WELCOME TO HILLSDALE, NEW YORK

‘‘Beautiful Hillsdale’’

There’s a mountain just south of the village,
And a valley that leads to the West
Where the rays of the sun seem to linger
When it reaches the high rocky crest
Of the Catskills, away in the distance
Where the Hudson flows past on its way
It’s a picture of beautiful Hillsdale
At the close of a bright summer day

These lines written in 1900 by Thomas H. Evans may not exemplify the highest type of poetic art but surely describe the scene at the junction of Routes 22 and 23 in Hillsdale. I have seen it at the close of a winter’s day, too, when the setting sun tinged with pink that same mountain powdered with snow on its high peaks. Evans was called “The Poet of the Milky Way’’ because of his connection with a milk marketing plant here and his verses, published in New York City newspapers at the turn of the century, gained quite a degree of publicity for Hillsdale.

However, ‘twas not ever thus! During October, 1777 when the wife and children of the Hessian Major General Baron von Riedesel came here on their way to Boston, after the defeat of the British at Saratoga, they were forced to camp in Nobletown, as Hillsdale was then called. One of the officers accompanying them characterized it in his journal as ‘‘the wretched village of Nobletown,” but as it had snowed in the night, that may have partially accounted for his distaste for the village. Even so, it probably didn’t have very many conveniences for travelers at that time. Although no Revolutionary engagements took place in Columbia County, Hillsdale is distinguished as being one of the towns through which General Henry Knox passed on his way from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston, taking cannons and ammunition to that beleaguered city.

Hillsdale was formed from Claverack as a district on March 26, 1782, recognized as a town in 1788 and in 1818 part of it became Austerlitz, leaving a tract of 26,699 acres. The history of Hillsdale, as such, began after the settlement of the border dispute when both Massachusetts and New York claimed the eastern part of what is now Hillsdale and Copake. It was Matthew Noble coming from Westfield, Massachusetts, who first put down roots here, and for him the town was named Nobletown. What is now North Hillsdale was designated Hillsdale. After Noble’s son Robert, an early rent agitator, was driven to Massachusetts by the 46th Royal Infantry, dispatched from Albany in 1766, and the border between New York and Massachusetts established, the town was re-named Hillsdale and the former Hillsdale became North Hillsdale. The name derives from the gently rolling hills surrounding the valley.

The western parts of Hillsdale and Copake were under the Van Rensselaer patent. The anti-rent war started here in the 1840’s and spread throughout Columbia County and other eastern counties when farmers wish­ed to discontinue being tenants of the large landholders and be permitted to buy the farms which they and their ancestors had been cultivating, often for more than 100 years.

At a meeting in Churchtown (Smoky Hollow) outside Barn’s Tavern where the leader of the A’ti-Renters, Smith Boughton, was to speak, a young boy was accidentally shot in the melee which took place, sobering the crowd and putting an end to the meeting. Boughton was jailed but never convicted because of the lack of witnesses to testify against him. On trumped-up charges he was sent, with others, to Clinton Prison but was pardoned in 1847. By 1852 the large landholders were forced to bow to public opinion and sell their properties to their tenants.

Very few descendants of the early settlers are still found in the area and because of the loss of early records it is impossible to tell where they lived, but the homestead of the Collin family still exists on the street named for it and is still in possession of a member of that family. David and John Collin II, of Huguenot descent, came here from Milford, Connecticut before the Revolution. John Collin II settled in the western part of the town on a farm later known as the Higgins place, but later moved to the eastern section. David lived on the farm later occupied by Leroy Hunt and was a lieutenant in the Colonial Army during the French and Indian War. He lived for a time in Dutchess County where his house was attacked and he was tortured almost to death, presumably by Tories. He died in Hillsdale in 1818. 

Another early settler was Quincy Johnson who came with his parents, William and Jane Johnson, from Bridgewater, Massachusetts, in 1808. 

Peter Becker, a prominant settler who, it is thought, came here also before the Revolution, married Mary Southard in 1780, and from that marriage came a large family. One son, John P., married Margaret Clum, whose son Phillip was the owner of a saw and planing mill on the Roeliff Jansen Kill which was destroyed by the devastating flood in 1888. Phillip served two or more terms as Justice of the Peace.

An early settler who left his mark on the town was Parla Foster, whose family originated in Belgium. Parla came to Nobletown in time to fight in the Revolutionary Army. Afterward he married and had six daughters and six sons who worked the several hundred acre farm on a corner of which, at the crossing of New York State Routes 22 and 23, stands the present day Dutch Hearth Inn, known until a few years ago as the Elmwood Inn. This was erected in 1783 and as Foster was active in political life was the scene of many political meetings and dinners. Dances were often held in the third floor ball room and sometimes prisoners were lodged in the cellar, which had barred windows, until they could be taken to the county jail in Claverack. Although it has changed hands many times, the essential structure has not been altered much and it remains the most imposing building in the village.

There was a Toll Gate at the eastern end of the Columbia Turnpike, near the Massachusetts border, on a dirt road which is now New York State Route 23. No toll was charged churchgoers on Sunday. The toll house still stands. The “shunpike,” about half a mile north, running from Mitchell Street to Ox Bow road, was trodden out by persons who objected to paying the toll. At the Mitchell Street end of the ‘‘shunpike’’ stands the largest Norway Spruce in the State of New York.

There were many small manufacturing plants in the first half of the 19th century including 11 grist mills, 10 saw mills, four fulling mills and four cording machines. As timber was cleared from the land, fewer mills were needed, and as roads were improved grain could be more easily trans­ported to larger and more modern mills so that when the terrible flood of 1888, in which 12 inches of rain fell inside of an hour, washed away all the more or less primitive structures it wasn’t as much of a loss to the com­munity as might be supposed. It was the loss of crops in the fields that caused the greatest hardship and the loss of one life.

Refine Latting had a tannery one half mile west of the village and also kept a tavern and was the first postmaster.

Nathaniel Hose, Caleb Benton and Abraham Jordan were the first physicians in the town, the latter an Army surgeon in the War of 1812.

There were five post offices in the township: Hillsdale, North Hillsdale, Hillside, Harlemville, and Green River. Just a few names of early post­masters were D. Zeh, who succeeded R.L. Canaan, Freeland Pulver, Dr. Henry Cornell and J.H. Bently.

In 1833 Phillip Becker built a small furnace for making plough castings and like custom work. The flood of 1888 carried away most of this building, which was owned by Cornelius Vesburgh, including the machinery patterns. What was left was sold to William A. Mallery, Jr. who also installed a grist mill.

Some of the principal merchants and business men of the town in the later 19th century and the beginning of the 20th were: Freeland Pulver, general storekeeper whose business was established in 1869; Thomas Dimmick who founded a store in 1879 continued into the 1950’s by his son Raymond, and grandson Frederick; L.W. Conklin started in 1897 and H.W. Holmes had a hardware store approximately opposite the present-day library. Henry Cornell had a drug store and Bullock and Herrington dealt in coal and lumber. A marble yard was run by William Coons. At that time the Mount Washington House was run by George B. Sweet, and the Hillsdale House by Harvey Sweet, who was no kin to George!

Provisions were made to educate the children almost as soon as Hillsdale became a town. The original primitive structures were gradually replaced and the town divided into districts. The earliest records show that in 1860 there were 18 school districts and 979 children of school age. The districts were reduced to one in the 1930’s when Hillsdale joined with Copake, Ancram and part of Austerlitz to create a central school district and the present Roeliff Jansen Central School was built.

Until the formation of the central school district the only high school in the area was in Hillsdale. Mrs. Spencer Becker remembers that she and other young people from Copake commuted to school on the railroad. The new Central School, however, besides containing the high school accommodated all elementary grades as well, although schools in Ancram and Copake were retained for awhile to take care of some elementary grades.

Before any churches were erected in Hillsdale marriages and baptisms were taken care of by the Reverend Gideon Bostwick of Saint James Church in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, from 1770 until 1793.

The first church built was the First Baptist Church of Hillsdale, organized in 1787 by James and Phebe Martin, Caleb Jr. and Anna Woodward, William .Jr. and Rosanna West, Ambrose and Joana Latting, Griffin and Anna Wilde, Ruth Jordan, Esther Terry, Lucy Loop and Sarah Martin. That first building was erected by Ambrose Latting who completed it in 1788. A split in the congregation occurred and some of the members united with the Methodists who built the first church of that denomination in the county in 1836 on land donated by Parla Foster, but there had been Methodist meetings in private homes previous to that date. The first such meeting was held in 1807 by the Reverend William Swayze in the house of Isaiah Esmond in the year 1807. Two other ministers, the Reverend D. Ostrander and Reverend W. Fradenburg, held services but few people at tended them. In fact in some cases there was even opposition; stones were thrown against the house where services were held.

But the Reverend Swayze continued his attempt to establish a church and finally, spurred on by Anna Pixley, the wife of Colonel John Pixley, the new denomination took hold and ‘‘class meetings,’’ as they were then called, were formed and met regularly — often at the home of Parla Foster who sometimes acted as minister — until the church was built. It was situated in back of the old school house site between J.D. Bell’s and G.M. Bullock’s.

In 1845 a new church was built on land given by Seymour Foster but in a short time this burned down destroying not only church records but town records as well. In 1847 the present edifice was raised and is one of three churches in the township, the others being the Methodist Church of North Hillsdale and the German Evangelical Lutheran Church in Harlemville. This last is also over 100 years old and in spite of its being flooded three times in the past two years services are held there once a month.

There was once another Methodist church in Harlemville. The Hillsdale Presbyterian Church was organized in 1831 but burned down in 1927, again destroying town as well as church records.

Adjacent to the Methodist Church of North Hillsdale is the very well kept cemetery incorporated in 1856 which grew out of a small burying ground set apart by the Van Rensselaers. It has been added to and now contains over four acres.

                 North Hillsdale Methodist Church

Masonic Hall — burned in 1927

Aside from several small cemeteries is the Hillsdale Rural Cemetery which was established in 1865. It covers over five acres, is well-kept, neatly fenced and nearby property has been acquired for an extension of the original site.

The Grange which was founded in Hillsdale in 1902 now occupies the former Baptist Church. The church property which had been bought by Mrs. Florence K. Masters of Copake and New York was presented by her to the Grange in 1928. Introduced by the master, John J. Paulsen, Frederick J. Freestone, master of the New York State Grange, gave the address of dedication.

In 1918 the volunteer fire company, Hillsdale Fire Company No. 1, was organized and in 1965 it moved from its by then inadequate quarters on Route 23 to the newly built fire house on Route 22 just north of the traffic light. The old fire house then became the Town Hall. The fire company is a dedicated group of men and women who serve the community well.

Although the Masonic Lodge, F. and A.M. No. 612, was organized in its present form in 1866-67, a previous lodge had been in existence in 1812, but dissolved at the time of William Morgan’s anti-Masonic activities. The original temple was burned in 1927 along with the Presbyterian Church and the present brick building put up in 1929 on the site of the former Presbyterian Church.

Presbyterian Church — lost in the 1927 fire

There have been other fraternal organizations: the Odd Fellows, the Woodmen of America and Lions International which was founded in 1948 and supports many local and national projects.

The original Young People’s Improvement Association, in which Henry Dudley Harvey was a moving spirit, was formed to improve the looks of the town, pave sidewalks, etc. It died a natural death when these duties were taken over by the town board, (i.e. the taxpayers). When in 1946 a group of citizens wanted to do something in memory of the veterans of World War II, the name of the old society was revived and it maintains the field although the town and the Youth Commission finance the activities.

There have been a number of newspapers over the years but the most recent was the Hillsdale Harbinger, first published by Henry Dudley Harvey in 1887. Previous to that there existed the Hillsdale Herald.

Recreational activities probably didn’t change much for 100 years or even longer. Aside from visiting lecturers most of the entertainment in the country was home-made: plays, musical programs, minstrel shows such as by the Hillsdale Cornet Band, picnics, hayrides in the summer and sledding parties in the winter as well as sleigh rides which were often accompanied by upsets into deep drifts, square dancing, and an occasional more formal dance by invitation in the ball room on the third floor of the Elmwood Inn or perhaps in the ball room of the Bushnell home.

Mt. Washington House

Hillsdale has been the home of a number of artists over the years. Cuyler Williams was a self-taught painter whose works hang in a number of Hillsdale homes and in our library. He lived on Collin’s Street in a house later restored and lived in by Miss Helen Denman.

In the field of literature, Wallace Bruce was widely known. He wrote several books of poetry and at least two books extolling the ‘‘Queen of Rivers’’ as he dubbed the Hudson (the Mississippi being the ‘‘King’’ of rivers). These volumes did much to persuade New Yorkers to appreciate their natural heritage. He also lectured all over the country on patriotic themes. In 10 years he gave more than 1,000 lectures in 30 states without ever missing an engagement.

On a boulder along Whippoorwill Road, on what was the farm on which he was born in 1844. he placed a marble plaque which is incised with a verse from a poem in memory of his mother:

I hear the notes of the whippoorwill
As of old in the gathering shade
I sit by the rock on the quiet hill
Where in girlhood my mother played.

For varying lengths of time a number of well-known writers have made Hillsdale their home: James Agee, Edgar Lee Masters, John Cowper Powys, Arthur Davison Ficke and Louise Bogan among them. For 15 years or so Alan Devoe and his wife lived in Harlemville and wrote for various periodicals. They collaborated on his last book. ‘Our Animal Neighbors.’’

I do not see how I can omit mention of the exploit of the Militia of West Hillsdale which made one of the longest marches in the War of 1812 under Captain Henry Mesick. They had been training for a year hoping for a chance to see some action when the time finally would come for them to be called upon. They marched from Columbia County to Plattsburg reaching there just in time to help defeat the British General Provost in a decisive battle after which the British marched back to Canada. Mesick and the Militia returned to Hillsdale covered with glory and in recognition of his valor, Mesick was made Overseer of the Poor.

After the Harlem Valley Railroad established a depot here, Hillsdale became a center of the area for the transportation of goods to New York and elsewhere. There were cattle pens for holding calves for shipment and a big barn for holding hay for the same purpose. Sheffield Farms-Slawson Decker had a milk plant here and numerous businesses thrived. lam told there was a general store and a shirt factory in the building which now houses Hillsdale Farm Supplies. The passenger line has been discontinued, but Hillsdale prospers and looks ahead to the future.       Margaret Hunt
Town Historian

Hillsdale has seen many changes since 1975, particularly as its week­end home population keeps increasing. There are still many hundreds of acres of open and wooded land in the northwestern area of town, but even there numerous driveways lead off the still graveled roads to secluded homes.

In recent years the town’s planning and zoning boards have been engaged in long studies of proposed housing developments in various parts of town. Property values continue to increase, topped by the Tory Hill development offering large homes in the million dollar range.

Meanwhile, a committee of citizens labored over a master plan for the town and an Albany firm was hired in 1990 to begin revaluation of all properties.

The number of working dairy farms dwindled, but some which remained in business followed the technology of the times by computeriz­ing feeding operations and record keeping. In 1982 the Little Rainbow Chevre goat dairy started.

In the meantime, Topp Hill, Odyssey, and Sir William Farms all dis­continued raising beef cattle. Sir William, well known for its Polish Arabian horses, became Bridlewood, an equine boarding and breeding farm which drew large crowds to its annual sales.

Catamount Ski Area, under new ownership, continued to expand the number of slopes and lifts, and early in 1990 was planning construction of a resort hotel at its base.

Ed Herrington, Inc. expanded greatly, moving to a large new com­plex near its original office, adding extensively to its inventory, and acquiring new warehouses on Route 23 East. The firm provides multiple services to customers in the three-state area. Herrington Fuels, Inc., a spin-off corporation, was established by Casey Kuhn in 1984.

The former railroad station, used for storage by Ed. Herrington, Inc., was a victim of arson in 1987. In 1982 the Hillsdale Super Market was destroyed by fire shortly after its sale by the Avenia family, longtime owners, but was rebuilt as a more modern store.

The sport shop continued in business under various owners, the Hillsdale House opened dining rooms, and the barber shop added a liquor store to its building. The Berkshire Flower Shoppe was a new and continuing business, sharing its building for a time with The Indenpendent, which later moved to a large new building on Route 23.

A tattoo parlor was in the village center, but the former Village Square restaurant closed after changing hands several times. Vincent’s Printing closed and was replaced by an antique and gift shop. The former Porteus’s store enjoyed a brief revival as a home decorating shop.

Around the junction of Routes 22 and 23 several businesses came and went, including a pharmacy and the diner. The historic inn previously called Dutch Hearth became the French restaurant, L’Hostellerie Bressane, facing a convenience store which replaced the Gulf station.

To the east on Route 23 a new Agway store opened, replacing its predecessor, Hillsdale Farm Supply. The initially controversial 0TB (Off Track Betting) continued at the Four Brothers restaurant complex, where former President Richard Nixon stopped for lunch one day in 1982. A video rental store there was the newest type of retail business in this rural area, which was soon to have cable television.

One landmark business to disappear was the Hillsdale Farmers’ Auction, its demise followed by that of the adjoining Hillsdale Packing Company.

Pediatrician Dr. Irma Waldo, who had cared for the area’s children for many years, discontinued her practice in 1985, while ophthalmologist Dr. Joel Weinberg opened an office that year.

Area children were offered an alternative to public school when Hawthorne Valley, a Rudolf Steiner school, opened in Harlemville, gradually becoming a complete elementary and high school.

The Hillsdale United Methodist Church celebrated its 175th anni­versary in 1983 and in 1984 acquired Rev. Judith Mills as pastor of both Hillsdale and North Hillsdale churches. She and her husband Rev. Richard Mills, who served Copake and Craryville churches, lived in the parsonage adjacent to the Hillsdale church.

In 1986 the Hillsdale Fire Company burned the mortgage on its Herrington Hall, the site of many local social events. During the week-long power outage caused by a snowstorm on October 4, 1987 the com­pany provided shelter and dry ice to townspeople.

In 1981 offices were created upstairs in the Town Hall, but the sewer system for the village, under discussion since the 1970’s was still not approved in early 1990.

As taken from A History of the Roeliff Jansen Area