October' 1777, during the same expedition which effected the burning of Kingston and of Clermont, a detachment of British soldiers was landed on Cruger's Island; from here they carried out destructive forays against homes, barns and mills in the neighborhood. A map dated 1798 shows that in the 18th Century Cruger's Island was known as Magdalen Island, and Magdalen went by the name "Slipsteen Island". (It is doubtful that the latter has ever been permanently inhabited - at least since the disappearance of the Indian.) In 1721 Captain Nicholas Hoffman of Kingston acquired a large tract of the Schuyler Patent lying immediately north of the Van Benthuysen lands and south of Livingston Manor. His sons developed this property during the remainder of the 18th Century, and ultimately the Village of Tivoli evolved. "Hoffman's Ferry" was a busy wharf at the foot of Sycamore Point, the 80-foot-high bluff at the northern end of the North Bay; and on the shore of the Bay nearby was situated Colonel Martin Hoffman's spacious stone house, which was contemporary with Van Benthuysen castle and, like it, disappeared at the start of the 19th Century. (Colonel Hoffman was a direct ancestor of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.) About 1794 a fine, colonnaded Federal-style mansion was erected by Henry G. Livingston (a cousin of Chancellor Robert R. Livingston) on Sycamore Point. Originally named "Sunning Hill" but known as "Callendar House" for most of its long history, this house survives as a prime landmark of the Hudson Valley. The house and its surrounding estate, along with Magdalen Island, were until recently owned by Livingston descendants - the heirs of the late Mrs. William H. Osborn. Robert Fulton (who married a cousin of his great patron, Chancellor Livingston) is said to have lived in a cottage which survived until recently on the Ward Manor property overlooking the North Bay, while he was experimenting with designs for the world's first successful steamboat - the Clermont (named for Chancellor Livingston's home situated several miles to the north). Fulton reputedly used a nearby cove in the North Bay for his vessel. In any event, it is an established fact that an English inventor named Nesbit, under Livingston's patronage, worked on a prototype of the steamboat at a dock in the North Bay as early as 1787 - fully twenty years before Fulton achieved the success that had eluded his predecessor. In 1790 General John Armstrong acquired a 400-acre portion of the Van Benthuysen lands for a little more than 1,000 pounds - essentially the same property that is now known as "Ward Manor" and belongs to Central Hidson Gas & Electric Corporation. Armstrong, a Revolutionary War officer had married in 1789 Alida Livingston, a sister of the Chancellor; Armstrong was later to serve as U. S. Senator, Minister to France and Secretary of War during the War of 1812. He built for his family a very large and handsome mansion at the site of what is today the Ward Manor dormitory of Bard College, overlooking Cruger's Island and the North Bay, and named the 74

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. 141

estate "The Meadows". Within several years, however, he had conveyed it to his famous brother-in-law, who in turn sold it to an exotic figure named Colonel Andrew DeVeaux, a rich dealer in contraband goods in the Caribbean who had married a member of the Verplanck family. The Colonel renamed the great estate "DeVeaux Park"; he enlarged the house, ornamented the property, and maintained a private wharf at or adjoining Cruger's Island. In 1812 DeVeaux died a bankrupt, whereupon Cruger's Island was sold to Doctor John Masten of Kingston, who erected a dwelling for his family at the southern end of the Island. The rest of "DeVeaux Park" was sold to yet another member of the dominant local family, a New York City merchant named Robert Swift Livingston. Livingston renamed it "Almont," and his family retained ownership of the 400-acre property until 1906; the old mansion, however, was destroyed by fire in 1877. Around 1915 "Almont" was bought by a New Yorker and Livingston descendant named L. Gordon Hamersley, who built on the site of Armstrong's mansion a new residence of stone, in the Tudor revival style. The distinctive gatehouse in this same style survives as a popular landmark on Annandale Road. The tract lying immediately to the north, between "Almont" and what is now known as Kidd Lane, also has an interesting history. Shortly before 1795 Henry G. Livingston acquired the land, which included frontage on the North Bay and the lower reaches of White Clay Kill, and constructed a large brick mansion and other improvements - all presumably on speculation. A detailed advertisement appearing in 1795 described the premises as encompassing 500 acres, the mansion, other houses, barns, cattle, good hayfields, two orchards, a saw mill and a grist mill. Later that year the farm was sold for 7,000 pounds to Jasper Parsons, an Englishman who, like DeVeaux, was in the West Indies trade. He named the property "Parndon", by which name it is identified on the 1798 map. Subsequently the estate was reduced to approximately 200 acres including the mansion and bay frontage, and from 1823 until 1835 it was owned by John C. Montgomery and was named "Eglinton". It then became the home of Mrs. Jeannette James Barker, whose brother's sons grew up to be Henry James the novelist and William James the psychologist. Renamed "Wilderkill" after 1869, when it was sold to Mr. and Mrs. Howard Kidd, the house survived until after 1909 when Mr. Hamersley consolidated this property with "Almont" and demolished the house. The 1,000-acre estate was little used, however, and in 1925 Mr. Hamersley sold it to William B. Ward, president of the Ward Baking Company, through whose generosity it was transformed into "Ward Manor" as a memorial to his father "a beneficent home for indigent, infirm and aged persons". Title to the property actually vested in the long-established New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, and then in its successor organization, the Community Service Society of New York. The guiding genius of this prototype retirement community was the distinguished social worker and philanthropic organizer, William M. Matthews. This charitable enterprise flourished until about 1960, when the institutional buildings were sold to Bard College (the campus of Bard, which was founded as St. Stephen's Seminary in 1860, adjoins Ward Manor to the south), and approximately 850 acres 76

of land (including Cruger's Island) were sold to Central Hudson Gas and Electric Corporation. Since that time the utility company has intimated plans to construct a nuclear power generating facility on the property. However, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and The Nature Conservancy are currently working to ensure permanent preservation of this tract. For much of its history the Ward Manor property has been justly renowned for its spectacular virgin stands of native hardwood, some of which survive to this day. One historian has written that "when it was in its prime this place was probably unsurpassed on the Hudson for natural beauty". Numerous hawks and even an occasional eagle have been observed nesting on the property, and of course the North Bay in fact an extensive and undisturbed tidal marsh - is known to be one of the two best locations for unusual and numerous bird sightings in the mid-Hudson region. It is significant that in 1868, when his parents had rented a house nearby for the summer, President Theodore Roosevelt - then nine years old - got his start as a conservationist by exploring for animal and bird life along the shores of Cruger's Island and the two Bays. Bard College presently takes full advantage of the valuable resources at its door; it offers several courses in ecological studies conducted from a new field station situated at the mouth of the Sawkill on the South Bay. Regular field trips to the tidal marshes of the North Bay and to the woodlands of Ward Manor form a major part of this instruction. The biotic diversity of these habitats has been carefully documented, and includes such endangered species as the Central Mudminnow and Dutchmen's Breeches. One of the healthiest stands of Golden Club in the State survives here. To return briefly to the history of Cruger's Island itself: During the 1820's the South Bay, sheltered from northerly winds by Cruger's Island, served as one of America's first yacht basins. John Cox Stevens, brother-in-law of Chancellor Livingston and a member of the family which established Stevens Institute in Hoboken, was the founder of the New York Yacht Club and a backer of the America, for which the renowned "America's Cup" is named. Stevens lived on the bluff above the South Bay and refitted and moored several of his more famous yachts in the cove. In the 1830's Stevens introduced his friend, John Church Cruger, to the charms of the neighborhood; Cruger was a prosperous New Yorker who was married to a member of the Van Rensselaer family and was descended from two Mayors of New York City, each of whom was also named John Cruger. In 1835 Dr. Masten sold Cruger's Island to Cruger, who spent his subsequent summers in the Masten house until it burned down some years later. The Cruger family then moved into a gardener's cottage situated in the middle of the island; this they enlarged and adorned until it took on the appearance of a handsome Victorian country house. There were, in addition, several outbuildings. The island was owned by the Crugers until early in this Century, when it once again became part of the larger upland property and the buildings, by then abandoned, finally crumbled away. The railroad, which had inaugurated service in 1851, detracted considerably from the unspoiled pastoral scene. 77

False Ruins at Cruger's Island, with Mayan Artifacts, ca. 1905 Courtesy of the Egbert Benson Historical Society of Red Hook and of the late Bruce Matthews 7R

One tangible souvenir of the Crugers survives, however. John Church Cruger was a friend and sponsor of the noted archaeologist, explorer and writer John Lloyd Stephens; when the latter returned from leading the first great expedition into Yucatan in the 1840's and presented Cruger with superb pieces of Mayan sculpture, Cruger built a group of Mayan-like "ruins" of fieldstone on a small islet off the southern end of the main island, to serve as a suitable setting for the artifacts. These treasures are now in a New York City museum, but the fake ruins remain in place, inspiring wonder in the ignorant and amusement for the informed. They are visible from the river only. In summary, the vicinity of Cruger's Island, Magdalen Island, the North Bay and the adjoining uplands offer the conservationist a truly unique opportunity to safeguard resources that are of statewide, if not national, significance in terms of their historic and cultural associations, superb scenic value and acclaimed ecological importance.

False Ruins at Cruger's Island, with Mayan artifacts, ca. 1905. Courtesy of the Egbert Benson Historical Soc. of Red Hook and of Mr. William Wait. 79

or'

late Bruce Matthews.

Copy of the 1747 deed and map conveying the Cruger's Island property to Gerrit Van Benthuysen. The original is still intact in the Records section of the County Office Building in Poughkeepsie. THIS INDENTURE made the first day of April being the twentieth year of his Majesties Regne Annoq Dom: One thousand seven hundred and forty seven BETTWEEN BARENT VAN BENTHUYSEN PIETER VAN BENTHUYSEN JACOB VAN BENTHUYSEN & ABRAHAM VAN BENTHUYSEN all of Dutchess County and Province of New York of the one part and GERRIT VAN BENTHUYSEN of said County and Province of the other part WHEREAS They the said Vanbenthusens and Andries HEREMANSE of said County where all in partnership intiteled unto two Certaine Lotts of land called the lott number two & lott number six which said two lotts of land formerly did belong unto BARENT STAETS and his Brothers & sister in Company of the Citty of Albany: as may more fully appear by a certaine convayance dated the third day of Aprill Annoq. Dom: one thousand seven hundred & twenty five and whereas the said BARENT STAETS and his brothers and sisters since by Messue convayance under them sold and convayed the said two Lotts of land unto the said Van Benthuysens and Heremanse and to them and to each of them their respective part and shares as may more fully and at large appear and whereas the parties since By a mutuall agreement under them did by a petition thereof made by JOHN BLYKER of the Citty of Albany Esq.' their and each of their respective shares and parts of the said two lotts of land as is pointed out in the annexed Map NOW THIS INDENTURE WITTNESS that they the said BARENT VAN BENTHUYSEN PIETER VAN BENTHUYSEN JACOB VAN BENTHUYSEN and ABRAHAM VAN BENTHUYSEN for and in consideration of the sum of five pounds currant money of the provence of New York to them in hand paid before the ensealing and Delivery of these Presents the receipt whereof they do hereby acknowledge and themselvff therewith fully sattisfyed contented and paid by the said GERRIT VAN BENTHUYSEN and for divers others good causes and lawfull considerations them thereunto moveing HAVE given grated bargained sold alliened convayed released and confirmed and by these presents do fully freely give grant Bargaine sell allien convey releas and confirm unto the said GERRIT VAN BENTHUYSEN and to his heirs and assigns forever one certain lott of land called number four and the just one third part of the Lott number five and all adjoyning togather bounded southerly by Lott number three west upon Hudsons River Northerly by the two thirds of lott number five and Easterly by the Commons of the said Van Benthuysen these two lotts of land number four and number five and the Lotts number three two and one being the five LOTTS of Land in the last pertition or Devision thereof made in the annexed map of the Lott number two aforesaid TO HAVE AND TO HOLD the said lott of land number four and the just one third part of the Lott of land number five aforesaid unto the said GERRIT VAN BENTHUYSEN and to his heirs and assigns forever to his and their only proper use forever Togather with all and singular the houses barnes buildings orchards gardens Lands meadows pastures commons ffeeding. Trees Woods underwoods standing and growing Proffitts advantages and with all the appurtenances to the lott number four and the one third part of the lott number 81

7RAeFP 15Y C4/rfa4c•

False Ruins at Cruger's Island, with Mayan Artifacts, ca. 1905 Courtesy of the Egbert Benson Historical Society of Red Hook and of the late Bruce Matthews. 84

False Ruins at Cruger's Island, with Mayan Artifacts, ca. 1905 Courtesy of the Egbert Benson Historical Society of Red Hook and of the late Bruce Matthews RS

five belonging or in any wise appertaining Unto the said GERRIT VAN BENTHUYSEN and to his heirs and assigns forever so that the said GERRIT VAN BENTHUYSEN or his heirs and assigns shall and may from time to time and att all times hereafter by force & virtue of these presents lawfully and peaceably have hold use possess and Enjoy the said granted and bargained premisses in manner as aforesaid so that they the said Barent Van Benthuysen Peiter Van Benthuysen and Abraham Van Benthuysen for themselfs their Heirs Executors and administrators or any under them doth Covenant and Ingage the above demised or granted Premisses unto the said GERRIT VAN BENTHUYSEN and to his heirs and assigns forever IN WITNESS whereof the to this present have hereunto sett their hands and seals the day and year first above written. SIGNED SEALED & DELIVERED in the Presence off-ZACHARIAS HOFFMAN-MARTIN HOFFMAN BE IT REMEMBERED that on the twentieth day of April one thousand seven hundred eighty four before me ANTHONY HOFFMAN Esquire one of the judges of the inferior Court oc Common pleas for Dutchess County personally appeared ZACHARIAS HOFFMAN one of the Witnesses to the within written Instrument who being duly sworn on his Oath declared that he saw BARENT VAN BENTHUYSEN-PIETER VAN BENTHUYSEN-JACOB VAN BENTHUYSEN and ABRAM VAN BENTHUYSEN seal and deliver the same as their voluntary act and Deed for the uses and purposes therein mentioned and that he also saw MARTIN HOFFMAN the other Witnesses thereto and that he the Deponent also subscribed his as a Witness and I having perused the same and finding no material razures or interlineations therein do allow the same to be recorded - - Anth. HOFFMAN Dutchess County ss: A True Copy Examined & Compared with the Original Deed and Map the Twenty Eighth day of August anno 1786 - - P. Henry Livingston Clerk

JACOB (LS) VAN BENTHUYSEN

BARENT VAN BENTHUYSEN (LS)

ABRAM VAN (LS) BENTHUYSEN

PEITER VAN BENTHUYSEN (LS)

Readers may be interested to know that further ecological information may be found in a monograph titled, Hudson River East Bank Natural Areas, Clermont to Norrie, by Erik Kiviat, published 1978 by The Nature Conservancy. Copies are available at cost plus postage ($4.60) from Hudson River Heritage, Inc., Box 287, Rhinebeck, N.Y. 12572.

REMINISCENCES OF OLD TIME BLACKSMITHING By our Madalin Correspondent "Well, Tom," said a blacksmith to his apprentice, "you have been with me now three months and have seen the different points in our trade; I wish to give you your choice of work for a while. What part of the business do you like best?" "Shuttin° up shop and goin' to dinner." Conversing a short time ago with our respected fellow townsman, Geo. H. Ellsworth, Esq., of Madalin, about the great improvements made in the working of iron within the time that he can remember, I learned so many items of interest that I have thought it would be interesting to your readers and useful to give permanence to the record. The family show the result of hereditary for the father of my informant (Henry Ellsworth), was also a son of Vulcan, and the third generation are now carrying on the flourishing blacksmithing business located in the village. The shop of Henry Ellsworth was located near to the entrance of the avenue leading to the river seat of the late Chancellor Livingston, and to Mr. Ellsworth's skill and ingenuity was intrusted the making of the iron work for the thousand and one things with which the Chancellor experimented in the improvement of his estate. Although Mr. Ellsworth has practically retired from the business, having by his industry and economy secured a handsome competence, yet such is the force of habit he still takes a lively interest in seeing the sparks fly from the molten iron and looking into the weird fire of the forge. He says when he commenced life the rule was to serve an apprenticeship of seven years, and after that it was the custom to work as a journeyman for two or three years before setting up in business for oneself. As an instance of the fashionable economy of that day, he says it was the custom in the summer for all boys, and for that matter most men, to wear, instead of shoes, their bare feet, and he remembers, many a time assisting his father as striker at the anvil, when the red hot cinders from the iron falling on his bare feet made him dance to a livelier tune and with a greater earnestness than is ever seen in a ballroom. Now French calf garters are in fashion for the shop. In his father's day charcoal was largely used on the forge, pea or Liverpool coal coming in use generally much later, and if charcoal could not be easily procured, it was burned or made at the shop. The best of charcoal in that day, that which had the diamond in it, could be bought for 6 cents per bushel, and its use made the old fashioned blacksmith shop visible at night for long distances, by the column of sparks that ascended from the chimney. The rule was to work at night until 9 o'clock, from the 20th of September to the 20th of March. Horseshoes were made from tough iron bars split by cutters into thirds and then welded from both sides and made into shape, such shoes wearing almost as thin as a knife blade without breaking; now the bars are bought of the right size for making the shoes, or the shoes are bought ready made with the nails to put them on. Then the nails were 87

made from rods split out as was the shoe iron. The tire upon wheels was put on in pieces, 6 on the front and 7 on the hind wheel. The pieces were punched with three holes in each end, and then placed on so as to break joints over the felloes, heated properly and then spiked on, beginning at the outer holes and driving the spikes towards the centre as the iron cooled, thereby bringing the felloes to a perfect joint. The great skill required was in fitting the last piece, for if too long the felloes gapped and if too short the tire. Herein was the final test of workmanship. Even after the discovery of continuous tire there were no tire rods as now furnished, but these six or seven pieces had to be welded together. The iron work of plows were all made in the blacksmith shops, the land-side of wrought iron welded to the share which was of wrought iron, faced with steel on the point and edge, while wood formed the rest of the mould board and land side with a few strips of iron upon each to take the wear. The finding of wood for the mould board was sometimes a matter of long search, for a tree had to be found in the woods that had grown to the proper bend which in splitting out would about make the right curve for the mould board, and of course had to be right handed to turn the furrow the proper way. At the time of the introduction of cast iron plows, the prejudice was so great against them that appellations attached to them were "horse killers," and indeed many of the old fashioned farmers used the wrought iron plow to the end of their lives. My informant remembers the time when there were no one horse wagons. The only one horse conveyance was what was called a gig or chaise. It had two wheels, was wide enough for two and had a top something similar to the doctor's gigs of cities. There were no such things as steel eliptical springs, and even after one horse wagons came into use, if it had any springs under it or in the box they were of wood. He is very confident he made and placed in a wagon the first steel springs ever used in this town or vicinity. It was made for George Hamlin, a freighter, then doing business at what was known as the lower landing at Tivoli. Axes, chisels, forks, hoes and the like were all made at the shops, and were rude affairs in comparison with the finished tools of today with the exception of the hoe which was made by welding a thin piece of steel for the face to a wrought iron back, that in use the iron wearing off the fastest always left a thin, sharp cutting edge of steel - a better tool than the hoes of today. Such are a few of the methods of the old-fashioned blacksmith shop. Now almost everything a blacksmith uses is furnished ready made to his hand, requiring much less mechanical knowledge and skill than formerly to run a shop, and with it has come in most instances, a less pride in and a less thorough knowledge of the business making apposite the quotation at the head of this article. A word about prices; in the old time mentioned a new shoe cost 12 cents; calking and setting 9 cents; setting 6 cents, and many a horse was shod by the year from $2.50 to $3 according to use. All other things were in proportion. The price now for a new shoe is 40 cents, calking and setting 15 cents; setting 15 cents, and yet the olden time with its

economics and prices was full as favorable for accumulating, for wheat flour was from $3.50 to $4 per barrel, butter from 8 to 10 cents, cheese from 3 to 4 cents, and other things in proportion, and above all in the old fashioned time a man could be trusted with his work and with a good hope of its ultimate payment. G.C.

From The Journal, Red Hook, March 2, 1883.

THE COOK MILLS A CENTURY OLD On the inside of the upper half door the eastern en-• trance of the mill is deeply engraved the figures 1786, the date of the erection of the mill, which is therefore one hundred years old. As in the life of every person there are three epochs, his birth, marriage and death, when he is especially the subject of conversation, so in every building when it is erected, burned or torned down, or becomes of age at one hundred years. I proposed therefore giving a short history of the building, the ground on which it stands and its successive owners as probably being of some little interest to your readers. In tracing back the title I find the land on which it stands was asubject of controversy between Chancellor Livingston and Zachariah Hoffman the elder, which controversy was finally settled by a suit at law, the Chancellor being his own attorney and Alexander Hamilton the Attorney for Hoffman. The suit was tried in the old Manor church, since taken down, which stood about a half a mile north of the Riverside Hotel in Germantown, and near to where the old graveyard now is. It resulted in the success of Hoffman and exemplified even in that day according to a descendants recollection of the family tradition the later saying that a lawyer is one who saves the estate from your opponent and keeps it himself. The Indian deed to Robert Livingston (the lord of the Manor) is dated July 18th, 1683, and a Patent issued therefor by Lieutenant Governor Tho. Dongan on the 4th day of November 1684, which grant however did not include Taghkanic, which deed from the Indians to Livingston is dated August 10th, 1685, and confirmed by patent of Dongan to Livingston on the 20th day of August 1685. In the Patent the bounds are given as commencing opposite the Catskill Creek, and running in many directions easterly, until it reaches the supposed line of the Province of Massachusetts thence southerly along that line by different courses then turning westerly finally reaches to "a straight Line Drawne from thence to the southermost Bounds or Bowcht of Roeloffe Jansens* kill and from thence by a straight Line to a place on the River (Hudson) side called Sanskahampka which lyes over against the Sawyers Creek, and on the West by Hudsons River. In the Indians deed to Livingston the sawyers creek is spelled "Sagerties" and the claim of Hoffman was that the Sawyers Kill was a small creek that empties into the Hudson River between Saugerties and Malden and which was proved to have had a saw mill once upon it. The suit going against Livingston he was obliged to commence opposite this small stream having no visible outlet into Hudson River and run to the southermost bend of Roeloffe Jansens Kill while Hoffman commenced opposite the mouth of Saugerties Creek and run to the same place on the Roeloffe Jansens and took the land between these two lines. I hence conclude that Hoffman got this much land from the Manor of Livingston. When a few years ago I was ordered to make my South line the North line of the village of Tivoli, I found by running it through it came out exactly opposite the Saqgerties Creek and the same line can be distinctly traced through the swamp. On a part of the land so located the mill was built. The title therefore is 90

from the Indians to Livingston in 1684, the Hoffmans by suit from Livingston 1784, Hoffman to Becker 1785, Becker to Rockefeller 1799, Rockefeller to Cantine by assignment 1808, Cantine to Marks Platner 1811, Platner to Palmer Cooke in 1813, since which time it has remained in the family. The first dam was built between the high banks east of the mill was built of wood and about 18 ft. high. The ditch a part of the old raceway is still to be seen on the hill east of the mill. The right to flow extends to the Hoffman barn which would cover the sawmill pond and a part of Jeremiah Moore's lower mill pond. The old dam gave a fall at the mill of about 20 ft. The wooden dam having been carried away by a freshet a stone dam was built lower down on the stream where it now is and gives a fall of 12 ft. The mill seems to have been located on a North and South line by a compass as it is within a few minutes of the proper variation today and explains why it stands somewhat angular to the public road. The building is very heavily timbered, the beams of hard wood being within 3 feet of each other and 10 by 14 inches. The beam on which the stones rested is 14 by 20 inches and of course 30 feet long. All the covering (except the roof) and the floor plank are the same as they were put on a century ago, and although the floor plank are 16 inches wide so thoroughly were they seasoned that after a hundred years there is practically no opening between them. Must we place this way of drying lumber among the lost arts. The mill is 21 / 2 stories high and was intended for a merchant as well as a custom grist mill and when my father bought it in 1813 had two run of stones with the necessary bolts and machinery for making flour. My father being a wool manufacturer turned the mill into a factory and in 1814 commenced the manufacture of cloth to which use it was afterward devoted. Having thus looked back a century the mind naturally turns and looking toward the future asks itself who will be the owner and what will be here in 1986. *Roelof Janse was overseer of the orphan Chamber under the Dutch government an office similar to that of Surrogate. His widow Annetje Jans married in 1638 the Rev. Everardus Bogardus the first clergyman who came from Holland to this country. Through his wife Trinity Church of New York City inherited by will the large property they now own and which every dutch inhabitant of the United States think they own and so many suits have been commenced for the recovery of the same and which has been the subject of legislative enquiries that never seem to be satisfied until some member of Trinity Corporation goes up to Albany with money enough to G.C. satisfy the conciences of the legislators. Madalin, N.Y. 1886

From The Journal, Red Hook, July 9, 1886.

July 4, 1925 THE OLD PLANTATION By Burton Coon "All up an' down re whole creation Sadly I roam Still Zongin' for de oli plantation an for de ol' folks at home." I felt something like that when my boys and I started out this morning to search for "Judge" Jackson's old cabin. I had not been there in 40 years, so I was not very sure of finding it; but as it happened we had no trouble. We went up across the fields, looking at the corn and the pastures and our neighbors' crops. When we struck the other road we took to the woods below Mike Borich's and followed a wood road for about half a mile until we came to an open field. I was not sure where I was, but we went on in the same general direction until in the near distance I saw some old cherry trees and two or three old apple trees. I said to the boys, "Here we are," and so it proved. Forty years ago my uncle and I went up to see Judge, and I still remember how he came out to meet us with the same old twinkle in his eyes and the same puckery smile playing about his mouth. But today he was not there. The roof of the cabin was gone--nothing but the bare stone walls standing in mute testimony of a human habitation. Nearby was the inevitable clump of lilac bushes--the one universal mark of civilization for a hundred years. Wherever you find them you may know that somebody has lived. The whole place was overgrown with an old-fashioned garden flower the name of which I have forgotten. We found the old well now filled with stones; the old pear tree by the potato patch; and the foundation of some kind of an out building. But we could not find the graves on the hill back of the house where the smallpox victims were laid. Probably they were never marked. We came back down the little lane and out through the clearing by the path that Judge had travelled so often in his journeys to and from the outer world. I was lothe to leave the place, for the man who lived there and his sister were connected with the earliest recollections of my childhood. I can yet see "Black Sarah" cleaning my grandmother's pantry in the old house on the farm where my mother spent her early womanhood and where she often used to take me as a child. As we left "the old plantation" we went up along the edge of the meadow and suddenly came upon another old house place. I think it is where Peter Patrick used to live. It is a more extensive ruin than Judge's cabin. It fronts on the meadow, and there is a narrow lane leading over toward the highway, down which I imagine he often came, with his children running out to meet him, and the dog barking at their heels, while his wife stood expectantly in the doorway. As we stood looking into the old cellar I said to the boys "Somebody once lived here, and they lived the same human life that we now live. They had the same human passions and temptations--the same loves, hatreds and prejudices--the same hard struggle to make ends meet that we have. And their moments of joy and of sorrow were as keenly felt." How I wish that I might have a picture of them

and of the life that they lived 75 years ago. Where is the rooster that crowed in the morning; and the cow that mooed by the pasture bars at night, and the cat that rubbed herself against her mistress' dress coaxing for her dish of milk? Where are the horses that plowed the velds and the birds that sang in the trees? Gone, gone all gone! In fact the earth is one vast sepulchre--the graveyard of creation. Well, we followed the road out to the highway, where we found another old cellar and chimney of more recent human occupation. John Myer used to live there. The grass in the road was a foot high, yet there was a comparatively fresh automobile track which suggested a curious blending of past and present. What will be the mark of the future? I wonder. We followed the road on up the hill, around a small pond, then more lilac bushes but no visible ruins--only a little fenced in piece of ground which had evidently been a garden and potato patch. Then we came to where Freeman Teator lived and raised his family; where Arthur Phillips spent his later years and died; where Henry Tallman and his parents were the last human occupants. We spent some time here wandering through the forsaken rooms and recalling the past. Then we made our way over the hills homeward. I looked at the thermometer. It was 94 in the shade. Yet I felt refreshed and invigorated because memory, the only thing that will connect us with this earthly life in the great hereafter, had been rejuvenated within me.

April 4, 1925 UNCLE TOM By Burton Coon When Harriet Beecher Stowe created the character of Uncle Tom, she did a distinct service to the world. In him, as a representative of his race and people, she showed us the kindly, generous, childlike heart of the black man and we have loved him better ever since. I went to his cabin yesterday, up among the Milan hills where he lives with his sister that simple, rustic life so characteristic of his people. He came out to meet me with a broad smile, a strong handshake, and a hearty welcome. We put out the horse in the little stable and then went into the house. We talked of all the common things of life--the little things that make such a big difference in one's comfort and happiness. We talked of the past and the changes that had come over the neighborhood--of this one and that one who had dropped out--of the churches and the farms--and of Rhinebeck and its people. "Uncle Tom's" memory is longer than mine, for he is much older, and it was interesting to hear him tell about the village and its business men and the great fire which happened before my time. Presently dinner was ready--a chicken dinner, of course who would expect anything else at "Uncle Tom's"? A chicken dinner laid on a snowy, white cloth, and all that goes with it of good trimmings, good cooking, and good fellowship. Dear reader, I wish you might have been there and so lost your taste for hootch and cabaret and counterfeit society. After dinner I went out into the yard and looked around. There was every evidence of peace and contentment. The house banked with leaves and boughs of cedar, the rustic fence, the little garden, the old grape vine by the smoke house, the plum trees, the comfortable wood pile, and the old well with its long sweep, just over in the lot. Some chickens and four or five turkeys were strolling about, glad for the warm sunshine of returning spring. In the barnyard were two Guernsey cows contentedly munching their noon feed, and I knew that old Bill, the black horse, was well cared for in the stable. Up on a little knoll, among the locusts, "Uncle Tom" had built a playhouse for his nieces children, who come up to see him every summer from the city. It is a wonderful building, set on tiles, with a roof, and seats and a railing around and steps leading up to it. And I can imagine the children sitting there of a summer afternoon, listening to the song of birds and the humming of the bees, and smelling the fresh scent of the woods; or as the evening shadows begin to lengthen, they climb on "Uncle Tom's" knee and listen to his stories of the cows, and the turkeys, and the chickens, and the old horse. Happy childhood. And thrice happy in such a spot as this. When I came back into the house we sat and talked again, a long while, of God, and how to be good, and of the wickedness of the world. And then we had music and singing. Music, of course! You would not expect anything else in "Uncle Tom's" cabin. Not a violin or a banjo, it is true, but a fine, old organ; and as "Uncle Tom's" fingers ran over the keys, and his heavy rich voice rang out through the room, it sounded to me better than all the jazz in Christendom. We sang together some of the old devotional heart songs of a generation ago--songs that make people think, and feel, and 94

get ready to die. And, you know, it is only when you are ready to die that you are ready to live. Well, we sang on and on until a neighbor came on an errand that introduced some of the more prosaic elements of life, but which only served to show the innate kindliness of "Uncle Tom's" heart. Then, as the sun began to lower in the Western sky, our thoughts turned homeward. We must leave this peaceful spot and return to the workaday world. So we said goodbye in the little front yard "hard by the cabin door," where the afternoon sun pours its glorious flood of mellow light through the naked trees, glad for the opportunity of having spent one more day with these children of nature and of grace, in their home among the Milan hills.

The following essay was prepared for reading January 1978 to the Club of Poughkeepsie, a group of long-time residents who have met periodically for many years to share papers of particular interest. THE BIG PARADE By James L. Lumb First of all, this paper started out to be completely related to parades - those great marching shows that furnished much of our excitement back in the days when the eldest of this group was young. Those were the far off days before many movies, or any appreciable number of automobiles for a Sunday drive. No one could imagine television at the flick of a switch on our well-accustomed tube. Except for productions at the Collingwood Opera House or 5-Acts-5 at Cohen's Rialto, in my memory we had only the marching shows as a main entertainment. Volunteer Firemen planned these parades, made ready for the big day, and shined up their fire engines and other equipment. Then they marched proudly for the special delectation of the ladies and children, and for their own justifiable pride. As a matter of fact, I had it all planned that I would read to you a thorough research on those Firemen's parades that happened every year when we were younger. The colorful pageants were red letter days in those far off summers. Nothing could be more exciting and satisfying than to sit on a camp chair near the gutter on the Christ Church side of Montgomery Street or - if extremely privileged - at a second story window of Luckey Platt's store on Main Street, to watch and hear the parade go by. We are getting to be mellow senior citizens and it seems appropriate that we reminisce about such fascinating, momentous goings-on of our youth while they can still be recalled. It's about time to remember the long boring wait for parade action, broken only by the balloon man with his great canopy of bright floating colors, and a few stray dogs capering on the tarred city streets. We waited impatiently. But finally, from out of sight, came a faint beat of drums and the sound of the distant horns of a marching band. Soon, came a parade marshal on his spirited horse, then a cortege of notables in horse drawn carriages, in early days, and, later, in touring cars. On view for everyone's admiration were a mayor, a police chief, some aldermen and the fire notables; all in high style, flushed cheeks and well-filled garments. The first band - maybe Schofield's - the best local group - well uniformed and disciplined - set the tone of importance. They blared fine, sprightly upbeat Sousa-like pieces. Next came the first fire company, all the members were in dress uniform. They were accompanied by a hose cart, a steamer - a machine for pumping water from hydrants at high pressure into the hoses - a hook and ladder truck. Those big, gorgeous horses stepped easily, pulling the wagons two for most rigs but three, named Jake and Mike and George B. - for the great long Davy Crockett hook-and-ladder wagon.

Can anyone here remember the Niagara steamer, fire under the boiler, some smoke from the stack, and its nickel-plated casing shining like a mirror? What about Booth Hose, Cataract or Lady Washington? Each fire company had its emblem hung from a horizontal pole carried ahead by the marching members - to tell us who they were - plus a couple of officers carrying ornamental, silver-plated trumpets full of flowers. The uniforms were colorful and of great variety. Phoenix Hose had heavy buff costumes - pants and long tailed coats with two rows of shiny buttons. Young America from down Church Street wore red flannel shirts - great for 90 degree weather - and had its own fife and drum corps. There were lots of bands, well drilled companies of marchers; visiting companies from all up and down the river, stray dogs, and young boys tramping in the gutters. This was a great day in a younger, unsophisticated American era. Almost everyone in town - or for miles around - marched, made music, or watched with full attention and applause. Such was the plan for this paper - a recall of parades Firemen's, Fourth of July, Memorial Day or specials such as the first Armistice Day. But in the process of research, there came to my attention the greatest parade I ever heard of. This parade covered 150 miles. This parade lasted over two weeks. This parade was years in planning stage and two years in actual preparation. The Commission in charge of planning and execution reported the total results to the New York State Legislature in two volumes containing over 1400 pages, including illustrations and photographs. The Bicentennial of last year seems anemic in comparison. The great parade you're going to hear about was the HudsonFulton Celebration, the immense event that took place in September and October, 1909. Henry Hudson had come up the river in 1609 in his little boat. Robert Fulton puffed and splashed along in the Clermont in 1807, but Eastern New York State people thought the two events would make a bigger anniversary celebration if brought together. So, very important and dedicated people set their minds on a fitting tribute to a couple of Hudson Valley pioneers. A group had started in the early 1900's to plan for a Robert Fulton celebration in 1907 - to take place 100 years after the first trip of his steamboat Clermont. But, already, a great movement was afoot to honor Henry Hudson - (not Hendrick, because he was an Englishman, after all, even though in command of a Dutch ship). This group of important citizens and descendents of the early Dutch settlers had a real stake in building up the importance of their ancestors. However, in a very sensible move, the Fultons and Hudsons got together to put on a spectacular. Planning started years before the event, and even two years before the pageant in September 1909, there was a great deal of activity. A Managing Commission was organized - some members were very active, some honorary. But the Commission numbered over 1,000 people! And many of them labored mightily for months years really.

A quiet moment for the Half Moon replica in the Hudson River. Copy of photograph taken by William Waite Sr. of Kinderhook no

The names of the leading spirits still ring a bell Levi P. Morton, Charles Evans Hughes (the governor), J. P. Morgan, Seth Low, James Stillman, George B. McClellan, Mark Twain, Vanderbilts, Roosevelts, Henry Hackett, Carnegie. Everybody of importance was involved and most of them took a very active part. They met, they planned, they organized and put together a pretty packet of money above and beyond the generous amounts voted by states, cities and towns. This was no half-hearted effort - it was, we may say, the greatest production in the first century and a half of our nation - maybe the greatest ever. With such public excitement and involvement something momentous was bound to happen. And, one gets the deep conviction that such a strong motivation for this kind of historical celebration could have happened only at a particular stage in our history. The United States was, at that time, a brash (maybe), young, emergent, developing society. In its wars for independence from Britain, its tragic but vital internal struggle in the 1860's, there were blood baths, but on an internal, survival basis. Even the war with Spain was only an incident in its virile and strong development of a great fertile continent. The United States was a vibrant, self-sufficient, ingenuous country with little idea of its strength or potential. It seemed to have no great feeling about international problems (except for some stirrings by Teddy Roosevelt on the sanctity of the Western Hemisphere from Old World infringement). Our country was normally willing to carry on its business and politics for its own domestic needs - and pay little or no attention to tensions and goings-on abroad. So, here was a young, enthusiastic society ready for some action. It was planning and pursuing its course (as a strong, naive, ebullient people would proceed to do) for its entertainment. It was about to celebrate the deeds of two Hudson River pioneers. Reports indicate that European countries took us more seriously than we did ourselves. We were still unallied to any European powers and generally disinterested in world affairs. It would suddenly occur to us eight or ten years hence that world affairs were our business and we'd get involved in a great European war and try to dictate to a peace conference. Some of us would even want to join a League of Nations. But not yet. Europe was at peace, with the Triple Alliance (composed of Germany, Austria and Italy), opposing the Triple Entente with Britain, France and Russia as members. It made for a precarious equilibrium - a balance that we today term "Entente". Our country was prosperous (except for panics like that in 1907). Our population was growing, and there was a great deal of empty land, mineral wealth and industry to develop. Evidently, there was plenty of vitality to keep up our commercial establishment and also to put on a big show. And a big show was about to spread itself over 150 miles of the Hudson River. To help promote this super pageant, the Dutch Government decided to make a big contribution. It offered to build a replica of Henry Hudson's Half Moon, send it over here with a crew, for free. The name is spelled, and, I'm sure, pronounced differently in Holland, but we will use the English qq

Period costumed crew on Half Moon's deck. Copy of photograph taken by William Waite Sr. of Kinderhook

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name. It took the Dutch nearly a year to research the design of the original ship, but at least there had been many of this exact type built. When you read about this tiny, cramped ship, you come to respect the sailors and navigators of Hudson's day. The 'tween decks area, where there was a cook stove, for instance, had four feet of head room. The whole ship was 58'6" long, 16' at the widest and had a 7'0" draft. It could make four knots in the wind; and yet the mariners of that day thought little of crossing the wide Atlantic in such uncomfortable cockle shells. So, the Dutch built the replica, loaded it on a passenger liner, and sent it across the Atlantic with a crew who would sail it up the river. After some soul searching, a contract by the Commission was let to build a new Clermont, as near a copy of Fulton's steamboat as possible, on Staten Island. It wasn't a true replica but at least it was 150 feet long, 12 feet wide and drew 2 feet of water - approximately the measurements of the original. She was launched with much ado, and speeches in great flowery verbiage, plus a gorgeous poem whose flowing versifying you cannot believe. A great flock of homing pigeons was released in honor of the occasion. One of them reached 341 W. 11th Street in 90 seconds. It's all in the big books of report. After commissioning, the new Clermont set sail from the Staten Island Shipbuilding Company on September 25th with many Crarys aboard. These Crarys were lineal descendents of Robert Fulton. Among them was Dr. Robert Fulton Crary, Rector of Holy Comforter Church in Poughkeepsie. It is also recorded that Kay Sague (her father was our mayor) and Almira Livingston Troy, whom many of us knew, were junior notables among the company. It was at this point that the real celebration started. There was a great naval parade on the Hudson from Staten Island toward Spuyten Duyvil. There were listed 1596 ships including thirty-one U.S. Navy ships and sixteen foreign ones. There were four German ships-of-the-line under Gross Admiral Von Koester and four English ones under Admiral of the Fleet Sir Edward Hollart Seymour, plus lesser representations from less naval-oriented countries. The procession proceeded from Staten Island to the "water gate" at 110th Street. It was reviewed and visited, and the corollary parades, pageants, exercises, banquets, ceremonies, exhibitions and dedications started. Buildings, bridges and monuments were decorated by lights, 107,152 in New York alone. Fireworks displays in all Manhattan boroughs were prodigious. German singing societies and orchestras of all ethnic groups gave concerts; museums had "special exhibitions" of almost any art and artifact connected with our history. Every foreign official or dignitary was dined sumptuously time and again - and the menus are formidable, There wasn't a day in the period from September 25th to 30th when the five New York City boroughs weren't in a great turmoil. Every borough had several parades, banquets, aquatic sports, races, exercises, dedications and exhibitions. There were gorgeous, sententious speeches and poems. Everyone was honored at the dinners and receptions and, of course, everyone responded. The 1400 pages of the commission report 101

1 n n

Replica of the Clermont in the Hudson River

Copy of photograph taken by William Waite Sr. of Kinderhook

record almost every word that was declaimed. It was a great outpouring of sincere, uninhibited, naive, sentiment. To put on a show of the great advances in air travel achieved by pioneers of the early 20th century, a committee worked diligently. It considered importing dirigibles from Europe. But the expense was too great even for these people. Including the gas generators, they estimated a cost of nearly $100,000, and rejected the display. An American officer on the committee stated that the United States Aeronautical plant at Fort Omaha cost only $79,949.49. So they turned to heavier-than-air machines. European pilots, such as Bleriot, wanted a lot of money to perform and were too busy with exhibitions at home. So, the committee turned to Wilbur Wright and Glenn Curtis. Wright signed a contract for $1,000 to cover time and expenses. If he could make one or more flights exceeding either 10 miles in distance or more than one hour's duration, he was to receive $15,000. Curtis would receive $5,000 for any of several described flights of over 10 miles. Wright would not fly on a Sunday; Monday the 27th was rainy; Tuesday, windy and threatening. But Wednesday, the 29th, had ideal conditions with a "soft, steady wind from the west." At 9:15 a.m., with an easy glide, he left the ground, made two circles, then flew east to Buttermilk Channel, north to the end of Governor's Island and back. In seven minutes and 10 seconds at altitudes from 40 to 200 feet he went 2 miles: A second flight lasted only 5 minutes. But on Monday morning, October the 4th, came the big flight. The plane flew across New York Bay and up Manhattan to 110th Street - with great acclaim - and returned to base safely. He is reported to have covered 20 miles in the remarkable time of 33 minutes, 30 seconds. That afternoon Wright tried to start his engine 9 times. On the last try, he blew off the cylinder head and said, "No more flights in New York." There's nothing said about it, but he must have collected the big money. Glenn Curtis got off the ground once, never flew over water, came back down in less than a minute and packed up his plane for the trip home. During the events in New York, great emphasis was put on illumination. For two weeks the city was described as being in a blaze of light (nobody seems to have heard the word "cliche" at this time). City Hall, four borough halls, the East River Bridges, the Washington Arch, the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Brooklyn and Grant's Mausoleum (sic) were festooned, and there were searchlights on Fifth Avenue from Washington Square to Central Park. The Committee had a thorough-going publicity campaign. Papers, booklets and handbills told of the great affair time and again. There were an official badge (not as gaudy as you'd expect), a celebration flag, several medals, posters for the whole valley and even a postage stamp - all in a sort of Dutch tricolor of orange, blue and white. Even today faded as the ribbons are - the colors are attractive. Parades in Manhattan - as well as in the other four boroughs - were great shows. In each one there would be about 2,000 marchers plus the bands, numbering probably at least 500 musicians. After all, thirty bands seemed about par for each event. It took at least fifty horsedrawn floats per 1 A1

parade to be impressive. As far as I can tell, hundreds of dressed-up characters rode the floats to point out historical occasions, or to just represent gods, fairies, famous musicians, warriors, politicians, heroes or pioneers. The photographs give the impression that the whole eastern seaboard had been drained fresh out of paper mache by the time the processions started. In the metropolitan area, a major event was the banquet at the Hotel Astor on Wednesday, September 29th. It must have been a Lucullan feast. The menu - undoubtedly quite typical of the day - is worth a little time; and a speculation of how those present could ingest so much food and then listen for hours to speeches, individual welcomes and punctilious replies, with some lengthy poetry thrown in. Those men in their white ties and tail coats were made of pretty stern stuff. But feast they did and listen dutifully to speech, reply, and poesy they did. And evidently, there was no public charge of discrimination against minorities in those days. You were either invited by a select committee of the Commission or you were left out in the cold. Leaders in the seats of power had little use for equality - discrimination, evidently, was taken for granted. You are going to hear some passages that concern local color. Here's one - the goings-on by the top echelons of the Commission and their guests at the Hotel Astor, Wednesday, September 29. I give you the menu - as printed in an impressive booklet - of the grand reception and dinner held there: Hotel Astor Wednesday, September 29, 1909 Cantaloupes de la Vallee du'Hudson - Frappes Consomme Tortue Verte a l'Americaine hors d'oeuvre Varies Timbales de Crabes a l'Orientale Filets de Pompano Robert Fulton Pommes de terre en croquette Ris de Veau Piques Glaces a l'Amsterdam Fonds d'Artichauts Epicurienne Sorbet au Curacoa Poussins de Bruyere au Cresson Salade Tropicale Glace Monumentale - Henry Hudson Petits Fours Fruits Assortis Cafe Noir . . and the wines: Brauneberger 1904 Ponte Canet 1898 Moet & Chandon Henry Hudson - Cuvee 1898 White Rock Water With this dinner, the high point of activity in the New York Metropolitan Area had been reached. Libraries and museums would have exhibits - pertinent to the celebration more or less - parades would wind through the streets of the boroughs. Poems, minor receptions, and diminishing illumination would continue for several days.

But, before we follow the parade north from Manhattan, there should be a serious review of popular attitudes, as exhibited in the poetry this occasion engendered from the accepted rhymsters in this ebullient population. Unkind as it may be to focus your concentration this evening on sentiments expressed by the cultured people of that time, it is important that you understand and recognize the deeper feelings of better-recognized early 20th Century authors in our area. One of these poetic leaders was Julia Ward Howe. For this occasion she wrote an outstanding work entitled simply "Fulton." For your edification, I shall read the first three and the final verses of this work: "Fulton" "A river flashing like a gem Crowned with a mountain diadem Invites an unaccustomed Guest To launch his shallop on her crest A pilgrim whose exploring mind Must leave his tardy pace behind... "My bark creeps slow, the world is vast How shall its pace be overpassed?" "Responsive to his cry appears A visionary, young in years, Commissioned with prophetic brain The mystic problem to explain "When fire and water closest blend There find a servant and a friend." "Yet many a moon must wax and wane With sleepless nights and days of pain, Pleading a monarch's court before Shrewd processes and study sore, Ere on the silver tide shall float Swifter than thought, young Fulton's boat." This theme continues for a while and then Julia makes a stirring closing: "And as one Sun doth encompass all That shall arise or may befall One fiat on creation's night Bestowed the blessed boon of night So shall we all one promise fill For Freedom, Justice and Good Will." My gracious! I give you now, in contrast, the ending of Henry Van Dyck's "Henry Hudson's Last Voyage." You remember that, after Hudson had cruised the Atlantic Seaboard and sailed up the Hudson, he returned to Holland. The great Northwest Passage to the Indies and China had not been found; North America was a poor substitute to his Dutch masters, so, again he sailed farther north into Hudson's Bay and a mutiny by his men. They put Hudson, his son and a few loyal supporters in a small boat, sailed away and left their captain to the elements. Hudson, the story goes, sailed on among the ice floes to oblivion. But here is the end of Van Dyck's poem - with Hudson speaking:

"We hold hope as long as life endures These are the longest days of all the year The world is round and God is everywhere And while our white shallop floats we still can steer. "So, point her We'll keep the Amid the peril And sail ahead

up, John King, NW by N honor of a certain aim of uncertain quays and leave the rest to God."

Now, with some small hope that you are deeply interested in another message of the early 20th Century, I read a work entitled "Manhattan." It was written for the occasion by one Joseph Ignatius Constantine Clark. The whole encompassed (see, I am becoming infected with their verbiage) four full pages of small type. You are to have the pleasure of only part of the last page. Ode! "Constant my soul on the hard path of duty Striving to win to the levels above Leaving my soul in the gardens of beauty Eager my heart in the gardens of love Tender my soul to the angels of pity Humble my soul to the bearers of light Fearless my soul at the gates of the City Stalwart my soul for the ultimate light. "Mighty my dreams of a city imperial Radiant, free with an ordered love Rich but with mind - gold beyond the material Powerful, merciful, just without flaw Thrift - strong and gentle voiced, rippling with laughter Song filled and thrilled with the triumphs of art Poverty banished and now and hereafter Peace in my bosom and joy in my heart." Remember, this rhapsody was about New York City. I would like to report that sometime during my research, there came to light a real poetic dilly by a female from Rockland County. It was declaimed at one of the dedications. But it seems to be lost, and you will never know what you have missed. Pages and pages in the report of the Commission to the Legislature were taken up with speeches, introductions and acknowledgements. Word for word. I have selected for your enjoyment only the response of Brigadier General Machado of Cuba at the Hotel Astor reception - in part, of course. "Cuba as a sovereign country joins in this celebration with as much enthusiasm as is felt by any other nation or State of the Union, not only on account of its keen interest in World Progress and the advancement of science, but also because of the everlasting friendship and of the close relations which exist between the island republic and the U.S.A."

All rather prophetic, don't you think? And fairly similar to all of the expressions at these functions - there were, evidently, only so many different sentiments available. But, now the center of attention began to travel up that river which was, after all, the focal point of the whole parade. The flotilla left the upper North River of New York and proceeded by fits and starts up the Hudson to visit cities, towns and villages that would take up the carnival atmosphere. By September 30th, the two flagships, Hudson and Clermont had proceeded to Haverstraw and Peekskill. These towns were ready with their receptions, parades, speeches and general celebrations. Stony Point dedicated (or re-dedicated) a monument to Mad Anthony Wayne (who was a kind of younger, ungovernable prototype of George Patton). Anthony was a hero in suppressing British strong points on the Hudson during the Revolutionary War and had frequently an unsettling and disturbing effect on General Washington. On the first of October, the flotilla had survived and passed the bashing guns at West Point and its welcome there. It had safely made the passage between Storm King and Break Neck Mountains to encounter the outpouring of Newburgh's welcome. Behind it, there were still great events being held in the five boroughs of New York City - bands, concerts by singing societies (they never seemed to tire) and more of those great parades. The parades were eye - and ear - shaking events, the like of which I've never seen or even heard rumors. Floats in those days - were built on long wagons drawn by about four horses. They were significant, depicting races, historical events, books, art, artists, musicians or anything else even slightly depictable. There are unbelievable pictures of them in the 1400-page Report to the Legislature. Their themes either "Historical" or "Cultural" - must be seen in the illustrations to be believed. Just imagine today's crowd especially teenagers and those slightly older - looking at the floats of those days. We have riots and protests for all possible reasons. Imagine the picketing and brick-bat throwing at the approach of floats showing humble Negroes, subservient Indians, or other ethnic motifs. Well, as we read it in the Commission's 1400-page, 2 volume report to the State, you'd think that a great deal had gone on up and down the Hudson except at Poughkeepsie. You'd think our city's citizens and their leaders (especially John K. Saque, George V. L. Spratt and Peter Troy) had a simple reception for the naval march - or fleet - and sat on their oars. However, an examination of the archives in the Adriance Memorial Library gives a somewhat different impression of the activities in town. There, one finds a complete record of the goings-on in our city. Activity started on September 30 - two days before the naval parade was to arrive - and continued to October 4 with unconfined enthusiasm. Those people were certainly of a different cast from today's society . . . young, energetic, brash, enthusiastic and pretty ingenuous. So, on September 30 the local celebration started with a registration of Dutchess County emigres who were extensively wooed to come back and see the excitement. There 107

were educational exercises for children during the day at the Collingwood Opera House (now the Bardavon Theater), and an illustrated lecture. I only wish I could report these events in depth. That evening there was another exercise in history for adults, plus orchestral and vocal music. There was also a grand opening illumination of the city (probably including the "Court of Honor" which will be mentioned later) and of Eastman Park. This was described as "the most elaborate and beautiful spectacle" ever seen in the city. October I saw the community go into high gear for the celebration. In the morning there were opportunities to take passenger trains over the Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge. Trolley cars were available for exciting trips around the city. In addition, the old Toonerville Trolley went all the way from the West Shore Ferry Landing to the West Shore Railroad tracks. After a short walk across the tracks, a main line trolley car transported the adventurous up the hill to Highland; thence for miles and miles to New Paltz - a true landmark of history, itself. In the afternoon, one could attend Poughkeepsie Day at the great Dutchess County Fair. Its location was the Hudson River Driving Park at Hooker and Grand Avenues. There were to be trotting races, steeplechases, running races, Wild West exhibits, bands, and a military drill staged by a whole battalion of infantry. You can be sure the trolley cars on the South Side line took multitudes of passengers to the fairgrounds - Bill Smith and I can remember them going by our homes on Hooker Avenue, packed full and hanging on during Fair Week each summer. In the evening, all the lodges, fraternal organizations, churches and orders held open house and there was - think of it - a magnificent electrical display utilizing over 80,000 candle power. No mention was made as to who paid the bill or if Central Hudson picked up the tab. Ernest Acker assures me that it was then the "Light, Heat and Power Company." Saturday, October 2nd, marked the arrival of the flotilla; Half Moon and Clermont, with a guard of honor that was still composed of a magnificent array of battleships representing the United States and other nations, plus yachts, tugs and other floating items. They were due at 1:30 p.m. and no record tells us just when the anchors splashed down, nor is there a report on how wind and tide affected the timing. The flotilla was officially received by Mayor Sague, plus a real retired Rear Admiral. Present also was Peter Troy - as chairman of the executive committee. The reception was held on board the Steam Yacht Nourmahal - belonging to John Jacob Astor and loaned for the local effort. Evidently all the important officers and participants joined in this event. Remember, there were people included who took the parts of Henry Hudson, Robert Fulton, his fiancee (Miss Livingston) and other historical personages. They were, of course, dressed in suitable costumes. The entire fleet remained at anchor off the city for two days and on the first evening, search lights and other illuminations constituted "an interesting feature." There was a magnificent display of fireworks at Kaal Rock at 8:00 p.m. The advance publicity assured us that "the pyrotechnics will consist exclusively of aerial pieces and will be the finest 1 no

ever seen in Poughkeepsie." The display required at least one and a half hours. If you had no radio, T.V., talking pictures or other diversion, there's no question where you'd go to get some action that night - especially the excitement publicized as "the finest ever seen in Poughkeepsie." Any place commanding a view of the pyrotechnics must have been jam-packed. Poughkeepsie was well prepared and ready for a celebration and for the reception of the great naval parade. There was a Court of Honor in Market Street from Main to about Cannon Street. It consisted of six or eight great white fluted columns standing at about the street gutters between the Courthouse, Post Office and Nelson House on the West side and Smith Brothers' Restaurant, Fallkill Bank, the Poughkeepsie Savings Bank and the Collingwood Opera House on the East. The columns were tied together with strings of lights substitute "magnificent illumination" - as a focal point of the whole affair. The Light, Heat and Power Company must have worked overtime. There was undoubtedly a great deal of evening activity especially among the boat crews on lower Main Street. Tim Haggerty's saloon at 67 Main must have taken care of a large and varied clientele. There were many other social centers that helped out and gave the city a reputation for hospitality. However, after sundown, there appears to have been no great civic endeavor and, probably, after two weeks of celebrating, the honored passengers and crews were happy to have a good night's sleep. Sunday, October 3rd, had the overtones of the quiet Sabbath of our youth, plus as much planned activity as could be tolerated. The Reverend Dr. Alexander G. Cummins held a special service (with important visitors) at Christ Church. St. Mary's Church and Vassar College participated in a fresh air exercise on College Hill (I believe the Poughkeepsie Collegiate School in that location had not burned yet). The 21st Regiment Band played selections including "Nearer My God to Thee". After the religious exercises, the Germania Singing Society, plus Euterpe and Orpheus, held forth with inspriational choral music. Following this - in due observance of the Sundays of that day, things - at least officially quieted down to get ready for Monday. And Monday was the day that was to be the climax in Poughkeepsie. Starting at 9:00 a.m. there were band concerts. Five of them. The printed announcements say they were held simultaneously in Cataract Square, Union Square, Mansion and Trinity Squares and Eastman Park. In the afternoon there was a great parade - divisions assembled in various streets on the North side of town - Mill, Vassar, Bridge, Bayeux (or North Perry) Streets and Dutchess Avenue. The parade line of march was up Mill Street to North Hamilton, around Mansion Square Park, down Mansion to Conklin to Mill to North Clover. This in itself was quite a trek, but then they marched to Main and up Main to South Hamilton to Montgomery and west to Academy, north to Main to Market and through the Court of Honor to the Soldiers Fountain. After brief exercises there, all adjourned to Eastman Park where the four to five hundred band musicians mobilized and saluted Governor Hughes. Before the platform, on which Governor Hughes was the

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central figure, there was a flag demonstration representing the Spirit of 1776 and of 1909 (War and Peace). The closing feature of this striking picture was to be a rendition of the Stars and Stripes Forever, Hail to the Chief, and Columbia the Gem of the Ocean. After Governor Hughes' brief address it was all concluded with the Star Spangled Banner. The alfresco exercises were over and the excitement moved inside. Now Poughkeepsie was to be host to the whole entourage. So many people were involved that two great banquets must be held. The Nelson House (our premier hostelry) had the following menu: Caviar Sea Puits Celery Radishes Green Turtle a l'Anglais Salted Nuts Olives Broiled Pompano Maitre D'Hotel Julienne Potatoes Sweetbreads - Larded - Macedoine Half Moon Punch English Golden Plover French Peas Sweet Potato Glace Crab Flake Mayonnaise Peach Ice Cream Cake Camembert Water Crackers Coffee Cigars Appolinaris Sherry Haut Sauterne Champagne Governor Hughes dined there and gave his speech which was, we are assured, well received. There was music of course, and the piano was loaned by the manufacturer, Harry Bayer of Poughkeepsie. Flowers were furnished by the Saltford Flower Shop. Shortly, the Governor must go and give a speech (the same one, perhaps?) in the Pompeian Room at the Morgan House. For your information and delectation, the menu there was: Oyster Cocktail Olives Celery Radishes Green Turtle au Quenelles Boiled Kennebac River Salmon, Anchovy Sauce Pomme Natural Broiled Venison Steak, Londonderry Sauce Pomme Paille Roast Jumbo Squab Glaced Sweet Potatoes Asparagus on Toast Lettuce and Tomato, Mayonnaise Individual Ice Cream Petit Fours Fruit Roquefort Cheese Bent's Water Crackers Demi Tasse To Order Moet and Chandon White Seal Many names - prominent then and sometimes remembered now, took the lead in the Poughkeepsie involvement: There were, of course, John K. Sague, mayor at that time, George V.L. Spratt - mayor at a much later date - and Peter H. Troy who was always in the limelight. They were important in

arranging the affair. But well-known and influential people like the Adriances, Charles Cossum, Howard Platt (of Luckey Platt), Frank Van Kleeck (Baltus' father) are mentioned. Names like Perkins, Butts, Frank, Otis, Valentine, Vail, Sherman, Hinkley, Overocker, Grubb and Guernsey were leaders in the affair. The committee published 10,000 booklets, contacted expatriates trying to get them to come home for the event, arranged essay contests for school children (the prizes were trips to Kingston on the "Clermont"), and a considerable educational exposure for local citizens. Just to show the changes in our commercial life in less than 70 years, listen to the names of advertisers in the local booklet: Central Hudson Steamboat Rose Brick - Roseton Schrauths Ice Cream A.V. Haight - Printers Hickock Music Day Line - Steamers Albany, Mary Powell, Hendrick Hudson, Robert Fulton Nelson House and Palatine Hotels Eastman Business School Scott's Emulsion of Cod Liver Oil W.T. Reynolds & Co. - Wholesale Grocers Sic Transit Gloria Mundi! At the end of the reception at the Morgan House, the big event in Poughkeepsie went, finally, into eclipse. Local celebrities returned home and shed their full dress and white ties. A great event had been planned and carried out. The suits could go back to the tailors, whence many had been rented. Poughkeepsie's effort - matching those in many places along the river - had reached its climax. The flotilla went to Kingston on October 5th and thence by degrees - to Albany and Cohoes, the end of navigable water. The great parade - with its ancillary land parades, receptions, lectures, illuminations, fireworks and all the other exciting events, came to an end. When you study this explosion in celebration, you wonder how it happened. You ask, why did a whole population devote so much effort to a remembrance of things past? You begin to understand how much effort was given to an odd sort of memorial. And then you realize it had never happened before or since. It becomes patent that such an outburst of enthusiasm will probably not happen again in our lifetimes, or, maybe ever. But, my gracious, now that you know something about this pageant and, hopefully, can visualize it and, maybe, have the echo of the band music in your minds, aren't you glad that this country, only a generation or so ago, put on such a great show as this?

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HACKETTS and CUNNEENS Two Noteworthy Families Among families which have contributed to human and business values in recent Mid-Hudson history, the Hacketts, related by marriage to the Cunneens of Albion, are of considerable interest. While they made their mark significantly in the field of law, one of them brought to the area the strong social interest and energy of his bride Charlotte Cunneen. In the manner of so many Americans, these families grew from small immigrant beginnings to positions of leadership in their communities. John Hackett was born in Clonmell, Ireland, in 1845 and immigrated to Hyde Park with his family when he was seven years old. His father was employed by owners of river estates and young John graduated from local schools and from Eastman Business College. By 1865 he had read law, had passed the Bar and was beginning practice as an attorney. In 1868 there was built for his widowed mother and himself a house which is today the headquarters of the Boy Scouts on East Park Road just east of the Village of Hyde Park. A large house costing $1500,it originally had eight rooms and was heated by wood stoves, lighted by oil lamps, and water came from a pump on the back porch. Later there were the additions of inside water and plumbing, fireplaces, gas light and finally electricity. In 1880, John Hackett married Harriet V. Mulford and soon the household included their two sons, John Mulford and Henry Thomas, as well as John's mother and his mother-in-law. It was also family home for a brother of John's who was employed in New York City. Needless to say, additional bedrooms were built and the kitchen was expanded. John Hackett was one of the most respected attorneys in Poughkeepsie history. His practice was both private and public, as he was District Attorney for a number of years. He customarily commuted by horseback each day from his Hyde Park house to his law office at 226 Union Street in the center of Poughkeepsie. During the great Blizzard of 1888 he hired a draft horse in order to return home with food and supplies for his isolated family. When John Hackett died in 1916, the Poughkeepsie Eagle wrote of his "nigh imperishable record of glory and honor and love in the annals of the legal profession in Dutchess County" and called him "the most revered and beloved of all the members of the Dutchess County Bar." Hattie Mulford Hackett survived her husband by ten years, spending the rest of her life in the Hyde Park house as did her son Henry, a retiring lawyer who was a close friend and personal attorney of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Executor of his estate. Son John and his wife Charlotte lived in Poughkeepsie until after the death of Henry in 1951, at which time they became the new occupants of the house. John Mulford Hackett's legal career was very successful and he was also an effective Republican politician who represented the County's Second Assembly district from 1922 to 1930. In 1919, John M. Hackett had married Charlotte Cunneen whom he met while vacationing at lake Chateaugay in the Adirondacks. They were together for what has been described as a "35 year love affair," ended by his death in 1954. Charlotte Cunneen Hackett was in many ways a chip off her father's block. John Cunneen, like John Hackett, had 112

come to this country from Ireland, but when he landed in 1862, he was fourteen years old, pennyless and quite alone. Fortunately, he was taken in by relatives in Albion near Buffalo where, with extraordinary drive, he educated himself, ran a newspaper, passed the Bar and eventually became a leading attorney and political figure among Democrats in New York State. John Cunneen married Elizabeth Bass of Albion, a member of the distinguished Bass family of Boston, descendants of Priscilla Alden. He joined one of Buffalo's finest law firms in 1890, forged an outstanding career as a trial lawyer and was Attorney General of the state from 1900 to 1904. His professional nickname, "Old Cunnin," was close to being a household word even as far away as Poughkeepsie. John Cunneen was also known for having as many non-paying as paying clients. Charlotte Cunneen Hackett was born in Albion in 1884 and grew up in Buffalo where she was educated at the Normal School of Music, the Seminary and, after her father's death and in order to contribute to the family's support, from Buffalo Law School. She was admitted to the Bar at age 30, a quite unusual achievement for a woman at that time. Five years later she married John M. Hackett who thoroughly shared her enthusiasm for outdoor life: dogs, horseback riding and driving, which she did herself, fishing, canoeing, swimming, hiking, and simple enjoyment of nature. Charlotte became known for prose and poetry marked by the romanticism, patriotism and optimism. Witness these words from her hymn in honor of the Centenary of the nation: Girded by the mighty Hudson spanned by bridges high and broad Raise we high our spirits to Thee, give we thanks to Thee, Oh God. For the open road to progress in a land the people rule. For the precious gift of freedom, for the church, the house, the school. Childless, Charlotte became a leader of a large number of community organizations reflecting her diverse interests and her own extraordinary drive. Covering the gamut from social to civic and too numerous to recite here, they were in large part directed toward education, religion and care and encouragement of the young. On May 4, 1969, the Hackett house was christened The Cunnett House and dedicated to the Boy Scouts of America in Dutchess County. A plaque by the front door, reads: In memory of John Cunneen 1848-1907, John Hackett 1845-1916, John Mulford Hackett 1881-1954, Henry Thomas Hackett 1885-1951 However, the dedication of the family house to the Boy Scouts was just one example of Charlotte Cunneen Hackett's foresight. In 1968, she established the Cunneen-Hackett Charitable Trust for varied purposes and the trustees have administered it in accordance with her civic interests. A recent and notable contribution of her Trust is the CunneenHackett Cultural Center. Formerly the only partially used Vassar Home for Aged Men, the building was purchased and redesigned to provide low-cost office space and meeting rooms 113

for charitable and cultural organizations. Fully tenanted and actively used, it is an important adjunct of the MidHudson Civic Center complex. Charlotte Cunneen Hackett died in 1971 and the end of her life concluded the activities in this area of a family ingrained in the business and civic fibre of the community.

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HISTORICAL TALK ON THE OCCASION OF THE INAUGURATION OF JACK ECONOMOU AS MAYOR OF THE CITY OF POUGHKEEPSIE, NEW YORK, JANUARY 1, 1972 By Clyde Griffen, Lucy Maynard Salmon Professor of American History; Vassar College "Suburban homes with city comforts and conveniences, on the Hudson, in the most delightful residence city of America, Poughkeepsie, New York, the city of schools. . . ." This description appears on the title page of a brochure published one hundred years ago to promote a new experiment in housing here, the Eastman Terrace. Harvey Eastman had planned a block of elegant homes to attract well-to-do New Yorkers wishing to escape from the big city. Thirteen years before, Professor Eastman himself was new to Poughkeepsie, a stranger from upstate New York who previously launched a business college in St. Louis, Missouri, and in 1859 returned East to start another one in a rented room here. In less than a decade, the stranger had become one of the leading citizens of his adopted town and probably its most eager promoter. Some old-timers felt he was too pushy, but that common complaint against aggressive newcomers soon diminished. His business college proved a great success. More than a thousand students from all over the nation were enrolled by the end of the Civil War, providing extra income for the townspeople who boarded these young men as well as annoyance for those in the vicinity of their occasional sprees. The Professor won election as Mayor of the city in 1871 in a campaign reminiscent of the Improvement Party of the 1830's. He prophesied that Poughkeepsie would become a city of eighty to one hundred thousand people by the turn of the century and urged rapid prosecution of civic improvements to ensure that growth. During his first administration the city spent nearly a million dollars, a staggering sum then, for public sewage and water systems and filling in the mill ponds on the Fallkill. The Eastman Terrace project expressed the same high optimism about the city's future. But by the summer of 1873 an unsuccessful auction of the first ten houses foreshadowed financial loss on the project for Eastman. A few months later the beginning of economic depression throughout the nation ended the second boom in Poughkeepsie's history and the last period of rapid population growth before the coming of I.B.M. High hopes gave way to sober second thoughts as the city began a painful, though temporary, adjustment. One hundred years later what can incidents like these say to us? What can a city's past say to its present? At the least, such incidents remind us how much a community changes, how often our hopes and expectations are defeated by events even in the short run, and how seldom our actions result in the long run in just what we intended. Far from realizing Eastman's dreams of rapid growth, the city was not much bigger in 1900 than it was in 1870. Recently, in the wake of I.B.M. and the expansion of the New York Metropolitan Region, the attractiveness of the mid-Hudson valley 115

for suburban living has been exploited; but not quite in the way Eastman envisioned. Instead of clustering in parklike settings not far from the center of the city, with its concentration of shops and churches and its then easy access to New York City by steamer or by railroad, suburban housing since World War II has taken advantage of the automobile to sprawl across the landscape in every direction. The new developments in the Poughkeepsie area, as elsewhere, have provided comfortable homes for a much greater proportion of the population than Eastman ever imagined. But their ever widening consumption of open space coupled with decline in the heart of the old city make some citizens now question the very ideal of continuous growth which town promoters, past and present, have proclaimed. Within the old city, Eastman Terrace remains. Poor families now live with a spaciousness and a decor, however deteriorated, which were designed for rich merchants and gentlemen of leisure. Given the present revival of interest in things Victorian, the Terrace may become the subject of restoration, preserving some reminder of the past and some pleasing architectural diversity on a part of the river slope where most of the buildings inherited from the nineteenth century have been torn down for the arterial highway and for urban renewal. If there is restoration, let us hope we do not repeat the history of so many other restorations by driving the present poor inhabitants into more cramped quarters elsewhere. Even where the physical shell of Poughkeepsie one hundred years ago seems most intact - as in parts of Main Street above the modernized store fronts - the turnover in the enterprises in which citizens have earned their living is awesome. In retailing, the kinds of shops are not so different, but few of the families which ran them then are in the same line of business now and many no longer have any descendants in the city still bearing the name. In manufacturing, the change is almost total. All of the big factories of Eastman's day have gone out of business long since. Who now remembers the dye wood mill, the mower and reaper works, the chair, carpet, shirt, and skirt factories, and - except for Vassar students - Matthew's brewery. The only big employer now which antedates the twentieth century is DeLaval, opened in 1892 as an American branch of a Swedish firm. And DeLaval no longer is located close to the old city. If any one theme is continuous in the city's history, it is change itself - change in the people who make up the city, change in the enterprises in which they earn their living, and change in the neighborhoods in which they reside. But the moment you look closely at this process of change, you discover repetitiousness. To rephrase an old saying, the more things change, the more some things remain the same - or very similar. Always there have been newcomers in the community and, at the most general level, they have been welcome. Poughkeepsie, like most American towns in most times before the present, equated progress with growth in population and economic activity. It also shared the national faith that America is the land of opportunity and the corollary that moving around in search of the best opportunities is a good thing. But, in practice, the welcome given newcomers has 11 A

varied greatly, warmest toward those who fit in most easily, coolest toward those who seem too different or who challenge existing leadership. Throughout the nineteenth century there was a steady stream of young men from farms and villages throughout Dutchess County coming to try their luck in its chief trading center. That stream of migrants seemed so natural and so easy to assimilate that no one in the city questioned its desirability although there were instances of friction when talented but brash newcomers asserted themselves too strongly. Possibilities for friction were compounded when large numbers of newcomers arrived in the city within a short period of time, all the more so when their outlook differed significantly from that of natives. However much they mingled in work and business, their social lives tended to remain separate for some time. The restless, aggressive Yankees who brought the improving spirit of New England into the Hudson valley during the early decades of the nineteenth century often annoyed the slower-paced and more traditionminded Yorkers of Dutch and English descent. And vice-versa. In those decades of the city's history which saw the greatest influx of immigrants from Europe - the 1840's and 1850's for the Irish and Germans, the 1900's and 1910's for Italians, Poles, Russians, and other groups from eastern and southern Europe - some natives saw the presence of so many aliens as threatening the very character of the community, its moral and religious values, as well as posing direct competition for jobs. Faced with so many strangers, natives of the city tended, as people have throughout history, to think about the newcomers in stereotypes rather than to try to understand and appreciate their differences. The Catholic Irish of the time of the great potato famine got talked about as the stock figure of Paddy - brawny, high-spirited, an easy spender, prone to drink and riot, not likely to rise above working on the railroad or day labor. When a son of Erin didn't fit that stereotype, the standard comment was, he's not like the rest of his people. Long after the stereotype of Paddy had ceased to be even a half-truth about the Catholic Irish in America, it continued to haunt them. Stereotypes about other immigrant groups like the Italians or the Jews, whether from Germany or from Eastern Europe - have been just as prevalent and persistent. In retrospect, the surprising thing is not that there was prejudice or exploitation of one group by another, but that people of alien backgrounds did adapt to each other and to their changing positions within the life of Poughkeepsie. When newcomers succeeded in terms the community respected, most often by making money, then sooner or later the community recognized their success by accepting their participation, even their leadership, first in civic occasions and then in fraternal associations. Few people rose from poverty to riches in Poughkeepsie, butthere was enough movement up the ladder, mostly in small steps, to make men believe they could improve their position in life. Change in position between generations was much more frequent. Half of all the sons at midcentury would hold better jobs than their fathers had, like the laborer's boy learning a trade such as bricklaying or blacksmithing 117

and the son of a machinist becoming a bookkeeper. Where you began did make a difference; the son of a merchant started out with advantages in education and access to capital which a shoemaker or a factory worker lacked. When there was not much difference in talent or effort, those who had more to begin with, also got more. To that extent, the cards of economic reward were stacked, then as now, in favor of those already well-established in the community. European peasants who came without skills useful in a city had the greatest handicap; it took a generation or two of struggle and sacrifice before they advanced as often as Americans born of native parents. Even those immigrants who came with skills or previous experience as shopkeepers, but with no capital, usually had a harder time getting credit to start their own businesses. No wonder so many of them began with modest, part-time ventures in their own dwellings, catering to their fellow-countrymen. Looking back on the handicaps which faced these strangers in the city during their early years, what impresses you most is not the difference between their economic success and that of natives, but the comparative speed with which they narrowed the difference. Some persons in every immigrant group, and especially less skilled workers during the first years of heavy migration, found little demand for their labor. Even where there was no overt antagonism and discrimination against them, they tended to be among the last to be hired and the first to be fired, as black people have been for most of their history since emancipation. This precariousness in employment meant that they were the least stable people in the city, the most likely to move around from town to town in search of jobs. Those who were poor, but struggling to improve their lot, tended to band together to help each other through the needs and crises of life as best they could, whether help meant speaking a good word for a neighbor or a relative when jobs opened up where they worked, or taking up a subscription for a friend whose shop had been burned out, or joining together in mutual insurance schemes so families could be sure they would bury their dead in dignity. This kind of banding together to help neighbors or countrymen mitigated some of the hardships of a society where the majority of people were below or not much above what we would regard as bare subsistence. There were other hardships which working people endured, sometimes protesting them, but mostly just suffering them with no sense of alternative because their society as yet had not fixed responsibility or provided remedies for such personal disasters. Workmen, especially on the railroad and in furnaces and foundries in Poughkeepsie, frequently were killed or maimed on the job without any required compensation from employers. When a firm closed because of bankruptcy or laid off workers unexpectedly for any reason, there was no unemployment compensation to tide them over, to protect their hard-earned savings. In a general depression the situation was a little different. So many were hurt and could not expect to find work anywhere that some of the rich, whether moved by sympathy, conscience, or a sense of noblesse oblige, stirred themselves 11R

to open soup kitchens or to sell coal at cost. The city government found a little extra public work to be done. But in so general and profound a crisis, these gestures only eased the situation slightly. For the least employable persons, the usual desperate alternatives were the overcrowded Poor House or flight from the city, often to drift from place to place seeking even temporary employment. There were signs by the 1870's that at least one numerous group was learning from hard experience that one way to make some modest gains in opportunity and security for themselves was to make their numbers count in public life. The Irish, coming in such large numbers and so often as unskilled workers, discovered how important political influence could be in gaining access to municipal jobs that could make the difference between survival or not, whether the city itself be the employer or contractors who worked for the city. In 1874 there were complaints that Paddy had gotten far more than his share of public jobs in this first year of depression. The same growing self-assertion of Irish-Americans which influenced this preference in municipal employment also influenced the response of the city's Board of Education to an extraordinary petition in the spring of 1873 from the rector of St. Peter's Church. Father Edward McSweeney proposed that the Board accept financial responsibility for two previously parochial schools without changing the staffing of those schools. Despite some bitter criticism from militant Protestants, the Board of Education, whose members were themselves Protestant, thoroughly respectable, and mostly rich, agreed to this precedent-setting arrangement. For more than two decades the Poughkeepsie Plan, as it came to be called, permitted nuns to teach the children of their fellow religionists under public auspices. In the 1840's when the great migration from Catholic Ireland began, such an arrangement would have been unthinkable. The Board's decision apparently was prompted in part by a sense of fairness, of commitment to the principle that all children were entitled to share in the city's common schools without prejudice to their own religious convictions. But it also is true that the Board did not consider the issue until it was forced upon them. They responded to a kind of political pressure, for St. Peter's Church had indicated its intention of closing down its parochial schools unless the Board came to their aid. And that would have affected all taxpayers. As the chairman of the Board said privately, the Catholic children "had all been enumerated in the school census, and we were drawing School money for them." If their parochial schools had been closed, "these seven hundred children would have come knocking at our schoolroom doors for admission, without the possibility of [our] finding room for them, and yet not daring to turn them away." In the same year, 1873, there was another challenge to the Board's and the city's commitment to the principle of equality of opportunity in education. The differences between these two cases say a good deal about how Poughkeepsie, like other American cities, usually has dealt with people who seem very different from the majority and yet who do not have the power of numbers or wealth to assert themselves effectively in community affairs. Ten years after Lincoln's

Emancipation Proclamation, New York State finally enacted a Civil Rights Act which prohibited discrimination on grounds of race in a variety of public accommodations and in public schools. Joseph Rhodes, Pennsylvania-born proprietor of a bleaching and dying shop and one of the few Negro businessmen in Poughkeepsie, chose to test that act locally. He protested publicly that Poughkeepsie's segregated grammar school for Negroes provided an inferior education and announced that he would send his daughters to the previously all-white public schools in his district. The challenge proved less eventful than some feared; the lady principal went out in person to meet the girls and conduct them into the school. Despite a few jeers and some threatened withdrawals of white students from the school, the girls remained. The next year the Board of Education abolished the "colored school," as it was called, and permitted black students to enter the other public schools. What is most impressive about this successful challenge is not the influence black people - a small minority in the population of Poughkeepsie then - could exert. Rather it is how long delayed and how reluctant this recognition of the educational aspirations of black people was. Unlike the Catholic Irish-Americans, blacks had been in Poughkeepsie since colonial times, many as slaves; most of the black population here in the 1870's had been born in Dutchess County and like white natives were Protestant in religion. Some prominent white citizens had been ardent abolitionists long before Emancipation and preached the dignity and rights of black people during the Civil War and after. Yet in 1870 a convention of local black people protested not only the inferior condition of the "colored school," but also the lack of attention to its needs by the Board of Education. Even at the time of Rhodes' challenge they could not get the Board to replace the white teacher at the "colored school" with a black candidate whom they brought forward. The admission of black children to the predominantly white public schools in the poorer neighborhoods where they lived did not materially change their situation or alter the community's attitude toward them and the kinds of jobs deemed appropriate for them. The publicity for an outstanding exception like Gaius Bolin, first black lawyer in Poughkeepsie as well as the first black graduate of Williams College, confirms the rule. Not until nearAr a century later would there be much change in these views and then such change as we have seen came about partly through the pressure of blacks themselves, strongly aided by the minority of white Americans who took the national faith in equality of opportunity most seriously. All of which reminds us that most of the people in any community who are "haves" rarely are willing to do anything for "have nots" which requires obvious material sacrifice to themselves. Which means that the process of spreading the benefits of a democratic society to newcomers - or to oldtimers like the black people who have been excluded from them previously - tends to be a very slow process. It moves fastest and farthest when there is a combination of pressure from those who have yet to benefit and some assistance from the more conscientious minority among those who already have benefitted from the city's opportunities. 1 .1

The process of city government is analogous. Through most of Poughkeepsie's history, the policies pursued have reflected the interests and attitudes of those groups in the community rich or numerous enough to seem of consequence to Mayors and Councilmen. Sometimes those groups or the office-holders themselves transcended, if only temporarily, narrow and short-run views of their own interests pursuing a vision of the city's welfare which looked to the needs of the future as well as of the present, of the poor as well as of the powerful. There was that kind of vision behind the expensive but intelligent projects for public water and sewage systems one hundred years ago. And a similar awareness of broad social principles and needs helped inform the thinking of the Board of Education in responding to the petition of St. Peter's Church, even as the increasing influence of the newcomers made this decision more feasible politically. The first task of politics is to reconcile diverse interests. If the reconciliation is guided by a vision, the result may be far-sighted planning rather than short-sighted compromise. In welcoming the new administration of Mayor Economou, I am optimistic that he has that kind of political wisdom and extend my warmest good wishes. And I am grateful to him for this opportunity to say a little about some of the kinds of people who have made this city in the past. The city is its people, not its monuments. For a very long time now, the names of our Mayors - Irish, Polish, Italian, and now Greek - have indicated how much this has been a city of newcomers, a city where sooner or later immigrants from other places have found not only a place for themselves but prominence. But we have not acknowledged often enough how much these newcomers - whether the farm boys of the last century, immigrants from Europe, or the more recent IBMers - have contributed to the city. Our sense of history tends to stop with the Revolution, with Glebe House and Clinton House, or at the latest, with the Civil War. Worthy as remembrance of our more distant past is, it should not obscure for us how much this city always has been in the making, always has been receiving newcomers, sometimes with warmth, often with indifference or hostility, but ultimately with some mutual accommodation and, however unacknowledged, with some contribution by the newcomers to the character of the whole. We should be proud of names like Van Kleeck and Livingston, but just as proud of Mylod, Morschauser, Bolin, Torsone, DeGiglio, Waryas, Effron, and Economou. And the fact that we were all strangers once, however long ago, should remind us to be more considerate of strangers now, including those who have lived among us for years without ceasing to be strangers. It is worth remembering that on the one-hundredth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, in 1876, the representatives of Poughkeepsie's citizens' committee who marched in the city's Fourth of July parade included Irish-born Michael Plunkett, German-born Andrew King, and Oneida-County-born Harvey Eastman, newcomers all. Clyde Griffen is Lucy Maynard Salmon, Professor of American History, Vassar College. He and his wife Sally, who has taught at colleges of the State University of New York, have written "Natives and Newcomers: The Ordering of Opportunity in Mid-Nineteehth-Century Poughkeepsie", which has been published by the Harvard University Press.

THE FREIGHT TERMINAL AT FISHKILL LANDING By Eunice Hatfield Smith Assisted By Collin M. Strang The shore of the City of Beacon from Denning's Point north to Main Street is almost completely "made land," most of the earth moving having been done by the railroads. There were only two sites, at the Lower Landing and the Upper Landing, where docking facilities had been possible, the rest was mud flats, a hinderance to navigation with the result that most freight landed at Newburgh, then was reshipped to Fishkill Landing by ferry. On the 1867 Beers Atlas Map only the one track of the Hudson River RR is indicated; however, in 1864 not only was the Dutchess and Columbia RR buying rights of way along the south side of Fishkill Bay, but the Boston Hartford and Erie RR were acquiring theirs along the north side. Chartered in 1866, the route of the Dutchess and Columbia RR began where the southerly lines of Dutchess County touched the shore of the Hudson. A survey in early days had been chained and linked due east from the river. Its start was denominated "Plum Point" as marked by the surveyor's plummet. On the map, by slip of pencil, it read"Plum Point" - indicative of a projection into the river, whereas nothing of the kind existed. From "Plum Point," the route was laid a little east of north to an intersection with the New York & Harlem RR at Hillsdale. At Dutchess Junction, in 1869, the Boston, Hartford & Erie set in place a curved trestle across the shallow bay to reach Denning's Point where channel frontage existed, but before the rails were laid all further operations of the B.H.& E. stopped abruptly. The D & C RR did get its tracks laid, their trains and ferries operating at Dutchess Junction, but the men with vision and money controlling the B.H.& E.decided that a larger terminal could be built at Denning's Point and by combining the two operations, a train ferry could cross to Newburgh and then overland to the Pennsylvania coal fields. A look at the 1876 Atlas Map shows what they had in mind. Work progressed however, on the north side of the Bay and the following descriptions of what was happening have been taken from a reporter's accounts published in a Fishkill Standard Newspaper in 1869. An extensive pier was run out from the south tip of the Point to the channel in the river, a distance of 700 to 800 feet. The pilings were put in during the fall before the river would be frozen over so the pier would be completed by the opening of navigation in the spring. Three hundred piles were used. By July the tracks were to be laid and the pier would be the scene of an immense freighting business. This never happened there. The writer's enthusiasm continued "Embankments were cut down, low places filled up, bridges erected, roadways built, docks constructed, and where formerly but little activity was manifested except by a few fisherman, the hum of industry is heard on every hand. The B.H.& E.RR have cut their way through from Wiccopee to Denning's Point, obliterating a part of the old highway and making a new and better one higher on the hill. A deep cut was made, through the rock, (from Denning's Point to South Avenue)."

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Piles radiated into the river in all directions from Denning's Point to Plum Point. A bridge 25 feet high above the Hudson River RR and another that curves north to meet that railroad at grade to connect with the tracts on the wharf at the terminal, was built. Some fatalities occurred when Dutchess Junction yard workers fell off or thru it while walking home Saturday nights having spent their wages in Beacon bars. It was safer up there than on the Hudson River RR tracks where the possibilities of getting hit by a train were higher. The trestle was finally blown down in a storm and Homer Ramsdell eventually pulled up the piles scattered around the point that nothing had been built on. The B.H.&E.had hired one thousand Chinese whose pay was ten dollars a month and rations but unlike the Irish who came to work on the railroads and stayed, there are no Chinese names in the next Fishkill Landing Census. A foreclosure sale of this end of the B.H.& E.RR was held in the Orange Hotel in Newburgh in 1872. Homer Ramsdell reacquired his ferry, a store, the dock and storehouse there and on the east side of the river, Denning's Point and land east of it to Wiccopee. After the exit of the B.H.&.E. the D.& C. established a ferry slip opposite the station and for a few years the "Fannie Garner" plied to and fro across the Hudson carrying passengers and such freights as offered. It was given up when the New York & New England constructed its line from Tioronda, going over the New York Central tracks and reaching Fishkill Landing by a piling parallel with the shore and later filled in with earth and cinder. This took place in 1882 and was on an important scale. The commodious "Wm. T. Hart" was crossing constantly to a slip at the Erie yard and daily carried a great number of freight cars used in traffic from Boston to the west. For several years this New York and New England terminal was a scene of great activity and the yard service required the constant use of two powerful switching engines. When one of the long freights drawn by a consolidation locomotive started and encountered the grade leading to the bridge over the New York Central tracks and began to slow down, it was quite fascinating to see one of the switching engines rush after it and give a "running boost." It was a queer method but it seemed to be the answer and after the crash. of collision the switcher held its nose close to the rear car end and, with noisy exhausts, kept it there while the big consolidation replied far ahead until the Glenham level was reached. In 1881 the N.Y. & N.E. RR, successor of the B.H.& E. filled in ten acres of mud flats opposite the Wiltsie and Ramsey properties. There were operating brickyards that had been leased from them whose docks had been on their water grants. This fill left them strailded about 600 feet from the river. A dock beginning 175 feet south of the long wharf, continuing southward, was built. It extended into the river for 1200 feet and was 800 feet wide at the shore end. Mud from the shore to fill up the dock area was carried from the digger by cars running on tracks laid on piers thirty feet wide. For the next twenty years the railroads and the lessors and lessees of the brickyards were in litigation that ended when the clay pits were used up. 125

This was a busy freight terminal, but it lost all activity when a twelve mile road was opened from Hopewell Junction to the newly built Poughkeepsie Bridge and the "Wm. T. Hart" ceased to ply. Photos from the collection of: New York.

126

Mr. Gerard M. Mastropaolo, Schenectady,

ATTEMPTS AT MINING IN PLEASANT VALLEY by Clifford M. Buck In an issue of the Red Hook Journal Star in 1878, there appeared the following item: "Mr. Michael Hernon, a farmer residing 2 miles east of the village of Pleasant Valley, while digging for iron ore on his farm formerly owned by Jacob Rice, at the depth of 20 feet discovered a bed of coal which has the appearance of being very extensive. The coal has been tested by some of the neighbors, and pronounced to be of very good Quality." In deed Liber 188:471, July 25, 1877, Jacob Rice and Cordelia of Pleasant Valley for $16,000 sold to Rosanna Hernon of Rhinecliff 3 parcels of land in Pleasant Valley: Parcel 1. 88 acres, 1 rood, 21 perches. Parcel 2. 134 acres, except 4 acres sold to Philo Rice. Parcel 3. 37 acres, 37 roods. In deed Liber 188:485, July 25, 1877, Michael and Rosanna Hernon of Rhinecliff sold for $10,000 to Jacob Rice property in Rhinecliff. In deed Liber 199:415, March 1, 1880, Rosanna Hernon of Pleasant Valley leased to John H. Hebert of New York City the right to enter for searching for minerals and fossil substances and conducting mining and quarrying operations but not within 500 feet of buildings. Proceed at once on shaft number one 35 feet deep and shaft number two 40 feet deep. She gives right to purchase for $46,000 within one year. Will pay 50 a ton of 2240 pounds for metals or minerals except gold, silver, or copper, that to be 1/10 of profit. To be weighed in Pleasant Valley. Royalty to be paid quarterly. Rent to be $300 per year. Mortgage 173:485, August 26, 1879, Rosanna Hernon to Bridget Hernon of Saugerties $600 on land described in deed 188:471. Mortgage 175:96, February 25, 1880, Bridget Hernon assigns this mortgage of $600 to John H. Hebert. (Note that both of these mortgages are before above lease.) Deed 203:8, November 27, 1880, Benjamin Fowler, referee to Mary A. Sleight; court action October 7, 1880, of Mary. A. Sleight vs. Rosanna Hernon for debts owed which also involved rights of T. Van Wyck Brinckerhoff and Cordelia and Michael Hernon. Sold at auction November 22, 1880, and the highest bidder was Mary A. Sleight for $3700. There are no transactions to indicate how or why Rosanna Hernon became indebted to Mary Sleight. It is known that Mary A. Sleight was active in the Poughkeepsie Iron Company. Nothing further is heard of Mr. Hebert. Apparently the mining operation was not successful and it was realized in less than 8 months. Deed 219:300, November 17, 1884, Mary A. Sleight sold to william R. Van Keuren for $3200, 133 acres, 1 roods, 19 perches. Deed 235:394, March 26, 1888, William R. Van Keuren of San Francisco and Nellie of Pleasant Valley sold to James Hadden for $3900, 133a.-1r.-19p. Deed 295:190, February 26, 1898, James Hadden and Lucinda sold to Mary E. Goodsell of New York City, 133a.-1r.19p.

Deed 400:347, November 27, 1917, Mary A. Goodsell to Frederick H. Cleveland, 133a.-1r.-19p. Mortgage 379:429, December 10, 1930, Frederick H. Cleveland to Farmers and Manufacturers Bank - Deed 572:397, Walter A. Cronk referee to Farmers and Manufacturers Bank; action of Bank vs Cleveland. Deed 573:589,, May 5, 1939, Farmers and Manufacturers Bank to Rebecca Rosenblum, 133a.-1r.-19p., being same that William Allen and Amy sold to Abraham Fells, August 1, 1833. This farm is located on the North side of Dutchess Turnpike (Route 44) about opposite Clayton Haights Garage and west of the former Andrew Skidmore farm. It is now Pleasant View Road occupied by a number of homes. It is difficult to locate any former traces of mining or digging. Another transaction, deed 205:522, June 6, 1881, Milton A. Fowler referee to T. Van Wyck Brinckerhoff; court action April 17, 1880, of Brinckerhoff vs. Rosanna Hernon for debts owed. Sold at auction June 1, 1880 and the highest bidder was T. Van Wyck Brinckerhoff for $500. This consists of Parcel 1, 88a.-1r.-21p. which Edgar Thorn, executor of Henry Peters, sold to Jacob Rice, February 7, 1854, and Parcel 3 of 37a.-37r. which was made up of two deeds, December 27, 1852, James Burnet executor of Henry H. Ingraham to Jacob Rice, and Anna Ingraham to Jacob Rice. In the above action we find Brinckerhoff foreclosing on Rosanna Hernon within 3 months after she made a lease to Mr. Hebert, hardly giving her time to find out if the mining would be successful. One wonders what Rosanna Hernon's debts were for. Could it have been for mining equipment? Is it possible that Mary A. Sleight and T. Van Wyck Brinckerhoff thought this might become a profitable operation and this was their way of getting in on it? Who will ever know? Mary Sleight did not keep her property very long. The Brinckerhoffs kept their much longer. Our next deed: Deed 304:222, August 26, 1899, Cordelia B. Brinckerhoff and Julia H. B. Clapp, formerly Julia H. Brinckerhoff, to Albert Devine, 88a.-1r.-21p. and 37a.-37r. Deed 394:327, July 11, 1916, heirs of Albert Devine to Edgar A. Briggs for $1350, same 88a.-1r.-21p. and 37a.-37r. Deed 404:221, January 20, 1918, Edgar A. Briggs and Lelah to Arthur F. and Anna E. Roe, same 88a.-1r.-21p. and 37a.-37r. These were the parents of Harold F. Roe of Salt Point. This farm is directly west of the farm of 133a.-1r.-19p., the 88 acre piece being north of Dutchess Turnpike (Route 44) and the 37 acre piece directly north of the 88 acre piece. The parcels extend north from the road about 4000 feet and about 2500 feet along the road in width. There was an earlier attempt at mining in the Pleasant Valley area of which the following deed is an example. Deed Liber 56:365, May 21, 1830; Agreement: Daniel I. Ostrom and Mahala to Charles Cleveland: All coal, ores, fossils, minerals, rocks containing mineral substances, of whatever name or nature, situate and being under, in or upon my lands within Town of Pleasant Valley bounded: East: William Thorn and Daniel Brown North: Elijah Bright (Baright) and Joseph Lattin

Road separating Joseph A. Lattin and William I. Woolley South: Edgar Thorn and William Thorn, 164 acres. (In more recent years this was known as the Forman Farm and is the farm on which West Road is located.) Right of digging, blasting, mining, excavating, raising and carrying off such mining and excavating and erecting machinery and buildings. To pay 1/8th of proceeds. If in ten years no discovery, this agreement ceased. Signed by Daniel I. Ostrom and Charles Cleveland. Charles Cleveland had many other similar agreements, mostly in Pleasant Valley or nearby. Following is a list of them: Acres Deed No. Date 44:174 April 28, 1830 Martin, Isaac and Robert R. 70 Hoffman, Town of Poughkeepsie, Bounds Hudson River 70 Mary Hoffman. Same as 54:553 May 13, 1830 above 44:354 May 10, 1830 Edwin R. Janes and Louisa, 90 and Sarah widow of James R., Town of Poughkeepsie, Bounds Hudson River 46:384 May 18, 1830 Eli Angevine 200 50:588 June 8, 1831 Agreement between Peter Fish and Richard Weeks and Alexander H. Barnes. Wish to work lead mines in Northeast. Transfer to Charles Cleveland May 18, 1833 56:339 May 24, 1830 Daniel McFarlin Jr. and Mary 70 56:341 May 4, 1830 Henry Peters and Jane 132 56:342 May 24, 1830 Joseph G. Halsted and Hannah 80 56:344 May 26, 1830 Joseph Holmes and Mary 200 56:345 May 26, 1830 Isaac Travis and Elizabeth 190 56:346 May 21, 1830 Samuel M. Thurston and 50 Catherine 56:347 May 24, 1830 Daniel McFarlin and Elizabeth 72 56:349 May 1, 1830 Joseph A. Lattin and Mary 120 56:350 May 22, 1830 William Buckley and Alice in Pleasant Valley 50 in LaGrange 15 56:351 May 21, 1830 Sidney M. Livingston and 60 Joanna 30 56:352 May 22, 1830 Nathan Jones and Susan 56:353 May 28, 1830 Philip Burnet and Abigail 70 111 56:355 May 21, 1830 Elijah Baright and Amy 56:356 May 22, 1830 Sarah Davis, Exec. of 50 Benjamin May 24, 1830 Isaac Forman Sr. and Sarah 56:357 100 97 56:358 May 21, 1830 Silas R. Haight and Lydia 11 56:359 May 21, 1830 Joshua DeLong and Seena 67 May 22, 1830 Enoch Lewis and Sarah 56:360 36 56:361 May 22, 1830 Samuel Stringham and Elizabeth 67 Benjamin Van Keuren 56:363 May 26, 1830 156 56:364 May 21, 1830 John Humphrey 19 William Aulen May 26, 1830 56:366 West:

129

Deed No. Date 56:367 May 21, 1830

Acres 30a & 5 Isaac Van Keuren and Gertrude 22 John Thorn (in Washington) 56:368 Oct. 6, 1834 Jacob U. Haight 56:615 Nov. 16, 1830 210 (in Washington) Nothing further was ever heard of Charles Cleveland. From Poughkeepsie Eagle July 31, 1852 Discovery of a Valuable Marble Quarry We have been shown, within a few days, specimens of marble taken from a quarry discovered on the premises of Mr. Thomas N. Allen of Pleasant Valley, in this county. It is of four qualities, the first black, with an Egyptian yellow and white vein; the second dark blue, with light blue veins and clouds; the third pink; and the fourth black without veins, constituting the principal part. Although none of it has been properly wrought, it has been found to take as handsome a polish and be susceptible of as fine a finish as the best Irish marble. The quarry has been tested at various points and there is no reason left for doubt that it is very extensive and probably inexhaustible. Of the value of such a quarry and of such marble so near the river, and the best facilities of communication, we need not speak. We hope soon to see it manufactured in such a manner as to show forth its properties to the right advantage. Location of the Thomas N. Allen Farm Deed Liber 90 page 168, May 1, 1849 Daniel Grant and Perlina to Thomas N. Allen This is a parcel of 106 acres located on the west bank of the Wappingers Creek, irregular in shape but approximately 10 chains wide and 55 chains long. Deed Liber 112 page 527, March 2, 1859, Thomas N. Allen and Cordelia sold same to Jacob Allen. Same 106 acres. On the large wall map which gives census for 1845 but not for 1850 there is a dot for Thomas N. Allen on Hurley Road a short distance west of the bridge over the Wappingers Creek, where Hurley Road makes a sharp turn to go south. In the 1867 Atlas - just west of this location is written MARBLE HILL, J. J. Allen. Directly west of this location is a farm called MARBLE PLACE. This is part of the present day Carlton Rymph farm formerly Jacob Allen, father of Thomas N. One corner of this farm starts at a marble stone set in the earth marked "A". The present day (1979) owner of the Thomas N. Allen farm is: Joseph Lupino, 54 St. John's Avenue, Yonkers, N.Y. It is west of the Wappingers Creek and east of the farm of Bart Oakes.

1 'Dr\

WIDOW ALLEN by Wm. P. McDermott* Three marriages before the age of thirty-six did not shield Elizabeth Allen from the title of widow. Three weddings did not provide the enduring comfort of marriage to accompany her through periods of personal struggle. Not one of her eight children received the warm congratulations of his father on a ninth birthday. Widow Allen was the single parent to her children for the greater part of their childhood. Although penniless, widowed and in a foreign land on a distant continent in her 22nd year, she became a woman of means and played a part in the early settlement of Dutchess County. Her children from both husbands achieved successes of their own contributing to the growth of Dutchess throughout the eighteenth century. The contributions made in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by her descendants are known well beyond the narrow confines of the historical community. Who was the woman who survived so many personal tragedies and yet managed to fill her life and the lives of her children with personal successes? At present the details of her early life and her later years remain in the shadows of unrecorded history. Her early years were as obscure as those years of so many others who left their homeland in 17091 to stop briefly in England before arriving in New York in 1710. Widow Elizabetha Schultzin as she was known in 17102, was among the group of Palatines who remained in New York after others had been sent up the Hudson. In her new land as a 22 year old widow, she had already survived several personal tragedies. She, like so many Palatines, had witnessed and experienced first hand the ravages of lengthy war. The Palatinate had suffered through Tany years of continuous warFurther suffering came to fare in the seventeenth century. the Palatines in 1708 in the form of one of the severest winters in European history. Four cruel months of winter killed the fruit trees and vines on wilic4 many of the Palatines relied for their economic support.' Additionally, taxation imposed by many petty rulers attempting to match the splendor of life of King Louis XIV became too oppressive for the Palatines to pay. Many Palatines were forced to give up the rich farmland on the Rhine they had tilled successfully for many years because of the killing frosts and taxes. After fleeing their homeland to assure survival, they were warmly received in England.5 Elizabeth's experience in England is not known. Was she among the Palatines who liveg in tents or was she one of the 20 or 30 "pakt" in one room?' Did she beg for food as did so many of her fellow Palatines? Employment opportunities were

*This is the first of a two part article. Special appreciation is extended to Lemma McGinnes for the genealogical guidance she gave during the preparation of this article. 131

few and begging on the streets was commonplace. Competition for employment between the British worker and the Palatines became intense especially in view of the Palatines' willingness to work for considerably smaller wages. Furthermore the British poor were angered by the government's support of the Palatines while refusing to offer the same sustenance to the British citizen. Within a few months the climate among the people had changed sharply and in fact grew ugly toward the Palatines.' These conditions forced the British government to consider several plans designed to cope with the burgeoning Palatine problem. Finally in December 1709, only a few months after the Palatines arrival in England, a plan to send the Palatines to America emerged.8 The Palatines were sent to New York under contract to work for the British government for a period of time, almost as indentured servants, to pay for their passage to America.9 England saw this plan as solving three problems: 1. relieving England of the economic, social and political pressure which the Palatine presence had created, 2. initiating the manufacture of much needed naval stores such as tar and pitch and 3. establishing a buffer on the New York frontier between the French and British colonies to inhibit the French from The plan to manufacture launching a military invasion.10 naval stores in America was not a new one. Caleb Heathcote, of the Nine Partners Patent in Dutchess, had proposed such a plan in 1705 as part of his scheme to develop a shipbuilding industry in New York.11 Although required to leave England, many Palatines looked forward to the ocean voyage to promised opportunity in a new land - America. Anna Elizabetha Schultzin was among them. Did she know of the hardships ahead of her? Would she have believed that many of her friends would embark on one of the several ships in harbor but would not feel the gentle breezes of the sea? Palatine fever, as it was called, was to lead many of her friends to their death during the four month period in 4Kbor before the ships sailed from Could she have known how many would England in April 1710.-" die on the voyage? Did she suspect her husband George Schultz would not be with her when the ship which carried her to America discharged its passengers in New York? Could she have predicted that she would again be threatened with the loss of her home and land thirty years after she had left the Palatinate? Lets follow Elizabeth through the forty year period after her arrival in New York. The trail of personal and business activities she left behind, although difficult to follow initially because of several name changes, reveals an energetic individual capable of more than simple survival in the face of adversity. Raising two families alone, pioneering unsettled Dutchess, conducting business, unafraid to negotiate a contract or protect herself legally undoubtedly were beyond her expectations when she heard the first sounds of New York harbor on the summer day in June 1710 and raised her skirt to step off the newly arrived ship. Assuming the accuracy of her age as recorded upon her arrival in New York,13 Elizabeth was born in 1688, the same year as another Dutchess County widow of note - Catheryna Brett or Madame Brett as she is better known to some.14 132

How long after her arrival she remained in New York is not known. She appears on the New York Subsistence List - July 1710 as a single adult with no children.15 Her absence on the 1712 Subsistence List is understandable for she married her second husband on March 12, 1711.16 She married a fellow Palatine, Zacharias Flagler, who had experienced the very same kind of personal tragedy before he arrived in New York in the same year and perhaps on the same ship. Zacharias Flagler of Wertheim in Franconia had arrived in New York with one son Philip Solomon (b. 8/15/1701)-17. His wife and two of his three children appear to have died before his arrival in New York. In fact the death of his wife probably occurred even earlier. When Zacharias arrived at Walworth, England on May 27, 1709 he is listed as a 36 year old carpenter with two sons, ages 8 and 4 years and a daughter. No wife is listed suggesting she may have died before arriving in England.18 Zacharias married again less than two months after he arrived in New York. But his marriage to Anna Gertrude Huen on August 15, 1710 was not to last six months before she too succumbed to the dying which followed the Palatines from the ships on which they trayelled.19 Zacharias probably left New York in October 1710 with other Palatines bound for one of the settlements on either side of the Hudson.2° His talents as a carpenter were needed in both camps. On June 24, 1711 the report filed by Secretary of the Province George Clarke to the British Lords of Trade indicated there were 527 families of Palatines totaling 1874 individuals in seven settlements on both sides of the Hudson.21 The size of the Palatine settlement is rarely appreciated. Census information from the early eighteenth century provides the needed perspective. In 1712 the population of New York City was only 5840 people. In the counties closest to the Palatine settlements, the following population statistics were recorded in 1714: a) Ulster County - 2120 people including 433 slaves and b) Dutchess County - 447 people including 29 slaves.22 There were four times more people living in the seven Palatine settlements than lived in all of Dutchess County. Conditions in the Palatine settlements were poor in many ways. The morale of the Palatines and therefore their willingness to carry out their contractual agreement with Queen Anne was in serious jeopardy. They believed that each person was to receive 40 acres of land and at the end of seven years Queen Anne would be repaid in tar, pitch, masts and hemp.23 The 40 by 50 feet plot they were given for home and garden was a far cry from the 40 acres they were promised.24 As a result a Palatine rebellion arose in May 1711 but was immediately crushed by military force. Once again Elizabeth, who had married two months earlier, witnessed armed men forcing her people into servitude. Other conditions prevailed which were quite similar to those which existed in the Palatinate. Food was in short supply and of an inferior grade. Also the Palatines became fair game for the practice of short weighting. For example, the marked weight of a barrel of flour assumed the weight of the empty barrel to be standard. In actuality, the barrel was purposely heavier and thereby contained less flour. The difference in flour weight lined the pockets of the greedy food suppliers.25 133

Exactly when Elizabeth left New York is not clear. The Kocherthal Records show the marriage of Anna Elizabetha Schultz, widow of the late George Schultz of Darmstadt to Zacharias Flagler on March 12, 1711 but the records do not indicate where the marriage took place.26 Elizabeth's maiden name was not recorded when she married but later records refer to her as Elizabeth Hoofd27 or some variation such as Hoeven.28 The 23 year old Elizabeth became the wife of 38 year old Zacharias and stepmother to his 10 year old son Philip Solomon. The birth of Elizabeth's first child (the records available do not refer to any pregnancies or births with her first husband), Anna Magdelena Elizabeth on September 19, 171229 must have brightened her life and that of her husband, Zacharias. But they had suffered so many tragedies, rejoicing must have been tentative. Had they received news of their status yet? On September 6, 1712, just two weeks prior to the birth of the first Flagler daughter, Governor Hunter informed Jean Cast, assistant commissary for the Palatines, that subsistence money was exhausted and the Palatines would have to fend for themselves.30 In that letter, the Palatines were given permission to find employment any place in New York or New Jersey. However, they were required to inform Governor Hunter of their new residence in case funds became available to continue the naval stores venture. The final day of government subsistence was September 12, 1712, just a week before Elizabeth delivered her daughter. The pattern seemed to be consistent with that of the recent several years. Bad news followed by a ray of hope followed by yet another round of bad news. Just two years after arriving in America, Elizabeth and her new family had to launch yet another effort to survive. Life may have taken on a more settled character with the birth of their son, Simon (b. 2/16/1714). 31 By that time, one can surmise that the Flaglers had found a source of income and a place to live. Perhaps Zacharias hired himself out as a carpenter. Where they settled after their governmental subsistence stopped is not clearly evident. The Simmendinger Register indicates their presence in Heesber5, one of the settlements on the east side of the Hudson.34 In any case, Simon's arrival contributed to the sense of family and stability. With two children under two years and a 13 year old stepson, Elizabeth had less time for dwelling on earlier losses. Demands of active children requiring lots of care were considerable. The Flaglers seem to have lived in Heesberg for a brief period of time. The Simmendinger Register published in Germany indicates their presence there with two children.33 Although the publication date of the Simmendinger Register was 1717, there is no clear record which indicates when Ulrich Simmendinger compiled the register. Was he on his way back to Germany when he appeared at a baptism in New Jersey on June 17, 1716?34 He probably returned to Germany late in 1716 or early 1717. Therefore, it seems likely he was reporting about the Palatine settlements as they were constituted in early 1716. It appears the Flaglers left Heesberg sometime before 1717. Their next child Gertrude (b. 3/18/1716) was born in 134

Dutchess County35 and was baptized at Peter Lossing's (south of Poughkeepsie) on May 8, 1717.36 Based on this information, it appears the Flaglers left Heesberg no later than March 1716. In fact it is more likely they arrived in Dutchess before then and may have arrived as early as the fall or winter of 1715. Moving from one place to another must have seemed like a way of life to Elizabeth and her husband. Leaving their homeland in 1709 was the first of four or more changes in their residence before arriving in Dutchess County. Nevertheless Elizabeth and Zacharias probably began to feel the stability of marriage and family. Where they would finally settle must have been a concern but by the time their third child arrived, they could draw on renewed personal resources brought to them from the strength of a six year marriage. Before the year 1717 closed, Elizabeth and Zacharias realized their dream - to have their own place, to farm for themselves again and perhaps to return to the carpenter's craft. Of course, as noted above, this dream may have become a reality as early as 1715. Somehow the Flaglers gained the financial resources to purchase or perhaps rent at first, a small farm in Poughkeepsie east of the Kings Road and slightly northeast of the Rust Plaets (near. the Rural Cemetery). Several deeds and the tax lists attest to the Flagler presence on this farm for a period of seven years beginning 1717.37 Twenty-two acres was small by any standard, but it was theirs.38 Finally a place of their own. The long trek from the home farms they fled almost a decade earlier had finally closed on a 22 acre parcel of land 3000 miles west of the Palatinate. A feeling of relief must have welled up within Elizabeth and Zacharias as they looked out on land which would feed them, shelter them and provide security for their children. The year 1719 brought Elizabeth another daughter. Margrieta (b. 2/12/1719) was born to "Zacharias Flagelaar and Anna Elizabeth Hoofd"39 Four children, the oldest nearing seven years, a 17 year old stepson, Philip, and another pregnancy before the year closed suggests a scene of family tranquility far removed from the earlier tragedies. One can almost picture Elizabeth and Zacharias wishing for a boy to name him after the father. The joy of a full life and the expected child must have warmed the Flagler household as they approached the coming winter. And then as if the refreshing tranquility of the past three or four years was only a dream, tragedy visited Elizabeth again. Her husband's death was noted on the March 23, 1720 tax roll when their property was listed "De Wedne Van Zacharias Flegelar".40 Success was beginning to come to the Flagler family in 1720 as indicated by the increase in their property assessment from L2 to L5. But this success meant little to Elizabeth. Alone again and a pregnancy to carry without a husband's support crowded out any thoughts of success. The infant Zacharias (b. 7/6/1720) was the final reminder of the few years of stability, security and success Elizabeth and Zacharias had achieved.41 Elizabeth was left to manage a family and farm while caring for a new baby. Five children, ages 8, 6, 4, 1-1/2 and the infant, left

"I 1

little time for mourning another loss. "What to do now?" must have been a constant thought between feeding the infant, caring for the other children and determining how she was to plant the following spring. Her choice was as before - find the strength to go on. And go on she did. She apparently succeeded in maintaining the farm for in the following year her assessment continued at L5 under the name "Widow of Zacharias".42 Little of Elizabeth's life is known during the period between her second husband's death in 1720 and 1724. However, it appears she managed through the difficult period. Her name remained on the tax roll in the exact position and with the same assessment as in the first year of her second widowhood. One can conclude from this that she continued to maintain her home and property as it was in 1720. Others who were apparently poor did not pay their taxes. These individuals were listed on the tax roll with the statement "unable to pay" following their name. Obviously Elizabeth was considered able to pay her taxes. Where was Elizabeth's stepson Philip Solomon Flagler? When his father died, Philip was 18 years old. Was he helping on the farm before his father died? Was he away? Did he return home when his stepmother needed help? The tax rolls indicate even if he were on the farm he didn't stay long. He is listed on the January 1724 tax roll as living in the North. Ward.43 This suggests he left Elizabeth's home sometime in 1723 or earlier, assuming he was there at all. Two years later Philip moved to the South Ward.44 A new period in Elizabeth Flagler's life began with the appearance of John Allen. Nothing of John Allen's early history is available at present. His first appearance is on the tax roll of February 1725 when his name replaces that of Widow Flagler.45 Initially, it appeared that this change might simply have reflected the sale of the property by Elizabeth to John Allen. However, the continued association between Elizabeth Allen and the Flaglers over a twenty year period aroused the speculation that the link between the two families was more than a simple friendship or business association. The assumption that John Allen and Widow Elizabeth Flagler married sometime in 1724 became increasingly compelling with each new piece of information which linked the families together. The reason this assumption evolved will become apparent as the history of John Allen and his wife Elizabeth unfolds below. Remember for the present, Elizabeth Allen is assumed to be Elizabeth Flagler formerly Widow Schultz whose maiden name may have been Hoofd.46 The March 1726 tax roll reveals no positional or assessment change indicating the Allens probably remained on the property formerly owned by Zacharias Flagler.47 By this time, Wiljem (bap. 2/6/1726) had been born to John and "Elizabeth Hoeven".48 Is the name Hoeven similar enough to the name Hoofd to consider Elizabeth Hoeven Allen to be the same person as Anna Elizabeth Hoofd Flagler? A few months later, on 7/9/1726 "Annaatje" [Elizabeth] "and her husband John Elyn" were Godparents to the baptism of William, son of "John Hessy an Englishman" and Margrete.49 The impression left by the reference to "her husband" is that John Allen was new to the community while Elizabeth was more well known and established. n,

The fortunes of Elizabeth began to improve again following her marriage to John Allen. Now at the age of thirtyeight she was a mother again, not an unusual experience at that time. Big families and late pregnancies were not so unusual in the eighteenth century. Elizabeth's stepson, Philip, now age 25 years, was married and had a second child, Zacharias (bap. 5/30/1726).50 Does this make Elizabeth's one year old son Wiljim a step-uncle to the new baby, Zacharias? Elizabeth's children from her marriage to Zacharias Flagler had reached the ages of 13, 12, 10, 7 and 5. Five Flaglers and one Allen rounded out the family of six children. Elizabeth had plenty of domestic responsibilities to fill her time. The girls certainly had arrived at the age where further household responsibilities were being added to their spinning and other chores. The following year, 1727, was a full year and seems to have been the year when Elizabeth's financial condition began to take on the successful picture which would continue for the rest of her life. A second child Jan (John) was born to "Jan Ellins and Liesabeth" in April and baptized at Peter Lossing's on 8/20/1727.51 He was the first child born in their new home. The Allens had moved from Poughkeepsie. The move was reflected on the 1727 tax roll when their position on the list changed significantly. The Allen name appeared near the end of the tax roll where new taxpayers are usually listed. In the case of the Allens, the change undoubtedly indicated a change in the location of their home. There was also a dramatic increase in the assessed value of their property in the years 1727 and 1728. During the next ten years, the Allen's assessment was to reflect additional increases. In 1728, the value of their new property was three times the value of the former property in Poughkeepsie. The increase in assessment from E5 to El5 placed the Allens in the upper third of all taxpayers in the Middle Ward.52 There are no records which describe a purchase of land by the Allens during the 1720's. In fact they had moved to an area of Dutchess County, now Pleasant Valley, which had not yet been surveyed or divided. (See the following area map.) The survey map made in 1740 of the final division of the Nine Partners Patent shows the Allen farm in the Third Division Lott 15 on the east side of Wappingers Creek. In current terms this places it in Pleasant Valley on the west side of South Road approximately one half mile south of the bridge which crosses the Wappingers Creek. At the time the Nine Partners map was made the Allens seem to have resided there more than a decade. Widow Allen and the Nine Partners had been corresponding about the land on which she resided in 1737, three years before the final division.53 When the Allens moved to Pleasant Valley the Nine Partners were still negotiating with Governor William Burnet and the New York Assembly for a license to divide their land holdings.54 One can assume there must have been some understanding between the Nine Partners and the Allens which permitted the Aliens to settle in Pleasant Valley.55 The part of the patent on which the Aliens lived was finally divided in 1740 but there seems to be no evidence of a parcel of land set aside or previously sold to the Allens.56

1 27

Selling land in the undivided tract was a permissible business practice of the Nine Partners,57 nevertheless there is no existing record of a sale to the Allens. As a result, the nature of any agreement between them is an unknown. Interestingly, the Allens were among the first four or five families who settled on the Nine Partners land beyond the Water Lotts along the Hudson River. When the year 1728 opened, the newest Allen was making his presence known crawling from one room to another, but Elizabeth had help now with the new baby. Her oldest daughter, Anna Magdelena Elizabetha, 16 years old, must have begun to see herself in a mother's role to the five Flagler and two Allen children. The new baby needed a good deal of care and Elizabeth, beginning to feel her 40 years, welcomed her daughter's help. John Allen, of whom little is known at present, also had help from his 14 year old stepson, Simon. Neither 1728 or 1729 seemed particularly eventful. The baptismal records are silent as they apply to the Allen family. But Elizabeth's stepson, Philip Solomon Flagler, had another child in 1727. His new daughter, Catherine, was about the same age as Elizabeth's son, John.58 The continuing good fortunes of the Allens are reflected in the tax roll of the Middle Ward. Their assessment increased slightly to E16.59 Life must have settled into a fairly comfortable and predictable course as the 1720's came to a close. Perhaps the coming decade would provide the kind of settled predictability which would allow Elizabeth to feel secure as she looked to the future. Not one of the previous three decades had been free of tragedy. It seemed Elizabeth's strength and courage always had to be ready to receive another major disappointment. But life began to look more settled by the year 1729. Before the summer was over, Elizabeth announced she was expecting her eighth child. The new decade opened with promise of a brighter future for Elizabeth. James Allen, born March 11, 1730 to "Jan Ellins and Liesabeth", was sponsored by Hannes Schneider and his wife Liesabeth.60 The Schneiders were the inlaws of Elizabeth's oldest child Magdelena who married Johann Jost Snider (Schneider) sometime in 1729 or 1730. She bore her first child, Hannes, Elizabeth's first grandchild, in May 1731.61 Two years later Elizabeth sponsored Magdelena's second child, Simon.62 Raising babies together must have provided a special new bond between Elizabeth and Magdelena. But Elizabeth's childbearing days were over. Henceforth any new infant in Elizabeth's home would be a grandchild. The events of the early 1730's must have convinced Elizabeth that good fortune was finally going to come to her. This would be a better decade, she must have mused. The year following the birth of John, her last child, the Allens completed an important business transaction which doubled the assessed value of their property. This change was reflected on the March 28, 1732 tax roll when their assessment increased from f16 to f30.63 Formerly, their assessed value placed them in the upper third of all the taxpayers in the Middle Ward. However, with the change in 1732 their value placed them in the upper 10% of this group. Of the 127

11R

taxpayers in the Middle Ward, only seven were assessed at a higher level and six of these were only slightly higher than the Aliens. The Aliens had become part of a small group of economically successful property owners. Only such well known taxpayers as Thomas Sanders, Henry Van der Burgh, Marckus Van Pommel and four Van Kleeck families (Parent, Johannis, Lawrence and Peter) were assessed higher. Other historically well-known individuals, who were assessed at the same level as the Aliens were Col. Leonard Lewis' widow, Jan De Graaf, Johannis Van den Bogart and Elias Van Bunschoten. There were important differences between the Aliens and most of the others. Most of these families had preceeded the Aliens to Dutchess and in fact some of them had already arrived at the time Elizabeth was fleeing her homeland. It is also worth noting that most of these families were in a significantly better financial condition when they arrived in Dutchess or very soon thereafter. And further, all of these families settled near Poughkeepsie where business opportunities were greater for a number of reasons, not the least of which was proximity to the Hudson and the number of people who lived quite near Poughkeepsie. How did. Elizabeth and John Allen attain this success? One can only speculate at this point. Perhaps John Allen came to the marriage with some money. Perhaps it was the joint industriousness of this couple which helped them attain in such a short period of time their advanced economic position in the community. These particular footprints of the Allen's history are too faint now to draw a conclusion. Also unclear, is the reason their assessment changed. There is no evidence to suggest it was newly acquired acreage which accounted for the significant increase in assessed value. It seems more likely they had built some kind of business. Perhaps they built a mill. They lived on the Wappingers where a mill site was quite feasible.64 In the same year, 1731, the Allens acquired an indentured servant or an apprentice. This conclusion is based on the baptism on June 20, 1731 of Yzaack (Isaac) Nemes, the 20 year old son of Jan Nemes of Westchester who was "examined... through an interpreter". He was sponsored at the baptism by "his master, Jan Ellins and wife, Liesabeth".65 Note the reference to "master". Perhaps Yzaack was needed in connection with a new business the Aliens were developing. Was this 20 year old man trained in some specialty? Could he have been a miller? Perhaps he was simply additional help and had no special training. An interesting other speculation about the Aliens is related to their religious attitudes. Did they insist on Yzaack's baptism because of their commitment to religion? Or was it Yzaack who asked to be baptized? In either case, it appears religion was important in the Allen household. The gradual progress in the development of Dutchess County affected the Aliens and in fact they were part of it. Earlier it was noted that Elizabeth had moved to an unsettled area of Dutchess County with her husband John. It was an area without a road. There was no need for a road. No settlements of any size existed easterly beyond Poughkeepsie.

139

Section of the Great Nine Partner's Patent showing Widow Allen's property and neighboring lots in enlarged detail. Map produced by William Benson of Clinton Hollow.

MAP of GREAT NINE PARTNERS PATENT, Dutchess County, N.Y., ca. 1740. Widow Allen's property was located in small Lot 15 in the lower left corner of the map behind Water Lot I on the Hudson River, adjoinin,l, large Lot 9.

There was one exception. The area around Dover in the Beekman Patent was settled. And the flow of traffic between this settlement and Beekman's other holdings in Rhinebeck required a road which had probably been built in 1718. This road connected Dover with the landing on the Hudson near Rhinebeck.66 There was only a footpath through Pleasant Valley which connected with the aforementioned road at Washington Hollow at the point where the road from Dover turned north. Finally in May 1733, the Commissioners of Highways laid out a road from Washington Hollow to Poughkeepsie. This road followed the "foot path and marked trees to the Wappingers Kill or Creek to the North East of the Land of John Allen, then over the said Creek by the foot path".67 Two weeks later, the Allens failed to appear for the baptism on May 27, 1733 of the newest offspring of their friends, Johann and Margaretta Hessy.68 They had sponsored other Hessy children in the past.69 This was an important event to miss but a variety of simple explanations could quiet any alarm about matters in the Allen family. What was the problem anyway? There is no record. However, shortly thereafter, Elizabeth was to face yet another significant personal loss. The tax roll of February 10, 1735 reads simply "the Widow of John Allen Deceased Notes 1.

The Calender Act passed in Great Britain in 1750 changed the date of the legal year from March 25 to January 1. Prior to that, dates from January 1 through March 24 were written referring to the previous year and the new year ie. March 10, 1708/9. In order to avoid confusion,references to dates in this paper are written in the present style ie. March 10, 1709.

Documentary History of the State of New York, ed. Edmund B. O'Callaghan (4 vols.; Albany: 1850), III, 563.

Walter A. Knittle, Early Eighteenth Century Palatine Emigration (Baltimore: 1937), 3.

Ibid., 5.

Ibid., 68-70.

Ibid., 73.

Ibid., 71.

Ibid., 127-28.

Ibid., 131.

10.

Ibid., 132.

11.

Dixon Ryan Fox, Caleb Heathcote (New York: 1926), 146-53.

1A0

Notes

12.

Knittle, op. cit., 147.

13.

O'Callaghan, op. cit., III, 563.

14.

Henry N. Mac Cracken, Old Dutchess Forever (New York: 1956), 65.

15.

Knittle, op. cit., 289.

16.

Lou D. MacWethy, The Book of Names (Early Palatines) (St. Johnsville, N.Y.: 1933), 43.

17.

Knittle, op.cit., 285.

18.

MacWethy, op. cit., 83.

19.

Ibid., 41.

20.

Knittle, op. cit., 155-56

21.

O'Callaghan, op. cit., III, 668.

22.

Ibid., I, 691.

23.

Knittle, op. cit., 163-64.

24.

Ibid., 160.

25.

Ibid., 168.

26.

MacWethy, op.cit., 43.

27.

Records of the First Reformed Church of Poughkeepsie, comp., A. P. Van Gieson (photostatic copy at Adriance Library), (Poughkeepsie: 1883), 62. (Cited hereafter as Poughkeepsie Reformed Church.)

28.

Baptismal and Marriage Re_gisters of Old Dutch Church of Kingston, transcribed by Roswell R. Hoes (New York: 1891), 161. (Cited hereafter as Kingston Records.)

29.

MacWethy, op. cit., 24

30.

O'Callaghan, op. cit., III, 683-84.

31.

MacWethy, op. cit., 26.

32.

Knittle, op. cit., 294.

33.

Ibid.

34.

Early Records of the Lutheran Church New York, Yearbook of the Holland Society of New York - 1903 (New York: 1903), 63.

35.

Kingston Records, op. cit., 582. 1

Notes 36.

Holland Society of New York, op.cit., 65.

37.

Dutchess County Clerk's Office, Deeds - Libers 1: 223; 2: 209; 3: 1; 6: 342; 13: 332.

38.

Ibid., Liber 13: 332.

39.

Poughkeepsie Ref. Church, op. cit., 62.

40.

Book of the Supervisors of Dutchess County Book A, 1718 - 1722, (Poughkeepsie: 1908), 26.

41.

Poughkeepsie Ref. Church, op. cit., 63.

42.

Book of Supervisors, op. cit., 37

43.

Ibid., Book B, 1722 - 1729, 10.

44.

Ibid., 29.

45.

Ibid., 26.

46.

Poughkeepsie Ref. Church, op. cit., 62.

47.

Book of Supervisors, op. cit., 39.

48.

Kingston Records, op. cit., 161.

49.

Baptisms in the Lutheran Church, New York City, from 1725, New York Genealogical and Biographical Records, 1966, vol. 97, p. 99.

50.

Kingston Records, op. cit., 162.

51.

Baptisms in the Lutheran Church, op. cit., 104.

52.

Book of Supervisors, op. cit., 97.

53.

Proceedings of the Nine Partners, 1730 - 1749, transcribed by Clifford M. Buck and William P. McDermott in Eighteenth Century Documents of the Nine Partners Patent. Edited by William P. McDermott. Vol. X of Collections of the Dutchess County Historical Society, (Baltimore: 1979), 15.

54.

Ibid., 4.

55.

Ibid., 26.

56.

Ibid., 36.

57.

Ibid., 15 and 28.

58.

Baptisms in the LutheranChurch, op. cit., 105.

59.

Book of Supervisors, op. cit., 128.

1 A A

Notes 60.

Baptisms in the Lutheran Church, op. cit., 225.

61.

Ibid., vol.97, 227.

62.

Ibid., vol. 98, 34.

63.

Book of the Supervisors of Dutchess County, Book C, 1730 - 1748 (microfilm Dutchess County Clerk's Office), 45.

64.

William P. McDermott, "The Schenk Mill and Store, 1763 - 1770", Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook, 1976 - 77, vol. 61-62, pp. 69-77.

65.

Baptisms in the Lutheran Church, op. cit., vol. 97, 228.

66.

Dutchess County Clerk's Office, Road Book B, p. 20.

67.

Book of Supervisors, op. cit.,

68.

Baptisms in the Lutheran Church, op. cit., vol. 98, 34.

69.

Ibid., vol. 97, 99.

70.

Book of Supervisors, op. cit., Book C, 99.

Book B, 160.

Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook Vol 064 1979

Articles inside

Dutchess County

The Big Parade, James L. Lumb

The Cook Mills A Century Old

Widow Allen, William P. McDermott

Appointed Historians of Dutchess County

Hacketts and Cunneens

Uncle Tom, Burton Coon

The Old Plantation, Burton Coon