USA > New York > Greene County > Catskill > Reminiscences of Catskill : local sketches > Part 2
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JOHN V. D. S. SCOTT was one of the early settlers at Catskill, where he was prominent as a lawyer, and respected as a man. What time could be spared by him from the duties of his profession, was chiefly occupied in hor- ticulture, and I well remember when his garden, celebrated for the variety and quality of its fruit and vegetables, was at onee the admiration of his neighbors, and the tempta- tion of juvenile malefactors. These last, however, in their nocturnal depredations, sometimes carried off more fruit than they came for, in the shape of BB blue-berries from the double-barreled gun of the proprie- tor, while occasionally one of the young ras- cals found leisure, in the County Jail, to ruminate over the sweetness of grapes as inac- cessible to him as they were to the Fox in the fable
After the resignation of MOSES I. CANTINE, Mr. Scott was appointed first Judge of Greene County, which position he held until his death. Of excellent sense, superior legal abilities, and well versed in the science of jurisprudence, he administered justice so righteously as to command the respect of the bar and the com- munity, and to more than merit the honest, but uncouth, eulogy pronounced by his suc- cessor, Judge DALY.
But I am wandering from Harmony Lodge.
From the papers before me, it appears that Mr. Scott, in February, 1794, (previous to which he had been a member of Washington Lodge, of Livingston, Columbia Co.,) applied to Harmony Lodge for admission. His appli- cation was opposed by JACOB BOGARDUS, Esq., in a petition in which he sets forth that :
"Your Petitioner has some time been grossly insulted by Mr. Scott without any cause or prov- ocation whatever. That Mr. Scott did with malice prepence, wittingly and with intent to stab the reputation of your Petitioner, and not having that fear of God before his eyes, Publish in the news- papers of this Town a ceartain anonymous Pro- duetlon full of senrrilons and opprobrious reflec- tions to the great injury of the character of your Petitioner," &c.,
and praying that
"A committee of Discreet, Impartial Master Masous be appointed to enquire into the contro- versy, and be directed to report thereon, to the Lodge, what restitution and satisfaction shall be adequate to the party aggrieved."
The complaint, which doubtless grew out of some unimportant political quarrel, was followed by the appointment of the committee prayed for, and Brothers ISAAO BATEMAN and JOHN GARDINER commenced their duties as committee-men, by issuing the following Ci- tation, which I copy verbatim, as a specimen of style at the close of the eighteenth century :
"Monday, April 7th, 1794 .- We the subscribers being appointed a Committy by A unanimous vote of the Brethern of the Harmony Lodge in Cats- kill, No 31, to make due inquiry into a Dispute now subsisting between Jacob Bogardus, Esq., and John V. D. S. Scott, Esq., as sot forth by the aforesaid Bogardus in A Petition presented to our Lodge. This is in conformity to our Appointment to request the Aforesuid Jacob Bogardus to appear at the Dwelling Hows of David Van Bergen at 4 o Clock P. M., and likewise the aforesaid John V. D. S. Scott at the saime time and Place when they Have full time & opportunity to be heard on the subject matter-to enable us to proceed to Judg- ment, and issue Give to all disputes, that Brother- ly Love may Abound, which is the Ardent prayer of us above.
"ISAAC BATEMAN, L. S."
"JOHN GARDINER, L. S."
But it seems that the Lodge, or the "Coni- mitty" had committed a fatal error in neglect- ing to serve Brother Scott with a copy of Brother Bogardus' complaint, and the former thereupon declined to obey the citation of the "Committy," in a communication without date, as follows :
"GENTLEMEN-I having had no official informa- tion of Mr. Jacob Bogardus having presented a petition to Harmony Lodge, and not being indulg- ed with a copy of the same, nor of the charges exhibited, feel much at a loss to understand the meaning of the present summons, and much less inclined to concern myself with proceedings that appear entirely exparte. I have the honor to be, Gentlemen,
Your most ob'dt and very h'ble serv't, JOHN V. D. S. SCOTT."
This eurt reply appears to have brought the "Committy" up "all standing." They could not get over the law-latin of the respondent, and they wisely retired from their labors, under cover of the following communication to the Lodge :
"April the 7, 1794 .- Agreeable to our appoint- ment, we the subscribers Issued A Cltation to Ja- cob Bogardus, Esq., and John V. D. S. Scott, Esq., to appear before us intentionally to settle a dis- pute then subsisting between our two brethern, and whereas John V. D. S. Scott would not agree to join, in an investigation of the subject matter Agreeable to the Wishes of our brother Jacob Bo- gardus, we were intirely Divested of the Power of proceeding to a judgment which ought to have bin had for the procurering of that union which ever
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ought to exist in our solem Band of Society, there- fore we must of Cors leave the future proceeding to the Determination of the Lodge, whose mem- bers we are but a part of. Signed
JOHN GARDINER, ISAAC BATEMAN."
And so, in one brief day of citation, reply and report, this weighty controversy ended. I cannot discover that it was ever revived, and it certainly worked no serious injury to Bro. Scott, for the records show that on the 6th of October, 1800, he was acting as Secretary of the Harmony Lodge, in full communion and good repute.
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The residence of Judge Scott, with his office adjoining, were destroyed, and the pleasant
garden and grounds adjacent were laid waste in the memorable fire of 1851. The family, after his death, removed to New York, where, I believe, those living still reside. The eldest daughter, wife of WILLIAM WHITLOCK, Esq., has been dead some years, as has also SUSAN, the youngest. MARY recently died at Catskill. Two daughters, JANE and MARTHA, and two sons, WILLIAM H. and JOHN M. (the early schoolmate, companion and friend of the writer) still survive. William and John have been for many years engaged in mercantile pursuits, and have, by strict probity and in- dustry, won not only a comfortable compe- tency, but also the respect and esteem of all who know them.
HARMONY LODGE PAPERS .- No. V.
JANUARY 1, 1863.
The standing types which have for the last twelve-month denoted the annual date of the Recorder, are changed, and the new cycle upon which we enter to-day is marked with the figures 1863. How brief the interval, since the incoming of the year which, yester- day, departed to swell the accumulation of Time's grand aggregate-how the shadows lengthen backward on our road as the even- tide of life draws on, and with what accel- erated step we pass these milestones which mark our progress on the journey of life.
"Three score years and ten" have passed away since those, whose memories I have sought to revive, affixed their signatures to the compact which bound them together as brothers in Harmony Lodge. To those who remember them, the lapse of seventy years will seem brief as a morning's dream, and yet, all the hands which recorded those names have mouldered into dust. No more those hands are clasped in fraternal amity ; no more those hands perform the generous acts which Charity, the cardinal virtue of the order, im- poses, and no more those hands assist each other along life's rugged way, or lead an erring brother back to the haven of safety and of peace. Their earthly labor is over, for "there is neither work, nor device, nor knowledge in the grave."
Of most of those whose names I have re- corded, I have a personal recollection-in some cases confused and vague, and in others, distinct and clear. Two examples are JOSEPH GRAHAM and GEORGE TAYLOR. The first I can just remember at about the time. he left Catskill for New York, where he established a boarding-house, then and long after cel- ebrated as the Pearl Street House, and which,
I presume from its location, was destroyed in the great fire of December, 1835. Of Mr. Graham, I know but little beyond the fact that he was esteemed a model landlord, and that he was the uncle of Dr. JAMES H. GRAHAM of your Village, and of Mr. STEPHEN Bos- WORTH and Mr. JAMES D. GARDENER, formerly of Catskill. Joseph Graham has long been dead.
Captain George Taylor also removed to New York and engaged in the same business. On my first visit to the city, with my father, about forty-five years ago, we sojourned at his boarding-house, in Water Street, near Coenties Slip, where the Catskill sloops and most of the other North River vessels laid up in those days. Some years subsequently, while employed as a clerk in New York, I boarded with Capt. Taylor, in Pearl Street, from which place the family moved to Broad Street, where they remained until the Cholera of 1832 swept nearly all of them to the grave.
A pleasant old gentleman was George Tay- lor-sociable and kind. I remember being present one night, at W. W. VAN LOAN'S, in South Street, when he met there his old friend JAMES BOGARDUS (or uncle Cobus, as we used to call him.) I listened with much interest to their stories of the olden time, and the night wore away, almost to its close, before they could make up their minds to part, and when at last they did so, I well remember the remark of one of them, that it might be "the last time that they should so enjoy an evening together." The words were prophetic, for the same night Capt. Bogardus, soon after retiring to his cabin on board of his favorite vessel, the James Monroe, was suddenly taken ill, and though he lingered for a day or
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two, he never spoke again-his last conversa- tion had been with his old friend-his last words had been exchanged with his in a part- ing salutation.
With perhaps one exception, I believe the children of George Taylor are all dead. The two sons, JAMES and GEORGE, died many years ago; EVELINE, who married GEORGE H. COOK, MARY and NAOMI were all, I think, victims to the cholera, as before stated, and Mrs. FRANCIS SAYRE has recently died in your Village. Mrs. PENFIELD, widow of the late esteemed SAMUEL L. PENFIELD, is the only survivor of the many immediate descendants of Captain Taylor.
Looking down over the array of names before me, I notice those of some whom I barely remember, and of whose histories I know little more than might be gathered from the inscriptions on their grave stones. Of these are PHILO DAY, LYMAN HALL and ASH- LEY GILBERT, (the first the son, and the other two the sons-in-law of Judge STEPHEN DAY) ;
RUFUS STANLEY, the father of Mrs. W.M. H. WEY; PETER OSTERHOUDT, who I just remem- ber as the Sheriff and Goaler of Greene Co. (the father of PETER OSTERIIOUDT Esq., of Schoharie C. H. ; ) JOHN M. CANFIELD, CALEB STREET, JOHN BUNCE, and others. Among those whom I more clearly remember, with whose histories I was more intimately ac- quainted, and of whom I have not yet spoken, are ISAAO VAN LOAN, THOMAS HALE, JACOB HAIGIIT, JAMES PINCKNEY, FREDERICK CHIOL- LETTE, and others.
But, Mr. Editor, as it may be considered slightly inappropriate, at this time, to mix, too profusely, the memories of the dead with the holiday festivities of your readers, I will "pull up" here, and, according to custom, (although I must confess that I have generally found its observance less profitable than pleas- ant) tender to all my old acquaintances, to the patrons of the Recorder, and to yourself, my sincere wishes for a Happy New Year.
HARMONY LODGE PAPERS .- No. VI.
JANUARY 15, 1863.
There are but few more among the signers of the by-laws of Harmony Lodge, whom I knew so well as to enable me to frame from their histories any sketch which would be interesting to the readers of the Recorder. Yet, I still recur to the time-stained package with mixed emotions of pleasure and sadness --- that pleasure which we all have in the re- membrance of earlier and happier days-that sadness which we all feel as the records bring home to our hearts the realization that the years have passed over us, and that we are old.
One of the few remaining names, is that of ISAAC VAN LOAN. He has not been so long dead, but that most of your villagers remem- ber him with the respect and honor due to the good man's memory. He was, in early life, a mason by occupation, but did not long pur- sue the trade. Not a great while after the formation of the County, he occupied the position of Sheriff, being appointed by the "Governor and Council," before that office (Sheriff) was made elective by the Constitu- tion of 1821. Of course, I knew little or noth- ing of him, personally, then, my first remem- brance dating from the time when, about the year 1818, I made my first trip to New York, on board the good sloop Delaware, of which he was Captain and owner. At that time but few persons traveled by steamboat, and almost every incident of that voyage is as distinct to
my recollection as though it occurred but yesterday. The dropping of the anchor when the tide was unfavorable; the rowing ashore to procure milk, butter and eggs at the farm houses on the banks; the assisting our head- way, in the absence of wind, by getting up a "white ash breeze"; the excellent fare; tlie jolly stories of the passengers, and my emo- tions when, after a three days passage, we came in sight of the great city, (then number- ing scarcely one-tenth of its present popula- tion) will probably never pass from my mem- ory.
In those days, the Catskill skippers, besides Captain VAN LOAN, were BARENT DU BOIS, (father of the late SAMUEL DU BOIS, ) JAMES BOGARDUS, ABRAM POST, Capt. ROCKERFELLER, and others; and a more jovial, kind-hearted band of worthies never handled a tiller. In- deed, I think there was no place of its size on the North River where congregated so great a number of River boatmen, and retired sea- faring men, as Catskill, and, while their names are in my mind, I may as well mention a few.
Captain JACOB DUNIIAM is, I believe, the sole survivor of them all ; and he can tell you, better than I can, of his adventures by sea and land, in the West Indies and along the Mosquito Shore, and of his capture by the Pirates.
There was old Captain DRAKE-we used to call him Admiral-who became blind, and
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died in the Alms-house. ABRAM J. FONDA, Captains CAMPBELL, BRITTON, BEN. HYDE, and a host of others. These four were good lands, a gale of wind sprang up, seized a cart, story-tellers, the three last named being re- nowned for veracity, and they kept their reputations bright by the frequent recital of the wonders they had seen on the great deep, and in the far-off islands of the sea.
I have sat for hours and listened to the stories of seal fishing, and of the polar deer whose horns grew on the tips of their tails, as related by Capt. Campbell. I have enjoyed many an evening with Capt. Britton, while he told of his voyage to Ireland with a cargo of potatoes, and how, having accidentally left one in each bag, he found, on his return voy- age, his vessel (which he supposed to be only in ballast) fast settling in the water, and how, upon taking up the hatches to look for the leak, he discovered that the seed potatoes had propagated, each its bag full, so that he re- turned with a larger cargo of the esculent than he set out with. And how, on another voyage, having lost overboard in mid ocean a fine female pointer, he was surprised and delighted when, about ten days after his arrival in port, she came swimming into the harbor with six beautiful pups at her heels; and, as he re- marked : "If you'll believe me, my boy, every one of them web-footed, at that !"
But I think Ben Hyde exceeded them all in the marvelous. The scenes of his exploits were, however, laid nearer home, and are doubtless in the memories of most of your readers. I well remember a night, when the wind blew such a hurricane that I supposed our house would be carried away, and I was glad when daylight appeared, so that I might get down into Main Street. In the grey of the morning I met "Uncle Ben," and very naturally remarked that it had been "an awful windy night." "Poh! my lad," said he,
"this is but a puff. Once when we were sailing a vessel near the entrance of the High-
with a man and boy in it, and a pair of oxen attached, blew them all elear across Newburgh bay, and landed them safely in an apple tree. Being amused with the incident, I did not pay proper attention to the course of the sloop, and the mainsail suddenly jibing, the boom caught under a barrel of beef, and threw it over Butter Hill, where it was found the next Summer, on the opposite side of the mountain near its summit, by a boy and girl who were huckleberrying."
BROMMY FONDA dealt less in the Gulliverean line, though he could tell some good stories. I remember an incident in the early life of THURLOW WEED, which he related, but which I would not repeat here if its probability had not been confirmed by a recent letter of Mr. Wecd's, declining a public reception in New York, in which he mentions having first visit- ed that city as a cabin boy of a Catskill sloop. Fonda, who was sailing-master or skipper of the vessel, was one morning engaged in con- versation with some of the passengers, when Thurlow, intent-as he even now is-upon acquiring useful information, stood listening with curious visage and tea-kettle in hand, to the colloquy. Being observed by Fonda, he was sharply rebuked, and ordered to duty .- Frightened and disconcerted by the reprimand, instead of filling his tea-kettle, he incontinently threw it overboard-a feat which, about these days, he seems desirous to perform for the Abolition branch of the Republican party.
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But I have quite forgotten Capt. Van Loan, and having already extended this article to the limits of my column, I will defer my intended sketch to another number.
HARMONY LODGE PAPERS .- No. VII.
FEBRUARY 12, 1863.
In the attic story of the house on the corner of Main and Thomson streets, is, or was, a spacious room, dimly lighted by a small win- dow at cach end, which, in my early days, possessed, for me, a deep and mysterious in- terest. It was fitted up by FRANCIS BOTSFORD, at the time the building was erected, for the use of the Masonic Society which succeeded Harmony Lodge, and which was known as Catskill Lodge, No. 102. The furniture was plain and simple, consisting of four raised desks, one on each side of the room, resembling oyster-stands, and a number of hard-bottomed,
back-breaking benches. What else might have been seen therein on the working night of the lodge, I cannot say, as I never ap- proached nearer to it than, on one occasion, to see Uncle NAT. EELLS sitting before the door, with a drawn sword in his hand, which he flourished at me so menacingly as to effec- tually deter me from all subsequent explora- tions in that direction.
This room was often used by the Mechanics' Society for their monthly and annual meet- ings, by political clubs, mountebanks, raree showmen, and, at one time, was grossly per- verted from its original purpose, and hired to
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SOLOMON SOUTHWICK for his Anti-Masonic | Masonic procession which I ever witnessed Sunday lecturings. "To what base uses may we come at last !"
I well remember my first introduction into the room. It was to witness an exhibition by the noted showman, "Old SICKLES," whom many of your readers will doubtless recollect- I never shall forget him. As I entered the door my attention was arrested by the beauty of the internal decorations, which, to my mind, seemed, at that time, more magnificent than all the many elaborate frescoes which I have since seen and admired. On the East- ern section of the vaulted ceiling, a rising sun of yellow ochre radiated its glories over a green sky; stars, in white, twinkled in an indigo firmament overhead ; in the West was a new moon resembling a chopping-knife, less the handle, and in the far South appeared a dark cloud, in size and shape the fac simile of a well-smoked ham, with a "silver lining" of fat.
After seeing all this, with Punch and Judy, the Babes in the Wood, and the fight between the Constitution and Guerriere, almost con- verted into realities by the skillful manipula- tions of the immortal Sickles, and listening to his innumerable songs, all sung to the same old tune, I supposed I had seen and heard about all there was worth seeing or hearing within the entire compass of the earth's peri- phery. Very vivid is the remembrance of this my first "show." In the twilight of this dusky afternoon, my "mind's eye" presents the dapper form of Sickles, clad in tight breeches, buff vest, and bob-tail coat; I sec again the robin red-breasts descending, on paste-board wings, to strew green paper leaves over the deserted babes; I witness again the gambols of as many unrecorded aquatic monsters as could be crowded into an eight- foot ocean ; my olfactories inhale the sulphu- reous odor of the pop-guns of the mimic Iron- sides, and the tympanum of memory vibrates responsive to the rattling chorus of "Down, derry down." Peace to the ashes, and honor to the memory of the jovial, gentlemanly, genial old boy, Sickles !
As I said before, the room was occupied by Catskill Lodge, circum 1818, but the records show that many of the old members of Har- mony joined the new association. The first
was of this Lodge. It was in the month of June, and I remember that joyful anticipation roused me very early in the morning of one of the longest days in the year, that I might be ready for the occasion, and those were long weary hours in which I watched and waited for the pageant. At last it came, heralded by the shrill notes of "thie wry- necked fife," blown by the sore-eyed tailor, MITCHELL, and the rub-a-dub of Uncle DAVE HAMLIN'S drum. Next in order came the Catskill Band, composed of old CHARLES BACKUS, JOHN BOGARDUS, and one BERRY, with three clarionets; young CHAS. BACKUS with his bass drum, looking, for all the world, like his namesake, "the rosy god," except that instead of being astride his barrel, he had it strapped across his diaphragm; one, whose name I have forgotten, with a big bassoon, and then three more Backuses, (BILL, Joux and JAKE, ) with blue sashes and triangles. [ I think that about that timemy highest ambition was to wear a blue sash and play the triangles, and I have not yet forgotten how I spoiled a pretty good fire-shovel-and got licked for it, 100- by breaking off the handle and twisting it into an isagon, upon which I performed with a spike extracted from one of the bar-posts. ]
Then came the Worshipful Master, THOMAS HALE, tall, straight and puritanical ; NATHAN- $ IEL HINMAN, with the open Bible on his out- stretched arms, and a face which would have puzzled Lavater to guess whether it was cry- ing or laughing; NAT. EELLS, senior, doubly armed with his Tyler's sword, and a nose like the prow of an iron-clad; Wardens with white sticks and blue ribbons; and, then, a long train of members, with collars and scarfs, and the other trappings of the order, looking so decidedly antique that, if there had been a dirty apron among them, I should have readily believed it had been soiled by the veritable mortar used in the building of Solomon's Temple.
After perambulating the Village, keeping step to the tune of "Come, Brothers, prepare," the procession repaired to St. Luke's Church, to listen to an address from the worthy Chap- lain, the Rev. JOSEPH PRENTISS-in which place, for lack of a better, I will leave them, and my reminiscences, until some future issue of the Recorder.
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HARMONY LODGE PAPERS .- No. VIII.
MARCH 19, 1863.
I closed my last sketch, by leaving the members of the Masonic Fraternity in St. Luke's Church, listening to an address from the Rev. JOSEPH PRENTISS. This clergyman will be remembered by many inhabitants of Catskill, as perhaps, the most eloquent divine who ever occupied the desk of that church. It is doubtful whether any Rector ever received such a measure of love as his parishioners bestowed on him ; and it is equally doubtful whether any Rector so well merited the un- bounded affections of his people. Frequently, even at this day, I meet some old fellow- townsman, or school-mate, and it is seldom that our conversation does not revert to the good old days of our youth, and among the many pleasant memories of those days, that of Mr. Prentiss is the most prominent and enduring. Gentle, cheerful and affectionate in disposition, he mingled with the people, and while he thought no evil of others, he was incapable of the suspicion that evil could be meditated by others against himself. But it has been said that "It is, alas! too true, with respect to the clergy, that anything like a freedom of genial intercourse, will afford occasion which will be used against them." He was not an exception to this truism .- Groundless insinuations and half uttered slan- ders, vexed a mind, which, though strong to contend for the truth, was unused to combat calumny, and he retired from the field in which he had so long, so zealously and so successfully labored. The mutterings of de- famatory malice did not long vex his ear, for death-that sudden death from which he had so often prayed the good Lord to deliver us- removed him to a better world. In the church in which he had so long ministered, a tablet was erected to his memory, expressive of the sorrow of "the Wardens and Vestry," some of whom had followed him with vituperation to the brink of the grave. When, years after, the church edifice was burned, more than one person rejoiced that the conflagration had destroyed that lying record of regret.
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