USA > New York > Dutchess County > The history of Dutchess County, New York > Part 21
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The improvement party founded a number of large industries, most important of which were the whaling companies and the silk factory. The Poughkeepsie Whaling Company was incorporated in 1832 and the Dutchess Whaling Company a year later. James Hooker was president and Alexander Forbus treasurer of the former and Isaac Merritt and George P. Oakley held similar offices in the latter. These two companies in 1841 owned as many as seven ships, which went on long cruises, some of them almost around the world. They brought men here from New Bedford, Mass., and other New England whaling ports, built ships, storehouses, cooperages, candle factories, etc. The Dutchess Company located at the neighborhood still sometimes called the Whale Dock, foot of Dutchess avenue, and had the largest estab- lishment. Apparently the losses of ships as well as the increasing scarcity of whales caused the failure of these companies. Other towns on the river, notably Hudson, were engaged in the whaling industry at about the same time. The Poughkeepsie Glass Works, started in 1879, occupies the site of the Dutchess Whaling Company's buildings.
Just north of the whale dock the improvement party started an enterprise that might have been of great importance, if it had not been so far ahead of the times. It was a locomotive factory, founded
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just after the panic of 1837, but twelve years before there was any railroad in this neighborhood. It was described by Benson J. Loss- ing, who made a woodcut of the building for the Family Magazine, as "Much the most extensive of the kind in America," and is said to have cost almost $100,000. One locomotive was built there and was shipped away by boat. It should be said that a railroad across the county was projected at that time, but the project was little more than a dream until after the Civil War. The locomotive factory building was used as a chemical factory for a while, but stood empty much of the time and was torn down in 1859, when the upper furnace was built. The silk factory, above mentioned, incorporated in 1835, erected the building on lower Mill street, which in 1850 came into the possession of Charles M. Pelton and was used for many years as a carpet factory. The promoters of the silk factory purchased several farms on which it is said they intended to raise silk worms. The enter- prise proved an early failure. Carpet manufacturing and also pin making were carried on in 1840 by several firms in Poughkeepsie.
Among the industries that flourished for many years was ship build- ing, which was conducted at several points along the water front, notably at the Whale Dock, after the abandonment of the whaling business. Several large steamboats, including the Reliance and the propeller Joseph F. Barnard, were built here before the war. Wagon and carriage manufacturing were carried on by several firms until recent times. The tanning industry flourished from an early date up to the last quarter of the nineteenth century and brought several well- known families to Poughkeepsie, including the Southwicks and Boyds.
The manufacturing industry by which Poughkeepsie is best known to-day, that of the Adriance harvesting machinery, had its beginnings somewhere about 1850, when John Adriance became interested in the inventions of mowing machines. He had been in the iron foundry and hardware business and had begun to build on a small scale a mow- ing machine called the Forbush. His son, John P. Adriance, who was in the hardware business in New York, saw the possibilities of the new machines and investigated several of them, spending a number of years in Worcester, Mass., where he was interested in the manufactureing of one of them. In 1859 he returned to Poughkeepsie and leased the factory buildings at the Red Mills, corner of Smith and Mill streets, having accumulated patents and rights to use the essential features of
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a successful mower, the Adriance Buckeye. Thomas S. Brown had been associated with Mr. Adriance before this and had much to do with the development of the machine. In 1865 the company removed to its present location on the river, where it has continued to expand year by year. In 1892 the general offices of the company were brought here from New York and since then several large buildings have been added to the plant. A recent improvement was the in- stallation of a factory railroad, connecting all buildings and depart- ments. A complete machine is turned out now every five minutes. The factory of Adriance, Platt & Company is the largest and most im- portant in the city, but the DeLaval Separator plant is a close second. This is a branch of an industry whose original factory was in Stock- holm, Sweden, and was brought here in 1892 by offer of a subscrip- tion of ten thousand dollars from the citizens for the purchase of a site. The investment was a good one. The first shop occupied less than half an acre, now the factories of the company have five acres of floor space and half a mile of water front has been purchased. The property now extends to the foot of Pine street, once the site of ex- tensive lumber, coal and freighting business. The DeLaval employs about seven hundred men in the busy season.
Several large industries were started soon after the war, includ- ing the Eureka Mowing Machine Works, which was not very suc- cessful and moved away, the Rolling Mill, which after a time passed into the hands of the Phoenix Horseshoe Company, and Whitehouse's Shoe Factory. The latter was very successful for many years, but failed in 1891 and its buildings are now used as a cigar factory. The Dutchess Manufacturing Company, making trousers, is a large and growing concern, built up under the management of the late J. Frank Hull. It was originally a consolidation of several smaller clothing factories established not long after the war. The present location was purchased in 1888. Several underwear factories have recently been located in Poughkeepsie by the efforts of the Chamber of Commerce, and the Seneca Button Works was brought here in 1907 from Seneca Falls. The Anchor Bolt and Nut Company, originally established as the Chapinville Wheel Company, on Mill street, has a good sized plant on Parker avenue nearly opposite the Central New England Railroad.
The cooperage business, which was built up to considerable propor- tions at the time of the whaling companies, still continues, though on
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a somewhat smaller scale. This industry brought the Lown family to Poughkeepsie. There is one brewery, that of V. Frank's Sons, in successful operation.
BANKS AND FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS.
The first chartered bank in Poughkeepsie was a branch of the Manhattan Bank of New York, established at least as early as 1811. In that year an act was passed in Albany chartering the Middle Dis- trict Bank, which had its main banking house in Poughkeepsie and a branch in Kingston. Fourteen of the trustees were required to be residents of Dutchess and seven of Ulster. Levi Mckean, one of its first presidents, was postmaster of Poughkeepsie from 1802 to 1819. He was at one time also a private banker, probably before the Middle District Bank was opened. Henry Davis conducted a private bank, which he called the Exchange Bank, in 1819, and two or three notes signed by him as president and Walter Cunningham, cashier, are still in existence. Davis became the first president and Cunningham the first cashier of the Dutchess County Bank, chartered April 12, 1825. This bank occupied the same site as the Merchants' Bank, the present cashier of which is Walter Cunningham Fonda. The Dutchess County Bank was placed in liquidation at the expiration of its char- ter in 1845 and the Merchants' Bank was organized to take its place. The old bank had a capital of $600,000, three times larger than the capital of any bank since that organized in Poughkeepsie. Matthew J. Myers was the first president of the Merchants' Bank and James H. Fonda, cashier. The Middle District Bank failed in 1829 and was the only bank that has ever failed in Poughkeepsie. It had a capital of $500,000, a majority of which was controlled by Peter Everitt, son of Richard Everitt. Note holders and depositors were paid almost in full after a long period of liquidation.
The Poughkeepsie Bank was organized in 1830 with a capital of $100,000. Thomas L. Davies was its first president and Reuben North was for many years its cashier. The solid old bank building with its portico of heavy plastered columns was built the same year and stood until 1906, when it was torn down to give place to the build- ing of the Poughkeepsie Trust Company, into which the Pough- keepsie Bank and the City Bank had previously been merged. The Farmers' and Manufacturers' Bank began business in its present building, February, 1835. James Hooker was the first president, but
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THE FOURTH COURT HOUSE, POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y.
Built in 1809, replaced by present building in 1902. The old "Lawyers' Row" of wooden buildings beyond was demolished in 1885 to make room for the present Post Office.
Photograph taken ahout 1870.
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served only during the organization and when business began Matthew Vassar was elected president. James Grant, Jr., was the first cashier, but Fred W. Davis served in that capacity longer than anyone else. The Poughkeepsie Savings Bank was chartered in 1831 and began business in 1833 in what was known as the Burritt Building on Main street. Col. Henry A. Livingston was its first president and served until 1856. His successors have been John B. Forbus, Henry D. Varick, David C. Foster and Edward Elsworth. The Savings Bank building was erected in 1871. This bank now has deposits of almost twelve million dollars. The Fallkill National Bank began business in 1852 in its present building with William C. Sterling as its first president and John F. Hull, cashier. The City Bank was organized in 1860 and Joseph F. Barnard, afterwards for so many years justice of the Supreme Court, was its first president. The name generally associated with this bank is that of Hudson Taylor, who was elected president in 1879 and served until the consolidation with the Pough- keepsie Bank, prior to the organization of the Trust Company. The First National Bank, the last started, owes its name to the fact that it was the first bank organized under the national bank act in 1864. The older state banks reorganized as national banks about a year later, when the law had been amended so that they could retain their original names. Harvey G. Eastman and John P. Adriance were early directors of this bank. Zebulon Rudd and Frank E. Whipple served long terms as cashier and Jacob Corlies as president.
The Dutchess Insurance Company dates back to 1836, when it was chartered as the Dutchess Mutual Insurance Company. James Em- mott, father of the first mayor, was its first president. It is one of the few old mutuals that have survived all changes and disasters, hav- ing been made at comparatively recent period a stock company. Its present building was first occupied in 1855.
POLITICS-NEWSPAPERS-PUBLIC MEN.
As soon as there were political parties in the United States it is safe to say that there were parties in the town of Poughkeepsie. As nearly as one can tell from the scanty records of early election returns and from the names in the civil list, Gov. Clinton controlled the town down to the time of the convention which ratified the Constitution in 1788. Clinton was first an Anti-Federalist and then a Jeffersonian Republican. Soon after the Constitutional Convention, at which the
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delegates broke away from his influence, there is evidence that Feder- alists were occasionally elected members of Assembly, though the Anti-Federalists seem generally to have been successful in electing Congressmen and returned Theodorus Bailey, of Poughkeepsie, to the National House of Representatives several times. He became a United States Senator in 1803, but soon afterwards resigned with De- Witt Clinton and became postmaster of New York City. In 1798 John Jay, Federalist candidate for Governor, carried the town of Poughkeepsie by ninety to eighty-two votes and from that time the Federalists appear to have been generally successful. William Emott, father of the elder Judge James Emott, Jessie Oakley, James Kent and David Brooks were among the prominent Federalists of the day. Zephaniah Platt and Gilbert Livingston were leading Republicans and continued to be supporters of Clinton, although they voted for the ratification of the Constitution. Platt was judge of the Court of Common Pleas, corresponding to our present county court, and left Poughkeepsie about 1795 with his brothers to take up lands on Lake Champlain, where they became the founders of Plattsburg.
The first distinctly local paper, the Poughkeepsie Journal, was es- tablished in the spring of 1785 by Nicholas Power, who became the first postmaster of Poughkeepsie in 1792. Early copies of the Journal do not quite give clear evidence of any particular political leanings, as communications of all shades of opinion were published, but Power appears to have been a Federalist and efforts were made to establish opposition papers, evidently in the interest of the party of Jefferson. before 1800. The first to obtain a real foothold, as already stated, was the Political Barometer, under the able editorship of Isaac Mitch- ell. The Barometer, though a pretty good paper, led a rather pre- carious existence and changed hands many times. It was sold in 1806 to Thomas Nelson and son and again sold in 1811, when its name was changed to the Republican Herald. In 1812 Michell returned from Albany and re-purchased it, changing the name to the Northern Politician. He died a few months later and it became the Republican Herald again. There were many factions in the politics of the state of New York in the first few years of the nineteenth century and the Republi- can Herald represented one of them, and evidently the losing one. It was in opposition to James Tallmadge, Jr., one of the strongest men of the day, and was discontinued in 1823. In 1806 Paraclete Potter
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obtained an interest in the Poughkeepsie Journal and remained for many years the leading editor and one of the leading men of the town and county. He conducted a considerable book and job printing es- tablishment and also a book store which was long the rallying place of the literary lights of the town. In 1815 Charles P. Barnum and Richard Nelson established the Dutchess Observer as an organ of one of the factions of the Republican (later Democratic) party, and in 1824 another paper, the Republican Telegraph, was established with William Sands and Isaac Platt in charge. The Observer and the Telegraph were combined in 1828 and the paper has come down to the present times as the News-Telegraph, absorbing all rivals repre- senting the same party until a recent period.
The year 1828 was a most important one in the politics of the state. It was the first real presidential election, that is, the first election at which the people of this state had a right to vote directly for electors, and it was the election at which Andrew Jackson, the popular idol, was the leading candidate. The Poughkeepsie Journal came out in support of Jackson, even before the Telegraph did, and carried most of the Federalists with it. That marked the final collapse and break- up of the old parties. There were, however, many supporters of John Quincy Adams in Dutchess, who believed he should be re-elected, and they, of course, needed a newspaper. The result was the establishment of the Dutchess Intelligencer, with Isaac Platt as editor. This paper had hard sledding for a number of years, as nearly everywhere the people were shouting for Jackson. The Adams men, however, were strengthened locally somewhat by the fact that Judge Smith Thomp- son, whose home was where the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery is now located, was their candidate for Governor. He was beaten by Martin VanBuren, partly because of the outbreak of the anti-Masonic agita- tion in the western part of the state. It is hardly necessary to name all of the short lived newspapers of the day, but the opposition to Van Buren's Albany regency rule caused the establishment of the Dutchess Republican, 1831, by Thomas S. Ranney, and the anti- Masons had a paper for a few years called, first, the Dutchess In- quirer and afterwards the Anti-Mason. In 1833 Messrs. Platt and Ranney united their papers and finding the Intelligencer-Republican too awkward a title, changed it in 1834 to the Poughkeepsie Eagle. By that time the opponents of Jackson, who had been calling them-
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selves National Republicans, were beginning to call themselves Whigs under the leadership of Henry Clay, and the Eagle at once came to. the front as the organ of the new party, while the Journal had drifted into a secondary position as a Democratic organ and did not fully support all of Jackson's policies. Egbert B. Killey and Aaron Low. were publishing the Telegraph at this time, but in 1835 Benson J. Lossing bought Mr. Low's interest and became prominent as an editor. Leaders among public men of the early part of the century were Gen. James Tallmadge, Randall S. Street, James Emott and Thomas J. Oakley. Of these the greatest was Gen. Tallmadge, who lived in a house which stood on the corner of Garden and Main streets. He was a man of national reputation and it was he who offered in the House of Representatives in 1819 an amendment to the act for the admission to the Union of the State of Missouri prohibiting "the further intro- duction of slavery" there. This amendment was adopted by the. House, but rejected by the Senate and led to the famous Missouri Compromise.
A little later Smith Thompson and Nathaniel P. Tallmadge became prominent. The latter was not only a United States Senator but be- came widely known as the leader of the Conservatives, a faction of the Democratic party that opposed Jackson's bank policy. The Pough- keepsie Journal supported him and as his attitude gradually led him into full union with the Whig party, the Journal became a Whig or- gan. Nathaniel P. Tallmadge was much talked of as a candidate for Vice President in 1838, and in 1839 he actually was offered the nomi- nation with William Henry Harrison. He had by that time become so warm a friend of Henry Clay that he declined because Clay had not received the nomination for President. Thus Tallmadge lost his chance of becoming President. Walter Cunningham, already many times mentioned, was a prominent Whig leader, particularly active in conventions and is frequently referred to in Thurlow Weed's Auto- biography. Richard D. Davis was one of the most prominent Demo- crats and was elected to Congress in 1840 and in 1842. After Nathaniel P. Tallmadge had come into the Whig ranks there were two Whig papers in Poughkeepsie and it was natural that they should combine. Joseph H. Jackson and William Schram were then pub- lishing the Journal and in 1844 Jackson retired and Mr. Schram formed a partnership with Isaac Platt, of the Eagle. The double
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title, "Journal and Eagle," was retained until 1850, when the name Journal was dropped. Mr. Schram continued a partner in the Eagle firm until 1865, when he was succeeded by Mr. Platt's eldest son, John I. Platt. Another son, James B. Platt, came into the firm in 1869. The paper is now in control of a third generation of the same family.
In 1839 both Henry Clay and Martin VanBuren visited Pough- keepsie. VanBuren lived in Columbia County and had many times stopped in Poughkeepsie and his visit in 1839 was chiefly significant because he was President at that time and was accorded a big recep- tion. Judge Charles H. Ruggles, Gen. Leonard Maison and Col. Henry Pine were among the prominent local Democrats who welcomed him. Henry Clay's visit was only about a month later in the same summer. He made an address to the people from the veranda of the Poughkeepsie Hotel, and then was taken to see the sights of the town, including College Hill. In 1845 Daniel Webster spent several days in Poughkeepsie trying a law case. His summing up was referred to in the local papers as a masterpiece of oratory.
As every important cause had to have its newspaper, the Temper- ance movement of the early forties brought out the Temperance Safe- guard, edited by G. K. Lyman, and in 1845 the Native American, or Know Nothing movement gave rise to the Poughkeepsie American. The last mentioned paper came into the hands successively of Isaac Thompkins and of Edward B. Osborne and was made an organ of the "hard shell" branch of the Democratic party. Its name was changed to the Dutchess Democrat and it was absorbed by the Telegraph, Mr. Osborne becoming a partner of Egbert B. Killey, Jr., in 1856. Al- bert S. Pease, who edited the Telegraph for a while, purchased the Press, the first Poughkeepsie daily, at about the same time. He con- tinued it until 1863, when Mr. Osborne brought the Telegraph and Press together. The Press had been a morning paper up to Decem- ber, 1860, when the Daily Eagle was started, but soon afterwards changed to an afternoon paper and so remained until 1883, when James W. Hinkley purchased both the Telegraph and the Press and combined them with the News. This brings us down to recent times. The News had been established in 1868 as a morning paper by Thomas G. Nichols. It had a short career as an independent, then as a Demo- cratic paper, and was purchased in 1872 by John O. Whitehouse to
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support his campaign for Congress. In that year Mr. Nichols es- tablished his third paper, the Sunday Courier, now one of the leading papers of the city. The Enterprise was started in 1883 after Mr. Hinkley had consolidated the Press with the News, leaving the field open for an afternoon paper. W. C. Lansing, Edward Van Keuren and Derrick Brown were its founders, the two former having pre- viously purchased the Dutchess Farmer, an agricultural paper, which became the Weekly Enterprise. This paper was independent, with Democratic leanings, until about a year ago, when it was purchased by a stock company of which Edward E. Perkins is president, and was made the official Democratic organ. The Evening Star dates from 1889, but was for a short time called Poughkeepsie. It has been independent in politics until the past two or three years, when its present editor, A. A. Parks, made it Republican.
When the anti-slavery agitation, before the war, brought forth the new Republican party, the Eagle at once became its exponent in Dutchess County, a position in which it has remained. There were some pretty warm times during the progress of the anti-slavery agita- tion and Matthew Vassar, Jr., in his diary tells of the breaking up of two meetings at which abolitionists were speakers. The year the Re- publican party was organized in Dutchess brought out John Thomp- son, of Poughkeepsie, as successful candidate for Congress. B. Platt Carpenter's career began only a year or two later. In the campaign of 1860, which has already been referred to as a memorable one, Ste- phen Baker was elected to Congress and such men as Alfred B. Smith and John I. Platt were making their first political speeches. Albert VanKleeck was political manager of the day. Homer A. Nelson had been elected county judge by the Democrats in 1855 and was elected to Congress in 1862, Charles Wheaton taking his place as county judge. James Bowne and George Innis were mayors of Poughkeepsie during the war, the latter serving three terms. Of H. G. Eastman's career as a political leader enough has perhaps been said elsewhere. The most notable political campaign in Poughkeepsie was the White- house campaign in 1872, when Eastman was a candidate for mayor, and John H. Ketcham candidate for Congress against Whitehouse. Stories are still told of the fabulous sums expended in that campaign, which is said to have nearly ruined Mr. Whitehouse, although he was successful. He carried Poughkeepsie by 379 majority and the city
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GEORGE H. WILLIAMS.
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came within eleven votes of giving Horace Greely for President a majority. This is the nearest the Democrats ever came to carrying the city for a presidential candidate. George Morgan was the first Democratic mayor of the city, elected in 1869. There have been but four since that time-William Harloe, Edward Elsworth, William M. Ketcham and John K. Sague.
CHURCHES OF POUGHKEEPSIE.
The first church in Poughkeepsie was, of course, the Dutch Church, which was organized October 10, 1716, by Rev. Petrus Vas, pastor of the Church at Kingston, who installed Michael Parmenter and Pieter DuBoise as elders and Elias VanBenschoten and Peter Par- menter as deacons. The history of this church has been pretty fully written by the late Dr. A. P. Van Gieson, who translated many of the Dutch records.1 No complete list of baptismal and marriage records, however, has ever been published. Subscription books for the first church building were circulated in 1717 and the church was finished in 1723 and is said to have been of stone. There are some records that make it appear that it was not continuously occupied and was allowed to fall considerably out of repair. The first deed in Liber A in the Dutchess County Clerk's office is that which conveys the title to the lot on which it was built from Jacobus Vanden Bogert to Cap- tain Barendt VanKleeck, Myndert VandenBogert, Peter Velie and Johannes VanKleeck. It is dated December 26, 1716, and is copied in full in Dr. Van Gieson's book. The first minister was Rev. Cor- nelius Van Schie, who came from Hofland in 1731 to take charge of the congregation both at Fishkill and Poughkeepsie for the princely salary of £70 (about. $175) of New York money. He was, however, furnished also with firewood for summer and winter and was presented with a brown horse, which cost £4 and 10 shillings, also a house, "three morgens of pasture" and a garden suitably fenced. Dominie Van Schie was free to locate either at Poughkeepsie or Fishkill and chose Poughkeepsie, and the two congregations jointly purchased the land on which the present church stands and built the first parsonage about 1732. The first church was located on the southeast corner of Main and Market streets and the land around it was used as a burying ground and continued to be so used, as is stated in another
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