USA > New York > Ulster County > Kingston > The history of Kingston, New York : from its early settlement to the year 1820 > Part 42
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About the commencement of the nineteenth century a spirit of improvement appears to have aroused some of the inhabitants having spare funds to erect some stately residences. They were all erected, it is understood, within the period of a few years, and were generally built upon very much the same plan, as can be seen by noticing the square-roofed houses still standing. First the Lucas Elmendorf house, in Green Street opposite the junction of Crown. Next the house built by Jacob Tremper (the Ostrander house), in Green Street nearly opposite Main. Next the house built by Conrad E. Elmendorf (the Bruyn house), corner of Pearl and Main streets. The house built by Edward Elting (the Her- mance house), corner of Maiden Lane and Fair Street ; the Jansen, now Hardenbergh, house, corner of John and Crown streets, and the house built by John Tremper (now owned by estate of Mrs. M. Schoonmaker), at the head of Clinton Avenue. About the same time were also built, but upon different models, the Jacob Ten Broeck homestead. afterward Peter G. Sharp's, on Albany Avenue, and the Van Buren house, at the head of St. James' Street. There were a very few other buildings erected within the village during the first two decades of this century, but those enumerated are the principal ones.
Prior to the year 1790 there was no bridge across the Esopus Creek at Kingston, and the communication with Brabant, the neighborhood across the creek, was through what is now called Frog Alley, leading to a fording place in the creek. In January,
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1790, the citizens of Kingston had a public meeting on the subject of building a bridge across the creek near the fording place, and appointed a committee to raise funds by subscription for that pur- pose. The committee called upon the trustees on the 5th day of February, 1790, to ascertain what they would contribute, in behalf of the corporation, for that purpose. The trustees, by a majority vote, agreed to grant £100 upon the same footing with individual subscribers.
In October of the same year it was found that the sum raised was not sufficient to complete the bridge. The committee then made another appeal to the trustees. The trustees requested them to proceed and raise what further sum they could by subscription, and if they still fell short they would advance what was necessary: not exceeding, however, £75.
Immediately after the completion of the bridge across Esopus Creek a question arose in reference to the width of the road, which had thereby become necessary across the rich lowland flats, and the difficulty and expense of the fencing and the subse- quent maintenance thereof, by reason of the overflow of the land by every considerable freshet in the creek. Prior to that time there had only been a narrow neighborhood road or track across the lowland. The main road from Kingston north at that time passed up the present Albany Road, on the east side of the creek. and crossed it at the fording place near the mouth of the Saw- kill, which avoided the great lowland flats entirely.
The Legislature was appealed to, and in March, 1791, a law was passed authorizing the Commissioners of Highways of the town of Kingston to lay out such common road or roads across the lowlands as they might deem expedient, limiting the breadth thereof to two rods, and providing for the erection of so many swinging gates across the roads as they might deem necessary to be built, kept, and maintained at the expense of the town.
The route of the contemplated road to be built by the Ulster and Delaware Turnpike Company, referred to particularly on a subse- quent page, passing over said bridge, it was adopted and taken as a part of their road. In 1804, after the location of their road, the said company replaced the old bridge by a new one, which was put up by Marshal Lewis, their builder, for them. Both the above- named bridges were uncovered. The latter one was painted red, and was usually designated as the red bridge.
The latter bridge stood until March, 1818 (not January, as stated on the bridge tablet), when it was carried away by a freshet suc- ceeding a most remarkable winter-a winter recorded as colder than any other in twenty years, and burdened with an unusual amount of snow. The thermometer was recorded on the 11th of
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February as ranging thirty-two degrees below zero. At New Orleans sleighs were seen driving through the streets on the 12th of January. The Potomac opposite Alexandria was frozen over on the 9th of February. The west part of Long Island Sound was entirely closed by the ice, and the mail was carried over from New Jersey to New York on the ice. About the 1st of March the weather became very mild. That was succeeded by excessive rains on Tuesday, the 3d, which at once raised the streams to such an extent throughout Kingston and the adjacent country that scarcely a bridge was left standing in the county. One half of the Kings- ton Bridge on the Ulster and Delaware Turnpike, with the stone abutment underneath, was demolished.
That bridge was replaced during the same year by another built under the superintendence of George Eddy, Henry H. Schoon- maker, and Johannes M. Van Keuren, designated as commissioners by act of the Legislature to superintend the building thereof. The cost was defrayed by assessment upon the taxable property of the town. It was a covered bridge.
The attention of the business citizens of Kingston was early at- tracted to the necessity of opening a thoroughfare for the trade of the interior. Turnpikes were then all the rage throughout the country, and incorporations for their construction in almost every direc- tion were being granted by the Legislature. Citizens of Kingston, moving in the general current, in 1802 procured an act of incorpora- tion for the Ulster and Delaware Turnpike Road, which was followed by the incorporation of branch roads for its extension to different localities. That road was located in a northwesterly direction from the village of Kingston to the Delaware River, through the towns of Hurley, Woodstock, and Shandaken in this county. From thence by its branches it was contemplated to extend through Middletown, Delhi, and Walton in Delaware County, and reach what was then called Jericho, in Chenango County, a distance of one hundred and four miles. Much benefit was anticipated from the building of that road, and so sanguine were its projectors in regard to it, that by the charter their dividends were limited to ten per cent annually. The people seconded the project with great zeal and vigor. The trustees of the corporation, too, gave it their helping hand, which body had ever shown itself ready to promote the interest of the place, and in August, 1803, authorized the sub- scription and purchase in their name of one hundred shares of the capital stock in the road.
The projectors and directors in the road, however, did not find its construction such easy sailing as they anticipated. Before its completion they were obliged to struggle and fight their way through great difficulties and pecuniary embarrassments. They
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met the same experience which is frequently encountered by enter- prising characters endeavoring to carry out projects for the public good, to find those in the community who were best able to bear the expenses, and were in a situation and business to profit most by the improvement, content to stand aloof and see the willing ones suffer and struggle to accomplish the desired end, while they, clutching their money-bags with a grip as of iron, lifted not as much as a finger to aid in the struggle.
The road was finally completed on the west side of the Hudson from Columbus Point through Kingston and over Esopus Creek westward at an average expenditure of $1000 per mile. The directors had also expended several thousand dollars in the pur- chase of the right of way for the extension of the road eastward from the river through Rhinebeck to the State line. But that end of the road was abandoned. and its construction never attempted. The road on the west side of the river passed inspection, and gates were authorized ; but it was loaded with debts which the stock- holders were unable to pay. The income of the road was not suffi- cient to keep down the interest of the debt and pay the expenses of superintendence and repairs. The stockholders then enjoyed the simple satisfaction of seeing it traversed regularly the whole distance by the mail-carrier, and daily by the public at large, with- out relief to its pecuniary embarrassments or rendition of any profit to themselves. Eventually, after much struggling, it was nearly all sold, surrendered, and districted.
There were some reasons connected with the settlement of the territory through which the road passed which operated strongly against its financial success. The pecuniary prosperity of such an undertaking requires the support of a thriving, industrious, and enterprising population on its borders. Nature, in the arrange- ments and structure of the territory through which the road passed, had done much which under other circumstances might have served to encourage agriculture, manufactures, and other industrial pur- suits, and thus favor the success of an enterprise of that character. But in the settlement of a large part of the territory through which the road passed the landlords owning the soil, by the adoption of some of the old remnants of feudalism in the tenure of the land by their tenants, reared insurmountable drawbacks in the way of the prosperity of the inhabitants, and consequent success of the road.
The turnpike traversed only a very few miles before it run into the Hardenbergh Patent, and that part of it in which the inhabit- ants held under " life leases," the worst and most forbidding of all holdings for the prosperity of any country. No matter how much or how diligently a man worked and toiled under such a tenure for the improvement and betterment of his place, he knew it was
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not for the benefit of his family, for the lapse of a life at any moment might, under his lease, carry it all into the pocket of his landlord. No farming community can ever prosper where the incentive is to get everything you can off from the land and put nothing on.
The next stage after passing the tenantry was the vicinity of the Delaware River. There nearly the entire population of the country consisted of lumbermen, who were constantly engaged in lumbering and getting their logs and lumber ready for market, raising scarcely enough upon their lands to feed their families and their stock. They were constantly watching for a freshet to pre- pare their rafts and launch them into the foaming current for Phila- delphia. That furnished no income to the road, and besides drew the people to another market. The writer once heard an eminent Sullivan County counsel, in the argument of a motion to put off the trial of a cause on account of the absence of witnesses, aver that no subpoena could hold a witness from taking advantage of a freshet ; that if one came in the midst of service on the Sabbath the minister would leave the pulpit to start his raft and take advantage. of the flood.
In February, 1818, Peter Marius Groen, William Tremper, Abraham Hoffman, and their associates, president, directors, etc., of the Ulster and Delaware Turnpike Road Company, gave notice of application for a reorganization of the road, change of name to the "Kingston Turnpike Company," creation of a new capital stock of $40,000, and cancellation of the old stock to the extent of that sum, and provision for rebuilding the road, establishing toll- houses, etc. ; but nothing was accomplished.
It appears from the following letter that when brought before the Legislature the local members were opposed to it, and conse- quently it could not be carried.
" Tuesday
" DR SIR
"I almost despair in effecting the object of my business here. Our members (as I suspected) differ from our present plan and Mr Sudam is endeavoring to continue in them that impression I endeavored yesterday to procure an interview with Mr Livings- ton ; but owing to the sitting of the council of appointment I could not effect one. This morning I saw him for a few minutes only. Mr Livingston is desirous that something should be done this ses- sion but from the general view I gave him of our object was dis- posed to think we ought to apply for a new charter. .. . The reason alleged that the charter is forfeited is on the ground of total insolvency and that no legal election had been held inasmuch as
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there was not a board of directors and clerk present at the time of holding said election
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" In haste Yours Sincerely
" ZH SCHOONMAKER.
"P M Groen
John Tappen"
What may be supposed to be the finale of the Ulster and Dela- ware Turnpike Road is thus set forth in the editorial columns of the Ulster Plebeian of August 28th, 1819.
" Ulster and Delaware Turnpike road.
"The annual election of Directors for this institution, having been advertised to be held at the house of Levi Jansen, in this village on Wednesday last ; and there not appearing a requisite number of members to hold the election, it was of course not held, and the act of incorporation forfeited, after expenditures by the present stockholders on this road, to upward of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars."
From the above it is to be inferred that the stockholders had previous thereto kept up their organization by regular elections, notwithstanding the road had been apparently abandoned.
Thus ended a corporation which started with the brilliant ex- pectations of a surplus over ten per cent dividends, and had been considered good security for collegiate funds and academical investments.
In 1805, while the fever and excitement for turnpike roads were at their height, a kind of omnibus turnpike and bridge bill was run through the Legislature providing for several different roads from as many different localities on the Hudson River, to extend the hand of friendship and commercial intercourse over improved thoroughfares from such several localities to the same terminus in the sparsely settled region along the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers. The Kingstonians, of course, had their hands in the pot- tage by the incorporation thereby of the "Neversink Turnpike Road Company," to build a " Turnpike from Oxford and Chenango Point to Kingston ;" and also the " Pepacton Turnpike and Bridge Company," authorized " to build a Turnpike from Kingston in the County of Ulster, by the most direct practicable route to the west bank of the west branch of the Delaware river in the town of Walton."
The controlling spirit in the enterprise to build the Neversink Turnpike Road was Lucas Elmendorf, who was one of the most prominent and wealthy citizens of the village, and had recently rep- resented this Congressional district in the Congress of the United States for three successive terms.
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HISTORY OF KINGSTON.
On the 3d day of July, 1807, after various surveys had been made, the then Board of Directors, consisting of Luke Kiersted, President ; Jacob Ten Broeck, George Tappen, Lucas Elmendorf, John Houghteling, Conrad J. Elmendorf, and Daniel Brodhead, Jr., having previously explored the ground and viewed the differ- ent places which admitted of the turnpike being brought upon the highway leading from the town of Rochester to Kingston Landing, established the same " to run from the public street in the village of Kingston, immediately north of the dwelling house of Rachel Beekman, and to terminate on the Delaware river at Cochecton, to the south of Ebenezer Taylor's," and they further directed the immediate establishment of the route. The building of the road was commenced and partially completed. From the circumstance that Lucas Elmendorf was the prime mover and active manager of the road, this.end of the road acquired, and to this day bears the name of " Lucas' turnpike," and that portion of it situate within the bounds of the present city limits is officially designated " Lucas' Avenue." The entire road, as fully surveyed and laid out, led in a southwesterly direction from Kingston Village through Hurley, Marbletown, Rochester, and Wawarsing, in Ulster County, and through considerable portions of Sullivan and Delaware counties to Broome County, at some point near the Susquehanna River, a distance of about one hundred and forty miles.
This end of the road started from Kingston at a short distance only from the terminus of the King's highway, and ran in a south- easterly direction nearly parallel with that old highway until it formed a junction therewith in Rochester at Accord. The com- pany then used the bed of the old road for theirs about six miles to Wawarsing ; there they diverged therefrom, taking a north- westerly direction up Hunk Hill to strike the upper region of country and take their course for the proposed terminus.
The proposed road, thus necessarily running for the first twenty- one miles on the bed of a free road, or so near to it that a large portion of the farms extended from one road to the other, the rear part abutting on the proposed turnpike, did not present a very flattering prospect for the collection of toll.
By the charter they were authorized to use the bed of the old road, but not permitted to charge any toll thereon. The principal part of the residue of the proposed route lay through what was then nearly all a wilderness, but without doubt embraced on its borders large quantities of excellent land susceptible of speedy and lucrative cultivation.
Some of the landed proprietors entered into arrangements with the company to set apart a portion of their respective lots to pay for labor on the road, while others stood with their hands folded
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ready to reap, without cost or expense to themselves, any profits or benefits that might accrue from the construction through the expenditure of the means and property of others.
Every conceivable effort was made on the part of the directors to force the road to completion. Advantageous offers were made, as well for contracts as individual labor on the road, some payable in cash, and some partly in cash and partly in land. By such means the directors succeeded in building a considerable part of the road, but not in completing it. Lucas Elmendorf, the leading spirit in the work, and the agent of the company, expended about $40,000 out of his own resources upon the road, which proved a total loss. The road as far as built was accepted and gates erected, but did not yield sufficient revenue to pay the toll-gatherer and keep the pike in repair.
After repeated but previously unsuccessful efforts by the com- pany to obtain some kind of relief through the action of the Legislature, a law was passed in 1817 which, after reciting that "it had become highly expedient, that the road between the Hudson River and the territory within the State lying north of Pennsylvania, heretofore intended to be opened by the Neversink Turnpike road Company, should be speedily completed," pro- ceeded to make provision to 'cause a proportionate assessment to be laid upon the lands to be materially benefited by the making of the road, with the further provision that each proprietor assessed was to become a stockholder in the road to the amount of his contribution. The name of the company was also changed thereby to " The President and Directors of the First Great Southwestern Turnpike road Company."
The assessment was afterward made under the provisions of the act, but owing to some technical error or omission in regard to the filing and publication of the notice of assessment, the whole pro- ceeding was adjudged invalid by the courts. Repeated efforts for relief were made to subsequent Legislatures, but without avail. Thus disastrously to the projectors resulted this great effort to pro- mote the convenience and prosperity of the town of Kingston. It cannot be said, therefore, that the failure of Kingston to extend its arms into the interior, in both a westward and southwestward direc- tion, was wholly attributable to a want of effort. It may well be said, however, that too much responsibility was thrown upon a few, but shirked by the many.
There are some facts connected with the history of the old King's highway above referred to, which may, perhaps, as well be set forth here, although they may be considered rather out of place.
A road from Esopus (Kingston) through the valley of the Ron-
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HISTORY OF KINGSTON.
dout and the Mamakating hollow, to and along the Delaware River, to the extent of a hundred miles and over, has undoubtedly existed from an early period in the settlement of the country, probably located upon an old Indian path. When it was originally worked is shrouded in mystery. There are various and conflicting sur- mises and traditions in regard to it.
As early as May, 1734, a petition was presented to the General Assembly of New York for action on their part to compel the re- pair of the road on the ground that several persons in West Jersey and Pennsylvania had no other way to transport their produce.
It is supposed, and has been generally credited, that the open- ing of that road had something to do with the old mine holes under the mountains at the lower point of "Paampquarry" flats, about three miles above the water-gap on the Delaware ; also the " Yaag- Brun," in Minisink (Hunters' Spring), dug under the Shawangunk Mountains to an unknown depth, and other ancient holes at differ- ent localities along the route. There is no doubt that it is the oldest road of its length-one hundred miles-in the country.
There was a communication published in Hazard's Register in . 1828, which contains the narrative of an interview with Nicholas De Pui, an old settler at the Minisink flats. He was then about sixty years of age, and gave traditionary accounts of what he had heard from his ancestors and others of former generations sub- stantially as follows, as stated in the Register :
That in some former age a company of miners had come from Holland. It was supposed, from the great labor which had been expended by them in opening the road (which was about one hundred miles long), and in working the two mines, that they must have been very rich. One of the mines was situated on the Delaware river, where the mountain approaches the lower point of "Paampquarry " flats ; the other was in the north foot of the same mountain, about half-way between the Delaware River and Esopus. That he had also understood that abundance of ore had been car- ried over the road, but did not know whether it was lead or silver.
He further stated that the first settlers came from Holland to escape persecution on account of their religion. . In coming, they followed the mine road to the large flats on the Delaware. There the smooth, cleared land, suiting their views, they bought the im- provements from the native Indians. Most of the natives then moved to the Susquehanna River. That they were at peace with the Indians that remained until 1755.
In the early days of our history, and, indeed, until the success- ful operation of the steamboat, the communication with New York from Kingston was by sailing vessels. The principal part of the vessel was devoted to freight. Still, the cabin in the stern was fitted
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up with ten or a dozen berths for the accommodation of passengers, and the forecastle in front for cooking purposes and the con- venience of the crew. As it was then usually a voyage occupying from two to three days, and sometimes more, depending on the wind and tide, those intending to go for business or pleasure usually sought to procure congenial company for the voyage. Fre- quently, if brought to anchor by both wind and tide being adverse, some of the passengers would land and have a jolly time on shore for an hour or more picking and eating berries or fruits in their season, or wandering about in the woods or village. The passenger was at liberty either to furnish his own provisions or board with the captain at the sloop's table. Usually the well-to-do people made ample provision of cooked eatables in their chests, for their journey back and forth, and for which generally their poultry- roost was made to suffer. During the voyage every one was ex- pected to have a good time, and they laid themselves out for its enjoyment. One end of the chests in use in those days was usually fitted with compartments for safely carrying the old-fashioned " Holland gin" flasks, and it was not considered fully stocked while they were empty. The chest was of sufficient size to carry everything needful for the journey and bring back the purchases.
The sloops did not, in fact, cease to carry passengers until after 1820, when competition between different lines of steamers on the river reduced the fare to a reasonable price.
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