The Road from Clinton Hollow 43
The Road from Clinton Hollow: A Grandmother’s and Granddaughter’s Paths to Equal Rights for Women by Melodye K. Moore One of the most fascinating things about the study of local history is the serendipitous way in which stories are often revealed. Such was the case when the Dutchess County Historical Society received a small, undated, handmade photograph album in early 2018. The donor, who had been hired to clean out a residence in New Jersey, decided it was better to send it to the Society than “throw it in the dumpster.” Eleven photographs depict buildings, residences and landscapes along the road from Salt Point to Clinton Hollow. The inscription “To My Grandmother,” followed by “Nina McCulloch” created a tantalizing mystery. Our research transformed the sweet little memento into this story of two extraordinary Dutchess County women. Both grandmother and granddaughter devoted their lives, one long and the other short, to social and civic causes advancing the rights and protections of women and girls in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Clinton Hollow referred to on the cover page of the album that Nina made for her grandmother Ophelia was a small hamlet in the south center of the Town of Clinton. The few homes that formed the community were sprinkled along what are today Schoolhouse, Browning and Clinton Hollow Roads. The Little Wappinger Creek ran through the center. Not a lot has changed over the past century.
Ophelia’s Family and Childhood The Rikert family was one of the earliest to settle the area. On April 16, 1821, Lydia Hodge became Henry Rikert’s second wife. Lydia, born in 1798, was 27 years younger than Henry. Four children, Joel, Mary Jane, Martin, and Phebe, would be born to Lydia and Henry between 1822 and 1828. Tragically both Henry and his firstborn, Joel, would die in 1830, reportedly from typhus, leaving Lydia to care for the three remaining children. Eight years later Lydia married Riley Shadbolt. Riley is likely a
