Historic Huguenot Street in New Paltz, in Ulster County, NY, has been awarded a $2 million Capital Project grant from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) to support the construction of an Education and Visitor Center. [Read more…] about $2 Million Visitor Center Planned for Historic Huguenot Street
Lenape
Hoboken: A Tale of Immigration & Frank Sinatra
Located on the River Scheldt (Schelde), Hoboken is a southern district of the city of Antwerp in Flanders. The name originates in the medieval Dutch phrase Hooghe Buechen (Hoge Beuken, or tall beech trees). Today there is a geriatric hospital in Hoboken named Hoge Beuken. The first historical records of the place date from the year 1135.
The New Jersey area of Hoboken on the western shore of the Hudson River was inhabited by Lenape indigenous people who called it Hopoghan Hackingh (Land of the Tobacco Pipe) for its green-veined rock from which they carved their pipes. [Read more…] about Hoboken: A Tale of Immigration & Frank Sinatra
The Road North: From Native Networks to the Champlain Canal
Where the Hoosic and Mohawk rivers meet the Hudson River was a major Indigenous crossroads. Three major native pathways came together there: 1) The Hoosic River offered the main route east to New England, over the Berkshires and into Massachusetts. 2) The Mohawk River guided the way west. 3) The east side of the Hudson Valley provided a pathway north to Lake Champlain and Canada.
These well-worn trails, on which colonists later built their roads, linked the waterways used by Indigenous hunters, traders, and families moving between settlements. Stone, minerals, and other natural material from as far west as Michigan have been found in this region, revealing a broad network of trade among Native people, long before Europeans arrived. [Read more…] about The Road North: From Native Networks to the Champlain Canal
Mary Jemison: ‘The White Woman of the Genesee’
Consider the story of Mary Jemison. She was born in 1743 aboard a ship as her Scots-Irish family journeyed from Dublin, Ireland, to Pennsylvania. They settled on the frontier just north of Gettysburg. She and her five siblings enjoyed a happy childhood on the “little paradise” of the family farm.
One April morning, when Mary was fifteen, a party of six Shawnee and four French warriors attacked their isolated home. Her two older brothers escaped, but the raiders captured the rest of the family. They forced the prisoners to march westward. After two days, Mary was given a pair of moccasins to replace her shoes. [Read more…] about Mary Jemison: ‘The White Woman of the Genesee’
Evert Wendell Account Books Reveal Life in 1695-1789
The New York Historical Society has digitized their Evert Wendell collection, including five account books in Dutch and English covering the period from 1695 to 1758 and one docket book (in English).
Evert Wendell (1681-1750) was a Dutch-descended Albany merchant, fur trader, and attorney, who conducted business with Native Americans in upstate New York and with colonists in Albany, Schenectady, New York City, and Boston. [Read more…] about Evert Wendell Account Books Reveal Life in 1695-1789
A Saw Mill River Industrial History Walking Tour
Although often ignored today, the Saw Mill River was for centuries the main hub of life in Yonkers, NY. [Read more…] about A Saw Mill River Industrial History Walking Tour
Dutch Doors in Colonial New York
The term “Low Countries” is a political and historic concept rather than a geographic one. Prior to modern nation-building, it referred to an area of northern Europe roughly stretching from Pas-de-Calais in France to the area of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany, including French-speaking Wallonia and Dutch-speaking Flanders.
Born in Ghent in 1500 Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, ruled over the vast Habsburg Empire that included the Low Countries. Flanders was crucial to its economy. [Read more…] about Dutch Doors in Colonial New York
The Beaver Quest: Pelts & Testicles
In 1609, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) sent navigator Henry Hudson westward to discover a short route to Asia. Instead, he reached the river that today bears his name, finding a biologically rich and diverse ecosystem.
On his report (published in 1611) of timber rich lands and an abundance of furs, Dutch traders were keen to finance further exploration. [Read more…] about The Beaver Quest: Pelts & Testicles
Ulster County, NY, Colonial Dutch Archive Now Online in English
In 1652, the first Anglo-Dutch colonists began arriving in the fertile lowlands of the Esopus River Valley in what is now Ulster County, NY, where the valley passes close to the confluence of the Hudson River and Rondout Creek at modern-day Kingston.
Their earliest colonial records, written in an archaic form of Dutch by colonial secretaries not known for their gifted penmanship, are now freely available online in their entirety in English for the first time. [Read more…] about Ulster County, NY, Colonial Dutch Archive Now Online in English
Drilling For Salt: Salt Springs & New York’s Salt Industry Origins
As the presence of salt in New York was first made manifest through saline mineral springs it is proper to begin this discussion with the history of their discovery and utilization. The most important of these are in Onondaga County at Syracuse.
About the middle of the seventeenth century several of the Jesuit missionaries during their journeys among the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), in what is now the State of New York, heard local salt springs and related these experiences in the Relations of the Jesuit fathers. [Read more…] about Drilling For Salt: Salt Springs & New York’s Salt Industry Origins
New Philadelphia History Highlight’s Former NYC Rival
Philadelphia was one of New York City‘s most important economic and cultural rivals in Early America.
Philadelphia: A Narrative History (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024) by Paul Kahan is a comprehensive history of Philadelphia from the region’s original Lenape inhabitants to the myriad of residents in the twenty-first century that underpins that relationship for those interested in New York history.
[Read more…] about New Philadelphia History Highlight’s Former NYC Rival
Philadelphia: An Early History
Two hundred fifty years ago, in May 1775, delegates from thirteen British North American colonies gathered in Philadelphia for the Second Continental Congress.
Why was Philadelphia chosen as the seat of Congress? What made the city a critical hub for revolutionary ideas, commerce, and culture? And how has Philadelphia’s early history shaped the broader narrative of American Independence? Join the Ben Franklin’s World podcast for an exploration of Philadelphia’s early history. [Read more…] about Philadelphia: An Early History
The Stockbridge – Munsee Community in New York State
Most readers well be familiar with Oneida people occupying major parts of Oneida County in the colonial period and up to the present day having purchased much land back from locals in towns of Vernona and Vernon which were part of the original Oneida (Iroquois – Haudenosaunee) lands. [Read more…] about The Stockbridge – Munsee Community in New York State
Inside the Ulster County Archives
On this episode of the Kaatscast: The Catskills Podcast newly appointed Ulster County, NY, historian Eddie Moran discusses the role of a municipal historian and emphasizes the importance of presenting a complete and accurate history that includes all groups, with one such focus on the indigenous Lenape people. [Read more…] about Inside the Ulster County Archives
Benedict Arnold’s Sullivan County Connection
On February 22, 1767, Benedict Arnold, a young, up and coming businessman, married Margaret Mansfield, whose father was the Sheriff of New Haven, Connecticut.
Arnold, of course, would go on to become one of the most successful of George Washington’s officers in the Continental Army, and shortly thereafter one of the most notorious traitors in American history. [Read more…] about Benedict Arnold’s Sullivan County Connection
DEC Relations with Indigenous Nations
November is Native American Heritage Month, a nationwide celebration of the contributions of Indigenous peoples and celebration of their heritage, traditions, culture, art, and history while acknowledging how society has impacted Indigenous peoples and culture. New York State was the first state to recognize “American Indian Day” in 1916, originally observed on the second Saturday in May. [Read more…] about DEC Relations with Indigenous Nations
Native Nations: A Millennium in North America
The North American continent is approximately 160 million years old, yet in the United States, we tend to focus on what amounts to 3,300 millionths of that history, which is the period between 1492 to the present.
In this episode of the Ben Franklin’s World podcast, Kathleen DuVal, a Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, asks us to widen our view of early North American history to at least 1,000 years. [Read more…] about Native Nations: A Millennium in North America
‘Sodomy’ & Colonial America Crime and Punishment
The early conquest of overseas territories led to the application of European directives regulating life in the colonies.
Imposing rules on sexual behavior served as tools of social control and dominance. Prohibitions on “sodomy” entered legislation in New England and New Netherland with severe penalties attached. [Read more…] about ‘Sodomy’ & Colonial America Crime and Punishment
Farming Sullivan County: Some History & Statistics
Cushetunk, the first permanent European settlement in the Upper Delaware River region, part of which would later become Sullivan County, was established in the 1750s by a group of farmers from Eastern Connecticut who wanted to own their own farmland and traveled here to find it.
But those Connecticut settlers were not the first farmers in the region by a long shot. The Native American Lenape tribe, which spent the warm weather months here for thousands of years before the Europeans arrived, depended upon farming, along with hunting and fishing, for survival. [Read more…] about Farming Sullivan County: Some History & Statistics
Nieuw Dorp, Now & Then: Dutch History in Ulster County
Traveling from Washington D.C. to Milwaukee, Dutch journalist Bas Blokker makes a stop-over in Hurley, Ulster County, NY, and discovers its Dutch history. His curiosity is piqued and he dives into the past to find the nineteenth-century views of the Dutch colonizers very different from modern ones.
During the last five years, I always crossed the Susquehanna River just north of Baltimore when driving from my house in Washington DC to New York. Once on the bridge the same scene unfolded again and again in my mind’s eye: a sailing ship changing course from the Chesapeake Bay to enter the river’s mouth and drop anchor at what is now Havre de Grace or Garret Island. [Read more…] about Nieuw Dorp, Now & Then: Dutch History in Ulster County