Peekskill

Harlem’s ‘French’ Hero: The Multi-Talented Eugene Bullard

August 29, 2023 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

What has gone down in history as the Peekskill Riot was an attack in 1949 by a horde of white supremacists on African-Americans attending a Civil Rights benefit concert in Peekskill, Westchester County, NY. The show, scheduled for August 27th, was headlined by bass-baritone Paul Robeson, the left-wing campaigner and advocate of racial equality.

Just before the singer’s arrival in Peekskill, concertgoers were brutally attacked by some three hundred troublemakers, many of them carrying baseball bats. As the local police did not intervene, thirteen people were wounded in the mayhem. The concert was cancelled and postponed until September 4th. With local labor unions providing security, the event proceeded that night before an audience of 20,000 people. Robeson was joined on stage by folk singers Pete Seeger, Hope Foye and others. [Read more…] about Harlem’s ‘French’ Hero: The Multi-Talented Eugene Bullard

A Terrible Explosion: The Orange County Explosives Industry

July 18, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

The following text about the explosion of two powder mills near Newburgh, Orange County, NY, was originally written by a Special Correspondent of the New York Tribune and published in Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser of Queensland, Australia on September 22, 1868. It was transcribed by Hudson River Maritime Museum volunteer researcher George A. Thompson and additionally edited and annotated by John Warren.

Dwellers along the Hudson River for a distance of 30 miles north and south of this city [Newburgh] were startled at six o’clock this morning by the shaking of their houses, the rattling of windows, and two distinct, heavy, rumbling reports. Many supposed that two shocks of an earthquake had taken place, and rushed from their houses in excitement. [Read more…] about A Terrible Explosion: The Orange County Explosives Industry

An American Literary Giant Takes A Hudson River Excursion By Sloop In 1801

March 30, 2023 by Guest Contributor 1 Comment

The following text about a sloop journey up the Hudson River in 1801 was originally published In The Life of Charles Brockden Brown by William Dunlap (Philadelphia 1815). It was transcribed by Hudson River Maritime Museum volunteer researcher George A. Thompson and additionally edited and annotated by John Warren.

Very suddenly conceived the design of voyaging up the Hudson River, as far as Albany. Had heard much of the grandeur of its shores, but never had gone above ten miles from New York. My friend C. having some leisure was willing to adventure for ten days or a fortnight, and I having still more, and being greatly in want of air and exercise, agreed to accompany him. We found a most spacious and well furnished vessel, captain R.—– in which we embarked at sunset this day. The wind propitious [favorable] and the air wonderfully bland [not foul, like the air in New York at this time]. [Read more…] about An American Literary Giant Takes A Hudson River Excursion By Sloop In 1801

The Hamilton Musical And History’s Unsung

July 8, 2020 by Suzanne Clary 5 Comments

Like millions this past 4th of July weekend, my family tuned in to Disney’s streaming of Lin Manuel-Miranda’s epic Hamilton.

The performances indeed blew us all away. Our toes tapped under our tray tables to Daveed Diggs’ electric portrayal of Thomas Jefferson and “What Did I Miss?” Our hearts pained over Phillipa Soo’s gorgeously rendered entreaties “Look Around” and “That Would Be Enough.”

But all these indelible lyrics underscored why we will never be satisfied. Despite the brilliance of the script and cast, in dramatizing the life and times of Alexander Hamilton, Miranda left us longing for narratives beyond those of the Founding Fathers and their rarefied circle. Now we want to know what will come next to fill the ever more obvious omissions in our nation’s history. [Read more…] about The Hamilton Musical And History’s Unsung

Sumner Lark’s Putnam County African-American Projects

February 18, 2016 by David Fiske 2 Comments

Although his father was said to have been born as a slave, and was later a junk dealer in the Augusta, Georgia area, Sumner H. Lark came to be a trend-breaking black leader in New York State who worked to establish an African-American community in Putnam County.

Sumner Lark was born in in 1874 to a father later described as “a pioneer race business man in his home town and accumulated a considerable fortune at one time.” He grew up in the Augusta area, and attended the Haines Institute before attending Howard University, graduating in 1897. He then returned to Georgia, taught Chemistry and Physics at Haines and ran a local newspaper for about a year, having edited a student-run newspaper in college. After marrying he relocated to Brooklyn, New York just after the start of the 20th century. There, he ran his own printing business, and started The Eye, a newspaper which reported information of interest to African Americans. [Read more…] about Sumner Lark’s Putnam County African-American Projects

Peekskill’s Historic Community of St Mary

January 26, 2016 by Miguel Hernandez 48 Comments

Readers may know that the Roman Catholic Church has numerous religious orders of nuns and monks, but may not know that the Protestant Episcopal Church has them as well. Overall, there are 18 Episcopal religious orders and 14 “Christian Communities” comprised of men, women, or both. This is the story of the Community of St Mary (CSM) and the remarkable religious buildings they had constructed at Peekskill, NY from 1872 to 1963. The order was founded by Sister Harriet Starr Cannon, (1823-1896) its Mother Superior, on the Feast of the Purification of Mary on February 2, 1865 in St. Michael’s Church, 86th Street, New York City, about two months before the close of the Civil War.

Accordingly, it is said to be the oldest Episcopal religious community in the US still in existence (now headquartered in Greenwich, Washington County, New York. Sister Harriet was the temporal head of this community of Protestant Episcopal nuns from its founding in 1865, to her death in 1896. Based on a Benedictine model, the CSM adhered to a simple monastic life centered on prayer, reflection, and service. The forms of service practiced by the nuns of the order have varied over the years and places where they chosen to have a presence. At Peekskill for instance, they operated a high school for girls and the manufacture and sale of “Alter Bread” (aka communion wafers) was one of the CSM’s primary means of self-sustainment. [Read more…] about Peekskill’s Historic Community of St Mary

Magdalen: New Views of Girls in Trouble

November 17, 2015 by Kathleen Hulser 35 Comments

Every kind of bad name was pasted on them: delinquents, hussies, misfits, fallen, flirts, incorrigbles.

For much of the 20th century institutions run by various religious orders such as the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the Good Shepherd housed and disciplined young women who had – possibly – transgressed society’s rules. [Read more…] about Magdalen: New Views of Girls in Trouble

American Revolution: Trouble at Poughkeepsie and Peekskill

January 13, 2014 by Brian Barrett 4 Comments

A loyalist is a man with his head in England, his body in America, and a neck that needs to be stretched. – an anonymous patriot.

Late in June of 1776, the New York Provincial Convention (NYPC) received a troubling report from the Dutchess County Committee of Safety. It said that Poughkeepsie officials and patriot warships were being threatened by loyalists, so-called Tories. [Read more…] about American Revolution: Trouble at Poughkeepsie and Peekskill