USA > New York > Columbia County > Gazetteer and business directory of Columbia County, N.Y. for 1871-2 > Part 13
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East Chatham, (p. v.) near the center of the east border, is a station on the Boston & Albany Railroad, and contains two hotels, two churches, (Baptist and M. E.) several stores, one school, two blacksmith shops, a wagon shop, a paint shop, a grist mill and 239 inhabitants.
Chatham, (p. v.) in the north-east part, six and one-fourth miles distant from Chatham Village, is a station on the Harlem Extension Railroad, and contains three hotels, one church, (M. E.) three stores, one furnace, one saw mill, one grist mill, a mowing machine manufactory, a carriage shop, harness shop, blacksmith shop, a school house and about 300 inhabitants.
New Concord, (p. v.) on the line of Canaan, near the south part, contains one school, one church, (Reformed) one store, and about 108 inhabitants. Near this place is a sulphur spring.
Rayville, named after David Ray, an early settler, located in the north-east part of the town, contains one store, one church, (Friends) one school and about 80 inhabitants.
Chatham Center, (p. v.) situated on Kinderhook Creek, is a station on the Boston & Albany Railroad. It is pleasantly G
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located and is a thriving little village. It contains one church, (M. E.) a school, three stores, a wagon and blacksmith shop, a paper mill and about 124 inhabitants.
Malden Bridge, (p. v.) located in the north part of the town, on Kinderhook Creek, has about 200 inhabitants. It contains a school house, a church, (M. E.) two hotels, a store, a black- smith shop and the best and most extensive paper mill in the County.
Rider's Mills, (p. v.) also in the north part and on Kin- derhook Creek, contains one store, one school, a blacksmith and wagon shop, and about 75 inhabitants. Considerable damage was done here by the freshet in 1869, which swept away the grist mill and saw mill. They have not been rebuilt.
North Chatham, (p. v.) in the north-west corner of the town, on Valatie Kill, contains three stores, a saw mill, cider mill, three blacksmith shops, a carriage factory, two paint shops, two churches, (Baptist and M. E.) a school house and about 200 inhabitants. This place was formerly called Wiederwax Street, after - Wiederwax, one of the first settlers in this locality. Dr. Richard S. Peck was another of the early settlers in this vicinity.
The first settlements made in the town was by persons from Kinderhook, but originally from Holland. A company from Connecticut settled at New Concord in 1758; among them were John Beebe, and others-named Cady, Hurlburt, Palmer and Davis. A little west of Chatham Center was a stone house, used as a defense against the Indians during the Revolu- tion. A man named Vosburgh, who lived near this place, was killed and scalped; but his family escaped. Spafford's Gazet- teer, published in 1813, thus notices the inhabitants of this town at that early day : They are, he says, "principally farmers. of plain manners and frugal habits, well adapted to their occu- rations. The household wheel and loom, aided by the carding machines, supply the most of the common, and much of the finer clothing, and the state of agriculture is very respectable. There are 138 looms in families, which make yearly al out :3,000 yards of cloth. Gypsum is much used as a manure, and with great success. The roads are rather too numerous to be good, though improving very fast since the introduction of turnpikes, of which there are three or more in this town. The Post-Office is bnt recently established, on the turnpike from Albany to Stockbridge, about 15 miles from Albany." leave our readers to draw the contrast, which is a vivid one, between those and the present times.
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The M. E. Church was organized in 1856, with 75 members, and T. W. Chadwick as its first pastor. It now has 98 mem- bers, and Rev. Wm. F. Harris for its pastor. The present house of worship was erected in 1856, at a cost of $5,000, and will comfortably seat 300 persons.
CLAVERACK (Claw-ve-rack) was formed as a district, March 24, 1762, fourteen years previous to the organization of the County, and was erected as a town March 7, 1788. Benson's Memoir, p. 44, thus explains the origin of the name; the town formerly extended to the Hudson, and the bluffs on the bank were named the " Klauvers," (clovers,) whence " Claver-reach," or "Claverack." This is corroborated by the following extract which appears in a communication to The Columbia Republican, from Rev. J. Edson Rockwell, D. D., printed in that paper Jan. 24, 1871, and which is copied from the monograph of Hudson's voyages, published in London, in 1859. "In giving a general description of the North River it says: All the reaches (racken,) creeks (Killen,) headladn (hocken,) and islands bear the names which were accidentally given them in the first instance, as swadel-rack (swath reach.) A short strait between high bills where in sailing through they encounter whirlwinds and squalls, i. c., which they call swadelen (swaths or mowing sweeps,) 'T. Claver Rack (Clover reach,) 'from three bare places, which ap- pear on the land,' probably a fancied resemblance to trefoil or clover." Hillsdale was set off from this town in 1782, and Hud- son in 1785. A part of Ghent was taken off in 1818. It lies near the center of the County. The surface has considerable diversity, and there are ledges of rock that extend north and south, forming hills of moderate height, while the intervening valleys are very extensive. The east part is more hilly than the west, which is undulating. On the west it is washed by Claverack Creek, a fine mill stream, and a branch which comes from Hillsdale, spreads over the central part and supplies many mill seats. All these creeks are very extensive alluvial flats. which are frequently inundated and very fertile. There is much alluvion along the smaller streams. Of the upland level part, a considerable portion has a soil of argillaceous loam, and there are small tracts of stiff clay. The scarcity of timber, which at an early day was severely felt and tended to depreciate the value of the land, is compensated in a measure by the abund- ando of coal which is made easily accessible by railroads. Ori- Finally, here were extensive glades of level land, wooded only hy scattered copses of thornapple, the common thorn, and a variety of similar wild-fruit shrubbery. . The forest groves usu- ally were less luxuriant than in the more hilly lands of the ad-
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jacent country. The Claverack flats are proverbially rich, and nothing can, perhaps, exceed the abundant luxuriance of their products.
Hoffman's Pond, in the south-east corner of the town, covers an area of about 80 acres, and abounds in fish of various kinds. In some parts the pond is very deep. Its banks, which on the east are marked by rocky bluff's, and on the west and south by cultivated fields, are dry and gravelly. Its outlet is Copake Creek, with which it is connected by a small stream.
The population of the town in 1870 was 3,671. Of this num- ber 3,345 were natives and 326, foreigners; 3,607, white and 64, colored. The report for the year ending Sept. 30, 1870, shows that there were 14 school districts, and the same number of teachers employed in the town ; that the number of children of school age was 1,124; the average attendance, 329.773; and the amount expended for school purposes, $5,051.95.
Claverack, (p. v.) situated in the west part of the town, four and one-half miles from Hudson, is a station on the Hudson & Chatham Branch of the Boston & Albany R. R. It contains a fine hotel, three churches, (Episcopal, M. E. and Reformed,) the Claverack College and Hudson River Institute, four stores, two wagon shops, two blacksmith shops, a large paint shop and 350 inhabitants.
The County seat was formerly located here, but was removed to Hudson in 1806. This caused its population and business to decline and converted it into a purely farming district. Its citizens, with that industry and frugality which is character- istic of the Dutch, from whom a large portion are descended, have acquired wealth, and have surrounded their homes with such comforts and conveniences as their taste and ample means enabled them ; thus supplementing that beauty which nature had previously rendered so attractive.
The Claverack College and Hudson River Institute is located upon a beautiful eminence in the north part of the village, and commands an extensive view of the surrounding country and distant Catskills and Mtn. House. Through the kindness of the Principal we are enabled to give the following history of this worthily famed school and the conditions out of which it has grown. He says:
"The first high school established in this County was at Claverack. It was named Washington Seminary ; was begun in 1777, and successfully founded in 1779, during the progress of the Revolutionary war. Its origia- ator was Rev. Dr. Gebhard, who had privately taught 'the sons of some of the best families,' and saw the necessity of providing other and larger facilities for conducting instruction in Latin, Greek and Mathematics. Messrs. Dudley, Baldwin and Abraham Fonda were the first teachers ; the
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former had charge of the classical, the latter of the English departments, while Dr. Gebhard acted as Superintendent, an office which he filled until the close of the Seminary.
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"In 1780, N. Meigs was appointed principal, and served until he was succeeded by Andrew Mayfield Carshore, who had been impressed into the service of the British and came to this country under General Bur- goyne, and after his surrender took charge of a school at Kinderhook, and gave instructions there in the English branches only. Having quit the school just named, he came to Claverack and entered the family of Dr. Gebhard. He seems to have been a man of unusual genius, aptitude and culture, and therefore Washington Seminary, of which he took the charge, became famous in those days. He continued his connection with it for about twenty-five years, at which time the Academy at Hudson was built for him and he removed thither.
" While here for nearly a quarter of a century, says Dr. Lewis Gebhard, he taught youth from New York city, Albany, Poughkeepsie, New Roch- elle, Livingston Manor, Hudson and Claverack. At times Washington Seminary had more than one hundred pupils.
" Among those who were educated during this period at this Seminary were General John P. Van Ness, Hon. Wm. P. Van Ness, Hon. Cornelius P. Van Ness and General Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer. The above were all natives of this town. Martin Van Buren, Robert H. Morris, and many others afterwards conspicuous in public life were students here, Here, too the Monells, Jordans, Phillipses and Millers acquired the beginnings of their education. Claverack has a just right to the honor which these illustrious names confer upon her maternal brow ; and she claims them all to-day, while she bids the present generation to emulate the virtues of the great men she had reared.
" The decline of the original Seminary incited the Rev. Mr. Sluyter to take measures for the erection of an Academy which, in all its proportions, should meet the wants of this region. After much effort his plans were accomplished. The Claverack Academy was erected and opened in 1830. It had a board of eighteen trustees, of whom only the following survive, viz., Stephen Storm and John G. Gebhard, M. D. The structure was built by Colonel Ambrose Root, and the first principal was Rev. John Mabon, a learned man and an able instructor. He had, while here, under his care, several pupils who afterwards rose to eminence.
" In 1854, the Claverack College and Hudson River Institute was opened. Addresses on the occasion were delivered by Rev. Isaac Ferris. D. D., Horace Greeley and Rev. Elbert S. Porter. The first president was Rev. Ira C. Boice, and [who was] its lessee from the beginning ; and its present pre- sident, Rev. Alonzo Flack, A. M., acting with the trustees, has rendered this one of the best institutions of the kind in the State.
" In June, 1869, the Regents of the University of the State of New York granted this Institution full College powers to grant degrees to women.
"The average attendance has been about 300 pupils since its opening. The buildings contain 167 rooms furnished complete with carpets and bed room suits for students and teachers, also 12 recitation rooms, three society rooms, twenty-three piano rooms, library, chapel and gymnasium. The faculty consists of 18 Professors and Teachers.
" The grounds contain six acres and are tastefully laid out, and kept in fine or ler."
It is a fact worthy of notice in this connection that Mary E. Drowne has taught school uninterruptedly in District No. 5, since April 1, 1849. She is a graduate from the Albany Nor-
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mal School, and received her certificate from Hon. Samuel Young, who was then Secretary of State and Superintendent of Common Schools. Many have, under her excellent in- struction, laid the foundation of an education which has been elaborated in after life with greater facility for having enjoyed the thorough regimen of her tuition.
Philmont, (p. v.) in the north part, nine miles east from Hudson, is a station on the Harlem Railroad. It contains 700 inhabitants, who are extensively engaged in manufacturing enterprises, in the various branches of which over $600,000 is invested. The village is located on the Eastern, or Ockawamick Creek, which has a fall at this place of 252} feet, affording an excellent water power. A constant supply of water is secured by the construction of two reservoirs which, combined, cover an area of 92 acres. Their average depth is ten feet, and their united capacity thirty-seven (37) million cubic feet. There are three knitting mills, three paper mills, a machine shop and foundry, a building and joiner establishment, and a feed mill, which give employment to about 450 operatives. It also con- tains one hotel, three stores. two blacksmith shops and a school house. The Ockawamick Mills, Geo. W. Philip, prop., run six sets of machinery, consume 285,000 pounds of cotton and wool annually, and employ 45 operatives in the manufacture of shirts and drawers. The capacity for daily product is sixty dozen, and the annual sales amount to $108,000. The High Rock Hosiery Mill, P. M. Harder, prop., runs four sets of machinery, consumes 160,000 pounds of cotton and wool an- nually and employs 80 operatives in the manufacture of knit goods. The Claveruck Knitting Mill, Robert Akin, prop., located one mile south-west from Claverack village, was established in 1857; it employs 13 operatives and consumes 50,000 pounds of cotton and wool annually. The Philmont Paper Mill, Harper W. Rogers, prop., was established in 1861; it is capacitated to produce 50 tons of straw wrapping paper per month. The Philmont Hosiery Mill, Nelson P. Akin, prop., is, in the main part, 116 by 50 feet, with four stories, surmounted by a French roof. The knitting and finishing building is three stories high and is 120 by 36 feet. The machine shop and lapper rooms are 36 by 80 feet, with three stories and basement. The washing and bleaching house is 162 by 30 feet and is two stories high. At present twelve sets of woolen machinery are in operation, producing 1,100 dozen men's knit undershirts. and drawers per week, of grades from medium to the finest, besides 500 dozen India gauze for summer wear. It gives constant employment to 240 operatives, and consumes 500,000 pounds of cotton and 50,000 pounds of wool each year. About 85,000 is paid each
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month for labor. The amount of capital invested is $350,000. The Excelsior Mill, George Tobias, prop., employs 11 operatives, two 48-inch machines and two 36-inch engines, and consumes 2} tons of straw and 3,000 pounds of coal per day in the manufacture of wrapping paper, of which it is capacitated to produce 400 reams of 15 by 20 inch per day. R. S. Simmon & Son are extensively engaged in jobbing and building. They employ 27 experienced workmen, principally in the erection of churches and large edifices. J. F. Ellsworth's machine shop and foundry, for the manufacture of paper and woolen machinery, and agricultural implements, was established in 1863. The capital stock is $25,000. Twenty-five men are employed, and about 840,000 worth of work is annually produced. The machine shop is 72 by 48 feet, and three stories high, and the foundry is 25 by 60 feet. L. M. Fritts & Co. established their mill in 1856. They manufacture straw wrapping paper, of which they have the capacity to produce 150 reams per day.
Mellenville, (p. v.) is a station on the Hudson & Chatham Branch of the Boston & Albany R. R., distant nine miles from Hudson. It contains two churches, (M. E. and Reformed,) two hotels, one store, the Mellenville Knitting Mills, P. M. Harder, prop., which run two sets of machinery, employ 15 hands and consume 120,000 pounds of cotton annually in the manufacture of knit goods; Wm. Smith's straw wrapping paper mill, estab- lished in 1866, which employs 6 operatives, one 48-inch machine and one 30-inch engine, and consumes 2,300 pounds of straw per day in the production of 1,800 pounds of paper; Samuel D. Miller's grist mill, with two runs of stones, recently erected ; one carriage and wagon factory, one blacksmith shop and about 225 inhabitants. The freight receipts at the station are about 8750 per month, and from passenger travel $150.
South Bend Mills, in the east part, contains a grist mill, saw mill, blacksmith shop, school house and four houses.
Martindale Depot, (p. v.) in the south-east part, named in honor of John Martin, who was instrumental in securing the railroad at this place and on whose land the depot was built, is a station on the Harlem R. R., and contains one church, ( Bap- tist,) one blacksmith shop and about nine dwellings.
Humphreysville, (p. o.) in the south-west corner, on the line of Greenport, is a hamlet.
Hollowville, (p. v.) formerly known as Smokey Hollow, is a little south of the center, and contains three hotele, one black- smith shop, two carpenter shops, a store, Wm. Smith's Excel- sior Grist and Flouring Mill, known as the " over-shot mill," containing two runs of stones for flour and one for plaster,
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which give it a grinding capacity of 200 bushels of grain per day ; a saw mill, a school and about 125 inhabitants.
Churchtown, (p. v.) on the south line, contains a church, (Lutheran) two stores, a wagon shop, blacksmith shop, two hotels and about twenty houses.
The Red Mills, situated about one mile east from Claverack village, were first erected by Gen. Jacob R. Van Rensselaer. They have been enlarged to five runs of stones, for flour and plaster, and have a grinding capacity of 300 bushels of grain per day. They are owned by P. S. Pulver.
The Claverack Fire Insurance Company was organized by the residents of the town, for the purpose of mutual insurance against loss or damage by fire, under an act passed by the New York Legislature April 17, 1857, authorizing the formation of town insurance companies.
Next to Kinderhook, this is the oldest town in the County. From a list of the inhabitants in Claverack in 1714, (which then included the present towns of Hillsdale and Hudson, with parts of Ghent, Greenport and Stockport,) which appears in the Doc. Hist. of this State, we find that there were one male and one female above sixty years of age; 52 males and 38 females from sixteen to sixty ; 51 males and 51 females under sixteen ; 10 male and 5 female slaves from sixteen and over ; and 2 male and 2 female slaves under sixteen ; making a total of 214 persons. Hence it will be seen that the country was then a comparative wilderness. In 1701, Killian Van Rens- selaer of Albany, conveyed to his brother Hendrick a large tract of land, called by the Indians Pot Koke, which, in the Dutch language, was described and known as Claverack. Jobn Van Rensselaer, son of Hendrick, erected this district into the Lower Manor to distinguish it from that on the north. His son, John, occupied the Manor house, a mile east of the village. Van Rensselaer claimed 170.000 acres; but maintained his claim with much difficulty. In 1766 the district now embraced in Rensselaer, Columbia and Dutchess Counties was involved in a domestic war, arising from the conflicting jurisdiction of adjacent colonies and resistance to the claims of proprietors. In June of that year, the Sheriff of Albany County, with 105 men, went to a house to disperse a band of rioters, 60 in num- ber. Several shots were exchanged; Cornelius Ten Broeck, of Claverack, was killed and seven others of the Revolutionary militia wounded ; and, said Dr. Porter at the Centennial Cek- bration of the Reformed Prot. Dutch Church of Claverack in 1867, " It was during the anti-rent troubles of that year that Cornelius Hogeboom, grandfather of the Hon. Henry Hoge-
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Wwwm, and Cornelius Van Dusen, both civil officers, were shot while in the discharge of their public duties." We copy from the same authority the following anecdote of Aaron Burr, which probably occurred during his Presidency of the Consti- ational Convention in 1801, when he " stopped, on his way to Albany, at a hotel kept in the old farm-house now owned by Hobert Esslestyne. The Dutch language was then the com- thon speech in use in these parts. While Burr was dining, he nadled for a napkin. The good hostess did not understand ham, so she called her husband, and they had an earnest con- versation over the puzzling problem. At length they dis- covered that he wanted a kniptong, and so they brought him a pair of pincers instead of a napkin."
Prior to its erection into a district, Claverack had been gov- erned by the patroons. But population had increased, and the interests of society demanded legislation. At that time Liv- ingston Manor, Claverack and Kinderhook, each sent one dele- pate to the Provincial Legislature. The County had not yet twen set off, and the affairs were conducted in a domestic way. For several years the committee of safety met in a house now owned and occupied by Jeremiah M. Race. During the Revo- lution its cellar was used as a jail for the imprisonment of tories. A few years previous to the Revolutionary war several families moved from New York to Claverack. Among them was Wm. Henry Ludlow, who opened a grain store in an old store house, a business which, soon after the war, became extensive and made Claverack the market town for this portion of the Manor. (Taverack remained the post office station for Hudson until 1:90. In 1786, Killian Hogeboom was postmaster, and July 13th of that year the first list of letters published in the County, gwared. The first meeting of the Board of Supervisors was hvid in the house of Gabriel Esslestyne. An appropriation of $1000 was made for a Court house, and Wm. B. Whiting, Ab- rabam J. Van Alstyne, John Livingston, Henry I. Van Rens- sejaer, Matthew Scott, Seth Jenkins and Wm. H. Ludlow were appointed Commissioners to superintend its erection. In 1788, an additional appropriation of £1,200 was made, and in 1798, another #400. The first county, officers were Peter Van Ness, First Judge; Peter Sylvester, Peter R. Livingston, Henry I. Van Rensadaer and Wm. B. Whiting, Judges ; Killian K. Van Rens- a.r. Surrogate; Lawrence Hogeboom, Sheriff; Robert Van fresher, Clerk; and Walter Vrooman Wemple. Treasurer. By net of Feb. 25, 1805, the County seat was removed to Hud- son on condition that the city appropriate for the use of the County, the city hall, a lot of land upon which to erect County buildings, and the sum of 82,000. In 1796, the presidential
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electors met at Hudson, cast their vote, and then came to Clay- erack to get their dinner at Gordon's tavern. Before the ap- plication of steam, in 1807, the post-road through this village was the great thoroughfare between New York and Albany. Travelers abounded, and the road was lined with hotels on either side. Wagons from the east were sometimes seen stand- ing in a line of a mile or more in length, waiting to be un- loaded.
The history of the Reformed Prot. Dutch Church of Claverack is so intimately connected with that of this part of the County that we are constrained to preface our history of the churches of the town with some pertinent extracts from the published pro- ceedings of the Centennial Celebration of that Church. The Rev. A. P. Van Gieson there produced a parchment bound book, with covers secured by leather thongs, whose paper has become yellow, and ink faded by lapse of time, which he claimed "con- tained the oldest records of the Claverack Church." The hand- writing is in the old Dutch language. "On the second leaf is a copy of the call extended to the first minister of the church, Dominie Patrus Van Driessen. This ancient record states that in the beginning the people of this neighborhood were depend- ent for public divine service upon ministers from Albany. It farther informs us that the people of Claverack, out of regard for the aged and infirm, the women and children ; and because they thought it unbecoming a Christian people to neglect their Christian duty; and also through the prompting (or as the Dutch has it, the upwaking) of the Patroon Hendrick Van Rensselaer, did, in the year 1719, unite in an effort to build a church and secure services of a settled minister for themselves. The record adds, that, on account of their sins, God was not pleased to crown their effort with success ; and it was not until the year 1727 that the desire of their hearts was realized, in the settlement of Dominie Van Driessen, the building of a house of worship, and the complete and efficient organization of the church." "This ancient house," says Rev F. N. Zabriskie, in an address delivered on the same occasion, "tells its own story with an impressiveness which speech may not hope to rival. The vision of a hundred, yes, of a hundred and fifty years passes in panorama before us. The early pastors seem to raise the marble doors of their tombs in yonder cemetery, and look about for the antiquated pulpit from which they preached down upon their people. The throngs of former worshipers in their quaint attire come winding over the hills and valleys, in their plain and springless, but capacious wagons, to occupy the high, straight-backed pews. The women, in summer, with their mob- caps and white muslin neckerchiefs modestly folded over their
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