Author Archives: SKH

From Mahala Clarke, Tivoli, 22 Jun 1853

05 Thursday Feb 2015

Posted by in 19th Century Letters, 19th Century Photos, Education, Genealogy

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Embossed envelope stamped “TIVOLI N.Y. JUN” and “22” written by hand inside the stamp. Also stamped “PAID” addressed to Miss Mary E Knickerbocker Care of Jacob C Tooker Po’keepsie N.Y.

Embossed envelope stamped “TIVOLI N.Y. JUN” and “22” written by hand inside the stamp. Also stamped “PAID” addressed to Miss Mary E Knickerbocker Care of Jacob C Tooker Po’keepsie N.Y.

Mahala Clarke b. c. 1835 was daughter of Consider (b. c. 1808 in MA) and Mahala (b. c. 1806 in MA) Clarke. Pa lived to at least 1880 and Ma died 26 Mar 1879. The girl who wrote this letter died 17 Jul 1856 at 21 years old. Her sister Sarah (b. c. 1842) married Rev. Edward Tompkins (1830-1905) and did not have any children that survived to adulthood. They are buried at the Old Red Church cemetery in Tivoli. She was about 18 years old when she wrote this letter.

Tivoli June   /53 [seems there’s a space for the date, envelope is marked 22]

My dear Mary,

You must excuse my writing and everything else, for my pen is very poor, and the weather very warm; It is Sunday afternoon and I have just returned from the Methodist church, and thought that I would employ my time in writing to you. I can not think of anything that will be very interesting to you notwithstanding I suppose I must fulfil my promise to you. On Thursday evening I had a call from Henry Arthur, Sarah & Jane Nelson together with two ladies from Po’keepsie Mrs. Moore & Nicholas. I returned with them to Mrs. Moore’s and partook of ice cream and when we were coming home we discovered a small snake in the road.

We went to Po’keepsie according to our intentions when you were home but as Pa’ was with us and had to returned with the 11 o’clock train and we had accomplished our shopping Ma’ chose to return with him and of course I had nothing to do but submit and come home. I was very sorry, for I had intended to have called and seen you and Mrs. Blum[?]

Probably I may be down again in the course of the summer and if I should again have that pleasure, intend calling to see you

Will you be home on the fourth of July or not? I suppose you have given up the idea of being homesick and perhaps nearly forgotten Tivoli friends by this time, your time being occupied with studies and law students across the way.

Your Aunt Emeline and Miss Amanda Lasher called here yesterday afternoon and your Aunt was saying that they had heard from Elizabeth Chapman and she expected Sarah and her uncle & Aunt there Saturday that was yesterday and home Wednesday.

Obituary of Mrs. Mahala Clarke, this girl's mother

Obituary of Mrs. Mahala Clarke, this girl’s mother – click to enlarge

I had to hear your Tuesday letter Sunday afternoon and prepare for evening service. Mr. Thompson preached for us yesterday and today has been uncomfortably warm so much so that we hardly knew what to do with ourselves. How has it been with you?

Ma’ was over to your house yesterday and your Ma’* wished me to say to you that they were all well and that she should omit writing to you for a day or two as I was writing to you, Libby & Emily called here a few moments last evening and Libby said that she should write you as soon as Sarah returned and then she might have more interesting reason[?]

We have a Ticket master from Barrytown a Mr. De Groot, Mr. Roose has left.

I think I have exhausted my budget of news tonight as Sarah would say

Pray excuse all imperfections (for they are many) and destroy it as soon as possible

I remain yours faithfully

Mahala Clarke

To Mary E Knickerbacker

PS Please answer as soon as convenient M Clarke

*This is MEK’s step-mother Catherine Sharpe 1821-1893. Her own mother, Eliza Ann Beckwith died in 1843.

Poughkeepsie Female Academy

29 Thursday Jan 2015

Posted by in 19th Century Photos, 20th Century, Education, Genealogy, Urban Renewal

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My great-great grandmother Mary Elizabeth Knickerbocker of Madelin (Tivoli) NY (later Mrs. Dr. John E Losee of Upper Red Hook) attended the Poughkeepsie Female Academy, graduating probably in 1855 at 18. At the time, most children received an “8th grade education” which was not something to look down upon. Those who cared to and could afford to would send their children on to academies and colleges which were often also boarding schools.

I have a half-dozen letters sent to her from her academy friends Mahala Clarke, Emma Robinson, Almira Culver, Kate Roosa, and Mollie Harris that I have transcribed and will begin a series of posts for each in February and March, but thought a little context and background might be handy, first.

Poughkeepsie Female Academy

Poughkeepsie Female Academy (New York Public Library)

When Mary Elizabeth Knickerbocker attended the Poughkeepsie Female Academy, the principal was Jacob C. Tooker. He was born c. 1800 and when he died in 1856 his widow Caroline Warring ran the Academy in his stead until 1859. They may have had two daughters, Sarah b. c. 1836 who appears in the 1850 census with them, and Ada b. c. 1851 who married John Warnick (they are buried in the same plot with her parents). Caroline died in 1891.

Jacob got a Masters from Union College in 1826. He was from Goshen and resided Montgomery, Orange Co in 1830 and 1840. In the early 1840’s he was a superintendent of Orange County public schools. From 1846-48 he was principal of Brockport Collegiate Institute, an academy west of Rochester (today, SUNY Brockport) where he…

“…was the outsider who was hired as the permanent principal. …There are contradictory remarks about the type of man he was, ranging from “fussy and difficult” to “jovial and well liked.” Principal Tooker and Mrs. Bates, who still ran the boarding establishment after her husband’s death, did not get along. The Trustee Board had to step in on several occasions to settle their battles. Principal Tooker also clashed with the students and was a strong disciplinarian. By the end of the school term in 1848, the board of Trustees had tired of Principal Tooker’s demands and complaints and terminated his relationship with the Institution.” – College at Brockport website

In the 1850 census he was the principal of the Female Academy in Poughkeepsie.  He, along with 60 men like Vassar, Hooker, and Adriance, loaned $300 each in 1853 to the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery Association and “were given the option of either being paid back once the cemetery began to sell plots, or using the investment to pay for a family plot.” “A Brief History of The Cemetery”

The Female Academy building was a “fine brick structure on Cannon street, near Market” with “heavy Doric columns” built when the school opened in 1837 per The History of Duchess Co NY, J. H. Smith. It does not exist today, not having survived urban renewal (search this blog/use the tags for posts regarding this topic).

Illustrated Poughkeepsie p.37

Building used as “Women’s Christian Temperance Union” in 1906

Miss Cordelia A. Jackson

22 Thursday Jan 2015

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Born April 1825 in NY, she might have been a daughter of Eldad Jackson of Ithaca, NY called “Delia” when younger, but there is nothing to prove this.

Cordelia Jackson

On the porch at Rose Hill, the Fraleigh farm house in Red Hook.

1860 Red Hook Journal article mentions a “private school” kept by “Miss Jackson” and in 1877 her “virtues as teacher of the Primary School are above comments.” In 1879 she taught at the public school and in the early 1880’s she taught “Sabbath” school at the Red Hook Methodist church. While she was a teacher, she resided with the John and Jane Curtis family in Red Hook in 1860 and 1870. In 1880 she boarded with Misses Mary, Gertrude, and Charlotte Benedict in Red Hook.

On 7 Oct, 1884, she left Red Hook for Indian Territory “having accepted a position as teacher in Spencer Academy, and Indian Mission School of Choctaw Tribe.” She spent two years out there and returned in the fall of 1886. The Spencer Academy was in what would be Choctaw Co, OK. It had reopened in 1882 but shut again in 1886, which, presumably is why Cordelia came home.

The Choctaw, one of the Five Civilized Tribes of the southeastern United States, wanted to have their children educated. In fact, they placed a high priority on education before and after their removal to the Indian Territory (present Oklahoma) from 1831 to 1834. They saw education as necessary to survive in the white world that was encroaching upon them. Choctaw principal chief Isaac Garvin (1878-80) declared, “I say educate! Educate! Or we perish!”

– Oklahoma Historical Society’s Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

 In the Red Hook Journal of 2 May 1890 thobitere is a mention that she was from New York, formerly from and visiting friends in Red Hook. She’s a “visitor” in the home of John and Susan Van Home in Manhattan in 1900. How they knew each other is a mystery, but she was 65 years old and was probably retired from teaching at that point. She died 10 Mar 1905 at the home of Herbert Jackson Curtis (the author’s g-grandmother’s brother) and is buried at the Methodist Cemetery in Red Hook with the Fraleigh and Curtis families.

Jordan & Harris

15 Thursday Jan 2015

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Josephus JordanJosephus Dunham Jordan was born 16 Jan 1808 to William Jordan and Rhoda Sackett Allen in Hillsdale, Columbia County. He studied law with his uncle, Ambrose L Jordan. After his admission to the bar he practiced his profession at Hudson, N. Y as well as in Dutchess Co. He came to Pine Plains in the 1830s. He supported the Republican party. His grandfather, Major William Jordan fought in the American Revolution. On 13 Jan 1844 he married Mary Elizabeth Knickerboker (19 Oct 1819 – 29 Dec 1870), daughter of John Knickerbocker and Maria Benner (the author’s 4th great-grand parents). They had three children, Mary Burnap, William Burnap, and Laura Ailing.  Later in life, Josephus was a farmer by profession. He lead the choir at the Pine Plains Presbyterian church from 1837 until 1879 and helped raise money for the church’s first pipe organ. He died 12 Sep 1885.

Mary JordanMary Burnap Jordan (left) was born 2 Mar 1846 and died 13 Dec 1874. She never married. At 23 in 1870 she was listed in the census as “at home” rather than any occupation. She played the organ at the Presbyterian church in Pine Plains and gave lessons. Their next-door neighbor was a retired farmer named Cyrus Burnap, which is probably the reason for two of the children having Burnap for a middle name.  William Burnap Jordan was born 4 Dec 1848 in Pine Plains. He married first Mary Elizabeth Harris (portrait below) from Grand Rapids, Michigan (07 March 1854 – 16 November 1889). They had three children, Mary Elizabeth Jordan born 1877, Cyrus Victor Jordan born 1880, and William Burnap Jordan born 1885. After Mary Harris died, William married second her half–sister Myra Harris (1866 – 1953). They had one child together, Isabel Knickerbocker Jordan born 1898. William any Myra are pictured below in December, 1923. He died 31 Mar 1933.

WB Jordan and 2w Myra Harris Dec 1923Mary E Harris

Laura JordanLaura Ailing Jordan (right) was born 07 Nov 1852. She married Lucius Allen Pitcher and they had two children, Henry Burnap Pitcher born 1874 and Laura May Pitcher born 1880. She died 06 May 1884.

Josephus, his wife Mary, and their children are all buried in the Evergreen cemetery in Pine Plains.

Hermans & Husted

08 Thursday Jan 2015

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James W -Jim- HermansAnne Olivette Mrs Jim Hermans

James William Hermans was born in June of 1834 in the Town of Milan to Henry Hermans and Gertrude “Gitty” Link (the author’s 3rd great-grandparents). He, like his father and numerous siblings, was a farmer. He married c. 1863 Anna W Olivett, daughter of Isaac Olivett and Maria Kipp. They had two children, but only one (daughter Emily) is known to have lived to adulthood. James was known as Jim to his family and died 17 Jul 1920 in Staasburg. Anna died 6 Jul 1927 and they are both buried at Wurtemburg cemetery.

Charles and Emma Hermans HustedEmily A Hermans (or Hermance) was born in 1865. She married c. 1889 Charles H Husted. In 1900 they were living with her parents and had no children. Emily died 7 Mar 1928 in the Town of Clinton. She was an invalid and mostly helpless for several years before her death. She and Charles are buried at the Schultzville cemetery. Charles was born May of 1857 son of Orin and Harriet of Hyde Park. He died in 1930. His daughter from a prior marriage, Mabel (who married Harry W Johnson of Poughkeepsie), inherited over $1,300 from him when he died on 3 Sep, 1930. His funeral was on 5 Sep 1930 at the Schultzville Church. They are pictured at right.

Feller & Fraleigh

01 Thursday Jan 2015

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William J Feller and his wife Catherine Fraleigh at rightCatharine Fraleigh and Wm Feller

William was born 23 Aug 1798 in Taghkanic, NY to Jacob Felter and Anna Delamater. Catherine was born 22 Aug 1800 in NY to Peter P Fraleigh and Elizabeth Schmidt. Peter P Fraleigh was one of this author’s ancestors. William and Catherine married 7 Oct 1821 according to her father’s bible. They had at least two children: Mary Feller 1827-1913 who married Alfred Rennsalaer Westfall and George W Feller.

George was born 15 Dec 1831 presumably in the area of Germantown, NY. He married first Barbara Anna Younghanse (born c. 1835 daughter of Henry Jonkhans of Gallatin) on 2 Oct 1854. It’s presumed that she died before 1870 as in that census, George was married again to Sarah Saulpaugh, a daughter of John I Saulpaugh. Sarah died 3 Mar 1898. George left a large sum of money to his sister Mary when he died and they did not have any children. George and Sarah lived in Nevis, a hamlet south of Clermont, NY. Their portraits are below and they might be buried at a Lutheran cemetery in the area.

George Feller son of Wm Sarah Saulpaugh Feller dau of Wm

A Fleeting Namesake

18 Tuesday Feb 2014

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Recently, I was doing some genealogy work on families from Millerton, NY – my home town (village, actually). I wondered if the village’s namesake, Sidney G. Miller had descendants who yet lived in the area or beyond. There is a large Miller family (which I also have in my heritage) from Columbia County – perhaps he was a part of this clan. Looking online for “Sidney G. Miller” generally brings up statements like those found at the Tri-State Chamber of Commerce’s website – that the village was named “in honor of Sidney G. Miller, the congenial and sympathetic civil engineer, in charge of railroad construction.”

Millerton is a vibrant little place with two main roads that bring much-needed traffic to its businesses, restaurants, cafes and boutiques. Until the 1990s or so, Millerton was a village in decline as the local agricultural industry faded. The Harlem line of the current MTA out of Grand Central Station in New York City ends at Wassaic, but trains once ran from there through Millerton and connections were available to Connecticut. Passenger service to and from Millerton ceased in 1976 and shortly after that, freight trains stopped as well.  The trains that had previously transported both people and milk and were for more than 100 years the link that made Millerton a bustling hub were brought to the area by Sidney G. Miller and his company on contract with the New York and Harlem Railroad.

There is in Millerton (as with many small Northern Dutchess towns and villages) a love-hate relationship between the full-time residents of the locale and the visitors or second-home owners from “The City”. No one can deny that the influx of those of a more southerly origin has brought a higher level of prosperity to our Main Street. It is obvious in the many wonderful places to eat and the boutique stores found there. But this influx has also brought high price tags on both meals, antiques, and real estate that those who are originally from the area find disquieting. Thus, “City People” get a bad wrap (and often worse monikers).

 I was surprised and amused to find that Sidney G. Miller was not a local; that in fact, the man for whom Millerton was named, was a “City Person”.

miller

This image is from “A Beckon Call To A Village – Early Millerton, NY” by Diane Thompson for the North East Historical Society

Sidney Green Miller was born c. 1817 in New York City. He was the son of Silvanus Miller (1772-1861, a New York City Surrogate Court Judge) and Margaret Ackerley from Long Island. He married Sarah Frances Williamson (1824-1896) daughter of (first name unknown) and Sarah (maiden name unknown, born c. 1791) on 15 Nov 1846 in Warren, MS. Frances’s mother Sarah Williamson died 23 Sep 1854 in Saugatuck (Westport), Connecticut where her daughter’s family lived at the time. Miller was a civil engineer and contractor, working for various rail road companies at the height of the mode of transport’s expansion.

They had many children, including Cecily born c. 1848, Kate born c. 1851, and Sidney born c. 1854 in Connecticut, Frances born c. 1857, Theodore Williamson born 4 Dec 1859 (who married Edith Louise Gates), George W. born c. 1864, and Helena W. born c. 1868 in Virginia. The family moved quite a bit, probably following Miller’s work. In 1850 they were living in New York City and in 1854 in Westport, CT. It was at this time that Miller worked as a partner of Morris, Miller, and Schuyler – the company contracted to work on the New York and Harlem Railroad that went through the village that would be named for him.

In 1856, the family of seven (at the time) moved to Alexandria, VA, renting a house called the Lee-Fendall House until 1863 when they were “forced to leave their home as the (house) was seized by Surgeon Edwin Bently of the 3rd Division General Hospital of the United States Army of the Potomac. From 1863 until 1865, the house was converted into a wing of the Grosvenor House Hospital.” Two more of their children were born in Virginia after this date. Miller’s son Sidney died in 1861 in Alexandria, VA.

In 1870, they lived in Savannah, Georgia with four servants listed in their household during the census: three white and one black. In 1880 and 1885 they were in Chatham, Morris County, New Jersey and a grandson, Arthur W Myers, born c. 1870 in Georgia was with them. Their daughter Katherine Myers is listed as divorced. Sidney G. Miller died 24 Dec 1900 in New York City at age 84. Below is his obituary.

Sidney Green Miller, some years ago a well-known civil engineer – and railroad builder, died at the home of his son, G. W. Miller, 62 West Ninety-third Street, last night. Mr. Miller was eighty-four years old, and was born in this city. He was the only surviving son of Judge Sylvunus Miller, who was graduated from Columbia College In 1793 and was the first Surrogate of New York. Mr. Miller was associated with Ferris Bishop In the building of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad and the Naugatuck Road, and also built a number of railroads in Virginia and the South. He is survived by four daughters and two sons.

– New York Times, 25 Dec 1900

Sources:

  • Thompson, Diane. (2001) A Beckon Call To A Village – Early Millerton, NY: North East Historical Society
  • Mississippi, Marriages, 1800-1911, index, FamilySearch
  • US Federal Census 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880
  • New Jersey, State Census, 1885, index, FamilySearch
  • Fridley, Beth. Alexandria Co, VA Births, 1853-59 p. 38
  • New-York Daily Tribune, 27 Sep 1854
  • New York Daily Tribune, 6 Mar 1861
  • Louis Berger Group, Inc. (2011) Archaeological Investigation for Restoration of the Lee-Fendall House Garden, Alexandria, Virginia, Washington, D.C.
  • Find A Grave Memorial# 103853024

Signature Quilt – Flowers Only

04 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by in 20th Century, Fiber Arts

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Of the 42 panels of the unfinished 1903 Northern Dutchess signature quilt in my possession, 14 panels do not have embroidered names, only embroidered flowers. Some have the ghosts of names once written in ink now lost forever.
Below is a gallery of those panels, showing flowers that may have been worked by the same woman as they are all worked in outline stitch for the most part and show a consistent skill-level. The designs, however vary greatly from an elegant calla lily to an amorphous cluster of what could be called flowers. I like to think that they let a young girl draw some of them.
I’m not sure if the women who made this quilt would have had a book or magazine or something similar, or if they just used existing images from wallpaper or other sources as a reference for the designs.
This 1892 quilt from Ohio has similar designs to the 1903 unfinished quilt, but is entirely done in redwork. Part of me is glad to not find anything like the 1903 quilt online because it makes it special, but is also frustrating to not be able to better define it.

Hinky Dinky Indeed!

08 Tuesday Jan 2013

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I just had a great conversation on the phone with my 93 year old cousin. This was part of that conversation after I mentioned I have my grandfather’s drawings from when he was a kid of the allies fighting the Kaiser.

R: I remember a terrible naughty song… Maybe I shouldn’t…

S: PLEASE DO!

R: (Laughing) Scotch marine went over the top, parlez-vous, Scotch marine went over the top, parlez-vous, Scotch marine went over the top because he heard a penny drop, hinky dinky parlez-vous. (laughs). First marines went over the top, parlez-vous, First marines went over the top, parlez-vous, First marine went over the top to shoot the hairs off the Kaiser’s c*ck, hinky dinky parlez-vous! (laughs harder) Ok, one more. Mademoiselle from Armentiers, parlez-vous, Mademoiselle from Armentiers, parlez-vous, Mademoiselle from Armentiers hasn’t been screwed in forty years, hinky dinky parlez-vous!!

Below are three choice pics from said collection of children’s drawings.

Trip to Saranac Lake, 1920

16 Sunday Dec 2012

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“A Trip to the Adirondack Mountains”

John Losee, English I, Sept. 29, 1920

We had some relations living in the Adirondack Mountains who invited us to spend a few weeks with them. We decided to go. We went to Barrytown about six o’clock and took a train. The ride lasted all day and when we arrived Saranac Lake my uncle was there and he took us to his house. Saranac Lakes is not on the Saranac lakes but on Lake Flower. There is not very good swimming places in Lake Flower so we planned a picnic to another lake called Pine Pond.

Larry Losee, Irene Fraleigh, and John Losee at Saranac Lake c. 1918

Larry Losee, Irene Fraleigh, and John Losee at Saranac Lake c. 1918

To get there we had to go through several lakes and walk about one mile. It was a beautiful lake but had a poor beach. It went out about three feet and then dropped off quite steeply. We had a fine time except that I being used to a long beach ran in the water and went out a little too far and went under. We went from the lake and found our friends at the place we left our boat and we had a picnic in the woods. Then we went home.

Another day we went in a motor boat that carried passengers and had a nice trip through the lakes. We went to the movies several times.

“Poor conclusion” is written in red at the bottom.