USA > New York > Orange County > Wallkill in Orange County > The Historic Wallkill and Hudson River Valleys > Part 2
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Trust thou her wisdom, she will reconcile The faltering spirit to eternal change When, in her fading woodways, thou shalt touch Dear hands long dead and know them not as strange.
For thee a golden parable she breathes Where in the mystery of this repose, While death is dreaming life, the waning wood With far-caught light of heaven divinely glows.
Thou, when the final loneliness draws near, And earth to earth recalls her tired child, In the sweet constancy of nature strong Shalt dream again-how dying nature smiled.
26.
NER. WEST POINT NY
ON THE
WEST
SHORE
TARR
Road at
NORTH UF
West Point
IN CUT NORTH OF (WEST POINT LOOKING WASD OLDER WY NES
WEST SHORE LOOKING TOWARDS OLD CROWS P NEST
TRAIN Nº1
COMING NORTH
FROM WEST
POINT
WEST POINT REJERVOIR
FORT PUTMAN ON TOP OF HELL
OLD CROW'S NEST
IN DISTANCE,
Courtesy New York Central Railroad
The queenly Hudson circling at my feet Lingers to sing a song of joy and love, Pouring her heart in rippling wavelets sweet, Which, sun-kissed, glanced up to thy throne above. -Kenneth Bruce.
27
PRATTSVILLE
N.Y.
, PPATTSVILLE
SFALLS
INFKILL
FALLS
LITTLE FALLS
ON THE ROAD
GRAND GORGE
DEVASEGU FALLS
.PRATTSVILLE
STRYKERS FAILS
ON THE ROAD FROM
Courtesy New York Central Railroad
PRATTSVILLE TO GIL 304
How soothing is this solitude With nature in her wildest mood.
-IT. Il'ilson.
28
דונ
--
IN
PROSPECT
PARK
Cuortesy New York Central Railroad
CATSKILL, N. Y.
They have their romance too, their sweet romance Of Indian lovers, brave and true of soul; And fairy bands that loved the woodland paths, And held sweet revel on some moonlit knoll.
-E. A. Lent.
SWEET MEMORIES
NO TIME LIKE THE OLD TIME.
There is no time like the old time, When you and I were young, When the buds of April blossomed And the birds of springtime sung; The garden's brightest glories By summer suns are nursed. But, oh, the sweet, sweet violets, The flowers that opened first!
There is no place like the old place Where you and I were born, Where we lifted first our eyelids On the splendors of the morn; From the milk-white breast that warmed us, From the clinging arms that bore, Where the dear eyes glistened o'er us That will look on us no more!
There is no friend like the old friend Who has shared our morning days, No greeting like his welcome, No homage like his praise ! Fame is the scentless sunflower With gaudy crown of gold, But friendship is the breathing rose With sweets in every fold.
There is no love like the old love That we courted in our pride. Though our leaves are falling, falling, And we're fading side by side, There are blossoms all around us With the colors of our dawn, And we live in borrowed sunshine When the day star is withdrawn.
There are no times like the old times ; They shall never be forgot. There is no place like the old place- Keep green the dear old spot. There are no friends like our old friends- May heaven prolong their lives; There are no loves like our old loves- God bless our loving wives ! -Oliver Wendell Holmes.
30
Courtesy New York Central Railroad
Ah! how often when I have been abroad on the mountains has my heart risen in grateful praise to God that it was not my destiny to waste and pine among those noisome congrega- tions of the city .- J. J. Andubon.
Courtesy. New York Central Railroad
"Autumn in the North Woods"-"Where the Sportsman May Camp, Angle, Hunt and Explore."
THE LAST LINK
HEN it snaps-that last link-the sensation that comes over one is almost mortally depressing.
Was it not Campbell who wrote the "Last Man?" and is it not easy for him who hears the snapping of the last link-the last link binding him to earth-to fully appreciate just how that "last man" felt ?
Away back yonder, fifty years ago, maybe, strong but tenderly loving hands took hold of you, a little lump of red, frowning humanity, and a voice trembling with joy, exclaimed, "A man child is born unto us. Let us rejoice."
It was the hands of your father that so gently held you, and it was your father's voice that proclaimed the happy news of your advent into the strange old bitter-sweet that men call life.
For years those hands pressed you close to the heart that loved you, and that voice crooned to you patiently and softly when you were fretful and peevish.
You grew up to manhood, had trials of your own to encounter, were forced to meet the battle and the breeze, and, among other difficulties, found yourself growing old-for the man of fifty cannot be said to be young.
But the dear old father lived on, a hale, hearty, happy old man, loving you as tenderly and beautifully as ever, and the love was returned, good measure, shaken down and running over, for your heart, though the heart of a man of fifty, was still tenderly full of the old memories, and you felt as warmly toward him as you did when a little boy upon his knee.
And the dear old man sent for you one dav and told you that he was going, and the dear old withered hands again took hold of yours, and the old familiar voice, trembling now with age, bade you "Good-by." and your best friend was no more.
The last link was broken! Destiny had pushed herself out into the mist- covered waters and left you standing absolutely alone upon the shore. You were the "last man," and under the silent heavens you could only feel: "How lonesome !"
You may still have wife and friend and comrade, but no longer have you a father. Never again will you feel hands like those that half a century ago held you up to your mother's gaze. No more will there sound for you a voice like that which in the long ago proclaimed the man child's entrance into life.
And under the silent skies you plod along roaming about for days, maybe, in a "world not realized," stunned and dumbfounded in thinking of the "touch of the vanished hand and the sound of the voice that is still."
REV. THOMAS B. GREGORY.
D
33
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A PREACHMENT TO MONEY-MANIACS
OU money-maniacs drive bad bargains. I know this, though I am only a dreamer. Though landless and homeless, I would not exchange estates. Keep your acres ; I am content with continents. Keep your fish-ponds; I appropriate the seas. Travel; visit Italy; price it; yet it is I who shall have, on American soil, the true Italian sunshine in my heart. Employ servants ; yet all the generations of the past serve me. Buy wine, yet I shall drink a better beverage from the wayside spring. Grow cor- pulent upon rich meats; yet I shall find more nourishment in my crust of bread. In vain shall you buy books that you do not read, talk inanities that induce ennui, expound philosophies that you do not understand and theories that you do not believe. There is but one end-you shall come to doubt the veracity of your own soul. Then turn to me. You shall find me in the castle of dreams, on the river of Tranquillity, where the sunlight coins the fair earth into golden bloom : aye, where laughing sunbeams turn to gold- finches and sing ceaselessly in the lilac hedges of pleasant thoughts. I shall lead you back to the gentleness of simplicity. Though you have consorted with the insincere, I shall make you companion to the unchanging immortals; though you have paid for happiness and purchased pain, I shall provide you freely the joy of a love unfailing; though you have revelled with lepers, I shall lead you to banquet with gods. The finest things of this world are priceless. Whatsoever you have that gold has bought is less than you might have had for the taking.
BURRITT HAMILTON.
Reprinted from the " Broadway Magazine "
34
EARLY RAPID TRANSIT IN AMERICA
Courtesy New York Central R. R.
NNIHILATING space in any of the numerous "flyers" which bisect our country, we forget that it is within the memory of living man to go back to those days when stage-coaching was the only public means of travel on land.
As early as 1816 there was quite a fleet of steamboats plying on the Hud- son and in New York Bay ; all of them built under Fulton's supervision.
In our first illustration we show a picture of one of these early type of boats, side wheel pattern, and very closely resembling the Fulton, save that it has two masts, while the Fulton had but one. Steam was such an uncertain quantity that sails were still needed to be used in case of accident, and also for speed.
In 1821 there were three boats in packet service on Long Island Soun 1,
A Hudson River Pioneer ( Plate No. 2).
Illustrated by Photographs of Old Blue China.
-
.
...
A Primitive Side Wheeler ( Plate No. 1).
but this was after the death of Fulton, who did not live to see his greatest triumph, the Chancellor Livingston, completed.
These boats were so successful that soon a line of steamers was projected to run between New York and Albany and Trov. We give one of these, shown on a fine old plate, made by Enoch Wood and Sons, those famous English potters, who did so much in historic china for the American mar- ket. There is the well-known shell border, which is almost as sure a means of identification as the name "Wood" on the back.
On the paddle-wheel house are the words, "Union Line." Apparently, docks were built only at the terminals of the route. Passengers who wished to get on at intermediate points were subjected to what seems to us amusing experiences. They were taken, with
35
Albany and the Hudson River Ferry ( Plate No. 3).
their luggage, from the shore to the steamer in rowboats, and to save time, these boats were propelled by a rope being passed about the paddle-wheel of the steamer which then made a few revolutions. It is unnecessary to say that upsettings were frequent, and after using this primitive method for a year or two. something less precarious was a:lopted.
Say. for example, we have accom- plished the trip up the Hudson without being upset. that our baggage is safe and dry and that we have duly admired the city of Albany (shown in No. 3), where primitive methods of ferrying were still in use. We may proceed from thence by train, and enjoy the be- wildering experience of riding as fast as ten or twelve miles an hour, with an increase to fifteen, on favorable parts of the road.
When the Stockton and Darlington Railway, in England, was opened in September. 1825, the main line and its three branches were thirty-eight miles long. Stephenson drove the engine as the first train started. and an outrider on horseback went in advance to keep the track clear.
In 1820 three locomotives were imported to America. and one was tried at Hones- dale, Pennsylvania, upon the tracks of the Delaware and Hudson. It was soon found that they were ill adapted for use on Amer can roads, where very sharp turns were made. Peter Cooper, that same year, devised an engine which overcame this difficulty.
In 1830 the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, running six- teen miles from Albany to Schenectady, was opened, and the cars were drawn by horses till the delivery of the "Dewit: Clinton" locomotive, which was built at the West Point Foun- dry, New York. The first trip this engine made was on Au- gust 9. 1831.
This was only the second locomotive built in the United States. The first was made at the same shops for the South Carolina Railroad. The picture ( No. 4) we show through the courtesy of W. P. Jervis, from his "Encyclopedia of Ceramics." It is a rare platter and gives an English type of locomotive.
Railroading in the Mohawk in Early Days ( Plate No. 4).
36
quite different from the little De Witt Clinton. The next illustration (No. 5) shows a similar type, with coach pat- tern of car, with luggage carried on top. This plate is a bone of contention among collectors ; one side arguing that it is an English train, while their op- ponents call it the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. It is unmarked, in which the platter (No. 4) has the advantage, being plainly marked "Albany and Schenectady Railroad." It is supposed to be made by the well-known firm of Ridgways, and also bears the letters "C. C."
From Schenectady, westward, we may take our choice of two means of travel, stage coach, or packet-boat on the canal. The commodious "Red-bird," as well as boats on several rival lines, were plying on the canal, and people who wished to broaden their minds by The Old Stage-Coach Car ( Plate No. 5). travel frequently took the trip from Al- bany to Buffalo. In an old journal, there is the following item concerning the writer's first trip on the "big ditch:" "Commended my soul to God and asking his defense from danger, I stepped aboard the canal boat and was soon flying towards Utica." If the dangers of the raging canal were too great to be braved, an outside seat on the stage coach gave one an opportunity to see the country. The driver of the stage, as well as the landlord of the public, were persons of great importance. Stage driving was hereditary -it went in families and descended from father to son.
A Boston Carriage of the Long Ago ( Plate No. 6).
The journey from Boston to Provi- dence, a distance of forty miles, was made in four hours and fifty minutes. This was considered the acme of fast traveling, and an editorial on the per- formance says: "If anyone wishes to go faster, he may send to Kentucky and charter a streak of lightning!"
They had exciting times on this line. The fare was three dollars, which was considered extortionate. A rival line was organized that charged but two dollars. Soon a merry "cut-rate" war was raging, and each company alter- nately reduced its fare by fifty-cent jumps, till the old line announced it would carry free those travelers who reached the starting place in time.
Not to be downed in this way, the new line promised to carry its patrons free. and furnish a dinner at the jour- ney's end.
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This posed the old line for a time, then they, too, offered the dinner and a bottle of wine. For some time the controversy stood just here. Crowded stages were the rule every day. Before either company was ruined they entered into a grand "combine," and reach signed a contract to carry passengers for two dollars a trip.
In our last picture (No. 6) we show an elegant private carriage, before the Octagon Church, Boston. We can fancy a modish belle going in it to some entertainment. Her gown of stiff brocade was made with a pointed body, very stiffly boned ; her kerchief of "cobweb lawn half conceals and half reveals her throat, while her fine leghorn is heavy with ostrich plumes and adorned with a rich sprigged veil.
It is almost with a feeling of regret that we chronicle the passing of those days of leisure.
Tavern and tavern-keeper, stage-coach and one-horse chaise have all gone, never to return ; what shall be chronicled eighty years from today? Will the next century effect such a wondrous evolution ?
N. HUDSON MOORE.
THE OLD STONE HOUSE AT NEW FORT On the Robert B. Crowell estate at Wallkill, N. Y. (See page 92)
38
HUDSON ON THE HUDSON
Courtesy New York Central R. R.
BY H. R. BRYAN
The Court House, at Hudson, New York.
HE city of Hudson, on the east bank of the Hudson River, and originally known as Claverack Landing, was settled in 1783 ; its proprietors coming chiefly from Provi- dence and Newport, Rhode Island, and Nan- tucket and Edgarton, Massachusetts. One hun- dred and fourteen miles from New York and twenty-eight from Albany, it is the head of natural navigation on the Hudson River. Na- ture has been most kind, as a high bluff bounds the city on the river side, and a long slope east- ward gives one of the finest systems of sewer- age in the world. Under this bluff Henry Hud- son, with the "Half Moon," searching for a waterway across the continent, anchored and from this fact the city has taken the name which it now bears.
THE STATE ARMORY, AT HUDSON, NEW YORK.
39
Hudson soon became noted for its shipping, and was formerly a whaling port of great importance. The Quakers, who settled here, intermarried with their Dutch neighbors, who had fol- lowed them to Hudson, and today Quaker and Dutch names still survive; and the Quaker meeting-house, and the Dutch Reformed Church, are remind- ers of the early traditions of this small but venerable city, which, in many things, still adheres to the conservatism of its founders.
When the city was young many in- The New City Hospital, at Hudson, New York. dustries selected Hudson as a site. The Steel Tired Wheel Company is one of the largest of the industrial concerns of Hudson today. The city's brewing interests have long been noted, and the extensive plants which furnish Evans' and Granger's ales, have brought world-wide fame to Henry Hudson's old anchorage. Lumber mills and tobacco factories continue to flourish, an l, in later years, large knitting mills have been erected, a recent combination bringing together the two largest of these, under the name of "The Union Mills."
The river front site which for so many years the Hudson Iron Company occupied, has been recently purchased for a cement plant : the stone and clay, but a little distance back being admirably suited for this purpose. The plant proper will, when built, cost about a million of dollars and will be a model of its kind.
Nature intended Hudson for an ideal home and manufacturing city. It is healthy, it is central, and living expenses are very moderate. The Hudson River furnishes a waterway to the north and south, and incomparable railway facilities afford first-class transportation for passengers and freight in all directions, while the immediate farming district is easily reached by a third-rail electric system. A mosquito fleet of small steam yachts brings the neighboring towns on the river into close and convenient relations and the prosperous village of Athens, on the opposite bank of the Hudson, is reached by frequent ferry. Desirable building and residence sites are in the market at fair values, and the manufacturing advantages, which this city of ten thousand offers, are sure and substantial. Labor troubles are unknown ; Hudson, in its life of nearly a century and a quarter, never having had a single strike.
An improved railroad service has brought Hudson into competition with the suburban towns of New York, and shopping and theatre parties frequently take advantage of the reduced rates and make excursions for the day. The shrewd real estate experts are buy- ing further from New York, as they read in the present demand for suburban property, a reasonably sure failure of supply in the immediate future.
Hudson's taxes are moderate : her fire department a source of great pride ; her police force a credit : and her public schools so nearly a model, that cities many times the ten thousand of Hudson profit from a study of the system which has accomplished such great results.
In public buildings few places of her size can compare. The State House of Refuge for Women, a state armory. recently erected ; a modern jail, a hundred-thousand dollar court house, just completed : the State Firemen's Home, a new city hospital, which will accommodate forty patients : a . M. C. A. building, with bowling alleys; Masonic Tem- Dle, the Hendrick Hudson D. A. R. chapter house, the Hudson Orphan Asylum, and the home for the aged are but a few of them.
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ECHOES FROM SLEEPY HOLLOW
BY MINNA IRVING.
"The old Dutch Church rises before you wrapped in memorial shadows."
ARRYTOWN is a place with a past-an historic past, full of quaint traditions and quainter legends. Like an old man it is always looking back and living over again the days of its youth, delighting to tell the stranger within its gates long-winded tales of the Revolution, and of Washing- ton Irving, who may fitly be called its patron saint. But it is a charming place for a day's outing with lunch box and cam- era-an outing from which you will re- turn saturated with ancient lore, and feeling as if you had made the personal acquaintance of Ichabod Crane and Katrina Van Tassel.
You will be very tired though, if you have walked, for unlike Rome, Tarry- town is built on nearer seventy than seven hills, but from every hill a glorious view of the winding Hudson is to be had.
Barring Sunnyside, which is nearer Irvington than Tarrytown, the principal places of interest are to be found in the upper village of North Tarrytown, where lies the famed Sleepy Hollow country. At Broadway the trolley car goes whizzing "over the hills and far away," and the sightseer must foot it from that point on to the historic scenes.
Walking along under the spreading trees a public school is seen on the right. Here,
TARRYTOWN ON THE HUDSON, THE HIGHLANDS IN THE DISTANCE.
41
until a short time ago, stood the old Mott House, half wood, half stone, in true colomal style, and primly set in box-bordered lawns and ancient apple trees. When it was the Van Tassel Inn it was the scene of a tea-party one golden autumn afternoon in 1780, when the British sloop-of-war "Vulture," loitering down the river, sent a random shot soaring over the town, and struck the door-jamb, scattering the merrymakers. A deflec- tion of a few inches would have sent the ball crashing squarely among the teacups and guests. For many years it was shown to visitors, where it lay embedded in the wooden jamb, a mute but eloquent, witness of Arnold's treason.
A little further on the Andre monument stands, enclosed by an iron fence, and shaded by giant trees. The base is unworthy of the statue, which is a fine bronze figure of Paulding, with gun in hand, and head turned as if listening, ever listening for the approach of the spy.
Down a long, dusty, white road, past a yard piled up with headstones, heaps of them in every color, shape and size, and over a bridge, the Old Dutch Church rises before you, wrapped in memorial shadows and clustered thick with graves. A scramble over the rough stone wall and a peep in at the windows reveals the interior, where Dutch lads and lassies met to worship in bygone Summers. Visions of fresh young faces, in coal- scuttle bonnets, hover over the high-backed narrow pews, and you feel that a faint fra- . grance of lilacs and apple-blossoms, worn on youth- ful bosoms, must yet linger in the high gallery where the members of the choir lifted their voices long ago.
If you have time to hunt up the sexton, the old 4 church books are well worth perusal. In them are recorded the births. the deaths and the marriages of the early settlers, all written down in a fearful and wonderful language, compounded of badly spelled Dutch and English, and rivaling Volapuk. Johannus, Petrus and Henirens are easily understood as John, Peter and Henry, and Catrina Aeike married to Abram Martling, August 13th, 1762, is quickly trans- lated into Catherine Acker, but Maritic and Aetic, names frequently bestowed on girl-babies, are riddles hard to solve.
The headstones in the old graveyard, too, are a study-slabs of brown sandstone, covered with gray lichens and carved with winged cherub-heads and weeping willows. The sunken graves give treacher- ously underfoot, for there is nothing but dry dust below. Close to the church door a silent sleeper in- forms you that he was brought all the way from Pitts- burgh to be buried there. Beyond him, some distance from the well-trodden footpath, is the grave or Isaac Martling. with its accusing inscription like a voice from the tomb crying murder. for more than a hun- dred vears.
"Mr. Isaac Martling who was inhumanly slain by Nathaniel Underhill, May 26th, 1779, in the 39th year of his age."
Following the footpath up the hill into the new cemetery we come to Washington Irving's plot, with its flight of granite steps and plain white marble stone. Returning over the bridge, an idyllic picture
The Paulding-André Monument at Tarrytown.
42
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THE TOTTERING OLD MILL IN SLEEPY HOLLOW.
of the tottering old mill is presented. Before it sleeps the stream, stagnant among reeds and rushes and fringed with willows, while the crumbling roof is patched with moss, and the weather-blackened walls seem just about to topple into the water.
At the corner of Broadway and Elizabeth Street stands the church where Irving was a vestryman, and which bears on its front a marble tablet to his memory. A similar tablet is set in the wall above his pew, in which it is a signal honor for a stranger to be seated Sundays. The ivy which Irving brought overseas from Abbotsford and planted at the foot of the church tower still flourishes greenly, the favorite haunt of innumerable chattering sparrows.
A trip to Sunnyside must be deferred until another day, as by this time the sun is low over the Tappan Zee, and the shadows are long on the lawns by the way. And so we reluctantly bid farewell to "Sleepy Hollow's haunted vale."
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THE EGYPTIAN OBELISK
BY ANNA S. HARLAN
HE celebrated Egyptian obelisk, which was brought to New York City and re-erected in Central Park in 1881, is a subject of surpassing interest to Americans, as well as to foreign travelers in this country, who visit the park and do honor to this great and venerable guest. It stands on a beau- tiful elevation, just west of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Antiquities, surrounded by pleasant walks and drives, and is most conveniently reached from the Fifth Avenue entrance to the park.
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