USA > New York > Orange County > Newburgh > Newburgh; her institutions, industries and leading citizens, historical, descriptive and biographical > Part 12
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"You have now around you many revolutionary characters (amongst whom I glory in being numbered), who, like you, heard the clang of battle and saw the blood of war, and whose tottering limbs and hoary locks do not prevent them from ex- ulting in the reflection that they fought and bled with Washington and La Fayette. * * * If your time had permitted, it was our intention to invite you to view the classic ground where the American Army rested upon their arms, after achieving the glorious object for which they were called together, where the immortal Washington, surround- ed by his brave and experienced generals, offered up to the omnipotent God of battles his thanksgiving and praise for favoring his arm to emancipate from the oppression of a foreign potentate three millions of his fellow beings and establish them a free, happy nation; and where he disbanded an army whose hearts he possessed, and like another Cincinnatus retired from the field of victory to the plough and the arms of domestic peace."
The Marquis was then conducted by the committee to the steamboat, which left the dock about 2 o'clock, a. m., for Poughkeep- sie. A deputation from Newburgh accom- panied him to Poughkeepsie.
RESIDENCE OF A. H. HAVEMEYER-New Windsor.
He then appeared on a balcony on the front of the Orange Hotel, under a large arch, and re- ceived the cheers and congratulations of the im- mense crowd which filled the street.
About 9 o'clock a deputation from Hiram Lodge, F. & A. M., invited and accompanied the General, his son and M. Levasseur to the lodge room in the hotel building, where he was received with Masonic honors, and the Rev. Dr. John Brown delivered to him an address, to which La Fayette made an eloquent and appropriate answer. After an introduction to his Masonic brethren, he retired to the rooms provided for him and partook of refreshments. He appeared to be much fatigued, and on being introduced to Colonel Brodhead he requested him to tender his thanks to the cavalry under his command for their attention.
The clamor of thousands of people in the streets- to see him induced him to show himself again on the balcony, and he expressed to them his regret that unforeseen events had prevented him from arriving by daylight in the village where he was experiencing such a kind and marked attention.
While the supper was preparing he, with some gentlemen of the Cincinnati Society and the Corpora- tion of New York, visited the ladies in the ball room at Crawford's Hotel, with the decorations of which he appeared much pleased. Declining a superb seat prepared for him he walked through the room among
RESIDENCE OF MRS. E. R. JOHNES-Balmville.
A REMINISCENCE OF VILLAGE DAYS.
-
By N. P. Willis, in " Out-Doors at Idlewild," 1855.
UT the most interesting shop in Newburgh would never be found out by the stranger. It is indeed, curiously contradictory in its looks and run of custom. You would go in and out of it and describe it as a cheap bakery. one of those old-fashioned, dingy half-shops, with a long, single counter, on the street end of which is a glass case for tarts and cakes, while the remaining extension is covered with fresh loaves, scales and weights, brown paper and ginger-bread. It is partly a grocery, too ; and behind you against the wall, as you stand at the counter, are boxes of herrings, drums of figs, coffee-bags, peanuts, starch, soap, lemons, candles, and brooms. At the far end where the bags and barrels are set back to give a foot or two of space, there stands a cheap old stove, with a rusty funnel running up to the ceiling, and one or two old wooden chairs around it. In all Newburgh there is scarce so shabby a shop. Yet, in all Orange County there is not an apartment which receives such an amount of aristocratic society. With the first settlement of the town Chapman's bakery was the stopping place of the vehicles of the wealthy families of the country round about ; and in spite of a modern and spacious confectioner's shop a little further on, and larger and more comfortable "stores " of every kind, near by, the descendants of the old family aristocracy have continued to make the narrow baker's shop their place of gossip and gathering. Towards noon of every pleasant day, Winter and Summer, the handsomest equipages in the neighborhood begin to assemble along that part of the sidewalk at Newburgh. The gentlemen hand the ladies into the shop, and there, for two or three hours, is the place for rendez- vous, after the different errands of each, the place to be found by their friends at a distance, and the place to exchange news, and gos-
sip away the morning. There are no better horses, more well -- appointed turnouts, or neater coachmen, on any public promenade in in the country than are daily to be seen here. The gentlemen who group about the flagstone step, or inside the little glass door, are of high consideration in the city, for their fortunes and family names. The ladies who lay their costly hand- kerchiefs down upon the flour-barrels and sit around the stove in the old whittled chairs, and eat ginger-nuts at the counter, are very fash- ionable persons in full prom- enade toilette. And so crowd- ed is the long shop, between eleven and two, that the boy who has looked in at the bow-window, and come in for his cent's worth of gin- ger-bread, fairly elbows his way into the " best society " to get at it.
But the curious part of Chapman's bakery is, that it suffices for the social want N. P. WILLIS. of a large and wealthy neighborhood. There is no other so- ciety. Nothing like a "party" is ever given by the rich fre- quenters of the bakery. Dinner parties (in the common acceptation of the word among the people of the same fortunes) are unknown. Even calls on each other at their houses are rare. And this is from no intended economy of time and money. They lead lives of ample leisure, and are as liberal and cordial-hearted a set of people as any in the world. But the restless liquid, society, has been permitted to stand still, and this (the social chemist will be interested to know) is the natural precipitate. The Ducal Cascine at Florence-that centre of the public drive, where all the equipages of the fash- ionable meet and stand still at a certain hour, is the Chapman's bakery of the Tuscan Court and nobility, only that they differ from the Newburgh aristocracy in wanting balls and suppers besides. The English ex- clusives need a Hyde Park for a comparison of equipages, matinees for a comparison of out-door toilettes, and routs for the exchange of ideas and the bettering of acquaintances, but all these "first principles" are met and their wants supplied by Chapman's bakery, at Newburgh. Whether the bubbling cham- pagne of fashionable life all over the world would, if left long enough to itself, settle down into the same small modicum of full- ness of the social glass, is-open to dis- cussion.
" IDLEWILD"-THE HOME OF WILLIS .- Cornwall.
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NEWBURGH.
GRAVE E FICAR
FURNITURE WAHERJUMS
IKEL
SE
SEEDS
WATER STREET-LOOKING NORTH FROM "THE SQUARE."
BROADWAY-LOOKING EAST FROM DUBOIS STREET.
STEPPING-STONES IN A CITY'S GROWTH.
Newburgh's Progress in Ten Years.
9
HE City of Newburgh was incorporated April 22, 1865, and the first Mayor, Aldermen and other city officers were elected in the Spring of 1866. The incorporation was one of the encouraging results of a period of com- parative great prosperity and growth. The village had always made substantial progress, though during a certain period the growth was slow, owing to the de- pressing effects resulting from the change in the mode of inland trans- portation from stages to railroad trains, and from the exclusion of the village for a time from railroad communication.
Without the financial ability to so control the enterprise of other communities as to render the moderni avenues of communication which they have constructed tributary to the interests of Newburgh, the capitalists and business men of the place made a bold struggle for years against the combina- tions that threatened its overthrow. At each successive stage of the changes grow- ing out of the general devel- opment of the country success- ive generations have met the re- quirements that have been laid upon them. The labor, the liber- ality and the capital which were necessary in 1801 to carry the Cochecton turnpike to com- pletion were, considering the comparative IMAC value of capital and labor, equal to that involved in the construction of any railroad in the county. But it was not the only undertaking of that character; its capital of $126,000 was followed by a capital of $5,000 in the New Windsor turnpike, $90 000 in the Newburgh and Ulster turnpike, $35,000 in the Newburgh and Sullivan turnpike, $14,000 in the Newburgh and Plattekill turnpike, and $14,000 in the Snake Hill turnpike-making a total of $284,000 expended for roads prior to 1820. This sum was to some extent shared by residents along the lines of the roads, but the greater part was drawn from Newburgh .*
In 1829 Newburgh undertook single-handed the construction of a railroad from the Hudson to the Delaware River, with a view to reach the coal beds of Pennsylvania; but the charter was permitted to be- come void. When the construction of the New York and Erie was commenced, an effort was made to connect the Hudson and Delaware with the Erie, and thus give Newburgh the eastern terminus; but through local jealousies and disagreements between the leading cap- italists of Newburgh and of Goshen, in regard to the route which the Erie should take, Newburgh lost the prize which her people hoped to grasp. The road to the Delaware, however, was re-chartered and a portion of the route was graded.
Under the financial revulsions of 1837, work was suspended on both roads, but on the Erie it was soon resumed, and the road was com- pleted from Piermont to Goshen. At this time difficulties arose in the prosecution of the work on the Erie, and fresh efforts were made to secure to Newburgh some of the ad- vantages of its construction. This was ac- complished by an agreement on the part of the Erie Com- pany -confirm- ed by an act of the Legislature releasing the company from its liability to the State -to construct a branch road to Newburgh.
LIBERTY STREET-LOOKING SOUTH FROM FARRINGTON STREET.
Newburgh's subscription to the construction of the Erie Branch amount- ed to one-third of its cost, and an additional sum of $145,000 by loan or endorse- ments.
The road was opened with appropriate ceremonies in January, 1850, and was the first of the many railroads which now " literally cover the county with a network of iron rails." In the meantime the Hudson River Railroad was building along the other side of the river. These roads encouraged the establishment of manufactories, and by thickly populating the surrounding country, served to build up a new country trade.
The years 1851-3 were remarkably prosperous; many enterprises were started, and among the more important were the Washington
* " History of Orange County, 1881."
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NEWBURGH.
Iron Works, the Quassaick Bank, the Savings Bank, gas works and the present water works system. The construction of two plank roads, one to Ellenville and the other to Shawangunk, was also un dertaken, and both were completed, involving an expenditure of about $150,000.
The population of the town and village increased from 9,001 in 1845, to 15,196, in 1860. In 1862 the Warwick Valley Railroad was built from Greycourt to Warwick, and trains began running daily between Newburgh and Warwick. Of the capital stock ($100,000) Newburgh furnished $10,500.
During the war the total number of enlistments from Newburgh was 2,410, and the total amount of money raised (aside from general
and old ones extended, and the private building operations were considerable.
In 1868-9 the Newburgh and New York Railroad was built, being completed in September of the latter year. It connected with the Erie at Turners and made a shorter route to New York than the old branch, and also brought Newburgh into easy communication with another section of the county. About the same period Newburgh capital contributed in a measure to the construction of the Dutchess and Columbia Railroad, now known as the Newburgh, Dutchess and Connecticut Railroad, and for a period a free ferry was maintained between this city and Dutchess Junction, the terminus of the road on the opposite side of the river.
A- 1
SOUTH END WATER FRONT-BEFORE THE
taxes) was $367,644.94. But the sacrifices imposed on the town by the war were not without their recompense. Great activity was excited in channels which the war developed. The Washington Iron Works, for example, had so increased its business that in 1865 its works covered twenty acres, and its monthly pay roll was $60,000. Other branches of business prospered likewise, and the prices of real estate and the compensation of labor were greatly enhanced. At the time of its incorporation the city had a population of 13,905, and with the town added, 17,389.
The effect of the municipal reorganization was another impetus to business. Many public improvements were made, the facilities for public education were greatly multiplied, new streets were opened
In the Winter of 1867-8 the Newburgh and Wallkill Valley Rail- road Company was organized, and in the May following the Legis- lature made it lawful to borrow on the credit of the city $350,000 to aid the construction of the road, and to issue the bonds of the city therefor, on condition that the consent should be obtained in writing of a majority of the taxpayers, who should own or represent more than one-half (in value) of the real and personal property of the city. The route selected was from a connection at Vails Gate with the Newburgh Branch and the Newburgh and New York Railroad to Walden. But to that route a number of influential citizens objected, and, furthermore, the Newburgh and New York Railroad Company having made no tangible agreement to second the enterprise, the
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result was the failure to obtain the necessary consent to bond the city. The Newburgh and Midland Railway Company was organized shortly afterward, mainly by the opponents of the Vails Gate route. George Clark was elected President; Odell S. Hathaway, Vice-Presi- dent; Alfred Post, Treasurer; John Dales, Secretary; and the Directors were, besides the above named, A. S. Cassedy, A. T. Rand, Bradbury C. Bartlett, Seth M. Capron, David Moore, James W. Taylor, Wm. R. Brown, W. J. Roe, jr., Lewis M. Smith and Wm. O. Mailler. An effort was made to bond the city for $500,000, and, what was presumed to be, the consent of taxpayers representing more than one-half of the value of the taxable property was obtained. The project was strongly opposed by the supporters of the Vails
the condition of the city in which they lived. The project of building a road to the Wallkill valley has been agitated every few years since then.
Newburgh experienced about the same effects from the reaction fol- lowing " war times" and from the panic of 1873 as did other cities, except that it continued to progress, and resumed its normal ac- tivity at the first sign of the returning tide of prosperity. In 1875 the value of the annual products of the city was estimated at $3,369, 175, of which the seven steam engine works produced nearly one-half.
The past decade has been the most prosperous in the history of Newburgh. In 1880 the growth became so rapid and substantial, so tangible and definable, that it was popularly called in the language
M. N.C.
WEST SHORE RAILROAD WAS BUILT.
Gate route, as the line selected was to extend from the west end of the city to Walden, thence to Fair Oaks on the Midland Railroad. County Judge Thomas George decided that the signatures to the petition did not represent one-half of the value of the taxable property of the city-$555,099 of the amount being held by executors, administrators, etc., whose right to represent the trusts in this matter was denied. The General Term affirmed the decision, Justices Tappen and Gilbert concurring and Justice Barnard dissenting. That ended the project.
These various enterprises, even though some of them failed, owing to honest differences of opinions, proved the remarkable public spirit, the energy and liberality of our citizens in those days. They encouraged and contributed freely to all proper schemes to improve
of the day " a boom." It has continued ever since, in apparently the same degree. All branches of business have felt the impulse, and under its enlivening effects the appearance of the city has been transformed and its size greatly increased. The growth has been so remarkable for an eastern town as to attract wide attention. The population has increased about twenty-eight per cent. in the ten years, and now (1891) it is estimated at about 24,000, not counting the large suburban population. Newburgh is a much larger and more import- ant city than would appear from a consideration of the space and pop- ulation enclosed within its corporate lines, and our people com- monly estimate that it is the center of trade for a population of 65,000. The number of our manufacturing industries has nearly doubled in
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NEWBURGH.
the past ten years, while in the value of their products they have in- creased many fold. Large districts within the corporate limits hitherto sparsely or altogether unoccupied, have been compactly built up, and both private and public enterprise has been greatly stimulated. The increase promises to continue in as great ratio for years to come, when Newburgh's advantages as a manufacturing city shall become more fully appreciated.
One of the forces which imparted the impetus was the building of several new lines of railways to the city, opening up new sections and affording competing routes to all parts of the country. Seeing that every requisite-water and rail communication, cheap coal, cheap freight rates, nearness to the great trade center of the nation, a large population, and every desirable municipal convenience-awaited their hand, it was a natural consequence that manufacturers should be at- tracted to the place, and that those already here should put forth greater efforts.
A NEW ROUTE TO THE EAST.
Newburgh awoke Thursday morning, December S, 1881, to find itself the western terminus of the New York and New England Rail- road, extending from the Hudson to the Atlantic, through Danbury, Waterbury and Hartford to Springfield, Worcester, Norwich, Prov- idence and Boston. The first work for this road on the east side of the river was begun March 27, of that year. A large tract of land was re- claimed from the river, piers and ferry- slips were built, tracks laid and sev- eral depot buildings erected. On this side a ferry-slip was built in the Erie Railroad yard, and subsequently anoth- er in the West Shore Railroad yard. The first regular passen- ger train arrived at Fishkill from the East in the morning of December 8, and passengers crossed the river on the ferry to Newburgh, and continued their journey westward. For a few weeks freight trains were ferried across the river hy tugboats and scows, but on January 6, 1882, the large transfer steamer William T. Hart arrived, and took her place on the route, and has ever since been engaged in transporting trains be- tween the Erie and West Shore, on the west side of the river, and the New York and New England, the New York Central, and the New- burgh, Dutchess and Connecticut on the east side. It is the largest transfer steamer on the Atlantic coast, being nearly three hundred feet in length, eighty feet width of beam, and capable of carrying twenty- seven cars in one load. It has two decks, and two engines and two boilers, working independently, and is steered by steam. As the distance is only about a mile between docks, and as the boat is kept running day and night, some idea can be formed of the heavy traffic. Passenger trains, as a rule, are not now transferred from shore to shore, but for a considerable period express trains were run without change between Washington and Boston, via Newburgh. Hundreds of freight cars are transferred daily, thus making a direct and cheap route between the New England States and the West and Southwest. The coming of the new road caused important enlargements in the
railroad facilities in Newburgh. The Erie laid another track to Vails Gate Junction, made an additional switchyard, and built a new round- house at West Newburgh, and, in brief, practically doubled its already large terminal facilities here.
BUILDING THE WEST SHORE.
In the meantime the New York, West Shore and Buffalo Railway was building along the west shore of the Hudson and across the State, parallel to the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. The contractors for the work through this city were Ryan & McDonald from First Street south, and Ward, Mackin & Co. from First Street north. Operations were begun here Monday, December 5, 1881, by tearing away the rear of the buildings between Fourth and Fifth Streets and Water and Front. On January 9, following, the first work was done at the South End. Entering the city at grade, the road passes through a tunnel under the Erie tracks, thence gradually ascending until it reaches an elevated structure, on which it runs over numerous cross streets through the principal business section. Like a scythe it cut a swath through solid blocks of buildings. The rear ends of many were removed, and in numerous cases buildings were entirely demolished. The appearance of the southeastern part of the city especially was greatly changed. Railway trains now run over the old sites of a number of manu- facturing and other important establish- ments, which were forced to put up new buildings elsewhere. Building operations were thus greatly stimulated; numer- ous transfers of real estate were made daily, a Board of Trade was organized several new factories were started, and every branch of bus- iness was enlivened. In the spring of 1882 one of the public journals estimated that there were two thousand more people employed in the city than were here eighteen months before.
LIBERTY STREET-LOOKING NORTH FROM FARRINGTON STREET.
The West Shore Railway was opened between Newburgh and New York June 4, 1883. The first train left here at 7.15 a. m. A great crowd gathered at the station to see the train depart, and about one hundred and thirty Newburgh people took passage. When the train sped away the crowd cheered, and many steam whistles sounded noisy salutes. Similar demonstrations were made at other places along the line. This new road not only gave Newburgh another ronte to the West, but, what was at that time of more importance, direct communication with all the villages on the west shore of the river.
OTHER NEW ROADS.
The New York, Ontario and Western Railroad was opened to Newburgh and New York the same day as the West Shore. This road extends from a junction with the West Shore, four miles and a half south of Newburgh, to Lake Ontario.
The Warwick Valley Railroad having been extended to Belvedere, N. J., and connected with the Pennsylvania and Jersey Central systems and reorganized as the Lehigh and Hudson, in 1889 a con-
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necting line called the Orange County Railroad was laid from Greycourt Junction to Burnside on the Central New England and Western Railroad, which was built through Orange and Ulster Counties the same year. About the same time the Pennsylvania, Poughkeepsie and Boston Railroad was opened between Goshen on the Erie and Slatington, Pa.
NEW MANUFACTURING CONCERNS.
Within the past ten years the following important manufacturing concerns have been started in Newburgh: 1880-Brokaw Manufacturing Company, (flannel out- ing garments.) 1881-Sweet, Orr & Co., (overalls.) 1881-Whitehill & Cleveland, (overalls.)
1883-Edison Electric Illuminating Company.
1883-Newburgh Paper-Box Factory.
1884-Coldwell-Wilcox Company, (iron founders and machinists.) 1885-T. S. Marvel & Co., (iron shipbuilding and engi- neering works.)
1885-Newburgh Electric Light & Power Company.
1886-Ferry & Napier, (hats.)
1886-The Perfect Liquid-Measure Manufacturing Co. 1887-Kilmer Manufacturing Company, (wire works.) 1887-Newburgh Upholstering Company, (furniture.) 1888-Storm King Pants Company.
1889-Newburgh Wood-Working Company, (builders' supplies. )
1889-Hudson River Paint Company.
1889-Standard Chemical Fibre Company.
1890-Granite City Soap Company.
1890-Hyer-Sheehan Electric Motor Company.
1890-Newburgh Reed Company, (reed chairs.)
1890-Newburgh (artificial) Ice Company.
1890-McGiffert & Wands, (soap.)
1890-F. W. Perkins, (flour and feed mill.)
1891-Little Falls Paper Company.
1891-Coldwell Lawn Mower Company.
The above, however, does not adequately indicate the increasing importance of Newburgh as a manufac- turing city, as it does not take into account the remark- able growth of the manufactories established here previous to 1880, nor the rapid development of the newer ones, some of which starting with a very few hands now employ hundreds. The following large con- cerns have either erected new and larger establishments on new sites, or have added large buildings to old plants within the past ten years:
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