Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook Vol. 078 1993

Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book Volume 78 1993

The Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book (ISSN 0739-8565) has been

published annuany since 1915 by the Dutchess County Historical Society, Box 88, Poughkeepsie, New York 12602.

© copyright 1994 by the Dutchess County Historical Society All rights reserved.

Edz.for Carol Kushner

Individual copies may be purchased through the Society. Selected earlier Year Books are also available.

CALL FOR PAPERS The Publications Committee is now soliciting articles for the 1994 Year Book.

Articles should be no longer than 7500 words of double-spaced typescript.

Inclusion of photographs or other illustrative material is encouraged.

Manuscripts, books for review, and other correspondence relevant to this publication should be addressed to:

DUTCHESS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Publications Committee Post Office Box 88

Poughkeepsie, New York 12602

Publication Committee

Joyce c. Ghee, Chair Mary Anno Bruno Elizabeth A. Daniels Tesse Effron Eileen M. Hayden

Toni Houston Mary Lou Jeanneney Stephanie Mauri Nancy MacKechnie

Margaret zamierowski

The Society encourages accuracy but cannot assume responsibility for statements of fact or opinion made by contributors.

The Dutchess County Historical Society was formed in 1914 to preserve and share the county's rich history and tradition. The only county-wide agency of its kind, the Society is an active leader and promoter of local history in Dutchess County. Principal endeavors include the publishing of historical works, and the collection and safe-keeping of manuscripts, artifacts, and other priceless treasures of the past. The Society has also been instrumental in the preservation of two pre-Revolutionary landmarks, the Clinton House and the Glebe House, both in Poughkeepsie. In addition, the Society has an educational outreach program for the schools of Dutchess County.

The Society offers its members a variety of activities and special events throughout the year. For further information on membership, please contact the Society at Box 88, Poughkeepsie, New York 12602, or telephone (914) 471-1630.

Table of Contents TRusTEE's REsoLUTloN' oN THE DEArll oF HELEN W. REYNOLDS i : J.Wilson Poucher, George Van Vliet and Katherine Waterman ........ 5

HELEN WILKINSON REYNOLDS: A TRIBUTE J. Wilson Poucher and James F. Baldwin HELEN WILKINSON REYNOLDS...A SECOND LOOK:

Helen Wilkinson Reynolds and the Dutchess County Historical Society Joyce C. Ghee

HELEN VILKINSON REYNOLDS (1875-1943) A BIBLIOGRAPHY Elizabeth Adams Daniels and Nancy S. MacKechnie ........................ 30

ST. MARGARET'S HOME, RED HOOK, NEW YORK Richard Crowley, with John Winthrop Aldrich ................................. 37

MR. PLAIT GOES TO THE COLLINGW00D OPERA HOUSE Armon Adams 1993 SEMI-ANNUAL AND ANNUAL MEETING REPORTS, FINANCIAL REPORT OFFICERS and TRUSTEES, STAFF MUNICIPAL HISTORIANS of DUTCHESS COUNTY ........................ 83 HISTORICAL SOCIETIES of DUTCHESS COUNTY ........................... 84

INDEX

4

RESOLUTION ON THE DEATH OF MISS HELEN WILKINSON REYNOLDS BE IT RESOIjvED: That the members of the Dutchess County Historical Society

put on record an expression of their sincere sorrow and the heartfelt loss which they feel has come to them in the death of their fenow member Helen Wilkinson Reynolds.

No tribute which we feebly compile will ever adequately express the extent of Miss Reynolds' contribution to this society, of which she has been a member for nearly thirty years; being the vitalizing spark which gave impetus and motive to our society's research and programs. For over twenty years she edited the Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book, the last issue having been mailed just previous to her death. Her interest in the year book was so keen and vital that not a day passed that she could not be found in study adding to and amending the script of this publication, and through her efforts it was brought to such a state of perfection and interest that knowledge of the historical facts concerning Dutchess County and the City of Poughkeepsie has become very widely disseminated. The great demand for copies of the publication has even caused it to travel to foreign lands.

Miss Reynolds' research into the history of Dutchess County touched on many phases of interest, as is shown by the wide diversity of the titles of her published writings. In fact, our President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was a staunch and loyal friend of Miss Reynolds, has said that it is his opinion she knew more about the history of Dutchess County than anyone he knows. Her first publication of note was TJze Records of CJzrz.s£ Cfe#rcfe, published in 1911,

which was followed by many others covering such wide sources that they have indeed made for us a link of understanding with our past history. The entire collection of her writings may be found in the Adriance Memorial Library where it stands a living memorial to her meticulous research and painstaking sifting of old records and folklore.

The Dutchess County Historical Society feels the loss of Miss Reynolds so keenly and sorrowfully that it despairs of finding anyone who will take her place and attempt to carry on her work. To us all her death is a touching loss in personality and friendship but the society sustains the burden of loss in her work of historic research.

Respectfully submitted.

J. Wilson poucher, George S.Van Vliet

Katherine 8. Waterman, Committee

5

HELEN WILKINSON REYNOLDS The untimely death of Miss Reynolds brings a season of mourning to the Dutchess County Historical Society, in which she was long a moving spirit. For was she not, in the words of the President of our society, ``really the head, heart and soul" of the organization? Admired and beloved by a wide circle of friends, she was herself equally devoted to the community, which from girlhood days it was her delight to serve and which ever continued to be the centre of her life work. Alas that such rare mental endowments were cast in a frail physical frame!

Becoming a member of the society soon after its formation, she entered at once wholeheartedly into its work, being at an early date elected a trustee and serving in turn on all the most important committees. Among these many activities it will generally be agreed that by far her most valuable service was that rendered in the editorship of the Year Book, to which she was appointed in 1921, and which has been carried on uninterruptedly and efficiently, with enhancing reputation, until it may favorably be compared with any similar publication in the country. The constant stream of scholarly monographs appearing throughout the copies of this series, taken together with other notable writings, secures for the editor and author a preeminent place among local historians.

In estimating Miss Reynolds' intellectual background and achievements, it win first be noticed that these were not the result of academic routine so much as the unfolding of native talent affected by human contacts combined with active experience. Her first incentives toward historical study apparently began at home, within the circle of a distinguished family and ancestry, among friends and neighbors. Expressive of such native loyalty, there appeared in 1911 the first volume of T7zc Reco7'ds of Cferz.sf Cfe#rch (followed in 1916 by the second volume)

which contains beyond the suggestion of its bare title a substantial history of this important parish, that has ever since been accepted as a model of its kind. Again, in 1919, at the time of the anniversary of the commercial firm bearing the same inherited name, the daughter of the house with admirable fidelity prepared a pamphlet entitled A7771¢Zs of a Cc7tfc{ny-oJd B#sz.77ess. In the wider field of civic his-

tory her first major production, set forth as Volume I in the CoZJecfz.o7cs o/ £Jzc Dutchess County Historical Society,192.4, beaLrs the title Pouglckeepsie, The Origin and Me¢77z.77g o/ #zc Wo7'cZ. In the opinion of the present reviewers, no subsequent

work shows to better effect the author's sound methods of research and keen critical powers. For it results in a complete reversal of all previous conceptions as to the location and character of the original settlement. According to the evidence, now gathered and sifted as never before, the Indian camp and village, the

predecessor of our county-seat, was indisputably planted upon the upland trail or high road instead of on the river front as had formerly been supposed.

Altogether the book affords a fine example of the superior value of research and scholarship against loose traaition. As though one first-class work were not

enough at a time, the same year saw the publication of a volume in collaboration with Dr. Poucher, containing 19,000 inscriptions from old gravestones of the vicinity, thus preserving to posterity names and data that are otherwise fast disappearing. Probably the Post widely known and acclaimed of all the writing by the same tireless pen appears in an extensive survey and portrayal of historic homes such as are universally admired as the crowning glory of the region. It had long been a plan of iss Reynolds, expanding as it matured, which was enthusiastically taken r. Roosevelt and other influential friends and laid before the Holland Soc. New York, under whose auspices was published in

n

:fee:i:"fd:Zso7t V¢JJey Z7e/ore 1776. Abounding in pictorial illus-

1931, Dutch Houses in t

trations, supported by a notation, this voluminou less than a classic in the sequel, involving even I itself with material on t

alth of architectural description and genealogical ork has been hailed at home and abroad as nothing torical literature of the state. To this masterpiece a attention to architectural detail while contenting

fys:

home ground, appeared in DZJfcJ!css Co#7tfy

ifi.:::cs:ui:t: contains some two hundred plates of door frames

Doorways, 1730-1830,

and other woodwork, besides three hundred pages on the social and cultural life of resident families. With reasonable local pride competent authorities have pointed to this volume a§ the most valuable study and exposition that has ever been attempted within he bounds of our county. Always generous in the a'cknowledgment of aid that was gladly rendered by others, Miss Reynolds explains in her preface, In order to make a thorough field survey for this book I am indebted to |.JJ

::estTr=e::i::£E!es,sc::dT:iF::a¥ESYavna::u.t::e:fhLa:vt:rki:fei:e:c::: car the length and

adth of Dutchess .... For accurate records of those who

:hoemc|eTke.tfoDtiu:ceh:FaenddT.ers:.:ogu:::,:iseena::;hw.:spiTaandj::::to.ffi:cee,o: ::i;e h A. Daughton and the members of his staff.

am indebted to Mr.

Further contributions with an appropriate in

ote, especially editorial work usually illuminated

I:ri;:iction, are added to the Collections of the society,

s_uch_?sivitic_:_sof_M?rriL+g_Es.a_pd_.Df?t_hs:.:.Publi?he_dinNerspapers.Pr:nte?i.t Pouglkeapsie, New York,

:cr::;";I,':n]e[s:3f8a'fi::I:afb;ercatt±t:nmwofstthre¥::]]i5::sae.j::t]:::h£:r:±epf:eh[adreodf with Edith A. Roberts,

ared The Role of Plant ltfe in the History of Dutchess

better understanding of our botanical resources. Of Its, addresses, composed as they usually were with occasional articles, pan no enumeration has been made. Though reference to I.passing\J e \J always , worth hearing, it win be idmitted that of an modes of expression she was naturally least inclined towaid public speaking. Quite apart from any manner or writing or speaking, there remained an indefinable influence, however quiet and unassuming, that was sure to be received and felt whenever the welfare of the community was at stake, as, for instance, in the salvage of the Glebe House when it was on the verge of demolition; and again in the Sesquicentennial Co#7zty, which may lead

;a#;

Celebration of the founding of the city of Poughkeepsie, when wise counsel was sought and found in the furtherance of its educational program. A prophet without honor in her own country? That, most assuredly, she zuzzs 7to£. As evidence of

how her radiant personality was appreciated at a distance, we need in conclusion only to cite a fine testimonial coming from the State Historian, which was recently printed in the pages of Nezc7 york Hz.sfony:

Profoundly moumed and deeply missed at the Poughkeepsie meeting [in May] was Miss Helen W. Reynolds, the modest and charming woman who had been for so many years editor of the excellent Dutchess County Year Book and author of other beautiful works on Dutchess county history and architecture. In a deeply spiritual sense, Miss Reynolds had been the soul of the Dutchess County Historical Society for the greater part of her effective lifetime. On many occasions your State Historian experienced her delightful hospitality and drew comfort from her gentle, understanding mind. To win her commendation was a high honor, for her critical abilities were keen; but even the novice could be sure of a kindly hearing. To me this dear lady and gifted historian is a precious memory. May her name never be forgotten in the county of her delight.

J.Wilson Poucher }am'es F. Baldwin

The resolution and trivute to Miss Reynolds appeared in the Dutchess County Historical Society Year Bock, Vol. 28 ,1943

8

HELEN WILKINSON REYNOLDS...

A SECOND LOOK /

Helen Wilkinson Reynolds and the Dutchess County Historical Society Joyce C. Ghee Joyce Comelly Cthee, a native of Dutchess County, is currently a consrltant to historical institutions. Her in±erests in history and the contri:butions of women to ALmerican life, were initially nourished by a Vassar College education. These interests led to overlapping and parallel careers in several fields; as groap worker|administrator, YWCA, folk singer/lecturer in museuns, schools and colleges and as Dutchess Courty Historian. She is co-founder of the Eleanor Rjoosevelt Center at Vat-Kill, the orgndzation_ which saved Mrs. Roosevelt's Hyde Park home as the only National Historic Site to honor a first lady.

FOREWORD

Three years ago when I was asked to consider chairing the Publications Conndttee of the Dutchess County Historical Society, I finally had no excuse to decline. Although I had served as a member of that committee for a number of

years, as County Historian, I had been limited to an advisory capacity, and unable to serve in a more official role. With manumission from governmental officialdom, the door opened for new opportunities. One of the first things I learned in doing my homework for taking the reins of the committee was the importance of Helen Wilkinson Reynolds in the Society's publications program.

As a starting point, her name is attached to the fund that supports the program.

Although she did not endow it, the fund memorializes her and her work. That body of work, both within and outside of the society, is prodigious. A bibliography prepared by Naney MCKechnie and Elizabeth Daniels as part of this 1993 edition of the Year Book attests to the volulne and breadth of her output.

As a former government historian I had experienced, a generation later, some of the same struggles faced by Miss Reynolds in her work to make the public aware of the importance of the historical record in forming a sense of community and maintaining a responsible government. During the preparations for the celebrations of the County's creation and its role in New York's Ratification of the U.S. Constitution, and in the development of a total records management system

that identifies and makes accessible the full public record from 1683 to the present, I often found myself on a path carved out by Helen Reynolds. Ai almost every

turn- in research, commemorative planning, and identification of resources- I was pleasantly surprised to find that Miss Reynolds had been there first. I often found her more reliable and accessible than many primary sources because she had always done all her home.work and was considerably more readable. I col1ected for the county every book and article of hers that I could discover. Her findings were dependable, well researched, clearly stated, and carefully cited.

The decision of the Dutchess County Historical Society Publications Committee to take another look at Miss Reynolds on the 50th anniversary of her death was an opportunity for. me to focus upon her contributions to the development of the Society itself. I in grateful to Eileen Mylod Hayden for her help in locating and identifying useful records, to Emily Johnson for reviewing historical content, to Elizabeth Daniels and Nancy MCKechnie for their contributions of copies of documents from the Vassar Library, and to Carol Kushner for sensitive editing.

Miss Reynolds was nothing if not a hard worker and she was up to any challenge put forth on the path of making historical verity understandable and accessible. The depth and breadth of her accomplishment are astounding. My sources were defined by personal choice to the Society's modes't Reynold's collection, consisting of her own annotated yearbooks and a few folders containing Reynolds family genealogy, assorted letters, news clippings, and notes. I wished to examine these to see what the Society had recognized as her important contributions during the course of her years as a member. While limited, the materials in the collection reveal much about her character, interests, and ways of achieving her goals. I came away from the research knowing that there is much more to the story of this fascinating woman than one would guess from the frequently printed portrait of a proper bespectacled lady with a ribbon at her neck. ``The Editor," or ``HWR", as she Often signed her work in the Year Book, was complicated, passionate, and focussed. She left her mark on the Society and on the field of history, both of which she championed for more than a generation.

MEET Hrh On January 4th,1943, in the midst of the world-shaking events of total war, a fullfeature article and two column photo in the forerurmer of the current PongJzkegpsz.c Jot/77z¢Z announced the death a day earrier of Helen Wilkinson Reynolds, an unmar-

ried local historian of modest means from an old county faly.1 The attention and respect this denotes is remarkable in several respects, not only for the era and society which produced the woman, but also for the obvious community influence that she wielded through her work in a milieu seldom even viewed as a profession and more often thought of as harmless entertainment or an elitist hobby. The study of local history in the early part of the 20th century was not generally regarded on a par with that of the serious history of larger, more remote geographic areas or more grand cultural and political issues.

The perception that all history is in some way local, interrelated, and part of a continuum, was lacking. Local history was synonymous with genealogy and a search for Colonial and Revolutionary era ancestors.

10

`/I

Helen Reynolds was a woman who initiated a change in that perception.

Although respected for her knowledge of Hudson Valley family history, Miss Reynolds was not a hobbyist; nor was she only concerned with unearthing family roots for personal aggrandizement. She perceived the complex political and historical relationships inherent in genealogical information obtained from original sources, folklore, and oral history, and turned that perception into a powerful research tool. Long before the information highway was mapped, she understood and used the power of information. She was a serious researcher, scholar, and writer with considerable political and administrative skills at her command. She was also a life-long student of history and its many related fields: archaeology, architecture, social and political science, biography, language, literature, folklore, ecology, and anthropology. Over the years she had developed an appreciation of and an ability to use for her work some of the basic tools and techniques developed by professional librarians, archivists, museologists, and academics.

In an era that placed great emphasis on a woman making a "good marriage," choosing a career and the single life placed one at a disadvantage. To be an upper-middle-class, working, maiden-lady was not necessarily a social asset, but Helen Reynolds knew who she was and what she could do with the resources at hand. Although burdened at times with health problems and family and fiscal responsibilities, she was capable of fending for herself. Blessed with a recognized notable lineage and good social connections from birth, she needed neither marriage nor genealogical proofs to estabHsh social status. She had many close associates, male and female, who valued her friendship and appreciated her many gifts.

This ``local" historian had established ties with some of the most important and powerful figures in the county, region, state and nation. Helen Reynolds was known by and could count upon the support of members of the Board of Supervisors, mayors and leaders of local political parties, judges and jurists, respected educators and scholars, New York State Historians, State Archivists, a Governor and a President. As they had so often called upon her for information and advice, she could also call upon them and expect a speedy answer. She was equally assured of the attentiori and respect of academics, publishers, leaders of society, business, social, and historical institutions.

Her influence was grounded in real authority and accomplishment. She was a woman possessed of great intelligence, intellectual curiosity, critical skills, and knowledge in many fields. Her boundless energy, fueled by a sense of the romance of history, was teripered with just enough self-doubt and modesty to keep her endlessly on the track of a final bit of truth. Hers was the spirit of a sleuth cloaked in the demeanor of a college professor.

Yet, Helen Wilkinson Reynolds was also a woman with not a degree to her name, not even a high school diploma. A spinal affliction brought her formal education to an end at age fifteen. Everything she became- historian, researcher, writer, institutional leader, and advisor to public leaders- was of her own making. A fine family library and a retentive memory for the details of fainily history were the foundation of her own curriculum planning. She was an experiential leamer, whose endless curiosity and insatiable appetite for knowl-

ill

edge and truth turned collaborations into classrooms for herself and others. She recognized expertise and gravitated to it. She also recognized resources for lesson content in the private collections of associates, in public libraries, and in governmental and institutional records of an sorts.

The initial outlet for all this energy was found close to home in family and the church in which she was brought up.2 Her matemal grandmother, Sophia Cary Wilkinson, upon whom she obviously doted, helped to shape a child's early fascination with family history and traditions into studious habits.3 As an adult she made her first successful public attempts at research and writing in a history of Christ Church, T7ze Rcco7ids of Cfe7'z.s£ Cfe#rch, published by the vestry in 1911, followed by a history of the Reynolds family business, A7z7€czJs of ¢ Ce7cfz!ny old Bcfsz.7ccss, self-published in 1919. The problem of finding a pub-

1isher and distribution network for the works of scholars not part of an academic setting or without an established popular readership is not new. One of the few avenues available to writers of local history, apart from the newspaper, has traditionally been the community literary or historical society. The county historical society was where Helen Wilkinson Reynolds found her niche... a niche that became a platform and a launching pad for great accomplishment.

The founding of the Dutchess County Historical Society in 1914 came at the right moment in Helen Wilkinson Reynolds' life. She and the Society were made for each other, their involvement shaping both the course of Society development and her career as an historian and writer.

Research done in 1941 for a Year Book article on ``The Founding of the Dutchess County Historical Society" by another local historian, Amy Pearce Ver Nooy, lists Miss Reynolds as one of the charter members of the society 4. Any Ver Nooy, who inherited the mantle of Year Book editor after Miss Reynolds' death, indicates that at the very first gathering of those who eventually formed the Society (May 26,1914, at the Pleasant Vauey Library) there were two women present, but their names were not listed in the minutes taken by John Sickley. Ver Nooy expressed curiosity about who they were. In its early years, Society bylaws required the approval of an individual by election to membership and the payment of an initiation fee. At the next meeting, June 30th at Vassar Institute, fiftythree members were elected. Although this was probably when Helen Reynolds joined, it is tempting to think that she may have been one of those two anonymous women present at the Pleasant Valley meeting. From the day of her admission to membership, until the day of her death, she was an involved and committed supporter of the organization: a worker, a leader, and a shaper of organiz ational p olicy.

Helen Reynolds found other outlets for her talent and energy: Adriance Memorial Library, which she served as a trustee from 1924 until her death, and her role as a government historian. Her entrance into these arenas may be likened to the fire pit that turns moist clay into a strong, durable vessel. They made her stronger, but ±e± knowledge of these very different networks- bibliographic, governmental/political, and social/museological- also empowered her to make the systems work more efficiently. She understood their strengths and weaknesses and how they could help each other.

LOOKING FOR TIIE REAL Hi^rR

The Reynolds Collection of the Dutchess County Historical Society reveals little by way of personal information about her life prior to the decision to join the Society, with the exception of family history background, nor does it provide details of the many projects she embraced in the fullness of her career except through examples of her writing. The bulk of her papers were deposited at Adriance Memorial Library. This was not a case of preference for one institution over another, but an objective assessment of the library's capability to care for and make accessible an archival collection. From 1914 until the 1970s, the Society had neither a permanent home for its collection, nor a full-time staff.

Miss Reynolds' comments over the years about the record-keeping habits of repositories make it clear she was convinced that the safest place for archival collections, given the current circumstances, was Adriance.

Notwithstanding the lack of volume and variety, some of the most interesting clues to her character and personality are in her notations in the Year Books she owned, now in the Dutchess County Historical Society collection. She had a copy of every Year Book printed from society beginnings, and these she apparently used as a sort of personal editor's file as well as a diary of her reactions and opinions. An asterisk or cross in the text or end notes leads to new discoveries, identification of sources, or critical comments. These marginal and notepaper annotations reveal in pencil and in ig!]s (not a particularly good archival practice) the issues and concerns that occupied her attention at a given moment and over the years. It would seem that she had committed to memory almost every entry or article ever printed, for whenever she found new information on a subject, however many years later, she made another note to herself. Sadly, some portions of these annotations have been lost, when in more recent years, the volumes, for protection, have been rebound. In the course of research for this article, I transcribed her easily read script and did my best to decipher those that had suffered at the hands of the bindery. The notes have been deposited with the Society.

I read every Year Book cover to cover, searching minutes, treasurer's reports, committee reports, articles, end notes, membership and board lists, tables of contents and indexes, for any mention of her involvement. There were many.

ENTERING THE ARENA Early Year Books, containing verbatim minutes of all meetings, are indisputably the best resource for discovering the course of Society development. In more recent years the Society, while keeping the history of the community, has unfortunately obscured much of its own history by failing to include such records in the publication. The founders and early leaders of the Society were

gentlemen from the upper classes and old finilies of the county. No women are recognized in leadership roles for a full four years. Early Year Books regularly list the full membership, and the very first volume, 1914/1915, lists Helen Wilkinson Reynolds as a member. Varying formats of these early trial publications make it difficult for the uninitiated to locate information. Sometimes lack-

13

ing tables of content, indexes, evidence of original sources, or even the names of authors of articles, the earnest books are difficult to use without personal annotations such as those Miss Reynolds made. On the covers of her books she has listed important information, such as the minutes contained and whether or not there was a pilgrimage that year. These notes may have been the germ of multiyear indexes produced later by the Society.

The first clues to her involvement with the male leadership of` the Society are found in the 1915/1916 Year Book in an address by Rev. W.H. Pott Ph.D., ``The Development of the Episcopal Church in Dutchess County", in which he

credits her as a collaborator in preparing his speech. He enthusiastically endorses her ability (because of her study of Christ Church records) to correct inaccuracies contained in a popular pamphlet on the same subject done earlier by a Dr. Ladd. He compares the two writers and finds her work superior. In the same year, an article by George Van Vliet, ``Pawling Patent, Alias Staatsburg, and Some of its Early Families", attracted her attention. She has studiously underlined in pencil, the dates, conveyances of property, names, and corrections, and entered question marks indicating queries about some of the information or its sources. There is little doubt that she intended to check another's research or scholarship. She corrects the spelling of Scheneck to Schenck by crossing out in pencil the second ``e", ever on the lookout for typographical or researcher error.

In 1918 she is listed as a Vice-President. In that book she has made a note to herself on page 39 in an article, ``Dr. Osbome-His Book'', to check the tax lists for the Rombout Precinct for 1745,1746,1771 and 1777-79.

In 1919 she has written on the cover in a bold hand:

``NO PILGRIMAGE".

In 1920 there was no yearbook. Other issues were then predominant as Trustee John J. Mylod directed the lobbying activities of a Committee on Court House Records, whose membership included Miss Reynolds. Concerned with the poor condition of public records in the Courthouse basement, they planned to make their feelings known to the Board of Supervisors. In that same year John Sickley, the secretary who failed to recoid the women at the first meeting in 1914, died in office on November 17, 1920. The trustees were hard-pressed to find his replacement and without asking her prior approval, appointed Helen Reynolds to his empty office. Messrs. Mylod and Booth were directed to inform her of their decision. 5 The gentlemen called upon her and no doubt were somewhat taken aback when she told them she was ``too busy" at the moment. At length they negotiated an agreement that called for Mr. Booth to fill in for the time being with the understanding that she might consider the position at a later date.

In the interim, President William Adams appointed Mr. Booth as Chair of the Year Book, which he agreed to handle with the help of two other (unnamed) committee members. Like the two legendary anonymous women of 1914, it appears that one of this new pair might be Helen Reynolds, who now found herself where she belonged...in an editor's cha`ir. Alexander Dow would be tapped for the secretarial position.

14

1921 YEAR 0F DECISION

1921 was the turning point when HWR moved from a position of actively involved member to a leadership role. On the inside cover of her copy of the Year Book she has written: ``Year Book Committee

Henry Booth Helen Wtlkinson Reynolds see p.26„

On page 6 she has underlined March 15,1921 to underscore the importance to

i her of the actions at a special meeting of the trustees at which they raised the dues and appointed Henry Booth to see that the Year Book was published, directing him to choose two other members of the Society to assist him.6 Underlined again, on the same page is April 28,1921, the date of the Armual Meeting at which point Miss Reynolds is no-ted in the minutes reporting for the Committee on the Courthouse (Mr. Mylod's committee) its success in bringing attention to the conditions of public records and wresting from the Supervisors a commitment of $3000 for continuing records preservation.7 She also appeared interested in the Year Book Colnlnittee report. The minutes are marked again on pages 8 and 9 in references to the number of copies to be

published and distributed only to those members ``in good standing".

Page 10 has underlined in ink the date of the 1920 pilgrimage , Seat. 29, 1920.

Pilgrimages were probably her second love.

Page 26 of that yearbook, as indicated by her bold notation on the inside cover, is her first article, "A Packet of Old Letters," which deals with a group of letters addressed to Henry Livingston found in the attic of the fourth courthouse and deposited for a time with the D.A.R. at Clinton House. The unsigned paper hints at its authors\hip in the text through a reference to herself and Herny Booth as recipients of a portion of the letters, printed within the article.

In the margin of her own copy she has identified herself as the author in what would become her literary pen name,"HWR".

In another note further down, she identifies the Year Book Committee again in the third person as ``Mr. Henry Booth and Miss Helen Wilkinson Reynolds."

Mr. Booth obviously did not need a third committee member once he recruited hdiss Reynolds.

In this way she has left for other researchers the trail of who did what, under what circumstances, and when.

Throughout the article she has lnarked in pencil all of the editorial comments and notes on the letters which the article presents. They indicate the dep'th and breadth of her research, but also show an editorial bias or interest in interpreting the character of the letter writers. One of her favorites was Henry Livingston Jr. who attracted her attention at several points over the years in articles that displayed his responsible public service, loyalty to family and friends, acts of kindness, humor, and creativity...qualities which can also be attributed to Reynolds hers elf.

,

\ 15

From the moment she decided to accept a leadership position in the organization, it is clear that Helen Reynolds had set an agenda for herself and the Society.

High on her list of important activities for the Society were : -tmthful interpretation of history through publication, -preservation of records and material culture, -advocacy of responsible record keeping, -issues of accessibility, -responsible collecting and deposit of threatened historical materials, and -historical education programs.

For another generation, in one way or another, she doggedly pursued these continuing themes.

A YEAR BOOK 0F HER OWN Minutes from meetings after 1922 are replete with Miss Reynolds and her activities on behalf of the Society. Pages 12 and 13 of that year feature HWR

prominently in Minutes, the secretary's report, and a Committee Report by herself and John J. Mylod outlining their efforts to entice Marshall Foch to visit the City of Poughkeepsie on his 1921 visit to West Point.

In the 1923 issue, which she noted on the cover contained Minutes from June 16, 1922 -May 17, 1923, HWR is mentioned in the October minutes as accompanying Mr. Mylod on a research trip for the Society to Albany. At the annual spring meeting on May 17, 1923, minutes state that HWR reported for the Col]rmittee on Preservation of Colonial and Revolutionary Records: `` that a satisfactory arrangement had been made for their (£Jze records z.7c q#es-

fz.o7c) care and preservation in the Court House."

She obviously had visited the Dutchess County Courthouse and investigated the conditions of records there. Another portion of the minutes notes: " The annual Pilgrimage was discussed at length. Miss Reynolds called

attention to the fact that this year was the centennial of the birth of Chancellor James Kent, which was to be celebrated June 4th,1923 by Columbia University where he was Professor of Law and also by the Dutchess County Bar Association and that it might be appropriate for the Society to join in some manner either in its pilgrimage or by a delegation.,,......

On page 16 of the same minutes she seconded a motion by Professor James F. Baldwin to adopt a resolution made by the Association of History Teachers, on May 5, 1923, at Columbia Teachers' College, Colulnbia University. The text of the resolution deplores actions of legislators to attempt to legislate the content of history curriculum `based upon ignorance and malice," or ``the promotion of animosities between classes or nations.'j' Instead, according to the resolution, `` the proper place for determining such content is with the state and local

educational authorities, and that we deplore the publicity that has been given this agitation as being both pernicious in its effect upon the training of our young American citizens and destmctive of sound scholarship;"

16

\

In essence, the resolution calls upon politicians to leave scholars and teachers alone...by not rewriting history to suit short-term political agendas. This was an issue about which Miss Reynolds felt strongly.

Even more important to her at that moment than society program and educational policy, however, was her new responsibhity for the Year Book.

In 1922 Henry Booth continued as chair of the Year Book Committee, to be followed in 1923 by Mrs. Theodore de La Porte, but the immediate changes in the publication following HWR's appointment to the committee indicate the knowing hand of an editor-in-chief. Although she is not listed for a number of years in the book as editor, HWR wrote on the inside cover of her own copy of the 1922 issue:

``Editor

Helen W. Reynolds"

In the tribute given her at her death by Dr. J. Wilson Poucher and James F. Baldwin8 they finally provide the definitive evidence of her editorial guidance from 1921 to 1943. In addition to editing duties, she also wrote articles. Whether from modesty or affectation, she did not always sign her work, so identifying her involvement with papers, research, or editing is not always as easy as might be thought. Tmstee Minutes do not always clearly state appointments, and her articles for many years are variously signed HWR, The Editor, Helen Wilkinson Reynolds (or Helen Wilkinson Reynolds and a collaborator) .... even in the same issue of a Year Book she may have appeared in all three guises.

Clear enough, though, are the format changes she introduced in the Year Book that helped to professionalize the pubncation and make it easier to use. Her articles in the 1922 issue, `` The Dutchess' County" and ``Bartholomew Crannen- A Twentieth Century Plea for Anglo American Good Will," come supported by a page of contents, maps, and thoroughly researched end notes.9 A special love of . ``the Editor" was identifying sources and reprinting materials that would not otherwise be accessible. The publication, under her hand, was to contain documentary materials that members would treasure: maps, reprints of documents, and compilations of basic statistics upon which other researchers depend.

A NOSE FOR NEW SOURCES

As crack reporters have a ``nose for news," HWR had a talent for sniffing out historical resources. She also had a general's sense of the strategic move and a

group worker's sense of how to rally the troops. She brought these talents to bear on the publications prograln of the Society.

In the 1923 Year Book her article , ``The Future of The Yearbook," provides a statement of her view of what the publication should/could become: `` In late years the study of history has become a much more exact science than ever before. ..Tradition still has its place and its value. But the historian of today demands source-documents, contemporary evidence, original material of all sorts to work with and from which to draw conclusions and I announce results."10

She then called upon all members to begin to search out primary sources and collect these for the society. Previous yearbooks had freely mixed folklore, tradi-

17

tional, and unchecked stories with soundly-researched materials in an easygoing anecdotal style. They are great fun to read, but require a good deal of rechecking of sources to be truly useful. HWR, in the driver's seat, would ensure that Society publications set a higher standard.

The Year Book would benefit as much from her ability to tap new sources of material as from her writing and editing skills. Among the notes in her copy of the 1922 volume is a sheet, like many of her notes, added later with the discovery of new information. Between pages 52 and 53 is a small, inserted yellow note

paper, an addition to information available in 1922, in HWR's handwriting :

`` In the possession (Dec. 1940) of Ellie Roosevelt and Grace Roosevel.i

Clack.. cdpy made by their g.g.' grandfather Isaac Roosevelt of a letter he himself wrote on July 231790, to Thomas Hewit June 12th of Somerset, Bermuda, in which I.R states that Myndert Van Kleeclc had ``purchased a large house & other property in Pouglckeepsie."

Miss Reynolds had her sources, and they were impressive. Friendships and collaborations, and social and professional contacts gave her entree to many private collections, such as those of the Roosevelt family. The 1927 Year Book contains an article on ``The Organization of the Court of Common Pleas." It is based upon the photograph of a rare letter, written in 1715 by Leonard Lewis to Provincial authorities, which came from the private collection of Phillip H. Waddell Smith, his descendent. In it Lewis asks to be appointed as Judge of Common Pleas so he can naturalize the foreign-born of this fledgling county.

Such important information, giving insight to the origins and purposes of governmental institutions, might have been lost when the original document was destroyed in the Albany archives fire of 1911. HWR, through her connections, was able to salvage it for another generation. Her involvement with committees researching Colonial documents, examin`ing the conditions of records in the Courthouse, and seeking to transcribe family Bible records, extended her outreach into homes, offices, and institutional collections throughout the county and beyond. She, and those she enlisted, were enthusiastically embarking upon a campaign to recapture lost information.

She shared this ``insider information" through her papers, often revisiting subject matter to clarify or correct.

But it was not simply the uniqueness of her personal sources that made her out-

put so valuable. Much of what she learned was already available to other researchers, whose only failing was that they did not work as hard, or scrutinize and compare materials as carefully to seek a full view of a subject or issue. HWR found her sources in old newspapers; at Vassar Conege, Adriance Library, the New York State Library; in the conections of the New-York Historical Society and other historical societies; among documents in the State Archives, government offices and repositories, including the Library of Congress; and in local public collections.

She also identified and worked with experts who became her instructors, collaborators, and friends. Working with them or with their support, she conducted immerse research projects, wrote volumes, and pubhihed and developed a distribution network.

18

A GIANT LEAP... FROM YEARBOOK T0 PUBLICATIONS PROGRAM The 1924 Year Book on page 30, for the first time lists new books published as

part of the '`Collections of the Dutchess County Historical Society." With this announcement and a brief reference in the February 11, 1924, Trustee Minutes to Miss Reynolds', Dr. Poucher's and Mr.F.D.Roosevelts' offer to publish their works as part of the Society's collections, the Society had segued smoothly into a full-scale research and publications program. In addition to the Year Book there would now be ``Occasional Publications". They are listed as follows: Vohame I, Poughkeepsie, the Origin and Meaning of the Word .hy HWR (whuo then lived at 56 Grand Ave. and sold the copies herself for $3.06), Volume 11, OJd Gr¢zJesfo7tes of Dc££cfecss Co#7cfy, collected, edited by Dr.

Poucher and Miss Reynolds (then almost ready for distribution), and Volume Ill, Records of £J!e Tozo7t of Hydc Pczrk, by the Hon. F.D. Roosevelt (in

preparation by the printer).

In the same volume, page 31, HWR makes an appeal for help for Dr. Martha Beckwith, doing research with assistance from Constance Varney (Ring), Vassar '21, on folk songs of the Hudson Valley. Miss Reynolds' growing connections

with both the scholarly community as well as the old Hudson Valley families were beginning to bear fruit.

Miss Reynolds appears in a photo-

graph of the 1926 ptlgrinage with her fellow trustee, John I . Mylod (far left) and his son, Frank V. Mylod, later president of the Society. Seated on the right is her colleague, Dr. I . W. Poucher.

19

HWR, ORGANIZATIONAL WIIIP In 1924, the Year Book lists her as a trustee with a term expiring in 1927. She has outlined this paragraph in the minutes of the Annual Meeting in May of 1924 in ink, emphasizing its importance in her life. A month earlier the Mayor of the City of Poughkeepsie had appointed her to the committee to plan for the 150th anniversary of the American Revolution. She was also actively working with FDR and John Mylod on a membership campaign for the Society. She was a

participant or involved in the planning and implementation of every annual Pilgrimage from the time she became a member until her final illness.

She directed or led several massive community research and preservation projects: researching the records of county graveyards, organizing the work of volunteers in a search in every town for records ih family Bibles, abstracting information on marriages and deaths from old newspapers, locating and pressing for the preservation of Colonial and Revolutionary War documents and personally examining and reporting on the condition of County records. During this period she was involved in personal research and writing or collaborating on important publications that stand out as major local and regional reference works., Pougivkeepsie, the Origin and Meaning of the Word, Dutch Houses ixp the Hudson Valley Before 1776, aLnd Dutchess County Doorways, by fTWR, aLnd with Dr. Pouchar, Old Gravestones of Dutchess County.

One wonders how HWR managed to do it all.

Despite the other intrusions- on her time, she was able to get out a Year Book, on ±±±±±g for more than 22 years. To many of us mere mortals, she appears larger than life. HWR was well-organized and she had the good sense to ask for help when she needed it. Her style of organizing her beloved ``Pilgrimages" was nothing short of military, attending to every detail of moving up to 300 persons simultaneously about the county, in and out of unusual and sensitive environments. Plans covered not only a full itinerary, program, speakers and occasional speaker back-up, but also the details of line-up of cars, routes, departure and arrival schedules, parking arrangements, and meals. The strident screech of an assembly whistle kept everyone in line and on schedule, yet delighted with the experience.

She worked well with others and got their help by holding up her end of any bargain and by sharing credit. She used formats and formulas for the Year Book that took advantage of Pilgrimage, annual meeting, and semi-annual meeting speakers to provide papers. She involved membership by including minutes and details of programs, listing members' names, and keeping them aware of what was being planned or what they might have missed.

Still, it must be noted that all her notes were taken by hand, to be transcribed later on the typewriter. Much work had to be done slowly and laboriously, without the aid of electronic gadgetry. Even without the special projects and behihdthe-scenes organizing, she did indeed have a formidable task to accomplish.

She also was not a wealthy woman and found need to watch expenditures.

She was an ``Annual" $2 member of the organization and it was she who chainpioned the end of the entrance fee in order to attract more members. HWR regu-

20

larly asked for reimbursement of the smallest expenses for supplies, postage and travel incurred on behalf of the Society, as virtually every Treasurer's report will attest. Her concern for financing of the publications program found her always on the lookout for a sponsor of record for the separate volumes. The Society paid some of the printing costs, but she often found ``angels" like Mrs. Joseph Tuckerman Tower to pay for others.11 In 1929 a new item of $100 appeared in the Treasurer's reports (over and above her other smaller reimbursements) labeled ``publication expenses" for Miss Reynolds. After this date it is clear that she was also paid annually for her labors for her duties as editor, earning up to $200, plus reimbursement of expenses. She may have been modest and softspoken, but she understood the value `of her work and managed to impart that understanding to her fellow trustee`s.

She also knew how to get help, volunteer labor, and contributions by identifying resources and givers, clearly stating a case, asking for specific needs and crediting the donor.

CONTACTS AND COLLABORATI0NS-TIIE FORMULA FOR GETTING THINGS DONE

Her ability to identify helpers and co-workers was undoubtedly one of Helen Reynolds greatest skills.

,

Even though she did not drive, HWR managed to do a good deal of field work. She always seemed to find a collaborator or sponsor who drove or who could provide her with transportation. The Year Books offer many examples of her talent to attract help and helpers: John Mylod was her companion on a research trip to Albany in the fall of 1922.12 The Society paid for her research trips to New York and elsewhere.13

Mrs. Frank Van Houghten supported her field work on Dutchess County architecture by providing HWR the use of a car and chauffeur.14 She also was not a photographer, but early on enlisted Margaret De Motte Brown (and occasionally Mr. F. W. Howard) as her assistant in these matters.

Miss Brown accompanied her on her field trips and it is mainly her photos that illustrate Reynolds' architectural publications. Miss Brown came to be an essential arm of the Society's publications program as favorable response to more copiously illustrated books created a larger demand. Her name, as well as HWR's, appears frequently in the treasurer's reports from 1927 on, for reinbursement of the costs of original photography and copy work for the collection.

Brown also became a chronicler of the popular pilgrimages, and by 1931, she, like Reynolds, was not only putting her name on her work, but copyrighting it.15

Any Ver Nooy, who was able to assist HWR with Dutch translation, progressed over the years in her association with Miss Reynolds from typist and keeper of the index (a major task) to .researcher/ writer in her own light, and eventually, editor of the Year Book after Helen Reynolds' death.

Brigadier General John Ross Delafi6ld, squire of Montgomery Place, became a member of the Society circa 1926. Thereafter HWR was able to enlist the General

21

as a writer and speaker at pilgrimages and meetings. Through him, Miss Reynolds found access to thrilling architectural, historical and documentary resources. She was most excited by his offer to make available Janet Livingston's personal memoirs, which found their way into the Society Year Book in 1930.16 Miss Reynolds' associates in the intenectual and academic communities (particularly Vassar faculty) were many. She shared information and interests with Henry Nobel Maccracken, Martha Beckwith, Constance Varney Ring, James F. Baldwin, and Lucy Maynard Salmon. Correspondence with Maccracken in April of 1924

reveals him as an admirer of her work, purchaser of her writings, and dependent, upon occasions, for her research advice.17 The same series of letters also shows her to be a speedy and thorough respondent to inquiries that touched upon her expertise, such as the content of deeds relating to college property. She collaborated on articles with Dr. Baldwin and worked with him on Society committees over their

years as members. From Lucy Maynard Salmon, HWR well may have learned many of her own research skills. Salmon was noted among teachers of history for her introduction at the college undergraduate level the use of primary sources, and for appropriating research techniques from the related fields of archaeology, anthropology, and folklore. Many of HWR's publications and articles refer either in their content or footnotes to her explorations of basements, porch underpinnings, attics and surrounding properties- the kind of ``hands-on" history that Salmon taught. It was Miss Reynolds who spoke sadly of Professor Salmon's death and introduced a resolution of regret at the Society's Annual Meeting in 1927.18 In 1938, when she collaborated with Adelaide Roberts to prepare and edit The Role of Plant Life in the History of Dutchess County, the bock wa[s fu:nded by Vassar's Lucy Maynard Salmon Fund and the Dutchess County planning Board for sale at the Courthouse (then the center of county government offices).

She also associated with some of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century. Remarks by Lewis Mumford, at a pilgrimage to Smithfield and Troutbeck in 1927, were reprinted in the Year Book as a moving article.19 |oel Spingarn, who helped to form the NAACP, opened his estate, `Troutbeck," to pilgrims in 1927 and again in 1935. In 193Z he guided another pilgrimage around Craig House (Henry Winthrop Sargent Estate) in Beacon. At that time he credited HWR with help in preparing his presentation, printed later that year as an article in the Year Book. She espoused many of Spingarn's and Mumford's democratic and more cosmic views of history as material to be shared by all.

In an age before foundation support and grant writing, HWR's collaborations made possible many of the Society's occasional pubncations. Among those who sponsored either research or the printing costs of publications were Mrs. Joseph Tower and W. Willis Reese, whose work she assisted. She apparently convinced Franklin Roosevelt to publish not only ±i§ work on the records of Hyde Park but also to foot the bill for the other two volumes (by herself and Poucher) that launched the Society's ``Collections of the Dutchess County Historical Society" program in 1924.20 The original, unspoken trade-off for this may have been access to research and each other's knowledge of colonial documents, of which FDR was a quiet but effective collector.21 Her work on Dutch Houses was supported, through the good offices of FDR, by the Holland Society.

22

FDR's respect for her abilities carried the collaboration over the years from his involvement in local history as squire of Springwood and Town Historian of Hyde Park, through his terms as Governor and into the Presidency. An article by HWR, in the 1931 Year Book, ``Dutchess County Gives the State a Governor" has attached to it a clipping from T7zc Necc7 York Tz.77zcs, dated October 1, 1933, entitled

``Roosevelt's Dutchess County Connection Dates From 1752." It credits Miss

Reynolds and the Dutchess County Historical Society for material taken from her piece in the 1931 Year Book. From 1940 until her death, she was acknowledged as a regular consultant to the President in the development of his beloved Library and there are indications that her role would have been expanded had they both survived the war years.22 At the beginning of the war, in a 1942 trustees meeting, with HWR present, Fred Shipman, Director of the nascent FDR Library, invited the Society to hold its spring meeting there, s_uggesting Olin Dows as speaker on his paintings for the Hyde Park and Rhinebeck Post Offices.

The account of that Armual Meeting is rather surprising,23 detailing the liberties

given Society members as they were invited to wander freely about FDR's personal hide-a-way, ``Top Cottage," during wartime while the President's property was under guard by Military Police. It is fair to assume that FDR's blessings were indeed upon Miss Reynolds and the Society.24 HWR also was consulted for FDR's other pet historical projects, such as are represented by WIIA post offices throughout the county. She was useful to him in his conecting, and throughout the years, was able to prevail upon the President to make available material for Year Book articles and additions to the documentary collections of the Society.

He gave the Society the Rickettsen family genealogy in 1935 and in that same

year provided the Society with copies of county records found by Warren Delano Robinson, U.S. Minister to Canada, in Canadian State Archives in Ottawa. By far one of the most interesting additions made possible by his position were copies of British Admiralty records detailing the Naval battles on the Hudson during the American Revolutionary War, providing a new perspective of 18th century history for researchers and history lovers. The materials were sufficient for more than a year's worth of articles.25 Through FDR, Reynolds expanded her network of friends and associates into state and federal bureaucracies in Albany and in Washington. Upon several occasions the State Historian, Dr. Alexander C. Flick, a declared admirer of Miss Reynolds' work, was the Society's guest speaker.26 Her connections with the Office of the State Historian continued after Flick left, with his successors, until her death.

Over the years HWR also carried on a correspondence with the State Archivist A.J.F. van Laer, upon whom she called for advice in translating from the Dutch. At page 44, inserted into the binding of her copy of the Year Book for 1934, is a letter from van Laer: December 13, 1934

My dear Miss Reynolds:-

Having read the Year Book of the Dutchess County Historical Society for 1934, which was received a few days ago, I wish to congratulate you +

23

upon your notable contributions to this book. The article on the Nelson House is charmingly written and of absorbing interest. The amount of careful research that has gone into the various articles is prodigious and can be properly appreciated only by those who have attempted to do something along similar lines. ,

I hope that you and your mother have been quite welli and that the improved business outlook relieves you to some extent of the anxiety you were living under some time ago.

With best wishes for Christmas and the New Year to both of you, I am, Very sincerely yours, A.J.F. van Laer

These few references to Depression era and personal problems and to HWR's family life give insight into the struggles she faced in accomplishing her work.

Other letters from van Laer in the collection deal more specifically with research problems and genealogy, but also make occasional friendly comments on visits, personal hospitality, or persons known by both parties, indicating an ongoing relationship.

Associations with state and federal bureaucrats opened the door to knowledge of government programs. Miss Reynolds' ongoing newspaper research project, begun in the late 1920s and extending over a decade, benefitted from this knowledge. Her initial involvement with this project was enthusiastically sup-

ported by trustees, who may not have envisioned the immensity of the task of abstracting the records of thousands of marriages and deaths from a hundred years of newspapers. They certainly approved of her output as evidenced by their continuing fiscal support. By 1934, into her 6th volume of records and no doubt straining the patience of volunteers as well as her own physical limits, she and John Mylod presented the Board with other options for getting the work completed.27 As she explained the role of the Civil Works Administration (CWA) in continuing efforts to compile information on marriage and death notices, the Government would supply the labor, but sponsoring organizations would be obligated to provide materials and space. She proposed that five typists be placed at Adriance in third-floor stacks. As a Library trustee she felt confident of Adriance's cooperation. Reynolds and Mylod would serve as a committee to work out details of coordinating mutual obligations. By 1939 she brought the Society's involvement with the project to a close, saying that the organization no longer had resources to contribute. She recomlnended to the trustees that all of the index cards produced by the workers, still in need of sorting and alphabetizing, be turned over to Adriance, which had the staff to complete the card files for public use.28

HWR, GOVERNMENT HISTORIAN /

Reynolds knew her way around in municipal circles. She had years of experience dealing with bureaucratic and political issues at all levels of government,

24

1,

)

nourished by her interest in government records. Her committee work with John Mylod, a powerful and respected political figure in the county and state, and friendship with FDR, no doubt were factors leading to her appointment as County Historian. At the Annual meeting on May 20, 1927, Mylod called attention to the need for selecting historians in several municipalities, and moved the secretary to press the Board of Supervisors to make such appointments. At the Semi- Armual Meeting on October 21 he proudly armounced HWR's appointment as County Historian by the Dutchess County Board of Supervisors.29 During Mylod's years as a leader in the Society, many hot public issues found their way to Society agendas and it seems more than coincidental that these same issues directly and consistently involved Helen Reynolds: -Architectural preservation, represented by mile markers, historic markers, Glebe House, the Stone Barn in Pleasant Valley, and WPA public buildings and projects.30

- education and public school history curriculum, - funding for public commemorations, - the choice of a national anthem, - candidates for official appointments, and r -records collection, preservation and accessibility.

This last issue, related to an interest in the history of government and government leaders, had been of consuming concern to HWR almost from her youth. In an article,"The Courthouse of Dutchess County 1809-1901" (pgs 69-74), written for the 1939 Year Book, she describes a visit as a young woman to the Old (fourth) Courthouse before its destruction circa 1901. Her descriptions of its lay-

out, including the past and then-curent, non-governmental activities within its walls, is fascinating, recording alehouses and oyster bars, libraries and auctioneers, shoe-shine parlors and barbershops. Of special interest, though, is her memory of being invited into an area near a judge's office where the piles of papers were so numerous and badly kept that they covered the floor and people walked on them. She was aghast at the actions of officials who so blatantly ignored their responsibilities for public record keeping. The imprint of this memory would not allow her to desert a personal and lifelong quest to improve public awareness of the problem. She used every venue available to get the message across- public office, personal resources, friendships, the newspapers (for which she often wrote), and political allies.

She also used public commemorations, such as the Sesquicentennials of the American Revolution and Declaration of Independence, and the Ratification of the United States Constitution, as well as the birthdays of the County and City of Poughkeepsie, to hammer home the importance of original government documents in identifying the roots and purposes of government. These provided her with a public foruln for her speeches and articles, to be shared with local press.

Some of her most important work includes seminal works done on the origins and purposes of local government institutions: articles such as "The Court of Common Pleas," done in 1927, and `The Story of Dutchess County," written for the celebration of the County's 250th anniversary in 1933, I8#z Ce77f#ry Records of a Portion of Dutchess County , New Yorlc, That Was Included in the

25

Rombout Precinct and in the Original Town of Fishkill, a bock done w3:th W. WTllis Reese in 1938, and another article, ``The Beginnings of Civil Administration in Dutchess County," done in 1939. She completed a series of pieces on all the

Courthouses of Dutchess County resulting from her research to assist illustrator Gerald Foster in creating his murals for the new Poughkeepsie Post Office. She called attention with pride to the removal of public archival records to Adriance in 1922 (an act which now would be seen as the pirating of public records), where she felt that they would be better cared for.31 To her mind, they were better off in the possession of those who understood their value and who would

provide proper care. On the other hand, her buccaneering activities helped to identify copies of materials that once had been public, such as the photo of Leonard Lewis's 1715 letter that showed the origins of the Court of Common Pleas in Dutchess,32 or public records that had migrated into private hands.33 TWENTY YEARS 0F TRUST

In the more than twenty years that she served as a trustee of the Dutchess County Historical Society, Helen Wilkinson Reynolds earned the trust and respect of her fellow members and of the community by her vision, effort, example, and accomplishment. Her vision of what such an organization could do to impact a community and shape the lives of its citizens transcended her era. That her view of history was broadly inclusive is proven by her articles on the history of blacks34 and her willingness to see the other side as she encouraged presentation of British perspectives of the American Revolution.35 Her democratic view of history as belonging to all is supported also by her efforts to broaden and democratize Society membership through numerous membership drives and changes in Society bylaws.

Her searches for historical truth could be exhausting, wearing out the most devoted volunteers, even as her dogged advocacy of public responsibilities would wear down politicians. But she kept at clarifying her vision, working to improve the Society until the last day, getting out her final 1942 Year Book, op ±ip±g almost on her death bed. Thro,ugh her, and her work with her collaborators, Society membership grew from a handful of elite social leaders and intellectuals to a large, influential, and broadly-diverse organization. The organization provided a model for publication of local history and took a principal role in preserving government records. It identified and saved important community landmarks while involving hundreds of citizens in enjoyable historical education

programs. Perhaps most important of all, by her example and accomplishment, she taught us, as Mumford says, ``the Value of Local History."

Her death brought change and new faces among leadership. Harry Harkness Flagler of Millbrook was nominated to her empty seat as a tmstee, and Alny Ver Nooy was given the task of editing the Year Book for the coming year. A Memorial fund to continue her work was created, attracting within a few short months more than $1200 (equal in 1943 to an average worker's annual salary).

Fifty years later, gifts to the Reynolds fund still provide the funding for what she saw as the Society's most important function. Even without it, though, her work and record stand as a tribute to intellectual honesty, personal integrity, and

26

``sweat equity" tested over time by the reprinting, continued use, and influence of her research and writing.

Among her many collaborators, Dr. J. Wilson Poucher emerges as one of her most consistent and caring co-workers. G71¢z7esfo7ces of DZJfcJzess Cot{7tfty, a seminal

piece of research still much in demand, launched their association and cemented their friendship. They clearly worked well together, respected each other's gifts and valued their friendship. Both freely credited the other in numerous other

publications and articles over the years dealing with a variety of subjects, where her understanding of local history and documentary evidence complemented his knowledge of science and medicine. His touching,last tribute to her sums up both her character and principal accomplishments as an historian. When he presented his initial draft to the Society trustees,36 it is telling that others also wished to contribute, pressing the body to appoint three members to complete final documents of a tribute and formal resolution to be included in the 1943 Year Book. In this retrospective issue once again, we have reprinted these documents.

ENDNOTES 1 ``Miss Reynolds, Historian Dies; Personal Friend of Roosevelt," (The Po"gJzkecpsz.e Nezo Yorker), Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Jam. 4, 1943.

2 Ibid.

3 Helen Wilkinson Reynolds," The Rev. Dr. Westbrook's School at Fishkill," Ycflr Bock, Dz{£cJzcss Cow#fl/ Historical society, Vof.10 Poughl<eepsie, IN.Y.1925. / 4 Year Book Dutchess County Historical Society Vof. 26,1941 p 64.

5 Minutes of Nov. 26, YB DCHS 1921, p 5.

6 0p. cit., p 7.

7 0p. cit.' p 8.

8 I. Wilson Poucher, M.D. and James F. Baldwin, Ph.D, `` Helen Wilkinson Reynolds, Y.B DCHS Vol. 28, 1943, pp. 19-22.

9 YB DCHS, Vch.7,1922.

10 YB DCHS, Vol.8,1923 p 28.

11 Minutes of the Annual Meeting, May 16,1931, refers to Mrs. Tower as publishing T7ze Reg].sfer of #zc New Hackensack Refbrmed Church, Vcr. 5 o£ Couecho:r\s.

12 Minutes of Oct. 19,1922, YB DCHS, Vol.7, 1922, p 12.

13 Treasurer's Report, YB DCHS, Vol. 13,1928, p 24.

14 `Helen Wi]kiuson Reynolds'', from ``Preface," D#£chcss Co"#fr/ Doorzunys, 1730-1830. YB DCHS, Vol. 28, 1943, p 20.

15 YB DCHS, Vol. 16,1931, photo of FDR opp. p.58.

27

16 John Ross Delafield, `The Reminiscences of Mrs. Richard Montgomery with an Introduction and Editorial Notes," YB DCHS, Vol.15,1930.

17 Letters from T7!c M#ccrflcke# Papers, box 128, (Poughkeepsie N.Y., Vassar College Library, Special Collections).

18 Minutes May 20,1927 yB DCHS, Vol. 12,1927, p 10.

19LewisMumford,`TheV`alueofLocalHistory",YBDCHS,Vol.12,1927,pp22-26.

20 Minutes February 11, 1924, YB DCHS, Vol.9,1924, p 9.

21 The editor, ``Minutes of the Council of Appointment of New York State- A Recovered Record of the Revolution", YB DCHS, Vol. 8,1923, pp. 34~35. The unidentified editor, presumably HWR, announces FDR's acquisition of these Revolutionary War era documents and directly cites from them.

22 Minutes Trustees Meeting, February 28, 1942. YB DCHS, Vol. 27, 1942

23 Ibid., Minutes Annual Meeting May 11, 1942.

24 In a conversation more than a decade ago, Dr. William Emerson, a later director of the FDR Library, made it clear to me that his own study of Library beginnings revealed FDR's interest in making that facility a center of Dutchess County and Regional History studies. After a period of the Library having distanced itself from the community, he opened the Library to a conference on the WPA records survey, sponsored by my office, the Dutchess County Deparinent of History, and thereafter regularly made the ``Dutchess Room" available for meetings of the appointed historians throughout the county.-Joyce C. Ghee

25 Franklin D. Roosevelt contributed two articles based upon the records of the British Admiralty: ``Travelled Documents... Events on Hudson's River in 1777," YB DCHS, Vol. 20, 1935, and ``The Congress and the Montgomery," YB DCHS, Vol. 21,1936.

26 FDR reported to Flick during his years as Town ffistorian and became his boss as Governor. FDR would have (theoretically) reported to Miss Reynolds when he was Town Historian and she was County Historian. In practice, they all worked together in an informal way that often overlooked regulations, such as FDR holding the position of Town Historian well into his Governorship.- Joyce C. Ghee

27 Minutes Trustees Meeting, December 16,1933, YB DCHS, Vol.19,1934.

28 Minutes Trustees Meeting, November 30, 1938, YB DCHS, Vol.24, 1939.

29 Minutes Tmstees Meeting, September 6,1927, yB DCHS, Vol.12,1927.

30 HWR had definite and sometimes disparate views on Society involvement with preservation projects as one can see in YB DCHS, Vol.10, 1925 p 7, Minutes of the Semi-annual Meeting, October 17, 1924.

At that time she was strongly opposed to the Society taking over Wey's Comer's Burial ground, saying that DCHS should focus its resources on discovery and preservation of records and source materials. At other times she was a fiery advocate for architectural preservation and willingly supported increased Society responsibility. She was an active supporter of Glebe House preservation (see Minutes from YB DCHS for 1927,1928, and 1929) and a member of the Glebe House Committee, pressing for both Society and City of Poughkeepsie involvement. In 1931, to save the Pleasant Valley Stone Barn her successful efforts were directed at the Chief Executives of the New York Power Company of Albany.

31 Helen Wilkinson Reynolds, `'The Beginnings of Civil Administration in Dutchess County'', YB DCHS, Vol. 24, 1939, pp. 58-68.

28

32 Helen Wilkinson Reynolds, ``The Court of Common Pleas," YB DCHS, Vol. 12, 1927.

33 In the article "A Map and a Tree," YB DCHS, Vol.13, 1928, the map in question was not part of the public record, having never been recorded with the County Clerk. It belonged to Mrs. David

Mccullogh.

34 Reynolds;" James A. Bolding, Fugitive Slave" YB DCHS, Vol.20, 1935 and ``The Negro in Dutchess County" YB DCHS, Vol. 26,1941.

35 F. D. Roosevelt, `'Events on Hudson's River," YB DCHS, Vol.20, 1935 and '`The Congress and the Montgomery," YB DCHS, Vol.21, 1936.

36 Minutes February 10, 1943, YB DCHS, Vol. 28,1943.

29

HELEN WILKINSON REYNOLDS (1875-1943)

A B-IBLI0GRAPHY Elizabeth Adams Daniels and Nancy S. MacKechnie Elizabeth A. Daniels specialized in Victorian literature while teaching for thirty-eight years at Vassar Couege, where she also held various deanships.

Following her retirement in 1985 , she becane the Vassar College Hj.storian.

Her article celebrating Matthe:w Vassar's two hundredth birthday appeared in the 1991 Year Book. A biograpky of Henry Nchel Maccracken was published in 1994.

Nancy S. MacKechaie is Curator of Rare Books `and Manuscripts, Vassar Coil;ge Libraries Special Collection:s. She is also `Chair of the D6cunentary Heritage Advisory Comndttee, Southaastem New York I]ibrary Resources Council. A member of the Society, Ms. MacKechnie served for many years on the Publications Committee.

The bibliography that follows brings together the titles of the works that Helen Wilkinson Reynolds published from the years 1929 through 1942.

Included are the works that she created alone or in alliance with others. Miss Reynolds will always be noted for her research on the homes of Dutchess County and for the vital statistics and records that she compiled in her works.

ENen mow Dutch Houses in the Hudson Valley and Dutchess County Doorways Exle

considered to be standard reference sources.

•The bibliography is arranged according to the type of publication: Books and Pamphlets; Collections (that is, works compiled or edited by Reynolds); Articles and Essays; Signed Articles and Essays in the D#fcJzcss Co#7tfty Hz.sfo7'z.c¢J Socz.efty

Year Book; and finally, Articles and Essays about Helen Wilkinson Reynolds in the Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book. Unless noted otherwise, the work

listed was written, edited, or compiled by Helen Wilkinson Reynolds.

It should be mentioned that there are more than sixty articles in the Ye¢r Book signed by Reynolds or attributed to ``The Editor." This bibliography does not take into account the articles written anonymously by Reynolds. By studying ( Reynolds's personal copies of the Yc¢r Bock, Joyce Ghee has discovered another

group of Reynolds articles and has written about them in this edition of the yeflr Book.

30

'

The bibliography also includes the articles written about Helen Wilkinson Reynolds in the D#£cJzess Co#7tfty Hz.sforz.c¢J Socz.cfty Year Book following her death

in 1943. No attempt has been made to locate articles about her in any other publications or newspapers, nor has any attempt been made to locate any reviews of her works.

Any information printed between brackets [] has been added by the bibliographers to provide more complete bibliographical information. Brackets also enclose some explanatory notes. The Latin abbreviation ``s.n." ("without name") has been used when the publisher's name is unknown.

31

HELEN W.ILKINSON REYNOLDS (1875-1943)

A BIBLIOGRAPIIY

BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS The Campus of Vassar College: Its Background and Landmarks. Photographs by Margaret DeM. Brown. Reprinted from the V¢ss¢r Q#czrfcdy. Poughkeepsie, NY: Vassar Cooperative Bookshop, [1933?].

Dutch Houses in the Hudson Valley Before 1776. With ail Trfuoduchon by Franldin D.

Roosevelt; photography by Margaret DeM. Brown. Prepared under the Auspices of The Holland Society of New York. New York: Payson and Clarke Ltd., 1929.

Dutchess County Doorways and Other Examples of Period-Work in Wood,1730-1830, with Accounts of Houses, Places and People. Photo8raLphy by MairgaLret De:M.

Brown. New York: William Farquhar Payson,1931.

Poughkeepsie: The Origin and Meaning of the Word. (Cchleedious of the Dulchass County Historical Society, vol.I). Poughkeepsie, NY: [s.n.I,1924.

The Role of Plant Life in the History of Dutchess County. By Edifh Ardchalde T`oberts

and Helen Wilkinson Reynolds. Poughkeepsie, NY: [Lansing-Broas Printing Co.], 1938. [``This publication was made possible by the assistance of the Lucy Maynard Salmon Fund, Vassar College; the Dutchess County Planning Board and gifts from residents of Dutchess County."]

COLLECTIONS Eighteenth Century Records of the Portion of Dutchess County New York That Was Included in Rombout Precinct and the Original Tlown of Fishkill: Presenting Historical So#rcc-777¢fcrz.¢J Rcg¢rdz.7ig Lcz77d fl7cd People. Collected by William Willis Reese and

edited by Helen Wilkinson Reynolds. (Collections of the Dutchess County Historical Society, vol. VI). [Albany, NY: J. 8. Lyon Co.], 1938.

Notices of Marriages and Deaths, About 4,000 in Number, Published in Newspapers Printed at Poughkeepsie, New York,1778-1825. Compiled aLnd edited by Helen

Wilkinson Reynolds. (Collections of the Dutchess County Historical Society, vol.

IV). [Poughkeepsie, NY: Frank 8. Howard,1930.]

Old G7`¢zJcsfo7tcs of D#fcJzcss Co#7tfy Nczo York. Collected and edited by [John].

Wilson Poucher and Helen Wilkinson Reynolds. (Collections of the Dutchess County Historical Society, vol.11). Poughkeepsie, NY: [s.n.I,1924.

The Records of Christ Church, Poughkeapsie, New York, I.vohame 1]. Edited by Helen Wilkinson Reynolds. Poughkeepsie, NY: Frank 8. Howard,1911. [``Published by

the wards and vestrymen upon the tenth anniversary of the institution of the rector, the Reverend Alexander Griswold Cummins, A.M., Litt.D."] The Records of Cheist Church, Poughkeepsie, New York, vof:iilne H. Edited by Hden Wilkinson Reynolds. Poughkeepsie, NY: [s.n.,1916?.] ``Printed in honor of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the parish,1766-1916."I

32

ARTICLES AND ESSAYS ``The Campus of Vassar College: Its Background and Landmarks." V¢ss¢r Q#¢rfcdy 18 (November 1933): 334-344. ``Christ Church, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., 1941 -Back to 1766." Tfee CJz7'o7tz.cJe 42 (November 1941): 31-33. ``Early History Traced." V¢ss¢r Mz.scezha7zy Nczt7s 6 (9 February 1922): 4.

``How the City of Poughkeepsie Was Founded." In Tzuo Hc£71dred ¢7cd Fc:fry Years..

CommemorandgtheTwo-H¥ndred_a_ndFiftiet_h_Ai::_nive{sary_of the_Feupe.ding_oftpe^^C.i¥ of po#gfekeaps€.e, Nezc7 Yo7*. [Poughkeepsie, NY: Lansing-Broas Printing Co.,1937.I ``What Happened at Poughkeepsie in 1788." In 150ffe A7t7c2.t7ers¢ry of €Jze Ratifecation+oftheuni_te_dstat_e-scgpeii±Ttionby.the_slate.9f^Fe¥.Yo.rkonJuly26,17?.8,_ Cel'ebrated ht Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Septe¢b.er 17,19^3_8., Up.de.r a_uspic`e.s of tpe Constitution Sesqui-centerindal Commissibn of the State of New York. [PcNIg:hkeepsie, s.n.,1938.]

ARTICLES AND ESSAYS IN TIIE DUTCHESS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY REAR BOOK ``Abraham Tomlinson and the Poughkeepsie Museum." D#fcfecss Co„7tfy Historical Society Year Bock 2:2 (1937).. 80-86.

``As to the Intellectual Life of the People of Dutchess County in the 1790's."

Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book 2;0 (1935).. 50-51.

``Bartholomew Crannell: A Twentieth Century Plea for Anglo-American Good W"." Dutchess County Historical Society Year Bock T7| (1922:).. 37-79. ``The Begirmings of Civil Administration in Dutchess County." Dz{£chcss Co#7tfty Historical Society Year Book 2.4 (1939it 58-68.

``The Beginnings of Civil Administration in Dutchess County (continued from Year Book 1939)]' Dutchess County Historical Society Year Bock 2:5 (1940D.. 41-42.

``Berlin, Vermont and Its Cormection with Dutchess County." D#fcfecss Co#7tfy Historical Society Year Book 26 (194L).. 65-67 .

`rsooks and Reading in Dutchess County in Early Days, with a Short Account of the City Library of Poughkeepsie." Dz££chess Co#71fty Hisforz.col. Socz.efty Yc¢r Book 22 (1937): 107-115.

``Clinton Point, Town of Poughkeepsie." Dz4fcjzess Co#7tfy Hz.sforz.COZ Socz.cfty Yc¢r Bock [11] (1926): 31-34.

``The Co7tgrgss and the Mo7tfgo777eny.. Continental Frigates Built at Poughkeepsie in 1776.'' Dirtchess County Hist6rical Society Year Book 21 (1936).. 99-104.

``Country-seats on Hudson's River in Dutchess County." D#£cfeess Co#7?fy Hz.sforz.caJ Socz.efty Yc#r Book 20 (1935): 60-70.

``The Court House of Dutchess County,1809-1901." D%fcJzess Coc47cfy H!.sfor2.caJ Socz.cfty Ye#r Book 24 (1939): 69-74.

"The Court House of Dutchess County: First, Second, Third and Fourth Buildings,1717-1810: Extracts from Contemporary Records." D%£cfeess Co#7cfty Historical society Year Book 2:3 (193g).. 74J98.

I

``Daguerreotypes and Photographs: Discovery of Processes, Commercial Introduction in Dutchess County." D#fcJzcss Coc47cfty Hz.sforz.COZ Socz.cfty Yc#r Bock 16 (1931): 34-38.

33

``De CaLndillon's LaLnding." Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book 25 (1940)..

7J-IrfJ. ``Dutchess County Gives the State a Governor." Dz{fchess Coc/7tfty Hz.sforz.c¢Z Socz.efty Ycflr Book 16 (1931): 58-69.

``Dutchess County Men of the Revolutionary Period: Udny Hay." D#£cJzcss County Historical Society Year Book I.101 (1925).. 49-59.

``The Dulchass's County" Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book T7| (1.9Z2)..

35-36. ``Early Roads on Nine Partners Patent." D#fchess Co#7££y Hz.sforz.COZ Socz.cfy Yc¢r Bock 25 (1940): 56-64.

``Editorial Notes on the Writings of Henry Livingston, Jr." D#fcfecss Cocf77fy Historical Society Year Book 2:7 (1942).. 85-104. ``Farm-life in the Hudson Valley, 1769-1779." DctfcJzcss Coz!7tfy Hz.sfo7`z.c¢J Socz.cfy Ycflr Bock 18 (1933): 41-53.

``ELkhiowr\." Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book 25 (1940).. 65-69. ``First Settlers on Great Nine Partners Patent." Dc{£chess Coa£7£fty Historical Society Year Book 25 (1940).. 43-50. ```For the DuraLtior\." Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book 27 (1942).. 53-54.

``A For8otter\ Ch:\irch." Dutchess County Historical Society Yiear Book |9| (1924).. 48-50. 'qrancis Filkir( s Book." Dutchess County Historical Society Yiear Book Z3 (1.938).. 52;71..

``From Stephen Hendrickson's Inn of 1777 to the Nelson House of 1934."

Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book 19 (1934)-. 45-60. ``Hibemia Mills, Town of Clinton, Dutchess County." D#fcJzcss Coz{77fy Hz.sforz.caJ Society Year Book 25 (1940).. 70-76.

i`g:]Wggoo)?g#§;PsiewasFounded.''D%fchessco##tyHz.sforz.c¢JSocz.cftyyc¢rBook "How the City of Poughkeepsie Was Founded." DttfcJzess Co#72fy Hz.sfo7'z.c¢J Socz.efy Ye¢r Book 47 (1962): 46-53. [reprint of ``an article written by Helen

Wilkinson Reynolds and printed in the program published on the occasion of the 250th anniversary celebration held at Poughkeepsie in October 1937.''] ```1 Win Lift Up Mine Eyes Unto the Hills." D#£chcss Coc£73fty Hz.sfo7`z.col Socz.efty Yeflr Book 17 (1932): 86-88. ``In Regard to the Repetition of Place-names." Dz4£c7zcss Cog/77fty Hz.sfo7'z.c¢J Socz.efty

Ycflr Book 18 (1933): 54-57. ``Items from Eighteenth Century Newspapers." Dc{fchcss Coa/7trty Hz.sforz.COZ Socz.edy Year Bock 13 (1928): 51-63. ``Tames Kent, Sorietime of Dutchess County." D#£cfecss Coz47tfty Hz.sforz.COZ Socz.cfty

yc¢r Book [8] (1923): 21-28.

`:|g:F± A_. Bofding, Fugitive Slave." Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book 20 (1935): 51-55.

``_I_o:try _Ctryqui±nd, DaLncing Master." Dutchess County Historical Society Yiear Book 19 (1934): 32-37.

``Kromme Elleboog: A Seventeenth Century Place-name in the Hudson Valley."

Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book 18 (1933).. 58-68.

``A Lady of the Victorian Era [Mary Crooke Broome Livingston Ruggles]."

.34

Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book I:91 (192:4).. 51-53.

``Letter Written by Trintie Van Kleeck Crannell." D#fcJzcss Co#7tfy Hz.sforz.c¢J Society Year Book 23 (1938).. 72:73.

"A MaLp aLnd aL rFree." Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book 13 (1928).. 64-66. ``Marked Stones, Ulster and Dutchess County." DZJfchess Coc£7tfty Hz.sfo7'z.c¢J Socz.efty Ycflr Bock 16 (1931): 21-26.

``The Mill on the Sprout and the Farmers' Landing Road." Dctfcfeess Co%7cfy Historical Society Year Book 21 (1936).. 7417.

``The Mill-site -by the Bridge at Pleasant Valley and the Visit There of Mrs. Clin:ton." Dutchess county Historical society Year Boolc 17 (1932.).. 70-79.

I

``The Negro in Dutchess County in the Eighteenth Century." Dc{fcJzcss Co"77£y Historical Society Year Book 26 (1941).. 89-100.

``Nine Partners Patent, Nine Partners Meeting and Nine Partners School."

Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book 20 (1935).. 25-40. |``A Paper PrepaLred

by Helen Wilkinson Reynolds Which Was Read in the Brick Meeting House, Millbrook, September 11, 1935, by Harry Harkness Flagler.''] ``The North Boundary-line of Dutchess County." D#fcfeess Co#7zfy Hz.sforz.c¢J Socz.cfty yc¢r Bock 21 (1936): 81-89.

"Old Boundary Lines As Revealed by Aerial Photography." D#£cfeess Coct7tfty Historical Society Year Book 21 (1936).. 78-80.

`'Palatines in Dulchess Counr5{' Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book 22 (1937): 94-99.

``The Parish Register: Trinity Church, Fishkill, New York.'; D"£c7zcss Coz477£y Historical Society Year Book Z7 (1.942.).. 1.10-124.

``Peter De Labigarre and the Founding of Tivoli." D#fcJzess Coc£7tfy Hz.sfor!.cflz Society Year Booirl4 (1929).. 45-60.

-

.`

"Physicians and Medicine in Dutchess County in the Eighteenth Cent.pry."

Dutc}iess County Historical Society Year Bock 26 (194;1).. 78-88.

``Place-names Again: Something About Staatsburgh - Stoutsburgh Stoutenbur8h and Hyde PaLck." Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book 19 (1934): 24-31.

"Post,Script" [to J. Wilson Poucher's article, ``The Caire Pottery at Pou8:1.keepsie.''| Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book 26 (1941.).. 76-77. '`The Pouglckeepsie ]ourrial for rFuesday, Dece:rhoer 31,1799, aLnd The Ulster County Gazette for SaLhaday, Jam:uary 4,1800." Dutchess County Historical Society Ylear Book 17 (1932): 83-85.

``The Prosperity of Dutchess County About 1830." DztfcJzess Co#7cfy Hz.sforz.c¢Z Socz.efty Yc¢r Book 27 (1942): 58-64.

``The Record Book of the Nine Partners." Dcf fcJzess Co#77fty Hz.sforz.caz Socz.efty yc¢r Book 16 (1931): 27-33. ``The Rev. Dr. Westbrook's School at Fishkill." Dc££cJzess Coc£7tfty Hz.sforz.cczZ Soc!.efty

Yc¢r Book [10] (1925): 34-38.

``Salt Point, Dutchess County, New York." By Clifford Buck and Helen Wilkinson REyrwhds. Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book 23 (1938).. 26-33. ``Sheep-raLisfro8 fro Dutchess Courrty:" Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book 26 (1941): 71-72.

35

``Ttrye Stpne BaLm at Pleasalit VaLITey." Dutchess County Historical Society Yiear Book 16 (1931): 19-20.

``The Story of Dutchess County, an Address Made by Helen Wilkinson Reynolds at the 250th Anniversary of the County -November 1, 1933." DZJfchess Coc!77fy Historical Society Year Book 18 (193&).. 2:5-33.

``The Story of Hyde Park: Its Connection with the Medical Profession and the Science of Hortieulfure." Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book 13 (1928)..

26-29.

``:The.Story o£ Locust Grove." Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book 17 (1932): 21-28.

``ThreeArtists:Jamessmillie-JamesDavidsmillie-GeorgeEdtwinBissen."ByJ. D. Poucher and Helen Wilkinson Reynolds. Dz4£cfeess Coc!77£y Hz.sforz.c¢Z Socz.efy Ycflr Book 26 (1941): 68-70.

ARTICLES AND ESSAYS ABOUT HELEN WILKINSON REYNOLDS IN THE DUTCHESS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY YEAR BOOK Dutchess County Historical Society. ``Resolution on the Death of Miss Helen WHk±nson Reyr\oids." Dutchess County Historical Society Yiear Book 28 (1.943).. 18.

Emsley, Joseph W. ``Historical Society Leaders [Helen Wilkinson Reynolds, J. Wilson Poucher, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and William Willis Reese]." D#fcJzcss County Historical Society Year Book 64 (1979).. 30-3;7.

Emsley, Joseph W. ``In Memory of Miss Reynolds, 1875-1943." Dzzfchcss CocJ7zfty Historical Society Year Book 53 (1.968).. 73-75.

Poucher, J. Wilson and James F. Baldwin. ``Helen Wilkinson Reynolds." Dcffchess

`

=i"o"a¥s=Z#:i;.::LS°BC:.C7HYec]¢ernB#]i:i::i3)i:;-n¥ids, FDR, and Hudson valley Archi±ecfure." Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book 68 (1983).. 5-I:16|.

Although there is no exact information on the origin of this photograph, found in the files at the Glebe House, it is believed to be a

for]'rlal portra:it of Miss IIelen W.

Reynolds, taken by a New York City photographer. Dutchess County Historical Society

36

ST. MARGARET'S HOME, RED HOOK, NEW YORK Richard Crowley, with John Winthrop Aldrich { R;iehard Crowley, an architect by profession, was one of the founding members of Dutchess County Landmarks and was instrumental in fooussing

public attention on the preservation of Union Street in Pouglckeapsie. In addition, he worked to document the historic structures in the Twenty Mile District, now on the National Register with the status of National Historic Landmark District. Most recently, Mr. Crowley served as R]inebeck Town Historian, a term shortened by his death.

I. Winthaop Aldrich is New York State Deputy Comndssioner for Hj.storic Preservation, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic \. Preservation. He is also Rled Hook Town Historian. Mr. Aldrich has a itfeI tine of activism in the preservation and interpretation of Dutchess County history and often joined Mr. Crowley in his research.

Mrs. Astor's Orphan Asylum in the Town of Red Hook, New York, was operated for eighty-six years as a private charitable institution by her family, until a combination of circumstances, financial complications, bureaucratic technicalities and a shift to a more elaborate public welfare system produced its end.

The masonry building that housed this institution is not large, with exterior dimensions of forty-five feet one and one-half inches by forty-two feet eight and one-third inches, about equal to a good-sized farmhouse, but gives an impression of urban architecture placed in the countryside. It lies one mile south of the center of Red Hook Village, set back sixty-five feet from the east side of the Albany Post Road, on a slight rise with large trees in front (one of these trees, a mature small-leaf linden, is a landmark ornamental planting). The building's front rises two stories behind a wide porch supported on narrow, fluted, castiron columns with lacy iron brackets cast into flowering vine patterns. The brick walls rise from a brownstone water table. French windows and the roundarched, center, double doorway are trimmed in smooth, flat, brown sandstones, well selected so they have not spalled. Second floor windows, rectangular to each side and round-arched to the center, also have brownstone trim. The lowrising, hipptd roof is interrupted by a center gable, rising smoothly from the extended eaves, over the center arched window. At the sides of the building, windows are placed so two casements light a front room and a single casement provides for a rear chamber, lighted also by another casement at the back wall.

The round-arched, central doorway with window above is repeated at the back wall.

37

The brownstone trim is substantial but plain (one can imagine that these qualifications might have been Mr. Astor's own words of request to the architect), and unusual in that each opening is completely surrounded by stone. The window sills are cut from rectangles of stone in one piece, with the rain-deflecting slope cut into the stone and returned at the jambs in tiny, precise, half-circu1ar curves. Similarly the characteristic Italian-style ear projections over the windows are extended down the jambs, requiring them to have been cut down from a nine-inch wide stone to an eight-inch size. Small ogee consoles are placed under each jamb beneath the sills, without any of the classical leaf carving customary to this style in urban architecture.

A ten-foot wide hallway with staircase is lighted by a skylight above a deeply coved oval opening in the plaster ceiling and gives access to four large rooms on each floor, each originally fitted with a coal-burning grate set in a garlanded cast iron frame against a small, gray-white, marble mantlepiece. The front rooms, with three windows each, were presumably sitting rooms downstairs and matrons' or teachers' rooms upstairs. The slightly larger rear rooms were presumably bedrooms for the orphan girls. Two of these on the second floor are still fitted with closets and shelves for three girls per room, so that the original occupancy could have been twelve girls and `two teachers. Ceiling heights upstairs are also substantial: eleven feet nine inches at the first floor and nine feet ten inches at the second. The fourteen and one-half inch thick walls, brick with interior plaster, show no signs of deterioration. There is a full basement; the rear rooms in the cellar each have an outside stair, enabling them to have served originally as kitchen and laundry. The cellar rooms are high-ceilinged and well lighted by casement windows in areaways under the side porches, protected by grills in the decks.

Behind the Home is a small barn building fitted for horse stall and carriage way and with steps leading to a small loft. A concrete cold frame gives evidence of horticultural pursuits. A second sman barn is now a large pile of rubble and timber. It is assumed that originally, there was also a privy on the grounds.

A photograph~of the institution from the collection of Fred Briggs, Red Hook Village, and dated by him 1907, shows the building from the southwest with

painted wooden porch decks and steps, and with long, square brackets supporting the eaves. Ogee consoles occur at comers and other intervals under the cornice. These evidences of the Tuscan Villa style have since been removed; the front arched double door has been cut down, obliterating part of the upper lozenge panes; the porches are now concrete and cinder block; most of the brownstone trim has been painted white; the once straw-colored painted brickwork (revealed in one place by the recent removal of a porch fixture) has been

painted dark red; the ironwork has been painted a garish`white; and shutters have been removed.

The property for Mrs. Astor's Orphan Asylum was purchased by William 8.

Astor in 1851 from Henry Beekman Armstrong and his wife, Mary Drayton -` Armstrong. This three acre parcel was augmented in 1853 by the purchase of the five acres behind it. (Colonel Armstrong and Astor's wife Margaret were children of General John Armstrong, builder of Rokeby - the country seat of Mrs.

38

Astor, of the Chanlers, and of Mrs. Aldrich, the successive patrons of this nearby institution. The Orphanage occupies land which had been owned by Mrs. Astor's family since the granting of Schuyler's Patent by the Crown in 1688.) In November of 1852 a contract was let to James Webb which was completed in October of 1853 and which totaled $8,207.50, not counting the bill for grates from Jackson & Sons in New York of $93.00. Earlier sums for this account in William 8. Astor's office journal include $200.00, $250.00 and $300.00 paid but not explained, which possibly were fees to the architect.1

An architect for this substantial but plain edifice has not yet been identified, although there are several candidates: Frank Wills designed the original portion of Steen Valetje, adjacent to Rokeby, for Laura Astor Delano in 1851 and also designed the Chapel of the Holy Innocents at St. Stephen's College, now Bard College, in 1857. Richard Upjohn was retained by the Astors and the Rev. Henry deKoven to design Christ Church in Red Hook in 1854. Alexander Saeltzer designed the Astor Library in the Italian style in New York in 1859`for William 8.

Astor. Philip Kissam was employed by the Astor office as early as 1848, designing improvements in the family's immense inventory of city really. In 1869 he designed houses on Madison Avenue between 34th and 35th streets for Mrs. Delano, Mrs. Carey, and Mrs. Chanler (William 8. Astor's daughters and granddaughter). Kissam is known to have visited Rokeby during the 1850's as a family friend, and he received a bequest in William 8. Astor's will.2 Mrs. Astor's Orphan Asylum was founded with a personal faith in good works and with a sense of mission. An agricultural depression had produced unusual numbers of neglected girls who, while not truly orphaned, needed a

place of refuge; at the same time, families of means were concerned about the threat to public morals, the low state of public education, and the need for fitness for livelihood. It is perhaps significant that the Astor business records regularly identify the enterprise as the ``School at Red Hook," rather than as an orphanage.

The founding of a relatively small, privately-operated institution for children in rural northern Dutchess County in 1851 was and remains an anomaly. In New York City a variety of public, private and church-related children's welfare organizations and institutions were under way by the 1840's and `50's; the Astors were familiar with this reform movement and supportive of it.3 In 1847 the Female Guardian Society was formed in Poughkeepsie by a group of interdenominational church women. By 1852 the Society had become chartered with a board of twelve managers as the Poughkeepsie Orphan House and Home for the Friendless, and in 1857 a large building was erected in the city (now apartments). In 1919 the name was changed again, and remains, The Children's Home of Poughkeepsie. This institution cared for about sixty children and widows and was, like others in the region, located at a center of population. Similar institutions were formed at Kingston and Hudson, and of course, Albany.4 The 1929 letter from Edith Casey to Mrs. Aldrich is perhaps more significant than its listing shows. It mentions that rae new Matron of St. Margaret's Home was`recently superintendent of the Hudson Orphan Asylum. Such a career change must have been accompanied by a significant salary reduction. The two

39

children mentioned in the letter come through Columbia County, indicating that the mission of St. Margaret's Home as a refuge for local girls has become more difficult to accomplish. And, of course, the bureaucratic hand now descends even on small private charities. A visit from the health officer as suggested in the letter may have caused the installation of the huge water tank now in the cellar, so large that interior brick walls were cut to receive it, impinging on the former laundry and kitchen. A new furnace now fills the latter room; the kitchen is now in the first floor rear chamber Out its cabinets are not of recent origin); and the cellar is used for storage.

Perhaps the most poignant document found is a livery bin dated January 2, 1930, to St. Margaret's Home for ``December 27 - Taking children to Aldriches $5.00", marked paid,April 22,1930.5 This was presumably for the annual Christmas party for the orphans at Rokeby, regular events which Mrs. Aldrich's daughter recalls.

CHRONOLOGY OF PROPRIETORSHIP AND MANAGEMENT: 1851 - 1872 Mrs. William 8. Astor (nee Margaret Rebecca Armstrong) The parish register of Christ Church, Red Hook, shows ``In the spring of the year eighteen hundred and fifty four, the Rev. H. deKoven, having resigned the Rectorship of St. Paul's Church, determined, with Divine permission, to establish the Episcopal Church of Lower Red Hook on a permanent basis. The use of an apartment in the Orphan Asylum having been kindly granted by Mrs. Astor, on Whitsunday of the same year, being the first Sunday in June, Divine service was held, & Holy Communion administered."

The 1858 large wall map of Dutchess County published by John Gillete, Philadelphia, indicates the building only as ``Assylum" (sic). , The 1861 parish register of Christ Church lists Ann Moore, Matron, and eleven girls from the Orphanage. One of these, Lydia N., was a communicant in 1863 as well, but from Rokeby. She is listed again in 1864 and 1865, but in 1867 she is no longer hited as from Rokeby. Perhaps this was an oversight, or perhaps she was then twenty-one and had become a member of the community in her own right. The successive Rectors, Trustees, and parishioners of Christ Church became closely associated with the welfare and administration of the Orphanage throughout its existence.

The 1867 Beers and Soule Gazette of Dutchess County identified the building as ``Mrs. Astor's Orphan Asylun''.

The first census to count the Orphanage was 1865, listing Ann Moore as Teacher and six girls, ranging from eight to twenty as borders. The twenty-

year-old is listed not from Dutchess County but from England, along with an eight-year-old. The 1870 census lists Jane and Helen Schreiver (sic) as Teachers and eleven girls at School, all from Dutchess County, except the two listed from England in 1865. The elder of these was then twenty-six. One other girl is risted in 1861 and again through the two censuses. All others were new for each listing.

1871 -1875 Mrs. Tohn Winthrop Chanler (nee Margaret Astor Ward)

40

Christ Church, Red Hook - Parochial Report to the Diocese of New York, 1872: ``Since my last report this Parish has sustained a severe loss in the death of Mrs. William 8. Astor, who on Feb. 15th, in the 73rd year of her age, entered into rest .... This womari, like Tabitha (Acts IX, 36), was full of good works and allns - deeds which she did. The Home for poor young girls, estabhihed by her

:.¥::ts.s;acye,tfesfTct:r¥gj,ba|dT;get::,yT::£:f::;teg::seroof¥ Church".6 W.B. Astor died in November 1875 and Mrs. Chanler died the following month. Two letters from John Jacob Astor as Executor of the Estate of William 8.

Astor, dated December 1875 and January 1876, to Miss Jane A. Schryver, Matron of St. Margaret's Home, Red Hook, enclosing checks for the $50.00 monthly

maintenance, reflect the earliest known use of the name the institution was to bear for the fonowing sixty years.

1875 -1877 Tohn Winthrop Chanler

Congressman John Winthrop Chanler's will, dated 3 April 1877, was probated 20 December 1877, and contained the first recorded statement of purpose of the institution, reading as follows: ``Third: I give, devise and bequeath to my eldest son, John Armstrong Chanler, or in case h.e shall not survive me, then to my eldest surviving son, in fee, the land and buildings in the town of Red Hook, Dutchess County, New York, known as St. Margaret's Home, founded by the late Mrs. Margaret R. Astor, wife of the late William 8. Astor, and the grandmother of

=[aot:F#j,#¥j=tdAbofuhg%£:th¥o:ehfo:#o¥£¥EL:ns,=dpg¥e: and the income of said fund may be appropriated, used and applied by my said son, in keeping up and supporting the said St. Margaret's Home as a memorial of my said wife and her said grandmother, the said premises having been devised, and the said fund of Fifty Thousand Dollars having been given by the late William 8. Astor to my late wife for the said purposes and having come to me under the WEL of my said wife."7 1877 - 1883 Trustees of the Chanler Estate

There were four trustees of the Chanler Estate: Lewis Morris Rutherfurd, Rutherfurd Stuyvesant, Franklin H. Delano, and Tompkins Westervelt. The five eldest sons would become tmstees upon reaching 21; there were ten children in all. Their guardians under the will included eight persons.

Christ Church, Red Hook - Parochial Report to the Diocese of New York, 1879: ``Since my last report, the Rectory (so-called, though improperly, as it belongs not to the parish, but to the Estate of the late Jno. W. Chanler) has been

painted, and has had some other necessary repairs made, the expense having been defrayed by the United States Trust Company, which has the charge of the Chanler Estate''.8

41

1883 -1897 _John Armstrong Chanler

|fi24 - Fifty Thousand Dollars invested in bonds is sold for $70,000.00 and reinvested in 298 Broadway, New York, with a mortgage to St. Margaret's Home, insured and paid through the Equitable Co., giving an income of about se,000.00 armually.9

|fi24 - Incorporation papers are refused by the New York State Board of Charities, ``on a technicality of their own devising.''10 |fi26 - Letter from John Armstrong Chanler at Cobham, Virginia, to his former wife, Amelie Rives, with a request for confidentiality about a proposed investment of $10,000.00 of St. Margaret's Home money into land and boarding houses at..Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, ``for operatives in our Mill." ``Up to now the girls leave the Home at sixteen years of age and go into service as house-maids; service doesn't hold any future for an American girl. The Genius of the Nation is rudely antagonistic to service for either sex in any class of life". He elaborates on the complexities of the finances involved, discusses the improved hi,festyle, freedom and the protection of ``the chivalrous attitude of men of all classes to Southern women" and assures that ``moral and practical worldly advantages will follow my changing the Home from a servants' nursery into a skilled operative training estabhihment" and that the girls ``who are from their training at the Home in house-work and sewing and especially good plain cooking especially fitted to make good helpful wives to the men operatives they will meet in the NI.„11 ±fi2Z - J.A. Chanler is committed to Bloomingdale Asylum and his assets ternporarily pass out of his personal control.

1897 - 1932 - Winthrop Astor Chanler, Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler, Margaret Livingston Chanler Aldrich - siblings of John Armstrong Chanler.

1898 -Disaster at 298 Broadway. Clains and repairs of $15,000.00 are paid by Stanford White for J.A. Chanler. (White, a personal friend, held Chanler's power of attorney.) An appeal is lnade to Miss M.L. Chanler to meet the charges of the Home.12

|2Q|- Deposition by Winthrop A. Chanler: the Home was supportecl by him and his brother Lewis ``after Archie stopped paying for it."13 ( Eventually I:A. Chanler and his sister shared in providing all financial support for St. Margare`t's Home.)

Tax Records at Red Hook for the years 1910,1912 and 1914 hit the property as Exempt, with a full value of $2;00.00.14 1918 -Affidavit of John A. Hanna, Chairman of the Board of Child Welfare of Dutchess County, placing a four-year-old child into care and custody of St. Margaret's Home, mentions Margaret L.C. Aldrich as Trustee and Guardian of St. Margaret's Home.15 1929 -Letter from Edith Casey, County Agent for Dependent Children, Columbia County, to Mrs. Richard Aldrich, re: TWo girls taken to St. Margaret's Home 6 December 1929; objection of the New York State Department of Social Welfare that St. Margaret's Home was not licensed and that children should not be placed there.16

42

1932 -1934 Closedl7

1934 -1937 Operated as a Warfare IIome by Mrs. John Karmaser.18 1935 -Win of John Armstrong Chaloner (formerly Chanler) devised land and buildings of St. Margaret's Home and twelve percent of ``The Chaloner Estate Inc." to the Protestant Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of New York, in tmst.19

The really was evidently not accepted by the Diocese.

1940 -1971 -25 June 1940 -James F. Egan, Public Administrator as Administrator of the will of John Armstrong Chaloner also known as John Armstrong Chanler, Deed to Orrin S. Thompson and Harriet Putnam Thompson, for the property formerly known as St. Margaret's Home, with ten acres more or less. Recorded 2 October 1940, Liber 585 Page 420.20 It was to serve as the Thompson family dwelling for over forty years.

1971 - 1982 Harriet Putnam Thompson, Deed to Orrin S. Thompson, Jr. Recorded 24 August 1971, Liber 1314 Page 726.

1982 - Now Orrin S. Thompson, Jr., Deed to Benedict and Lila Wallis for St.

Margaret's Home, formerly the property of John Armstrong Chaloner, deceased.

Liber 1574 Page 667. Surveyed by Robert Jennings, containing 8.98 acres.

1987 -1991 Leased to Multi{ounty Community Development Corporation) a not-for-profit, government supported social services enterprise, for use as a tramsitional living center for fourteen young adults, most of whom are striving to resume independent lives after a period of chemical dependency.

NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, MANUSCRIPT DIVISION -ASTOR

FANIY PAPERS From Win. 8. Astor's Office Journal: October 31,1851 for School at Red Hook, paid H.B. Armstrong for 3 acres of land $600.00

Aug. 3,1852 for School at Red Hook, paid $200.00 Sept. 15, 1852 for School at Red Hook, paid Mrs. Astor $250.00

Nov. 27, 1852 for School at Red Hook, paid James Webb lst installment on contract $1joo.00 \

May 11, 1853 for School at Red Hook, paid`seoo.00

May 18, 1853 for School at Red Hook, paid Jas. Webb on account, 2nd installment of mason's work in building schoolhouse $1,000.00 June 13, 1853 for School at Red Hook, paid to Jas. Webb balance of 2nd installment on contract for mason's work $1joo.00 Aug. 11, 1853 for School at Red Hook, paid to Jas. Webb for 3rd installment Sept. 30, 1853 for School at Red Hook, paid $100.00

0ct.7,1853forSchoolatRedHook,paidtoJas.Webb,balanceof3rdinstaliment for building $1,000.00; and 4th installment $1;50.00; and blasting rocks, mantles, grates and setting $657.50; total $3,207.50

43

Oct. 1, 1853 for School at Red Hook, paid W. and N. Jackson & Sons, bill for grates, etc. $93.00

ENDNOTES 1. James Webb is not listed in Dutchess County Census for 1850 or 1860, although the NYS 1850 Census Index shows nine persons of that name, but not including James Webb, mason, 43 Charlton Street, New York, listed in Doggetts' New York City Directory, 1852-3. Trow's New York Register has a half-page advertisement for W. & N. Jackson & Sons. These last two items provided by J. W. Aldrich.

2. Information on possible architects was compiled by J. W. Aldrich.

3. For background information, see:

Latch:worth, W"iaLm P... Homeless Children; A Report on Orphan Asylums and Other Institutions for the Care

a/ Cfez.Jdre„ (by the Commissioner of the New York State Board of Charities, transmitted to the Legislature in 1876); Albany, 1876.

Scheider, David M... The History of Public Welfare in New York State, 1609-1866; University o£ Chica.go Press,1938.

Schactder, David M. aLrid Deutsch, ALlbert.. The IIistory of Public Welfare in New York State 1867-1940; University of Chicago Press, 1941.

Spal\n, Edward K... The New Metropolis.. New York City,1940-1857; Cot:\m\b±a Uiversity Press,1968.

Tratiner, Walter I.: Ho"er FOJke.. P!.o#ccr I.7z Soc!.¢Z WeJ/zzre; Columbia University Press, 1968.

Friediander, Waiter A... Introduction Of Social Welf are; Prer\t±ce-Ha.n, 1980.

4. History of Children's Home, in conversation with Frank Dwyer, Manager, June 1991. Also Letchworth, op. cit., pp. 390-392.

5. Transportation bill from Rokeby Collection. Tape-recorded interview between J. W. Aldrich and Margaret Aldrich DeMott,1990.

6. Parochial Reports transcribed by J. W. Aldrich.

7. Last Will & Testament of John Winthrop Chanler, certified copy, Morris & Mcveigh, Counsellors at Law, 60 Wall Street, New York. Rokeby Collection.

I

44

8. Parochial Reports, §}±p±a n.3.

9. Letter: J. A. Chanler to Amelie Rives, August 20, 1896; Chaloner Papers, manuscript collection, Perkins Library, Duke University. Provided by Henry Wiencek, Brooklyn, N.Y.

10. Ibid.

11. Ibid.

12. Letter: Stanford White to Henry Lewis Morris, 12 May 1898, and reply, 13 May 1898, provided by Henry Weincek, on loan from Rokeby Couection.

13. Letter: Weincek to Crowley, 27 March 1991.

14. These actual tax books are at Red Hook Town Hall.

15. Hanna Affidavit - Rokeby Conection.

$ 16. Letter: Casey to Aldrich,1929. Rokeby Collection.

17. 1932 closing is from St. Margaret's Home Register Book at Rectory Office, Christ Church, Red Hook.

(Old Register, black with red corners - and New Register - green - with communicant listings, are both nrissing.)

18. Ibid.

19. Win of J. A. Chaloner provided by Henry Weincek, on loan from Rokeby Collection.

20. Deeds are filed at Dutchess County Hall of Records, 22 Market Street, Poughkeepsie, N.Y. The preceding article was prepared for Hudson RIver Heritage and is published with its kind permission.

45(

\

MR. PLATT GOES TO THE COLLINGWOOD~ OPERA HOUSE /

Annon Adams

Anon Adans is volunteer Historian at the Bardavon Opera House, originally the Collingwood Opera House before it was called the Bardavon Theatre. She has served on the Bardavon's Board of Directors and has pre-

pared slide shows, articles and exhibits on the theatre's history.

The first performance at the Collingwood Opera House, now known as the Bardavon Opera House, was 125 years ago. On February 1,1869, the Opera House began with a ``Grand Opening Complimentary Concert By the Citizens of Poughkeepsie to Mr. James Collingwood," its builder and owner. In 1869, Mr. Edmund Platt, later to become one of Poughkeepsie's leading citizens, made daily entries in a diary he had been keeping since he was eleven years old. His diary records the visits he made to the Collingwood Opera House in the course of his daily life. To commemorate the 125th Anniversary of the opening of the Collingwood Opera House, Edmund Platt's diary will be used as a window to glimpse life at the Opera House in Poughkeepsie during the early years of its operation.

February 1869

1st Monday. Beautiful day. The event of the day was the opening of Collingwood's new Opera House by a grand concert this evening, before which John Thompson made a good performance. It was a complimentary benefit arranged by a committee of citizens for Mr. Collingwood. A very stylish affair. I did not attend, however. I went to our meeting in Union St. They were mostly children there but we had a good time. After it I called on M.1

0n the day the Collingwood Opera House opened, Edmund P. Platt was twenty-five years old, and had just become engaged to Mary Emily Bartlett, M. in the diary entry above. Mary's father, who died in 1857, was Charles Bartlett, the founder and owner of Poughkeepsie Collegiate School, College Hill. One of the founding members of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in Poughkeepsie, Platt was Corresponding Secretary, and `would continue a lifelong dedication to the YMCA, serving as Chairman of the New York State

46

Edmupd H. P. Platt's diaries begun at age thirteen, give a unique view of 19th Century Pougivlceepsie.

Local History Department , Adriance Memorial Library Greater Pougivkeepsie Library District

Mary Bartlett Platt Wife of Edmund Platt and daughier of Charles Bartlett, founder of Pouglkeapsie Collegiate School, is the ``M' in Platt's diary entries.

Local History Department , Adriance Memorial I.ibrary Greater Pougivlceepsie I.ibrary District.

47

YMCA Committee for thirty years. The meeting h.e had attended, instead of

going to the opening of the Opera House, was part of the program of the YMCA to bring young men to its membership, in order to promote temperance and the Christian way of life. A lifelong Presbyterian, Platt frequently acknowledged in his diary his faith in the Lord. For example on April 1, 1867, he wrote, ``...as long as I am permitted to live, may I live for my Heavenly Father, ever tmsting in him. May I cast my burden upon the Lord and May the Lord have mercy on me and bless me and guide me as he sees fit."2 Edmund H. P. Platt was born December 2, 1843, in Poughkeepsie, the third son of Issac Platt, one of the founders and editor of the PozJgJzkeepsz.e D¢z7y fngze),

Poughkeepsie's Republican newspaper and forerunner of the (Po#g7zkccpsz.e Jo#r77¢J. He attended Dutchess County Academy, and in September 1859 at age fifteen, he began his career in retailing as a clerk in Crosby's store. Whether from inclination or necessity, he did not follow his older brothers, John and James, who worked in the family newspaper business. In 1869 Edmund Platt

was looking for a business investment in which he could have an ownership interest. He was anxious to embark on the next stage of his business career so that his future prospects would appeal to the woman he wished to marry. After a courtship of about three years, which had had a number of ups and clowns, he became engaged in January 1869 to Mary Emily Bartlett. In March 1869 Platt went into partnership with Charles P. Luckey to form Luckey and Platt, which became Luckey; Platt & Company in 1872, when Smith L. DeGarmo became a partner, and was Poughkeepsie's leading department store until the 1970's. By the end of 1869, the cornerstones upon which Edmund Platt would build his life were in place: his future wife, Mary and their family: his business, Luckey and Platt: and the YMCA and the Presbyterian Church.

Begun as a school journal on May 5, 1856, Platt kept the diary until July 5, 1880. He faithfully recorded in it the weather and his daily observations, scarcely missing a day until the spring of 1878. Included among his activities, the diary records his attendance at events at the Collingwood Opera House.

From the distance of 125 years, Platt's diary illustrates the role the theatre

played in the hie of a Christian businessman and describes performances with which we are unfamiliar 125 years later.

On Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1868, Platt first mentions the Opera House, then under construction. ``...Walked to the river after dinner, also went through Mr. Collingwood's new hall, it is fast nearing completion, it will be very fine."3 0n Wednesday, December 9, at a YMCA meeting, he noted that ``...The ladies having our Fair in charge decided today to postpone it till after Mr. Collingwood's new Hall is completed."4 Platt first attended an event at the Opera House on February 5, 1869-the Fair and Festival to benefit the Home for the Friendless (now the Children's Home). The last event he recorded in his diary was a Poughkeepsie Lyceum lecture given by Wallace Bruce on Friday, February 9,1877: His entries range from a simple notation to more lengthy descriptions of events that especially interested him.

48

POUGHKEEPSIE LYCEUM LECTURES

'

Between 1869 and 1877 almost half of the events Edmund Platt attended at the Opera House were lectures, primarily the annual course of lectures given by the Poughkeepsie Lyceum. A part of the American Lyceum movement, the Poughkeepsie Lyceum was founded in 1839 to provide educational opportunities for adults, particularly the young workers coming to the city to work in its factories. The Poughkeepsie Lyceum had a reading room/library and a lectiire course on literary and scientific subjects during the winter months.5 The winter Platt started working as a clerk, he began to attend many of the lectures in the

annual winter course of nine or ten lectures, which were held first at Concert Hall, then Pine Hall when it opened in 1861, and finally the Collingwood Opera House when it opened in 1869. Some of the speakers he heard at the Opera House were favorites he had heard a number of times. John 8. Gough was a particular favorite. Platt's comment after hearing him on March 23, 1871, was ``...it was very interesting as usual."6 Cough was a reformed alcoholic and was well known for his temperance lectures. It was said that he could wring the last drop of emotion out of an audience.7 In January 1858 when Platt was fourteen years old, he went to hear Frederick Douglass speak three times, and wrote a composition for school on Frederick Douglass.8 The lectures made a strong impression on him. Later, he would enjoy other former abolitionist speakers.

I

November,1869

19th Friday. Pleasant, some of our company left us. We were very busy at the store much more than we could attend to in the morning. This evening Hon. Charles Sumner lectured before the Lyceum, opening the course, his subject was ``Caste" and he gave us a very able and interesting lecture arguing the question of different races of men in au its points and proving that we all belong to one family and only cultivation and education have raised us or. any other enlightened people above the uncivilized whether they be African, Chinese or any others people. He had many arguments and proofs which I would like to note down if I could. He was listened to by a large audience. we sat in the upper gallery.9

I

Charles Sumner was a U. S. Senator from Massachusetts who helped to found the Republican party, and was an antislavery leader before the Civil War. Platt also liked wendell phillips, who was another well known abolitionist speaker.

December, 1869

17th Friday.... Heard Wendell Phillips lecture in the evening on ``The questions of tomorrow," it was a very good lecture, he pictured the danger of our Republican institutions, except when ruled by an intelligent people and the consequent dangers of intemperance, to remedy which he advises prohibition. Then the danger of a labor class and money class in which case the money would buy and control the elections, and so he advises the giving of the ballot to the women befieving that they would elevate and purify it.10

49I

The Lyceum lecture course was meant to be educational - a serious undertaking; however, to survive financially it was also necessary to introduce some humorous speakers. On December 3,1869, Platt heard Mark Twain speak on the Hawaiian Islands, then called the Sandwich Islands. He wrote ``...it was meant to be humorous-and was such as to make a laugh, but it could not be called a Very good lecture.''11

He gave cartoonist Thomas Nast a much better review: December, 1873

5th Friday. Pleasant. This evening Th. Nast the great Caricaturist of Harper's Weekly, lectured before the Lyceum, it was on ``Caricaturing illustrated", he lectured some but the great chami of the evening

was his drawing pictures right before our eyes, he drew ten or a dozen with theusualpointandaccuracyofexprestsionforwhichheisnoted.12 The review in the Pong7zkeepsz.e £¢gJe` the next day gave more details:

NAST- The lecture by Th. Nast before the Lyceum at the Opera House last evening was a brilliant success. The Opera House was crowded, and the audience was held in rapt attention from the commencement to the close. The pictures which constituted the main part of the entertainment were quickly and admirably drawn and each drew forth enthusiastic applause. The pictures of Andrew Johnson in kingly robes and the coming Caeser, and those of Tweed, pleased uS best. He closed with a picture of himself bidding the audience good night, with a candle in his hand, and a night cap on starting for bed. The Lyceum deserve the thanks of the audience for bringing Mr. Nast to this city.13

0n Friday, January 21, 1876, Platt heard Professor Nathan Sheppard lecture on ``The Tongue". The Poc!g7zkeepsz.e £¢gJc had reported in the morning that this

was the first time Prof. Sheppard had spoken in Poughkeepsie, but ``...he has stood on many famous platforms elsewhere, and spoken to highly cultivated audiences."14 Platt was not impressed. He wrote ``...Heard a most miserable lecture to night on `The Tongue' by somebody, did not stay all through it."15 Anna Pickinson was a very popular speaker on the lecture circuit, who spoke almost annually in Poughkeepsie. She was from a Quaker family of active abolitionists. She spoke with power and elo`qinence on feminism, the rights of `blacks, and war, government and politics.16 For her lecture on Friday, January 26, 1872, the Poughkeepsie & Eastern Railroad ran ``...a special train east from this city at the close of Anna Dickinson's lecture on Friday evening to accommodate people from the country who wish to attend.''17 The Poughkeepsie and Eastern ran from Poughkeepsie to Pleasant Valley, Pine Plains, Ancra`m and Millerton. Platt did not attend that lecture, but he reported that the special train ``...brought a great crowd."18 Platt attended Anna Dickinson's lecture on Friday, November 26, 1869, and recorded that ``...her subject was the Mormons and the lecture good until she got on women's rights."19 0n Friday, January 20, 1871, he said, ``This evening we heard Anna Dickinson lecture on Joan D'Arc, it was very good, and she had one of the largest audiences ever in the Hall."20 Edmund Platt's father was 'one of the founders of the Poz{g7zkeepsz.c Daz.Zy £¢gzc

and his brothers, John I. and James, became the owners. Is it accurate to surmise

50

that opinions expressed in the paper would be close to those expressed by Edmund? Reviewing Anna E. Dickinson's lecture, ``Demagogues and Workingmen" before the Lyceum on Friday, January 26,1872, the paper wrote:

The strongest argument against giving the suffrage to women that we have met with came to us in the lecture of Miss Anna E. Dickinson last evening. We doubt very much if any man in America, whose words would carry weight with them, would have dared to take the stand she did, on the labor question, for fear of political unpopularity. The good qualities, and good possibilities of trade organizations were commended upon and upheld, but their autocratic ring management, their tyrannical rules, and the tendency of both were held up to unsparing and relentless denunciation. As we have just said, no man would have dared to utter the truths she did, and if women had the right to vote Anna Dickinson would be a politician and then she would not dare to either. We need just such a fearless, untrammeled free lance to show us facts and arguments unbiased by prejudices and we hope it will be long before her ringing voice will be made to give an uncertain sound by the seduction of political favor.21 ``For your own sake" was the title of the next lecture Plait reviewed.

December, 1873

`

19th Friday. Rainy day, some business though. Thi; evening Anna E. Dickinson lectured before the Lyceum, a crowded house greeted her but in my opinion her lecture didn't amount to much, she talked about our anxiety to go to war and said how wrong itis and howbad itis to try to make money at the expense of everything else, and how necessary it is for the people to be educated and what bad things will happen to us if they are not and how everybody must go around and see that the government and all officials do their duty, in short, I think she sustained her reputation given no doubt by some ``horrid man" of being the ``great American scold."

This year they have reserved the orchestra chairs at one dollar for the course, and we occupied John's seats there to night.22

0n Friday, December 10, 1869, he wrote, ``Heard Theodore Tilton lecture this evening on the Woman Question, he was good although I cannot endorse all he said.,,23

Travelogues were popular on the lecture circuit, and Bayard Taylor was very popular, especially with the women.24 Platt had heard Taylor lecture at the Universalist Church in 1859, and pronounced it ``very good indeed.''25 In a lecture that was not a part of the Lyceum course, Platt wrote with enthusiasm:

October,1874 8th Thursday. This evening we heard Bayard Taylor lecture on Ancient Egypt, it was very good, he told of the way by which ancient language has been gradually translated, and that history running back 6,000 years brought before us, from inscriptions found on monuments and in the tombs, where buried under sand, in the rock they have been preserved. It rained very hard, but he had a good house.26

51

The last event at the Collingwood Opera House of which Edmund Platt writes is the appearance of Wallace Bruce as the final lecturer on the Poughkeepsie Lyceum's 1876-77 Lecture Course with a lecture entitled ``Irving" about the author of ``Rip Van Winkle," Washington Irving. Platt had heard Wallace Bruce lecture on ``Women in Shakespeare" on February 12, 1875, and wrote, ``...it was a good lecture".27 Born and raised in Columbia County, New York, Wallace Bruce was a poet, as well as an orator. During the 1870's he lectured widely on the Lyceum circuit28, and in 1877 he lived in Poughkeepsie.29 The Poz497zkeepsz.c D¢!7y fngzc gave him a mixed review on February 10,1877:

THE LYCEUM CLOSE OF THE LECTURE SEASONA BRILLIANT LECTURE BY WALLACE BRUCE

Wallace Bruce closed the Lyceum course last evening, with his new lecture on ``Washington Irving." The audience was unusually large and bril-` liant, and its appreciation of the brilliant qualities of our townsman, was evinced by the applause which so many times broke in upon his utterance, even when he seemed to leave no place for it. After the prophet wins rich honor abroad, he may safely look for a welcome at home. Yet it is but fair to our own home taste, to say that Mr. Bruce has, from his first lecture here three years ago, won admiration quite apart from his rising fame abroad.

Let us pick what flaws we justly may. The slight friction-so to call itarising from a first delivery of a new lecture, and the occasional reference to the manuscript will of course speedily pass away. But unless we err in taste, the burial of Irving should close the lecture.-What follows would be attractive in the body of a less glowing discourse, but is somewhat of an anticlimax where it occurs. It is restful to the highest wrought interest, but Mr. Bruce can afford to let his audience rest after he leaves them.

The body of the lecture merits warm praise. It is an easy thing to analyze Irving's writings and narrate his life.-But only a lover of his spirit and one who has breathed the very atmosphere of his sunny and dewy soul, could so set forth the banquet of his sweets that in the morsel possible to offer in a lecture the hearers shall taste the ripe peach through and through.

But just this is what Mr. Bruce accomplished. From Diedrich Knickerbocker, through Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle, Westminster Abbey and Columbus, the Alhambra and the Father of his Country,-all that Irving wrote come to us, opening the very heart of character, place and author.

The lecture abounds in passages striking because they so mustrate the subject, and in their eloquence show how the most splendid lustre of a great writer is but the shining out in him of the light which all humanity feels to be its own. It is the fitting tribute of one who has mastered his subject in the strength of sympathy, and is sure to arouse the sympathy of all who hear, so that they, too, shall understand the master. There is hardly a finer passage in

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imaginative literature than Mr. Bruce's likening the great writers of old England to the lakes of the Adirondacks. The earnestness of thought and style comes out, too, in delivery, whose glowing fervor, warms his audience into sympathy with his subject as well as with himself. ``Washington Irving" will add to the reputation won by ``Robert Burns," ``The Landmarks of Scott" and ``Womanhood in Shakespeare;" and Poughkeepsie may well be proud of the Knight in the Lecture lists.30

Platt's comments were more restrained, but left no doubt that he found Wallace Bruce an ideal Lyceum speaker, both entertaining and informative: February,1877

9th Friday.... Afterwards I attended the closing lecture before the Lyceum

by Mr. Wallace Bruce on ``Irving" it was a very interesting and instructive lecture, he introduced several quotations from Irvings books and eulo-

gized him well as a pure and good writer.31

MAGIC LANTERN AND STEREOPTICON Platt was fascinated with the magic lantern and the stereopticon. Before the advent of cinema, or the moving pictures, magic lanterns and stereopticons were used to project pictures onto a screen from glass slides. The principles upon which they operated are similar to those which govern the operations of a slide projector today. There were models for use in the home, as well as professional models which had more powerful lenses for use in theatres or other large spaces. Before the invention of the electric light bulb and the use of electricity, illumination to project the image came from a kerosene lamp or hydrooxygen lamp for the high intensity light needed to project in a theatre. At first images were hand painted on glass slides. By 1850, photographic images on

glass slides, which were often hand colored, were used. The difference between a magic lantern and a stereopticon is the number of projection units.

The magic lantern was a single projection unit, while a stereopticon was two projection u-nits focused on the same area so that the image from one projector could be dissolved into the image from the second projector to produce a continuous picture, as can be done today with two slide projectors and a dissolve , unit.32 In Tfee £77terge7zce of Cz.77e777¢, Charles Musser writes: J

Churches regularly sponsored cultural events, usually as an altemative to corrupting amusements (melodrama, musicals, and so forth) at the local theater or small-town,opera house. They were engaged in a more or less explicit crusade for the souls of the community. Ministers considered the illustrated lecture to be just one of the many weapons in their arsenal and frequently presented them.33

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Platt first mentions the magic lantern in this long entry, written when he was fourteen. Musser notes: "For popular scientific demonstration, reality itself was often projected on the screen via specially constructed slides in which small living insects were able to move about."34 March,1858

3d Wednesday. A cold day. I rode down hill home. I knew my lessons. In the evening I went to our church and saw an exhibition with a microscope and magic lantern it was very good, the microscope magnified 20 millions of times, the man said that the eye of a dragon fly had a great many little eyes in it, 500 or more and he magnified them so much that you could not span across one of them, he showed us some flour and water fermented it was full of snakes, they looked three or four feet long. he put some of them on a stick and they were all bugs alive. He showed some little things that lived in water, they were so transparent that you could see their lungs inside of them, he fed some of these little things to a water tiger you could see the pieces go down into its Stomach.35

The day before his fifteenth birthday, Platt wrote ``Last evening I went to an exhibition in the Universalist Church. They had pictures of slavery with a magic lantern.''36 In a life which was governed by activities which the church sanctioned, the magic lantern and later the stereopticon were approved leisure activities which Edmund Platt greatly enjoyed.

At the Opera House, Platt first enjoyed the stereopticon which Prof.

Cromwell used in his Grand Art Entertainments.J`In July 1870, Cromwell came for one week. Publicity for his appearance said that he used ``the original Stereopticon exhibited in Irving Hall, N. Y."37 Chemist John Fallon of Lawrence, Massachusetts, had developed an improved stereopticon in the 1860's, which was used for shows in Manhattan at Irving Hall in 1863. Musser notes that ``The journalistic praise accorded the stereopticon evokes the amazement that greeted the first screen images and anticipates the later enthusiasm for the novelty of projected motion pictures."38 Prof. Cromwell gave the following entertainments: Monday, July 18

London and its Palace

Tuesday, July 19

Germany and the Rhine

Wednesday, July 20

Italy and Art

Thursday, July 21

Rome and the Vatican

Friday, July 22

Paris and the Louvre

Saturday, July 23

Matinee, Egypt and the Holy Land Evening, Great Britain and Ireland39

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On Tuesday, July 19, the Pocfg7zkcez7sz.e D¢z.Jy £¢gze reported that Prof.

Cromwell's ``splendid art exhibition .... gave the best satisfaction to a large audience." In addition to the photographic views of London, there were ``...one or two American scenes, among which were our Soldiers Fountain and a portrait of Prof . Fastman, which received more applause than the rest."40 0n Wednesday, the £¢gJc reported ``Prof. Cromwell gave his second entertainment at the Opera House last evening, and it was attended by a large and fashion\ able audience. There being no lights in the Hall, no unpleasantness was felt from the hot weather."!!41 Platt went on Thursday and wrote, ``...went to an exhibition at the Opera House of scenes in Rome thrown on a screen by an instrument like a magic lantern, it was good.''42 The review and article in the Poz{gJzkeepsz.e D¢z.Zy fngJc the next day made it clear that this exhibition Was food I

for the mind and the spirit - ministry approved.

SOMETHING ALL SHOULD SEE -We know that if our citizens only were fully aware of the merit of Prof. Cromwell's delightful exhibitions, that the Opera House would be found too small to accommodate the crowd that would flock there. We hope. now that it is cooler there will be a larger attendance. It is now large and very select and fashionable, but not so large as the merit of the entertainment deserves. Last night Rome Ancient and Modern was most superbly rendered. St. Peters stood before us, and the halls of the Vatican with their great works of art. The programme was all of especial mention, therefore it is impossible for us to designate each beauty.43

Prof. Cromwell returned to Poughkeepsie for a week in September 1872, and Platt went to two shows, one on England and one on France; and again enjoyed them. In reviewing the second night's entertainment, the £¢gJe said: That such an exhibition as Prof. Cromwell's, resting on so broad a basis must be of the highest interest to every community, not only as healthy and chaste amusement but as an instructor, is self-evident to all who know how greedy is the eye for the picturesque secrets of the wide world and how important are such splendid object lessons in conveying accurate impressions to the mind of the young. At a time, when so much of what is given to the senses is perverted by false and unscrupulous motives, this honest use of light to illumine the understanding and gratify the curiosity, should meet with the approbation of intelligence and morality everywhere. 44

,

Lecturers in the Poughkeepsie Lyceum course used a magic lantern to illustrate their talks. Although the Poc{gJzkeepsz.c Dflz.ky fngJe did not report its use,

Platt wrote on Friday, December 11, 1874, ``This evening we heard Prof. James Degarmo lecture on Glaciers, he illustrated it with a magic lantern showing a

great many pictures and explaining all the theories regarding them. It was interesting and instructive."45 The educational goal of the Lyceum lecture course was achieved for Platt that evening with the assist of the magic lantern.

The final mention Platt makes of the use of the stereopticon is:

55

January,1876 14th Friday.... This evening we heard Prof. Proctor lecture on ``The infinities around us," he is an astronomer, and his lecture carried us from the Moon to the Sun and then to the planets one after another and finally out to the ``star depth," thousands of millions of miles away. he illustrated his lecture by stereopticon views, those of the moon were very clear and distinct. Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were large and clear, giving a correct likeness of

the way they look through larger telescopes, then he gave views of the heavens as seen thrbugh telescopes with the immense number of stars in view, one view showing over three hundred and fifty thousand of them, it was wonderfully interesting and instructive lecture.46

Platt's diary introduces us to the pleasure of entertainment through the use of a projected image on a screen long before cinema came to the Collingwood Opera House in 1901. The history of the use of the magic lantern and the stereopticon has not been extensively documented to date, so Edmund Platt's diaries help uncover early screen practice at a small city opera house.

MUSIC From 1869 to 1876, Edmund Platt attended between two and four musical events each year. Out of a total of twenty-four performances, ten were concerts of The Mendelssohn Society, which was formed about 1866 for the study and performance of oratorio music. Helen Andrus wrote in her book, A Ce7zf#ny o/ Music in Pouglckeepsie that

.... it proved to be one of the most flourishing musical organizations in the history of the city. It continued for more than eleven years and was one of the greatest forces in developing an appreciation of high-class music. It was also the means of bringing out many solo singers who, perhaps, without these opportunities, would never have become known.47

The first Mendelssohn Society concert Platt heard in the Opera House: February, 1870

23d Wednesday. The event of the day was a concert by the Mendelsohn society in the evening, at the Opera House, it was well attended and a very good concert. they sung Mozart's 12th Mass. The West Point Band played the accompaniment.48 The next two concerts Platt attended, he pronounced ``very good''.49 These were followed by an ``Old Folks Concert''.

May,1873

23d Friday This evening we went to a Concert by the Mendelsohn Society, they were all dressed in the style of 100 years ago, and it was an ``Old folks concert" in appearance and in music, the songs they sung were all old-fashioned. It was a great success, the music was very fine and the

56

house was well filled, everybody seemed pleased many of the costumes were very handsome.50 Helen Andms wrote: ``Although this `old folks' concert was not given in the cause of high art, it increased the treasury of the society and made the performance of the classics more possible."51 To mark the U.S. Centennial, the Society gave another costume concert on January 25, 1876. Platt said, ``...the concert was

very good and attended by a very large audience, even the upper gallery was well filled."52

According to Andrus, In the fall of 1873...the society was in need of money, and as Poughkeepsie had not yet reached the point where classic music could can out very large, wen paying audiences, it was decided to first give a popular concert. R. W; Saeger, who made a specialty of conducting such entertainments, came for the purpose, and under his training and management, the oratorio ``Esther'' was given in the Opera House on October 7th and 8th, 1873. It was the most brilliant performance by local talent that had ever been given, and was received with great enthusiasm by two immense audiences .... The performance was given as an opera, with stage scenery, brilliant costumes and well trained acting.53

Edmund and Mary Platt had seen fs#zcr performed in Amsterdam, New York, while on vacation that summer. Platt had written that ``...it was an excellent entertairment all the speaking was done in song and the singing was very good.''54 The Platts attended the first performance.

October, 1873

7th Tuesday. The rain continued till toward evening. Attended the ``Oratorio of Esther'' at the Opera House given by the Mendelsohn Society, it is the same thing we saw in Amsterdam, but very much better here except a few particulars, the facilities at the Opera House are first class and the scenery, etc. was good. There were a great many performers, all dressed in appropriate and many of them elegant costume. The music was first class. I thought they had a little more acting than necessary, but altogetheritwasaveryfineentertainmentandthepeoplewerewellpleased.55

ThehighpointinperformancefortheMendelssohnSocietywasreachedwith the performance of the oratorio £J2.7.¢fe on April 27, 1874. Theodore Thomas'

orchestra accompanied the performance. Thomas toured the country with his orchestra, the first touring orchestra to bring classical music to people in sman towns and big cities, in concert halls and outdoor parks. Before his marriage, Platt attended a Theodore Thomas concert with Mary and wrote ``...they gave us a grand concert, the finest music, I think, that has ever been given in this city."56 They also attended a concert b`y Theodore Thomas' Orchestra on January 30, 1871, which Platt had said was ``very good."57

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April,1874 27th Monday.... This evening attended a concert by the Mendelsohn Society and Theodore Thomas' orchestra, they gave the oratorio of Elijah. Mr. Whitney of Boston was principal singer, it was a splendid concert, one of the best I have ever heard, and they had an immense audience, at a dollar and a dollar and a half a ticket.58 The Pong7zkecpsz.e D¢z7y £¢gJe reported that Mr. M. W. Whitney of Boston was

the greatest interpreter of the character of Elijah in the world, ``..having sung it in New York, Boston and other cities, and being now under engagement to go to London, expressly to sing it there.''59 The paper's review of the concert the next day said: The Concert of the Mendelssohn Society last night was its grandest success.

From the beginning to the last act every part was sustained with the most perfect accuracy and the most exquisite expression.60

Mr. Whitney returned to Poughkeepsie May 19, 1876, 'with Adelaide Phillips, whom Helen Andrus called ``the greatest contralto of America at that time''61 for a reprise of Zzz./.¢Jz. Platt s-aid, ``...Fannie Myers sang the soprano solos, and the

society the choruses, it was a very fine concert. Whitney is a magnificent singer and Fannie did very nicely.''62 Fannie Myers was a member of the Presbyterian Church choir, and the platts must have heard her sing often.63 ` Another Mendelssohn Society concert worth noting was Handel's Messiah.

EZ=

January,1875

19th Tuesday. Very cold day, about two below zero in the moming. Went to _meeting in the evening, it was not large, but good.

Afterwards went to a concert by the Mendelssohn Society, they sang the oratorio of the Messiah, it was very good.64 The Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle's review the next day said..

Last evening's concert by the Mendelssohn Society was a success as far as the music and the audience was concerned, but failed to be as enjoyable as it should have been, because the Opera House was so cold. No one, either on the stage or in the audience was comfortable, and the effect was plainly visible in a certain want of enthusiasm among the singers, and a restlessness among the listeners. When one is shivering one can neither sing nor hear well.65

Helen Andms wrote, ``For the next `nine days,' the fashionable question was: `Did you take cold at the concert?"66 0n Tuesday, May 3, 1870, Platt attended a concert by Miss Clara Louise Kellogg, an American soprano who toured widely in Europe and the United States with her own company until 1889. John Dizikes in Opcr# I.# A77ccrz.c¢ writes

that ``Kenogg traveled everywhere, the first American impresario to champion opera in English.''67

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The Poughkeapsie Dady Eagle reported..

PORTRAIT OF MISS KELLOGG.-We understand that one thousand photographs of this distinguished artiste win be given away at the concert this evening.68

Platt reported that the concert ``...was very fashionable, operatic, but still good. Miss Kenogg is a fine singer.''69 The Pongfekeeps2.e D¢£.Zy £¢gJe reported on

the expenses and profit from the concert: STATISTICAL.-Clara Louisa Kellogg was paid $300, and S. 8. Mills, the Pianist, $150 for their part of the entertainment at Collingwood Opera House last evening. There were 950 persons in the orchestra chairs and parquette, 450 in the Dress Circle, and 9 in the upper gallery. Just before the Concert closed there were 40 private carriages, hacks and other vehicles in front of the Opera House, standing three abreast from the comer of Cannon and Market streets to the Fallkill Bank. The expenses of Messrs. White and Morgan, who brought Miss Kenogg to this crty, reached nearly $1,000. Their profits are about $150.70

Howard 8. Putnam gave four concerts that Platt attended, including two for the benefit of the YMCA. Howard 8. Putnam grew up in Poughkeepsie, and, according to Helen Andms, in his teens ``...began his career as a pianist by playingfrequentlyatprivatemusicales,someofthemattheMorganHousewherehe lived. In 1870, when he was twenty years of age, he made his first public appearance at a concert in the Opera House. From that time, he was, for many years, one of the foremost pianists and teachers in the city.... Puring the seventies, Howard 8. Putnam did a great deal of concert playing, much of it for the benefit of charitable institutions. In April 1871, he gave a concert in the Opera House for the benefit of the YMCA building, which resulted in a large addition to the funds of the association.''71 0f this concert for the building fund on Friday, May 28, 1871, Platt said: ``This evening Howard Putnam gave a concert for the benefit of the Y. M. C. A. Miss Ida Rosenburgh sung very nicely and the concert was good and well attended.''72 The concert on October 31, 1872, was given close to Election Day, November 5, 1872, when there was a heated political contest in progress. The Democratic newspaper, the Dflz.Zy Nczus wrote, ``A pleasant relief from the monopoly of politics win be found at the Opera House this evening."73 Platt wrote: ``This evening attended H. 8. Putnam's concert, it was highly artistic."74 The Republican newspaper, the Po2£gjzkeepsz.e D¢z.Jy EngJe, reported that `Upon the whole, the concert

was a grand affair and we are glad to so record it. Mr. Putnam's efforts in the musical line carmot be equalled in this vicinity.''75 Although the concert was too refined for Mr. Platt, even during the heat of the poHtical season the rival newspapers could agree on something.

October, 1873

15th Wednesday. Beautiful day. Fair trade. This evening the Home for the Friendless had a Concert at the Opera house out of which they realized nearly $800.00, it was a first class concert. Miss Ida

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Roseburgh was the principal singer and she is very good. I went to the Y. M. C. A. and after that to the concert.76

Howard 8. Putnam, who organized the concert, is not mentioned at all. Platt, however, is more generous on April 10,1874: This evening the Y. M. C. A. gave a free concert in the Opera House, there was an immense audience and the concert was good, the music of a high order was given by H. 8. Putnam and several artists from New York, some of the audience were boys and as the singers did not get as much applause as they thought best, they were somewhat displeased.77

Evidently, they were displeased enough so that this notice appeared in the next day's paper: The committee of the Young Men's Christian Association who had the Concert of last evening in charge, feel it necessary on their part to apologize to the artists and to the public for the disgraceful proceedings of part of the audience.

The boys who were there and created the disturbance obtained their tickets from the member of the Association who has charge of the rooms, and not of the Committee.-The concert was a very fine affair, and no one regretted the disturbance more than the committee.78 The Platts also attended three concerts by jubilee singers, ``refined" negro performers of religious music.79 May, 1872

1st Wednesday .... This evening we attended a concert by the Jubilee singers of Fisk University, Nashville. They are colored people, students who were formerly slaves, they are fine singers and gave a good entertainment, mostly plantation songs, they are giving the profits to erect a building for their college and have cleared thus far since December last $20,000.80

March,1875

15th Monday.... It rained all day, but this evening it almost poured down, nevertheless we went to hear the Hampden singers at the Opera House, and were richly repaid as it was one of the best concerts I ever heard, all vocal mostly choral, but rich and natural, nothing artificial, it was real music and from the applause they received I judge everybody else was delighted.81

The Hampton Singers were advertised as ex-slaves, students from Hampton Normal Institute in Hampton, Virginia, and were raising funds for a building at their school through their concert tour.82 The review the next day in the paper amplified Platt's comments.

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1

The Concert last evening by the Hampton Singers, was a brilliant success.

The house was well filled and the singing such as to please all. Nearly every piece was encored, and some of the voices are equal to any that appear on the stage. The singers all enter into the spirit of the songs, and sing with great .zeal. The finest piece of the evening in our opinion was `01d Folks at Home', sung by one of the lady singers. The proceeds of the

Concerts all go to a good cause, and we heartily commend the singers to the people who may be so fortunate as to hear them.83

The musical performances Platt attended were primarily those associated with the Poughkeepsie community, and he seemed to prefer the spirituals of the jubilee singers and the familiar songs of the Mendelssohn Society's ``Old Folks Concerts" to performances of classical music and opera. Although Platt was to become a leader in the Poughkeepsie community, he did not seem to strive to be a part of the fashionable and refined set for whom attendance at operatic and classical music performances at the Opera House was considered mandatory by th.eir social peers. IIis habits and tastes were more straight-forward and uncom-

plicated. He attended the performances he liked, unless they were for charities he supported, when he might make an exception.

7

FAIRS AND FESTIVALS

When the Collingwood Opera House opened, it hosted many community fairs and festivals held to raise money for local charitable organizations. A flat floor was extended from the stage over the seats in the center of the auditorium.

Before the opening of the Collingwood, these fairs had been held first in the upper floor of City Hall, and then in Pine Hall, both of which had flat floors.

The first event Edmund Platt attended at the new opera house was a Fair for the Home for the Friendless on Friday, February 5, 1869. The Home for the Friendless, today called The Children's Home, was an orphanage located on South Hamilton Street near where Platt lived. Platt commented that there was ``...a great crowd, and lots of money.''84 The report in Saturday's paper was extensive and gives a good picture of how these events were arranged at the Opera House.

CRARITY THE BENEFIT FAIR FOR THE HOME FOR THE FRIENDLESSSCENES AT THE COLLINGWO0D OPERA HOUSE Porighkeepsie is certainly a benevolent city, or at least the inhabitants thereof are proof of, which was plainly visible in the magnificent Collingwood House yesterday afternoon and evening, the occasion being the opening of the Benefit Fair and Festival in aid of the Home for the Friendless. We dropped in upon the scene at 5 p. in., at which hour the

grand stage which covers all the seats in the parquet was filled with heavily laden tables, on which rested everything good and useful. The rear or

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east end is a long table, on which rests fancy needle work, embroidered patterns, pin cushions of every variety and Style,gentlemen's slippers, photographs of eminent divines, etc.,etc. This is called ``the childrens' table," and is presided over by ten children, who have been hard at work all winter preparing the fine things for this fair. They, now offer their choice stock for sale for the benefit of the ``Home." Attached to it also is a table laden with edibles, also taken care of by the ``ten darlings.`" In the dressing rooms on either side of the stage are provisions of all kinds, and in abundance crockery, culinary utensils, etc. Directly under the drop-curtain, a little to the left, is the ``Treasurer's tent," formed of flags, in a graceful and artistic manner .... Ranged along under the edge of the Dress Circle are six long tables, at either of which one ca_n procure a substantial meal, including steaming hot coffee or tea, for a fair price. And too, if he likes, one can top off with a plate of cream of any brand almost .... In the center of the circle of tables is a large floral table filled with bouquets of choice flowers, wreaths, etc. charmingly arranged .... A table of fancy articles at the southwest corner of the stage attracted attention for the fine display of curious work of every description .... Hanging in conspicuous places are such placards as

``Candies," ``Lemon Ice", ``Philadelphia Cream," "Rogers Statutes," etc., etc.

THE CHILDREN

The children of the Home reached the Opera House at 5 p. in., and as they filed in the main hall, led by Mrs. Palmer, the matron, and Mrs. Fletcher, their teacher, they took their seats at the front of the first gallery, showing high glee over the beautiful appearance of things generally. Soon after they commenced the afternoon exercises by singing under the direction of Prof. Andrus. Then a recess of half an hour followed, after which more singing and declamation, and then-oh! how they did go into the good things served up to them by the kind hearted ladies. By this time it was nearly half past seven o'clock, when the little ones began to show signs of having ``sawdust in their eyes," or in other words commenced to get sleepy, when they were returned to the Home. There were sixty of them in all, forty-five girls and sixteen boys, clean, bright tidy looking children. Their ages range all the way from two to twelve years of age.

Nineteen of them are under five years of age. Who can foretell the future of any of them!

EVENING

The scene at the Opera House last evening was a very enlivening one.

The first gallery was filled with ladies and gentlemen, while the stage was uncomfortably crowded. An addition to the general attachments of the fair was noticeable in the evening, and that a ``For.tune Teller's department." We

presented ourselves at the doorway and were met by a pretty miss attired in spotless white with a blue sash, who for ten cents presented to us this, as she said, our fortune. Here it is: ``Your wife will be able to do but one 1 62

-

thing-and that is to scold.''-Fortune tellers never do tell the truth.

Another feature of the evening was ``the Courtship in Sleepy Hollow." It costs ten cents to see it. Soon after 7 p. in. D. T. Morgan's Band discoursed fine music, keeping the immense throng in attendance in constant good humor till a late hour. The receipts of the tables must have been large. The

gas for the evening was given gratuitously by the gas coinpany. We learn that the receipts both from sales and donations were very large, and that the fair pecuniarily will be very successful and realize a good benefit for the Home. The fair will be continued to day and this evening. Dinners win be served up for all that desire them at noon and during the afternoon.85 Platt seemed most interested in the amount of money which was being made at the first fairs at the Opera House. Perhaps this was because he was trying to determine how much the YMCA might be able to raise for its activities. He describes the YMCA fair in which he was involved more completely.

November,`1869

16th Tuesday .... This afternoon and evening the Young Mens Christian Association Fair was held at the Opera House, it was largely attended and a complete success.. Mrs. James Winslow was President and It was all arranged by the ladies who deserve credit for the labor they have bestowed on the whole affair. Of course the young men helped where they could. I was chairman of the door and ticket committee. As the fair had been post-

poned two or three times before we were fearful for its success, but it came out nicely. The net proceeds will probably be one thousand dollars.86

Mary had a table at the House of Industry fair on Wednesday, January 25, 1871, and so Platt reports, ``1 went there to tea, it was well patronized.''87 At the Fair for the Home for the Friendless on Tuesday, February 21, 1871, he reported ``1 went to tea there and again after meeting Mary was dressed in highland cos-

tume and attended a shooting or archer gallery."88 The most interesting description of a fair concerned the Japanese Fair held to benefit the Missionary Society in which Platt took a lfelong interest.

December,1872

llth Wednesday. This` evening we went for supper to a Japanese Fair held in the Opera House today, we saw a number of fancy articles sent from Japan to be sold at the fair, also a nondescript animal or fish about a foot and a half long have [has] a head like a monkey and the body and tail bf a fish.89

A report by the Pottgfekecz7sz.e D¢z7y £¢gze does not enlighten us about what

nondescript animal Platt encountered: ``The Fair was a great success, the goods being carried off so fast that the managers decided late in the evening not to hold the Fair today as all the Jipanese goods, but one or two pieces, were sold."90 0n Wednesday, February 5, 1873, Platt reported on a Benefit Entertainment to raise money for the House of Industry - ``Mrs. Jarley win exhibit her celebrated Wax Figures, Afternoon and Evening," states the ad in the Po#g7zkeepsz.e D¢{.Zy

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£¢gJe.91 This benefit was to take the place of the annual Fair and Festival - a new kind of benefit entertainment.

February, 1873

t

5th Wednesday. Pleasant. Snow still melting. Mary and the baby [Emily, born January 31] are getting along nicely. This evening therewasan.exhibitofMrs.Jarley'sfiguresattheOperaHouseforthebenefit of the House o`f Industry. The figures were an young men and ladies of this place who were dressed up, and made to look as much like wax as possible. The one who represented Mrs. Jarley came from New York and trained the ``figures" and explained them. The exhibition was divided into three parts and one third of the figures on the stage at once. there they stood not moving a muscle until the porters carried them to the front when after an explanation by Mrs. Jarley they were wound up and performed some slight maneuver as if by machinery. Jim [Platt's brother James] represented Columbus in the act of discovering America, when wound up he raised a telescope and moved it around as if looking for something. it was a splendid exhibition everyone did just right and strangers thought they were really wax at first. every now and then, one would fall over coming down as solid as an image could. the explanations were capital making great fun, then Mrs. ]arley sang a song, a perfect ``take-off" on operatic singing which received tremendous applause.92 The Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle reported the next day..

LIVEljY WAX FIGURES.-At the close of the afternoon performance of the Jarley Wax Figures yesteiday all the Figures had a high old time `behind the scenes." Never did Wax Figures move so lively before. It would have done the lamented Artemus Ward good to have seen them. They danced, sang, and played the piano and cut up all sorts of didoes.93

TheHangingofthecrane.

Illustrated by Tableaux Vivants.

AT THE OPERA Hob.SEI

Tuesday Evening, Feb. 9, I 875. ^' 7+5 o'clork.

Matincc at 3.3o P- M.

BENEI..IT FOR

HOUSE OF` INDUSTRY.

Front cover of the program from `'The Hanging of the Crane," Tlableanx and Statuary,February9,1875.Theproduction was a benefit for the House of Industry.

Cohingwood|Bardavon Opera House Programs , Local History Department ,

AdrianceMemorialLibrary/GpljD.

64

Financial Results: The Treasurer, Miss Sarah Bowne, reports the Receipts and Expenditures as fonows: 94

RECEIPTS $918.17 63.00

Sale of Tickets

Donation-Ms. M. J. Myers Ms. Sandford Ms. Atwill Mrs. wheaton Ms. Edward Storm Ms. Eastman

10.00

5.00 10.00

14.25 10.00

25.00

Charles W. Swift . Mrs. Win. Davies Joseph Smart Thomas Fanning Freddie Martin ]as. Coningwood Wax Figures

10.00

5.00

5.00 1.75

12.60 13.00

$1,102.77

EXPENDITURES se8.00

Printing M. Cantrell Opera House

103.00 rrfl .A Ii J

15.00

Snrith Brothers Men at the Opera House Piano

6.20 5.00

$215.40 $1,102.77 215.40

Receipts

Expenditures

grfffrflsfl

Net Profit

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The front cover of the Collingwood Program for Mrs. Jarley's Wax Figures.

The interior is annotated with the nanes of the Pougivkeepsie performers.

Local History Department, Adriance Memorial Library, Greater Pouglckeepsie Library District.

66

Two years later, the House of Industry gave another Tableau Presentation, with matinee and evening performances.

February, 1875

9th Tuesday. Very cold, mercury below zero all day, eight below zero in the morning .... Went to meeting in the evening, and afterwards to the Opera House to an exhibition of Tableaus and Statuary for the benefit of the House of Industry, the scenes were illustrative of Longfellow's Poem ``Hanging of the Crane" and also ``Coming through the Rye." They were all gotten up by our young people, they were good.95 For this performance, the Poz4gJzkeepsz.c D¢z.ky fngJc amplifies Platt's description:

The entertainment given for the benefit of the House of Industry last night was an excellent one, worthy to follow and be classed with the ``Jarley Wax Works" of former years, though of an entirely different character. Longfellow's poem the ``Hanging of the Crane" was illustrated by a series of eight tableaux, presented in most excellent style. The old fire

place, with its swinging crane and brightly blazing fire, occupied one side of the stage behind it being an elegant staircase, part of that built by Mr. Scofield for the Johnston Building, while the furniture, dressing of the stage, costumes and surroundings all were in most perfect keeping. The four tableaux which followed, illustrating the old Scotch song `Coming thru' the rye' were also excellent and pretty, and the statuary that was given between the scenes was most perfect and un-lifelike.

During the interval between the first and second parts Mr. Hartz, the magician, showed some of his tricks.

Misses Alexander and Corwin, and Messrs. Ahreet and Halliwell,

gave some very acceptable music while the tableaux were in preparation, the songs by Miss Alexander, who was in excellent voice, receiving special applause.96

OTHER COMMUNITY EVENTS

After the Civil War, a number of veterans groups were formed. They presented different entertainments at the Opera House. Platt had served briefly in the 21st Regiment during the Civil War, and occasionally participated in 21st Regiment activities after the war.

April,1870

20th Wednesday.... This evening attended an exhibition of the Independent Veteran Vols. at the Opera House, they showed several scenes as acted at the south during the war, such as ``Camp Life," "A surprise," ``Rebel raiders,'' ``Prison life," ``Sharp shooting," etc. nearly every scene ended in ~ a fight, where they fired their guns and went through all the motions of a regular fight, and then closed with a tableau. It was very good indeed.97

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The paper the next day reported: ``...During the Camp scenes, when the attack occurred, Mrs. Cornelia Phelps, who was seated in the first gallery, fainted away. This caused a little excitement in her immediate vicinity, but quiet soon prevailed.''98

In June, 1869 Platt attended the closing exercises of two of Poughkeepsie's

girls schools, Poughkeepsie Female Academy, Rev. D. G. Wright, principal, and Collegiate Institute for Young Ladies, Rev. C. D. Rice, principal. In each case the `\

program consisted of readings and musical selections. On Friday, June 18, he said, ``This evening attended with a party of girls, the closing exercises of Rice's school at the Opera House, they were good, but long. A large crowd was in attendance."99 June, 1869

23rd Wednesday...Called on Maggie Hoyt at Mrs. Tooker's this afternoon and in the evening went to Mr. Wright's closing entertainlnent with her and Ada [Tooker]. the exercises were mostly readings, and were done in good style. it was at the Opera House. I went out long enough to go over to the Y. M. C. A. business meeting where we elected John I. Platt, President [Edmund'sbrother].100

POLITICAL RALLIES

\

The election of 1872 was hard fought. In the Presidential race General Grant was running for a second term opposed by Horace Greeley, founder and editor of the Nczu york Trz.Z7#7ce. Edmund Platt's brother, John, was Chairman of the Republican party. Both Republican and Democratic rallies took place at the Opera House with the first Republican rally taking place on Tuesday, September 10. The first political event Edmund Platt attended was relatively genteel -a debate between John I. Platt and C. H. S. Williams at a meeting chaired by Mayor Harvey Eastman.

October, 1872 7th Monday.... This evening John and C. H.`S. Williams had a debate in the Opera House on the political questions of the day, there was a large audience and both sides were presented, but like all Democratic speakers Chas.

H. S. had little to say but cry down the opposition.101

Platt's view was a Republican one, as were the comments in the Pocfg7zkeepsz.e D¢z7y £¢gJe the next day. The Dflz7y Press, the Democratic newspaper, viewed the outcome differently:

Mr. Williams maintained his part of the argument with readiness and force. He reviewed the history of the Republican party and justified the action of Liberal Republicans by the corruptions which have become prominent in the Administration, and by republican treachery to its early promises and practices.102

During this election season there were more political rallies than usual. The second rally that Platt wrote about was the Saturday before the election, when the Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives, James Blaine, spoke at the Opera House in support of General Grant for President and incumbent General

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John H. Ketchum for the House of Representatives. Ketchum was opposed by John 0. Whitehouse, a prosperous Poughkeepsie owner of a large shoe factory.

The District, which included Putnam, Dutchess, and Columbia County, was considered to be hopelessly Repubfican; however, Whitehouse brought some of his energy and business skills to the contest and made it an exciting and memorable contest.103 A free train was run over the Poughkeepsie and Eastern Railroad to accommodate all who desired to attend.104 John I. Platt introduced James Blaine to the audience in the crowded hall.

November, 1872 2d Saturday. Politics are on the mind of every one. Speaker Blaine of the House of Representatives spoke at the Opera House tonight, to a very large audience.105

0n the day of the election, Tuesday, November 5, 1872, George W. Davids, local editor of the Poz{gJzkecpsz.e Dczz7y fngJe, arranged for the installation of wires

from Western Union and Atlantic & Pacific Telegraph Companies to the stage of the Opera House, so that election returns could be given to the audience as fast as they arrived. Tickets of admission cost 25 cents.106

November,1872

5th Tuesday. Election day. Pleasant. A very exciting time here between Ketcham and Whitehouse, each confident and using every means to win. Whitehouse spending money like water and buying everybody who can be bought, paying from ten to fifty dollars for votes all day long, the scenes around the Polls was disgusting. It seemed as if the majority of voters sold their votes. Before we saw how it went. Ketcham is beaten.

I went to meeting. J. Candee led, we had an interesting time and tried to get our minds off the election scenes.107

Edmund Platt, Edmund P. Platt's namesake and nephew (son of John I. Platt), wrote in his Hz.stony a/ Pocfg7zkeepsz.e that `'...money was more freely spent than at

any previous or subsequent election. Whitehouse carried the city by 379 iil votes .... The price of votes is said to have reached as high as $50.108 Whitehouse's

biography puts is differently: The campaign was an exciting and memorable one, and is still spoken of as a remarkable instance of what a trained business man may accomplish in politics when so disposed.109

COMMUNITY CELEBRATIONS

'

The Collingwood Opera House was the site of a number of community celebrations. Platt attended the celebration for the opening of the Poughkeepsie and Eastern Railroad from Poughkeepsie to Stissing. This railroad was promoted by Poughkeepsie's leaders as the first step in connecting Poughkeepsie t-o New England to the East and eventually to the West, after the construction of a railroad bridge.110 For Platt, as a Poughkeepsie retailer, the railroad might bring his business more customers who could now come to Poughkeepsie by the train.

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Soon there would also be special trains leaving after performances at the Opera House to attract new ticket buyers.

January,1871

24th Tuesday. A cold day but pleasant. it was celebrated by the Celebration of the Po'keepsie and Eastern Rail Road, gotten up by the citizens of Po'keepsie. An excursion train ran over the road, out to Stissing and back and then the guests marched to the Opera House and were furnished with dinner, then speeches were made in response to toasts, most of them were good, - it was very successful in every particular, about 700 sat down to the dinner. Was in the store in the evening.111 The Poz/g7!kccpsz.G D¢z7y £¢gzc report the next day helps to set the scene at the

Opera House:

For some time previous to the arrival of the procession at the Opera House ladies and gentlemen flocked thither and took seats in the galleries, over looking the scenes below, where the tables were spread. The orchestra seats had been floored over and upon the flooring rested five long tables, en parallel, and three at angles, the whole capable of entertaining 504 persons. These tables were furnished with ``the best the markets affords."Chickens, turkeys, roast beef, roast pork, vegetables, side dishes, etc. There were also four pi'gs roasted entire, occupying prominent places on the tables, and each weighing forty pounds.

\

Near the Chairman's seat was the identical ``pick" which was used in breaking ground for the popular road. It was finally decorated with evergreens and flowers, and commanded universal attention.-Down stairs in the basement were accommodations for 200 persons more.

All the tables were exquisitely decorated with flowers and as viewed from the galleries presented a fine appearance. The entire arrangements in the Opera House reflected credit upon the ladies of the House of Industry.

At the rear of and over the stage surmounted by an American flag was a banner, on which was inscribed the following: ``OUR CITY GREETS HER PO`KEEPSIE AND EASTERN FRIENDS."

In front of and under the second gallery was the following on muslin: ``HOUSE OF INDUSTRY"

The above were all of the decorations.

Owing to several delays, such as seem to be inseparable from all excursions, the train did not reach this city till nearly two o'clock, when a line was immediately forined, and all marched to the Opera House, the route on the way being lined with people, and gay with flags, while the scream of steam whistles and the ringing of bells testified the general interest in the celebration.

On reaching the Opera House the guests fled to their seats at tha tables, and commenced an attack upgn the abundance of provisions set before them, which indicated appetites sharpened by the cold ride and

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delay, and everywhere were heard expressions of satisfaction and delight at the abundance, variety and elegant appearance of the viands furnished.112

After they ate, there were a number of toasts and speeches given by the officials of neighboring railroads and the leaders from all segments of the Poughkeepsie community. Harvey Eastman, founder of Eastman Business College, probably best expressed the goal of the railroads' investors, according to the Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle:

H. G. Eastman predicted an unrivaled future for Poughkeepsie, the railroad and the country around it. In future years, and with double and treble our present population, we would date back to this day as the beginning of our prosperity.113

0n December 17, 1873, an elaborate banquet was held at the Opera House on the occasion of the laying of the cornerstone for the Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge. On that day Edmund Platt wrote ``...very busy all we can do in the store."114 During the Christmas selling season, a retailer has one priority!

Young Men's Christian Association Convention June,1873 13th Friday.... This evening I attended a meeting of the reception comlnittee of the Y. M. C. A., of which I am chairman to make some arrangements for the Y. M. C. A. convention, which is to meet here in July.115 July' 1873

9th Wednesday. A beautiful day. The 18th annual international convention of the Young Men's Christian association of the United States and British Provinces assembled here this morning. The day sessions are to be held in the lst Methodist Church and the evening ones in the Opera house. Delegates arrived by every boat and train and our [Y. M. C. A.I rooms were thronged all day long. We have two young men at our house, Mr. Galpin & Mr. Steele of Ansonia, Conn. Mr. H. K. Porter of Pittsburgh is president of the convention. This evening the welcome meeting` was held in the Opera House, it was crowded, addresses were delivered by M. Downing, J. I. Platt & Dr. Wheeler and replies by M. Porter and H. Thane Miller. after the welcome meeting we had a ``reception" in our rooms. both the large rooms were handsomely decorated and we gave refreshments to the entire company over 1000 people, as not only the delegates but all the members of our own association and all who entertain our guests and the patrons of our Association were invited. The whole affair was a success, everyone seemed pleased and said they had never been more cordially received.116

Reception Chairman Edmund Platt had done a good job. With his responsibilities discharged in his usual careful manner, Platt was free to enjoy the rest

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of the convention. Evening meetings each night from Wednesday, July 9, through the closing meeting on Sunday, July 13, were held at the Opera House. loth Thursday. Delegates still arrive. I attended the convention all day.

The evening meeting was largely attended, very few things draw larger houses than we had tonight, there were several addresses and all good. llth Friday.... There are street services every night at 7 o'clock in four or five places about the city. Gen Howard led a meeting in Eastman park. I attended the convention part of the morning & afternoon and the evening.

12th Saturday. Attended the convention. I cannot attempt to write of the discushions and items of business, only I will say, I never saw a finer looking body of men and their one aim seems to be to work for Christ.

13th Sunday.... This evening the Farewell meeting was held in the Opera House, several addresses were made all good, then the delegates all stood on the stage and around the parquette and joined hands and sung ``Blest be the tie that binds" when the president declared the convention adjourned. some time more was taken in hand shaking and they sung several pieces.

So ends the convention we have thought of and talked of so much, it was not largely attended about 350 ordy being here but every meeting was good and the power of the Holy Spirit seemed to guide every part of it, it seems as if it could not fail to confer a lasting blessing on Pokeepsie so many earnest prayers and words being spoken here,-the delegates all seemed much pleased with their stay here and our own citizens have enjoyed the convention very much.117 The Po#gfekecpsz.e Dflz.Zy E¢gJe followed the Convention very closely and gave

detailed descriptions of the evening meetings, which resembled religious services. They began and ended with hymns - the opening session with ``Onward Christian Soldiers." They included scripture readings and prayers, led by local ministers. The programs varied, with speeches at the opening and closing sessions, a praise meeting, and a question and answer session.118

Y. M. C. A. SPELLING MATCH: POUGHKEEPSIE VS. NEWBURGH Edmund Platt was President of the Poughkeepsie YMCA in May of 1875 when the YMCA Spelling Match took place - a unique community event - with adult contestants. The goal of the event may have been to raise money, which it did.

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May, 1875

7th Friday. At the store as usual, all day and until nearly nine o'clock when I went down to the Association where they are getting up a Spelling match, the Gymnasium was crowded and the stage full of spellers, it was full of interest, we expect to have one in the opera house next Friday night to spell against a company from Newburgh.

14th Friday. At the store as usual. This evening the ``Spelling Match" took

place at the Opera house, there was a very large audience, and it was a great success. The Newburgh people came up on the ``Eagle'',-about 400 of them. The Pokeepsie spellers were on one side of

the stage and the Newburgh on the other, and the judges in the middle. I made a short speech and introduced Mayor Carpenter who made a speech, then the spelling commenced, when a word was missed it was not given out again, and the one who missed, retired from the contest, after about an hour or more the last Newburgh man went down leaving eight Poughkeepsieans still on the floor. Prof. Cook gave some very hard words which soon used them up. C. H. S. Williams being the last man on the floor was presented with a set of books as a prize. Everybody see.ned pleased and the Y. M. C. A. who got it up will realize something handsome from it, the tickets were only 25 cents each.119 The Po#gJzkeapsz.e D¢z7y £¢gze the next day gave an extensive report of the

contest. The Eagle was a steamer which had been chartered to bring the contestants and supporters from Newburgh, including the Mayor Mccroskey of Newburgh. The paper, however, did not give the correct name of President of the YMCA - Edmund Platt, not Edwin!

The scene from the stage was one of beauty and magnificence. The galleries lined as they were with elegantly dressed ladies, looked like a circle of flowers, and diamonds and jewelry glistened in the gaslight with great brilliancy. The parquette and orchestra chairs were also filled closely with ladies and gentlemen, making one of the most animated scenes ever witnessed in the Opera House. The stage was neatly carpeted and the chairs for the spellers were arranged in triangular form two deep on each side.

To the rear of the stage against the wall seats were set apart for the favored few. Tables were also arranged for reporters.

The Poctgfekecpsz.c D¢z.Zy E¢gze report continued to give a detailed report of

the contest and ended with\a list of the contestants from each city, the incorrect spelling of the word with which each was eliminated from the contest, and the correct spelling. The contestants were adults and included John I. Platt, Edmund's brother and editor of the Pocfg7!keapsz.c Dflz7y fngzc, who misspelled ``chuff" - a bore or churl.120

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There was a return match: May,1875

21st Friday. A beautiful day. This afternoon I went with a large party to Newburgh on the ``Eagle" to attend the return spelling match.

A committee of the Newburgh Y. M. C. A. met us on the dock and took us up to their rooms where our spellers and their friends were treated to a collation, after which we went to the Opera House where the contest took place, there was a great crowd and I never saw a more intensely interested audience. The spelling lasted about two hours and a half when the Pokeepsieians were all down and two from Newburgh left. We had a pleasant sail home where we arrived about twelve o'clock.121

l^rhat Platt Didn't See Edmund Platt's visits to the Collingwood Opera House were guided by what was considered appropriate behavior for a Christian gentleman. Understanding these guidelines is difficult for us today. For example, on Wednesday, May 6, 1868, at a YMCA meeting, Platt wrote: ``The amusement question came up afterwards, some person having sent up 20 dollars to purchase checkers & chess for our rooms, but it was voted not to allow them.''122 Lyceum lectures, fairs to raise money for worthy charities, refined music, community celebrations, and probably, to a lesser degree, political rallies were appropriate. Melodramas, musicals, minstrels and other sorts of coarse amusement were clearly out of bounds.

Edmund Platt's attendance at events at Pine Hall, the predecessor of the Collingwood Opera House, as recorded in his diary during the 1860's, was described much like those he attended at the Collingwood when it opened in 1869. The only act of rebellion was Friday, September 4, 1863, when he wrote ``...Went to see Campbells Minstrels in the evening, they were middling."123 He

never recorded another visit to see minstrels, or variety troupes, such as Tony Pastor, and they were frequent and popular entertainments. In 1928, Neil O'Brien, a famous minstrel player, appeared in Keith and Procter's vaudeville at the Bardavon Theatre, as the Collingwood Opera House was then known and gave an ±r\terview to the Poughkeepsie Eagle-News saying..

Poughkeepsie is and always was a good minstrel town. I have played here many times, of course, and always enjoyed being here.124 0n Tuesday, December 9, 1862, Platt heard Barnum speak: ``In the evening I attended a lecture by P. T. Bamum on the subject of ``Money making", it was first rate; and he gave a great deal of good advice. E. 8. [a date] accompanied me there."125 Barnum's moneymaking schemes seem a little shady to us today; however, the lecture was given before Bamum exhibited his ``Cardiff Giant" -.a hoax of a hoax, which made.more money than the ``original" hoax. Platt did not see the Cardiff Giant when it visited the Opera House as part of the Turner's Grand Concert and Fancy Dress Ball on January 31,1870.126 It is not known which hoax was exhibited.

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The paper gave Barnum a good review, and it seems Platt had respectable company.

RICH LECTURE.-P. T.. Barnum, the well known genius of the American Museum of New York, and the showman of world wide notoriety, delivered a lecture in Pine's Hall last evening, being the second in Prof.

Eastman's College course, which was so full of int.erest, so rich and entertaining that neither our time or room will allow us to do justice to it this / morning. We must therefore postpone our remarks until to-morrow. The spacious Hall was crowded to its utmost capacity with a vast, intelligent audience.127

There were many more musical events that Platt could have attended, such as those given by Theodore Thomas or Caroline Richings and the Richings English Opera Troupe, or by Mr. J. Levy, the best cornet player in the country. Platt seems to have enjoyed most the musical performances which included local people he knew and which consisted of light music. Perhaps in later years he enjoyed John Philip Sousa's appearances. Mr. and Mrs. E. P. Platt are listed as patrons for the performances of Gilbert and Sullivan's T7zc Mz.kedo given on October 27 and 28, 1903, for the benefit of the scholarship fund of Poughkeepsie High School.128 The

production was under the supervision of C. E. Macomber and the performers were Poughkeepsie residents. Supporting a local charitable cause with a light entertainment performed by local performers certainly fits within the parameters of the performances Platt attended in the 1870's.

During the early years of the Opera House there were a number of performances of plays by Shakespeare, often by well respected, serious actors, for example: Edwin Booth in H¢77€Jef and Rz.cJzflrd lit and Edwin Forrest in Offrezzo.129

For Edmund Platt, however, any dramas were off limits; however, a lecture by Wallace Bruce on ``Women in Shakespeare" was fine.

When the Opera House opened in 1869 a number`of balls were given by local

groups: Phoenix Hose Ball and the Germania Masquerade. Dancing is not something Platt mentions doing in his diary. It is interesting, however, to note that in the advertisement for the Germania Masquerade in 1869 there is a list of rules to be followed, as given by the Opera House management. This suggests that there would be participants who could not be counted on to know how to behave, and so rules were in order. Keeping order and decorum were very important to the Opera House management and community leaders.

ORDER 0F THE OPERA HOUSE

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1. No smoking allowed.

2. All masks are requested to assemble on stage behind the curtain and not go on the floor before the procession takes place.

3. None but masks can join the first three dances.

4. Persons who do not take part in dancing, are not allowed to stand around the floor during dancing time.

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5. Persons occupying seats in the galleries should not stand up in front of others.

6. In order to give every person a chance to see the performance on the stage, we would request all persons to clear the floor at the end of the first 4 - 5 dances.130

By 1873, the following comment appeared in the Po2!g7zkecpsz.c D¢z.Zy £4zgzc.

After this date, there were very few balls and fairs which required the use of the wooden floor covering the seats to create a flat floor. Other halls in Poughkeepsie were used for the balls that were held.

TERPSICHOREAN FESTIVITIES DEGENERATING.- Balls are degenerating rapidly.-Latter day balls are so managed that respectable females are gradually shunning them. Time was when it took five dollars to purchase an ordinary ball ticket, and then no lady or gentleman thought of attending one without being genteelly attired. For a gentleman in those days to appear on the floor without gloves was simply low and vulgar.

Now a days nine out of ten go to a ball gloveless and at a ball in this city this winter we observed several young men dancing who wore no collars or neck ties, and so called ladies dancing about the room with their bonnets on. The sooner such gatherings are discontinued entirely the better it will be for society generally.131

The paper made a number of comments on questions of behavior at the Opera House. In a review of the first drama played at the Opera House, TJze Lady of Lyo7c, the reviewer noted: ``Better order and decorum was never had before at any place of amusement here, all of which can be credited to the general management of the Opera House."132 Next year the following comlnent was made: PRESERVING THE PEACE.-The summary action of Messrs.

Colgan and Mccann at Collingwood Opera House during the performance of ``Arrah Na Pogue" Monday night in ejecting a drunken disturber from the orchestra chairs, is deserving of praise. The person spoken of (we wish we had his name) seated himself in a chair and hoisting his legs, hung them over a chair in front of him. He also talked loudly and one time roamed about the outer edge of the dress circle. He was requested to keep silent, but he replied insolently, when he was dragged out by the house on his back. Those disposed to act as he did will take a hint.133

A year later there was an altercation at the Opera House during a reception for the 47th Brooklyn Regiment which prompted the following lecture in the newspaper: COLLINGW00D OPERA HOUSE.-Common civility costs no man anything. We are led to this off repeated expression while reflecting upon the past troubles between visitors, ushers and officers at Collingwood

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Opera House. We have always traced little ``unpleasant" scenes at that institution to uncivil language. There is no need of any trouble there whatever if men possessing ordinary common sense are placed in charge of the orchestra chairs, parquet, dress circle and family circle .... The day for indulging in oaths, clubs and wrestling matches at a house of public entertainment in this city is past. We want no more of such and the quicker the parties in power at the Opera House understand this the better.133

It was important to the leaders of Poughkeepsie that the Collingwood Opera House be a place where the audience was well behaved and the theatre could

present quality, refined entertainment. A proper Opera House could help attract growth to the Queen City of the Hudson. To stay in business, the Opera House needed popular entertainments which made money. The balance between the profits needed to keep the Opera House open (it was a business not a charity), and the need to provide refined entertainment which was not always profitable, was a hard one to achieve.

Edmund Platt as a businessman clearly understood the importance of the Opera House to the growth of his business and the city. When the Opera House opened, he had just become engaged to be married and was in the process of starting a business in which he could have an ownership interest.

At the time of Wallace Bruce's Lyceum lecture in February, 1877, which was the last event at the Opera House included in Platt's diary, he was married, the father of three children, an owner of Luckey, Platt & Co., and President of the YMCA. His leisure time was devoted in large part to YMCA activities, his church and his family - both his own and his extended family. He lived on South Hamilton Street near the corner of Church Street, next door to his widowed mother and unmarried sister. Platt walked to his business on Main Street near Academy Street, and from there to the YMCA rooms at Main Street on the corner of Washington Street. The Collingwood's predecessor, Pine Hall, had been purchased for the activities of the YMCA in 1871. He attended community celebrations; musical performances-especially by community

groups-and adult education programs given by the Poughkeepsie Lyceum lectures. For Platt, the Opera House on Market Street was part of the fabric of his daily life.

END NOTES 1 Edmund P. Platt's Diany, Vohanres 1 - 29, 1856 1880, p. 570. A gift to The Dutchess County

5 Poughkeapsie Lyceum, Notebook and Scrapbock of /osepJz /. /ackso7i, 1861 - 1881, Local History

Historical Society from M. Platt's grandson, Edmund G. Rawson. Transcribed verbatim

by Mabel Lawson, and typed verbatim by

Collection, Adriance Memorial Library, Greater Poughkeepsie Library District.

6 Platt's Diary, p. 683.

Doris Washburn,1985 -1986. /

7 CaLri Bode, The American I:yceum Town Meeting of ifec Mi7Id. New York: Oxford University

2 Platt, p. 462.

Press,1956, p. 211.

3 Platt' p. 560.

8 Platt, pp. 63-65.

4 Platt' p. 561.

77

9 Platt, p. 613.

40 £ngJe,19 July 1870.

10 Platt, p. 617.

41 fngJc, 20 July 1870.

11 Platt, pp. 615-616.

42 Plat[, p. 649.

12 Platt, p. 830.

43 £ngJe, 22 July 1870.

13 Pougldeepsie Daily Eagle, 6 December 1873.

44 £ngJc, 6 September 1872.

14 E¢gJe, 21 January 1876.

45 Platt, p. 882.

15 Platt, p. 946.

46 Platt, p. 944.

16 Notable American Women 1607 -1950, Vof.1 A -

47 Helen Josephine Andrus. A Cc#£#r/I/ of M#sz.c

F. James, Edward T., editor. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1971, pp. 475476.

I.H Po#gJzkccpsz.c. Poughkeepsie: Frank 8.

Howard,1912, p. 56-57.

48 Platt, p. 628.

17 £¢gJc, 24 January 1872.

49 Platt, pp. 685 and 720.

18 Platt, p. 729.

50 Plait p. 802.

19 Platt, p. 614.

51 Andus, pp. 73-74.

20 Platt' p. 674.

52 Platt, p. 946.

21 £czgJe, 27 January 1872.

53 Andus, pp. 73-74.

22 Platt, p. 832 54 Platt, p. 817.

23 Platt, p. 616.

55 Platt, p. 821.

24 Bode, p. 218.

56 Platt, p. 609.

25 Platt' p. 108.

57 Platt, p. 675.

26 Platt, p. 874-875.

58 Platt, p. 851.

27 Platt, p. 895.

59 Eagle, 27 April 1874.

2:8 :xpe ryqtio_nat Cyclopedia of American Biograpky.

60 £ngJe, 23 April 1874.

New York: James T. White & Company, Vol. XIV,1917, p. 358.

61 Andus, p.79.

2:9 Vait's Pougldeepsie City Directory.

Poughkeepsie: JNO. P. A. Vall Pubhiher,

62 Platt, p. 961.

1877-1878.

63 Andrus, p. 57.

30 £¢gJe, 10 February 1877.

64 Platt, p. 892.

31 Plat,' p. 1005.

65 £agJc, 20 January 1875.

32. Pouglkeepsie Journal, 9 November 1993 aind 16 November 1993.

66 Andus, p. 76.

67 John Dizikes. Opcr¢ 1.71 A7#cr!.ca. New Haven

33 Chahes Musser, The Emergence of Cinema.. The

and London: Yale University Press, 1993, p.

American Screen to 1907, Vol.1 of History of the A77zer].ca„ Cz.7ccffla, Charles Harpole, General

263.

Editor. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,

68 £agJe, 3 May 1876.

1990, p. 42.

69 Platt, p. 636.

34 Musser, p. 34.

70 Eagle, 4 May 1870.

35 Platt, p. 35.

71 Andrus, pp. 62,63 and 85.

36 Platt, p. 36.

72 Platt, p. 687.

37 EngJe,19 July 1870.

73 The Daily News, 1 November 1872.

38 Musser, p. 31.

74 Platt, p. 774.

39 Eagle,19 July 1870.

75 EagJc, 2 November 1872.

78

76 Platt, p. 822.

111 Platt, pp. 674 -675.

77 Platt, p. 849.

112 £ngJc, 25 January 1871.

78 £fl!gJe,11 April 1874.

113 £fl!gJe, 26 January 1871.

79 Robert C. Toll. BJackz.7!g LJp. New York:

114 Plait, p. 831.

L

Oxford University Press, 1974, p. 220.

115 Platt, p. 805.

80 Platt, p. 741.

116 Platt, p. 809.

81 Platt, p. 899.

117 Platt, pp. 809 -810.

82 £agJe, 9 December 1873.

118 EngJe, 9,10,11,12, and 14 July 1873.

83 £agJe,10 December 1873.

119 Platt, pp. 906 -907.

84 Platt, p. 571.

120 EngJc,15 May 1875.

85 £flrgJe, 6 February 1869.

121 Platt, p. 907.

86 Platt, p. 612.

122 Platt, p. 528.

87 Plate, p. 675.

123 Platt, p. 291.

88 Platt, p. 679.

1Z4 Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, 18 July 1928.

89 Platt, p. 776.

125 Platt, p. 253.

90 £¢gJe,10 December 1872.

126 £ngJc, 31 January 1870.

91 EngJe, 28 January 1873.

127 Plat[, 6, 8, 9,10 December 1862.

92 Platt, p. 787.

128 Platt, 21 October 1903.

93 £agJc, 6 February 1873.

129 Edwin Booth on 3 June 1872 in Ha7HJef and on 5 June 1872, evening, in Rz.charcz Ill. Edwin

94 £ngJe,12 Febru.any 1873.

Forrest on 29 October 1869 in O£JzcJJo.

95 Platt, p. 895.

130 £agJc, 6 February 1869.

96 £ngJc, 10 February 1875.

131 £ngJe, 8 February 1873.

97 Platt, p. 635.

132 £agJc, 4 March 1869.

98 £ngJc, 24 April i870.

133 £agJc, 30 April 1870.

99 Platt' p. 590.

134 £agJe, 26 July 1871.

100 Platt, p. 590 101 Platt, p.768.

ILLUSTRATIONS

102 The Daily Press, 8 October 1872.

Edmund Platt, Vail Brothers Photo Collection, Vol. 8, No. 16308, Local History Department, Adriance Memorial Library/Greater Poughkeepsie Library District (GPLD).

103 Commenorative Biographical Record of Dutchess Cozt7zfty, Nezt7 york. Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1897, p. 488.

Mary Bartlett Platt, Vail Brothers Photo

104 £agJe,1 November 1872.

Collection, Vol. 11, No. 20581, Local History

Department, Adriance Library/ GPLD.

105 Plait, p. 770.

Front cover of program from Mrs. Jarley's Wax Figures, February 5, 1873, Collingwood/Bardavon Opera House Programs, Local History Department, Adriance Library/ GPLD.

106 £ngJe, 1 November 1872.

107 Platt, p. 771.

108 Ed":iind PLeLtt, The Eagles History Of Poztg7zkecpsz.c (Poughkeepsie: Platt and Platt, 1905)' p.205.

109 Biographical Record, pp 488A89.

110 £ngJe, 25 January 1871.

79

Semi-Annual Meeting September 26,1993 Mount Gulian Fishkill, New York

The Semi-annual meeting, postponed from July, was held at Mount Gulian in Fishkill, New York. Prior to the business meeting, the house and grounds were open for touring. The Verplanck barn was a popular attraction for those attending.

.

During the business meeting, the Director, Eileen Hayden, gave an account of the year to date, including news of the publication date of the Year BookCatharyna Brett: Portrait of a Colonial Business Woman by Henry Calssidy. The pholication will be marked by a reception at the Reformed Church in Fishkill, an appropriate site as it is the location of Catharyna Brett's grave. President Wolf urged members to continue their support of the Society during this period of economic instability. Society expenses have been reduced but funds must be raised to continue as a vital organization.

The speaker on this occasion was Fishkill Town Historian, Willa Skinner. Her talk highlighted the history of Mt. Gulian. This historic site was built by Gulian Verplanck the grand-son and namesake of one of the original partners of Francis Rombout in the purchase of the great tract we call the Rombout Patent. The house was built between 1730-1750, but a later addition was constructed in the early 19th century. The home was the headquarters for Baron von Steuben during the American Revolution. It was von Steuben who gave leaders of the Continental Army military advice. Fonowing the Revolution, Mt. Gulian served as the home of the Society of the Cincinnati and current exhibits at the house explore this connection to George Washington and his fellow veterans. Willa Skinner also spoke of the life of James Brown, an escaped slave who worked for the Verplanck family, first as a coachman in New York City and later, after they had purchased his freedom, he worked as a gardener on the estate in Dutchess Co.unty. Brown's great contribution was his carefully kept diary of botanical and agricultural information as well as daily weather and happenings in the area.

The diaries are currently in the collection of the New York Historical Society.

Annual Meeting November 19,1993 F.D.Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park,NY

A social hour preceding the meeting and lecture was held in the Eleanor Roosevelt wing of the presidential library. The opportunity to explore this wing and the exhibits in the FDR wing was offered to those attending. There were several interactive exhibits that were informative.

The business meeting was conducted in the conference room, formerly the research area, with Society President John A. Wolf presiding. Election of officers and tmstees was conducted by the chairman of the nominating committee. The slate of Edward J.Shaughnessy, Ph.D., President; J.Peter Krulewitch, Vice-president; Catherine Gerardi, Treasurer; Margaret Zamierowski, Secretary; Michael Englert, Joyce Ghee, John A.Wolf, Larry Diker, Anne Friedland and K.ristin Kennedy, trustees, was presented to the members. As there were no nominations

80

South Hamilton Street 61, 77 Spingam, Joel 22 St. Margaret's Home 37, 39, 40, 41-43, 45 St. Paul's Church 40 St. Peter's 55 St. Stephen'sconege 39 ) State Archivists 11

Van Vliet, George 14 Vassar College 9,18, 22, 28, 30 Vassar Institute 12 Venus 56

Steele, Mr. 71 `'Steen Valeq.e" 39

Ward, Artemus 64 Washbum, Doris 77 ``Washington Irving" 52, 53

Stissing 69 Storm, Mrs. Edward 65

Sfuyvesant, Rutherfurd 41 Summer, Hon. Charles 49 Swift, Charles W. 65 ` Taylor, Bayard 51 ``The Beginnings of Civil Administration

in Dutchess County" 26, 28 The Court of Common Pleas 18, 25, 26, 29 ``The Development of the Episcopal

Church in Dutchess County" 14 `The Dutchess' County" 17

Ver Nooy, Any Pearce 12 Wallis, Benedict and Lila 43

Waterlnan, Katherine B. 5 Webb, James 39, 43 West Point Band 56 Western Union 69 Westervelt, Tompkins 41 Westminster Abbey 52 Wheaton, Mrs. 65 Wheeler, Dr. 71 White, Stanford 42, 45 +Whitehouse, John 0. 69 Whitney, Mr. M. W. 58 Wiencek, Henry 45 Willianrs, C. H. S. 68, 73

The Emergence of Cinema 53

``The Founqing of the Dutchess County

Wins, Frank 39 Winslow, Mrs. James 63 Woman Question 51 ``Womanhood in Shakespeare" 53 ``Women in Shakespeare" 52, 75

Historical society" 12 ``The Landmarks of Scott" 53 The Records of Chiist Church 5, 6, T2.

The Register of the New) Hackensack Reformed Church Z1, Z7 The Role of Plant Ijife in the History of Dutchess County 8, Z2

WPA 23, 25, 28 Wright, Rev. D. G. 68

Thomas, Theodore 57, 58, 75

Young Men's Christian Association

Thompson, Harriet Putnam 43 Thompson, John 46 ` Thompson, Orrin S. 43

Y.M.C.A. Spelling Match 72, 73

(YMCA) 46, 48, 60, 63, 68, 71-74, 77

Tilton, Theodore 51 ``Top Cottage" 23

Tooker, Ada 68 Tower, Mrs. Joseph Tuckerman 21, 22 Troutbeck 22 Twain, Mark 50 Tweed 50 21st Regiment 67

United States Centennial 57 United States Constitution 25 United States Trust Co. 41 Uhiversalist Church 51, 54 Upjohn, Richard 39

Van Houghten, Mrs. Frank 21 Van Kleeck, Myndert 18 van Laer, A. I: F. 23, 24

89

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(914) 45413315 '

Lou Lewis . J. Scott Greer . Michael J. Englert Kenneth F. Peshkin . Deborah A. F3yan Mailing Address: P.O. Box 2990, Poughkeepsie, NY 12603

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Books-Records Old Pints ArtAppraisais Old Issues of

mtchess County Historical Society Yearbook Dutchess County Histories tE} EOUALOPPORTUNITY LENDER

1 DUTCRESS 9 ' COUNTY 1 HISTORICAL 4 SOCIETY 93

MEMBEf] FDIC

Gellert 8zl Cutler, p.c.

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®t[£ Sgttlem nf fty£ ZBpekm&n ffl8tgrl{

Eutctrejz£ ®auntH. Neur spark {A ®tnt8lBgical 8nd Htgtarica( fulap)

VOLURE H Now available at local bookstores or from the publisher: This 1200+ page volume of records of over 120 families who settled in thepresent towns of pawhng, Dover, Bectman, Union Vale and part of LeGrange is the product of 22 years of research Volume n includes Beelrman Patent families Abbott through Burtch and himdleds of others are found in the 200+ Page index.

See your local bockstore, The lfistorical Society or send $85.00 plus tax to: Frank J. Doherty 181 Freedom Red Pleasant Valley, N.Y. 12569 I

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94

from the floor, the motion was made that the Secretary, Katherine Feeks, cast one ballot for the slate. Motion was seconded and carried. ' As this was Mr. Wolf's final meeting as president of the Society, he was presented with framed photographs of hunting scenes, copied from photos in the Society's collection. Thanks was also given to the outgoing officers, Mr. Larry Diker, Mr. David Greenwood, and Mrs. Katherine Feeks.

Following the business of the Society, the guest speaker, John Ferris, gave a fine presentation on the growth and development of presidential libraries, begin-

ning with the planning for the FDR Library-much of it done by Roosevelt himself. Ferris gave examples of materials in the archives that was classified. Much of the material has been opened, but some documents relating to sensitive World War 11 information or personal family papers remains classified. In the course of his talk, Mr. Ferris touched on Roosevelt's keen interest in local history and the Society, as well as the other presidential libraries, methods for maintaining the archives, and technical developments that have aided preservation. Questions from the audience prompted more information and presidential anecdotes, as most presidents since Roosevelt have studied the plan for the first library built specifically to house presidential papers.

DUTCHESS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY STATEMENT OF REVENUE & EXPENSES DECEMBER 31, 1993

Revenues:

Investment Income Membership & Other Gifts, Grants & Donations TOTAL REVENUE:

$ 4,490.00 22,313.00 13,117.00

$39,920.00

Expenses:

`

Payroll & Employee Benefits Utilities, Insurance & R/E Taxes Office, Affiliations & Professional Depreciation Interest on Mortgage Museum, Library & Program Genealogy & Misc. Sales & Services

$19,739.00 9,046.00 5,656.00

1,774.00 1,664.00 1,162.00 818.00 131.00

Miscellaneous Expense Excise Tax TOTAL EXPENSES:

77..00

$44,202.00 ($ 4,282.00)

REVENUE (UNDER) EXPENSES

81

Dutchess County Historical Society ` 1993 Officers and Trustees John A. Wolf, President Pleasant Valley, New York David J. Greenwood, Vz.ce-P7t7sz.de7zf

unbrook, New York Katherine M. Feeks, Sccrt3£¢ny

LaGrangevine, New York Lany Diker, T7ig¢szzrcr

Newburgh, New York

' 1993 Arme Friedland E. Peter Knriewitch Barbara Murphy Mary Arm Bruno

Poughkeepsie, New York New York, New York

NIbrook, New York Poughkeepsie, New York

1994 Stephanie Mauri

Hyde Park, New York LaGrangevflle, New York Wappingers Falls, New York

E. Richard O'Shea Lorraine Roberts

1995 Salt Point, New York Pleasant Valley, New York

Joseph D. Quinn Hon. Albert M. Rosenblatt Edward J. Shaughnessy Susan Whalen

NIbrook, New York Millbrook, New York

1996 Mary Arm Lohrey Antonia Mauro

Poughkeepsie, New York Poughkeepsie, New York

STAFF Efleen M. Hayden, Dz.7iccfor

Debra Zwillinger, Bookkeeper

82

Municipal Historians of4

Dutchess county

,

COUNTY HISTORIAN Vacant

CITY HISTORIANS Beacon, Joan Vanvoorhis, 82 North Walnut Street, Beacon, NY 12508 Poughkeepsie, Vacant

TOWN HISTORIANS Amenia, Kenneth Hoadley, (Acting), RR1, Box 688, Amenia, NY 12501 Beekman, Gay Kendall, 4 Baker Rd., Hopewell Junction, NY 12533 Clinton, William Mc Dermott, Box 208, Clinton Comers, NY 12514 Dover, Ms. Donald Dedrick, Nellie Hill Rd., Dover Plains, NY 12522 East Fishkill, Everett Lee, Rushmore Rd., Stormville, NY 12582 Fishkill, Willa Skinner, Charlotte Rd., Fishkill, NY 12524 Fishkill ovillage), Rodpey Koopmaus, 19 Rapalje Rd., Fishkill, NI 12524 Hyde Park, Diane Boyce, 22 Russet Lane, Poughkeepsie NY 12601 LaGrange, Emily Johnson, Moore Rd.,RD4, Pleasant Valley, NY 12569 Milan, Norma Ingles, 123 Lamoree Rd., Rhinebeck NY 12572 Millbrook, David Greenwood, RR1, Box 227, Millbrook, NY 12545 North East, Chester Eisenhuth, Simmons St., Millerton NY 12546 Pawling, Myrna Hubert, Old Route 55, Pawling, NY 12564 Pine Plains, Little Nine Partners Historical Society, P.O.Box 243, Pine Plains NY 12567 Pleasant Valley, Olive Doty, RD 2, Wigsten Rd., Pleasant Valley NY 12569 Poughkeepsie, Jean Murphy, 74 New Hackensack Rd., Poughkeepsie NY 12603 Red Hook, J. Winthrop Aldrich, "Rokeby'', Barrytown, NY 12507 Red Hook ovillage), RIchard Coons, 34 Garden St., Red Hook, NY 12571

Rhinebeck, Nancy Kelly, Stanford, Dorothy Burdick, Route 82, Stanfordville, NY 12581 Tivoli, Richard Wiles, 29 Montgomery St., Box 267, Tivoli, NY 12583 •Unionvale, Irena Stolarik, N.Smith Rd., LaGrangeville, NY 12540 Wappinger, Brenda Von Berg, 34 Prospect Aye.,Wappingers Falls, NY 12590 Wappingers Falls, Victoria Kolb, 31 Liss Rd., Wappingers Falls, NY 12590 Washington, Carmine DiArpino, P.O. Box 80, Route 343, Dover Rd., Millbrook, NY 12545

83

HISTORICAL SOCIETIES of DUTCHESS COUNTY Amenia Historical Society

Little Nine Partners Historical

P. 0. Box 22 Amenia, NY 12501

Society P. 0. Box 243

Pine Plains, NI 12567

Bowdoin Park Historical and Archeological Society

North East Historical Society Millerton, NI 12546

85 Sheafe Road Wappingers Falls, NY 12590

Beacon Historical Society

Historical Society of Quaker Hill and Pawling, Inc.

P. 0. Box 89 Beacon, NY 12508

P. 0. Box 99 Pawling, NY 12564

Beekman Historical Society

Pleasant Valley Historical Society

P. 0. Box 165

Poughquag, NY 12570

P. 0. Box 309 Pleasant Valley, NY 12569

Clinton Historical Society Clinton Comers, NY 12514

Egbert Benson Historical Society of Red Hook P. 0. Box 1813

The Town of Dover Historical

Red Hook, NY 12571

Society Dover Plains, NY 12522

Rhinebeck Historical Society P. 0. Box 291

East Fishkill Historical Society

Rhinebeck, NY 12572

P. 0. Box 133 Fishkill, NY 12524

Stanford Historical Society Stanfordvflle, NY 12581

Hyde Park Historical Association Bellefield, Route 9 Hyde Park, NY 12538

Union Vale Historical Society P. 0. Box 100

Verbank, NY 12585

LaGrange Historical Society P. 0. Box 112

Wappingers Historical Society

LaGrangeville, NY 12540

P. 0. Box 974 Wappingers Falls, NY 12590

Washington Historical Society Millbrook, NI 12545

84

INIEX A Ceritury of M:usic in Pougivkeepsie 56

"A Map and a Tree" 29

Board of Supervisors 11, 14, 25 Booth, Edwin 75, 79

``A Packet of Old Letters" 15

Booth, Heny 15, 17

Adams, William 14 Adriance Memorial Library 5, 12, 13, 2fj , If] , er6 Ahreet 67

Boston 58 Briggs, Fred 38

Albany 16, 18, 21, 23, 25, 28, 39, 44

Albany Post Road 37 Aldrich, Margaret Livingston Chanler 42 Aldrich, Ms. Richard 42 Alexander, Miss 67 Amambra 52 American Lyceum 49 American Museum 75 American Revolution 20, 25, 26, 80 Amsterdam, NY 57 Apcram50 .

Andrus, Prof. Helen 56-59, 62

British Admiralty 23, 28 Brown, Margaret De Motte 21 Borne, Sarah 65 Bruce, Wallace 48, 52, 53, 75, 77 Buck, Chiford 36 Caeser 50

Campbell's Minstrels 74 Canadian State Archives 23 Candee, J. 69

Cannon and Market Streets 59 'Cantrell,Mr. 65 r ``Cardiff Giant" 74 Carpenter, Mayor 73 -, Casey, Edith 39, 42 Chaloner, John Armstrong (Chanler)

Annals of a Century-old Business 6 Ansonia, Corm. 71

4143

Armstrong, Gen. John 38 Armstrong, Henry Beekman 38, 43 Armstrong, Mary Drayton 38 ``Arrah Na Pogue" 76

Chanler 39-43, 44

Chanler, Congressman John Winthrop 41, 44

Chanler, Lewis Stuyvesant 42 Chanler, Margaret Astor Ward 3941 Chanler, Winthrop A. 41, 42 Chapel of the Holy Innocents 39 Children's Home 39, 44, 48, 61 Christ Church, Poughkeepsie 33 Christ Church, Red Hook 40, 41, 45 City Hall 61 Civil War 49, 67 Civilworks Administration 24 \

Association of History Teachers 16 Astor, John Jacob 41 Astor, Margaret Rebecca Armstrong 38, 40, 41

Astor, William 8. 37-41, 43 ``Assylum" 40

Atlantic & Pacific Telegraph 69

Atwh, Mrs. 65 Bard College 39 Baldwh, James F. 8,16,17, 22, 27 Bardavon Opera House 46 Bardavon Theatre 46, 74

Clark, Grace Roosevelt 18 Clinton House 2, 15 Cobham, Va. 42 Colgan 76 ``Collections of the Dutchess County

Banum, P. T. 74, 75 ``Bartholomew Crannel-A Twentieth

Historical Society" 22 College Hill 46 Collegiate Institute for Young Ladies 68 Collingwood, ]as. 48, 65 Collingwood Opera House 46, 48-51, 54,

Cent:ury Plea for Anglo-American GOod win" 17 Bartlett, Charles 46, 47 Beacon, N.Y. 7, 22, 83, 84

Beckwith, Dr. Martha 19, 22 Beers and Soule Gazette 40 Blaine, James 68, 69 Bloomingdale Asylum 42 Board of Child Welfare 42

56, 57, 59, 61-64, 66-77

Colonial era 11 Columbia County 40, 42, 52, 69 Columbia Teacher's College 16

85

Columbia University 16 Columbus 52, 64 ``Coming Through the Rye" 67

Dutchess County Planning Board 22 Dutchess Room 28 Dwyer, Frank 44

Committee on Preservation of Colonial and Revolutionary Records 16 Concert Hall 48 Cook, Prof. 73 Corwin, Miss 67 County Historian 9, 24, 25, 28, 83 Craig House 22 Cromwell, Prof . 54, 55

``Eagle" 73, 74

Eastman, Mayor (Prof.) Harvey G. 55, 68, 71, 75

Eastman, Mrs. 65 Eastman Park 72 Egypt 51, 54 Eighteenth Century Records...in Rombout Precinct 7 Elijah 57, 58

D.A.R. 15

D'Arc, Joan 50

Emerson, Dr. William 28 Egan, James F. 43

Ddrly News 59 Dally Press 68

F. D. R. Library 23, 28, 80, 81 FaHkill Bank 59

Daughton, Joseph A. 7 Davids, George W. 69 Davies, Mrs. Win. 65 de La Porte, Mrs. Theodore 17 Declaration of Independence 25 Degarmo, James 55 Degarmo, Smith L. 48 deKoven, Rev. Henry 39, 40 Delafield, Gen. John Ross 21 Delano, Franklin H. 41 Delano, Laura Astor 39 Democratic Party 22, 59, 68 Dickinson, Mss Anna E. 50, 51 ``Diedrich Knickerbocker" 52

Fallon, John 54

faing, Thomas 65 Female Guardian Society 39 Fisk University 60 Flagler, Harry Harkness 26 Fletcher, Mrs. 62 Flick, Dr. Alexander C. 23, 28 Foch, Marshall 16 Forrest, Edwin 75 Forster, Gerald 26

Germania Masquerade 75 Gilbert and Sullivan 75 Gillete, John 40 Galpin, Mr. 71

Dizikes, John 58 Douglass, Frederick 49 Dow, Alexander 14 Downing, M. 71

Glebe House 2, 8, 25, 28, 29 Gough, John 8. 49 Grant, General 68

Dows, Ohi 23

`Dr. Osbome-His Book" 14

Dutch Houses in the Hudson Valley before TJ7 6 7 ,2!f J

Halliwell, Mr. 67 Hamlet 75 Hampden (Hampton) Singers 60, 61

Dutch Language 21, 23 Dutchess County 5-10,12-14,17,19-23,

Hampton Normal Institute 60 Hampton, Va. 60 ``Hanging of the Crane" 64, 67

25-30, 39-43, 69, 80-84

Dutchess County Academy 48 Dutchess County Bar Association 16 Dutchess County Courthouse 14-16,18,

Harma, John A. 42, 45 Haxper's Weelcly 50

22, 26

Hartz, Mr. 67 Hawaiian Islands 50 Hayden, Efleen Mylod 10 Hewit, Thomas 18

Dutchess County Department Of History 28 Dutchess County Doorways 7, 20, Z7, 30

Dutchess County Hall of Records 45 Dutchess County Historical Society

History of Pougivkeapsie 69

Holland Society 7, 22

5, 6, 8-10,12,13,17,19, 22, 23, 26, 27, 30, Home for the Friendless 39, 48, 61-63 77, 81, 82 House of Industry 63, 64, 67, 70

86

House of Representatives 69 Howard, Mr. F. W. 21 Hoyt, Maggie 68 Hudson, N.Y. 39

Mccroskey, Mayor 73 Mccullogh, Mrs. David 29

Hudson Orphan Asylum 39

Mikado 75 Millbrook, N.Y. 26, 82-84

Mendelssohn Society 56-58, 61

Methodist Church 71

Husdon River 23, 28, 29, 77 Hudson Valley 7,11,19, 20, 30

Mirier, H. Thane 71 Millerton, N.Y. 50, 83, 84

HWR 10,13,15-25, 28 Hyde Park, N. Y. 9, 19, 22, 80, 82-84

Mills, S. 8. 59

Missionary Society 63 Montgomery Place 21 Moore, Arm 40

Hyde Park Post Office 23 ``Irving" 52, 53

r

Morgan House 59 Mozart 56 Mrs. Astor's Orphan Asylum 37-40 Multi-County Community Development Corporation 43 Mumford, Lewis 22, 28 Musser, Charles 53, 54 Myers, Fannie 58

Irving Hall, N.Y. 54 Jackson & Sons 39, 44 Japanese Fair 63 Jarley,Mrs. 63,64 64, 66, 67 `7arley Wax Works"

Jennings, Robert 43 Johnson, Andrew 50 Johnson, Emily 10, 83 ]ohuston Building 67 Judge of Common Pleas 18 Jupiter 56

Myers, Mrs. M. J. 65 Mylod, John I. 14,16,19-21, 24, 25

NAACP 22 Nast, Thomas 50 Nelson House 24 New England 69 New York City Directory 44 New York Historical Society 43

Karmaser, Mrs. John 43 Keith and Procter 74 Keuogg, Clara Louise 58, 59 Kent, Chancellor James 16 Ketchum, General John H. 69 Kingston, N.Y. 39 REsam, Philip 39

New York History 8

New York Power Company 28 New York State Historians 11 New York State Library 18

Ladd, Dr.14 Lady of I;yon 76 Lawrence, Mass. 54 Lawson, Mabel 77 Levy, Mr. J. 75 Lewis, Leonard 18, 26 Library of Congress 18

New York Times Z3 New York Tribune 68

Newburgh, N.Y. 72, 73, 74, 82 Notices of Marriages and Deaths 7

0'Brien, Neil 74 "Old Folks at Home" 61

Livingston, |anet 21 London 54, 55, 58 Longfellow 67 Loveridge 7 Luckey, Charles P. 48 Luckey, Platt & Company 48, 77

Old Gravestones of Dutchess County 19, 20, 27 Opera in America 58

``Oratorio of Esther" 58

0thell.o 75, 79

Ottawa, Canada 23

`"" 46, 47

Palmer, Mrs. 62 "Paris and the Louvre" 54

Maccracken, Henry Nobel 22, 28, 30 Manhattan 54 Mars 56 Maria, Freddie 65 Massachusetts 49, 54 Mccarm, Mr. 76

Pastor, Tony 74 "Pawling Patent, Alias Staatsburg, and Some of its Early Families" 14 Phelps, Comelia 68

87

Reynolds Collection 1.3 Reynolds, Helen Wilkinson 4-6, 9-13, 15,

Phillips, Adelaide 58 Phillips, Wendell 49 Phoenix Hose 75 Pine Hall 49, 61, 74, 75, 77 Pine Plains 50, 83, 84 Platt, Edmund 69 Platt, Edmund P. 46-77 Platt, Emily 64 Platt, Isaac 48 Platt, James 48, 64

17, 21, 26, 27, 29, 30, 36

Rhinebeck Post Office 23 Rhinebeck, N. Y. 37, 83, 84 RIce, Rev. C. D. 68

Richard Ill 75, 79 Richings, Caroline 75 Richings English Opera Troupe 75

RIckettsen fndy 23 Ring, Constance Varney 19, 22 "Rip Van Winkle" 52

Platt, John I. 48, 51, 68, 69, 71, 73 Platt, Mary 46-48, 57, 63, 64 Pleasant Valley 12, 25, 29, 37, 50, 82-84

RIves, Amelie 42, 45 Roanoke Rapids, N. C. 42 `Robert Bums" 53

Pleasant Valley Library 12 Pleasant Valley Stone Barn 25, 28

Roberts, Edith A. 7 Porter, Mr. H.K. 71 Robinson, Warren Delano 23 Pott, Rev. W. H. 14 Poucher, I. Wilson 5, 7, 8,17,19, 20, 22, 27 `Rokeby" 38, 40, 44, 45, 83 ``Rome and the Vatican" 54, 55 Poughkeepsie and Eastern Railroad Roosevelt 5, 7, 9,10,18,19, 22, 23, 26-29,

50, 69, 70

Poughkeepsie N.Y., City of 5, 8,16,

80, 81

Roosevelt, Eleanor 9, 80 Roosevelt, Ellie 18 Roosevelt, (President) Franklin D. 5, 7,19,

20, 27, 25, 29, 82, 83

Poughkeepsie Collegiate School 46, 47 Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle 46, 50, 55, 58, 59, 63, 64, 67-73, 76 Pougivkeepsie Eagle-News 74

Poughkeepsie Female Academy 68

20, 22-25, 27-29, 81 Roosevelt, Isaac 18 Rosenburgh, Ida (Roseburgh) 59, 60

Poughkeepsie Journal 10, 48

Rutherfurd, Lewis Morris 41

Poughkeepsie High School 75 Poughkeepsie Lyceum 49-53, 74, 77

Saeger, R. W. 57

Poughkeepsie Orphan House 39 Poughkeepsie Post Office 26 Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge 71

Saeltzer, Alexander 39 Salmon, Lucy Maynard 22 Sandford, Mrs. 65 Sargent, Estate of Henry Winthrop 22

Pougivkeapsie, the Origin and Meaning of the Word 6,19, Z0

Satum 56 Schenck (Scheneck) 14

Presbyterian Church 48, 58 Protestant Episcopal Bishop 43 Putnam County 69 Putnam, Howard 8. 59, 60

Schryver, Jane A. 40, 41 Schryver, Helen 40 Schuyler's Patent 39

Pougivkeepsie New Yorker 2:7

Scofield, Mr. 67

Sesquicentenniel Celebration 7 Shakespeare 75 Sheppard, Prof. Nathan 50 Shipman, Fred 23

Queen City 77 Ratification of the United States Constitution 25 Rawson, Edmund G. 77

Sickley, John 12,14 Sleepy Hollow 52

Smart, Joseph 65 Sndth Brothers 65 Smith, Phillip H. Waddell 18 Srfuthfield 22 Soldiers Fountain 55 Somerset, Bermuda 18 Sousa, John Philip 75

Rjecords of the Town of Hyde Park T9 Red Hook, N. Y. 37, 39-43, 45, 83, 84

Red Hook Village 37, 38 Reese, W. Willis 7, 22, 26 Republican Party 49, 68, 69 Revolutionary era 11 Reynolds 4-19, 21-30

88

'

¢

NOTES:

96