The Stone family saga

Feb 13, 2013 | Tin Horn

This is the tale of a Clovesville family whose name has faded from the Catskills because the men who carried it left to find their fortunes and meet their destinies more than 130 years ago.

Clovesville native John Stone’s burial place in Arizona. The “Col.” title was honorary, and the term “supposed to be” shows some uncertainly about his remains, which were reburied here a year after his death at Apache hands in 1869.

They were the Stones: John, William, George and Rutson, sons of Caroline and Robert. Their father died in 1849 at the age of 47, leaving a 40 year old wife and 9 children, from infant twins, Rutson and Jutson, to eldest son Augustus, 19. Caroline apparently maintained a store to support the family, which was scattered at the coming of the Civil War.

John Finkle Stone was 21 when he enlisted as a musician in the Regular Army’s 5th Infantry in 1857. He was sent to Washington Territory, then New Mexico Territory where he spent most of the war years, before being posted to Kansas, mustering out in 1867. Some sources say that after his discharge he became U.S. Marshall and was later appointed Collector of Customs for the District of El Paso Del Norte and relocated to Tucson, Arizona. He helped organize the Apache Pass Mining Company in 1868 to develop the Harris Lode Gold Mining District near Fort Bowie. On October 5, 1869, he boarded a stage for Tucson with a driver and a four-soldier escort. All were killed that day in an Apache ambush near Dragoon Springs. His body rests in the cemetery at Fort Bowie, a National Historic Site.

William Henry Stone joined the Army as captain of Company G of the 144th New York Volunteer Regiment. Born in 1841, he was just 21 when he led the Middletown-raised company off to war in September of 1862. A little more than a year later, he succumbed to chronic dysentery contracted in camp. He had managed to get home to his mother, who we can assume nursed him until he passed away October 17, 1863. He is buried in the Clovesville Cemetery.

William’s younger brother George saw active duty after enlisting in the 14th Cavalry in June of 1863. Seven months later, he was captured at the Battle of Mansfield, Louisiana during the Red River campaign, and spent six months interred in the Confederate prison, Camp Ford in Tyler, Texas, until the following November, when he was exchanged. In the same month he was appointed a captain in the 18th New York Cavalry, became ordnance officer of the Department of the Gulf, and commanded the San Antonio arsenal from September, 1865 until June 1866 when he was mustered out of service. After the war George Stone was a civil engineer on the Union Pacific Railroad until its completion in 1869. The following year he went to California, and worked on a number of railroads as superintendent or contractor. In 1901, he organized the Pacific Portland Cement Company, and had a comfortable life with wife Annie Burr Jennings, and their three daughters. He was California state chairman of the Republican party, and prominent in San Francisco, where he died in 1915.

Rutson Stone was born Oct. 21, 1848 in Clovesville. His twin, Jutson, evidently died as an infant. Rutson was left at home to be with his mother as one by one, all his siblings departed or married. The 1870 Middletown census said he worked in a print shop. He was 21, his mother was 61. In 1878 she died, leaving Rutson free to roam. He followed big brother George to California, where he was a surveyor in San Francisco in 1880, a clerk in 1888, and a “papermaker” in Lynwood in 1890. He and wife Annie had two daughters and a son, Robert, who does not appear to have survived to adulthood.

We don’t know what happened to her eldest son Augustus, but between 1849 and her own death in 1878, Caroline endured the loss of her husband and five other boys – one an infant, one in the Civil War, one to Indian attack and two more to the siren song of California. Unless Augustus raised a family somewhere, there were no boys to carry on Robert Stone’s name, though his daughters married local men and left descendants who remain in these parts today.

You can learn more about this family at the Living History Cemetery Tour of the Clovesville Cemetery June 29 when Caroline will be portrayed, and at the Historical Society of Middletown’s Civil War exhibit at the HSM Hall July 4-August 31, where John, William and George Stone will be profiled.

A new pair of boots — a shop local story

Dec 31, 2012 | Tin Horn

In researching the lives of Middletown’s Civil War veterans, I came across an interesting letter to the Catskill Mountain News published April 8, 1960. B. C. Todd wrote in to share memories and stories that old-timers had passed on to him, including this one about Calvin Crosby, a Clovesville merchant and tanner (and Civil War vet) who enjoyed almost instant gratification when he went looking for a new pair of boots. DG

Clovesville, from the Beers 1869 Atlas of Delaware County. Note the tannery, house and store of Orrace Crosby and son Calvin along Main Street to the right of Red Kill stream, and the shoe shop, presumably Mr. VanBramer’s, across the street, to the left of the stream.

In researching the lives of Middletown’s Civil War veterans, I came across an interesting letter to the Catskill Mountain News published April 8, 1960. B. C. Todd wrote in to share memories and stories that old-timers had passed on to him, including this one about Calvin Crosby, a Clovesville merchant and tanner (and Civil War vet) who enjoyed almost instant gratification when he went looking for a new pair of boots. DG

“Thinking of my leather boots with red tops recalls a true story which I often heard father and others tell. For many years, before shoes could be purchased in stores, men wore for dress-up what were called “fine boots.” These were made from light, soft calf skins. In Griffin Comers there was, during this period and afterwards, a boot and shoe maker, one Jacob VanBramer. He was considered to be a craftsman at his trade. There was a Calvin Crosby who operated a grocery store where the home of the late John Curtis now stands. Mr. Crosby at one time owned and operated the tannery located on the present Jimmy Pavlos property below Clovesville , . . This farm was spoken of for years and years as the “Tannery farm.”

Mr. Crosby had occasion to go to Kingston on business. He discovered that his fine boots were not fit for further use. He went to VanBramer’s shop and asked if he had fine boots on hand that would fit. Mr. VanBramer replied that he did not, but said “if you have a couple of good calf skins at the tannery and will bring them, I will make you a pair of boots.” Mr. Crosby said he needed them by the time the stage came along about daylight next moming. Mr. VanBramer repeated that he could make a pair of boots and have them ready saying that he would leave them outside his shop door before daylight. This was in the early evening. Mr. Crosby said, “Man, you can’t possibly do that. I tell you I must have them to wear on the stage in the morning.”

However, Mr. Crosby went to the tannery and brought the calf skins. Before daylight the next morning, he found the boots setting outside the door, ready to pull on.”

Hey, check out our new wood splitter!

Nov 14, 2012 | Tin Horn

That’s what these young men may have had in mind when they posed for a photo on the Robertson farm in New Kingston with a monumental stack of perfectly proportioned wood in 1922. If anyone can identify these guys, or explain how the wood splitter worked, or how the pieces of firewood could have been so identical, or why they were stacking it in the doorway of a barn, please let us know!

Photo courtesy Gary Robertson

More News is good news!

Oct 17, 2012 | Tin Horn

Several hundred more pages of the Catskill Mountain News, 1967-73, have been added to the commons! This batch of digitized microfilm will be the last for awhile, the end of a five-year effort to make the News, 1902-1973, readable and searchable on line.The only years that are missing are 1920, 1925 and 1968.

The Historical Society is so pleased to have been able to accomplish this, with the help of several major donors. We are grateful for contributions from the late Ed Scheider and Herman Gottfried; from CMN Publisher Dick Sanford; from the O’Connor Foundation, and from a generous anonymous donor. Our thanks go to Dick and the News for allowing the microfilming and scanning of bound newspapers from 1902-37; to the NYS Library for loaning microfilm of issues from 1938-73; to Hudson Microimaging of Port Ewen for the great job they did in reformatting this treasure trove of local history.

And we so appreciate the work of the Northern NY Library Network in hosting this collection on their site: http://history.catskill.net. Check it out!

Here’s to George . . .

Oct 5, 2012 | Tin Horn

The Historical Society has lost a good and faithful friend with the passing of George Hendricks. A trustee on the board since 2008, George was always ready to help. He was a prime mover in getting our historic marker program started with the installation of the first one in Highmount, at the boulder that held an 1840s Anti-Rent War flag. He worked tirelessly for two summers with Brian Wheaton and others to restore the Arkville Cemetery, where some of his ancestors are buried.

It’s because of George, and a chance conversation he had with New Kingston Valley Grange members at church one Sunday, that HSM was gifted our home on Cemetery Road. He looked forward to mowing the grass there, and looking out for the place.

George was so very proud of his ancestry, and the fact that his sons are the 9th generation of the Hendricks clan in Middletown. He loved to share his genealogy research with others, always looking for those elusive bits of information that would flesh out the lives of people from the past.

His passion for local history and genealogy was such that even when his illness left him tired and weak, he would not bow out of the Living History Tour of Margaretville Cemetery, in which he portrayed his great-great-grandfather, George Hendricks.

Just a few weeks ago, his body failing but his memory sharp, he provided details on owners of New Kingston barns for our farm documentation project, which captured the interest and enthusiasm of hundreds of visitors at the Cauliflower Festival.

We wish he could have been there. But in a very real sense, he was.

Thank you, George, for breathing life into history, and prompting us, always, to remember.

GEORGE HENDRICKS PHOTO GALLERY
Click for a larger view of each image…

Nk-sign-aud-george-sml

ark-cem-nov-2011-sml

George-Hendricks-Genealogy-wkshop-Mar-5-2011

george-hendrickssml

george-r.-davis

210 barns!

Sep 24, 2012 | Tin Horn

New Kingston is the big winner when it comes to the number of barns — 32 — still standing in the Town of Middletown. Mind you, they’re not all big dairy barns, but even the smallest horse, chicken and storage barns had important roles on the farm. So many of them have been included in the Historical Society’s Barn Survey, to be unveiled at the Cauliflower Festival Sept. 29.

We found 30 barns in the Denver-Redkill area (ok, some aren’t exactly in pristine conditon, but hey, they’re standing.) There are 26 in Dry Brook (24 of them are actually in the Town of Hardenburgh). 31 barns are in the Fleischmanns area, 24 in Halcottsville/Hubbell Hill, 11 in Millbrook/Huckelberry Brook, 11 in Bull Run/Dunraven and 9 in Halcott.

A surprise was the 20 barns found in the Village of Margaretville, many of them tucked away in backyards and all but invisible from the street.

Come to the festival and tell us about your barn– if you don’t have one, come learn all about the buildings that make farmers nostalgic and artists happy and that make the Catskills so special.

210 BARNS PHOTO GALLERY
Click for a larger view of each image…

adee-signssml

Signs still adorn the George Adee barn door on Hubbell Hill

Gray-farm-Old-Winter-Hollow-New-Kingstonsml

Gray farm, Old Winter Hollow, New Kingston, is still an active dairy

Kasanof-barn-former-Botuon-Griffin-farm-sml

The Kasanof barn, on the ormer Bouton and Griffin farm in Halcott