It Happened Here -- The "Battle" of Clarksville 

Corner of NYS 443 and Cass Hill Rd

 

From the flats at the edge of the tiny hamlet of Clarksville Sheriff Michael Artcher gazed up the hill toward Reidsville. With him was a little army of 500 hundred citizens of Albany, a “posse” of men from all walks of life, he had summoned to assist him in serving papers to the farmers of the Hilltowns, delinquent on their rents to their land lord, Stephen Van Rensselaer III, the last Patroon. 

Delaware Ave, Delmar

Most were mechanics and workingmen from Albany, but they also included bank presidents, John Van Buren, son of the President, himself a prominent lawyer, and William Marcy, former Governor. (The 53 year old Marcy had marched with the “army” the first six miles until he reached the Adams' Tavern, where a friend gave him a ride in his carriage, the rest of the way.) With these numbers, Artcher hoped he could overawe the farmers and serve his warrants without bloodshed, avoiding another humiliating confrontation like he had suffered two months before when a gang of farmers had barred his way and sent him packing down the mountain.
 

For the origins of this conflict one would need to go back over two hundred years to the Dutch settlement of the area that would become New York. Henry Hudson established the claim for the Dutch from the Hudson Valley down to the Delaware. The Dutch government granted the rights to commercially exploit this territory for whatever riches it might contain to one of their large trading companies, the Dutch West India Company, and soon the Company was profiting from a lucrative trade in beaver pelts with the Native Americans. But to maintain their claims to the area they needed permanent settlements of their countrymen living there. Finding such people in a country like the Netherlands was not easy where peace and prosperity made its citizens reluctant to leave. To accomplish this task of people-ing their colony, the company turned to private entrepreneurs who would be given huge tracts of land if they would buy them from the Native Americans who inhabited them, and settle them with at least fifty farmers and tradesmen. From these settlers the Patroons could collect rents and fees and govern them as they saw fit. While most of these first patroonships failed and reverted back to the Company, one established by Kilean Van Rensselaer, in what became Albany, Rensselaer and northern Columba counties succeeded. When the English took over the Colony in 1644, they modified the judicial system to conform to English law, but left the economic aspects of the patroon system largely untouched, and in fact extended the manorial system to reward political supporters of the Duke of York and his government in the Colony. The manors of Livingston, Van Cortland, Hardenburg and others joined the Van Rensselaer's to place virtually all farmlands in the Hudson valley and surrounding hills in the hands of a few wealthy families who through inter-marriage became an economic oligarchy. Most of these families sided with the revolutionary cause during the American revolution, snapping up vacated Tory lands to become even stronger than before the revolution. Although Democratic forces pushed through a law outlawing feudalism in 1782,  Stephen Van Rensselaer III, the current patroon neatly side-stepped the new law by issuing new “durable leases” to his tenants. Devised by his new brother-in-law, Alexander Hamilton, the financial wizard of the Revolutionary generation, the leases were termed “incomplete sales” in which the “owners” (ie. tenants) gave a down payment of ¼ of the value of the land and forever after paid annual “quitrents” of a specified number of bushels of wheat, “fat fowl” and days labor with their teams of horses or oxen and wagons. The land could only be used for agriculture by the tenants, and all water, timber and mineral rights remained with the Patroon. As “owners” the farmers were responsible for any taxes levied on the land and on any improvements (houses, barns,etc) they made to it. As “owners” their property, any improvements, and their tenant obligations to the Patroon automatically passed to their heirs. It was a lousy deal for the farmers. But it was one which Stephen Van Rensselaer III was able to successfully market to a generation of post-revolutionary war farmers desperate for land, especially when he offered them seven years rent free to clear their land, build their homes and barns and begin farming. Under these terms the hinterlands of Albany and Rensselaer counties, which had been mostly uninhabited, quickly filled with farms. Similar arrangements had similar results in heretofore undeveloped areas of Delaware and Columbia counties, on the Hardenburg (Catskill) Patent and on two smaller Schoharie patents.

For many years Van Rensselaer collected his rents, becoming rich, and managing discontent among his tenants by not pressing them for their rent and allowing rents to go unpaid during years of poor harvests, or times of personal hardship. His laxity in rent collection, and some significant acts of philanthropy, resulted in Stephen III becoming known as “the Good Patroon”. But in January of 1839 the “Good Patroon” died and it turned out he never forgave or forgot. The records of unpaid rents had all been carefully recorded and passed on to his two heirs, Stephen IV and William Patterson Van Rensselaer as part of his assets to be collected by them. In addition, he owed $400,000 in debts which would come out of his estate, unless these rents could be collected in short order. Stephen IV's first official act as heir to his father's West Manor estate was to order Daniel Barnard, one the executors of the will to collect his delinquent rents in Albany County.

At the Intersection of NYS 85 and NYS 143/443, Westerlo

 

Among the inhabitants of the Albany County hilltowns resentments grew especially strong. How could the Van Rensselaers allow the overdue rents to accumulate to such high levels if they were going to demand payment all at once, and especially in the spring, after a long winter when the farmers' resources were stretched to their thinnest, as they struggled to put in a new crop?   Stephen Van Rensselear had worked (and connived) to gain the respect and deference of his tenants, that he felt was an essential attribute of men of the landed gentry, but his sons, especially Stephen IV considered the deference of his tenants their birthright. When they asked to meet with him and assembled at his manor in North Albany, the new proprietor of the West Manor refused to even acknowledge them, much less meet with them, instructing his underlings to communicate to the tenants that they should write down their grievances, which he subsequently rejected. News of such treatment spread like wildfire among the Hilltowns, galvanizing not only those who could not pay the overdue rents, but those who could and those not behind in their payments.

From his posse of 500, Sheriff Artcher selected an advance guard of 100 horsemen to accompany him up to confront the farmers. Perhaps he did not want to involve the rag-tag group of mechanics and shopkeepers that that had answered his summonses and straggled along on foot, unwilling to take seriously the Van Rensselaers' dire characterizations of a county-side up in revolt, or perhaps he did not trust these people if real trouble should break out. Whatever his motives Artcher began his advance up the hill, to the blasts of farmer's tin dinner horns from various locations on the hill announcing his approach. A short way up he encountered a party of mounted farmers of about equal in size to his party.  Without speaking, the group parted, allowing his men to pass.  Farther up the road a larger group of horsemen armed with clubs,  pitch forks and various other improvised weapons blocked his way. As the sheriff consulted with his deputies and other  leaders of his party, about forcing their way through, this second group opened a path for the sheriff's men.  The sheriff's men continued to the top of Cass Hill where they were stopped in their tracks by a mass of perhaps 1800 armed and mounted farmers.  The sheriff and a few of his men tried to force their way through and were handily rebuffed by the farmers.  A second attempt was beaten back more forcefully.  Artcher ordered a retreat. The column of Sheriff's men turned and made a hasty exit off the mountain to the accompaniment of farmer's  curses and howls of derision, and the bleat of tin dinner horns.

 Back in Clarksville, the beaten and humiliated members of the Sheriff's posse sought to salve their occasional bruises and hurt feelings with ample libations at the Clark's Hotel while Governor Marcy was forced to spend the night, where the only serious injury, his ripped pair of trousers, was mended!

Rte 443, Clarksville

Thus ended the first skirmish of the "Anti-Rent Wars", which would span decades. In future posts we will return to this chapter of New York history.



Marker of the Week

 Preston Hollow may have had only
a Justice of the Peace in the early 1800's, but I betchya didn't want to pull any nonsense in his court!












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