USA > New York > Greene County > Catskill > Reminiscences of Catskill : local sketches > Part 7
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I remember to have formed a high estimate of the usefulness of three citizens of Catskill, viz : Dr. CROSWELL, the Rev. Dr. PORTER, and JACOB HAIGHT. Perhaps I only shared the common sentiment of the Village ; but, at any rate, those gentlemen came up to my ideal of model men. Later in life, while serving with Major HAIGHT in the Legislature, my early impressions of his worth were con- firmed.
Your correspondent is quite right in as- snming that I "cherish fond recollections" of Catskill. In the first years of my banish- ment-for Catskill was an Eden to my youth- ful memory-my chief happiness consisted in anticipating, at some future day, a return to ex-President. For several years before the that charmed locality. And only last Sum-
death of SILAS WRIGHT, we were friends .- With Mr. FLAGG, who survives, like BELISA- RICS, with lost vision but bright intellect, I have long enjoyed common sentiments and sympathies ; and my relations with Gen. Dix, political, personal and social, are most pleasant. With Mr. OLCOTT, the able financier of the
mer, moved by something like the instinct which brings "chickens home to roost," I explored the Village in search of what was not found-a finished mansion with pleasant surroundings, and "For Sale."
The length of this letter admonishes me that it must close. In speaking or writing of things "Regency" in its palmy days, peculiar rela- which occurred three scores of years ago, old tions have ever existed. He never refused men are pretty sure to be prolix if not prosy. 3 me a pecuniary favor, and for the first twenty years of my residence here, I had to ask for
Respectfully Yours, THURLOW WEED).
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REMINISCENCES OF CATSKILL .- BY MR. EDWIN CROSWELL.
To the Editor of the Recorder and Democrat :
have not yet been definitely stated, that may be said to belong to your own position and suc- cessful efforts in journalism.
DEAR SIR-I have delayed an acknowledg- ment of your favor, of the last month, inviting the fulfilment of a partial promise to add in some form to the local sketches of Catskill, The first issue of a newspaper in Catskill, was on Monday, August 6th, 1792. It was entitled the Catskill Packet, with a neatly engraved vignette of a sloop, under full sail, jib, foresail, mainsail, topsail, flag, &c., "Printed by MACKAY CROSWELL & Co., Cats- kill Landing, price Ten Shillings per annum. " The typography was in the quaint style and type of the day, and the sheet the size then known as Crown, a trifle larger than foolscap. The subject of the opening editorial was "Public Happiness," a theme which has lost none of its interest in the lapse of seventy-six which the Recorder and Democrat has given to its readers, from the genial and fe- licitous pen of the late JAMES D. PINCKNEY, and which you propose to re-publish and issne in pamphlet form. The delay has arisen from a doubt whether anything I could recall could add to the intrinsic interest of sketches which belong to men and events long since passed, and the fidelity or merit of which few at this day could recognize. This doubt is by no means dispelled. But there are newspaper statistics or circumstances touching the origin and antecedents of your own journal, which i years, and in which the editors hazard a flat-
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tering prediction, that if not fully confirmed by time, is owing solely to the political or moral obliquity of public men :
"From the beginning of time, [say the editors] there were never so many causes in operation to diffuse universal seience, and such powerful and multiplied means to enlighten the whole people, as are now seen in this country. If the design of Providenee can be learnt from the long chain of causes and events which have conspicuously mark- ed the history of this country, moral reasoning will confirm the conclusion from nature and pre- sent facts. Every appearance in reason and nature, the past and the present, express in capitals the glowing prospects and pre-eminenee of Columbia. Let the EDUCATION OF THE CHILDREN forever be considered and pursued as the first coneern-by legislators, judges. elergymen, and by ALL men. This, and this only, will cover with perfeet and never-fading glory the empire of Freedom."
In May, 1795, the title was changed to the Catskill Packet and Western Mail; and again in May, 1800, to the Western Constel- lation, by MACKAY and HARRY CROSWELL ; and finally, in May, 1804, to the Catskill Recorder, by MACKAY CROSWELL.
These were the "advance sheets" of the present Recorder and Democrat, which stands among the modern journals equal to the foremost in its ample pages, beauty of typography, and in all the accessories of varied, useful and pleasant reading. Its broad sheet and animated contents may be compared with its seven-by-nine prototype of seventy-five years ago with a natural pride, that while much of the change may be ascribed to time, and the altered condition of things, yet that the comparison applied to surrounding journals of its own times, will show it unsurpassed in the art and skill of making up a newspaper, and giving life and spirit to journalism.
The "& Co." of the first Catskill Packet was Dr. THOMAS O'HARA CROSWELL, who, at the end of the first or second year, retired from the concern, and devoted himself to his drug store and medical practice. This was the foundation of a long career of usefulness and philanthropy, as the beloved physician and venerated citizen-whose kindness and pleasantries, not less than his skill, were the delight and life of his patients ; who gave a practice of more than fifty years gratuitously to the poor; who was the first Postmaster of the Village, commissioned by WASHIINGTON, and held the place, without a thought of change on the part of any inhabitant, until his death, in 1844. Of that event, an unpub- lished letter gives the following account :
"Jan. 20, 1844 .- During the past year, and par- ticularly the previous week of that aente illness, there was even less tone in his manner, and his countenance had become sharp and pinehed. But after death, and when laid in his coffin, it seemed to expand ; it seemed also to be less marked by age ; it wore the benign and manly expression of twenty years ago; and it was a great consolation
to his aged and saintly widow, that she could draw from its serene aspeet the conclusion that he was at peace. If a delusion, it was grateful and consolatory ; but no one could look upon that countenance, with its mild and happy expression, and recall his noble and good qualities, and not feel, with her, some sneh comforting assurance. And there were many who came to look upon it, during the two days the body lay in the front room. All the day of the funeral the room was thronged with the poor, and nearly the entire eol- ored population eame in, stood round his corpse, and shed tears. The whole town wore the aspeet of sorrow and mourning. All the stores and shops were closed during the day ; and every one seemed to feel the loss of a friend and benefactor. Since the existence of the Village, such demonstrations of affeetion and respeet have not been made. The Church (whence the coffin was conveyed, after prayer by the Rev. Mr. JUDD, at the house) was crowded in every part of it, and after the sermon, when the reetor, (Rev. Mr. PHILLIPS) alluded to the deceased, not only his feelings, but those of the assemblage, were quite nneontrolable. Tlie procession to the grave, extending the entire length of the hill, and inelnding women and ehild- ren, was equally expressive of the universal feeling."
In the Western Constellation, HARRY CROSWELL (afterward Rev. Dr. CROSWELL) began a career which culminated in establish- ing at Hudson, a few years subsequently, The Balance, a quarto political and miscel- laneous publication, which acquired a wide celebrity for its wit and talent ; to which was added, for a time, The Wasp, a weekly auxiliary of canstic satire and point. After a few years of editorial life at Albany, he sought that better life in which, as a devoted servant of his Savior, in upwards of forty years unin- terrupted duty as Rector of Trinity Church, New Haven, at the age of eighty years, he saw his labors greatly blessed, and his name and praise in all the churches in Connecticut.
But there is an episode in the history of Catskill journalism, or semi-journalism, which if ever known to any of the present generation, has doubtless passed from their memories. As early as 1814, several young persons, all in their teens, whose pursuits and tastes were congenial, organized a club or association, and resolved to issue a weekly publication. After much cogitation, it was named The Zetetic, and duly ushered, in numbers, in pamphlet form of eight pages, 18mo. size, on writing paper, and a neat new minion type. It came into being with motto and title, in handsome style. However remote the imitation in other respects, the thought was probably borrowed from Salmagundi, the offspring of several years previous, but familiar at this time to all who relished good things in print. It reached its sixth number, at which its free but good tempered strictures upon the habits, customs and peculiarities of the town, with its sallies and hits, won for it something of the satire it was not sparing in applying to everything
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supposed to be an object of criticism, and its career came to an end. A copy of it is pro- bably not now in existence. Two only of its writers are living at the present day. Fore- most in the enterprise was SAMUEL GEORGE ANDREWS, then a clerk in the store of Mr. E. T. GAYLORD, from whose fertile brain and ready pen came its salutatory to the reader, and generally the leading editorial of each number. Mr. ANDREWS was a native of Derby, Conn., whence his father removed to Roch- ester, N. Y., where he had an estate, and was among the early settlers of that enterprising and rapidly advancing city. GEORGE, as he was familiarly called, ultimately followed the family, and in due time rose there to high respect and consideration-as Mayor of the City, Clerk of the County, Member of Assem- bly, Postmaster, and Representative in Con- gress. A well-known writer, who has made a valuable contribution to your local sketches (Mr. THURLOW WEED), and whose pen lends grace and interest to its efforts, at the death of Mr. ANDREWS, in 1863, paid a well-merited tri- bute to his manly qualities of head and heart :
"Few natures were more genial than that of Mr. ANDREWS ; few more uniformly cheerful, and none more perfectly amiable. Indeed, all the gentler qualities of manhood were most happily blended in the character of Mr. ANDREWS-not put on, like costly apparel, for gala occasions, but his every-day habit. Every body, therefore, liked GEORGE ANDREWS, because he was attentive, obliging, kind and generous to all. Though a marked man, in many respects, it was in his do- mestie and social relations that Mr. ANDREWS was most distinguished and most beloved."
JOHN STOCKING, Jr., clerk of Mr. LYMAN HALL, another of the contributors, was a native of Oneida County-migrated to the South, and as a merchant and citizen acquired dis- tinction, being some years before his death Mayor of Mobile. EVITTS MOODY, from Litch- field, Conn., and GILBERT FROST (or GIL. FROST) were clerks in the store of Mr. MARK SPENCER. MOODY was the most carefully dressed of the squad, and was at home in matters of apparel. He died three years later (1817) at Savannah. NATHANIEL BRITTON, son of Capt. WM. BRITTON, from Newport, R. I., engaged in sea-going pursuits, (as his father was, ) was lost at sea. The only sur- vivor of this coterie of unfledged "reformers of the town" now residing in Catskill, is your much-respected fellow-citizen, Mr. JOHN M. DONNELLY, who was a particular associate of Mr. ANDREWS, and active in the field. The only other survivor, there or elsewhere, is the writer of this sketch, who, as the intimate friend of Mr. ANDREWS, participated in all the
progress of the performance, and whose con- tributions to each number appeared as coming from the "Knights of the Round Table."
The Zetetic claimed for Catskill the pater- nity of a saying which has been ascribed to another and distant locality. The senior men- ber of a respectable mercantile firm in the Village, reading the New York paper one morning, when the wars on the Continent were in vogue, said to his associate : "BONA- PARTE has taken umbrage at Prussia." "Con- found him !" exclaimed his partner, "I wonder what he will take next !"
Two prominent residents of Catskill, during much of the War of 1812, were Judge MOSES I. CANTINE, (deservedly esteemed as a Christian gentleman and lawyer, a State Senator, and leading Democrat-then styled "Republican") and THOMAS P. GROSVENOR, a leading and distinguished Federalist, and Member of Con- gress. At that period party feeling ran high, and in the course of a political canvass, some- thing said or written by Judge CANTINE, was resented by Mr. GROSVENOR, and followed by a challenge to mortal combat. Judge CANTINE had the courage to decline that mode of arbit- rement, and the public judgment approved his action. He evinced his patriotism by serving as an officer on the Northern frontier at a critical period of the war. Mrs. CANTINE and Mrs. MARTIN VAN BUREN were daughters (the former by adoption) of Mrs. WITBECK, of Kinderhook.
Mr. GROSVENOR removed to the South soon after the occurrence above mentioned ; and was complimented before his departure with a public banquet, of extraordinary accompa- niments, even for those times. He died at the seat of Judge HANSON, in Maryland, in 1817. The Catskill Recorder, a political opponent, said of him :
"He had for some years been a prominent mem- ber of the Opposition party in the House of Rep- resentatives of the United States, and was distin- guished by a manly eloquence and quick discern- ment which rendered him an able debater, and formidable opponent. His death is a serious loss to his friends ; for he was one of the first among them. By his personal friends he is much, and we believe justly, lamented on account of his private qualities.
Judge CANTINE, removing to Albany, suc- ceeded Judge BUELL as Printer to the State, and editor of the Argus, and died in 1823. HIe was the first of the editorial trio, who, native or resident of Catskill, became Printers to the State.
Very truly yours, EDWIN CROSWELL. 318 Lexington Av., New York, May 1, 1868.
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CATSKILL CEMETERY PAPERS .- SECOND SERIES .- No. IX.
APRIL 20th, 1865.
Looking over the Recorder of the week before last, I was pleased to see an article from the pen of THURLOW WEED, and I confess to have been considerably flattered to know that my imperfect sketches had been the means of "turning his thoughts back to the Catskill that he remembered during the first seven years of the present century." I may well, now, give over my task, since I have attained the object for which I have labored, (and which you are aware I have often avowed to be, ) the enlist- ment of the feelings and the pen of some one whose recollections are clearer than mine, and who can, in more fitting terms than myself, recall the "olden times" of Catskill, and do justice to the memories of the early settlers. I shall not, therefore, in this paper, attempt to sketch from any new subjects, but will confine myself to elucidating some of the characters and incidents referred to by Mr. WEED, and which may not be quite clear to some of your present readers.
The "CHANDLER's" alluded to was a tavern on the corner of Main and Bridge streets, where the Catskill House now stands, and a part of which it is. It was kept by SOLOMON CHANDLER, an elderly man, (old, even in my boyhood,) with a clump foot, a hickory cane, and a voice like a Numidian lion, which last he was fond of exercising in groaning out sacred music. The house was afterwards taken by MACKAY CROSWELL, and was called the "Village Tavern" for some years, and until it took the name by which it is now known.
Mr. CHANDLER was popular as a publican, and was a peaceable, quiet man, except when some of his customers ventured to punch his fire, or when JACK CROSWELL (who, in his wrath, he used to anathematize as "a d --- sugar nigger,") mimieked the guttural tones of his original psalmody. He was the father- in-law of the late respected SAMUEL A. BAKER, and grand-father to EPHRAIM and HENRY BAKER, of your Village.
The "Stone Jug" mentioned by Mr. WEED, was near the bank of the Creek at the foot of Greene street. It was a substantial stone building, and was built, probably, as early as the Revolution, by a Madame DICE, who was, in some way, related to the DUBOIS or VAN LOAN families, or both. After the death of the madame the house was neglected, and, becoming dilapidated, was occupied as a ten- ement house by-I dare not say how many-
families at a time. This was the period re- ferred to by Mr. WEED. Afterwards it was repaired without and renovated within by ISAAC DUBOIS, and occupied by him as a family mansion. [One among the first evening par- ties which 1 ever attended was in this house, and was given by one of my schoolmates, who is still living -- the wife of SAMUEL BOGARDUS. ] After some years' occupation by ISAAC DUBOIS, and, subsequently, by his brother IRA, the house was leased by a Miss PALMER, who es- tablished a female school, to which she gave the imposing appellation of "Castle Hall Seminary." Since then it has been success- ively occupied by Judge COOKE, Maj. BEACH, and perhaps others, and is, at this day, one of the finest mansions in the Village. But, "among all the changes and chances of this mortal life" it has retained its name of "the Old Stone Jug."
"Number Eight" (so called because it con- tained eight rooms) stood on the East side of Main street, nearly opposite "the BRONSON House," and usually had as many tenants as a bee-hive. The frame was, many years ago, removed to the foot of Broad street, by PETER SHAURMAN, and converted into a comfortable d and commodious dwelling.
Of "GULLEN's Barber Shop" I know noth- ing, although I have some recollection of a JIM O' JOE GULLEN who, with his crony 'ZEKE WILKES, was famous for stealing and sucking goose eggs.
Of the two brothers of Mr. WEED (ORRIN and OSBORN) I have no recollection, but I can- not help thinking that they must have been named after a Mr. OSBORN who died many years ago, and who was the father of the well known ORRIN E. OSBORN of Athens, the original proprietor of the Osborn House. I remember this ORRIN E. as the ward of MICHAEL CASEY, who resided at the head of Main street, in Catskill. If I am not mis- taken, the widow of DAVID ELY was a daugh- ter of the elder OsBORN.
GEORGE L. WEED, the cousin of THURLOW, I remember well as a most exemplary young man, universally beloved. He was, at one time, I believe, a clerk or book-keeper for SAYRE & BREASTED.
Mr. WEED refers to the present apparent difference in "the distance from DONNELLY'S to the Court House," as contrasted with his early remembrance. Such a difference is not altogether fanciful, as the Court House, in the days of his boyhood, occupied a different site than its present one. It then stood on
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the hill, adjacent to the Jail, and the street ! leading to it was, emphatically, "a hard road to travel." I have never climbed it without being reminded of the Hill of Difficulty de- scribed by the pious BUNYAN, and, by an easy association of ideas, the Jail became, to my youthful imagination, the Castle of Giant Despair.
The "DONNELLY's" referred to was one of the oldest public houses in Catskill, and was kept by TERENCE DONNELLY, the father of Mr. JOHN M. DONNELLY, a resident of your Village. The house was afterwards called the Greene County Hotel, was kept a long time by 'HELMUS VAN BERGEN, and was burned in the "big fire" some fifteen years ago.
Mr. WEED makes honorable mention of "the HAIGHTS, the CROSWELLS, the DAYS, the COOKES, the HILLS, &e." In the first sketch which I furnished to the Recorder (some eight or ten years since) I wrote at some length of the DAYS and the CROSWELLS; in the "Harmony Lodge Papers" I have spoken of the HAIGHITS, and I propose, hereafter, health and leisure permitting, to gather up and put into some sort of shape my recollections of the COOKEs, the HILLS, the HALES, and other notables of Catskill.
Speaking of hotels, Mr. WEED names Dos- NELLY'S, CHANDLER'S and BOTSFORD'S as the only three in the Village. He surely must remember STREET's tavern, and Mr. OGDEN'S, near the foot of Main street, and BROSNAHAN'S is certainly as ancient as the town itself .- There was also a tavern in the house now occupied by Mr. HENRY ASHLEY, and it was kept, as long ago as I can remember, by SAMUEL MAGEE. In the barn attached to the house, a man named HIGHIDECKER hung him- self ; and I remember that the landlord was somehow censured at the time, and became quite unpopular in consequence.
I must have been quite young when the murder alluded to by Mr. WEED was perpe- trated at NANCY McFALL'S. I remember, however, that the victim's name was SCOTT, and that the assassin was named WILLIAMS ; and that the rage of the populace when WIL- LIAMS was reprieved was more violent, if pos- sible, than it was when the crime was conl- mitted. The house of NANCE was on the lower road to the Point, near the shore of the Creek, and it is not many years since that vestiges of the foundation remained. Poor old NANCY ! The last time I saw her she was passing the corner of Main and Thompson streets, when a team, driven furiously down the hill, caught the "old gal" and dragged her some distance, breaking her thighs and inflict- ing other injuries, from which I think she never recovered-at any rate, I never saw her again.
I meant to have touched upon many subjects embraced in Mr. WEED's letter: of "the Limits" and their boundaries (of which I coul I speak feelingly, having myself perambulat d for ten weeks that circumscribed area)-of th , duel, "all for love, " and the sanguincous con- tents of the pistols of the combatants-of the searches after KIDD's treasures, which have been prosecuted long since Mr. WEED's time, by a great many credulous individuals, among whom were Old Koos, and NATHAN FREAR who held implicit belief in supernatural ap- pearances, and who defended his faith in demonology by Bible authorities, and clinched his arguments by a triumphant ref rence to the raising of the prophet SAMUEL by "de witch of Andover."
I meant to have written of JACK and BILL GRAHAM (one of whom was killed in a duel by one BARTON, at Hoboken, some years ago)- of JACK HAIGHT, GIL. FROST (my cousin), who was surnamed "the dancer, " and other dashing bucks of the town, most of whom possessed abilities of a high order, and who might have made their mark in life, but all of whom perverted their talents to-their own utter ruin.
The allusion to the "Fishing ground" to which young THURLow and his father used to stroll on free Sundays, calls to mind Oal EGBERT SCHOONMAKER, GARRY PERSE, JACOB GOETCHIUS, and the excellent and amiabk ISAAC PENFIELD ; while the mention of Jeffer- son reminds me of Pinkster holidays and horse races at MERRIFIELD's tavern, when I was a boy and enjoyed such sports. I can- not, this evening, spare time to tell of the many interesting incidents of which I have been a witness, and sometimes an actor in, at these places ; but if I shall think it worth while to continue this series of papers, I shall contrive to weave those incidents into future sketches.
In conclusion, Mr. WEED speaks of Catskill as "a charmed locality." It is truly so. There is probably no place on the continent from which there is so little emigration of the de- seendants of the early settlers, and it is pr - verbial that few leave it who do Lot sooner or later return. For myself, I have been a war- derer for twenty years from my nrive Vil- lage, and yet absence has but strengthened my attachment to my birth place. In the crowded cities where I have, whilome, dwelt- amid the festive scenes of a fashionable water- ing place, where I have lived for some year - and during a somewhat lengthened resid nes in the chilly regions of Northern New York and Canada, I have never forgotten my fast home, nor ceased to long for a sight. of the blue mountains which shallow it at evening.
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CATSKILL CEMETERY PAPERS .- SECOND SERIES .- No. X.
TUESDAY NIGHT, APRIL 25, 1865.
While I write, the remains of the dead Pre- sident are being conveyed, with all "the pomp and circumstance" of ostentatious sor- row, toward his final resting-place in a distant State. As I listen to the hollow booming of the minute gun, and the sad notes of the funeral march, I cannot but contrast this last journey with that which he pursued but four brief years ago. Then, amid acclamations and rejoicings, and carrying with him the mingled hopes, and doubts, and fears of a whole country, he went proudly on his way to the National Capital, to assume the position to which he had been Constitutionally elected, and to grasp the reins by which the Govern- ment was to be guided through the fearful issues of a war, the dark clouds of which were, even then, visible in the Southern hori- zon. To-night, he is retracing the path of his former triumphs towards a grave in the Western prairies.
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