USA > New York > Orange County > Newburgh > Newburgh; her institutions, industries and leading citizens, historical, descriptive and biographical > Part 21
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In 1875 a lot on Grand Street, opposite School No. 2, was purchased, and the erection of a fine building was commenced in 1876, under the superintendence of Thomas Kimball. John A. Wood, of New York, was the architect; William Hilton & Son, carpenters; Thomas Dobbin, mason. The building was completed in June, 1877. Charles Estabrook was appointed librarian April 18, 1877, and Charles A. Peck and Frank E. Estabrook were appointed assistants. The library was opened for the delivery of books Feh- ruary 13, 1878, with 10,421 volumes. In September, 1878, a card sys- tem of keeping accounts was introduced by the librarian, and is still in use. By this system it is possible with the present library force to receive and deliver three thousand volumes daily, and keep an accu- rate account and a daily record of the work and condition of the libra- ry. In 1882 the late Rev. John Forsyth, D. D., presented the library with 603 volumes, many of them rare and very valuable as books of reference, which, if lost, could probably not be replaced; and in 1889 299 volumes were received from his heirs. In October, 1884, George W. Kerr and Eugene A. Brewster, executors of the estate of the late Rev. John Brown, D. D., deposited in the library the original records of the Newburgh Academy from 1807 to 1856, and his family added to the library 20 large volumes of old and rare books, some of them being fine specimens of block printing and hand illuminations pub- lished in 1468. Many volumes are presented yearly.
In October, 1884, a letter was received from Dr. Theodore Vetter, of Frauenfeld, Switzerland, asking for some information, and stating that he was preparing a lecture on libraries in America, was familiar with some of the prominent libraries of Boston, New York and other large cities, had visited the Newburgh Free Library, was very much pleased with its arrangement, and selected it as a model for libraries in smaller cities.
The library room is also used as a reading room, and besides the building contains the private office of the librarian, the office of the superintendent of schools, and the meeting room of the Board of Education, which is also used as a reading room and meeting place for teachers. Mr. Estabrook continues as the efficient librarian, and his present assistants are Miss Lillie O. Estabrook and Thomas M. Hawthorne.
CLASSIFIED CONTENTS OF THE LIBRARY.
Vols.
Per cent.
Poetry, periodicals and miscellany.
.4,268.
.24.45
History, geography and travels
.3,660. .
. . 20.97
Adult fiction ..
. 2,869. . .. 16.44
Art and science.
.2,010. .11.52
Biography
1,358
7.79
U. S. Government publications.
1,098. 6.29
Juvenile fiction . .
762.
4.37
Juvenile history, biography, etc
549. 3.15
New York State publications .. 496.
2.85
Cyclopedias, dictionaries and atlases. 379
2.17
17,450
100.
FIRST REFORMED PRES. CHURCH.
BOARD OF EDUCATION.
The members of the Board in past years have been as follows:
Alsdorf, Egbert. 1862-65
Belknap, Moses C .. .1884-
Beveredge, John ... .1852-57
Beveridge, Thomas ... .. 1858-60
Brewster, Engene A. .1858-63,
'67-68, '73-77, '80-84
Brown, Rev. John .. 1852-58
Brown, Jacob .. .1855
Callahan, William H. .1861
Case, Robert L. 1874-77
Cassedy, Abram S. 1874-78
Clapp, George M ... .1865
Clark, George. .1858-60
Corwin, John ..... 1864-73, '77-81
Culbert, W. A. M., M. D. 1855-57
Dickson, James R.
Ely, Smith, M. D ..
Embler, Charles J.
Estabrook, Charles. 1864-67
Forsyth, Rev. John. 1853-77
Gearn, Walter W. 1876-80
George, Thomas.
1859-61
Gregory, L. B.
1852-54
Haines, Provost S. .1867-70
Harrison, William. .1885-
Hasbrouck, Charles H ... 1884-88
Hastings, James. .1887-
Hirschberg, Michael H. .. 1871-83
Johnes, Edward R .. 1861-63
Jones, Nathaniel. .1852-56
Jones, Hiram A. I878-82
Kerr, George W. .1852-54
Kimball, Thomas. . . . 1864-67, '73
King, Stephen. . 1882-86
Lawson, John K. 1858-61
Leonard, Chancey M .. . 1869-71
Leonard, D. Gillis. I852-57,
'60-62, '64
Lewis, John N 1870-72
Martin, Cyrus B ... .1868-73 McCroskery, John J. S. . 1880-84, '84-87
Mccutcheon, Hugh. 1863-66
'68-69
Merritt, Theodore .1870
Moore, Bartholomew B. . 1872-75 Monell, John J . 1852-54, '65
Peck, William E .. . 1862-64
Reeve, Charles F. V. . .. . 1852
Reilley, John. .. .1872-75
Ring, Thomas C .. .1852-57 Rogers, Daniel T. . 1866-72, '75-79 Ruttenber, Edward M. . . 1857-64, '66-69, '82-86
Scott, David A. .. 1887-90
Skidmore, Edwin T. . . . .. 1877-81
Smith, Lewis M ... .... .. 1881-89 Smith, Orville M . . 1856-57, '59-64 Sneed, Joseph A .. 1886-90, 90-
Thayer, John S. ... 1855
Valentine, John H .. .1890-
Van Buren, John D. .1883
Van Dalfsen, James T .. . 1883-87
Wands, William S. .. .1888-
Ward, Peter .. 1861-66
Westervelt, John L .. .1878-82,
'86-
Weygant, Charles H. . . 1877
Williams, George A. . .. 1879-83
Williams, Samuel. .. .. 1856-58
Wilson, Nicholas. . .. 1867-75
Woolley, Charles N., M. D.1889-
SUPERINTENDENTS OF SCHOOLS.
Banks, Hugh S. 1857-59 Miller, John. . . . . . 1883-86
Jones, Nathaniel. 1852 -- 57 Montfort, R. V. K., M. D. 1859-63,
Jones, Hiram A. .1864-72 '72- 3, '86-91
Ruttenber, Edward M. 1863-64
1857-59
.1876-80
.1881-85
---
THE FREE LIBRARY-100 and 102 Grand Street.
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NEWBURGH.
The present members of the Board of Education are Moses C. Belknap, President; William Harrison, Vice-President; Charles N. Woolley, Joseph A. Sneed, John L. Westervelt, James Hastings, John H. Valentine, William S. Wands. Dr. R. V. K. Montfort, Clerk.
OLD ACADEMY BOYS.
From the Address by Hon. J. G. Graham, at Dedication of new Academy, September 2, 1886.
It is most fitting that this festal day for this new Academy has come when the fervid Summer has just passed into the golden Au- tumn, freshened by cooler airs, and under skies as blue, and surround- ed by landscapes as sunny and bright as in the days of June. Nature has rendered homage to the day with pomp and glory of the sky and plain and hillside.
We are honored, too, by the presence of dignitaries of the State- one who has rendered service in halls of legislation, and is advanced now to yet higher and more influential position as head of the De- partment of Public Instruction. Here also have come brave officers and learned Professors from West Point, and members of the Board of Education of our sister city of Poughkeepsie. Here are gathered, too, teachers of to-day in goodly number, and present members of the Board of Education, under whose wise oversight this splendid hall has been reared; and members also of former Boards.
ster, when addressing the veterans of the Revolution, in his famous Bunker Hill oration:
" Venerable men, you have come down to us from a former generation."
Of later graduates in my own time, some are living, and some of these are with us to-day-William Walsh and Henry Cornwell-those model scholars in studious habits and exemplary conduct, and in later years devoted and eloquent ministers of religion and genial and ac- complished men. David Gedney, who, as a writer and speaker, was the model after whom other students tried to copy, alas ! so often in vain, became naturally an eminent lawyer and wore the judicial er- mine without a stain. Grant Edgar, too, then, as well as now, al- ways doing well the work he had to do, and who in maturer life, both in the workshop among his men and in self-denying labors on the coal docks and in prison cells, so beautifully illustrates, in a way so rare and yet so needed, the reality of the religion he professes. Walker Fowler, a valued friend and college chum, as well as schoolmate, who, after much judicial service here, is now a successful farmer in Dakota, a region whose marvelous growth reads almost like a page from the " Arabian Nights." And there was " Tom " McKissock, another life- long friend and a fellow student, also in the law office of his honored father-Judge McKissock, and Judge Bate, whose early homes, as as well as that of W. C. Hasbrouck, were all so near my father's in the Wallkill Valley. For years " Tom" has been a famous civil engi- neer, in the Mississippi Valley. And " Gus" Ruggles, whose then de- lightful home in Washington Place was my favorite resort in the strawberry season, became a successful banker in Wisconsin. Berrian
THE OLD ACADEMY.
Here, too, have come one or two survivors of the teachers of former years, with eyesight dimmed, and locks thin and whitening. One short year ago there was gathered to his rest among the green hills of Vermont, one whom we all knew and loved-Irenæus Prime -who, after service as a teacher here, made his home in our great city by the sea, and there, in the larger field of journalism and author- ship, and public speech, made for himself a treasured name even in other lands than this.
There have also come survivors of former scholars of the old Academy, and yet how thin and scattered are their ranks !
The old Academy had stood and done its work for well nigh a century, and with the passing years the great reaper was gathering many to His harvest.
No record in those earlier days was preserved of the scholars in its charge, and there was no daily paper then, and their names can only be gathered from some stray publications in the journals of the day, of perchance some public exhibition, and from the uncertain recollec- tions of survivors. I can only speak of the students of my own time-not of that far larger number who preceded and who followed me, who are doubtless quite as deserving of mention, and whose names and histories will be readily recalled by all our citizens.
Here on this platform may be seen a few of the survivors of carlier classes, and they must attribute it to my feeling of respectful rever- ence alone, if I feel almost like using towards them the words of Web-
Halstead, genial and bright, who also became a bank president in New York; and Charles Hasbrouck also, now a bank president, as boy and man, beloved by all. Sebring Fowler, long a successful mer- chant here, and whose sons are accomplished lawyers and railroad presidents. Frank Ironmonger, a skilled physician in Brooklyn; Ed- ward Wells, an eloquent and successful lawyer of Westchester County. Oscar Hasbrouck, whose home is on a farm near Modena, and is the envy of his schoolmates as being a director in half the banks in Ulster. There too were the Carpenter boys, Gilbert and Lewis and John, and my younger friend, Richard Smith, whose present dwelling place amid fruits and flowers might well have been the envy both of Shen- stone and Epicurus, had they lived and flourished in our day, under the elms of Grand Street.
The roll of my dead schoolmates of that day is longer than that of the living: Jacob Fowler, a model man in business and social life; Daniel Boice, who as a faithful lawyer enjoyed general confidence; Jonas Williams, a prominent business man and cultured gentleman. so recently taken from us; William Williams, who fell in the War for the Union; David Colden Ruggles, who was also a victim in that un- holy Rebellion, and lost his life by the torturing cruelties of Salisbury Prison; Charles Ruggles, who died young after an honorable career as a lawyer at Poughkeepsie; Christopher Vanduzer, who shared largely in his family gifts of brilliant eloquence and manly beauty; Daniel Rogers, taken away from his beautiful home just as he begun
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NEWBURGH.
to enjoy it; and Thomas Farrington and Joseph Kimball and John J. Walsh, all rollicking boys, and yet good students. The first two, after a faithful service as ministers in our State, were laid away from their life-work in our neighboring cemetery, when middle life was reached. Walsh became a missionary to India, and then soon after returning home, he, too, like all the others of this list I have named, heard his name called from the Starry Heights and answered, as did old Colonel Newcombe at the last, " Adsum" (" Here"), and passed into the presence of the Heavenly Master.
These dead schoolmates, as their memories come up to me to-day, present themselves most prominently as Academy " boys." I cannot picture them on the walls of memory as grave, careworn, grey- headed men, but as boys, bright and gay-hearted, studying as hard as they thought good for their health, doubtless, but when play-time came giving then all the energies to the business in hand. Tbe large play-grounds, then reaching from Mr. Williams' garden to Sonth Street. gave fine room for ball-playing, while for riding down hill there never was such a location, and never did boys better improve their opportunities. Sleighs were brought along to school in Winter almost as regularly as books. We commenced at the doorsteps, and went with some velocity, you may imagine, by the time we reached the foot of Sonth Street; and even study hours in the evening were shortened so that we might have a few rides, and thns drink in health with every inspiration of that Winter air. Glorious sports, glorions days and nights they were-never to be seen again on earth, save in the magic mirror of memory.
JOHN LAWSON WESTERVELT, School Trustee, is descended from Lubbertse van Westervelt, who, with his two brothers and their families, emigrated from Meppel, in the Province Dreuthe, Hol- land, by the ship Hope in April, 1662, and settled near Hackensack, New Jersey. Kas- parus, grandson of Lubbertse, ex- changed his prop- erty in New Jersey for fifteen hundred acres on the east side of the Hudson, four miles below Poughkeepsie. On this tract of land John L. Westervelt was born June 27, 1826. The old deed, made in the reign of George II, is still in his pos- session. His edu- cation was obtain- ed at a country schoolhouse. After learning the trade of a silversmith at Walden, Orange JOHN L, WESTERVELT. County, N. Y., he came to Newburgh in 1848 and worked for a time at his trade. In 1853 he opened a shop at the corner of Fifth and Water Streets, in the second story, and since that date has been engaged in the manufacture of silverware, adding of late solid rings and the selling of fine diamonds and jewelry. His place of business is now at 142 Water Street.
In 1849 Mr. Westervelt became a member of the Presbyterian Church under the Rev. John Johnston, D. D., and has ever since been an active and successful Christian worker. Leaving the old church with the families who built Calvary Church, he was, in January, 1857, soon after its organization, ordained au elder of that church and af- terward superintended its Sabbath school. He filled the same offices at the First Presbyterian Church, where as Superintendent of the Sab- bath school for six years he was never absent a single Sabbath. Re- moving to Union Church when Dr. Wendell Prime became its pastor,
he gathered a Bible class of young men, which he taught for eighteen years. During that time the class had about one hundred and fifty members, many of whom are now earnestly engaged in Christian work in Newburgh and other parts of the land.
Althongh never a politician, Mr. Westervelt has always taken a deep and active interest in public affairs. It is an interesting fact that to fill a vacancy and by appointment of Hon. George Clark, New- burgh's first Mayor, he sat in the connty legislature just one day as Supervisor for the Second Ward of the city. In 1878 he was elected and in 1886 and 1890 twice re-elected a member of the Board of Edu- cation, each time by large majorities. In the Board he has always been an advocate of measures that would increase the advantages of the children of the poor. March 10, 1880, and again November 16, 1881, he offered a resolution providing that the Board purchase all the text books and other supplies used by the pupils, and until its adop- tion he was the unswerving and zealous advocate of the free-book sys- tem, one of the many points of excellence in the Newburgh schools. Mr. Westervelt's personal popularity with the pupils in the schools is evinced by the rounds of applause which greet him when he rises to speak in the assembly room in his always interesting and enjoyable manner. In 1850 Mr. Westervelt was married to Catherine Gorham, a native of Newburgh, by whom he has had seven children, five of whom-four sons and a daughter-are still living and happily married.
WILLIAM HARRISON, Vice President of the Board of Educa- tion, was born in the North of Ireland, May 9, 1832. His father's progenitors emi- grated there from England, and his mother's (the Al- exanders) from Glasgow, Scotland. His parents died when he was yet a lad, and in his 14th year he came to America with his sister.
For several months he lived in New York, and afterwards, for short periods, in the Villages of Walden and Mont- gomery. He set . tled permanently in Newburgh in 1848. In 1850 he engaged with Ge- rard & Boyd to learn the mason's trade, and after serving his time worked for a year or two in New
WILLIAM HARRISON.
York. About 1862 he started as a builder on his own account in Newburgh, and has continued in active business here ever since.
He was elected a member of the Board of Education in 1885, and re-elected in 1889. For several years he has been the Vice President of the Board and Chairman of the Building Committee. Uuder ap- pointment from the Board he snperintended the construction of the new Academy.
Mr. Harrison was for many years, previous to 1885, a member of the First Reformed Presbyterian Church, long an officer of the so- ciety and superintendent of the Sabbath school. He is now a mem- ber of Trinity Church, and superintendent of its Sabbath school. He married Sarah, danghter of the late Matthew Duke, of Newburgh, and has five sons.
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NEWBURGH.
JAMES HASTINGS, School Trustee, was born in the North of Ireland in 1837, came to Newburgh when four or five years old, and was educated in the public schools. Since 1866 he has been in business in the stove, tin- ware and plumbing trade. He served his apprenticeship as a plumber and tinsmith with John Lomas. He has a well equipped es- tablishment at 162 Broadway. During the war Mr. Hast- ings went to the front in 1861 and again in 1862 as a member of Com- pany I, 7Ist Regi- ment of Militia.
In 1887 he was elected to the Board of Educa- tion by the Repub- lican party for the term of four years, and was re-elected in 1891. Heis Chairman of the Finance Commit- PHOTO, BY ATKINSON. tee. In 1890 he JAMES HASTINGS. was honored by his party with the nomination for Mayor of the city. He is a member of Newburgh Lodge, F. & A. M., and a trustee of the Masonic Hall Association. He is also a member of Acme Lodge, I. O. O. F., Fullerton Post, G. A. R., and the Union Presbyterian Church. He married Mary A. Brown, of Newburgh, and has two sons and three daughters.
CHARLES N. WOOLLEY, M. D .. School Trustee, was born at Southampton, L. I., October 8, 1838. He attended the public school and Southampton Academy. After teaching several years he prepared for college, and entered Michigan University in 1862. Immediately after graduating he entered upon the study of medicine, at- tending lectures at Bellevue Medical Col- lege, New York, and Long Island College Hospital, Brooklyn. After graduating at the latter institution he married Miss Mar- garet B. Fithian, and began the practice of his profession in Walden, N. Y. Five years later, 1873, he came to Newburgh. Almost immediately he acquired a large and lucrative practice, and has long been one of our most popular practitioners. He became a member of the Board of Education in 1889, and is now Chairman of the Commit- tee on Teachers.
PHOTO. BY WHIDD'T.
CHARLES N. WOOLLEY, M. D.
JOSEPH A. SNEED, School Trustee, was born in Newburgh in 1839, in the part called Old Town. lle first attended the old Glebe school, in Liberty Street, and afterwards in the comb factory on the side hill-on property now owned by S. R. Van Duzer. At that time the school was taught by John L. Lyon. At the age of fourteen he
entered the employment of A. K. Chandler, a dry goods merchant, as cash boy, and with one or two short intermissions remained there until the breaking out of the Rebellion. Then he enlisted (April, 1861) in Captain S. W. Fullerton's company of the Third New York Volunteer Infantry as a private, for two years. He was honorably dis- charged in May, 1863, then holding the position of Or- derly Sergeant. During the latter part of the Sum- mer and the Fall of 1863, with Cap- tain James Ander- son and Lieutenant J. K. R. Oakley, he recruited a com- pany for the 98th New York Volun- teer Infantry, and was commissioned Second Lientenant of the same by Governor Horatio PHOTO. BY MAPES. Seymour. He was mustered out at JOSEPH A. SNEED. the Chesapeake Hospital for disability in the Fall of 1864.
Since the war Mr. Sneed has been almost continuously engaged in the marketing, provisions and livestock business. For the past four years he has had the man- agement of Armour & Co.'s branch house at Newburgh, and he is also a partner in the firm of Sneed & Mathews.
Politically he has always been a Repub- lican. He cast his maiden vote for Abra- ham Lincoln in 1864. In 1884 he was elected Alderman from the Third Ward, and was President of the Board in 1885. In 1886 he was elected a member of the Board of Edu- cation on the free text book issue; and in the Spring of 1891 he was re-elected for four years.
Mr. Sneed has well defined impressions concerning practical education, and has been a most valuable member of the Board. The introduction of mannal training in the public schools was mainly brought about through his personal efforts, and he has seen the system developed into an import- ance not even dreamed of at its initiation. Believing that patriotism and love of the country's flag should be instilled in the youthful mind as well as arithmetic and grammar, he introduced the resolution that the flag should wave over every schoolhouse in the city each schoolday.
WILLIAM S. WANDS, School Trus- tee, was born in the province of New Bruns- wick in IS39. He came to Newburgh with his parents in 1852. Since fourteen years old he has been a wage-earner. He learn- ed the trade of pattern-maker in the old Washington Iron Works. From 1870 to 18So he was employed in the West Point Foundry
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NEWBURGH.
at Cold Spring, and since that time has been foreman of the pattern-making department of the Wright Engine Works in this city, which is one of the largest engine-building concerns in the country.
Mr. Wands is a valued member of St. John's M. E. Church, of which he has been a trustee and superintendent of the Sabbath school for a number of years. He married Anna, daughter of Andrew Darby, of New- burgh. George M. Wands, of the firm of McGiffert & Wands, soap manufacturers, is his son.
JOHN H. VALENTINE, School Trus- tee, was born at Peekskill, N. Y., in 1860, and is the youngest member of the Board, and the only representative of the Demo- cratic party in the body. He was a warm supporter of the successful movement to secure a public school for Washington Heights, and has taken a deep interest in the details of its construction, as his experience in building qualifies him to do. Two handsome dwellings on the Heights were erected by him, one of which he has sold, and the other he still occupies. He is an officer of the Washington Heights Congregational Church, and was until re- cently interested in the Newburgh Reed Company, manufacturers of reed chairs. which business he helped to establish. For some years past he has been connected with the wholesale grocery house of J. G. Powers & Co., of New York. He was until recently president of the Newburgh Democratic Association. married Miss Clara Baldwin, of this city.
PHOTO. BY MAPES.
WILLIAM S. WANDS.
In October, 1859, he was elected to the responsible office of Clerk of the Board of Education and Superintendent of the Public Schools of Newburgh. The school buildings then consisted of the old Acad- emy, the High School, the Clinton Street School, the school for colored children in Washington Street, and the school at the corner of Washington and William Streets, then a very small building, accommodating not more than two hundred pupils. He re- signed in September, 1862, and accepted a commission as Assistant Surgeon in the 124th New York Volunteers (Orange Blos- soms). He was on every battlefield of the Army of the Potomac from Chancellorsville to the end of the war, and was one of the five original officers who served with the regiment during its whole term of service. He was promoted Surgeon March, 1865. In endorsing the numerously signed recom- mendation for his promotion, Orphens Everts, Surgeon-in-Chief of the Third Di- vision of the Second Corps, wrote. "There is no medical officer with whom I am ac- quainted more worthy, or better qualified for promotion, than Dr. Montfort;" and Medical Director Dougherty, of the Second Corps (Hancock's) joined in the above recommendation. For a period Dr. Mont- fort was executive officer of the division hospital.
R. V. K. MONTFORT, M. D., Clerk of the Board of Education and Superintendent of the Public Schools, was born at Fishkill Vil- lage, N. Y., March 23, 1835. He was only a few weeks old when his father died. His early life was a series of struggles to obtain an education, but so ambitious was he, and so untiring in his efforts, that he was enabled to accomplish his desires. After passing through the common schools he attended the private school of Rev. T. F. Pingry at Fishkill. Such good progress did he make in his studies, that when only fifteen years old he obtained a position as teacher in a dis- trict school. For several years following he taught schools in Dutchess and Putnam Counties, and in his leisure hours improved his education by private study.
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