USA > New York > Ulster County > Kingston > The history of Kingston, New York : from its early settlement to the year 1820 > Part 40
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On the 5th day of September, 1805, the village directors passed a resolution requesting the trustees of the corporation to transfer to them the fire-engine.
Accordingly, on the 4th of October, 1805, the trustees, by resolu- tion, gave the fire-engine, with all its appurtenances, and the use of the house near the Court House, in which the same was kept, to the directors of the village.
The directors of the village, on the 19th day of October, organized a fire company to take charge of the engine, consisting of thirteen members, with Nicholas Vanderlyn, Jr., as captain, and Samuel S. Freer as lieutenant.
The board adopted very stringent rules requiring the firemen to turn out periodically for exercise and working the engines, and enforced the order by requiring the foreman to report delinquents. The fines were strictly enforced by the directors, unless a satisfac- tory excuse was furnished.
On the 20th of September, 1810, the fire department was re- organized and new certificates issued establishing seniority of rank. The new organization consisted of twenty members. Nicholas Vanderlyn, Jr., was the senior foreman and William Brink second.
On the 16th of September, 1816, a meeting of the freeholders and inhabitants of the city of Kingston was held at the Court House in pursuance of notice given by the directors of the village. The object of the meeting was stated to be to authorize a tax to be levied to procure an additional engine, and the meeting authorized $400 to be raised by tax for that purpose.
On the 19th of March, 1816, the directors authorized the pur- chase of a new engine for 8500. On the 23d of March they vacated the certificate of Nicholas Vanderlyn as firemen, and appointed eleven additional firemen.
On the 13th of April, 1816, the firemen were reorganized and arranged in two companies, James C. Elmendorf designated as captain of Engine No. 1, and Seth Couch as captain of Engine No. 2, the new engine.
In those days every householder was required to keep a number of water-buckets, made of leather, with his name or initials painted thereon. Whenever an alarm of fire was raised they were either
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carried to the fire by a member of the family, or thrown out upon the sidewalk for some passer-by to pick them up. At the fire, under the direction of the fire wardens, the citizens were formed into a line or lines from the most available well or wells or cisterns to the fire-engines, and buckets of water passed from hand to hand to supply the engines, and empty buckets returned in like manner for further supply. The engines in those early days did not have the necessary appliances to feed themselves, but they were then well manned by citizens of mature age, who by frequent practice, as required by the trustees and village ordinances, became con- versant with their duties.
The directors of the village of Kingston, as soon as they assumed the duties of their new office, concluded that a night-watch was necessary to sustain the dignity of the village in its new position. But then the point arose, they had no corporation funds, and being just installed into office, and probably, as is usually the case with officials looking forward to a re-election, they did not like to hazard the proposition for a tax. They very soon hit upon rather a novel expedient, which they supposed would accomplish their purpose and give them a first-class reliable watch without pay.
After having had several consultations on the subject, they, at their meeting held on the 1st day of May, 1805, directed their clerk to make out a complete list of all the dwelling-houses in the village, with a blank space for the families living in each, and report the same the next day.
. The next day the clerk produced the list. It was then on motion resolved that every house in the village be placed on an equality as to the night-watch, and that the resident or owner (unless it be a widow), as the directors think proper, should perform the duty, thus making each head of a family take his regular turn.
Those liable to duty were then divided into twenty watches, six men to a watch, and a captain assigned to each watch. The number of each watch was assigned by ballot, and the duty to be per- formed in numerical order.
The time fixed for the commencement of the service was the 1st of June, and the watchman when on duty was to patrol the streets at all hours in the night under the direction of the captain of his watch.
The plan was put into operation, but week after week, at every meeting of the directors, delinquents were reported and fined with- out improving the service or punctuality of the watchmen. The experiment was continued until the 18th of October, when it was discontinued " until such time as the directors shall otherwise de- termine." That was the finale, as the directors never did " other- wise determine."
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HISTORY OF KINGSTON.
In the early part of this century Kingston was visited with a great affliction in the prevalence of a malarial fever, frequently assuming a typhoid character. It was particularly prevalent in the western section of the village, in the vicinity of Green and North Front streets. It prevailed for several years, increasing in virulence year by year, until the authorities were forced to take action in the matter. They became satisfied that the prevalence of the disease was attributable to the mill-pond attached to Benjamin Bogardus's mill. The mill-pond covered the hollow west of Green Street from North Front Street on the north to a point below the present location of Lucas Avenue on the south. It was fed by two streams, the one coming in from the south and the other from the west.
The village directors in 1806, a little more than a year after the organization of the village, under the powers conferred upon them in regard to nuisances and their abatement, on the 8th day of November passed an ordinance declaring " that the Mill Pond lying in the west part of the village of Kingston, in the possession of Benjamin Bogardus, is a nuisance, and also the brook leading into the same through the lands of Jonathan Hasbrouck Lucas Elmendorf John C Masten and others, up to the South bounds of the tannery of Joshua Du Bois." And the directors further ordained " that the said Pond be drained within thirteen days." They also required the channel of the brook for the full extent to Du Bois's tan-yard " to be cleaned out so as to allow free passage of the water," within the same time, under penalty of $25 for every forty-eight hours that it was neglected.
The directors encountering some difficulty in abating the nui- sance without compensation, on the 19th of March, 1807, called a meeting of the taxable inhabitants, to take into consideration the question of compensating Mr. Bogardus for the loss of the pond. The meeting of the freeholders was held on the 21st of March, and it was then unanimously decided that he should be paid $500, which sum Mr. Bogardus agreed to accept as a full compensation, and the money was subsequently raised and paid. Thus was a mill privilege swept away which had supported a mill for over one hundred years. The mill-pond is spoken of and mentioned as a boundary in recorded deeds as early as 1686. Before and during the Revolution it was owned by Nathan Smedes, and conveyed by him to Benjamin Bogardus on the 30th of October, 1783.
The directors were correct in attributing the sickness to the . effect of the mill-pond, as shown by the happy result, for with the removal of the pond as the cause, and the draining of its bed, the disease disappeared entirely.
In the year 1804 a great fire occurred in Kingston during a 25
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terrific northwest wind. It commenced in the barn of Abraham Bancker, on the north side of North Front Street ; it very soon crossed the street and caught the Hoffman barn opposite. The little engine was powerless to stem the tide of such a fire, fanned by such a wind. From the Hoffman barn it caught the Dewaal house, standing next east and in the track of the wind, and that was soon reduced to a smouldering ruin. Such was the force of the wind that burning shingles were scattered over the village in its track, and fires started in many places, which were only pre- vented from kindling into destructive flames by watchmen stationed with buckets of water, wet carpets and blankets on the roofs. The church roof was on fire, but was extinguished by a young man by the name of Hamilton climbing thereon and tearing out the burning shingles. It was said that trees on the Armbowery, more than a mile distant, exhibited by their burnt branches that even they had been reached by the fire.
This property of Dewaal at that time contained the great and favorite dancing-hall of the place. It was purchased by William De Waal from William Eltinge in 1789. He was a native Hollander and very popular as a landlord. He was one of the few men who could get into political disputes with his guests, and let out volley after volley of oaths upon them, and still retain their custom and good-will. His wife was an excellent, kind-hearted woman, who tried to control him ; sometimes she would succeed in silencing him, but frequently her efforts would meet with as little success as they did with the Quaker who was their guest one night. After supper, while sitting around the fire in the evening, Dewaal and the Quaker got into a political dispute. Dewaal waxed warm, and began to let off volley after volley of oaths, etc., when Mrs. Dewaal interposed, saying, mildly, " Waaltje ! Waaltje !" "Yes, yes," he replied in Dutch, "I know what you mean, but the talk of this d-d buttonless ' dunder skint' is too much for me to stand."
He kept a house of entertainment, but not a regular tavern. It was at his house that the Commencement balls, when the academy was in the zenith of its prosperity, were held. When it was re- built they added to the attraction of the ball-room by giving it a beautiful spring floor, a great desideratum when dancing, contra- dances, etc., and not walking, was the fashion. His hall continued the favorite dancing resort as long as it could be procured for that purpose, and until the third decade of this century.
After the incorporation of the village of Kingston and the distri- . bution of the corporation lands, the trustees were vested with little power beside the care of the small amount of funds left after the distribution among the churches and the care of the poor.
In 1811 a law was passed dividing the town of Kingston and
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creating therefrom the town of Saugerties on the north, and the town of Esopus, consisting of the territory below Rondout Creek, on the south. The second and third sections of that act provided, that as soon as may be after the first Tuesday in May subsequent to its passage, " All the corporate estate and interest, remaining undivided, of whatever nature the same may be in the Trustees and Freeholders and Commonalty of the town of Kingston or otherwise, shall be and is hereby declared to be vested in the overseers of the poor of the said respective towns of Esopus Kings- ton and Saugerties, who, after discharging the just debts of the said corporation, shall make an equal division of the residue, and of the poor maintained by the said town of Kingston, among the said towns agreeably to the last tax roll," etc.
The third section required the trustees to make a full transfer and surrender, etc.
The trustees of the corporation refused to transfer in obedience to the law, taking the ground that the law was unconstitutional. They were complained of before the Grand Jury, and at a court of Oyer and Terminer, held in the county of Ulster in the month of September, 1811, an indictment was presented against " Peter Marius Groen, William Swart, Moses Yeomans, Joseph Chipp, Jeremiah Du Bois, John Van Vliet, John E Van Aken, Abraham Fiero, Teunis Myer, William Osterhoudt, Philip Van Keuren, and Jacob E Bogardus the Trustees of the Freeholders and Common- alty of the town of Kingston, for their neglect and refusal to sur- render, transfer, assign and deliver the estate and interest vested in them, as such Trustees, to the Poor masters of the several towns aforesaid." The defendants pleaded not guilty.
Afterward, on the 16th of November, 1811, the indictment was brought on for trial before his Honor Justice Van Ness against Peter Marius Groen, one of the defendants, and the speaker or presiding officer of said trustees.
The jury upon the trial found a special verdict, " that the trustees of Kingston owned real and personal property to a large amount in their corporate capacity ; that they had been called upon to comply with the act of the 5th of April, 1811, by the poor masters and supervisors designated in said act, and that they by their president, the defendant, had refused to comply with the last afore- said act because the Legislature had no right to pass such an act."
And they further found " that the said corporation was in exist- ence, and the provisions of its charter were complied with to the passing of the act of 1811, and till the finding of the indictment.
"That they had, since they were made poor masters by the act of 1770, spent more money in support of the poor of Kingston than they had received under said law since the passage of said act.
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" That the said trustees refused to comply with said act of 1811 upon the advice of counsel deliberately given to them, that the said act was unconstitutional and void. And that the advice was given to the trustees, of whom the defendant was president, after the respective towns were organized under said act, and before they were requested to transfer their corporate property under said act.
"That if under such facts the trustees were bound to assign the property held by them under the charter, then they find the de- fendant guilty.
" But if they ought not to have done it, and under the advice of counsel were justifiable in not doing it, then the defendant was not guilty."
Such verdict of course sent the case up to a higher court to pass upon the constitutionality of the law.
The people stood by the indicted trustees, and re-elected them annually, until and including the election in the spring of 1815. After that, and prior to the election in the spring of 1816, the courts having adjudged the act of 1811 constitutional, the entire Board of Trustees, with the exception of William Swart, refused to run for a re-election, leaving it for their successors to do that which they had fought so strenuously against doing. An entire new Board of Trustees, except only Swart, was elected at the annual election in March, 1816, consisting of John Chipp, Peter R. Decker, Solomon Degraaf, John Hendricks, Henry Jansen, Christopher C. Kiersted, Tjerck Myer, Abraham Myer, William Swart, Abraham Snyder, Henry H. Schoonmaker, and Henry Schryver.
The newly-elected trustees proceeded to wind up the affairs of the corporation, and on the 13th of December, 1816, they adopted the following preamble and resolution :
"The debts against the trustees having been paid, as far as the moneys by them collected extended, Resolved unanimously, that we now by virtue of the act of the Legislature of the State passed 1811, assign the remainder of the corporate funds to the super- visors and overseers of the Poor of the respective towns of Esopus Saugerties and Kingston."
Thereupon such officers of the said respective towns appearing before the Board of Trustees, an assignment was executed in pur- suance of the foregoing resolution, and was at once delivered, together with the key of the " kos," or, in other words, treasurer's box.
Thus the trustees of the freeholders and commonalty of the town of Kingston, after a corporate existence of nearly one hundred and thirty years, were permanently and finally dissolved. It does not appear proper that the dissolution of such a corporation, hold-
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ing the reins of government and title of property through so many eventful years, should be passed over without some brief connnent. The personnel always appear to have been selected from among the leading citizens of the town. Whether in resistance to tyranny at an early day, or later in the effort to procure freedom and inde- pendence through the conflict of arms, they were ever found using and contributing their resources and means for the triumph of the right. Education and religion invariably, from the beginning to the end of their corporate existence, received their fostering care. A select portion of their number, until the adoption of the State Constitution, wielded all the powers of a local court of limited jurisdiction.
In the disposition of the corporate real estate good judgment was uniformly exhibited by them within the corporate limits ; there was no grant of an undue number of acres to any particular individual, and the final distribution in 1804 savored especially of equity and justice.
Since their incorporation times have changed, and people and governments have changed with them; and although with such change an incorporation such as that was would be out of place now, in its day it was productive of much good, and may praise and thanks be accorded to its memory !
In 1816 the county of Ulster procured authority from the Legis- lature to build a new Court House and a fire-proof county clerk's office in Kingston upon the site of the old building. Accordingly, the old Court House was soon torn down, and in process of time a new building arose in its stead very much of the same model, but larger and more commodious than the old one. The building is unquestionably well built ; the work was done by the day, and of course the walls went up with deliberation ; there was no undue haste, as it was several years in building, and the walls had abun- dant time to settle as the work progressed. In time, however, it was finished, and it still stands as the temple of justice of the county, having undergone a few changes and an enlargement.
An extremely violent tornado accompanied with hail occurred near the village of Kingston on the 11th of June, 1820, the effects of which were more particularly noticed at the Souser place, about five miles from Kingston, just beyond the Sawkill Bridge. It is thus described in the Plebeian of the 17th :
" About half past one O'clock the clouds were apparently gather- ing, and looked black and portentous, in two opposite directions- north east and south west, and approximated each other, until they came in contact, between the homesteads of Mr John Souser and Mr John De Myer ; the former being about four and a half miles, and the latter about five miles north of this village, where it
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spent its greatest force and fury-unroofing part of Mr Souser's dwelling house, demolishing the whole of his large barn, at least fifty feet long crushing timbers, plank and materials to atoms ; leaving nothing but four of the framed supporters standing'; and what is remarkable, wafted a piece of timber, at least thirty . feet long and six or more inches square, from the barn over the house, prostrating part of the chimney and lodged about one hundred yards from the original location. We should suppose that Mr Souser's damage could not be less than 8400, considering that hail stones fell during the storm of about half the size of a hen's egg, and destroyed much of the grain on his fields.
" The east half of Mr John De Myer's large new barn was en- tirely unroofed and much injury done to his grain and herbage. In the latter respect many of his neighbors have also severely suffered. Fruit and other trees have been torn up by the roots and left vestiges of ruin and desolation, truly deplorable to behold."
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CHAPTER XXII.
RISE OF PARTIES-ELECTION AND DEATH OF GOVERNOR CLINTON -REFERENCES TO WAR OF 1812, AND CONCLUSION OF PEACE.
A FTER the final ratification of the treaty of peace and the acknowledgment of our independence, the most important and momentous questions came up for consideration. The people had relieved themselves from foreign tyranny and control, now they must substitute and adopt a plan of general government which should not only insure to them the freedom for which they had fought, promote the general welfare, and secure the permanent union of the States, but which should also be vested with sufficient power to maintain itself, defray its expenses and debts, and exer- cise the necessary functions of a government in its intercourse with foreign nations. The consideration of these questions led to much conflict of opinion. Some favored simply the enlargement of the powers of the Confederacy, while others advocated the creation of a strong national government. These questions produced the organization of the two great political parties of the country.
General George Clinton, who was then the governor of the State, advocated the enlargement of the powers of the Confederacy. Alexander Hamilton, on the other hand, advocated a strong federal government. Each was supported by powerful associates.
Congress called a convention of the States to recommend a plan of general government to be adopted by the States. The New York Legislature, by a large majority, favored an enlargement of the powers of the Confederacy, and were opposed to the creation of a strong federal central government. The Legislature appointed three delegates to the convention, but expressly limited their powers by declaring specifically that they were appointed " for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation, and reporting to Congress and the several Legislatures, such alter- ations and amendments therein as shall, when agreed to in Con- gress and confirmed by the several States, under the Federal Con- stitution, be adequate to the exigencies of the Government, and preservation of the Union."
. The three delegates appointed under that restrictive resolution were Robert Yates, John Lansing, Jr., and Alexander Hamilton.
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Yates and Lansing representing the sentiments of a majority of the Legislature opposed to the formation of a new government, while Hamilton was the strong and leading champion of a strong federal government.
At the meeting of the National Convention, after considerable discussion the majority decided to propose an entire new Constitu- tion, which did not amend, but abolished the Articles of Confeder- ation. Under the stringent provisions of the resolution appointing them, Messrs. Yates and Lansing deemed that the formation of a new Constitution was beyond their powers, and withdrew from the convention. Hamilton remained, and was the strong and leading mind in the formation of that instrument.
The Constitution, as reported by the convention and submitted to the several States for adoption, contained a provision that it was to go into operation whenever adopted by nine of the confed- erated States. So that, after such adoption, the remaining States must necessarily come in, or withdraw from the Union and main- tain a separate, independent government.
The Legislature of New York met in the winter of 1788, and at that session, on the 17th of January, a resolution was offered by Mr. Egbert Benson, of New York, which made provision for hold- ing a State Convention, in pursuance of the recommendation of Congress, to decide upon the question of the adoption of the new Constitution. Mr. Cornelius C. Schoonmaker, of Ulster, proposed a preamble to the resolution, as follows : " Whereas the said con- vention of the States, instead of revising and reporting alterations in and revision of the Articles of Confederation, have reported a new Constitution for the United States, which if adopted, will materially alter the constitution and government of this State, and greatly affect the rights and privileges thereof Therefore," etc. The preamble was not adopted, but the resolution passed both Houses, and provision was made for the election of delegates by the people. The election was held in the following spring, and of course the only issue raised at the polls was for or against the adoption of the Constitution. The election resulted in the choice of a large majority opposed to its ratification.
The delegates elected from Ulster County were John Cantine, Ebenezer Clark, Governor George Clinton, James Clinton, Cor- nelius C. Schoonmaker, and Direk Wynkoop, all anti-Federalists, and opposed to the new Constitution unless materially amended.
The New York Convention met, and the supposed or alleged merits and demerits of the proposed Constitution were discussed at great length and with much ability by the leading men in the con- vention. The opposition to its adoption claimed that the rights of the States and the individual rights of the people were not suffi -
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ciently protected. That discussion was in progress when news arrived of its adoption by the tenth State, which gave it life and rendered it operative. The alternative was then presented to the convention either to adopt it and remain in the Union, or reject it and stand forth as an independent State. Many still adhered to their opposition, not because they desired to withdraw from the Union, but they believed that if New York took that independent stand the other States would amend the Constitution so as to re- move the ground of their opposition.
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