A Brief History of the Town of Kingston

The Town of Kingston is a small municipality nestled in the valley between the City of Kingston and Woodstock. Originally, it surrounded the City and included the Town of Ulster, part of Woodstock and Hurley. The heart of the town began to be settled by the late 17^th century, mainly by small farmers and millers who used the Sawkill Creek for grinding grain and making gunpowder. In 1696 a tract of land along the Sawkill Creek was conveyed by the Trustees of Kingston to William Legg for 50 schipples of wheat.

The deed permitted the erection of a sawmill and required the payment of "a half bushel of good winter wheat yearly to ye Trustee and their Successors forever".

Throughout the 17^th, 18^th and 19^th Centuries, the town was primarily a self-sufficient community which was engaged in some commercial trade on the Hudson River with Sawkill as the center of town. It changed dramatically with the discovery of Bluestone and with the influx of immigrants who came to live in the town and work the quarries. Extensive quarrying of Bluestone began with the opening of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, which facilitated the transport of heavy rock slabs, and accommodated the increased demand of growing Northeast cities for stone to pave sidewalks and streets.

In Sawkill and the surrounding area many of the quarries were owned by Rondout businessmen, including S. D. Coykendall and the Booth Brothers. The owners hired unskilled, immigrant laborers to work the quarries, and built houses for these workers and their families, thereby creating small communities with distinct, independent characters, such as Stony Hollow, Jockey Hill, and Dutch Hill. (Trustees Records, Book I, page 177).

Most of the people who lived on Hill Road, Jockey Hill and in Stony Hollow were Irish. (The thriving stone trade encouraged the growth and flourishing of the area.) The St. Ann's Catholic Church was opened on Jockey Hill in 1869 and a school began operating soon afterward. As a youngster Historian Harry Siemsen recalled:

At the school one of the first things was to put up the flag, there was a flag pole out in front of the school. And then a regular chore was to go after a pail of drinking water for the school. That was usually a hike of about a mile or so. And of course we had a sanitary dipper there; we all drank from the same thing. We were normal children so it didn't bother us too much. We put wood or coal in the stove. The stove was in the center of the room. Besides learning the three R's we learned how to play `shinny',' duck on the rock', `curly over'. We found out that sumacs make good shinny sticks. Of course today they call them hockey sticks but at that time it was shinny. We found out that if you climb young saplings you can swing off in the air and they will lower you to the ground by bending over. We used to take the sumac, the sumac has a curved root, you get a straight stem of the sumac and then with the curve, that would make the hook, you know, of your hockey stick.

“Then of course for pucks, we used a tin can. Unfortunately, the tin can got battered down to a lump of metal. One of the boys got hit with the puck; it cut this whole lip open. So after that we had to use a piece of wood or otherwise we had to stop.

“Though we had plenty of room to play ball we didn't. Balls and bats cost money and we didn't have any. Another thing, you learned to set your lunch pail near the stove in winter so the sandwiches didn't freeze, if you had sandwiches. Usually, there was no milk, it was just sandwiches. And of course some kids, they would just have bread and lard or something that they put on or black strap molasses. Another thing we learned going to school was to track rabbits to their dens in the stone walls and rubbish piles. You learned to dig'em out then have rabbit stew for supper. I ain't kidding you; these pretty little bunnies that the children today admire meant meat in the pot for us. In the morning some boys were lucky, they got time off from school to carry a lunch. They'd go home, get their father's dinner pail and take it to them in the quarries.

“Another little incident, in order to instruct the students in our government, on election time the teacher resolved to have an election in the school. We were not only supposed to elect the most popular boy in the school; this was before women had the right to vote, so girls had nothing to do with this, this was just purely boys, we were supposed to elect a whole town list of officers. Well, comes the morning, there were two brothers selected to be candidates for the most liked boy in the school. One was a democrat, the other a republican. One was Charlie McCaffery, we knew him as `Pug' and the other was `Goosie' that was John McCaffery. John was a better politician than `Pug'. He went to the republican candidate and said; `Now listen, we're going to have an election down at school, I want to swing it your way, give me some money and I'll get some candy.' Nope, he wouldn't have anything to do with it. So he went to the other candidate Bud Brophy, and Bud gave him about fifteen cents which he used quite prudently in the candy store or the general store where they sold penny candy and about a half an hour before we went in to vote, which was to be after recess, ‘Goosie' called us all over to a vacant house that stood near by and he divided the candy out between us. So we went in to vote eating `Goosie's' candy. You know who won the election.”

(Thesis: Harry Siemsen: A Traditional Singer in a Changing Society, Robert G. Atkinson).

Harry Siemsen's farm neighbored along a heavily worked quarry known as Terry's Ledge (today the site of Camp Woodcliff). During the first half of this century, this area was mined on a smaller scale by local stonemen. Siemsen recalled that:

“Quarrying was a tricky and involved business that the quarrymen had to know well. The bluestone was beneath layers of soil, clay and stone. This overlay material had to be stripped. After stripping down to the block of good stone the quarryman then looked for the natural vertical joints called ‘side seams’ running north and south, and then the east and west joints called ‘headoffs’. He then had to know how to delicately tap wedges into the horizontal seams so that he could pry up perfect slabs of bluestone called ‘lifts’. It was a precise operation and he had to know how to use his tools well: the hammers, points, drills, wedges, crowbars, plugs and feathers, shovels and picks. The quarrymen were always taking a gamble, as they never knew if they would get a good block, or, if they did, whether or not their `stone boats' or wagons, would make it down the side of the mountain. Also, the quarrymen had to pay `quarry rent', generally 5% of the selling price to the landowner. Cartage, tolls, and rent where due, were deducted at the time the stone was paid for at the stone dock. One time after the deductions for a two horse load of stone at the dock, there remained $.76 for the quarrymen. Around 1869 intense competition and cutthroat operations, coupled with a slowing of the Canal economy (which being challenged by railroads) began to have impact on the Bluestone workers.”

According to the Daily Freeman in May 1876:

“There seems to be a general feeling among the stone men in the quarries that the stone business in a few days will entirely collapse. Last year an arrangement was made between the buyers at the dock with the quarrymen, but no price was agreed upon. Since then the buyers have taken the stone, but have gradually cut down on the price, dropping a cent at a time, until now there is scarcely anything left after the cartage is paid. For instance, ten cents is paid for curb, while seven must be paid out of this for cartage, one cent for rent, and therefore remains but two cents with which to pay the laborers. The result is that the quarryman who used to hire ten or fifteen laborers are now discharging their men, being unable to pay them. A few days ago a man disposed of a large load of stone and after the wholesale dealer at Wilbur had deducted the cartage there was remaining just sixty cents. He refused to take the money telling, the buyers he would donate it to them. It certainly is hard on the laborers, but there does not seem to be any help for it at present. There was a time when quarrymen could get rich in couple of years, but the money was spent as fast as it was earned in some cases. There was a great demand for stone at that time and men could command almost any price. We know of one man who opened a quarry and sent out one load a day, receiving clear from $50.00 to $70.00 a day and the same stone would not clear more than $15.00 if it could be sold."

Unified by ethnicity, trade, low social status and poverty, the Irish quarrymen banded together and became a strong political machine on Jockey Hill. This boisterous group overwhelmed the older, more staid traditional government of property owners. The Irish leaders (sometimes known as Molly Maquires, and also called Red Shirts because they always wore red long underwear) used strong-arm tactics to support corrupt officials of the Democratic Party. In return, the loyalty of the Irish was rewarded by the Democratic politicians but not out of the gratitude of their own hearts or their own pockets. Instead, tax money was used to finance an expanded "Pauper List" providing merchandise or cash to each who was owed a favor. This list grew to such an extent that by 1879 the Town of Kingston's expenses for assistance to the poor were $15,976.00 compared to the Countywide average town cost of $484.00. Needless to say, property owners had had enough. (Kingston Daily Freeman, 13 February 1879)

After a bitter and violent election night in 1879, the State commenced a long and thorough investigation into the corrupt activities of the odious Town of Kingston. This led to the demise of the Democratic Party and the merciless division of the Town. "The Undesirable Town of Kingston-The petition which circulated about the division of the present territory of the Town of Kingston and its apportionment into other towns, was sent to the State Legislature and spoke strongly in favor of it. It said when the old town was divided it left the present Town of Kingston a territory small in extent, feeble in population, and mountainous in character, rocky with a thin sterile soil, poorly watered, and with scarcely an acre of tillable or grazing land. No hay, grain, vegetables, poultry or cattle could be produced for sale. The flagstone quarries, which had been for many years the main source of revenue, were nearly exhausted. The population had diminished from year to year; the young people such as could get away, moved to other places where they could make a living. The taxes were now so great and heavy, being nearly 107 on a fair valuation, as to bankrupt them, their homes being confiscated. In fact, they are too few in number, only 73 in 1881, and too poor to support the machinery and expense of a separate ownership."

The town struggled and survived and became the smaller, quieter force intended by State officials. Bluestone quarrying continued on a lesser scale, typically by local residents who also farmed and did "piecework" at home as a means of support. During the early part of the century "taking" summer boarders became a popular pastime with town people as well as a boost to the economy.

For the Irish families and other Catholics who remained in Sawkill, St. Ann's church continued to be an integral part of the community. On property acquired in 1868 for a cemetery, a second St. Ann's Church was constructed c.1878. The original Church on Jockey Hill was then converted to a two-family home known as the "long shanty". In 1913 the second St. Ann's was destroyed by fire and rebuilt the same year on the old foundation.

The outdoor shrine was built in 1944 when the parish was 75 years old, and St. Ann's became famous throughout New York, New England and Canada. (Kingston Daily Freeman, 13 March 1883). Many people made pilgrimages to the shrine during the Feast of St. Ann particularly during, the novena held every year in August. (Kingston Freeman, 28 August 1913). Mass was celebrated outside on the stone altar and chairs set up on the grounds for the many people who attended. It is said that a crippled girl was cured at the shrine during one of these services when she stood up from her wheelchair and walked to the altar. St. Ann's was assigned as a mission church of St. Catherine Laboure Parish in Lake Katrine in 1961. It was not popular change among Sawkill's communicants, and when the Church was closed altogether, local residents formed a group to preserve the Church and its traditions. Between 1921 and 1922 a new school was built (present site of the Town Hall) but only because the previous school on Jockey Hill had burned down.

Growth of the town was stymied until the end of W.W.II because of its relative isolation and the slow development of a good road system. Due to the establishment of new and expanding industry in Ulster County during the 1950's and the 1960's, the town experienced the national trend of suburban growth. In recent years, it has also had to grapple with important environmental issues and the question of a return to Bluestone quarrying. But its present-day scale, established approximately 100 years ago by the State, allows the town to retain its essential rural, small town character and effective local government. (Kingston Daily Freeman, 7 June 1969).

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