USA > New York > Ulster County > The history of Ulster County, New York > Part 31
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CEMENT.
The production of Hydraulic Cement, now generally known as natural, or native rock cement, has long been one of the most important industries of Rosendale. For nearly three-quarters of a century the mining and manufacture of this cement was so extensively carried on in this town that the article itself became generally known as "Rosendale Cement," to distinguish it from the Portland, or artificial product, with little regard to the place of manufacture. And to-day this term is largely used by engineers and builders in making this distinction. The quality of the Rosendale rock was found superior to that of any other locality, and the product has always been regarded of the highest grade. For a long series of years previous to the present active demand for Portland cement, all important masonry contracts specified that "Rosendale Cement" must be used. It thus became a trade-mark of great value and the name was
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often fraudulently applied to inferior grades made elsewhere. This re- sulted in some damage to the reputation of the genuine article.
This immense deposit of cement rock in the town of Rosendale was discovered in the summer of 1825 by the engineers who were construct- ing the Delaware & Hudson Canal. The first specimens were burned in a blacksmith's forge at High Falls, and then reduced to powder by pounding. A test revealed its excellent quality, and it was decided that no more cement need be brought for the canal from Chittenango, Madison County, N. Y., where it was then made. Mr. Canvass White first dis- covered this rock and its properties, in this country, while working on the Erie Canal, in 1818. For this valuable find he was voted $20,000 by the State in that year.
The quarrying, burning and grinding of cement was begun in this region in the spring of 1826; one John Littlejohn having the contract to furnish all that was needed in the construction of the canal. On its com- pletion the cement business ceased for a short time. But it was revived soon afterward by Judge Lucas Elmendorf of Kingston. He began operations at the present village of Lawrenceville, which was named after Watson E. Lawrence, who soon succeeded Elmendorf in the business. This burned stone was first ground in the old Snyder Mill. The Hoffman works soon followed, and also the extensive factory at Whiteport, by Hugh White, for whom that place was named. Much of the cement used in the Croton Aqueduct was made at these mills.
Mr. White was succeeded by the Newark and Rosendale Lime and Cement Co., in 1847, which greatly increased the plant, having three mills at Whiteport and Hickory Bush. They increased the daily output from 450 to 1,000 barrels per day, having spent over $120,000 upon the im- provements. This company continued for over fifty years. Among other companies in the town were the Rosendale Works of F. O. Norton, the Bruceville Works of James H. Vandermark, the New York Company at Rock Lock, and the New York and Rosendale Works erected in 1873. When the industry was at its height there were a dozen or more different plants in operation in the town, and over 5,000 men were engaged in the work.
The Rosendale plant alone, in 1898, ground about 4,000 barrels of cement a day. The price had then fallen from $1.80 per barrel in 1883 to $0.75 in 1898. Beginning with a total annual output in Ulster County, in
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1856, of 510,000 barrels, it increased to 2,833,107 barrels in 1892. At the present time the industry has greatly declined because of the extensive manufacture of American Portland cement, which has lowered the price of that grade and brought it in direct competition with the rock cement.
A few years ago most of these Rosendale companies were bought by a New York syndicate and merged into one known as the Consolidated Cement Company. This large plant is now being operated, and 6,000 barrels of cement are now turned out daily with some 300 men employed. There are only two other plants now in operation, one being that of the A. J. Snyder Company, and the other the Miller Company, producing about 1,000 barrels a day each, and employing about 150 men.
Most of these Rosendale quarries are deep, and tunnels are run to reach the deeper strata, which are usually considered the best quality. Many of these are far below the bed of the Hudson, and the mines are well worth visiting. They have proved of inestimable value to the town, and yielded many fortunes to the operators, while thousands of laboring men have been benefited.
It is a curious fact that the raw cement rock crushed and ground will not produce any hydraulic property in the cement whatever. It must first be roasted or calcined, which is done in huge kilns of brick. This reduces the weight about one half. But the precise change which takes place in the stone by this roasting process, though presumably chemical, has never been satisfactorily explained.
Rosendale furnished about ninety-five soldiers to the War of the Rebel- lion, distributed in the various regiments, though there were probably more in the old Twentieth than in any other.
The State census of 1905 places the population of the town at 4,670. Of this number, 4,436 were native born.
There is a fine railway bridge over the Rondout Creek in Rosendale village, which carries the track of the Wallkill Valley Railway. It is 900 feet long and about 160 feet above the creek. This bridge was rebuilt recently in a much more substantial manner required for the heavier trains and rolling stock of the road now in use on that line.
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CHAPTER XXIX. TOWN OF SAUGERTIES. By CHARLES E. FOOTE.
T HE town of Saugerties is the northeastern town of Ulster County. It was incorporated April 5, 1811, from the territory which had previously been included in the town of Kingston. Evidently an error had been made in the boundary line, as a correcting act was passed by the General Assembly the next year, and an addition was made to the area of the town in 1832, by taking more of Kingston.
Saugerties is bounded on the north by Green County; on the east by the Hudson river ; on the south by the towns of Ulster and Kingston, and on the west by the town of Woodstock and the county of Greene. Its area is 37,603 acres.
The surface of the eastern portion, along the Hudson river, is undula- ting, with occasional rocky bluffs and breaks, of no considerable elevation, but abrupt in their character ; to the west and northwest there is a natural gradient, somewhat hilly and broken across the foot-hills and to the Catskill mountains proper. The scenery is most picturesque, the high mountains to the northwest being in plain sight on clear days from the eastern and southern border limits.
The Esopus Creek, which enters the town from the south at a point about two miles from the Hudson, flows due north about half the length of the town, then turns east, and after a series of curves, breaks through, falls over the bluffs, and enters the Hudson, creating a most excellent though narrow harbor at its mouth. It has numerous tributaries, of which the Plattekill, rising in the mountains in the extreme northwest, flows southward by a few degrees easterly and reaches the Esopus near the south line of the town. In the northeastern part of the town, a mile or two from the Hudson, rises the Saw Kill, which flows southeasterly, and reaches that river just above the mouth of the Esopus. The Beaver Kill, evidently contrary minded, rises between the Esopus and the Platte- kill in the southerly part of the town, and flows northward between the Plattekill on the west, and the Sawkill on the east, both flowing in oppo-
John Maxwell.
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site directions, and empties in the Catskill Creek at the northern limits of the town.
There seems no method of establishing, at this time, the date of occu- pancy or the identity of the very earliest settlers. The land was a part of the Kingston patent and it is naturally supposed that as soon as it could consistently be accomplished, those families who subsequently became prominent in Saugerties, selected their locations in that territory and assumed possession at as early a date as possible, for the purpose of growing the crops, utilizing the water power, and constructing the buildings.
A grant of land was made in May, 1687, of a tract of about 442 acres at the mouth of the Esopus Creek, to George Meals and Richard Hays. A description of this property was filed early in 1686, together with several other tracts, surveyed by Ro. Fullertown "for George Meals and others." One of the other tracts was 252 acres, lying on the side of a run called the Beaver Kill, about three miles west of the mouth of the Esopus, also being a part of the tract called Sagiers; also 300 acres along the Hudson from the mouth of the Esopus, being part of the Sagiers tract; also a tract of 201 acres, about a mile northwest of the mouth of the Esopus and, crossing the Sawkill, which was also a part of the Sagiers tract. Incidentally, Surveyor Fullertown laid out a tract of 797 acres for himself while surveying in this region, in the neighborhood of Wanton Island.
The reiteration of the name "Sagiers," as applied to this region, at that very early date, indicates the source of the evolution which has produced "Saugerties." But the logic, or the philosophy, of the evolution does not satisfactorily appear, nor does the origin or parentage of the word itself. Some suggestions have been made from time to time, as to a different source, but they are all so entirely impregnated with an acrostic taint, that they are valuable only as examples of ingenuity.
Whether or not Meals and Hays ever resided on the properties, or caused them to be settled, is not known. Several conveyances were made, evidently within the company or family, and in 1712 the tract at the mouth of the Esopus Creek was transferred to John Persen. He died in 1748, and left the property subject to the life interest of his widow, to his son Jacobus, and his daughter Vannitte, wife of Myndert Minderse. In the will is mentioned the original grist-mill of the section, though no statement is made of the time of its erection, or even whether it was on
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the ground when he purchased it in 1712. This does not appear likely, however, as the deed of transfer would probably have made some mention of it.
In the winter of 1710-1711, a large colony of immigrants, called Pala- tines, came up the Hudson and established camps on either side of the river, that on the west side being known as West Camp, that opposite as East Camp. Most of these were Huguenots, though some were Dutch, and all are said to have derived the cognomen of "Palatines" from the fact that all came from the Palatinate in the Netherlands. They seem to have spread out within the next few years, until the entire northern portion of the town was occupied by them. One of the earliest permanent settlements seems to have been at Katsbaan, as a church was organized there about 1730. There is an old gazetteer which states that the Lutheran church at West Camp, was organized in 1708, but inasmuch as there are no obtainable records, and the colony of Palatines did not reach West Camp until about Christmas, 1710, the statement must be an error, typo- graphically or otherwise.
A list of the persons and families of the immigrants from the Pala- tinate who came about Christmas, 1710, and encamped at West Camp, was made the following June (June 24, 1711). They had separated them- selves into three groups, known as Elizabeth Town, George Town, and New Town. The reports were as follows :
John Christopher Gerlach, listmaster of Elizabeth Town, reported the inhabitants to be forty-two families,-one hundred and forty-six persons ;
Jacob Mauck, listmaster of George Town, reported forty families,-one hundred and twenty-eight persons;
Philip Peter Granberger, listmaster for New Town, reported one hundred and three families,-three hundred and sixty-five persons ;
Making a total of 185 families-639 persons, who were among the very earliest real settlers of Saugerties and the Sawyer's Creek region.
There seems to have been some feeling over the settlement of the Palatines. The Board of Trade at Kingston, had proposed to give them, should they come, a tract of land on the west side of the Hudson, "twenty miles in breadth, and forty miles in length," and Governor Hunter re- ported, November 14, 1710, six weeks before their arrival, that he had "settled" them in two villages on the Sawyer's Creek. This seems to mean that he had selected sites for two villages for their settlement.
On the other hand there seems to have been no action taken to supply any such tract of land which would have amounted to something like a
Martin Cantine.
The Martin Cantine Company's Coated Paper Manufacturing Plant, Saugerties, N. Y.
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half million acres. An order of the court, dated October 5, 171I, seems to indicate that there was some friction over settlements on lands. It reads as follows :
"At a meeting of Justices in Kingstown, this 5th October 1711, present Coll. Jacob Rutsen, Capt. Dirk Schepmoes, Mr. Evert Wynkoop, Mr. Cornelis Coal, Coll. Rutsen having received a letter from Mr. Secretary by his Excellency's order, setting forth that severall Pallatines leave their settlements and seek to settle themselves on particular men theire land, and ordered Ye Justices to send them to their own towns, ordered that each constable be served with a coppy of this order, that they cause all the pallatines to go to theire own settlements, and fore- warne all theire Districts that they do not harbour any Pallatines att theire perrill."
The oldest religious body in the town of Saugerties is the Lutheran church of West Camp. A gazetteer published by Hamilton Child in 1871, says that it was organized in 1708, by the Palatines, but as there seems to have been no Palatines there until 1712, and as there does not seem to have been any Lutherans among the Dutch, this is probably an error. The most reliable advices place the organization of the church at 17II, with Rev. Joshua Kocherthal as its organizer and first minister.
There seems also to have been members of the Dutch Reformed Church among the Palatines ; both joined together and built a church where each held services. As nearly as can be determined, the erection of this church building was accomplished the first season of occupancy by the Palatines, in IZII.
The original bell was a present to the church from Queen Anne, but during the early years of the nineteenth century it was exchanged for a larger one. It is said to be one of the first, if not the first Lutheran churches established in America, and services have been held there almost continuously.
The following is a copy of a document which has much historic sig- nificance. It is preserved among the papers of the Russell family :
"To all Protestant Christians of every persuasion :-
"Whereas, in the year of 1710, many German Protestants of the Lutheran per- suasion were invited from Europe to North America by the late Queen Ann of England, and at their arrival in the country a number of them settled at the West Camp, now in the county of Ulster, in the state of New York; not long after their settlement they formed themselves into a Congregation and built a Church or House of Worship, as well as their then circumstances would permit, but many of said Congregation having since, from year to year, removed to a great distance, whereby the present congregation is become very weak and their church in a rotten condition, and finding themselves unable to build a new one, therefore we the subscribers, Elders, have with the consent of the Congregation resolved on a col- lection, hoping that every well wishing Protestant will kindly assist us to perform so necessary a Task for the Honor of God according to their free will and inclina-
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tion. We have, therefore, unanimously chosen our trusty friend, Ludwig Roessell, the bearer hereof, and his companion Johannes Eligh, to go forth and receive such free gifts as every Christian who may chance to be requested by them will be pleased to bestow. In gratitude whereof we shall, if an opportunity is offered to us, be ever ready to return the kindness with gladness. Given under our hands this IIth day of October 1791."
"PETRUS. EGNER.
"PETER MOWER." . "JOHANNIS MOWER."
"West Camp, county of Ulster."
"Ulster County, State of New York, ss :-
"I do certify that the Purport of the above Petition is founded on truth, and that I am well acquainted with the persons therein named, and that they are men of good character, as witness my hand in Kingston this 13th day of October, 1791. "D. WYNKOOP.
"First Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Ulster County. "JOHN SNYDER. "Assistant Judge of Said Court.
"The above Ludwig Roessell and Johannis Eligh are personally known to me, and bear the character of honest men.
"Given at Greenwich this 22nd October 1791.
"GEO. CLINTON."
It is impossible to state at this time whether the improvements in 1791 were the remodeling and the repairing and enlarging the old one, or whether a new edifice was built. A new and commodious church was erected in 1871. It still maintains the Augsbury Confession, and was incorporated in 1854.
Saugerties is filled with historic matter the use of which the limits of this volume will not permit, except in their most salient features. The Snyders, the Russells, the Dedericks, the Posts, the DeWitts, the New- kirks, the Van Steenburghs, the Wolvins, the Wynkoops, the Ploeffs, the Ten Broecks, the Rightmeyers, the Wells, the Kiersteds, and a large number of other families are in possession of old documents and records which are of absorbing interest, as showing the conditions which prevailed from 100 to 200 years ago.
Andrew Brink was the captain of the "Clermont," Robert Fulton's first steamboat.
The following letter has been preserved, addressed to him:
"NEW YORK, Oct. 9, 1807.
"CAPTAIN BRINK-Sir :- Enclosed is the number of voyages which it is intended the boat should run this season ; you may have them published in the Albany papers. As she is strongly manned, and every one except Jackson under your command, you must insist on each one doing his duty, or turn him on shore and put another in his place; everything must be kept in order, everything in its place, and all parts of the boat scowered and clean. It is not sufficient to tell men to do a thing, but stand over them and make them do it. One pair of quick and good eyes is worth six pair of hands in a commander. If the boat is dirty or out of order, the fault shall be yours,-let no man be idle when there is the least thing to do, and make them move quick.
W.T Bather. NY
lob
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"Run no risques of any kind; when you meet or overtake vessels beating or cross- ing your way, always run under their stern, if there be the least doubt that you cannot clear their head by fifty yards or more; give in the amounts of receipts and expenses every week to the Chancellor. "Your most obedient ROBERT FULTON."
Mr. Brink was also the first town clerk of Saugerties.
In 1788 there were five road districts in that part of the town of Kings- ton which afterward became the town of Saugerties.
Saugerties was a part of the town of Kingston during the war of the Revolution, and, of course, had no independent military history. In the war of 1812 the town was represented by some 85 of her citizens.
About 1808 or 1810, one or more military companies was organized in the town. The trainings were mostly in one company and was known as the Rangers. Its officers were: Captain, J. Clark; Lieutenant, L. Kier- stead; Ensign, A. Post; Orderly Sergeant, Peter P. Post. In 1813 this company joined with one from Kingston and another from Marbletown under the command of Captain Elmendorf and Lieutenant Peter P. Post. There was a draft of one-sixth of the militia in 1814, but the term of service was short.
Nearly a thousand men fought in the war of the Rebellion from the town of Saugerties, including the substitutes furnished when the drafts were made. The men from Saugerties were distributed through the various regiments organized wholly, or in part, in Ulster County, and many members of various other organizations.
a
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CHAPTER XXX. TOWN OF SHANDAKEN. By HENRY GRIFFETH.
S HANDAKEN is the northwest corner town of the County of Ulster and was formed from a part of the town of Woodstock, April 9th, 1804.
It is an Indian name signifying rapid waters, and was applied to the town, or to the territory out of which it was formed, on account of the numerous streams which flow down its steep gorges and mountain ravines .. The name is appropriate and should not be changed for any other.
The settlements known as Woodstock, and Great and Little Shandaken, were, by act of the Legislature, passed April IIth, 1787, formed into a township under the name of Woodstock. The town as first formed em- braced a large territory and took in the present towns of Woodstock, Shandaken, Denning, the most of Hardenburgh and a part of Olive.
At the Woodstock town meeting held the first Tuesday in April, 1796, it was unanimously voted that the town be divided, but no division was made till 1804, when the Act creating Shandaken was passed. The following year, on the first Tuesday in April, the first town meeting was held, and Benjamin Milk was chosen Supervisor, William B. Rogers, Town Clerk. Rogers had held the same office in the town of Woodstock since 1801. He was the father of the late Joseph H. Rogers who died in Shandaken some years ago at an advanced age. Supervisor Milk, at the time he was chosen, resided at the place now called Slide Moun- tain, near the head of Big Indian Valley, on the farm lately occupied by James W. Dutcher. He afterwards moved to Dry Brook, in what is now the town of Hardenburgh, and settled on the farm now, or lately, owned by William Todd. Milk continued to represent the town as its Supervisor until 1810, when Aaron Adams was chosen and re-elected till 1816; when he was succeeded by Henry W. Rogers.
Supervisor Adams resided at Pine Hill. He settled there and made the first clearing, before the year 1800. 'About 1810, he built a hotel on the
Henry Griffeth.
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site now occupied by Billor's summer hotel, formerly known as "Glen Hall," and continued to reside there, keeping tavern, until about 1816, when he moved away and settled near Rochester, N. Y. Adams served one term in the Legislature while he lived at Pine Hill; he was a good fiddler and a man of energy. He was also the first postmaster of Pine Hill, but at that time there were only three post-offices in the town. Pine Hill, Aaron Adams postmaster, one at the O'Neil place now owned by Giles Whitney, between Shandaken and Phoenicia, Henry W. Rogers. postmaster, and The Corners, Lazarus Sprague postmaster.
At the time Adams lived at Pine Hill there was little there except his tavern and a saw-mill set down in a small clearing. His tavern was a. frame building, lathed and plastered, and was the first building of the kind built in the town. People came for miles around to see it; it was such a curiosity. All other houses in the town at that time were con- structed of logs. The tavern at Pine Hill, after Adams left, was kept by John Higgins, father of the late Marical Higgins ; then by Samuel Smith; then by Ezekial Griffin, father of the late Matthew Griffin; then by one- Strattabus, a Frenchman, who rebuilt it. In after years it passed into the hands of the late Thomas and Floyd Smith, and finally to Mrs. Mahala Floyd, who in 1874 erected "Glen Hall," and the old Pine Tavern, to well and widely known for many years, passed away.
Henry W. Rogers was Supervisor from 1816 until 1825, having been elected nine times in succession, which gave him more years in office than any other Supervisor of the town. He also kept a tavern in connection with his post-office. But in those days a Shandaken tavern was a primi- tive affair, the same room frequently answering for a bar-room, dining- room and kitchen. He was succeeded in office by Herman Landon, who was Supervisor until 1827. He was succeeded in turn by James O'Neil, father of the late Thomas H. O'Neil. Herman Landon was a son of John Landon who settled on Pine Hill, coming from Columbia County about 1805. He made the first clearing, where the "Grampian" now stands.
Pine Hill, and almost the entire town, at that time was a dense wilder- ness, with here and there a clearing. Bears, wolves, deer and other wild animals held almost universal sway.
Milo Barber, Sr., kept a small store near Phoenicia on the road to Chichester as early as 1826, and about the same time Lazarus Sprague-
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started one at The Corner. Very little, however, was done in the mer- cantile line until the building of tanneries later on.
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