A Story of James Street

Rosendale, Ulster County, New York

By Joseph A. Fleming

 

This account being largely the personal recollections of the writer with reference to James Street I feel that I can best relate the interesting details of such if its history of which I have knowledge., but writing chiefly in the first person as in that form I feel qualified best present many of its interesting aspects.  It having been my home since 1883 and my own recollections extending in some matters as far back as 1885 (I was born in 1881) – Always interested in the past.  I since childhood gleamed fragmentary detail concerning its older days from the conversations of elderly residents which contained information which I deemed worthy of preservation and here indict in the hope of someone deriving as much pleasure reading thereof as I experience in transcribing.

 

October 25^th 1936                                                                                                Joseph A. Fleming

 

This 1936 – 1948 manuscript was transcribed and indexed by

Linda Tantillo

Rosendale Library

Rosendale, NY

2006

 Additions and formatting for webpage by

 Catherine Sullivan 2021

 -Rosendale Cement-

 

 James Street Rosendale, New York

            And Related Data

Back, back, - ever so long ago, James Street was obviously a wilderness.  It is probable that Indians traveled the locality and fished in the Roundout Creek which forms the northern border.  To what extent these aborigines frequented this section is largely conjectural or speculative, there being but little exact information of this aspect of its history beyond the fact of the instance of an ancient road still traceable to the east and south from a point on the creek which permitted easy fording with comparatively level land on both embankments just east of where the present day “lower bridge” spans the Roundout.  The road I knew as a boy as “The Kings Highway” and “Doug Road” the l latter name applying specifically to a gully which the road ran just before emerging on the Jerome Davis farm at the beginning of the Rosendale Plains, continuing southward it was the colonial connecting link between Kingston and New Paltz and was said to have closely followed the course of a much older Indian trail.  Thus situated there seems much in probabilities to support the moderate speculations of imaginative individuals who, pardonably enjoy associating the history of our environs with that of  colorful vanished people.

    James Street is said to have once comprised of a single farm  alleged to have been owned by  one “Farmer Davis” apparently unrelated to the Davis who for years operated a farm of the beginning of Rosendale Plains which was identified by the older residents with the Countant family, a member of which, namely, George S. Countant *( Listed in the 1880 Census as George Coutant - Supervisor of Cement Quarry) was for many years actively associated with the cement and real estate business hereabouts.

   As late as 1900 there were still remained considerable evidence of James Street having been used for farm purposes.  The old farmhouse stood at the head of the street shadowed by a gigantic cottonwood tree.  A covered well, an old granary and a large barn stood on the opposite side of the road a little further down.  The “Hermance” house of today bears little resemblance to “the old 1776 farm house” yet contains much of the lumber that formed the ancient structure that stood on the same foundation and followed the architectural lines of the farm houses of the period to which it belonged.

Above:  The Hermance property in 1885. It was built in 1776 by Mr. Dewitt and occupied by Mike Smith from 1867 to 1897   

 

The house is said to have been built by _____ Dewitt who owned the property by grant of King George III – as of 1850 it was owned by Jacob Hasbrouck.  Two other old buildings belonging to the farm group are the Bower home which also in remolding bears little resemblance to the building of other days, and the Fleming homestead which despite many improvements still retains much of its original lines. 

Left: The Fleming Homestead in 1885 as illustrated by Joseph Fleming showing 12 pane windows, plank porch, old front door and side view showing one of two bannisters under which were coal bins etc. Four families occupied this house in 1885.

Across the road from the old farmhouse was the new cottage erected (1877) for Edward Smith by James B. James Cement Co. for whom he acted as superintendent.  (Later Dewitt Winchell another Supt. Occupied this residence.)  All along both sides of the road from the woods to the timber growth along the creeks edge old apple trees grew in orderly rows indicating the use of that section as an orchard.  What is now known as John Street was level fields where we as children picked berries.  Until about 1892 these fields remained vacant,  About that date Ferdinand Smith built the first residence thereon.  This is the house on the south east edge of the woods bordering on the brook.  Shortly afterward a survey was made and John Street came into being.  The Fleming house is said to have once stood on the opposite side of the road where it served as a storehouse for farm produce.     

With the opening up of three cement quarries adjoining James street and consequent demand for housing facilities it removed to its present site and remodeled for a four family tenement which function it served until purchased in 1897 by James Fleming Sr. who occupied two of its sections since 1883.

The next oldest buildings in James Street are Chris Wood (?) home at the lower end of the street, the Slaughter House*, the Sammons and Bell houses.  The Slaughter house as the last building on the north side of the street was so nicknamed probably due the existence of a previous building on the same premises, the foundations I believe are still discernable, which served for the slaughter and processing of livestock.  During the 1885 period it was a cement company tenement house then occupied by the families of Albert McMullen, Samuel Scott, the Cody family and Ferdinand Smith.

The Chris Wood House is a flat roofed building at the lower end of the south side of James Street.  The date of its erection cannot be definitely determined but it is said to have been in the late eighteen sixties. Shortly after Mr. Wood returned from the Civil War.

The Callahan, Lee, Palen, Bell*,brown, Hill and Sammons* homes also appear to have been built in the late eighteen sixties.  The Lewis house appeared about 1874-75 as did the new Catholic Church.  Other houses contemporaneous with the 1870-80 period seem to be the Pat Wynn, Jerimiah Curtin, O’Neil (Delaney), and Steelys.  The 1880 to 1890 decade witnessed further growth to the locality among those were houses owned by the Brown family, a new house by the Sammons’,  two more by Capt. Thomas Skelty and a four family tenement by William Campbell.  From 1890 to 1900 other buildings appeared viz: The D.J. Buckley cottage*, Joseph Hill rear cottage, the Delaney lower house, the Shields, Harkins and Eltinge homes on the north side, while on the south side were erected, the Theron Burr home (2 houses), the Sam Gorsline place and the Shoonmaker apartment house. 

   About this time John Street came into prominence as a desirable residence location.  Charles McCarthy, Charlie Malia, John Zurich, Grant Young, Levi Lewis, John Early, Anthony Fredrico, Mrs. Swindleman, Frank Bell, and Albert Atkins erected homes there and James Hill built adjoining the Sam Gorsline place on the south avenue connecting the two streets at their lower extremity and Jake Huben’s Medicine Plant on the Callahan property.  Opposite McCarthy’s, James Wynn put up a four family tenement, and at the Sand Hill end Patrick Smith built a one story cabin which served as a “Raines Law” hotel*.  This was later shifted closer to the road by Mr. Edward Murphy and converted to a fine two story cottage we see there today.

After 1900 building activity languished with the exception of the Joe Bittner home in 1902, no further construction of any note occurred on either street until about 1930 when Edward Huben erected his Dutch Colonial home and bungalows by William and _____ Huben.  There with the exception of the service station and refreshment stand opposite the Catholic Church and bungalow  on South Avenue completes the record of noteworthy building operations on James and South Street to date. 

For some years previous to 1890 James Street formed and active industrial unit by itself.  It had 3 cement quarries, the output of which was burned in the kilns opposite the Catholic Church, after burning it was hauled to “the old cement shed” opposite the upper bridge and transported in boats to the James B. James mill at New Salem.  Of two of these quarries scarcely any traces remain. 

Once in “The Rocks” by the Catholic Church caved in about 1900 crushing the pillared evidence of human handiwork.  Another opposite the Fleming Homestead was filled in about 1896 to eliminate stagnant water alleged to be responsible for considerable local malaria.  Its trestle rotted out long ago and the old horse sweep was removed elsewhere.

Back in the woods still stands the third of these James B. James Co. quarries.  This quarry engaged quite a number of teams for hauling the stone to the kiln head at the top of James Street.  Taylor Haines was kilnburner there in the later eighties.   Bill Murphy’s blacksmith shop just above the present day Hermance Garage attended to all the repairing, tool sharpening, horseshoeing, and other work necessary to the enterprising.  Dave Bodley , Peter Ward, Maurice James and Buffalo Will O’Connor and Silas Badger Roosa (Mayor Roosa) and Hank Ousterhoudt Geo. (?) Edwards (Toodleeladee) were teamsters on the project.  Cornelius Murphy was quarry foreman under the Superintendency of Edward J. Smith and later Dewitt Winchell.

A large company barn stood across the road from the Fleming Home.  About 1888 this barn was removed from the edge of the quarry there and for many years stood just above the Simeon private garage, much of the lumber of which was taken from the old company barn when torn down by a Mrs. Fisher who had purchased the Bidner House and adjoining cement company lot.  Dave Bodley, previously mentioned as a teamster bought the Winchell House and stabled his horses in the old barn until about 1904 when probably discouraged by the slack times and other troubles, he got up at 5 AM one morning ostensibly to go to work.  He apparently gave his horses every necessary care and attention and then hanged himself with a halter.  From that date to the building’s demolition the superstitions of the neighborhood regarded the place as haunted.

 Before the building of St. Peter’s Hall and the Jacob Huban home (originally on the northwest side of the road) the stretch from the bridge to “Mike Smith’s” was a lonely section flanked on one side by the Church grounds as yet without the stone walls and still conspicuously marked by the old cemetery of the pioneer Catholics of Rosendale.  Dark cedars and other trees abutted the highway on the other side.  Smith hollow now partially filled in and the clumped willows around the Priests Pond across the road on the site of (the) service station blended in an atmosphere which after dark in an area of unlighted streets terrified belated children and brought uneasiness to many grownups mindful of the old cemetery and the fact that this area was identified with certain depravations of the White Caps and the “Woman In Black” and on other occasions had been the sense of some of the smart-aleck dastardliness of the Chain Gang and The Ship, two village gangs of toughs which terrorized the peaceably inclined of their generation and incited others to reprisals in which fists, knives, and pistols became involved with results that considerably moderated [note: omit] the activities of the gangsters. 

A small barn stood in what is now the rear yard of what is now the Huben property and built against the masonry of the old kilns there was a long open shed.  Much of the graded land there is due to cinder dumping from the old kilns.  Back of the cement shed Pete Connors had a garden that extended to the creek.  A poor location however due to the shade of the huge Buttonballs, apple trees and various wild timber thereabouts.

From this point downward, the edge of the creek was heavily fringed with a belt of timber growth, the belt varying in widths according to the size of the individual gardens of the backyard clearings where often the land sloped too sheer to permit cultivation. Here we children hunted Indians.

Here the now extinct chestnut trees abounded as they did everywhere else in the locality.  Some of the most enjoyable of those who reminisce are associated with the autumnal pastime of picking chestnuts, an activity of which, as with berry picking in the summer, both old and young have anticipated. 

Nearly every family on James Street had a garden in the [eighteen} eighties.  Hogpens, chickens, ducks, cows, and goats seemed everywhere in evidence.  Wages were small and families usually large and every expedient was resorted to which might possibly augment the family income.  Old rags were washed saved and sewn together until a sufficient number of balls were accumulated to make the carpet and rugs for the household.  Mrs. Palin and Mrs. Sammons each had carpet looms and seemed always well supplied with work.

Clotheslines strung in every dooryard heavily heavily burdened with fresh washed linen.  There were no pulley lines observable.  Forked sticks bolstered heavily loaded lines at sagging points.  Outdoor toilets were an adjunct of every house, plumbing as we know it today was beyond the means, was a later development [sic}.

James Street once had a small building that housed three short-lived commercial enterprises.  About 1890 Jacob Huben and Jerimiah Callahan  erecting a building on the upper corner of the Callahan lot and installed equipment for the manufacture of cough medicine.  After operating for about two years it ceased to function.  Shortly afterward, The Rosendale Star under the management of Richard Barrlescale and Maxwell Bertrand who had purchased the interests of Wilson Bertrand the original owner, rented this same building. – Their venture also proved unsuccessful. – It was again leased to Mr. Steve Dixon who established a well-equipped laundry there which seemed to operate successfully until its total destruction by fire in 1900.

For many years Abraham Sammons operated a cider mill located alongside of the present day James Street Reservoir, which old timers call The Still Pond.  Warren Sammons operated this distillery up to the prohibition era during which it was torn down.  The Still Pond then as now provided early skating which several generations greatly enjoyed.

Another skating pond, now obsolete, was located just across the road from the Catholic Church alongside of “The Rocks”  Drainage from the old quarry there and surface water from Depot Hill and Sand Hill collected, forming a shallow pool of considerable width and fostered the growth of a small will grove where many youngsters learned to skate by clinging to overhanging branches.  The incorporation of the village in 1896 brought about improvements which eliminated this pond altogether.  At night these willows augmented by the yawning darkness of the quarry beyond Smith’s Hollow and the loneliness of the Picnic Grounds and Depot Hill gave the location an eerie aspect and, imaginary or otherwise, it was very much associated with the supernatural experiences by both sober and inebriate.

In those days there were no houses this side of the railroad track and only half of the present number of buildings in Depot Hill section.  Dennis Cavanaugh’s house on Sand Hill was the first building met on the left fork of Depot Hill.  The Sand Hill settlement began with Cavanaugh’s and terminated with Joseph Hill’s opposite the cemetery.  It constituted a group of about 8 buildings including the old schoolhouse of the “eighteen twenties.”  The Jerome Davis (“Coutant”) farmhouse was the first house south of the cemetery.  The new cemetery was opened about 1874; previous to that date all deceased Catholics were interred in the old cemetery which surrounded the parish house.

The woods on the south side of John Street were in outline similar to what they are today, yet the timber stand seemed more denser and the game more abundant.  Here too the chestnut trees abounded as they did in the more extensive forests to the southeast. The harvesting of these nuts was one of the merriest activities of bygone autumns.

The old “Picnic Grounds” was located on the south side of Depot Hill directly back of the Catholic Church.  It was the scene of many old time dances, Clam-bakes and other outings for many years until another dance platform, erected under the railroad bridge, resulted in its abandonment.  A fine spring in the old “Picnic Grounds” still slakes the thirst as it has for generations.  In the early days, way way back,  its water was piped to the old farmhouse on James Street by means of a cement or lime pipe cast in a shallow trench using a rake handle to form the hole.  The handle being half drawn from the partially set lime or cement and a fresh section of pipe cast about it until the conduit reached the desired destination.  Many fragments of this old fashioned pipe abounded in Upper James Street as late as 1900.

About this old farmhouse there revolves perhaps more of historical interest than is offered by the balance of the section which forms the James Street precinct.  It is not the oldest building but it also the meeting place of the younger folk of this locality.  Michael and Bridget Smith a whole souled old Irish couple lived there from 1866 to 1897.  A massive cottonwood tree stood in the dooryard.  Beneath this tree were plank benches.  Every evening the young folks came from all directions [and] met, danced sang, and made merry otherwise.

I remember as a small boy, sitting on the board fence listening to the budding youth and maidens singing old and new songs with a feeling and interpretation never since matched in my experience.  Life was simple in those days and people were not too sophisticated to manifest sentiment.

It was here that I heard for the first time:

The faded Coat of Blue

My Sweetheart’s the Man in the Moon

Meet Me By Moonlight

The Sidewalks of New York

Down Went McGinty

The Stone Outside Dan Murphy’s Door

 Ta Rah RAH Boom De Aye            

Throw Him Down McCloskey

The Mocking Bird, -- The Spanish Cavalier

Genevieve, -- Rock A Bye Baby

Poor Little Nellie, -- Sailor Beware

Barney McCoy, -- Katheleen Mavoureen