USA > New York > Dutchess County > Pine Plains > History of Little Nine Partners of North East precinct, and Pine Plains, New York, Duchess county, Vol. I > Part 28
USA > New York > Dutchess County > North East > History of Little Nine Partners of North East precinct, and Pine Plains, New York, Duchess county, Vol. I > Part 28
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HARRIS SCYTHE WORKS. 1850.
308
HISTORY OF PINE PLAINS.
at retail, one hundred pounds for twenty dollars, and refined steel twenty- five dollars a hundred. The revolutionary war stopped the importation of iron and steel, and gave impetus to home manufacture. Hence the high price of iron and steel. Captain James Reed who manufactured steel had a store, and in 1776 purchased scythes of Joseph Harris at eighty-four shillings a dozen. paying for them in steel and retailing them at ten shil- lings each. They were called "Harris Scythes," and from this fact Col. Silas Harris when he became a manufacturer of scythes a half century later, pasted a printed label on each scythe having the legend "Established in 1776." But it is not generally known that the Harris scythes of 1776 were made at Andrus Rowe Corners by "Joseph Harris, blacksmith," as. proprietor.
John Harris worked here at scythe making six years after his return from Fort Ann, when the revolutionary war having ended, he in 1733 pur- chased of Adam Snyder, in Pine Plains, one hundred acres which is the "old Harris farm," west of the Harris mills, now (1897) owned by Anthony HI. Barton. This purchase included the sawmill and the dwelling oppo- site, which is the "old Harris house" now repaired. The grist mill prop- erty he purchased four years later, on which in 1808 a "new" grist mill was built which is the present grist mill, formerly called "Harris Mill."
John Harris made scythes at a shop near the saw mill house when he first came there, and later had a shop below the grist mill. About 1786, Hugh Gamble, a brother of his wife, came as an apprentice, he being then about eighteen. Edmond Reynolds, later a well-known farmer, entered the shop about that time, and Mrs. Harris affectionately called him "one- of my shop boys." Later in life he made scythes on his own account on the present Isaac Carman farm, principally for his own use.
About 1790, a race was cut on the east side of the Shacameco com . mencing near the now Anthony H. Barton residence, extending to near the present residence of Mr. Slingerland at Hammertown, where shops were established at the foot of the hill east of the house. The highway then was at the foot of this hill winding easterly to the bridge on the now highway. Thus the shop was on the highway. Harris and Gamble made scythes at these shops several years. About 1810, Seth Harris, from Kingsbury, N. Y., another branch of the family, took a financial interest. in the business with John Harris. . Before leaving Kingsbury he had buried his wife, Isabella Gamble, sister to the wife of John Harris. They had three children, John, Silas and Elizabeth, who came with them. John and Silas became interested in scythe making.
Better facilities for making scythes were needed to meet the increased demand, and upon the coming of Seth Harris and sons a site was secured on the west side of the stream now indicated by the ruins, and a race or ditch cut leading thereto on the west side to intersect the main stream about eighty rods above the shops. A dam was built at the new site and a
309
HARRIS SCYTHES.
frame building or shop erected near the present highway bridge, a trip hammer placed therein and used for the first time in the manufacture of the Harris scythes. The shop already mentioned on the east side under the hill was used in connection with the one on the west side, for turning and finishing, which as yet was done by hand.
About 1812 Cyrus Burnap entered the shops of the Harris Company at a salary of $500 a year. He was a master workman and used the trip ham- mer. The business continued without any change of note until 1814 when John Harris and Hugh Gamble deceased, Gamble on the first of January, and Harris November 27, 1814.
The business was now left to Seth Harris and his two sons, John and Silas. John was an ingenious and skilled workman, but Silas was never a . 'practical workman. About 1816 the stone shop was built, and a finishing trip put in, which made two trip hammers in the works. This building was 23 x 30, and besides the trips had a grindstone. It is the building to the right in the cut, with a small cupola. The finishing shop on the east plant, near the now Slingerland residence, was also used in connection with the shops on the west plant. Solomon Ferris, John Deuel and John Hall were principal finishers, and among their helpers was Ludlow E. Lap- ham, then a lad, who later moved to Penn Yan, N. Y. John Hall also at times worked in the frame shop on the west plant, and Cyrus Burnap used the finishing trip in the stone shop. At this time about five hundred doz- en scythes were made annually. The grinding of the scythes was divided between the works for that purpose in Ancram near the " Delamater place " and the shop here according to convenience and the supply of wa- ter. Little change took place in the business from 1817 to 1820, except the abandonment of the plant on the east side. John Harris had meantime married a daughter of William Righter, and Silas Harris, (Colonel, as he was called,) had married Maria, a daughter of Edward Puggsley. John lived in a dwelling on the side hill opposite the Peter Husted dwelling, and Silas in the old Harris house opposite the now Slingerland home, then the residence of Joshua Culver. Financial embarrassment came about this time. Seth Harris retired and continued in the same business at Salisbury, Conn., with one James Harris, with whom he was a partner, leaving the work here to his sons Jolm and Col. Silas. [Note .- The Hudson Bee has this notice: James and Seth Harris's Scythes for sale by Rufus Reed, Hud- son, May 31, 1814. ] Cyrus Burnap left at this time and went to farming.
Soon after this Col. Silas Harris became sole manager and proprietor and all the manufacturing was done at the west plant. The hammers were kept in motion and the financial struggle passed. John, his brother, re- mained as foreman eight years, and among the principal workmen mean - time were John Hall, Solomen Ferris, Joi Deuel, James Deuel, Ludlow E. Lapham, John Bevans and Lewis Germond. The place was literally Hammer Town.
310
HISTORY OF PINE PLAINS.
In 1828 John Harris retired from the works, went to Winsted, Conn., and made scythes, and harpoons for whaling vessels. He moved from Win- sted to North Carolina and engaged in lumbering and making stoves for the sugar trade. Later he moved to Albany, and kept a restaurant under the Exchange. He deceased in Albany. John Hall succeeded John Harris as superintendent. Col. Harris had meantime (from '20 to '28) taken an in- terest in the Salisbury plant, and some of the workmen at Hammertown had moved there, among whom were Solomon Ferris, who had married a daughter of Hugh Gamble; and her two brothers, Isaac Gamble and Jas. H. Gamble.
In 1832, under the supervision of Col. Harris, the race from the west plant leading to the main stream above was enlarged, and improvements made in the flumes at the shops. In 1835 further improvements were made. A brick shop thirty by fifty-four was erected, and two trips placed therein. (This is the front large building in the cut.) To this on the south end was added a finishing room twelve by twenty-four. In the gable fronting the road of this main brick shop was placed a marble tablet about 18 inches square, on which was cut " 1835," the date of its erection. These improve- ments left the "Old Stone Shop" undisturbed. The scythe making works was then thoroughly organized by Col. Harris. James Denel was super- intendent in the shops. Skilled workmen were employed, consisting prin- cipally of Milton Germond, Charles Ross, Willis Hurlburt, Caleb Birdsell, Cornelius Knickerbocker, John Bevans and Francis Brown. Jonas Knick- erbocker entered the shop at this time as an apprentice. The old trade mark was still stamped in the heel of the scythe with the letters "S. H." in the heart in the place of the former "J. H." Printed labels were also pasted on the scythes having this inscription:
Established 1776. SILAS HARRIS' Best Steel Back Full Set Grass
SCYTHES.
S.H
Manufactured at the Old Establishment, PINE PLAINS, Dutchess County, N. Y.
To increase the facilities for grinding, Col. Harris secured a site about three and a half miles southeast from Pine Plains on the now Isaac Halleck farm where "Grinding Works" were erected. The building is now standing and the "ditch" that led the water can be traced. He purchased land on Stissing Moun- tain for the wood it bore to convert into char- coal. The smoke from the burning pits went heavenward during the day, and at night their fire flickerings were seen miles away, while the still valley was filled with that charcoal odor which enthusiastic colliers delight to call "healthy." Wood choppers, colliers, teams and teamsters had each a niche to fill in this imper- ative transportation of coal and iron to Ham- mertown where the trip hammer, the fire and the water converted iron and steel into util-
COL. SILAS HARRIS. [See Lineage.]
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HISTORY OF PINE PLAINS
ity for man. Skill was only needed, and with that the men stood armed at the forge and the anvil. To-harmonize, combine and keep in motion these elements-things animate and inanimate-in this particular industry was the special work of Col. Harris. The clatter and bustle in Hammertown for a quarter of a century succeeding 1835 is evidence un- impeachable of his business ability in this regard.
James Deuel remained superintendent until 1842, when he retired and' went to Central New York, where he deceased. February second the same year Seth Harris deceased in his eightieth year, but he had retired from the business several years before his death. John Bevans, an experi- enced workman, succeeded Mr. Deuel as superintendent, which position he held until his death in April, 1849-seven years. During these fourteen years-1835 to 1849-ten to twelve hundred dozen of scythes were made annually.
In the fall of 1849, Mr. Jonas Knickerbocker, (see cut page 159) who, after serving an apprenticeship in the Hammertown shops had moved to Saratoga County, returned to Pine Plains and became an equal partner with Col. Harris in the Hammertown plant and also in the Harris plant at Salisbury. He remained, however, at the Hammertown shops as superin- tendent, Col. Harris superintending the outside matters. The principal mechanics at this time were Joseph Gee, - Rice, Philo Barton, Stephen Miller, Walter Ferris, Henry Turner, Milo Knickerbocker and Hiram Krin- kle. In 1850 this plant turned out fifteen hundred dozen scythes. Harris and Knickerbocker continued the business as partners twelve years, the part- nership termimating at the decease of Col. Harris, April 19, 1862.
Colonel Silas Harris was comprehensive and far-reaching in his busi- ness views and inclined to embrace more in his estimates than the means at hand could accomplish ; more liable to over estimate than to fall short, yet whatever it was he worked to accomplish his undertakings. He was a good organizer, and had the energy and concentrative mental ability to focalize all things on the object desired. He controlled the seemingly un- controllable by the force of his will and personal magnetism. Yet he was not combative, nor took pleasure in compulsion by power and opportunity. On the contrary he was kind hearted, generous, social and hospitable. He- was possessed of a comfortable estate at his decease, the result of his wis- dom, industry and economy. His widow deceased June 16, 1877. They had two daughters, Margaret-Mrs. Luquere-who deceased in 1896, and Mary, who married Theodore Pomeroy, of Pittsfield, Mass. She deceased several years since, leaving four children. As Miss Harris she was remark- ably beautiful in person, and equally beautiful and lovely in character.
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HARRIS SCYTHES.
At the death of Colonel Harris Mr. Knickerbocker occupied the shops. under a lease from the heirs of Colonel Harris for two years and continued making scythes, using the following label inscription :
"1776 Steel Back CHAMPION MIRROR BLADE. The best that can be found, If properly used and ground. Jonas Knickerbocker, Pine Plains, Dutchess Co., N. Y. Grind equal on both sides."
At the expiration of this lease he failed to make any further arrange- ment for the property. The shops were unoccupied, and with the other Harris property were sold to Mrs. Giles H. Duxbury in 1879. Decay and dissolution meantime had been doing their work. The trip hammers had been still a dozen years or more, and no force or power had come to revive them. The roofs were mouldering and the walls were crumbling. Ruin had been making her dwelling, not greenly, for no trellised vine was there to screen her work, but ruin, dry, gaunt, naked, starved. Practical life is sterner than sentiment, and hard cash of more utility than treasured mem- ories of the past. Twenty eight thousand brick were sold from the brick shop walls in 1879. Fifteen thousand of these went into the dwelling of G. G. Titus, now (1897) owned by William Bostwick. The remainder of the twenty-eight thousand were piece-mealed to chimneys and furnaces. and patches of need. Stone for the basement walls of the late addition to the Presbyterian church of Pine Plains was hauled from here, and mon- uments in the evergreen cemetery have foundations made from the stones in these ruined walls. Only ruin is left to mark an industry which had its. beginnings a hundred years ago, and even that is being hauled away.
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CHAPTER XXXVII. DIBBLEE-BOOTH HOUSE.
This was the old log house west of the village formerly on the site of the Albert Bowman residence, and is believed to have been originally an Indian trading post, and the first building or log house built in the town. It was twenty-four feet by sixty, one story, built of pine logs hewn square, from ten to twelve inches thick, put up in log cabin style, the ends of the logs halved, the whole fitted together as closely as possible. The trees were probably cut in the immediate vicinity on "the plains," and were yellow pine, thick sap and red heart, resembling the "Norway" pine of Western Michigan. How long this house remained in this condition is not known, but previous to 1775 it had been repaired by taking off the roof and setting studding on the top logs to make an additional story. The whole building was then clapboarded, and plastered inside, and two stairways built on the outside to gain entrance to the upper story and porch. A cut in Smith's History of Duchess County, page 318, shows the house as it was after these repairs, of which the present cut is a copy. In this condition one Jonathan Lewis kept a store there before the revolution, he being the first occupant known by record. He is supposed to have been a brother of the Doctor Lewis, the "Tory," who went to Nova Scotia during the revolutionary war. After the war the Doctor returned, but reproach and scorn produced remorse and he hanged himself in the garret. From this circumstance it was called a "haunted house." In 1876 a centennial tea party was held there. Old time furniture and centennial dishes were brought in, and other revolutionary relics. The ghost of Doctor Lewis did not then and there appear to these centennial witches, nor make the doors "fly open and windows rattle." Wise ghost to keep away just then.
Its next known occupant was Ebenezer Dibblee, who come from Salis- bury, Conn., in 1784; and opened a store. His wife and children came with him. Other children to them were born there later, he meantime keeping store in the first story until 1805, when the store part was used as an additional part of the dwelling. Mr. Dibblee lived here until his decease in 1826. The George Clark heirs owned the land during these years, and Mr. Dibblee possessed it by lease. Henry Hoffman, Esq., succeed- ed Mr. Dibblee in the lease in 1826, and his son Anthony was the next occu- pant of the house. He was succeeded in the lease in 1829 by Justus Booth, who possessed it several years, when it was called "the Booth house." Philip Lasher came in later as a long time occupant when it was called the Booth-Lasher house, which name it bore until it was taken down in 1878, and the present Albert Bowman dwelling erected on its site.
315
DIBBLEE-BOOTH HOUSE.
When the old house was torn down to make room for the present dwelling in 1878, in the top logs of the log part were noticed the deep gains cut into them for the rafters of the original one-story log house. The bark on the unhewn edges of the logs was as sound as when put up, and the saw dust from the old logs had the strong, pitchlike odor of freshly cut pine. The logs were from twenty to sixty feet in length, and the trees from which they were made were about seventy years old according to the count of "rings," each ring indicating an annual growth. A brick taken from the chimney jam had the mould stamp, "1728." It is believed this brick was made in Holland and imported with others by the Dutch settlers on the Hudson and used for buildings. The date on this brick is about the time of the raising of this log house. A coarse shell comb was found in the tearing down having the letters "E. D.," surrounded by a scroll on one side, and "1799 " on the opposite side, all cut in with a knife. This evidently belonged to a member of the Ebenezer ·Dibblee family. Mr. Isaac Huntting has an interesting relic of this old log house in a substan- tial chair, made from one of the pine logs by the late Henry Englekee, a cabinet maker for a half century or more in Pine Plains.
DIBBLEE-BOOTH HOUSE.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
LINEAGE
Family genealogy of late has become a specialty, and the interest in it is on the increase, therefore nothing more than a reference to some early families will be attempted. Moreover a book containing the genealogy of some families in Duchess County is about to be published, thereby lessen- ing the interest that would otherwise pertain to this subject in a town his- tory.
Allerton, Dr. Cornelius (see cut page 298) was a son of Dr. Reuben Allerton, and Lois Atherton of Amenia. Her brother, Cornelius Atherton, was practically the founder of the "Steel Works," which has passed into history as the work of Richard Sackett, the patentee. It was from this uncle that Dr. Allerton received his Christian name. In 1775 Dr. Reuben Allerton presented a bill to the town of Amenia for "doctoring Elkanah Holmes, £6, 20s. 10p., and one year's interest, 8s. 7p." Probably this was near the commencement of his practice. He deceased in Amenia in 1806 in his 56th year. His widow, Lois, deceased at Pine Plains (buried there) August 25, 1828, aged 71. Isaac Allerton, a Baptist minister at one time in "Old North East," was a nephew of Dr. Reuben. March 30, 1813, he was allowed by the overseers of the poor $42 for keeping Althea Bull. She was a worthy and christian woman, and fell to the trust of a kind and gener- ous keeper.
Dr. Cornelius first studied with his father, later a short term at New Haven, and came to Pine Plains (then North East) in 1810. He first ap- pears on record "Cash allowed Doct. Allerton for attendance on Jack Hubbard $2.25." Allowed March 27, 1811. Later he married Clarissa Husted, daughter of Peter Husted, and had children Mary, Sarah and Cornelius. He practiced medicine until his decease April 26. 1855, aged 76. His widow deceased October 28, 1858, aged 63. His perceptive fac- ulties were of high order, was quick and correct in diagnosis, and a bold yet careful practitioner. His quick repartee and ever ready wit made him in his day the most conspicuous man in the town. A genealogy of the Allertons has been published, Walter Scott Allerton it is said being the author.
Baldwin, Ebenezer, first appears in what is now Pine Plains as a hotel keeper in 1797 as successor to Cornelius C. Elmendorph, on the Stis- sing House corner. He was there two years, had daughters Charlotte, Aminta and Clarissa, and sons Frederick and Henry, then school children. Aminta married Gilbert Ketchum, an old North East family, who at one
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LINEAGE.
time was sheriff of Duchess County. After his decease his widow lived in Pokeepsie. Clarissa married William Kirby, brother of Uriah, Clark and Gideon of Pawling. William Kirby deceased not long after his marriage, leaving a comparatively young widow and one daughter, Ann Eliza. Mrs. Kirby never married again, and lived with her sister, Mrs. Ketchum, in Pokeepsie, where each deceased. Ann Eliza married a Dr. Hillis, of Po- keepsie, and has left descendants.
Barton, Artemas S. and Anthony H., now residents of this town, are sons of George Barton, son of Dr. Leonard Barton and Rachel Gale, of Stanford. The Barton and Gale families were early settlers in the north- east part of Stanford and the borders of Amenia. Reed's History of Ame- nia says one Roger Gale lived in that locality in 1776, and a descendant of his emigrated to Illinois, and was the founder of Galesburgh. Josiah Gale and Rachel Mead resided in Stanford and had ten children, eight daughters and two sons. The daughters married, and their descendants are many, some far away. George Barton, a son of Dr. Leonard Barton and Rachel Gale, is the near ancestor of the families in Pine Plains and adjoining. He married a daughter of Henry Hoffman, Esquire, and settled on a farm near Ancram Lead Mines, in Columbia County. He was an enterprising and successful farmer, and widely and honorably known for over half a cen- tury.
Bostwick, Benjamin R., is the Pine Plains ancestor of the families now living in the village. He came here in 1803, bringing sons Reuben W., Henry, Charles B. and Horatio Nelson, generally known as Nelson, and a daughter Eliza, who married Charles Johnson a lawyer of Pine Plains, and later settled in Pokeepsie. Reuben W. and Charles B. later became partners with Fyler Dibblee in merchandising, Reuben W. being a partner in 1816. They had a store at Red Hook which was conducted by Charles B., and one at Pine Plains conducted by Reuben W. A notice of May 31, 1817, reads:
"The subscribers have commenced the mercantile business at Upper Red Hook Landing, under the firm of Dibblee, Bostwick & Co.
FYLER DIBBLEE.
Bostwick & Co., May 31, 1817. REUBEN W. BOSTWICK. CHARLES B. BOSTWICK.
Their advertisement for both stores reads: " A general supply of Gro- ceries, Hardware, Dry Goods, &c. Also iron, steel, oil, paints, glass, nails, salt, fish, &c." These two stores and respective firms continued in busi- ness five years when the following notice appears:
"North East, April 1822. The copartnership heretofore existing be- tween the subscribers under the firm of Fyler Dibblee & Company at North East in Dutchess County, and of Dibblee, Bostwick & Company at Red Hook Landing, was dissolved on the 13th of this instant by mutual con- sent. The mercantile business will in future be conducted at Red Hook by C. B. & R. W. Bostwick, under the firm of C. B. Bostwick & Co., and at
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HISTORY OF PINE PLAINS
North East by R. W. Bostwick, by whom the business of the late firms will be closed."
FYLER DIBBLEE. R. W. BOSTWICK.
The Red Hook store was soon after closed and C. B. Bostwick went to: Pine Plains in business with Reuben W. and his brother Henry, and con- tinued the business in the now Chase store building. Chas. B. was there four years, then went to New York. Later Reuben W. continued alone, Henry having removed to the "City," on the corners east of Smithfield church. Nelson went to the central part of the state. Later Reuben, son of Reuben W., was a partner with his father, and a few years later both retired from the business. Reuben W. was president of the old Pine Plains Bank during its existence (see Pine Plains Bank, p. 275). Reuben, his son, was chosen cashier of this bank in 1852, and later was cashier of Stissing Bank and Stissing National Bank until his decease. (See cut p. 280.) His widow. two daughters and three sons now live in the village, two of his sons William and John H. being respectively president and cashier of Stissing National Bank. (See Stissing National Bank p. 278.)
Bostwick. David, and Margaret his wife, another of the name, set- tled on the now Egbert Smith farm about two miles west of the village as early as 1775, when he signed the "Association " of the Revolutionary war. He deceased about 1784, and his widow was living there in 1790. In Feb- ruary, 1782, his wife Margaret, and Nancy Bostwick supposed to be her daughter, were witnesses in a law suit before Jonathan Landon, Esquire.
Bowman, modern spelling. In old documents it is Boerman and Bowerman, the latter being considered the true form. The Bowermans- from Falmouth, Mass., 1767-came from New Bedford, Conn., to the town of Dover in this county abont 1780, and from there to now Milan about 1790. There were three brothers, Maltiah, Silas and Macy, and their father and sisters in this first emigration. Maltiah settled at Lafayette and built a dwelling on the corner where now is the hotel; Macy settled on the Rowland Story farm, and Silas emigrated to Duanesburgh, near Albany, where he deceased. Maltiah is the ancestor of the Milan families of that name. He had sons Joseph, Otis Eseck, and Sands. Otis E., a surveyor and for twenty years a lawyer, was the father of Jacob S. Bowman, and for many years past a resident of Pine Plains. He built the Bowman Opera House, (see cut p. 206,) and is connected with other business enter- prises in the village. Contemporaneons with the immigrations of the Bowermans in Milan were the Wings in northern Stanford. The two fami- lies intermarried. Matthew Wing was one of the early settlers in New England, and his son Benjamin married Rhoda Rogers, a descendant of John Rogers the martyr, who was burned at Smithfield, England, Feb. 4, 1555. Their son Jonathan married Anna Wood, daughter of Daniel Wood, in 1774. Her mother was Mary Wady, daughter of John Wady, who in 1689 married Joanna Legg, (Spanish,) a descendant of Charles the Fifth,
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