USA > New York > Greene County > The "old times" corner : first series, 1929-1930 > Part 13
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Mr. Reynolds was a charter member of our society and one of Greene county's most distinguished and loved citizens.
He was born on West Main street in Catskill, on November 11, 1866, a son of James P. and Hanna Reynolds. He attended Catskill Free academy, and at an early age became a telegraph messenger for G. E. Vincent, who had charge of the Western Union telegraph office in his drug store iu the Old Opera House block at the corner of Bridge and Main streets. He quickly mastered telegraphy and became an operator, and in 1890 he went to New York, where he entered the employ of the Postal Telegraph-Cable company. He merited and received quick advancement until within ten years he was made general auditor for the entire Postal system. In 1902 he was again advanced to the position of vice-president and assistant to the president. and in 1913 he was made general manager, which position he held until this year, when his health began to fail him.
He was loved by the employees of the corporation he directed for his forty years of effort to improve their condition, and loved by the people of Greene county for maintaining old friendships and his affectionate in- terest in the affairs of his native county after such success and honor came to him.
The funeral took place November 11, 1929, on the sixty-third anni- versary of his birth, from his residence, and was conducted by his pastor. the Rev. George Reynolds, of the First Presbyterian church of New Rochelle. Interment was in Mount Kensico cemetery, White Plains.
He is survived. by his wife, Elizabeth Thompson, one daughter, Mrs. Helen Steen, two grandchildren, three nephews, Arthur Penfield. Edward Reynolds and Frank Hester of Catskill, and by one niece, Mrs. Mary Tynan, also of Catskill.
[Written by] Lester Robert Smith .- V. Dec. 11, 1930. -
A Drummer Boy
of the Revolution holds our attention today. Born in Wallingford, Conn., Dec. 14, 1766, he was not yet ten years old when our Declaration of In- dependence was signed. He was the first child, his father being only a little over twenty at the son's birth. With the Lexington Alarm of 1775, away went his father to the War, serving first around Boston and in Canada. becoming a Corporal, and later In the Fourth Connecticut regiment. at Yorktown. Meantime his son, fired with patriotism, fidgeted at home and finally slipped away to the Hudson River at the Highlands, where his
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CHARLES VORSE
father's regiment was then guarding the British troops in New York City,. and enlisted as a drummer, though scarcely past fifteen. Together they were honorably discharged by General Washington in June, 1783, opposite West Point, when the American army was disbanded, but both lost their discharge papers soon afterward in the burning of the father's house. For their services, each later (1818) received an annual pension of $96, but the father, Corporal Jesse VORSE, died before his first payment came.
Charles Vorse, the son, was by this time living in Lexington, in our - mountains, one of the band of patriot pioneers who helped to change the name of that town from "New Goshen" to the present Lexington of more stirring import. Soon after the war, he had married in Connecticut, but the maiden name and residence of his wife Lucretia have not yet been learned. Her gravestone in the Windham cemetery, where she rests beside her husband, says only "Lucretia wife of Charles Vorse." Can any one find for us her family name in any old records? Her eldest son was named Standish F .; it might help if we could know what that F. stood for. And why Standish, if not from a Mayflower family ?
In Wallingford they lived for several years, and there was born to them their first child, Julia, probably also the son Standish and the second daughter, Fayette (1793/4/3). Then came the upheavals over the heavy tax burdens from the war, the uprisings of "Shay's rebellion" and others, the general urge to new, less competitive territory. A month ago we told of the coming to Rennselaerville of the Rev. Samuel Fuller, in 1793. To Rensselaerville about this time came also Charles Vorse and his family; and there they lived until the daughter Julia married. She rests in the Presbyterian cemetery in Rensselaerville with her husband Samuel RUSS and part of her family.
Ruth, the third daughter, was born (1795/4/19) according to the tradition of her descendants (and also wooed and married, they say) in Litchfield, Conn .; but whether the family lived there before coming to New York state, or whether the mother was temporarily with her parents, is not known. At least, here is possible clue to Lucretia's parentage. In Rensselaerville, surely, was born Esther, but the family of the next child, Isaac, also claim Litchfield as his birthplace. Then come Phllo, Rebecca, Diadenia and lastly John, all before 1810, when the Rensselaerville census shows all present under the family roof except Standish, now 19, who had probably gone to work. Quite likely his employer was Justus Blanchard, a prosperous farmer of Saugerties, Catskill and Cairo, for soon thereafter (1816?) he married Blanchard's daughter Hanse, direct descendant of John of Gaunt and the English royal line. (see this Corner, page 69, above) and moved on westward into Ohio. Their posterity is now scattered clear to the Pacific Coast.
About 1814. Fayette, the third child. married John RICE of Windham, still remembered affectionately by some of our residents, but she died in 1846 and it is Rice's second wife Volusia, daughter of Judge Munson Bnel and widow of Judge Henry Goslee, whom people now living remember. Of Fayette's five children, two appear to have died young, while Rufus the eldest pushed westward and had at least one son, William Rice, sometime of Grand Rapids, Mich .; we should like to get track of his family. Addison
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OLD TIMES CORNER
Standish Rice (1820/7/24) married Polly Chamberlain and had ten chil- dren, some of whom and their families still reside in Jewett and Hunter. From all of these we wish to hear, as we have an account of the Rice family yet to publish. Fayette's daughter Lucretia married Charles F. WRIGHT of Buffalo, relict of her aunt Rebecca, and lived to a hale old age with relatives in South Egremont, Mass.
Ruth, on April 10, 1815, married young Eber CORNISH, jr., of West- kill; their descendants are largely in New York City and Chicago, and vicinity. She spent her widowed later years in Catskill In the house on Prospect Avenue afterward long the home of Mr. William L. DuBois [ now of Counselor John L. Fray.].
About this time, perhaps because of these marriages, perhaps before them, Charles Vorse brought his family to Lexington and apparently took up land with the financial help of Stephen Day of Catskill, founder of the Tanners' Bank. Isaac and Philo seem now to have gone off to Pennsylvania, where the first became the physician, Dr. Isaac S. Vorse of Lewisburg, Pa., leaving descendants of prominence in that vicinity-among them Albert White Vorse, husband of the authoress Mary Heaton. The other, Philo D. Vorse, was apparently an artist in Philadelphia, but we need more infor- mation from his family, if he had any.
Esther, the fifth child, married Nathan FRINT of Westkill and had six children, but only three seem to have grown up. Dimis (1819/2/21) married Justus KNOWLES of Bushnellville and is buried with him in the cemetery there; their children were Francesca married Edward BENNETT and Roseltha married Garret GOSSO. but neither had children. Kathrine Frint married Levi M. BANKER of Westkill and left one son Valorus, of Brockport, where she is buried: from his family we wish to hear. Sidney D. Frint married Julia F. Dunham, daughter of Henry and granddaughter of Ephraim Dunham of Lexington; she died less than a year ago at the age of nearly 95 years-an aunt of Mrs. William S. Borthwick of Cornwall- ville. They raised a family of six children, all of whom married and have. families. There are also four great-grandchildren. The complete list is as follows:
Children of Sidney D. (1827-1900) and Julia Frances (Dunham, 1834- 1929 ) FRINT:
(1) Rose (or Rosette) M. 1853, married 1875 O. Clark CRAWFORD; one son, Ivan 1878, married Sarah Kidd, 4 children: Kenneth Clark 1904, Martha Louise, Bernice and Jim.
(2) Charles H. 1855, married 1884 Lena Sutton; four daughters, Lydia J., Edna. Madeline and Helen.
(3) Dewitt C. 1861, married 1885 lda C. Petterson; one daughter, Olive.
(4) George B. 1863, married 1888 Etta Done; two daughters, Bea- trice May and Gladys Rose.
(5) J. William 1869, married 1889 Jennle Courter; one son, Harold Kenneth 1907.
(6) . Frank M. 1875, married 1895 Hattie Buddington; two children, Leon 1896 and Hazel.
( The family of Sidney Frint was added in a later number. ]
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FINDING ANCESTORS
Rebecca, the eighth child of Charles and Lucretia Vorse, married Charles F. WRIGHT of Buffalo, but seems to have had no children. She died after a long illness in which her niece Lucretia Rice helped to care for her. Lucretia became Mr. Wright's second wife. They also had no chil- dren, but brought up two orphan sons of the youngest brother John O. Vorse, namely John and William, a family of silversmiths ( ?) that may have descendants in Buffalo or elsewhere; may we hear from these?
Diadema, the youngest of Charles Vorse's daughters, was likewise sickly and died in Reading, Pa., not long after her marriage. Her daughter Lucinda DANFIELD lived for a time with her widowed annt, Esther Frint. What then became of her? Can any one tell us?
In 1828, Charles Vorse bought some parcels of land from Morss and from Turney, four acres in all, on the south side of the Windham highway by. the old tollgate, where he built him the house now occupied by Mr. Alvah Tuttle. This house is thus over a century old. He and his wife were active in the "First" Church then within sight of this house, and are frequently mentioned in the church records, with their daughter Diadema. He was one of the six trustees who signed the deed for transfer of the old church property in 1836 when the split occurred between the Ashland and Windham congregations.
Lucretia, wife of Charles Vorse, died July 24, 1844, "aged 75 years," and he afterward ( when nearly 80 ) married Elizabeth Olcott, aged 75, widow of Roger Holcomb of Jewett whose daughter Abi was Mrs. Norman ( "Dea- con") Ticknor. In January, 1856, Charles Vorse the veteran, in his 90th year, with his white hair flowing down over his bent shoulders, and greatly beloved of all his family, was run down on the open road by a team whose heartless driver merely shouted to the stone-deaf old man to "get out of his way." He died January 13 and was laid to rest in Wind- ham beside his faithful wife Lucretia.
In the records his name stands as Vorse. Vorce, Vose, Voorse, Voorhees (these last in Dutch country ) and even Voorhis, but his ancestor was Mat- thew FORCE of Gravesend, Long Island, later of lower Broadway, New York City, below Trinity Church, in 1675.
One purpose of this long account, which is but a fraction of the in- formation now on hand, is to show how much may be learned about their ancestors by those who are willing to seek. The descendant who worked this out knew nothing at the start but the last name of this man and a little about the family of the one daughter Ruth, nor could he learn more from those still living than some faint recollections of cousins "in the mountains," names almost forgotten. With that scant start he has dis- covered delightful relatives, and a fund of information in the records, the dwelling place and even intimate personal affairs in the lives of Charles and his offspring. You can do likewise for your own ancestry. Send for directions as to how to proceed .-- C. Mar. 6, 1930. (Corrected Mar. 27.)
The Longest List
of ancestors for any one person yet received by me comes from Mrs. Edna Beardsley Fenn of Albany, a native of Catskill, for her daughter Miss Elizabeth Van Wie Fenn, and contained 140 full names, besides 12 given
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OLD TIMES CORNER
names of wives whose last name was unknown. To this I have been able to add 12 full names and 3 more half names. Three names are, however, duplicated on different lines converging to the same person, so that all told there are 164 ancestors in the list. All spaces are filled in the first three generations back (to great-grandparents), and all but one couple of the sixteen spaces in the fourth. Who. can tell us the parents and an- cestry of Naomi Jane Shafer of Blenheim, N. Y., who married Francis Watson Fenn of Prattsville? Three Revolutionary soldiers appear among the nineteen names of the fifth generation back. These are Jolin Wands, Peter Brooks and Peter Van Wie. Another, Capt. Thomas Fenn, heads the sixth. with Ebenezer Spring, William Ladd and Isaac Peaslee also Revolutionary patriots making a total of seven claims to entry into the D. A. R. Soldiers of earlier wars are equally numerous, with several Reverends, at least one colonial governor, and a Stephen Hopkins that probably means Mayflower. But who else can claim an ancestor who . was a witch, a real "Salem witch" put to death as such at Salem in 1692? Those who would know more, read Whittier's poem "Mabel Martin." Let us admit that other young ladies may be likewise bewitching, but in this case we know the antecedents and can tell just where it came from.
Such a list represents some work, and shows what can be done when one has access to the large libraries. I am indebted to Mrs. Fenn also for getting for me the early generations of the BOGARDUS family down to the known lines in Greene County. Since the Dutch Dominie Everardus Bogardus married "Anneke Jans," these are also a part of her descendants. The Dominie's four children were all sons, thus preserving his surname to posterity, whereas Anneke's four or five children by her first husband, Roeloff Jansen, were mostly daughters, founders of the VANBRUGH, KIER- STED and HARTGERS families in this country, and only the son Jan Roelofse ( Rollison ) preserved the patronym. I should like to hear from all the descendants of any of these names in order very soon to give an account of all Greene County descendants of these families.
But who can beat Miss Fenn's list of 164 known ancestors?
I have some other long and interesting ancestral lists. Some of these are for people who do not know I have them, and may be surprised to learn what names are in the list. Others have been supplied me on request or sent in response to the invitations in this Corner. A gentleman in Windham traces his lines back to two of the Mayflower Pilgrims, Elder William Brewster and Governor William Bradford. Except the Peck fam- ily, from which no replies have come. to date, I have most interesting let- ters from members of all the families hitherto asked for. Yet these are but a small part of the people whose descent should be placed on record with our llistorian. The humblest of ancestors may have brilliant offspring. surest sign of a worthy inheritance farther back, and no matter how plain your lot to-day, your grandchildren may bless you (or otherwise) accord- ing to whether yon havo preserved what you knew of your forebears. [ am reminded of the lowly Nancy Hanks, almost unsung mother of our great Lincoln, and how only the other day it was found that she was sprung from the Lees, prondest family of all Virginia with their royal blood back to ancient heroes. I am reminded, too, of Thurlow Weed, our
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REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIERS
own great man and how both he and us would that his parents had not forgotten their birthright, for poor though they were there must have been fine heritage there .- C. June 12, 1930.
Soldiers of the Revolution
from Greene County, or leaving descendants here, include at least the fol- lowing, the list having been kindly supplied by the On-ti-ora Chapter of the D. A. R .; additions to the list will be welcomed:
Jonathan Allerton, William Barton, Nathan Burroughs, Nathaniel T. Cooper, Capt. Daniel Cornwall, Benjamin Doty. Joel DuBois, John DuBois, Jolin Fuhr, Dr. Amos Hamlin, Eleazer Hedges, Obadiah Hill, Col. John Hough, Nathaniel Jacobs, David Jewell, Ebenezer Jewell, Lemuel Jewell, Solomon Johnson, Seth Jones, Jacob Kipp. Eliphalet Lord, James McDon- ald, Daniel Meeker, Eleazur Miller, Abraham Overbagh, Isaac Penfield. Jacobus Person, William Pinckney, Rev. David Porter, Capt. Abram Post. Lieut. Peter Post, Samuel Potter. Capt. Jonathan Pratt, Ananias Rogers, Reuben Rundle, Lient. Barent S. Salisbury, Fred. Sammons, Jacob Small- ing, Justus Squires, Eliakim Stannard, Perez Steele, Capt. George Stimson. John Strong, Selah Strong, Capt. George Taylor, Elijah Towner, James Utter, Robert Vandenburg. Capt. Andreas Vanderpoel, Peter Van Orden, William Van Orden, Samuel Van Vechten, Charles Vorse, Samuel Webster .- C. Apr. 17, 1930.
Who Is the Oldest Person
in Greene County to-day? Our personal candidate for this honor right now is John Leonard Driscoll, of Catskill, born October 11, 1837, and there- fore in his ninety-third year but spry as a cricket. Can you beat that? Who challenges it?
The age record at death, for our county, appears to be held by DAN- IEL ANGLE, a veteran of the Revolution, whose tombstone on Beech Ridge in the town of Lexington says he was 107. Where are his descendants? We would like to hear from all of them .*
[*One of them has since written that Daniel's age at death was prob- ably about 86 years. ]
Who else passed the century mark? We desire to make up a list of Greene county centenarians. For one thing, it is good advertising for our mountain air. But we'll not stop there. Give us the names of all the "hale and hearties" who reached fourscore years or more and passed be- yond; and all who at this age are going strong. The best lists received will have special mention in this Corner, but all will be gratefuly acknowl- edged. If you live by a cemetery, your chances should be excellent for making a long and authoritative list .- C. May 15, 1930.
New claimants nominated by their friends for the honor of being the oldest living person in Greene County are Mrs. Mary E. Whitmore, born in March, 1837, and now residing in Coxsackie, and Mrs. Charles Cantine Abeel of (West) Catskill, born Miss Jennie Foland of Columbia County April 9, 1835, therefore well past 95 years. Can anyone excel that?
The youngest person for her years, in our county, we believe is Mrs.
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Frances S. Henderson born Sept. 22, 1839, with her senses unimpaired, and active in mind and body. Let's hear from others .- C. May 22, 1930.
A new champion for the age record of present Greene County inhabi- tants is Mrs. Harriet Chadderdon of Acra N. Y., born May 16, 1833, just past her 97th birthday, with a son Henry Chadderdon 75 years old. On Sunday the 11th Mrs. Chadderdon enjoyed an automobile ride. "Who is next?" asks our informant-whom we thank .- C. May 29, 1930.
Our good friend and Secretary of our Society, Mr. William S. Borth- wick, replying to our call for the names of octogenarians, sends us the following list of persons over 80 buried in the cemetery at Cornwallville. There is just one short of 80 names in the list. All in one small cemetery- think of it! Surely Durham town and especially Cornwallville is a health- ful place in which to live. The list is:
Ninety or over: Rachel Cornwall 99, Mary Ann Sitzer Cunningham 94, Catherine Northrup Armstrong 91, Amanda Jerome Smith 91, Catherine Vedder Wetmore 91, Phebe Truesdell Yale 91, Henry Cunningham 90, Miss Jennie Francis 90, Philema Hubbard Kerr 90. Elisabeth Hubbard Rich- mond 90, Mary Adams Russ 90; ten women and but one man.
In the eighties (alphabetical): Joseph Adams (age not given), James Armstrong 80, John Armstrong 80, Moses Austin 80, Amanda Baker 84, Rev. John Battersby 83, Miss Edna Betts 85, Maria Bushnell Borthwick 88, Mary Smith Borthwick 87, William Borthwick 86, Isaiah Bowen 80, Betsy Safford Brown 80, Ezra Brown 87, Abigail Stevens Claver 89, Betsy Pelham Claver 86, Dan Cornwall 84, Mary E. France SS. Jacob Freese 83, Maria Rickerson French $2, Platt Hill 85, Miss Laura Hubbard 80, John Jerome 83, Margaret Stickles Jerome 85, Charles Johnson S2, Harriet Field John- son 81, Mary Simmons Johnson 82, William F. Johnson S8, Alvin Jones 81, Jane Van Denburg Lawrence 84, Eliza Mabey 84, David Mattice S2, Per- melia Merritt SS, Sylvester Munger 85, Seba Osborn 85, Caroline Strong Owen 85, George W. Pratt 85, Catherine McCoy Ransom 85, Georgianna Wagner Rogers 85, William Rogers, Sr., 87, Ellen Schermerhorn Russ 85, Henry Russ 80, Rachel Walker Setford S5, Abram O. Smith 82, Ann Jane Kerr Smith 82, Bela Smith 2d. 80, Diantha Ingalls Smith S1, Eben Smith S0, Helen Smith 84, Jeanie Capron Smith 80, Minerva White Smith 80, Platt Adams Smith SS, Rebecca Jerome Smith 82, Rhoda Merwin Smith 82, Richard Smith 88, Leah Ransom Snyder 87, Ellsworth A. Strong 81, Hannah Merwin Tuell 86, George Uttz 86, Abram Van Denburg 84, J. Darius Wagner SS, Nancy Jerome Wagner 84, Maria Mickel Wagoner 85, Betsy Watrous Wetmore 83, Charles Wetmore 86, Clark Wetmore 84, Margaret Merritt Wetmore 83, William H. Wetmore 85, Lucy Morris Woodard 83.
Now who will send us a bigger and better list of people living or dead, in Greene County, whose age passes the four-score mark ?- C. July 3, 1930.
The Mystery of Catlope
Cannight is solved. "Catlope Cannight" appears in the 1810 census of the town of Catskill,* and some weeks ago, when we printed this portion of that census, I hazarded a guess as to what the name really was.+ I was wrong, ( "as usual"). Yesterday our Historian found among her menlo- randa that the record of School District No. 12 in the towns of Catskill
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CEMETERY RECORDS
and Hunter (i. e., the Palenville region) show that in November 1823 one "Cutlope Kernrike" was "exempted from paying tuition for his children in this district until November 1824."
[*See next section for these census lists. ]
[+See paragraph at end of the 1810 census. ]
The connection was obvious, and it seemed likely that the "Cannight" of 1810 was a misprint for Carnright, which would be hard to distinguish in script. Recourse to the 1830 census of Catskill shows that "Caleb Carn- wright" 50 some years old, with wife and two children ( boys under fifteen, after which age boys then had to shift for themselves), was then living in the Palenville part of the town, neighbor to Justus Blanchard. But "Caleb" seems a long step from Catlope, and we guess again that it was Gottlob. Who knows ?- C. May 29, 1930.
"Cutlope Canright" was on our minds three weeks ago. Our good friend Mr. Charles MI. Britt came to our rescue, and as a result we visited Palenville in his company and saw the old house in which Canright or Kernrike ( the original spelling) or CARNWRIGHT (as it finally became ) lived and where he conducted a tavern or inn a century ago and more. Mr. Britt recalls having seen in the barn belonging to this house the old sign board that once swung in front of the inn door. Would that it could be found again. The house is a low frame building of the Dutch style, still in good condition and occupied. that stands on the west side of the Palenville- West Saugerties road not far south of the "tannery bridge" before one gets to the crossing of the old Malden turnpike by Dr. Holcomb's. There is some reason to think that the original turnpike did not continue in the straight course of the present street to the hotel and bridge at the upper end of the village, but swung down past this inn and then along the creek bank where the lower street now runs.
We visited also the almost forgotten row of old burial-plots east of the Cairo-Saugerties road near the county line. This county line, by the way, crosses the road between two very old stone houses of the Abeel and Myers ( Meyer) families, and is still marked by a handsome stone marker set at the roadside and saying "Albany" and "Ulster" on opposite sides. It goes back to the days before 1800, before Greene county had been formed. In this cemetery we found two very old crude gravestones carry- ing the original spelling of the Carnwright name. One reads "Ianajey Kernrike" (meaning Jannetje) and the other "Josep Kernerike." Gottlob ("Cutlope") Kernrike was clearly Teutonic, but like so many of his Dutch neighbors he lost his racial identity at the hands of the English and we find his grandson, once a school teacher at Palenville and a man of parts. appearing as Christopher Carnwright, fully anglicized. There is a re- grettable loss in these changes, interesting though they may be. I should much like to hear from any descendants or relatives of this family. Gottlob had a son Joseph, the father of Christopher, if I am correctly informed. I wonder whether the name Carnikie found in other old cemeteries may be another form of Kernrike. Someone please enlighten us .- C. June 19, 1930.
Cemetery Records are easiest to get at this time of year, when. the weeds are ent or dead.
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