Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook vol 103 2024

Firefighting

in Dutchess County: A Greater Calling

Firefighting in Dutchess County: A Greater Calling

Dutchess County Historical Society 2024 Yearbook – Volume 103

Executive Editors

Bill Jeffway

Melodye Moore

William P. Tatum III, Ph.D.

Rick Levitt, Editor

Aidan Chisamore, Production Editor

The Dutchess County Historical Society is a not-for-profit educational organization that collects, preserves, and interprets the history of Dutchess County, New York, from the period of the arrival of the first Indigenous Peoples until the present day. Published annually since the 1914 issue.

The Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook does not assume responsibility for statements of fact or opinion made by the authors.

©Dutchess County Historical Society 2025

Dutchess County Historical Society

6282 Route 9, Rhinebeck, NY 12572

Email: contact@dchsny.org www.dchsny.org

Courage, Commitment and Community

Against the backdrop of pageantry and parades lies the always present risk that firefighters expose themselves to harm 24/7. Firefighters run towards danger and are often first on the scene when an individual, a family or a community suffers loss and devastation. From the cat in the tree to transformative national catastrophes, firefighters demonstrate a selfless caring for the community that makes them true heroes. This yearbook is gratefully dedicated to the Dutchess County men and women, past, present and future, who are willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good of their communities.

Fireman’s Prayer

When I am called to duty, God, wherever flames may rage; Give me strength to save some life, whatever be its age. Help me embrace a little child before it is too late, or save an older person from the horror of that fate. Enable me to be alert and hear the weakest shout, and quickly and effectively to put the fire out. I want to fill my calling and to give the best in me, to guard my neighbor and protect his property. And if according to your will I have to lose my life, please, bless with your protective hand my children and my wife. Amen.

The Dutchess County Historical Society extends its sincerest thanks to DeWitt Sagendorph, Kyle Pottenburgh and Woody Dierze, members of the Board of Directors of the Firefighting Museum of Dutchess County, for their expertise in all things relating to firefighting, and their willingness to share that knowledge with us.

DutchessDCounty

With gratitude and appreciation to everyone, past and present, who have, or are serving Dutchess County in the firefighting community to the benefit of all Dutchess County residents.

Rob & Sue Doyle

Amenia Fire Department

Arlington Fire District

Beacon Fire Department

Beekman Fire Company

Chelsea Fire Company

Chelsea Fire District

Dover Volunteer Fire Department

Dutchess Junction Fire Company

East Clinton Fire Department

East Clinton Volunteer Fire Dept.

East Fishkill Fire District

Fairview Fire Department

Fishkill Village Protection Engine Co.

Glenham Slater Chemical Engine Co.

Hillside Fire Department

Hughsonville Fire Department

Hyde Park Fire Department

LaGrange Fire District

Milan Volunteer Fire Company

Millbrook Fire Department

Millerton Fire Department

New Hackensack Fire Company

New Hamburg Engine Company

Pawling Fire Department

Pine Plains Hose Company

Pleasant Valley Fire Department

City of Poughkeepsie Fire Dept.

Red Hook Fire Department

Rhinebeck Fire Department

Rhinecliff Fire Department

Rombout Fire Department

Roosevelt Fire District

Stanford Fire Company

Tivoli Fire Department

Union Vale Fire Department

Wappingers Falls Fire Department

Wassaic Fire Company

West Clinton Fire Company

List taken from www.dutchessny.gov/emergency-services

Dover Plains

D

On August 3, 1903, a fire company was organized in Dover Plains and was known as the J.H. Ketcham Hose Company. There were 60 uniformed members under the direction of John A. Hanna, the newly elected Fire Chief. In 1904 Congressman John H. Ketcham donated two hose carts. These carts were drawn by ten men and could only be used in the village, where a hydrant district was installed a few months before the fire company was organized. In 1927 the fire company would purchase their first motorized fire truck, a 1927 Seagrave Suburbanite.

Today, JHK operates two fire stations in Dover Plains and Wingdale and provides fire protection to the Town of Dover. Fire Apparatus include a 2014 E-One Pumper/Tanker, 2014 E-One Rescue/Pumper, 2019 E-One 100’ Quint Aerial, 2023 E-One Pumper/Tanker, 2017 Alexis F-550 Brush Truck, 2013 F-250 Utility Truck, 2024 Chief’s Vehicle, 2017 Deputy Chief’s Vehicle and a 2022 Argo Wildland Fire & Rescue UTV. Specialized rescue equipment includes Hydraulic and Battery Operated Holmatro Rescue Tools, Para-Tech Struts and Air Bags.

Karen H. Lambdin & Mark K. Morrison

RIn honor of the first responders of The Rhinebeck Fire Department who, since 1834, have “answered the call.” Elijah & Christiane Bender the staff of Foster’s Coach House Tavern

Thank you to the LaGrange Fire District Volunteers for your many years of service.

We are deeply indebted to you.

Many Thanks, Family of E. Stuart Hubbard Jr. (far left)

LRecognizing members of the Milan Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. for their sacrifice and service.

Thanks for keeping the residents of Milan safe.

Bill Jeffway & Chris Lee

MAl & Vicky LoBrutto

In recognition of the dedicated service from all members, past and present, of our historic Beacon Fire Departments

Tompkins Hose, Mase Hook & Ladder, Beacon Engine Co. Congratulations on the opening of your new headquarters.

BPeter & Anne Forman

Clinton: East Clinton Fire and West Clinton Fire

On several occasions we have personally witnessed volunteers of the West Clinton District in action and the professionalism exhibited could not be higher So far as the East Clinton District, the fact that this department was honored as DC EMS Agency of the year in 2023 says it all! So, a big shout out to each and every member, thank you all for your personal service and sacrifice of time and energy protecting the citizens of our town and surrounding communities, we are truly blessed to have you!

CJim and Lori Brands

Supporting the brave efforts of the Dutchess County Firefighters

Mid-Hudson Antislavery History Project www.mhahp.vassarspaces.net

DIn recognition of Fishkill’s Protection Engine, Rombout and Slater Chemical Fire Companies who keep Fishkill safe Thank you for your service. The Fishkill Historical Society

Thanks to all the current and past members of the Hughsonville Fire Department for their brave and unselfish service to our community.

N & S Supply LLC

HThank you to the Hyde Park Fire Department for being ready to help Hyde Park residents in their times of need.

Christine Crawford-Oppenheimer

HPNorth East/Millerton

In recognition of the members of the Millerton Fire Company and the North East Fire District. Thank you for keeping us safe.

NorthEast-Millerton Library

NEA tribute to the City of Poughkeepsie Fire Department

Formerly the Cataract Steamer Co., the Davy Crockett Hook & Ladder Co., the Lady Washington Hose Co., the Niagara Steamer Co., the O.H. Booth Steamer # 2 Co., the Veteran Firemen Co., and the Young America Hose Co. and its members, active career and volunteer. We extend our gratitude for your years of dedicated service to the residents of the Poughkeepsie community.

PDr. & Mrs. Benjamin S. Hayden III

In memory of Joseph Miraglia #69 City of Poughkeepsie Fire Department.

Thomas M. Cervone, Member CR Properties Group LLC

PIn honor of the Red Hook Fire Company

Thank you for being ever alert.

The Klose Family, Echo Valley Farm

RHIn honor of the members of the Rhinebeck, Hillside and Rhinecliff Fire Companies for their sacrifice and service. Thanks for keeping the residents of Rhinebeck safe.

Lenny Miller and Melodye Moore

RWith gratitude to the members of the Staatsburg Fire Company – Organized 1894 Renamed Dinsmore Hose Company – 1909 Now Roosevelt Engine Company #4.

Andy & Andrea Villani

SIn recognition of the dedicated service of all members past and present of Stanford Fire Company No. 1, Inc. as well as all fire service volunteers throughout Dutchess County. Always Ready

Hats off to the members of the Tivoli Fire Company past, present and future.

White Clay Kill Preservation

TIn recognition of our volunteer Union Vale Fire Company, Inc. members, past and present, for their dedicated service to the Town of Union Vale.

Town of Union Vale Historian

UVOur committed volunteers are here to assist in any type of emergency situation.

WWith gratitude to all the volunteers who give their time to the Wappinger community, including past and current members and auxiliaries of the Wappinger Fire Companies: Chelsea, Hughsonville, New Hackensack, S.W. Johnson Co., and W.T. Garner

Marcy L. Wagman

“Avoided,

Shunned, and Abhored:” Two Stories of Common People Using the Courts in Early 19th Century Dutchess County by Georgia Herring

ADDENDA

In Memoriam

Ginny Buechele

Historian of the Dutchess County Poorhouse

Virginia A. “Ginny” Buechele, a lifelong resident of Dutchess County, passed away peacefully on December 29, 2024, after a fulfilled life that touched many within her community. Born on September 18, 1946, in Poughkeepsie, to the late Eugene R. Buechele and Alice M. (Hawkes) Buechele, Ginny was known for her vibrant spirit, her dedication to historic preservation, and her unwavering love for her family. Her 20 years of work to preserve the Dutchess County Poorhouse cemetery in the Town of Washington earned her the sobriquet “The Dutchess County Poorhouse Woman.”

Ginny attended Arlington High School, graduating with the class of 1964. Her pursuit of knowledge and passion for law led her to complete the Marist Paralegal program in 1998, which became the foundation of her professional career. Her work as an administrative assistant and paralegal was marked by dedication and excellence, paving the way for her significant contributions to her community upon retirement. She served two terms as a Fairview fire commissioner.

Ginny’s family roots were a source of pride and a wellspring of her lifetime achievements. She was among Dutchess County’s foremost

genealogists, a path that eventually led her to research the Dutchess County Poorhouse. Beginning in 2003, Ginny became the foremost advocate for the study of the forgotten county institution’s history and the preservation of the attached burial ground on Brier Hill, which contained the remains of hundreds of poorhouse residents interred between the 1860s and the 1950s. In 2004, Ginny’s contributions were honored by The Dutchess County Historical Society, with the presentation of The Helen Wilkinson Reynolds Award, and the National Society of The Daughters of the American Revolution recognized her outstanding work in historic preservation in 2006.

Ginny’s years of effort came to fruition beginning in 2020, when Dutchess County Commissioner of Public Works Bob Balkind worked to rehabilitate the burial ground site for public visitation. County investment included the removal of intrusive vegetation, creation of a new access road, and a regular plan for maintenance. Ginny contributed to the creation of interpretative signage and campaigned for a memorial marker, both of which were installed in 2022.

Ginny’s life was a tapestry of community activism, family genealogy, and treasured moments with her loved ones. The impact of her work has ensured that the Dutchess County Poorhouse site and the records of the institution will be preserved and available to the public for generations to come.

In Memoriam

David Jon Greenwood (1944–2024)

David Greenwood, a resident of Millbrook, passed away on December 23. Born in Putnam County, he had a fascinating lineage, descending from both early English immigrants and Indigenous Peoples of the MidHudson Valley. David earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Art Education at the State University of New York at Buffalo and a Master’s Degree at SUNY New Paltz, where he was later named an outstanding alumnus. He brought his love of art and history to his career with the Carmel Central School District, where he worked from 1967 to 2004. He went on to teach Art History and Aesthetics for another seven years at the Millbrook School.

David and his wife Nan moved to Millbrook in 1984 and took up residence in the Philip Hart house, one of the oldest houses in the village. Together they threw their passion for historic preservation into ensuring the highest possible stewardship for this important local treasure. This same passion for local history and historic preservation led David to serve on the boards of landmark preservation societies in both Putnam and Dutchess County, and for many years he was an overseer of Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts.

David’s talent as a historian found him wearing many hats. He was the historian for both the Village of Millbrook and the Town of Washington. He served as the historian for St. Peter’s Episcopal Church and was instrumental in the creation of the Museum In The Streets Public History Project in Millbrook. In 2022, he was awarded the Edmund J. Winslow Local Government Historian Award of Excellence in recognition of the beloved annual historic calendar project which he led for 28 years. In 2024, he was honored at a Millbrook Historical Society meeting for his decades of service. May 16, 2024, was designated David Greenwood Day in the Town of Washington.

A longstanding member and supporter of the Dutchess County Historical Society, David served on the Board of Trustees from 19861989 and again in 1994. He served as vice president of the organization in 1990 and 1993-1994. David was a proud member of the society’s Black History Committee, which focused on the discovery and study of the lesser-told stories of Dutchess County’s African American population.

David’s long and diverse commitment to local history and historic preservation was exceptional. We extend our sincerest condolences to his family.

In Memoriam

Fredrik Julius Gude

(1945–2024)

Julius Gude, a resident of Poughkeepsie, passed away on August 9 at the age of 89. Born in Asker, Norway, he moved to the United States in 1960 and received his BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Julius moved to Fishkill in 1963 to work for IBM. He retired from IBM in 1992 only to find that retirement was not fulfilling and returned to work for Micrus and then Philips until 2000.

His second retirement was a great blessing to the Dutchess County Historical Society, as it gave him the time to share his many talents as a hard working and reliable member of the Board of Trustees from ? to ?. His engineering background made him a knowledgeable chair of the Buildings and Grounds Committee. Julius loved woodworking, and he and his wife Carla lived for many years in an old Dutch farm house in the Town of Lagrange where he learned the hard way about what it takes to preserve a historic building. He brought these insights to the society’s stewardship of the Glebe House in Poughkeepsie. Julius was a passionate supporter of the society’s annual yearbook, and he and Carla were regular sponsors of its publication.

Julius will be remembered by his friends in the Dutchess County

Historical Society as the ideal board member – ever kind and gracious in demeanor, quick to offer positive ideas and suggestions, and never failing to follow through on any commitment he made.

Our sincere condolences are offered to his family.

In Memoriam

Thom Usher

Town of Beekman Historian

Thomas John Usher 86, of Poughquag passed away on Thursday September 5, 2024, at Vassar Brothers Medical Center. Thom was born on November 2, 1937, in New York City to Thomas & Helen (Mulligan) Usher. He grew up with his brother Sean at Mt. Loretto orphanage, on Staten Islan. In 1955 Thom enlisted in the US Army, a specialist third class, he worked in the 82nd Construction Engineers. Thom was a proud solider and this experience helped shape his life.

In 1959 Thom met the love of his life, April Ann Sprague. They would marry at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Woodhaven NY, on June 10,1961. The couple settled in Cypress Hills in Brooklyn to raise their family. Thom was the owner and operator of Cypress Cleaners and then The House of Usher wholesale outlet in Brooklyn. Thom moved his family to Dutchess County in August of 1979 and operated Summit Security in Beekman until his retirement. His love for history and learning led him to return to school and earn an associate’s degree, graduating in 2001 from Dutchess Community College.

In 2002 Thom was appointed Town of Beekman Historian, a post he

Courtesy of the Poughkeepsie Journal

held for 12 years. He worked with other town historians to preserve the history of the Hudson Valley. He often worked with the Boys Scouts, Eagle Scouts, and Girl Scouts on projects to help preserve and beautify our towns and created and sewed period costumes to help bring history alive during Memorial Day parades and 4th Grade reenactments. He worked on restoring the Mill House in Poughquag in hopes that one day it could become a town museum. He researched and collected photos, documents, and stories to be placed in a published book about the town of Beekman. In April 2011 his dream of becoming a published author became a reality, completing Images of America-Beekman, a book published and distributed by Arcadia Publishing Company.

Following the conclusion of his service as town historian, Thom continued to play an active role in Beekman history. He was instrumental in commemorating the centennial of the United States entry into World War I in 2017 and in the 2018 Year of the Veteran Programming throughout Dutchess County. Thom eagerly shared his expertise on Beekman and his extensive photograph and postcard collection to support other projects. Immediately prior to his passing, Thom was supporting Dutchess County’s preparations for the 250th Anniversary of American Independence by sharing research on the Old Upper Road, which connected Eastern Dutchess to the Hudson. His work will continue to inform generations of Dutchess County residents to come.

Year in Review

Bill Jeffway, Executive Director

Calendar Year 2024 was our first full year in the Rhinebeck location. We are pleased to say that the larger, open space and easier access has improved our community engagement on all fronts of our varied “society” of our members, donors, business sponsors, collections donors, and a growing paid staff and volunteers. For example, the 38 items received as new collections responsibility in 2024 was triple the general average in the recent past.

In general, since our 2014 centennial, DCHS has had an annual operating budget of around $70,000 with a goal of breaking even. Over time, the break-even goal was increasingly hard to reach as ideas like our gala awards dinner were losing favor with the general public –especially after COVID.

The great news is that our 2024 operating budget had a breakeven goal just in excess of $100,000 and we ended with a small surplus. Our increased spending (and fundraising) has intentionally been focused on the perpetual care, management and interpretation of collections, our sacred trust.

DCHS has had a successful partnership with Vassar College’s Office of Community Engaged Learning. Through those contacts (and supported by member and donor generosity) we have been fortunate to appoint Aidan Chisamore (Vassar College, 2024) as Collections & Archives Manager, which became a full time position going into 2025. New approaches are bringing us new levels of support, for example:

‒ The fifth annual online auction brought record revenue.

‒ The Historic Preservation and Awards was a record in turnout and revenue.

‒ A new and successful offering has been uniquely tailored, generously funded research projects.

‒ Rob and Sue Doyle’s extraordinary $100,000 gift (based on raising the equivalent in match) was met ahead of schedule.

We are approaching the point where around $20,000 in annual income may be relied upon through the combination of our own endowment build, and the perpetual gift from the Denise M. Lawlor Fund, both of which we receive through Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley.

Among our most visible work in 2024 has been telling the stories of those involved in the essential service of firefighting. Prompted by a significant collections gift from the Rhinebeck Fire Department, we developed the traveling exhibition, Firefighting in Dutchess County: A Greater Calling, in partnership with the Rhinebeck Fire Department and the Firefighting Museum of Dutchess County. The exhibition was featured at the inaugural opening of the museum at the Dutchess County Fair in Rhinebeck and is available through the museum group to be featured locally. The topic is the Forum topic in the 2024 DCHS Yearbook, remaining New York State’s longest-serving historical journal.

September 2024 was the bicentennial of the local visit of Major General Lafayette. In an effort to find creative ways to bring local history to life, DCHS worked with the Bard College playwright D N Bashir to create a historical fiction performance. We started with the historical fact that a Town of Washington free Black couple, Tom & Jane Williams, named their newborn son Lafayette Williams at the time of Lafayette’s visit. The performance examines what the concept of liberty and what Lafayette may have meant to the couple at a time as New York was still some years from abolishing slavery. The performance was at the FDR Presidential Library and Museum.

Our new location has allowed us to host more people onsite, whether school students or researchers.

This is only a small summary of a few highlights. We hope you will continue to share your ideas about how DCHS can best serve you, and our community.

Editor’s Note

Rick Levitt

What keeps a community safe from fire? In alphabetical order, it’s buildings, equipment, people, water. But what is the most important? I don’t think alpha order is the right way to determine the most crucial element. To ascertain their relative importance, we investigate each of them in this issue of the Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook. Maybe readers should take the time to read this entire book before making up their minds. Or maybe they only need to read down a few paragraphs to make a determination.

Roy Budnik, a long-time DCHS contributor, touches on all these elements in what could almost be called a street-by-street exploration of the origins of the City of Poughkeepsie Fire Department, including some vintage photos of early firehouses. Look hard enough, and some of these buildings might still seem a little familiar.

Bustling Poughkeepsie on the western edge of the county and more rural Amenia in the east present distinct needs and challenges to all elements of firefighting, so it’s interesting to see where the similarities and differences lie. Andy Murphy tells us about the intimate ties between the agricultural community’s people and its firefighters—and with a collective family history of well over 150 years of dedication to Amenia’s fire department, he ought to know.

Upcounty, Emily Majer walks us floor-by-floor and almost window-by-window through Tivoli’s first firehouse. Next door, you can see the modern, purpose-built structure we associate with the firehouses of today, but this graceful and elegant predecessor is just as important to the community’s health and wellbeing now as it was when first constructed in the late 19th century.

Grace and elegance are nice, but aesthetics aren’t the only consideration in firehouse construction. Bob Wills shows us how the evolution of firefighting equipment drives change in the way firehouses are built. Call this obvious—it’s still fascinating, and Bob, architect and fire district commissioner, is just the person to take us behind the scenes at some of the more recent firehouse developments in the county.

You’ve got equipment and you’ve got a place to store it, but if you ain’t got water, it won’t do you much good. DCHS Executive Director Bill Jeffway plumbs (you should pardon the expression) how Poughkeepsie tried and tried and tried to get right acquisition, storage, and delivery of this critical firefighting element.

But maybe at the end of the day it’s all about the people of Dutchess County—and everywhere else—who give of themselves to keep our communities safe.

Aidan Chisamore spent much of his time at Vassar College studying medieval history, but he has shown himself adept at more modern considerations as well—his exploration of the racial politics surrounding the establishment of Young America, one of Poughkeepsie’s storied volunteer fire companies, is guaranteed to surprise you. He is now Collections and Archives Manager at DCHS

Pride in ourselves and our communities is basic to all of us—and the many ways such pride is demonstrated tell us much about ourselves. I’ve said it before—Melodye Moore has forgotten more Dutchess County history than most of us will ever learn, something she proves yet again with her article on the uniquely American spectacles known as firemen’s parades and musters.

We end our Forum section with the words of one of the county’s long-serving and well-respected volunteers, the late Bill Parsons, who spent 50 years with the New Hackensack Fire Company. This reprint from the 1999 edition of the fire company’s newsletter, like Captain Andy’s detailing of life in the Amenia company, tells us more than any third-hand account about what these folks do for us. We can begin

to best honor them if we understand what their service means and requires.

Vassar College emerita professor Miriam Cohen opens the general section of the yearbook with a rich recounting of Vassar Temple’s 180-year history. She points out that such history is not a laurel-resting phenomenon but an important basis of the service to the broader community that it continues to provide.

Ever been to Hawktown? You probably have and never even knew it. New York was a slave state? You probably didn’t know that either. Through his exploration of the mostly forgotten, (mostly) free Black community near Staatsburg, local history professional Zachary Veith reminds us of Dutchess County’s checkered legacy.

Checkered it might have been, but it is not difficult to see where sometimes the county was in the vanguard of positive social change. Teacher, local historian, and avid preservationist Georgia Heering shows us just how early the court system in Dutchess County showed it would afford the same justice to women and racial minorities other systems at the time more routinely reserved for White males.

In what has to be one of the furthest-afield contributions to ever grace these pages, Chris Johnston, an Australian descendant of a free Black man who once lived in Dutchess County, shares the details of her pursuit of her family’s history. That history itself is fascinating, but her recounting of the search—including an extended visit here and interactions with local experts—reminds us that the word amateur, as in amateur historian, comes from the French word to love, as in loving what one is doing.

This collection of articles is disparate and eclectic. But the thread that runs through them all is a fascination with and pride in community— passion. All the authors give us further reason to be passionate about this community of which we are a part.

F FORUM

Timeline of Firefighting History

January 1608 – Colonial America’s first fire (Jamestown, Virginia) destroys most of the colonists’ provisions and lodgings

1609 – Henry Hudson sails up the river that is later named for him

1648 – Governor Peter Stuyvesant of New Amsterdam (later New York) appoints four men to act as fire wardens to inspect chimneys and identify citizens who had not kept their chimneys swept clean

January 27, 1678 – The first engine company in colonial America goes into service in Boston; Captain Thomas Atkins is the first firefighting officer in the country

1683 – Dutchess County is created and includes part of today’s Columbia County and all of Putnam County.

1711 – Bostonians form the first Mutual Aid Society and establish the model for volunteer firefighting groups

1714 – The first census for Dutchess County documents 445 residents in the first three settlement areas of Rhinebeck, Poughkeepsie and Fishkill

1717 – An act of the Colonial Assembly directs that Dutchess build a courthouse and prison, thus establishing Poughkeepsie as the county seat

1721 – Richard Newsham, an English inventor, patents an improved fire engine that could be pulled by a cart

1725 – Newsham invents the ten-man pump-action fire engine

1731 – Engine Company No. 1 is founded in New York City after receipt of two “enjines from London”

1736 – America’s first volunteer company, the Union Fire Company, is formed in Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin and becomes the model for volunteer fire companies

1736 –“The Friendly Society For The Mutual Insuring of Houses Against Fire,” the first fire insurance company in America, is established in Charleston, South Carolina

1737 – The New York Colony General Assembly creates the 30-man Volunteer Fire Department of New York, the predecessor of the NYFD

1743 – New York City purchases the first American-designed fire engine, built by Thomas Lote of Maiden Lane and called “Old Brass Backs” (crude and horse-drawn)

1752 – Benjamin Franklin establishes the first homeowners’ insurance company that issued “fire marks” to identify insured buildings

1777 – Poughkeepsie becomes the capital of New York State when Kingston is burned by the British

1788 – The nine original towns of Dutchess County are formed: Fishkill, North East, Pawling, Rhinebeck, Poughkeepsie, Amenia, Beekman, Clinton and Washington

1788 – The state ratification convention for the U.S. Constitution is held in Poughkeepsie

1792 – Hadley, Simpkin and Lott Co. improve upon the hand-pumped fire engine by making it larger and able to be drawn by fire horses

1801 – First post-type fire hydrant is designed in Philadelphia

1802 – The Dutchess Turnpike (Route 44) is chartered and soon followed by other roads, providing greater access to inland Dutchess County

1803 – Members of the Philadelphia Hose No. 1 man the nation’s first hose-wagon fire engine and create a new form of leather hose using rivets instead of stitches

1800 – The Sack and Bucket is organized as the first recorded Poughkeepsie fire company. Eventually Poughkeepsie had seven

companies: Niagara Steamer, Davy Crockett Hook & Ladder, Cataract Engine, Phoenix Hose, Lady Washington Hose, O. H. Booth Hose, and Young America Hose

1806 – Dutchess County’s first courthouse is destroyed by fire

1807 – Town of Dover created

1812 – Town of Red Hook created

1818 – Town of Milan created

1821 – Towns of Hyde Park and Pleasant Valley created

1821 – The “Rhinebeck Flatts Fire Company” is incorporated by the State of New York

1823 – Town of Pine Plains created

1827 – Town of Union Vale created

1828 – Town of Lagrange created

1829 – Fishkill Fire Company is incorporated

1829 – The first horse-drawn team-powered fire engine is built in New York

1832 – Charter is issued to Dutchess County Railroad to construct a line from Poughkeepsie to the Connecticut state line

1834 – Rhinebeck Fire Department is organized and ultimately includes the H.S. Kipp Hose and the Relief Hook and Ladder Companies

1837 – Franklindale Fire Engine Company is founded in Wappingers Falls

1841 – The first self-propelled steam fire engine is built in New York City

1849 – Town of East Fishkill is created

1850 – Wappingers Falls Fire Company is founded

1852 – Samuel F.B. Morse’s invention of the telegraph leads to the

design of a system of fire alarm boxes in Boston that transmit their location to a central office

1853 – Cincinnati, Ohio creates the first professional fire department with all full-time employees

1865 – New York’s volunteer fire department is disbanded in favor of the paid, full-time Metropolitan Fire Department; other large cities soon follow their lead

1868 – San Francisco firefighter Daniel Hayes invents and patents the first successful aerial ladder

1869 – William T. Garner Engine Company #1 is founded as the successor to the Franklindale Fire Engine Company

1872 – S.W. Johnson Engine Co. #2 organized in Wappingers Falls

1875 – Town of Wappinger is created

1885 – Patent granted for Schuyler Wheeler’s electric fire engine system

1886 – Beacon Engine Company #1 and Lewis Tompkins Hose Companies are formed; Mase Hook and Ladder is organized a year later

1888 – Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge is completed

Late 1800s – Full-time firefighters with standardized equipment become the norm for firefighters in metropolitan areas; standardized equipment with volunteer firefighters become the norm in more rural communities

1892 – E.H. Thompson Hose Company is organized in Millerton; the bell of the old Presbyterian Church is adopted as the official fire alarm

1894 – The Staatsburg Fire District is organized as a bucket brigade

1895 – The Village of Pawling sanctions a fire department with 39 charter members

Amenia Hose Company #1 is organized Pine Plains Hose Company is organized

1897 – Liberty Hose Company #1 and Union Hook and Ladder Company #1 are formed in Pawling

1903 – John Knott Volunteer Fire Company is formed in Pleasant Valley

J.H. Ketcham Hose Company is founded in Dover Plains

1905 – The first self-propelled internal combustion fire engine is manufactured by Knox Automobile in Springfield, Mass.

1908 – Millbrook Fire Company #1 is formed

1909 – The Dinsmore Hose Company is organized and three years later begins construction of its Fire Station #1

1910 – Fairview Fire Company is established

1912 – Hopewell Hose Company is formed

1913 – John Knott Volunteer Fire Company (est. 1903) becomes the Pleasant Valley Fire Company

1913 – Hughsonville Fire Company is founded

1915 – Rhinecliff Volunteer Fire Company is incorporated

1917 – New Hamburg Fire Department is formed

1919 – Red Hook Fire Company formed from the consolidation of Griffing and Chanler Companies

The three Tivoli fire companies (F. S. Ornsbee Engine Company, Johnston L. DePeyster Hose Company, and J. Watts De Peyster Hook and Ladder) are united to form the Tivoli Fire Company

Early 1920s – Arlington Fire District begins in the roots of a volunteer company called Arlington Engine #1, out of the American Protection Chemical Company

1921 – Stanford Fire Company is founded Glenham Fire Company established and named the Slater Chemical Fire Company

1925 – By this time gasoline-powered fire engines have replaced almost all steam-powered engines

1929 – Fairview Fire District is created and hires Sal Lozier as its first paid firefighter

1931 – Clinton Corners Fire Protection Association formed and purchases its first one-ton Model T Ford fire truck from the Arlington Fire Department

Hillside Fire Department is formed

Wassaic Fire Company, known as the “Blue Crew,” is organized

1935 – East Fishkill Fire Department is formed

1937 – Beekman Fire Protectives is organized

1941 – First meeting of the Lagrange Fire Department; 76 men apply for membership

1945 – First meeting of the West Clinton Fire Department

1946 – Chelsea Fire Company is established

1947 – Salt Point Fire Station established in the former P&E Railroad Station

Milan Volunteer Fire Department Fire Protection District is formed

1949 – Stormville Fire Company is formed

New Hackensack Fire District and Fire Company founded

1952 – Union Vale and Hillside Lake Fire Companies formed

1954 – Wiccopee Fire Company formed; Roosevelt Fire Department formed

1962 – First fire phones were installed in firefighter homes in the Verbank area

Early 1960s – Water pumps, ladders and cherry pickers emerge as commonplace tools for firefighters

1971 – Rombout Fire District is formed

1972 – Dutchess Junction Fire District is established

1973 – Landmark report by the National Commission on Fire

Prevention and Control, America Burning, makes various recommendations to better control and prevent fires

1976 – The National Volunteer Fire Council, a nonprofit organization, is founded to give a unified voice for volunteer firefighters around the country

1981 – The Millerton Fire Department accepts its first volunteer woman firefighter

1984 – Nancy Brownell is appointed by the Rhinebeck Village Board as its first female member

2018 – Staatsburg Fire District merged with the Roosevelt Fire District to form the “New” Roosevelt Fire District, serving the majority of the Town of Hyde Park

2024 – The fire departments of today are a mix of full-time, paid-oncall and volunteer responders

Selected information taken from “The History of Firefighting: A Visual Timeline” – La Ribera Fire Department

Pageantry and Pride Parades and Musters

Melodye Moore

One of the most important organizations in any community is the local fire department. Volunteer or paid, they are respected for their dedication and commitment to the health, safety and well-being of their neighbors. They serve with dignity and justifiable pride in the work they do. Filled with a spirit of camaraderie, fire companies are fraternal organizations who rely on one another in times of danger and distress. Nonetheless the competitiveness that propels them into action has always been a tangible part of firefighting culture.

I Love A Parade

Perhaps the greatest display of a firefighter’s pride and pageantry is shown in parades. Whether it is Memorial Day, the 4th of July, or any other local celebration, it can be guaranteed that one of the highlights of the parade will be the companies of firemen, marching proudly in precision formation, followed closely by all types of fire trucks. It is an iconic American image.

One of the earliest and likely most observed parades that included firemen took place in September of 1824 in New York City. The Lafayette Welcoming Parade was organized to celebrate the arrival of the last surviving Major General of the Revolutionary War as he began a sixteen-month tour of America. Histories record that forty-six engines, several hook and ladder companies and two pumpers passed in review in City Hall Park before 30,000 spectators. Similar parades took place to celebrate the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, the French

Revolution in 1830 and the visit of the Prince of Wales in 1860 where it was reported that over 6,000 volunteer firemen marched.1

A parade offered then, and still today, a festive opportunity for fire companies to remind their neighbors of the important role and place of honor they hold in their communities. To make the point, days were spent preparing uniforms and decorating special parade wagons with floral wreaths and bunting. Each fire company would compete to have the most impressive banner, decorative pumper plaques and uniforms.

Unlike the protective turnout gear worn by firefighters responding to fires, the uniforms provided by fire departments for civic occasions, ceremonies and parades were often adorned with identifying logos that represented their individual fire companies. The typical parade uniform included bib shirts (often red), parade hats or fire helmets and decorative leather belts During the late 18th century the “stove-pipe” fire hat appeared. Made of pressed felt they were painted with the fire company’s name and often had the owner’s initials painted on the top of the hat. Originally worn at fires to help identify firefighters, they eventually were replaced by the Gratacap-style fire helmet still used today, and the stove-pipe hat was retired to become parade hat status. As the nineteenth century progressed the preferred parade hat was a visored wool cap that was the forerunner of the dress cap of today.

Ceremonial parade belts were popular from the 1850s to the early 1900s. Traditionally made of leather, they were embellished with leather cutout letters denoting the name of the fire company or the rank of the firefighter. Often they included decorative designs and zigzag leather trim. Also prominent in the parade formation was the ceremonial fire trumpet. Historically firefighters used trumpets as megaphones to amplify their voices when shouting instructions during a fire. The ability to hear clear directions was essential for the safety of firefighters and the coordination of their actions. Over time, trumpets took on symbolic meaning for fire departments and special ornately

1 Paul C. Detzel, Fire Engines, Fire Fighters (New York, New York,: Rutledge Books, 1976) p. 74

engraved silver presentation trumpets became a featured component of any parade.

: A white hat indicates a fire chief. The trumpet evolved from a functional to more ceremonial role over time. Also shown, parade or ceremonial belts. Courtesy of the Rhinebeck Fire Department. Right: Harrison N. Secor (1836-1918) was Captain of Relief Hook & Ladder Company. Professionally he was a stone cutter and responsible for many monuments in the Rhinebeck Cemetery, including the Civil War memorial. Show in ceremonial role. DCHS Collections.

Topping off the entire extravaganza was the fire apparatus and fire companies who could afford it commissioned the manufacturing of elaborate carriages to carry their fire hoses in parades and other ceremonial events. Many Dutchess County fire companies had a parade carriage. One of the most notable in the county was that of the Henry S. Kip Hose Company No. 1 of Rhinebeck. Delivered in September, 1893 it was an exquisitely intricate example of a parade wagon and won its first victory at an event for the Hudson Valley Volunteer Fireman’s Association of Kingston in 1901. It is believed to have been

Left

used into the late 1950s for competitions and parades when it was sold to a private individual who intended to restore it. Several transactions later it was purchased by the Koorsen Fire Museum of Indianapolis, Indiana where it resides today.

The volunteer Firemen’s Association of the City of New York. Poughkeepsie, August 17 – 20, 1909. Courtesy of the Firefighting Museum of Dutchess County.

Another notable Dutchess County parade carriage was that of the Lewis Tompkins Hose Fire Company of Fishkill-on-Hudson. Made by the Gleason and Bailey Company of Seneca Falls, New York, it was purchased in 1888 when local hat manufacturer Lewis H. Tompkins donated $1,000 to acquire a parade wagon for the firehouse named after him. Hand-drawn, the carriage was made of nickel and brass. By the 1930s the carriage was considered old-fashioned, local residents lost interest in it and it was shuffled around town. In the January 2004 newsletter of the Beacon Historical Society, local historian Robert J. Murphy recounts its travels after being purchased in the early 1940s by an antique dealer until it ended up in “The Hall of Flame,” a firematic museum in Phoenix, Arizona.

It was not inexpensive to prepare a fire company for a parade and required a lot of planning and coordination. These minutes from the Protection Engine Company No. 1 Inc. of Fishkill tell the story.

“Sept. 21, 1904 – A special meeting was held to secure unfinished business on the invitation to parade received from Beacon Engine Co., to parade in Matteawan and supper. Invitation was brought up at the May 1904 meeting. Some advance was made by the committee as to the band. A band from Cold Spring was to be hired for $55.00 A committee of one was appointed, R.E. Dean, to get the engine and apparatus in presentable shape for the parade.

October 1904 – Uniforms for the parade were purchased from Beacon Engine Company. 53 uniforms and 41 caps were purchased. The Company paid $300.00 for same, although Beacon Engine Co. wanted more. Beacon Engine Co. had purchased new uniforms.

Oct. 10, 1904 – meeting reported that the band from Cold Spring would cost $40.00. Committee to wait on the Village Board reports receiving permission to take the Engine to the parade. Committee to solicit funds for parade purposes reports that $7.50 had been subscribed. It was resolved that a team of horses be used to haul the Engine during the parade, provided the consent of the Village Board could be gotten. Members attending the parade were to wear black pants, black shoes, well polished, stand up collar with slightly rolled ends and black tie. The company will provide white gloves. A committee was appointed to present the wishes of the Company to the Village Board in regards to the repairs of the Engine.”2

The forty-six members of PECO who participated in the parade were transported to Matteawan through the generosity of Mr. Smith, President of the local trolley company who offered free transportation. Once there the firemen pulled the hose-cart by a rope and their hand pumper was drawn by horses. Post parade reports announced that the fire company was cheered all along the line of march.3

Fire companies seemed to like nothing better than finding a reason to have a parade, and as transportation by trolley, train and steamboat became easier “visitations” became popular. Sometimes it was a simple invitation from one company to another such as the September 28, 1880 visit from the Cataract Hose Company of Paterson, New Jersey to Rhinebeck. Described in the Poughkeepsie Eagle-News as “Rhinebeck’s Gala Day,” the morning procession was followed by

2 History Committee of Protection Engine Company No. 1, Inc., Fishkill Fire Department, 1829 – 1979, A 150 Year History (Beacon, N.Y.: Dutchess Publishing Co., Inc., 1979) p. 11 - 12

3 Ibid. p. 45 - 46

an inspection in the afternoon. Members of the Cataract Company, let by the sixteen-piece Paterson Band, were met at the Rhinecliff wharf at 9:30 a.m. by Steamer Co. No 1 of Rhinebeck which was led by the Rhinebeck Cornet Band. The parade kicked off at 10:45 a.m. and wound its way three miles through the Village from West Market Street to South Street, thence to East Market Street, thence to Mulberry and eventually back to the home of Ambrose Wager on West Market Street near the Fireman’s Hall where it was dismissed. Houses throughout the Village were decorated with flags and bunting. The grand line of march included the Chief Engineers of both companies, Rhinebeck Village Trustees, and the Paterson, Rhinebeck and Rondout fire companies, each accompanied by their own bands. The parade was followed by dinner at Tremper’s Hotel. Shortly after dinner what was known as an inspection took place when the Rhinebeck Steamer was hauled up to one of the cisterns and fire was started in her. In eleven minutes she had steam and threw water about 200 feet. The test ended when the hose burst twice and some of the machinery gave out. Rhinebeck’s hand engine Pocahontas was tested next but as she was not as well manned and couldn’t match the distance of the steamer. The day ended with the Rhinebeck Band playing on the piazza of the hotel and the Paterson firemen being escorted to the river.4

Just a few days earlier on September 24th the Phoenix Hose Company No. 1 of Poughkeepsie traveled to Newburgh to take part in the City’s annual Fireman’s Parade. Accompanied by the Tenth Regiment Band of Albany the thirty firemen, along with their guests, marched to the waterfront to board a steamer that was to take them to Newburgh. Upon their arrival they were escorted to the Lawson Hose Company where they housed their carriage until the start of the parade. Following dinner at the United States Hotel the companies formed and the parade began. The Poughkeepsie Eagle-News reported that the Phoenix firemen, dressed in handsome white coats, were accorded the honor of being the “finest looking organization in the procession.”5 Their return to Poughkeepsie was met at the dock by the entire Fire Department of the City and a torchlight parade led them to the No. 6 house where

4 “Rhinebeck’s Gala Day,” Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, September 30, 1880, p. 3

5 “Firemen’s Excursion,” Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, September 25, 1880, p. 3

another meal was served. One wonders how the firemen of Dutchess County found time to fight fires.

THE FIREMEN

Poughkeepsie Thronged With Them

A Gala Day For The City

So read the October 6, 1880 headline that kicked off a multi-column Poughkeepsie News Press article reporting on the gathering and parade that placed special emphasis on the New York Veteran’s Firemen’s Association. The newspaper writer stated that “a parade and review of firemen is a rare occurrence in this city, and its features are unfamiliar to the people here.” Trains brought spectators to the City (Poughkeepsie) and all available sheds and stables were filled with the teams that would later pull the various fire apparatus. Extravagant decorations adorned neighborhoods. The four-division parade stepped off at 11:30 a.m. Led by a platoon of police, the 10th Regiment Band and visiting chiefs, the Phoenix Hose Co. No 1 of Poughkeepsie was the first fire company in the parade. There were about thirty men in line, all wearing a black regulation fire hat, red shirt, dark blue coat and black trousers. In addition to the Phoenix Hose Co., the Davy Crockett, Niagara, Booth, Lady Washington, Cataract and Young America fire companies were all represented and in total over two hundred Poughkeepsie firemen participated in the parade. Their dress uniforms were all similar but the Davy Crockett volunteers distinguished themselves by wearing red hats and white shirts. The line of march was distinguished by carriages carrying 230 members of the veteran fireman’s association and eleven bands, including those from West Point and Eastman College, led the marchers. It was speculated that over 30,000 spectators lined the parade route. One of the final notes in the story commented that “No accidents were reported, and very little drunkenness was seen.”6

Perhaps the best known firemen’s parade to take place in the county

6 “The Firemen,” Poughkeepsie News Press, October 6, 1886, p. 8

occurred on August 20, 1909 at the conclusion of the 37th Annual Convention of the New York State Volunteer Firemen’s Association. The idea to have a volunteer firemen’s convention was formed following an August 1872 parade in Auburn, New York. Shortly thereafter a committee was formed, a report was prepared and the first convention took place in Auburn on October 1st and 2nd of that same year. While that hastily organized first convention was not heavily attended, the organization grew and by 1909 was an important source of education, training and support for the firefighting community of New York. Local newspapers started reporting on the plans for a convention in Poughkeepsie in the spring of 1909. At a meeting of the General Committee on April 9th it was reported that Veteran’s Firemen’s Association would attend and bring 125 uniformed men and a band of 25 or 30 pieces. The Chairman of the Entertainment Committee reported that the Burger Amusement Company had visited the City to discuss the prospect of holding a street fair during the convention. He was assured that a favorable site had been identified and the proposition would likely be approved. Further discussion took place about speakers and fundraising but the main order of business was to select the design for the official delegate badge. After closely examining a dozen different designs submitted by local businessmen the committee selected the design submitted by J.E. West & Company of Poughkeepsie. The design was in the form of a Maltese Cross suspended from a red ribbon. Within the cross was a central circular die containing a representation of the Poughkeepsie bridge and a pendant hanging over the ribbon depicted the beehive, the seal of the city.7

Days in advance of the Convention the Poughkeepsie Eagle-News was reporting on the decorations that were being installed throughout the city. It was the opinion of the newspaper reporter that the display of J. Schrauth & Sons, ice cream manufacturers, stood out as the most elaborate. “Besides the familiar festoons of American and other flags there are streamers extending from the roof down to the

7 “Firemen Select Official Badge,” Poughkeepsie Eagle-News,” April 10, 1909, p. 5

first floor and electric lights with their bulbs of various colors. The bunting is entwined above the light wires and the effect derived is most pleasing.”8

The five-day convention closed with what the newspaper described as a “Monster Parade.” On the day of the parade the streets were thronged with crowds of people who had come by automobile, ferry and train, and the hotels, restaurants, boarding houses and lunch rooms were full to capacity. Nearby communities like Fishkill Landing, Matteawan and most of Newburgh closed their businesses so that their residents could travel to Poughkeepsie to be part of the festivities. In anticipation of the crowds the Poughkeepsie Police Department had made the decision that all members of the department had to be on duty and all scheduled vacations were cancelled. Fire companies began arriving in the morning with each visiting company being the guest of a Poughkeepsie company. Among the out-of- town companies were the Kip and W. M. Sayre Companies of Rhinebeck, the Lewis Tompkins Hose Co. of Fishkill Landing, the Rescue Company of Hyde Park, and the Brewster Hooks of Newburgh. The judges awarded the $75 prize for the finest appearing company to Lewis Tompkins, while the Citizen’s Hose Company of Catskill was considered a close second. According to the newspaper reporter covering the parade:

“But shining above it all in point of uniform, that is for being the brightest spot in the parade, with those conspicuous outfits of sizzling red was the department from Hyde Park, the Eagle Engine Company by name. There was some noise to them and to cap it all off they wore patent leather shoes. They made quite a fine showing.”9

The day was brought to a close when a deluge broke up the parade just before the end of the line was reached. Touted as “not only the largest but the finest (parade) ever held in the Hudson Valley,” nearly

8 “The Decorations On Main Street,” Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, August 17, 1909, p. 5

9“Firemen’s Convention Closed With A Monster Parade Friday,” Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, August 21, 1909, p. 1

seventy-five companies had marched in line and over four thousand men had participated in what must have been a spectacular display of firefighting pride and pageantry.10

Ready, Set, Go

Firefighting companies were one of the first public services to be organized in America. Healthy rivalries between companies emerged and competition among firefighters and fire companies was evident from the very beginning. Speed of response was critical and in the early days of firefighting cities and insurance companies provided cash bonuses to the companies that were first to arrive at the scene of a fire. First-water bonuses were also paid and volunteer firemen raced each other to make the first claim on hydrants and water sources.11

It was not surprising that this spirit of competition among firefighters and fire companies became, as we have seen, an important element of any parade. Who had the most men marching? Who had the best uniforms? Who had the best and mostly beautifully decorated engines, pumpers and parade wagons? Therefore it was not surprising that proud and competitive firemen devised another way to vie for supremacy - the muster.

The term muster is said to date to the 1400s when it was used as a military term to refer to a gathering of troops. It is also said to derive from the old French word “mostrer” meaning appear, reveal or show. Most sources state that he first recorded muster in America took place in Bath, Maine in 1849 when five hand pumpers competed to see who could pump water the farthest. A scrapbook of newspaper articles about the Rhinebeck Fire Department contains an article that claims that the first measurement of the length of water streams of pumpers occurred in Amesbury, Massachusetts on July 4, 1844 and that a purse of $1,000 in prize money was distributed to the winners.12 What fire historians do

10 Ibid. p. 1

11 Detzel, p. 62

12 Rhinebeck Fire Department Scrapbook 1974 – 1977, compiled by Rhinebeck Fire

agree on is that the Firemen’s Muster, a firematic competition between fire companies, is the oldest organized sport in America.

The goal of a muster is simple – whose pumper, also known as a hand tub, can throw the longest stream of water. While the goal may be simple, the actual competition was not and involved all sorts of rules that were administered and overseen by timekeepers and engine platform, pipe platform and paper platform muster judges. Apparently in the earliest days of musters rules tended to made up on the field and the result was confusion and discord among the competing fire companies. This was addressed on November 20, 1890 when the Boston Firemen’s Association convened a meeting for the purpose of organizing a New England States Fireman’s Association, the object of which was to “encourage and perpetuate the oldest sport in the Country, assist outside interest in the promotion of musters and serve as an arbiter in settling the questions arising among the several Associations affiliated with the League.”13 The organization flourished and since its founding has been the biggest promoter of the sport. It is still in existence today, known as the New England States Veteran Firemen’s League, and in 2024 organized seven hand engine musters throughout the northeast.

While the objective was to shoot water through a fire hose and to measure the drops of water furthest from the tub, the steps leading up to the actual release of water had to be precise and perfectly executed. The field had to be prepared and a six-foot wide rosin paper target was laid down. The hose nozzle was capped for quick release and each fire crew, in succession, had 15 minutes to: get on the platform, get up the prime, clear 150’ of hose of air, fill the hose with water, maintain pressure, gauge and if necessary wait out the wind, man the pump and await the signal from the foreman to release the cap and the water. The crews were made up of strong, muscular firemen who took their positions on both sides of the tub and raised and lowered the arms that created the pressure needed to send the stream of water to its goal. Standing atop the tub was the foreman whose responsibility it was to direct the actions of his crew. His job was considered the most

Department Ladies Auxiliary, 5

13 New England States Veteran Fireman’s League, handtubs.com/NESVFL, 2023

dangerous as he could easily be harmed if the dome of the tub were to blow off. Muster records reveal that some competitions were won by a mere half inch.

The only Dutchess County fire company to be a member of the Firemen’s League was the Rhinebeck Fire Department and its pride and joy was its handtub Pochahontas. Bought new in 1859 for Pocahontas Engine Co. #2,it was manufactured by the Button Company of Waterford, Connecticut. Constructed of cherry and mahogany, the tub is a piano box style with a single pressure dome and a piston-type pump with 10” diameter pistons. A crew of forty-eight was required to pump the arms. For years “Old Pokie” was integral to the fire response efforts of its fire company, only to be retired as more modern equipment became available and only taken out for the occasional parade. In 1953 “Old Pokie” was taken out of mothballs, restored to working condition and made ready for a pumping competition at the Eastern States Exposition in Springfield, Massachusetts in September of that year. That same year the fire department became an associate member of the Fireman’s League and subsequently was admitted to full membership. “Old Pokie” regularly participated in musters until the late 1980s when it was deemed too fragile to continue to compete. During her career she was recorded as shooting a stream as far as 217’ 8 ¾” , only to be bested by her archrival Neptune, from Newburyport, Massachusetts who shot 243’ 10 ¾”. She is still proudly displayed in local parades and celebrations.

Minutes of the Walter W. Schell Hose Co. of Rhinebeck document that “Old Pokie” had taken part in musters earlier than the 1950s. Meeting minutes from August 21, 1895 record that the fire company had received an invitation from the Pittsfield Fire Company asking them to attend a muster on September 25th. Representatives from the other Rhinebeck Fire Department, the Pochatonas Company, were present at the meeting and indicated that they had also received the invitation and would be happy to join forces and that any award money would be split after defraying any costs associated with the trip.14

14 Walter W. Schell Hose Co., Fire Co. Register 1894 – 1897, p. 166 – 168 (DCHS 2024.003.003.004)

Musters and demonstrations have always been about speed, volume and pressure resulting in highest reach. While physical demands remain profound for fire fighters, in general they are no longer using their hands and feet to pump water. Image DCHS Collections.

The Rhinebeck Fire Department (formed in 1963 with the merger of the J.S. Kip and Pocahontas Fire Departments) hosted its first muster in 1968 and was an active participant in musters throughout New England for the next several decades. The August 17, 1974 muster, which was sponsored by the Rhinebeck Fire Department and hosted by the New Hackensack Fire Department, was well covered in the local press and gives a good picture of the excitement and pride surrounding musters. The Poughkeepsie Journal reported that the day-long hand pumping competition would include fifty companies from six states, and the competition was to be preceded by a parade of antique equipment led by fife and drum bands. A representative of the Rhinebeck Fire Department was quoted as saying “In order to qualify for the competition the piece of equipment must have been built prior to 1890 and water has to go a least 200 feet in order to qualify.”15

Firefighters answer a call. They have a calling. They are local superheroes. Too often we take them for granted and fail to recognize the important role they play in our lives. Parades and demonstrations of prowess with fire apparatus give them the opportunity to remind us of their skill and sacrifices, and we have the opportunity to applaud them and share in the pride and pageantry that is inherent in firefighting.

15 Rhinebeck Fire Department Ladies Auxiliary Scrapbook

To Have & To Hold:

Water’s Essential Role in Firefighting is One Among Many Bill Jeffway

DCHS Executive Director Bill Jeffway reminds us that, no matter how tempting, you just can’t fight fire with fire. It’s one of life’s eternal verities that fire is best–and often only–quenched with water.

From buckets, to reservoirs, to water tanks and towers, our ability to have and to hold water for firefighting exists among many other essential demands. There are few things that we put as many such demands upon as water.

Local rivers and streams were, and to some degree remain, a source of food that ranged from the brook trout to the mighty Hudson River sturgeon. In the first quarter of the 19th century, the invention of the steamboat and the development of canals, like the Erie Canal, rapidly expanded the existing role of rivers and streams to be magnets for settlement and the backbone of the rapidly growing Empire State economy. This is a transactional role of helping get people and goods from point A to point B. In another transactional role, dams along rivers and streams created a backlog of water power that caused the physical turning of a water wheel and eventually the generation of steam power and electricity.

In addition, water has the dual but competing role of cleaning and removing waste from homes and industry, while at the same time offering pure, uncontaminated water for vital personal consumption and use with livestock and broader farming. History shows us that deadly cross-contamination is easily realized unless there is a specific system to manage the distinct roles. In these roles water is used on a daily, hourly, or minute-by-minute basis.

By contrast, water’s essential role in the long tradition of firefighting might be rarely tapped but must be always ready, “on-demand” and of sufficient supply and pressure, because the consequences of any shortfalls are so profound. Through summer droughts and winter ice, from the county courthouse to a rural barn filled with livestock and the autumn harvest, water plays an essential role in protecting physical property and human (and other) life. Firefighters refer to a goal of an early and sufficient “first water,” the time between alarm and first contact with water, as a measurable, competitive goal.

Poughkeepsie is the site of the county’s earliest and most sophisticated firefighting systems in the 19th century, the focus of this article.

Vassar Brewery: Convergence of Demands

Water’s role in navigating both opportunities and deadly threats can be seen in the early story of a founding business: James Vassar’s brewery.

James Vassar (an immigrant from England whose family name, Vasseur, reflected his French ancestry)1 located his brewery on the site of a fresh water spring in 1797 on what is today Vassar Street, a few blocks from the Hudson River. In 1806, advertisements for the sale of land in the area proclaimed a “never failing spring of the best water” as inducement for businesses such as a distillery to locate there.2

The combination of the spring and its adjacency to the Hudson River meant this was an ideal location for a business that planned to receive agricultural goods from inland farmers with a view to creating and distributing a product. James ran the operation with his two sons, John and Matthew. Matthew Vassar went on to be the founder of Vassar College.

Despite its proximity to a spring and the Hudson River, the original

1 Vassar College and Its Founder, by Benson J. Lossing, C.A. Alford, New York, 1867.

2 Poughkeepsie Journal, February 4, 1806, p. 3.

brewery was completely destroyed by fire in April of 1811. While inspecting the fire damage in one of the large brewery vats, John Vassar was overcome by fumes and died. 3 He left two infant boys to be raised by their mother. Those two brothers, third-generation John Jr. and Matthew Jr. (as he came to be called) went on to found the Vassar Brothers Hospital, among other lasting institutions.

Just over 20 years later, in July 1832, on the same newspaper page announcing that the elder Matthew Vassar was bringing his two fatherless nephews into the brewery business, it was noted that a ship carrying wood to the Vassar Brewery was being quarantined just offshore because of a case of deadly cholera.4 Cholera is easily transmitted from infected persons or areas contaminated with untreated waste. Villagers were assured the case was isolated and all was well. But within three weeks, over 100 cases resulted in 75 deaths in the village with a population of 7,000.5

Although cholera was very much misunderstood at the time, there was an accurate awareness that drinking water contaminated by “filthy” wastewater was a major contributing source.

So Matthew Vassar was aware of all the dimensions of water: its potential to protect and support – or thwart – personal health, safety and economic growth. It is not surprising, then, that he was active with the Improvement Party and a special committee that created a village reservoir for firefighting in 1834 at what is today still called Reservoir Square on Cannon Street. Subsequently, he headed up the Poughkeepsie Aqueduct and Hydraulic Company in 1853, which would for the first time express a wish to provide not just fire protection but clean drinking water, a goal not realized until 1872, after his death.

With an understanding of the opportunities and risks, and the variety of demands put on water, we will now look at the evolution of local

3 Poughkeepsie Journal, May 15, 1811, p. 3.

4 Poughkeepsie Journal, July 18, 1832, p. 2.

5 Poughkeepsie Journal, August 15, 1832, p. 2.

firefighting systems, focusing on Poughkeepsie, which had the earliest and most sophisticated systems..

Before 1834: Bucket Brigades and Bag Men

Above: Early 19th century fire bucket. DCHS Collections. Gift of the Mahwenawasigh Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution.

The earliest form of firefighting involved bucket brigades with water sourced from wells, pumps and cisterns. In addition, some firefighters were formally identified as “bag men” whose role was to start removing furniture and other items to save them from the very likely event that the whole building would be consumed beyond anyone’s control. Beds were designed with a special key that could allow their easy disassembly and removal.

Municipalities required residents to own a certain number of fire buckets, which always featured family name and number. A public call for inspections would appear in the newspaper, giving short notice. The “hands” deployed in this very manual process were the residents, generally under the direction of appointed fire wardens.

At the request of the trustees, fire wardens and firemen of this village, the inhabitants are requested to meet at the courthouse on the first Tuesday in June next, at 4:00 p.m. and to bring with them their fire buckets for the purpose of improving themselves in the management of the engine, forming ranks and other things necessary for the extinguishment of fire.6

The alarm would be sounded and the nearest wells and cisterns would be located. A well is so defined if it produces water which could be

6 Poughkeepsie Journal, May 31 1803.

pulled out through the lowering and raising of a bucket or hand pump; there was generally a town pump in the center of any village. A cistern is simply a specifically-designed storage area for water, frequently constructed so that they are filled by rainwater from roofs and gullies.

On May 3, 1803, the village trustees voted that $250 will be raised for the purpose of digging wells, “or otherwise supplying the fire engine with water, for repairing or procuring fire hooks and hoses to the engine, and for other contingent purposes for the ensuing year.”

In 1819, the Village of Poughkeepsie announced it would create underground cisterns at the following streets: Main and Hamilton, Main and Perry, Market and Church, and Market and Union. By 1830 they had not been built due opposition coming from those who objected to the taxpayer expense.7

Above top: Depiction of a “goose neck” pumper. The Rhinebeck Fire Department continues to maintain “Pocahontas” in a high state of preservation. Shown outside DCHS in Rhinebeck, August 2024. Photo by Bill Jeffway.

7 Poughkeepsie Journal, October 16, 1830, p. 2.

Whether the source was a cistern or the Hudson River, wherever and whenever gravity was working at cross purposes to the effective flow of water, “pumpers” were used that were originally powered manually. It would not be unusual to have three pumpers (see illustration of Gooseneck pumper) with one at the source, one near the fire and one in the middle so that a total of 36 men (12 each) were involved in working against gravity and getting water of sufficient volume and pressure to and on the fire.8 Wells and cisterns were often pumped dry before a line of hose from the nearest hydrant could be laid.

Some of the worst fires in this period resulted in the complete destruction of the courthouse in 1785 and the complete destruction of its replacement in 1806,9 as well as the Vassar Brewery in 1811 mentioned earlier. The most effective solution was the construction of a reservoir at an elevated site to allow sufficient water pressure that would need to be kept filled and kept from freezing, although this model had limitations in that the reservoir would only effectively cover whatever area had pipes laid and “hydrants” installed.

1834: Reservoir for Firefighting Only Was Fed by Fall Kill

In 1834, the Improvement Party and a committee focusing on water involving Matthew Vassar and other local business leaders who understood the interdependency of economic and industrial growth and water.10

The group argued that the ability of the village (with an eye on becoming a city) to attract investment and experience economic growth would depend, among other things, on the ability to extinguish fires with a degree of effectiveness that fire insurance could be had at a reasonable price. The cost of fire insurance was one of the clearest

8 The Eagle’s History of Poughkeepsie From the Earliest Settlements 1683 to 1905, by Edmund Platt, Platt & Platt, 1905.

9 Ibid.

10 Ibid.

measurable benchmarks that could be affected by formally assessed firefighting readiness.

So among the list of ambitious projects like railroad engine manufacturing, silk manufacturing and establishing College Hill as the site of a world-class educational institution was water management. The plan was to have a reservoir that would be more than functional; it had to be appealing visually. The massive reservoir built at roughly the same time on 42nd Street in Manhattan was an inspiration. Although the Poughkeepsie proposal was a fraction of the size, it similarly had a gravel promenade around the perimeter with wonderful views.11

Above left to right: The New York City Reservoir at 42nd Street at Fifth Avenue was designed in 1837 and stood for a half century after opening in 1842. New York Public Library Middle: The Van Vliet survey for construction of a Poughkeepsie reservoir in 1834 that was a fraction of the size. From DCHS Collections. Sketch of the reservoir published by the Poughkeepsie Eagle News in 1911. Both reservoirs afforded a promenade around the top for pleasure walks and beautiful views.

The reservoir was built, with the sole purpose of firefighting, and positive reports were quickly achieved. In September of 1835 the Poughkeepsie Journal reported,

Among the most important public improvements we would especially notice the reservoir, a substantial work of considerable labor and cost and highly creditable to its persevering projectors. Under the efficient superintendence of one of your townsmen, Captain Harris, the work has just been completed. The basin is 104 feet square and about nine feet deep so that when filled the water will be on a level with the highest peak

11 “Poughkeepsie Past and Present,” Poughkeepsie Eagle, Anniversary Issue, 1911.

of the Court House. The whole is surrounded by a neat gravel promenade, from which the view is beautiful and picturesque. The eye, glancing over a thriving and well-built village, is lost in a luxuriance of the surrounding scene. There is no town or city in the whole country better supplied with water for extinguishing fires or for culinary purposes.12

Although culinary or domestic purposes were mentioned, they were not the focus of the reservoir at that time.

But the news was not entirely positive. The reservoir was kept filled with water by diverting some of the nearby Fall Kill pumped by a water wheel. An early example of the competing demands put on water, this caused friction and even legal action with mill owners along the Fall Kill. 13

Imagine how deflating it was when on May 12, 1836, Poughkeepsie had one of its most destructive fires. The severe drought of the fall of 1835 had prevented it from getting any water until after the middle of December; moreover, it was out of water from undergoing repairs on the night of the fire. The message was clear there was work to be done on fire protection.

During this reservoir’s tenure (1834-1872), there were a number of “improvements” explored that were not realized.

In 1849 there was an exploratory plan to fill the Cannon Street reservoir by using a steam engine to pump the Hudson River rather than the Fall Kill. The greater volume and reliability was said at the time to allow for an expansion of fire hydrants and to allow for drinking water. The plan was ultimately abandoned.14

There was an exploratory plan looking at diverting water from what

12 Poughkeepsie Journal, September 23, 1835 page 2

13 Poughkeepsie’s Water Supply, J. Wilson Poucher, MD, Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook, 1942. p. 65.

14 Poughkeepsie Eagle News, July 21, 1849.

is today Vassar Lake at Vassar College onto the city system. Vassar College was built adjacent to Casper’s Kill as a water source, a stream that empties into the Hudson at today’s Stoneco, a massive mining operation six miles south of the village. But that never materialized.15

In 1870 plans emerged to divert a much greater amount of water from the Fall Kill by creating a dam further upstream, but that did not materialize.

One of Poughkeepsie’s worst fires took place on December 26, 1870, with the complete destruction of the Pardee block at Main and Garden Streets, resulting in the building of the more fire-proof cast iron building that stands today. Something had to be done.

1872: A Hudson-Sourced Two-Step Process Addressed Drinking Water

In 1872, a solution that would finally address not just firefighting but drinking and waste water was realized. Water was (and remains) sourced from the Hudson River, with a pumping, filtration and treatment station at the river’s edge, and a large reservoir of theoretically clean water on top of College Hill. This two-stage process remains today in basic form and function with greatly advanced technology

This plan was not without shortcomings. Public concern about upstream sewage contamination of the Hudson River, in particular from the Hudson Valley State Hospital less than a mile upstream, emerged as valid challenges.

By 1902, it was deemed necessary to convert the open filtration beds to covered underground ones. This change did not prove entirely effective.

There were still major devastating fires. During this period, the

15 Poughkeepsie’s Water Supply, J. Wilson Poucher, MD, Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook, 1942. p. 66.

Above top: A pumping station was established at the Hudson River in 1872. Shown in 1909. Lower image: Poughkeepsie was the first municipality in the United States to use filtration beds such as are shown. Images from the Poughkeepsie Water Works by Dr. John C. Otis, the New England Water Association, 1909. DCHS Collections.

1872

most notable were the massive Whitehouse Factory, struck by lightning in 1879 and completely destroyed, and at the waterfront the Glass Works in 1897 and Reynolds Elevator and Gas Works in 1898.

Part of the challenge came from the Hudson being a tidal estuary that flows both ways twice a day based on the moon’s gravitational pull. Poughkeepsie is the southern-most municipality that takes water from the Hudson due to the risk of saltwater intrusion at high tides. As a result, the exact location of the intake pipe in the Hudson was adjusted at various times.

Hudson River State Hospital Created “Competing”

System

The Hudson River State Hospital was being constructed in the Town of Poughkeepsie at the same time the two-stage, Hudson-sourced system was being put in place in the city. The Hospital created its own two-stage process, which was the point of severe criticism from The New York Times and others over costs16 described what it called “extravagance” at the construction at $100,000 of a reservoir – 10% of the entire budget – that was a 21-foot tall elevated reservoir in finished stone 17 (see image). The hospital ultimately created its own fire

16 The New York Times, July 4, 1873, p. 4

17 Engineer’s Drawing, 1893. DCHS Collections.

department with men and equipment to focus on the rapidly growing site.

Opening at roughly the same time, the 1872 City reservoir at College Hill (above left) and the 1873 reservoir of the Hudson Valley State Hospital in the Town of Poughkeepsie (above right) are stark contrasts in perceived accessibility. The College Hill reservoir was a formal feature of the City’s College Hill Park; although bathing was strictly prohibited. DCHS Collections.

Before that issue was in any way resolved, at the exact same time the hospital was expanding eastward with the acquisition of farms that adjoined the Fall Kill. Because the new buildings were on a hill that was elevated higher than the original reservoir, the hospital decided to create a dam on the now adjacent Fall Kill.18

Above left: By the turn of the last century the Hudson River State Hospital promoted its newly created mile-long lake as an attractive feature. But complaints about reduced water from those downstream began immediately after construction and persisted. Above right: The Hospital dam, downstream. Postcard images courtesy of David Turner Collection.

The continuous expansion of the hospital for a century from its opening meant that by the 1970s the Hospital had 100 buildings on more

18 Engineer’s Drawing, 1893. DCHS Collections.

than 800 acres.19 20 But the construction of so-called “cottages” in 1892 which were (and remain today) eight very large brick buildings were higher than the original reservoir. This prompted the hospital to look east, buy adjacent farmland, and create a dam at the Fall Kill so water could be pumped to the highest point on the property. That point is easily visible today from surrounding areas as it is the site of the Town of Poughkeepsie’s water tower (see image).

Above: An engineer’s plan from 1893 showing from left to right (west to east): A) The elevation of the Hudson River and pumping station. B) The main buildings. C) The original reservoir. D) The newly proposed reservoir, the site today of the Town of Poughkeepsie water tanks. E) The dam at the Fallkill. DCHS Collections.

The Pelton family sued New York State for $52,000 in damages for business lost due to the damming of the Fall Kill.21 Ironically just a few years earlier the Peltons were accused of not keeping their Poughkeepsie city mill pond east of Upper Landing in good clean order, which caused health problems.

By 1893, the degree of the challenge of having the city of Poughkeepsie intake just below the untreated sewage outflow of the Hudson River State Hospital was revealed by a letter to the editor of the Poughkeepsie Journal from J.G. Porteous, who referred to the city’s water commission’s critical report of 1892 imploring the authorities, “why not take

19 Poughkeepsie Journal, Jul 23, 1972

20 Poughkeepsie Journal, April 10, 1997, p. 1A.

21 Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, August 23, 1900, p. 6.

some other water supply than the [Hudson] river and avoid the flushings of hospitals, streets, factories and water closets?”22

An editorial in the Poughkeepsie Journal exclaimed, “It’s getting serious. With their sewer emptying into the Hudson River, and their use of the Fallkill, the Hudson River State Hospital people are rapidly getting to be an unendurable nuisance to Poughkeepsie.”23

On the positive side, in 1896 Lewis A. Thomson, Chief Engineer of the City of Poughkeepsie Fire Department, reported that new hydrants had been set in the City bringing the total number of hydrants to 426, up from only 27 a generation earlier in 1864.24 By 1918, the total number of hydrants was 600. But it was the replacement of old hydrants with those of greater capacity with larger throughput pipes and multiple hose connection points that improved performance.

Above left to right: Hydrants on Main Street Poughkeepsie 1840s, 1850s, and 1901. The first was referred to as a “hydrant box” because its basic form was wood. The next stage involved all-metal hydrants. The big change was with what was called “steamer hydrants” which had a much larger connection to accommodate the greater output of fire engines powered by steam instead of by men.

1924: Reservoir Was a Major Upgrade

The deadly typhoid epidemic in 1907 revealed that many residents distrusted the Hudson River water as a source and as result used

22 The Sunday Courier, Poughkeepsie, March 19, 1893, p 5.

23 Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, July 26, 1895, p. 8.

24 Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, February 1864, p. 2.

their own wells, intermingled with privies. This was determined to be the cause of 168 cases that resulted in 30 deaths in a matter of weeks.25 Adjustments were made as to the location of the intake from the Hudson and more sophisticated filter beds were installed, but a major upgrade was needed to address safety issues of water quality and availability for fire protection.

Frank Gardner, chairman of the mayor’s special committee, reported in 1922, “Recent tests have shown that in the so-called conflagration area of the city that the flow is but one third of what it should be.” 26 A consulting engineer reported the pressure was so low that while it might reach a second story, it did not have enough power to break through glass. Also in 1922, Fire Chief Chris W. Noll said, “Particularly in congested districts the work of the first few minutes does more in determining the extent of the damage than an hour of work later.” He argued that the water supply should be sufficient to put into play as many streams as necessary directly upon the arrival of the fire department at the scene of the fire, but this depended entirely on having enough pressure.27

The cost of such a comprehensive upgrade was significant and needed to be taken to the public for a vote.The unprecedented one-time expense was in excess of $500,000 (about $8,000,000 today), The initiative included new water and sewer mains, increased number of better quality hydrants, and the construction of an underground reservoir. Maps and arguments for voting “yes” were posted in each of the firehouses.

Also in 1922, the Poughkeepsie Eagle News reported that fire insurance rates were unnecessarily high and that installing an adequate new system would result in lower fire insurance costs to property owners.

John Ganzer, a volunteer firefighter, asked Poughkeepsie residents to not be complacent and argued it would be devastating “if nobody

25 Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, Dec. 04, 1907, p. 6.

26 Poughkeepsie Eagle News, April 22, 1922.

27 Poughkeepsie Eagle News, April 27, 1922, p. 12.

Left: This map was exhibited at all fire stations in Poughkeepsie in advance of the public referendum on spending over $500,000. The Fire Chiefs and volunteers were vocal advocates of the plan. The City’s chief engineer worked with fire insurance overseers to get approval of the plan. DCHS Newspaper Collections.

will believe that water supply is insufficient until a large conflagration wipes out a large business section.”28

The proposed plan has been put through the severest tests at the hands of various fire underwriting boards and it is generally considered to be the best that can be obtained. It was primarily drawn up by city engineer Thomas Lawler who used an old plan from Hazen and Whipple as a working basis. The revised plan was … then submitted to George W Booth of the national board of Underwriters and approved. A final plan was given to the State Board of Underwriters who made various tests of the water in the city and was accepted as first class.29

On Friday, April 28, 1922, voting was set up in the county courthouse rather than City Hall, given the expected size of the voter turnout. It passed, but barely. The win was by 16 votes. Of the 537 persons who voted, 267 voted yes, and 251 voted no. 19 were blank.30

To acknowledge the win, each firehouse sent an alarm of “three sevens,” the military command used to acknowledge victory in World War One in 1918. It seemed that in the first quarter of the 20th century

28 Poughkeepsie Eagle News, April 26, 1922.

29 Poughkeepsie Eagle News, April 23, 1922.

30 Poughkeepsie Eagle News, April 29, 1922, p. 1.

the City of Poughkeepsie was fully embracing its water needs. The surprise was that further water demands on local resources would not come locally, but from New York City.

Above left: The 1923 construction of the underground reservoir that remains today, albeit drained of water, was cut into the side of College Hill. The wood frames that would be filled with poured concrete are visible. Image courtesy of Poughkeepsie Water Treatment Facility. Above right: From a July 2024 performance testing the site as a public space, an effort led by MASS Design Group and the City of Poughkeepsie. Photo by Bill Jeffway.

New York City Water “Grabs”

While we have been examining competing demands on water within the borders of Dutchess County to meet a variety of needs, we need to add the dimension of competitive interference from New York City starting in the early 19th century.

From the time New York City had built the Croton River Aqueduct between 1837 and 1842, the fact that the Croton River watershed edges into southern Dutchess County has meant that Dutchess was always seen as an easy point of growth. By 1896, very specific plans for tapping into eastern Dutchess County’s Ten Mile River emerged 31 and were made public in 1901 and 1902.32 (See illustration.)

31 Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Feb. 1, 1896.

32 Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 20, 1902.

1902: Eastern Dutchess Plan

The reservoir itself would run 18 miles north/south and two to four miles wide. Flooding would start in south Amenia and involve all of Dover Plains to Pleasant Valley [BDE 1901 Feb 24]. [NY Daily Tribune 1902 May 11]. “Should this supply be decided on, the thriving villages of Dover Plains and Wassaic must both be destroyed.” 33 34 35

1903: Central & South West Plan

In 1903 the boldest plan was put forward, one that tapped into the Fishkill and Wappingers Creeks,36 the two dominant water sources that drove population and industry in Dutchess County. It would create five major reservoirs by abandoning and flooding a number of hamlets or towns, among them Pine Plains, Clinton Hollow, Hibernia, Billings and Stormville (see illustration).

Pushback was so swift and effective that New York State passed the Smith Act (sponsored by Assemblyman John T. Smith of Beacon) in 1904, prohibiting New York City from tapping into the Fishkill and Wappinger Creeks, although the Ten Mile River along eastern Dutchess was left aside.37

1926 into 1927

New York City revisited these plans just prior to the November 1926 election for State Assembly and Senate.38 It included a larger plan involving the Roeliff Jansen Kill in Columbia County.39

The Republican incumbent assemblyman (John M. Hackett of Hyde Park) and senator (J. Griswold Webb of Clinton) came out firmly against any plan to touch the Fishkill or Wappinger Creeks. The Democratic senate candidate (Richard H. Arnold of Poughkeepsie)

33 Republished from The New York World, Amenia Times, Jan. 12, 1901.

34 Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook, vol. 85, 2006, p. 89.

35 The Ten Mile River by Jonathan Quinn, Dutchess County HIstorical Society Yearbook, 2005, vol. 85, p. 89.

36 Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, Dec. 19, 1903.

37 Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, March 9, 1904, p.2.

38 Poughkeepsie Eagle News, Oct. 19, 1926.

39 Poughkeepsie Eagle News, Oct. 15, 1926.

Plan A in 1902: Would have flooded the plain from South Amenia heading south through Dover Plains to Pleasant Valley with a connection to the Croton Reservoir system supplying New York City due south..

Plan B in 1903: Five reservoirs were proposed to be created by dams and connected by aqueducts to the New York City system. An input pipe would have drawn water from the Hudson River at Hyde Park.

went further, saying the Ten Mile River should be protected as well. The incumbents won.

But when New York City came up with a plan in the spring of 1927 to allow some local towns to take water from the system, all of them, including Arnold, changed and embraced the idea fully!

In an open letter, Arnold wrote,

With regard to Pine Plains, of course, there is sentiment attached to the village and the settlement. … I believe the result as to Pine Plains will be the establishment of another Pine Plains in the near vicinity, overlooking the beautiful Ten Mile Lake, which will be far more beautiful to live in as to surroundings…”40

40 Poughkeepsie Eagle News, March 19, 1927.

What happened? The March 24, 1927 Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle front page read, “Passage of Water Bill Today Seems Certain” with an important subhead: “FDR Sends Hurried Protest.41”

It is worth pointing out that Roosevelt became chair of the Taconic State Parkway Commission in 1925 with a view to ensuring that the several decades of highway construction through Dutchess County would not result in large highways but rather in a scenic parkway. It seems like that FDR was able to pull enough political strings to stop what seemed to suddenly an inevitable inundation of several towns in the county.

Today and Tomorrow

Lessons from history can be most valuable when we look at what has changed, and what has not, with a view to understanding what might change–and what might not.

To that end, we can safely say that we will continue to put conflicting but essential demands on water and that the scale and complexity will continue to grow. Water will continue to prefer to run downhill, rather than up. It will still freeze at 32 degrees. Taxpayers will have to balance the cost of higher taxes with whatever is defined as essential services. Our firehouses, engines, and water systems get more sophisticated and must live up to increasingly challenging needs and state and federal requirements. Our firefighting men and women, who are largely volunteers, will need to continue to train and be ready for circumstances they hope never arise but which inevitably do. And growing infrastructure demands will have to be balanced with preserving the extraordinary character of Dutchess County that remains intact.

One of the most obvious changes related to water relates to change in our climate. Until around a century ago, the Hudson River regularly and reliably froze completely such that all river transportation was

41 Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, March 24, 1927.

shut down for three to four months every winter. It seems likely that further changes in climate will put yet another demand on water, on top of population and economic growth. Perhaps we can draw from lessons of the past.

Left: The city of Poughkeepsie has held water at College Hill since 1872. Tanks were installed in 2019 to replace the 1922 underground reservoir. Right: The town of Poughkeepsie water tower is located on the site of the 1893 Hudson River State Hospital reservoir.

Author’s note: City Engineer Thomas F. Lawlor was the lead designer, advocate and implementer of the dramatic 1924 plan. Lawlor was an active member of the Dutchess County Historical Society, as was his daughter, Denise M. Lawlor. Ms. Lawlor left legacy gifts through the Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley which DCHS benefits from as a perpetual gift from endowment that covers approximately 10% of our annual operating costs.

Technology Driving the Evolution of Fire Houses in Rural and Urban Dutchess County

The information for this article has come from a number of sources I’d like to acknowledge: The Firefighters Association of the State of New York (FASNY) Museum of Firefighting; “The Firehouse: An Architectural and Social History” by Rebecca Zurier; the Dutchess County Historical Society and Melodye Moore, Collections Chair; the Rhinebeck Historical Society; “The History of Firefighting, a Visual History by the LaRibera Fire Department; “The History of Water in Rhinebeck” by David Miller; “Uphill Battle: Our Epic Eternal Struggle to Tame Poughkeepsie’s Water” (2021, Dutchess County Historical Society); the websites of the fire companies and districts of Dutchess County, and the following Dutchess County firefighters: William Cotting, Past Chief and current District Secretary, Rhinecliff Volunteer Fire Department; Thomas Germano and DeWitt Sagendorph, Commissioners, Roosevelt Fire District. Special thanks to Bill Muller and Dan Silvestri, commissioners of the Rombout Fire District, for the tour of their new Station #2, and Richard Berger, Past Chief, Pleasant Valley Fire Department, for information on the construction of PV Station #1.

Introduction

Amazingly, for an activity that is so integral to the safety and well being of our residents and communities, the commitment, dedication, and extent of the firefighting vocation outside the brotherhood of fire fighters seems to pass unnoticed. This may be because, as our communities have changed over the years with migration from cities to our unique place and desirable way of life, the ethics of volunteerism and mutual aid are viewed as quaint parochial activities to which others

are engaged, but “not me”—the expectation being a quick call to 9-1-1 brings an instant response from a paid professional emergency force. “Volunteers,” consider the word. Volunteer fire service started with the concept of mutual aid—neighbors helping neighbors at times of conflagration or other disasters.

Since their beginning, formal fire companies both volunteer and professional have fought fires with the latest and best technology at their disposal. Organized by municipal authorities, each firefighting force’s task was to implement and marshal the tools at hand to bring cooling water or other materials to the site of a fire to quench it. The application of new technologies in fighting fires has always been the interest of the fire service. This pursuit has also driven the design (and size and expense) of the fire stations’ housing apparatus, equipment, and personnel. So it is in Dutchess County. Tracing the evolution of the fire station is to trace the evolution of firefighting technology. Architectural design in this case primarily serves the needs of technology. Not to be minimized, however, has been the desire for the design of a firehouse to reflect its importance to a community, its association with pride of volunteerism and mutual aid, and its role as a gathering place for the social events of residents, priorities that have not changed with technology nor time.

A Brief History of Firefighting

Conflagration has been a community concern across human communities. In America and Europe, organized firefighting was the purview of volunteer fire companies. Although formed by municipalities, at times early American firefighting organizations were reimbursed by fire insurance companies. One of the first of these insurance deals was founded by Ben Franklin under the name “Philadelphia Contributorship” in 1752. Metal medallions called fire marks were hung on the front of policy holder’s buildings, noting who insured the building. Insurance companies supported local fire brigades who in turn protected insured buildings. Often the first brigade on the scene would “claim” the fire, ignoring the insurance provider’s fire mark.

The enterprising company would then request reimbursement for the fight. Not always clear-cut, there were battles between competing fire companies over who “owned” a fire. By the mid 1800s, intensifying competitiveness helped construct an ideal of the fire company as an exclusive “social club” and “secret societies.”

Things became so contentious and violent in the Five Corners neighborhood of New York City, for example, that the authorities disbanded the volunteer companies in favor of a professional, paid force in 1865. Following this, the movement towards paid fire protection rapidly spread. This was most prevalent in urban areas with dense populations. Maintaining staff these new staff heavily influenced firehouse design which now needed to accommodate sleeping quarters and toilet facilities for the work shifts, in addition to social rooms and kitchens. Further storage room was needed for not only turn-out gear, but parade uniforms, musical instruments, and sporting goods–implements to conduct “acceptable” competitive social activities between departments.

With less land available in urban areas, narrow building lots demanded that firehouses be designed on multiple stories to accommodate all the activities and storage required. Apparatus, tools, and turn-out gear were located on the ground floor, with social and sleeping quarters on upper floors. The invention of the “fireman’s pole” in the 1870s speeded response time, eliminating the need to descend stairs at an alarm. Firehouses no longer functioned as simple storage sheds. Instead, these two- or three-story buildings became subjects of architectural designs and the styles of the times. Through this the firehouse began to take on a monumental appearance, appealing to the pride that firefighters and the community felt for this service. In addition, by accommodating the utilitarian need to dry leather hoses vertically, houses came to include towers, often known as a “hose tower.” These structures were regularly capped with a belfry, another design element which enhanced the facade’s monumentality, and which included an alarm bell to call firefighters to duty.

Firefighting apparatus and tools experienced a profound evolution in

the 19th century, changes which firehouses needed to accommodate. Advancements that influenced structural changes included: hoses of the 1820s which were transported on specially designed “hose carts,” cart-mounted box- and button-style water pumps called “enjines” from the 1830s, steam powered engines of the 1860s, aerial extension ladders of close to 100 feet in length, and scaling ladders which hooked onto window sills in the 1870s. These developments all meant apparatus of larger sizes and weights. No longer was it possible for the firefighters to pull their equipment to a fire and then fight it! It was inevitable that horses were then employed to assist with the transportation. At first companies utilized privately owned horses, often with inconsistent availability. Specially selected and trained horses were then stabled in the firehouse and at an alarm would move into position, where special rigs would drop harnesses, connected to the apparatus, down on the waiting horses. Being in such close proximity to the company and community, many of the horses became the favorites of all.

From the earliest days of firefighting until now, different companies trained and specialized in one set of tactical capabilities whether it was to manage the pumper (engine companies), hooks, ladders and axes (hook & ladder companies), or hundreds of feet of hose (hose companies). This explains why we see municipalities having multiple fire companies and firehouses, even with a small population base. It also meant the design of firehouses needed to accommodate the special requirements of each type of apparatus. Today, these functions can be combined in trucks that carry all the tools, called “quads” or “quints.” These trucks carry all four (or five) firefighting capabilities: pump (engine), water tank, aerial devices (cherry picker or pneumatically controlled rotating extension ladder), ground ladders, and hose. The size of these trucks, as with ladder trucks, are design determinants, being that they are much larger than a previous generation of truck and require larger structural spans, higher ceiling heights, bigger doors, and stronger structural slabs to support their weight. These changes also means fewer expensive firehouses need to be constructed.

The most effective medium for fighting fire has always been water, which interrupts the chemical process of the fire by cooling the ignited

fuel. Not all fires are close to water, though. Transporting water to the scene of a fire has been a challenge throughout history. This issue was first addressed by bucket brigades and later, in the early 1800s, by the invention of hoses made of hand-stitched leather. Hoses were connected to the pump engines, with a supply hose dipped into the source and delivery hoses leading to the fire. Buckets were required in every household, as was an owner-identified canvas bag into which their most prized possessions could be placed and carried out of the conflagration.

It did not take long for municipalities to begin advocating for public water supplies. Concerns centered on public health and water distribution systems used to fight fires. The prevalence of typhoid and cholera outbreaks traced to individual wells from outhouses and cesspools were a public health threat that could only be alleviated with controlled water supply and distribution systems. The Village of Rhinebeck installed a hand-operated pump in front of what became the Beekman Arms in 1765 that supplied residents and horses until 1895. Due to its shallow source, the water drawn from the well experienced intermittent quality issues. A private water company was formed in 1898, the Rhinebeck Water Works, which not only brought water to many houses and 46 water hydrants, but also included a reservoir close to the current reservoir on the Northwest side of Burger Hill.

Lamentably, that source also became polluted, and it was not until the 1950s that the Hudson became the system’s main source of water. Among other early water systems in Dutchess County were Poughkeepsie (1835, at Reservoir Square), Pine Plains (1895), Millbrook (1930), Glenham (1932), and Tivoli (1938). Compatibility of hose fittings to fire hydrants has always been a problem, even with standards in place, requiring pumpers and hose trucks to carry a selection of adapters, making connection of hose to hydrant possible.

Some suburban and rural communities with less access to water utilized chemicals to deliver pressurized water to a fire during the 1870s. This was not the Aqueous Film-Forming Foams (AFFF) in use until recently (which contain the poisonous chemicals PFAS and PFOS) but

rather tanks of water into which sodium bicarbonate was dissolved. Suspended above this mixture was a container of concentrated sulfuric acid, which, by use of levers, would be broken into the water solution, creating high pressure carbon dioxide that would expel the water solution into hoses and onto the fire. Fire stations that housed these “chemical engines” required storage for these chemicals in addition to all their other apparatus. The Glenham Fire Company’s original name, and by which it is still referred, is the Slater Chemical Fire Company, after the first chemical engine it purchased in 1921. The name stuck even after a pumper was purchased after the establishment of the local water system in 1932.

Propulsion of firefighting apparatus has also evolved, significantly affecting firehouse design. From human-powered apparatus to horsedrawn, to steam-propelled, and eventually to gasoline- and diesel-powered internal combustion engines, each required not only the apparatus but in most cases the fuel source be stored on-site. With internal combustion engines, special exhaust systems in the firehouse allowed the apparatus to run inside the firehouse. The latest innovation is the electric fire truck, first delivered to the Los Angeles Fire Department in 2022. Said to reduce emissions and noise, eliminating some health risks for firefighters, these trucks require dedicated overhead charging infrastructure and direct current generators.

Community characteristics dictate the type of equipment required to fight fires and, consequently, the design of the firehouse to house the apparatus. For example, if local zoning ordinances allow taller structures, aerial equipment gave firefighters higher access to buildings. Zoning might further allow industry of a specialized nature, requiring specialized firefighting equipment. A lack of central water and hydrants would dictate the ability to transport tanks of water (tankers) to the scene of a fire. Communities located near bodies of water, such as the Hudson River, usually have boats with rescue gear at the ready. Finally, the Wildfire-Urban Interface (structures surrounded by forest) and lack of paved roads would mean the utilization of “brush trucks” with the capability to go off-road.

The Firehouse

A handful of programmatic factors have driven the design and re-imagining of these aspects of firehouses:the shed, the garage, the social hall, living quarters, the annex to the garage, and demolition and recreation at a larger scale. These structures are influenced by the practicalities of the fire company and community. Such design inspirations have been influenced by: context, budget, location, community, and messaging (e.g. “This is a Firehouse!”).

The foremost element of design was location. Firehouses positioned near the center of the community served to minimize volunteers’ travel time to the station, thereby improving the speed of response. In some locales this was near a railroad, or in the commercial center, with their associated storage and support structures, where also existed a roadway large enough to easily maneuver apparatus. Design there was usually dictated by the vernacular, the style (or lack of) of the surrounding buildings. Budget also played a part, as there were usually little funds available for embellishment of the storage shed.

Many stations throughout the county demonstrate how technological advancements changed architectural designs. The original firehouses in Rhinecliff, Hughsonville, Staatsburgh, and Pleasant Valley are particular examples of this change over time (Fig. 1). Built just large enough to house the “recently bought” apparatus, they fell into obsolescence in a short time as new and larger equipment was invented. According to Bill Cotting, past chief of the Rhinecliff Volunteer Fire Department, a discarded locomotive wheel was mounted on the front of the firehouse, which was beaten to summon the fire brigade, who then hand-pulled apparatus to the scene–certainly a challenge in the hills of Rhinecliff! As Rich Berger, former chief and 50-year member of the Pleasant Valley Fire Company told me on November 3, 2024:

In 1922 at the cost of $1700, the first Firehouse or “Engine Shed” as it was called was built. Very humble construction; 20’ x 30’ on a 20 x 40 parcel. No plumbing, just electric.

Meetings held at Lovelace’s Hall next door. This housed a 1925 Mack Fire Engine which just fit. In 1937, a second apparatus was purchased but had to be stored at the Service Garage of one of the members.

Mr. William Muller, Commissioner of the Rombout Fire District, had this to say about their firehouse evolution, in a conversation on October 26, 2024:

We were formed in 1971 and this station on Wood place lasted until 1975, and it has been used for many other purposes by the town [see Fig. 2].

Station 1 at 901 Main St. in Fishkill was dedicated on June 28, 1975. It is the District HQ and has a large room for events. It had an upgrade in 2004, has room for all our needs for [calls

Figure 1: Image of the Rhinecliff Fire Station, originally built in the 1870s. This has now fallen into disrepair as changing equipment require new storage spaces. Photograph by Robert Wills, 2024

on] I-84 [Interstate 84] and calls on the west end of our district primarily.

Station 2 is on the east end of our district, at 501 Cedar Hill Rd. It has a small footprint. This station was built in 1981 and will be replaced within 2024.”

Stations such as these, occupied a place of importance and visibility in the community. This allowed them to become monumental structures. Some original stations in Tivoli, Staatsburgh, and Rhinebeck serve as examples of this monumentalism, illustrating high style and design principles popular during their construction (Fig. 3). Note that as important elements of the local social fabric, firehouses also had to appeal to a sense of community. The upper floors served not only as marshaling space for firefighters but also doubled as gathering spaces for community dinners, dances, concerts, and pancake breakfasts.

Figure 2: Original garage and apparatus of the Rombout Fire Department, 1971 Image courtesy of William Muller of the Rombout Fire Department.

When a firehouse outlives its usefulness, its fate is not always dire, especially if it was an expensive edifice at a significant location in the community. Tivoli, for example, decided to restore and adaptively reuse the DePeyster Firehouse in 1994 (Fig. 3). It now functions as their Village Hall, community meeting space, and the home of the Tivoli Free Library. An addition to the south side of the structure houses an elevator, making the building ADA-compliant. Since 1985, the fire department moved into a new facility just to the west of the village hall. After a devastating fire destroyed the firehouse, a new one was built in 2022, and plans for a renovation to accommodate new and larger equipment are now being developed.

Figure 3: The Watts-Depeyster Fireman’s Hall in Tivoli, shown here, serves as a prime example of monumental firehouse architecture. Originally built in 1898, the former firehouse now serves as a village hall and free library, reminding us of the continued life of these monumental buildings. Photograph by Robert Wills, 2024

The job of firefighting is inherently dangerous, made more so by the flammability of the materials and devices with which we now use to construct our structures. Throughout history, in an effort to protect firefighters, a number of organizations have been instrumental in codifying apparatus design parameters and specifications for equipment and personal protection for firefighters. These include the National Fire Protection Association, Occupational Safety and Health Association, the US Fire Administration (USFA), The Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE), Fire Safety Research Institute, and the Fire Apparatus Manufacturer’s Association. Additionally, in an effort to promote the establishment of rural fire departments, the US Department of Agriculture published Leaflet No. 375, in October 1954, entitled “Fire Departments for Rural Communities – How to Organize and Operate Them”. Each issuance of revised standards has, over time, affected the design of firefighting apparatus and firehouses. Starting from simple sheds, depending on budgets, fire districts may have authorized the construction of annexes, enlargement, or wholesale abandonment and construction of new stations where changes to floor plans to accommodate new firefighter protective regimes were mandated.

In the 1960s, two changes to the fire service fundamentally changed the way non-urban fire stations looked. Fire stations which serviced paid professional departments with full-time staffing had dormitories, kitchens, and showers which historically were located on a second floor. Remember, the invention of the fire pole in the 1870s sped response time because firefighters no longer needed to descend stairs to the apparatus. However, as the inherent danger of fire pole use was recognized, the NFPA dissuaded their use. Secondly, around the same time, hoses were made of materials that no longer required their drying after every use. No longer were hose towers needed, and living accommodations and apparatus could be designed on the same level, which increased building footprints while decreasing their height and monumentality, making them more “suburban” in aspect.

The most recent standard, NFPA 1500, Standard on Fire Department Occupational Safety, Health, and Wellness Program (2021)—and

previous versions–established minimum fire service criteria in various areas, including emergency operations, facility safety, apparatus safety, critical incident stress management, medical/physical requirements, member fitness/wellness, use of PPE, and sequestering dirty/clean areas of the station, including showers and PPE washing machines. This set many of the design parameters for the new Rombout Station #2, to be competed in 2024.

To get a sense of how these standards were actually implemented, I solicited an invitation to what will be the newest fire station in Dutchess County, Rombout Station #2. For comparison, I also asked a former Chief of the Pleasant Valley Fire District, Mr. Richard Berger, who was involved with the construction of a station 30 years prior, in 1995. Here follows a portion of my discussion with Mr. Berger, as we discuss changes in the firehouse during his time with the department.

In September of 1941 the second firehouse was constructed just west of the first building on what is the entrance drive for the current firehouse. This was a two-story building with two bays to accommodate the two engines. Social functions and meetings were held upstairs. This building was constructed to standards of the time but still very simple and still in the center of town where the largest number of members lived and worked. In 1951, the first ambulance was purchased, but this unit had to be stored in the garage of a neighbor in the rear. Once again expansion of equipment with no room to house it.

With the flood of 1955 this building sustained damage making it unusable, so it was torn down and the equipment was stored at locations around the village. 1957 saw the construction of the third PV firehouse. This time there was forethought to make additional room for four pieces of equipment. This station was built on almost the same footprint as the 1941 station. This building served until the district moved into the 1995 station you see today. (Fig. 4)

The 1995 station was built at a cost of $1.98 million and has room for six apparatus. Between 1957 and 1995, new words and terms had come to the attention of the district. OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Federal], NFPA [National Fire Protection Assoc., private], PESH [Public Employee Safety and Health Bureau, NYS], which early on were used as guides, but later gained teeth to make the district board step up and provide equipment and housing meeting the codes and recommendations those organizations were putting forth.

Some of the codes and recommendations related to apparatus exhaust systems to remove fumes from the building and away from the members; room specific to the decontamination of protective apparel as well as shower accommodations; proper rooms to store and preserve vital records; offices for the fire and house officers as well as the fire district board room. This building was constructed to the rules and construction regulations of the day.”

With this building it was once again determined that it remain in the center of town for the response of the membership. We now have day-time firefighter staffing but the future may dictate 24/7 staffing to supplement the dedicated volunteers who in many instances have multiple jobs and obligations.

Will there be a need for more space or redesign of existing space only time will tell. Where the fire company was once the social hub of the community, it is now sharing membership and activities with Rotary, Chamber of Commerce, and other service organizations. The board does its best to control its budget. The officers and members are constantly challenged to take more training to comply with state and federal mandates as well as insurance issues. More planning is done in advance of a purchase to make sure there is space, but it is a delicate balance.

Mr. Muller of Rombout Station #2 continued our conversation on October 26, at the construction site of Rombout Station #2 (Fig. 5):

OSHA, NFPA were always in mind through the design. Rombout staff regularly attend county and state conferences for information. Two of the commissioners, myself and Dan Silvestri, took the lead and reported to the other commissioners monthly.

Fishkill has a bad traffic problem, and the Rombout tax area [fire district] is on both sides of it. New Toll Brothers homes are in our ladder district, [and we also needed access to] HVAC units on top of strip malls. So a new ladder truck was proposed in 2014. Discussions of buying a QUINT started [which would require] modifying our 40-year-old Station #2 [to fit it]. The QUINT (2021) would replace our 2000 vintage LaFrance truck.

We first tried staying within our existing footprint (of Station #2) with no luck. We then looked for property to add to it or buy something else within a quarter mile. Many leads failed about the time that the town rejected a plan (for a gas station), and the two owners of that property (sold it to us) in 2019 and 2020.

Getting all the approval in place was a nightmare. [Negotiations] with the town around water and sewer, with the NYSDOT for a fourth face on a traffic light at our intersection dragged on for too long; sidewalks, landscaping plans, etc. [required] monthly meetings with the planning board from the beginning till now.

[The choice of equipment] Hose, Ladder etc is drawn by 1. History, 2. Equipment, 3. Needs. We do all three as the Rombout Fire Company, but have no ambulance (contracted service).

The architect was Liscum, McCormack, VanVoorhis. We had many discussions about the [existing] Cedar Hill Rd. site with the company, officers, and architect. The architect was behind the [Fishkill] Village Fire Company and Mahopac, two companies we were very familiar with.

We talked about growth, truck width and height, suggestions like drive-through bays, etc. Dan and I kept going with discussions and plans. This building is not done to replace our other comforts in Station #1 like a gym, big kitchen, 180-person social room, basement, etc. We did not take away anything, but Station #2 would be a big [complementary] improvement. We preplanned an area for overnight needs, possibly consolidation, and [therefore] put sprinklers over the entire interior.

The community was given opportunities via signage, recruiting, mandatory and permissive referendums, etc. Their comments were mostly that they didn’t know that the Cedar Hill Station existed (laughter), and “WOW when will the new station be finished?”, and “When will the Open House be?” [Community members now being closer to the firehouse is

Figure 4: Facade of the Pleasant Valley Station #1, Built 1995, courtesy of Richard Berger

good for their insurance.] We intend to use our electronic sign for recruiting.

The architect and commissioner had many ideas on design and they ran with it. The doors are the big deal. They stand out, are unique, and were worth waiting for. We have already seen an increase in applications for the fire service [just from the design]. We have heated [Snow Melt] ramps and some sidewalks, to alleviate slip and fall hazards. [Geothermal heating was planned and will be used to supplementarily heat the driveway aprons in front and behind the station.]

From Commissioner Dan Silvestri, “I don’t think we eliminated anything to meet the budget. We did leave out a few items because of money. 28KW of PV Solar, a hybrid geothermal system to supplement the heating and cooling of the building. These “green” features were still prepped for and will be installed as funding becomes available. Also, for our fire training in-house, an 1100 square-foot mezzanine will be equipped with training regimens to include tie-offs for ladder evolutions and bail-out windows and confined quarters training. Commissioner Muller continued, “We recently took out a permissive referendum from [our] building and grounds reserve in case we run short. We never thought the costs of civil engineer, surveys, lawyers [both ours and the town’s], NYSDOT, NYSDOT required blacktop, safety people, etc. would cost so much.”

The property was not bought with a bond; the bond was for the building, and the costs were $9 million, based on the architect’s resources. We were able to build up interest through the NYCLASS Program [New York Cooperative Liquid Assets Securities System]. Early work came out of our Building & Grounds line items.

Commissioner Silvestri concluded, “Energy and sustainability are increasingly important to our community as well as

the Board of Fire Commissioners so many vital economical choices were made in the design by adding as much square footage as possible while ensuring the best use of community tax dollars. The result will be a thoughtfully designed facility with many “green” features that will effectively serve the district for several decades. The projection of the [south-facing] canopy was calculated to allow maximum solar gain for heat in the winter but shield the sun in the summer to lessen the A/C load. Some more of the building’s features include high-performance insulation with an air-sealed envelope along with VRF [high-efficiency variable refrigerant flow heat pumps] cooling compiled with a 100%-dedicated outdoor air energy recovery ventilation system and a high efficiency HVAC system. Radiant floor heat with 97%-efficient boilers and water heating. LED lighting with timers and motion detectors were carefully chosen as well. The building is fully sprinkled, seismic-compliant, ADA-accessible and an emergency generator that can power the entire facility. A more robust exhaust system will funnel diesel fumes from fire engines starting inside the apparatus bays and outside, thus reducing risks of diesel soot, which is one of the leading causes of cancer in firefighters.

Figure 5: Facade of Rombout Fire Department Station #2, photographed 2025 by Robert Wills

The utility of fire has been a necessity from our human beginnings. So has our fear of uncontrolled fire. No matter what land use and density may be regulated, or which construction practices may be defined by building codes, catastrophic and deadly fires still happen. It is therefore our fire service that is, aside from our own personal responsibility to mitigate fire risk, our last defense in times of threat. The expense may be great, but our firefighter’s lives as well as our own are undoubtedly worth the cost.

Poughkeepsie’s 19th Century Fire Companies

Roy Budnik

Buildings, equipment, people, water…Roy Budnik covers all the important elements of firefighting in “And You Were There” (editor’s note–a shout out to every reader who remembers that television show) fashion in his exploration of the origins of Dutchess County’s first–and largest–firefighting organizations: the City of Poughkeepsie Fire Department.

We all assume that emergency services will be there to help us in our time of need, wherever we are. However, most of us do not know much about the organizations that provide these services. The City of Poughkeepsie fire department (PFD) is now staffed by professional firefighters who respond to over 5,000 calls a year.1 But its origins date back to a time when groups of ordinary citizens would turn out in response to fires and other disasters. Over 90% of the fire departments in New York State are still volunteer-staffed.2

In its simplest terms, firefighting involves three major elements: a source of water, a means of transporting the water to the site of the fire, and people to apply the water to the fire. Each of these elements has evolved since the earliest days of the Village of Poughkeepsie.

1 City of Poughkeepsie website, https://www.cityofpoughkeepsie.com/252/Fire-Department

2 National Fire Department Registry Quick Facts, U.S. Fire Administration Registry last updated: July 31, 2024

Water for Fighting Fires

The familiar red fire hydrants are now found on every block in the city. But before 1835, water for fighting fires came from dug wells. The village authorized the digging of wells in 1803 for the purpose of fighting fires;3 the first well was located at the corner of Main and Market streets, near the court house. Brigades of citizens transferred water, bucket by bucket, from the wells to the location of the fire. Unfortunately, the wells had limited capacities and occasionally ran dry during a fire.

To provide a more reliable source of water, a reservoir was constructed in 1835 on the Cannon Street Hill (now known as Reservoir Square), with a water main running down Main Street to Market Street.4 The water lines were extended to Clover Street and to cross streets from the main in 1848, with hydrants installed at convenient locations. Water was pumped up to the reservoir from the Fall Kill, one block to the north. As the community grew, so did the demand for water; as a result, the capacity of the reservoir proved insufficient and, eventually, water was pumped directly into the system from the Hudson River, beginning in 1872.5

Firefighting Equipment

Firefighting has always been a community effort. In addition to replacing volunteers with paid staff in Poughkeepsie, what’s significantly changed over the centuries has been the apparatus used to combat fires.

Buckets were the earliest form of firefighting equipment.6 Brigades of volunteers would line up between the nearest well or water body

3 Platt, Edmund, The Eagle’s History Of Poughkeepsie from the earliest Settlements 1683 to 1905, (Poughkeepsie: Platt and Platt, 1905) 72

4 Ibid, 120

5 Ibid, 212

6 David Hedrick, The Fire Bucket • A Part of Fire Service History, FFAM website, November 20, 2021, https://www.ffam.org/2021/11/20/the-fire-bucket-a-part-of-fireservice-history/

and the site of the fire and pass buckets from person to person down the line, with the last person throwing the water on the fire. The first charter of the Village of Poughkeepsie, passed March 27, 1799, authorized the village trustees to appoint citizens to the post of fire warden to make sure that each house had at least one leather bucket.7 During a fire, those not part of the bucket brigade would lend their buckets to the effort. Sacks used to collect personal belongings of the inhabitants of threatened buildings were also part of the early equipment used at the fire scene. Five Poughkeepsie men were designated “bag men” in 1804 to oversee the management of personal property at a fire scene.8

Hand pumpers, called “engines”, were developed to provide a more efficient method for applying water to a burning building. Firemen would operate long handles (“brakes”) attached to the pump. Bucket brigades supplied water to the tank on the pumper. Later, hoses replaced the brigades to speed up delivery of the water. Hand pumpers were replaced by steam engines in the mid-19th century. Engines and the accompanying hose carts were pulled by volunteers until the latter part of the century, when horses were introduced to the fire companies. Experienced men were hired to operate the steam engines and drive the horses;9 volunteers did the actual firefighting. With the transition from “four-legged” horsepower to mechanized, the use of horses declined. The last of the fire horses were retired in 1923.10

The Village of Poughkeepsie owned a hand pumper for use by the citizens from its beginning. In 1803, the village trustees appropriated $250 “for the purpose of digging wells or otherwise supplying the fire engine [pump] with water, for repairing or procuring fire-hooks and ladders to the engine, and for other contingent expenses for the ensuing year.”11 In 1804, the trustees directed the hiring of a person to “repair the two pumps in this village and also the door of the Engine

7 Platt, Eagle’s History, 70

8 Ibid, 74

9 Information from exhibits at the FASNY Museum of Firefighting located in Hudson, NY

10 Poughkeepsie Fire Apparatus Facebook post https://www.facebook.com/people/ Poughkeepsie-Fire-Apparatus/

11 Platt, Eagle’s History, 72

House by clearing way the obstructions occasioned by the ice and snow and that the engine be cleaned and oiled.”12

Long-handled hooks were (and still are) used to pull open hot spots in a burning building. Ladders provided better access to the fires. At first, the hooks and ladders were hand-carried to the fire scene by the firemen. Later, wagons were outfitted for the purpose. Like the engines and hose carts, the hook and ladder trucks were pulled by firemen until converted to horse power. The name “hook and ladder trucks” carried on into the 20th century, even though hooks became accessories to the ladder trucks.13

Firefighting in 19th and early 20th centuries.

There does not appear to be a record of firefighting methods in colonial Poughkeepsie, although there must have been organized activities to fight fires and to save property and lives in the early community. Benjamin Franklin is credited with co-founding the first American all-volunteer fire company in Philadelphia in 1736,14 although firefighting efforts were already organized in the colonies.15 The Philadelphia company consisted of 26 men; their equipment was limited to buckets and sacks. Most likely, the efforts in Poughkeepsie and other colonial communities were similar.

The March 1799 Poughkeepsie village charter authorized the trustees to appoint citizens to the post of fire warden to inspect chimneys and fireplaces. Further, “Anyone who should refuse to serve as fire warden was liable to a fine of $25.00.”16 Volunteer firemen were to be exempted “from serving as jurymen, or in the militia…except in cases of actual invasion of this State, or insurrection therein: provided that

12 Ibid, 74

13 FASNY Museum Exhibit

14 Anonymous, Union Fire Company, http://www.benjamin-franklin-history.org/ union-fire-company/

15 Hashagen Paul, Firefighting in colonial America, Firehouse, https://www.firehouse. com/home/news/10527819/firefighting-in-colonial-america December 1, 2003

16 Platt, Eagle’s History, 70

the number of firemen do not exceed twenty.” When Poughkeepsie became a city in 1854, the charter provided that all firemen and fire wardens “shall be exempt from serving on juries in all cases, and from serving in the militia except in case of war, invasion or insurrection, and from the highway poll tax.” The charter provided for the appointment of one chief engineer of the fire department, two assistants, and 16 fire wardens.17

A city-wide fire alarm box system was established in1930.18

Fire Companies

The first recorded Poughkeepsie fire company, called the Sack and Bucket, appears to have been organized in 1800, although informal companies may have existed earlier.19 With village rules to provide for buckets, hooks, ladders and the formation of volunteer companies, firefighting started to become formalized. These early fire companies were also fraternal societies of like-minded people. For example, the Young America Hose Co., first established in 1856, was formed by a group of men to provide fire protection to the lower part of the city. At first, membership in this company was restricted to nativeborn Americans; this policy was later changed to allow any resident to become a volunteer.20 (See Aidan Chisamore’s A Nativist Legacy: Progressivism and Patriotism in the Young America Hose Company elsewhere in this volume). Volunteers in the early companies were often building or business owners, concerned about protecting their own property.21 George Nagengast, a successful business and property

17 Charter of the City of Poughkeepsie, passed March 17, 1854, Title II, Section 18, amended 1865, Platt and Sons, Printers. accessed at https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/ pt?id=nyp.33433015321064&seq=7

18 Anonymous, Noll Retires after 10 years of service, Poughkeepsie Journal, January 1, 1932.

19 Preserving Poughkeepsie’s Architecture and History, Facebook post from March 30. 2023. https://www.facebook.com/PPAHLH/posts/niagara-steamer-company-no-2-this-photograph-of-the-niagara-steamer-company-no-2/225287750172648/

20 Young America Hose Co. 75 years, Celebrates, The Sunday Courier, Poughkeepsie, June 27, 1931

21 Flad, H.K. and Griffen, C, Main street to mainframes: landscape and social change

owner, volunteered for the Niagara and Booth companies before becoming fire chief in 1902.22

Then, like now, members of the fire department took great pride in their organizations. The companies had special parade wagons to accompany the marching firefighters in parades in Poughkeepsie and neighboring communities. (See Melodye Moore’s Pageantry and Pride: Parades and Musters elsewhere in this volume). This tradition continues today. Pride in the department is further evidenced by sons being inspired to follow their fathers into the PFD. For example, James Ringwood drove horses for the Cataract Company until they were retired in 1923. His son and grandson, as well as other family members, also served in the department.23 Lieutenant William Ringwood, Jr., his grandson, retired in 2019 after 45 years with the department.24

The number of fire companies in Poughkeepsie grew during the 19th century, with each company specializing in a particular task or equipment. As their names imply, hose companies brought hoses to a fire, engine companies owned an engine (pumper), and ladder companies had ladders. Obviously, the companies had to cooperate, as pumps, hoses, and ladders are all needed while fighting a fire. However, this was not always the case. Much like the fans of sports teams, members were passionate about their companies.25 In 1852, for instance, the Poughkeepsie- based Howard Hose Company was forced to disband. According to Chris Petsas, president of the Exempt Fireman’s Association, as cited in Musso,26 “the Howard Hose Company was a very aggressive company that would actually go out and fistfight with in Poughkeepsie, State University of New York Press, Albany, 2009.

22 Platt, 289

23 Hudson River Valley Institute, Walkway over the Hudson Interviews: David Ringwood, June 11, 2008

24 https://www.facebook.com/CityOfPoughkeepsie/posts/10156176139037234/ September 5, 2019

25 Landers, J., In the Early 19th Century, Firefighters Fought Fires … and Each Other, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/early-19-century-firefighters-fought-fires-each-other-180960391/, September 27, 2016

26 Musso, A., O.H. Booth Hose Co. served city’s 7th Ward, Poughkeepsie Journal, April 11, 2017

members of other fire companies while a building was burning. The city shut that company down.”

The number of fire companies fluctuated in the 19th century, but eventually the Poughkeepsie Fire Department was composed of seven companies:

Niagara Steamer Fire Engine Company No. 2

The Niagara company was reportedly organized in 1810, but not as a steamer company.27 The first practical steam-powered pumpers were not built until the mid-19th century;28 therefore, the early Niagara company must have been equipped with a hand pumper.

The location of the 1810 Niagara firehouse isn’t known, but Platt believed that it was adjacent to the Court House. 29 Later, a new house was constructed for the company on the northwest corner of Main and Hamilton streets.30 In 1888, it was reported that at that time the Niagara firehouse was “in poor condition and liable to cave at any minute.”31 A new firehouse, at 6 N. Hamilton Street, was finally built in 1909.32 The Main Street building is gone, but the one on North Hamilton still stands and is now privately owned.

The organization was re-incorporated as a “steamer company” in 1885, presumably when it received its new equipment to replace the hand pumper. As of 1888, the company had 32 men, 15 of whom had badges.33 (Badges were worn on firefighters’ uniforms to identify those who were allowed at a fire scene, according to a FASNY Museum exhibit.). In 1913, the company had one steam pumper, one

27 Dates on the façade of the former Niagara Firehouse at 6 N. Hamilton Street are 1810 and 1909, the latter being the date the company moved to its new quarters.

28 King, W., History of the American Steam Fire Engine, the Pinkham Press, 1896, 152 p.

29 Platt, Eagle’s History, 74

30 Poughkeepsie New York, Sanborn Map and Publishing Co. Limited, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3804pm.g3804pm_g061921895, Nov. 1895

31 Weaver, S., Letter to John Bright, Chief Engineer, dated November 15, 1888, contained in Chief Engineer’s Report, 1892.

32 Sharp, T., Niagara Engine House NRHP Registration Form, 1982

33 Weaver, 1888.

hose wagon, four horses, three paid day men, three paid night men, and two volunteers at night.34

Davy Crockett Hook and Ladder Company No. 1

Hooks and ladders were, and still are, critical tools used in fighting fires. Although the community probably owned hooks and ladders dating back to colonial times, the first formal hook and ladder company, which became known as Davy Crockett, wasn’t founded until 1836, when the village purchased a “truck” (wagon) to carry the ladders.35 The vehicle would have been pulled by hand until horses were introduced into the department in the 1890s. The Davy Crockett company occupied a firehouse adjacent to the old village hall (now the Jurors Building) on Main Street. Comparison of 1970 and 1980 aerial photographs indicates that the building was demolished in the 1970s; the site is now a county parking lot. 36

34 Poughkeepsie New York, Sanborn Map and Publishing Co. Limited, NYC Nov. 1913

35 Platt, 120

36 Dutchess County Parcel Access website, https://gis.dutchessny.gov/parcelaccess/

Turnout of the Niagara Steamer Company NY Sunday World, undated, early 20th century. Photograph provided by W. Ringwood, Lt. PFD, (retired)

By the 1880s, the firehouse was in poor condition and in need of renovation. The fire truck was in fair condition but “inadequate for needs,” and the seven ladders were in very unsafe condition.37 At that time, the company had 48 men, 24 of whom had badges. These deficiencies were resolved by 1891; a report from that year states that the “house is in good condition, having been rebuilt this past year” and that they have a new ladder truck.38 In 1913, the company had one 50-foot ladder truck, three horses, three permanent men and 40 volunteers.39

Turnout of the Davy Crockett Hook and Ladder Company NY Sunday World, undated, early 20th century. Photograph provided by W. Ringwood, Lt. PFD, (retired)

Cataract Engine Co., No. 4

The Cataract Engine Company was organized in 1836 and was originally housed at 100 Main Street, east of Clover Street.40 Like the Niagara Company, it must have started with a hand pumper,

37 Lansing, L.E., Letter to John Bright, Chief Engineer, dated December, 1888, contained in the 1892 Chief Engineer’s Report.

38 Way, O., Letter to E.O. Caldwell, Chief Engineer, contained in 1891 Chief Engineer’s Report.

39 Sanborn, 1913

40 Howgate, J. Letter to John Bright, Chief Engineer, dated November 26, 1888, contained in 1895 Chief Engineer’s Report.

converting later to a steam pumper. James Howgate, secretary of the company, reported that the company’s steam rotary pump, built by Silsby and Company, “wants some repairing done as soon as possible” because many parts were broken or non-functioning.41 In addition to the steamer, the company also had a wagon for carrying coal and hose. There were 47 men enrolled at that time.42

In 1913, the company had one steamer, one combination chemical and hose wagon, two horses, and one man on duty.43 The last horses in use in the Poughkeepsie Fire Department, Cataract’s “Jack” and “Prince,” were retired in 1923.44

Turnout of the Cataract Steamer Company, with steamer and hose wagon in back NY Sunday World, undated, early 20th century. Photograph provided by W. Ringwood, Lt. PFD, (retired).

Phoenix Hose Company

The Phoenix Hose Company was organized by O.H. Booth following the disbanding of the Red Rover Company in 1844 due to

41 Ibid

42 Ibid

43 Sanborn, 1913

44 Poughkeepsie Fire Apparatus Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/people/ Poughkeepsie-Fire-Apparatus/100064732477552/

“rowdyism.”45 The company was initially located next to the Court House, but it was moved to the old Red Rover house at what was then the northwest corner of Union Street and South Washington Street.46 A new, much larger house was built in the same location at the end of the 19th century; that building was demolished in the 1970s during creation of the arterials.

In 1891, the company became the first in Poughkeepsie to have a horse permanently based in the firehouse, with the horse privately donated.47 An 1888 report states that the building was in first-class condition and the company was 39 men strong.48 Further, unlike some other companies, the hose carriage and auxiliary cart were owned by the company, while the hose, ladders, and sundry accessories were owned by the city. In 1913, the company had one permanent man, one combination chemical and hose wagon, and two horses.49

Turnout of the Phoenix Hose Company, with hose wagon in back NY Sunday World, undated, early 20th century. Photograph provided by W. Ringwood, Lt. PFD, (retired).

45 Anonymous, Untitled article on history of Phoenix Hose Company, Poughkeepsie Eagle, Sept. 21, 1895, pg 9; Platt, 149

46 Ibid, 150

47 Anonymous, 1895. However, Platt, on pg. 262, states that the first horse permanently established in the PFD was donated in 1891.

48 Mulholland, Jas., 1888, Letter to John Bright, Chief Engineer, dated December 1, 1888, contained in the 1892 Chief Enginer’s report

49 Sanborn, 1913

Lady Washington Hose Company No. 3

Engine Company No. 5, known as “Neptune,” was organized in 1848.50 The city bought new pumpers for the Niagara and Cataract companies in 1863; as a result, Engine Company No. 5 was no longer needed. The company was reorganized as the Lady Washington Hose Company at that time. Originally located in the old Neptune Company house on Liberty Street, near Main Street, the company moved to new quarters on Academy Street in 1908.51 The 1908 building still stands at 20 Academy Street but is privately owned.

In 1888, there were 36 men in the Lady Washington Company, 21 of whom had badges.52 The company had one chemical and hose wagon, with one paid day and night man and three men on duty at night.53

NY Sunday World, undated, early 20th century.

Photograph provided by W. Ringwood, Lt. PFD, (retired).

50 Platt, 149

51 Sharp, T., Lady Washington Hose Company NRHP Registration Form, 1980.

52 Unknown author of 1888 letter to John Bright, accessed from a Poughkeepsie Fire Apparatus Facebook page.

53 Sanborn, 1913

Turnout of Lady Washington Hose Company in front the firehouse on Academy Street

O.H. Booth Hose Company No.2

The Howard Hose Company was another that was disbanded because of rowdy behavior. It was replaced by the O.H. Booth Hose Company No. 2 in 1852, as stated previously. The new company was organized by Oliver H. Booth, then chief of the city fire department. Booth was a wealthy businessman and partner with Matthew Vassar in the Vassar Brewery.54 The company was named the O.H. Booth Hose Company in his honor. The Exempt Fireman’s Association, also founded by Booth, was created in 1886 as a place where Poughkeepsie fireman could socialize to try to avoid the rowdiness of the earlier companies.55

The first building occupied by the Booth Company after its founding was located at 4 N. Hamilton Street, adjacent to the Niagara firehouse.56 In an 1888 report the building was described as in good condition but “cramped for space.” 57 The company remained on Hamilton Street for more than 50 years, until it was relocated to a new firehouse in 1907 to provide better coverage of the growing eastern neighborhoods of Poughkeepsie. 58 With consolidation of the fire department in the 20th century, the building became Firehouse No. 2. After 100 years and several renovations as fire trucks increased in size, the firehouse was closed and the company relocated to the new firehouse at 505 Main Street. The old firehouse still stands at 532 Main Street but is privately owned.

The company’s inventory in 1913 included one combination chemical and hose wagon, three horses, and one permanent man.59 The company replaced the horse-drawn equipment with a Fiat truck in 1917, following an incident where one of the horses became injured.60

54 Platt, 272

55 Musso, 2017

56 Sanborn, 1895

57 Mattern, F.H., 1888, Letter to John Bright, Chief Engineer, dated December, 1888.

58 Musso, 2017

59 Sanborn, 1913

60 Musso, 2017

Young America Hose Company

The Young America Hose Co. was established in 1856 to provide fire protection to the lower part of the city.61 First housed in a barn, the company moved to a building at 18 Tulip Street in 1862.62 A new home was constructed in 1875 at 88 Church Street, on the south side of the street and west of Jefferson Street. The building was replaced with a larger structure in 1901.63 The present Clover Street firehouse opened in 1968, replacing the Young America firehouse. Comparison of the 1970 and 1980 aerial photographs64 suggest that the building, like the Phoenix firehouse, was demolished in the 1970s during realignment of the bridge approach and creation of the arterials.

As of 1888, the company had one parade carriage, one two-wheel hose wagon and two horses. There were 67 members, 40 of whom had badges.65 In 1911, the company acquired the first piece of motorized

61 Anonymous, Sunday Courier, 1931

62 Ibid

63 Anonymous, 1901, A new firehouse opened, The Evening Enterprise, May 17, 1901,

64 Parcel Access website

65 Unknown author, 1888

O.H.Booth Hose Company in front of the firehouse on N. Hamilton Street.

NY Sunday World, undated, early 20th century. Photograph provided by W. Ringwood, Lt. PFD, (retired)

equipment in the PFD, a White combination chemical and hose truck.66 In 1913, the company had one paid day man, two paid night watchmen and one “auto truck,”67 presumably the 1911 White.

Turnout of the Young America Hose Company, with their fire truck NY Sunday World, undated. Note: the company received the fire truck in 1911, which may date this photograph and those of the other companies. Photograph provided by W. Ringwood, Lt. PFD, (retired).

Consolidation of the Firehouses

The transition from a volunteer department to an all-paid department was not smooth. A referendum in 1912 put that question to the voters, and it was soundly defeated.68 Fire Chief Noll recommended consolidation of the fire companies in 1928, which was opposed at the time by the volunteers. In the 1930s, there were eight city-owned firehouses: Davy Crockett, Phoenix, Cataract, Young America, Niagara, Lady Washington, Booth, and Hooker Avenue. During the 1940s and early 1950s, four were sold, and the Crockett house was converted

66 Anonymous, 1911, “Big Six’s” New Auto Apparatus, The Evening Enterprise, Nov. 25, 1911, pg 9

67 Sanborn, 1913

68 Anonymous, 1912, Big majority against paid department, Poughkeepsie Eagle, February 9, 1912, pg 5

to municipal uses (the site is now a parking lot next to the Jurors Building), while the Cataract, Booth, and the new Hooker Avenue houses were retained. The Cataract firehouse was replaced by the Clover Street firehouse in 1968. The Public Safety Facility on Main Street was built in 2007 to replace the Booth firehouse.

Although the fire engines may still bear the name “company”, such as Engine Company 2, this is an historic designation, paying homage to the former volunteer ladder, pumper, and hose companies that served Poughkeepsie for more than 100 years.69 All equipment is now owned by the city, and all 66 firefighters are professionals employed by the city fire department. The department operates out of the Clover Street, Main Street, and Hooker Avenue stations, with three engines and two ladder trucks.70

69 Personal communication, Wm. Ringwood, Lt. PFD (retired)

70 City of Poughkeepsie Fire Department website, https://www.cityofpoughkeepsie. com/252/Fire-Department

A Nativist Legacy:

Progressivism and Patriotism in the Young America Hose Company, No. 6, 1856–1950

Aidan Chisamore

“Where duty calls, we fear no danger” motto of the Young America Engine Company, No. 6, 1856

In the fall of 1943, the Poughkeepsie Journal published an interview with Valentine Kihlmire (1882-1952), a retired volunteer firefighter from Poughkeepsie. The article explored his three decades of honorable service in the Young America Hose Company No. 6, one of the largest companies in the Poughkeepsie Volunteer Fire Department which operated in the city from 1856 to 1967.1 Kihlmire demonstrated a deep respect for the Poughkeepsie organization and spoke to his enduring pride in the traditions and legacy that shaped the company’s identity. Reminiscing on his many years of service, the fireman stated, “Young America…has a history to be proud of.”2 Expanding on this remark, the interviewee explained that Young America was “a new company founded on a new idea.” Specifically, this “new idea” referred to the company’s adoption of nativist membership policies, which barred immigrants from joining the organization between the years 1856 and 1881.

Written in the decades following the repeal of nativist policies, retrospective histories of the fire company insisted the belief to be

1 Edmund Platt, The Eagle’s History of Poughkeepsie from Earliest Settlements 1683 to 1905 (Poughkeepsie, New York: Platt & Platt, 1905), 154, http://archive.org/details/eagleshistoryofp00plat.

2 “One of the People: Fire Fighters, Valentine Kihlmire’s Family Long Associated with Young America Hose Company,” Poughkeepsie Journal, September 19, 1943, https://www.newspapers.com/image/114746832/.

a cornerstone of company identity. These authors, like Kihlmire, believed the institution of nativism demonstrated an identity marked by an overwhelming sense of “patriotism and civic pride” and a “progressive” sensibility.3 They even identified the name “Young America” to be a hallmark of the ideology’s centrality and enduring legacy. These histories prioritized the company’s relationship with nativist membership policies, an emphasis which defined constructions of the organization’s identity around patriotism and social progress. This article aims to better outline this relationship between the narratives of the Young America Hose Company and organizational nativism. I will show how late-19th and early-20th century histories utilized stories of the company’s creation in 1856 and its later reorganization in 1881, questioning aspects of the narrative that are incongruent with the historical record.

The distinct lack of source material from the early days of Young America presents a serious challenge in retracing this history. Most— if not all—of the records that might shed light on the question of nativism have been lost. However, crucial understandings of the company’s first several decades may be glimpsed through narratives published in newspapers and company booklets. First appearing in the 1890s, the histories of the Young America Engine Company represent a narrative tradition that directly associated themes of nativism and membership with the call to service. While informative, it is important to note that the explicit promotional intent of these publications requires they be read with a discerning eye. Through careful reading of these sources, we begin to understand how the company maintained and reinterpreted the historical legacy with which it identified.

Beginning as an engine company for the newly chartered city, Young America became the sixth troop attached to the volunteer fire department in Poughkeepsie. Attempting to reform municipal fire protection, the city government allowed the overly large Protection Company No. 1 to be subdivided.4 In the summer of 1856, several of Poughkeepsie’s

3 “One of the People.”

4 Platt, Eagle’s History, 154; “Young America Co. No. 6,” Poughkeepsie News-Press, October 6, 1886, Dutchess County Historical Society Collections and Archives;

firemen began to meet under the auspices of forming a new company to serve the rapidly growing southwestern part of the city. 5 While no contemporary reports of the meeting survive, only a few months later the sixth company emerged fully organized. An announcement in the September 20, 1856, issue of the Poughkeepsie Journal details the company’s formal approval by the Poughkeepsie government: “A New Engine Company, (No. 6) has been organized in this city the following are the offices: foreman, John H. Gildersleeve; 1st Assistant, I. H. Wood: 2d Ass’t Moses Van Keuren; Secretary Rob’t Sheilds; Treasurer, Edward Black; Representative Samuel Bond.”6 This brief notation is the oldest record of the company’s existence, outlining what became the basis for the historical narratives of the 20th century. Eventually adopting the name “Young America Engine Company,” the organization did not appear again in print until two years later, in an article noting their presence at an Inspection Day in June of 1858.7

Situated between Eastman Park and the Hudson River, Young America first operated from what one 1897 advertisement called “an old barn on Tulip Street.”8 Eventually, a firehouse was built over the site of the barn in 1862, and less than a decade later, in the 1870s, the company moved to a new two story house.9 The new building did more than merely store fire equipment; it also acted as a meeting place, offering space for firemen to congregate and socialize. 10 The importance

Young America Hose Co. No. 6, 1856-1931 Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of Young America Hose Co. 6 (Poughkeepsie, 1931).

5 The memorial accounts disagree over their original location of these meetings, either placing it in the back room of an old grocery store or the basement of the Poughkeepsie Hotel. Seventy-fifth, While this is the first time this story is mentioned, it is confirmed by Platt, Eagle’s History, 154; Young America Hose Co. No. 6, Seventy-Fifth Anniversary

6 Poughkeepsie Journal, September 20, 1856.

7 “Inspection Day,” The Poughkeepsie Eagle, June 5, 1858.

8 “Visiting Firemen, Tendered a Rousing Reception Tuesday Night,” Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, October 6, 1897.

9 Young America Hose Co. No. 6, Seventy-Fifth Anniversary. This was No. 19 Tulip Street, this building is no longer standing.

10 Robert S. Holzman, The Romance of Firefighting (Harper & Brother, 1956), 54 and 157, http://archive.org/details/romanceoffirefig0000robe. Holzman’s discussion of the “social club” elements of volunteer fire companies is interesting and has guided much of my understanding throughout the research process. Particularly, he outlines

of this firehouse should not be understated. As will be discussed in greater detail, by the early 1880s the company began to splinter. Only 25 years after its initial founding, Young America was plunged into an intense legal battle over property rights related to this firehouse. As we will see, the resulting reorganization became closely connected with the movement away from nativism. The new company, now named “Young America Hose Company, No. 6,” accepted members from any nationality.

An overview of the company would be incomplete without contextualizing an understanding of nativism, especially as it existed within Poughkeepsie during the formation of Young America. While nativism has taken many forms in American history, its expression in northeastern urban centers during the 1850s and 1860s is crucial to understanding the ideology’s use in company narratives. Tyler G. Anbinder, an influential scholar of 19th-century American politics, helpfully defines the nativist movement as a “complex web” of nationalism and xenophobia that assumes an overt connection to ethnic, religious, and racial prejudices.11 By the 1850s, however, the term explicitly denoted beliefs about American superiority and an ardent distrust of immigration and immigrants. Throughout the Northeast, nativist sentiments were particularly targeted at the Irish Catholic and German migrants who began to settle in the United States en masse during the early 1840s due to severe famine, poverty, unemployment, and civil unrest in their native countries.12

At the time of Young America’s founding, nativism had considerable support in Poughkeepsie.13 Its local success was, in part, due how the houses were as much related to the pride of the company as the service they provided, their founding ideology, and the equipment they used. The house therefore becomes an important vector for creating a firematic identity amongst Young America, something a later work should delve into more deeply.

11 Tyler G. Anbinder, Nativism and Slavery: The Northern Know Nothings and the Politics of the 1850s (Oxford, England, UK: Oxford Universtiy Press, 1992), XIV, https://archive.org/details/nativismslaveryn0000tyle/mode/2up.

12 Anbinder, Nativism and Slavery 6-8. Movements from Ireland and Germany to the United States peaked between 1847-1854.

13 Clyde Griffen, “Platt’s History and Ours,” ed. John Jeanneney and Mary Lou Jeanneney, Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook 72 (1987): 11.

to fears surrounding the political influence of increasing immigrant populations moving up the Hudson River from New York City.14 The city’s involvement in nativist politics at municipal and national levels best reflects this regional support. In the middle of the 19th century, the American party formed under the banner of nativism. Often labeled the Know Nothings, their platform espoused anti-immigrant rhetoric that highlighted the danger migrants posed to “native-born” Americans.15 While they first entered the political landscape in the early 1840s, the faction rose to prominence nationally in the presidential election of 1856, the same year as the creation of Young America. Within Poughkeepsie, the movement quickly gained traction. As the historian and businessman Edmund Platt noted in The Eagle’s History of Poughkeepsie from Earliest Settlements, 1683 to 1905, by November of 1845 enough support could be found in the city to warrant the establishment of a nativist newspaper called “the Poughkeepsie American.”16 Know Nothing dogma did more than just capture local literary attention; in the election of 1856 the party’s candidate and former president Millard Fillmore garnered 15% of the city’s vote.17 Although remaining in the minority, the vocal support for the Know Nothing party shows that throughout the city the ideology of nativism would have been a visual part of the social fabric.

14 Anbinder, Nativism and Slavery, 3.

15 Ibid., IX-XV. For more information on the perception of the party nationally see Anbinder, Nativism and Slavery 20-24. Also, for more information about its connection to fire companies in major urban areas see Amy S. Greenberg, Cause for Alarm: The Volunteer Fire Department in the Nineteenth-Century City (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1998), 123–24, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7zvfv6.

16 Griffen, “Platt’s History,” 133.

17 Griffen, “Platt’s History,” 11. Platt gives a similar statistic, offering that 318 votes were cast for the Know Nothing candidate, out of 1120 votes represented in the city. By contrast the County voted slightly more in favor of Fillmore. He won 2013 votes out of the 11,564 votes cast, totaling 17.4%. Platt, Eagle’s History, 173. Platt’s account of Poughkeepsie nativism is surprisingly sparse, especially considering how widespread he purports this radical belief to have been. To illuminate this disparity, I turn to Clyde Griffen’s article in the 1987 Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook, where he shows how Platt sanitized the less palatable aspects of Poughkeepsie’s past. This emphasis on “communal harmony” particularly centered on the issues of slavery and nativism.

Considering the popularity of nativism and the presence of the Know Nothing party, it is not surprising that Poughkeepsie would develop such an exclusive fire company. Indeed, the narrative emphasis on Young America’s progressivism highlights a motivation to accept popular ideologies that promoted social change. Within the memorial accounts, the image of progressivism is ill-defined at best. While it seems to have many overlapping interests with progressive movements of the 1890s to 1920s which were concerned with societal reforms, there is no indication of any direct political connection. Company publications of the 20th century defined their progressivism as simply “forward-looking” and “eager to improve.”18 The historian Amy Greenberg relates how, throughout the country, works of local firematic history applied this vague progressive sensibility. She outlines how they commonly framed histories of individual departments or companies within a grand narrative of American progress, both social and technological.19 These accounts prioritized unity, service, and public appeal. The progressivism of the Poughkeepsie organization should then be understood within the context of a national narrative of volunteer firefighting. Nativism functioned as a point of access to this narrative within Young American publications, justifying and reinterpreting their history in a positive light while also directly applying popular politics motivated by patriotic pride.

Despite maintaining a prominent role throughout the memorial accounts, the nativism of Young America is completely excluded from any accounts of the company between the years 1856 and 1881 when the policy was believed to be in practice. The earliest reference to this membership restriction comes comparatively late in the organization’s history. It was not until October 1897, 41 years after its founding, that any connection was made between Young America and nativism. Published in the Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, the piece reported that, from its founding, Young America “would tolerate none but native Americans from which it got its name.”20 While brief, this statement goes far beyond merely recognizing the policy’s existence.

18 Young America Hose Co. No. 6, Seventy-Fifth Anniversary.

19 Greenberg, Cause for Alarm, 4–6.

20 “Visiting Firemen.”

Here, the author directly links the name “Young America” with nativism. Connecting a public-facing element of the company to nativism demonstrated a clear intentionality on the part of the author. As Robert Holzman’s monograph, an important work on firefighting culture, shows the name of a company was core to their public persona. Listed on equipment and used in publications, an individual company’s title represented an intentional display of organizational identity.21

The named connection to nativism provided in 1897 represented the beginning of a historical tradition that dominated popular understandings of the company. Accounts of the organization identified the title “Young America” as a direct representation of xenophobic ideologies. The emphasis on the moniker of the company carried on into the late 20th century. One example, appearing in the Poughkeepsie Journal in June of 1956 remarked, “The name was a reflection of the new company’s policy of accepting only native Americans.”22 Even Platt in the Eagle’s History supported the belief that nativism was the founding principle of Young America.23 This clearly defined legacy should not be understood as a fair representation of a historical debate over the naming of the company. Strong connections between these narratives, instead, elucidate this as a clear belief of later authors.

The phrase “Young America” can be traced to the political, literary, and artistic movement of the 1830s and 1840s. Nationalist movements in Western Europe–like Young Ireland and Young Italy–inspired the founders of Young America, particularly John O’Sullivan of the New York-based Democratic Review. The Young America movement advocated social reforms that would move the country away from European models. Broadly speaking, Young Americans of the Democratic Party supported immigration. They identified expanding native and immigrant populations as the hallmark of a new generation of Americans.24 Given a general understanding of the movement, it is

21 Holzman, Romance of Firefighting, 35–42.

22 Myers, “Protection Here Sketchy, Firemen Apathetic When Young America Organized in 1856,” Poughkeepsie Journal, June 10, 1956.

23 Platt, Eagle’s History, 260.

24 Edward L. Widmer, Young America: The Flowering of Democracy in New York City

unlikely, as many company histories suggest, that the founders of the organization chose the name “Young America” because of an association with their nativist leanings. Instead, the name represented an aggressive patriotism that certainly did maintain an overtly racist and exclusionary tenor.

The potent Americanism of the movement became intertwined with a growing need for urban fire protection. Outside of Poughkeepsie the name became a popular choice for fire companies across the country during the mid-19th century. Greenberg illustrates that while extremely popular, the attribution of “Young America” had no connection with an individual company’s adherence to nativism.25 This is not to say that fire companies and departments did not follow nativist beliefs, as many fire companies across the Northeast became embroiled in the debates around the topic. It was not unusual for firematic organizations of the mid-19th century to associate along ethnic or doctrinal lines.26 Taking a more national view of firefighting, Greenberg even notes that during the era of the Know Nothings, many fire companies in urban centers publicly positioned themselves with or against the party. While there is no evidence to suggest a connection between the party and the Poughkeepsie Young America, its bent towards nativism did reflect these national trends. Thus, their name reiterates the company’s progressivism, both upholding populist politics while also advocating societal change.

The memorial accounts made use of this popularity of nativism. They argue the membership policy was the primary driving force in the immediate success of the company. The History of the Volunteer Fire

(New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 190, http://archive.org/details/youngamericaflow0000widm. By the 1850s some nativist Young American factions challenged the authority of the movement, but these were few and far between. For more on the creation of Young America and its early expression in the Democratic Party see Widmer, Young America: the Flowering of Democracy, 3-7.

25 Greenberg, Cause for Alarm, 50 and 65. Specifically, she highlights two Californian companies bearing the same name. As in the case in San Francisco, the “Young America Engine Company, No. 13” was the most nationally diverse with the majority of its members being foreign-born.

26 Ibid., 44

Department of Dutchess County served as the first and most influential of these narratives. Published by the Young America Hose Company in 1902, the book details the history of the various volunteer fire departments in the county. As outlined in the preface, this text aimed to present only the “principal events” in the company’s history and promised to act as “an heirloom of the many, happy by-gone days.” Its importance to the story of Young America cannot be overstated, as later histories of the company were built from this document. As we will see, this often included copying entire passages, underscoring its role in retroactive identity building.

The text centered around a narrative of Young America’s first parade (c. 1858), in which the immediate success of the company can clearly be connected to their ideological leanings: “…the sentiment of that day endorsing it [nativism] and making it popular to the extent that on their first parade, they turned out in the uniform of the organization one hundred and five men.”27 The impressive number reported by the account tripled the actual size of the company’s membership. The popularity of the policy not only justified the company’s former belief in nativist principles, but it also reinforced Young America’s position in a national narrative of social progress as they reacted to popular political trends. Another company history, written three decades later, expanded on this, contextualizing all company history through this lens of progressivism. The work culminated in the important phrase, “Young America was always a progressive and forward-looking organization.”28 In conjunction with the History of the Volunteer Fire Department, we begin to see the centrality of progressivism in Young American identity. This does more than fit the company into a national trend, however. Within the memorial account nativism becomes the arm of progress that connects the first days of the company to the organization several decades later. Through both its initial success and its continued narrative presence, the appeal to nativism defines the unity, service, and public appeal of Young America.

27 Young America Hose Company No. 6, History of the Volunteer Fire Department of Dutchess County (Poughkeepsie: Hansman, Beatty, and Pralow, 1902).

28 Young America Hose Co. No. 6, Seventy-Fifth Anniversary

While the memorial accounts highlighted the apparent prevalence of these beliefs, the distinct lack of original documentation calls into question how the company’s nativism manifested. The repeated praise of Americanism inherent to the policy in memorial literature shows the company certainly wished to appear as if it maintained some nativist influences.29 Within these narratives, however, a distinct difference is drawn between this ideology and the actual functionality of the company, suggesting a more nuanced relationship than an outright ban. The accounts never go so far as to mention that nativism appeared in the bylaws of the company, simply referring to it as a “policy.” The 75th anniversary booklet (1931) is most useful here, guiding an understanding of this distinction. While highlighting the various changes made to the organization over 75 years, the publication outlined the passing and contents of the original by-laws. The listed items show some of the original laws that governed the company including prohibitions on gambling and drunkenness, rules for officer elections, and member expulsion. The absence of nativism from this list is telling. In the preceding paragraphs, the author claimed this to be the only defining characteristic of the company’s organization; why then would it not have been specifically outlined in a list containing “the principal features of that interesting document”?30 Given this, I believe that there is enough doubt to show it was unlikely that the by-laws of the Young America Hose Company prohibited foreign-born volunteers. Rather, it is more likely that the popularization of anti-immigrant biases during the mid-19th century allowed the creation of a culture that suppressed diversity during membership elections. More simply, nativism functioned as a de facto element of Young America’s membership selection.

Despite pressures from this xenophobic practice, the company continued to grow, nearly doubling in size over the next decade and a half.31 As membership swelled, Young America fell into turmoil. By

29 Young America Hose Company No. 6, History of the Volunteer Fire Department; Young America Hose Co. No. 6, Seventy-Fifth Anniversary; Young America Hose Company No. 6, Young America Hose Co., No. 6 (Poughkeepsie, New York, 1908).

30 Young America Hose Co. No. 6, Seventy-Fifth Anniversary

31 Young America Hose Co. No. 6.

June of 1881, the fractured company had separated into two groups. It was during this period that Young America moved away from its nativist origins. The divide centered around claims of improper company conduct, eventually leading to reorganization. The conflict that emerged pitted company members in “good standing” against what one news article from the period called the “worthless characters and dissipate members” who used their position for carousing.32 One fireman, Rudolph F. Muller (1854-1924), championed the argument that the majority of the members had fallen into disrepute. His faction acknowledged that the number of members not in “good standing” was too great to simply expel, so they appealed to the Common Council of Poughkeepsie to dissolve the company. They specifically requested the city take possession of the firehouse and apparatus, cutting off any ability for the company to continue.33 The appeal to the Common Council was reprinted in the Poughkeepsie Eagle-News the following day:

To the Hon. Mayor and Common Council of the city of Poughkeepsie: Gentlemen–we, the undersigned members in good standing of Young America Engine Co. No. 6, most respectfully petition your honorable body to disband the organization to which we belong, and known as Young America Engine Co. No. 6, for reasons which are set forth as follows: That as our Company contains a large number of worthless characters, and also dissipated members, who continually lounge about the house, disturbing the neighborhood in riotous dissipation, bringing to the house at all hours of the day and night intoxicating beverages, dissipated and immoral characters, and from the strength of their number it is impossible for us to reform the company by expelling them and redeem the company from the disgrace to which it has fallen and make it as it once was, the pride of the city department. We therefore most respectfully ask your honorable body to

32 The Evening Gazette, June 9, 1881.

33 Common Council of Poughkeepsie, Minutes of the Common Council, Nov. 17, 1871-Sept. 28, 1881, 1881, 465.

disband said organization and take possession of the property.

Signed by R. F. Muller and 21 others.34

Immediately, the city government moved to approve the request and disband the Young America Engine Company, voting unanimously in favor of the proposal.35 In the same meeting, the 22 members petitioned for dissolution, appealing to be reinstated as a new company with their membership limited to the members in “good standing.” The Common Council approved this request, and the emerging organization rebranded under the new name “Young America Hose Company, No. 6” with Muller as its foreman.

Immediately following the decision to reorganize the company and purge the member roll, city officials ordered the firehouse to be shut down. Under direction from the city, the leaders of the Poughkeepsie’s fire department backed the Common Council’s decision to support Muller. Fire Chief William Kaess and Chief Engineer Charles Colwell placed a “corporation lock” on the firehouse door to prevent the use of the building by the ousted members.36 The two men were met by several of the recently expelled Young Americans, who threatened “to break in the door of the building and do bodily harm” to any members remaining inside.37 It appears the fire chief and chief engineer took the claims seriously, suggesting city officials place an armed guard of police in front of the company building on Tulip Street. Throughout the next day, the police kept order as crowds watched on eagerly, but none of the promised violence occurred.38

Seeing the failure of their threats, the firemen opposing the city’s decision turned towards the courts to reverse the ruling of the Common Council. On June 11, 1881, the two parties appeared before the supreme court of Dutchess County, presided over by Judge Joseph

34 “Common Council. Regular Meeting.,” Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, June 7, 1881.

35 Common Council of Poughkeepsie, Minutes of the Common Council, 465.

36 “Excitement Among Firemen,” Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, June 7, 1881.

37 The Evening Gazette, June 9, 1881.

38 “The Firemen’s Trouble,” Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, June 8, 1881.

E. Barnard.39 Elmore Weddle (c. 1852-1891) led the ousted members, suing Muller’s reorganized company. Incensed by the decision to allow the city to take over company property, Weddle and his supporters accused the Common Council, Fire Department, and Muller’s faction of forcing them out of the company. They believed they should be remunerated for the items despite their expulsion. This extended to the items in the firehouse, particularly furniture, and money saved in a company account. They argued, individual company members collected and purchased the items and funds now owned by the organization. They believed that if the City of Poughkeepsie upheld their expulsion and forcibly removed them, these items should be sold at auction. The proceeds from the sale should then be distributed equally to each member.40 Conversely, the defense maintained that anything entering the company’s possession became city property and therefore could neither be sold nor taken for any member’s benefit. Despite their efforts, the expelled firemen lost their plea. The ruling in favor of the city allowed the new company to keep its old furniture, house, and money.41 This seems to have quieted the ousted members, and over the next few years, the new company began to rapidly grow.

After Young America’s reorganization, it was several years before any attempt was made to reiterate the history of the company. In October 1886, five years after the original dissolution, the Poughkeepsie NewsPress published a commemorative issue honoring the city fire department. The article on the Young America Hose Co., however, was the shortest of the biographies, focusing solely on the specifics of the original organization; this included the first foreman, their original location, and date of creation. In short, this article played an important role in laying the groundwork for the historical interpretation that came to dominate the popular narrative. It did so by directly connecting the

39 “Trouble Among Firemen, Two Factions Before Judge Barnard,” Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, June 13, 1881. Barnard was certainly not without his biases. As Platt showed in the Eagle’s History, at the time of the court hearing, the judge maintained deep connections to the fire department. He served first in the O.H. Booth company, and he was a current member of the Veterans Fire Association. For more information on Judge Barnard see Platt, Eagle’s History, 271-272

40 “Young America Six in Court,” Poughkeepsie Journal, June 12, 1881.

41 “Six in Court.”

original organization with the newly founded company, erasing the story of dissolution and reorganization in 1881.42 While it is possible this silence was born from a sense of brevity, this is unlikely, as all other company histories included in the issue are at least twice its length. Moreover, as we have already seen, many of these newspaper histories directly consulted or were written by the company. It was not until the 1930s that Young America acknowledged the events of 1881.

Returning to the memorial histories published by the company, it is clear that the reorganization acted as a hard cut-off for these exclusionary policies. The 75th anniversary booklet cryptically made note of “an element whose activities were frowned upon by the better class of faithful members.” Within this narrative, the “better class” of firefighters peacefully takes over the company with only mild disturbance before the reorganization. Although this depiction does offer significantly more detail, it does not go far enough to present an accurate view of the events of 1881.

This manipulation of the historical narrative may also have served to retroactively reinforce the moral quality of the company’s membership. Returning to the History of the Volunteer Fire Department, we see the complete rejection of any claims of rowdyism from 1881. In the introduction, the anonymous Young American writer outlines a brief overview of each company. Despite the author’s overwhelmingly positive portrayal of the other six Poughkeepsie companies, Young America rises above the rest, standing “second to none.” The author uses two key points to support this claim. First, the men involved comprised “a membership unsurpassed in excellence and good standing,” and, second, this company is the only one in the department that possessed its firematic vehicles , of “which the city owns no part.”43 While at first glance it might be easy to dismiss these as merely self-promotional statements, I believe this is a tacit acknowledgment of the dramatic results of 1881. The verbal similarities to the original request to dissolve the company inverts Mullers claim about the quality of the company. Doing this, the author reinforced a positive company

42 “Young America Co. No. 6.”

43 Young America Hose Company No. 6, History of the Volunteer Fire Department

identity, unbroken from its founding in 1856 to this publication in 1931.

The commentary around the events of 1881 was also directly connected to the company’s involvement in the Civil War. Returning to the discussion of nativism, all surviving accounts insist that the reorganization of the company was largely motivated by a sense of patriotism, service, and progressivism. First appearing in the 1902 History of the Fire Department, the removal of nativism anchors the formation of the new “Hose Company.” Young American authors explained this sudden movement away from the defining characteristic of the company as a sense of civic unity developed in the War:

The Civil War called for volunteers and many of the lads remembering their Americanism hastened to the call of arms, and many of the brave fire laddies either laid down their lives on the altar of the country, were wounded in battle, or returned home with shattered health. The engine company never regained its original popularity. The civil war, with nativeborn and naturalized citizens fighting side by side, begot the spirit of toleration and liberty. So that when Young America Hose Co. was reorganized in 1881, after the disbandment of the engine company, all good men were welcomed no matter where born.44

This passage defined the narrative of Young American nativism well into the 20th century, as all other publications copied this statement to some degree. One such booklet published in 1931 only added the caveat that the founding tenet fostered a deep respect for the “American Ideal” which then inspired so many members to volunteer.45 Just as the peaceful resolution of the restructuring could show the quality of the company, so too did the call to arms underscore their ardent patriotism. The staggering response from company members to serve in the Civil War also tacitly brushed away the story about an unwieldy fire company. Moreover, the wartime setting for discovering “tolerance and

44 Ibid.

45 Young America Hose Co. No. 6, Seventy-Fifth Anniversary

liberty” presents a clear defense of why change would be required, as one reasonable expression of patriotism turned into another.

It is for this reason that the intense patriotism of Young America cannot be separated from the company’s progressivism. These two themes work together to construct the image of an organization that from its inception paid crucial attention to both expressions within their service. The nativism of the 1850s has now fallen out of fashion, this imbalance was short-lived, however, as the reorganization restored the company’s former position as a voice for progressivism. Returning to the 1902 account, the author contended that the movement away from the formerly progressive and still patriotic practice of nativism allowed them to resume “rank among the progressive companies in the department.”46 This understanding provides more weight to why Young America proudly claim their nativist ties after several decades. Highlighting an ideological shift fortifies the identity of the company, and its success is attested to as this ideal is perpetuated for the rest of the company’s existence.

The memorial narratives celebrating the Young America Hose Company No. 6 intimately connected a shifting acceptance of nativist membership policies with an overt language of progressivism and patriotism. The resulting stories solidified key elements of the company’s identity within historical memory. Beginning in the late 1890s with short company histories published in various local newspapers, a tradition of connecting the company’s name and its origins to nativism arose and was later adopted by inter-organizational publications. Despite many contemporary examples of nativist northeastern fire companies, it is more likely that Poughkeepsie’s only nativist firematic organization maintained a uniform membership through social pressures and not company by-laws. The sustained usage of nativism as a narrative tool was most heavily utilized in descriptions surrounding the reorganization in 1881. These discussions intentionally refocus the narrative onto the company’s patriotic involvement in the Civil War, which exposed members to a more diverse worldview, ignoring the

46 Young America Hose Company No. 6, History of the Volunteer Fire Department

complaints made by Muller. Through these stories, the organization inverts negative associations of nativism to a positive demonstration of its intense progressive nature and ardent national loyalty. This political legacy is not a unique aspect of Poughkeepsie’s Young America, but it should be understood as a common theme amongst urban volunteer fire companies in the mid- to late 19th century.

This article lays the groundwork for interpreting the relationship between the Young America Engine Company and its nativist origin. This work, however, is not the end of the discussion. If more official organizational records are discovered, future work should engage with the lived experience of nativism within the company as it existed from 1856 to 1881. This would do much to further the research established here. The importance of the discussion over nativism in Young America cannot be understated. Not only does this topic reveal crucial aspects of Poughkeepsie society in the mid-19th century, reflecting national political trends, but it also helps redefine the understanding of volunteer firefighting in the city, emphasizing individual companies’ political presence. Since few works discuss the company in any severity, popular belief–which may be directly inspired by these memorial narratives–threatens to be the only source that defines the history of what was once Poughkeepsie’s largest firematic organization. It is only through a critical analysis of Young America that we can challenge and investigate these beliefs.

The History and Architecture of the Watts-Depeyster Fireman’s Hall

Emily Majer

Firehouses can serve communities long after their usefulness in storing firematics (editor’s note: isn’t that a great word? Wish I had coined it) ends. Emily Majer walks us through Tivoli’s original firehouse to show how it remains as vital a part of the village’s life today as it was upon completion in 1898.

postcard from the author’s collection c.1906

With an easy landing site on the Hudson that supported deep hulls, and a creek with mill sites inland operating by 1728, the settlements of Tivoli (formerly Red Hook Landing, formerly Hoffman’s Landing) and Madalin (formerly Mechanicville, formerly Myersville) experienced an early prosperity that increased exponentially with the chartering of the Hudson River railroad in 1846.

Twenty years later, Tivoli and Madalin were muddy, ungoverned, and by many accounts ungovernable. To create a mechanism to levy taxes for the building of sidewalks and—more importantly—to create order from chaos, local Episcopal priest James Starr Clark lobbied for the merger and incorporation of the two settlements. This was accomplished on June 20, 1872, and the Village of Tivoli was born. As soon as the village was officially created, the new government discussed the need for a proper firehouse to serve the community. This conversation continued for nearly a quarter of a century.

Near the end of the 19th century, Tivoli was served by three separate, well-manned and enthusiastic volunteer fire companies: the F.S. Ormsbee Engine Company No. 1, the Johnston L. dePeyster Hose Company, and the J. Watts-dePeyster Hook and Ladder Company. But there was no central fire station. The Ormsbee steam engine, purchased in 1887, was stored in Potts’ Opera House. Johnston L. dePeyster, three times elected president (that is, mayor) of the village, built a structure to house his hose company. It is not currently known where the John Watts-dePeyster Hook and Ladder Company kept their equipment. The three independent organizations met in various locations—one even used a local saloon as its headquarters.

In 1896, the Tivoli Village Board of Trustees passed legislation creating a proper fire department and called for a special election to determine how it would be financed. Before the village moved the project forward, Brevet-Major General John Watts-dePeyster, a local philanthropist, military scholar, and influential authority on firefighting, offered to fund the construction of a firehouse himself.

General dePeyster enlisted Hudson architect Michael J. O’Connor, who had worked extensively in the area, designing residential, municipal, and institutional structures. His projects included river estates for members of the Livingston family—plans for Midwood in 1889 and a remodel of Clermont in 1893. He also designed the Emmanuel Lutheran Church, the Central Grammar, Sixth Street, and Allen Street schools in Hudson, and many grand domestic structures there. The two may have met around the architect’s designing of the Fireman’s

Home in Hudson, which was built in 1892. O’Connor had worked previously for dePeyster, designing the Methodist-Episcopal church in Tivoli and the dePeyster Library at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

The Watts-dePeyster Fireman’s Hall was named for General dePeyster’s maternal grandfather, John Watts—who had been the last Royal Recorder of the City of New York to serve the Crown, a member of the New York State Assembly and the United States Congress, and one of the founders of the Leake and Watts Orphan House—and for his father, Frederic dePeyster, lawyer, philanthropist, and president of the New York Historical Society. When it was completed in 1898, dePeyster leased his building to the Village of Tivoli for use as village hall, jail, and consolidated firehouse.

This amicable arrangement among the fire companies was terminated when General dePeyster’s son, Johnston, with whom he feuded with great bitterness, was again elected village president. The village government was forced to relocate, along with the J.L. dePeyster Hose Company. The government did not return to the building until 1921, 14 years after the general’s death, when his heirs sold it to the village for a nominal sum.

The Fireman’s Hall, now commonly referred to as the Village Hall, stands on the south side of Broadway, at the west end of the business district. It is in Richardsonian Romanesque-style structure, popular for municipal and institutional buildings of the late-Victorian era. It is very grand for a village that has never had more than about 1,300 residents.

The three-story building is constructed of brick, laid in the Englishbond pattern. The foundation, visible on the sides and completely exposed at the rear of the building, is faced with rusticated bluestone. Bluestone is also laid in horizontal bands at floor levels and employed for window sills. The front facade is three bays wide. Two gravel-filled stone ramps from the street level rise about three feet to allow equipment access to massive double doors on either side of a split entry

door. All three door openings have bluestone blocks at the upper corners with delicately punched oak leaves. The oak leaf as a symbol of heroism dates back to the Roman Republic, where the “Civic Crown” of woven oak leaves was awarded to one who had saved the life of a fellow citizen.

The second floor has five tall two-over-two double-hung windows, arranged in pairs on either side of a single window to mimic the layout of the doors below. The third floor has a brick-and-stone peaked and parapeted dormer which continues the plane of the facade. The dormer has four evenly spaced windows, identical in style and size to the ones below. The slate-covered hipped roof overhangs the building with a two-foot-wide frieze board. On the southeast corner, a wooden cupola rises an additional story, topped by a metal weathervane in the shape of a fireman’s helmet. The weathervane, made by Bernhardt Seifert of Poughkeepsie, is a 1990s replica of the original.

Inside the entry doors is a wide hallway that runs through to the back of the building, where it enters the mid-1990s addition that houses an elevator. The Tivoli Free Library now occupies the east and west rooms, which originally served as storage for fire apparatus.

A grand oak staircase leads to the second floor, which houses the village court room, the mayor’s office, the village clerk’s office, and another office used by the zoning and code enforcement officer and for small committee meetings. Each of these offices has a fireplace, although they were likely never used since a steam heating system was part of the original construction.

The staircase continues up to the third floor, where there is one large room, which has always been used as a public meeting space. The hipped roof is supported by two massive decorative wooden braces.

Much of the original material remains throughout the building. The narrow-width oak floor has been preserved, except in the library. Most of the original woodwork—including doors, casings, chair rails, wainscot paneling, and mantels—has never been painted over. The

second-floor ceilings are the original ornamental pressed tin, and the fireplace surrounds are typical of the period—oak mantles with tiled surrounds and hearths.

Tivoli has seen many changes in the last century and a quarter. The village slowly faded into the mists, beginning in the 1910s. First, river traffic was supplanted by trains. Then cars and trucks took the place of trains for moving people and freight. In the 1960s, the train station closed and so did the Tivoli School, both of which had been large employers in the village. From a population of 1,350 in 1890, the number of residents fell to 711 by 1980.

But even a small village needs a fire company, especially one that consists mostly of wooden structures. The TFD had remained housed in the Watts-dePeyster Fireman’s Hall all those years. But the hall was built for 19th century horse-drawn apparatus—hose carts and steam engines—not heavy gas-powered trucks. A veteran of the fire department recently related that if you were down in the basement when one of the trucks pulled in above, you were likely to get thumped on the head by the deflection of the floor.

The Tivoli Fire Company moved next door in 1986, into a new, purpose-built structure. At that point, a campaign was undertaken to renovate the Watts-dePeyster Hall, which, along with a lot of the rest of the village, had fallen into disrepair. The building was nominated to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989, recognized for its architectural significance as a representative example of the turn-ofthe-century urban “storefront” style firehouses, as well as for what having such a sophisticated firehouse says about the development of the village. Also contributing to the significance of the WattsdePeyster Fireman’s Hall is the association with General John Watts dePeyster, an early and outspoken advocate of professional firefighting, even though Tivoli’s firefighters have always been volunteers. National Register status opened the door for a New York State preservation grant of $500,000, which, in conjunction with other private and public monies, allowed for a complete renovation of the structure. The $1.2 million dollar effort was spurred and shepherded by

Tivolians, including Mayors Edward A. Neese, Jr. and Lorraine C. Reid, trustees of the village, the Firehouse Restoration Committee, and the Tivoli Community Association. The project was designed by Mesick, Cohen, and Waite Associates, a noted historic preservation architecture firm in Albany that had just completed extensive work on nearby Montgomery Place.

Today the Watts-dePeyster Hall, along with the Tivoli Fire Department next door, is the heart of the community—on the first floor, the Tivoli Free Library has a host of programs and activities that bring in people of all ages. On the second floor, residents come to meet with the mayor, appear before the judge, buy garbage tags and pay their taxes at the Clerk’s Office. The third floor is still the primary gathering place

in the village. Our famous public forums are held there to discuss the pressing issues in the village—how to pay for a new sewage treatment plant, how best to negotiate noise and nuisance issues, and how to regulate the keeping of backyard chickens—as well as free yoga classes, weekly gatherings of the community chorus, the mahjong club, the knitting and crochet group (sometimes called “The Hookers”), village-wide potluck suppers, children’s birthday parties, and meetings of the local condominium association. Thanks to the 1990s renovation, the building is fully accessible and has been used for local elections and also as a cooling center on very hot summer days. One hundred and twenty-seven years on, the Watts-dePeyster Hall continues to nobly serve the community.

Sources:

Watts-dePeyster Fireman’s Hall, National Register of Historic Place nomination, 1989

A Brief History of Tivoli, Lela Moore, 1921

Tivoli Revisited: A Social History, Richard Wiles, 1981

Tivoli History-published in the Trinity Parish Newsletter, Rev. James Elliot Lindsley, 1975-77

My Memories of 50 Years with the New Hackensack Fire Company

Bill Parsons

The following article originally appeared in the 50th anniversary journal of the New Hackensack Fire Company in 1999. Its author, William “Bill” T. Parsons tells of his experience over several decades with the company. The introduction to the text, printed here for the first time, shows how even though a quarter century has elapsed since its publication the narrative portrayed in this article remains very relevant to the continued study of firefighting.

William Todd Parsons: A Life of Service and Dedication

William Todd Parsons, fondly known as Bill, was a remarkable figure in the community of Wappinger Falls, NY. Born on November 17, 1925, in an old farmhouse on the family farm on Myers Corners Road, Bill was the son of Edward Sheldon Parsons and Genevieve (Campbell) Parsons. He spent his early years attending the one-room grade school on All Angels Hill Road and later Wappingers High School.

Military Service

Bill’s life took a significant turn during World War II when he enlisted in the Army at the age of 18. He served as a combat infantryman in Europe, participating in three major battles:

the Battle for the Hurtgen Forest, the Battle of the Bulge, and the Remagen/Rhine River Bridgehead. His bravery and dedication earned him several awards, including the Combat Infantryman’s Badge and the Bronze Star Medal.

Fire Service Involvement

After returning from the war, Bill became deeply involved in the local fire service. He was one of the founders of the New Hackensack Fire Company in 1949 and served as an active firefighter for 55 years. His commitment to the fire service extended beyond firefighting; he also served as a New Hackensack Fire District commissioner for 35 years and was chairman of the board for 18 years. Bill’s contributions to the fire service were recognized and honored by his community.

Community and Civic Engagement

Bill’s dedication to his community was evident in his numerous roles and contributions. He served on the Town of Wappinger Planning Board for 21 years, including several years as its chairman. He was also a member of the Dutchess County Planning Board for 12 years and served on various advisory boards for local banks and organizations. Bill’s commitment to public service extended to the Children’s Home of Poughkeepsie, the Dutchess County BOCES Tech Center Advisory Committee, and the Grinnell Library Board. Bill, his wife Helen and Brother John donated a statue of a WWII soldier, which is located on the corner of Myers Corners rd. and All Angels Hill rd. to the Town of Wappinger and is used as a point of gathering during Memorial Day and community celebrations.

Personal Life

On March 18, 1950, Bill married Helen Marie Sutton in Zion Episcopal Church in Wappingers Falls. Together, they shared a life filled with community service and dedication to their hometown. Bill passed away on May 12, 2007, leaving behind a legacy of service and commitment to his community.

William Todd Parsons’ life story is a testament to the impact one individual can have on their community through dedication, service, and a commitment to helping others. His contributions to the fire service, military, and civic engagement continue to inspire those who follow in his footsteps.

Here begins the article written by Bill Parsons in 1999.

In 1949, if someone told me I’d be writing about the past 50 years of the New Hackensack Fire Company, I probably would have thought they were on something. However, here I am,after being charged by those working on the 50th, to tell the things I remember about the Fire Company during its half-century service to the residents of the New Hackensack Fire District -- and especially the early days.

To start at the beginning, prior to the birth of the fire district and fire company, there was no fire protection—and homes and barns just burned to the ground in what was called “No Man’s Land.” This section of the Town of Wappinger called No-Man’s-Land took in the majority of the town (20 square miles)—it did not include the areas around Hughsonville and Chelsea as they already had fire companies— and of course, the village of Wappingers Falls which had and still has two fire companies.

Fortunately, several concerned citizens (also members of the Mt. Hope Grange) took the bull by the horns in 1948 -- and with the help of a few members of the New Hackensack Dutch Reformed Church, went about the task of forming a fire district that would cover all of the properties in No-Man’s-Land.

This area officially became a new fire district on March 3, 1949 and five men were appointed fire commissioners by the town board. These five (now all deceased) put out a call in late May for volunteers to join what was to be the New Hackensack Fire Company.

And that’s where I came into the picture. On June 6, 1949, about 40 local men met upstairs in the Mt Hope Grangehall on Myers Corners

Road. By the end of the evening, 31 of us had signed on, firematic and company officers were picked—and I ended up the company’s secretary.

Needless to say, that didn’t set too well with me. After all, I’d been to Europe, seen Paris at night (all courtesy of Uncle Sam)—and I had joined to fight fires, not write letters and keep minutes. Anyway, being the youngest there, I got out-voted.

After that night, we were a honest-to-goodness fire company—with a couple of problems. We didn’t have a fire truck or firehouse to house it. Fortunately, shortly after our first meeting, the fire commissioners bought 1.9 acres across from the Mt. Hope Grange from local farmer, Fritz Kapfenstein.

They paid Fritz $1,000, although thought to be a bit too much by many of us as it was rather low ground, but he wouldn’t back down, so the deal was made.

Before I go any further, I better explain our name. Back 50 years ago, New Hackensack was a thriving little hamlet with many homes as well as Denney’s Blacksmith Shop and Gulf Gas station, Sid Smith’s General store and some others I can’t remember. The airport was there, but not as large. It was built during WWII as an alternate to what now is Stewart Field—which during WWII was where the West Point cadets learned to fly. This was way before the Air Force became a separate branch with their own academy in Colorado.

Anyway, realizing the hamlet of New Hackensack was at the north end of the district, it was decided to put the firehouse in Myers Corners, a more central location. Of course, this upset a few in New Hackensack, some left in a huff, but most came back.

Getting back to what we didn’t have, a mortgage of $5,000 was obtained (guaranteed by five members) and with a small amount of outside help, the fire company members went to work and built a 30x50 firehouse with room for two vehicles. It also had a kitchen in

the back equipped by the Ladies Auxiliary—who also purchased the roofing, both with funds they had raised. The mortgage payments were $38.25 a month, paid with the $40 a month rent received from the Fire District.

Our long-awaited fire engine arrived in May 1950. This beautiful (to us) shiny red engine, built by the Sanford Fire Equipment Co, was a pumper with a 500 gal tank, a 500 GPM pumper mounted on a 1949 Ford F-7 powered by a Lincoln 336-cubic inch flathead V-8 engine putting out 152 horsepower. It had a five-speed transmission and you had to double-clutch to shift it. The art of double-clutch shifting died out about 40 years ago as manual transmissions were improved.

It cost $13,500 and that included six sets of boots, six coats and six helmets, 1,000 foot of 2 1/2 inch hose, an axe and a few other miscellaneous pieces of equipment. The district took out a 10-year bond to pay for it.

Our fire reporting system was rather primitive, but effective. When you called the fire reporting phone number, a special telephone rang in five nearby homes and in the firehouse. Answering it would be one of the five ladies, who had the firephones in their homes. They would take the information and set off the siren with a switch by their firephone.

They would stay on the line until the first fireman reached the firehouse. He would pick up the firehouse firephone and ask where the fire was. He in turn would write the location on a blackboard in front of the firehouse and respond with the engine. Meanwhile, the ladies would get busy calling members in case they didn’t hear the 12 cycles of the firehouse siren.

Enough can’t be said about the dedication of those five ladies, all volunteers, one of which was my mother. For 19 years, they made sure one of them was always home to answer that firephone 24-hours-aday. During all those years, that firephone never went unanswered.

Once trained on our new engine, we finally were a full-fledged fire

company. Of course, not everyone was pleased the way some of us drove the fire engine. The older members frowned on the way my brother John, Roger Humeston Sr. and I pushed that overloaded, under powered fire engine over the road.

The downside of our first engine was that it’s wheelbase was too short, which left too much of the body hanging way out over the rear wheels. John and I both drove trucks for a living so we and Roger used to drive the engine like a race car going into a corner and when the back end started to come around we’d “backwheel” it (steer into the skid) and that way we keep up its speed while responding to an alarm.

Of course, some of the older members wouldn’t ride with us, but we never put a scratch on it in the 13 years we had it -- which was more than some of the older drivers could say.

While on the subject of our first engine, it had many other faults, some of which were not its fault. You have to remember, as time went on, everything we owned and used was piled on the poor overloaded truck. The best you could get out of it going up All Angels Hill was 10 mph and you were in second gear all the way.

It’s had a 6-volt electrical system (as all vehicles did at that time) and you never knew when that 6-volt battery would refuse to start it. Fortunately, traffic was light back then and we could push it out of the firehouse and get it rolling down toward the corner—and start it in third gear.

Of course, with the siren blowing and something burning, it also heard many choice words about its pedigree. At night, you didn’t blow the big old siren on its left front fender because if you did the headlight went very dim and you couldn’t see where you were going. With its small 6-volt generator and battery there just wasn’t enough electricity for both.

However, it could pump a lot of water (if available) and considering we were a bunch of beginners, it served us well as our only pumper for

over 10 years. Oh yes, shortly after we got it —and to get a few more badly needed horsepower—one night I quietly disabled the governor on its engine. I didn’t tell about that until about 10 years later because if I had, I probably would have been thrown out of the company—and I wouldn’t be writing this.

Just barely surviving financially during those early years, sometime during the mid to late 1950’s we got a shock when we were told we had to pay land and school taxes on the firehouse. Not only that, the assessor for the Town of Wappinger who claimed volunteer fire companies were not exempt from property taxes, was a member of our fire company.

Needless to say, he became very unpopular and soon left. However, it took a bill in Albany to relieve all volunteer fire companies from being taxed. If I remember correctly, we never did pay that tax bill.

It didn’t take too long for us to learn that one of the most valuable tools in firefighting was water and 500 gallons didn’t go too far if something was really burning. In 1954, the District purchased a used 1948 former Mid-Hudson Oil Company fuel oil delivery truck for $3,975.

It had a 1,350 gallon tank mounted on a six- cylinder Chevy cab-overengine chassis with a 4-speed transmission and a two-speed rear end. It’s bronze-geared oil delivery pump could push a half-inch stream of water 80 feet, so it not only gave us more water, you could fight fire using its former oil hose which was mounted on a reel.

Wanting it to look like a fire truck called for a complete paint job. That called for many hands sanding the complete vehicle one Saturday morning. That afternoon, outside the firehouse in the fresh air, with me on a stepladder, with my older brother Ed mixing the paint with thinner, I completely sprayed the entire vehicle with about five gals of bright-red paint with my little portable sprayer—a quart at a time.

Even back in those days, New Hackensack was ahead of the times as

this was the first tanker in the area and it made many mutual aid calls to neighboring fire companies.

Yes, mutual aid has been around for over 50 years, although today’s mutual aid is light-years different than back then. First off, you have to remember there were no radios in our fire apparatus—and even if you had one, there wasn’t any fire alarm headquarters to talk to. If you were on the scene of a big one, and wanted mutual aid, you got to the nearest phone and called that fire company’s firephone.

If you didn’t have their number, you called our fire number and asked one of our ladies to contact the other company or companies. It took time and sometimes their help arrived too late to do much good. However, since this was a 99 percent farming community, most of our big fires were barn fires and they took a long time to extinguish so mutual aid really helped in those cases.

In 1954, the county got involved in mutual aid when the county’s Board of Supervisors gave each fire company one two-way radio and a Motorola Quick Call receiver. The call letters for this radio frequency was (and still is) KED348.

After that, if you needed help, you called on your radio and you were answered in the City of Poughkeepsie dispatch center. They in turn would set off the siren of the company you asked for by putting out tones for their Quick Call receiver.

Don’t confuse this with our present-day county dispatch, our five ladies still answered our firephones, set off our siren and gave the information to the first fireman arriving at the firehouse. On July 1, 1965, the county started handling its own dispatching and Al Kaehler (14- 4) was one of the original county dispatchers. (Al also is the one who gave me the information about when the county became involved.)

Somewhere around 1965 we got our first nine home alerting receivers (Plectrons) and using New Hamburg’s base station, John Sloper of

the Sloper-Willen Ambulance service dispatched us. John Sloper was John Sloper and when he handled our calls, he had no problem telling you what and how to do your job.

We still kept our five-lady phone system as back-up until 1968 when we did away with that system and let the county take over. If I remember correctly, we didn’t go with county dispatching when it began in 1965 because (being a conservative bunch) we weren’t ready to trust our dispatching to some strangers the other side of Poughkeepsie.

The fire company’s mortgage was paid off in 1957, but by 1959 we needed more space as we now had our 1949 engine, our 1948 tanker, and in 1958 we added a used 4-wheel-drive Jeep as a brush truck. It didn’t carry any water, but it did carry several full Indian tanks and other brush fire tools.

In 1960, the company spent $19,000 adding a big meeting hall, an additional bay and a larger kitchen. By now, the District increased the rent paid to the company to $100 a month. The district budget for 1959 was $5,200. To compare then with now, the district’s budget for 1999 was $681,740. As you can see, a lot happened just in the last 40 years. Also in 1959, I lead a group of concerned volunteers at a meeting with the board of fire commissioners. They were a tight fisted board as you can see by their $5,200 budget for the year, but I (backed up by the others) pointed out that our equipment was outdated, getting tired— and needed replacing. After much discussion, we got our point across. That’s how in 1960, we got our first BIG fire truck. It was one of the first new larger type fire apparatus mounted on a much bigger Ford F-950 series chassis. It had a 477 cubic-inch overhead valve V-8 engine, with a five-speed tranny—and it had a 500 GPM pump and it carried 1,200 gals of water. It replaced our old oil company tanker and was used as a pumper/tanker.

It cost $15,877 and it made our 1949 engine look like a midget.

It became our first-due engine and it could go up All Angels Hill at 25 mph fully loaded. Its only drawback was it had no power steering and

it was a brute to steer at a slow speed or at a stop. As for brakes, none of our equipment had air-brakes, so I remember there were times when I couldn’t get stopped when arriving at a fire scene and had to back up because of the poor hydraulic brakes we lived with those days. (Yes, I know I should have slowed down earlier.)

1963 saw the arrival of a new Ford/Sanford750 GPM pumper mounted on a 1963 Ford cab- over-engine C-950 with a 534 cubic-inch V-8 engine, a five-speed tranny -- and power steering. It carried 1,000 gallons of water and tons of other equipment. It cost $19,888.

This new rig spelled the end of the line for our first engine, the 1949 Ford/Sanford. It was traded in for $1,000 and ended up at Vassar College as their primary engine for the campus. As glad as I was to get it back years later, I wasn’t sorry to see it go as it had outlived its usefulness in a rural fire company like ours.

As the 1960’s went by, we kept adding more up-to-date equipment. I joined the board of fire commissioners on May 17, 1965 when (I believe) Larry Becker moved away. One of the first things I pushed for was an equipment capital reserve fund and we never borrowed money after that for equipment.

The company sold the firehouse and grounds to the fire district for $31,350 in 1967, thus relieving the company of the financial burdens of ownership. In 1968, the district approved a $42,000 needed addition to the firestation.

In 1970, the district got serious about having enough water to fight fires when they paid cash for two 2,000 gallon Saulsbury tankers mounted on C-950 Ford chassises—with power steering and air brakes. They also had something else that was another first in a fire company in this area—they had automatic transmissions.

I thought I was going to get run out of town when I suggested we go automatic. All I heard is, “A fire truck with an automatic tranny?” No self respecting truck driver would drive a truck with automatic!” You

have to remember that back then, if you considered yourself to be a truck driver, you also had to be good at shifting up and down.

Unfortunately, when it came to drivers, at about this time our membership was made up mostly of IBMers, not farmers who were also truck drivers. The IBMers were good at many things we farm-born knew nothing about—and they thought automatic trannies were a good idea. Anyway, we never again bought a rig with a stick shift, automatic turned out to be the way to go.

We got another new pumper in 1971. With that in the station, we now had three pumpers and two tankers— as we do today.

Knowing all we expected of our Chief Officer and pleased that we were fortunate to have a Chief like Bud Pottenburgh, in 1972, the district purchased a car for the exclusive use of the Chief. This was another first for New Hackensack as we were the first volunteer fire company in the county to furnish a chief with a car. It was a 1972 Ford station wagon. For the past dozen years or so, all three of our chiefs are now furnished a car.

We started to take 16-year-old members in 1972, and while some thought it would bring nothing but trouble, it turned out to bring us many interested dedicated young men that went on to be some of our best firemen. One of those in the first group was 16 year-old Kyle Pottenburgh who went on to be our Chief and now is a Deputy County Fire Coordinator—and still a very active volunteer in New Hackensack.

Being a believer in that program from the get- go, I always said by taking them at 16 we get a chance to get them interested in the fire service before they get too interested in girls. Of course, I’m a lot behind the times on that subject nowadays. Fortunately, today, the girls share them with us.

One of the most unusual pieces of fire equipment (for those times) was

purchased in 1974 from Young Fire Equipment Co of Buffalo. A normal looking 1,000gpm pumper with a 1,000 gal water tank, mounted on a C-950 Ford. However, it was powered by a Detroit Diesel 8V- 71, 350 horsepower engine with an Allison automatic transmission.

Young converted those pumpers, from the low-powered gasoline engines that came with the trucks, to the big diesels, in their shop, and these engine conversions were a blessing for fire companies in hilly country like ours.

Always trying to get a fire prevention message across to the residents of our district, in 1975 the company started publishing a newspaper. Preaching fire prevention, but giving them other interesting bits of information about who we are and what we do, this paper was and still is well received by our residents.

Completely done in-house (except for printing) by members, it was and is hand delivered to over 5,000 homes by our members over the course of two days during Fire Prevention Week in October.

October 1, 1977 saw another first for a county volunteer fire company. To go back to the late 1960’s for a moment, the auto and truck business my brother and I ran just up the road from the firehouse pretty much furnished the bulk of the first-alarm day-time firemen, (a second alarm got many second-shift workers out of bed).

This was during IBM’s hay-day and most members did not work nearby and the farmers of 1949 were mostly out of business. We generally responded to calls with five guys, most were drivers. They were John and I, Ralph Ames,Wally Hall (who was also chief of Hughsonville during some of that time period) and John Angelo. A couple of others who worked for us a short time also would respond.

It was a given, regardless of what we were doing, even if you were in the midst of selling a car, you said, “ Sorry, got to go.” Did we lose customers? Very, very few! Most folks were very understanding. Of

course, back then a call was an actual fire or a real emergency, we didn’t have automatic fire alarms or CO detector type calls like we have today—which turn out to be nothing 99 percent of the time.

Getting back to our October 1, 1977, some of our day-timer firemen employees had left our employment for IBM—and I for one was getting a bit old to be charging into burning buildings. Therefore, as a commissioner, I suggested we hire an experienced fireman to work during the day, Monday-Friday,7 am to 5 pm. That way we’d be sure to get a rig on the road in a short time.

My idea didn’t set too well with some because generally mixing paid firemen and volunteers in the same company was like trying to mix oil and water. After a bit, I won out, mainly because the number one man on the county civil service list was one of our own, Rick Andersen and he was with us for a number of years. Rick is now a Lieutenant in the Arlington Fire Dept.

Oh yes, we still have one paid man (John Ineson) on duty MondayFriday, and it still works well because we try to pick someone who will get along with the volunteers.

June of 1979 saw our first Bavarian Fest and we held one for the next 18 years. Thousands of people from all around enjoyed themselves over those years, and it was a good moneymaker for the company. However, everything has a life and the concerns and liabilities associated with drinking caught up with it.

An unexpected surprise took place in 1980.We heard that Vassar College had replaced our 1949 Ford/Sanford with a newer rig from the Arlington Fire Department. Past Chief Howie Prager, myself and I think it was Al Lehigh visited Vassar and after a little horse trading, we agreed to swap them an old two-way radio we were no longer using for the old engine.

After jump-starting it, Howie drove the 30- year-old-engine back to its original home. Surprisingly, it still ran well even though it looked

pretty bad. Later on, member Bob Butler, who teaches at the Dutchess County BOCES Tech Center, got the school’s body shop students to repair and refinish the entire outside of the body.

The old engine wrote its own story (with a little help of a member) of its trials and tribulations over the past 30 years. This story appeared in the Poughkeepsie Journal, the Southern Dutchess News and the nationally known Firehouse Magazine.

The Firehouse Magazine also ran a second article on it later that year when the editor and his staff visited our firehouse and served lunch with the old engine in the background.

Needing a home for our old engine, in 1981, just like in 1949, the members built an exact replica of the original 30x50 firehouse on the east side of the property. This time Don Feeney laid the blocks with me as his helper. The members did most of the rest of the construction. As for the roof, and knowing we needed help, the Bitzko family who were professional roofers (two of the family, Mike and Bob were members) showed up one day with their equipment and had the roof on in no time—No Charge!

If you’re wondering what happened to our original 1949 30x50 firehouse, it’s still there—its just kind of hidden in amongst the many additions that were added over the years, although you can see one part of it on the south-west side of the present firehouse.

Always have a bit of a hang up about having a flag flying over the firehouse, Helen and I donated the 60 foot flag pole that flies the fire company’s 12x18 American flag. In June of 1980, it was dedicated to the early (1949-1959)members of the Fire Company and the ladies auxiliary.

Always short of space for training, offices (to do the endless paperwork now required) and meetings, we, the commissioners, decided to have built (attached to the firehouse) a District Headquarters and Training Center building. It was dedicated on May 20, 1984.

By this time, we had gone to bigger custom pumpers and in 1985 we purchased our second one. We had also replaced our two Ford/ Saulsbury 2,000-gal tankers with two new Ford/Saulsbury 2,000 gal tankers. However,before we took delivery, these tankers both had their gasoline engines removed and replaced with Detroit Diesel engines, one with a 8V-71 and the other with a 6V-92. This again improving our respond time to calls in our hilly area.

The 1960’s and 70’s saw us add a 2.9 acre piece in the rear of our property as well as a 1.3 acre piece on the west side of the firehouse for parking.

In 1992, with the cooperation of the owners of the former Fairchild property, (the Schlumberger Corp. of California) we were able to tap into their town-supplied water system which gave us a hydrant for training and a good water supply for the firehouse.

Having dealt with the Schlumberger Corporation officials as a member of the town’s planning board over the years, I was able to convince them to sell the fire district their now abandoned 60-acre parcel—with them first removing the building.

The deal we worked out was they would sell us the property for what it would cost to remove that large building. The figure came to $164,000—and that’s what the district paid at the closing in Nov. 1995. Unfortunately for them, when the building removal began, asbestos was found concealed in the roof and floor and it cost them over $500,000 to remove the building.

Why did the district buy it? The price was very right for 60 acres and it also gave us a much-needed larger training area with a couple of good buildings to practice on. Besides that, looking to the future, probably well past my time, it would be an ideal place to build another firehouse.

And that need may arise if they widen Myers Corners Road one more time.

The Town of Wappinger War Memorial was dedicated in May 1993, at nearby Schlathaus Park, on Memorial Day. The New Hackensack Fire Company donated and raised the first 8x10 foot American flag that flies over it.

Not only that, the company voted to supply the necessary flags for that memorial from hereon. The Fire Company also goes through a very formal flag-changing ceremony each Memorial Day during the town’s annual Memorial Day program.

In March of 1997, we traded in our older rescue for a new E-One stateof-the-art heavy rescue with the latest equipment for auto accidents (which we have many of) and fire scenes.

In 1998, a Jeep Cherokee was added to our fleet as 52-67 for responding to assist the Sloper-Willen Ambulance Service on life-threatening EMS calls in our fire district.

Did I forget some of what took place over the past 50 years? I sure I did. However, I hope my memories will keep alive some of the problems, struggles, accomplishments and difficulties the volunteer members went through while protecting the residents of the New Hackensack Fire District over the past 50 years.

To say we’ve come a long way is best shown by the fact that in our first year we responded to about a dozen calls. In 1998, we responded to 624 calls.

The Amenia Fire Company

Andy Murphy and Betsy Strauss

The Amenia Times has repeatedly set forth in its columns from week to week what the village needs, despite the inevitable cry from the tax-payers of ‘hard times and increased taxes.’

Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, July 22, 1891

The newspaper article elaborated a list of several needs, the most important of which were: “protection against fire and a capable water supply.1” This urgent plea was heard by none other than the editor of the Amenia Times himself, Mr. Charles Walsh, and by a few other men of the town, who agreed to establish the Amenia Water Company. In short order, water mains were laid through the streets and connected to reservoirs above the village on Mount Toby. Hydrants were placed at convenient points. As a result, the businesses and residents of the village felt much more secure from fire.2

1“What Amenia Needs,” Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, July 22, 1891.

2 Ibid

View of Amenia from Mount Toby, c. 1907 (Photo-Amenia Historical Society Collection)

However, on August 10, 1895, when a fire broke out in a barn located in the center of the village, it became evident that more was needed to fight fires than simply having a hydrant nearby. It took 25 minutes to attach the hose to the hydrant and to get water on the blaze. Because no one was officially in charge, there was confusion and inefficiency.3

Within a few months, the town board signed a contract with the Amenia Water Company, guaranteeing an adequate supply of water for fighting fires. The water company provided 1,000 feet of hose, nozzles and other appliances. On November 18, 1895, a fire company was organized, with 27 citizens who had been appointed by the town board. They met at Taylor Hall and elected officers: Lewis F. Eaton, Foreman; Charles E. Smith, First Assistant Foreman; George H. Bierce, Second Assistant Foreman; Charles Walsh, Secretary; and Newton Hebard, Treasurer.4

The first official meeting of Amenia Hose Company No. 1 was held on December 3, 1895, at 7:00 PM at the “Carriage House” on Main Street. Sixteen members signed the roll and 15 additional men applied

3 Amenia Had a Fire,” Harlem Valley Times, Aug. 19, 1895.

4 Amenia Hose Company, No.1,” HVT, Nov. 23, 1895.

Main Street, Amenia 1907 (AHS Collection)

for membership. A constitution and by-laws were presented and unanimously accepted. Dues were set at $0.25 a month and regular meetings were scheduled for the first Tuesday of each month.5

A few weeks later, on December 29, Mr. Lewis F. Eaton was elected to the newly-formed position of Fire Chief, a position he held for 20 years. The chiefs that followed him were Edward Flynn, who served for 16 years, Walter McDonald for three years and John Bida for four years, until 1938.

According to an article in the Amenia Times of February 8, 1896, the fire company membership signed a contract with Eggleston Brothers to construct a second floor on the Carriage House. The first floor was reserved for the hose carriage, as well as for gymnastic and athletic exercise. The second floor was to be used for meetings. At this same meeting it was determined that to sound an alarm for fires and drills, the Presbyterian Church bell would be used. However, it was soon decided that the bell in Fink’s Opera House would be better, since it would only be used for fires. Mr. John H. Fink was in charge of ringing the bell.6 7

The following May, Chief Eaton and Foreman Smith traveled to New York City to purchase a horse-drawn hose cart. The new Rumsey Hose Cart cost $74.00. Uniforms for the men were also ordered in July, black pants and shoes, blue shirts with a red front, white belts and blue caps that were labeled “Amenia No. 1”. The new uniforms were provided free of charge to the members until 1899, when it was decided to charge new members a $5 initiation fee, which included a uniform.7 8

5 “First Regular Meeting of Amenia Hose Co.,” HVT, Dec. 7, 1895.

6 “Contract with Eggleston Bros.,” HVT. Feb. 8, 1896.

7 “Hose Cart & Uniforms,” HVT, June 5, 1897.

First Amenia Fire Chief Lewis F. Eaton (Harlem Valley Times, Obituary 9/11/1930)

Firemen in New Uniforms, c. 1907 (Photo-AHS Collection)

During 1899, many more changes and acquisitions were made within Amenia Hose. At a special meeting on March 20, the members agreed to purchase a hook and ladder truck. It was built entirely in Amenia, with Fred Blownstine fabricating the wooden structure and Charles E. Smith furnishing the iron work. The wagon, equipped with ladders, hooks and axes, was completed in August and drawn in the Labor Day Parade by Mr. H. J. Eggleston’s team of handsome black horses.8 9

Earlier that year, for the Memorial Day Parade and Firemen’s Competition in Pawling on May 30, Amenia Hose participated whole-heartedly, dressed in their new uniforms and with their hose cart in tow. They traveled by train in the morning and returned to Amenia at 6:03 PM, having won many prizes in the competitions.9

The first major fire for the Amenia firemen to fight was on Depot Hill

8 Thompson, Phil and Andrew Murphy, “History of the Amenia Fire Company,” page 34. And 100th Year Anniversary 1895-1995, Amenia Fire Company, Amenia, New York, 1995, Fountain Press, Main St., Amenia, NY.

9 Ibid., page 35.

at the S.J. Bartlett farm on August 2, 1899. A barn and carriage house had been struck by lightning. Despite the quick response of the fire company, the building could not be saved.10

Thanks to a generous gift of land from the Willson & Eaton Lumber Company, plans for a new firehouse got underway in September 1899.11 By January of 1900, the company held its first meeting in the new building, a handsome two-story structure, located on Mechanic Street, equipped with its own alarm bell in a central bell tower.12

At the November 1899 meeting, the election of officers took place as usual, but that year the company also elected their first board of trustees. The board included Lewis F. Eaton, Charles Walsh, John R. Thompson, Sr., D. P. Barry and A. V. Holsapple. Soon, the business of the trustees and the membership focused on incorporation. The articles of incorporation were signed by 29 members in December 1899 and

10 “Fire on Depot Hill,” HVT, Aug. 5, 1899.

11 “Willson & Eaton Donate Land for Firehouse, HVT, ”Sept. 16, 1899.

12 “In New Quarters,” HVT, Jan. 6, 1900.

Amenia Hose Co. Firehouse on Mechanic Street Built in 1899 With Hook & Ladder Wagon & Hose Cart (Photo-AHS Collection)

just over a year later, on January 1, 1901, the Amenia Hose Company became officially incorporated as the “Amenia Fire Company No. 1.”13

Besides fighting fires and getting organized, the fire company promoted its work and its need for support through community activities and entertainment. Money was raised from dances and carnivals held at the Opera House in the 1890s and beyond.14

On Labor Day 1901, the Harlem Valley Firemen’s Tournament was held in Amenia, with area fire departments invited to compete in games, races and competition, with the lucky winners to receive $5 and $10 gold pieces. Three trophies still exist today from those races and are adorned with beautiful fancy script engravings. Sixteen hundred people attended the first one, with the net profit for the fire company of $250.15

The following year the fire company held a “Grand Carnival” at Taylor Hall and featured drills, games, dances and farces, complete with food and refreshments. The annual carnival continued for over 80 years. In July of 1950, the Carnival was sponsored jointly with the Knights

13 “Incorporation of Amenia Fire Company,” HVT, Dec. 23, 1899.

14 “Second Annual Ball,” HVT, Feb. 27, 1897.

15 “The Firemen’s Tournament,” HVT, Sept. 1, 1901.

1901 First Firemen’s Tournament at the Amenia Fairgrounds (Photo-AHS Collection)

of Columbus in an effort to raise funds for the new firehouse that had been built.16 Many fundraisers were held over the years, which included dinners, raffles, bingo games, and dances, and they continue to this day. Modern fundraising consists of softball and golf tournaments, food nights with fireworks, and chicken barbecues.

The method of alerting firemen for fire calls changed in 1915 when two locomotive wheels were set up, one located at Fountain Square and the other at the railroad station. A person was in charge of clanging the wheel in hopes of alerting the volunteer firemen to a call.17 The old method of ringing a church bell was no longer feasible. In 1926, a new siren was installed on the firehouse, with the code of three “blasts” for fires in town, two blasts for fires in Wassaic, and one blast for fires out of town.18 That method of the fire siren still exists today, although firefighters are now alerted by radios and paging systems.

16 “Knights and Firemen Plan Carnival,” Millbrook Round Table, June 15, 1950.

17 “New Fire Alarm,” HVT, Apr. 13, 1915.

18 Op.cit., 100th Year Anniversary, pp. 35-36.

1911 Labor Day Parade in Amenia (Photo-Amenia Fire Company Collection)

Prior to 1930, when a fire was reported, a member of the company was called. Later that year, Fire Chief Walter McDonald arranged with the phone company to have calls for fires to be received at the phone building on Main Street. The telephone operator at the switchboard would set off the fire siren from there.19 This was a much improved system. As late as the 1970s, the fire alarm phone system was in place, and the first firefighter to arrive at the firehouse would write the address of the call on the blackboard.

From 1895 until 1931, the entire town of Amenia, including Wassaic and the hamlets, was covered by one fire company. All this changed in 1931, when the residents of Wassaic formed their own company.20 It was to the advantage of everyone in the township to have two territorial fire districts. The northern half of Amenia was covered by Amenia Fire District Number One, and the southern portion by Wassaic Fire District Number Two. It was also helpful for Wassaic to have its own volunteer firefighters, firehouse, and a new motorized engine.

19 Ibid., p. 36.

20 Ibid

Looking Down Mechanic Street from Railroad Tracks, Station at Right Firehouse is White Building in the Distance (AHS Collection)

When Amenia Fire Company was started, apparatus was needed for extinguishing fires. As noted earlier, a hose cart was purchased, with the horse drawn wagon, complete with hose, ladders, water buckets and tools, coming later. As motorized vehicles came into existence, it was time for the fire company to get their own truck. That happened in 1924 when a new, state-of-the-art Reo chemical truck arrived in town.21

The Reo made it easier for firefighters to go out of the village to fight fires and to rely on bodies of water instead of hydrants. The hook and ladder wagon was only effective with the hydrants in the village proper. The Reo truck served the town until 1936, when the arrival of a newer, more powerful engine called the Sanford was purchased.22 The Sanford still exists today at the home of a fire company member who is working on its restoration.

21 Ibid

22 Ibid

Left: Wassaic Fire Co, District 2, 1934. Right: Amenia Fire Co., District 1, 1936 (AHS Collection)

1924 Reo Fire Truck (AHS Collection)

In 1934, a new Fire District Board of Commissioners was formed for the first time. This board exists today and serves as the commission charged with spending taxpayer dollars on equipment for the fire district. The five-member board meets monthly and is responsible for a budget and for the purchase of fire equipment and vehicles.23 Up until 1934, the fire company spent money from the funds it had raised from carnivals and community events. However, these funds were not sufficient to purchase expensive fire trucks and equipment. The taxpayers of each fire district would be taxed based upon their property values to help fund these purchases.

Tragedy struck the Amenia Fire Company on December 1, 1941, when a fire destroyed the firehouse on Mechanic Street. A fire company member was walking nearby when he noticed smoke coming from the building. He struck the alarm and was able to fight the smoke and flames to rescue the newest fire truck from destruction. The ladder on the engine was burning, and he immediately drove the engine to a creek next door and started pumping water on the fire. The Wassaic and Sharon (Connecticut) fire trucks were also summoned to the scene.24

23 Ibid

24 Ibid., pp. 36-37.

1936 Sanford Engine Pulling the 1900 Hook & Ladder Truck for a Parade Standing in front of the second Amenia firehouse built in 1948 (AFC Collection)

The Town of Amenia offices were also housed in the firehouse, but luckily they had most of their valuable records stored in a fireproof safe. The fire company lost all of its records, artifacts, pictures and anything of value. The building was a total loss, with estimates of $10,000 in damage. A new building was not erected until 1948, due to the demands of the Second World War.25 The new firehouse once again included space for the town offices, for which the town paid rent. This relationship with the town lasted for more than 50 years, until its government moved into the old Amenia school.

During the 1950s, a series of firsts for the company took place. On a cold night in early 1950, an auto accident occurred and Dr. Alan Larkin was called to the scene. With no ambulance in Amenia other than the funeral home ambulance that was used on occasion, the injured waited in the cold and snow for Dover to show up with their ambulance to be taken to Sharon Hospital.26 With the doctor’s help, Amenia was able to organize a rescue squad shortly thereafter. Several men completed first aid training

25 Ibid

26 Ibid., p. 134.

1941 Fire at Amenia Firehouse (Poughkeepsie New Yorker photo)

“Lulubell,” A 1950 Acquisition (AFC Collection)

in Millerton, and on November 23, 1950, the squad was officially formed.27

With help from the town, the rescue squad was able to secure a retired Diamond-T van from the sheriff’s department and convert it into an ambulance. Donations of equipment from the Lions Club and fire company members helped place the van, nicknamed Lulubell, in service in late 1950. In 1952, the Sharon Fire Department sold AFC a used LaSalle ambulance for $1,000, replacing the Diamond-T. Five other ambulances would be purchased over the years to the present day.

28

In 1953, a new group consisting of mostly wives of the firemen was formed as the Amenia Fire Company Ladies’ Auxiliary. The purpose of the group was to assist the fire company at fire scenes with food and refreshments. They also helped at fundraising events and whatever they were needed for behind the scenes. The Auxiliary women also had their own fundraising events and were able to help purchase

27 Ibid., p. 37 and p. 57.

28 Ibid., pp. 134-135.

Used LaSalle Ambulance purchased in 1952. Rescue Worker, Paul Thompson, and sons Phil & Don (AFC Collection)

supplies for the firehouse and help with kitchen renovations.29 The group still exists today with a few members.

Until 1953, the fire operations and company business were all conducted by the fire chief. That changed in April of that year, when the company elected administrative officers, taking the extra burden off the chief. The first president and vice-president were elected. Offices of secretary and treasurer were already in existence.30 In 1954, the fire district board voted to acquire a new fire engine to accompany the 1936 Sanford, which was still in service after almost 20 years. In 1955, a new Oren pumper arrived from Virginia, and it was the pride of the area.31 That engine still exists today in Amenia, awaiting restoration.

29 Ibid., pp. 147-148.

30 Ibid., p. 37.

31 Ibid., p. 37.

AFC Ladies’ Auxiliary in 1974 (AFC Collection)

In 1961, the fire alarm system for fire company members was improved yet again. The telephone company informed the fire districts that all phones would go to a dial system that year. The decision was made to put special six-party phones in certain members’ homes, mostly officers. Along with the fire siren and a phone chain, this became the new way firemen would know of a call. At this point, they were not only responding to fires but to rescue calls as well, such as car crashes and other emergencies. The phone company would transfer the caller to the fire company members. One member would activate the fire siren from his home. Other phones were installed at many businesses and buttons for the fire siren were installed on telephone poles near the post office and the hardware store.32

1962 saw an addition to the firehouse of one engine bay. The two-bay house now grew to three to make room for a new Ford tanker, with 1,200 gallons of water, bringing the fleet up to three engines and the ambulance. The engine, built in Buffalo, was delivered on May 14 of that year.33 With the larger amount of water on board, the engine was called quite often to other towns to assist with fires.

32 Ibid., p. 38.

33 Ibid., p. 38.

1955 Oren with Amenia School Children (AHS Collection)

An era came to an end in 1972 when the 1936 Sanford engine was removed from service due to old age. With the fleet now back to two engines, it was decided to shop for a new truck. Taxpayers voted 37-9 to approve the purchase of a new Maxim pumper, built in Massachusetts, for the price of $42,000.34 The engine arrived in March of 1974 and it was a workhorse, responding to some of the worst fires on Amenia’s Main Street in 1974. The engine remained in service until the mid-1990s.

34 Ibid., p. 38.

1962 Ford Tanker (AFC Collection)

1974 Maxim Pumper (AFC Collection)

Since the company’s inception, many buildings were destroyed by fire in the town and many of them were barns. Spontaneous combustion of hay and other causes were a constant fear of the farmer, and once a fire started it was hard to save much. Causes of many fires in the early days consisted of arson, lightning strikes, or other accidental reasons. One farmer in town lost his barns three times to fire over a span of nearly 40 years, rebuilding them each time! The early days were busy ones for the fire company, sometimes having a fire occur every weekend. We’ve lost businesses, large and small homes and many barns to fire.35 With modern-day buildings less susceptible to fire, With improved alarm systems and safer electrical installations, thankfully fire calls are increasingly rare, although not eliminated.

The mid-1970s brought some tough fires that destroyed beloved businesses on Main Street and the outskirts. In March 1973, a school for girls called the Start Center was destroyed by fire. Amenia was assisted by several area fire departments at the scene. A tragic fire in December that year destroyed a restaurant with apartments above on Main Street, leaving several families homeless. The firefighters managed to save the Amenia Bank, which was only feet away from the burning building.

35 Ibid., pp 77-82.

1978 Jim Murphy Barn Fire (AFC Collection)

Then, in June 1974 Amenia lost the beloved DeLaVergne Farms Hotel, which was known all around the state for great accommodations and food. The 150-year-old establishment burned down very fast, requiring seven fire departments to contain the blaze. Only one week later, the Amenia Theatre, the same building in which the fire company first met for the purpose of organization, was destroyed in an arson fire.36

Later in the 1970s, more homes were destroyed as well as farms. We lost a large hardware store, a farming chemical business, two restaurants, and an auto shop. In April 1977 during a dry spell, a passing train threw sparks along the tracks, causing large brush fires near the town. One hundred and fifty firefighters fought that blaze with 15 pieces of apparatus.37

As we entered the 1980s and beyond, engines got bigger and technology improved. Firefighters were alerted to calls with portable pagers worn on one’s belt. Today pagers are still used, but text messages sent by cell phone are the most efficient form of communication.

36 Ibid., p. 82.

37 Ibid., p. 82.

1974 DeLaVergne Farms Hotel Fire (AFC Collection)

In September of 1985, another new engine arrived to eventually replace the 1955 Oren. Another new one in 1992 replaced the 1974 Maxim.38 Fast forward to the late 1990s and up to the present, the department has added several new engines to the fleet, along with the first-ever ladder truck in Amenia.

38 Ibid., p. 60

1980 Women Welcomed as Firefighters in AFC (AFC Collection)

1995 Centennial Celebration with AFC Members in Parade (AFC Collection)

Another exciting change in the way we fight fires came along in 2008 with the purchase of a foam fire engine. The combination of foam and water is a great way to reduce damage at fires. The foam smothers the flames faster and causes less water damage to a burning home. All three of the newest engines have this technology, and it has proven very effective.

Things have changed dramatically since the early days of the fire company, but the mission of protection and helping the public hasn’t changed. The company is still all-volunteer, and at any hour, day or night, a fireman can be called to help someone in need. Fundraisers are still held as in the old days, although these events have changed a bit to meet modern demands. Training is much more demanding

Left: 1995 Rescue Squad. Paul Thompson in yellow jacket. Phil Thompson, kneeling at right. Right: 1995 Ladies’ Auxiliary. Charlotte Murphy (Andy Murphy’s mother) 2nd from right. (AFC Collection)

2024 AFC Trucks and New 4-Bay Addition (AHS Collection)

also: With today’s chemicals and larger vehicles the firefighters have to keep up with the changes. Volunteers are getting harder to find, but there are still good men and women in the community who are willing to give of their time and to assist where needed. We can rest assured the volunteers of the Amenia Fire Company will always be there to answer your call for help.

G GENERAL HISTORY

175 Years of Vassar Temple:

“From

Generation to Generation”

Miriam J. Cohen

Poughkeepsie’s Vassar Temple builds on its heritage to look forward in serving a very broadly defined community.

Author’s note: My thanks to Rabbi Renni Altman, Andi Ciminello, Melissa Erlebacher, Margery Groton, Karen Clark, Muriel Lampell, and Lisa-Sue Quackenbush for answering my questions about Vassar Temple history and providing me with materials. Special thanks to Sandra Mamis, who researched and assembled many historical materials for the 175th Gala in 2024. Sandra and I spent hours together learning more about the history of Vassar Temple for the anniversary celebration, and she patiently subjected herself after the Gala to my many questions while I worked on this article. The late Marjorie Katz, the temple historian, made this history possible, devoting hours interviewing and transcribing the oral histories of older temple members in the 1990s. She also collected and assembled many of the documents for the archives. Thanks also to Bill Jeffway and Tom Lawrence for help in obtaining images from The Poughkeepsie Journal. Patricia Wallace, editor extraordinaire, made this a better essay.

The year was 1845. Jacob Baker, Isaac Haiman, Herman Hart, Aaron Morris, and Solomon Scheldburger, all orthodox Jews, began gathering for prayer in Poughkeepsie, New York. Three years later, the group formally organized themselves as a Jewish synagogue, Congregation Brethren of Israel, and filed a petition for incorporation at the county clerk’s office, making it the first organized Jewish institution in Dutchess County. By then, the congregation boasted some 16 to 20 families, and it elected its first board of trustees. For newcomers to

America, and to a small city with few Jewish dwellers, the temple provided a place of worship, a sense of community and important friendships, and a resource to help one another make their way in a new land. Situated on Hooker Avenue in Poughkeepsie since 1953, the temple stands as the oldest functioning Jewish congregation between New York City and Albany, and among the oldest congregations in the nation. Throughout its 175-year history, while adapting to social and cultural changes, the temple continued to be a place of worship, study, and a vehicle for building community. In the 20th and 21st centuries, the synagogue broadened its commitment to helping people make their way, serving not only temple members, but reaching out to others, Jews as well as non-Jews, in the city, the country, and the wider world.

The 1800s: The establishment of Vassar Temple

Before the early decades of the 19th century, their small numbers made it impossible for Poughkeepsie Jews to even contemplate organizing a synagogue.1 Social changes on both sides of the Atlantic soon created conditions for the emergence of a small, settled Jewish community in Poughkeepsie.

Situated on the Hudson River, Poughkeepsie early on served as a transport for grain from the hinterlands; the opening of the Erie Canal in 1826 increased the town’s role as a thoroughfare for farm goods. Taking advantage of water power made possible by local streams, the Poughkeepsie area also could boast small-scale manufacturing in textiles, shoes, and breweries. Though it never became a major city—the expansion of the railroad limited the growth of river towns

1 DCHS historian Helen Wilkinson Reynolds recorded in her study of Hudson Valley homes that in the mid-18th century, “three Hebrews of New York City, “owned a house at 103 Market Street, now the site of the Mid-Hudson Library. Eva Effron Goldin, The Jewish Community of Poughkeepsie, New York: An Anecdotal History (Poughkeepsie: Maar Printing Service, 1982), 3. Helen Wilkinson Reynolds, “Dutch Homes of the Hudson Valley before 1776,” quoted.

like Poughkeepsie—the city attracted transplants from Ireland, from Britain, and from Germany, including Ashkenazi Jews.2

And, German Jews left in the wake came to the US to escape economic challenges they were experiencing, as industrialization had squeezed out occupations among poorer Jews who had been peddlers. In the 1820s, Jews also faced new restrictions on their ability to marry. German Jews also left in the wake of the upheavals surrounding the 1848 revolutions. In their new homeland, they replicated the kind of jobs they had done for centuries in Europe, working in commerce.3

Many Poughkeepsie Jews started out as peddlers, men who strapped goods on their back, or loaded them into wagons, setting out to the rural hinterlands to provide rural Hudson Valley residents with a variety of items. Often the peddlers left the road to open up small stores of their own. Once they settled in the community, wives, from as close by as New York City or as far as Germany, could join them, as families now put down roots.4

The men who organized the new temple were mostly small shopkeepers, with businesses on Poughkeepsie’s Main Street. Many were connected to the making and selling of clothes, typical occupations for American Jews. Jacob Baker and Aaron Morris were clothiers, while Herman Hart was a tailor who began as a peddler and Isaac Haiman, who also started as a peddler, owned a “fancy” store which sold

2 Clyde and Sally Griffen, Natives and Newcomers: The Ordering of Opportunities in Mid-Nineteenth Century Poughkeepsie (Cambridge,MA:Harvard University Press,1978),2,3. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the vast majority of Jews who emigrated from Europe were Ashkenazi Jews, from France and Central and Eastern Europe. including Germany, Poland and Russia.

3 Griffen and Griffen, 4; Effron, 10; Deborah Dash Moore, The Urban Origins of American Judaism (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2014),25; Hasia Diner, “German Immigrant Period in the United States,” Shavli/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women, https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/german-immigrant-period-in-united-states#pid-609;

4 Hasia Diner, Roads Taken:The Great Jewish Migration to the New World and the Peddlers Who Forged the Way (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015),53; Goldin, The Jewish Community, 9; Dana Gordon, “The Jewish Community in Poughkeepsie, New York in the Late Nineteenth Century,”undergraduate paper, March 1982,3.

fashion accessories such as ribbons, laces, hoop skirts, and corsets. Temple member Morris Baker became “an auctioneer of real estate and private property” in 1867.5 The enterprising Samuel Schultz, an early officer of the temple, made and sold shoes and boots. For the 1859-60 city directory, he took out a full page advertisement, which included an eight-stanza poem. It began:

Now hark the tidings, hear the news,

All ye that want boots and shoes

A splendid store I did behold

Where boots and shoes are cheaply sold. 6

German Jews arriving in America certainly enjoyed greater economic opportunities and privileges than they had experienced in Central Europe, yet they still faced antisemitism. So it was the case with Poughkeepsie Jews. As Poughkeepsie historians Clyde and Sally Griffen noted, “the stability and wealth of many Jewish firms did not affect substantially the general distrust of Jews.“ Credit reporters often questioned the ability of Jews to actually succeed honestly in business. Once they were well established, evaluators would note that these folks “were exceptions that did not disprove the rule.” Thus, early on, the credit reporter recommended that temple founder Isaac Haiman not be extended funds. When he became a proprietor of a clothing store, with “nice goods,” with a reported worth of “$20,000 in 1866” (about $500,000 in today’s money), he was judged “a fair man for a Jew.”7

A house of worship, study, and assembly, as well as an institution that provided shelter for the harsh judgements of the wider world, Brethren of Israel grew along with the Jewish community.8 Though the temple was still residing in a meeting room downtown, the congregation of about 16-20 families turned to the important business of purchasing

5 Goldin, The Jewish. Community, 189,13; Griffen and Griffen, Natives and Newcomers,121.

6 Goldin, The Jewish Community, 4,5.

7 Griffen and Griffen, Natives and Newcomers,122-123.

8 https://www.britannica.com/topic/synagogue is one source for this traditional definition of the synagogue’s purpose.

a cemetery. In Jewish tradition, one can assemble anywhere to participate in communal prayer, which requires ten people. Not even the presence of a rabbi is necessary, and in the early years the congregation used traveling rabbis when they could but, also, relied on its own members to conduct services.9 However, traditional rituals regarding death require that Jews be buried only alongside other Jews. In 1857, the temple purchased land on Mansion Street (renamed after World War I as Pershing Street), which served until 1875, when the congregation purchased the still-used cemetery at Lagrange and Davis Avenues in the town of Poughkeepsie.

The growing congregation with approximately 30 families installed its first resident rabbi, Jacob Heilbron, in 1868. The group now needed a building of its own to accommodate the community. The temple did what other American Jewish congregations often did in the mid1800s—they bought a building originally built as a church. The Old Congregational Church at Vassar and Mill Streets was close enough so that Jews could walk, rather than ride, to shabbat services, a requirement of Jewish ritual. In 1868, the temple purchased the building, taking out a $3,000 mortgage from Matthew Vassar Jr., nephew of the Vassar College founder. The location then inspired the nickname of the congregation, Vassar Temple (VT), which is still used today.10

The move to Vassar Street not only provided proper space for the congregation. Taking a new building was also an opportunity for the temple to announce itself to the local community. The historian Deborah Dash Moore writes, “synagogues represented Judaism on the civic stage, exemplifying public religious diversity and the inclusion of non-Christians in American urban society.” Despite their understanding that antisemitism was alive and well in America, or perhaps because of it, the Poughkeepsie temple members, like Jews in other cities, chose to celebrate publicly the congregation’s move into their own building, even inviting civic leaders to the consecration service.

9 Charter Granted to Vassar Temple 100 Years Ago,” Poughkeepsie Sunday New Yorker, February 29, 1948, n.p.

10 On Jewish congregations using formerly Christian churches, and using the street names to name their temples, see Moore, The Urban Origins, 24, 152.

The opening of new temple buildings in America were moments for “elaborately staged performances, including processions where congregants carried the Torah (the sacred five books of the old testament) scrolls into the new building for placing in the ark…[that] showcased Jewish aspirations and achievements.” So it was in Poughkeepsie in September 1868. The event included not only the carrying of the Torah but a large procession that began at the old synagogue on Main Street, ending at the new building. Street processions, including ethnic parades, were not new sights for mid-19th century urban residents; but this sight, to celebrate a Jewish temple, must have been novel for most Poughkeepsians. The Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle covered the event in detail, telling its readers the precise order of the march,

…the Eastman Band, 25 girls in white, carrying flowers, the sacred scrolls carried by two men under a canopy, Rev. Dr. Vivader of New York, and Reverend [Sigmund] Isaac, the new minister [rabbi] in robes, members of the Aaron Lodge B’nai Brith [a German Jewish fraternal organization that assisted new immigrants], and other similar lodges from Newburgh and Hudson.11

Forty years later, when the temple wanted to pay off its remaining mortgage, the members again turned to a public event. In those days, fairs and exhibitions were all the rage, from local occurrences to world fairs in Paris, Chicago, and St. Louis . In 1906, Vassar Temple hosted a three-day Novelty Fair and Exhibition at the Columbus Institute in Poughkeepsie. It included a “display of fine Irish lace and embroidery, fortune telling, opera stars, and dancing nightly, from 10 PM to midnight.” The event, scheduled from March 6-8 (weekdays that year), was so successful that the fair was extended for the rest of the week. Poughkeepsie Mayor George M. Hine opened the festivities, describing the exhibits as “the finest ever displayed in the city. “ If these events were designed to help non-Christians integrate into American urban society, Mayor Hine accommodated the desire in his opening

11 Moore, The Urban Origins, 5, 37,36; “Consecration of the New Synagogue, Achim of Israel,” Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, September 15, 1868, n.p.

remarks, lauding “the Jew as a useful and patriotic citizen and member of every community.”12

Into the 20th century: the Growth of Vassar Temple and the Rise of Reform Judaism

By the turn of the 20th century, Vassar Temple was an established congregation, with German Jews as the mainstay of the community. The establishment of other Poughkeepsie synagogues during those years and, to some extent, the growth of Vassar Temple were the result of a new and vastly larger wave of Jewish immigrants to the US, mostly from Eastern Europe, principally from Russia and Poland but also the eastern provinces of the Austria-Hungarian empire. During the last decades of the 19th century, life for Eastern European Jews became increasingly hard, with continuing restrictions on their ability to earn a living; in the areas under Russian control, they endured organized, violent attacks, (pogroms). In response, from the 1870s to 1914, millions of Jews set out for communities in Western Europe, South Africa, and, especially, the United States.

Eastern European Jews arriving in Poughkeepsie often began, like the earlier immigrants, as peddlers in the streets of the city, later opening up stores. Others began as artisans, for example, as shoemakers, or watchmakers. Many ended up in the Hudson Valley because they had relatives in the area. Most arrived impoverished; they tended to cluster together on the streets of “downtown” Poughkeepsie, west of Market Street, while the more prosperous German Jews lived east of Market. As the new Yiddish-speaking immigrant community grew, five kosher butchers sprung up to serve the community, along with kosher delicatessens. Even though the prosperous German Jews often reached out to aid the arrivals, as in other Jewish American settlements, the

12‘Novelty Fair and Exposition, Benefit of Congregation Brethren of Israel,” Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, March,1,1906,n.p.; “On the 160th Anniversary of Vassar Temple,” June 24, 2013, https://vassartemple.org/vt-160th-anniversary/; “Charter Granted to Vassar Temple,”n.p.

newcomers often felt the older settlers were elitists who looked down on Eastern European arrivals.13

By 1920, Jews made up about 9% of the Poughkeepsie population of 35,000 people, about three times the percentage of Jews in the American population as a whole.14 Along with other synagogues, Vassar Temple continued to attract local residents. In the early 20th century, the temple conducted worship services but also social affairs. In the 1920s, the temple hosted a Youth Folks League, which included boys and girls, as well as a Boy Scout troop, bible classes, literary and social clubs, and boasted the sisterhood, an active women’s group affiliated with the New York State Federation of Sisterhoods, with a membership of 100 that included non-temple member Jewish women. Sisterhood women gathered to socialize, support temple functions, and discuss topics of interest to them as Jews, as women, and as members of American society. The group often hosted professors from nearby Vassar College, who spoke to them on various topics related to their work. 15

Vassar Temple women added their sisterhood activities to busy lives not only tending to home and children, but often, assisting in the family business. Helping in family enterprises was common for Jewish women wherever small scale enterprises were dependent on the labor of kin. Since families often lived above their stores, women would do both domestic caretaking and the work of the business on any given day. Elma Samuels Rosenberg, born in 1911, recalling the VT sisterhood of her mother’s day, noted that most of the women “helped their husbands in their Main Street stores…Mrs. Greenfield (children’s clothing), Mrs. King (King’s Court Hotel)…Mrs. Rosenstein

13 Arthur Levinsohn, Interview by Marjorie Katz, April 28, 1992, 1, in Vassar Temple archives. On Jewish residential patterns, see also Harvey Flad and Clyde Griffen, Main Street to Main Frames: Landscape and Social Change in Poughkeepsie, (Albany: State University of New York, 2009), 75.

14 “Study of the Jewish community in Poughkeepsie,” author unknown, date circa 1925,3,4. Paper available in Vassar Temple archives, Vassar Temple, Poughkeepsie, NY.

15 Congregation Brethren of Israel (Vassar Temple), Monthly Bulletin 1:23, April 18, 1924; “Study of the Jewish community in Poughkeepsie, 16,-18; Elma Samuels Rosenberg,“ Sarah Peles Samuels, Joseph Samuels, and the Vassar Temple Sisterhood,“ March 25, 1993,3, in VT archives.

(toys).” Frances Rosen, wife of Morris, owner of a store specializing in millinery and jewelry, made hats for FDR’s mother, Sara, and other Delanos. She was even invited to Roosevelt’s first inauguration in 1933. Sometimes, among the new immigrants with little means, when necessary, mothers would sometimes “stick their infants in barrels,” to help out a customer in the store. By the 1920s, many sisterhood women had the resources to employ domestic servants, which made their busy lives easier.16

One important activity of the early sisterhood was assisting at the early religious school. All of the local synagogues, including Vassar Temple, already supported a community Hebrew school, which was established in 1919. In the 1920s, with a membership of about 125, the temple organized its own informal religious school, held on Sundays, staffed by the rabbi and likely held in sisterhood members’ homes; by the mid-1920s, they were meeting in a temple classroom. With the encouragement of Vassar College President Henry Noble McCracken, Jewish students at the college helped staff the religious school; Vassar students still do this today.17

During those years, the congregation moved beyond building community among its members. Committed to the Jewish tradition Tikkun Olam (“repair the world”), the temple called attention to the social issues of the day.18 The monthly temple bulletins in the mid-1920s carried the slogan “A Religious Center for Community Service” just beneath the temple name. In 1923, Rabbi Charles Mantinband, who would devote his entire life to progressive causes, organized a City of Justice at the temple religious school. The City of Justice was “an organization of student self-government, enabling and encouraging

16 Dana Gordon, “The Jewish Community in Poughkeepsie,, 3.; Elma Samuels Rosenberg, “Sarah Peles Samules, Joseph Samuels and the Vassar Temple Sisterhood,” 2; Goldin, “The Jewish Community,” 135. The domestic servants were likely non Jewish immigrants, or children of immigrants, from elsewhere in Europe.

17 Jesse Effron, “The Jewish Community in Dutchess County”, talk given on May 19,1998, 4; VT archives; Goldin, The Jewish Community, 37.

18 The term Tikkun Olam has come to mean, in modern times, the commitment to social justice and social action. Its origins are from ancient Rabbinic literature. https:// www.myjewishlearning.com/article/tikkun-olam-repairing-the-world/

the citizens of the Sunday School community to translate into their child life the very principles and ideals in the class rooms.” Both boys and girls held offices, which included mayor and vice mayor, with chairs of various departments such as social service and justice. 19

Above: Josephine Kahn, who became temple president in 1934, one of the first women in the US to hold such a position. The Poughkeepsie Sunday New Yorker. February 29, 1948, page 12.

Many American Jewish women at the turn of the 20th century took a special interest in the social issues of the day. Even before they had the power to vote, American women activists were defining a new role for themselves in the public arena by claiming expertise on particular issues that affect women, such as child labor laws, conditions of working women, sanitation, housing and the challenges of raising families in poor immigrant neighborhoods. Just as women in elite non-Jewish circles joined civic clubs to work on social reform, so too did prosperous Jewish women. For example, the temple sisterhood president in 1924, Josephine Kahn, a member of a prosperous German Jewish family, would go on to also serve as temple president in 1934, certainly one of the first women in America to serve in that capacity. She was not only a stalwart of the temple, as was her husband, she was a mainstay of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association and the Poughkeepsie public library.20 The temple encouraged activism on the social issues of the day, including the efforts of women social reformers to pass a constitutional amendment banning child labor. At sabbath services on Friday January 8, 1924, the temple announced Rabbi Mantinband would be preaching on “America’s Shame: The Crime of Child

19 Congregation Brethren of Israel (Vassar Temple) Monthly Bulletin 1:10, January 18, 1924, 1.

20 Paper by Mrs. Charles Mantinband, VT archives, 1926. n.p. Today, there are several families with seventh generation descendants, including the Kahn family, who are active temple members.

Labor.” A Miss Elinor Goldmark of Vassar College (a sophomore at the time), the notice said, would also be speaking.21

At the same time that the temple was engaging in the larger Poughkeepsie community, it was turning away from some traditional rituals of Jewish worship. The Reform Jewish movement, which began taking hold in the United States in the late 1800s, was by the early 20th century, making its mark at Vassar Temple. Gertrude Friedman Weiss recalled that although her parents belonged to Anshe Ungarn (where women and men sat separately for worship), unlike her brothers, who had to attend the parents’ synagogue for bar mitzvah, she was allowed to go to Vassar; she liked that the men and women sat together, and she attended religious school classes, in English on Sundays. At age 13 in 1914, she was one of the first adolescents to celebrate confirmation at the temple, as an affirmation of one’s commitment, through study, to the religious community.22

Reform Judaism emphasized the need to adopt religious practices that reflected modern American life. The Reform movement encouraged the adoption of English as part of the worship service in order that temple members could more easily understand the meaning of the prayers. To the surprise of the new Eastern European immigrants, Rabbi Sigmund Israel (serving from 1910-1922) began introducing English versions of the psalms and in other parts of the worship service. In 1923, new rabbi Morris Clarke decreed that no keepahs (head coverings for men) could be worn at Vassar Temple. That decision proved to be too much for some congregants; 13 families left and eventually formed a new congregation that became the Conservative synagogue in Poughkeepsie, Temple Beth El. In 1923, VT adopted the Union Hebrew Prayerbook, completing the process of adopting Reform Judaism. In 1951, the temple joined the organization of reform temples, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.23

21 Congregation Brethren of Israel (Vassar Temple), Monthly Bulletin 1:10, January 1924, frontispiece.

22 Gertrude Friedman Weiss, interview by Deborah Satz Scheer, June 8, 1993, 4-8, VT archives. Anshe Ungram was founded by Hungarian Jews.

23 Arthur Levinshohn, Interview, 5; Goldin, The Jewish Community, 37. Keepahs are the traditional caps used by men to fulfill the requirement that their heads be covered while in prayer, or, in the case of traditional Orthodoxy, at all times.

At a time when many Jewish immigrants were arriving in the United States, the adoption of Reform Judaism was partly a reflection of a desire to assimilate Jews into the practices of the dominant culture. Such efforts were not enough to stave off the continuing reality of antisemitism. Vassar Temple youth experienced this reality when they found themselves excluded from Poughkeepsie High School fraternities and sororities. In 1923, a group of boys consulted Rabbi Mantinband, who then helped them organize their own social club, which met at the temple. Named the Harding Club, after recently-deceased President of the United States Warren G. Harding, what started as a youth social club became an ongoing adult men’s club for Jewish men in Poughkeepsie, still in existence today.

If club exclusion was the softer side of antisemitism, Hudson Valley Jews experienced the more strident, potentially dangerous kind, when the Ku Klux Klan, enjoying a renaissance in the 1920s in many parts of the country, made its mark in Dutchess County. The post-World War I era saw an explosion of anti-Black and anti-immigrant sentiment in the US, along with antisemitism. The upsurge in nativism would result in a draconian immigration law in 1924. Celebrated by the Klan, it practically barred the immigration of Jews and others from Eastern and Southern Europe to the United States, as well as Asians.24 That same year, according to Jesse Effron and Eva Goldin, the Klan held a parade and meeting in Poughkeepsie. This invitation-only event was attended by approximately 3,000 people, who came from neighboring counties as well. One temple member, businessman Simon King, somehow obtained an invitation. One explanation was that he mistakenly received the invitation that was intended for another prominent businessman, John D. King. Simon apparently denounced the organization and once recognized, he was severely beaten by a number of attendees, with state troopers apparently standing by.25

The 1930s brought other challenges for the Jewish community regarding antisemitism. In 1933, one of the temple leaders, Albert D. Kahn, reached out to the prominent Reform rabbi and progressive reformer,

24 The Immigration Act of 1924 was not completely overturned until 1965.

25 Goldin, The Jewish Community, 178; Jessie Effron, “The Jewish Community,” 5.

Stephen Wise, head of the American Jewish Congress, an outspoken leader known for his warnings about the rise of Nazism.26 Kahn wrote to the rabbi to express his concern about a professor of German at Vassar College, Magdalene Schindelin, who had given a talk at St. Peter’s Church that justified Hitler’s recent declaration of Jews in Germany as enemies of the state, arguing that since they arrived in Germany after World War I the Eastern European Jews were responsible for all the known cases of corruption in the country. Kahn expressed concern for the Jewish students at Vassar who might be taught by the professor and asked Wise to speak to college president Henry N. MacCracken, a man the rabbi knew well. Wise did not take up Kahn’s suggestion; while he agreed that this was a very serious matter, he advised that the matter be taken up with the church, rather than the college.27

In addition to the rise of fascism and antisemitism, in the 1930s both the United States and Europe experienced deep economic depression. During the Great Depression, activists in the Jewish community worked to assist those among them who were especially hard hit. In 1933, at the height of the crisis, a group of men organized the Hebrew Sheltering Society to assist the Jewish unemployed, particularly the women and men who landed in Poughkeepsie while traveling the highways and riding the trains, looking for work. The society collected money from those who could afford to contribute so that they could pay families $1.50 to take in the travelers for one night and provide them with one meal. For most this meant contributing between 25 cents and a dollar. The biggest contributor by far was temple member George Salberg, owner of the men’s clothing store M. Schwartz, an institution on Main Street for over 100 years, who regularly donated $15.00. During and after WWII, the focus of charitable giving shifted

26 The American Jewish Congress was founded after World War I as a political liberal organization working for the equal rights of all Americans, and also advocating for Jewish rights around the world. See https://ajcongress.org/about/

27 “Hitler Upheld in Local Talk,” The Poughkeepsie Eagle -News, May 4, 1933, 1. Correspondence between Albert Kahn and Stephen Wise in possession of Albert Kahn’s daughter, temple member Muriel Lampell. Whether the matter was ever taken up with the church is not known.

to the needs of European Jewish refugees and to support for the newly created state of Israel. 28

Community building involved organized charity, but the temple reinforced a sense of connection among Jews through friendships. In 1934, the members organized the Men’s Club, which provided assistance to the worship programs, help in fundraising, and, very importantly, social opportunities for the congregation’s men. In a city with a small Jewish population, Vassar Temple, like the other synagogues, had an especially important role in connecting Jews with one another. Larry Edell recalled that in 1940, when he moved to Poughkeepsie to open a women’s clothing store, a woman walked into his store as he and his wife were setting it up and asked if he was Jewish. When he said yes, she introduced herself as Belle Sacher. The high holidays were approaching and she asked him where he was going to attend services. When he answered that he didn’t even know if there was a temple in Poughkeepsie or other Jewish people, Mrs. Sacher responded, “Yes, we have a wonderful temple and I would like you to be our guests for the High Holy Days.” Edell continued, “Irene and I attended services at Vassar Temple. The people welcomed us with open arms. We made wonderful, wonderful friends…And that was the beginning of loving Poughkeepsie, loving our Temple, working for our Temple and making a life for ourselves here in Poughkeepsie.” 29

The American entry into World War II in 1941 touched the Vassar Temple, now with a membership of about 100 families, both directly and indirectly. Twenty-nine members of the congregation or the sons or daughters of family members served in the war. At home the temple hosted a Mobile Blood Bank, part of its work in the Red Cross Emergency Hospital.30

28 Melvin Matlin, “A history of Vassar Temple, “ December 7, 1963, written by the temple president on the 115h Anniversary of the temple, 2; Arthur Levinsohn, speech at Vassar Temple Sisterhood Meeting, November 27, 1989, 9,11, , Levinsohn, Interview, 5, all in VT archives. See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Jewish_ Appeal, https://www.jewishdutchess.org/

29 Larry Edell Interview by Marjorie Katz, April 22, 1992, , 8, 9. VT archives.

30 Marjorie Katz, Documentary History of Vassar Temple, from the The Jewish Federation of Dutchess County, The Voice , May, 1998, VT archives.

From the Post-War Era into the 21st Century

After World War II, the growing US economy provided opportunities for second- and third-generation American Jews to find good jobs and continue to prosper in small business; many used GI Bill benefits to pursue higher education or purchase homes. Some of these young Jewish adults, ready to start families, arrived in Dutchess County. In addition to business entrepreneurs, the community now consisted of many professionals, engineers who worked for IBM, doctors, dentists, and lawyers. Dutchess County Jews now spread out further from downtown Poughkeepsie, finding homes further away in the city or in the town and surrounding communities.

Vassar Temple grew after the war, at a time when Jews throughout the US turned to synagogues. In the early 1900s, many immigrant Jews who arrived in American cities were not religious; in those early days, Jews didn’t need synagogues to maintain their identities. Many lived in neighborhoods with other Jews, kept kosher, and even observed the holidays without a temple. As the Jewish “way of life” waned by the second half of the 20th century, especially as Jews moved to the outer areas of cities or to the suburbs, joining a temple was an important way of maintaining one’s identity in an era of greater prosperity and cultural assimilation. And, after the Holocaust, temple membership and a strong commitment to the state of Israel became important ways for Jews to assert their identity in a meaningful way, for themselves and, importantly, to the larger society.31

In 1948, with the temple growing quickly, the synagogue celebrated its centennial, with member Henry Morgenthau, a long-time Dutchess County resident and former US Secretary of the Treasury under FDR, serving as honorary chair of the gala committee. As part of the centennial celebration, leaders turned in earnest to the construction of a new building. With property on Hooker Avenue donated by Richard Satz, and an additional piece of adjacent land on Underhill Avenue made

31 Moore, The Urban Origins, 56,57; on the increasing importance of Zionism among post-war Poughkeepsie Jews, see Levinsohn, interview, April 29, 1992 , 5.

possible by the purchase of ten anonymous temple members, the congregation began construction in 1952, with completion in May 1953. 32

Above: Groundbreaking for the Hooker Avenue temple. Poughkeepsie New Yorker, July 12, 1952, page 1. Left to Right, Richard H. Satz, Rabbi Alton Winters, George Salboro, Temple President Dr. Jacob Erdreich, with spade.

The move to Hooker Avenue called to mind the traditions of the move in 1868, with the congregation designating a special day for different temple members to bring the candelabras, Torahs, prayer books, and the Eternal Light. Despite the intense fundraising for the new building, the temple did not have money to furnish the bare building; thus they improvised. Determined to hold High Holiday services in the new building in 1953, Al and Elma Rosenberg provided an old closet for an Ark to hold the torahs, covered cinder blocks were used for the first bimah (pulpit), while a local funeral parlor and IBM donated folding chairs. Edell recalled that at the first Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services, “we had no carpeting…the creaking of the chairs…made it

32 “Charter Granted to Vassar Temple 100 Years Ago,” Poughkeepsie Sunday New Yorker “, 12A; On the 160th Anniversary of Vassar Temple in 2008,” June 24, 2013 https://vassartemple.org/vt-160th-anniversary, Matlin, “A history of Vassar Temple, 2.

difficult to pay attention to the service itself, but everybody had tears in their eyes that…we were in our new temple.33

With continued hard work, which included fundraising, the congregation added pews, carpeting, and an ark, and it renovated and added rooms. In 1954, the sisterhood was proud to host its most famous neighbor, Eleanor Roosevelt, still living in Hyde Park, at an event in their new social hall, which opened that year.

The post-war years saw the expansion of social and recreational activities at American temples, as well as at Jewish community centers. Synagogues, according to Deborah Dash Moore, responding to “the competition from commercial recreation “ in the larger society, offered “theater, higher education classes, lectures, dance, and music,” as part of temple membership.34 At Vassar Temple, Belle Sacher, with a back-

33 Edell interview, April 28, 1992, 9,10.

34 Moore, The Urban Origins, 58.

The sisterhood hosting Eleanor Roosevelt in the new social hall, 1954. Left to Right: Rose Kraut (likely), Mildred Gould, Claire Montel (possibly), Marion Richards, and Katherine Michel. Vassar Temple archives

ground in theater, began putting together musical reviews and skits at temple gala events. One show in 1950, “The Red Mill,” generated so much community interest that it had to be moved from the Masonic Temple to Arlington High School. When the new temple opened, the Vassar Temple Players put on two or three shows in the new space before Sacher retired the enterprise in the 1950s. In their heyday, the Players helped the temple by fundraising but were actually a crucial part of the temple’s social life, and in Sacher’s words gave people “confidence to do the things they had never done before.”35

When the move to Hooker Avenue was completed, the temple had 175 member families, with about 80 children in the religious school. By the early 1960s, as the baby boomers came of school age, the religious school boasted an enrollment of some 200 children. Today, the religious school no longer enrolls that many pupils, but it remains a vibrant part of the temple experience for member families; in 2013, the temple named the school after the recently- deceased Seth Erlebacher, president of the temple who died in 2011, at the young age of 46. Erlebacher had prioritized enhancing the educational experience of the students. That same year, the temple expanded its educational offerings by creating its own Hebrew school at the temple. In recent decades (and continuing today), adult temple members participate in various opportunities to learn together under the leadership of the rabbis, including Torah study and the tenets of Reform Judaism. And the Adult Education Committee organizes a variety of programs to bring speakers on various topics of interest to the Jewish community. 36

In his prayer consecrating the new building in 1953, Rabbi Alton Winters told the audience that the construction was never a final goal in itself. “With cold stone and steel, we cannot serve Thee. Only by our lives and the deeds of those who come after can Thy name be truly praised.”37 In the decades since Winters spoke those words, those

35 Isabel Crystal Sacher, Interviewed by Marjorie Kaz, April 21, 1992, 4-13; quote is 11, Vassar Temple archives

36 On adult education opportunities, see Lisa-Sue Quackenbush, “President’s 175th Anniversary Gala Message,” in possession of the author.

37 “On the Dedication of the New Vassar Temple Building in 1953,” https://vassartem-

deeds included honoring Jewish traditions such as temple restoration, adapting to social and cultural changes within Reform Judaism and the society at large, and working on social justice initiatives in the community.

Part of tending to traditions in these past decades has meant restoring the material remnants of the past. In 1981, under the leadership of temple president Elaine Lipschutz, members embarked on a clean-up program for the Pershing Avenue cemetery, which was in deplorable condition; since then, a special committee tends to the burial ground. In 2008, to restore four of the temple torahs, member Sandra Mamis and a committee successfully enlisted a professional sofer, someone who can repair old and deteriorating torah scrolls in accordance with Jewish law. In 2024, the temple continued this task.

Temple President Elaine Lipschutz with the newly installed stained-glass windows. The Poughkeepsie Journal. September 4, 1980, page 35.

Honoring the old also went hand in hand with constructing the new. In 1979 and 1980, the temple installed three new stained-glass windows. ple.org/dedication-of-building-1953/

In September 1980, the dedication of one of the windows, in honor of the five founders, depicted the harvest and thanksgiving holiday of Sukkot. Rabbi Stephen Arnold saluted the temple’s long tradition of caring for each other in times of sorrow and joy, and also “sharing the harvest with the stranger, the poor, and the helpless.” 38 This commitment has truly been a hallmark of the recent decades, and it has meant significant work with other organizations in Dutchess County. In 1972, the temple became a founding member of the Dutchess Interfaith Council (DCIC), an “inclusive vehicle for cooperative religious endeavor in the county.”39 The council promotes understanding and tolerance between religious and racial groups and fosters cooperative action in providing for those in need in the community, including help for refugees and the annual Crop Walk to fight hunger. The temple also works with the Dutchess County Jewish Federation as well as the Mid-Hudson Islamic Association on various community projects. Since 1985, the temple’s Social Action Committee has been providing lunches on a regular basis for those in need at The Dutchess Outreach Lunch Box in Poughkeepsie. In 1986, the sisterhood took responsibility for providing survival kits for battered women and children at Grace Smith House. In 2023, in recognition of its decades of social action in the community, the DCIC awarded Vassar Temple its Legacy Award.

Over the past 60 years, movements for social justice emerged throughout the United States and in the local community. The feminist mobilization of the 1970s profoundly affected Reform Judaism, which ordained its first female rabbi in 1972. Vassar Temple currently is served by a female rabbi and cantor. Prayer books now make use of gender-neutral language. In the 1960s, social justice movements turned to promoting democracy and participation of ordinary Americans at the grassroots. So, too, at the temple, during services, prayers are led by members as well as the rabbi. To a greater extent than earlier, the congregation participates in singing along with the cantor. The resurgence of ethnic pride throughout the country, beginning in the 1970s, had

38 “Remarks delivered by Rabbi Stephen Arnold for the dedication of the “Sukkot Window” to the Founders of Vassar Temple,” September 5, 1980, VT archives.

39 https://www.dutchesscountyinterfaith.org/History

its effect on Reform Judaism as well; traditions that were abandoned early in the 20th century have returned. At Vassar Temple, services incorporate more Hebrew and many men, and women, use keepahs and prayer shawls.40

Important social changes not only affected traditions at the temple. Outside the temple walls, congregants have remained active participants in efforts to build a better world. During the 1980s, the temple participated in campaigns on behalf of Jews facing antisemitism in the Soviet Union. In 1982, the congregation adopted a Russian refugee family. Continuing the tradition of support for and outreach to refugees, in 2016, the temple became a founding member of the Mid-Hudson Resettlement Project. As early as 1982, the sisterhood was educating its membership about protecting women’s reproductive rights. Today, Vassar Temple continues its tradition of social service and the pursuit of social justice, including initiatives to combat racism, foster inclusion in the temple community, and protect the environment. During election season, the Civic Engagement Committee mobilizes postcard writing campaigns to remind people across the country to vote.41

In worship and in celebrations, Jews often invoke the phrase “from generation to generation,” in Hebrew l’dor vador, which “signifies the perpetual obligation to pass on rituals, traditions and knowledge, indeed, the collective heritage of the Jewish people.”42 On the occasion of the temple’s 175th Anniversary gala, Rabbi Altman invoked that ancient Jewish phrase in her blessing:

May Vassar Temple, our beloved congregation, go m’chayil l’chayil, from strength to strength, l’dor vador, from generation to generation—from the generation of our founders 175 years ago to the future generations yet to be.43

40 Rabbi Renni Altman, “Notes for Anniversary Service,” April 9, 2024, in possession of the author.

41 On the temple’s community and social action initiatives see Quackenbush, “President’s 175 Anniversary Gala Message.”

42 Emma Grace Sinkoff, “L’dor V’dor: From Generation to Generation,” Jan 19, 2020, https://sites.psu.edu/academy/2020/01/19/ldor-vdor-from-generation-to-generation/

43 “Anniversary Gala Blessing,” April 14, 2024.

A growing temple, with a membership of over 180 member households, the congregation looks to future generations yet to be who will, through their own innovations and their commitment to traditions, continue writing the history of Vassar Temple.

Above: Vassar Temple on Hooker Avenue, n.d., Vassar. Inset: artist sketch earlier site. Temple archives.

Journeying into America

Christine Johnston

Australia wouldn’t be the default choice as the starting point for exploring Dutchess County history, but in this case it leads the reader to some unusual views of what seems otherwise pretty familiar territory. Just as fascinating as what Oz visitor Chris Johnston found in her search for her family’s history is the story of how she went about it, so we get a two-fer here. Lucky us!

It started with a photograph. And the story hasn’t ended yet. A virtual research journey into the US archives turned into the experience of being in the Mid-Hudson region looking for my family, the Browns.

My mother is the little girl, looking shyly down, in her Sunday frock. A dress you wear when visiting grandparents and aunties. Her knee socks have slipped down. Her sister is behind her, squinting into the sun. Her mother, my grandmother, Gladys Myrtle Brown, squats in the front row. Soon she will be dead, and her daughters abandoned to the care of aunts. My great-grandfather, Peter, big bellied and bearded, is towards the back. I can name some of the others, but who is the woman peering over his shoulder?

When I started my journey, this photograph was the pull and the push. It is undated. A rare photograph, this copy from my mother’s photograph, is the only one I have of my mother, her mother, and her grandfather Peter. I look into their faces for my story. Some have darker skin, crinkled hair. I wondered if we had Aboriginal ancestry, the most likely explanation for dark skin here. Perhaps that was my hope, a desire to be connected to this land more deeply than seems possible as a descendant of a settler.

Great-great-grandfather Alfred and his Scottish-born wife Allison settled only an hour’s drive south of where I live. I know that now. As I look out across the bush, I feel I could fly on bird-like wings from here to them.

Alfred’s photograph was always there at family reunions that I went to with my mother. Before she died, before I lost touch with Brown family descendants. That photograph, a studio portrait, shows a darkskinned man with a full white beard, high forehead and a thinning hairline. He’s dressed in a dark jacket, with a light-coloured waistcoat, and perhaps a watch chain hangs from one button. Alfred looks directly at the camera. He has a strong face and such kind eyes.

For decades I ran a busy cultural heritage consultancy, often working for Aboriginal community organisations. It was Alfred’s face that I looked for amongst 19th century photographs of Aboriginal men. Again and again.

Figure 1: Brown family members at Bullarto, Victoria (undated, mid 1930s?)

Figure 2: Alfred Brown [Undated studio portrait]

Writing a journey

Alfred’s journey hasn’t been found in the shipping records. I guess that he boarded a ship in New York, crewed his way to Australia, and landed in Melbourne around 1850-51. The bible he carried was imprinted 1850, American Bible Society, New York. He left Dutchess County, where he was born and raised, leaving his mother, brothers and sisters. Forever. My cousin Jan Green’s evocative story of the letters between Alfred and his younger brother Alonzo who stayed in Poughkeepsie, reveal their closeness despite vast distance.1

A much-photocopied piece of paper, two-sided, typed and dated 1988 that my aunt had given it to me years ago had made no sense then. Where was Poughkeepsie and who were these people? What was the American connection? But I’d kept it anyway. That piece of paper was the second hook.

The unknown of this family story called me in.

1 Jan Green, “Dear Brother”. Retrieved December 15, 2024, from https://dchsny.org/ dear-brother/

Figure 5: Inside Nine Partners Meeting House (Image: C. Johnston)

Connecting to family

Only days before I leave for the US, I discovered there was to be a Brown-Bourke family reunion, and I jumped at the chance to go. It was more than 20 years since the last one I’d attended. Moving house and my mother’s untimely death had disconnected me. Nervous and excited, I wondered who would be there, would I recognise anyone, would anyone recognise me? And how would I explain my research, my fumbling in the dark, when others may have already walked this research path and know all the answers. Was I appropriating what should be a shared story?

It is a long drive down to the coast. Plenty of time to rehearse, get anxious, calm myself again. I arrive with a salad to share and a bottle of bubbly under my arm, and walk into a room of smiling, welcoming strangers. I gravitate to a tall table covered with a spread of photographs and albums, curated by a slender woman with fly-away hair and a curious medallion around her neck. Heather perhaps? Holder of the family “jewels”: Alfred’s bible, photograph albums and documents. A tumble of emotions, putting the family jigsaw together in a new way, past and present colliding deliciously. Faces coming into focus, wrinkles of twenty years falling away. Beverley has photographs of my mother from a previous reunion, and there I am too. Remembering previous reunions: did we meet then? Embraced into family again, it is hard to leave.

Two days later, I am on a plane heading to the US, carrying their good wishes with me.

Lost in the virtual

During 2022, when lockdowns in Australia were over but international travel seemed unwise, my journey started in the US archives, not knowing where to look. First, it was for a family bible that I thought was

held in the Poughkeepsie Library.2 It wasn’t. Then Ancestry and the US census, diving into other people’s family trees hunting for clues. I imagined walking through the landscape of New Jersey to New York state. Google Earth revealed forests with lakes and marshes, and perhaps wolves and bears. Small treasures. Plenty of false tracks.

The virtual archives were like a real place, a maze in which to wander, curious about what I would encounter. I would fall through the computer screen and become lost, hour after hour. Over time, my searching became more structured and the records less mysterious. But I am not the best record keeper. Getting lost was a constant.

The US census offered the barest outline of a family, the smallest landing place for a leap into imaging a life. In 1820 in Washington Town, I found Henry Brown as the head of a “coloured” household of five; by 1830 it was seven, and then in 1850 their names, ages and occupations emerge: the two oldest boys George and Alfred had already left home, but wife Judith, daughter Sarah and her children, and their youngest son Alonzo are still at home.3

Seeing the family names written in the hand of the census collector, listed with their neighbours, feels real. An energy emerges from every trace, each chance to ‘touch’ the past. I try to imagine the landscape: farming land, dotted with houses, sheds and barns, simple shacks for the workers, a fenced, productive landscape. The census collector arriving at each property, tying up a horse, perhaps at Henry and Judith’s front door, or perhaps only the property owner will be surveyed about the workers on the farm. Is this how it happened?

Then Henry disappears. Dead probably, enslaved and dragged down

2 Alfred Brown’s bible contains hand-written entries recording details about his parents, spouse, siblings and children. Held by Heather Phillips (Australia).

3 1820 U.S. census, Dutchess County, New York, population schedule, Washington township, 140, line 43, Henry Brown; 1830 U.S. census, Dutchess County, New York, population schedule, Washington township, 447, line 8, Henry Brown; 1850 U.S. Census, Dutchess County, New York, population schedule, Washington Township, 752, line 30, Henry Brown.

south, unlikely at age 76. I find Judith living in Poughkeepsie, apparently apart from family, working as a laundress.4 She’s 66. Working backwards I find ‘Judah’ in Poughkeepsie in 1855, and son Alonzo there too from 1859.5

Using fire insurance maps that show each dwelling, its size and materials, along with the annual city directory listings, I can trace where Judith lived: in a tenement here, a house there.6 Moving constantly. Sometimes with Alonzo and his family, but mostly alone.

I’m walking the bounds of the 3rd Ward, City of Poughkeepsie, using an 1886 map from the Directory and these Sanborn maps. I drop pins and open Google Streetview every 300 feet or so, sometimes spinning around, sometimes changing the date of the image. It’s astonishing.

I walk up Catharine Street. There is a vast car park where a tenement building used to be. Judith Brown lived there for almost ten years, the longest of any place in Poughkeepsie. The tenement building was two story, timber-clad, internally partitioned between the dwellings. A fire trap.

Further along, at number 102-104, was the African American Episcopal Church. Gone too, but I know that its successor is not far away, on the corner of Cottage and Smith streets.

I walk on up North Hamilton Street. It must be Halloween soon, as one front porch is covered in cobwebs and spooks. The others are bare. No front gardens here, just lawn. I try to make sense of what I am seeing and guess the houses must

4 1860 U.S. Census, Dutchess County, New York, population schedule, Poughkeepsie City, 237, line 22, Judath Brown.

5 1855-56--Underhill’s City of Poughkeepsie Directory 1855-56, (Poughkeepsie: Dutchess Democrat Steam Press 1855), 4 Judah Brown; 1859-60 edition of the Lent’s Poughkeepsie City Directory 1859-60, (Poughkeepsie: Osborne & Killey Steam Printers 1859), 69 Alonzo Brown, Judah Brown.

6 Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York (Sanborn Map Company, Nov 1887). Retrieved 8 January, 2023, from http://hdl.loc.gov/loc. gmd/g3804pm.g3804pm_g061921887

be rented. Further up the street, I get to the Dutchess County Jail.

By early 2023 I had walked many virtual streets in Poughkeepsie, looking at all the addresses I could find for Alonzo or Judith. Finding empty spaces, car parks where houses had been. It’s an unexpected emptiness. Down the garden path

Genealogical websites are enticing. So many records at the click of a mouse. It was through Ancestry that I “met” my cousin Jan through a friend of hers who gently chastised me there:

Hello Christine, My friend is a descendant of the Brown family and is aware that much of your information on Alonzo, e.g. name, etc is incorrect, as well as that of his father. The man you have named is a white man who a lady in Australia put in thinking it was kind of cool to have a Captain, but most incorrect. Can you please email Jan on (email), she would love to help you with this.

I’d almost finished my online research, and I was busy writing and rewriting. A family member who knew all about our family was a wonderful prospect, and yet it might mean all my research had been in vain. I told myself, it’s all about the journey and jumped on the email to contact Jan.

I’d been chasing down Browns in New Jersey for a year by then, and had followed the links others had made to a family of Bruens, a white family, that suggested that our Henry was their Henry. Impossible, and I knew that, and had added notes to my profile of Henry in case anyone came searching. But could our Henry have been enslaved to their family? I chased that rabbit for a while, messaging those who had made a connection on their family trees, but no response. Perhaps

the possibility of a white ancestor appealed, or perhaps they hadn’t realised that Henry was Black?

Without a location – a county, town or village – finding Henry is a herculean task. I follow the Bruens – Captain Henry M Bruen – in case it leads somewhere. Somewhere it’s recorded that Henry Brown was born in Newfoundland (NJ), but now I can’t find that source. Note to self, take better notes. The Captain was born in Pompton, so wrong place. And I discover several different birth years for our Henry in online postings by others. Later, reviewing what’s written in the Brown family bible, I notice that the day and month of his birth had been added later, in blue ink, not black. But the year – 1788 – seems solid.

And then my random searching lands a connection in Newfoundland. “Brown’s Hotel” pops up, linked to a blog post on the hotel and the Bruen/Browns. I chase around and find Paul Havermann’s blog on The Brown’s Inn Footbridge in Newfoundland. An image from a 1909 postcard shows the Brown’s house and footbridge across the Pequannock River.7

There’s that feeling when you hold your breath. Heartstopping. Excitement tangled into the fear of disappointment, that this is just another wraith, a ghost of the past teasing me, calling me onwards into an endless dark maze.

I knew I needed help and engaged Christine Murphy, a New Jerseybased genealogist. She detailed out the Bruen ‘connection’, checked dates of birth, and found no evidence that they owned enslaved people. No connection there.

7 “Stagecoaches & The History of Brown’s Hotel” retrieved 30 September 2022, from https://idylease.org/idylease-blog/browns-hotel-newfoundland-nj/; “The Brown’s Inn Footbridge”. Retrieved 30 September 2022, from https://paulhavemann.com/thebrowns-inn-footbridge/

Landing

By the time I arrived in Poughkeepsie in June 2024, I’d already spent a week in the State Archives in New Jersey, and another week in New York. Chasing shadows and ghosts.

All I knew then and now about Henry Brown’s origins was his date of birth and his birth state – New Jersey. My notes were simply lists of questions. Where was he born? Born enslaved or free? How and when did he travel from New Jersey to New York state, and alone or with whom? Arriving in New Jersey I had run out of ideas. It’s hard to explain the impact of distance. It’s not just knowing so little about American history, although that was a factor, but archival records are named differently, and records are spread amongst so many different repositories and locations. Finding my way seemed overwhelming.

In Trenton, I’m staying in a BnB, opposite a huge shuttered up hotel and just a short walk from the archives. I’ve booked a spot there for each of the five days I am here. The process is convoluted and just a touch intimidating. I’m here just a short time and there are so many questions. I’m know I am anxious and try to quieten that internal jangle. At the door to the archive, the security guard checks me in. More inner jangles. And then at the front desk, finding a locker, pencils only. And now, where to start?

Back to basics. Was Henry born free or enslaved? In New Jersey, a 1786 law allowed for the freeing of slaves between the ages of 21 and 35. That law was repealed in 1798 and the age of manumission raised to 40.8 In 1798, Henry was ten or eleven, and by 1813, 25-yearold Henry was already in New York state and about to be married to Judith; by 1820, the census records them as in Washington Town.9 If Henry was born enslaved, he would have missed out on these legal

8 New Jersey, “An Act to prevent the Importation of Slaves into the State of New Jersey…,” P.L. 1786, chap. 119, 239. New Jersey, “An Act respecting Slaves,” P.L. 1798, chap. 727, 364.

9 Alfred Brown bible; US census 1820, 140.

opportunities. I go forward with my research on the basis that he was born free. It’s risky, but how else to proceed? I realised that I need to hold each hypothesis lightly, looking for evidence to disprove as well as the possibility of a confirmation.

Christine Murphy explored the rosters for the War of 1812 in case Henry served in one of the segregated or integrated regiments and this was how he travelled to New York State.10 Learning that there were integrated regiments before the Civil War was eye-opening for me.

Each day I return to the archives. I focus on two counties, alert for family names that match any of the Brown family’s neighbours from Dutchess County in the 1850 census, but there are so many years between then and when Henry likely arrived in New York State. I plough through abstracts of wills, church records, tax records, local histories. The lack of any early census records is frustrating. I fall into intriguing rabbit holes chasing other Henry Browns.

By the end of the week, I had a pile of photocopies, pages of pencilled notes and no answers. How Henry got to New York state remains a mystery. I’m still searching a list of landowners recorded as living near the Brown family in Washington Town in the 1850 census in case I can find a connection.

Poughkeepsie at last

I walked into the Poughkeepsie Library on my third day in town, the day after the 2024 Memorial Day holiday, having requested access to the Local History collection. I’d booked a BnB in Poughkeepsie for three weeks, hoping that would be long enough.

10 Research undertaken by Christine Murphy. Records searched included: Records of Office and Men of New Jersey in Wars 1791-1815, compiled in the Office of the Adjutant General, State Gazette Publishing Co., 1909, Trenton, NJ, 14, 131; “War of 1812 Pension Files Index,” Fold3; Bounty Land Warrant Applications Index, Fold3 warrant 50-40-55428 (1812), Henry Brown, Private, New Jersey.

Nervous, expectant, hopeful. I’d emailed asking permission. Shannon Butler opened the door, smiling, inviting me in. I’d watched her videos and now here she is. And I am too. As she and Bill Kleppel show me around the collection over the next few days, I think I’ll need a lifetime. So much to take in, learn, explore. Bewildering.

Shannon runs amazing tours of Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery. The next one is soon and booked out already, but I beg a spot anyway. My cousin Jan Green has been writing about Alonzo Brown, and she asked if I could visit the cemetery and find his grave. So, borrowing a bike, I wobbled my way down Academy Street to the cemetery, planning to find his grave site before Shannon’s tour.

Each record is a piece of the puzzle. At the counter, I ask for help to locate his burial place. Seeing the card recording the grave site shook me. It’s not the original record. That would have been in a hand-written ledger. But this is exciting. The staff check for any other information, but there is none. I turn the card over and see that two Australian family members visited in the late 1980s: Heather Phillips and her husband, and Laurie Brown.

The grave is unmarked – that is a shock. I realise that just paying for the burial plot would have been expensive. John, their son, was the first buried, then their infant son Alonzo junior, wife Julia and finally Alonzo.

I walk out into the summer heat again, and navigate my way, using a map and a description of a nearby mausoleum as the landmark. A large tree shading a grassy area seems right. I sit. What does it mean to me that my great-great uncle, his wife Julia and son John are buried here, under this well-mown lawn? And that their grave is unmarked?

Later, worried I had not found the right place, I went back to the cemetery, again with the map and a photo of the burial card on my phone. That well-mown patch of grass seemed right. Still anxious, I asked for help. A few weeks later, cemetery staff go out, mark the edges of the burial plot and send me photos. I cry with relief and joy.

Finding a needle

PerhapstofindHenryIneededtofindJudith?Morethanthat,Iwanted to find her, to find the woman who birthed the next generation.Women are so often invisible in the archives. Cousin Jan declared that I am “looking for that needle in a haystack” when I said that I’m starting to search for our third great-grandmother Judith’s birth family,

Figure 4: Chris Johnston at the Rural Cemetery standing near the unmarked grave (Photo by B. Jeffway)

wondering why I am planning to visit Pawling, not Washington Town. A good question.

I’d already been hunting down Judith’s birth family name before leaving for America. Transcription of the Brown family bible had suggested her name was Judith Falmon, but that name was a dead end. Tallman proved more fruitful, with a Lewis Tallman in the first US census in 1790, the only free coloured head of a ‘Tallman’ family in Dutchess County. A household of four, Lewis, his spouse, and two children, were living in Pawling.11 Judith would not be born for another four years. The household grows to 13 “free coloured” by 1800, and in 1810 and 1820 they are listed in Dover, a newly created town formed from the Town of Pawling in 1807.12 Lewis is not in the 1830 census, but a Jane Tallman is household head.13 The same family?

In the Poughkeepsie Local History Collection, Bill points me to The Settlers of the Beekman Patent, an extraordinary catalogue family by family, alphabetically, created by Frank Doherty over decades. The T edition has only just arrived. I checked the index. So many Tallmans. As my finger ran down the list, I saw a Lewis Tallman. Could it be him? A slender thread. Turning to the page, Doherty records that Lewis was enslaved to Isaac J Tallman. Lewis married twice, first to Peggy Benson, a woman enslaved by Jacob Benson, and then in 1789 to a Jenny Rogers, also a “coloured woman.” Lewis died in an accident in 1821. The dates fit with my hypothesis. Perhaps this is the needle?14

It feels like time is running out. I need to get out to Millbrook and Pawling. Pawling Historical Society is open on Saturdays,

11 1790 U.S. census, Dutchess County, New York, population schedule, Pawling, 48, Lewis Talman.

12 1800 U.S. census, Dutchess County, New York, population schedule, Pawling, 57, Louis Salman (Talman); 1810 U.S. census, Dutchess County, New York, population schedule, Dover township, 183 (stamped), line 32, Lewis Tallman; 1820 U.S. census, Dutchess County, New York, population schedule, 92 (written), line 12, Lewis Tallman.

13 1830 U.S. census, Dutchess County, New York, population schedule, Dover township, 218 (written), line 20, Jane Tallman.

14 Doherty, Frank J. The Settlers of the Beekman Patent XIV, Dutchess County, New York (F.J. Doherty, Pleasant Valley, N.Y. 2019), pp.123, 126-127.

so I head out from Poughkeepsie by bus. The road is edged with a wall of green, still the freshness of spring foliage. Small towns, glimpses of water, farm letterboxes on the corner. Familiar and yet so different. The bus driver is singing. Can’t catch the words, but I can see him in the rear vision mirror, singing with gusto. I smile. How good is a singing bus driver! Only my first bus trip and I can feel the camaraderie between passengers—riders—and drivers. We are in this together. I’m feeling grateful.

The John Kane House was stunning with its new displays ready to be launched. I’m treated to a tour and a chat, but it turns out I’ve missed Bob Reilly, town historian. Later today is a memorial service for John Brockway, past president of the Pawling Historical Society, and everyone was distracted.

Judith Brown (nee Tallman) died in 1890. A brief obituary in the Poughkeepsie Eagle News records that she died in Mechanic (not Poughkeepsie) and was buried there. But she’s not found in online Find-A-Grave listings for Nine Partners Cemetery.15 An obituary in the local newspaper, rare for a Black woman, recorded that she was “respected by a large circle of relatives and friends.”16 Not just Judith the laundress, but a woman with friends and family. Aged 95, a long life. I picture loving arms comforting her during her last days, as like so many in that hard winter, “La Grippe” – Russian influenza – took her.17 Her obituary listed both her sons: H. Alonzo Brown “a well known colored man of this city” and Alfred, living near Melbourne, Australia.18 Her daughters are not mentioned. A death certificate would list her parents. It’s the next piece of the jigsaw puzzle.

Just a few days later, it’s time to catch a bus out to Millbrook

15 Find-A-Grave Nine Partners Cemetery, retrieved 1 March 2023, https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/65435/nine-partners-cemetery

16 “Obituary”, Poughkeepsie Eagle News (Poughkeepsie, New York), Mon, Mar 17, 1890, p.6, retrieved 11 October, 2022.

17 “A hard winter for old people”, Poughkeepsie Eagle News (Poughkeepsie, New York), Fri, Apr 4, 1890, p.6, retrieved 11 October, 2022.

18 Ibid.

to meet Bob Tierney, Superintendent of the Nine Partners Cemetery, then visit the Millbrook Town Hall seeking Judith’s death certificate, and after that meet with the Millbrook Historical Society. Phew. A full day. I’m leaving Poughkeepsie in three days’ time, and everything feels urgent. Where has that luxurious three weeks in Poughkeepsie gone?

The bus trip is easy. I’m getting the hang of reading the bus schedules. Now, sitting in the main street I’m texting with Bob as we attempt a rendezvous! He messages “I’m here” and then I see him. He’s down-to-earth, practical, and caring. Great qualities for someone who looks after such an important place.

The Nine Partners Cemetery is closer than I expected, and it’s vast. The road winds through an open grassy field dotted with headstones. Bob drives us up to the Meeting House, a large brick building with white painted shutters, an attic and basement, two separate entries and what might be rising damp.

Figure 3: Alfred Brown’s bible, a precious record of family (Image: C. Johnston)

Inside the Meeting House, it’s so quiet; everything is timber, glowing a deep golden brown. Rows of simple benches with wooden back rests, each polished over years of use. Some have carved names; I take a photograph and wonder who “IWL” is, and “H van der Wate…” too. I’d seen the cemetery on Google Earth, but being here is something else.

Bob tells me the burial records are incomplete. He’s sure there are many unmarked graves. Just keeping this place shipshape is a task and a half. I’m impressed. Bob says there is another cemetery not far away: “Would you like to see it?” “You bet,” I say. We head to Brier Hill Cemetery in Oak Summit, a burial place for those living at the Dutchess County Poorhouse. Someone cares here too; the grass has been mown, and there are new signs documenting recent investigations to relocate burials.

Back in Millbrook, I walk up to the Town Hall. And there, in a massive ledger, I find the record of Judith’s death. Her death certificate isn’t amongst these carefully conserved records, but the register is enough. She is sixth on the page for 1890, the tenth death that year: listed as Jaudah Brown, an odd spelling that I’d seen before in the census records. Judith is 95 years, 5 months and 6 days. A capital C marks her as colored. Her birthplace is listed as Beatmow, perhaps Beekman, not far from Pawling. And yes, her father is listed as Lewis Talman, mother Jane Ann.19 So excited and amazed, words fail me. Her death is attributed to Senile Debility, and her burial place is Millbrook –confirmed by the Millbrook Historical Society as the Nine Partners cemetery.

Judith, I have found you. I have found you and your parents. Jane must be Jenny, Lewis’s second wife. I have seen two photographs of you, both much scanned and blurry. In one you are wearing a checked dress with full sleeves. It looks like a studio portrait. You are sitting side on to the camera, your head tilted slightly to the side, your face turned towards me.

19 Register of Births 1884-1909, Marriages 1884-1906, Deaths 1884-1910, Town of Washington, Millbrook, NY.

Perhaps you are 60? In the other photograph you are older. You are holding a young baby; if it’s one of Alonzo’s children, that would date the photograph to the 1860s, but how could a laundress afford a studio portrait?

You have become the loving arms holding me on this journey. Travelling alone is stepping off the edge. I love my excited fear but dread the anxiety that rises again and again. How hard it is to seek out what I want, to ask for help.

And yet there is more

Bob Reilly, Pawling’s town historian, has been on the case. He dropped into the Poughkeepsie Library a couple of days ago and said he investigated the Tallman family, hoping he might be able to locate the property described in Doherty’s Beekman Settlers that Isaac J Tallman had for sale in 1795.20 Lewis might have lived there enslaved, might have stayed after being freed?

Another day and another bus. I’m getting the hang of bus travel. Bus drivers are almost invariably polite, and this driver is no exception. She smiles, and I’m feeling good being on her bus.

Every time it’s been a cheery “good morning how are you” and a “thank you have a good day” at the end. A community of riders and drivers. Stuck together by the limits of choice, bus or stay home. A warm, chatty community. Unexpected and delightful. I feel safe.

Clouds are gathering, dark and ominous. Flecks on the windscreen a rain alert. The bus stops at a Stop and Shop just before Pawling and the skies open, rain blasting down, turning the world into misty white. The bus is early, so we need to

20 Doherty Settlers of the Beekman Patent, p.127.

stop here for a few minutes. Time to talk about where I want to get off. The rain doesn’t stop. “Want to go on and buy an umbrella” she asks. I pause: “No, I’ll be right—might stop and if it’s still raining at my stop I’ll go the whole way into Pawling,” I say.

We work out my stop on the phone, I get ready to make a quick decision as she pulls over. And then the rain stops.

Bob Reilly’s been digging. The 1778 Erskine map records “Maj Tallman” on the Ten Mile River, in Webatuck, near Wingdale. It’s likely to be the property Isaac Tallman had up for sale in 1795. Doherty notes that Isaac Tallman had an inn in Pawling in 1791. I check the Historic Resource Survey, a county-wide heritage project online, and find the handwritten sheets describing an inn and a store. Tagged 108A and 108B, and on the southern side of “old route 55”.21 It all fits.

In the car and we are off on the chase. Bob chats about the local landscape and history, and the many challenges of chasing faint trails of breadcrumbs into the past. The land is so green: trees in new leaf, pastures glowing, a narrow road but well made. We pass Bob’s place, and I hear more of his stories. Now we are in Webatuck, and at the right corner. If we cross the river, we’ll be on Dog Tail Corners Road, such a great name.

Webatuck started with a mill on the Ten Mile River, gained an inn, store, a few houses. Later the centre moved to Wingdale, just a mile or so west along the river, almost on the Connecticut border.

We park and wander towards the building. I’m uncertain about whether to knock on one of the two from doors or not. No one comes out. We just stand and look. It’s hard to know what I am looking at, such unfamiliar building styles, and

21 Doherty Settlers of the Beekman Patent, p.123; Historic Resource Survey, Dutchess County, NY 1988, https://gis.dutchessny.gov/hrs/ retrieved 6 June 2024, items 108A, 108B.

the new cladding that distracts from a distinctly older form. The building is in two sections, each with steps up to small porch and front door. Slowly I start to read it: a brick chimney exposed at one end, a cellar below, an attic.

More than just lost for words; lost in a tangle of questions. Almost unable to move but feeling the obligation of companionship, I try to speak.

The Historic Resource Inventory form describes it as the Red Lion Inn, wooden framed on a stone foundation, originally a hotel and now residences.22 The adjoining building set at right angles possibly the “large store house” in Isaac Tallman’s description or the barn, now also a dwelling.23 Layers of history: hotel, hotel and store, and now dwellings.

Am I really here, in this place, breathing this air? The scent of this place. What was it like then? Was the hilltop clothed in trees like it is now? Where were the dwellings for the slaves? How many slaves? Was Lewis even here at all? The dates are scrambling through my mind. Isaac Tallman selling this property in 1795; Lewis free by the first US census in 1790; Lewis married for a second time in 1789, perhaps free then? Perhaps freedom was a wedding gift?

Finding Judith has been important. I am carrying so many more questions now about this grand old lady who lived to 95, who was loved and admired. That I have identified her parents feels miraculous, but really, it’s the hard work and research of others. I’m standing on their shoulders and very grateful. I still want to find Henry. I am sure there is an answer in Pawling or Beekman, in Judith’s family. Just a feeling really. But someone introduced Henry and Judith, and perhaps that someone took him across the border and into Dutchess County to meet Judith.

22 Historic Resource Survey, Dutchess County, NY 1988, https://gis.dutchessny.gov/ hrs/ retrieved 6 June 2024, items 108A, 108B.

23 Doherty Settlers of the Beekman Patent, p.127.

Writing into the unknown

There is a journey in writing. Imagination and curiosity create hypotheses, and the archive teases, sometimes slamming the door, and at other times, as you circle around, it invites you in.

Being here, seeing the landscape, has been important. But I still feel like I am seeing each place through a pane of glass. I am still at a distance. I need more time, a longer lifetime perhaps, to keep unravelling layer upon layer of questions; but perhaps they never stop.

Am I reshaped by the journey? The virtual journey took me deep into the history of enslavement, and at times terrified me. Being here has been gentler.

Breathing the air, seeing the rolling hills, the intense green of the woods. Meeting people who love this place and who are determined to reveal the stories of peoples who have been neglected. This land that birthed several generations of my ancestors is so unlike home. But I am hooked. I will be back.

How Frank Became Francis:

The Rediscovery of a Free Black Community in Staatsburg

Zachary Veith

For years, Hawktown was a rumor.

As part of a state-wide initiative to tell “Our Whole History,” Staatsburgh State Historic Site has been researching the free and enslaved populations both on the Staatsburgh estate and the surrounding hamlet of Staatsburg. Staatsburgh has been exploring the forced labor that built the estate and generated the generational wealth of the Livingston family. However, it is important to shine a light on Black narratives beyond bondage. One elusive narrative has been the location and existence of “Hawktown” —up until now a rumored Black community somewhere in the surrounding hamlet. Brief mentions of the location appear in historical sources discussing the Black community of Hyde Park. A local 19th century historian wrote Frank Peters “owned a few acres in Hawktown” and Jack DeWitt “had some property, in Hawktown.” The Dutchess County Yearbook briefly mentioned Jack DeWitt walked “from where he lived, Hawktown…” and declared “Hawk Town, now extinct” in 1919.1 For years, those brief references were the extent of our knowledge of Hawktown. Researching the life and community of Frank Peters and Jack DeWitt, I hope to highlight stories of Black lives in the early 19th century beyond slavery. What follows is the beginnings of a story of resilience and strength within a larger society that discouraged Black agency. Hawktown underscores how Black history in Dutchess County has been previously

1 Edward Braman Notebooks, 1876, p. 44-45. Hudson River Valley and Dutchess County Manuscript Collection, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, New York; George S. Van Vliet, “The Town of Clinton.” Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book 26 (1941): 51; “Original Dutchess County Settlements.” Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book (1919): 22.

marginalized and the existence of a diversity of historical narratives in Staatsburg beyond the wealthy families and their tenant farmers.

Bill Jeffway, Executive Director of the Dutchess County Historical Society, compiled local newspaper clippings mentioning Hawktown from the Rhinebeck Gazette spanning the 1880s. These articles include vague mentions of “young men went to Hawk Town on Sunday afternoon” or “a barn in Hawktown was blown down.”2 An increasing number of brief Hawktown mentions were discovered in the Poughkeepsie Journal: Henry Burroughs, “a dilapidated character, formerly of ‘Hawktown,” was accused of theft from a local store; talk of “Hawktown Dutchmen” being employed locally; Samuel Swartout, a working-class laborer, received building materials for his new residence in Hawktown; his neighbor, Irishman Henry Warren, “has been confined to his residence at Hawk Town” due to illness.3 Every mention of the community—no more than a sentence or two—is consistently listed in the ‘Staatsburg’ section of the “Vicinity Correspondence” column of the Poughkeepsie Journal alongside sections for other municipalities from Tivoli to Wappingers Falls. Evidently, during the Gilded Age Hawktown was a well-known entity. The community was so well known that it appears to need no explanation in the Poughkeepsie Journal (at least to local readers). Every mention of Hawktown residents in the “Vicinity Correspondence” we have seen are either local White farmers or Irish-born laborers. There is no sign of a Black community in Hawktown during the late 19th century.

Frank Peters is one of only two documented Black residents of Hawktown, and his story was one of the few scraps of information that indicated a Black community lived in an area known as Hawktown sometime in the 19th century. Peters’ story survived thanks to the work of local historian Edward Braman. The wealthy son of a prominent Hyde Park river family, Braman served as a historian in Hyde Park

2 “Staatsburgh.” Rhinebeck Gazette, October 1, 1887; “County and Vicinity: Doings in Neighboring Places.” Rhinebeck Gazette, September 20, 1884.

3 “Staatsburgh.” Poughkeepsie Journal, October 1, 1882; “Staatsburgh.” Poughkeepsie Journal, May 31, 1885; “Staatsburgh.” Poughkeepsie Journal, October 21, 1888; “Staatsburgh.” Poughkeepsie Journal, March 18, 1888.

and collected oral histories in his notebooks stretching from 1874 to 1899.4 In one section from 1876 titled “Old Hyde Park Negroes” Braman recounted:

Frank Peters owned a few acres in Hawktown. He was from “Varmount,” as he used to say. His wife, Sukey was a Bard darkey. Nanny, a very ugly featured negress, sister to one of them, lived with them. Frank and Sukey died and were buried on their place. They left no heirs to their few acres, their house went to decay and tumbled down. Not being on the taxlist, by some over-sight, it has escaped being sold for taxes.5

It is unclear where Braman received his information from in “Old Hyde Park Negroes.”

However, a brief legal notice in the Poughkeepsie Journal from the 1880s was the first key to unlocking the earlier Black history of Hawktown. On Sunday, September 26, 1886, in a section titled “Sold for Taxes” listing wood lots and estates sold across Dutchess County for “non-payment of taxes,” the final notice stood out: “A vacant lot in Hawktown, assessed to the Frank Peters estate at $2.83, to Henry Ward for $6.50.”6

Braman mentions Peters’ property “escaped being sold for taxes;” the 1886 sale of “a vacant lot in Hawktown” to Henry Ward is thus the rectifying of this land on the tax roll. But who were Frank and his wife Sukey?

Francis and Susan Peters

Let’s start with Sukey.

4 Christopher R. Lindner and Trevor A. Johnson, “Guineatown in the Hudson Valley’s Hyde Park,” in The Archaeology of Race in the Northeast, ed. Christopher N. Matthews, and Allison Manfra McGovern (Gainesville: University Press of Florida FL, 2015), 57

5 Edward Braman Notebooks, 1876, p. 44.

6 “Sold for Taxes.” Poughkeepsie Journal, September 26, 1886.

The Records of the Town of Hyde Park, edited by then-local historian Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1928 and containing “A Copy of the Records of St. James’ Church” compiled by Edward Braman, are a wealth of information on local Black residents. Founded in 1811, St. James’ Episcopal Church brought together some of the most influential and wealthy members of the Hyde Park community. Its first church wardens included Dr. Samuel Bard, founder of the medical school at today’s Columbia University and personal physician to George Washington, and Morgan Lewis, third governor of New York State and the founder of the Staatsburgh estate. Church vestrymen included Dr. Bard’s son William, his son-in-law Judge John Johnston, as well as Nathaniel Pendleton, Alexander Hamilton’s second in his famous duel with Aaron Burr.7 All of these men—Bard, Lewis, Johnston, Pendleton, and others—were documented enslavers. Some of the earliest baptisms recorded by Braman at St. James’ included the men and women enslaved by the wealthy church founders. William, Stephen, Mary, and Dinah, “slaves belonging to Morgan Lewis,” were baptized on December 1, 1811—the year the church is founded—alongside enslaved people from the households of Nathaniel Pendleton and John McVickar, the church rector. Yet, in addition to this enslaved community, there were free Black congregants within St. James’. Local Black residents, including residents of the nearby New Guinea community—another free Black community in the town of Hyde Park— were baptized at St. James’, attended Sunday school, and celebrated weddings.8 This is the congregation that Sukey will eventually join.

The Peters family only appears in the St. James’ records towards the end of their lives. Susan, a “colored” woman noted as the “widow of Frank Peters,” is baptized on March 26, 1851. So Sukey is also Susan Peters. Susan was sponsored by Miss Mary Johnston and Nanny–the latter appearing also in Braman’s brief description of Frank and Sukey Peters. The widow is later confirmed by Rev. DeLancey on September 10, 1851, alongside members of prominent river families such the

7 Edward Braman, “Church Records: A Copy of the Records of St. James’ Church, Hyde Park, Dutchess Co., N.Y.,” in Records of the Town of Hyde Park, ed. Franklin D. Roosevelt (Hyde Park: Dutchess County Historical Society, 1928), 290.

8 Braman, “Church Records,” 291; Lindner and Johnson, “Guineatown,” 62-63.

Rogers and Bramans as well as two other free people of color, Harry and Diana Anthony. Sadly, we learn Susan Peters passed away on April 3, 1852.9 Susan and Frank perhaps had full, active lives long before St. James’ was founded in 1811. To piece together more clues about their lives and community, we need to look beyond this one church.

Before the founding of St. James’ in Hyde Park, Morgan Lewis worshipped from Pew 18 in the Reformed Dutch Church in Rhinebeck. With deep roots in local and national history, the Rhinebeck Reformed Church, as it is known today, holds an important record in the Hawktown story. Lewis’s brother-in-law, Chancellor Robert Livingston, a drafter of the Declaration of Independence, worshipped from Pew 63, alongside other members of the powerful Livingston family—soldiers, statesmen, and merchants—at the turn of the 19th

9 Braman, “Church Records,” 327, 316, 321-322, 329; church records noted the death of “Frank (black.)” on decade earlier on February 28, 1841 – likely indicating Frank Peters’ death.

The Rhinebeck Reformed Church, whose congregation included the Governor of New York and Black residents of Hawktown.

Photo by author.

century.10 Alongside the Hudson Valley’s aristocratic enslavers, the Peters, a free Black family, appear to have been members of the congregation as well, before the establishment of St. James’. The marriage of “Francis Peters and Sukey (black people)” was recorded on October 6, 1801, in the church records.11 Thus, Sukey is now Susan and Frank is now Francis.

Knowing the names of Francis and Susan Peters is powerful for finding more information on these individuals—and Hawktown. The earliest census listing for Francis Peters is the 1810 census. The household of Francis Peters contained three “Free Blacks” —presumably Francis, Susan, and Nanny—in the hamlet of Staatsburg. Yet, on the following page another household of Frank Peters is again listed with three free Black people. Both listings for the Peters households consistently appear following Levi Pawling’s family; Francis Peters lives next to Levy Parting, household of six, while Frank Peters lives next to Levy Pawling, also a household of six.12 Thus, this is most likely an error from one or more census takers recording the same families.

Nancy “Nanny” Derry

It is unknown if Francis Peters was ever enslaved. Braman notes that Susan/Sukey was “a Bard darkey,” suggesting she was formerly enslaved by the Bard family at some point in her life.13 Other Black congregants of St. James’ Church, notably Richard Jenkins, the church’s first sexton, were formerly enslaved by the wealthy Bard

10 “History,” Rhinebeck Reformed Church, accessed November 18, 2024, https:// www.rhinebeckreformed.org/history

11 Rhinebeck Baptism, Marriage, and Religious Records, 1733—1888. New York Church Records, 1660-1954, image group 007856475, image 705. FamilySearch.org.

12 1810 U.S. Federal Census, Clinton Dutchess, New York. Series M252, roll 30, p. 270-271 (stamped), images 216-217. FamilySearch; There is slight inconsistency with the Parting/Pawling households. The Levy Parting household is listed with two White men under 10, one White man ages 10 –15, two White women under 10, one White woman ages 10-15 for a total of six people. The Levy Pawling household also contains six people: one White man under 10, one White man ages 26 –44, two White woman under 10, one White woman ages 10-15, and one White woman ages 26 –44.

13 Edward Braman Notebooks, 1876, p. 44.

family. Knowing Sukey is also Susan perhaps gives us clues to the identity and background of “Nanny” —the third member of the Peters household recalled by Edward Braman in “Old Hyde Park Negroes.” In the 1850 census taken in Hyde Park, Susan Peters is listed in a household with Nancy Derry. Peters is listed as a 70-year-old Black woman; we still do not know the exact dates when Susan was born, but we would expect her to be of an advanced age by 1850.14 Could Nancy Derry be the Nanny mentioned by Braman? The “Records of Poughkeepsie Precinct, 1769-1831” note the manumission of Nanny Dearin on August 27, 1804. The record notes Dearin was “born sometime in the fall of” 1759. Nancy Derry is noted as 84 years old in 1850, meaning she would be born around 1766.15 The birth years of enslaved people are often not recorded or remembered, so the difference between 1759 and 1766 does not discount the similarities. Could the formerly enslaved Nanny Dearin from 1804 be Nancy Derry in 1850 and Nanny who witnessed Susan Peter’s baptism in 1851?

Caesar and Sally Clark

Neighboring Francis Peters’ land is Caesar Clark —another possible Black resident of Hawktown. Hudson Valley enslavers commonly renamed the men they enslaved with classical Greco-Roman names. Morgan Lewis formerly enslaved a man named Plato. Robert Livingston the Elder enslaved men named Hannibal and Jupiter. Samuel Bard and John Jay both enslaved men named Caesar. In Defiance: Runaways from Slavery in New York’s Hudson River Valley catalogues at least 31 Caesars, 11 Catos, five Hannibals, two Pompeys, and one Nero in runaway advertisements from 1735-1831 in our region.16 Thus, a name

14 1850 U.S. Federal Census, Hyde Park, Dutchess, New York. Series M432, roll 497, p. 476 (handwritten), image 430. FamilySearch.

15 Records of the Poughkeepsie Precinct, 1769-1831, p. 61. Box 974.733-P. Adriance Memorial Library, Poughkeepsie, New York.

16 Susan Stessin-Cohn and Ashley Hurlburt-Biagini, In Defiance: Runaways from Slavery in New York’s Hudson River Valley 1735–1831 (Catskill: Black Dome Press, 2023), 111, 281, 457-458; Nicole Saffold Maskiell, Bound by Bondage: Slavery and the Creation of a Northern Gentry (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2022), 115, 117; David N. Gellman, Liberty’s Chain: Slavery, Abolition, and the Jay Family of New

like Caesar Clark, as a Black landowner in Staatsburg, stands out. Based on his given name, Caesar may have been formerly enslaved. The earliest mention of Caesar Clark, as with Francis and Susan Peters, comes from a church in Rhinebeck. Anyone driving north on Old Post Road outside the village of Rhinebeck today has surely been struck by the “Old Stone Church.” Officially the Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Peter, the church is a striking reminder of the Hudson Valley’s deep European roots. Founded by Palatine Germans in the late 1720s, St. Peter’s became “the center of Lutheranism in Dutchess and Columbia counties” in the early 19th century according to Thea Lawrence, a historian and educator at Empire State University. Frederick Quitman, the reverend beginning in 1798, conducted services in both German and English.17 St. Peter’s, as with its Episcopal neighbor St. James’ in Hyde Park, has ties to slavery in the Hudson Valley. When the Federal census was taken in 1810, the census taker noted one enslaved person in the Quitman household inside the St. Peter’s rectory. 18 As with the rector at St. James’, John McVickar, Quitman is enslaving people while preaching the gospel to a mixed congregation and performing marriages, including Caesar Clark’s.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Peter, or the “Old Stone Church” in Rhinebeck.

Photo by author.

Reading the aged legal-sized ledger “Marriage Records, Rhinebeck Lutheran Church” one’s index finger moves down

York (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2022), 109.

17 Thea Lawrence, “Unity Without Uniformity: An Exploration into the History of the Churches of Rhinebeck, New York,” Hudson River Valley Review 1, no. 2 (1984): 106.

18 1810 U.S. Federal Census, Rhinebeck, Dutchess, New York. Series M252, roll 30, p. 294 (stamped), image 240. FamilySearch.

the pages following the names of couples—newlyweds—written in the same cursive font over and over again. Near the bottom of the page, I found two familiar names: Caesar Clarke and Sally Williams. No other biographical information is given, but the names match the names later found in the St. James’ archive: Sally and Caesar. The Clarks chose a spring wedding—May 27, 1810, to be exact—alongside two other couples married the same day. Multiple couples are married on the same days that spring at St. Peter’s.19 Several newlywed couples written on the ledger in that elegant cursive font correspond to the free White agricultural labor on the Staatsburgh estate under landlord Morgan Lewis. While the Peters and Lewis families worshipped at the Reformed Dutch Church in Rhinebeck, Caesar Clark and Lewis’s White tenant farmers—including George Marquart, Lewis Marquart, and Peter Ackert—worshipped at St. Peter’s.

Later, as with Francis and Susan Peters, we find Caesar and Salley Clark among the Black congregants of the newer St. James’ Church in Hyde Park. Caesar and Sally are listed during the baptism of their son Edward on December 6, 1829.20

The following year, the Clark family appears to have relocated from Hawktown. In 1830, Caesar Clark appears on the census alongside the names of prominent members of the New Guinea community farther south in Hyde Park. Clark, between the ages of 36 and 55 when the census is taken, is listed with a young girl under the age of 10 and a woman in the same age range as Caesar, likely his wife, Sally. Where we would expect to find Caesar and Sally in 1830, we find several younger Clark households instead: Elizabeth Clark, Samuel Clark, and Henry Clark alongside presumably their spouses and children. Based on their ages, we may assume Elizabeth, Samuel, and Henry are Caesar and Sally’s children (older siblings of Edward Clark, perhaps),

19 Rhinebeck Baptism, Marriage, and Religious Records, 1733—1888. New York Church Records, 1660-1954, image group 007856475, image 481. FamilySearch.org.

20 Braman, “Church Records,” 302; One Sally Clarke (with an “e”) is noted as passed away on April 9, 1827 – two years before she is named at Edward Clark’s baptism. Sukey Clarke, “about 45, coloured [sic],” who passed away on November 4, 1830, is likely the wife of Caesar.

residing on their parent’s land in Hawktown nearby familiar names such as Elijah Baker and David Mulford. The extended Clark family seemingly stays on this land into the 1850s, raising their children and creating equity on this land passed from generation to generation.21 Caesar Clark himself passed away on May 29, 1845.22

Jack and Dinah DeWitt

The third resident of this Black enclave, Jack DeWitt, underscores the possibility that this landowning community is Hawktown. As with Francis Peters, DeWitt was profiled by Braman as follows:

Manumission record of “a Negro Man slave” named Jack “belonging [to] John DeWitt,” signed April 27, 1804. Courtesy of the Clinton Historical Society.

21 1830 U.S. Federal Census, Hyde Park, Dutchess, New York. Series M19, roll 104, p. 234-235, 227, images 461-462, 447-448. FamilySearch; 1840 U.S. Federal Census, Hyde Park, Dutchess, New York. Series M704, image 503. FamilySearch; 1850 U.S. Federal Census, Hyde Park, Dutchess, New York. Series M432, roll 497, p. 223 (stamped), image 399. FamilySearch. 22 Braman, “Church Records,” 328.

Dinah, an old slave in the Mulford family, was bought in New York just off a slave ship. She said she was the daughter of a king. Her husband was Jack De Witt, a De Witt darkey…They had a daughter Jenny. When Jack died he had some property, in Hawktown, which he left by will to his said daughter “Jane”. Jenny left a daughter, Sally, who married a darkey tailor named Robinson.23

DeWitt is another identified resident of Hawktown alongside Francis Peters.

23 Edward Braman Notebooks, 1876, p. 44-45. 1817 deed for Jack DeWitt’s land and 1818 deed for Francis Peters’ land in Staatsburg. Courtesy of the Dutchess County Clerk’s Office.

It is unclear where Francis Peters received the last name “Peters,” but Jack’s DeWitt last name has clear Staatsburg origins. In 1941, George Van Vliet, writing for the Dutchess County Yearbook, noted DeWitt walked “from where he lived, Hawktown, to Newburgh” every Christmas to gift his former-enslaver, Col. John DeWitt, a turkey “’for Massa’s Christmas dinner’.” John DeWitt owned land in Lot

9 of the Pawling Patent from his father, Petrus DeWitt, one of the early landowners of Staatsburg, as well as the DeWitt Mills—known as the Frost Mills today—farther east. Later in life, Col. DeWitt moved to Newburgh, where he died in 1808. Van Vliet noted several families in Staatsburg enslaved “eight or nine” people, including John DeWitt. Only four years before his death, DeWitt manumitted his slaves, including Jack. DeWitt is reported to have purchased land for these newly freed people, especially those married and with children. Van Vliet wrote this was “not very good” land, however.24 As Jack DeWitt eventually relocated and bought new land in Staatsburg, he might have agreed.

A Wood Lot in Staatsburg

David Mulford once owned nearly 400 acres of profitable agricultural land stretching from the Hudson River towards the Crum Elbow Creek. Underscoring his position as a wealthy landowner, Mulford ordered a survey of his lands in 1813 by surveyor R. Spencer. His twostory farmhouse, depicted by Spencer in great detail, included matching chimneys and three front windows and attests to the wealth of his farming operation in Staatsburg. On the eastern edge of Mulford’s holdings, in Lot 16 of the original Pawling Patent, Spencer marked “Sherrell’s [sic] Wood Lot” outlined in red.25 At the time, Hunting Sherrill—Mulford’s brother-in-law—was an early-career physician speculating on land. As his Hyde Park practice grew, he relocated to Poughkeepsie, where he authored several books, submitted articles to medical journals, and was made a member of the American Institute

24 Van Vliet, “The Town of Clinton,” 51, the 1800 Federal Census notes John DeWitt enslaved eight people; George S. Van Vliet, “Pawling Patent, Alias Staatsburg, and Some of Its Early Families.” Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book (19151916): 35; Town of Clinton Book of Manumissions, Ear Marks, and Miscellaneous Records, p. 293. Clinton Historical Society, Clinton Corners, New York.

25 R. Spencer, David Mulford Esq. survey, 1813. Dutchess County Historical Society: On December 25, 1813, Mulford sold the seventy-three acre “tract of wood land lying in the Staatsburg Pattent [sic]” to Dr. Hunting Sherrill for $2,208.75. Deeds 25 & 26, liber 26, p. 400. Dutchess County Records Room, Dutchess County Office Building, Poughkeepsie, New York.

of Homeopathy. Beginning as early as 1814, the young doctor was buying and selling several lots throughout Hyde Park along the Crum Elbow Creek.26 Mulford appears to have sold undesirable sections on the outskirts of his property to his brother-in-law Sherrill, who in-turn sold part of this land to Black families.

Detail of 1813 R. Spencer survey map of David Mulford farm. Courtesy of the Dutchess County Historical Society.

The deed for lands sold to Francis Peters and Jack DeWitt offers clues to the location of the Hawktown community. In 1817, Jack DeWitt bought roughly 3.25 acres of land from Dr. Hunting Sherrill and Margaret Sherrill for $60. The following year, the Sherrills sold 3.5 acres to Francis Peters for $63.50. Both indentures note the land is within the Staatsburg patent and was formerly part of the Mulford farm property. 27 Spencer’s earlier survey of the Mulford property

26 “Obituary” in The American Homeopathic Review Volume VI, eds. P.P. Wells, Carroll Dunham, and Henry M. Smith (New York: John T. S. Smith & Sons, 1866), 360; Harry T. Briggs, “The Crum Elbow Creek, Its Mills and Dams.” Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book 34 (1949): 58-61.

27 Deeds 41 & 42, liber 41, p. 385. Dutchess County Records Room, Dutchess County Office Building, Poughkeepsie, New York; Deeds 217 & 218, liber 217, p. 47. Dutchess County Records Room, Dutchess County Office Building, Poughkeepsie, New York.

noted the coordinates of all this land, including the 73-acre wood lot. The outer coordinates of Sherrill’s lot match several of the coordinates outlined in the Peters and DeWitt deeds. In addition, Peters’ deed confirms many of the neighboring families seen on the later 1820 census, included David Mulford and Elijah Baker, who erected the prominent Greek revival house along modern-day Route 9 during the period.28 The Peters’ lot also lies next to Caesar Clark’s lot.

While no physical descriptions of the land are provided in the deeds, it is assumed it was of a poorer quality. Around the time Sherrill sold land to DeWitt and Peters in Staatsburg, he sold land to residents of the free Black community New Guinea in Hyde Park. The land owned by the Black families in New Guinea—sold by Sherrill or members of the Bard family—was undesirable to White landowners. The Dutchess County Historical Society noted the “rocky and swampy nature of the

28 John Clarke, “Building-Structure Inventory Form,” https://gis.dutchessny.gov/hrs/ PDFs/20090710104640771.pdf

Elijah Baker’s house in Staatsburg. His land bordered Francis Peter’s lot in Hawktown.

Photo by author.

land” was suited only for raising sheep and other livestock.29 The land in Hawktown was likely of a similar nature. An 1894 Poughkeepsie Journal article reporting the sale of Hawktown land from Murray Howard to Henry Warren noted that not all of the six acres of land was tillable.30 This wood lot was likely of a poorer quality, not suitable for farming by David Mulford, and available to purchase by Black landowners.

It is unclear exactly where in those 73 acres the Black families resided, but this does lead us to conclude that the DeWitts and Peters—and, by association, the Clarks—resided within this wood lot. A community of free, landowning Black families is carving a space for themselves in the same hamlet as powerful landowners and enslavers. Today, this area that might have been Hawktown would appear to be located between Route 9 and Reservoir Road in Staatsburg.

Hawktown, 1820

Beginning in the summer of 1820, census takers across New York began counting the state’s residents. The census taker for the town of Clinton had already enumerated hundreds of people across various backgrounds and economic classes when he came to three Black households clustered in the hamlet of Staatsburg: Jack DeWitt, Caesar Clark, and Francis Peters.

The enumerator moved their pen over the “Slaves” columns on the census towards the “Free Colored Persons” columns to begin recording. Jack DeWitt is counted as a male 45 years and older, alongside a woman of the same age range—likely Dinah, his wife—and a girl under 14 years old—likely either his daughter Jenny or granddaughter Sally. Caesar Clark is counted alongside a woman, likely his wife Sally. Two boys and two girls, all under the age of 14, are listed in the Clark household, including perhaps Elizabeth, Samuel, and Henry Clark—the next generation to live on the Clark’s land. Francis Peters is counted

29 “New Guinea, Hyde Park,” Dutchess County Historical Society, accessed October 9, 2024, https://dchsny.org/new-guinea-importance/

30 “Staatsburg.” Poughkeepsie Journal, July 29, 1894.

alongside two women 45 years and older, likely his wife Susan and Nanny, as well as two women between 26 and 45 whose identities are unknown at this point. Across the northeastern United States, countless Black families established households near each other in defense against the White supremacy of the early 19th century.31 These Black homeowners, such as the small grouping we see in Staatsburg, are forging their own community away from the overwhelmingly White communities of the Hudson Valley. Two households down the listing from Peters is David Mulford, the White farmer who sold Dr. Sherrill the land that he in turn sold to Peters. Eight lines away from this small community of formerly enslaved Black landowners is the former governor of New York, Morgan Lewis, who counted two enslaved men on his estate in 1820, alongside three free Black men and women. The hamlet of Staatsburg is a diverse area with multiple communities. We can clearly see a free Black community existed alongside an enslaved population in the same small Hudson Valley hamlet.

The subdivision of the Pawling Patent. Morgan Lewis’s Staatsburgh estate is in Lot 5. Dr. Sherrill’s wood lot is in Lot 14. John DeWitt’s mills are likely in Lot 13. Courtesy of the Dutchess County Historical Society.

31 1820 U.S. Federal Census, Clinton, Dutchess, New York. Series M33, roll 71, p. 27 (handwritten), image 37. FamilySearch; Lindner and Johnson, “Guineatown,” 73.

A Forgotten Past

Today, the Mulfords are commemorated today along Mulford Avenue, as are the Bakers along Baker Street—two of the main residential streets in the village of Staatsburg. The Clarks, the DeWitts, and the Peters are not remembered as such. Morgan Lewis’s grave is prominent within the St. James’ graveyard, as is Hunting Sherrill’s obelisk in the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery. Braman noted Francis and Susan were “buried on their place”—likely on the Sherrill wood lot—yet their graves carry no markers today. In an appendix on Staatsburgh by Braman in Documentary History of Rhinebeck from 1881, he notes “the negroes had their own burying ground, still known to the residents.”32 But no one today knows where that burying ground is located. That hallowed ground has been long buried from public memory alongside the names of those interred.

32 Edward Braman Notebooks, 1876, p. 44; Edward Braman, “Staatsburgh” in Documentary History of Rhinebeck, ed. Edward M. Smith (Rhinebeck, 1881), 238.

John DeWitt is commemorated today with a historical marker outside his 1773 home in Frost Mills.

Photo by author.

Following the Civil War, newspapers underscore a change in the racial make-up of Hawktown. Pushed by events like the Potato Famine and drawn in by steady work on the railroad, European immigrants—such as Henry Warren—had increasingly come to Dutchess County. Joined by White working-class laborers such as Samuel Swartout and farmers like Murray Howard, White names and families are increasingly being recorded in the Hawktown area. On October 7, 1884, Henry Warren purchased 3.5 acres of the Peters estate from Dutchess County—the same amount of land Peters bought from Sherrill in 1818. Two years later, Warren (not Ward as the Poughkeepsie Journal incorrectly reported) buys an additional 2.5 acres of the Peters estate, which county clerk Edward Osborne noted was “in a place known as Hawktown,” surrounded on three sides by other lots owned by the Irishman.33 This trend is consistent with other Black communities in Dutchess County. Notably, Oak Street in Rhinebeck, a historically Black community of formerly enslaved men and women, saw an uptick in White, working-class homeownership at the same time.34

The name Hawktown likely refers to the area during this later period of White settlement. Hawktown is never stated on any deed owned by Black landowners. Only one newspaper mentioning the Black landowners of Hawktown has been found. In 1823, the Poughkeepsie Journal stated Francis Peter’s land in Staatsburg abutting Caesar Clark’s and Jack DeWitt’s was to be sold that year. 35 The newspaper, however, does not name the area as Hawktown—implying perhaps Hawktown is a later term retroactively applied to the area during the later 19th century. In 1919, the Dutchess County Yearbook, listing the various towns and settlements throughout the county, noted “Hawk

33 Tax Sales 1, liber 1, p. 86, 136. Dutchess County Records Room, Dutchess County Office Building, Poughkeepsie, New York.

34 Eric Steinman, “The Diverse and Little Known History of Oak Street,” Hudson Valley Pilot, March 31, 2023, https://www.hvpilot.com/living/the-diverse-and-littleknown-history-of-oak-street/article_656e5ef8-cf66-11ed-9871-5f529585ec35.html

35 “Sheriff’s Sales, Advertised in the Observer,” Poughkeepsie Journal, July 23, 1823, it appears the land was never sold, as Francis Peters still appears in Staatsburg next to Levi Pawling and David Mulford in 1840.

Town, now extinct.”36 Seemingly nobody is living on the Hawktown land anymore, Black or White.

For generations that was the story of these Black Staatsburg residents: extinct without a trace. For generations, it was a story that was not told to the wider public. Yet the story of Hawktown underscores the presence of Black landowners in Staatsburg before statewide abolition and offers clues to the lives of the formerly enslaved in Dutchess County. The discovery of Hawktown demonstrates that there are still Black narratives untold in the Hudson Valley.

The research of how Frank became Francis Peters tells a story beyond slavery in the early 19th century. It is the beginnings of a story of resilience and strength in a society that looked down upon Black agency. No one knows where the term Hawktown comes from. But we do know there were free Black landowners in Staatsburg earlier than previously known. We can see clearly a free Black community lived, worshipped, and labored alongside an enslaved population for years. Now we have more of an image of Francis beyond so-called “Old Hyde Park Negroes” from Edward Braman. We see his marriage to Susan, his community including Caesar and Jack, and his congregation in Rhinebeck and Hyde Park alongside the most powerful families in Dutchess County. A fuller picture of the free Black community of Staatsburg before the Civil War emerges. We know their names, we know where some lived and labored, and we have the records to prove their existence—Hawktown is a rumor no longer.

Special thanks to the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation.

36 “Original Dutchess County Settlements,” 22.

“Avoided, shunned, and abhored”:

Two Stories of Common People Using the Courts in Early 19th Century Dutchess County

Georgia Herring

Long before women got the vote and around the time slavery was completely abolished in New York State, the Dutchess County court system was already recognizing, at least partially, its responsibility for ensuring fair treatment for these underserved groups of people. Georgia Herring examines a civil dispute and a criminal proceeding to show that, by the early 19th century, county courts were increasingly accessible to every citizen, regardless of social class.

Abstract: The Dutchess County Ancient Documents project contains tens of thousands of court-related cases beginning in 1741, when the Dutchess County Clerk position was created. Now in Phase 12, these documents have been indexed and digitized thanks, in part, to a grant from LGRMIF as well as funds from the Dutchess Court Archival Imaging Project. The earliest documents, through 1810, primarily involve cases brought by wealthy landowning citizens of the county. However, starting around 1815, more and more cases were initiated by common people: farmers, laborers, and working people. .

Mary Tompkins had a difficult childhood, even by the harsh standards of 18th century rural New York. Her father Daniel passed away in 1817, leaving her mother Phebe Williams Tompkins with seven children, including Mary who was only eleven years old. Phebe had recently given birth to her youngest child, Daniel Jr., who also died the same year as his father. Mary lived with her family on their family farm in LaGrange, near the modern-day intersection of Routes 55 and 82. By all accounts except one, she was a dutiful daughter who helped raise her younger siblings Anna and Phebe as well as keep the family farm

solvent. She was especially close to her older brother Richard, who lived nearby and had his own large family of 14 children. In fact, Richard named two of his daughters in honor of his younger sister-Mary and Mary Anna. By the 1820s, Mary’s life seemed to have stabilized, as she continued the seasonal pattern of farm chores, school, home, church, and friends. However, when Mary turned 21 in the fall of 1827, her reputation was ruined by a neighbor. She seemed to be powerless to fight back until she turned to a local attorney, Henry Swift, who then filed a civil lawsuit to attempt to restore her good name.1

Christina Knickerbocker also faced a tragic situation in 1828. A boarder in her Pine Plains home went missing on a cold November night. She sent out a search party, which found him unresponsive, lying on a fence within a mile of home. Christina suspected foul play and therefore contacted Dutchess County authorities, who initiated a coroner’s inquest to investigate his death.2 Both women were trailblazers in a way, since they turned to the legal system for assistance. Mary used the civil courts ,while Christina relied on the criminal justice system. Before this time, most cases recorded in the Dutchess County Ancient Document archives were instigated by wealthy landowners of the county. An excellent example of this is the Livingston family of northern Dutchess County. Owners of thousands of acres of land and a vast fortune, the Livingstons exemplified the upper class of early Dutchess County. Robert Livingston was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, his cousin Henry was Dutchess County Clerk, and his sister Janet was the widow of Revolutionary War hero Robert Montgomery. A search in the Ancient Documents portal3 for “Livingston” yields hundreds of cases involving this wealthy family. In addition to criminal proceedings that involved them, the Livingstons used civil litigation to sue recalcitrant tenants, intrusive neighbors,

1 All data on Mary Tompkins is from Ancient Document #87591, Mary Tompkins v. Daniel Billings, Feb. 16, 1828, and U. S. Census Records of the Tompkins family from 1810-1880.

2 Inquest on the Death of Peter Knickerbocker, a man of colour, Dutchess County, November 21, 1827 (Ancient Documents #87550 and 87552)

3 Use this link to search for digitized Dutchess County Ancient Documents: https:// www.dutchessny.gov/Departments/County-Clerk/Ancient-Document-Search.htm

and even other Livingston family members. Access to the courts was a substantial perk used by the wealthy in early modern New York State to protect their property rights and reputations. However, not all citizens of different social classes enjoyed this type of protection.

The right to counsel can be traced back to English common law traditions, in Clause 40 of the Magna Carta (1215), which reads: “To no one will we sell, to none deny or delay, right or justice.”4 This right was enhanced in 1494, when Henry VII established the right to counsel for indigent civil plaintiffs.5 Early American colonial courts followed these English precedents to some extent. After the break with Great Britain, however, US courts began the process of slowly establishing an American justice system with its own unique characteristics. Legal aid for indigent citizens officially began with the foundation of the Freedmen’s Bureau (1865) and the German Immigrants’ Society (1876) which became Legal Aid in later years.6 While modern citizens have access to both civil and criminal courts, early American residents usually were required to pay a fee to retain the services of a lawyer. This upfront cost easily precluded the majority of New Yorkers from obtaining justice in county courts. In addition, English tradition in many civil cases required the losing party to pay the attorney’s fees of the winning party,7 a tradition that did carry over to some areas of colonial America. However, an analysis of American civil cases found that, by the early 1820s, attorneys were increasingly using contingency fees of 10%, a quarter, a third, or even half of the judgement recovered for their clients in lieu of receiving a retainer. 8 Contingency fees allowed attorneys to represent a wider variety of clients from different socio-economic backgrounds than before. Although the court

4 Felix Rackow, The Right to Counsel: English and American Precedents (11 William and Mary Quarterly 3, 1954).

5 Ibid, Rackow.

6 Alan Houseman and Linda E. Perle, Securing Equal Justice for All: A Brief History of Civil Legal Assistance in the United States (The Center for Law and Social Policy, 2018) page 8.

7 Peter Karsten, Enabling the Poor to Have Their Day in Court: The Sanctioning of Contingency Fee Contracts, a History to 1940 (47 DePaul Law Review 231), pp. 233-234.

8 Ibid., Karsten, page 236.

records concerning Mary Tompkins and Christina Knickerbocker do not state whether these plaintiffs paid their lawyers a retainer, or if their attorneys received a contingency fee instead, it is an interesting development, nonetheless.

According to the lawsuit filed by Mary Tompkins, her reputation was slandered by a neighbor, Daniel Billings, who, on several occasions in 1827, told people that she had contracted the “French pox”, or syphilis.9 He even said this to her brother Richard. Mary was the third cousin of New York Governor Daniel D. Tompkins, who also served as Vice-President of the United States under James Monroe from 1817-1825. In fact, Tompkins County in New York State and Tompkins Square Park in New York City are both named after the governor and the Tompkins family. Gov. Tompkins died in 1825, and Mary’s section of the Tompkins family had fallen on hard times, especially after her father’s death in 1817. Perhaps Mary seemed to be a vulnerable target for malicious rumors by a neighbor after she lost two of her closest male guardians. But for whatever reason, Daniel Billings chose to accuse Mary of catching a sexually transmitted disease, her complaint lists the consequences of his slander. As a single and unmarried woman, Mary had been held to be a “woman of good name, fame, credit, and reputation”10 by her neighbors until Billings’ accusations. Afterwards:

Daniel [Billings]…contriving and maliciously intending to hurt, prejudice and entirely degrade...Mary, to make and cause her to be brought into disgrace, infamy, and public scandal amongst her neighbours and to cause her to be reputed to be an incontinent, unchaste, and immodest person and a woman tainted with the french pox and be reason thereof...to make her neighbours, friends, and other persons to whom she was known to abhor and detest her and withdraw themselves from her company and conversation...11

9 Ibid., Tompkins v. Billings, page 2

10 Ibid., Tompkins v. Billings, page 2

11 Ibid., Tompkins v. Billings, page 3

A young woman of 21 years of age, with little resources or powerful allies, had few options to fight back against such a slander. But she was able to retain the services of attorney Henry Swift of Poughkeepsie to file a lawsuit in the Court of Common Pleas, for damages of $500.00 against Daniel Billings.

Daniel Billings, for his part, hired an attorney named Robert Wilkinson to represent him in court. Daniel was born in LaGrange (which was part of Beekman at the time) in 1786 and lived near the Tompkins family. He and his wife ,Elizabeth Vermilyea Billings ,had four children, and the family worked as shoemakers.12 Daniel, who was 41 years old at the time of the lawsuit, never appeared at trial, although he had hired the local attorney to represent him.13 And so, on February 16, 1828, the case was decided in favor of Mary Tompkins, by default, who was awarded $50.06 for damages, as well as $24.31 for her costs and court charges. This award was much less than the $500.00 sought by Mary when she filed her lawsuit. There is no surviving record of the reason for Daniel’s slander of Mary; in fact, he seems to have faced no other consequences from this lawsuit. In 1844, Daniel was active in Whig politics in Dutchess County and sold a tannery in LaGrange in 1849 to one of Mary’s cousins, George Tompkins. After his death in 1868, the hamlet of Billings was named after the Billings family. Mary, on the other hand, had little success in restoring her damaged reputation. Although she won her civil lawsuit, ever since Daniel’s false accusations:

…Mary is greatly hurt, injured, and damnified in her said good name, fame, credit, and reputation…and divers[e] of her neighbours and friends with whom Mary was used to associate herself and who used to have conversation with her and to keep her company have avoided, shunned, and abhored her as a person infected and tainted with the French pox and have from time to time…refused and still do daily refuse to have

12 US Census data, Billings family, 1840-1870.

13 Ibid., Tompkins v. Billings, page 5.

any conversation with her or to have anything to do with her as before...14

Mary remained living at her mother’s house until 1841, at which time she married her second cousin, John Tompkins of Rhinebeck, and moved to that village to start a new life, far away from the smalltown whispers of LaGrange. Mary was 37 years old when her oldest child, Maria Teresa, was born. Her other children Amelia and Henry were born when she was 39 and 45 years old, respectively.15 All her children were healthy, proving once more that the accusation of her contagion was definitely false. Despite being ultimately unsuccessful in restoring her reputation locally, Mary Tompkins’s use of the courts to defend herself marks the beginning of an era when legal action became increasingly available to, and used by, the common people of Dutchess County. Unfortunately, legal action proved unequal to local gossip, forcing Mary’s relocation to a different sector of the county despite achieving a courtroom victory over her defamer.

Christina Knickerbocker of Pine Plains also used the court in her quest for justice, with a modicum of greater success than Mary. Although she was an illiterate widow (she signed the inquest with a shaky “X” instead of her signature), she was able to organize a search party and a coroner’s inquest upon the disappearance and subsequent death of a lodger in her house, Peter Knickerbocker.16 The inquest, which survives in the Ancient Documents Collection today, states that Peter was a “man of colour”, 70 years old, who lived with his wife at the widow Christina Knickerbocker’s farm. On Monday, November 19, 1827, Peter left the farm and never returned. Christina organized a search party of local neighbors including James Case, Andrew Smith, Daniel Dennis, and Abner Case to find him the next morning. Unfortunately, Peter was found dead, missing one of his shoes and his hat. Christina notified Henry J. Traver, a Justice of the Peace, and requested that he start an investigation of Peter’s death. Perhaps she suspected foul play;

14 Ibid., Tompkins v. Billings, page 5.

15 US Census data, 1860.

16 Inquest on the Death of Peter Knickerbocker, a man of colour, Dutchess County, November 21, 1827 (Ancient Documents #87550 and 87552)

the inquest does not mention a reason for Christina’s request.17 Fifteen local men were gathered to hear evidence at the coroner’s inquest, which was held at the Knickerbocker farmhouse on November 21. Four witnesses were called and questioned about their knowledge of the case. Elisha Kenyon, who was married to Christina’s stepdaughter Charlotte, gave the most detailed testimony about Peter. Evidently, Peter was walking to a nearby factory with a half pint jug of cider brandy and fell into a brook. He made his way to Elisha Kenyon’s house, where he warmed himself before setting off toward home. Elisha implored him to stay overnight, since Peter was still chilled and had trouble speaking—night falls early in November in upstate New York. However, Peter insisted that his wife would be worried about him and so he headed home to allay her fears. The members of the inquest concluded that Peter died of exposure and found no marks on his body, therefore ruling out any suspicious cause of death18

There are some indications that Peter Knickerbocker had formerly been enslaved. He was described in the inquest as a “man of colour, aged about 70 years.”19 While census records of Christina’s husband, Benjamin Knickerbocker, Jr., do not list any enslaved people, his uncle, Benjamin Sr., who lived nearby, is listed as having six enslaved people in his household in the 1790 census, and two enslaved people in the 1800 census. By 1810, there were no enslaved people listed in the Knickerbocker family. It is possible that, under the terms of New York State’s 1817 Gradual Emancipation law, the Knickerbockers manumitted their enslaved people before the law was enacted, although some formerly enslaved persons were required to serve their former masters in a quasi-indentured servitude position for years.20 By the time of this inquest, most enslaved people in New York State had been emancipated. Whether he had enjoyed freedom for his entire life or only a portion thereof, Peter Knickerbocker’s unfortunate demise provides us with a second critical data point in the slow transition

17 Ibid., Knickerbocker, #87552, page 1.

18 Ibid., Knickerbocker, #87552, page 2.

19 Ibid., Knickerbocker, page 1.

20 Craig A. Landy, When Did Slavery End in New York? (Historical Society of the New York Courts, June 7, 2017).

from the courts as a tool of the elite to a more broadly accessed social institution. Christina Knickerbocker’s ability to raise a search party and persuade a justice of the peace to call a coroner’s inquest both indicates a rising influence for common people and complicates our understanding of race relations in Dutchess County during the Early Republic Era. Despite the finding of “accidental death” by the coroner’s inquest, the care taken to locate Peter Knickerbocker and investigate his demise demonstrates that he mattered within his community.

These two cases brought by Dutchess County residents of modest means show that the justice system was slowly becoming more accessible. Mary Tompkins did not achieve the full measure of redemption that she was seeking, even though she technically won her lawsuit against her slanderer. Her ability and willingness to bring suit marks a change in the use of the courts from the preceding century. Christina Knickerbocker sought justice for her deceased boarder, Peter, and initiated a full investigation to discover the reason for his death. Although further statistical analysis needs to be completed to establish a firmer case for changing use patterns in the court system, these two anecdotes at least show a small opening of the halls of justice for non-elite Dutchess County residents during the era of a broader national trend of increased access to government and the courts for common people.

Bibliography

Houseman, Alan and Linda E. Perle. Securing Equal Justice for All: A Brief History of Civil Legal Assistance in the United States. New York: The Center for Law and Social Policy. 2018.

Karsten, Peter. Enabling the Poor to Have Their Day in Court: The Sanctioning of Contingency Fee Contracts, a History to 1940. Chicago: 47 DePaul Law Review 231. 1967.

Knickerbocker, Peter: Coroner’s Inquest on the Death of a Man of Colour, Dutchess County Justice of the Peace, Ancient Documents Nos. 87550 and 87552. November 21, 1827.

Landy, Craig A. When Did Slavery End in New York? New York: Historical Society of the New York Courts. 2017.

New York State census, Town of LaGrange, Daniel Billings, page 13.

New York State census, Town of Rhinebeck, Mary Tompkins, page 22.

Rackow, Feliz. The Right to Counsel: English and American Precedents. Virginia: 11 William and Mary Quarterly 3. 1954. Tompkins v. Billings. Dutchess County Court of Common Pleas, Ancient Document No. 87591. February 16, 1828.

United States Census, 1820, Dutchess County, Daniel Billings, page 73.

United States Census, 1830, Dutchess County, LaGrange, Daniel Billings, page 242.

United States Census, 1840, Dutchess County, LaGrange, Daniel Billings, page 270.

United States Census, 1850, Dutchess County, LaGrange, Daniel Billings, page 503.

United States Census, 1860, Dutchess County, LaGrange, Daniel Billings, page 18

United States Census, 1790, Dutchess County, North East, Benjamin Knickerbocker, page 132.

United States Census, 1800, Dutchess County, North East, Benjamin Knickerbocker, page 144.

United States Census, 1800, Dutchess County, North East, Benjamin Knickerbocker, Jr., page 144.

United States Census, 1850, Dutchess County, Rhinebeck, Mary Tompkins, page 557.

United States Census, 1870, Dutchess County, Rhinebeck, Mary Tompkins, page 76.

United States Census, 1820, Dutchess County, Beekman, Phebe Williams Tompkins, page 19.

United States Census, 1830, Dutchess County, Union Vale, Phebe Williams Tompkins, page 428.

United States Census, 1800, Dutchess County, Beekman, Richard Tompkins, page 9.

United States Census, 1810, Dutchess County, Beekman, Richard Tompkins, page 64.

United States Census, 1850, Dutchess County, LaGrange, Richard Tompkins, page 523.

About the Authors

Roy Budnik has been on numerous local non-profit boards, including Springside Restoration, St. Simeon Foundation, Mill Street Loft, Cunneen-Hackett Cultural Center, and Hudson River Housing. He was board president of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater and the Dutchess County Art Association, chair of the Main Street Revitalization Committee at the Poughkeepsie Chamber of Commerce, and founder of the Dutchess County Sheep and Wool Growers Association and the Mid-Hudson Heritage Center.

Aidan Chisamore manages collections and archives at DCHS. He holds a B.A. in History and Medieval Studies from Vassar College.

Miriam Cohen, Evalyn Clark Professor Emerita of History at Vassar College, specializes in the history of American women and twentieth-century American political and social history. The author of two books and numerous articles, she has published widely on the history of women, and on the history of social reform in the United States and Europe.

Georgia Herring recently retired after 33 years of teaching History and Government at Millbrook High School. A graduate of Marist College and Fordham University, Georgia also serves as the LaGrange Town Historian and a clerk at the Dutchess County Historian’s office. Georgia lives with her family in a historic farmhouse (circa 1875) in the hamlet of Freedom Plains, which keeps her busy with various restoration projects.

Bill Jeffway has been the Executive Director of the Dutchess County Historical Society since 2017. His published works include a regular newspaper column, talks, monographs, exhibitions and related

catalogues. He serves on the External Advisory Committee of Vassar College’s Inclusive History Initiative. He has a degree in American Studies and English from Wesleyan University.

Chris Johnston is an Australian descendant of Alfred Brown and spent time researching in Dutchess County during 2024. A cultural heritage specialist, writer and researcher with a particular interest in peoples’ attachment to place and community-based heritage, she has written widely on these topics. Chris is an Honorary Research Associate at La Trobe University and has qualifications in social and environmental science, history and creative writing.

Emily Majer serves as the Tivoli Village Historian and Deputy Mayor. Her company, White Clay Kill Preservation, specializes in historic window restoration. She is also the unofficial president of the Helen Wilkinson Reynolds Fan Club.

Melodye Moore is a Trustee of the Dutchess County Historical Society and serves as the chair of the Collections Committee. She has been involved with the Society since 1976 and served as its first director from 1979-1986. From 1986 until her retirement in 2010, she was the Historic Site Manager at Staatsburgh State Historic Site. She is an author of numerous previous yearbook articles.

Andy Murphy is a 33-year active firefighter and past EMT of the Amenia Fire Company. Currently captain, he comes from a long history in the fire service, with his father (a past chief with 50 years’ service), his mother (a current member of the Auxiliary, with 70 years of active service,) and three brothers and one sister who were also members. He also serves as the unofficial historian of the company, having assisted in the publication of 100th Year Anniversary of the Amenia Fire Company, published in 1995.

Elizabeth “Betsy” Strauss has served on the board of the Amenia Historical Society for 17 years and is the Amenia Town Historian. Betsy has also served on the Dutchess County Historical Society board of trustees for several years and was honored in 2018 as the DCHS

recipient of the Helen Wilkinson Reynolds Award for her in-depth historical research.

Zachary Veith is the Historic Site Assistant at Staatsburgh State Historic Site. He holds an M.A. in Museum Studies from University College London and has presented public programs on a range of topics across the Hudson Valley.

Robert Wills is a NYS Registered Architect, Rhineciff Fire District Commissioner, and Retired GIS Project Coordinator for Dutchess County. He is also the President of the Hudson River Ice Yacht Preservation Trust.

A ADDENDA

Board of Trustees

Board of Trustees 2024

Rob Doyle, President

Wayne Nussbickel, Vice President

Jack Cina, Treasurer

Christine Crawford-Oppenheimer, Secretary

Michael Boden, Ph.D., James Brands, Peter Bunten, Peter Forman, Eileen Hayden, Karen H. Lambdin, Melodye Moore, Wayne

Nussbickel, Rick Soedler, David Turner, Andrew Villani, Marcy Wagman. Ex-officio: William P. Tatum III, Ph.D.

Committee Chairs

Auction: David Turner

Finance: Jack Cina

Collections: Melodye Moore

Development: Wayne Nussbickel

Membership: Karen Lambdin & Marcy Wagman

Programs/Public Relations: Andrew Villani

Publications: Bill Jeffway, Melodye Moore, William P. Tatum III, Ph.D.

Advisory Board

Steven Effron, Bradford H. Kendall, Steve Lant, James Merrell, Ph.D., Dennis Murray, Ph.D., Hon. Albert Rosenblatt, Julia C. Rosenblatt, Ph.D., Fred Schaeffer, Esq., Denise Doring VanBuren.

Staff

Bill Jeffway, Executive Director

Aidan Chisamore, Archives & Collections Manager

Local Vice Presidents

DCHS has a longstanding tradition of appointing local Vice Presidents who act in non-executive capacity. These individuals are a single point of contact for the cities, towns, and villages across the county.

Amenia: Betsy Strauss

Beacon: Denise Doring Van Buren

Beekman: Vacant

Clinton: Craig Marshall

Dover: Valerie LaRobardier

East Fishkill: Rick Soedler

Fishkill: Carmine Istvan

Hyde Park: Kerri Palermo

Lagrange: Georgia Herring

Milan: Victoria LoBrutto

Washington & Millbrook: Alison Meyer

North East & Millerton: Ed Downey & Jane Rossman

Pawling: Bob Reilly

Pine Plains: Dyan Wapnick

Pleasant Valley: Eileen Wesolowski

Poughkeepsie: Michael Dolan

Red Hook: Elisabeth Tatum

Rhinebeck Town: David Miller

Rhinebeck Village: Michael Frazier

Stanford: Kathy Spiers

Union Vale: Fran Wallin

Wappingers: Beth Devine

Local Historians and Historical Societies, 2025

County

Dutchess County Historian William P. Tatum III

22 Market Street, Poughkeepsie, New York 12601

845-486-2381 - fax 845-486-2138

wtatum@dutchessny.gov

Dutchess County Historical Society

Bill Jeffway, Executive Director 6282 Route 9 Rhinebeck, New York 12572 845-293-7711

bill.jeffway@dchsny.org

Cities

Beacon

Historical Society: Denise Doring Van Buren Post Office Box 89 Beacon, New York 12508 845-831-0514

dvb1776@gmail.com beaconhistorical.org

Historian: Vacant

Poughkeepsie

Historian: Tom Lawrence

Poughkeepsie Public Library District 93 Market Street

Poughkeepsie, New York 12601 845-485-3445 x 3306 tlawrence@poklib.org

Towns and Villages

Amenia

Historian: Betsy Strauss

Amenia Town Hall 4988 Route 22

Amenia, New York 12501 strausshouse72@gmail.com

Historical Society: Maureen Moore Post Office Box 22

Amenia, New York 12501 mmoore1776@aol.com

Beekman

Historian: Patricia Goewey 4 Main Street

Poughquag, New York 12570 845-724-5300 historian@townofbeekmanny.us

Clinton

Historian: Craig Marshall 820 Fiddlers Bridge Road

Rhinebeck, New York, 12572

845-242-5879 craigmarshall266@aol.com

Historical Society: Cynthia Koch Post Office Box 122 Clinton Corners, New York 12514 cynthiakoch@optonline.net clintonhistoricalsociety.org

Dover

Historian: Valerie LaRobardier 845-849-6025

valarobardier@gmail.com

Historical Society: Marilyn Van Millon PO Box 767

Dover Plains NY 12522

LandUse@doverny.us (914) 204-6428

East Fishkill

Historian: Rick Soedler 845-227-5374

rjsoedler@gmail.com

Historical Society: Rick Soedler Post Office Box 245 Hopewell Junction, New York 12533 845-227-5374

rjsoedler@gmail.com

Fishkill (Town)

Historian: Robert Buccheri Fishkill Town Hall 807 NY Route 52 Fishkill, NY 12524 (845) 831-7854 ext.3507 rbuccheri1776@gmail.com

Historical Society: Steve Lynch Post Office Box 133 Fishkill, New York 12524 914 -525-7667

asklynch@yahoo.com

Fishkill (Village)

Historian: Antonia Houston

Local History Librarian

Blodgett Memorial Library 37 Broad Street Fishkill, New York 12524 vofishkillhistorian@gmail.com

Hyde Park

Historian: Carney Rhinevault 4383 Albany Post Road Hyde Park, New York 12538 carneytatiana@yahoo.com

Historical Society: Kerri Palermo Post Office Box 182 Hyde Park, New York 12538 845-229-8225 hydeparkhistoricalsociety1821.org Hydeparkhistoricalsociety1821@gmail.com

LaGrange

Historian: Georgia Trott-Herring 845-452-2911 lagrangenyhistory@gmail.com

Historical Society: George Wade III Post Office Box 112 LaGrangeville, New York 12540 845-489-5183 lagrangehistoricalsociety@gmail.com https://www.lagrangenyhistoricalsociety.org/

Milan

Historian: Vicky LoBrutto Milan Town Hall 20 Wilcox Circle Milan, New York 12571 victorialobrutto@gmail.com

Millbrook (Village) & Washington (Town)

Historian: Peter Devers tierfalc@aol.com

Historical Society: Robert McHugh Post Office Box 135 Millbrook, New York 12545 robertmchugh60@gmail.com

Millerton/North East

Town Historian: Ed Downey PO Box 496

Millerton, NY 12546 eddowney12@gmail.com

Historical Society: Ed Downey Post Office Box 727

Millerton, New York 12546 518-789-4442 eddowney12@gmail.com

Pawling

Town Historian: Robert Reilly 160 Charles Colman Blvd

Pawling, New York 12564 845-855-5040 sc31redsky@gmail.com

Village Historian: Vacant

Historical Society: Nancy Hopkins Reilly Post Office Box 99 Pawling, New York 12564 PawlingHistory@gmail.com

Pine Plains

Historian: Vacant

Historical Society: Dyan Wapnick Post Office Box 243

Pine Plains, New York 12567 518-398-5344 dyan.wapnick@gmail.com

Pleasant Valley

Historian: Charles Hulsizer 94 Sherow Rd

Pleasant Valley, New York 12569 ecoair9897@aol.com

Historical Society: Suzanne Horn 1554 Main Street Pleasant Valley, NY 12569 cedarcrestfarm@gmail.com

Poughkeepsie

(Town)

Historian: John R. Pinna 1 Overocker Road Poughkeepsie, New York 12603 845-485-3646

townhistorian@townofpoughkeepsie-ny.gov

Red Hook

Town Historian: Emily Majer 7340 South Broadway Red Hook, New York 12571 emily.majer@gmail.com

Village Historian: Sally Dwyer-McNulty 7467 South Broadway Red Hook, New York 12571 sally.dwyer-mcnulty@marist.edu

Historical Society: Elisabeth Tatum PO Box 397

Red Hook, New York 12571 director@historicredhook.com

Rhinebeck

Town Historian: Susan Kelly Fitzgerald 80 East Market Street Rhinebeck, New York 12572 fitzgeralds1116@gmail.com

Village Historian/Town Deputy Historian: Michael Frazier 845-876-7462 michaelfrazier@earthlink.net

Historical Society: David Miller Post Office Box 291 Rhinebeck, New York 12572 845-750-4486 dhmny@aol.com

Stanford

Historian: Kathie Spiers Post Office Box 552 Bangall, New York 12506 845-868-7320 lakeendinn@aol.com

Historical Society: contact Kathie Spiers

Tivoli

Historian: Emily Majer 7340 South Broadway Red Hook, New York 12571 emily.majer@gmail.com

Union Vale

Historian: Fran Wallin 249 Duncan Road

LaGrangeville, New York 12540 Town Office 845-724-5600 franw821@hotmail.com

Historical Society: Cassandra Redinger unionvalehistorical@gmail.com

Wappinger/Wappingers Falls

Historian: Joseph D. Cavaccini Town Hall: 20 Middle Bush Road Wappingers Falls, NY 12590 Town Office 845-297-4158 ext 107 jcavaccini@townofwappingerny.gov

Village Historian: Brenda VonBurg 845-297-2697

Historical Society: Beth Devine Post Office Box 174 Wappinger Falls, New York 12590 845-430-9520 info@wappingershistorialsociety.org

Susan Adams

Donors

Lifetime Members

Rev. Herman Harmelink

Michael Levin

Amy Lynch

Peter & Deborah Krulewitch

Lou & Candace Lewis

W.P. McDermott

Melodye Moore & Lenny Miller

Sheila Newman

Joan Sherman

Norma Shirley

Mr. & Mrs. C.B. Spross

Peter Van Kleeck

2024 Member/Donor/Supporters

Kathy Anderson

Raymond Andrews

John & Anne Atherton

Christopher Augerson

Nancy Bachana

Harry Baldwin

Laura Belfiore

Elijah Bender

Debra Billington

Richard Birch

Charles Black

Debra Blalock & Russ Frehling

Charles & Joan Blanksteen

DeeAnn Blumberg

Michael & Connie Boden

Trench Brady

Jim & Lori Brands

M. Lynn Breyfogle

Roberta Brodie

Ellsworth Bucey Jr

J. Vincent Buck

David Bulkeley

Peter Bunten

Dorothea Burgess

Kevin Burke

Eileen Burton

Michael Butler

Rosemary M. Butts

Jack Campisi

Caroline Carey

Betsy Carroll

Epifanio Castillo

Cassandra Castle

Thomas Cervone

Nina Chapple

John and Tori Ann Cina

Miriam Cohen

Christine Crawford-Oppenheimer

Chena Dederian

Janet Desaulniers

Kevin Deuel

Beth Devine

Nancy Dier

Chez & Roseanne DiGregorio

David Pelton Dolson

Ed & Meg Downey

Rob and Susan Doyle

Margaret Duff

John and Abby Dux

Tom Edwards

Jack Effron

Steve & Amy Effron

Susan Emery

Joanne Engle

Robert Erickson

Lawrence Faulkner

Stacie Elizabeth Ford

Wesley Fordyce

Peter & Anne Forman

Lucinda Brower Foss

Michael & Cecily Frazier

Patricia Fried

Cornelia Gallow

John Gavin

Ros Geuss

Robert Gosselink

Nan Greenwood

Carla Gude

Vicki Haak

Kathleen Hammer

Barbara Hampton

Shirley Handel

Rev. Herman Harmelink

Doris Krohn Harrington

Robert & Patricia Hauver

Eileen & Ben Hayden

Grace Angela Henry

Sarah Hermans

John C. Hicks

Karen Hopple

Muriel Horowitz

Linda Hubbard

William Jeffway

Torben Jenk

Chris Johnston

Susan Joy & Mark Minker

Jill Kane

Brody Karn

Susan Kavy

Brad & Barbara Kendall

Dennis Killmer

Bill Kleppel

Martin Kline

Claudine & Chris Klose

Cynthia Koch

Ron Kollar

Roger & Beth Kolp

Betsy Kopstein-Stuts

Peter & Deborah Krulewitch

Andrew A Kryzak

John Kurth

Virginia LaFalce

Lawrence Laliberte

Karen H. Lambdin

Cathy Lampshire

Cathy Lane

Steven & Linda Lant

Valerie A LaRobardier

Tom LeGrand

Rhiannon Leo-Jameson

Nancy Lerga

Michael Levin

Richard Levitt

Lou and Candace Lewis

Roderick Link, Jr.

Victoria LoBrutto

Peter Lumb

Stephen Lumb

David Lund

Amy Lynch

Martha Lyon

Lawrence R. Magill

Emily Majer

Craig Marshall

Cindy Martinson

F Stephen Masri

Antonia Mauro

Patricia Mayo

Robert & Patricia McAlpine

Barbara McCreary

William P. McDermott

Robert McHugh

Susan McKenney

James Merrell

Sara Miller

Wendy Miller

Mary Mistler

Joanna Molloy

Melodye Moore & Lenny Miller

Catherine Morrison

Mark K. Morrison

Laura Murphy

James & Margaret Nelson

Sheila Newman

Wayne & Brigid Nussbickel

Sarah O’Connor

Erica Obey

Karen Page

Michael & Gwen Peets

David & Randi Petrovits

Susan Pianka

Laura Beth Place

Ralph Pollard

Seymour Preston

Gary Privratsky

Chris Pryslopski

Samuel Reifler

Arnold Restivo

David Ringwood

William Ritz

Albert & Julia Rosenblatt

Charles Rowe

Dana Rubin

Juliana Ruhland-Clarke

Mary Sagar

Huda Scheidelman

Joann Schmidt

Penny Schouten

David M. Schwartz

Vandy Seeburg

Trilby Sieverding

Tatiana Serafin and Mick Kalishman

Celia & Arnie Serotsky

Charles Shaw

Marsha Aderholdt Shaw

Norma Shirley

Joan Smith

Patricia Smith

Warren Smith

Nevill & Karen Smythe

Kenneth Snodgrass

Richard Soedler

Becket Soule

Mr. & Mrs. C.B. Spross

Betsy & Julian Strauss

Jean-Marc Superville Sovak

Barbara Sweet

William P. Tatum III

Christopher Taylor

Vincent Teahan

Chad Thomas

Sharon Trocher

Mary Tuohy

Peter Turco

David Turner

Peter Van Kleeck

Illiana Van Meeteren

Janet Van Why

Denise Doring VanBuren & Christopher Barclay

Barbara VanItallie

Andy & Andrea Villani

Mark Villanti

John Vincent

Marcy Wagman

Fran Wallin

Rodney Ward

Ann Wentworth

2024 Foundations & Business Sponsors

Minuteman Press

Harry H Hill Fund

Healey Brothers, Inc

Church of the Messiah

Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley

CR Properties Group LLC

Dutchess County Government

Ebsco Industries

Gellert Family Donor Advised Fund

Edith Greenwood Fund

Harney & Sons Fine Teas

Hudson River Ice Yacht Preservation Trust

Kirshon & Company, PC

Marvin Kemp & Cole PLLC

Milea Estate Vineyards

North East Historical Society

Poughkeepsie Public Library District

Rhinebeck Fire Dept

The Rhode Island Foundation

Scenic Hudson

STAIR Galleries

Teahan & Constantino LLP

Peter and Ermina Van Kleeck Family Fund

Rob & Sue Doyle

$200,000 Endowment Campaign

Successfully Concluded

$100,000 Rob & Sue Doyle

$10,000 & Above

Martin Kline

Newington-Cropsey Foundation

Michael & Connie Boden in Memory of Marcia A. Boden

$5,000 to $9,999

Lillian Cumming Streetscape Fund at the Rhode Island Foundation

Peter & Ermina Van Kleeck Family Fund

David Schwartz

$1,000 to $4,999

Al & Julia Rosenblatt

David & Nan Greenwood

Marcy Wagman

Jim & Margaret Nelson

Membership, Donations, Business Sponsorship

Please contact any board member, or Bill Jeffway at bill.jeffway@ dchsny.org, if you will consider supporting the preservation and sharing of our local history. There are a variety of ways that include short-term and longer-term approaches. Each year, the “society” of members, donors, business sponsors and friends, sets the particular focus of activities in support of our unwavering mission.

More information at: www.dchsny.org