The Battle of Shacksville, March 14, 1845

The Battle of Shacksville, March 14, 1845

This is the general area where the Battle of Shacksville is presumed to have happened. That’s the East Branch of the Delaware River at center left crossing under the bridge on what is now Briggs Road. Town of Roxbury collection

The Battle of Shacksville,

March 14, 1845

A little-known chapter of the Anti-Rent War which convulsed the Catskills in the mid-1840s took place near the community known as Shacksville just south of Roxbury off what is now NYS Route 30. Central to the dramatic episode was Daniel W. Squire, a farmer who, as a leader of the rebellious “Calico Indians,” had provoked the ire of the Delaware County Sheriff and his deputies.

Squire’s mother Nabby in 1830 had paid $750 for a 76-acre farm just north of the present Darling farm on Route 30. The deed, which in 1837 was conveyed by Nabby to son Daniel, carried from owner to owner the requirement that an annual rent of one shilling per acre be paid (though to whom is not clear).

Many local farmers had withheld their rent in protest of the system that allowed wealthy, distant patent holders to require annual payments of crops, labor or cash for land which they were prevented from owning, or which they had purchased but was still subject to rent. They disguised themselves in sheepskin masks and calico dresses (“Calico Indians”) and vowed to defend fellow farmers who were visited by deputies and Up-Rent posses demanding payment.

Daniel W. Squire, a farmer and sawmill operator, was a respected leader known as “Big Thunder.” His wife Phebe allegedly sewed costumes for other “Indians,” who came to his defense in September 1844 when his neighbor, landlord agent Timothy Corbin, and Sheriff Green Moore attempted to serve a warrant on Squire for nonpayment of rent. Tin horns alerted the calico tribe and they descended en masse, seizing and burning the papers, mounting Corbin on a soap box and applying hot tar and feathers as punishment.

In February of 1845, still itching to arrest Squire, Undersheriff Osman Steele led a surprise raid on his home. With little time to escape, Squire reportedly hid between feather ticks on a bed on which his wife Phebe, and Nabby, the widowed mother who lived with them, were lying. Discovered, he was carted off to jail in Delhi, charged with riot and assault and battery. He was later released on bail.

A series of nasty confrontations between Up and Down Renters throughout the area over the next few months elevated tensions leading to the conflict near Shacksville, a cluster of buildings at the intersection of Green Road and Stratton Falls Road. On March 11, 1845, Undersheriff Steele led a posse of 80 men, who captured another rebel farmer, Zera Preston, and placed him under guard at the store of Edward Burhans in Beaverdam (the hamlet of Roxbury). Daniel Squire called together his compatriots who spent the night at his house before heading out to rescue Preston. They encountered Steele and company and a violent clash followed.

Although the exact location of the skirmish is uncertain, at least some of the fighting is believed to have taken place in the area of today’s Briggs Road which connects Route 30 to Statton Falls Road in the vicinity of Shacksville. Participants described in later court testimony close combat with musket balls fired by rebels crouched behind a stone wall. Several of the “Indians” were unmasked by their opponents. One of them was Silas Tompkins, constable and collector from Middletown. Eleven men and a teenage boy were arrested, shackled and placed in the back of a wagon for transport through the cold dark night to the Delhi jail.

The “Battle of Shacksville” was over, but the war continued towards the culminating event, the killing of Osman Steele in Andes that spring. Though he was nowhere near the scene, Squire was among 94 people indicted for various charges related to the murder on the Moses Earl farm. He was sentenced to life in prison for being an accessory to the fact, and, with three comrades, spent two years in Clinton prison before they were pardoned in 1847. Daniel’s mother, Abigail Squire, made the difficult 300-mile trip to the Adirondacks to visit the prisoners in the summer of 1846 when she was 60 years old. She reported to the worried families of the men that they were in good health and good spirits.

The 1869 Beers Atlas map of the Town of Roxbury shows the location of the “Shacksville Battle Ground 1845” nearly a quarter century after the Anti-Rent War clash between disgruntled farmers and the county sheriff and his posse. A dotted line extends to lands of Jacob C. Keator (JKC) where today’s Briggs Road connects the north-south Route 30 with Stratton Falls Road.

In 1846 and ’47, the feudal system of land ownership in the Catskills was ended through political action and legislation. Many farmers found the means to then purchase their hard-won land. But Daniel W. Squire, who had been away for two years, lost his 76-acre farm when the mortgage was foreclosed. His wife Phebe died in 1852 and was buried in the Old School Baptist Church Cemetery next to two daughters who had died in 1841 and 1842.

Daniel found another wife, Mary Rogers, and moved with her, four surviving children and his mother to Windsor, Broome County. They had two more children, and in 1857 he was named postmaster of New Ohio in the neighboring town of Colesville.

The reverberations of the Anti-Rent War having been long quieted, “Big Thunder” passed away in 1881 and is buried in Riverside Cemetery, Windsor.

For the colorful details of this compelling era in State and local history, consult Tin Horns and Calico by Henry Christman (1978, Hope Farm Press); and A Free Soil, A Free People: The Anti-Rent War in Delaware County. New York by Dorothy Kubik (1997, Purple Mountain Press). Other sources consulted for this article were FamilySearch.org; FindAGrave.com; Ancestry.com; and nyshistoricnewspapers.com.

More local newspapers posted online

More local newspapers posted online

More than half a century of the Roxbury Times and 12 more years of the Catskill Mountain News have been added to the New York State Historic Newspapers website, created and administered by the Northern New York Library Network in partnership with the Empire State Library Network..

Their placement online allows anyone anywhere to search, read and print these valuable chronicles of local history. The Times and the News are among 19 Delaware County titles on the website, NYSHistoricNewspapers.org.

Roxbury Town Historian Anthony Liberatore coordinated the digitization of microfilm of the Times from Sept. 19, 1895 to June 16, 1951. The O’Connor Foundation, the Town of Roxbury and historian/author Larry Zuidema funded the Roxbury project. The original newspapers were transferred to microfilm in 1967 through the efforts of Steve Enderlin, and have been available to read on a microfilm viewer in the History Room at the Roxbury Library. Thanks go to Wendy Morrison for getting that microfilm to Potsdam for digitization.

“I was hesitant to ship the microfilm for fear of it being lost in transit, so I was going to take a five-hour drive, one way, to drop it off in person,” the historian said. “The night before I was going to go, someone mentioned to me that Wendy, a Roxbury resident, was taking her son Brett back to Clarkson University, which is also in Potsdam. She agreed to drop off the microfilm which saved me from driving the 10-hour round trip!”

The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown had previously preserved the CMN from 1902 through 1973. In 2022, HSM arranged to have the bound issues from 1974 through 1985 microfilmed at Advantage Archives in Iowa. That microfilm was scanned at Potsdam and added to the previously posted issues.

Thirteen HSM supporters contributed more than $1,500 towards this phase of the CMN project. In 2024, the previously missing 1968 News will be added to the historic newspapers site. Nearly a complete run of that year’s paper was discovered this year in a local home whose owner donated them to HSM.

The hard-bound volumes of the News are housed at Fairview Public Library. The microfilm and digital versions are protected in the HSM Archives. FMI: mtownhistory.org.

 

HSM wraps up busy year with some old fashioned music

MARGARETVILLE – The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown concluded its programming season November 4 with a musical tribute to a home-town composer from the turn of the last century.

Following its annual meeting and luncheon, held at the Catskill Watershed Corp., HSM members and friends heard pianist Kent Brown play ‘Pakatakan Waltz’ and ‘Where the Catskills Lift Their Summits to the Sun’ by Alexander Grant Jackson. A short sketch of the composer, a printer-turned-forester who moved to the Northwest in 1906, was also presented.

The business meeting included the re-election of three trustees and the election of a new member of the Board, Eli Taylor of Margaretville. His fellow Board members are Doris Warner, Pat Moore, Agnes Laub, Josef Schoell, Gary Smith, Michael Fairbairn and Diane Galusha. Barbara Moses has stepped down as a Trustee after several years of service.

Treasurer Pat Moore reported that HSM is in a strong financial position. The operating fund is healthy, and the building fund has grown with significant contributions this year, including $75,000 from the O’Connor Foundation, $50,000 from the Pasternak Family Foundation, a $10,000 matching grant from Josef Schoell, and contributions from many members of our community. To date, 166 individuals, families, organizations, foundations and businesses have contributed a total of $353,888 to this effort.

President Diane Galusha noted that considerable progress has been made this year on the project — an addition to its Cemetery Road hall to house the HSM archives. The concrete foundation and floor were installed back in May. The 1100-square-foot addition is up and enclosed for winter. The walls have been insulated and sheet rocked. The building has been wired, and the electric line buried. The siding is going on soon, to be followed by installation of a heat pump system for heating and cooling both the addition and the hall. A covered entryway is being built. A new septic system is planned, and fixtures for the accessible rest room will be installed in the near future.

A number of programs were held during 2023: A history hike along the former U&D tracks in Highmount was held in April; the 10th Living History Cemetery Tour in June became an armchair tour when rain forced it indoors at the Open Eye Theater. In August, a program on major fires in Middletown was delivered, and in October 70 people turned out for Rick Brook’s presentation on the Hardenburgh Patent and the history of surveying. An exhibit on master builders of Middletown was displayed at the Cauliflower Festival in September.

Donations of historic materials over the past year have included scrapbooks, photos and records on several local families. Nearly a complete run of the Catskill Mountain News for 1968 was discovered in her attic by Anna Blish, who donated them to HSM. They will be digitized and added to the NYS Historic Newspapers website which now holds the searchable News from 1902 through 1985. Encouraged Galusha, “If you discover in a closet or attic old material you may not know what to do with, please call any of us on the board so we can have a look, because once it’s gone, it can’t be retrieved.”

Finally, the winner of the quilt made by Jackie Purdy was Peter Turer of Manhattan and Roxbury Run.

For articles, photos, events and more, visit mtownhistory.org.

Vintage Waltz To Be Played at HSM annual meeting Nov. 4

The annual meeting of Historical Society of Middletown members and friends will be held Saturday, Nov. 4 at noon at the Catskill Watershed Corp. on County Road 38 (Arkville cut-off road). PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF VENUE – the event will NOT be held at the Margaretville Fire Hall as previously reported.

Mary’s Cookin’ Again will cater the luncheon. Reserve your seat ($20) by October 27 by calling 845-586-4973.

Following the business meeting, which will include an update on the archives construction project and reports on HSM activities and finances over the past year, there will be a short musical history program. Accomplished keyboardist Kent Brown of Margaretville will perform “Pakatakan Waltz,” written in 1900 by Alexander Grant Jackson.

Jackson was a musician and editor of the Margaretville Messenger before he moved to Oregon. A copy of the sheet music for the waltz was recently donated to the HSM archives.

The musical interlude will be followed by a brief profile of the composer, and of W. A. Laidlaw, to whom Jackson dedicated the piece.

For more information on HSM and its activities, as well as many history articles and photographs, visit mtownhistory.org.

HSM holds Oct. 21 Program on Deciphering Surveys and Deeds

HSM holds Oct. 21 Program on Deciphering Surveys and Deeds

ARKVILLE – Rick Brooks, a long-time surveyor and historian of his trade, will present “The Hardenburgh Patent, A Surveyor’s Journey” Saturday, Oct. 21 at 3 p.m. in the Catskill Watershed Corp.’s auditorium on County Rte. 38 (Arkville cut-off road).

Admission to the program, offered by the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown, is by donation.

A third-generation surveyor, Brooks has spent his entire career in and around the Catskill Mountain region and is well versed in Patent history. He will also lead a field walk on Sunday, Oct. 22 to demonstrate tools and techniques and show how surveyors read and measure the land. To register for the walk (there is a $10 fee) call 845-586-4973.

On display at the October 21 event will be antique maps, survey instruments and chains used to spur settlement of the Hardenburgh Patent wilderness. The 1.5-million-acre patent was granted in 1708 by Edward Hyde (Lord Cornbury) to eight men, Johannes Hardenburgh among them. These patentees and their successors intended to enrich themselves by getting homesteaders to settle their lands and pay rent for the privilege. But first the patent had to be divided and mapped by intrepid surveyors such as William Cockburn and Jehu Burr, among others.

Brooks will offer a short history of the patent and its evolution, explaining how surveyors guided European development in the mountains where indigenous people had lived, fished and hunted for centuries. Attendees will learn how to interpret early maps and deeds, whose language has descended through the generations to today’s legal documents. He will also reference the work of more recent but no less legendary surveyors including his uncle, Ed West, and the late Norman VanValkenburgh.

Prior to the illustrated talk, the Catskill Water Discovery Center adjacent to the CWC auditorium will be open from 1 to 3 for those interested in learning about the New York City water system and watershed.

Richard C. Brooks was licensed to practice his profession in 1984. He currently serves as a Senior Project Manager for Control Point Associates, formerly Brooks & Brooks Land Surveyors. The firm was formed in 1990 when he and his wife Patricia P. Brooks, LS combined their respective family surveying businesses.

For information about the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown and its programs, and to view local history articles and photographs, visit mtownhistory.org.