USA > New York > Greene County > Catskill > Reminiscences of Catskill : local sketches > Part 8
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Of the events of the four years of War and Desolation which have intervened, this is not the time, nor is such a paper as this the proper medium, for discussion. History, divested of political bias, and uninfluenced by considera- tions of party pride, or private grief, will do his memory justice. To that impartial history I willingly leave the task of inditing his me- morial, while I turn to the dead who have been deposited in "Our Cemetery," with a grief as bitter, and a sorrow as unfeigned as that which is manifested by those who bow before the bier of him who is now, alas ! but another exemplification of the truism that "the path of glory leads but to the grave."
Among all those who lie in our burial place, there are none whose memories are more pleasant than that of HILAND HILL. As far back as my recollection extends, I remember him as an industrious and cheerful man, whose integrity was never questioned, and whose humble piety was beyond reproach or doubt. Hle was a ship-bnilder by trade, and most of the sloops employed in the carrying trade be- tween Catskill and New York were of his handiwork. After the application of steam to navigation, the demand for sail vessels was materially lessened, and in process of time the extensive ship yards of Mr. HILL gradually became contracted to the limited dimensions of a shed, between his garden and the Creek, where, almost to the day of his death, he con- tinued to labor in the construction of small craft, consisting principally of sailing and rowing boats.
I think that the ship building firm, (and I am not sure but there was a mercantile estab- lishment connected with it) was styled HILL, HALE & HILL, and was composed of HILAND and RICHARD HILL, and either GEORGE or THOMAS HALE, or perhaps both. I have no distinct remembrance of RICHARD HILL, and lie must have died when I was quite young. I remember, however, another of the family, Mr. HENRY IIILL, who is, I believe, still living at Boston, well known as a successful merchant and an ardent philanthropist, con- stant in good works. My impression is that he is the son of RICHARD HILL, but I am not confident. More than forty years ago he was a resident of South America, (I think as U. S. Consul at Valparaiso) and some of your read- ers will, doubtless, remember two lads who were sent by him from that country, to be educated by the Rev. Dr. PORTER, at Catskill. Their names were EDWARD and BLANCO, and with the former, who was commonly called "the little Spaniard," I was very intimate when a boy. He was a slight made youngster, easily irritated, and I remember more than one blackened eye that I have received as his champion. [Strangely enough, I met, within the last year, at my office, a Chilian named & NARANJO, who knew EDWARD well, and who informed me that he was still living, a wealthy and respected merchant. ] HENRY HILL mar- ried LAURA, the danghter of Dr. PORTER, and I do not remember to have seen him since about that time.
The children of HILAND HILL were HILAND Junior, CHARLES and JOHN. There were, also, two or more daughters. HILAND HILL Jr. was so well known, as the Cashier of the Catskill Bank from the foundation of that institution to the time of his sudden death ; was so universally beloved, and has left us so recently, that it is unnecessary for me to sketch his history, or to extol his virtues. He mar- ried a daughter of COMFORT BUTLER, whose brown tomb-stone, transferred, with his re- mains, from the old burying ground at the junction of Livingston and Broad streets, now marks his grave in "Our Cemetery." CHARLES HILL died recently in Brooklyn. The eldest daughter of ILILAND HILL Sen. married CALEB HOPKINS, a merchant of New York, (and one of the celebrated firm of PIERSON & Co. ) who, retiring from business, purchased the residence of Doctor BENTON, on the West bank of the Catskill Creek, where he lived and died, and where his family still reside. MARY, the younger daughter, married FRANCIS I. MARVIN, also a New York merchant, who afterwards removed to Catskill, and who died not long
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since. The widow of HILAND HILL Jr., and at least two of the sons, (FREDERICK, Cashier of the Tanners' Bank, and HENRY B., Teller of the Catskill Bank) still remain in Catskill, and are (as their progenitors were) among the most estimable citizens of the Village. But I find I am running down the genealogical line of this family to a period too modern to deeply interest those lovers of antiquity for whose amusement, if not instruction, these hasty and imperfect sketches are more espe- cially written.
Col. GEORGE HALE died before my time, although I remember to have heard him spoken of, in my early youth, as one then recently deceased. He is the person referred to in Mr. WEED's very interesting letter, as having been buried with military honors, early in the pres- ent century.
Captain THOMAS HALE I knew well, and he came nearer to my ideas of one of the Puritans who immigrated in the Mayflower, than any one I ever saw. He was a man of unbending integrity, indomitable will, and strict con- formity to Christian faith and observances, even to the closing of his store at sunset on Saturdays, and the commencement of the family washing on Sunday nights. He had been, at one period of his life, of that class "who go down to the sea in ships, and occupy their business in great waters," and I can easily imagine that he had a well disciplined crew, and that there was little need of a chro- nometer on board his ship, to mark the hour for piping to duty, or grog, or hammock- indeed, so regular and so punctual were his habits that the matrons of the Village timed their domestic arrangements by his move- ments, and when it was first proposed to erect a town-clock in Catskill, it was thought by many to be quite unnecessary so long as Capt. HALE was living. After the closing up of the firm of HILL, HALE & HILL, the Captain transacted a mixed mercantile business, in the basement of his dwelling-house on the corner of Main and William streets, dealing in such articles as in those days made up the assort- ment of a country store-such as West India goods (meaning rum and molasses principally), farm produce, dry goods, groceries, wooden ware, mouse-traps, grind-stones, "tea, tar, tumeric, turpentine and tin." He always kept good articles, gave honest weight and measure, and made correct change, and yet, I know not why, his store never seemed to be over-stocked with customers, while less scru- pulous dealers drove a thriving business. I have, sometimes, thought that there was a deal of truth in the poet's assertion that
"To some, the pleasure is as sweet
Of being cheated as to cheat."
Captain HALE was a quiet, peaceable man, with a voice as soft as a woman's, but when aroused he was a very SAMPSON. I remember one Winter day, when old ARCH. THORP was pretty drunk and profanely abusive, that the Captain remonstrated with him until bis pa- tience became exhausted, when he seized him by the collar of his coat and that part of his trowsers which he usually sat down upon, and tossed him over the lower half of a double door, and over a sleigh load of oats standing on the side-walk, quite into the middle of the street. ARCH. was partially sobered by his sudden transit, and so thoroughly frightened that, as he staggered off, he only dared to venture the remark, in a subdued tone, that the Captain was "the -st strongest old divil in town."
Related, somehow, to Captain HALE, by marriage, was Deacon NATHAN ELLIOT. He, too, was a Puritan, after the straitest sect .- He kept a book store, and his wife a millinery shop, at the upper end of what is now called "the Central Block," though it is now just about forty years since the building which he then occupied was burned. To his book- store was attached a bindery, and at one time he established a newspaper called The Amer- ican Eagle, a high-toned Federal sheet, in- tended to rival the Recorder ; but the enter- prise proving unprofitable, "thic bird of Jove" very soon went to roost. Mr. ELLIOT was doubtless a very excellent, though not a popu- lar person ; the strictness of his habits and the austerity of his manners being unsuited to a community such as Catskill possessed ut that time. He had the reputation of being very penurious, though I have never heard of any act of his which deserved a harsher appel- lation than that of prudent parsimony. He had a wild set of apprentices, (among whom was GIL. FROST, ) and they used to annoy him excessively by stealing and drinking his cur- rant wine, and other tricks incompatible with the customs and usages to which the Deacon had been bred in Old Connecticut ; and it is no wonder that when he locked up his cellar, and sometimes flourished the rod, that they stigmatized him as bard, and mean and miserly.
He died quite suddenly, leaving two sons, JAMES G. and NATHAN G. The first named was, I believe, educated for one of the pro- fessions, though I do not remember that he studied either law, physic or Divinity. He was for some time engaged in mercantile bu- siness with REUBEN ADAMS, and afterwards went to New York, where he died a few years since.
NATHAN G. ELLIOT was my school mate at Catskill, and also at the Greenville Academy in 1823-4, and was one of my most intimate friends. About 1831 he purchased the Cats-
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kill Recorder office, from CHARLES FAXON, | ory, stands over an empty grave in "Our and soon after that I became temporarily as- Cemetery, " and as I have looked on the ten- antless tomb, I have thought that his was a fitting burial, and that the Gulf of Mexico was a sepulchre none too wide or deep to cover his capacious heart. sociated with him in the editorial department of that paper. I have known but few persons in my life-time who possessed a happier dis- position, or who carried, under a somewhat rough exterior, a heart more full of generous impulses and warm affections. Knowing But I have wandered away from my first subject. I meant to have written of the ex- tensive establishment of the HILLS, and to have called up the memories of many who there found employment and support. I meant to have told of 'LISHE HAMMOND ; of Old SAM HULL, and his boys, IRA, GEORGE, MARK and TIRRELL ; of NOAH REEVES; of old Mr. STEWART and his sons SAM, ANDY and ADAM, and others associated in my mind with the old ship-yard, but lack of leisure and limited space forbid, and they must "bide nothing of the art of printing, it is not strange that he was unsuccessful in the newspaper business ; and he soon abandoned it and went to Alabama. There he engaged in various pursuits, and at last, loading a vessel with lumber, &c., he started on a voyage to New Orleans or Galveston, from which he never returned. His vessel was lost in "the Gulf," and I have heard that his last act (in keeping with his whole life) was to lash to the rigging a boy, who was the only survivor of the wreck. A tomb-stone, inscribed to his mem- [ their time."
CATSKILL CEMETERY PAPERS .- SECOND SERIES. - No. XI.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 1865.
As I write the above date, I am reminded that another birth-day has arrived-another stage of the journey of life has been accom- plished. Though many who entered on the path before me are still plodding on in advance, yet there are more, many more, who, starting with me, have lain down, weary, by the way- side. With my few surviving contemporary companions, as with myself, the summit of the road has been passed, and we are now almost imperceptibly, but with accelerated speed, hastening down the declivity. A few more birth-days-perhaps no more-and our pilgrimage will be ended, and we lie, unre- membered, with the dead of "Our Cemetery."
Recalling to memory the names of the early settlers of Catskill, I find that the subjects of most of my hasty sketches, (not only of the current series, but also of the "Harmony Lodge Papers") have been natives of Connecticut. Indeed, the early Dutch settlers had scarcely got warm in their cosy nests on the Kaatskill and Kauterskill, and at Kiskatom, and Kaats- ban, and the Bockover, and the Groedt Em- bought, before they were disturbed by the influx of Eastern immigration. Though, after a time, they settled down into a sort of har- mony, produced by a certain identity of pe- cuniary interests, yet perfect cordiality was never fully established between the first gen- eration of the Dutchmen, and those whom they looked upon as "Yankee interlopers."
In fact, when I was a boy the low dutch was the prevalent language in the town, and the merchants were obliged to employ interpreters, & or have their own jaws broken to the Catskill vernacular ; the old settlers utterly refusing to substitute molasses for stroep, pork for spack, handkerchief for nuesdock, jack-knife for sluet-mas, or shin-bone for shanklebeen ; and it was fortunate for the Connecticut men that they brought wives with them, as they would have found it extremely difficult to supply themselves with such commodities in or about Catskill. Many of your readers will probably remember an anecdote in illustration of this aversion to miscegeny on the part of the Dutch: A down-Easter had been enamored of a damsel (or perhaps of her father's farm) in or near Kauterskill, and applied for the old gentleman's consent to the union, which was decidedly refused. A Catskill merchant was enlisted in the suitor's favor, who endeav- ored to shake the "cruel parient's" determina- tion, representing the young man as very smart, very learned, and a Poet, withal. "He a boet !" said the old man, "why, I can make better boetry as him, any day," and he forth- with produced the following specimen of the "divine afflatus" :
"Tuteh and Yankee mixed togedder, Always make a tam bodder."
Truth compels me to relate, however, that the "bodderation" ensued ; the Yankee making interest with the "goode vrow," and, in this
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case, as in a thousand others, "the gray mare proved the better horse."
The VAN ORDENS, the VAN VECHTENS, the VAN LOANS, the VAN GORDENS, the VAN GEL- DERS, and the VAN HOESENS, the OVERBAGHS, the HALLENBECKS, the BOGARDESES, the GOETCH- IUSES, the WYNKOOPS, the SCHUNEMANS, the FRELIGHS, the TRUMPBOURS, and the SCHMIDTS; and many others of Netherland origin, are numerously represented at this day, by their descendants, in the population of Catskill, and I hope to be able, some time, to pay fitting tribute to the memories of the good old low dutch burghers. In the present paper I only propose to speak of one or two more of the early settlers from "the land of steady habits."
Among these was WILKES HYDE. Of him there is little to be said, except that he endured the reputation (whether deservedly or not I cannot vouch from personal knowledge) of being the most penurious and miserly inhabi- tant of the town. He was held responsible for all the clipped or bored coin in circulation, and he was supposed to be the person of whom it was originally said that
"He was so mean, he'd skin a flint If he could see a sixpence in't."
Whether he ever really performed this opera- tion or not I am not credibly advised, but I have heard from pretty good authority, that, at one time, while escorting Mrs. E- A D-Y through his garden, and extolling the quality of his fruit, he picked a cherry, and, carefully dividing it, offered her one-half of it ! If this was a fact, he was meaner than the devil, for I have never heard "the old serpent" reproached with halving the apple he gave to EvE.
There are many anecdotes of his parsimony extant, but I refrain from repeating them- "de mortuis nil, nisi bonum."
Mr. HYDE was a merchant for many years, and, I think, was the first to establish an ex- tensive crockery store in the Village. He was something of a pomologist, also, and after retiring from the mercantile business he pur- chased a small farm in Kiskatom, and went into the fruit raising line, though I believe this speculation was rather unprofitable. He was also engaged, with ALFRED BUEL, in the spinning-Jenny business, and I think he had at one time a pretty sharp attack of "morus multicaulus" fever.
He died, at a somewhat advanced age, from injuries received by being thrown from a wagon, leaving four or five sons and daugh- ters, most, if not all, of whom, I believe, have since died.
Hatter by trade, and at one time employed many workmen, of whom I only now recol- lect LUCIUS COOKE and PETER BOGARDUS, and they were two characters not likely to be for- gotten in Catskill for many a day. His shop and warehouse stood upon the site of, and was the same building which has since been known as "Old GRIMES'S" and the "EGNOR House." I shall never forget the huge sign which cov- ered almost the whole width of this building, representing, on one side, a tall Indian with a fist full of fox-skins, and on the other an enormous chapeau-bras, inside of which the aforesaid Indian might casily have hidden himself and his peltry. [By the by, huge signs were fashionable in Catskill about these days ; the elder JOHN ASHLEY had one bigger than his bake-shop, on which were pictured sundry loaves of bread, barrels of crackers, and inscribed with the benevolent and patri- otic sentiment, "May our Country never want for Bread," while MACKAY CROSWELL's book store and printing oflice was almost entirely concealed by an immense sign-board, on which was painted a Ramage Press and the follow- ing inscription, in capital letters : "Call and pay me what thou owest mne ; if thou owest me nothing, call and buy something."]
Mr. RODGERS, as I have said, was an excel- lent citizen, and was very sociable and com- panionable, even with the lads of the Village. He was very fond of relating stories of Wal- lingford, and of the early times of Catskill, yet he could not approximate to his brother- in-law, NAT. COOKE, who used a longer bow in his relations of the marvelous, than Mr. RODGERS did in whipping furs. Until some- what advanced in life he wore his hair combed carefully back, and wound tightly with an eel-skin, covered with black ribbon. This kind of queue was called a club, though it more closely resembled a huge Bologna sau- sage. He was as proud of this caudality as a Bashaw of his three tails, and he assured me that at one time it had been so long and so rigid, that upon sitting down he was obliged to shift it to one side, lest by its striking the chair bottom, he should be incontinently scalped !
He knew the late JOHN JACOB ASTOR Well, and I have heard him say that he had bought peltries from him, when Aston first com- menced the fur trade and carried a pack. Mr. RODGERS was always good-natured and pleas- ant, and I do not remember to have ever known him to get vexed except when wash- ing hats in the Catskill Creek. On such occa- sions he usually wore a long surtont, or tunic, with a cape about the breadth of my hand, and sometimes, when the wind would blow this narrow appendage about his cars, he
CHARLES RODGERS was another immigrant from Connecticut. He was a native of Wal- lingford, and came to Catskill at an early day, and was a most excellent citizen. He was al would lose patience, and rather profanely
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exclaim : "dud-darn the everlasting cape !" I remember that these ebullitions used to tickle my friend FRANK DUNHAM exceedingly.
Mr. RODGERS and his estimable wife lived to a ripe age, enjoying the respect of the entire community, and, dying, left the record of a good name. Their children were LYMAN, MARY, CHARLES and AUGUSTUS. LYMAN Was a fellow clerk with me in the store of the late JOIN W. HUNTER, more than forty years ago. He went to New York, and thence to New Orleans, but after an absence of a few years he returned to Catskill, and, in connection with IRA DUBOIS, established a restaurant, where he was long and favorably known as "Old GRIMES. " CHARLES studied law with POWERS & DAY, but abandoned the profession, and followed the business of an accountant until his death. MARY married IRA DUBOIS ; and AUGUSTUS still survives, the last of the RODGERS family-father, mother, sister and brothers are all asleep in "Our Cemetery."
CHIARLES CLARK married the sister of Mrs. RODGERS, and, I presume, came to Catskill about the same time. He was a clock and watch maker by trade, but on account of fail- ing health and eye-sight he relinquished the business, and kept a little grocery store on the spot where the Tanners' Bank now stands. I shall probably never forget the taste of the fruit of the spice-apple tree which grew on the vacant lot between CLARK's grocery and RODGERS' hat shop. Even to-night, its rich flavor seems to linger on my palate, and its deep green tinge is painted on the retina of my "mind's eye." Perhaps my remembrance of those apples is pleasanter from the fact that they were usually surreptitiously obtained, it being conceded that "stolen fruit is sweetest."
Mr. CLARK was a native of Norwich, Con- nectient, and was quite a stripling at the break- ing out of the Revolutionary War. He es- poused the patriot cause, and at the early age of seventeen shouldered his musket and march- ed to repel the invasion of New London by BENEDICT ARNOLD, though his company ar- rived at that place a few hours too late to pre- vent the conflagration. [The musket referred to was taken from a British soldier, and still remains in the possession of his son HIRAM. ] The old gentleman was an enthusiast in rela- tion to the Revolution, and never adverted to the scenes of that trying period without in- tense emotion, nor spoke of WASHINGTON without shedding tears. I have often sat, for hours, hearing him converse with those who had shared the dangers and honors of those stormy years ; among whom I well remember DAVID HAMLIN, a drummer, who used to boast that, while playing Yankee Doodle, he could toss his drum-stick in the air, drink off a gill of whisky, and catching the stick in its de- scent, go on with the tune without missing a note ! It is not impossible that he might have done so, for I can vouch that he would per- form the whisky-drinking part of the feat with marvelous facility.
Mr. CLARK died many years ago, his widow surviving him until quite recently. Their children were CHARLES, EDWIN, ERASTUS, AN-& DREW and HIRAM, two only of whom (ED- WARD and HIRAM) are living-the former re- siding, I believe, at Ogdensburgh, and the latter in Canada West.
I meant to have written at much greater length of the CLARK family, but the lateness of the hour admonishes me' that it is time to close this rambling sketch, and so-good night!
CATSKILL CEMETERY PAPERS .- SECOND SERIES .- No. XII.
TUESDAY EVENING, JULY 18, 1865.
To those who have all their lives remained at liome, or whose absences have been but the brief excursions of business or pleasure, the changes which have taken place in Catskill within the past twenty years, have, doubtless, been almost imperceptible, and it is probably difficult for them to recall the time when the place was materially different from what it now is. My visits to my native place within that time, have been few and lim- ited in duration, seldom permitting more than a Sabbath's sojourn, and yet I could dis- cover, at each return, some striking change and improvement. Not, however, until my
last visit, at the beginning of the present month, have I been allowed sufficient leisure to thor- oughly perambulate the suburbs of the town, and that I did so, on that occasion, my feet still bear aching testimony.
To say that I was surprised, feebly conveys my feelings. East of Main street, and reach- ing to the banks of the Hudson, on every hand, palatial residences and pleasant cottages have sprung up like the palace of ALADDIN .- The ground where "we boys" played ball, is covered with neat houses and cultivated gar- dens; the rocky hill-side, where we went to gather the early birch twigs and sassafras, is now a thriving and extensive vineyard ; the
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ponds on which we learned to skate, are level | soldiers were to be feasted, and the whole was lawns; and where stunted pines, tangled under- to wind up in a pyrotechnic blaze of glory. growth and straggling vines betrayed the steili- ty of the soil, flowers and fruits now bloom and ripen. While on the West side of the Cats- kill, where the barren hill-sides were baked by the Summer sun, and Tophet was typified by the smoke of the burning kilns, handsome mansions and orchards present themselves to the vision.
But nowhere is the change more apparent than in and about "Our Cemetery." The rows of rough stakes which, twenty years ago, were driven by the road-side, have grown into a pleasant willow walk, and the clean shorn ground and carefully trimmed shrubbery give evidence to the respect and affection of the Villagers for the memories of the departed, and the excellent taste and unwearied industry of the individual to whom is entrusted the charge of this pleasant "city of the dead."
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