USA > New York > Ulster County > Marlborough > History of the town of Marlborough, Ulster County, New York, from its earliest discovery > Part 21
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ANCIENT CUSTOMS AND HABITS.
selves to be punished the second time in this way. There were stocks at one time in Lattintown yet it is not known that any were used in this town after the year 1800; but the one at Newburgh, which stood at the junction of Colden and Water streets, was there up to about 1810.
The justices of the peace, or some of them, had very crude ideas of law and the administration of justice. There has been many traditions handed down of how they managed their courts and enforced their sen- tences. A dangerous man charged with a serious offence was brought before a justice, the evidence was quite clear against him, and the court promptly ren- dered a decision, sentencing the offender to a long term in a state prison. When it was suggested to the Court that it had no right to so sentence him, the justice replied, " Right or no right, the man is a bad man, and he will have to go to state's prison some- time and tlie sooner he gets there the better; I will send him any way." Two constables were deputized to take him to the prison, but they soon return bring- ing the man with them.
It was said of another justice that when he tried a civil suit he had hard work to weigh his evidence, and in such cases he repaired to his barn and tossed a penny, head for the plaintiff and tail for the lefendant.
The practice of medicine was very crude and un- certain; the doctors had peculiar ideas, and their treatment of patients for the same diseases was the opposite of the practice at present. In almost every conceivable case and without any regard for the con- dition of the patient, he was first bled. There were no trained nurses then, nor hospitals to care for the patients. And the sufferer received such care as the doctor could give and the resources of the family provided. Very little attention was paid to con-
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HISTORY OF MARLBOROUGH.
tagious diseases; in fact only two or three were con- sidered contagious - small-pox, cholera, etc., and no notices were ever seen posted on the houses warning people against contagious disease. The doctors had a few simple remedies which they used for many com- plaints, and always carried their medicine in a box with them. Prescriptions and drug stores were un- known and the patient recovered or died just as fate favored him.
Quilting's were quite a social event among the women, and cutting and sewing together material for rag carpets. The mother of a family would invite in her neighbors of an afternoon to help her, and they would have what they called a quilting bee, and at supper time the husbands of the women would call and all have supper together.
When the women folks attended a dinner party or other social function. they took their knitting with them, and set about in a circle for hours talking over the events of the times, and knitting the stockings and mittens of the family. The stockings were long and the mittens thick and warm; there were no idle hands then. A woman was never without some work, and her numerous duties compelled her constant at- tention. After their day's labor they spent their evenings spinning yarn, making or mending clothes for their families, etc., while the men sat around the fire-place and smoked their long clay pipes, read, played checkers - which was a favorite game - or told stories. The women at that time did more work than the men; it appears the reverse now.
It has been handed down to us by tradition that the neighbors were very kind to each other in cases of sickness and death. They would leave their own cares and families to administer to the afflicted. There were no hearses or closed carriages for the funeral. An undertaker at Lattintown, and after-
295
ANCIENT CUSTOMS AND HABITS.
ward at Marlborough would make the coffin after the death, take his wagon and convey the corpse to the grave; and the neighbors carried the mourners and such friends as desired to attend the funeral. There were no carriages to pay for and the under- taker's bill was generally from ten to twenty dollars. Field stones marked the place of burial or else plain cheap slabs of redstone or marble. The income from the farms was small, and very little money was spent even for necessaries. Certainly there was no money to squander and a little money provided everything necessary, as most things were cheap.
To be sure there were no overshoes; the men had nothing to wear in the snow but coarse cowhide boots, and the women leather shoes. The children plodded their way through rain and snow to school and sat with wet feet the remainder of the day. If wet feet and exposure had produced consumption and kindred diseases, all the people would have died, but they were born to it, and lived through it, and left a pretty rugged posterity.
There were no cigarettes; no little boys were seen about the town with this emblem of disease and premature death in their mouths. Cigars were al- most unknown, at least few had money for so great a luxury, and all who wished to smoke had to resort to the white clay pipe. Most of the old people of both sexes smoked the pipe, and it appeared a source of much consolation to the extremely old and infirm, when they had few comforts, to sit around the fire- place and smoke their pipes. Certainly the pipe was a safe thing compared to the cigars and cigarettes.
The principal intoxicating liquors were apple whiskey and New England rum. There was a dis- tillery here and several in what is now Plattekill. Rum sold for three cents a glass, or thirty cents a gallon. There was no duty on it, and a license cost
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HISTORY OF MARLBOROUGH.
but five dollars. It was perfectly pure - just as it came from the still. There was nothing cheap enough to adulterate it with except water, and though it had lots of alcohol in it and would make a person drunk, yet it poisoned no one. There were no drugs in it-just the pure liquor as it was distilled. There was much intoxication as most every one used it, and vigorous steps were taken in olden times to suppress it. At one time temperance societies were formed in each school district. Farmers thought they could not get in the hay and harvest without it. All the work was done by hand, and the men worked the long sum- mer days from sun to sun-no ten-hour work then - but they all used lots of whiskey and rum and did big work. Ordinary wages, by the day, was about fifty cents ; in hay and harvest, one dollar and board. After the harvest the day men threshed out the grain by the tenth, and laid wall at thirty cents a rod the rest of the season. If a man was industrious and wanted a job for the winter, he would engage to build a long strip of wall. Before the ground froze up he would stake it out, throw out the stone, make the foundation, and lay the wall during the winter. It was not uncommon to see men all over the town doing this in winter. Stone walls for farmers was all the go. They had to build fences, not only to protect the crops but also to get rid of the stone. These men made a business of wall-laying from their child- hood and were quite rapid at it, and made good wages for those times. There are many fences now standing in the town that were built a hundred years ago; but it is a lost art now and so expensive that the old- fashioned stone wall is a thing of the past.
Social gatherings were usually confined to neigh- borly afternoon visits. Large evening parties were not common, and when they were held the time was not generally spent in dancing by the young, but in
THE NOAH WOOLSEY HOUSE.
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ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS OF THE WEATHER, ETC. 297
games of different kinds in which there was much 'kissing. Dancing was reserved for the ballroom with music on the violin; and any tavern of any pretence had a room known as the ballroom. These public balls were opposed by the churches and resulted in many church trials.
Apple-cuts were common in the fall, to supply material for apple sauce and pies for winter. These were mostly for the benefit of the young people who had an opportunity for a good time when the work was done. The social manners and customs of those days were simple and not hardened with the formali- ties of present times and young ladies in their calico dresses were thought very pretty and nice by the young men.
Quiet and decorum was required on the streets on Sunday, or else the offender soon found himself in the stocks.
ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS OF THE WEATHER, ETC.
It may be interesting to note severe and unusual weather and extraordinary storms. Memoranda have been left by different persons who kept records of such events. By an old diary it appears there were great swarms of locusts in the years 1724, 1741, 1758, and 1775. In the month of June, 1774, there was a tempestuous rain attended with great wind and very severe thunder and lightning, together with hailstones as large as pullets' eggs, so that the fields were in a short time overflowed with water, and grain, apples, and young fruit trees were destroyed. In June, 1751, there was a storm of similar character.
In the winter of 1737, there was a great fall of rain, which froze on the trees, and so loaded them with ice that thousands of them broke in pieces. On
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HISTORY OF MARLBOROUGH.
the 17th and 18th of May, 1758, there was a very great flood of water, and on the 24th day of the same month there was a storm which is thus described :
" Then we had a tempestuous and violent shower with rain, wind and hailstones very large. Wind N. N. E. which de- stroyed all the rye, apples and gardens, and almost all the fruit trees are damaged. * * The very apple trees which are young the bark was beaten loose by the weight and violence of the hailstones that fell. Some fowls of the air were struck dead by the hailstones that fell upon them."
In the year 1770 there were vast quantities of worms during the month of July, and in 1773 large numbers of caterpillars doing great damage, the caterpillars making special havoc in apple and oak trees. In October, 1779, there was an unusually great flood, and on the 9th of May, 1781, there was another. Streams and water courses overflowed their banks and did great damage. It appears from several sources that the summer of 1760 was very remarkable on account of the great rainfall and freshet. The appearance of the grain before harvest gave promise of very abundant crop, but during harvest they were visited with so much and frequent rains that the greater part of the wheat was entirely spoiled. The freshet is thus described in a letter dated August 11th, 1760:
But of all the showers of rain that I ever saw, I have seen none to equal that of Saturday, the 26th ult, when here fell so much that the water came streaming down the street, or rather rolling wave after wave like a small river. My thoughts were very much fixed on the great foundation of the whole globe, when the fountains of the great were broken up, and the windows of heaven opened, pouring the water down in such quantities as aged people have not before known. * * * This year I think is a very remarkable year, worthy of notice, and ought to cause us to reflect on the conduet of our life. It is a very signal visit from the Almighty God, these great rains which have thrown down strong buildings, and the con- tinuance thereof day after day might cause any considerate per- son to fear that nothing would be left of the harvest the ensu-
ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS OF THE WEATHER, ETC. 299
ing year; but blessed be God who has yet in mercy left us plenty. May the judgments and mercies of God excite us to an earnest seeking, and deep humiliation, before the throne of grace, imploring that God may be pleased to avert heavier strokes to fall upon our guilty heads which we justly deserve.
The winter of 1817 and 1818 was most remarkable, and recognized as colder than any recorded in many years. An unusual amount of snow fell. On the 11th of February, the thermometer registered 32 degrees below zero. The cold extended as far south as New Orleans, and sleighs were used there in January. The Potomac opposite Alexandria was frozen over in Feb- ruary. The mail was carried from New York to New Jersey on the ice. The river here in some places was frozen twenty inches thick. The streams became so solid with ice that many fish perished; and it was hard to obtain water for cattle. About the first of March the weather became very mild, and heavy rains com- menced on the third which raised the streams so rap- idly with the melting snow that almost every bridge in the town was swept away, and the streams being choked by ice flooded the fields.
Following are some extracts from an old memor- anda concerning the weather, which I trust will prove of interest to my readers :
1819 .- This month (January) pleasant without snow, the weather continuing warm with some small rains till the 13th of February when the weather changed cold with heavy snow from the northeast.
June 29 .- This day we experienced one of the most severe hail storms my eyes ever beheld, the wind from the north blowing hard with heavy thunder and heavy rain mixed with the large hailstones, the size of a large nutmeg and some measuring four inches in circumference. the ground almost covered with the windows clashing in pieces in every direction, a scence interesting and awful beyond description. Eighty panes of glass were stove in on the north side of the Methodist church that being most exposed.
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HISTORY OF MARLBOROUGH.
November 12, 1820 .- This day the snow fell twelve inches deep on the level.
1822 .- May the first day. Apples trees in blossom.
November 25th. Weather remarkably warm and pleasant, and has been for the past two weeks.
January 1, 1823 .- Sleighing from the 1st to the 19th good, and pleasant weather, then comes warm with rain destroying the sleighing. The month ends pleasant, weather moderately cold.
March 1 .- Weather clear and cold, good sleighing, snow two feet deep on the level.
March 30th .- Snow from the northeast, violent.
Mareh 31st .- Still snowing and blows with increased vio- lence ..
May 8th .- Apples have begun to bloom.
May 31st .- Hard frost, considerable ice.
June 8th .- Rain, the season most beautiful. Grass and grain remarkably fine.
October 24th .- Hail, rain, and snow from the northeast. October 25th .- Ground covered with snow.
February 5th, 1824 .- Clear and very cold. Thermometer 20 degrees below at 12 o'clock.
March 3rd .- Clear, pleasant weather. Wind northeast. Ground free from snow. Capt. Lockwood sailed for New York. Some ice in the river.
March 4th .- The wind heavy in the forenoon from the north- east, in the afternoon warm and pleasant.
March 5th .- This is one of the handsomest days for the season.
March 6th .- Warm and pleasant, wind south. This day sowed sallad seed.
March 7th .- In the morning warm, misty weather. The appearances of winter have all disappeared. Rain through the night.
8th .- In the morning clear, wind northwest, heavy.
9th .- Weather pleasant, wind northeast.
10th .-
11th .- Weather cloudy in the morning, in the afternoon clear and pleasant.
12th .- Cloudy in the afternoon. A trifle of snow through the night. Some rain. Raw. cold weather, wind northeast. Afternoon pleasant.
13th .- With wind northwest. 14th eloudy in morning, wind south.
ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS OF THE WEATHER, ETC. 301
15th .- Clear and pleasant. 16th. Snowed hard in the morn- ing, wind northeast. Continues all night.
17th .- Snow about five inches deep. Weather warm. Wind northeast moderate. Cloudy all day.
18th .- Cloudy through the day. Weather moderate. 19th. Foggy till ten o'clock A.M. Clears off warm and pleasant, at evening clouds np. Snow through the night, 2 inches. Wind south.
20th .- In the morning cloudy, wind southwest. In the afternoon clear. Wind shifted to northwest, blows heavy.
21st .- Clear wind northeast, light and chilly.
The month of April, weather variable.
May 1st .- Peach trees in full bloom. Weather handsome.
3rd .- Appletrees begin to blossom. 9th. This day every- thing appears to the best. Fruit trees in full bloom. The season forward.
Jan. 1st, 1825. Warm and pleasant. For several days, no sleighing. 12, 13, 14, and 15th warm, rain. Weather unusu- ally warm through the winter, the most so that I ever saw.
April 30th .- Appletrees in bloom.
1826 .- The winter unusually warm except three or four days. May commences with dry weather, and continues with- out rain until the 3rd of June, then a heavy shower and plenty of locust, it being seventeen years since their last appear- ance.
1827 .- The winter handsome with good sleighing all the winter.
1830. April 15 .- Peach trees begin to bloom. 25th. Apple trees begin to blossom. Spring very forward.
Jan. 1, 1831 .- Grand eclipse at 12 o'clock noon of the sun. 11 1-2 digits.
1832, May 9 .- Peach and plum trees in bloom. Apple trees just begin to blossom.
July the 23 .- Began my harvest, the latest I have ever known.
April 15, 1834 .- Peach trees begin to bloom. 25th, Apple trees in bloom. May the 15 .- Ice half inch thick in the morn- ing. Extreme cold. Snow visible on the mountains at 12 o'clock.
July 7, 8, 9th, the three hotest days. Thermometer 104 degrees at 2 o'clock P. M. in the shade.
1835 .- January the coldest weather in 40 years.
April. Cold month. Very backward.
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HISTORY OF MARLBOROUGH.
May 16 .- Apple trees just beginning to bloom. Cold in the extreme.
The whole of the summer dry in the extreme, and all the fall until the 23d of November, then snow 3 inches. Con- tinued till the 3rd of December very cold. Sharp windless weather.
Dee.10th .- Snow 10 inches deep. Good sleighing.
16th .- Weather excessively cold. Rode to Newburgh and back, paid dear for the ride. 17th. River closed. 18. Con- tinues cold.
November the 22, 1836 .- Snow sufficient for sleighing. Con- tinnes to increase till it was 3 feet deep all over the country. Good sleighing for four months.
27 March .- Sleigh and horse travelled from Kingston to Hampton on the ice.
April 3 .- The river still closed like mid-winter weather. Mild and pleasant. The average depth of snow two feet.
April 4 .- The navigation opened to David Sands' dock. All fast above. Steamboat from New York as far as our landing.
May 10 .- Apple trees in bloom. Just beginning.
May 13th .- At night heavy frost. 32 degrees.
1837. May 2 .- Cold. Ice half an inch thick. Thermom- eter 26 degrees.
May 29th .- Heavy frost in the morning.
THE ANCIENT BURIAL PLACES.
One of the oldest graveyards was at Lattintown, on the lands now owned by T. B. Odell, about where his large barns now stand. All traces of the yard had been removed before Odell became the owner, except the grave of Joseph Carpenter, who died in 1766. The graveyard was first used as such about 1750, and was used as a burial ground from that time up to 1808, when the Baptist graveyard was opened, but some interments were made there after this. There were perhaps at one time a hundred graves or more of the oldest inhabitants of Lattintown. Most of the stones at the graves were rude field stones, the yard
THE OLD CHESTNUT TREE AT LYON'S CORNERS.
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THE ANCIENT BURIAL PLACES.
was neglected and suffered to go to decay, the stones were removed, and the land used for other purposes. It was used at first as a family burial yard for the Carpenter, Caverly and Latting families, but after- ward all the people about there used it; as it was on private ground there was no means of protecting it.
On a beautiful small tract of tableland overlook- ing the majestic Hudson and lying in the bend of the Smith pond and brook, the waters of which comes foaming to the river over a very steep ledge of rocks, descending about 150 feet in less than 100 yards toward the Hudson, and commanding a view of the river and surrounding country and hills for several miles, is the old Smith burial ground. No more beauti- ful spot can be found in a day's travel along the river. All overgrown with brush and weeds, and the stones lying about the ground or falling down,-in this ne- glected spot is laid some of the best people the town ever had or produced.
It has been claimed that the Smiths first had this yard, but there is a tradition that the Indians buried their dead here for years before and after the dis- covery of the country, and a space appears to be left as if it were formerly used, and I find on two field stones the following :
(L Cr + Ad
M + OAd)
which I think must be Indian graves.
Leonard Smith did not come here until 1762, and he purchased the north part of the Barbarie Patent which part contained 1,000 acres; it formerly be- longed to Hugh Wentworth. I find the following graves prior to that time :
IR David Talcot 1756 Died May 24th 1762
showing it was used for a graveyard before the Smiths had it. There are at least 100 graves with
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HISTORY OF MARLBOROUGH.
field stones unmarked. There are many of the old red imported tombstones which were first used for such purpose. The following inscriptions are on some of the oldest stones :
Leonard Smith Anning Smith Nathan Smith
Died ye 6th 1787 Died Oct. 30th 1802 Died Sept. 30th 1798 Age 69 years 6 mo Age 59 yrs. 10 mo. Aged 33 yrs. 9 mo.
Ruth, wife of Leonard Smith March 19th 1799 Age 81 yrs.
Eleanor Smith Sept. 1835 89 yrs. 2 mo.
Lewis Smith May 1815 35 yrs. 2 mo.
Clark Smith June 31st 1802 35 yrs. 9 mo.
Jamima, wife of Clark Smith July 7th 1802 35 yrs. 6 mo.
Nelle Smith, daughter of John M. Smith March 11th 1790
Deborah Smith July 25th 1838 86 yrs. 20 da.
Luff Smith Aug. 24th 1801 56 yrs. 1 mo.
David Stratton Temperance Parkins James Norton July 7th 1809 42 yrs.
Feb. 17th 1803 June 12th, 1789.
34 yrs. 74 yrs.
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THE ANCIENT BURIAL PLACES.
T. K. 1789
Mary, wife of Uriah Coffin Oct. 1795 39 yrs.
Hannah Davis Dec. 7th 1797 104 yrs. 11 mo.
Valentine Lewis May 20th 1832 60 yrs.
Ruth Woolsey, wife of Valentine Lewis
July 1855 76 yrs.
Amirhuhama Bradbury A Revolutionary Soldier
Born March 11th 1762
Died May 5th 1830
Sarah Quick Wife of Luke C. Quick April 1814 Age 72 yrs.
MR
PR
1776 1776
This yard has been used more or less until within a few years. In 1812 the land on which the Methodist Episcopal church stands was conveyed by David Sands to the trustees of the church, and a few years thereafter interments were made in this yard, and afterward the yard was increased or adjoining land was purchased and sold to plot owners, and it has been the principal place of burial in this village ever since.
The Marlborough Presbyterian churchyard is al- most as old as the first two spoken of; the first inter- ment there was in March, 1764,- a child of James Merritt; and the following are some of the oldest graves I find there :
Richard Woolsey, born 1697, died 1777, aged 80 years. Sarah Fowler, wife of Richard Woolsey, died 1770. Dr. Abijah Perkins. died Nov. 23, 1776, aged 60 years. John Stratton, died Dec. 1798, 73 years.
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HISTORY OF MARLBOROUGH.
Stephen Case, died 1194, aged 56 years.
Nathaniel DuBois, died Apr. 1788, aged 30 years.
Maj. Lewis DuBois, born Sept. 14, 1728, died Dec. 29, 1802. 74 yrs.
Daniel Lockwood, died 1801, 38 years.
Jonathan Brown, died 1801, 74 years.
Reuben Tooker, died Sept. 1807, 63 years.
John Woolsey, died Dee. 12, 1815, aged 82 years.
Henry Woolsey, died Feb. 1839, aged 18 years. (For more than half a century prominently identified with the Methodist church.)
John Polhamus, died Oct. 1801, aged ֏1 years.
Edward Conklin, died Apr. 1818, aged 82 years.
Michael Wygant, died Sept. 1802, aged 84 years.
Mathew Wygant, died Sept. 1831, aged 85 years.
William Soper, died Feb. 1837, aged 68 years. "Born in Exeter, England, and at an early age became a naturalized citizen, and held several offices of Honor and responsibility in this country."
Charles Millard, died April 1822, aged 64 years. "He sus- tained the character of Good Man, and for more than twenty years faithfully dicharged the official duties of leading Elder and Deacon in the Presbyterian church." "The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance."
Sacred to the memory of Selah Tuthill, An eleet Member of Congress, who died Sept. 7, 1821, Ae. 49 years, 10 months, and 12 d'ys. "Cut down in the midst of life and usefulness."
" In Memory of Wolvert Ecker, who died Jan. 17, 1799; aged 67 years. "A man of sorrow and acquainted with grief."- Isa. 53d, 3d.
"No more shall we thy much lov'd face review : Adieu forever, best of friends, adieu."
Selah Tuthill, died Oet. 1833, aged 27 years. (He was the editor of the Milton Pioneer.)
Andrew Cropsey, Nov. 1824, aged 69 years.
John Cropsey, Nov. 1832, aged 50 years.
John Duffield, died July 1822, aged 78 years.
Timothy Wood, died Nov. 1853, aged 89 years. His wives : Mary, died 1816. aged 46 years; Cyntha, 1818, 56 years ; Eleanor. 1840, 68 years.
Jonathan Cosman, died Ang. 1823, aged 62 years.
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THE ANCIENT BURIAL PLACES.
Rev. James Ostrum, Sept. 17. 1871, 90 years. "He was for 62 years a faithful and useful minister of the gospel, and for several years the beloved pastor of this village."
John S. Purdy, died Sept. 1856, 93 years. John Fowler, died 1827, 13 years.
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