USA > New York > Dutchess County > Dutchess county > Part 4
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POUGHKEEPSIE RURAL CEMETERY
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DE LAVAL CO.(32)
GRAND
ENOE
POUGHKEEPSIE (173 alt., 40,288 pop.), has long been known as the "Bridge City of the Hudson" because of the older of the two great bridges which span the river at this point. (See Water-front Tour.) It is the county seat of Dutchess County and enjoys wide renown as the seat of Vassar College and scene of the annual Intercollegiate Regatta. During the Revo- lutionary period it enjoyed a brief interval of national importance. From 1777 to 1784, before it was incorporated as a village, it was the capital of New York State. The little community was then the modest metropolis of the wealthiest and most populous of the 14 counties. The outstanding event of the period-and of the entire history of Poughkeepsie-was the ratification by New York State of the Federal Constitution in 1788. (See p. 14.) Otherwise the city has been locally prominent as the indus- trial and shipping center of what was long a rich agricultural area.
Poughkeepsie is situated on the east bank of the tidewater Hudson, mid- way between New York and Albany. The pattern of the city is like that of many Hudson River towns. The long Main Street climbs the steep slope from the river, and, lined with offices, shops, and public buildings, extends eastward for about 2 miles. At the crest of the hill Main intersects with Market Street, which stretches north and south along the plateau. This is the center of the business district, passed by the flow of motor traffic on the Albany Post Road. The city has spread out in streets roughly paral- leling these two thoroughfares, the newer sections departing from any orderly arrangement.
Architecturally, downtown Poughkeepsie presents the miscellaneous col- lection of buildings characteristic of older towns which grew up before the days of city planning. Brick and frame structures of varied heights are crowded together. An occasional old residence has kept its foothold, the lower floor pressed into commercial service. The residential districts in turn reflect the tastes and styles of their periods. The finest dwellings of the pre-Civil War period have almost all been destroyed or fallen into ruin. West of Market Street there are still numerous examples of the simple, substantial brick town house of the early nineteenth century. Along the water front, where the largest industries superseded the most pretentious dwellings of the city, the scene is one of alternate activity and dilapidation.
The economic life of Poughkeepsie is about evenly divided between in- dustry and commerce, with no one trade or product predominating. In 1930, 40 percent of the wage earners were employed in manufacturing, the rest in the building and service trades, and in selling. Because of its location on the Hudson and at the junction of two great railroad systems, the city is growing in importance as a distributing point. The Dutton Lumber Company (see p. 40), the largest of four, stores lumber from the West Coast, the Scandinavian countries, and the U. S. S. R. for reshipment to New York and other eastern points.
The chief manufacturing concerns are the De Laval Separator Company, producers of cream separators and oil clarifiers, and the Schatz Manufac- turing Company, makers of ball bearings. There is one large cigar com-
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pany, one trousers factory, and two companies producing neckties. Numerous smaller shops make men's and women's garments, machine parts, wood- work, cough drops, ice cream, and loose-leaf notebooks.
The Central Hudson Gas and Electric Corporation has general offices on Phoenix Place. This corporation, with approximately one thousand em- ployes, serves a territory of 2,600 miles, including Dutchess and Putnam, and portions of Albany, Greene, Ulster, Orange and Columbia Counties. The company operates an electric generating plant and gas manufacturing plant in Poughkeepsie.
There are many small clothing manufacturing establishments employing women almost exclusively. In 1930, 29 percent of the industrial workers in Poughkeepsie were women, almost all of them employed in these shops. Effective labor organization in Poughkeepsie is limited to the construction trades.
The Poughkeepsie retail market, in the case of its large department stores, extends beyond the Dutchess County borders, east into Connecticut and south as far as Peekskill. Merchants complain that the high tolls on the Mid-Hudson Bridge prevent the possible extension of that market to the west side of the river. Like every city feeding on industry and a large agricultural hinterland, the streets and stores of Poughkeepsie are busiest on Saturday afternoon, with Main Street east of Market carrying the heaviest burden. Though wide as streets go, and though busses have been substituted for trolleys, the normal condition of Main Street is one of congestion.
Native-born whites constitute about 82 percent of the total population of Poughkeepsie, or 34,429 persons out of 40,288. Of the remaining 18 percent, 15 percent, or 5,859, are foreign-born whites, and about 1,200, or 3 percent, are Negroes. These percentages are identical with those for the county as a whole. The Negroes in Poughkeepsie are grouped in two sections, William Street in the southwest, and Pershing Avenue, in the east central part of the city.
In the foreign-born group Italians and Slavs predominate. Employed for the most part in local factories, they make their homes in the northwestern part of the city, which lies north of Main Street and west of Washington Street. The Italian section includes the area between Main and Duane Streets and joins a region occupied by people of Slavic origin to the west of Delafield Street.
Thirty-nine churches serve Poughkeepsie and its immediate vicinity. Of these 23 are Protestant (including 2 Negro churches), 7 Catholic, 4 Hebrew, 1 Orthodox Greek, and 4 undenominational. The Catholic churches include 4 with services in a foreign tongue-Italian, Polish, German, and Slavic. The Greek Orthodox Church is a member of the Archdiocese of North America and South America, which in turn is subordinate to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
The Presbyterian, dating from 1749, was the first organized English church group in Poughkeepsie. The First Presbyterian Church, a large gray
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stone structure in Romanesque style, at the corner of Cannon and South Hamilton Streets, is an outgrowth of this early organization.
In conjunction with the Protestant churches there are several young peoples' and social organizations, the best known being the Christian En- deavor, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Young Peoples' Societies, and Ladies Aids. The Catholic churches also offer social activities to their members in the Holy Name Society, St. Aloysius Sodality, Altar Society, Children of Mary, Rosary Society, Sodality of the Holy Angels, and Sodality of the Infant Jesus. The Jewish social life is centered in the Hebrew Fraternal and Benevolent Society, the Men's Club of Vassar Temple, and the Jewish Center.
The chief social service activities in Poughkeepsie are carried on in Lincoln Center. (See p. 46.) The part that Vassar College plays in that work illustrates its wider significance in the community life, especially in the fields of intellectual and cultural interests.
The Poughkeepsie public school system is housed in 14 buildings. There are nine grammar schools, one high school, and two buildings devoted to high school freshmen, as well as a trade school, a continuation school, and an evening school. Incorporated in the system are medical and dental clinics. The curriculum in the grade schools includes physical education, art, music, homemaking, and manual arts, as well as the traditional three R's. The high school offers college preparatory, academic, commercial, and home- making courses, and training in art, music, dramatics, and debating. The Poughkeepsie High School debating teams were champions of the 1932 State National Forensic League tournament, held in Albany; and in the national competition the same year at Sioux City, Iowa, the school was one of the 44 competing for the national championship.
The journalistic history of Poughkeepsie began with the career of John Holt, who published the New York Journal and General Advertiser in New York City until driven out by the British in 1776. He subsequently fled to Kingston, and thence to Poughkeepsie, always a step ahead of the advancing enemy, and always publishing his paper. Although printed in Poughkeepsie, it was not a local publication, but carried foreign news and items from all parts of the country.
The first distinctly local newspaper in Poughkeepsie was the Pough- keepsie Journal, published by Nicholas Powers. The present Poughkeepsie Eagle-News is a fusion of numerous newspapers going back to two principal ancestors, the Poughkeepsie Journal (1785) and the Dutchess Intelligencer (1828). Through the years the names, owners, and policies of the papers frequently changed. The Dutchess Intelligencer became the Poughkeepsie Eagle in 1834 and was united with the Poughkeepsie Journal and Eagle in 1844. In 1850, the name was changed to the Poughkeepsie Eagle, which became a weekly, and in 1860 to the Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, a daily. In 1892 it was given the present name.
This paper has been closely associated with the development of the city. often having led in the advocacy of public improvements. Since the Daily
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Eagle made its appearance on December 4, 1860, the name of Platt has been closely associated with it. The Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge was first publicly proposed in an editorial written by John I. Platt in the issue of January 22, 1868. In 1889 Platt & Platt published the folio size Souvenir Edition of the Poughkeepsie Eagle, with its many illustrations, photo- graphs, and historical data depicting the growth of Poughkeepsie. Its accu- racy and completeness of detail still make it a valuable work of reference.
The Poughkeepsie Eagle-News is now published by Platt and Platt, In- corporated, and the Poughkeepsie Evening Star and Enterprise by the Pough- keepsie Publishing Corporation.
The Sunday Courier was first published by Thomas G. Nichols in 1872, and has continued an unbroken existence to this day. Upon Mr. Nichols's death in 1890, Arthur G. Tobey assumed control until his death in 1911, when his son, Earle D. Tobey, became the editor. Mr. Earle D. Tobey supervised for a quarter of a century, a newspaper dedicated to the best in- terests of city and county. The Courier is now managed by his widow, Florence D. Tobey. It claims the distinction of being the only Sunday publication between New York City and Albany.
Intercollegiate Regatta
The famous Intercollegiate Regatta has familiarized the nation with the name of Poughkeepsie. For two days the city is host to thousands of visitors from all parts of the country. From many years of exeperience, the plans of entertainment and accommodations have been perfected, and these days have a definite place on the municipal calendar. The outstanding competitors that have appeared in recent years include California, Columbia, Cornell, M. I. T., Navy, Pennsylvania, Syracuse, Washington and Wisconsin. The recent victories of the Washington crew have attracted a large group from the Pacific Coast.
The three races-Freshman, Junior Varsity, and Varsity are scheduled at one-hour intervals late in the afternoon of a mid-June day, the exact time determined by the tide. The setting is one of the most beautiful that can be imagined, and the scene a pageant of rhythm and color. The race course includes an imposing section of the river valley-the two bridges spanning the stream between the rocky bluffs with patches of woods on the west, and the broken slope of the city waterfront on the east. On the west shore observation cars, crowded to capacity, follow the races from start to finish. Great crowds stand on the bluffs and bridges. All available motor space is packed with cars. Yachts, launches and row boats are anchored in the river, leaving only space for the race course. Boats fly flags and the gay college banners. At the signal, a bomb fired on the railroad bridge, a slow procession starts down the river. Appearing as tiny specks in the distance the long, slender shells slip smoothly down the channel under the two bridges toward the finish, accompanied by the cheers of the spectators and the blowing of sirens and whistles from the boats.
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Three times the spectacle is repeated, consuming in all about three hours. After the last race, bets are paid, the river traffic scatters, and the crowds on the shore begin a tediously slow but good-humored exodus: the crowd on foot mills around, cars move at a snail's pace ; vendors of pennants and souvenirs offer their wares at sacrifice prices. In a few hours the river scene is quiet ; by morning the city has resumed its normal routine.
The date given for the first modern intercollegiate regatta at Pough- keepsie is 1895. But the local history of this and allied sports goes back far beyond that year.
Crew and single sculling races have taken place here for a century. Another sport still more closely identified with Poughkeepsie was the ice yachting which flourished from 1807 to 1908, the modern form of which is said to have originated here.
In 1807 the ice yacht was first introduced as a racing craft by Zadock Southwick and was subsequently made known to the world through the activities of the Poughkeepsie Ice Yacht Club. In 1858 the skate boat was developed, and experiments were made with various kinds of steel runners and different cuts of sails. The type ultimately accepted was designed by Jacob Buckhout, who has been called the "creator of the modern ice boat." (See Chelsea.)
The Poughkeepsie Ice Yacht Club, representing the first formal organi- zation of the sport, was founded by prominent Poughkeepsians in 1861. Its headquarters were in the Vassar Brewery until the brewery closed. Then it merged with the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club at Hyde Park, where all ice-boating activities have centered since establishment of the all-winter Poughkeepsie ferry in 1908.
Most famous of the old craft were the Icicle and the Haze of John A. Roosevelt and Aaron Innis, the former of which won the American ice- boat pennant in 1903.
In the last 20 years, the growth of Albany as a port and the consequent employment of ice breakers between Albany and the sea throughout the winter, have virtually put an end to ice boating on this part of the Hudson. Only exciting memories of the sport remain.
The first recorded rowing regatta held on the Hudson at Poughkeepsie was rowed August 11, 1839, by the "Washington" crew of Poughkeepsie and the "Robert S. Bache" crew of Brooklyn over a 2-mile course, the Pough- keepsie crew winning. Subsequent early races were for a time rowed at New- burgh, but interest in the sport began definitely to center in Poughkeepsie after the staging here in September 1860, of a 2-day regatta in which Poughkeepsie crews won all events in both four- and six-oared races. In November of the same year occurred the celebrated race between Joshua Ward of Poughkeepsie, American single scull champion, and William Berger of Newburgh over a 10-mile course. Three thousand spectators on the river- banks watched Ward win.
Poughkeepsie's great boat of the Civil War period was called the Stranger, with a crew organized from employees of local cooperages. Its last and most
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celebrated race, July 18, 1865, was against the boat rowed by the Biglin crew representing New York, over a 5-mile course for a $6,000 purse and the American championship. As 20,000 spectators watched from the river- banks, the Stranger, after trailing over a large part of the course, reached and began to pass the Biglins, but was cut off and came in second. Because of the interference, however, the Stranger was declared the victor. Referee and judges were chased by an infuriated crowd into the Poughkeepsie Hotel and barely escaped with their lives. The decision was finally reversed and given to the New York crew. For days before and after this race the town seethed with unprecedented brawls and disturbances.
The Shatemuc Boat Club, the first of its kind in Poughkeepsie, was or- ganized in 1861, with headquarters in a canal boat anchored off the Upper Landing. (See p. 42). In 1870, after the canal boat had been dashed against the rocks and wrecked, a new boathouse was built, which the club used until its dissolution in 1878. In 1879 the building was reopened by the Apokeepsian Boat Club, a new organization of 40 members, which, with club socials, minstrel entertainments, and regattas, soon became prominent in the social life of the town. After a long decline, this club was dissolved in 1929.
Just before the World War the advent of the motorboat and the auto- mobile put an end to sculling as a diversion in Poughkeepsie.
Service clubs include Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions and Exchange Clubs and a Chamber of Commerce. Notable among the service clubs is the Women's City and County Club, at 112 Market Street, the former residence of the late Laura Wyley, for many years professor of English at Vassar College, and a leader in local civic affairs. The Club has a county-wide membership of 300. The social clubs include the Amrita Club, Market and Church Streets, organized in 1873, and has a present membership of 250; and the Germania Singing Society, with a membership of 370, occupying Germania Hall, 197 Church Street, organized in 1850.
History
The Indian original of the name Poughkeepsie, mentioned in early docu- ments with a great variety of spellings, has been the subject of much re- search and century-old disagreement among historians. Throughout the last century it was popularly supposed to be Apokeepsing, translated as "safe harbor" and referring either to the little cove at the mouth of the Fallkill or to the broad indentation which originally extended from the Slange Klip to Kaal Rock. However, Pooghkeepsingh, translated as "where the water falls over" and applied to the falls of the Fallkill, later came into favor. Extensive research in recent years by Miss Helen Wilkinson Rey- nolds, with the assistance of the Heye Foundation of New York, has, how- ever, established the Rust Plaets, a small marsh opposite the Rural Ceme- tery, as being the uppugh ipis ing or "reed-covered lodge by the little water place," to which enough early documents refer to place it beyond reasonable doubt as the source of the modern name. The present spelling of Pough-
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keepsie, despite the numerous haphazard renderings of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, has remained uniform since about 1760.
The first record of white settlement within the city limits is a deed of 1683 conveying land from an Indian, Massany, to two Dutchmen, Pieter Lansing and Jan Smeedes. This property appears to have been centered on the river front near either the Fallkill or the Casperkill, as the intent of building a mill is mentioned in the deed. Overlapping grants and purchases, delimited in the vague phraseology necessitated by an unsettled and only half explored region, led to several territorial disputes.
Although the first settlers in Poughkeepsie, as elsewhere, clung to the riverbanks, usually where a creek provided shelter and offered power for gristmills, the location of the town center was determined chiefly by the passage of the King's Highway from New York to Albany, authorized by the legislature in 1703. The courthouse, a church, and a cluster of houses were built about the intersection of the present Main and Market Streets, which is still the business center.
The growth of Poughkeepsie in the first half of the eighteenth century ex- ceeded that of Dutchess County as a whole, but was none the less relatively slow. The first census, 1714, numbered 170 persons, of whom 15 were slaves. Except for a dozen French Huguenots and Englishmen, this population was entirely Dutch, although all public records were regularly written in a hybrid and phonetic English. The first courthouse, authorized in 1715 and again in 1717, was probably completed in 1720. In 1725 the Van den Bogaerdt farmhouse on the site of the present Nelson House, was opened as an inn. The first ferry was established between Barnegat (Camelot sta- tion) and Milton in 1740.
In 1716 the Reformed Dutch congregations were organized in Pough- keepsie and Fishkill. The Poughkeepsie church was completed on the present southeast corner of Main and Market Streets in 1723. For 40 years, how- ever, the English population was too small to attract even the occasional services of a missionary of the Church of England, and it was not until 1766 that Christ Church was organized, the first church edifice being built on the site of the present armory in 1774. The church glebe and glebe house which are held jointly by the congregations of Poughkeepsie and Fishkill, date from 1767.
Poughkeepsie was not involved in Revolutionary activities. No battles were fought in this vicinity, and only two cannon balls are said to have struck the town during the British invasion of the Hudson Valley. Two events, however, are memorable. On March 25, 1775, the first American liberty pole in Poughkeepsie was raised at the house of Col. John Bailey. More- over, of the 13 frigates authorized by the Continental Congress, two, the Congress and the Montgomery, were built and launched here in 1776 at Fox's Point, and sent to Kingston for rigging. However, these ships never left the Hudson. In the fall of 1777, when the British advanced up the Hudson and burned Kingston, both ships were sent out to defend the chain across the river at Fort Montgomery, and were fired to prevent their falling into the hands of the enemy.
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In 1777, after the burning of Kingston and the subsequent withdrawal of the British from the Hudson Valley, Poughkeepsie became the capital of the State. Gov. George Clinton made his residence here, where it is prob- able he entertained both Washington and Lafayette, and where Kosciuszko called on him to offer his services in the Revolution.
During the winter of 1778-9 a regiment of Continental troops was quar- tered here against the remonstrances of Clinton, who believed that the supplies of food were inadequate for both soldiers and legislators.
Possibly the chief event in the history of the town was the ratification here by the State of New York of the Constitution of the United States. This event took place July 26, 1788, in the third courthouse. In 1784 the legislature began to hold its sessions in New York, although the State officers appear to have remained in Poughkeepsie for some time longer. Fifteen years later, in 1799, a resumption of the normal growth of the little community, with its population of about 1,000, was marked by its incorpora- tion as a village.
Among eminent Poughkeepsians of this time was Chancellor James Kent, who came here in 1781 to study law. Soon afterwards he married and es- tablished himself in what, by his own account, was a very charming cottage. In the election of 1792, Kent was an advocate of Jay, and local partisanship for Clinton was so strong that he moved, reluctantly, to New York. The next year he was defeated for Congress by his brother-in-law, Theodorus Bailey, also of Poughkeepsie. In his Memoirs Kent speaks of the "great men who visited there (Poughkeepsie) .... Washington, Hamilton, Law- rence, Schuyler, Duer ... " John Adams, in his Diary, mentions a brief visit to Poughkeepsie.
Early in the nineteenth century the increased cultivation of the hinterland and the establishment of local factories brought Poughkeepsie into considerable prominence as a river port. From several busy landings eight large sloops sailed weekly to New York, transporting Dutchess County grain to the metropolis and bringing back supplies and settlers for the provinces. The crooked roads leading down to the river, of which only Union Street now remains unaltered, were often choked with teams waiting their turn to load or unload.
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