USA > New York > Putnam County > Cold Spring > Thirty Years of Early History of Cold Spring and Vicinity, with Incidents, By One Who Has Been a Resident since 1819 > Part 1
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THIRTY YEARS OF
EARLY HISTORY OF
COLD SPRING
AND VICINITY,
WITH INCIDENTS.
BY ONE WHO HAS BEEN A RESIDENT
SINCE 1819.
COLD SPRING, JANUARY 1st, 1886.
ICHAAN PRINTING HOUSE, NEWBURGH.
THIRTY YEARS
OF
EARLY HISTORY
COLD SPRING
AND VICINITY,
WITH INCIDENTS.
BY ONE WHO HAS BEEN A RESIDENT SINOE 1819.
COLD SPRING, JANUARY 1st, 1886.
SCHRAM PRINTING HOUSE, NEWBURGH.
Jacob Helfenstein 28
COLD SPRING, N. Y.
IN the spring of the year, in April, 1819, the writer, then a boy 15} years old, came from the town of South East, in this county, an apprentice in the tanning and currying business, under Charles Crosby, who was from the same town. The Village of Cold Spring, then not much more than a wilderness, contained very few houses, some of which I will endeavor to mention as best I can from memory.
William Davenport, then a very prominent citizen, lived on the place where Charles Warren now resides.
John Davenport occupied the house where James Mekeel now lives, the terminus of the Cold Spring and Patterson Turnpike. This road was built by Frederick Parks, the working of which brought to this part of the county some very prominent men, among which was Seymour Birdsall, father of Lewis Birdsall. I will here say as regards this turnpike, no better road could be found in three river counties, and how it could have been built through such a wil- derness has always been a mystery to me. Two gates were placed upon it, one of which was across the Pike near where Caleb Hustis now resides. The other seven miles east. The collections of these two gates was the only source of revenue to build and maintain the turnpike. One or two sloops made regular weekly
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trips from Cold Spring to New York, carrying wood and some country produce, which came over this model road from the east. No steamers touched here regularly. The writer remembers Gouv. Kemble land- ing from a small boat sent ashore by a steamer. The fare to Albany was seven dollars. Persons going to New York had to go on a sloop. The writer has been twice to New York in this way; once with his boss to witness the famous race between the horses Sir Henry and Eclipse. Those trips by sloop usually took a week.
While I am near the river, I will mention something about the ferry to West Point. It was conducted by Old Arthur. He was what might be called very eccentric. If you wanted him for anything he would not answer directly but something after this sort : Question. "Arthur will you carry me to Garrisons ?" Answer. "I have been to Cornwall," or "I have been to West Point ;" but he would always get his ferriage. He had a novel way of getting it. Some in spite of . him would play sharp on him. I knew of Mr. Gou- veneur, (he being a big customer of his,) get in debt to Arthur. One day Mr. Gouveneur went a fishing on the sunken rocks. Arthur took him there at low water and left him to fish until high water; then he went after him. Arthur would not take him in until he paid him for all he owed him.
I will now return to mention more of the houses as there appeared on arriving at the place on that April day. Starting from South East at 8 A. M. with a
two-horse wagon load of household goods, with roads bad until we reached the turnpike, we did not get here until 9 o'clock P. M. Here we quartered in a log house, the only building that my boss Crosby had on six acres of land at the fork of the roads of the turnpike before mentioned and the Lobdell road. Near the centre of this plot the Margaret Brook, as it was called, went through. On the east side of the brook and nearly opposite the last house in Mollyville stood the log house before mentioned, and the only one until you get to John Foster's house, opposite the old Davenport store. At that log house we quartered that night and for six months after. On the west side of the brook we built a house and barn, and on the east side the tan works. Jonathan Hustis and family occupied the Foster house at that time. The family consisted of Thomas, Harry and Caleb, and wife of Oscar Speedlin. I passed by one other house, Stephen Snook's, on the Heeley place, now occupied by James Secor. I now pass the Sutton house, near the widow James', and come back to the old Daven- port house, a frame building, a log house and a cider mill ; all then on the west side of the traveled road, east three-eighth of a mile from the dock. The log house and the cider mill were soon after demolished, and the frame house repaired ; it went in the hands of Benjamin Briggs, and is now in the possession of his heirs, and called the Briggs' house. The old road, as it was called, verged to the west after leaving the grounds where the Town Hall stands, crossed the
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brook and passed in front of the Methodist Church, and then passed on by the old Davenport house and cider mill on the west through John Butler's yard, and to the east of the Reformed Church, then down the hill at the lower part of the vineyard of George W. Purdy to the rear line of the brick house of the widow Wright, and now occupied by Dr. Stanbrough. On the opposite side of this road, on the west, there stood a long frame house, built by the Gouveneur or Phillips family for a half carpenter by the name of Van Houten. He was formerly called Uncle Houten. Here he lived and raised up a large family of girls. The whole family seemed to be subject to the Phillips family, he as a carpenter and the rest of the family as domestics, and they were known to ride back and forth the three miles away.
On the opposite side of the road stood the only school house in this part of the town and school for the three school districts : Nelsonville, Foundry and Cold Spring, and was then kept by Master Bowne, grand-father of George and Martin Bowne.
Those two buildings were the only ones until you come to the Episcopal Church lot. Here were two small buildings, composed of one room to live in.
Then we will pass on down. On the Elwell pro- perty stood a similar house of one room as above, on the Church lot before mentioned.
The next house on that side is the frame building adjoining the printing office. It was built by a man by the name of Shelton, and used by him as a store.
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On the opposite then stood the brick store, now occupied by Joseph Terry. It was used as a store then by Samuel Partridge, and built by him or his brother Norton, as I believe.
At that time the Longfield Hotel was building and nearly finished. It was built by a Mr. Swift, who had a son at school at the Minor School in South East, which I will have occasion to speak about hereafter. Those were all the buildings from Griffin Corners to what is now the Village of Cold Spring in the year 1819.
I will now take the reader to the West Point Foun- dry. A cluster of houses, called Rascal Hill, was built, and occupied by the families of the workmen of the Foundry. The basement of the building nearest the foot of the hill was used as the office of the Foun- dry. At that time the large molding house, the enor- mous chimney and furnaces, the large water wheel, (perhaps the largest in America,) was in full operation. It was called a cannon foundry, and there was no other like it in America.
Allow me now to skip over on the Old Post Road, as it was called, and mention some of the old mansions in that vicinity, namely : Richard Arden, Harry Gar- rison, Maffa Basha Nelson, Capt. John Warren, Croft Hotel, James McCabe, Samuel Jeffords, Harvey Hill, John Wallace, Nathaniel Ladue, the Dykman Place, Penny's Tan Yard place, Nicholas Hustis, Samuel Hustis, Joshua Haight, William Brewster, Snook and Harvey Hustis, Caleb Hustis, William Knapp, Isaac
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Wright, David Knapp, Harvey Weeks, Simeon Boice, Beverly Haight, and other farms and places in this vicinity.
There were two farm houses on the Lobdell road ; one of which was occupied by Samuel Bard.
The houses I have mentioned and a few others were standing in 1819-120. This was the most prominent part of Phillipstown. Then Putnam Valley was part of Phillipstown.
The writer in those days attended town elections at Croft's Corners, the Likely House and Cyrus Horton's. The latter place several times. All these places are now in the town of Putnam Valley or town of Quin- cy. Before the town was divided he attended at the Croft House and at Griffin's Corners.
I have endeavored to give a brief history of most of the houses und farms about Cold Spring as they were in 1819-'20.
Next I will describe, as best I can, the denomina- tions of Christians that were rising up, and touch on the public schools that were then in existence.
Above the boring mill connected with the foundry was a large room used as a pattern shop. This room was cleared out and swept, and boards arranged for seats. This made a spacious hall for church or other gatherings. All denominations were invited to hold their meetings in it. There were but very few of each denomination then. The Presbyterians, Episcopalians and Baptists accepted the invitation. The Methodists chose to use a private house or the school house on the
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hill near Dr. Stanbrough's. William Young was the superintendent of the West Point Foundry, and being a north of Ireland man, was liberal in all his religious views, although a Presbyterian; so the pattern shop was made free for all. His desire was that we should not be heathens. He induced a countryman of his, Rev. Mr. Owen, who had a charge at Patterson, in this county, to come here once in three weeks and preach. He was quite a favorite with the workmen. Daddy Reynolds, so called, was the Methodist Circuit Preacher. He decided to use either the Sutton House or School House in which to worship. Elder Warren was the favorite with the Baptists. I do not remem- ber of the Episcopalians having a minister. I think the Catholics had no Priest to minister to them. Thus Church matters remained in this way until about 1826.
I have often thought why it was that the ministe- rial talent should come from the eastern part of the county, unless it was the good road we had that made it easy of access to Cold Spring.
About 1826 a few wise heads, after using the pat- tern loft for Church purposes, conceived the idea of building a Union Church. Meetings were held, and a committee was appointed, composed of Gouv. Kemble on the part of the Episcopalians, William Davenport on the part of the Baptists, Elisha Nelson on the part of the Methodists, and William Young on the part of the Presbyterians. This committee went to work with a will, and a site was selected, funds raised, the building commenced, and in eighteen months a famous
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church edifice was built of stone, with a cedar roof. The building is yet standing and is situated on the rocks east of the steamboat dock, a monument to the exertions of the early Christians of Cold Spring and vicinity before 1830. The whole town contributed nobly to the Church enterprise. The Church being built and paid for as a Union Church, the next consideration was, which denomination of the four should hold the title. A committee was appointed on this subject, consisting of Gouv. Kemble, William Davenport, William Young and Elisha Nelson, who was empowered to report at a subsequent meeting, for its approval or rejection, all matters in relation to the future management of the Church, as well as to secure the title to the ground on which it was built. The meeting to hear the report on the future arrangement of the Churches, and the report of the building com- mittee, took place the same evening, and was read by William Young. This was the work of one evening, and a busy evening, as I well remember. The reports were satisfactory and approved.
The committee on future arrangements was, as the Presbyterians were thought the most numerous, placed in their hands. The Presbyterians were to occupy the house the fore part of the Sabbath and other de- nominations to use the Church in the after part of the day. The Methodists, under Daddy Reynold's advice, chose rather to use the school house or the Sutton house, so they nearly withdrew from the compact. They increased, had revivals and soon commenced the
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Church that is now in the hands of David Loyd. Thus things remained for a short time.
Now we will return to the Union under the three heads, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Baptist. The three denominations still used the pattern loft until the Union Church was finished. The Baptists and the Episcopalians used the Church under the above ar- rangement for a few years satisfactory, I believe. Bishop Onderdonk would sometimes occupy the Church in the afternoon, and sometimes Elder War- ren. Both of these denominations began to grow, and as they grew became rather dissatisfied with the ar- rangement of the old report of the committee of four, viz: Gouv. Kemble, William Young, William Daven- port and Elisha Nelson. It so happened at one time that Elder Warren was here and his people desired to use the Church in the fore part of the day, that he could go to now Putnam Valley in the after part, but under the above arrangement was refused by the Pres- byterians, they then had their minister stationed here. This caused the Baptists to wholly withdraw and they soon built the Church which now stands on the hill. The Episcopalians soon after followed and built the Chapel that was demolished a few years back on the lot yet held by that denomination. Suffice it to say, all the denominations grew and prospered. The Cath- olics also grew and prospered and soon built a Church, and became the most numerous, except perhaps the Methodists.
I now return to the Schools. The state of educa-
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tion in 1819 was very limited in this part of Phillips- town and Cold Spring. Master Bowne, as he was called, grandfather of George and Martin, gave near- ly all the teaching the young ideas learned how to shoot, as will appear-as I proceed.
Capt. John Davenport, who occupied most of the land about Cold Spring, together with the Plumbush land, as a farm, was considered one of the most promi- nent men, like Capt. John Warren and David Knapp, that was then in this part of Phillipstown, and as will appear, John Davenport having had what little facili- ties for schooling his father could then give him, with good natural abilities, but nearly destitute of learning. John had grown up and taken the old place at Griffin's
Corners and kept a hotel there, and had use for keep- ing books. He had a customer by the name of David Henyan. He could not spell, yet had some knowledge of writing, and could write some of the letters of the alphabet. His book read after this sort : D. for Da- vid, H. for Henyan, B. for bushel, C. for corn. This was a sample of some others willing to educate but unable to on account of the distance to school and lack of teachers to teach. The school houses were two or more miles apart. Indeed I do not recollect of more than four school districts in the western part of Phil- lipstown ; one was near Simon Boice's, one was on the road from Griffin Corners to Cold Spring, but it did not remain there long. It was, I believe, taken apart and rebuilt on the hill by Dr. Stanbrough. As I have mentioned before, there was a house in the
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neighborhood of the Garrison house or near Capt. John Warren's mill. I am not sure but believe it was at or near the Warren mill. The post office and sinith shop were located here, and the stage house also, which made it quite a formidable place. It was the stopping place for stages from New York to this part of Phillipstown. Fare by stage $3 ; postage on letters two shillings each. On this road could be seen stages with four horses, two stages going north and two south, besides some extras. I am wandering and will return to the schools. As I have before said, Master Bowne was nearly all the teachers offered, and he for a short time was teacher in the school building just moved to Cold Spring and was thought to be very competent at that time, but soon new-comers came to the place, and Thaddeus Baxter, grand-father of Jud- son and Henry, took the school and taught for a while. He came from Carmel. Farther on John P. Andrews came from Connecticut. Ile had been edu- cated for the law. He kept the school for some years in that not very formidable building. Later on a large and commodious building for the school was built in the door-yard of the widow of Robert P. Parrott. Up to this time William Davenport and Gouv. Kemball were the life of the public school system in this part of the town. When this building was completed, a Mr. Burnham was its principal, and remained until the house was destroyed by fire.
Still further on, three school districts out of the one were formed, viz : Cold Spring, Nelsonville and the
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Foundry. Thus they remain to this date. Before I leave this part of the narrative of the schools I am carried back to the fall and winter before I came to Cold Spring. The Swift boy, I remember, gave me lots of incidents and information about Cold Spring, and as my boss Crosby had bought the place at the forks of the roads before mentioned, and I was engaged as an apprentice to the tanning trade, was all very inter- esting to me. One was very shocking. The sloop Neptune, which carried wood and produce and some passengers, mostly ladies, when on the up trip, near- ing home and this side of West Point, the ladies were sitting in chairs on the deck, near sunset, very joyous, when a sudden flaw of wind without warning struck the sloop without warning and upset her, throwing them all into the river, and seven of the number, nearly all, were drowned; they were Snooks, Budds and Daven- ports. He also told me of the fine turnpike that was building, and the large Cannon Foundry just built, the large chimney, the large water-wheel, but not much of any schools, hence his father sent him a pupil to the Minor boarding school in the town of South East. He said his father was building a large hotel and had got the kitchen built before he left home. This was the old Longfield house, as is now called, in this village. He told of what fun we could have on the water, the wild ducks we could kill, &c. But I had such a charge from my mother before leaving home to not go near the water, it put such a check on me that I never joined my old school-mate in the fun he had anticipated for me.
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I will now return to the Foundry again, and de- scribe as best I can, the mechanics and their qualifica- tions, and what they could manufacture, as I have said in the beginning of my narrative, 1819. Here I must be permitted to go back more than thirty years to be- fore the War of the Revolution, when the United States was a Colony of Great Britain, and had a seven years war with the mother country, England, and which resulted in the separation, though very reluc- tantly by England. Before this she had imposed upon her colony in various ways. One case I will mention as having a bearing on this little work, was the intro- duction of slavery in the different States of the Colony, making her like Pharaoh of old, loth to part with her infant Colony. Hence a constant hindrance was always manifest, and is so to this day. The war of 1812 to 1815, for a trifling cause was brought on, but termin- ated in the success of the United States, leaving a still worse feeling between the two powers than during the thirty years of peace.
I have described some of the sayings of young Swift. He did not tell of the difficulties of the great Cannon Foundry, the anticipated company not having been formed. Mechanics must be had. How can they get them? They must come from Europe The war of 1812 had just ended. The right of search of vessels leaving English ports prevailed and they were watched very closely, and I suppose one of their unjust laws, as well as others, was that laboring men, but not me- chanics could leave Europe. It required sharp prac-
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tice for mechanics to leave. Consequently a company of laboring men was put on board a ship in the harbor of Belfast, Ireland, to sail to the United States, but on the eve of starting mechanics were substituted for the laborers. The trick was slow to leak out, but it was said they were pursued by a war vessel to bring them back, but they landed safely on the shores of "the land of the free and the home of the brave." .
Mr. Kemble had been to Europe, being a man of means and enterprise, to learn, as best he could, what he could enter into, and report, as I believe, to a com- pany. He found that ordnance for the Government was the most available of any he could find. The present site had been selected, and a Scotchman by the name of Morehead, a thorough mechanic and mill- wright, together with Erastus Mowett and Basha Nel- son, with William Young, superintendent, built the large moulding house, the boring mill and the large wheel, as I have said before. Then they commenced to make the large cannon for the government. They had as good a set of mechanics as could be found in Europe. I will mention the most of them as I remem- ber their names: Loyd, McDowell, Short, Broom, Doherty and others; the most of which had families, which they brought with them, or that followed them soon after. With such a corps of mechanics, who could doubt the capacity to make a cannon foundry a success. They went to work with a will, and soon the twenty- four and thirty-two pounders were turned out. The capacity for manufacturing all kind of ordnance thus
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far proved a success. They made at least two cannon of the largest size weekly. This was encouraging to the company and the community at large. The guns were turned out rapidly. Now they must be proved before they are accepted by the Government. A lot of them was duly arranged for proof with certain proof charges specified by the Government. An in- spector was sent here. then unusual explosions were heard low down near the foundry. These proof charges proved too severe for the guns, and six of them were burst on their first trial .. This was heralded about the community and the nation at large. Thus the attempt to make ordnance in America was appar- ently a failure as regards large guns. Small guns had been made in the United States, it is true, but none to even compare with those made at the works of the West Point Foundry, now in operation. This failure, as it was thought to be, I well remember cast a gloom on this part of Phillipstown. Some who had cast their lot in this part of Putnam County were almost sorry they had come here, depending principally on the success of the Foundry. But was the iron will of Mr. Kemble and his associates discouraged ? Not at all, as the sequel will show, for the inspector sent here did not understand his business, or was influenced by some undercurrent, or influence home or abroad, for it was discovered that he used rifle powder instead of cannon or rock powder. This being rectified, courage took the place of despondency, and no more bursting of cannon took place. I have never heard who the
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loss of the cannon fell on, but presume it was on the Government; certainly it was its fault. Seeing all this, and looking back to 1812, the commencement of the last war between the United States and Great Britain, though a boy nine or ten years old, and hav- ing friends in that war stationed at New York, I was sent two or three times a week to get the war news, three miles away. It made me a very interested party in that war. I saw about that time passing on the road in the town of South East several twenty-four pound cannon mounted on heavy four wheel wagons, each drawn by four horses. They were on the way to the Canada borders. Oxen were sometimes used for trans- porting cannon, but mainly they dawn by teams of four Pennsylvania horses. These horses were never put in stables. The tongue of the wagon was fixed with a rest, and a feed trough, like a large pig trough, was put lengthways on the tongue. and a pair of horses were fed on each side. They would travel twelve or fourteen miles a day. The same could be seen on the old Post Road through Phillipstown, as I was told subsequently. All this was very interesting to a boy of my age. It was so at least to me. Three years after the war, coming as I did, and the looking upon the making of cannon similar to the ones I had seen being transported toward Canada, I could see that Mr. Kemble was right in his views in starting this enter- prise of manufacturing cannon, for I suppose in times of peace all the guns I had seen were brought from Europe, and in all probability cost the government
two shillings per pound, for it was currently reported here that Mr. Kemble got that price from government.
I will now come back to the village, as I found it in the spring of 1819. The cannon having been burst wrongfully, things looked prosperous at the Foundry. Besides ordnance, other articles were made. I think they run on box stoves, with simply an oven easily fitted up. I remember seeing some of their make. Some machinery was rough made from 1820 to 1826, and sent to New York to be finished. Went by sloops in summer and by teams in winter. This was kept up until the Hudson Rail Road was finished. About this time a large number of inhabitants came from all parts of the country as well as from our own county. The foundry still prospered, and more additions were made to the buildings. The New York finishing shops enlarged their capacity for work, and Mr. Wil- liam Kemble was superintendent there. He was a younger brother of Gouverneur. He was styled one of the smartest and best business young men of the day. It was said of him that he could converse with you for any length of time on any topic and at the same time write letters and make calculations in figures. Who could doubt the success of the enter- prise thus started in New York and Cold Spring with three such heads as Gouv. Kemble, William his brother and William Young.
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