USA > New York > Ulster County > The history of Ulster County, New York > Part 19
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70
STREET HORSE-CARS.
The advent of the horse-car was regarded as an improvement, although the track, rolling-stock and motive power were crude and inadequate, and the management seemed to deteriorate as time went on. The enterprise was unprofitable from start to finish, and everybody connected with it lost money. The first car was run in August, 1866. It was drawn by four horses and preceded by a band of music. The fare was ten cents. Even in 1879 when the road was felicitously known as "Winne's Rapid Transit Line," it took the best part of an hour to make the trip under the best conditions. The old cars seemed to have little affinity for the small rails, and they left the track several times most every trip. But, of course, there were few trains to catch then, and one could always get out and walk, when the mules gave out.
THE ELECTRIC TROLLEY SYSTEM.
After some 27 years of this method, a new track was built and the mules gave way to the electric trolley, introduced by the new owner, who,
-
The Hoffman House. Southwest bastian of the old fortifications.
225
KINGSTON.
however, encountered much opposition from residents along the line, who feared the noise. Soon after that an opposition line was built on a some- what different route, and this resulted in a maze of legal complications. Finally the first electric car was run July 31, 1893, and the fare was reduced to five cents. One line was known as the Kingston City and the other the Colonial. They were consolidated in January, 1902, and for the year ending June 30, 1906, 2,686,244 passengers were carried. Meanwhile, soon after electric power was adopted, Kingston Point was purchased by the new owner, Mr. Coykendall, who at once converted the property into a public park at large expense, erecting many buildings with modern park amusement features, fashioning lagoons and bridges, planting a variety of shrubbery, etc. Then the electric cars were taken there, and the place has now become one of the most attractive public parks on the Hudson, as well as a favorite summer resort for Kingston people. It is visited by nearly a million persons annually.
CIVIC DIVISIONS AND CHANGES.
After its incorporation as a village in 1805 and subsequent to 1816, Kingston continued to grow in progress and importance, keeping pace with other settlements in the State. In April, 1818, small change be- coming scarce, nearly three thousand dollars in scrip was issued by which the village made $690, by unredeemed paper. The care of the old village clock caused some controversy between the trustees and the directors. It cost $20 a year, and a new eight-day clock was finally purchased in 1823 for $440. In 1819 the village bakers were required to make their loaves weigh 47 ounces each and sell them at 121/2 cents. In May, 1830, grocery licenses were granted at $6 each to Sharpe & Voorhees, Jacob Burhans, Joseph S. Smith, Jacob K. Trumpbour, Eliphas Van Aken, Austin DuBois, Lewis Mason, Conrad Crook, Charles DuBois, John Hume, Hiram Radcliff, William Kerr, Peter Tappen, Jr., J. & J. Russell, O'Neil & O'Neil, and a few others. Tavern licenses were issued to John H. Rutzer, Hannah Radcliff, and what is now the Kingston Hotel.
The extension of Fair street was agitated in the fall of that year, but the plan was not carried out until some years later.
The opening of the Delaware and Hudson Canal in the previous year served to develop that end of the town rapidly, and there soon arose a spirit of rivalry between these people and the citizens of the village. This -
226
THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.
feeling increased as the years went by, and finally led to sectional factions that were difficult to harmonize. The general progress and development of the town was obstructed to some extent by this lack of unanimity. This at length culminated in another village on the creek, which had always been known as "The Strand."
INCORPORATION OF RONDOUT.
This was incorporated in May, 1849, under the name of Rondout, after the old "Ronduit" or "Redoubt," a fort, established there more than a century before, although its precise location cannot be determined now. At the first meeting of the Trustees on May 3, George F. Von Beck was chosen president, the other directors being Edmund Suydam, Terrence O'Reiley, William H. Bridger, and Michael Dougherty. Only 287 votes were cast at the first village election, but this increased to 1,365 at the last corporate election May 3, 1871. The following Presidents succeeded Von Beck: Hiram Roosa, 1850; Edmund Suydam, 1851 ; James G. Lindsley, 1852; George Thompson, 1853; Thomas Keys, 1854-55; Geo. F. Von Beck, 1856-58; Nathan Anderson, 1859-63; Lorenzo A. Sykes, 1864-66; James G. Lindsley, 1867-69; John Derrenbacher, 1870-71.
THE CITY OF KINGSTON.
In May, 1872, the villages of Kingston and Rondout were united and incorporated into the City of Kingston, the charter being dated May 29, 1872. The hamlet of Wilbur, formerly Twaalfskill, which had long been a bluestone shipping point, was now included. The first joint election took place April 16, 1872; 3,271 votes being cast for mayor. James G. Lindsley was the first citizen to be thus honored, and he was chosen from Rondout.
The city was divided into nine wards, each ward being represented in the Council by two Aldermen. This arrangement continued until the present year, 1906. The first ward, in the northern part of the city, em- braced the old Wiltwyck or Stockade of Kingston in Colonial times. This includes all the County buildings and most of the old stone houses, and is the historic part of the town.
At that time the large shipping interests and the big cement manufac- turing plant had built up Rondout until it had some ten thousand inhab- itants, while Kingston contained somewhat less. Thus it was the Rondout
227
KINGSTON.
people had already sought a city charter from the Legislature the previous year, and they wanted to call the city "Rondout." But this fired the more conservative descendants of the ancient burghers in Kingston with indig- nation and ardent zeal. They would not listen to any proposition that would wipe out the historic name of Kingston, and finally the better counsels prevailed.
The formation of the city left all the old territory of the town of Kingston outside of the villages, into a town by itself which still retained the old name. This remnant of the old town nearly encircled the new city, except on the southeast. Resolving not to be obscured by the im- portance of the city, it began to make history of its own in vigorous fashion at once. While yet with the two villages, the old town began to dominate the politics of the county, and controlled most of the offices ; and some of the methods employed were of the most corrupt nature, be- longing to the period of political graft when office holding first became a profession. Unprincipled bosses were in full control of the civic ma- chinery of the county. A political ring had the taxpayers by the throat. The town elections were a farce and often attended by tragic features. When the city was organized, most of this ring-rule was transferred to the town, and there, under the fostering care of the old leaders, it flour- ished and grew more powerful and corrupt than ever, arousing the atten- tion of the press all over the State, in denunciation and rebuke. The better citizens went to the polls and voted against the ring, almost in peril of their lives at times. But few of their votes were counted, and the returns were canvassed by ringleaders in a certain city livery-stable for a time. Matters finally culminated at the spring election of 1879, which was held just over the Kingston bridge in the classic precinct known as "Mutton Hollow." There was a riot, and many were assaulted, one man being nearly killed. This was the end, however. There was a prompt investigation by the Legislature, and the active leaders were brought to justice by a fearless District Attorney.
THE TOWN OF ULSTER.
Then in December 1879 the town remnant was again divided, a small part on the northwest being annexed to the town of Woodstock, and the larger portion, north of the Esopus creek, and between this stream and the Hudson, together with another small area on the southwest, being carved into a new town called "Ulster." This left the old town of Kings-
228
THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.
ton with little beside the name. It was rough, rocky and unproductive, although having large deposits of bluestone. Its few remaining taxpayers were now too poor to interest politicians.
The new municipality began its career under better auspices than had prevailed in the old town. A spirit of economy and thrift succeeded, although the construction of the City Hall was soon projected, and the authorities insisted that it should be a structure of which the city might be proud for many years to come. There was much opposition to the erection of so large a building in advance of its need, because of the heavy cost. But the imposing structure was completed substantially as it now appears in 1875, upon a most commanding site in the center of the city, and there are to-day few who regret the outlay. All the various muni- cipal offices are centered there and various public bodies hold frequent meetings in the building. It cost about $75,000, and some $20,000 more were spent in repairs and improvements upon it in 1896. For the first few years rooms were occupied by the Supreme Court there, in which the noted legal contest between the New York Elevated Railway Companies, in their early history, was heard by Justice T. R. Westbrook, in the fall of 1881.
A large city almshouse was erected in 1874, at a cost of $31,500. This is managed by a Board of Commissioners, seven in number, appointed by the Mayor. The last report shows that it cost $22,530.44 to maintain the city poor there in 1905.
In 1879 the State was induced to build a large Armory on Broadway, which was completed in the fall of 1880 at a cost of over $25,000. This has just been remodeled and improved this year at a large additional cost. and is now occupied by Company M, Ist Regiment, N. Y. N. G.
The telegraph was first brought to Kingston about 1852, and the first operator here was Jacob DuBois. The principal business for this new method of communication being at that time in Rondout. The people there made an effort to get another office more convenient for them, and for a time a loop was run there, as the line came down from Albany. But this company soon failed, and then some time afterward another company established an office with Winter Brothers in Rondout, who managed telegraphic affairs there for some years before coming to Kingston with an office.
The telephone was introduced in 1880, although a small local private
The Houghtaling House.
٦٠٠
1
4
229
KINGSTON.
line had been in operation for some months before. There are now two companies, the Hudson River, and the Citizens' Standard, in full opera- tion in the city, connecting with all distant points, having some 2,600 separate telephones. Many of these wires have been placed in modern underground conduits this year, and both companies have just completed large and costly exchange buildings fitted with every latest appliance.
THE KINGSTON WATER SUPPLY.
The water supply of Kingston is gathered and stored among the Cats- kills, near the base of Overlook Mountain, and is of the purest quality. It is led to the city by gravitation in a double line of main pipe about seventeen miles long, one being 18 and the other 20 inches in diameter.
For the first twelve years the city had no public water supply. Wells and cisterns were relied upon, as had been the case for over a century. There were a few fire-cisterns in the streets. The water-works system was introduced by a local company in 1884, and this plant was acquired by the city in March, 1896. It was then greatly enlarged and improved in every way, the city being bonded for $750,000 altogether. The new plant was completed in September, 1900. There are now forty-seven and one- half miles of street mains, and there is a storage supply of 305,000,000 gallons in three reservoirs. The mechanical filtration plant has a capacity of over 6,000,000 gallons daily, and the present average daily consump- tion of water is 5,000,000 gallons. It is delivered at a pressure of from 100 to 120 pounds to the square inch. The total cost of the water plant to date is not far from a million dollars.
Gas was first introduced in Kingston in 1854 by a local company, at Rondout. It is now supplied by the Kingston Gas and Electric Com- pany, which has thirty-seven and one-half miles of street mains and about 200 miles of conducting wire. The average daily consumption of gas for lighting and fuel is about 160,000 cubic feet, and the electric energy supplied per month aggregates 63,215 kilowatt hours, or about 84,739 horse-power. Of this amount 22,677 kilowatt hours are used for commercial lighting, 33,040 kilowatt hours for public lamps, and 7,498 kilowatt hours for power purposes.
The city Police Department was established in May, 1891, and the original force, consisting of nineteen, two from each ward and the chief, has not been increased, although a Board of Police Commissioners of
230
THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.
five members, with the Mayor as president, has been created. Stephen D. Hood has been the Chief of Police from the first.
Various amendments to the original city charter have been made from time to time, the most important of which was that passed by the last Legislature, providing for a redivision into thirteen wards, under which the municipality is now operating.
The Street Department is under the nominal control of the Street Super- intendent, who is appointed by the Mayor. In 1873, $17,220 were spent upon the streets and roads of the city, $6,080 of this amount being for permanent improvements. During the past nine years this department cost $288, 133.13. The year ending Nov. 30, 1905, the cost was $46,635.82. There are about seventy-two miles of streets, twenty-eight of which are macadam roadways, and about one mile of brick and asphalt pavement. The main thoroughfare, now known as Broadway, was formerly "Union Avenue."
The Health Department was organized in 1883, and consists of six commissioners presided over by the Mayor, with a Health Officer and a Sanitary Inspector. During the administration of Mayor Block, two women commissioners were appointed, but they have been succeeded by men.
The Fire Department is still a volunteer force, with fourteen hose, hook and ladder and truck companies, the present Chief being Rodney A. Chipp. There is also an electric fire alarm system, and the fire-fighting force and appliances are prompt and efficient.
There is a Plumbing Board with four members ; four local Civil Service Commissioners, and six social clubs. The leading men's clubs being known as the Kingston and Rondout Clubs. Each of these have well equipped and finely furnished suites of rooms and large memberships. The Kingston Opera House and the Rondout Opera House are the only amusement halls of note, and these are supplied with dramatic enter- tainments most of the time during the season. There are some fourteen smaller assembly halls of various kinds.
Various musical societies have been organized, but most of them went down after a short career. The most important of these was the "Kings- ton Philharmonic Society," which had a most successful and artistic career lasting several years. It was organized in 1888 with Samuel D. Coykendall as president and financial sponsor. It was mainly devoted to
231
KINGSTON.
the study of choral music of the better class, and some of the best con- ductors in the country were engaged. The active membership embraced all the leading vocal talent of the city, and the associate list included most of the prominent families. Some of the most celebrated vocalists and .
instrumentalists of the land, and large orchestras, were engaged for the concerts at large expense, and these concerts were notable affairs both in musical and society circles. But in 1895 the society suspended for lack of support. To-day the only musical society in the city is the Rondout Mannerchor, a German social and singing club of many years standing, save the Mendelssohn Club, a double male quartet, and the Kingston Band, under Geo. Muller.
There is a large Public Library, nearly opposite the City Hall, built in 1904, at a cost of $30,000, which was donated by Andrew Carnegie on condition that the city obligate itself to raise ten per cent. of this amount annually for the support of the library. This has been done, and there are now 4,930 volumes upon the shelves. These books are in active de- mand by all classes, and the library is much appreciated. The building is a fine structure of the most solid and substantial character, of which the city is justly proud. The Library Association was formed in June, 1899, and until the completion of the new building, a room in the City Hall was used.
One of the finest modern jails in the country was erected by Ulster County, in the rear of the Court House, in 1902, at a cost of over $75,000. The walls are of huge native limestone blocks, rock-finished; and the interior is of chilled steel, fitted with every modern sanitary appliance and convenience.
A large addition to the Court House, in the rear, was also built a few years previous. In this are the court room, supervisors' rooms and vari- ous public offices, which are handsomely fitted.
There are twenty-nine different fraternal society organizations in the city, representing some fifty-six branches or divisions, which hold regular meetings. Some of these lodge rooms, including the Masonic Lodges of Kingston and Rondout, and the Pythian Hall, are large and handsomely fitted.
KINGSTON BOARD OF TRADE.
This association of business men was established in 1886, Reuben · Bernard being its first president. The organization has directed its attention more especially to the introduction of new manufacturing indus-
1
232
THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.
tries in the city, and in that way to build up the general business pros- perity of the place and increase the population. These efforts brought some good results. In 1902 the board published an illustrated brochure which gave the first comprehensive summary of the attractions and advan- tages of Kingston ever issued. Complete statistics of all the manufacturing industries were presented for the first time. From this it appears that over $3,500,000 were then invested in the city industries, which produced an annual output valued at over $5,000,000. Four thousand eight hundred and seventy persons of both sexes were employed in this work, earning a weekly wage of over $37,000. Over thirty separate industries were enumerated, and some fifty different plants. The largest was the Ameri- can Cigar Company, which started here in 1886. It is one of the largest cigar factories in the United States, employing some 1,800 persons, and turning out an annual product valued at nearly two million dollars, making 250,000 cigars a day. The Peckham Manufacturing Co., with a capital of $500,000 and a force of 250 men, made car-trucks and steam snow plows valued at over half a million dollars in 1901. This plant has now passed into other hands and is devoted to other interests. Over $250,000 is invested in the manufacture of builders' woodwork, with an annual output of over $300,000. Engines, boilers and machinery are made in a complete modern electric plant, to the value of $125,000 a year, employing nearly 300 men. One hundred thousand dollars worth of shirts are made by some 300 operators. Tinfoil and bottle caps, $125,000; ribbed underwear, $100,000; household furniture, $100,000; lager beer, $200,000 ; brushes, $100,000. And there are many smaller industries which cannot well be enumerated in detail here.
The United States Lace Curtain Mills operates a most extensive and interesting plant near the center of the city, which was started in 1903 by a New York company. The building cost nearly $100,000, and the machinery not far from $200,000. There are nine Jacquard looms, and some four tons of cotton thread are used weekly in about 35,000 yards of lace. Only lace curtains are made, and some 125 persons are employed. The power is wholly electric.
Ship building is carried on in different boat yards along the creek, especially the building of large brick barges, small steam crafts, and general repairing, to an amount of nearly $100,000 annually, some fifty men being thus engaged.
The Old Academy.
1
-
233
KINGSTON.
THE CEMENT INDUSTRY.
The making of Rosendale cement began in Kingston in 1851, by the Newark Lime and Cement Company, with a large plant at Rondout. although the native rock had been quarried there for seven years before, and shipped to the company's mills in Newark, N. J. This brand of cement was afterwards used extensively in all important masonry, includ- ing the Croton aqueduct and all important government work. Some 1,200 barrels a day were turned out at these mills for several years, and a large force was employed. This factory was an important factor in the early development of Rondout. James G. Lindsley was in charge of the works here, and being a man of great force of character, he became influential in public affairs. This extensive plant has lain idle, however, for the past two years because of the decline in the use of natural cement, which has been largely supplanted by Portland cement, an artificial product. This company made over 245,584 barrels of this cement in 1886, when the total output in Ulster County was over 2,000,000 barrels. In 1887 this county product swelled to 2,300,000 barrels; and between 1856 and 1892 this annual county product increased from 510,000 to 2,833,107 barrels. The demand began to fall off in 1900, and now, with the rapid increase of concrete, the price has again risen.
The manufacture and shipping of bluestone is also an important Kings- ton industry, which, however, is treated at length on other pages of this work.
THE BRICK INDUSTRY.
Brick-making is a large and important industry on the city river front, in which nearly 1,000 men and boys are engaged at good wages during the season of navigation. Over $500,000 are invested in this business within the city limits, and the value of the annual output from these yards doubtless exceeds this amount ; the price of brick for the past two years having been unusually high and the demand large. The clay of this section is found to be of the best quality for the production of a standard article. The sand is brought from other points along the river. These various yards in the city produced over fifty million bricks in 1895, and the present output is nearly seventy-five millions. This is about one- thirteenth of the total product in the United States in 1889.
The labor industry in the city has four trade organizations and some twenty-seven labor unions, which hold meetings at stated periods.
234
THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.
There are eight public cemeteries, Wiltwyck, Montrepose and St. Mary's being the largest. The former was established near the center of the city in July, 1850, and has been greatly enlarged and improved from time to time. Montrepose is in the Rondout section, and this has also been made most attractive in recent years.
POSTAL FACILITIES OF KINGSTON.
The history and development of postal affairs in any town is perhaps a fair general record of its progress. The marvelous growth and increase of the business of the Kingston post-office is shown by the comparative summary here presented. The office must have been established prior to the Revolution, but there is no authentic record of local postal affairs until some time after the formation of the Republic. On August 17, 1793, the following official postal notice appeared in the Farmers' Register, a Kingston newspaper of that period: "Those gentlemen who wish to have their letters forwarded by Post, are requested to send them to the Post Office at Kingston on Wednesday evening." Even as late as 1815, the list of uncalled for letters in the Kingston office included names of resi- dents in the different towns in the county, indicating that it was then the only post-office in the county.
Postal facilities were of course crude and meager in those days. A newspaper known as the Ulster Plebeian, published in 1815, had great difficulty in delivering the paper to its subscribers in the outlying districts. For a time a special post-rider was employed, and it cost the publishers over a dollar a year for each subscriber, which was more than half the price of the subscription. Finally in 1817, a post route was established between Kingston and Milford, Pa., and on the 13th of November the first United States mail carrier left Kingston on horseback, making one trip a week. If comparison could be made of the receipts of the old Kingston post-office in those days with those of the present, it would be interesting ; but unfortunately that old data has not been preserved, and the reader must be left to form his own estimate. In 1902 the receipts ag- gregated about $45,000, and nearly $200,000 in money orders, with 41,000 pieces of registered mail were handled. For the year 1905 this aggregate was increased to $50,560, and the money order business amounted to $280,878.43; 10,600 special delivery letters were handled; $14,850 in salaries were paid to the postmaster and his clerks; and the letter carriers
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.