It Happened Here -- First Contacts

He shouldn't have even been here!  The contract Henry Hudson signed with his employer, the V.O.C., the Generaale Vereenigde Geoctroijeerde Oostindische Compagnie, or Dutch East India Company was for him to sail northeast, around Novaya Zemlya and over the top of Russia to China.  Hudson had been turned back by ice twice before and previous explorers who had made the attempt had been lost when their ships were crushed in the ice.  Perhaps the English explorer  had decided all along to explore west instead of east, but he needed a ship, and with English investments tied up in saving their new colony in Jamestown, the Dutch were the only game in town.* So he told them what they wanted to hear; got his ship and made another attempt at finding a Northeast passage before heading across the Atlantic.  The directors of the V.O.C. would be furious, unless of course, he was successful in finding a passage to China, or making other significant discoveries.

Hudson, certainly, knew of John Smith's explorations up the wide rivers around Jamestown, the Chesapeake  and the Potomac. Perhaps there were other rivers, farther north that would connect to lakes and through portages to other rivers flowing to the South Sea (the Pacific).  A wholly navigable channel wasn't essential, only a feasible route,  one that avoided the dangers of the long voyage around South Africa's Cape of Good Hope, or the even more horrific western passage that Magellan had followed. The French had explored far up the St. Lawrence River before being stopped by rapids but rumors persisted of a great lake beyond those rapids and north of that, a salt sea that might lead to China. So after exploring what would become the New Jersey coast, Hudson was intrigued to find a large bay fed by a sizable river that led north, bordering an area the Indians called Mannahatta.

Hudson and his crew's experience with the Native American peoples on his trip up this river that would bear his name was mixed, due in part to his crew's expectations of trouble and a readiness to literally shoot first and ask questions later. Their first contacts were friendly enough with the Mi'kmaq people of what would become Nova Scotia who were familiar with French and Basque fisherman who regularly traded with them. But then Hudson's crew decided they needed trade goods if they were to have regular dealings with native peoples. (They had probably not brought any along because, remember, their planned route had been through the largely uninhabited arctic regions above Russia.)  Unprovoked, they attacked a Mi'kmaq village, drove its inhabitants from it and stole any trade goods and items of value they could find.  Their next significant encounter was in what would become New York Harbor. There they encounter native peoples eager to trade but a day later the ship's boat, out taking soundings was attacked by two large canoes and John Colman, one of the four Englishmen  on the expedition was killed with an arrow to his neck.  For the next several days groups of Indians approached the Half Moon to trade, apparently oblivious to the attack that occurred earlier.

At the mouth of Catskill Creek, Catskill

Some were driven away if the crew perceived any weapons or signs of hostile intent, while others were allowed to approach but not board the ship to trade Indian corn, pumpkins,  oysters and tobacco.

Rte 9J, south of Kinderhook

Around the mouth of the Catskill Creek, the Half Moon passed from Munsee into Mahican territory.  Eighty years later Indian villages would still dot the shores of the river.  Hudson had no inkling of the many tribes that lived along the "North" river or the complex inter-tribal relations between tribes, but perhaps for the first time as he journeyed north he began to sense differences.  He described these people as "loving" and agreed to invitations to go ashore. (Relationships may have also improved between himself and his Dutch crew who he could neither fully understand, nor did he trust. Hudson may have harbored suspicions that more than a few of them were former "sea beggars" or  dutch pirates, so previously he had avoided leaving his ship for fear of being marooned.)  At latitude 42 degrees, 18 minutes (about the location of Athens, NY or Stockport Creek) the Indians took him ashore in a canoe to a large circular hut in a village of some 60 Indians.  His hosts attempted to allay any fears he might have had by kindling a fire, breaking and burning several arrows in it, a sign of their peaceful intent. They dined on freshly killed pigeons, maize and a fatted dog.  Unlike later years when the village would have certainly been surrounded by a palisade of logs, Hudson makes no mention of such defenses.

NYS 23B, Leeds

A few years later such settlements fearful of Iroquois raids brought about by Dutch inspired competition for beaver pelts would have certainly been protected by a palisade and would be known to the Dutch as a Casteel, the English, an Indian Castle.

A few days later Hudson's ship began to run aground repeatedly in shallows and on sandbars.  Somewhere around Albany  Hudson anchored and sent his men out in the ship's boat to explore farther north and search for a channel.  How far

NYS 32, Waterford

they got is anyone's guess. The city of Waterford has claimed the honor of being the northernmost limit of Hudson's river explorations, but skeptics have noted that to reach Waterford they would have had to pass the thundering Cohoes falls near where the Mohawk River enters the Hudson River and Hudson's crew made no mention of the falls or any confluence of two rivers.

With the boat's return, Henry Hudson and his crew began their descent downriver and headed directly for Europe. But it was not Amsterdam they sailed for.  November 7th would see the Half Moon anchored safely in Dartmouth Harbor, England.  The Dutch would protest and demand back their ship and ship's log and all the charts and papers produced on the voyage. The English would surrender them after they gleaned every bit of information they could from Hudson's papers, and they strictly forbade the explorer from sailing again under any flag but England's. Hudson would begin again to lobby for a new expedition, one that would benefit from "secret information" he had learned on his last voyage but chose not to reveal in any of his logs or papers turned over to the authorities. In spring of 1610 Henry Hudson was on the voyage of his dreams, on an officially sanctioned expedition to find a northwest passage. In a little more than a year he would probably be dead, set adrift by a crew who had starved and overwintered at "Hudson's Bay" and concluded that if they didn't commandeer their ship, its captain would drive them until they all perished in the frozen north.

Marker of the Week -- Some old houses are special because of their architecture; some are special because of the famous people who inhabited them or the historic deeds that occurred on their grounds; and some are special because of what they (or, more precisely, their inhabitants) could have witnessed. The Northrup house in Athens commands a spectacular view of the Hudson River. Even after the trees, no doubt once cleared down to the shore, had grown back, that view was probably unobstructed from the upstairs windows.  Today, if they  so chose, it inhabitants could watch the tugs and oil barges shuttling back and forth between between New York City and the Port of Albany.  At the last quarter of the 19th and first decades of the twentieth centuries they could have watched the opulent Hudson River Day Liners churning their way up to Albany or at night, the Night Liners, ablaze with lights heading south to deliver their passengers at the start of a new day into "the City".  And before that there were several centuries of Hudson River Sloops, one and two masted schooners, designed to catch every fickle breeze blowing from the hills that surround the Hudson to bring passengers and all manner of cargo to destinations up and down the river.  And, of course, if they were watching from that grand pillared porch on  August 17, 1807, they could have seen the awkward, smoke belching first steamship North River laboriously  make its way up-stream from Robert Livingston's Clermont dock to Albany.                   

 Another NYSHM, no longer surviving, once marked the arrival of Fulton's paddle-wheeler,  in front of the D&H Building (SUNY Administration Building Plaza) Broadway, Albany.
                                                                   CLERMONT
                                                   NEAR THE FOOT OF MADISON
                                                    AVENUE ROBERT FULTON IN
                                                    AUG. 1807, COMPLETED THE
                                                            FIRST SUCCESSFUL
                                                         STEAMBOAT VOYAGE 


*Actually the French, too, had shown some interests in employing him, and perhaps Hudson used their interest in him to encourage the Dutch to action.

It Happened Here -- The Forgotten Advocate, Jesse Torrey

How do you make democracy work? How do you make it work, down through the generations?

How do you create moral, virtuous, thoughtful, public-spirited citizens?  These were questions that many famous thinkers, statesmen and philosophers, men who may have lived through the creation of the new American republic and were now feeling their way into the first decades of the 19th century were concerned about--men like Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and the French observer Alexis de Tocqueville.   These questions were also on the minds of many others; men on the edge of historical obscurity; men like Jesse Torrey, Jr.

West St., New Lebanon

 Jesse Torrey, Jr. was born in 1787, son of Jesse Torrey a revolutionary war veteran who had moved from Lebanon Connecticut to New Lebanon, New York, just over the Massachusetts border.  Jesse. Jr. loved to read and was able to indulge his passion for reading through his access to an extensive library of a friend, Dr. Moses Younglove.  It occurred to Torrey that though many youths learned to read, without free access to books, the interest in reading soon waned, and the talents that reading enabled-- the ability to gain new knowledge and to develop critical thought were quickly lost.  During the winter of 1803-1804 the sixteen year old Torrey canvassed every resident of New Lebanon to present a plan for his "Juvenile Society for the Acquisition of Knowledge",  a free lending library for all New Lebanon youths, male and female, 12 to 21. Donations were solicited and "subscriptions" were sold to those youths able to afford them. By spring the library was open and operated out of his home.

West St., New Lebanon

Torrey's activities for the next dozen years are obscure, though apparently with the encouragement of Dr. Younglove he obtained a medical education, and in 1814 established a short-lived medical partnership with Dr. Amasa Ford in Pittsfield.  Torrey continued to promote his idea of free public libraries, helping organize library societies  and contacting influential people for their support.  De Witt Clinton,  Stephen Van Rensselaer, and Roberts Vaux (a Pennsylvania lawyer, founder of the Pennsylvania public school system, early prison reformer and abolitionist ) were among those he contacted. He traveled through Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and the "federal city" of Washington before meeting with President Madison at his home in Virginia. In Washington he began to write articles for newspapers, including the Washington Intelligencer,  promoting free public libraries and temperance, suggesting a "spirit-ous liquor" tax might be used to fund public libraries.

While walking the streets of Washington, Torrey describes how he  abruptly stumbled upon another issue that would come to dominate his life. Lost in thought, he came upon a pair of "Georgey-men" leading a mournful parade of captured or recently purchased slaves--men, women and children roped and chained together, being led into slavery, their ultimate destination, the plantations of Georgia.
Incensed, he threw himself into discovering what he could about slavery in the nation's capital.  During his investigations he interviewed many free blacks in their homes and discovered they lived in fear of being kidnapped and sold into slavery.  A short time later Torrey met with President Madison and his wife, Dolly in their home in Virginia. (The White House had not yet been restored after it had been burned by the British.)  What started out to be a conversation about free libraries apparently became sidetracked into a discussion of slavery, with Torrey perhaps badgering the first lady for her support of the institution. Torrey's thank you letter for the visit begins with a sincere apology for his behavior, and the President's reply graciously insists they took no notice of it.

In 1816 Dr. Torrey published a small volume of his newspaper articles on free libraries and temperance, followed the next year by "Portraiture of Slavery", a tract detailing his investigations into slavery in Washington. The same year he published  a 43 page pamphlet, "The Intellectual Torch," a reworking of his first booklet.

Two years later the doctor from New Lebanon, driven by the desire to make better citizens,  wrote his first school book, The Moral Instruction and Guide to Virtue and Happiness.  A solid success, the book went through ten printings. Like the tremendously popular McGuffy Readers that would follow, morality was promoted, outside of a specific religious context. He followed that with a pamphlet in 1822 that summarized his thoughts about free libraries and education: " Herald of Knowledge; an address to the Citizens of the United States proposing a New System of Natural Instruction." Two years later he produced a "reader", an edited collection of stories entitled  A Pleasing Companion for Little Girls and Boys. Aimed at a younger audience, much of it was intended to be read to children in "primary schools and domestic nurseries" to develop an appetite for the printed word.  A wopping twenty five editions of this work would be published. In 1826 a Familiar Spelling Book followed.

Five years after "Portraiture of Slavery" was published, an expanded 132 page American Slave Trade
was published in London.  In 1832, Dr. Torrey returned to his medical interests with an article "Dissertation on Plague" and in 1832 he edited a sixteen page periodical "National Library, and Advocate of Civil and Religious Liberty or Universal Repository of Useful Knowledge". Published every two weeks, with no apparent focus, it soon became a catchall for polemicist of various religious denominations and in less than half a year Dr. Jesse Torrey left the publication.

With his last publication the historic record of Jesse Torrey comes to an end.  Most of what is known about Dr. Torrey comes from his writings, scattered, obscured and unheralded*. This is unfortunate because in so many areas his thoughts were in the forefront of ideas that would be a part of the national dialogue for decades to come.


Marker of the Week -- Why (more or less) permanent historical markers should not make references to current and possibly non-permanent conditions.

Rte 20,  New Lebanon

*Even Wikipedia lists no article for "Torrey, Jesse".

It Happened Here --New World Dutch Barns

Today, it is hard to imagine New York as the "wheat belt", the "breadbasket" of America, but  a century and a quarter or more before the settlement of the Great Plains and the introduction of hearty red winter wheat,  New York could in fact claim those titles.  Decades before the farms of the Hudson Valley,  the Mohawk Valley, the Schoharie and Cherry Valleys turned to dairy farming,  orchards, and  vegetable crops,  the rich bottom-lands of New York's valleys were predominantly sown with a single crop -- wheat. And like the wheatfields of the Great Plains a single type of iconic structure came to symbolize that region. On the Great Plains in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that structure was the square, multi-storied grain elevator; in the pre-industrial agricultural regions of New York/New Jersey in the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries that iconic structure was the square, wide, high-gable-roofed New World Dutch Barn.

Onesquethaw Creek Rd., Feura Bush

New World Dutch Barns took their inspiration from the barns of northern Europe. Pairs of massive, squared wooden columns were joined by wide anchor-beams forming a series of three to five or more "H" structures supporting the roof and creating three aisles. A characteristic feature of the "H"s was that they were mortised and tenoned, with the anchor-beam tenon ends projecting through the columns and terminating in round ends, wedged and pegged fast. The widest aisle, under the "H"'s was floored with wide planks, creating a threshing floor, where the wheat was threshed, and winnowed (knocked from the wheat stalks and separated from the chaff or wheat husks). The outside aisles were used for housing animals or for storage. The area above the "H" crossbeams were connected/floored with poles that provided a dry storage area for sheaves of grain or hay. One or both barn ends had large double doors through which wagons could enter to deliver their loads. At the gable end corners there were often smaller doors for animals to enter. These doors were sometimes split in "dutch door" fashion, to allow the upper half to be opened for ventilation, and the lower half closed. The barns, sided with horizontal planks,  were windowless but often holes were cut near the gable peaks to allow swallows to enter. 

After a farmer and his family, or perhaps a hired hand had cut and squared the timbers to frame his barn, and before neighbors were invited for a barn raising, a carpenter/joiner was often hired to cut the rather precise joints necessary to fit the members together and to oversee the construction. Usually each joint was custom cut and fitted together and often the pieces were numbered with roman numerals chiseled near the ends to avoid mix-ups. These marking can often be seen today on the timbers of old dutch barns.

In the town of Florida, Montgomery county (then Tryon County) Jan Wemp built two barns in the first quarter of the 18th century.  (There were several Jan Wemps living in Albany and towns and lands to the west from the 1630's onward, but this Jan Wemp was probably the Jan Wemp who helped construct the Queen Anne Chapel and the fort built to protect it.) 

Queen Anne Rd.,  Fort Hunter

During the Revolution most of these barns in the Mohawk, Schoharie and Cherry Valleys and the grain they contained were burned in the Tory and Indian raids of 1778 and 1780.  Washington's army relied heavily on grain produced in New York's valleys, so barns were a major strategic target of these raids. The Wemp barn was probably spared because, at the time, it was owned by his son, Andries, a Tory.  After the war Andries tried unsuccessfully to reclaim his barn.

In 1985 a non-profit organization, the Dutch Barn Preservation Society was formed to study and protect "one of the last physical reminders of the pre-industrial agricultural heritage of eastern New York and New Jersey".  When it appeared the property on which the larger Wemp barn stood was likely to be sold for development the Society found a landowner willing to buy the barn and move it to where it would complement an historic stone house on his property. The Society oversaw its dismantlement and reconstruction on the farm along the Onesquethaw Creek in Feura Bush, Albany County,  in 1990.


Marker of the Week -- What do you do if you live in an old stone colonial farm house (originally owned by William Harper, delegate to the 1788 Constitution ratification commission) and you are a fashionable modern Victorian?  Maybe a new roof is just what you need to fix up the old place --with shaped, colored slates, arranged in geometric designs and a false railing or two. It's not like you are doing the whole mansard roof thing!

Queen Anne Rd., Ft. Hunter

It Happened Here -- Uncle Dan's Town

When the city of Albany celebrated its 300th anniversary in 1986 it appropriated money for the creation of several New York State (type) Historical Markers but ended up creating only one marker that celebrated an historic person.  (The rest identified several parks and green spaces around the city and mentioned a little about their origins.) Though no one would dispute the importance of Daniel P. O'Connell to the history of 20th century Albany, it is a bit ironic that "Uncle Dan" who among Albany's many politicians and famous people over the centuries should be so honored, for Albany's Democratic boss made a career of shunning the limelight and making things happen behind the scenes.

Dan O'Connell was one of five children born to  John "Black Jack"  O'Connell, a farmer turned saloon keeper in the South end of Albany, around the turn of the 19th century.  Saloons, like the taverns before them, were important  places where men gathered and were natural  places for political discussion and "politicking".  It was not surprising that most of the four O'Connell boys would be drawn to politics.  Patrick O'Connell, the eldest, became the South End's Democratic First Ward leader.  Edward, graduated from Union College and Albany Law School and became active in city politics. John J. "Solly" O'Connell eschewed politics and became involved in prize fight promotion, night-clubbing and gambling, but continued to be an O'Connell brothers confidant and liaison to the Albany underworld.  And Daniel after quitting school in 5th grade (or 10th grade--accounts differ) held down a variety of jobs--clerk, brick layer, tradesman, bar keeper, bakery worker before enlisting at the beginning of World War I as a cook on a supply ship. After the war Daniel's brothers encouraged him to run for a seat on the tax assessment board.

Over the years, Albany had seen a succession of political machines.  During and following the Revolution the Clinton family had dominated state politics using favors and jobs in exchange for political support. Martin Van Buren and his "Albany Regency" dominated  Albany politics for the next quarter of a century. The elimination of property restrictions and the broadening of the electorate meant that political parties had more people to keep track of and court with favors--large and small, to win elections.  Organization became increasingly important to steer naive newcomers  or casually interested voters, and graft became an increasingly important source of funding for these operations. City political organizations developed vast organizations of Ward leaders and neighborhood committeemen. The term "Machine" came to characterize them.   In New York City Tammany Hall became an institution, headed in the post civil war years by William Marcy Tweed, who would eventually be brought down when the scale of his bribe taking, overcharges for city purchases and variety of money generating schemes, collectively labelled "corruption" were revealed in the press. In the 1890's Albany politics was dominated by the Democrats, a legacy of the Albany Regency. Conflicts within the Democratic ranks resulted in a Republican victory in 1899 led by an energized and newly disciplined party led by William Barnes.  It was this Republican party that Dan O'Connell faced in 1919.

O'Connell ran as a reform candidate, promising (1) lower taxes (2) fair assessment of property at its fair market value (3) keeping politics out of the Board of Assessment and (4) assessing corporations on the true value of their property, without regard for their support for any political party.*  To  everyone's surprise O'Connell won, eking out a 145 vote victory in a field swept by Republicans.  Party regulars noted the tremendous support O'Connell received in the South End--a testament to the brothers political skills.

As sole victor, Dan O'Connell was immediately heralded in some circles as a new heir to the Albany Democratic party but it would be several years before the O'Connells in league with the Corning family would wrest control of the party. In 1921 a slate of O'Connell/Corning candidates for office won the Democratic party primary and in 1923 Dan O'Connell was elected Albany County Democratic Committee Chairman.  It was the only official office he would hold for the rest of his long life. With his brothers and Edwin Corning the O'Connells ran the party, which in turn ran the city.  Dan O'Connell particularly enjoyed the face to face contact with constituents, personally granting favors and solving problems for individuals, establishing large networks of quid pro quo relationships that resulted in solid Democratic pluralities at election time.   In his younger years it was said Dan O'Connell liked to walk to work, taking a different route to work every morning,  meeting people from the neighborhoods, and carrying with him hundreds of dollars.  By the time he reached his office he would often have barely enough money to buy breakfast!

Over the decades,  as his older brothers  and Edwin Corning passed away,  Dan O'Connell became
sole party boss.  In 1941 he joined forces with Edwin's son, Erastus Corning II to elect him mayor. In later years the younger Corning increasingly assisted O'Connell in the running of the party.  In 1977 Dan O'Connell died.  Erastus Corning served on as mayor until 1983 when he, too,  died in office, having been mayor of Albany for 42 years.

*The irony of these promises won't be lost on readers who lived through the O'Connell years when property assessments might fluctuate wildly from year to year and it often appeared that a favored tactic of the Machine was to reward supporters with low assessments and discipline troublemakers with higher ones. In later years public scrutiny dampened more blatant cases of discrimination and all properties were routinely reassessed when new owners took over but "the Machine" continued to offer "help" in protesting assessments to people who showed an inclination to be Party supporters.




Marker of the Week -- You might wonder if Matthew B. lent his surname to become a generic name for young bulls or steers, but "bulluc" is a word originating in Old English, predating  the American agricultural entrepreneur by many centuries.

Bullock Rd., New Scotland, Albany Co.