29 Thursday Sep 2022
Posted in 19th Century, 20th Century, Genealogy
So, I’m still here, but I’ve been mostly enmired with book-related stuff. But! There are three new posts at the “book blog” with additional information and photos of people and things in the book contributed by folks I’ve met since publishing The 1903 Jackson Corners Signature Quilt.
Enjoy!
16 Wednesday Mar 2022
Posted in 20th Century, Books, Fiber Arts, Genealogy
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books, genealogy, Hermans, jackson corners, quilt, signature quilt
Oh hey I forgot to post here as well…
I finished the book! You can buy it! It’s real!
Go to Oblong Books in Millerton or Rhinebeck to get a copy, or order it from their online store! I also have a separate blog for the book which you can check out here: jc.44parkave.com
I posted back in 2011 that I had gotten the quilt and was thinking that I should write a book about it. Took a decade, but it’s done. I’m speaking about it in various places and if I remember I’ll post about them. The first talk is tonight. I’m super nervous. If it doesn’t stink and they record it, I’ll try to remember to post a link here.
20 Saturday Feb 2021
Posted in 20th Century, Genealogy
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This story came to my attention while researching something else and reading the Pine Plains Register newspaper of September 25th, 1903.
“Dr. H. H. Cate, who was found by his brother in law at the Morgan House in Po’keepsie in a demented condition and taken to his home at Lakewood, N.J., several weeks ago, was removed to a sanitarium at Goshen, Thursday morning. The doctor was examined by a physician, and is thought to have a clot of blood on his brain, said to have been caused by a blow, which apparently accounts for his loss of memory. The doctor remembers receiving the blow, but cannot recollect when and where he received it. He is somewhat improved physically, but mentally his condition remains the same. He fails to recognize any of his friends or surroundings and will probably remain at the sanitarium until an operation can be safely performed.”
I had to know more. Here’s his story.
Dr. Henry Hamilton Cate (“Harry” to his friends) was born in January 1859 in either New Hampshire or Massachusetts to Dr. Hamilton H. Cate (1825–1898) and Mary Delicia Plant (1829–1866). He and his father removed to New Jersey at some point and they both practiced medicine there. Cate was described as a “homeopathic physician” and took over their medical practice in Lakewood, NJ from his father.
According to his own testimony, this New Jersey doctor was in New York City on April 21st, 1903 to do some unnamed business and visit a former patient, a Mrs. Barker of 49 W 57th St. He left her residence around 9 pm and went for a walk that took him through Grand Central Station and down to a construction site near 38th St. and 5th Ave. By the report in the New York Sun of October 25th, 1903, he was trying to get up on a scaffolding to get a better look at the site when someone shouted “Quick!” and he was struck on the back of the head.
The papers said he had between $2000 and $2500 in cash on his person at the time, though he would later claim it was $3000. His wallet was found the following day near the site with his calling card, a business card for his insurance company, but surprise, no cash.
The police told the New York papers that they thought that perhaps he’d gone temporarily insane, though there’s nothing in the reporting that supports that idea. The papers were sure he’d been mugged for the large amount of cash he’d been carrying and probably murdered. A later account said he was having some financial difficulties at the time.
Cate claimed he remembered nothing but briefly came to his senses in Kansas City. Supposedly suffering from amnesia, he had somehow managed to travel out west and lived like a hobo with no idea who he was before returning to the Hudson Valley months later. Cate was identified in August while staying at the Morgan House in Poughkeepsie by his sister-in-law Mary Canfield Wilkinson (Mrs. John G., sister of Cate’s first wife Tassie) from Newburg. He was calling himself G. Foster and it could be that he also identified himself as a Mason. Because Cate was a Mason, the brothers in area lodges had circulated a photo of him and it was through this photo that he was identified. Cate claimed not to know Mary and was offended when she called him “Harry”. They sent him to the Interpines Sanitarium in Goshen, NY, which is a funny coincidence, because he himself owned his own mental hospital back in Jersey.
Cate’s account of his wanderings while suffering from amnesia were printed in Dr Joe Shelby Riley’s book Conquering Units or The Mastery of Disease in 1921. In it (and in newspaper reports of the time), he claims he had no idea how he found himself in Kansas City and later in Indiana. He said “I had no recollection of my name, family, or friends, nor any of the old ties, and the strange part of it all is that I did not care. I was happy and as free as a bird.” More than once he stressed that because he had forgotten his family and past he was blissfully happy. Newspaper reports of his disappearance stressed that he had all that money on him, but he was quoted in Conquering Units that as a hobo he had $200 in fifties “pinned on the inside of my vest, so I think it was hardly probably my assailant robbed me.”
Riley noted in Conquering Units that Cate had aphasia (the loss of ability to understand or express speech caused by brain damage). Though Cate was found in Poughkeepsie in August, he had trouble speaking and it wasn’t until October that enough of his memories came back in order that he could fully understand who he was. Riley wondered “what became of Dr. Cate, or Dr. Cate’s soul, during those six months, from April to October, 1903? Such a question might be answered by the psychologists theologists, but it is doubtful.”
But was Cate suffering from a mental illness, perhaps brought on by a trigger, or was he simply using his knowledge of psychiatry to escape his problems? He “was known to have certain peculiarities” per the NY Post of April 29th, 1903 and might have been having financial problems when he suddenly lost a great deal of cash and went AWOL for six months. His in-laws could not be bothered to help find him.
And in 1905, he did it again.
Dr. Cate had signed a death certificate for Carrie Brouwer, the wife of Dr. Frank R. Brouwer, a doctor in his mid-thirties of Toms River, NJ, who had died after complaining of headaches and severe indigestion. Cate ascertained that she had suffered from Bright’s disease (an antiquated term for kidney disease). Her family suspected foul play and her life insurance company began to investigate. As the investigation moved forward, it was thought that Dr. Brower asked Dr. Cate to falsify the death certificate to cover his alleged crime as Brouwer was accused of poisoning her. Before he could appear in court to testify, on December 9th, 1905, Dr. Cate went missing once more.
He resurfaced on December 26th, wandering into a police station in Springfield, MA, again in an amnesiac state. The papers said he had become confused in Albany and had been travelling from city to city since then hoping to jog his memory. Why did he wait until the 26th to try to see if the police could help him? He recognized a photo of himself but when questioned about the Brouwer case or anything else, he was mum or answered with “I don’t know.” The New York Sun reported that he gave the police the name “George Avery” because “someone called him by it on the street.” Luckily, “H.H. Cate” was written in or stitched inside his jacket. Had he not taken his coat off for almost a month? Was he lying, or was he truly temporarily insane? His new brother-in-law, Mr. Shinn went to Springfield and shepherded him to the same asylum he was committed to in 1903 in Goshen to recover. After a while he recovered his memory and did give testimony in the case, defending Brouwer who was acquitted in 1906.
Frank Brouwer remarried in 1910 to a woman with the maiden name of Shinn, the same as Henry Cate’s second wife, Rachel (though a relation could not be determined, it can be presumed they were related). Perhaps Brouwer was innocent as the court determined and Miss Shinn was enamoured enough with him that she also fully believed that he hadn’t poisoned his previous wife.
Henry Cate went on to buy an asylum in New Mexico and moved with his family out there for a little while, but returned to NJ where he died in 1931. He is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Lakewood, NJ. His first wife Tasmania Canfield who was from a Newburg, NY family was born either in Australia or “at sea”. Perhaps her parents were missionaries or merchants. She died before 1900. Their son Carleton Cate died young in 1913. Cate and his second wife Rachel Shinn’s daughter Doris L. Cate married Arthur Riedel and had three children. Rachel Shinn Cate died in 1950, and Doris Cate Riedel in 2009.
—-
Dr. Henry Hamilton Cate was born January 1859 in either New Hampshire or Massachusetts to Dr. Hamilton H. Cate (1825–1898) and Mary Delicia Plant (1829–1866).
He married at least twice. First on 28 Apr 1888 in Newburgh, NY he married Tasmania Canfield (born c.1855 either in Australia or at sea) who died sometime between 1895 and 1900 and second, sometime after 1900 he married Rachel Shinn (1876–1950).
With Tasmania (or “Tassie”) he had at least one child, Carleton H. Cate born June 1889 (died 27 Aug 1913 presumably with no children or wife) and with Rachel he had a daughter Doris L. Cate (6 Jan 1916–1 Oct 2009, who married Arthur Riedel and had three children).
Dr. H.H. Cate died in 1931 and is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Lakewood, NJ.
31 Thursday Aug 2017
Posted in 19th Century, 19th Century Photos, 20th Century, Art, Genealogy
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[Updated with some new information, 6/18/21]
Among the documents, photos, and books I inherited from my grandmother, Clara Losee, were a handful of Victorian miniature paintings created by a woman called “Mrs. M. J. Manier”.
The paper is only 2″ wide. “Above, below, where e’er I gaze, Thy guiding finger Lord I trace” from a hymn “…Lord I view traced in the midnight planets’ blaze”
On the reverse of her carte-de-visite, Clara’s mother-in-law Rosalie Fraleigh Losee had written: “Mrs. M.J. Manier who was an adept at painting flowers in water colors & who decorated the wedding cake for Lucy Irene Curtis when she married John A. Fraleigh June 14, 1871 & who decorated he cake for their daughter M. Rosalie when she married Harvey Losee, Sept. 5, 1906.” Included in the collection are a calling card, her photograph, a larger painting in the pages of a Victorian friendship album, a tiny framed painting, a little packet that unfolds to reveal a Christian verse, and a painting backed with ribbon (perhaps a bookmark) with a Christian verse.
Her work is beautiful but until recently, I didn’t really know who she was. Fortunately, in 1900, she was living in Red Hook with her sister, so the data started to link up to pull her story out of the past and into the light.
More Christian quotes inside…
Mary Jane Moul was born in June 1832 to Philip Moul and Christina Shook of Red Hook. Her parents married 1 Feb 1816 at the Reformed Church in Upper Red Hook–the same that Rosalie Fraleigh Losee and her family attended. The Curtis and Fraleigh families, however, we Methodists.
Mary Jane married William Manier born in 1817–a man 15 years her senior. They had two children, John born c. 1851 and William C. born c. 1854. William died sometime before January of 1854 when John Curtis of Red Hook wrote on 9 Jan 1854 about deaths that had occurred in last two years in his diary:
…and there followed Mr. Manier; in the midst of life and health, he sickened and died. His young wife and child disconsolate. He discovered his errors in time to secure his portion in Heaven.”
Her sons were both clerks throughout their lives. John married Sophie Smith and removed to Binghamton, NY. They did not have any children. John died in 1926 in Binghamton. William C. married Jessie H Lord and had one child, a daughter whose tombstone simply reads “Baby Lu”, died 1 Jan 1885. They are all buried in the Cemetery of the Evergreens in New Lebanon, Columbia County NY.
In 1850, Mary Jane and her husband lived with her parents and sister Hannah (20 Oct 1820-9 Jan 1904, then the widow Shook) and her son Lorin Shook in Red Hook. In 1860, Philip and William had both died and Hannah and Lorin moved out. Lorin was old enough to be on his own (he married after 1860 Harriet Hermance) and Hannah remarried, possibly Isaac Cookingham. This was the same household situation in 1870. According to the New York State census of 1875, Mary Jane and her sons who were in their early 20s moved to Binghamton, they had a domestic servant in the home as well. Also residing there was Alexander Manier and his family, who appears to have been a brother to her late husband William. He, his wife and children, and Mary Jane’s son John and his wife are buried in the Spring Forest cemetery in Binghamton.
Mr. J. Manier calling card – probably her son, John.
In 1897 Robert W Manier of Binghampton made a request to the people of Rhinebeck in the local paper looking for info on John Manier from Dutchess County who served in the Revolution and his son John Manier of Rhinebeck who was a member of “Captain Obadiah Titus’ company, Delamater’s Regiment of New York Militia” in the war of 1812. He was doing family history research. Robert’s father was James W, son of Alexander, son of John Manier. It is likely that the John Manier in the War of 1812 he was interested in was his great-grandfather (and William Manier’s father).
Rose painted on a page in a Victorian autograph album, probably belonging to Lucy Curtis.
Initials R.C. – label on reverse reads “nee Canfield” or Lucy Curtis’ mother, Rachel Canfield Curtis.
In 1880, Mary Jane and her family were still in the same location, but then with John’s new wife Sophia Smith and her mother Jane W Smith. Son William had moved out. I couldn’t find her or son William in 1892, but in 1900 Mary Jane is back with her older sister Hannah (also listed as a widow) in Red Hook. Hannah died in 1904 so in 1910 Mary Jane got shuffled around again, going to live with her son William and his wife Jessie in Brooklyn. William died 7 Dec 1912 and Jessie died 30 Jan 1919.
Mary Jane Moul Manier died 13 Mar 1917 in Binghamton (probably having had to move yet again to be with her son John after son William’s death) and is buried in the Lutheran cemetery in Red Hook with her husband, sister, and parents.
BURIED AT RED HOOK The remains of Mrs. Mary J. Manier who formerly resided in Red Hook, and who died in Binghamton, March 13 were brought to Red Hook on Thursday afternoon and buried in her plot in the Lutheran cemetery. She was 85-years of age, She leaves one son, John Manier, of Binghamton.
– Hudson Evening Register 14 May 1917
24 Thursday Aug 2017
Posted in 20th Century, Genealogy, WWI
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Mater died Oct. 11th at 4 A.M.
On the 10th she had 2 severe hemorrhages which left her very weak. Father was called over at three that night. At five, Inez phoned for me to come over at once. I stayed til father came went home for supper and returned. Miss I Clark, Mss Bush, and Annie Odell were there in the early evening. She was too weak to talk or to open her eyes except in their coming and going. At eight her strength returned for two or three fleeting minutes. She asked me the news and I told her briefly of the reported German peace proposals. She was so very tired. I spoke to her of the psalms and read a few verses She said “I could not read them, David was so harsh and unforgiving.” She dropped off once more into half unconscious sleep. At three oclock father & I were called upon again. Mother did not regain consciousness and had no perceptible pulse. At four her breathing was hushed.
Annie E. Read, wife of Charles Vassar Baker (daughter of Daniel Reid and Helen Elmdia Wheaton) died October 11, 1917 at the General Hospital, this city, after an extended illness. Born in North Gage, Oneida County, in (11 November) 1856. the last 50 years of her life were spent in Dutchess County. For many years she was organist and an active member of the Christian Church, Clove Valley. Her latter years were spent in Poughkeepsie, where she attended the First Baptist Church. Her life and character were rarely beautiful; full of charm, of kindliness, and true discernment. She was a fond mother, a devoted wife, and the true friend of the many who paid their last tributes to her memory, Saturday, October 13.
The funeral took place Saturday a bright sunny windy day. The Rev. F D Elmer had charge. Aunt Mary & Uncle Charles came on. The Uhls and Davises and Aunt Jean from Cloves. Harry sent a telegram from Bridgeport that Aunt Effie was very ill. The Acct. Dept., the Storms, Albros, Lanes, Christies and many others sent flowers.
Very frail and white she lay there. So thin and worn, so resigned and patient. A sweet face and yet so strong and sincere.
The cemetry (sic), the burial plot, its outlook, and the fine October day, just before the leaves had commenced to fall; it was very beautiful. Dad & I visited it the next Sunday.
If this is not the start of a fresh chapter in my life then have I proved unworthy of my heritage.
Hitherto I have lived for the most part, for the happiness of the present and fleeting moment. From now on, I must build for the future. I am now almost 24 years old.
I lack self control.
I lack vision, purpose, and a goal.
I lack diligence punctuality, discipline.
I lack tact, kindness, patience, and consideration.
I lack a good general knowledge of my work.
I lack personality, poise – good health, ambition.
I lack a philosophy of life, humility – strength.
And I might add character and manliness.
Remember, he’s only 24! The poor guy, the only thing he lacked was self-confidence. It seems to me that he put his mom on such a pedestal that he constantly compared himself to her. Though he never complains of it, I wonder if he wasn’t passive-aggressively nagged by her to do better, though it could all be projected, of course.
10 Thursday Aug 2017
Posted in 20th Century, Genealogy, WWI
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The first US destroyer flotilla has arrived at England. J.R. may accept Whitman’s offer of Maj. gen. In NY volunteer army. Hunt bal “I”. Danced with Miss Duryea.
Mother was operated on this A.M. Dr. Lane was shocked at her condition, and she canot (sic) live many months more. Mother had foreseen it all and hoped this would be the last. Only she realized the hopelessness of it all. Dad passed thru his ‘Valley of the Shadow of Despair’ this day and now waits the end dry-eyed. I canot realize it yet, at all.
What a mother she has been–unselfish, untiring, unstinting, pouring out her love–and so sensitive so wise and keen in her judgements, when others were concerned. How long it has taken me to appreciate her wisdom, her practicality, though, always, I have appreciated her character. Never would she turn anyone from her door hungry; always sympathetic, always kind. And her mind was so broad, so clear-visioned; without the resources of a liberal education, her mind was never bounded by petty and local affairs. In my reading, studies, and planning, she has always help me company, praised my little accomplishments and insisted on progress. As I have broadened, the more clearly I have relished her keen insight, her appreciations, her criticisms, her humour. What a true sense of values she has; wealth and position mean nothing to her; love, affection, friendship mean everything. She has lived her life in service–happiness has been ever so fleeting, and now she is suffering to the end.
The cabinet card on left is labeled “Mother”, the one on right is not, but it seems this might also be her.
She wrote the following before the operation to Aunt Frank. “–And oh! Frank if only I don’t wake up. That is the best that can come to me! The best too, for Charley and Earl.– And what is life that we should moan. Why make we such ado. You all know how dead you have been, but now, God’s will be done. Good Bye.”
And yet how patient she has been. And how little there is left for us to do; to show our love. Oh, if only realization of all this had come before. Our trips, our plans, our little world – all is shattered.
Memorial Day dawned bright and sunny after weeks of rain. Naval M. marched in parade without uniforms which are expected within week.
We are mobolized (sic) locally and our pay begins today. Saw the “Assassin” at theatre last night. Walter Sherwin starred – morbin production. The mater rests fairly and seems very bright & cheerful. Mamie (who came Sat. eve) left Wed. AM. Will be in NY in two weeks time.
*E.H.
04 Saturday Jul 2015
Posted in Genealogy, Revolutionary War
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This 4th of July I thought I’d share something I wrote a little while back about one of my DAR Patriot Ancestors – William Stewart.
William Stewart was born in Scotland 23 June 1738[1]. He came to Dutchess County with his mother Isabela (who died in 1793) and at least two brothers, James and Henry.[2]
He married 3 December 1771 in New York State[3] Catherine Rowe, daughter of John Rowe and Catherine Lasher of North East Precinct, Dutchess County. They had eight children, John Stewart 1773-a.1836, Catherine Stewart 1774-1848 who married William Hermans of Ulster County, Col. Henry W. 1776-1840 who married Phebe Sherrill, William W. 1778-1859 who married Elizabeth Pitcher, Isabella Stewart who married Dr. Uri Judd and removed to Yates County, James W. Stewart a.1782-p.1855, Richard deCantillon Stewart who married Tamer (last name unknown), and Andrew Stewart 1787-a.1836. According to deeds and mortgages, John, James, and Andrew may have removed to western New York State but no record of their descendants could be found.
In 1836, William Stewart’s 83-year-old widow Catharine Rowe applied for a widow’s pension. Her younger brother Philip Rowe gave affidavit that his brother-in-law William Stewart (of the Town of North East, later Milan) “rode a famous black horse which commanded the admiration of the people… (and) kept said horse during the war and a little after it.[4]” Another soldier from the same unit, Andrew Frazier also remembered this impressive horse in his deposition.
Philip asserted that William Stewart was “particularly obnoxious to the Tories on whose detection and apprehension he was reputed to be uncommonly active and vigilant… a zealous Whig and efficient officer.” He was active in service as late as 1778 or 1779 and perhaps until 1781. He marched to West Point in 1776 with his brother-in-law Philip Rowe where they remained for several weeks. He was frequently absent from his family for most of the duration of the war.
Philip said that William Stewart came to live in the area two years before he was married. Catherine and William lived with her elder brother John Rowe and their parents were deceased. William Stewart “kept a store” in the Town of North East (which was much larger geographically in the eighteenth century) where he lived, until he died. He made his will in 1776 while healthy, because he was “providently called upon to step in to assert and defend by arms the rights, privileges and liberties of the United States of North America, sensible of the mortality of man and uncertainty of life, and more especially when called upon to enter the field of battle…”[5]
He died 10 March 1788 at 49 years, 8 months and 16 days[6]. He is buried at what is now called the Rowe Ground on the western side of Rt. 199 in the Town of Milan across from the Methodist Church. His wife, some of his children, and his brother James rest close by.
WIDOW
William and Catherine had three children (John, Catherine, and Henry) before the Battle of White Plains and five (William, Isabella, James, Richard, and Andrew) after it. The first and seventh were already dead in 1836. A William I. Stewart of Kings County, NY swore that all of William and Catherine’s children but their son James were dead by 12 July 1853[7].
Catherine remembered marrying in February of 1772. She did not accompany her husband on any of his “military expeditions”.
Four days after she died on 6 February 1844, Catherine Stewart’s pension was increased to $120. In 1855 it was increased to $180 to the benefit of William Stewarts only surviving child, James W. Stewart and in 1856 the service was accepted as being 12 total months and the sum was increased to $240. As shown in these documents, Catherine could not sign her own name.
SERVICE
William Stewart served as Adjutant and Captain in the Dutchess County Militia under Col. Petrus TenBroeck, and later under Col. Morris Graham “and served during (the) greater part of (the) war[8]”. He participated in the Battle of White Plains. His widow “often heard him declare that he cared not for his private fortunes so long as he could be instrumental in establishing the independence of the country.”
On 14 April 1775 a meeting was held in Charlotte Precinct (part of which became Pine Plains and Milan). There, Morris Graham, Robert R. Livingston, Jr. (aka Chancellor Livingston), and Egbert Benson were elected as delegates representing Rhinebeck, North East, Amenia, and Rumbout to the provincial congress to be held in New York City on 20 April. William Stewart and Morris Graham were the representatives from North East at that meeting. Shortly after this congress, news of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first military engagements of the Revolution fought on 19 April, arrived, and just after that, the first Articles of Association “a sort of pledge and protest against the government of England” were circulated for signing in New York[9]. Many local men signed this pledge, including William Stewart, who with Nathaniel Mead, J. Simmons, and Frederick Ham reported the results for North East[10]. Many who did not sign did so out of blind obedience to the King but also fear and uncertainty.
William Stewart’s documents had been lost by the time his widow Catherine Rowe applied for a pension in the 1830’s. This made application difficult for her and she had to call upon many friends and relatives to give testimony for his service. This must have been incredibly frustrating for her, but gives those of us researching him a much bigger picture of what he did to further the cause of American freedom. From this pension and what records remain, we can paint a picture of a record of service that runs from the very first shots to the surrender of Cornwallis.
Morris Graham, Hugh Rea (who married into the Knickerbocker family), William Stewart, Augustine Graham, David Wilson, Hugh Orr, and George Morehouse were members of the committee appointed to elect military officers on 26 August 1775. Two months later, a Dutchess County Regiment of Militia was organized of various companies. Huntting describes it in the History of Little Nine Partners:
“These companies in connection with five other companies from Rhinebeck Precinct, formed a regiment officered as follows: Petrus Ten Broeck, Colonel; Morris Graham, Lieut. Col. ; Simon Westfall, 1st Major; Jonathan Landon, 2d Major: William Stewart, Adjutant ; Hendrick VanHovenbergh, Quartermaster. Their commissions were issued October 17, 1775.[11]”
On 10 September 1776, Col. Graham’s regiment of Dutchess County militia was recorded with William Stewart as Captain of the 6th Company and Hardenburg and Seaton, Lieutenants. A letter from Kings Bridge, 4 October 1776 from a General Heath to Captain William Stewart ordered him to “convey 2 suspect persons to Fishkill, leave to then go to Nine Partners to return to Kings Bridge on Wednesday next.[12]” Andrew Frazier and John Smith gave testimony in Stewart’s widow’s pension that the tour of duty immediately following the Battle of White Plains (28 October 1776) in which and William Stewart acted as Captain was for a total of nine months. A Henry Soper also said in his own pension that he served under Captain Stewart for six months in the spring of 1776. Such assertions were important to increasing the sum that James W. Stewart received from his late mother’s widow’s pension.
Stewart’s widow thought that he was active in “disarming the Tories and suppressing disaffection” and that he was often gone six months at a time. She believed he took part in the Battle of White Plains. Andrew Frazier, a free black man also gave deposition to back up Catherine’s claim to a pension and said that he knew William Stewart when he was single and running a store in North East and that he had come to America from Scotland a “few years” before he knew him, and that was only 1-2 years before William and Catherine were married. Catherine believed this was around 1766. Frazier was in the same regiment as Stewart and as a “wagoner” helped transport arms they had procured from Tories to a storage facility somewhere in the Great Nine Partners. Once, he recalled, when they marched to New Rochelle, the regiment was fired on by British Ships on the Sound before the Battle of White Plains. When Frazier took ill, Morris Graham made him his “writer” and he was present and accounted for William Stewart also being present for those encounters with the British. He was fairly certain that Stewart remained in the service for the entire duration of the war, though he himself left it shortly after White Plains. Frazier echoed Catherine in saying that both among the troops and his neighbors in the Town of North East, Stewart was thought of as an “active and efficient officer.”
A letter of 2 January 1777 says that a “portion of the militia in Dutchess in Col. Graham’s regiment having refused on 30 Dec 1776 to march to the passes of the Highlands are to be compelled by force.[13]” In May of 1777, Stewart participated in the court martial at Ft. Montgomery “probably for the trial of those who failed to serve as required.[14]” When Stewart’s unit was reorganized on 18 March 1778 under Col. Morris Graham he was reappointed adjutant. The pension assumes that he held this position continually from his first appointment in 1775. The pension file of Everly Simmons declares that he served under Stewart and Morris Graham in 1780 or 1781 for three months. On 19 October 1781 British General Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown. If the statements of the men who gave depositions in Catherine Stewart’s widow’s pension and others are true, William Stewart did indeed serve “during (the) greater part of (the) war”.
Footnotes:
[1] Tombstone, Rowe Grounds, Milan, Dutchess Co NY
[2] Revolutionary War Widow’s Pension W.19104 especially pages 480 of 1104 regarding troop movements.
[3] Names of persons for whom marriage licenses were issued by the secretary of the province of New York, previous to 1784 Albany: Weed, Parsons, 1986 p.330
[4] Revolutionary War Widow’s Pension W.19104
[5] Will: Book A REC 1930#1 Stewart William Northeast Precinct 9 Sep 1776, prob. 18 Jun 1789 pp.142-143
[6] Pension W.19104
[7] Pension W.19104
[8] Pension W.19104
[9] Huntting, Isaac. History of the Little Nine Partners. Charles Walsh & Company, 189 P. 39-40
[10] Little Nine Partners P.42
[11] Little Nine Partners P.45
[12] Pension W.19104 “Vol 2 p. 882” noted
[13] Pension W.19104
[14] Pension W.19104
12 Thursday Mar 2015
Posted in 19th Century Letters, Education, Genealogy
Tags
Beckwith, Harris, Knickerbocker, letters, Losee, Sharpe, stanford, tivoli, victoriana
Envelope addressed to “Miss Mary E Knickerbocker Tivoli, Dutchess Co. NY.
This is the last letter in this series of posts. I do not know why my great-great-grandmother kept just these six, surely she received many more if the contents (and jibing for more frequent communication as in this example are any indication!). Perhaps each had a special sentiment that she treasured in some way. I have two favorite odd things about this letter, myself – the catty comments about the “Pine Plains make believe” and the bit about the stolen night gown. I would love to know the context!
Attempts to figure out who Mollie Harris from Town of Stanford, Dutchess County NY in 1855 was have been fruitless. It is likely that she married before 1860 and that “Mollie” is short for something like Margaret. If anyone has any clues, please comment!
Stanford Oct 24th 1855
My dear Mary Libbie
The apparent neglect of your kind and most welcome letter received nearly three weeks since, I assume my dear friend has not been intentional. You have to I admit had reason to think me another of your pretend friends, but I assure you my silence was not caused by forgetfulness of my promise much less from indifference, but now that I have an opportunity of writing I will not fill the sheet with excuses, ‘tho I might and reasonable ones too. When I received yours I was very busy making over my minno[?] dress. On Friday of the same week I went to North east, Cousin Mary Pulver closed her school on that day, that evening we were invited to the Edgar Clarks you recolect[sic] the new house we passed Mr. C’s Daughters have a Piano and we had the pleasure of having Miss Louisa play. Saturday evening Cousin Mary Clark invited company. Sabbath day attended Church and spent Monday evening with Louisa. Tuesday went home with Mary to Hillsdale and spent several days we went to Hudson and had our hats trimmed for fall, every day which I was there I thought I would write to you for Mary wished to write with me she wished to send many kind messages, she “hoped you would consider her a true friend not one of the Pine Plains make believe and would like very much to correspond with you” I went from there to Amenia, and returned here last Saturday. Sunday it rained and it is raining very hard today if it had been pleasant I should have went to Cousin Jordan’s I do want to see Cousin Libbie so much to have not seen her in three weeks she was expecting your Pa & Ma* out that week, did they come? I regretted not seeing them I have heard so much of your Ma I know I should love her.
I have not seen Laura yet nor none of the Pine Plains Ladies Laura’s youngest Brother died while I was away, her sister is very felle[?] the fever has left with a cough I am informed they are fearful she will not recover I would like very much to call there and I intend to the first opportunity.
I have heard Mary Eno studies at home and recites to Miss Allerton.
And now to answering the charge of taking your night-gown it is rather a severe charge but as the said article was found in my possession I must plead guilty I presume you would not have suspected me if I had not previously taken articles such as shoes etc., if your Ma has been out I supposed the property is restored and I am clear.
You were very kind to send me the pattern so I will write you when I get a hand worked like it.
How are those eyes? have you been to New York if not when do you expect to? I suppose you are enjoying the society of your friends Jennie & Mahallia? [Mahala Clarke, see her letter] Do forgive this time and set me an example of promptness.
[written upside down on top of page 1 very tight spacing] Friday afternoon, I came to Cousin Jordan’s last night found them all very well, we are going to the village as soon as we can get ready – how we wish you were here to go with us, Cousin Libbie sends her love to you all. Do write very soon my dear girl to your sincere friend Mollie
[written on top of page 4 upside down] It is such a dark rainy day I am almost homesick. Do write very soon to your Affectionate friend Mollie Harris
*this is MEK’s father Edwin Knickerbocker 1808-1875 and step-mother Catherine Sharpe 1821-1893. Her own mother, Eliza Ann Beckwith died in 1843.
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05 Thursday Mar 2015
Posted in 19th Century Letters, Education, Genealogy
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If this is the Kate Rosa mentioned in Almira Culver’s letter, she is Catherine Persen Roosa daughter of Garrett M Roosa and Catherine Post from Hurley, NY. Kate was born 13 May 1836, married Abraham Houseman Hasbrouck and died 26 Jan 1906. They had six children, three of which were still living in 1900 including an unmarried dressmaker daughter Jane who was 37 (the same age as the author as of this writing).
Paid Hurley NY 26 Sept 55 Paid 3” on the top, addressed to “Miss Mary E Knickerbocker Tivoli Dutchess Co N.Y.” sealed with red wax and what looks like an F
Hurley, Sept 24th, 1855
My Sweet friend,
It is always a source of happiness to me to hear from my friends, although I sometimes feel as though they had all forgotten me and not without cause for I like my correspondents to be punctual about answering letters.
I looked for one from you so long that I became discouraged thinking you had found some dearer friend to occupy all your time & thoughts, but I was agreeably disappointed not too long since by recieving[sic] a letter from you-
It is so long since I have had the pleasure of writing to you that I do not know where to begin to tell you what has occurred during that time.
I have had a very pleasant visit from Libbie Hulse the week before school closed she looks as natural as ever her health is better than it used to be while at school she has been teaching at home and now she thought of taking a school about 15 miles from home. She went from here to Pough to the examination. I should so much have liked to gone with her but I could not leave home. My friend Mary Robison graduated this summer. She is now living in Kingston so I have the opportunity of seeing her often.
Saturday afternoon two couple of us went out to Saugerties so I was very near you and you may feel assured I thought of you nearly all the time. I could see Tivoli and the boat crossing but I could no go. Had it been any other day than Sunday I should certainly have called to see you we came home in the evening by moonlight.
What lovely evenings we have now. To morrow evening there is a society given in the village. Do come down and go with me. We expect Mr. Schemerhorn to spend the day with us to morrow. I presume you have heard that name before. he is on his way to college. Rutgers in New Brunswick.
I almost forgot to tell you who I saw in church Sunday in Saugerties, Gus Packer from Poughkeepsie. I had a bow, that was all I could not speak to her. I wonder if she is teaching there, or if she is visiting wherever I go I am sure to meet some schoolmate. I wish the fates would let us meet too. Where is Edith Hayes, have you spoken to her? or does she not stay in Tivoli? I am getting sleepy now and must close for I am writing a very long letter. I fear it will weary your patience to read it and such writing too. Please excuse it and answer me soon Come and see me soon, will you?
Yours al’s Kate
26 Thursday Feb 2015
Posted in 19th Century Letters, Education, Genealogy
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Culver, Knickerbocker, letters, Losee, pleasant valley, victoriana
Almira Culver was born 9 Aug 1835 to John A Culver and Catherine Skidmore of Pleasant Valley. She married John Allen Marshall and they had three children, Nellie, Edwin, and John. She died 22 Nov 1916, two years before Mary. The John DeLafield she mentions had died two years before in 1853 and was a big-wig in New York State agriculture.
Postmark torn, addressed to Miss Mary E Knickerbocker Tivoli, Dutchess Co New York
Oaklands Sept. 15th, 1855
Dear Mary
It has been a long time since I have heard from you but I thought I would write to you and inform you of my whereabouts. Mr. Fuller last April, changed his place of residence from Conesus to three miles from Geneva. You have doubtless heard of the fine country about Geneva so I need only tell you I have seen some of it and proved to be all that has been or can said about it. Although it is three miles from here to Geneva, we have a fine view of the village and also of the lake a beautiful drive along the lake-shore as one would like to take.
I have just received your letter which was forwarded to me from Conesus and cannot wonder why you think I did not deserve it but I had thought a long time of writing and at last began when I received yours so you can give me credit for that. I did not receive your letter until a week after it was written so I will address your letter as usual, fearing that you might not be at Pine Plains when it arrives.
It is now Monday evening. During the day the “young ideas have to be taught how to shoot”* and so the evenings are at my disposal for letter-writing, reading, etc. I practice nearly two hours every day I think I have improved in music, considerably since I left school – and suppose you have too. Do you take lessons now> or have you since you left Mr. Tookers? I like teaching very much, much better than I expected, particularly when I see my scholars daily progress in their studies and taking so much interest and delight in them. I have only four, and the eldest but twelve, but they all are the smartest children I ever saw. I am going to leave the 1st of December so shall hate to part with my little pupils.
I was at the home five weeks this summer and thought about visiting you, but my time was so very limited that I did not visit near all my relatives. I think perhaps you known how soon the weeks pass when you have only a few to spend hone. I dare say you remember how homesick you was at school and how short the vacations seemed to be.
I saw Mr. & Mrs. Tooker – they were very well. I think their school is not as flourishing as it has been. Abbie Watson has become teacher, Miss Noyer & Miss Reynolds continue there still but Miss Dixson did not expect to return after the summer term.
Mrs. Tooker thinks that Hattie Watson is engaged to be married to Mr. Graham, you know he used to call at the school frequently, also that Louisa Palmer is not far from it to a gentleman in New York, I do not know the name. Martha Norton one of the expectant graduates died last spring – perhaps you remember her. I saw Louisa Van Vliet – she is desirous of becoming a teacher. I wonder if she will make a good one, as she was a scholar & you ask if I have seen or heard from Emma Robinson. I have not. I was in Syracuse an hour or more when I was going home and thought then if I only know where she lived I would make her a little call. How is Emma Timmons. I suppose you must see her quite often. I heard that she thought of being a parlor boarder this term at Mr. Tooker’s only sturting French, music, and painting. I was not at the examination as I did not know when it was to be and had been home but a few days before it occurred.
Do you correspond with Lizzie Jessop or Kate Rosa? If so how are they? I almost forgot to tell you that when home I saw Geo. Lockwood, A. Barnes, & E. Bagley at church in Pleasant Valley. E. Bagley has grown to be very handsome and much improved in appearance, she attends school at Dr. McLellans.
I think I have written a long letter enough to atone for my past silence, yet I will endeavor to be more punctual in future for I dearly love to hear from my school-mate and room-mate oftener than once or twice in six months. (hearing from her and not writing to her is out of the question altogether)
I must now close bidding you good night hoping to hear from you soon. Address Rose Hill P. V. Seneca Co N.Y. The farm is honored by the name Oaklands and was the state premium farm [she ran out of space and continued top of page 1 upside down] owned by Mr. John DeLafield a former resident of Poughkeepsie. I think the farm and post office names are quite romantic but it is a delightful country out here and no mistake.
Yours sincerely, Almira Culver
*This is paraphrased from lines 1152-3 of a very long poem called Spring by James Thompson: “Delightful task! To rear the tender thought, / To teach the young idea how to shoot.” something they were surely taught at the Poughkeepsie Female Academy.
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