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Kingston

Clayton ‘Peg Leg’ Bates: Dancer and Resort-Owner

February 1, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Peg Leg Bates at ResortIn celebration of Black History Month, Ulster County Clerk Nina Postupack has announced the newest display in the Historical Profiles series featuring entertainer and community patron Clayton ‘Peg Leg’ Bates.

The exhibit panel will be on display for the month of February on the 1st floor of the Ulster County Office Building, 244 Fair Street, in Kingston, NY. [Read more…] about Clayton ‘Peg Leg’ Bates: Dancer and Resort-Owner

Filed Under: History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, New Exhibits Tagged With: Dance, Kerhonkson, Kingston, Performing Arts, Ulster County

68, 70 & 71-Year-Old Recreationists Rescued In Ulster County

January 18, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

forest ranger logoIn 2022, DEC Forest Rangers conducted 359 search and rescue missions, extinguished 162 wildfires covering more than 1,300 acres, participated in 53 prescribed fires that served to rejuvenate nearly 900 acres of land, and worked on cases that resulted in hundreds of tickets and arrests. [Read more…] about 68, 70 & 71-Year-Old Recreationists Rescued In Ulster County

Filed Under: History, Recreation Tagged With: Bluestone Wild Forest, Forest Ranger Reports, Kingston, Search and Rescue, Shandaken, Slide Mountain Wilderness Area, Ulster County

A New Book on Historic Kingston

December 30, 2022 by Bob Cudmore Leave a Comment

This week on The Historians Podcast, Stephen Blauweiss is co-author with Karen Berelowitz of the book The Story of Historic Kingston: Featuring 950 Images and Connections to the Catskills and New York City (Blauweiss Media, 2022). [Read more…] about A New Book on Historic Kingston

Filed Under: Books, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: Hudson River, Kingston, Podcasts, Ulster County

A Christmas in Kingston in the 1880s

December 25, 2022 by Lowell Thing 4 Comments

McEntee- Christmas in the Catskills,1867“I went out after a Christmas tree and some laurel, through seas of mud,” Jervis McEntee of Kingston wrote on Christmas Eve 1881, “to the place where I always go on the cross road between the Flat-bush and Pine bush roads. It rained a part of the time and turned into a snow storm on our return.”

Another year, McEntee’s usual places for a tree were so wet that he settled for a small hemlock on the side of the hill where he lived. It was a hill that offered a panoramic view of the entire village as well as the Rondout Creek and the Hudson River. His father James, an engineer who had helped build the nearby Delaware and Hudson Canal, had built the first house on the hill and the family still lived there. [Read more…] about A Christmas in Kingston in the 1880s

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Art History, Christmas, Cultural History, Hasbrouck House, Holidays, Hudson River School, Kingston

The Hudson River Steamboat Poughkeepsie; Later Known As The Westchester

December 13, 2022 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Steamboat Poughkeepsie at dock (courtesy Richard V. Elliott Collection, Hudson River Maritime Museum)This essay was written for the Kingston Daily Freeman in the 1930s, transcribed by Hudson River Maritime Museum volunteer Adam Kaplan and reproduced here in a slightly edited form.

The tale of the steamboat Poughkeepsie is the story of a vessel that is still in service [in the 1930s] – although today the name Westchester has replaced Poughkeepsie and she is no longer a familiar figure on the Hudson River. [Read more…] about The Hudson River Steamboat Poughkeepsie; Later Known As The Westchester

Filed Under: History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, New York City Tagged With: Dutchess County, Hudson Highlands, Hudson River, Kingston, Long Island, New Jersey, New York City, New York Harbor, Newburgh, Poughkeepsie, Rondout, Rye, Steamboating, Transportation History, Ulster County, Westchester County

Preview The New Sojourner Truth State Park in Kingston on Sunday

November 18, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Sojourner Truth State Park 1Decades before she took her fabled name, abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth was born enslaved in Ulster County, NY under the name Isabella.

Covering more than 500 acres and a mile of Hudson River shoreline, the future Sojourner Truth State Park in Kingston, NY, was once an industrial site for production of cement, quarry stone, and ice harvesting. Sojourner Truth State Park will be first new State Park since 2019. [Read more…] about Preview The New Sojourner Truth State Park in Kingston on Sunday

Filed Under: Events, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: Abolition, Highland, Hudson River, Kingston, Palisades Parks Conservancy, Sojouner Truth, Sojourner Truth State Park, Ulster County, womens history

Ulster County, Ramapough Lenape Renewing 1665 Esopus Treaty

August 2, 2022 by Editorial Staff 2 Comments

Peace Treaty Renewal On October 7, 1665, a peace treaty was signed between the indigenous Esopus people (the Ramapough Munsee Lunaape Nation / Ramapough Lenape Nation) and European settlers in what is now Ulster County, NY. The treaty brought to a close hostilities between the two parties that had begun in 1659, known as the Esopus Wars.

Both parties promised to cease hostilities, to establish a course of justice and conduct trade with each other. In addition to the cessation of fighting, the treaty proclaimed, “That all past Injuryes, are buryed and forgotten on both sides” and “that it may bee kept in perpetuall memory.”

A ceremonial peace tree planting and treaty renewal will be held on Friday, August 5th in Kingston. There have been 13 renewals of the treaty found in the Ulster County archives, dating from 1669 to 1745, and six more times in the last ten years. [Read more…] about Ulster County, Ramapough Lenape Renewing 1665 Esopus Treaty

Filed Under: Events, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: Esopus River, Esopus Wars, Hudson River Maritime Museum, Indigenous History, Kingston, Lenape, Lenape - Munsee - Delaware, New Netherland, Sloop Clearwater, Ulster County

Simeon DeWitt: America’s Surveyor General

April 25, 2022 by Peter Hess 2 Comments

The Roemer map of Albany 1698 showing fort orange and BeverwyckTjerck Claeszen DeWitt immigrated to New Amsterdam (now New York City) from Grootholt in Zunterlant in 1656. Grootholt means Great Wood and Zunterland was probably located on the southern border of East Friesland, a German territory on the North Sea only ten miles from the most northerly province of the Netherlands.

By 1657, Tjerck DeWitt married Barber (Barbara) Andrieszen (also Andriessen) in the New Amsterdam Dutch Church and moved to Beverwyck (now Albany). While in Beverwyck, he purchased a house. At this time Albany contained 342 houses and about 1,000 residents, about 600 of whom were members of the Dutch Church. [Read more…] about Simeon DeWitt: America’s Surveyor General

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Albany Rural Cemetery, American Revolution, Aurelius, Brutus, Camillus, Cato, Cayuga County, Cicero, Cincinnatus, Dryden, Fabius, Galen, Geography, George Washington, Greece, Hannibal, Hector, Homer, Ithaca, Junius, Kingston, Locke, Lysander, Manlius, Maps, Marcellus, Military History, Milton, New Amsterdam, New Netherland, New York City, Onondaga County, Ovid, Pompey, Rome, Romulus, Schenectady County, Scipio, Sempronius, Seneca County, Simeon DeWitt, Solon, Stirling, surveying, Syracuse, Thompkins County, Tully, Ulster County, Ulysses, Virgil, West Point, Yorktown

New Sojourner Truth State Park in Kingston Opening This Spring

March 4, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Sojourner Truth State ParkGovernor Hochul has announced that a new State Park to open to the public later this spring in Kingston, Ulster County, NY will be named for 19th century African American abolitionist and suffragist Sojourner Truth.

Covering more than 500 acres and a mile of Hudson River shoreline, this park was once an industrial site for production of cement, quarry stone, and ice harvesting. Sojourner Truth State Park will be first new State Park since 2019. [Read more…] about New Sojourner Truth State Park in Kingston Opening This Spring

Filed Under: History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Abolition, Black History, empire state trail, Kingston, OPRHP, Political History, Scenic Hudson, Slavery, Sojouner Truth, State Parks, Ulster County, Underground Railroad, womens history

We Should Celebrate New York State’s Birthday on April 20th

March 3, 2022 by Bruce Dearstyne 1 Comment

Secretary of the 1777 Convention Robert Benson reading NYS's new constitution in KingstonNew Yorkers, and New York’s historical community in particular, should be gearing up to commemorate and promote New York State’s birthday on April 20th.

That was the date in 1777 when the Convention of Representatives of the State of New York, an ad hoc group elected the previous year to guide New York’s Revolutionary War efforts and develop its first constitution, completed its work. [Read more…] about We Should Celebrate New York State’s Birthday on April 20th

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, New York City Tagged With: American Revolution, John Jay, Kingston, Legal History, NYS Constitution, Political History, Poughkeepsie

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