American Catskills: Blog

John Jacob Loeffler in the Catskills – Part 2

Sat, 11 Jan 2025 13:00:00 GMT

This week’s post is a continuation from last week, where I posted a series of recently acquired Catskills stereoviews published by photographer John Jacob Loeffler. I had acquired 39 new stereoviews, 20 of which were published last week, and the remaining 19 are included here.

They have all been added to the Loeffler gallery, which now contains nearly 200 of his photographs, 165 of which are from the Catskills. To access the gallery, click on the “Historic Photo Gallery” tab, and then navigate to John Jacob Loeffler.

3rd Series, #279_View from Piazza of Laurel House

3rd Series, #287_In the Cauterskill Clove towards Prospect Mountain

4th Series, #293_Burger's Hotel, Palensville

4th Series, #295_Pine Grove House, Palensville

4th Series, #296_Pine Grove House, Palensville

4th Series, #304_Looking down the stream from Palensville Bridge

4th Series, #308_Artists Grotto, Palensville

4th Series, #309_Artists Grotto, Palensville

4th Series, #311_Bowlder above Artists Grotto, Palensville

4th Series, #313_View in the Cauterskill Clove, near Mason's

4th Series, #315_Triton Cave, Haines Ravine

4th Series, #317_Shelving Rock Fall, Haines Ravine

4th Series, #319_View in Haines Ravine

4th Series, #319_View in Haines Ravine

5th Series, #327_version 1_Upper Cascade (side view), Haines Ravine

5th Series, #334_The Lemon Squeezer, South Mountain

5th Series, #339_Bowlder on South Moutain

5th Series, #351_Picnic Rock, Stone Clove

5th Series, #353_Picnic Rock, Stony Clove

6th Series, #365_The Overlook Mountain House from Hopper Rock

John Jacob Loeffler in the Catskills – Part 1

Sat, 04 Jan 2025 13:00:00 GMT

John Jacob Loeffler is one of the great Catskills photographers of all time. He made hundreds of stereoviews of the Catskills throughout the 1870s and 1880s. The photographs, part of the series titled Catskill Mountain Scenery, demonstrate his skill and vision as well as the timeless beauty of the Catskills, being equally compelling today as they were 150 years ago.

I have recently acquired nearly 40 new Catskills stereoviews that were published by John Jacob Loeffler. They have all been added to the Loeffler gallery, which now contains nearly 200 of his photographs, 165 of which are from the Catskills. To access the gallery, click on the “Historic Photo Gallery” tab, and then navigate to John Jacob Loeffler.

Twenty of the new stereoviews are highlighted here this week, and the remaining will be published in next week’s post.

1st Series, #208, version 2_Looking down from the Spray House

1st Series, #209_Looking down from the Spray House

1st Series, #213_The Lake

1st Series, #213, version 1_The Lake

1st Series, #214, version 1_View from North Mountain

1st Series, #220_Fawn's Leap (Looking down)

1st Series, #222, version 1_Fawn's Leap

1st Series, #222, version 1_Fawn's Leap

2nd Series, #231_The Spray House

2nd Series, #231_The Spray House

2nd Series, #235_Rapids above the Fall, looking down the stream

2nd Series, #239_Wood Path from Laurel House to the Falls

2nd Series, #241_Platform at the head of the Steps

2nd Series, #245, version 1_Cauterskill Fall, from upper Steps

2nd Series, #246_Round Top from the Steps

2nd Series, #247, version 1_Path behind the Falls, and overhanging Rocks

2nd Series, #254, version 1_In the Ravine

2nd Series, #258_In the Ravine

2nd Series, #259_In the Ravine

2nd Series, #259_In the Ravine

3rd Series, #263_Glen Mary

3rd Series, #263_Glen Mary

3rd Series, #264_The Sphynx

3rd Series, #264_The Sphynx

3rd Series, #266_From Sphynx, looking toward Haines'

3rd Series, #268_North Mountain, from Tannersville Road

Crazy Horse Memorial

Sat, 05 Oct 2024 12:00:00 GMT

The Crazy Horse Memorial is a mountain monument under construction in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The monument is being carved out of Thunderhead Mountain, now also referred to as Crazy Horse Mountain. It is located approximately 16 miles from Mount Rushmore.

Crazy Horse Memorial

Crazy Horse Memorial, South Dakota

Crazy Horse Memorial

The memorial depicts Oglala Lakota warrior Crazy Horse, one of the most recognized Native Americans of the 1800s. On June 17, 1876, with more than 1,200 warriors, Crazy Horse helped defeat General George Crook at the Battle of the Rosebud. Eight days later, on June 25, 1876, Crazy Horse led a band of Lakota warriors against the Seventh U.S. Cavalry Battalion led by Lieutenant Colonel George Custer. The battle would become known as the Battle of Little Bighorn, but is also referred to as Custer’s Last Stand or the Battle of the Greasy Grass. At the end of the battle, Custer was dead, along with 9 of his officers and 280 of his enlisted men. One year later after the Battle of Little Big Horn, in 1877, Crazy Horse was killed by a military guard at Fort Robinson, Nebraska.

The Crazy Horse memorial was commissioned by Henry Standing Bear (1874-1953), a Lakota elder, and was to be sculpted by Korczak Ziolkowski (1908-1982). The memorial has been in progress since 1948, with much work still remaining. The final dimensions of the sculpture are planned to be 641 feet long and 563 feet high, which would make it the largest sculpture in the world when completed.

For more information visit the Crazy Horse Memorial website at www.crazyhorsememorial.org.

Big Foot Pass Presbyterian Church, South Dakota

Sat, 28 Sep 2024 12:00:00 GMT

The congregation of the Big Foot Pass Presbyterian Church in South Dakota was originally organized on July 25, 1916 by Dr. William Wallace, the district missionary. Reverend G. W. Campbell, the pastor at Interior, through his “persistent labors,” also assisted in organizational efforts. Upon its founding, it was reported that “the new organization, which begins life with twelve members, will minister to a large community of ranchers who have no religious services except those afforded by Big Foot Pass Church.”

The Big Foot Pass Presbyterian Church building was constructed in 1927 and dedicated on November 13, 1927. The church was located about half way between the town of Quinn and the town of Interior. Services were originally held in the school house, but the congregation grew to such a size that it was decided that its own church building was required.

On the day of the dedication, Reverend M. T. Rainier, from Belvidere, South Dakota, gave the morning sermon, while Reverend Johnson, from Aberdeen, South Dakota, gave the dedication sermon in the afternoon. A picnic lunch was served at noon. Reverend W. O. Howard was in his second years of serving as the permanent pastor.

Funding for the church was raised through several auction sales, for which friends of the church donated everything from “fancy work” to mules, all of which was auctioned off to the highest bidder. Most of the building was constructed with volunteer labor, with “the pastor doing his bit with the rest.” The church had a seating capacity for 150 people. There were approximately 50 active members at the time of the church’s construction.

Big Foot Pass was named for Chief Spotted Elk, who was also known as Big Foot. He was killed in 1890, along with at least 150 members of his tribe, at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota.

Big Foot Pass Presbyterian Church is now located at the historic 1880 Town in Midland, South Dakota.

1880 Town at Midland, South Dakota

Sat, 21 Sep 2024 12:00:00 GMT

The historic 1880 Town is located along Interstate 90 at the town of Midland, South Dakota. It offers a charming step back in time with more than 30 original buildings and thousands of unique relics.

1880 Town

Scene from the Old West

Dakota Hotel

Culpepper Saloon

The original name of the town was Two Strike after the historical Lakota leader. His name Two Strike was earned when, during battle, he knocked two members of the Ute tribe off their horses with a single blow of his war club.

The original 1880 Town got its start in 1972 through the work of Clarence Hullinger (1915-2012) and his son Richard Hullinger. A movie production company had come to the region to make an 1880s western film and created an Old West main street through a fictional western town. The site chosen for the town was on Hullinger’s land. The movie project was abandoned before filming began and the movie company gave Clarence Hullinger the buildings, which were then moved to the current site of the 1880 Town.

Most of the buildings are from the 1880 to 1920 era and have been transported from communities around South Dakota to 1880 Town in order to provide a close-to-realistic western experience. Buildings include the Culpepper Saloon, the Wells Fargo & Co. Express Office, the Potter County Jail (1896), the Everett Zaugg Blacksmith shop, Gregory National Bank, the Chicago & North Western Depot (1886), the Longhorn Saloon, the Big Foot Pass Presbyterian Church, the St. Stephen’s Church (1915), among many others. The Dakota Hotel, built in 1910, was moved from Draper, South Dakota to 1880 Town. A quarter-mile from the town is a homestead site which includes a small home, barn, corrals and a windmill.

Everett Zaugg Blacksmith

Emporium

Homestead Barn

Grazing

The Vanishing Prairie Museum includes a tribute to Casey Tibbs (1929-1990), a 9-time World Champion Rodeo Cowboy, including All-Around Champion Cowboy titles in 1951 and 1955. Tibbs is considered by many to be the greatest bronc rider of all time. He was inducted into Professional Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1979. The tribute contains a variety of memorabilia from his career including saddles, belt buckles, jackets and hats as well as photographs, sculptures and event advertisements.

The 1880 Town is located on Interstate 90, 22 miles west of Murdo, South Dakota and about 60 miles east of Wall, South Dakota. Visit the 1880 Town website at www.1880town.com for more information.

Carhenge: Built with Blood, Sweat and Beers

Sat, 14 Sep 2024 12:00:00 GMT

Carhenge, located near the city of Alliance, Nebraska, is an inventive replica of Stonhenge in England, but made with cars.

The sculpture was created by James Reinders (1927-2021), who graduated from high school in Alliance, served with the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific, attended the University of Nebraska with an engineering major and went on to work in the oil industry for over three decades. He had become familiar with Stonehenge while living in London for seven years.

According to Carhenge website, it “was built as a memorial to Reinders’ father who once lived on the farm where Carhenge now stands. While relatives were gathered following the death of Reinders’ father in 1982, the discussion turned to a memorial and the idea of a Stonehenge replica was developed. The family agreed to gather in five years and build it. The clan, about 35 strong, gathered in June of 1987 and went to work. The dedication was held on the Summer Solstice in 1987 with champagne, poetry, songs, and a play written by the family.”

Reinders purchased most of the cars in Alliance. Models include a 1943 Plymouth Savoy, 1945 Jeep Willys, 1956 Buick Roadmaster Deluxe, 1957 Cadillac Eldorado, 1965 Ford Thunderbird, 1971 Chevrolet Nova, a 1976 American Motors Gremlin and many others. To avoid ground contamination Reinders drained all the oil and gasoline from all the vehicles before construction. Several foreign cars were originally included in the installation, but were later taken away and ritually buried.

The spacing and height of the 39 vehicles is nearly identical to Stonehenge. The circle measures approximately 96 feet in diameter. Some of the cars are held upright in pits five feet deep, trunk end down. The cars used to form the arches have been welded into place. All the cars are covered with battleship gray paint. The heel stone is depicted by a 1962 Cadillac.

Construction on the project began on June 13, 1987 and took about a week. Once complete the family held a christening ceremony which included one last meal together and they sang a tribute to the building of Carhenge written by Veronica Cook to the tune of “On Top of Old Smokey.” A bottle of champagne was smashed against the ambulance in the center of the circle of cars. Family members joked that the christening of Carhenge included a sacrifice, i.e. “we all sacrificed our vacations to get this thing built.” The family would also joke that Carhenge was built with “blood, sweat and beers.”

There was a sign created for the roadway made of hubcaps, license plates, car ornaments and chrome bumpers. Access was originally restricted to the roadside, and visitors would not be able to come on the property for a closer look. Reinders commented in local newspapers that it was not his intent to create a tourist attraction.

Although Carhenge is widely beloved now, this was not the case in the early days after it was first constructed. Some local neighbors complained that it was eyesore. The city of Alliance charged Reinders with zoning violations, claiming that the site of Carhenge was within city limits and that it violated the required agricultural use of the land. The state of Nebraska then claimed that the creation was in violation of the state’s junkyard laws, which required the cars be located in a zoned industrial area and that the cars be screened from the view of the traveling public. In time, public sentiment grew in favor of letting Carhenge remain, and these issues were resolved. Carhenge would go on to become a popular tourist attraction drawing thousands of visitors to the region every year.

The creation of Carhenge and the ensuing controversy made national news. Newspapers, magazines and television shows all covered the story. Reporters and photographers were sent to northwest Nebraska to see the site for themselves. James Reinders was profiled numerous times, with one of the most frequent questions being “why?”

On August 21, 2017, 30 years after its creation, Carhenge hosted over 4,000 people, including Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts and creator James Reinders, for the total solar eclipse that was crossing the country. Carhenge was located within the path of totality, which lasted for 2 minutes and 28 seconds. In all, it took 21 minutes for the total solar eclipse to move through the state. Nebraska will not see another total solar eclipse until the year 2106. Reinders has stated that he was not aware of the total solar eclipse when Carhenge was first constructed.

Another car art installation on the Carhenge property is titled “The Fourd Seasons,” which was inspired by Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. The installation is meant to suggest Nebraska’s seasonal changes when wheat is planted, grows, matures and the field lies barren during a windy winter. It is constructed out of four Ford cars.

Other sculptures on the property include Dino the Dinosaur, constructed by Merle Stone of Hemingford, Nebraska, and the Spawning Salmon, created by Geoff Sandhurts of Canada.

Although never completed, Jim Reinders had other ideas for additional car art installations. They included plans for Caramid, a scale model of the Great Pyramid at Gaza, done in cars, and a 100-foot segment of the Great Wall of China, made of cars.

Reinders donated Carhenge and the 10 acres of grounds to the Friends of Carhenge, a local group of dedicated people who preserved and maintained it until October of 2013 when it was then gifted to the City of Alliance.

Today, Carhenge continues to attract thousands of visitors each year. It has appeared in several Hollywood movies and is one of the most photographed sites in the state of Nebraska. Admission to the grounds is free. A visitor center called “The Pit Stop” was constructed on the property in 2007. Carhenge is open year-round from dawn to dusk. Visit their website at www.carhenge.com for more information.

Ghost Town at Scenic, South Dakota

Sat, 07 Sep 2024 12:00:00 GMT

“Every town in the Badlands had its characters, but in Scenic the characters had a town.” – Reflections of the Badlands by Philip S. Hall

The abandoned ghost town of Scenic, South Dakota is located along Route 44 near the western edge of Badlands National Park, approximately 50 miles from Rapid City, and seven miles north of the Pine Ridge Reservation boundary line. The town, established circa 1906, took its name for its location in a broad basin surrounded by the “scenic” Badlands.

Early Days at Scenic

The town of Scenic was originally founded as a farming and ranching town. In 1907, a year after its founding, a traveler through Scenic noted that the town consisted of nothing more than “a box car for a depot, section house, a tent and a – saloon.” The town would soon change.

Ab Jefferson, the town’s first businessman, built the first building at Scenic, “which was a tar paper shack located on the south side of the railroad track.” This building was “the 1st grocery store and became a place where all could get together at the end of the day.” Jefferson operated the saloon and soon after added a store, a restaurant and a hotel. As would become a common theme for Scenic, Jefferson was arrested in those early days “for the sale of intoxicating liquors” to Native Americans, which was then against the law. Prior to moving to Scenic, Jefferson had established a ranch at the southwest base of Sheep Mountain Table, but was ruined in 1905 when a spring blizzard pushed his cattle off the edge of the table.

By 1907 a grocery store had been built at Scenic by Len Anderson, which was quickly followed by a mercantile store, two restaurants, a pool hall, a barbershop, a bank building, a printing office, a drugstore and the establishment of a post office. Soon thereafter, with the arrival of the Milwaukee Railroad, came a school, two churches, more stores, livery barns, blacksmith shops, a dance hall, a theater and a newspaper by the name of the Scenic Observer. By the 1920s Scenic had a population of 250 people and the town had become a trade center for farmers, ranchers and homesteaders in the surrounding region.

The Congregational Church was organized in 1906/1907 by a group of homesteaders. The congregation originally met in people’s homes to worship, until the first church building was built in 1909. The church was located 7 1/2 miles from Scenic on Kube Table. By 1911 there were 19 members and the first minister was Joabez Spitelli. The church building was moved from Kube Table to the town of Scenic in 1914.

Over time, and as tourism developed, the town then historically served as a stopping point for travelers making their way from Rapid City to the Badlands. However, once the new highway was built, there was little reason for travelers to come this way, and eventually little reason for the people who lived there to stay.

Characters and Other Odd Events

All sorts of characters have found their way to Scenic, including trappers, homesteaders, farmers, ranchers, traders, missionaries, saloon-keepers, bikers and gamblers.

“The colorful Frank Hart lived just west of town. Between gambling and riding unbroken horses down Main Street, he enlivened the town. Poker players in the livery barn occasionally looked up to see a full-grown wolf stalking main street. It was Bruno following at the heels of his owner, Bud Dalrymple.” (Hall, Philip S. Reflections of the Badlands. p. 163.)

Bud Dalrymple (1881-1955) was a well-known wolf hunter in the Badlands and the surrounding region. Ranchers in the area would often hire Dalrymple to hunt and trap the wolf, which was considered an enemy of range stock. Dalrymple wrote often about the wolf in various trade publications and in 1919 published a book on his personal experiences titled “The Gray Wolf of South Dakota.” Dalrymple wrote of the proper dress for a “wolfer,” how to find a wolf den, the bounties paid by the state and stockmen for each wolf skin, how to skin a wolf and he wrote about the demands of the challenging Badlands terrain.

Then there was the hardscrabble Mary Hynes (1858-1926) who homesteaded on the top of Sheep Mountain Table in 1907 with five of her eleven children after her husband had run off. Sheep Mountain Table was located four miles south of Scenic and the land was only available for claim because it was considered inaccessible. After staking her claim to the table, the family, through lots of hard work and ingenuity, carved their own path, and later a road, to the top of the table. There they created a new life on their isolated ranch. Everything that was required for their home was at first hauled to the top via a plank sled with wooden runners pulled by a horse. The Hynes family, through Mary Hynes followed by her son Clarence “Hap” Hynes (1888-1967), remained on Sheep Mountain Table until 1935 when Hap sold the land to the National Park Service and moved to Scenic to operate a hotel and bar.

The sensational murder of 81-year-old Tom Friet, owner of “The Agate Shop”, and a recognized expert in Badlands mineral and fossil specimens, took place on Friday, January 13th, 1956 at his one room cabin on main street in the heart of Scenic. Friet had originally been a homesteader on the Quinn Table. On the night of his murder, Friet had visited a bar across the street to watch television, as was his custom each evening. After leaving for the night, he was never again seen alive. A neighbor found his body the next afternoon, around 3pm, lying on the floor in a pool of blood. Friet had been brutally beaten on the head with a blunt instrument and then choked with his own necktie. The coroner ruled that Friet had died of strangulation and a broken neck. The assumed motive was robbery, as it did not seem that Friet had any enemies in town, but others thought it was probably just “a drunken bum.” Despite the widespread news of the murder, authorities never found out who did it.

“Carl Bohling, a homesteader in Quinn Draw, thought that Scenic was a unique town. ‘It’s the only place in the world,’ he quipped, ‘where you can walk across main street knee deep in mud and have dust blow in your face.’” (Hall, Philip S. Reflections of the Badlands. p. 161.)

Other strange events, not always of this planet, seemed to happen at Scenic, such as when a meteor hit the land of J. A. Mulholland, a homesteader who lived four miles east of town on what was known as 71 Table. Mulholland not only saw “the brilliant light given off by the meteor, but he also heard it strike the ground with great force.” The meteor hit the earth in a draw, “ploughing up a deep furrow of earth. Finally it buried itself in the earth to an unknown depth. The meteor is about three feet in diameter.” (“Meteor Strikes Earth Near Scenic – Will Be Unearthed.” Black Hills Daily Register. September 20, 1911.)

Twila Merrill

The town of Scenic was once almost entirely owned by Twila Merrill (1936-2014), a famous rodeo rider during the 1950s and 1960s who was later inducted into the Casey Tibbs Rodeo Hall of Fame. Merrill, the daughter of Charles Merrill (1910-1996) and Eletta Merrill (1913-1978), grew up on the Pine Ridge Reservation in a ranching and rodeo family. Her father Charles was a rancher and rodeo contractor from 1928 to 1967 and later assisted Twila in managing a bar and store at Scenic.

Twila began riding in rodeos in 1952 after graduating from high school in Rushville, Nebraska. She rode bareback, saddle broncs and bulls. She earned a widespread reputation not only for her skill but also for frequently entering the men’s rodeo competitions. Working in the rodeo took her all over the west, in the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountain states, and from the Canadian border all the way down to Texas and Arizona.

During one 6-year stretch on the rodeo circuit, Merrill was never bucked off. Then she went to the Belle Fourche rodeo, where her father was the stock contractor. She was bucked off a red roan mare, and her father gently said “I want to remind you there ain’t no horse that can’t be rode or cowgirl that can’t be throwed.” (Rapid City Journal. December 5, 2014.)

After years on the road, and at her father’s request, Twila moved to Scenic in 1963, where she purchased a bar and a house. In 1965, she married Loren Palmer (1936-1970), a rancher and long-distance trucker. Five years after their marriage, Loren died in 1970 after a tragic truck accident near Mt. Anthony, Idaho. Over time, at Scenic, Twila added additional businesses, including a trucking company, a cattle ranch and horse trading. She purchased land in and around Scenic bit by bit over several decades until she practically owned the entire town.

Longhorn Saloon

The Longhorn Saloon, which Twila operated, earned a notorious reputation over the years. The saloon was the site of regular fights, including the town marshal being roughed up several times, as well as several murders, including killings in 1968, 1975, 1976 and 1985. It was widely believed that anyone going to the Longhorn Saloon should carry a gun in their boots.

In 1968, a fight behind the saloon led to the shooting death of Ardie Janis. Patrick Grooms was convicted of second-degree manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years in jail. In 1975 Richard Marshall was charged, and later convicted, in the shooting death of Martin Montileaux. In 1976 Harold Crazy Thunder was shot by Alvin Broken Rope, who later pled guilty and was sentenced to 35 years in jail. In 1985 Herman Tuttle, Jr. was killed during a street fight between two feuding families, the Tuttle family and the Cottier family, a melee that included at least 20 people.

Twila and her father Charles were both shot during a 1984 incident at the saloon. Both were hit with shotgun blasts from about 10 feet away after an argument with two customers. It is believed that the argument followed the publication of a photograph of the saloon on the front page of the weekly Lakota Times, published on the neighboring Pine Ridge Reservation. The photograph included the sign above the outside door of the saloon, which had been there for decades, that read “No Indians Allowed.” The two customers took issue with the sign and attempted to tear it down, after which a brief gunfight ensued. Twila later painted over the “No” part of the sign.

As a note of historical context, in 1832 the U.S. Congress passed legislation banning the sale of alcoholic beverages to Native American people. That legislation remained on the record for 121 years until it was repealed in 1953, and tribes were then given the option of retaining prohibition or allowing the sale and consumption of alcohol on reservations. Pine Ridge remains a “dry” reservation.

In 1987 Michael O’Keefe, a member of the El Forest Arrows motorcycle club, was stabbed in the stomach at the Longhorn Saloon. The stabbing took place during a fight between members of both the El Forest Arrrows motorcycle club and members of the Galloping Goose motorcycle club against a local group of Native Americans. The motorcyclists were supposedly annual visitors to the Longhorn Saloon, having visited the bar for eight years in a row.

The false front of the single-story Longhorn Saloon advertised whiskey, beer, wine and tobacco. Cattle skulls were hung with barbed wire. Two doors down the street, tellingly, and appropriately, seemed to be the town jail, with a jail cell that would have been visibly open to those on main street. Inside the saloon, the ceilings were low and covered with brands from local ranches, the floor was covered with sawdust and the walls were decorated with various artifacts including chaps, spurs, mounted horns, petrified turtles and other cowboy memorabilia. Oil barrels with metal tractor seats served as barstools. The men’s bathroom was painted blood red, with the walls marked by signs of previous struggles such as holes and knife cuts. With tribal law making the nearby Pine Ridge Reservation “dry,” the Longhorn Saloon saw good business from Native Americans.

Scenic: For Sale

By the 2000’s, and with her declining health, Twila Merrill decided to sell the entire town. News of the offering sale reached the national news, with many leading newspapers and television networks covering the story. The town of Scenic was purchased in 2011 for $800,000 by the Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ), a Philippines-based church. It seems that not much has been done with the town since its purchase, nor is it evident as to what the church plans to do in the future.

Today, despite its prior thriving history, only decaying homes and businesses remain. The abandoned Old Longhorn Saloon, constructed in 1906, is decorated with longhorn cattle skulls. The Longhorn Store marked its business with a motto of “ashes to ashes, dust to dust, if we don’t have it, it isn’t a must.” The C. H. Merrill Museum of Natural History is all boarded up. Other former businesses included the Sam 2 Bulls Gallery and the Tatanka Trading Post.

Until the church makes its decision as to the future of the town, Scenic remains an interesting stopping point for those visiting the Badlands. The rough and interesting history of the region and the long-abandoned buildings, which are still charming in their own way, provide a small glimpse into what was once a popular small town in a very “scenic” part of the country.

Colgate Lake Reflections

Sat, 31 Aug 2024 12:00:00 GMT

Colgate Lake is a scenic 29-acre lake located in the 1,500 Colgate Lake Wild Forest in the town of East Jewett of the northern Catskills. The area around the lake provides panoramic views of the Blackhead Mountain Range, which includes Thomas Cole (3,950 feet), Black Dome (3,990 feet) and Blackhead (3,950 feet).

The lake is named after Robert Colgate, the 19th century owner of what is now the Colgate-Palmolive company. He owned thousands of acres in the East Kill Valley area, including the land in and around Colgate Lake. The property was purchased for $475,000 by the state of New York in 1975 from the Robert Colgate estate.

The lake is a popular location for fishing, kayaking, picnicking and primitive camping. The yellow marked Colgate Lake Trail travels 4 miles to Dutcher Notch and the Escarpment Trail in the Windham Blackhead Range Wilderness Area.

First Old School Baptist Church of Roxbury

Sat, 24 Aug 2024 12:00:00 GMT

The First Old School Baptist Church of Roxbury is located in the rural hamlet of Vega, New York in the northeast corner of the Town of Roxbury in Delaware County, New York. The church is idyllically situated in the Denver-Vega Valley in a pleasing country setting with stark mountain backdrops.

The First Old School Baptist Church has its roots in a Baptist church organized in the Denver-Vega Valley on May 27, 1796. It was the first church of any denomination to have been formed in the Town of Roxbury. The original society was constituted by Elder William Warren, Shubal Dimmick, David Robinson, Elizabeth Robinson, Abner Bangs, Isaac Hodgkins, Samuel Mosher and John Avery. In the early days the society worshipped in barns, private dwellings, school houses and wherever opportunity offered.

The first church building for the congregation was likely a log structure that was erected circa 1800-1810. Early records show that it was located south of the Vega Cemetery on Cartwright Road, however the exact location remains unidentified.

The current church building, the second one constructed for the congregation, was built in 1856 in the “traditional meeting house form” that was characteristic of the Old School Baptist faith. This style of architecture is “defined by clean and economical form uncluttered by ornament and embellished with restrained detail.”

Interestingly, Old School Baptists, who believe in baptism by immersion, used the creek, the Batavia Kill, that is located behind the church for this purpose by constructing a wooden dam to raise the water level whenever new members were to be baptized. “In Old School Baptist churches, it was preferred to perform baptisms in natural water sources, since this is where John the Baptist immersed Christ.”

By the 1920s, the Old School Baptists of the Catskills were in significant decline. By 1929, the First Old School Baptist Church of Roxbury was one of seven area churches served by a single preacher, Elder Arnold H. Bellows (1884-1957), who rotated monthly around the association which included the two Roxbury churches, the Middletown-Andes Church, the Olive-Hurley Church, the Middleburgh Church, the Clovesville Church and the Lexington Church. Elder Bellows continued to serve the association into the 1950s. The population and energy of the Old School Baptist Church gradually diminished. By 1975 only one member of the church remained.

Today, the fully restored church is home to the Roxbury Arts Group, a non-profit organization who utilize the historic space for a variety of artistic functions.

First O. S. B. Church of Roxbury

First O. S. B. Church of Roxbury (1856)

Elder William Warren

Elder William Warren served as the first pastor of the First Old School Baptist Church of Roxbury. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland and immigrated to the United States. Warren served in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. He began his ministry near Carmel, in Putnam County, New York on June 25, 1791, and was ordained in 1793. He came to the Batavia Kill area in 1796.

Elder Warren served the First Old School Baptist Church of Roxbury from 1796 to 1811. He was succeeded by Elder James Mead, who served until 1813. Following elders included John Warren (1813), Orlando Mack (1813-1823) and David Mead (1823-1845). In 1800 Warren established the first store in the upper end of the Batavia Kill Valley.

Elder Warren would also become the first pastor of the Second Old School Baptist Church of Roxbury when it was formed in 1816. At its organization 53 members of the first church served as the new congregation for the new church. At first, the congregation held their meetings in the Scudder school-house. In 1833 they built a church near Stratton’s Falls in Roxbury. Elder Warren served the Second Old School Baptist Church of Roxbury from 1816 to 1821.

After his service at Roxbury, Elder Warren relocated to Olive in Ulster County, New York. He served as the third pastor of the Olive & Hurley Old School Baptist Church from 1821 to 1834.

Elder William Warren passed away at 76 years of age on December 6, 1836 in Olive, York. His body was later brought to the Vega Cemetery for burial. A portion of his epitaph reads, “He came preaching the gospel of Christ in the wilderness – he was a man of God and a father in Israel.”

Elder Warren lost his wife, Synthia, and daughter, Margaret, within three months of each other in 1809. Margaret, who died in May, and Synthia, who died in August, are both buried nearby in the Vega Cemetery.

National Register of Historic Places

The church is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as “a distinctive example of nineteenth-century rural church architecture.”

The church “epitomizes nineteenth-century wood-frame country church architecture in New York, particularly the plain aesthetic that so effectively articulated the world view of the orthodox sects of many rural religions, such as Baptist, Presbyterian, the Shakers, and the Society of Friends. Plainness was achieved by manipulating a number of architectural dimensions. In form, a plain building was precise and geometrical. In churches, wings, apses, dormers, clerestories, and other protrusions were omitted in favor of an austere rectangular solid with a gable (triangular) roof. Ornamental detail was greatly reduced from the perceived norm and used only where necessary to maintain architectural logic or to refer to a critical dialectic.

On the Roxbury church, ornament was limited to corners, roof-lines and the edges of opening where it was important to denote the transition from one element to another. In this case, the choices were greatly simplified and interpreted in a modest, non-worldly vocabulary. Workmanship was usually quite high in plain buildings, lest the austerity and distortion be construed as a lack of awareness or skill. Here is where the critical cultural statement is expressed in the architecture. The Old School Baptists were plain for ideological reasons, not because they lacked anything. The fineness of the Roxbury building, evident both in the handling of its restraint and the signature flourishes nested in design features such as the gallery stairs, is what distinguishes the building as architecture. That the architecture is plain, places this remote, local building in the larger dialectic of the Old School Baptists and their position in the world.” (National Register of Historic Places.)

Jewett Presbyterian Church

Sat, 17 Aug 2024 13:00:00 GMT

The Jewett Presbyterian Church is located in the hamlet of Jewett in the northern Catskills of Greene County, New York. Located adjacent to the church is the Jewett Heights Methodist Episcopal Church.

The Presbyterian congregation at the hamlet of Jewett was established in 1799. J. B. Beers wrote in his 1884 The History of Greene County of the early days of the church.

“The first building at this place used exclusively for church purposed, was built around the year 1800, near the present residence of D. Noble Chase. Before it was finished, it was sold at auction to Elisha Thompson for $50. He then presented the meeting-house to the society, by whom it was used for only a short time. In 1804, another church edifice was commenced on the site of the present church, but remained unfinished for a number of years. The present building was erected in the year 1848. The first pastor was Rev. Mr. Stimson; the present pastor is Rev. William S. Long.

When the American Board of Foreign Missions had been formed in 1810, and called for aid to send out its first missionaries, Mr. Stimpson caught the spirit, and infuse in into the hearts of the members of his congregation. But little money was to be found in this community, however, and instead, Mr. Stimpson solicited from each a sheep or lamb. He gathered together a flock of about 30, and with the help of a boy, started for Catskill, 30 miles distant. The flock was sold for $1 per head, and the money was given to the missionary society. This was the first offering from this congregation for ethe conversion of heathen in foreign lands. Since then, the offerings of the church to the cause of missions, etc., have been stated and frequent, and according to the means of the donors, often liberal. This church and Sunday-school are prospering finely.”

The church was originally organized as part of the First Congregational Church of Windham. In 1813, the congregation separated from Windham to establish its own church. The church was organized by a “Council of the Northern Associated Presbytery” and became known as the Lexington Congregational Society. Fourteen years later, in 1827, the church changed to the Presbyterian denomination and was received into the Columbia Presbytery. In 1850 the name of the church was changed to Jewett, to correspond with the changed town name.

Beginning in 1846 discussions began about the possibility of constructing a new church building. A committee comprised of Loring Beach, Isaac Hinman and James Harrington was established to examine churches in other places to determine the best architectural plan. A subscription was started amongst the church members to raise the money required.

The current church building was constructed in 1848. The contract for its construction was awarded to J. B. Hinman and William Goslee “for a sum not exceeding twenty-five hundred dollars.” One stipulation for the building required that “the floors of the new church shall be laid of good hemlock board one inch thick and lined with the same material half inch thick.” The building was extensively repaired and decorated in 1901. The parsonage was built in 1844, and was enlarged in 1896.

The adjacent Jewett Heights Methodist Episcopal Church was also constructed in 1848. The Methodist church was constructed on a site purchased from the Presbyterian Church for five dollars. The Methodist church flourished for many years, but membership gradually declined until they ceased to hold regular services, around 1892. In 1901 they sold their meeting house to the Presbyterian church, who then fitted the building for social uses. Today, the building serves as the Presbyterian Church Hall.

The Jewett Presbyterian Church, part of the Albany Presbytery, continues to the serve the local community.

National Register of Historic Places

The Jewett Presbyterian Church and the Jewett Heights Methodist Episcopal Church are together listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Jewett Presbyterian Church Complex. The churches represent “a unique and largely intact collection of Greek Revival era ecclesiastic architecture in Greene County.”

“The Jewett Presbyterian Church is a two-story, four by three bay timber frame building. The church is covered by a moderately pitched gable roof clad with asphalt shingles. Narrow clapboards sheath the building. The edifice rests on a modern concrete block foundation, which replaced a failing stone foundation. Windows throughout the church are elongated with simple frames and contain stained glass panels.

The east façade of the church is highlighted by a fully pedimented gable, which features a compound frieze and broad cornice moldings. A wide frieze with a decorative molding band supports the pediment. The frieze extends down the side elevations of the church terminating beneath partial cornice returns on the west gable elevation. The entablature is supported on all four corners of the church by broad pilasters with simple capitals and bases. Two additional pilasters grace the façade marking the divisions between the bays. The central bay of this elevation features an elongated window which contains a Victorian era stained glass panel. The north and south bays on the façade each contain an entrance. Each entry is composed of a pair of four panel wood doors set within finely crafted Greek Revival style frames. The frames are composed of broad pilasters supporting an unusually tall entablature, which is crowned by a heavily molded cornice. Surmounting the roof, on this elevation is belfry. This feature is composed of an unusually tall first stage, which terminates in a broad cornice. The second stage is composed of pairs of pilasters flanking louvered openings. The pilasters support a simple frieze, which in turn supports a broad cornice. The tower terminates with an octagonal spire, which is crowned by an iron weathervane.

The south and north elevations are identical and feature four evenly spaced windows. The west (rear) elevation of the church is unremarkable.

The interior plan of the church is simple and largely intact from the building’s period of construction. The plan consists of nave, chancel and entry vestibules. The main entrance of the building open into small vestibules. The vestibules open into the nave of the church. These entrances flank a two-story classical arch composed of pilasters supporting a segmental arch. The recess behind the arch separates the two vestibule spaces and originally served as the chancel of the church. Presently, this space serves as extra seating. Two ranks of wood pews lead up to the present altar area at the west wall of the church. This space is composed of a raised paneled dais, on which a lectern and chairs are located. A choir area is also located on the platform. Finishes in the church are simple and include plaster walls above wood wainscotting. Window and door surrounds are simple. In the late twentieth century a dropped ceiling was installed in an effort to conserve heat in the building. The original ceiling finishes survive intact above.” (National Register of Historic Places.)

Reverend Henry Bowen Stimson

“The name of Henry B. Stimson is indelibly carved on the foundation of the old church, and is still honored by the generations that survive.”

Reverend Henry Bowen Stimson, the first pastor of the Jewett Presbyterian Church, came from Framingham, Massachusetts to the Windham area in 1785 with his father, George Stimson, who was then almost 60 years of age. Henry was around 13 or 14 years old at the time. George was working as an agent for Robert Livingston and came to manage his herds that were pastured in the mountain sections of his lands. George had previously served during the American Revolution as a minute man at the Battle of Lexington.

At Windham, George and Henry Stimson found “a large, smooth, perpendicular rock, at right-angles to the street, from ten to twenty feet in height and breadth.” There “the two built, against the side of that rock, a rude cabin of brush and logs, with a roof of bark; and there they lived, among bears, wolves, and panthers, two years, until the other members of their family removed there. Their nearest neighbors were at Prattsville, ten mile in one direction, and at Cairo, sixteen miles in the other; and they brought their Indian corn, and other provisions, from the east side of the Hudson River, some thirty miles distant. The corn they bruised or ground with a stone, on the top of a large rock. Just as the first winter of their sojourn there commenced, their rude cabin, with everything in it, was burned; and then they reared another, which was but a poor shelter for them, amid the deep snows and raging winds of those mountain heights.” (Rockwell, p. 269.)

“The Captain and the boy Henry spent the winter of 1785-6 here. Their stores got low, and the father went to Claverack, near Hudson, where the nearest mill was, to get food. He expected to be gone but a few days, and left Henry alone. But the ice in the Hudson made his return crossing impossible for six weeks, during which time the boy Henry had to live in the hut alone, among wolves, bears, panthers, and other dangers, with no kind guardian except the Heavenly Father, whose care for His people never ceases.” (Dodd, p. 9.)

“An incident worth relating, occurred at that time. One night there came along a man on horseback, - a stranger, - who spent the night and shared with Henry his potato breakfast, and tried to persuade the boy that the return of his father was very doubtful, and that he had better go with him to a safer place. The boy, however, would not leave the place, and so the traveler started on. Soon he returned, fearing that the boy would starve if left alone, and evidently thinking it his duty to save him, tried to force him to go, whereupon Henry ran and hid in the woods, and the man had to go on without him after all.

Many years afterward, the Rev. Henry B. Stimson, at a Presbytery meeting was accosted by an aged gentleman who said, “You are from Batavia, are you not?” “Do you know a little boy who years ago lived in a hut there and was left alone?” Mr. Stimson replied, “I am that boy,” a statement which melted all to tears.” (Dodd, p. 9.)

By the age of 20, Henry “had been at school but three or four months in all; and yet, by the diligent reading and study of such books as he could obtain, much of it at night, after severe toil by day, lighted by pine-knows stuck in the back of the chimney of their log-cabin, and lying with his book on the floor before him, he lad the foundation of a solid, useful education.” (Rockwell, p. 269.)

After assisting in taking care of the family for those seven years, Henry entered school at Claverack in Columbia County, New York and at Kinderhook, New York. He remained there for nine years, engaged in his studies, while working as a cabinet-maker to pay his expenses.

When first expressing an interest in studying theology, Henry “consulted the ministers about going to college. They advised him not to go, on account of his age, 28.” Henry ignored this advice, and next studied theology with Reverend M. Thompson, of Oak Hill, and then for a year with Reverend Samuel Fuller, of Rensselaerville. Henry was licensed to preach on June 3, 1802 by the Northern Associate Presbytery at the house of Reverend Stephen Fenn, in Harpersfield, after a “full and thorough examination.” His preaching license was signed by Beriah Hotchkin, as moderator, and John Morse, as scribe.

Reverend Stimson was then ordained on September 14, 1803 at the Windham meeting-house. “The several parts [of the ordination] were performed by the following gentlemen: Rev. David Harrowar of Walton, Delaware County, made the introductory prayer; Rev. Samuel Fuller of Rensselaerville, Albany County, preached the sermon from 1 Cor. 1: 21; Rev. David Porter, late of Spencertown, and now preaching at Catskill, made the prayer during the imposition of hands; Rev. Beriah Hotchkin of Greenfield, gave the charge; Rev. Jesse Townsend of New Durham, gave the right hand of fellowship, and Rev. Ezekiel Chafman, late Missionary of New Connecticut, and now preaching at Canton [Cairo], made the concluding prayer. It is pleasing to remark that a large concourse of people were present on the occasion., and appeared especially attentive and solemn during the whole transaction.” (Dodd, p. 14.).

After being ordained, he took charge of the First Presbyterian Church of Windham. While there, Reverend Stimson “admitted between six and seven hundred to its communion, baptized about the same number of children, and married nearly two hundred couples. His mountain diocese embraced what are now five or six townships, and he often attended four or five religious services, several miles distant from each other, on a single Sabbath. All honor to such hardy and hard-working pioneers, who laid broad and deep the foundations of religious truth and order, to enlighten and guide all who should come after them.” (Rockwell, pp. 269-270.)

In addition to serving the First Presbyterian Church of Windham, Reverend Stimson also preached at the Jewett Presbyterian Church, and the area around. The region covered by Reverend Stimson extended for over 20 miles, “but he was used to hardships, and often preached nine times a week. Three extensive revivals prevailed during his ministry, and tradition says he received into the church more than 500 souls.” (Dodd, p. 19.)

Reverend Stimson “wielded a potent influence over the mature and rising generation, in the church and congregation, among whom he lived as a man among men. His appearance was commanding even in extreme age, fully six feet in height, erect, spare and muscular. He had strongly marked features, nose, brow, chin, cheekbones, all prominent; the whole contour of the face expressing intelligence, strength of will, and decision of character. He was sincere, devoted, and self-denying . . .” (Beers, p. 198.)

Reverend Stimson remained at the First Presbyterian Church for 24 years until 1826. “By this time (1824), there seems to have arisen a state of things tending to bring to an end this long and useful pastorate. Mr. Stimson did not favor the “new measures” in revival work, and tradition says that some wearied of the frequency with which he preached the distinctive points of his strongly Calvinistic system. After several meetings it was finally decided that his pastorate should be dissolved.” (Dodd, p. 18.)

“His farewell sermon, the text of which was taken from the passage, 1 Sam. 12: 1-5, “Whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded?” & c., was a vigorous and characteristic effort, suited to the situation, and talked about for many years afterward.” (Dodd, pp. 18-19.)

Upon his removal, the Presbytery offered the following strong testimonial. “This may certify that the Rev. Henry B. Stimson has been dismissed from his pastoral relation to the first church of Christ in Windham by the Eastern section of the Northern Associated Presbytery without any allegation brought against his moral or ministerial character by church or society, but merely on account of their being unable to raise his support, and he is hereby cheerfully recommended to be further employed in the Gospel ministry as an orthodox and faithful minister of our Lord Jesus Christ. David Baldwin, Scribe. Seth Williston, Moderator.” (Dodd, p. 19.)

Despite the vote of removal in January 1825, Reverend Stimson seems to have continued preaching at the church until around 1826. He was then succeeded by Revered Clark H. Goodrich, who served for nine years from 1826 to 1835.

Reverend Stimson continued to reside at Windham for the remainder of his life. From 1825 to 1829, Reverend Stimson worked for the Bible Society. From 1829 to 1832, Reverend Stimson was in charge of the Reformed Dutch Church at Prattsville, New York. He then joined the Classis, where he continued to work until his health failed.

Reverend Henry Stimson married, in October 1803, Rebecca “Becca” Pond (1779-1856), the daughter of Edward Pond and Mary (Judson) Pond. Henry and Rebecca had 11 children together. Their son, Edward Pond (b. 1806), became a Dutch Reformed Minister.

In his later years, Reverend Stimson faced a number of medical issues. One publication noted that he was “deranged” for the last eight years of life. Reverend Henry Bowen Stimson passed away at 80 years of age on April 28, 1851. Both Henry and his wife Rebecca are buried at Ashland Cemetery in Ashland, New York.

Reverend Josiah Judson Buck

Reverend Josiah Judson Buck was the pastor of the Jewett Presbyterian Church when the current building was constructed. He served the church for over 23 years from October 1843 to April 1867.

Josiah Buck was born on March 13, 1794. He was the son of Asaph Buck (1762-1848) and Phebe (Wainright) Buck (1768-1855). Asaph was a farmer at New Milford, and later at New Lisbon in Otsego County, New York. He served the United States during the War of 1812. Josiah’s grandfather, James Buck, served during the American Revolution as a captain in the Connecticut militia. Captain Buck participated in several battles and skirmishes, including the Battle of Horse Neck.

Josiah Buck was married twice, first to Amelia Augusta Duryee (1803-1838), and second to Margaret Maria Wells (1811-1901). Josiah had 11 children by his wives Amelia and Margaret. Two of his sons, Charles Duryee Buck and Edward Henry Buck, also became preachers.

During his early life, Josiah worked on his father’s farm, “but his tastes were literary, rather than agricultural. For a while he studied law; then he turned his attention towards the medical profession. But only for a season. On making a public profession of Christ, he henceforth gave himself wholly to the work of the ministry. He was 24 years of age when he took this step; though he always thought that he might have been converted when nine years old.” (Harvey, p. 141.)

Josiah Buck was licensed to preach in February 1820 by the Union Congregational Association at Exeter, New York. Two years later, in 1822, this association was dissolved, and he became connected with the Presbytery of Otsego. In a long and distinguished career, Reverend Buck served in a number of locations including Worcester, Knox and Hamilton Union (1825-1828), Cairo (1829-1835), Kaatsbaan, Hunter, Malden, Jewett (1843-1867) and Big Hollow (circa 1868). He received an honorary degree from Williams College in 1836.

While serving at Jewett Presbyterian Church, “early in his ministry, in 1847, occurred one of the most extensive and thorough-going revivals in the history of the Church – 40 being added that year, some of whom still survive and are now pillars in the Church. There were several other revivals in Mr. Buck’s time, notably in the years 1858, 1862, 1865. Discipline was faithfully attended to. Some dissatisfied members, who would not walk with the Church, were kindly dealt with. Mr. Buck preached and practiced the giving of a tenth, which he did in spite of his eight children, small salary and lack of capital. And he trained his people to give to . . . Mr. Buck was a good preacher, a diligent pastor, and lived a blameless life. He loved his people and was respected and loved by them. But unfortunately, in the latter part of his ministry, in the Civil War times, his silence on the issues of the war caused dissatisfaction which finally resulted in the his dismission, in 1867.” (Dodd, pp. 33-34.)

In 1855, the sermon preached by Reverend Buck at the funeral of Amos Peck, the ruling elder of the Presbyterian Church at Jewett was published. The title was Dying in Faith – A Sermon Preached at Jewett, Feb. 28^th, 1854, at the Funeral of Mr. Amos Peck, Ruling Elder in the Church at that place. At the conclusion of the sermon, Reverend Buck spoke to the family, saying “May they live in the faith in which he lived, die in the faith in which he died, and which, in the hour of his departure, afforded him the richest consolation and joy.”

After Reverend Buck was dismissed from the Jewett Presbyterian Church in 1867, he continued to live at Jewett. One year he supplied the church at Big Hollow. “His friends in Jewett provided for his needs as long as he lived by an annual subscription. Finally, they bought for him, for $600, a place near Glasco, to which he removed . . .” (Dodd, p. 34.)

In his last diary entry, Reverend Buck wrote that “My full assurance of hope still continues, absent from the body, I shall be present with the Lord.” Reverend Josiah Judson Buck died at 76 years of age at Glasco, New York on April 26, 1870. He is buried at Jewett Heights Cemetery in Jewett, New York, “and sleeps among the people he loved and served.”

Historic Pastors

The Jewett Presbyterian Church was served by a long line of distinguished pastors during its first 100 years.

Henry B. Stimson, 1803-1812
Daniel Beers, 1813-1819
Henry B. Stimson, 1819-1821
David Harrowar, 1821-1826
Asahel Nettleton, 1827
William Johnson, 1828-1832
Charles Jones, 1832-1833
Augustus L. Chapin, 1833-1841
Seth Williston, 1841-1843
Josiah Judson Buck, 1843-1867
Silas McKinney, supply pastor, circa 1868, for 3 months
Andrew Montgomery, 1869-1871
Timothy Williston, 1871
Nathan Leighton, 1872-1878
Frederick F. Judd, 1878-1882
William S. Long, 1882-1900
Seneca McNeil Keeler, installed 1900

Selected Sources

Beers, J. B. History of Green County, New York. New York: J. B. Beers & Co., 1884.

Buck, Josiah Judson. Dying in Faith – A Sermon Preached at Jewett, Feb. 28^th, 1854, at the Funeral of Mr. Amos Peck, Ruling Elder in the Church at that place. Catskill: Trowbridge & Gunn, 1855.

Dodd, Rev. Henry Martyn. 1803-1903 Centennial of the Old First Congregational Church, Windham, New York. Windham, NY: Windham Journal Print, 1903.

Greene County Historical Society. Historic Places in Greene County, New York. Coxsackie, New York: Flint Mine Press, 2009.

Harvey, Cornelius B. Origin, History and Genealogy of the Buck Family. Jersey City, NJ: J. J. Griffiths, 1889.

Pond, Daniel Streator. A Genealogical Record of Samuel Pond and His Descendants. New London, Ohio: Geo. W. Runyan, 1875.

Rockwell, Rev. Charles. The Catskill Mountains and the Region Around. New York: Taintor Brothers & Co., 1869.

Christian Church at Fitch’s Bridge

Sat, 10 Aug 2024 12:00:00 GMT

The historic Christian Church, also known as Fitch’s Bridge Church, is located adjacent to the West Branch of the Delaware River in the hamlet of East Delhi, New York. The church is located close to the picturesque Fitch’s Covered Bridge and just east of the Judge Gideon Frisbee House, the late 18th century home of one of the area’s earliest settlers.

Church History

The congregation of the church was formed in 1822. The land for the church building and cemetery were leased from Gideon Frisbee, an early settler of Delaware County and prominent local farmer.

Gideon Frisbee (1758-1828) was a man of many talents that through an industrious career included pioneer, farmer, justice of the peace, county treasurer, revolutionary war veteran, militia captain, tavern keeper, and vestryman. His Federal-style, two-story house, located two miles north of Delhi, was built in 1797 along the West Branch of the Delaware River. The house is sometimes referred to as the “Birthplace of Delaware County” as the first meeting of the county board of supervisors was held here in 1797. The house remained in the Frisbee family for much of its history until it was acquired in 1960 by the Delaware County Historical Association, for which it now serves as their headquarters. The property is home to several other historic structures including a one-room schoolhouse, a gun shop, a blacksmith shop, a tollgate house, a corn crib and the family barn. The property and buildings are open to the public for tours. The home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The first trustees of the Christian Church were all prominent members of the community, including Putnam Farrington, Daniel Frisbee, John Hammond, Clarke Sloot and Newell Dodge. Reverend William Cummings was the first pastor at the Christian Church, and was followed by Reverend D. Call; Reverend J. M. Westcott; Reverend Southwick; and Reverend Daniel Grant.

In 1859 the church society was reorganized and the current church was built one year later in 1860 by James Adams, a regional carpenter from nearby Hamden. The building replaced the original 1820s church that had been razed circa 1859. The church was dedicated on Saturday, September 1, 1860.

“The Christian meeting-house near Fitch’s Bridge, in this town, was dedicated last Saturday. As the weather was fine, and the roads good, the attendance was large. The church was filled to overflowing. The new building is a very neat and pretty one for the purpose, and is fitted up in simple but comfortable style. It is a little smaller than the old one, but is large enough to accommodate the congregation. The contract for the repairs, or rather the rebuilding of the edifice, was entrusted to our friend, Mr. James Adams, of this village, who executed the work in a very satisfactory and acceptable manner.” (Delaware Republican. September 8, 1860.)

In January 1862, efforts were made by the trustees of the church to pay off the remaining debts that were incurred in constructing the church.

“Donation. The Christian Church in East Delhi being embarrassed with debt, incurred in erecting their new house of worship, have resolved to put forth a vigorous effort to liquidate the same.

For the purpose of consummating the above named object, the church and congregation would earnestly invite all the friends of religion to attend a donation party at the chapel, on Wednesday evening, the 12^th day of February, at 6 o’clock.

All the churches in this community having been erected by united effort, and this house being free to all religious denominations, the committee feel justified in extending this invitation to all the friends of religion of every name and order. Refreshments will be prepared for the occasion.

The committee intend to secure the attendance of a good speaker, and to have the exercises enlivened by music, both vocal and instrument. By order of the trustees.” (Delaware Republican. January 25, 1862.)

In 1875, the church was improved with the addition of a new interior chandelier and lamps and exterior painting. The work was completed by J. L. Meeker. “When the work on the house was completed, it was thought best to see if the hearts of the people could not be renovated, as well as the church. Accordingly, a series of meetings was commenced, which has been running for about two weeks which has resulted in the conversion of ten or twelve happy son’s – and still they come. Christians of all denominations in the place work with heart and zeal becoming their profession. The preaching is done by Rev. Thomas Taylor, of New Paltz, Columbia Co., N.Y., assisted by the Pastor, D. Grant, who has proved himself a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. The meetings will continue through this week and over the coming Sabbath.” (Delaware Republican. November 13, 1875.)

In 1880, “sheds and other conveniences have been added to the property this year.” In 1888, the church was significantly renovated, “making decided improvement in the interior as well as the exterior of the church.” The church was repainted on the outside and new wallpaper was hung on the inside. A new “pulpit suite” was purchased from the firm of Jackson & Mason of Delhi. Funding was also being raised for a new carpet and the purchase of “opera folding chairs” for the congregation.

The church congregation continued to operate under the Christian Church denomination for over 100 years until 1925, when there were only two members left. The church building then remained vacant for 15 years. In 1940, Emily Dannheimer, a 1937 graduate and valedictorian of the Delaware Academy at Delhi, began to organize services at the church. Mrs. Alfred Carey, the only surviving member of the old church, granted permission for services each Sunday during the summer. “The Gospel of Christ” was the subject of the first sermon at the reopened church. The Christian Church had a short revival from 1940 to 1948, with the congregation reaching nearly one hundred members, but a significant decline in membership then prompted its closing.

From 1950 to 1990 the Christian Scientist denomination utilized the building. In 1990 the Delaware County Historical Association assumed ownership of the property. The Delaware County Historical Association makes the church available to rent for private functions.

Cemetery

The Christian Church Cemetery is located adjacent to the church to both the east and the west. Gravestones at the church date from 1820 to the 1970s. There are approximately 25 graves marked with simple fieldstones without inscription.

National Register of Historic Places

The Christian Church and its adjacent cemetery were officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. The church was noted “for its distinctive blend of Greek Revival and Gothic Revival styles and for its long association with the history of the hamlet of East Delhi.”

The application for the Christian Church to be included on the National Register of Historic Places described the architecture of the church in great detail. “The core of the building represents a typical mid-nineteenth century church design in the region, embodying forms and embellishments typical of the Greek Revival style; however, its overlay of assertive Gothic Revival decoration creates the dominant visual image of the building today. The small wood-frame building is of post and beam construction and sits on a dry-laid stone foundation. It is rectangular in shape, three bays wide by four bays deep, and surmounted by a gable roof clad with asphalt shingles. An interior brick chimney pierces the gable at the rear of the building. The church features clapboard siding, a wide water table and a raking cornice.

The most dramatic exterior decorative elements are the twelve narrow, engaged towers with pinnacles that mark the corners of the building, define the entrance bay and serve as the primary decorative components of the tower. The towers are of wood-frame construction and the pinnacles, originally sheet iron, are now aluminum.

Each of the corner towers rests on a separate stone base, which is not connected to and extends beyond the stone building foundation. The two towers that define the entrance by rise into a two-stage square tower, which interrupts the front gable of the roof. The raking cornice extends across the tower, either intentionally designed or replicated for the flat roofline at the apex. Each of the two tower stages is defined by corner towers and the whole is surmounted by a tall spire. Each stage of the tower originally featured louvered openings on all sides; however, the louvered elements that survive today are replacements without openings. Towers on each state were originally connected by decorative balustrades; only those on the upper stage survive.” (National Register of Historic Places.)

The Christian Church

The Christian Church, also known as Christian Connection, was a New England sect that broke away from the prevailing 16th and 17th century Calvinist theology. The Christian Church is often considered the first uniquely American religious movement. Elias Smith (1769-1846), founder of the Christian Church denomination, wrote of his ideas in the Herald of Gospel Liberty, which was first published in 1808 and is considered the first religious newspaper in the United States.

“The Christian Church was a religious denomination of its own, such as the Presbyterian or Baptist denominations. Early immigrants to Delaware County were generally from New England states, where the Christian denomination was popular. The sect was founded by Elias Smith, who had been raised near Woodstock, Vermont in the 1780s. Smith had been raised as a Calvinist Baptist.

The new denomination was a reaction against the old Calvinist doctrine of predestination, and, like other new sects of this period, believed in shifting the responsibility for salvation to men and women. The Christian Church held that the New Testament, accessible to all, was the only authority and could be used without divine assistance. By the early nineteenth century Smith had broken with the Baptists altogether and, with others of like mind, formed the loosely-knit Christian Church, or Christian Connection . . . The name “Christian” reflects the believers’ focus on the New Testament and their commitment to a more active role in their own salvation.” (National Register of Historic Places.)

Reverend William Cummings

Reverend William Cummings, the first pastor at the Christian Church, was born at Plymouth, New Hampshire on September 24, 1786. William was the youngest of ten children born to Captain Jotham Cummings (1741-1808) and Anna (Brown) Cummings (1744-1829). Jotham Cummings moved to Plymouth, New Hampshire in 1764 and was among the original grantees of Plymouth. Captain Cummings served in Colonel Goffe’s regiment during the march on Crown Point in the expedition to Canada in 1760. During the American Revolution, Captain Cummings served as a lieutenant in a company of New Hampshire Rangers, and subsequently as a captain of the Plymouth company in Colonel Hobart’s regiment.

William married Sarah Hazeltine on March 12, 1809. Sarah was born at Concord, New Hampshire on February 28, 1790. She was the daughter of John and Hanna Hazeltine. “Before 18 years of age she gave herself up to the service of the Lord, and found precious joy in believing in Him.” She had worked as a school teacher prior to her marriage in 1809. During the spring of 1809, months after their marriage, William and Sally moved to Plymouth, New Hampshire, where they remained for a few years.

William and Sarah had seven children together, including Dorcas, Peter, Damaris, Moses, Aaron, Marion and Lydia. Moses (1816-1867), like his father, would become a preacher in the Christian denomination; and served as publisher and editor of the Christian Messenger and the Christian Palladium. Amos Cummings (1841-1902), son of Moses, grandson of William, won the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions during the Civil War and would later serve in the United States Congress for several terms.

William Cummings was converted in 1806 and began preaching in 1810. He would become a preacher in the Christian Church denomination, serving in Vermont, New Hampshire and New York. Cummings was ordained at Bradford, Vermont in 1815. He helped establish and organize churches for his denomination.

Reverend Cummings and his wife moved from Rumney, New Hampshire to Roxbury, and later to Kortright, and then Stamford, all in Delaware County, New York. Reverend Cummings then came to the Delhi area and began preaching the doctrines of the Christian church. He helped establish the Christian Church at Fitch’s Bridge in 1822. For six years they lived at Delhi, and then moved to Lansingville, which was later known as Delancey. He served at the Christian Church of Delancey from 1842 to 1847.

After a long and distinguished career, Reverend William Cummings passed away from “inflammation of the lungs” at Hamden, New York on Sunday, December 12, 1847. He is buried at Chesire Cemetery in Chesire, Massachusetts. Upon his passing it was written that “The Elder was a prominent man in the church. He was also a man of more than ordinary consecration to the great work. His letters, of which he wrote many to the different periodicals of the day, are full of cheerfulness, faith, hope, and confidence in God. When he first embraced religion, he was so full of joy that some of the older members told him he was going on borrowed capital, and that the sorrows of life would have to pay back etc. The Elder, mentioning this in his days, said, ‘They were mistaken; I have been full of glory all the time.’”

Sarah Cummings passed away from “congestion of the lungs” at Lansingville on the morning of January 29, 1868. Upon her passing it was written that “those who knew Mrs. Cummings well, also knew her to be a very superior and excellent woman. She was especially gifted in prayer. In glancing over her diary, one is struck with admiration of the spirit of sincere piety throughout. So much refinement and delicacy of thought, so much humility and earnestness in the cause of the Lord and Savior – such an anxiety for the welfare of immortal souls – such gratitude for daily mercies, even in the midst of feebleness – such entire submission to the will of God – all show the elevation of her character.” (Delaware Republican. February 1, 1868.)

Reverend Daniel Grant

Reverend Daniel Grant (1812-1879) was the pastor at the Christian Church in 1860 when the new building was constructed.

Daniel Grant was born on October 3, 1812, the son of John Grant and Jane (Stillwell) Grant. In 1882, at 20 years of age,

“Brother Grant confessed faith in Jesus Christe as the Son of God and his only Savior . . . His conversion to Christianity was one of thoughtful deliberation, at a time when there was no unusual interest in the community on the subject, and, indeed, when the opposite interest pervaded society.

He came to the crisis of deciding the great question that changed the whole current of his life and destiny in a ball-room. He carried out his purpose as deliberately as he made it, going from the ball-room in the small hours of the morning to the grove where, in meditation and prayer, he dedicated himself forever to the service of God, and with the dawn of that morning came the light of life upon his moral and spiritual being.” (Delaware Republican. December 27, 1879.)

Grant was baptized by Elder Joshua Howard in September 1837, and began to preach that same year. He was admitted in 1837 to the New York Eastern Christian Conference. In 1839 he became a member of the Christian Church in Delhi and in 1842 he was ordained and chosen pastor of the church. He was selected by the ordaining council comprised of Elders John Spoor, William Cummings and Wright Butler, “a trio of strength, for there were giants in those days.”

Reverend Grant continued his pastorate of the Delhi church for 34 years until 1876. Besides the Delhi church, he also preached for the churches at Otego, Portlandville, North Harpersfield, Summit, Delancey, South Franklin and Roxbury. “None but God knows the weary miles he traveled over the hills of Delaware and Otsego counties and the anxious heart he carried for the cause of the blessed Master, weeping between the porch and the altar. He was often cheered by seeing men led to Christ, to taste his love and share his great salvation.” (Delaware Republican. December 27, 1879.)

Reverend Grant was married to Sally Frisbee, a granddaughter of Gideon Frisbee, at Delhi in 1837. David and Sally had five children, including Naomi, Huldah, Darius, George and John. Sally was “a faithful wife, an affectionate mother, and a devoted Christian all these years. Happy is that minister who has, in his wife, a help-meet indeed . . .”

Reverend Grant resigned from his pastorate in 1876 due to failing health. He died three years later at his home in Delhi at 67 years of age on October 30, 1879. He is buried at the Frisbee Family Cemetery in Delhi, New York. Upon his passing it was written that he “was a man of strong convictions; and we believe he ever tried to do right and to follow in the strict path of duty. . . In his death, the cause of religion, as well as all moral interests, particularly that of Temperance, loses a fast friend and sincere and efficient co-laborer.” (Delaware Republican. November 15, 1879.)

Blue Mountain Reformed Church

Sat, 03 Aug 2024 12:00:00 GMT

The historic Blue Mountain Reformed Church is located on Blue Mountain Church Road in Saugerties, New York. The first movement to found a church at Blue Mountain occurred in 1832, however, this came to nothing. Nineteen years later, in 1851, the Blue Mountain Reformed Church was officially organized.

The founding date of the Blue Mountain Reformed Church is recorded as March 20, 1851. On that date a group of residents from the Blue Mountain area met at the local schoolhouse, Saugerties School District #2, in order to establish a community church.

In May 1851, 52 organizational members of the church presented a petition to the Classis of Ulster to establish the Blue Mountain Church. The Classis investigated the petition, meeting with the new organization in the woods where the new church was to be constructed and holding the first service, officiated by the Reverend V. M. Hulbert. On August 20, 1851, the Blue Mountain Reformed Church was formally recognized.

Reverend Alexander C. Hillman (1811-1876) served as the first pastor of the Blue Mountain Reformed Church. He graduated from Columbia College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1832 and was licensed by the Classis of New York in 1836. Reverend Hillman served at a variety of locations throughout his career including Stonehouse Plains, New Jersey, 1837-1841; Vanderveer, Illinois, 1841-1842; Roxbury and Moresville, New York, 1843-1845; and Wurtsboro, New York; 1846-1849. Reverend Hillman was called to be the pastor at Blue Mountain in November 1851, and served the Blue Mountain congregation for six years from 1852 to 1858.

Reverend Hillman married Anna Cochran Magennis (1820-1888), daughter of George Magennis (1775-1853) and Catherine (Reynolds) Magennis. George was an Irish immigrant, from County Down, who came to the United States with his parents in 1790 at the age of 15. James Wilson Hillman, the son of Alexander and Anna, was born at the hamlet of Blue Mountain and became a prominent chaplain in the United States Army, reaching the rank of major while serving in the Philippines, Mexico, California and Alaska.

Reverend Alexander Hillman passed away in Brooklyn on November 20, 1875 “after protracted sufferings.” Funeral services were held on November 22, 1875 at his residence at 214 Division Avenue in Brooklyn, New York. Anna Hillman, his wife, passed away in Brooklyn on April 28, 1888 after a brief illness.

The first elders of the Blue Mountain Reformed Church included George Young, Simeon P. Myer, Jeremiah Snyder and Peter Becker. The first deacons of the church included John H. Freligh, Nelson Myer, Abram Wolven and Cornelius Minkler.

Jeremiah Snyder, chairman of the organizational group, donated the land for the church building. The cornerstone for the church building was laid by Reverend Henry Ostrander of Kaatsbaan and the dedication sermon was preached by Reverend C. Van Santvoord of Saugerties. The church building was constructed at a cost of $2,500 and was dedicated in 1852.

Three years later, in 1855, a new parsonage was completed for the minister, and included a barn where the minister kept his cow. In 1855, under the leadership of Reverend Hillman, the Blue Mountain Reformed Church had a membership of 100 families and approximately 400 people in the total congregation. Nine adults were baptized in the prior year.

By 1856, the church had paid all debts associated with constructing the church building and parsonage. In 1875, “the church enjoyed a very extensive and powerful revival, when more than 140 members were added to the church, thus greatly increasing its strength.”

In 1880 the church had around 253 members and offered two Sunday schools, one in the church at Blue Mountain, led by David W. Hommel, and the other at West Saugerties, led by James W. Cole. Officers of the church in 1880 included elders John H. Freligh, William S. Myer, Jacob Carn and Washington Myer; and deacons William Schoonmaker, Jacob Spellman, Peter T. Minkler and James W. Cole.

The church building was remodeled around the year 1884, with the lecture room likely being added at that time. In 1886, the last Dutch sermon on the town of Saugerties was preached at the Blue Mountain Reformed Church by Reverend Abram G. Lansing. The sermon “was thoroughly enjoyed by his many parishioners who were able to understand it, as well as by many from surrounding congregations.” In 1945 the Blue Mountain Reformed Church joined with the Reformed Church of Katsbaan.

In 1951 the Blue Mountain Reformed Church marked the 100th anniversary of its founding with a series of special services and community events. “The church at Blue Mountain has been marked by real interest and activity throughout its hundred years of organized existence. While there have been periods in which no full-time pastor was available, there has always been a loyal and faithful group to carry on the established tradition of fellowship and service in the community.” (Catskill Mountain Star. August 17, 1951.)

During the first 100 years of its existence, from 1851 to 1951, the Blue Mountain Reformed Church was served by 13 pastors and 12 supply pastors. The history of pastors at the Blue Mountain Reformed Church for the first 130 years of its existence from its founding in 1851 to 1980 includes:

Alexander Hillman, 1851-1858
Cornelius J. Blauvelt, 1859-1862
William D. Buckelew, 1863-1870
A. P. Freese, 1872-1874
George W. Labaw, 1874-1882
John F. Hooper, 1883-1884
Abram G. Lansing, 1885-1887
Peter Q. Wilson, 1888-1891
John Van der Meulen, 1898-1901
Garret D. De Graff, 1901-1905
Mugerdich N. Kalemjian, 1905-1910
Nicholas Hess, 1913-1915
F. W. Moot, 1922-1930
W. E. Mack, 1931-1934
Eugene C. Duryee, 1934-1943
Chris J. Westhoff, 1945-1949
August Pfaus, 1953-1968
Raymond E. Hendershot, 1970-1972
Thomas C. Wray, 1973-1980

Shandaken Reformed Church

Sat, 27 Jul 2024 12:00:00 GMT

The historic Shandaken Reformed Church is located in Mount Tremper, New York. The church is situated on Route 212, across the road from the Esopus Creek, and just off Route 28.

The original church was located west of Mount Tremper at a place that was then known as The Corner. Research conducted by Reverend Harvey Todd in 1954 placed the church near “the former Goldman estate on the Onteora Trail further to the west.” (Kingston Daily Freeman. December 7, 1954.)

On April 3, 1854, a committee chosen by the Classis Ulster organized the current Shandaken Reformed Church. Trustees of the original church included James A. Simpson, Benjamin D. Longyear, A. D. Ladew, John R. Devall, Davis Winne and Solomon Hudler.

The Shandaken Reformed Church was officially established on May 13, 1854 with 33 members. The legal certificate to establish the church was executed on June 19, 1853. Many of the original members had previously worshiped at the church at Shokan. Original elders of the church included Christian Winne, William C. Longyear, Abram D. Ladew and Christian Happy. Original deacons of the church included Benjamin D. Longyear, James Delamater, Abram J. Longyear and Davis Winne.

Reverend John W. Hammond (1819-1876) was the first pastor at the Shandaken Reformed Church. Reverend Hammond was serving at the Shokan Reformed Church at the time of the founding of the Shandaken Reformed Church, and thereafter served both locations. Reverend Hammond was born at Esopus, New York in 1819. In 1848 he was licensed as a pastor by the Classis of Ulster and would go on to a distinguished career in the priesthood. He served at Shokan (1848-1849); Grahamsville (1849-1852); Shokan (1852-1856); Mohawk (1856-1859); Queens (1859-1863); Grahamsville and Stated Supply, Upper Neversink (1863-1867); Shokan and Shandaken (1867-1873); and Roxbury (1873-1875). Reverend Hammond passed away on November 23, 1876 “after a useful and faithful ministry.” He is buried at Wiltwyck Cemetery in Kingston, New York.

In June 1856, while under the leadership of Reverend Hammond, and according to reports from the Reformed Church in America, the Shandaken Reformed Church had 35 member families and 100 total members in the congregation. There were four infants that were baptized in the prior year.

By November 1856, the Shandaken Reformed Church was under the leadership of its second pastor, the Reverend William R. S. Betts (1800-1883). Reverend Betts was born at Troy, New York on October 23, 1800. On November 12, 1856, Reverend Betts was installed by the Classis of Ulster to serve as the pastor of the Shokan and Shandaken churches. Reverend Betts would serve the Shandaken Reformed Church for approximately five years from November 12, 1856 to May 29, 1861. In June 1857, the church reported 25 member families and 80 total members of the congregation. Reverend Betts, “a man of prayer, and sound in the faith,” died on September 28, 1883. He is buried at Manalapan Presbyterian Cemetery in Manalapan, New Jersey.

The history of pastors at the Shandaken Reformed Church includes:

John W. Hammond, 1854-1856
William R. S. Betts, 1856-1861
Alonzo P. Peeke, 1862-1865
Alfred H. Brush, 1865-1867
John W. Hammond, 1867-1873
Adrian Westveer, 1874-1876
Abraham J. Beekman, 1876-1882
W. McGibbon, 1884-1886
John T. Bergen, 1886-1889
Irving P. Emerick, 1889-1890
Charles W. Kinney, 1891-1893
George Niemeyer, 1893-1899
Charles L. Palmer, 1899-1902
Clinton W. Clough (Clowe), 1903-1905
Henry W. Brink, 1906-1914
George W. Gulick, 1915-1916
Frank D. Blanchard, 1917-1920
Benjamin C. Ross, 1924-1926
August Pfaus, 1929-1940
Harvey I. Todd, 1940-1958
Osterhoudt Phillips, 1957-1968
Vacant, 1968-1976
John Van Reyendam, 1982-1987
Debra L. Jameson, 1984-1987

Special services were held on December 11, 1954 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the church. The service was followed by a reception and a cafeteria supper. Reverend Harvey I. Todd (1890-1977) presided at the church in 1954, as he had for the previous 14 years. The special service was conducted by Reverend Daniel Y. Brink, pastor of the First Reformed Church of Scotia and vice president of the Reformed Church Synod of America. Reverend Brink’s father, Reverend Henry Brink, was pastor of the Shandaken Reformed Church from 1906 to 1914.

The Shandaken Reformed Church was disbanded in 2023 by the Reformed Church in America (RCA). The building and property were sold in early 2024.

North Settlement Methodist Church

Sat, 20 Jul 2024 12:00:00 GMT

The historic North Settlement Methodist Church is located in the town of Ashland, Greene County in the northern Catskills. It is situated on County Route 10, east of the junction with County Route 32C.

The Methodist Society that later built the North Settlement Methodist Church was originally formed in 1805 at a time when Ashland was part of the town of Windham. “During these early years, the congregation [at North Settlement] was serviced by a circuit rider on what was known as the Albany Circuit and later as the Coeymans Circuit. In 1824 the society began a subscription campaign to raise sufficient funds to erect a church.”

The North Settlement Methodist Church was constructed in 1826, 21 years after the founding of the Methodist Society. The church was designed in the Greek Revival architectural style as a single-story building on a four by three bay plan.

Reverend Seth Crowell

“It was said that the first human sound in the wilderness was the ring of the frontiersman’s axe; the second was the “hello” of the Circuit Rider who rode into his clearing.”

The Methodist Society at North Settlement was formed in 1805 under the leadership of Reverend Seth Crowell (1781-1826), a circuit rider minister who preached on the Albany Circuit. Crowell was born in Tolland, Connecticut in 1781, but his family moved to Chatham, Connecticut when he was two years old. By the time Crowell was around 16 years old, “the time of my conversion to God,” “he engaged with great avidity in promoting the cause of Christ, by every means in his power. It was quickly inferred, from the tone of his exhortations, that he possessed a more than ordinary adeptness to the duties of the ministry.” (Springer, p. 349.)

In the spring of 1797, Crowell went to study under a Methodist class-leader, at which time Crowell “believed the Lord graciously converted my soul, Glory to his holy name.” (Crowell, 10.) After studying for two years, Crowell went his own way. In a fortuitous moment in his life, a local circuit preacher “was taken unwell” and asked young Crowell to take his horse, go around his circuit and fulfill his appointments. Crowell agreed, and then traveled the New London circuit as a preacher.

In 1801, at 20 years of age, Crowell was admitted on trial in the New York Conference of the Methodist church. Being “uncommonly mature for his years” and with an “ardency of zeal,” he was then assigned a circuit in “the wilds of Upper Canada.” He remained in Canada for two years, serving on the Niagara circuit in 1801 and on the Oswegatchie and Ottawa circuit in 1802.

Reverend Crowell would go on to a much-traveled career as an itinerant preacher, serving at times in Canada, Vermont, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. While serving on the Albany circuit in New York in 1805, Rev. Crowell preached at Albany, Greenfield, Scott’s Patent, New Durham, Windham and Rensselaerville, among other places.

In 1805 the Albany circuit was part of the Albany District, which was overseen by Elijah Woolsey, the presiding elder. The Albany District included 18 reverends working across 11 different regions including Black River, Western, Herkimer, Saratoga, Montgomery, Delaware, Ulster, Newburgh, Haverstraw, Albany circuit and Albany City. Reverend Crowell was joined on the 1805 Albany circuit by Reverend Henry Stead (1774-1854). Rev. Stead, who was born in England and immigrated to the United States in 1802, would go on to a long, distinguished career of over 50 years as Methodist minister.

While making his circuit at Windham, Reverend Crowell created a Methodist Society, which quickly had over 50 members. At one church service in the Windham area, Crowell “preached in the presbyterian meeting-house. Two of their preachers being present, I strove to convince them of the absurdity of absolute predestination. I met with no opposition.” (Crowell, 33.)

Methodist circuit riders, such as Rev. Crowell, were noted for their “self-sacrificing spirit” for they faced many challenges. The circuit rider position was noted for its constant travel, low pay and many physical hardships. Constant road travel was expensive and the preacher’s salary rarely covered a year’s expenses. Itinerant preachers were transferred almost every year; and Bishops could station a preacher on any circuit within a conference. Family life suffered while the circuit-rider preached, through financial difficulties and the constant moving.

Circuit riders traveled long distances between locations, often through woodlands that were little populated. Danger lurked on their journeys in the form of storms, swollen streams, wild beasts, desperadoes and hunger. Comfortable lodging was seldom available. Circuit preachers held services wherever there was an audience, including homes, schools, inns, taverns, local courthouses, small chapels, churches and, if more space was required, outside in barns, fields, under trees and outside stores. The circuit riders preached almost every day, and usually several times on Sunday.

Beginning in 1813, due to poor health, Rev. Crowell stopped his ministry for several years. During this time, Rev. Crowell published in 1813 The Journal of Seth Crowell; Containing an Account of His Travels as a Methodist Preacher for Twelve Years. The autobiography, albeit with periodic gaps, covers Crowell’s work between the years of 1801 and 1812. Rev. Crowell’s 12 years as an itinerant preacher included:

1801 – Niagara circuit, Canada; served with Rev. Joseph Sawyer
1802 – Oswegatchie and Ottawa circuit, Canada
1803 – Returned to the United States, appointed to the Fletcher circuit, Vermont
1804 – Brandon circuit, Vermont
1805 – Albany circuit, New York
1806 – New York City, St. John Methodist Episcopal Church
1807 – Conference Missionary
1808 – Schenectady, New York
1809 – Newburgh, New York
1810 – Pittsfield circuit, Massachusetts
1811 – Chatham, Connecticut
1812 – Redding, Connecticut

Perhaps influenced by his failing health, Crowell closed his 12-year journal at the end of 1812 with a fatalistic view of the future. “I took my circuit at Danbury; I continued about six months, when my health had got so bad that I was under the necessity to desist from travelling. How I shall I spend the rest of my short life, God only knows; if my health should ever be sufficient, I calculate to travel again; but be this as it may, I hope to be resigned to all the will of heaven, and close my days in peace. Amen.” (Crowell, 108.)

By 1816 Rev. Crowell’s health had recovered enough that he returned to work, being appointed a missionary within the bounds of the New York Conference. In 1817 and 1818, Crowell worked in New York City at the John Street Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1819, Reverend Crowell was “located,” a term used in Methodism meaning a church-sanctioned retirement.

The “location” of Reverend Crowell was not unusual. According to Elmer T. Clark in his book titled An Album of Methodist History, many of the early circuit riders faced health issues and died at a young age. “Of the first 650 preachers, 500 had to “locate.” Of the first 737 who died, 203 were under thirty-five years old, and 121 were between thirty-five and forty-five. Nearly half died before they were thirty. Two-thirds of those whose records are known died before they preached twelve years, and 199 died within the first five years.” (Clark, 198.)

Beginning around 1824, Reverend Crowell began to suffer from another long period of poor health. He suffered “under a slowly wasting disease, during which patience and resignation were exemplified in an eminent degree, and his soul was buoyed up with the blissful prospect of entering into life eternal.” (Bangs, 377.)

Reverend Crowell was placed “on the list of superannuated and worn-out members, that he might have a claim on their funds as long as he lived.” (Sprague, 350.) Reverend Crowell suffered for about two years from “nervous disease,” passing away at the age of 45 in New York City on July 6, 1826. He is buried at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York. The quote on his gravesite reads “Why seek ye the living among the dead.”

Reverend Seth Crowell holds a distinguished place in the history of Methodism during the early 19th century. Numerous historical accounts highlight his powerful, and often very serious, style of preaching. Several testimonies from Methodist preachers described how Reverend Crowell had influenced them to join the church. “Rev. Seth Crowell deserves an honorable place among the heroes of our early history . . . He combined distinguished argumentative powers with great hortatory ability. God was with him, and his appeals were sometimes overwhelming. Amid great bodily infirmity and severe mental conflicts, he labored with uncommon zeal until utter prostration laid him aside. He died honored and beloved.” (Parks, 63.)

1856 Renovation

By 1856 the North Settlement Methodist Church had fallen into serious disrepair. The congregation was called to a meeting to determine whether the old church should be repaired or whether a new church should be constructed.

“In the latter part of the year 1856, the inhabitants thought the old edifice must be re-erected or else they could not have service in it, on account of its old and decaying condition. Upon this conclusion, and by the suggestion of the preacher in charge, the inhabitants in the vicinity of the church called a meeting, to get the expression of the people as to whether they should build a new one, or repair the old one, and also to ascertain how much money they could raise for the purpose of the same.

Whereupon they resolved to re-erect the old one, and appointed a building committee of three, to transact business, in relation to the erection of the Church and to circulate among the inhabitants a subscription paper, to raise money for the same. The result was that something over nine hundred dollars was subscribed and paid in the immediate vicinity of the church. It is now finished, and is a very nice comfortable edifice. It was dedicated last September, and I understand is paid for.

The subscription money was all paid without reluctance by the subscribers, with the exceptions of one or two individuals, and we must think they will soon pay theirs, as the committee have paid the defaulters subscriptions, and as they attend church regularly, and occupy as commodious seats as any in the church.” (Windham Journal. March 4, 1858.)

The building committee was comprised of several church members, including Brandow, Doolittle and Bronson. The committee “was prompt in the erection of the building, and paid liberally towards its completion.” (Windham Journal. March 4, 1858.)

National Register of Historic Places

The North Settlement Methodist Church is listed on the National Register of Historic Places “as an exceptionally intact representative example of traditional frame meeting house architecture in Greene County.”

As per the application for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, the church “is characterized by rectangular gable massing, heavily molded trim, full entablature and double door entrance with paneled door framed by a distinctive Greek door surround. The sanctuary remains substantially intact from the mid-nineteenth century and the overall structure retains a remarkably high degree of integrity. The North Settlement Methodist Church is an excellent example of a settlement era rural church that evolved reflecting the changing tastes and prosperity of its congregation and the community. It is an outstanding example of its period and style in the Catskill Region, as well as a rare survivor.”

The church “featured a heavy timber frame set atop a rubblestone foundation. The building was sheathed with narrow clapboards and covered by a medium pitched gable roof. The stone foundation, heavy timber frame, roof structure, some clapboards and some interior wall finishes survive from this period. In addition, based on structural evidence that survives in the church today, it can be determined that the original edifice featured three windows on the first floor and three at the balcony level, on both side elevations. Also typical of early nineteenth century meeting houses, there is evidence that the church originally featured paired entrances. These separate entrances would have been located where the current windows are situated.”

Bishop Francis Burns

“No one can doubt of the genuine conversion of Francis Burns. His name and memory will live for ages. His good deeds, his christian virtue and his true godliness have been engraved in the hearts of many people in Windham, a more lasting impression than could ever be cut in a tablet of stone.”

The North Settlement Methodist Church is where Francis Burns (1809-1863), the first African American Bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church, received his early religious training.

Burns was born on December 5, 1809 in the city of Albany, New York. His parents were extremely poor, so at the age of four he was brought to the home of a Methodist farmer named Bennett Atwood in the North Settlement section of the town of Windham. At the age of 8, “satisfied that the experiment will prove a success, and, fearing lest the boy should be enticed from his home, just as he may be of some service to himself,” Atwood executed legal indentures with Francis’ parents that would have Burns bound to Atwood until his majority, “to learn the art, trade, and mystery of an agriculturist.” (Trafton, p. 377.)

From an early age, Burns attended school along with the other children of the neighborhood, typically during the winter term when there was less work on the farm. At the age of 15, Burns, “who had sought God in solitude and silence, now shouted aloud his praise.” Around this time,

“a camp meeting was being held on the farm of Arad Lewis, near, or a little west of the North Settlement M. E. Church. It was at this camp meeting that young Burns experienced religion. He earnestly sought Christ at this place, and as Burns himself told it, he knelt down by an old stump and earnestly plead with the Savior to speak peace to his soul. The glad message came down from heaven and Francis Burns was made happy in a Savior’s love . . .

After the conversion of young Burns, he seemed to change wonderfully. He would continually exhort and pray, and it could not be erased from his mind, for he was destined to preach the gospel; a thought then even some laughed at; however, those that loved the Savior began to hold counsel together, as the conversion of young Burns was the all-absorbing topic. His conversion was genuine; it showed for itself that the power of God was wonderfully displayed in Burns. People talked about it far and near. He seemed to feel a great interest that all his school boys, and everybody should seek Christ. Without a doubt it was a remarkable conversion and showed the wonderful work of Providence.

Burns took great delight in attending the prayer meetings and the class meetings. He always had something to say, and people were struck with amazement to hear the words that he spoke. He took great delight in attending prayer meetings that were held at the house of Perez Steele. Whenever the prayer meetings were there, Burns was there. The distance from Bennett Atwood’s to Mr. Perez Steele’s never kept Burns away. He was never absent; cold or heat made no difference with him; rain or stormy weather were never a hindrance. It made no difference how hard the wind blowed, or how many snow drifts to encounter, young Burns was never absent from the prayer meetings unless prevented by sickness. We can hardly say this of many today. A snow squall or a slight rain or a little muddy walking is generally in the way.” (Windham Journal. September 16, 1886; September 23, 1886.)

At the age of 17, Burns was baptized and received into the Methodist Episcopal Church, and thereafter he began to express an interest in preaching. He attended high school at Lexington Heights in Greene County, New York under the tutorship of William McLauren.

In 1830, at around the age of 20, and at the end of his indenture, Burns received a local preacher’s license at the quarterly conference of the Windham circuit held at Durham. Burns threw himself into his new work, and was “not idle, his license was no mere compliment, but authority by the Church to call sinners to repentance, and he enters every open door, aided and encouraged by the circuit preachers.”

In addition to his religious work, Burns also worked as a teacher in the local schools. “The estimation in which Mr. Burns was held by those among whom he had grown up, is well attested by the fact that he was employed to teach their school, and actually became the teacher of the white children in the neighborhood.”

Around the year 1831, Reverend David Terry, an itinerant preacher who traveled the Windham Circuit of the northern Catskills, took an interest in young Burns as he attended local church services. After church services one Sunday, Reverend Terry talked with Burns and came away very impressed with his “manly bearing” and “the fervor and intelligence of his testimony for Jesus Christ.” Reverend Terry recommended to Burns that he turn his attention to theological reading, in the hopes that his further studies would allow for future opportunity within the church.

This advice was taken, and Burns began with a study of “Clarke’s Commentary on the Holy Bible.” Thereafter, “the custom of brother Burns was always to have in one pocket some book of instruction, and in the other a dictionary, so he might be, when in the harvest field or in any other place at leisure for a moment, or at rest, improving his mind.” (The Ladies’ Repository. p. 130.)

By 1833 Burns received an introduction to Bishop Elijah Hedding at the New York Annual Conference held at Poughkeepsie, New York. Bishop Hedding came away “very much taken up with him,” and was impressed by Burns’ “manner of conversation,” “general deportment” and “deep piety.” (Windham Journal. September 30, 1886.) This meeting with Bishop Hedding would forever change the course of Burns’ life.

In 1834, Burns joined Reverend John Seys (1799-1872) for a Methodist mission to the country of Liberia in Africa, and this was to become his life’s work. Burns at first worked as a teacher in the Monrovia Seminary, but would in time take on more work and far greater responsibilities. He labored as an itinerant preacher over the course of many years. Burns edited, “with marked ability,” Africa’s Luminary, a paper sponsored by the mission. He was elected to the office of deacon and then elder. He was appointed principal of the Monrovia Conference Seminary; served as the presiding elder of the Cape Palmas district, and preacher in charge of the Cape Palmas station; and for six years he served as the appointed president of the Liberia Annual Conference.

Burns “visited Windham twice after he had become a missionary and everybody in Windham and surroundings was rejoiced to see him. He preached to large congregations powerful and eloquent sermons. When it was announced that Burns was to preach, there was a general rush; everybody went for miles around.” (Windham Journal. September 30, 1886.)

In the autumn of 1857 Reverend Burns, on one of his trips back to the United States, returned to the town of his youth, and visited the North Settlement Methodist Church for its rededication.

“In the autumn of 1857 it was my good fortune to be present at a love-feast on North Settlement, Greene County, N.Y. A new church had been dedicated to God the day before, and now the society was assembled for their first love-feast in their new and beautiful temple. It was a time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. The aged members wept for joy, and gave thanks to God that the time had come when they had a comfortable church in which to worship in their declining years. There were many present from different parts of the circuit.

There were also present some eight or ten preachers, among whom was Francis Burns, late from Africa. This town was the place of his childhood; here he was reared, and here converted to God. In this vicinity he had been spending a few weeks among his old friends, recruiting his exhausted energies preparatory to his return to Africa.

He arose in the love-feast and said: “I have just visited the spot where I was converted more than thirty years ago. I sung the doxology, kneeled down and prayed, and then took my leave for the last time. The next month I shall spend on the Atlantic. You, my brethren, (referring to the ministers present,) will die in America; I will die in Africa. You will be buried in your beautiful cemeteries; I shall be buried by the foot of the palm. Over your grave will stand the cenotaph pointing to the heavens; but over mine the rose and the oleander will wave and bloom, and send forth their fragrance. Brethren, pray for me, for I mean that no man shall take my crown.”

Brother Burns sat down to weep amid deep emotion. The congregation was bathed in tears. All hearts melted. The audience was moved with sensation. The scene was solemn beyond description, and ranks with those never to be forgotten.” (Smith, pp. 156-157.)

At the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church of 1856, a provision was made for the election and ordination of a Missionary Bishop. Two years later, in January 1858, and after nearly a quarter century of “toiling and suffering on the western coast of Africa,” Burns was chosen for the position and became the first African American Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Burns returned to the United States for his ordination, which took place on October 14, 1858 at the session of the Genesee Annual Conference at Perry, New York. The ordination service was conducted by Bishop Janes and Bishop Baker.

After his consecration as Bishop, Burns “gave himself brief repose, but at once sailed for his distant field of labor, where he threw himself again into his loved work with a zeal which knew no abatement, and a heart that never grew cold; he would not spare himself. He had the care of the schools, of the printing press, and of the Churches and ministers; he must be everywhere in the supervision of these interests, and this not for a few weeks, as in the case of a visiting bishop, and then off for home, but this strain was unremitting; the close of the year only introducing another of increasing care as the good work spread.” (Trafton, 387.)

After continuing his work in Liberia for five more years after being appointed Bishop, Burns returned to the United States in 1863 due to poor health. “His long exposure to that terrible climate, the frequent attacks of malarial fever he had suffered, and his herculean labors, had about exhausted a constitution not naturally strong, and he broke down. His physician commanded instant cessation from labor, and a return the States.” (Trafton, p. 387.)

Bishop Francis Burns died on April 18, 1863, only three days after his arrival at Baltimore, Maryland. Funeral services were held at Sharp Street Church in Baltimore, officiated by Rev. Dr. Durbin, with several other ministers offering their own remarks. The service was attended by hundreds of people, including over 70 ministers. At his request, Bishop Burns’ body was returned to Liberia, accompanied by his wife, who planned to return to Africa to make her home. Bishop Francis Burns is buried at Palm Grove Cemetery in Monrovia, Liberia.

Sources

Bangs, Nathan. A History of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Volume 3. New York: G. Lane and C. B. Tippett, 1845.

Clark, Elmer T. An Album of Methodist History. New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1952.

Crowell, Seth. The Journal of Seth Crowell; Containing an Account of His Travels as a Methodist Preacher for Twelve Years. New York: J. C. Totten, 1813.

“Francis Burns. History of Windham, And Reminiscences of its People, Past and Present.” Windham Journal. Issues of September 16, 1886 (Part 37); September 23, 1886 (Part 38); September 30, 1886 (Part 39); and October 7, 1886 (Part 40).

“Funeral of Bishop Burns.” Buffalo Christian Advocate (Buffalo, New York). May 7, 1863.

North Settlement Methodist Church. Application for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. 1996.

Parks, Rev. Stephen. Troy Conference Miscellany. Albany: J. Lord, 1854.

Powell, William A. Jr. Methodist Circuit-riders in America, 1766-1844. Master’s Theses. 1977.

“Rev. Francis Burns.” The Ladies’ Repository. Volume 19. New York: Carlton & Porter, 1859. pp. 129-132.

Simpson, Matthew. Cyclopaedia of Methodism. Philadelphia: Everts & Stewart. 1878. pp. 147-148.

Smith, William C. “Francis Burns in a Love-Feast.” Sketch Book. New York: Carlton & Porter, 1860. pp. 156-157.

Sprague, William B. Annals of the American Methodist Pulpit. New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1873. pp. 349-350.

Trafton, Rev. Mark. “Francis Burns.” In John W. Hamilton, Lives of Methodist Bishops. New York: Phillips & Hunt, 1882. pp. 373-390.

Mitchell Hollow Union Chapel

Sat, 13 Jul 2024 12:00:00 GMT

The historic Mitchell Hollow Union Chapel, also known as Union Chapel, is located in the town of Windham in the northern Catskills. The church is situated on the north side of Mill Road at its intersection with Mitchell Hollow Road (County Route 21).

The church was constructed through community donations of labor, lumber and cash as well as the donation of 1/8 acre of land by Edgar Brockett. The church was built in 1897 and dedicated on April 21, 1898, with the dedicatory sermon provided by Reverend Henry M. Dodd. The church remains active in the community today.

As for the Mitchell Hollow name of the church, an article published in 1887 in the Windham Journal talked of the early history of the location.

“Mitchell Hollow was first settled about the year 1760 by a Mitchell family. They built a log house on the flats lying just east of the farm now owned by Frank Finch. These flats were afterward owned by my father, Sylvester Andrus. This was then in the heart of a howling wilderness, abounding with deer, panthers and wolves.

There is very little known of the history of the Mitchell family, from the fact that they either died or scattered before Mitchell Hollow was settled to any considerable extent. . . I remember, when a small boy, of seeing a daughter of the original Mitchell. She was then an old woman. She told me that when she was a little girl, she would help her father boil sap, and on one occasion, when returning from the bush after nightfall, she was compelled to carry a brand of fire to protect herself from the wolves, as they were howling around her in some numbers.

The Mitchells were about the only settlers in Mitchell Hollow until about the beginning of this century [19th], when, about that time, there came in old Deacon Finch with his sons, Elam, Wells, Willis and Clark. His other two sons, Justus and William, I believe were born in the Hollow.” (Andrus, Enos C. “Early History of Mitchell Hollow.” The Windham Journal. Windham, NY. June 11, 1925.)

Mitchell Hollow Union Chapel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as “a representative example of late nineteenth century classically inspired ecclesiastic architecture in the community of Windham. The building, albeit simple in plan, is an important surviving example of church architecture constructed to service the year-round population of the upper Catskill region.” The church stands virtually intact from its construction more than a century ago.

St. Francis de Sales Church at Elka Park, New York

Sat, 06 Jul 2024 12:00:00 GMT

The historic St. Francis de Sales Church is located in a peaceful setting in the northern Catskills along Platte Clove Road in Greene County, New York. The church is located north of the hamlet of Elka Park and south of the village of Tannersville.

The first St. Francis de Sales Church building at this location was constructed in 1891 through the leadership of Father Hugh O’Neil. Given its proximity, the church was long associated with the Elka Park community, which was established two years prior in 1889. The original members of the Elka Park community were all native-born Germans, many of whom had come to the United States in the 1840s and 1850s. The founders of Elka Park were all members of the Liederkranz Club of New York City, a social club of prominent German Americans. Elka Park was designed as a seasonal resort, with a theme of comfort and recreation among families of like social standing and cultural heritage.

Father O’Neil, the first pastor of the original St. Francis de Sales Church, was born in Dungarvan, County Waterford in Ireland on May 18, 1838, the son of Patrick and Ellen (McSweeney) O’Neil. His father Patrick was a farmer in early life, but later engaged in the bakery business at Dungarvan. Patrick also worked as a spirits merchant and, before the advent of railroads, ran a line of carriages known as post coaches. Patrick was regarded as “a highly respected citizen and an able supporter of the church.” Father O’Neil’s mother Ellen was born in Tipperary in 1796. During the Rebellion of 1798, her family took refuge in the County of Waterford. Hugh was one of eight children.

For his education, Father O’Neil attended a classical school and prepared for college with private tutors, and in 1858 attended All Hallows College in Dublin, where he graduated in 1860. His theological studies were completed at Waterford and at St. Mary’s College at Oscott, England. He was ordained a priest of the Roman Catholic Church on February 9, 1867. After 15 years of service in England at several different parishes, Father O’Neil came to the United States in 1882.

After several assignments at Philadelphia and at Indianapolis, in 1887 Father O’Neil came to St. Mary’s Church at Hunter, New York in the northern Catskills. He replaced Father Patrick H. Delehanty (1852-1888), who had served St. Mary’s Church from the spring of 1883 until September 1887.

Father O’Neil’s obligations at Hunter, New York included “the arduous duties of a widely distributed district, which included villages and settlements within a radius of fifty miles.” His duties “were zealously and energetically performed by him for five years, or until his circuit was divided, since which time the concentration of his labors has enabled him to accomplish results far more visible in their effects. Besides effecting the enlargement and improvement of St. Mary’s Church, he erected St. Franis de Sales Church in Platerkill [Elka Park] in 1891. At both these churches he officiates the year round, celebrating two masses each Sunday during the summer season, besides holding week-day services whenever occasion demands.” For a time, he conducted regular services at the Hotel Kaaterskill during the tourist season, “but these he was obliged to relinquish on account of his increasing labors elsewhere.”

Father O’Neil was well regarded in the community. “He has earnestly endeavored to promote the spiritual welfare of his widely-scattered flock, and the zeal he displays in conducting the affairs of his pastorate has gained for him the good will of the entire community. He organized the Sacred Heart and Rosary societies, and he takes a lively interest in the work of the town improvement society, of which he is a member. At the earnest request of the people of Lexington he aided in securing the erection of a church in that village; and he has also repaired St. Henry’s Church, located between Ashland and Prattsville.” (Biographical Review: Containing Life Sketches of Leading Citizens of Schoharie, Schenectady and Greene Counties, New York. pp. 192-193.)

In November 1900 Father O’Neil retired from parish work due to failing eyesight and a complication of diseases. Upon retiring, Father O’Neil left the United States to return to his home country of Ireland. He died less than a year later in September 1901 at his birthplace of Dungarvan, County Waterford in Ireland. Upon his passing it was written that Father O’Neil “was well known in this city [Troy], where he had many friends. He was especially popular in Troy and Hunter, and his death will be lamented generally by the people in both places.” (The Argus. September 13, 1901.)

In time, the first St. Francis de Sales Church, once described as “a little shed-like church building,” outlived its usefulness, and it was decided to construct a new church in order to accommodate the growing congregation. Money for the construction of the church was provided by Francis H. Lewis, supplemented by money raised by the congregation. The design of the church was based on Father Keefe’s remembrances of a church he had seen in France. The old church building was moved across the road, where it was used for several years as a parochial school for the parish.

The new St. Francis de Sales Church was dedicated on May 20, 1913 by Bishop Thomas Burke of Albany. Upon the church’s dedication, the building was described as “a very pretty frame edifice and will afford ample accommodation for all the Catholics of that district having a seating capacity of 400.”

The church was built under the leadership of Father William E. Keefe, who served at the Immaculate Conception Church at Haines Falls. Father Keefe’s “territory in the mountains was extensive owing to the fact of it being a popular vacationing section, and comprised all of Greene County on top of the Catskill Mountains. It covered three townships and included many small villages and hamlets. During the summer three priests have worked under Father Keefe in that section. All the well known mountain parks, including Onteora, Elka, Twilight, Sunset and Santa Cruz are within the territory which was comprised in his working section. These parks are private reserves and enclose the summer homes of many wealthy New York, Philadelphia and Washington people.” (The Columbian Republican. June 27, 1916.)

Father Keefe was born in Cohoes, New York on August 24, 1870. He was educated in the public schools of Cohoes, the old Christian Brother Academy and at Niagara University. He was prepared for the priesthood at St. Joseph’s Seminary at Troy, New York. He was ordained into the priesthood on September 19, 1896 at the chapel of the Sacred Heart Convent at Kenwood, New York. After ordination he was sent to Catholic University at Washington D. C. for post-graduate studies, where he remained until June 1897.

Father Keefe was next assigned to a summer mission at Lexington in the Catskills, where he remained until September, 1897. He was then appointed chaplain for the Christian Brothers, who then had a novitiate at the Old Troy Seminary in Troy, New York. Later he was made assistant pastor of St. Bernard’s Church at Cohoes, and remained there for six years. He was then appointed pastor of the Immaculate Conception Church at Haines Falls. In 1916 he was appointed pastor of St. Mary’s Church at Hudson, New York, where he remained for 24 years until his passing in 1940. Father Keefe is buried at Saint Agnes Cemetery at Menands, New York.

St. Francis de Sales Church is part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany. The mission church falls under the auspices of the Sacred Heart-Immaculate Conception Parish that includes the communities of Palenville, Haines Falls, Tannersville, Elka Park, East Jewett, Hunter and Lexington. Adjacent to the church is the St. Francis de Sales Cemetery, which contains over 1,100 grave sites.

In addition to the St. Francis de Sales Church at Elka Park, there were two other nearby churches of the same name in the hamlets of Phoenicia and at Lexington. The church building at Lexington no longer serves its original religious purpose, as it is now the home to the Lexington Historical Society.

St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) is a recognized saint in the Roman Catholic faith. He served as the Bishop of Geneva and authored in 1609 the highly influential Introduction to the Devout Life. He was canonized in 1665 and was further honored in 1877 with the title of Doctor of the Church, a title bestowed on those who have advanced the Catholic Church’s knowledge of faith through their research, study and writing. His feast day is celebrated on January 24. He has been honored as the patron saint of Catholic writers, Catholic journalists and the deaf.

Murder at the Stone Arch Bridge

Sat, 29 Jun 2024 12:00:00 GMT

The Stone Arch Bridge at Kenoza Lake in Sullivan County, New York is locally famous for its role in one of the most prominent murder cases in Catskills history. The dramatic story involves supposed witchcraft, a hex that lasted for over 20 years, a gruesome murder, mental insanity and a lasting legacy of family tragedy and suicide.

The story begins with George Markert, a local farmer, who had eaten supper with his family on the evening of Tuesday, January 19, 1892, and after went to the nearby Halfway House establishment of Philip Hembdt. The Halfway House, “a respectable roadside inn,” was located about one-half mile from Markert’s home along the main road. Markert arrived at the Halfway House between 6 and 7 p.m., remaining for several hours while having a few glasses of beer with his neighbors and friends. Markert left the hotel around 10 or 11 in the evening. Markert headed in the direction of his home, while the others headed to their own homes in different directions.

On his return home, Markert was viciously murdered as he crossed over the Stone Arch Bridge. He was shot five times in the back and side of his head and beaten with a heavy walking stick, resulting in several severe scalp wounds and a badly fractured skull. At least one of the pistol shots was from close range, as blackened powder marks were found around one of the wounds. The body was then dumped over the side of the stone bridge into the cold creek below, a drop of approximately 27 feet.

Markert’s house was located about 125 yards from the stone bridge. Markert was living with his second wife and her grandson named John Sanders, but was better known as Johnny Markert. In physical appearance, George Markert was described as 5 foot, 9 inches in height and weighed about 165 pounds. Markert was born in Germany and immigrated to the United States in the 1860s. When he was about 20 years old, he worked in a tannery near Turners. Later he worked for Gideon Wales at Pike Pond, now Kenoza Lake, and while there married Caroline Heidt, the sister of Adam Heidt. After Caroline had died at Rockville, Connecticut, Markert married Katherine Zehner, circa October 1884. She was a widow with three children.

Markert eventually saved enough money to purchase a small farm in Kenoza Lake near the Halfway House of Philip Hembdt. His farm was only 15 acres, most of which “was just a niche chopped out of a larger one.” One newspaper article referred to Markert as “probably the poorest man in the community.” Given the relatively small size of the farm, Markert also worked as a laborer for other farms in the area as a means of earning extra money.

Markert was regarded as “honest and respected by nearly all his neighbors.” He was also described as “an inoffensive man. Like the rest of the Germans, who make up the population of that vicinity, he enjoyed a glass of beer, and minded his own business.” (Port Jervis Daily Union. January 25, 1892.) Another report noted that Markert “was an honest, good-hearted man, and no enemies, except the Heidts.” (Hancock Herald. January 28, 1892.)

The well-attended funeral of George Markert took place at the Halfway House in Kenoza Lake five days after his murder at one o’clock in the afternoon on Sunday, January 24, 1892. He was survived by his second wife; three daughters, Mrs. A. Gerlich and Mrs. Wohlebe of Rockville, Connecticut; and Mary Markert of Kenoza Lake; by four step-children, and a little grandson who was living with him. George Markert is buried at the Kenoza Lake Cemetery in Kenoza Lake, New York.

George Markert

The Murder Scene

The murder scene was discovered about nine o’clock in the morning on Wednesday, January 20, the day after the murder. Mrs. Markert, realizing that her husband had not come home the night prior, had instructed their grandson Johnny to go to the Halfway House to inquire of Philip Hembdt as to his whereabouts. Along the way to the Halfway House, Johnny came upon neighbors John N. Kohler, who was a farmer and mail carrier, and Casper VonBerger, both of whom were on their way to cut fuel in the woods.

The three of them, coming upon the bridge, at the scene of the crime, found large blood stains in the newly fallen snow and tracks were found where the body was dragged and thrown over the side of the bridge. A shattered chair leg, an open jack-knife and a blood-soaked folding cap, all belonging to Markert, were found. The chair leg, about three feet in length, was frequently used by Markert as a walking stick. The walking stick was instantly recognized by Johnny for he had found it the summer before and gifted it to Markert. Footprints were found in the snow that were made by a size 11 rubber boot or shoe, which were later found to match those of the suspected murderer. An imprint of a right knee was found near an imprint of a head, and both spots were saturated with blood.

At the scene of the crime, and given the well-known animosity that Adam Heidt had for Markert, Mr. Kohler exclaimed, “Well, if Markert is dead, Heidt killed him.” Mr. Kohler instructed Johnny to go back to the house to tell his mother what they found. Johnny, upon arriving at his house, said to his mom that “Pa is murdered and thrown over the bridge.” Philip Hembdt arrived quickly and was one of the first people to investigate the scene of the murder.

After the initial evidence of the murder was discovered, a group of approximately 80 people was organized, and they began to thoroughly search the Callicoon Creek for the body. They poled boats up and down the river, raking the soft, underflowing ice. Other parties walked along the banks of the creek with hooks, poles, grapnels and rakes. For over 48 hours on Wednesday, January 20, and Thursday, January 21, the search continued without success.

On Friday, January 22, at around 11:30am, Charlie Heidt, the local constable, who was in a boat with Henry Wagner, noticed something in the water that looked like a coat. It was at a point in the river opposite Joseph Welch’s house. Charlie hooked the unknown object that had been snagged under three feet of water. Upon realizing that it was the body of George Markert, Charlie pulled the stiff body, which was covered with soft ice, to the surface. The body was found about a half-mile downstream from the stone arch bridge. Markert’s body was dragged to the shore, placed on a sled and then taken to the Halfway House, where it was examined by Coroner John Dycker, of Callicoon Depot and Dr. Simeon Kemp, a practicing physician and surgeon of Callicoon Depot for the prior 25 years, and assisted by Dr. Brand, of Jeffersonville.

The autopsy revealed “eight lacerations of the scalp as though made by some blunt instrument like a club; also five pistol-shot wounds. After a crucial incision of the scalp an extravasation of blood was found and a fracture of the skull eight inches in length extending from the frontal bone across the parietal bone to the occipital bone in an oblique direction. The first shot wound was four inches behind left ear, bullet imbedded in the lower part of the occipital bone; second shot wound two inches behind left ear, bullet penetrating occipital bone to the dura mater; third shot wound just below the second, bullet glanced off the skull and found imbedded in the muscles of the neck fourth bullet glanced off skull and lodged under the muscles of the neck at back; fifth shot wound passing through the angle of left lower jaw, bullet found in the sphenoidal bone; all the bullets were found.” (Sullivan County Record. January 29, 1892.)

There was also “a black-and-blue welt across the knuckles of one hand as though received in warding off a blow from a heavy stick.” (Middletown Daily Press. January 26, 1892.) Robbery was determined to not be the motive, as the little money that Markert had in his pockets was undisturbed. It was also felt that “nobody would have committed the deed for money, as the man was poor.” (Republican Watchman. January 29, 1892.)

Suspects

Adam Heidt and his son Joseph, the brother-in-law and nephew of Markert, respectively, were both quickly suspected of having committed the crime, for they had not been on good terms with Markert and had long wished him dead. The suspected motive for the murder was that both the Heidts believed Markert was a “hexenmeister,” or sorcerer, who possessed supernatural powers, and that he practiced the “black art” of witchcraft. The Heidts believed that Markert was a “principal midnight visitor to the “hexenkanzel,” or witch pulpit, a spot in the neighborhood where the adepts in the black art were said to meet to say their incantations against those whom they sought to harm or destroy.” Both Adam and Joseph believed that Markert had placed a hex on Adam Heidt and his family which had led to personal illness, prevented their cows from giving cream, the death of several their cattle, the death of a horse, killed their crops and frustrated business plans. The Heidts also believed that Markert’s hex had led to the death of several family members.

Adam Heidt

Joseph Heidt

Adam Heidt believed the hex began about 22 years before the murder, around 1870, when Markert patted him on the back three times and said, “You are a good brother-in-law, a good brother-in-law, a right good brother-in-law.” This supposed hex took place at the Halfway House, then owned and operated by the Bietz family. Heidt claimed “from that time on I was ailing, more or less all the time; I didn’t know and no doctor could tell what ailed me; medicine done me no good. My trouble never hindered me from work, but I was always ailing.”

Heidt complained of headaches, face pain and stomach issues, all ailments for which medicine did no good. In 1879, Adam went to Dr. Bennitt, who told him that he was healthy, “and he could not tell me what made me ailing. He gave me medicine which did me no good, but made me much worse. I took half of it and stopped. Another year, I went to Dr. Kemp. His medicine did me no good, but hurt me. I lived then in the Beech Wood. I had pains all over. Nothing would cure or help them, and my stomach beat like my heart. Gradually I grew worse, and in March, twelve years ago [1880], I went to Jefferson to see Dr. Wolfreen. He gave me medicine, and said he knew what ailed me. At first, I thought it did me good, but after taking a bottle of it I got down sick. Markert then lived in the Gannpler place. Dr. Wolfreen came to my house and was surprised to see how bad I was. It was reported around then that I would die – starve to death. I had pains like filling teeth. All at once I got better.” (The Sun. January 28, 1892.)

Heidt then claimed that his health improved greatly during the several years that Markert had lived in Connecticut, but that the pains had started again as soon as Markert returned. At an early inquest in to the murder in late January, 1892, Adam Heidt talked openly about his beliefs that Markert had cursed him, his resulting ailments and the steps he took to cure himself.

“I first saw him at our house, and there we shook hands. After that I had worse pains than I ever had before. They were in my head and legs and in my side. If I bought patent medicine the first bottle did me good, but the next made me worst than I had been. Then I let go of that and took the pills, with no better luck. Markert visited me two or three times a year till a year ago last spring. A year ago last spring he came to my house and we shook hands, and I took him in the cellar and treated him to cider. I got at once strange feelings in my eyes. We went upstairs and sat down, he opposite me. He stroked his whiskers.

He stroked his whiskers and twisted his hand at the end of each stroke as if he was throwing something from them at me. He saw that I noticed it and stopped. When I turned my head, he did the same thing again. I went and looked in the glass. My face was yellow, with a blue rim around my eyes. He then went home. I told my wife to look at my face, and that Markert was a witch and had cast a spell upon me. She told me she couldn’t believe that he would do such a thing because he talked so much religion. I told her I thought he had done it.

The next Sunday he came again and did the same thing. Again, my face turned yellow and blue and I had pains all over. Then he came the third Sunday and I wasn’t home. I had been to church in the morning and had walked to Jeffersonville. At just the time Markert called at the house and stroked his beard the thing came upon me in Jeffersonville, and when I got home, I said to my wife that Markert had been here. She asked my why, and I told her. She didn’t believe it. From that time, I had pain three days in the week, Friday Saturday, and Sunday, until in July, when he came to my place again and asked me how I was. I asked how a man who was sick all the time would be. He came the next Sunday and wanted a satisfaction piece on the judgment. I have it to him. From that time my trouble changed, and the pains would begin any day in the week and last three successive days. It was in my eyes and brain, and when it went off I had a peculiar feeling in my breast.

The last time Markert came to my house was in December, 1890. A month later he wanted me to file a saw for him. I wouldn’t do it, for to look at it gave me pain. I went to Dr. Hazie after that. He prescribed vapor baths. I took the baths, and then he prescribed medicine. I took it, and it made me a great deal worse. I had pains in my face every day and all the time. Then I went to a hospital [St. Francis Hospital in New York.] I was there two weeks and got no relief. They gave me medicine three times daily, which I couldn’t take, and they said they didn’t know what ailed me. The professor examined my and found me sound, but he shook his head afraid like, and seemed glad when I went away.

I couldn’t eat or sleep then. I came out of the hospital then and I had a conversation with a woman. She asked my why I went to the hospital. I told her it was to get relief from my troubles. She said medicine would not help me. She said I should not shake hands with any man. She wrote something for me on a piece of paper. She said I should not look at it, but I should carry it all the time and that if I did, I would get better. I saw her again six weeks later, in March, 1891. Before I saw her, I got pains in my stomach. After the second visit the pain left my stomach and went to my limbs.

After seeing Mrs. Stein the second time I came back home, and then I went to see Markert. We were alone. I told him he was the man who had patted me on the shoulder and said, “You are a good, a right good brother-in law,” and I tried to make him take the words back, but he only laughed. At that time, I had a feeling in my legs as if ants were crawling up and down This continued until November, 1891.

Then I went to see my brother in Bradford, Pennsylvania. I stayed there five weeks, and he took me to see the travelling Dr. Clark in Towanda. That doctor gave me two glass bulbs, with a glass tube connecting, and told me to hold them in my hands. The liquid in one was forced over to the other. He told me this indicated heart disease, liver disease, kidney disease, and some other diseases. He was going to fix medicines, but I said I didn’t want any. I did not tell him I was bewitched.

I left Bradford and went to Pittsburgh, and saw Father Mollinger. He gave me a blessing, and said that I needed no medicine. I did not tell him what ailed me. I expected the blessing would me off. It didn’t. I was there eight days, and I came directly home to Callicoon. I walked from Callicoon depot, and under the railroad bridge I found a revolver and a box of cartridges. I brought it home. The next morning, I wrapped it up in rags and hid it away in the haymow. I did not tell anyone I had found it. The last time I saw Markert alive was the night of the first Saturday in January. I was down by his house, and saw him through a window at his table.” (The Sun. January 28, 1892.)

Mrs. Stein, the witch Adam visited at Eighty-fifth Street in New York, offered advice on how to break the spell. She said that Adam must get Markert’s hat and boil it, and then he must with his own hand take the brain from the skull of a dead man and boil it.

At one point during his afflictions, perhaps following Mrs. Stein’s instructions, Adam hoped to acquire a hat from Markert, in the belief that if he got one it would relieve him of Markert’s witchery. Johnny Markert testified at an early inquest that Joseph had approached him one day as Johnny came out of a store in Kenoza Lake one day and asked if his father George had an old hat at home, and that Joseph had offered to pay Johnny a quarter if he would bring the hat to the second hill in the woods the next night. Joseph had stated that he wanted it for the Swiss Hill concert that was going to take place in the schoolhouse. Johnny agreed, but after he went home and told his mother, she said he could wait a long time till he got the hat. No one from the Heidt family ever mentioned the hat again to Johnny.

When Markert’s body was found, two letters written from Adam Heidt to Markert were discovered in his coat pocket. One letter contained the warning that if Markert was caught on the Heidt property again he would be killed. The second letter stated that if Markert did not stop “moonshining” the family, he would be killed anyway.

One letter written by Adam Heidt to George Markert, dated March 19, 1891, stated “You seeming friend and sly enemy. Nothing done so fine but what it will appear in the daytime. God had opened my eyes. You should take your witchcraft back. You know I have a judgment against you. You came to me on a Sunday and got a receipt. If you do not take the torture back, I will sell the judgment and pay the doctor bill which you have caused. You came to my house and stroked your beard. I was sick all the time. I forbid you my house and my barn, my flesh and blood. In the name of God. A Heidt.” (Middletown Daily Press. August 19, 1892.)

Two years before his murder, when Markert received several threatening letters from Adam Heidt, he went to Judge Potts and showed the letters to him. Mr. Potts advised Markert to prosecute Heidt, but he never did it, as he felt kindly towards Heidt based on their relationship and family connection.

In the fall of 1891, only months prior to Markert’s murder, Adam Heidt had visited Conrad Metzger, a friend, to request to borrow $10 to go to the city of New York in the hopes of getting cured. While in New York Adam visited a clairvoyant who, when he entered the room, told him that “some one has put a spell on you.” When Adam saw Conrad again that fall, he talked of being bewitched. Conrad questioned him, saying “You don’t believe in it?” But Adam did seem to believe in it, but “did not express any angry feeling, but I [Conrad] noticed his manner was angry.” (Middletown Times-Press. August 19, 1892.)

In deliberating on the hex placed by Markert, Adam thought of the many tragedies that had afflicted the Heidt family in the years before the murder. In 1874, Nicholas Heidt, Adam’s brother, died from his injuries after being hit by a train of the Erie Railroad. Nicholas was working as brakeman for the railroad and had been coupling railroad cars at Lackawaxen. Adam claimed that Markert had possessed Nicholas to go on the track in front of the train and be killed.

On July 11, 1882, Anton Ulrich, Barbara Heidt’s father and Adam Heidt’s father-in-law, died instantly after falling from a wagon, striking his head and fracturing the bones of his neck. A team of horses were pulling a wagon full of a load of hay, and the horsed became frightened and started to run. Within a short distance Anton was thrown from the wagon to his death. This too was blamed on Markert.

In 1887, Ursula Ulrich, Barbara Heidt’s mother, was brutally murdered by a drunken ex-sailor named Abel John Allen, more commonly known as ‘Sailor Jack’. Allen shot Ulrich with a shot gun and then stabbed her in several places. Her house “bore every evidence of having been ransacked for plunder.” Allen was convicted of murder and would become the last man ever hanged in Sullivan County, New York. Heidt blamed the tragic event on Markert. It was believed that Jack Allen was no witch, but that he must have been possessed by one.

It was rumored that there were probably 20 people, in addition to Adam, in the Kenoza Lake community of 200 people that believed in witchcraft. “When a neighbor’s barn burns, they say that he has incurred the anger of the witches. When a neighbor’s child falls sick, they resort to mysterious devices and incantations to get it out of the power of the witch. They cut out of the mud the footprints of the suspected one and roast them and break them up and strew the ashes to the four winds. They put chalk marks on the doors to keep the evil spirits away, and carry charms about their necks. They hang stove pokers up for protection, and do many other strange things that have been handed down as means of preventing evil.” (The Sun. January 28, 1892.)

In the days following the murder, and upon several searches of the Heidt home, a number of pieces of incriminating evidence were found, including a blood-soaked .38-caliber revolver which had recently been fired, a .32 caliber pistol, a bloody handkerchief in a closet and an overcoat with blood spots. Bullets from the revolver matched those found in the head of George Markert. Joseph had two scratches on the back of his left hand. On Joseph’s undergarments, blood stains were found on the right knee. A pair of felt boots, belonging to Joseph, had rubber bottoms on them, the tracks of which matched the footprints in the snow at the scene of the murder.

At the inquest held in the weeks following the murder, Adam claimed that he knew nothing of the murder and that the first he heard of it was when the officers came to his house the following day. Adam also stated that he did not feel relieved of his troubles when he heard of Markert’s death, or at any time thereafter. The lawyers and the jury at the inquest specifically asked Adam “Are you better than before Markert was killed?” Markert responded, “Not a bit. There is pain in me now. I saw Markert dead, and saw Dr. Kemp extract the bullets from his head. The sight of him dead gave me no relief.” (The Sun. January 28, 1892.)

Adam Heidt was a 42-year-old farmer who lived at a place called Swiss Hill, which was south of Jeffersonville, about one-half mile from the Halfway House, and about one mile from Markert’s home. He was four years old in 1853 when he immigrated with his family to the United States from Germany. In 1869, Adam married Barbara Ulrich, the son of Anton and Ursula Urich. Barbara was described as being “possessed of considerably more sense than her husband.” At the time of the murder he was married, with a family of three sons and two daughters. The children included Joseph, 22 years old; John, 18 years old; Rosie, 14 years old; Anthony, 12 years old; and Mary, 3 years old. Adam was commonly known as “old man Heidt,” even though he was only 42 years old.

Heidt’s farm covered 133 acres, most of which was cultivated. His farm was one of the largest in the community, his stock was considered among the best and “their place is finely kept up.” (Hancock Herald. January 28, 1892.) In physical appearance, Adam was of medium height and weighed about 165 pounds.

Adam was described very differently in the press, depending on the account. One article described Adam as “a hard-working man, and though considered honest, he is said to harbor a very keen desire for gain; and to gratify this desire he has on different occasions endeavored to influence the division of legacies of relatives. He is Roman Catholic.” On the contrary, an article in the New York Times stated that Adam “has been long known in the community as of a low order of intellect and extremely ignorant and superstitious.” (New York Times. January 28, 1892.) Another article reported that Heidt “is somewhat demented, but has been known for many years as a quiet, peaceable citizen by his neighbors.” (Port Jervis Daily Union. January 21, 1892.)

Joseph Heidt, Adam’s son, was 22 years old at the time of the murder. He had lived with his family on Swiss Hill at Kenoza Lake for 13 years. He had two brothers and two sisters, of whom he was the oldest. He was educated until he was 16 years old, attending school at Buckwoods, Kenoza Lake and Swiss Hill. He attended school during the winter and worked on the home farm during the summer. He regularly attended the Catholic Church at Jeffersonville. In physical appearance, Joseph was about 5 feet, 10 inches tall and weighed about 190 pounds. Prior to being suspected in Markert’s murder, Joseph was regarded as “having a good reputation. He has had no quarrels with anyone, and was universally regarded as a good citizen.” (Hancock Herald. January 28, 1892.)

John Heidt, Adam’s son and Joseph’s brother, was also initially suspected of having been involved in the murder. At the time, John, 18 years of age, and described as “a pimple-faced, nervous youth,” was working as a school teacher at Birch settlement. In physical appearance he was of short stature and weighed about 140 pounds. He provided a solid alibi and was released.

Although John was not implicated in the crime, John was thought to know something about it. On the evening following the murder, he had made a memorandum titled “Testimony,” written with pencil on paper, of the time he came home from school Tuesday evening and of his movements from then on. He would later testify at trial that Joseph had returned home the night of the murder at a late hour, approximately between twelve and two in the morning.

The day after the murder, and while attending to his teaching duties, John “suddenly and to the amazement of his scholars, broke down weeping violently. A scholar asked him what was the matter, and he said he was worried because he didn’t know what was going on at home.” (Hancock Herald. January 28, 1892.)

Grand Jury

In February 1892 a Grand Jury was convened at Monticello, New York to determine whether the case against Adam Heidt and Joseph Heidt should proceed to trial. District Attorney Melvin Couch presented the case to the Grand Jury and an indictment was secured.

The trial was originally scheduled to take place in May 1892 at the Oyer and Terminer court at Monticello. However, the trial was delayed until August as neither the prosecution nor the defense was ready to proceed by May. In July 1892 a special term of the Supreme Court at Monticello was scheduled for August, specifically for the trial of Adam Heidt and Joseph Heidt.

While awaiting trial both Adam and Joseph “seem to be very much cast down. The elder is especially lachrymose and melancholy and has frequent fits of weeping. Neither shows any disposition to talk, evidently preferring to be left alone.” (Middletown Daily Press. February 13, 1892.)

Trial of Joseph Heidt

The trials of Adam Heidt and Joseph Heidt were held separately in August 1892, seven months after the murder. District Attorney Melvin Couch opted to try Joseph first, and his trial began on Tuesday, August 16, 1892. Joseph was defended by lawyer George McLaughlin, of Monticello. The trial was overseen by Judge Edgar L. Fursman (1838-1910), of Troy, New York. John E. Kelly served as court stenographer.

Judge Edgar L. Fursman

For his defense, Joseph was well represented by his lawyer George McLaughlin (1841-1920), who was highly respected in the legal field. McLaughlin attended Alleghany College, at Alleghany Pennsylvania, and upon graduation was admitted to the bar in Ohio. In 1868, due to failing health, McLaughlin moved from Ohio to Sullivan County, New York to work for his uncle. He came to Monticello in 1872 and opened his own law practice. He remained in Monticello for 26 years until 1898, when he moved to Albany, New York upon being appointed secretary of the State Prison Commission.

The prosecution was also well represented by District Attorney Melvin Couch (1848-1913), “a very capable and astute lawyer.” Couch was born at Glen Wild, New York and was educated in the common schools followed by the Monticello Academy. After having gone west to teach for a few years, he returned east to study law, and was admitted to the bar in 1878. He began practicing law in Liberty, but after one year he moved to Monticello to open a law office. He continued to practice at Monticello for the remainder of his life. Upon his passing in 1913 it was written that “he was a man of rare genius” and that “there never was in the village and probably never will be again such a type of man.” (Sullivan County Republican. December 26, 1913.)

District Attorney Melvin Couch

Upon being escorted into the courtroom by officers of the law for his trial at 10am on the morning of August 16, Joseph was “sprucely dressed in black clothes, and wore linen of immaculate whiteness.” He “presented a downcast appearance,” but was “cleanly shaved and neatly dressed.” Joseph “sat with his legs crossed and his right hand shading his eyes. Through the whole day he did not for one moment allow his eyes to be seen but once, and that was when the jurors were being sworn and he was required to stand up.” (Middletown Times-Press. August 17, 1892.) At times during the trial, Joseph had “spells of weeping.”

The case began with jury selection. The 12 jurors selected for the trial represented a cross-section of Sullivan County citizens. They included William C. Allan, sash and blind maker, Monticello; Mr. Hornbeck, ex-school commissioner, now farmer, Neversink; Joel C. Blackman, farmer, Liberty; Charles Hall, farmer, Neversink; Gilbert DuBois, merchant, Livingston Manor; William T. Daved, farmer, Phillipsport; Richard Gray, miller and farmer, Parksville; Charles Atwell, farmer, Fallsburgh; John W. Curry, farmer, Neversink; Riley Grant, farmer, Liberty; Manasseh Ingraham, farmer, Neversink; A. E. Rudolph, harness maker and bowling alley proprietor, Monticello. Manasseh Ingraham was chosen as jury foreman.

With the jury selected, the trial began at 3 o’clock in the afternoon on August 16. Catherine Markert, George’s widow, was the first witness, and testified that she thought she heard footsteps around the house on the night of the murder, but did not hear the shots from the revolver. She was followed by her grandson Johnny Markert, who testified that his mother had sent him to find his father, had met Mr. Kohler and they found evidence of the killing. John Kohler testified about finding the scene of the crime on the morning after the murder. Philip Hembdt, owner of the Halfway House, testified about the timing of Markert’s visit to the Halfway House on the night of the murder. Charles Heidt testified about finding the body of George Markert in the Callicoon Creek. William Schott, constable for the town of Delaware, testified about searching the Heidt home and finding several pieces of incriminating evidence. Conrad Metzger testified to the sale of rubber over-shoes to Joseph and that Joseph “has always had the best reputation in our town.”

At 9am on Wednesday, August 17, 1892, Dr. Simeon Kemp continued his testimony from the prior evening, describing his autopsy of the body of George Markert. Dr. Kemp presented photographs of Markert’s skull where the abrasions occurred. The photographs were shown to the jury. William Wilson, a member of the searching party, testified on finding a bloody overcoat at the Heidt home. Wirt Moulthrop testified about seeing Joseph at Kenoza Lake at 8:30 in the evening on the night of the murder and testified as to Joseph’s good character. John Bosley, a constable in the town of Delaware, testified about the Heidts belief that Markert had bewitched them. Oliver Hofer, Justice of the Peace for the town of Callicoon, testified about the crime scene, the autopsy and the search of the Heidt home. He presented a diagram of the murder scene that he had made as evidence.

Curtis Alley, a hotel owner at Kenoza Lake, testified that Joseph had left his house around 9:15pm on the night of the murder and that Joseph didn’t drink anything while there. John Heidt, Joseph’s brother, testified about the time that Joseph had returned home on the night of the murder. Judge Thornton, of Monticello, testified of the confession given by Joseph when the Judge had visited Joseph in jail in May 1892. Smith Benedict, a blacksmith at Kenoza Lake, testified to having seen Joseph on the night of the murder, as Joseph had inquired about shoeing his horses the next day.

After the prosecution rested, Joseph’s lawyer, George McLauglin, opened the case for the defense by summarizing “the history of this [Heidt] family, and of the character, standing and habits of Joseph Heidt; his peaceable character, his industrious habits; that he was a young man living there at the home farm, temperate, honest and hardworking.” (Sullivan County Record. August 26, 1892.) McLaughlin stated that it would be shown that the killing was committed in self-defense.

Joseph then took the stand to present his version of the story, his testimony being “given in a voice hardly audible even to the persons nearest to him.” (Republican Watchman. August 19, 1892.) For his actions, Joseph had already confessed to having committed the crime, but claimed that he had acted in self-defense. The story presented at Joseph’s trial was that he believed that Markert had placed a curse on his father, and that he wished to help his father in having Markert remove the curse. On the night of January 19, Joseph went to Markert’s house to talk to him, looked in the windows, but did not see him. Joseph assumed that Markert was at the Halfway House, and went to wait for Markert at the stone arch bridge. When Markert arrived, Joseph asked “Uncle, won’t you please take that spell from father?” Markert responded by saying “I didn’t put any spell on him and cannot take it off.”

Joseph asked again, “Dear Uncle, won’t you please take off the spell.” Markert again responded that he could not. Joseph became angry and threatened to have his uncle arrested, at which Markert became enraged, clinched Joseph and hit him. Markert then took out his jack-knife, at which point, Joseph believed that Markert was going to kill him. Joseph tried to escape, but slipped and fell to the ground, grabbing hold of Markert as he fell. Joseph drew his revolver and fired, with the first shot killing Markert. Joseph did not recollect having fired five times, did not recollect having beaten him with the club, but did recollect throwing him into the creek. Markert’s knife was found at the bridge the day after his death. Joseph testified that he was alone when he killed Markert, and that his father Adam had nothing to do with it. He also testified that the cuts on his hand were from Markert’s knife.

Joseph then testified that after killing Markert, he went home, and that he “was afraid to tell of the deed for fear of being lynched; after I was arrested and put in jail, I concluded to tell all.” He spoke of having serious headaches for several days after the murder.

McLaughlin began closing arguments for the defense at 1:40pm, going “over the evidence from beginning to end and dwelt strongly upon the former irreproachable character of the defendant. In his plea, which was a strong one, he stated that Heidt was purely a simple, misled boy.” His summation lasted for approximately 1 1/2 hours, concluding at 3:10pm. District Attorney then closed with his version of the case over 30 minutes. The judge then began his charge to the jury. At 4:20pm, the jury retired for deliberations, and were escorted by constable John Masten.

The jury deliberations in Joseph’s case took approximately three hours and twenty minutes, with four ballots taking place. The first three ballots were nine to three in favor of a guilty verdict, and on the fourth ballot the vote was unanimous. The jury did not believe Joseph’s story of self-defense and he was found guilty of second-degree murder.

At 7:40pm the bell in the court house rang out, which proclaimed that the jury’s decision had been reached. Crowds quickly assembled until the court room was filled to overflowing. Judge Thornton, the acting county clerk, addressed the jury, saying “Gentlemen of the jury, look upon the prisoner, prisoner look upon the jury; how find you this man, guilty or not guilty?” Manasseh Ingraham, the jury foreman, rose and stated that they had agreed on a verdict of murder in the second degree.

With the reading of the verdict, the crowds responded with “a ripple of applause.” Surprisingly, Joseph “manifested his delight by a brightening of the face, such as had not been observed during the trial.” The judge complimented the jury on their verdict and stated that they had performed their duty with fidelity and intelligence. The judge announced that Joseph would be sentenced at the close of the court term, which was two days later.

On August 19, 1892, the judge sentenced Joseph Heidt, saying “the sentence which the law imposes for the crime, for which are justly found guilty is fixed, and there is no discretion in the court to modify it in any degree. I am not disposed to add to your grief or misery, or to the grief and misery of your friends, by saying anything in particular to you concerning what you have done, and certainly it would be vain to make any suggestions as to your future life because that is determined. If, however, in the progress of time you should through executive mercy be set free, it is to be hoped that the experience you have already undergone, and the still more terrible experience which you must for many years hereafter continue to undergo, will serve to induce you, from that time on to lead an orderly, peaceable and quiet life, and however much you may be excited with the outward circumstances, to stay your hand from all manner of violence. The sentence of the court in your case is, that you be confined at hard labor in the state prison at Dannemora for the term of your natural life.”

After the court adjourned at the conclusion of the trial, several newspaper reporters visited the jail cell of Joseph Heidt. They reported that Joseph talked freely of his crime and that he expressed his joy at the thought of his father returning home a free and innocent man. Joseph noted that he weighed 189 pounds when he was taken to prison, but now only weighed about 140 or 150 pounds. He put on a vest which he said fit tightly when he came to prison, but there was now nearly enough room in it for another good-sized person. Joseph noted that his weight loss was not due to any mistreatment in prison as Sheriff Beecher had treated him fairly.

On Monday, August 22, 1892, Sherriff Beecher escorted Joseph Heidt to Dannemora Prison, then also known as Clinton Prison. They traveled by way of the O. & W. from Fallsburgh to Middletown, where they boarded the Erie Railroad train. It was the first time that Joseph had been on a railroad car even though he lived within 10 miles of the Erie Railroad all his life. The prison physician examined Joseph upon his arrival, and thought an asylum would be a better place for him as he thought Joseph was insane. Sherriff Beecher returned to Sullivan County on Wednesday morning, August 24.

Sherriff Beecher

The judge’s words at the time of sentencing seem prophetic for, despite the life sentence, Joseph was released from prison after having served about 20 years. While serving his time, Joseph had been “regarded by the prison authorities as a model convict, one who never makes any trouble.” After his release on parole, Joseph was employed on a farm near Malone, New York, “where he has proved an exemplary hand.” He was described as having “developed into an honest, hard working man, much respected by the people who know him.”

Joseph was pardoned in 1914 with the rationale that he “was the unfortunate victim of superstition, drilled into him by his father, who instigated the crime.” (Sullivan County Record. September 3, 1914.) He worked at the Malone Bronze Powder Works in Malone for 16 years in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1925 he married Emma Martin (1895-1963), with whom he had one daughter.

In 1939 Joseph Heidt committed suicide by hanging himself in the garage at his home. His body was found suspended from a cross beam by a clothesline rope. Funeral services were held at Notre Dame Church. Joseph Heidt is buried at Saint Francis of Assisi Cemetery in Constable, New York.

Trial of Adam Heidt

The trial of Adam Heidt began at 10am on Thursday, August 18, 1892 at the Court House in Monticello, New York. Upon entering the courtroom, Adam “looked unconcerned at first, although very pale.” (Sullivan County Record. August 26, 1892.)

From an original panel of 60 potential jurors, the 12 jurors selected for the trial included Frank Osterhout, farmer, Neversink; Henry Eastman, farmer, Burlingham; George Dearstyne, merchant, Claryville; Benjamin Gillett, hotel keeper, Grahamsville; Hiram Adams, farmer, Glen Wild; Peter Pomeroy, farmer, Neversink; George Wood, farmer, Rockland; Eugene VanKeuren, farmer, Bethel; George W. Budd, farmer, Phillipsport; Asa Wilson, farmer, Fallsburgh; Homer Travis, farmer Neversink; and Martin Day, farmer, Bridgeville.

Much of the evidence presented at the trial of Adam Heidt had been previously presented at the trial of Joseph Heidt. Oliver Hofer testified about the murder scene at the stone arch bridge and the letters found on Markert’s body written by Adam Heidt to Markert. Several witnesses, including William Pfeifer, Henry Chelius, Adam Barnhart, Conrad Metzger and Philip Hembdt, testified to Adam’s belief that he was bewitched by Markert. Joseph Heidt testified as to the history of his father Adam not feeling well, the supposed curse place on Adam by Markert and the steps that Adam had taken to heal himself; and he also testified as to the events on the night of the murder, much as he had presented at his own trial during the prior days. At 7:30pm on August 18, the prosecution rested their case.

At the conclusion of witness testimony, Mr. McLaughlin, Adam’s lawyer, motioned the court to acquit Adam on the grounds that there had not been sufficient evidence to hold him either as a participant or having in any way abetted or encouraged the commission of the crime for which Joseph had been found guilty. District Attorney Couch responded that he thought the case should go to the jury. The judge responded to the motion by generally saying: “This man is on trial for his life. He is either guilty of murder in the first degree or nothing. It won’t do to convict a man on suspicion. Human justice rests on a foundation of law.” The judge then adjourned the court till the following morning.

When the court reconvened at 9am the following morning, Friday, August 19, 1892, the judge addressed the jury, advising them to render a verdict of not guilty on the grounds that there was not enough evidence that Adam had incited another person, his son Joseph, to have committed the crime. The jury agreed with the judge’s direction, and without leaving their seats, rendered a verdict of not guilty. Heidt’s eyes filled with tears and he nodded an expression of thanks. Lawyer McLaughlin seemed exceedingly pleased over the victory he had won in clearing his client.

In the weeks after the trial, rumors began to circulate that Adam Heidt had run off to Ohio or was in hiding at his home. John Heidt, Adam’s son, wrote to the local newspaper to address the rumors.

“It is evident that those lies are only circulated to torment the remainder of the family and cause more sorrow than there is. Would people only consider one moment, and a feeling of remorse would cover their faces.

The people who talked nothing but witchcraft to A. Heidt are the ones, it is evident, who are circulating those rumors, and they also are the ones who are to blame for our affliction. Adam Heidt neither believed or talked witchcraft until some persons filled his mind with some of the most absurd witch stories obtainable. And those people will some time, earlier or later, receive their punishment.

On the other hand, it would be impolite not to say word of praise on behalf of those who tried to take the delusion from Adam Heidt’s mind. Let me say that those people deserve a blessing, and they will receive it.

The neighbors who so kindly offered their hand of assistance in the hour of affliction, we wish to thank, and home to return the favor, but we hope not in like emergency. John Heidt.” (Middletown Daily Press. September 3, 1892.)

On the day of his acquittal, Adam after went to the village of Monticello and saw Judge Fursman on the steps of the Mansion House. Adam “stepped briskly up to shake hands with him. The Judge waived him aside, refusing the proffered courtesy, which was a proper thing to do.” (Middletown Daily Press. August 27, 1892.) It was reported that “Adam, now that Markert is gone, and his son’s life has been saved by the jury, thinks that he is getting better and the “spell” is leaving him.”

Upon Adam’s acquittal, several local newspapers made their opinions known that they still viewed Adam as a danger to society. One such editorial noted that “proceedings ought to at once be taken to have the man examined as to his mental condition. It would seem that all the evidence of insanity necessary had been obtained at the trial, and that the mere formality of the signature of two physicians to a certificate is all that is necessary for him commitment to an asylum. No sane man could believe, as does Adam Heidt, that poor old George Markert possessed the power of witchcraft, and by stroking his beard three times, and then spitting upon the ground three times could put a spell upon him that would impair his health and cause the death of his cattle. One capable of entertaining such a delusion is not a safe man to be at large. Now that Markert is out of the way, Heidt may select another victim unless put under restraint.” (Jeffersonville Record. Republished by Tri-States Union. 1892.)

Adam Heidt, upon his acquittal, was set free and after went to Pennsylvania to spend time with his brother Edward. In May of 1893 Adam returned to Kenoza Lake, but was almost immediately considered “a menace to the peace and safety of the people of that neighborhood.” It was rumored that he made threats against one of the witnesses who testified against him at trial. Local citizens were reported to be afraid of him and they hoped “that some means will be devised for permanently ridding the country of his blighting presence. The very least that ought to be done would be to secure his incarceration in a lunatic asylum, before another life is offered up on the altar of witchcraft.” His wife Barbara filed a complaint against him for ill treatment and sought to have him adjudged a lunatic.

Adam was again arrested in May 1893 with plans to bring him to the State Hospital at Middletown. Many thought that Adam would resist, but he consented to go when officers told him that his disease could be cured at the hospital. Adam was examined by several state doctors who judged him to be insane and he was officially committed on June 1, 1893. He was to remain at the hospital until such time as doctors could certify that he was mentally sound. That time never came. Adam’s family never came to visit him at the hospital.

Adam Heidt died at the hospital four years later on July 22, 1897 at 48 years of age from chronic melancholia and chronic myelitis, or inflammation of the spine. Attempts were made hospital officials to notify Adam’s relatives of his passing, but no response was received. He was buried at Phillipsburg, Orange County, New York.

Legacy

While the supposed hex placed on the Heidt family was disregarded as medieval and superstitious, there is no doubt the Heidt family continued to suffer tragedy in the years after the murder. Adam Heidt had three sons, two of whom committed suicide, and the other was committed to a mental hospital. Adam’s two daughters, Rose and Mary, both died relatively young, at age 40 and at age 60, respectively.

Following the death of Adam Heidt in 1897 at the insane asylum, his wife, Barbara Heidt, i.e. Joseph’s mother, died four years later in 1901. She died at 51 years of age after a year-long illness during which she was confined to her bed and “suffered not a little.” She was “a mild-mannered woman, respected, and seemingly undeserving of so troublous a life as was hers.”

In 1911, John Heidt, son of Adam and brother of Joseph, was committed to the state hospital at Middletown on the recommendation of Dr. Archibald and Dr. Schonger. John formerly worked as a school teacher, but had more recently been involved in house painting at Kenoza Lake and in Pennsylvania. It was reported that John “showed signs of mental derangement” and was hallucinating that people were trying to covert him from the Catholic religion to the Protestant faith. John believed “that even his own relatives are designing evil against him.”

In 1942, Anthony Heidt, son of Adam and brother of Joseph, committed suicide, just like his brother Joseph had done three years prior. Anthony shot himself in the head with a shotgun in the woodshed on the same Heidt family homestead where he had grown up, and where his father Adam had suffered his delusions of witchcraft all those years earlier. Anthony had suffered a nervous breakdown around nine years earlier, recovered to normal health, but then suffered a second and more severe breakdown in the weeks before his death. Anthony worked as a farmer and summer boarding house keeper.

Although the brutal murder of George Markert took place well over a century ago, it has long continued on in the memories of those living in Sullivan County, New York. Since that infamous cold, snowy night in January 1892, there have many rumored ghostly sightings of the murdered George Markert around the stone arch bridge. The story is chillingly retold each year in all its detail on a spooky Halloween evening.

Stone Arch Bridge at Kenoza Lake, New York: A Photographic Study

Sat, 22 Jun 2024 12:00:00 GMT

The simply named Stone Arch Bridge is located in the small hamlet of Kenoza Lake, New York, near the junction of Route 52 and Route 52A. The bridge, one of the most recognizable sites in Sullivan County, spans the East Branch Callicoon Creek, a major tributary of the Delaware River.

The Stone Arch Bridge was constructed circa 1873 by Henry and Philip Hembdt, brothers and recent German immigrants, in order to support the growing commercial needs of the county, particularly the farming, timbering and tanning industries. The bridge replaced an earlier wooden bridge that collapsed under a load of hemlock bark that was on its way to a nearby tannery.

“The bridge is a solid masonry structure with an arched roadway supported by three arches made of hand-cut native stone. The arches and the ice breakers on the upstream side are built of mortared stone while the rest of the bridge is constructed of dry masonry. Formed concrete bases have been installed at the base of the arch supporters for stabilization purposes. Otherwise, the bridge is in its original condition . . . The construction technique incorporated the use of wooden forms to support the stones for the arches. Once all stones had been mortared and set, the forms were removed. This procedure eliminated the need for a specially cut keystone.”

The bridge remained open to vehicular traffic until 1955, after which it has since been open to pedestrian traffic only. Today, the bridge serves as the focal point of a 20-acre county park that features a woodland walk, fishing rights and a kid’s playground. The historic bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as “a fine surviving example of vernacular bridge construction.”

Philip Hembdt (1844-1917)

Philip Hembdt, one of the bridge builders, was born at Hueffelsheim, Germany on March 17, 1844. In 1864, at 20 years old, Hembdt immigrated to the United States. He worked as a carpenter for several years in New York City, after which he moved to the western United States for four years. Hembdt then moved back east to Beechwoods in Sullivan County, New York, where he operated a farm. While at Beechwoods, Hembdt married Emma Baum on September 20, 1868. Philip and Emma had ten children together.

Hembdt then moved to Kenoza Lake where he purchased the boarding house known as the Halfway House from Andrew Bietz, who had built the establishment and conducted it for 18 years. Hembdt owned and operated the Half Way House from 1876 to 1903. After selling the Half Way House in 1903 to Abe Feinberg, a photographer in New York City, Hembdt moved to Jeffersonville, where he lived his retired life.

Hembdt was an active member of the community. For nine years Hembdt served as the road commissioner for the Delaware township. He was an active member of the First Lutheran Church at Jeffersonville and served as president of the church for 17 years. He was a member of the Gustave Adolph Lodge, No. 274, of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

Philip Hembdt passed away at 73 years of age at his home on April 2, 1917. He had suffered from heart trouble for about a year prior to his passing. Philip and his wife Emma are both buried at Jeffersonville Lutheran Cemetery in Jeffersonville, New York.

Henry Hembdt (1847-1920)

Henry Hembdt, one of the bridge builders, was born in Germany in 1847. In 1873, at the age of 26, Henry immigrated to the United States. In 1875 Henry was married to Margaret Gottschalk. Henry and Margaret had six children together.

Henry was a highly skilled mason. In addition to building the Stone Arch Bridge at Kenoza Lake, Henry also constructed the stone bridge at Hortonville. For many years he operated a farm at Fremont until about 1916, when he moved to Hortonville on account of his failing health. He remained at Hortonville for his retired years until his passing. Henry was a charter member of the Gustave Adolph Lodge, No. 274, of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

Henry Hembdt passed away at 73 years of age at his home on December 9, 1920. Funeral services were held at the Hortonville Church, officiated by Reverend Charles Nietzer. He is buried at Hortonville Cemetery in Hortonville, New York.

Kenoza Lake

Kenoza Lake is located in the town of Delaware in Sullivan County, New York. The small hamlet is situated on the lake of the same name, about 4 miles south from the hamlet of Jeffersonville.

In 1873, around the time the stone arch bridge was built, the small hamlet consisted of one church, one store, one tannery, one grist mill, one wagon shop, one blacksmith shop, one shoe shop, two saw mills, one hotel, twenty-five dwellings and about 125 inhabitants. The tannery was owned by Gideon Wales, and employed thirty men.

As for the natural environment in 1873, “much of the surface is still covered with forests, especially the margin of Delaware [township]. But these are gradually disappearing as new accensions to its population are made. The soil is mostly a gravelly loam, and best adapted to pasturage. Lumbering and tanning form the leading branches of the industry.”

Kenoza Lake was previously known as Pike Pond, “from the abundance of pike which its waters contained at an early day, and which the early settlers were wont to substitute for pork, when the latter article in their larder became exhausted.” The name was changed from Pike Pond to Kenoza lake in 1890 in honor of John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem title Kenoza Lake. It was hoped that the change in name would increase the summer tourism trade, which at the time was a growing industry in Sullivan County.

Hankins Stone Arch Bridge: A Photographic Study

Sat, 15 Jun 2024 12:00:00 GMT

The historic Hankins Stone Arch Bridge is located along Route 94 in the hamlet of Hankins, New York in the Upper Delaware River region. The single arch bridge crosses Hankins Creek just north of its confluence with the Delaware River. The hamlet of Hankins is located approximately 45 miles northwest from Port Jervis, New York, 19 miles southeast of Hancock, New York and 24 miles west from Liberty, New York.

Settlement at Hankins

The Hankins area was first settled in 1780 by Isaac Simmons, who “soon after sold his right of possession to Joseph Brown. Brown sold to Aaron Pierce, who, in 1792, built a saw-mill and small grist-mill . . . About the year 1800, Jonas Lakin came to the place, and subsequently became the owner of a considerable tract of land. In 1821, Lakin sold his tract of land to Elizabeth Pierce, who, with her family, lived on it until about 1833, when she died. In 1834, John Hankins and Luther Appley bought the property, for which they paid $1,451. In 1835, Hankins bought an additional tract of Lucas Elmendorf, and in May, 1839, moved to Fremont with his family.” (Quinlan, James Eldridge. History of Sullivan County. p. 292.)

The Hankins area was considered a good location for farming, with soil well adapted to the production of grass and grain, and for lumbering, with “a great store of valuable timber in its forests.” The location allowed hardy raftsman to run their timber rafts down the Delaware River. It offered good mill sites on its streams and was home to plentiful bluestone quarries.

Hankins Stone Arch Bridge

By the early part of 1900s there was a need for a stretch of river road to link the hamlet of Hankins to the river community of Long Eddy. Previously this connecting road had not been built due to the topography of the Hankins region and the presence of the Erie Railroad. The contract to construct a three-mile road with stone arch bridges over the Hankins Creek and the Basket Creek was given to John Inman. The road, the Hankins Stone Arch Bridge, and the Basket Creek Stone Arch Bridge were constructed in 1905 at a cost of $150.

“Everyone thought Mr. Inman would go broke on that job, but he was an old quarry man and had sized up the rocky point he had to cut through and knew what he was doing. The greater part of the three miles, down past the McDowell farm, was easy grading as roads went in those days. Cutting through the rocks just above Hankins was the main problem, blasting between train times and keeping the track clear. Mr. Inman, it will be recalled, was an expert at blasting and had at the Basket some years previously shot a big rock out of a quarry on this hillside and knocked the end off a house down near McDuffie’s.

On the road job he picked out a block of stone the right distance above the railroad and shot it into the river, and they said they couldn’t find a stone the size of a hen’s egg on the railroad track when he had finished. He left the overhang above the block he shot out, and until Route 97 came along forty years later and widened the road, this place was always called “Hanging Rock.” When Mr. Inman made the cut there he hit a colony of wild bees in a crevice and took out a lot of honey. When the road was finished, the bees came back and stayed there in the deep crevice until Route 97 wrecked them permanently.” (LaValley, Leslie D. “John Inman. Basket Letters – A History of the Basket Brook.” The Hancock Herald. April 25, 1957.)

The Hankins Stone Arch Bridge is approximately 40 feet long, 15 feet wide and is made of local bluestone and Rosendale cement. “The bridge consists of a single round arch springing from the banks of the rock creek. The arch is built of mortared and partially dressed voussoirs approximately two feet in depth. The spandrels and parapets rest directly upon the arch and are built of fieldstone. Cut, bluestone coping stones dress the top of the two parapet walls guarding the roadway. The roadway above the bridge is closed to traffic and largely unpaved. Although maintained for pedestrian use across the bridge, the former East Ridge Road remains only a trace south of the bridge. Wingwalls lining the creek banks downstream of the bridge were rebuilt in 1999 in order to stabilize the bridge and its erosion prone banks. The bridge and its immediate surroundings are currently maintained for passive recreation by Sullivan County and the Town of Fremont.” (National Register of Historic Places.)

With the completion of Route 97 connecting Port Jervis and Hancock in 1939, the Basket Creek Stone Arch Bridge was bypassed, and the Hankins to Long Eddy road began to see less traffic. The Hankins bridge remained in use, connecting Hankins with East Ridge Road (TR 26). The bridge remained a vital creek crossing for local traffic until 1973, when East Ridge Road was rerouted and the bridge was abandoned.

Through the efforts of local citizens, the Hankins Stone Arch Bridge has been restored and is home to a small roadside park. The bridge is now open to pedestrian traffic only. The bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as “a rare and intact example of traditional stone arch bridge construction within the context of Upper Delaware River transportation resources.”

John B. Inman

The Hankins Stone Arch Bridge was constructed by John B. Inman (1845-1907), a local mason, quarryman and carpenter. According to federal and state census records Inman was listed with a range of occupations over the years, including carpenter (1870), farmer (1875, 1880), mill proprietor (1900) and lumberman (1905).

In the 1870s Inman and his family lived in Rock Valley and in 1877 Inman served as the trustee for the local district school. At this time Inman was employed as a wood worker. In the 1880s Inman was “running the old McDuffie sawmill,” and later went into the quarry business, leasing the “Shooting Rock” quarry from Horace McKoon on the hill west of the lower Basket. By the late 1890s Inman “lived in the Lathrop house and opened a quarry near the falls, and around 1900, he moved back to Rock Valley in what was always known as the John Inman house after the Lobdell estate sold it.”

Inman constructed a second stone arch bridge along the road from Hankins to Long Eddy, this one over the Basket Creek. The Basket Creek Stone Arch Bridge was also constructed in 1905. The Basket bridge was put to good use for several decades, “battered by floods, rammed by skidding cars and trucks . . . through the years, all the wood, stone and chemical products of the Basket valleys and hills were hauled over this bridge to the stone dock, or McKoon’s dock, as it was sometimes called.” The Basket Creek Stone Arch Bridge was destroyed around 1942 after a big flood, with most of the stones being washed down into the river.

Inman also constructed the classic, one-story, wood frame Rock Valley School, located in an area known as the Upper Basket in the small hamlet of Rock Valley in the town of Hancock, Delaware County. The school was established in 1885 in order to meet the needs of the growing population associated with local businesses such as logging, milling, bluestone quarrying, agriculture and the wood chemical industry. The historic school remained in continuous operation until 1940s, when it closed due to school district consolidation. In 1953 the school building was deeded to the Rock Valley Cemetery Association, which has maintained the school ever since. The Rock Valley School is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

John Inman died suddenly at Rock Valley, New York at 61 years of age on February 2, 1907. Funeral services were held at the Rock Valley Church, with Reverend Regnal officiating. He was survived by his widow Margaret (Garrison) Inman; four sons, Clarence, James, John and Frank; and one daughter, Mrs. Bloom.

John Hankins

The historic Hankins Stone Arch Bridge and the creek it spans are named in honor of John Hankins (1803-1847), who established the first permanent settlement here in 1835 with a home, store, sawmill and blacksmith’s shop. As part of his business, he rafted large amounts of lumber down the Delaware River. Hankins later served as a Justice of Peace and then Supervisor of the town of Callicoon from 1844 to 1847. In 1851 the Erie Railroad named the local stop as Hankins Station. Hankins was a descendant of a soldier who served under General George Washington in the American Revolution, and was notably with the Continental Army when they crossed the Delaware.

John Hankins constructed the Hankins District No. 1 Schoolhouse in 1845. The school is located on County Highway 132, which continues downhill toward the commercial center of the hamlet, Route 97, the railroad tracks and the river. “He [Hankins] built the schoolhouse for the community and later donated the land and building to be used as a church for all denominations. After the local religious groups built their own churches, it continued to be used as a school. A new school was later built and this schoolhouse became the Hankins Fire House. The Fire Department has recently sold the building to a private owner with the stipulation that the bell shall remain with the building.” The school building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

John Hankins was born on September 2, 1803, the son of Ralph Hankins (1776-1863) and Mary (Dougherty) Hankins. He was born and raised in Pike County, Pennsylvania. James Eldridge Quinlan in his History of Sullivan County wrote in detail of John Hankins and the hamlet named for him. “Previous to 1839, Mr. Hankins had resided in the town of Damascus, in the State of Pennsylvania, where he married Susan, a daughter of Moses Thomas, 3d. Then he removed to Fremont, he passed over the “State-road,” on the west side of the river. The New York and Erie Railroad Company had accomplished considerable in grading their road; but had suspended work in 1837. Mr. Hankins attempted to make a highway of their track, but after rendering about three miles passable, gave up the job.

For several years ingress and egress were difficult. To attend town-meeting and vote at the fall-elections, he was obliged to follow a line of marked trees to Liberty, or travel over the State-road to the bridge at Cochecton, and from thence to Liberty by the way of Bethel. Sometimes, however, when the water was low, he followed the beach of the river on horseback as far as Cochecton. As the ford near his residence was occasionally impracticable, he built a scow, and crossed the river in it; but when there was a flood, it was not safe to cross in any manner, and he was practically cut off from the outside world.

It was been represented that John Hankins was the pioneer setter at Hankins Depot;* [See French’s Gazetteer] yet, when he came, he found on his place an old frame-house, a saw-mill, and land which had been occupied and tilled many years. He also found a sycamore tree which was nine feet in diameter. The latter was hollow, and the cavity was larger than some bed-rooms. It is said that a man could ride into it astride of a horse. Until about 1865, this tree was used as a substitute for a smoke-house.

Mr. Hankins was a man of action. Exclusive of those who lived in Pennsylvania, his only neighbors were at Long Eddy and Long pond; yet during the first year of his residence, he started a store and built a blacksmith-shop. He also built a handsome residence for his family, and in 1847, the second saw-mill erected on his land. He also became prominent as a local politician, and, notwithstanding his isolated position, was one of the first Justices of the Peace, and the second Supervisor of the town of Callicoon. He was elected to the latter office repeatedly, and at one time, in conjunction with Matthew Brown, controlled the Board of Supervisors.

Mr. Hankins did not live until the railroad was completed as far as Hankins creek. He was a man of forcible and energetic character – a warm friend and an ardent enemy – exalted in prosperity and depressed when his surroundings were unfavorable. In the summer of 1847, he suffered from a variety of small annoyances, and on the 17th of September was found dead on the road to Callicoon, about a quarter mile from his house, under circumstances which led to the belief that his life was cut short by his own hand.” (Quinlan, James Eldridge. History of Sullivan County. pp. 292-293.)

After Hankins’ death on September 17, 1847, rumors started that he had been shot and murdered by a contractor and engineer from the railroad. However, this proved false, as a coroner’s jury was organized, and they “spent all the afternoon and evening in a thorough and careful examination of the facts in relation to his death.” After the investigation, the jury offered their own findings. “The jury unanimously rendered a verdict that he [Hankins] killed himself by cutting his throat on the right side, having severed a jugular vein and an artery, it is supposed with a razor. There does not appear to have been any particular cause for his committing the rash deed, but a variety of small causes which had a tendency to render him unhappy, and which prompted him to suddenly commit the rash act. It is thought the resolution to do it had not long been taken before it was put in execution. He was found about one-fourth of a mile up the road leading from his house to the Callicoon Settlement. He committed the act in the afternoon of Friday. The finding of the jury was perfectly satisfactory to the family.” (“Suicide of John Hankins.” Republican Watchman. September 21, 1847.)

Although it is unclear if it is related to his passing, beginning in February 1847 Hankins advertised weekly in the local newspaper that much of his property was for sale. There does not seem to have been much interest in the property as the advertisements continued throughout the year. Even if the sale of his home and property was unrelated to his suicide, the advertisements still provide great insight to his land and possessions.

“Highly interesting to lumbermen, tanners, farmers, & c. A RARE OPPORTUNITY! 1173 Acres of Valuable Land For Sale! Situated in the Hardenbergh patent, great lot 2, in division 23, 24 and 25, containing about 1173 acres of land, with a good farm house well finished from cellar to garret, three small frame houses which are comfortable dwellings for small families, 2 saw mills, a grist mill, store house, a blacksmith shop with tools, a large frame barn, with a shed or cow house 64 b 24 ft., 16 ft. posts, all well finished, a good cider mill with screws, and three first rate orchards. On the lot, there is an abundance of timber – hemlock, maple, white ash, beech, birch, chestnut and some cherry. As a lumbering establishment it is one of the best of the kind in Sullivan County. The N. Y. & Erie Railroad will run through it, and 2 public roads lead to it, one from the town of Rockland and the other from Callicoon settlement. A railroad depot will probably be established on it, as it is 13 miles from Cochecton. It is well calculated for the tanning business, and has an abundance of water power. Any person wishing to purchase such a property will do well to call and examine for themselves. A liberal time for payment will be given. John Hankins, Callicoon, Feb. 18, 1847.” (Republican Watchman. March 16, 1847.)

John Hankins married Susan Thomas (1811-1885) on March 4, 1830 at her parents’ homestead, two miles south of Damascus, Pennsylvania. Susan was the daughter of Moses Thomas III (1777-1857) and Rebecca Thomas (1782-1841), and a granddaughter of Moses Thomas II, who was killed in 1779 during the American Revolution at the Battle of Minisink Ford. John and Susan had eight children together, including Lucas Wurtz (1831-1910), Mary (1833-1907), Rebecca Thomas (1835-1918), Angeline Elizabeth (1838-1903), Susan Abigail (1841-1917), John Ralph (1843-1905), William Thomas (1845-1847) and Samuel Howard (1848-1917).

After the death of her husband in 1947, Susan continued to raise her children at the village of Hankins. The Commemorative Biographical Record of Northeastern Pennsylvania, published in 1900, offered many details about the children of John and Susan Hankins.

(1) Lucas W. . . . Owner and proprietor of a beautiful summer resort in Manchester township, Wayne County.

(2) Mary, born in Sullivan County, N.Y., in October, 1833, married Col. Zalman Main, of Sullivan County, N.Y., who during the Civil war raised a company in Indiana, and for bravery and valor on the field was promoted to the rank of colonel, having command of an Indiana regiment. He died in 1866, leaving a wife and one child, Florence E., who now resides in Binghamton, N.Y.

(3) Rebecca T., born in Sullivan County, N.Y., is a well-educated woman, was for a number of years a successfully teacher in the public schools, and is now a resident of Binghamton.

(4) Angie E., born in Damascus township, Wayne County, married Capt. C. A. Johnson, of the regular army, who died in 1894, at Washington, D. C., and she now makes her home at Binghamton.

(5) Susan A., born in Hankins, N. Y., in 1841, married David Bush, of California, born in Sullivan County, and they located in Susquehanna, Penn., where he was connected with the Adams Express Company for a number of years, or until his health failed. He died at his home in that place in 1889, leaving a wife, now a resident of Binghamton; one son, Edward, a civil engineer residing in Rome, N. Y., and one daughter, Jessie, who died at the age of sixteen years.

(6) John R., born in Hankins, was educated in the New York schools, and when a young man engaged in mercantile business at Little Equinunk, Wayne County. Subsequently he carried on business near Owego, N. Y., for a number of years, but now has charge of his brother’s wholesale tobacco trade, in Binghamton, where he makes his home. He married Emma Buckley, of Fremont Center, Sullivan County, N. Y., and had two daughters – Susan, now the wife of Dr. W. Leonard, of Tully, N. Y.; and Bertha, who died in childhood.

(7) Willie died when a child.

(8) Samuel H., born in Hankins, has a large wholesale tobacco establishment in Binghamton, and is one of the leading business men of that place. He married Lillian Wait, of Hollisterville, Wayne Co., Penn., and has two children, Walter and Winifred.” (Commemorative Biographical Record of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Chicago: J.H. Beers & Co., 1900. pp. 466-467.)

Hankins and his wife Susan, along with two of their sons, John and William, are all buried at Overlook Cemetery at Damascus, Pennsylvania.

Ten Mile River Baptist Church at Tusten, New York

Sat, 08 Jun 2024 12:00:00 GMT

The historic Ten Mile River Baptist Church, also known as the Tusten Baptist Church, is located just off Route 97 in the Upper Delaware River Valley town of Tusten, New York. It is approximately five miles south of the village of Narrowsburg, New York. The church prominently stands on a wooded hill, east of the Ten Mile River, which flows approximately one-half mile south to its junction with the Delaware River. Downriver from the church, near the mouth of the Ten Mile River at its junction with the Delaware River, the Tusten Stone Arch Bridge also pays testament to the former village of Tusten, which was known as Ten Mile River Village on some historic maps. The church property encompasses approximately six acres of land, including the church building, the adjacent cemetery and several stone walls.

Enoch Owen – Preaching the Word at Ten Mile River

As the village of Ten Mile River grew in the 1800s the Baptist faith reached the people of the village through the works of Elder Enoch Owen (1767-1836). Owen came to the village of Damascus, Pennsylvania about the year 1790, and settled above Cochecton. He married Lois Tyler (1772-1814), the daughter of Silas Tyler. By trade Owen worked as a local lumberman, farmer and mason. He “built the old-fashioned stone chimneys of the valley before brick and lime were seen there” and also constructed several miles of the Newburgh and Cochecton Turnpike.

In June of 1806 Enoch Owen was ordained as an Evangelist. Being of the Free Will Baptist faith, he preached every Sunday at a small Baptist meeting-house in Damascus, Pennsylvania, but also “held religious meetings in the Delaware river towns wherever there was a settlement.” He was the first missionary at Callicoon and “among the pioneer preachers of Cochecton,” and he occasionally visited the village of Ten Mile River. Owen was sometimes accompanied on his trips up and down the Delaware River valley by Deacon William Dunn, a member of Owen’s church. Where a church was not available, Owen would preach in people’s homes, in barns and sometimes at popular establishments such as the Raftman’s Hotel in the town of Tusten.

At Callicoon, “hearing that a few families were living here far from Christian privileges, he found his way to them through the woods in 1820, and preached to them. The three households received him gladly, and as a token of their satisfaction, presented him with a half-bushel of rye, which he carried home on his shoulders. It is said that he continued to preach at [Edward] Wood’s once a month; that to reach the settlement he followed blazed trees when the snow was deep and the thermometer below zero; and that he was paid fifteen dollars per annum for his services!” (Quinlan, James Eldridge. History of Sullivan County. p. 159.)

Elder Owen “was a man of but little education; but his mind and body and zeal were robust. It cannot be said that he was mercenary; for he received little or no compensation for his labors in his Master’s vineyard . . . He was always ready to visit the sick and afflicted, and to discourse at funerals on mortality and immortality – the ineffable and everlasting bliss of the redeemed, and the fearful fate of the doomed. His unpretending and homely discourses impressed Christian morality upon many souls of this neglected region . . . In his old age he joined the Close Communion Baptists. He was an honest old soul, whose good deeds and good name survived his mortal body, and are yet held in grateful remembrance.” (Quinlan, James Eldridge. History of Sullivan County. pp. 217-218.) Enoch Owen passed away on November 14, 1836 and is buried at Overlook Cemetery in Damascus, Pennsylvania.

Founding of the Ten Mile River Baptist Church

The official congregation of the Ten Mile River Baptist Church was organized in the spring of 1840 by local citizens, including E. Tyler, A. F. Bush and Thompson Parsons. The group commenced holding prayer meetings, with the first meetings taking place in the homes of its congregants. Soon after founding of the congregation, Reverend Henry Curtis, of the Damascus society, was invited to preach and to aid in conducting the church meetings.

In the early days of the church, “the Word preached was attended with convincing and converting power, leading Christians to pray and labor, and sinners to cry “men and brethren what shall we do to be saved?” Soon a number of the anxious were indulging hope in an all-sufficient Savior. The meetings were continued with increasing interest and power. The subject of believers’ baptism and church membership now began to claim attention and elicit discussion. As usual, candid inquiry resulted in a sense of obligation to make a public profession of Christ by baptism, and become identified with his people. A number of persons manifested a desire to unite with a Baptist church.

This desire being made known to the Damascus Church, situated some fourteen miles above, on the Delaware River, a special meeting was appointed by that church and held at Ten Mile River, to hear experiences and receive candidates for baptism and membership. A number of the converts presenting themselves at this meeting, were cordially received and baptized on a profession of faith, by Mr. Curtis, and became a branch of Damascus Church.” (Bailey, Edward L. History of the Abington Baptist Association, From 1807 to 1857. pp. 185-188.)

Given its lengthy distance from the Damascus church, the Ten Mile River congregation soon requested “letters of dismission” in order to organize themselves as an independent body. The Ten Mile River Church was officially established through a council of recognition on August 18, 1840. At the time of its organization the congregation consisted of 29 people, including 16 males and 13 females. The first dedicated pastor of the church was Rev. Daniel F. Leach (1840-1845), who was then followed by Rev. James P. Stalbird (1845-1848), Rev. M. M. Everet (1848-1852) and Rev. J. R. Ross (1852-1854). In October 1840 William Hawks and Tobias Fox were chosen Deacons of the church and were ordained into that office the following year. Services continued at the church for circa 80 years until around 1920.

The Church Building and Cemetery

Sixteen years after the congregation’s founding, the church building was constructed in 1856 at a cost of $1,500. Although there is little evidence, several newspaper articles from around the time the church was being restored in 1969 have noted that “according to tradition, this church replaced a still older one.” (“Resort Tusten Church – Service Sunday.” The Evening News. August 21, 1969.) The church had seating available for 200 people. The “layout and construction of this building was typical of smaller Protestant meetinghouses of the period and illustrated simple, but finely crafted furnishings and joinery. The rectangular lines of the building, and use of period moldings and trim profiles imbue the vernacular church with some of the characteristics of the Greek Revival style, popular in the Delaware Valley between 1840 and 1860.” (National Register of Historic Places.)

The Ten Mile River Baptist Church has also been known as the Tusten Baptist Church. However, not all local residents appreciated the alternative name. In 1894, a local newspaper noted that “some are mistaken by calling this church the Tusten church. It always has been the Ten Mile River Baptist church and it is hoped it always will be.” (Tri-States Union. October 11, 1894.)

The cemetery adjacent to the church was opened in 1840 or earlier. The cemetery, enclosed by stone walls on the east and south sides, contains approximately 100 burials. William H. Hankins (1846-1922), builder of the nearby Tusten Stone Arch Bridge, is buried here. William Hawks (1813-1906), reported to be “the last constituent member of the Ten Mile River Baptist Church,” passed away “on the old homestead” in September 1906 and is buried at the church “beside those of his family, who have passed on before.” Hawks had been chosen to be a Deacon at the church in the year of its founding in 1840.

The church was largely unused for over 50 years from 1920 to 1969, but continued to receive basic maintenance. In 1969, the Tusten Settlement Association was established in order to restore and maintain the church and the adjacent cemetery, and over 50 years later they continue with that notable historic mission. After the church’s restoration was completed in August 1969, a community service was held for the first time in nearly five decades. The services were attended by nearly 150 people, with the sermon being given by Reverend Robert L. Kohler, Jr., the senior chaplain at the nearby Ten Mile River Boy Scout Camp.

Today, the church continues to serve the Tusten area, and is made available for special services, including Memorial Day and Veterans Day observances. In 1995 the church belfry and spire were reconstructed through the analysis of historic photographs. The church building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997 “for its historical significance in representing the lost nineteenth century river community of Tusten.”

Reverend Daniel Fowler Leach

Reverend Daniel Fowler Leach (1817-1889), the first pastor at the church, was born at Corbettsville, New York on June 27, 1817. He was a direct descendent of Lawrence Leach who arrived at Salem, Massachusetts in 1629. Daniel’s father, Major Daniel Leach (1777-1831) was a lumberman and farmer, served as a Justice of the Peace, and served as a Major in the New York State Militia. Daniel’s grandfather, Captain Hezekiah Leach (d. 1823) served during the American Revolution as a private in the Connecticut Line of the Revolutionary Army.

Daniel felt the call of the ministry early in life, and was baptized at the age of 15. In 1838 he was attending the Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution, and in 1840 he began preaching in Pennsylvania at Bethany, Damascus and Jackson Summit. At Pennsylvania, “revivals soon broke out under his labors, and he became, without any preconceived purpose, by force of circumstances, an itinerant evangelist along the Lackawaxen and Delaware Rivers. Long walks, often on mere footpaths, and sometimes with no path, became necessary. He was ordained at Ten Mile River, N.Y., September 10, 1840.” (Brooks, Charles Wesley. A Century of Missions in the Empire State. pp. 174-175)

Reverend Leach remained as pastor of the Ten Mile River Baptist Church for four years until 1845, during which time “he performed missionary labors. . . preaching six times a week; only one other Baptist minister within forty miles.” Reverend Leach divided his time between Ten Mile River and the Paupack Eddy Church (now Hawley, Pennsylvania). The Ten Mile River Baptist church grew to a membership of 43 in 1841 and t0 46 in 1842. Reverend Leach was married to Levantia Guy on May 11, 1841 at Middlefield, New York. Daniel and Levontia had six children together.

After his time at Ten Mile River, Reverend Leach went on to serve in a number of locations, including Port Jervis, New York for five years from 1845 to 1850; followed by time at Colesville, New York; Unadilla, New York; Newark Valley, New York; and the state of Virginia. Reverend Daniel Fowler Leach passed away at Virginia on September 10, 1889. Upon his passing it was written that “few men in the State ever gave a half-century of more self-sacrificing, disinterested service to the cause of Christ than did the dear brother whose life-work is here so briefly and imperfectly sketched. The half has not been told of his efficiency and consecration, even in outline. A multitude of souls won to Christ was waiting to welcome him on the other shore, and throngs will be welcomed by him, whom he had led to the Savior’s feet.” (Brooks, Charles Wesley. A Century of Missions in the Empire State. pp. 176-177.)

Reverend James Perkins Stalbird

Reverend James P. Stalbird (1813-1900), the second pastor at the Ten Mile River Baptist Church, was born in Canada in 1813. That same year he moved with his family to New Hampshire, where he spent most of his time until 1837, when he then came to Pennsylvania.

Reverend Stalbird was licensed to preach the gospel at the Blakely Baptist Church in 1843, and in 1845 he was ordained at the Ten Mile River Baptist Church. He remained at Ten Mile River for three years until 1848. During his time at Ten Mile River church membership including 40 people in 1846, and “congregations had been comparatively large and covenant meetings quite interesting. Three weekly prayer meetings had been sustained by a few as in former years. The Sabbath School, however, had been somewhat neglected. In 1847, the church was measurably revived and the cause strengthened. They report to the Association of that year, 11 received by baptism and 51 as their total membership.” (Bailey, Edward L. History of the Abington Baptist Association, From 1807 to 1857. p. 187.)

In 1854 Reverend Stalbird returned to the Ten Mile River Baptist Church. During his second tenancy, “little has occurred during his ministry worthy of particular notice. The church report in 1856, two received by baptism, and 53 as their total membership, but complain of their scattered condition and want of activity and earnestness in the cause of the Master. In 1857, they report 50 communicants, and say that they cannot tell of prosperity and progress in the service of Christ. They, however, still cling to the Word and promise of God, and hope for brighter and better days.” (Bailey, Edward L. History of the Abington Baptist Association, From 1807 to 1857. p. 188.)

After leaving Ten Mile River, Reverend Stalbird served a number of churches, including those at Ashland, Berlin, Hawley, Purdytown, Lebanon, Lackawaxen and Barryville, as well as many mission churches. He often traveled 20 miles a day, and preached three times on Sunday.

In the fall of 1868 Reverend Stalbird sold his house at Beaver Brook, New York and settled on a farm at Freytown, Pennsylvania. He remained there on the farm for nearly thirty years until the fall of 1897, when he moved to Moosic, Pennsylvania to live with his son.

Reverend James Perkins Stalbird passed away at 87 years of age on November 6, 1900 at the home of his son Howell G. Stalbird in Moosic, Pennsylvania. His passing was caused by a fall a few days prior, from which he received a broken hip and suffered internal injuries. Funeral services were conducted by Reverend H. F. Hardell, of Daleville, Pennsylvania. Reverend Stalbird is buried at Freytown Cemetery in Pennsylvania. Upon his passing it was written that “he was a kind husband and father, and much respected wherever he lived.”

Reverend M. M. Everet

Reverend M. M. Everet, the third pastor at the Ten Mile River Baptist Church, took charge of the church in 1848 and remained for four years until 1852. During this period, Reverend Everet divided his time between Ten Mile River and Paupack Eddy, Pennsylvania (now Hawley, Pennsylvania). In 1852 he resigned from the church and the Baptist association.

During his time at Ten Mile River, “under his faithful labors, the church enjoyed a degree of prosperity and received some accessions by baptism. Two were baptized in 1848, the same number in the following year, and one in 1850. In 1852, the church report four received by baptism and 64 as their total membership – the culminating point in their numerical prosperity – and say in their letter to the Association, which met with them that year, that they are grateful for the mercies of the past year; had tokens of a deep and solemn work of grace, but the enemy of all righteousness, by weakening the faith of the brethren, disappointed their hopes. A few, however, were hopefully converted.” (Bailey, Edward L. History of the Abington Baptist Association, From 1807 to 1857. pp. 187-188.)

Reverend J. R. Ross

Reverend J. R. Ross, the fourth pastor at the Ten Mile River Baptist Church, accepted the invitation of the church to be the pastor while teaching at an academy in Narrowsburg. Reverend Ross took charge of the church in the autumn of 1852 and remained until May of 1854, when he resigned from the church and the Baptist association. During his time at Ten Mile River “his labors were faithful, but without any marked results.” Reverend Ross was followed as pastor by the return of Reverend James P. Stalbird.

Tusten Stone Arch Bridge: A Photographic Study

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 12:00:00 GMT

The Tusten Stone Arch Bridge was designed and constructed in 1896 by William H. Hankins, a local timber raftsman, stone mason and occasional postmaster. The bridge crosses the Ten Mile River just northeast of its confluence with the Delaware River. The two-arch bridge, constructed of native bluestone, is approximately 52 feet long and 15 feet wide.

The stone arch bridge was located at the heart of the former village of Tusten, adjacent to a mill located on the west bank of the Ten Mile River. It is believed that the Tusten Stone Arch Bridge replaced an earlier, less permanent timber structure. Tusten was sometimes referred to as Ten Mile River Village on historic maps.

The first settlement on the Delaware River at the mouth of the Ten Mile River originated in the 1750s, about the year 1757, under the authority of the Connecticut-based Delaware Company. A sawmill was established at the site by Elijah Reeves before 1762. In October 1763, the settlement was wiped out during an Indian raid led by Captain Bull, the son of an elderly sachem named Teedyuscung. All 22 settlers were killed in the raid known as the Ten Mile River Massacre. “Not a person escaped. The houses, barns, etc. were burned, and everything valuable was destroyed, except the bare fields.” (Quinlan, 106.) Following the American Revolution, the community was re-established at the same location.

As the village of Tusten grew, a post office was established there in 1838, and operated intermittently until 1913. From 1838 to 1842, the post office operated under the name Ten Mile River, and was staffed by Samuel Hankins, the father of William H. Hankins. From 1849 to 1863, the post office operated under the name Delaware Bridge, and was operated at various times by Paul A. Tyler, Sylvester Mapes and William Hawks. From 1884 to 1913, the post office operated with the name Tusten. When the Tusten post office was not in service, residents would cross the Delaware River to pick up their mail at Mast Hope, Pennsylvania.

In addition to the Tusten Stone Arch Bridge, the Ten Mile River Baptist Church, also known as the Tusten Baptist Church, also still stands in remembrance of the former village of Tusten. The church is prominently located on a wooded hill north of the bridge and east of the Ten Mile River, and just off Route 97. The congregation was organized in the spring of 1840 by Reverend Henry Curtis, of the Damascus society, with the first meetings taking place in the homes of its congregants. The church was officially organized through the council of recognition on August 18, 1840. Sixteen years after the church’s founding, the church building was constructed in 1856 at a cost of $1,500. The first dedicated pastor of the church was Rev. Daniel F. Leach (1840-1845), who was then followed by Rev. James P. Stalbird (1845-1848), Rev. M. M. Everet (1848-1852) and Rev. J. R. Ross (1852-1854). Services continued at the church until around 1920. The church building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997 “for its historical significance in representing the lost nineteenth century river community of Tusten.”

During the 1870s the village of Tusten was home to a sawmill, a gristmill, a blacksmith shop, a store, a church with an adjacent parsonage, a schoolhouse, a cable ferry across the Delaware River to Mast Hope, Pennsylvania, a “flag stop” railroad station on the Erie Railroad and a number of homes. In addition to Hankins, the names of other families that lived in the area in 1875 included W. Davis, J. Crawford, W. Robinson, H. Bross, W. D. Bross, W. Hawks and J. H. Barlow.

Tusten’s fortunes began to fade with the decline of the area’s leading industries such as rafting, lumbering and bluestone quarrying. In 1911, in an effort to revive the town, the Minisink Company, of New York City, sought to create “a nicely laid out community” at Tusten, and then sell the lots to city people who wanted to have a summer home along the Delaware River. The 4,000-acre community, set along two miles of river frontage on the Delaware River, would be complete with new roads, water works, electric lights and over 325 building lots for new homes. The lands around Davis Lake were to be sold as a single parcel for a club or hotel. However, these well-intentioned plans never materialized, and by the 1920s the company had dissolved. Most of Tusten’s remaining buildings were abandoned and left to deteriorate. All that now remains of the once thriving village of Tusten is the stone arch bridge and the Ten Mile River Baptist Church.

The bridge and the surrounding land have been owned by the Boy Scouts of America since 1927 for their use an educational camp. Fortunately, through an agreement with the National Park Service, the bridge is publicly accessible along the beginning section of the 3-mile Tusten Mountain Trail, an interesting hike with outstanding Upper Delaware Valley scenery. The bridge continues to operate as a single lane vehicle bridge for local traffic. The Tusten Stone Arch Bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places “as a rare and intact example of traditional stone arch bridge construction within the context of Upper Delaware River transportation resources.”

William H. Hankins, the bridge builder, was born at Tusten, New York on March 12, 1846, the son of Samuel Hankins (1798-1877) and Catherine (Reeves) Hankins (1803-1882). Samuel Hankins was a farmer and a merchant, and served as postmaster from 1838 to 1842. The Hankins family were prominent members of the Tusten community, being associated with virtually every public office and business. William Hankins was “one of the last of the old Delaware River raftsmen who ran through the tidewater.” In 1883 it was reported that “many more rafts are offered to him every year than he can take under his charge.” In 1902, perhaps for old times’ sake, and for the first time in 15 years, Hankins started down the Delaware River from Narrowsburg, but noted that “he did not find many changes in the river.” In 1905, Hankins purchased a scow in order to accommodate those who wished to cross the Delaware River.

The William H. Hankins & Company worked three or four quarries in the region, employing approximately 30 men as quarrymen, stone cutters, teamsters and laborers. For a time, he was associated with Charles W. Martin and C. R. Underwood in the stone business. In the early 1900s, as the tourism business began to grow in the region, Hankins operated a boarding house.

Upon his passing, it was written that William H. Hankins “was devoted to his home and family and was held in high esteem in the community where he had always resided.” Hankins passed away at 76 years of age after a long illness on October 24, 1922 at Tusten. Funeral services, officiated by Reverend R. D. Minch, were held at Ten Mile River Baptist Church. Hankins is buried at Tusten Cemetery in Narrowsburg, New York.

The bridge, and the town of Tusten, New York, is named in honor of Dr. Benjamin Tusten (1743-1779), an American militia volunteer and physician who was killed as he ministered to the wounded at the Battle of Minisink on July 22, 1779.

Roebling’s Delaware Aqueduct: A Photographic Study

Sat, 25 May 2024 12:00:00 GMT

Roebling’s Delaware Aqueduct, located at Minisink Ford, New York, is the oldest existing wire suspension bridge in the United States. The 535-foot aqueduct bridge, spanning the Delaware River, opened in 1849 as a vital transportation link between the coal mines of Pennsylvania and the thriving marketplace in New York. It was one of four suspension aqueducts on the former Delaware & Hudson Canal. John A. Roebling (1806-1869), future engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge, designed each of the four bridges.

The Delaware Aqueduct operated for nearly 50 years, closing in 1898 with the end of the canal. The aqueduct was then drained and the bridge converted to accommodate vehicle traffic, often operating as a private toll road. The bridge continued to operate until 1979 when, after substantial deterioration through years of neglect, it was threatened with closure. Fortunately, however, in 1980 the National Park Service purchased the bridge and began its restoration using Roebling’s original plans and specifications.

Roebling’s Delaware Aqueduct was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1968. Today, the bridge accommodates single lane vehicle traffic where barges once flowed, and accommodates foot traffic on each side of the road where the path was once trod by canal workers and their mules. Roebling’s Delaware Aqueduct is a wonderful example of the historic and modern blended together in the Upper Delaware River area.

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The Wayne County Herald issue of May 9, 1849 announced the opening of the aqueduct in an article titled “Del. & Hud. Canal Company.”

“The water was let into the Delaware and Hudson Canal on the 25th ult., and the navigation resumed for the season. The wire Suspension Aqueducts over the Delaware and Lackawaxen rivers, which were commenced in 1846, are now completed and opened for the passage of boats. These works have been erected for the purpose of avoiding the delay formerly experienced in crossing the Delaware river, and will materially improved the navigation. They are constructed on the plan of the Pittsburg Suspension Aqueduct; a structure designed and executed by Mr. John A. Roebling, civil Engineer of the city of Pittsburg, and which has proved eminently successful, and was the first of the kind in the world. After an examination of this work by Mr. R. F. Lord, Chief Engineer of the Del. & Hud. Canal Co., a contract was entered into with Mr. Roebling for the erection of the superstructure of the Delaware and Lackawaxen Aqueducts. The following description will convey a tolerably accurate idea of the extent and magnificence of this work.

The trunks are composed of timber and plank well joined and caulked, and suspended to two wire cables, one on each side. The Cables rest in heavy cast iron saddles, which are placed on top of small towers of 4 by 6 feet base, rising 4 feet above the towpath. There is a towpath on each side of the trunk, which is wide enough for two boats of the present capacity to pass. The towers are each composed of 3 blocks of a white quartz pudding-stone, of great hardness and durability, obtained from the quarries in Ulster Co., N.Y. The masonry of the piers and abutments, which support the little towers has been executed in the most substantial manner of a durable and compact gray-wacke, which constitutes the principal foundation of the valley of the upper Delaware. The beds of the face-stone are all cut, the backing is large and well bonded, and the whole laid in hydraulic cement. Nothing has been spared to ensure the safety of the foundations, and by the construction of good ice-breakers to guard the piers against the heavy ice floods, which in this river prove sometimes very violent and destructive.

The Cables are made in one length across the river from abutment to abutment, and connected at their ends with anchor chains, manufactured of solid wrought iron, in bars of from 5 ft. to 10 feet long, and 5 to 6 inches wide by 1 1/4 inch thick. The lower end of each chain is secured to a heavy cast iron anchor-plate of 6 feet square, which supports the foundation of a large body of masonry, whose weight resists the strain of the chain and cable. As the cables are protected against oxidation by a copious varnish and paint and closely encased by a tight wire wrapping, which gives them the appearance of solid cylinders, they may be considered indestructible.

The wood-work is subject to decay, however it will last longer in these works than in common timber structures, and can be renewed at any time.

The following table exhibits the principal dimensions and quantities of the Delaware Aqueduct:

Hydraulic cement masonry in abutments, piers and anchorage, 7,688 cubic yards.

Length of Aqueduct with extensions, 600 feet.

Number of Spans, 4.

Length of Span varies from 131 to 142 feet.

Width of Trunk at water line, 19 ft.

Depth of water, 6 ft. 6 inches.

Weight of water between abutments, 1,950 tons.

Weight of water in one span, 487 1/2 tons.

Diameter of wire cables, 8 1/2 inches.

Length of wire weighing 1 lb., 17 1/2 feet.

Number of wires in each cable, 2,150.

Total weight of Cables and anchor chains, 190,000 lbs.

Ultimate strength of each cable, 1,900 tons.

The new Aqueducts over the Neversink at Cuddebackville and the Rondout at High Falls, will be constructed on the same plan in the course of this season. There will then be on the line of the Del. And Hudson Canal, four Wire Suspension Aqueducts, most perfect and complete, as far as durability and economy is concerned.

The general enlargement of the Canal has been prosecuted vigorously during the last winter. Fifty-seven of the enlarged Locks, being 100 feet long between quoins, and 15 feet width of chamber, are brought into use this spring, and the whole are to be completed by the opening of the Canal in the spring of 1850, making the canal then competent for the passage of Boats loaded with 130 to 140 tons of Coal.”

Kadampa World Peace Temple, Glen Spey, New York: A Photographic Study

Sat, 18 May 2024 12:00:00 GMT

The Kadampa World Peace Temple is located in the hamlet of Glen Spey in the Sullivan County region of the southern Catskills. It is one of six Kadampa World Peace temples in the world. The temple, which opened in 2006, is set on 82 landscaped and woodland acres, which includes gardens, nature trails, a lake and streams.

The Temple was designed by Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso as part of the International Temples Project. According to the website for the Temple, its “unique design is based on the celestial palace of Heruka, the Buddha of Compassion. The design also represents all the stages of the spiritual path.” The Temple is also home to a bookstore, a gift shop and the World Peace Cafe.

The Kadampa World Peace Temple is located at 47 Sweeney Rd, Glen Spey, New York. Visit their website at www.kadampanewyork.org for more information.

Saints Peter and Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Glen Spey, New York

Sat, 11 May 2024 12:00:00 GMT

The beautiful Saints Peter and Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church is located only a few miles from the Delaware River at the hamlet of Glen Spey in Sullivan County, New York. The church was built in order to meet the religious needs of the growing population of Ukrainians living in the area. The church is part of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the United States of America.

The ground for the church was consecrated on July 11, 1971. The dedication service was performed by Very Reverend Vitaly Kowalenko, Very Reverend Philimon Kulchinsky and the Very Reverend Serhij Nepril. Construction on the church was completed in 1972. The property for the church was donated by the Ukrainian Fraternal Association, which at the time owned and operated the nearby Verkhovyna resort.

The church was built in the Kozak-Baroque architectural style, which emerged in the 17th and 18th centuries in Ukraine as the country struggled for national independence. This style of architecture was a combination of European baroque styles and local architectural styles, and was noted for its moderate ornamentation, a local style that was simpler in form from its western European counterparts and a style softened by traditional naturalistic images. It was also noted for gilded or azure domes.

The church was designed by Ivan Zhukovsky (1901-1980), who was born on March 4, 1901 in Kitsman, Bukovyna. He studied in Prague in 1926 and graduated from Moscow Polytechnic, while at the same time studying conducting and composition at the Moscow Conservatory. He operated his own architectural firm at Chernivtsi, Ukraine from 1930 to 1941 and was the head of the Society of Ukrainian Engineers from 1931 to 1941. He emigrated to Germany and then to the United States in 1949, where he was active in Ukrainian community life. He was a professor and dean of the architectural department at the Ukrainian Technical Institute in New York from 1957 to 1961. He served as president of the Ukrainian Engineers’ Society of America from 1954 to 1980 and served as chairman at the Center for the Association of Bukovinian Ukrainians in the United States from 1954 to 1973. Zhukovsky published a number of books, including several versions of Ukrainian-German dictionaries. He also designed the Saint John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church in Hunter, New York.

The hamlet of Glen Spey, where the church is located, takes its name from the Scottish word “glen” for valley, and “spey” for the clear water springs found throughout the area. In the 1940s the area became a popular destination for second home owners of Ukrainian descent, eventually becoming known as “Little Ukraine.” The area is said to have reminded the homeowners of their native homeland, and allowed them to celebrate their faith and heritage without the fear of persecution. The popular Ukrainian Youth Festival for many years attracted thousands of visitors to the small Glen Spey hamlet in Sullivan County. The equally beautiful St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Catholic Church, founded in 1967, can also be found at Glen Spey.

Saints Peter and Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church is located at 329 High Road (County Route 41) in Glen Spey, New York.

Saint John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church

Sat, 04 May 2024 12:00:00 GMT

Saint John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church is located in Hunter/Jewett Center, New York in the northern Catskills of Greene County. The beautiful church was built in 1962 using the traditional construction methods of the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountain highlanders. The church, constructed on lands donated by Dr. Ivan Makarewycz, was designed by sculptor Jaroslaw Paladij and architect Ivan Zhukovsky, and was built by master carpenter Jurij Kostiw. The interior of the church was decorated by two prominent Ukrainian artists, iconographer Petro Cholodny, Jr., and wood-carver/sculptor Mykhailo Chereshnovsky.

The tri-partite (three-frame) church, which measures 61 feet in height, was constructed using building techniques involving solid timber or logs. The logs were laid horizontally one on top of the other and secured with wooden pegs and various other systems of corner-joinings. There were no nails used in the church’s construction. The redwood cedar logs, measuring 7 1/2 feet by 12 inches, were imported from British Columbia. The roof shingles were hand split from the imported red cedar and were expected to last for 60 years before repairs were needed.

The interior of the church is adorned with hand-carved wood items including the altar, pulpit, tabernacle and processional cross, as well as a variety of artistic religious icons including the four Evangelists (symbolizing the Catholic church’s roots in the Gospel), the Virgin Mary with Jesus, the scene of the Last Supper and St. John the Baptist, patron saint of the church. The crosses inside the church were designed after those used in Ukraine 300-400 years ago. Carvings on the various tables in the church show sun rays, wheat, grapes, even dishes and utensils used in every day life by the Ukrainian ancestors of the church’s founders. The wooden chandelier, at 65 feet high, is suspended from the ceiling, and signifies the earth wherein the crops are grown. According to old traditions it is customary to stand during the service and while praying or meditating; and therefore there are no pews in the church, and only a few benches along the walls which can be used by the elderly, the sick and pregnant or nursing mothers.

As per the church website, construction of the church “was financed by Ukrainian post-World War II refugees and immigrants who realized the need for a tangible expression of their heritage and in the context of Soviet control of their country were constantly vigilant in the preservation and propagation of Ukrainian culture.” With this historic goal for the landmark church, it has certainly met its objective for over 60 years, remaining a distinctive example of Ukrainian culture and heritage.

The idea for the church began to form on August 14, 1960 at a meeting held at the home John Kobziar which was well attended by local Ukrainian-American residents. The group called themselves the “Temporary Committee for the construction of the Ukrainian Catholic Chapel in the Vicinity of Hunter, N.Y.” The church design was approved at the group’s May 21, 1961 meeting, and the group raised the money required. Construction of the church began in 1961 and was completed the following year in 1962.

The consecration service at St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church was officiated by Right Reverend Joseph Schmondiuk (1912-1978), who would later become the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in America. Twenty-four priests assisted in the service that was attended by over 2,000 people from across the country. Following the service, John Kobziar hosted a dinner for 270 people at his nearby Xenia motel. The dinner included a number of speeches by prominent Ukrainian officials, followed by a presentation of Ukrainian folk songs and entertainment by Ukrainian folk dancers.

John (Ivan Volodymyr) Kobziar (1909-1977), organizer of the original group responsible for building the church, was born in the city of Lviv, Ukraine on January 19, 1909. He would begin playing professional soccer at the young age of 14 for the Lviv “Ukraina”, and became widely known for his “uncanny skills as a soccer player, including a booming shot that eventually became the nemesis of some of the best goalkeepers in Eastern Europe.” He played professionally through 1949, including from circa 1923 to 1931 for Lviv “Ukraina”, then the Ukrainian “Rus” team from Uzhhorod, Carpatho-Ukraine, followed by a second stint at Lviv “Ukraina”, and then for several years at the Regensburg “Sich” team in west Germany. He is regarded as one of the best soccer players in Ukrainian history, and was elected to the Ukrainian Sport Hall of Fame in 2017. With the arrival of communism, he was eventually forced to move to West Germany, and then moved to the United States in 1949. Soon after his arrival, in 1950, he became one of the first Ukrainian settlers in the mountaintop area of Hunter, New York. John and his wife Olga operated the Xenia tourist house at the intersection of Route 23A and Route 17 in Jewett Center for many years. John Kobziar was tragically killed in a car collision along Route 23A on August 15, 1977. He is buried at Saint Francis de Sales Cemetery in Elka Park, New York.

Dr. Ivan Makarewycz (1914-1999), who donated the land for the church, worked as a physician and surgeon for over 30 years in New York City. He owned a summer home not far from the church. Makarewycz, who also helped supervise the construction of the church, noted in 1969 what the church meant to him. “We constructed the church as a memorial to all the Ukrainians killed by the Communists in Russia and to preserve this special style of church architecture. We welcome visitors to stop so they can see what an old mountainside church looked like years ago in the western part of Ukraine.” (Times-Union. August 3, 1969.) Dr. Makarewycz passed away at 85 years of age on July 10, 1999 and is buried at Saint Andrew Cemetery in South Bound Brook, New Jersey.

Jaroslaw Paladij (1910-1977), who made the preliminary scale model of the church, was born on April 21, 1910 at Bukovyna, Ukraine, the son of Jurig and Maria (Smereshanska) Paladij. He graduated from the Academy of Art in Bucharest, Romania and taught sculpture for several years. He immigrated to the United States in 1949, where he worked as draftsman for the New York City Water District until his retirement in 1959. He had a summer weekend summer home in the Jewett area, and after his retirement he made his permanent residence there. Several of his works are featured at the Bukovina Museum of Diaspora in the Ukraine and three of his pyrographs are housed in the Vatican Museum in Rome. He illustrated the book “Abetka,” first published in 1973 by the Ukrainian Academy of Art and Science, which featured 33 illustrated letters of the Ukrainian alphabet, with each letter highlighting famous patriots and historic events from his Ukrainian homeland. Several of his paintings were used for Ukrainian Christmas and Easter greeting cards. One review of his works noted that “his perfect techniques of accomplishment are evident in his works “Zadumany” (“Meditating), “Portret druzhyny” (Wife’s Portrait”), “Avtoportret” (Selfportrait”), and his memorial project honoring Hetman I. Mazepa.” Jaroslaw Paladij passed away in 1977 and is buried at Saint Andrew Cemetery in South Bound Brook, New Jersey.

Ivan Zhukovsky (1901-1980), the church architect, was born on March 4, 1901 in Kitsman, Bukovyna. He studied in Prague in 1926 and graduated from Moscow Polytechnic, while at the same time studying conducting and composition at the Moscow Conservatory. He operated his own architectural firm at Chernivtsi, Ukraine from 1930 to 1941 and was the head of the Society of Ukrainian Engineers from 1931 to 1941. He emigrated to Germany and then to the United States in 1949, where he was active in Ukrainian community life. He was a professor and dean of the architectural department at the Ukrainian Technical Institute in New York from 1957 to 1961. He served as president of the Ukrainian Engineers’ Society of America from 1954 to 1980 and served as chairman at the Center for the Association of Bukovinian Ukrainians in the United States from 1954 to 1973. Zhukovsky published a number of books, including several versions of Ukrainian-German dictionaries. He also designed the Saints Peter and Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Glen Spey, New York.

George (Jurij) Kostiw, the church master builder, was born at the city of Skole in the Ukraine on May 3, 1912, the son of Mykola and Maria (Palko) Kostiw. He was trained by experienced carpenters, including Komar, Koval and Mykhailiv, in his native Bojko mountain region of Ukraine. He served as an apprentice to church master builders and architects in Tseneva, Ukraine from 1927 to 1936. Kostiw came to the United States in 1950 and became a naturalized citizen in 1960. He married Daria Szczur on August 15, 1950. Kostiw also constructed the St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Catholic Church (1967) at Glen Spey, New York and the Sacred Heart Ukrainian Catholic Church (1977) at Johnson City, New York. Jurij passed away in 2005 and is buried at Saint Andrew Cemetery in South Bound Brook, New Jersey. An illustration of the Saint John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church is pictured on his gravestone.

Petro Cholodny, Jr. (1902-1990), the church artist, was born in Kyiv, Ukraine and would become a well-known Ukrainian icon painter and graphic artist. He received his art education from the Ukrainian Studio of Plastic Art in Prague and the Academy of Fine Art in Warsaw, Poland from 1928 to 1934, and upon graduation worked at the Academy as an instructor. Before World War II Cholodny exhibited his work across Europe, including at Warsaw, Lviv, Berlin and Brussels. After the war, he immigrated to the United States and settled in New York. His artistic work can be found in numerous churches, including St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church (New York City), Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Volodimir (New York City), St. Andrew's Ukrainian Orthodox Memorial Church (South Bound Brook, New Jersey), St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church (Newark, New Jersey), and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Lourdes, France). In 2001, The Ukrainian Museum in New York City featured an exhibition titled "Three Generations of Cholodny Artists," which featured the paintings and icons of Petro Cholodny the Elder (1876–1930), those of his son, Petro Cholodny the Younger (1902–1990), and of Andrew Charyna (b. 1951), grandson of Petro Cholodny the Younger.

Mykhailo Chereshnovsky (1911-1994), the church wood-carver and sculptor, was born on March 5, 1911 in the village of Stezhyntsia in the Lemko region. He studied at the School of Applied Arts in Kolomyia and graduated from the School of Plastic Arts in Krakow in 1939. After the end of World War II, as a member of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, Mykhailo emigrated in 1947 to West Germany, and later to the United States, settling in New York City. He was described in 1958 as “one of the best sculptors of the younger generation.” In addition to his decorative wood carving, as seen at St. John the Baptist, he sculpted busts of a number of prominent Ukrainians and produced several monuments in bronze. He served from 1973 to 1994 as the president of the Ukrainian Artists Association, an organization founded in 1952 at New York.

Saint John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church is located on a small hillside along Route 23A, six miles west from the village of Hunter and two miles east from the hamlet of Lexington. Other buildings on the church complex include a bell tower, the parish hall (grazdha) and the parsonage. The Grazdha serves as the venue for the classical music concert series that is held each summer by the Music and Art Center of Greene County. The complex is also home to a Ukrainian gift shop, which offers a wide variety of Ukrainian artistic works and handcrafted items. For more information about the church, its history and current events, visit their website at www.ukrainianmountaintop.org.

Heller’s Fabulous Furniture, Boiceville

Sat, 27 Apr 2024 12:00:00 GMT

Heller’s Fabulous Furniture, located along Route 28 in Boiceville, is home to a wide variety of interesting and eclectic metallic sculptures. One of the largest installations is a 25-foot rocket ship, detailed with Martians driving a spaceship while waving out the window, with a humorous motto of Roswell or Bust. The rocket ship weighs 11,000 pounds and interestingly utilizes a cement truck barrel mixer, bulldozer treads and old car parts. Other sculptures include all sorts of aliens and robots, as well as a metallic pig and a guitar.

Heller’s Fabulous Furniture is operated Steve Heller, a local artist, woodworker and sculptor. Heller, a man of many skills, makes one-of-a-kind wood furniture, creates metal art out of all sorts of odds and ends and even customizes old cars. Heller’s works have been featured in a variety of newspaper and magazine articles including Architectural Digest, Car & Travel, Hudson Valley Magazine and the New York Times. Heller’s store is certainly worth a stop on your way along Route 28. Visit the store website at www.fabulousfurnitureon28.com for more information.

Fill ‘Er Up

Sat, 20 Apr 2024 12:00:00 GMT

This abandoned Gulf gas station can be found alongside a busy county highway in the central Catskills. I have driven past the station many times, but only recently decided to stop and photograph. It is not exactly clear when the station was abandoned, but it nonetheless has a few interesting elements that have stood still with time, such as the stacks of tires and hubcaps, an old 7UP soda machine, a pair of analog gas pumps, overgrown vegetation and a decaying building.

Fill 'Er Up

Open

Closed

24-Hour Towing

Used Tires

Out of Order

Long Time Gone

Full Serve

Full Serve at Your Local Gulf Station

Early Morning on the Esopus

Sat, 13 Apr 2024 12:00:00 GMT

The Esopus Creek is one of the great waterways of the Catskills. Rising from its source at Winnisook Lake on the northwest slopes of Slide Mountain, the creek scenically flows through Ulster County as it makes its way to the Hudson River at Saugerties. The creek is impounded at Olive Bridge to create the Ashokan Reservoir, an important water source for residents of New York City. The creek above the Reservoir is commonly known as the Upper Esopus Creek, and the section below the Reservoir is commonly known as the Lower Esopus Creek. The Esopus Creek offers some of the best fly fishing in the Catskills and, with high water flow, is also popular with kayakers and tubers.

These pictures of the lower section of the Esopus Creek were taken on an early September morning. One of the amazing things about photographing along the Esopus Creek is to observe how the river changes so much from section to section, from narrow to wide, from shallow to deep, from slow-moving to swift currents, and so on.

Early Morning on the Esopus Creek

Morning Light on the Esopus Creek

First Light on the Esopus Creek

Esopus Creek, Ashokan Center

Ray of Light on the Esopus Creek

1817 Schoolhouse, Ashokan Center

Sat, 06 Apr 2024 12:00:00 GMT

The 1817 Stone Schoolhouse, a one-story, two-bay by two-bay stone building with a gable roof, is located on the property of the Ashokan Center. It was constructed in 1817 and operated as a school for the Shokan district from 1817 to 1842, after which it functioned as a cooper shop and a dwelling. It had been abandoned for most of the 20th century when it was given to the Ashokan Camp and staff dismantled it and reconstructed it on its present site in 1985.

The 1817 Schoolhouse is located on the grounds of the Ashokan Center, a non-profit organization dedicated to outdoor and environmental education. The center hosts school groups and hobby and community events such as concerts, blacksmithing, square dancing, guitar camp and the fall festival. The beautiful 374-acre property, being home to Winchell Falls, the 1885 Ashokan/Turnwood Covered Bridge, Cathedral Gorge, a large lake, a barnyard and a horse pasture, is like taking a step back in time. Although the Ashokan Center is private property, you can take advantage of one of its numerous public events to tour the scenic grounds. Visit their website at www.ashokancenter.org for more information.

Winchell’s Inn, Ashokan Center

Sat, 30 Mar 2024 12:00:00 GMT

Winchell’s Inn, also known as the Winchell – Moehring House, was constructed in 1785, and reputedly includes the stone foundation of the early 18th-century dwelling of Jacobus Bush, the first landowner. The inn takes its name from Lemuel Winchell and the Winchell family who managed the lands along the Esopus Creek from 1785 to 1857. Lemuel Winchell also developed an industrial site on the waterfall named for him which, at its fullest extent in the early-19th century, had grist, saw and fulling mills, a forge and a store.

Winchell’s Inn, Ashokan Center

The early history of the property, located on the Esopus Creek at what had been known as Winchell’s Falls, has been traced back to a 1731 deed by which Jacobus Bush purchased the property from the Town of Marbletown. Portions of the stone basement of Bush’s homestead, or that of his son and namesake who inherited the property in 1754, are believed to survive in the extant house, which Lemuel Winchell erected after acquiring the farm in 1785. Whereas the Bush family was well-established in the region, Winchell was a newcomer arriving from Dutchess County, where his family had migrated from New England. He selected the site for the industrial potential of the falls, which is believed to have supported a mill as early as 1772, as well as its location at a fording place on the creek. In addition to constructing a dam on the falls and operating grist, saw and carding mills, as well as a forge, blacksmith shop and store, Lemuel Winchell accommodated travelers in his house and tavern.

The house was extensively restored and “improved” in the 1930s for use as a country retreat for an automobile industry executive with local ties. Following plans provided by Teller & Halverson, a Kingston architectural firm specializing in the restoration of historic houses for second homes, the house was renovated in the Colonial Revival sensibility of the period, featuring a regional “Dutch” taste emphasizing ceiling beams, wide-board floors in natural finish, and modest white-painted interiors and exteriors. A service wing was added to one end and a bluestone terrace, embellished with grind stones from an abandoned pulp mill on the property, distinguished a new front façade created on the uphill side. When the college created the camp in 1957, the house was used as a retreat for the president and a conference center; later it became a dormitory for camp staff. Few changes have been made to the 1937 plan and design.

Winchell’s Inn is located on the grounds of the Ashokan Center, a non-profit organization dedicated to outdoor and environmental education. The center hosts school groups and hobby and community events such as concerts, blacksmithing, square dancing, guitar camp and the fall festival. The beautiful 374-acre property, being home to Winchell Falls, the 1885 Ashokan/Turnwood Covered Bridge, Cathedral Gorge, an 1817 schoolhouse, a large lake, a barnyard and a horse pasture, is like taking a step back in time. Although the Ashokan Center is private property, you can take advantage of one of its numerous public events to tour the scenic grounds. Visit their website at www.ashokancenter.org for more information.

The house is the oldest building on the property and has been in continuous use since the 18th century. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Ashokan Field Campus Historic District.

Father John Nelson, Memento Mori

Sat, 23 Mar 2024 12:00:00 GMT

“I didn’t plan on any of this. In fact, I had a lot of other plans. But then I heard the word of God, and after that . . . your other plans become your other plans.” – Father John Nelson

In the fall of 2014, I found myself in the village of Woodstock to photograph the Church of the Holy Transfiguration of Christ-on-the-Mount, a simple, but picturesque, one-room church located near the summit of Meads Mountain Road high above the village of Woodstock. The church, originally known as the Episcopalian Chapel of Ease, was constructed circa the mid-1890s to serve seasonal visitors at the neighboring Mead’s Mountain House and the nearby Overlook Mountain House.

George Mead (1834-1905), who built Mead’s Mountain House, was born at Ridgefield, Connecticut, the son of Sherwood Mead. At the young age of 15, Mead went to Newburgh to learn the silversmith business as an apprentice. After six years of learning the trade, he went to New York, then New Haven, before settling at Kingston for eight years between circa 1856 to 1864. On the recommendation of his doctor, who told him that he only had a few years to live, Mead moved to the country, buying a farm from a man named Henry Fuller on the side of Overlook Mountain.

Fuller had established himself at what was then known as Wide Clove around 1855, and “cleared a few acres and built a small and rough dwelling.” (Evers, 276). He would “take care of climbers’ horses and occasionally give climbers sleeping space on his floor. He did not act as a guide, however. When climbers asked him to help them keep to the rough trail up Overlook, Fuller would point in the general direction of the trail’s beginning and say, ‘Follow the plainest path.’” (Evers, 276.)

After purchasing Fuller’s farm, Mead would establish his popular boarding house in 1865, which was originally called the “Overlook Mountain House” (not to be confused with the Overlook Mountain House that was later constructed further up the mountain) on account of its location. In its early days it was also sometimes called the “Red House” on account of its color, or the “The Halfway House” on account of its location on the road to Overlook Mountain.

South View, Mead's Mountain House. Louis E. Jones. Author's collection

Upon opening the “Overlook Mountain House” on August 8, 1865, Mead advertised that the “house is new and commodious, fronting a view of more than seventy miles. Ample stable room for horses and vehicles. Persons wishing pure mountain air and mountain scenery in matchless grandeur, will find the location of this summer resort unsurpassed. Fine trout fishing and hunting in the immediate vicinity of the house. No pains will be spared to render the visits of guests both agreeable and pleasant.” (Rondout Freeman. September 6, 1865.) The first visitor names on the hotel register were Christopher Agar and H. B. Schoonmaker.

The location of Mead’s Mountain House in Wide Clove was considered one of the finest in Catskills. “It is located in one of the finest notches in the south end of the Catskills, two thousand feet above the Hudson River and fifteen hundred feet above the beautiful village of Woodstock. From the broad piazzas tine views of the mountains and valleys can be had in every direction and the whole range of the Shawangunk Mountains and the Esopus and Woodstock valleys in the south, while at the north the domes of the Catskills are seen as far as they eye can reach; the house is surrounded with all the attractions of the southern Catskills; is only two miles from Cooper and Echo lakes, two miles from Woodstock village and the immediate vicinity is replete with beautiful mountain walks, fine trout streams, etc.” (Kingston Daily Freeman. April 28, 1880.)

In those early days, visitors came to Rondout by day boats, then transferred to stages for the rest of the journey, sometimes not reaching the house till ten or eleven o’clock at night. Mead’s Mountain House grew in popularity over the next several decades, eventually reaching a capacity for 75 people by 1897. By that time, George Mead had noticed a change in his clientele. “In those [old] days . . . people were glad to get away from railroads and were content with mail three times a week; not they want a railroad station right in front of the house, mail every hour and a telegraph within reach of the bed. He deplores the “pace” at which the present generation lives, and loves to talk of the ‘old times.’” (Ferris, R. The Catskills: An Illustrated Handbook. P. 37.)

Mead’s Mountain House, in addition to being a destination itself, was often used as a way stop for refreshments for travelers making their way to the summit of Overlook Mountain and as a base for fishing at Shue’s Pond (what would become known as Echo Lake). The Mountain House entertained many prominent people over the years, including General Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th President of the United States, as well as Jervis McEntee, Sanford R. Gifford and Frederick Church, all notable painters of the Hudson River School.

Three generations of the Mead family would manage Mead’s Mountain House. Upon George Mead’s death in 1905, his son William and daughter-in-law Annie continued to operate the boarding house. When William passed away in 1913, Annie worked with her daughter Genevieve and son-in law Joseph Hutty to manage the place. The Mead family sold the boarding house to 1948 to Captain Sava J. Milo (1905-1982) and his wife Danka (1913-2002), who operated the place until 1978. It was then purchased by the Karma Triyana Dharmachakra monastery, who demolished the historic structure in 2011.

The Mead family were devout Episcopalians, and in response to the growing popularity of their boarding house, they built the Chapel of Ease circa 1894 so that their customers, and those of the Overlook Mountain House, did not have to travel all the way down the mountain to the village of Woodstock to attend religious services. Episcopal services were held every Sunday, with rotating ministers from the village of Woodstock or a minister who was staying at the adjacent boarding house. George Mead’s granddaughter Genevieve was married to Joseph Hutty at the chapel.

The church is beautifully situated at an elevation of 1,700 feet above sea level, between Mount Guardian to the west and the southwestern shoulder of Overlook Mountain to the east. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005 “for its association with the seasonal tourist industry in Woodstock and the larger Catskill Mountain region during the nineteenth and early twentieth century.”

Chauncey Snyder, who lived in a nearby farmhouse, donated one acre of land to the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of Albany to build the church. Despite this act of goodwill, several years later in 1902 Snyder would be evicted from his farm, with “tears running down his old bronzed cheeks,” by Bolton Brown as he acquired lands for the Byrdcliffe Arts and Crafts Colony. (Bolton Brown. Early Days at Woodstock.) An article published in 1952 in the Kingston Daily Freeman attributed the construction of the church to William Mead (1862-1913), son of George Mead.

The chapel was “modestly built, constructed with a wood balloon frame above a well-laid fieldstone foundation with detailing reminiscent of the rustic aesthetic . . . the form of the chapel and the honesty of its construction and lines relate it to the parish-type model.” Furthermore, “the chapel was modestly scaled, built, and detailed, reflecting its original use as a seasonal place of worship. The choice of shingle sheathing and rustic detailing, particularly as seen on the original entrance canopy and rustic walkway, mark it as a seasonal building and effectively relate it to its immediate mountain surroundings. These elements likewise lend the building a considerable charm and romantic appeal.”

The chapel design was based on architectural designs of Richard Upjohn (1802-1878), who authored Upjohn’s Rural Architecture in 1852. The designs included in the book were aimed at small Episcopal congregations of modest means, and included “plans and elevations for a conveniently scaled and priced wood church and chapel.” Although the Christ-on-the-Mount Church was constructed 39 years after the book’s publication, some of Upjohn’s design elements found in the church include “its steeply pitched roof simple and unpretentious lines, self-contained form and open truss ceiling;” with “the form of the chapel and the honesty of its construction and lines [relating] it to the parish-type model.”

Church of the Holy Transfiguration of Christ-on-the-Mount

Most sources, including the National Register of Historic Places, put the construction of the church as 1891. However, two different sources place the construction as circa 1893 or 1894. In November 1893, the Stamford Mirror wrote that “Christ Chapel, in the town of Woodstock, is to be the most elevated church in Ulster County. It is 2,000 feet above tide water, being near Mead’s Mountain House.” The use of the term “to be” implies, as of November 1893, that the church had not been constructed yet, and that its construction was therefore likely in 1894. A second source, The Churchman issue of August 4, 1894, notes that the cornerstone for the church was laid “two summers ago.” This places the beginning of construction as circa the summer of 1893.

This same article from The Churchman seemingly described the opening of the church in the summer of 1894. “Woodstock, At Christ Church, in the Catskill Mountains, services were held on the Eighth Sunday after Trinity, July 15, and 5 children were baptized. The Rev. George W. Douglas, D. D., who was spending Sunday at Mead’s Mountain House, while on his way to the Adirondacks, conducted the services. The little church has been built mainly through the efforts of Mrs. Augusta Crabbe, of Rochester, N.Y., and the Misses Bolton, of Pelham, N.Y., who spent some time in this place three summers ago. Mr. Snyder presented an acre of ground, and since then $600 have been collected, and a simple shingled building, with rustic finish have been completed. Two summers ago, the Rev. Mr. Wattson, of Kingston, and the Rev. Charles Adams, of Rondout, directed by Archdeacon Thomas, laid the cornerstone. Among the gifts presented to the church, $50 was received from the Church Building Association, also Prayer Books and Hymnals, and an altar Prayer Book and a Bible from Miss Stewart Brown, of New York. A friend from Rochester presented a lectern and chancel chair, and Christ Church, Rochester, sent altar vases. About eighty guests are at Mead’s Mountain House from May to October, and, with the farmers and their children, they all make quite a Sunday-school and goodly congregation. Miss Elizabeth Crabbe, by her faithful visiting among the neighbors, built up a Sunday-school before the church was finished, and thus her summer holidays have laid a precious cornerstone of faith and love.”

No matter the specific date of construction, over the next 130 years after its founding, the church has been associated with some of the village’s most prominent residents. In 1902, Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead purchased 1,200 acres of land in the village of Woodstock, including the property on which the chapel was located, in order to found the Byrdcliffe Arts and Crafts Colony, now the oldest-operating arts colony in the country. In the mid-1930s, Jane Whitehead, then Ralph’s widow, invited Father William Henry Francis, Archbishop of the Old Catholic Church in America, to Woodstock to help mentor her son Peter Whitehead (1901-1975).

William Henry Francis was born at Nottingham, England, and immigrated to the United States with his family as a young boy. The family settled at Waukegan, Illinois, on Lake Michigan, where his father established a mechanized lace-making factory. From an early age Francis had decided that he wanted to become a monk and in 1908 he joined a monastic community in Waukegan founded by Dom Augustine de Angelis Harding. Francis was ordained as a priest in 1910 by Joseph Rene Vilatte, was appointed prior of St. Dunstan’s Abbey at Waukegan in 1913, was consecrated as a bishop in the Old Catholic Church in America by Prince de Landas Berghes in 1916 and was ultimately elected Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Old Catholic Church in America in 1917. He would later in life also be known as William Henry Francis Brothers, after adding the name Brothers, his mother’s maiden name.

The Old Catholic Church in America, sometimes called the Western Orthodox Catholic Church, “believes in the ancient faith, as held by the undivided Catholic Church prior to the great schism of 1054 A. D.” The doctrine is essentially Catholic, but “the authority of the pope is rejected, as is also clerical celibacy. Communion is offered to the laity in both kinds and the liturgy is mainly in the vernacular. The great creeds are accepted, but the ‘filioque’ clause of the Nicene Creed is rejected. Apostolic succession as constituting the only valid ministry is insisted upon, but the typical Roman Catholic intolerance of other religious bodies is largely absent. In most other points of doctrine and practice there is agreement with the Roman position.” (Elmer T. Clark. The Small Sects in America. p. 205.) The church does not advocate compulsory confession and participation of the congregation in worship is emphasized.

With his new position of Archbishop of the Old Catholic Church in America, Father Francis moved around 1917 to Chicago, where he worked with the poor and disadvantaged, who were often “the uncared for, exploited immigrants working in the steel mills of the Middle-West. There in the midst of the despised “foreigners” his sympathetic understanding of their problems and his practical attempts to solve them made his mission bountiful in good works.” (Catskill Mountain Star. 1941.) In the early 1920s, Francis moved to New York City, and worked from St. Dunstan’s House on Stuyvesant Square, where he continued with his branch of the Old Catholic Church. From 1926 to 1936 Francis grew the Old Catholic Church in America from 9 to 24 parishes and from 1,888 members to 5,470 members.

In the early 1930s Father Francis moved to Cos Cob, Connecticut, located half-way between Greenwich and Stamford, in the hopes of establishing Saint Dunstan’s Abbey as “one of the truly great cloisters of the twentieth century.” However, the community was not successful, and Father Francis was ultimately forced to give up the 100-acre property. Around 1934 he moved to a small farmhouse at Bedford Village in New York, in the hopes that this new version of Saint Dunstan’s Abbey would become “The Mother Community of the Old Catholic Benedictines in North America.” Despite the lofty name and ambitions, this community “seldom mustered more than half a dozen monks, few of whom ever reached profession.” Francis remained at Bedford for only a couple of years.

With the invitation of Jane Whitehead, Father Francis moved to Woodstock in the mid-1930s, where he would remain for the rest of his life. Father Francis was often quoted as saying “I came here to convert Woodstock, but Woodstock has converted me.”

When Father Francis first arrived in the late 1930s at the Chapel of Ease, later renamed to the Church of the Holy Transfiguration of Christ-on-the-Mount, it had been abandoned for 13 years, or since around 1926. As per Alf Evers, “The Overlook Mountain House, which was destroyed by fire in 1924 [should be 1923], never reached a point at which it could house fashionable church-going guests. Mead’s became somewhat less popular among churchgoers and the chapel languished. By 1931 the Board of Missions of the Episcopal Diocese of New York took it over, but did little to check the growing deterioration of the charming rustic building and its grounds or the dwindling of its congregation.

The Old Catholic Movement was usually on good terms with the Anglican Church and the American Protestant Episcopal Church. Yet problems developed when the chapel became the center of the Old Catholic Church in America. William Manning, bishop of New York and some said a man with a medieval mind, objected to the presence of the Old Catholics on his church’s property. Jane Whitehead bought the chapel from the board of the diocese and allowed Father Francis to remain in possession throughout the rest of his life.” (Evers, Woodstock: History of an American Town, pp. 582-583.)

Father Francis arrived in the summer of 1939 at the church, “which up until a few months ago seemed to be claimed only by the wilderness about it. (Kingston Daily Freeman. December 7, 1939.) Father Francis, with the help of three assistants, quickly went to work, clearing away the brush and making necessary repairs to the interior. The group, including Father Francis, Father Victor Boniface, Father Edwin and Brother Frank, lived in a house about a quarter mile down the road from the church. That house was owned by Mrs. C. Hinton, and “was known originally as the Snyder house, part of which still stands and which was one of the first two homes built in Woodstock.” (Kingston Daily Freeman. December 7, 1939.) The original intention of the group was to use the church as “nothing more than a monastic chapel,” but they quickly attracted an ever-growing attendance at Sunday services. The first service attracted 13 people, then 26 people a week later, and services soon had enough congregants that they were standing in the back of the church and even outside.

Since the arrival of Father Francis, the church has been affiliated with the Orthodox Church of the Western Rite. During the 1960s and 1970s Father Francis would gain a small degree of fame as the “hippie priest” for his kindness, understanding and service to the young people of the era. According to various sources, Father Francis spent time with Bob Dylan, a local resident of Woodstock in the mid-1960s, with the humble priest serving as the inspiration for Dylan’s song Father of Night. Folk singer Ramblin’ Jack Elliot was a frequent visitor at the chapel. Father Francis married famed sculptor Harvey Fite, creator of Opus 40, to Barbara Richards in 1944.

Father Francis lived a simple life during his time at Woodstock, once noting that “this may seem absurd but we are trying to be like the primitive Christians.” There was a small wood addition, now removed, that was added to the back of the Christ-on-the-Mount church to serve as a humble residence for Father Francis. In a 1941 profile, it was written that Father Francis did not receive a salary, but largely depended on donations of food from his flock. He did not own any property, and at the time was living in an abandoned corn crib which was given to him for free by the owner. There was no passing of a collection plate at church services, but a simple offertory box on the rear wall where donations could be made as one felt inclined. Donations at that time did not exceed $10 per week.

As it was then inconvenient in winter and impossible to hold year-round services at the Christ-on-the-Mount Church high up on the mountain, around 1940, Father Francis moved his church to the village of Woodstock along the Saugerties-Woodstock Road (what is now Route 212), where he converted a barn into what he would call St. Dunstan’s Church. The barn was originally constructed in the 1890s through a communal “raising bee,” where the men of the community came together to erect the structure. Under Father Francis, St. Dunstan’s Church quickly gained a small amount of popularity with both locals and tourists for its beautiful altar, wood carvings and decorative pieces, much of it handcrafted by Father Francis and his associates. When St. Dunstan’s Church was destroyed by fire in December 1945, Father Francis lost much of his worldly possessions, including the church organ, vestments, books, carvings and pictures, as well as all of his personal and household effects. Soon thereafter, Father Francis retreated to the Christ-on-the-Mount Church, where he would live and preach for the remainder of his life. Father Francis passed away on July 21, 1979.

On the morning of October 10, 2014, 35 years after the passing of Father Francis, I went to the Church of the Holy Transfiguration of Christ-on-the-Mount only expecting to take some exterior shots of the building. Although churches have historically kept their doors open around the clock in order to serve the community at any time of day or night, the world has changed, and likely due to theft, vandalism, etc., most churches are now locked while not in active use. After getting my exterior shots, I walked to the front door in the secret hope that it would be open. And surprise, it was.

“As you step through the door,” one newspaper article noted in the 1950s, “you find you have gone back to the 15th century, for it is truly a reproduction of early times.” (Saugerties Daily Post. September 30, 1954.) The interior design of the church, including the ornate lattice and woodcarvings found at and near the altar, were constructed by Father Francis. A decorative, medieval-like rood screen with carved Gothic and floral motifs separates the worship space from the liturgical center, and was once described as being “a work of art which would be a credit to the masters of the Renaissance.” (Kingston Daily Freeman. December 7, 1939) The rood screen and the surrounding walls are decorated with paintings of historic religious figures. The floor is laid with medium-width pine plank, seemingly original, running in an east-west direction.

Interior, Church of the Holy Transfiguration of Christ-on-the-Mount

With the surprise of the church being open, and my additional wonder at the interior being so religiously striking and beautiful, I quickly began to photograph, focusing on the woodwork, close-ups of the religious artifacts, etc. I was inside taking photographs for about 15 minutes when I was startled by someone behind me walking through the front door. It was Father John Nelson.

Father Nelson and I would wind up talking for several hours. He told me a little bit about the church, and himself and asked about my photography. After some time, he then told me he wanted to show me a religious relic that was very important to him, which was located in his basic, monk-like dwelling not too far from the church building.

Although I do not remember some of the particulars, Father Nelson told me about the history of the relic, and how he had traveled years before to northwest US in search of the abandoned dwelling of an esteemed pastor of his church denomination who had died years before. This pastor had lived the life of solitude in a secluded monk-like environment, but had still managed to be known to others in the church. With only the most basic of information, Father Nelson searched the woods for this home for several days, but to no avail. As he was about to give up, Father Nelson found the home, perhaps with some divine intervention, and much to his happiness.

Although the dwelling was in relative ruins after years of abandonment, Father Nelson did find this historic religious artifact with the charcoal inscription “memento mori” arched over a skull and crossbones. The powerful Latin phrase “memento mori” can be translated to “remember death,” “remember that you have to die” or “remember that you are mortal.” Closely associated with Christianity, “memento mori” serves as a moral lesson, reminding believers to lead a meaningful and virtuous life as your time on earth is fleeting. As death is inevitable it was not something to fear, and by contemplating your own mortality it would lead you to reflect on your life and the emptiness of earthly possessions, pleasures and achievements; and lead you to focus on the afterlife and the eternal gift of God.

Father John Nelson, Memento Mori

Father John Nelson asked me to take a picture of him with the religious artifact, and also asked if I could send him some of the photographs of the church that I had taken. After getting home several days after taking the photographs, I processed the photos and sent him the best ones in an email. He responded to the email with much thanks. The photos were later used as part of a fundraising campaign for the church to help fund needed repairs.

In my photography of the Catskills, I do not take many photographs with people, and if there are people, they are usually small, often non-descript, and used only to offer a point of interest or offer a contrast in size to the surrounding landscape. That being said, this photograph of Father John Nelson continues to be one of my favorite photographs that I have ever taken in the Catskills. I fondly remember the brief time spent with the charismatic Father Nelson and the beauty of the small mountaintop church.

The combination of the portrait element of Father John Nelson, wearing a winter coat and hat in the chilly autumn weather, standing outside the most rustic of living quarters, while he holds an incredibly interesting religious artifact with a powerful and timeless meaning, and knowing the very personal story of how the religious artifact was obtained, provide multiple points of interest, which, when seamlessly united, seem to perfectly capture that moment in time.

After meeting Father Nelson that day I tried to learn a little bit more about him, who, as I found out, had led quite an interesting and varied life. John Nelson was born in 1950 in Maryland and was raised by his grandparents. He had found his way to the village of Woodstock by the late 1960s, and first attended Easter Sunday service with Father Francis in 1970. On his first visit to the mountain church, Nelson recalled, “I was immediately struck by the reverence being shown toward God, something that did not exist in typical American churches. It was something very old, and you could feel it.” (Woodstock Times. March 12, 2015.)

Intervening years found Nelson living in an intentional community in Stony Hollow, marrying several times, working as a woodworker and carpenter, studying the Celtic church in Ireland for several years, and ultimately studying in the early 1990s at the Western Rite Orthodox Monastery in New Jersey under the mentorship of Father Theodore, a Russian priest who had escaped the revolution. He would also lead a cover band called the Beagles, which was dedicated to the music of the Beatles and the Eagles.

By around 1995, Nelson would follow in the footsteps of Father Francis and personally lead the Church of the Holy Transfiguration of Christ-on-the-Mount. While serving the church, “he built a beautiful baptistry by closing in the old pavilion, creating a sleeping area, and lived there as a monk, under simple, primitive conditions. He also worked on the church structure, rebuilding the rood screen and shoring up areas that were decaying.” (Woodstock Times. August 10, 2017.)

For the next 22 years until his passing, Nelson served as a prominent local community leader. He helped found the Woodstock Council for World Peace, led the Woodstock March for Peace and was instrumental in getting the church listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. Father John Nelson died from liver cancer at Northern Dutchess Hospital on August 1, 2017. He is buried on the grounds of his beloved mountaintop church.

Woodstock Artists Cemetery: A Photographic Study

Sat, 16 Mar 2024 12:00:00 GMT

Encircled by the everlasting hills

They rest here who added to the beauty of the world

By art, creative thought and by life itself.

- Dr. James T. Shotwell

They Rest Here

RIP Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead

Woodstock’s reverence for artists and their craft is not limited to the living, as the Woodstock Artists Cemetery pays eternal homage to local residents who have made their mark on the arts. Buried here are many great artists, musicians, writers, painters, sculptors and poets.

Among the well-known buried here are Milton Avery and Philip Guston, noted painters; Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead, Bolton Brown and Hervey White, co-founders of the Byrdcliffe Arts and Crafts Colony, now the oldest-operating arts colony in the country; Milton Glaser, graphic designer and creator of the I ♥ NY logo; and Howard Koch, who won an Academy Award as one of the screenwriters of the movie “Casablanca.”

The idea of the Woodstock Artists Cemetery was initiated in 1934 by John Kingsbury following the tragic death of his 18-year-old son, who died in a car accident while attending school in Andover, Massachusetts. Kingsbury, who had originally purchased an 80 ft. by 100 ft. plot of land on which to bury his son, was soon joined by his close friends Carl Lindin, James Shotwell, Bruno Zimm and James Stagg, who together purchased additional land to expand the cemetery. The Woodstock Memorial Society was officially established on November 4, 1934 to manage the cemetery.

In the hopes of preserving the natural environment and the beauty of the landscape, the cemetery established bylaws which prohibited many of the traditional symbols of grief. With the exception of the memorial to Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead, the cemetery requires that all gravestones are level to the earth. Cemetery bylaws also prohibit signs and grave mounds and containers for flowers were not permitted to rise more than two inches above the ground.

In line with their artistic backgrounds, many of the gravestones of the deceased include beautiful visual images such as a piano, a violin, a sailboat, a peace symbol, doves, musical notes, a sword, an acorn, a colorful sunburst, among many others. Some of the gravestones carry messages that attempt to sum up life in a few words such as “From Rain to Sunshine,” “He Has Loved the Stars Too Fondly to Be Fearful of the Night,” “Many Blessings on Your Sacred Journey,” “May All Beings Be Happy and Free from Suffering,” or “He Was a Man, Take Him for All in All I Shall Not Look Upon His Like Again.”

At the top of the hill overlooking the cemetery, there is an imposing 10-ton bluestone monument set on a circular terrace that was created by sculptor Tomas Penning (1905-1982). The bluestone sculpture includes the inscription of Dr. James Shotwell’s words seen at the beginning of this blog post. Penning had settled in the hamlet of High Woods in Saugerties in the early 1930s and would become one of the leading sculptors in the village of Woodstock. He was an instructor for several years at the National Youth Administration Work Center in Woodstock. Penning honorably served during World War II from 1942 to 1946, including service in an army anti-aircraft unit in Tunis, North Africa.

The Woodstock Artists Cemetery is located at 12 Mountain View Avenue, just off Rock City Road, and only a short walk from the Village Green at the center of Woodstock. Visit the cemetery website at www.woodstockartistscemetery.org for more information.

RIP Clinton Woodbridge Parker

Poet + Painter + Philosopher

RIP Albert Graeser

RIP Alek

RIP Richard E. Tee

RIP Leonardo Cimino

Violinist

At the End

On the Horse

Many Blessings on Your Sacred Journey

Peace

He was a man

Seeds of Life

Cross of God

Art at Woodstock Artists Cemetery

Our Home

Crusader for Peace

RIP Jenne Magafan Chavez

The Song of Life

Two Acorns

Reaching Out

Bug

Manhattanville College 1841

All I Want

The Scenes of Life

Life

RIP Hans J. Cohn

John Kenneth Corbin: The First Aerial Photographs of Stamford, New York

Sat, 09 Mar 2024 13:00:00 GMT

John Kenneth Corbin was born on September 5, 1902, the son of William and Mary Cowley Corbin. He was born in Stamford and graduated from the local high school. After high school he worked at the local railroad station for two years, before joining the National Bank of Stamford in 1923. He worked at the bank for over 40 years, from 1923 to his retirement in 1965. He was a veteran of the US Army during World War II, serving from December 1943 until his discharge in May 1945. He was an active member of the community, serving as a member of the Stamford Fire Department and the Methodist Church. He was a motorcycle enthusiast and an avid bowler, holding several local record high scores for many years.

Corbin was married to Eva Dederick on December 25, 1943 at Saugerties, New York. Eva worked as a teacher in the Stamford and South Kortright school systems for 23 years.

Mt. Utsayantha, Elev. 3365 Ft.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s Corbin took to the air, earning his pilots license. Combining his love of flight and photography, Corbin took the first aerial pictures of the Stamford area in 1931. The first pictures were taken unassisted from his Allison monoplane with an ordinary No. 3 Brownie camera. The simple Brownie camera, first manufactured by the Eastman Kodak company in 1900, was inexpensive and easy to use, making it accessible to the general public and the growing population of amateur photographers. The No. 3 Brownie camera used by Corbin was manufactured from 1908 to 1934.

The Stamford Mirror-Recorder, the local newspaper, reported on these first aerial pictures in an article titled "First Airplane Views of Town." “One of the pictures, taken from a height of 1300 feet, shows how conspicuous as an identification mark the new pool in Indian Trail Park really is to visiting aviators. It also reveals that the South Street garage building of Cook & Son and the Stamford Opera House are two conspicuous landmarks, having as they do, two of the largest roof-spreads in town. The Cook & Son building especially stands out clearly and from its location it would make an ideal direction indicator for visiting pilots. The Hoagland garage block which already carries a direction arrow and the name of the airport, is clearly discernible at 1300 feet and should be instantly located by a pilot new to these parts. Stamford Arms stands out clearly as do the Belvedere and the Maselyn.

Another picture, taken at considerably greater height, looks directly down upon the Tower on Mt. Utsayantha – a white dot against a dark background. This picture shows what an unusually dense forest growth covers this mountain top. The automobile road which leads through the woods to the mountain top is completely hidden.” (Stamford Mirror-Recorder. September 17, 1931.)

In 1934 Corbin took a series of aerial photographs of Stamford, Mount Utsayantha, the village hotels and the surrounding region, pictures that were then made available for sale as postcards. Local resident Dayton Griffin piloted the plane while Corbin took the pictures.

“Stamford people who haven’t the courage to view their village from the air will soon have an opportunity to see what it looks like from above, through post cards which will shortly go on sale here . . .

Stamford people had forgotten that the village has a huge airport direction arrow painted on the roof of one of its larger buildings until they saw a picture taken by Mr. Corbin showing in sharp detail the West End area of Stamford village of which the Hoagland garage block was the center. There were many other pictures of various sections of the village, all unusually sharp and clear and giving a new and very favorable impression of the beautiful village in which we live.

Two of the pictures of the village were especially interesting. One shows the buildings which comprise The Maselyn Hotel group and Stamford Arms, together with Main Street and other buildings in that immediate section. The other picture shows the municipal pool in Indian Trail Park to splendid advantage.

Two unusually fine pictures of the New Rexmere Club Hotel have been obtained from the air by Mr. Corbin. In one picture the hotel and its immediate surroundings are beautifully reproduced. In the other picture the acres of lawns which spread out in all directions from the hotel are interestingly caught from a higher elevation.

Another view of the village is taken from the air from Hobart way and is quite inclusive. One of the prettiest pictures is that of The Chateau in Granthurst Park. Here a natural setting aids the camera and with close-cropped lawns and encircling trees the effect is pleasing indeed.

The Stamford Country Club, located on a sharply sloping hillside, has heretofore been difficult to photograph to advantage and as a result pictures for booklets have for years been taken showing the rear of the building. Part of Stamford’s picture problem this year was solved when Mr. Corbin took a picture of the club house from his plane. The picture is used in this year’s Stamford booklet issued by the Chamber of Commerce. Since that picture was taken, Mr. Corbin, flying at a much lower altitude, has secured an unusually fine picture.

The tower on Mt. Utsayantha and the automobile parking space on the top of this 3,365-foot peak were beautifully caught in a hazardous flight in which the plane must have barely skimmed the flag staff. The gnarled trees surrounding the tower which always attract the interest of the visitor are faithfully reproduced in the picture which incidentally is the first to be taken of the tower from the air.

There are other fine pictures of various sections of the village showing The Terrace, The Madison, the Watson Greenhouses, etc.

There were two other pictures of unusual interest. One a “still,” taken on Main Street during the flood of last March when West End residents in Stamford worked desperately nearly all day Sunday, March 4th, to truck away or break up the ice jams that formed constantly at the rear of Main Street business places on the upstream side. When the trucks proved too slow to handle the ice a double line of men extending across the street was formed and the cakes were broken up into small pieces and shoved through a manhole on the opposite side of the street, below the plugged culvert. The picture shows the string of men in action, with cakes of ice which they couldn’t for the moment handle spreading out upon the street.

The other picture, taken from the air, gives an impressive close-up of the mighty torrent that pours over Gilboa dam when the Old Schoharie Creek goes on a rampage. The camera caught it – mist and all.

The pictures, particularly those of Stamford, should provide something of interest for those who are ever seeking “something different” for their booklets.” (Stamford Mirror-Recorder. July 12, 1934.)

Upon his retirement from the National Bank of Stamford in 1965, Corbin and his wife moved to Bradenton, Florida. Corbin passed away a few years later after an extended illness on December 21, 1971 at the Manatee Memorial Hospital in Bradenton, Florida. Funeral services were held at Hall Funeral Home in Stamford, with Reverend William R. Phinney, pastor of the Jefferson United Methodist Church, officiating. John Kenneth Corbin and his wife Eva are both buried at Stamford Cemetery in Stamford, New York.

Crispell Memorial French Church and Burying Ground

Sat, 02 Mar 2024 13:00:00 GMT

The Crispell Memorial French Church, to the surprise of many, is actually a 1972 reconstructed interpretation of the first 1717 stone church in New Paltz. The original church, which was also used as a school, served the early settlement for 56 years when a larger church was built to accommodate the growing congregation. The church is named for Antoine Crispell, one of the twelve founders of New Paltz. The adjacent Burying Ground contains many graves of the original 12 founding families of New Paltz. The last burial took place here in 1864.

New Paltz was founded in 1678 by French Huguenots, Protestant followers of John Calvin who had escaped religious persecution in France and emigrated to religiously tolerant countries around the world, including the United States. With the purchase of nearly 40,000 acres of land from the Esopus Indians, the 12 founding families, referred to as the Patentees (as they held the legal patent to the land), quickly left their young Kingston and Hurley homes and established a permanent settlement and farming community along the Wallkill River.

Peaceful Huguenot Street in downtown New Paltz offers a step back in time to these early days of the village. Charming, Dutch-inspired stone houses, many now active museums, provide a glimpse of what life was like in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Visitors can admire the quality architecture at the Freer House, Abraham Hasbrouck House, Bevier-Elting House, DuBois Fort, Jean Hasbrouck House and the LeFevre House, as well as a reconstructed 1717 church. There is also an 18th century burial ground, a visitor center, educational exhibits and many of the homes are open for tours. Huguenot Street, marketing itself as “the oldest street in America with its original houses”, is listed on the register of National Historic Landmark Districts.

The Rondout Effect

Sat, 24 Feb 2024 13:00:00 GMT

The Rondout Effect, located at the Riverport Wooden Boat School in Kingston, New York, is an impressive mural depicting scenes typical of the Rondout District including boating, the Rondout Lighthouse, and the buildings of the Strand. The mural was created in conjunction with the 2017 and 8th annual O+ festival. It is the first O+ mural in the downtown section of Kingston.

The Rondout Effect is the creation of local artist Matthew Pleva, a Kingston native and SUNY Purchase graduate. This is Pleva’s second work for the O+ festival. His first, titled Hobgoblin of Old Dutch Church, prominently overlooks Peace Park in the Stockade District of Kingston, New York. The Hobgoblin mural features several icons of the Kingston landscape including the Old Dutch Church and Jansen House as well as the famed hobgoblin of Kingston lore. Visit Matthew’s website at www.matthewpleva.com for more information about this amazing artist or visit him at his store, The Art Riot.

The O+ festival is a 3-day event where artists and musicians exchange their participation for basic health care, dental and wellness services. Billed as “The Art of Medicine for the Medicine of Art”, the growing Kingston event features many forms of art media including paint, sculpture, dance, performance art and music. The first Kingston O+ festival took place in 2010. The most visible aspect of the festival is the large-scale murals seen throughout the city.

Heading to Kingston Point

Sat, 17 Feb 2024 13:00:00 GMT

The non-profit Trolley Museum of New York, located in the Rondout waterfront section of Kingston, has on display trolley cars from around the world. Visitors can also hop on to take a 1 ½ mile trolley ride with stops at T. R. Gallo Park and out to Kingston Point, all while taking in great views of the Hudson River and the Rondout Lighthouse.

Trolley #358, seen here, is making its way towards Kingston Point. This trolley originally operated in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. It was manufactured in 1925 by the St. Louis Car Co. for the Johnstown Traction Company. After Johnstown abandoned its street railway in June 1960 the car was sent to Stone Mountain, Georgia, where it operated as part of a tourist ride around the mountain. The Trolley Museum of New York then acquired trolley #358 in 1991 and undertook an extensive restoration. In 2000 trolley #358 began to carry its first Kingston passengers and continues this service today. The trolley weighs 38,380 pounds and originally had seating capacity for 44.

For more information about the Trolley Museum and the trolley rides, check out their website at www.tmny.com.

The Statues of Academy Green, Kingston, New York

Sat, 10 Feb 2024 13:00:00 GMT

Academy Green holds a distinguished place in Kingston’s history. Governor Peter Stuyvesant negotiated a peace treaty here in 1660 between early settlers and the local Esopus Indians. Ulster County troops drilled on the site prior to entering the Civil War. From 1830 to 1916, Academy Green was the site of the Kingston Academy, the oldest preparatory school in New York State, which instructed students on mathematics, science, the arts and languages. After the Kingston Academy’s demolition in 1916, with students moving to a new location at the Kingston High School, Academy Green became a park in 1918.

Academy Green is home to three 11-foot bronze sculptures of Peter Stuyvesant, George Clinton and Henry Hudson, each of whom left a lasting impact on the Kingston region. The 1898 monuments are the work of noted sculptor John Massey Rhind (1860-1936) and were produced by the Gorham Manufacturing Company in New York. The statues were originally located Exchange Court building in Manhattan. When that building was being remodeled in the late 1940s, the sculptures, unbelievably, wound up in a junkyard as scrap. Fortunately, after seeing a newspaper article about the building remodeling, Emily Crane Chadbourne, president of Kingston’s Senate House Association, tracked down the junkyard and sought to rescue the statues. She purchased and donated the statues to the city of Kingston. The statues were installed on large pedestals of local bluestone at Academy Green, and a dedication ceremony led my Kingston Mayor Oscar Newkirk took place in June 1950.

George Clinton (1739-1812) led a remarkable career and left a lasting legacy on both his home state of New York and his country. He was the first Governor of New York and served for 21 years, the longest serving governor in state history. He was a delegate to the 2nd Continental Congress, served honorably as a Brigadier General in the Continental Army during the American Revolution and is considered by many to be one of the Founding Fathers of the country. Clinton served as Vice President of the United States under two different presidents, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, one of only two men to hold that distinction. He is buried at the Old Dutch Church in the Stockade District of Kingston.

Peter Stuyvesant (1612-1672) was the Director General (i.e. Governor) of New Netherlands, a Dutch colony, from 1647 until 1664. In 1664, the English gained control of New Amsterdam, and thus all of the New Netherlands colony, and it was renamed New York. Stuyvesant left a lasting legacy on the colony with the introduction of strict new laws, establishment of a municipal government and the expansion of the colony beyond Manhattan.

Henry Hudson (c. 1570-1611) was an English sea explorer. In 1609, working on behalf of the Dutch East India Company, Hudson was the first European to sail up the Hudson River (obviously named in his honor). His explorations led to the Dutch colonization of the region, the establishment of New Netherland and the settlement of Kingston (then known as Wiltwyck).

George Clinton

Peter Stuyvesant

Henry Hudson

Billy Costello: The Pride of Kingston

Sat, 03 Feb 2024 13:00:00 GMT

Billy Costello (1956-2011) was a native of Kingston, New York who became a boxing world champion. Costello took up boxing at the relatively late age of 19, but showed quickly that he was a natural fighter. He won the New York Golden Gloves championship in 1978 and turned professional a year later, winning his first 30 fights. In 1984 Costello became the undefeated WBC light welterweight champion with a technical knockout of Bruce Curry. He successfully defended his title three times against Ronnie Shields, Saoul Mamby and Leroy Haley, before losing his fourth title defense to the undefeated Lonnie Smith. He left boxing in 1986 with a loss to Alexis Arguello, but returned in 1992 for nine more fights, all victories, before retiring for good in 1999. After a 20-year career, Costello retired with an impressive record of 40 wins, 2 defeats, with both defeats coming at the hands of world champions.

Billy Costello is fondly remembered in his native Kingston, for his humble beginnings, for notably holding three of his championship fights in his hometown, for setting up the local boxing program with the Kingston Police Athletic League, and ultimately for his toughness and dedication to the sport. The statue of Costello is prominently located at a busy intersection in that city for all those who pass to remember his athletic greatness. The life-sized, white granite statue was dedicated in 2012, only a year after his passing. The dedication ceremony was well attended by family, local residents, boxing fans and local dignitaries.

Inspirational quotes by Billy Costello, Kingston native and WBC light welterweight boxing champion from January 29, 1984 to August 21, 1985.

“Everyone was always telling me, ‘Billy, you can’t do this’ and ‘Billy, you can’t do that.’ But all that ever did was make me more determined than before.”

“They had some boxing equipment in the gym, and I figured, why not try it? One day on the heavy bag and it was like God saying to me, this is what you’re supposed to do.”

“I looked across the ring and I said to myself, I’m here. People put me down all my life, but I’m here.” – Billy Costello talks of his mindset on January 29, 1984 as he entered the ring for his title fight with Bruce Curry in Beaumont, Texas. Costello knocked out Curry in the 10th round to win the WBC light welterweight title.

Patriotism

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 13:00:00 GMT

Standing in the southeast corner of the Old Dutch Church cemetery in Kingston, New York, the 16-foot bronze war monument entitled “Patriotism” commemorates the soldiers of the 120th New York State Infantry and their military service during the Civil War. The 120th New York Infantry unit was led by General George H. Sharpe (1828-1900), a prominent member of the Old Dutch Church parish, and contained many men from the church. The distinguished unit fought at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and Appomattox Court House, which are but a few of their many battles.

Following the Civil War, General Sharpe erected the statue in honor of the men of his command. The statue depicts “the figure of a young and beautiful woman who stands in a graceful attitude on top of the pedestal holding aloft a flag. The pedestal is of red granite from Stony Creek, Conn., and is made of the same kind of stone as that used in the construction of the statue of the Goddess of Liberty, in New York Harbor." (Kingston Daily Freeman, October 17, 1896) The statue was dedicated on October 17, 1896. The statue was created by sculptor Byron M. Pickett (1834-1907) and cast at the foundry of M. J. Power of New York City. The statue was restored in 1996 by Coryat Casting Company.

One plaque on the base of the statue contains an approximation of the Great Seal of the United States, which includes the United States motto of “E Pluribus Unum.” Translated from Latin, the motto means “Out of many, one.”

Staff Sergeant Robert Dietz

Sat, 20 Jan 2024 13:00:00 GMT

Staff Sergeant Robert Dietz (1921-1945) was a Kingston native, soldier in the United States Army and recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for valor.

Dietz served as a squad leader in Company A, 38th Armored Infantry Battalion, 7th Armored Division during World War II. During the battle for Kirchain, Germany in March 1945, Dietz braved heavy enemy fire to kill several enemy bazooka teams, bayoneted an enemy soldier, shot 3 German soldiers, all in his pursuit to prevent the enemy from using demolition charges set to blow up two bridges that were vital to the American attack on Kirchain. He succeeded in killing several teams of enemy soldiers protecting the first bridge and personally dismantled the charges on the second bridge but “as he stood up to signal that the route was clear, he was killed by another enemy volley from the left flank.”

Dietz is buried at Wiltwyck Cemetery in Kingston. Dietz Memorial Stadium in uptown Kingston and the Staff Sgt. Robert H. Dietz Post Office are both named in his honor.

Battle Cross

Sat, 13 Jan 2024 13:00:00 GMT

The Ulster County War Memorial, located in front of the Ulster County Office Building in uptown Kingston, pays testament to the 1,307 Ulster County citizens that have lost their lives defending our country. In the center of the monument stands a time-honored military sculpture known as the Battle Cross, consisting of a soldier’s combat boots, their bayonet and inverted weapon stuck in the ground, dog tags hanging off the weapon and helmet resting on top of the stock of the weapon. It is meant to show honor and respect to the fallen at a battle site. Surrounding the Battle Cross are five 7-foot-high polished black granite slabs that are engraved with the names of those soldiers who have been lost. The slabs are positioned in the shape of a pentagon, representing the five branches of the military – Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. The memorial was dedicated in 2015.

“This monument stands in eternal and heartfelt remembrance of those brave American soldiers from Ulster County who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our great nation.” – Ulster County Executive Michael P. Hein.

JoJo’s Masterpiece: The Stone Castle of Swan Lake

Sat, 06 Jan 2024 13:00:00 GMT

This miniature, medieval-looking stone castle is located within a small park in the Sullivan County hamlet of Swan Lake. In the 1930s, at the request of Siegel family, the owners of the former Commodore Hotel, the sculpture was constructed by Joe “JoJo” Moshini, an Italian immigrant and master mason. Moshini had arrived at Swan Lake around 1928 and quickly gained a reputation for his fine masonry work.

The sculpture featured the castle standing tall on a stone pedestal, a surrounding fountain and, at night, it was well lighted by lamps. Surrounding the castle was a beautiful flower garden. Moshini was also known for his other local masonry work including several other stone castles, stone pillars, stone steps and stone walls. The Commodore Hotel as well as the adjacent Stevensville Hotel were popular resort destinations.

In 2013, long after the decline of Catskills tourism and the 1979 razing of the Commodore Hotel, the castle was rediscovered after years of neglect and restored by local volunteers, who now also maintain the small park. The castle serves as a lasting testament to the craftsmanship of Joe Moshini and to the memory of the once great resorts that dotted the Sullivan County landscape.

Seven New Stereoviews of the Catskills by the E. & H. T. Anthony Co.

Sat, 30 Dec 2023 13:00:00 GMT

The E. & H. T. Anthony company was the largest 19th-century manufacturer and distributor of cameras and photographic supplies in the United States. The company was founded by Edward Anthony (1818-1888) and his brother Henry T. Anthony (1814-1884). Regionally, the company produced many of the greatest views of the Catskills of the 19th century. The Catskills stereoviews were incorporated into several series including The Artistic Series, The Glens of the Catskills, and Winter in the Catskills. Each of the photographs demonstrates the enduring beauty of the Catskills, being as equally compelling today as they were 150 years ago.

I have recently acquired seven new stereoviews of the Catskills that were published by the E. & H. T. Anthony & Company. Each of the stereoviews have all been added to the Anthony gallery, which now contains 141 of the company’s Catskills works.

Sunset Rock, The Bluff (# 263)

Looking down Kauterskill Clove from Sunset Rock (# 264)

Hanging Icicles (# 785)

Catskill Mountain House, From North Mountain (# 1340)

Fawns Leap - Kauterskill Clove (#9061)

View at Hancock, looking down the North Branch of the Delaware River (#687)

View at Hancock, on the North Branch of the Delaware (#688)