• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar

New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Adirondacks & NNY
  • Capital-Saratoga
  • Mohawk Valley
  • Hudson Valley & Catskills
  • NYC & Long Island
  • Western NY
  • History
  • Nature & Environment
  • Arts & Culture
  • Outdoor Recreation
  • Food & Farms
  • Subscribe
  • Support
  • Submit
  • About
  • New Books
  • Events
  • Podcasts

Martin Van Buren

Charles Shaw: Ace Adirondack Attorney

January 5, 2015 by Lawrence P. Gooley 1 Comment

NYH1 CPShawAmong those to rise from humble Adirondack roots and pursue life in the big city was Charles P. Shaw, a native of Jay, New York, where he was born in 1836. “Humble,” meaning relative poverty, aptly described most North Country citizens in those early days. Shaw may have had an advantage since there were two doctors in the family: his father, Daniel, and his grandfather, Joshua Bartlett. As schooled professionals, they were more likely to emphasize among their family the importance of education.

For whatever reason, Charles was an excellent and precocious student. There survives in old newspapers an anecdote suggesting he was indeed an unusually bright pupil. [Read more…] about Charles Shaw: Ace Adirondack Attorney

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Adirondacks, Civil War, Essex County, Martin Van Buren, New York City, NYC, Political History, Tammany Hall, Union College

Washington Irving’s Spooky Tale of Mamakating Hollow

October 23, 2014 by John Conway Leave a Comment

IrvingIt was once without question the best known ghost story set in Sullivan County, written by one of America’s most respected writers, and yet it is largely unknown today.

It combines detailed descriptions of the rich and bountiful beauty of this area in the 19th century with cleverly conceived ghouls as hideous as any in American literature.

It is Washington Irving’s 1838 short story “Hans Swartz: A Marvelous Tale of Mamakating Hollow” and it is still appropriate reading this Halloween season, more than 170 years after it was penned. [Read more…] about Washington Irving’s Spooky Tale of Mamakating Hollow

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Esopus River, Halloween, Literature, Martin Van Buren, New Netherland, Shawangunk Ridge, Sullivan County, Washington Irving

Columbia County: A Lecture On Copake History

May 15, 2014 by Editorial Staff 4 Comments

Pelholm barn with Ezra PellsLocal historian and author Howard Blue will present talk on the history of Copake, Columbia County, at the Roe Jan Historical Society in Copake Falls on Sunday, May 18 at 2:00 pm. Blue’s program is based in part on interviews of local residents from whose family albums he was allowed to copy old photos.

The presentation will focus primarily on the town’s and county’s first settlers, the Mohican Indians, and the 90-year-long, sometimes violent conflict between the Livingston family which at one time owned almost all of Copake and the family’s tenant farmers. Blue will also discuss Martin Van Buren’s role in Copake’s anti-rent movement, Copake in the Revolutionary war years, the existence of slavery in Copake, and Copake’s Civil War era bond issue that helped buy out from the draft some of Copake’s young men. [Read more…] about Columbia County: A Lecture On Copake History

Filed Under: Events, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: Anti-Rent War, Columbia County, Livingston Manor, Martin Van Buren, Mohican, Native American History

Primary Sidebar

Help Us Reach Our Fundraising Goal

Subscribe to New York Almanack

Subscribe! Follow the New York Almanack each day via E-mail, RSS, Twitter or Facebook updates.

Recent Comments

  • Richard Daly on Long Crisis: New York City’s Path to Neoliberalism
  • Richard Noll on With Stripers In Decline, It’s Time For Anglers To Act
  • Joe on NYS Canal System Opening Update
  • Holly on Presidential Pardon Power: What The Founders Thought
  • Van Nuys on New Book Considers Origins Of The Name Wyckoff
  • Bruce Piasecki on Award for Social Impact Writing: Call for Submissions
  • Judy Gumaer Testa on Elnathan Sears: Thirteen Months in Hell
  • Big Burly on New York’s Pirate Utopia: From Pearl Street to Execution Dock
  • Jim Sefcik on Trump Impeachment Recalls Aaron Burr’s Treason
  • Ed Zahniser on Trump Impeachment Recalls Aaron Burr’s Treason

Recent New York Books

The Long Crisis
rebuilding the republic
The 20th Century Civil Rights Movement
first principles
An American Marriage
too long ago
the long year of the revolution
Notable New Yorkers of Manhattans Upper West Side
Woman Slaveholders in Jamaica
nobody hitchhikes anymore

Secondary Sidebar

New York State Historic Markers