Browse Exhibits (19 total)

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From June 9th to June 29th 1863, an Enrolling Officer named Daniel Rose compiled a list of men from New Paltz who were eligible to be drafted in the first United States Military draft during wartime. The list also includes New Paltz residents who were already in the Army with their respective regiments. On the 3rd of March 1863, the U.S Congress passed The Enrollment Act.  All healthy male citizens between the ages of twenty and forty-five were subject to military duty. This included any foreign immigrants who “declared on oath their intention to become citizens.” A total of 354 men were enrolled in this book.

This Exhibit includes the entire 1863 New Paltz Enrollment Book and its transcription, a consideration of conscription laws, an examination of particular New Paltz regiments, a partial list of Civil War veterans buried at the New Paltz Rural Cemetery, and a look through the eyes of individuals who experienced the war.

As students of history, we rarely have the opportunity to form a personal connection to a time period and to fully immerse ourselves in that experience. Creating this exhibit has enabled us to study a small piece of Civil War history at a local level. Through this examination we were able to connect specific individuals from New Paltz to the War’s national impact.

The following are the last words written by New Paltz's Captain Johannes LeFevre after being mortally wounded at the Battle of Cedar Creek:

Winchester Va Oct 29/1864

My Dear Mother: I know that you have been suffering more in mind for the last week than I have been suffering in body. So I will be writing to give you my present condition. You are anxious to have me home so that you can see just how bad I am & that you could take care of me. Those who were but slightly wounded & could get off of the field themselves got a good way the start to me in getting home They were half way home before I got to the Hospital. However I do not think my wounds are much of any worse because I lay all night They dress wounds with cold water only mine are running & look exceedingly well Nov 1st Wounds still easy & running well I am week & helpless, but think I will gain again shortly...

Credits:

This online exhibit was created through a partnership between the Town of New Paltz Historian’s Office and the State University at New Paltz History Department. Interns: Sean McGill, Scout Mercer, Christina Lorper and Kieran Coughlan were instrumental in all aspects of the exhibit.

• Project development and design by Town Historian: Susan Stessin-Cohn.

This project was made possible by the support of the following organizations and individuals:

• Carrie Allmendinger, Archivist Librarian at Historic Huguenot Street, for technical support scanning the 1863 New Paltz Enrollment Book and the Discharge and Exemption documents;

• Carol Johnson, Director of the Haviland-Heidgerd Historical Collection at the Elting Memorial Library;

• Special thanks to Jennifer Palmentiero, Hudson River Valley Heritage and Southeastern New York Library Resources Council for their enthusiasm, assistance and support.

On March 31^st, 1817, Josiah R. Elting, an Overseer of the Poor for the town of New Paltz, compiled a ledger filled with the town's relief records as well as other documentation beginning in the year 1805. This ledger included the name, condition, location, and relief given to individuals needing assistance ordered by the local Justice of the Peace. Often, the physical condition was listed as well as the amount of money allotted to each person or family per week. Mothers and their children, former slaves, illegitimate infants, the sick, the maimed, and the elderly often fell victim to economic distress and found themselves without financial security. Through a system of required taxation in both the county and the town, Overseers of the Poor along with town Justices of the Peace would decide upon the relief and distribute it accordingly.

This exhibit initially began as a transcription project of the Overseer of the Poor Ledger and eventually expanded into a study of the history of poverty and social welfare in the town of New Paltz during the early nineteenth century. Common history curricula often neglects the study of poverty and its impact on the United States’ current social welfare system. Hoping to shed light on this overlooked subject, “Poverty in Early New Paltz,” seeks to bring attention and evoke thoughtful discussion on such a prevalent topic.

I hate this grinding poverty—
To toil, and pinch, and borrow,
And be for ever haunted by
The spectre of to-morrow.
It breaks the strong heart of a man,
It crushes out his spirit—
Do what he will, do what he can,
However high his merit!

I hate the praise that Want has got
From preacher and from poet,
The cant of those who know it not
To blind the men who know it.
The greatest curse since man had birth,
An everlasting terror:
The cause of half the crime on earth,
The cause of half the error

 ~Henry Lawson (1867-1922)

Credits:

This online exhibit was created through a partnership between the Town of New Paltz Historian’s Office, the Ulster County Clerk's Office, and the State University at New Paltz History Department. Interns: Kaitlyn Way, Sean McGill and Peter Randazzo were instrumental in all aspects of the exhibit.

Project development and design by Town Historian: Susan Stessin-Cohn.

This project was made possible by the support of the following organizations and individuals:

• The Ulster County Records Center, Kingston, New York and the Ulster County Clerk's Office, Nina Postupack, Ulster County Clerk;

• Carrie Allmendinger, Archivist Librarian at Historic Huguenot Street, for technical support photographing the New Paltz Town Ledger;

• Special thanks to Jennifer Palmentiero, Hudson River Valley Heritage and Southeastern New York Library Resources Council for their enthusiasm, assistance and support.

Camp Awosting was founded in 1900 by Dr. Walter Truslow, member of the Kings County Medical Society of Brooklyn, New York, and Blake Hillyer, president of the executive committee of the Physical Education Society of New York. Originally established in what is now Minnewaska State Park, New York, the camp now operates in Bantam Lake, Connecticut. Since 2010, it has been run by the Ebner family.

Campers were encouraged to “rough it” and embrace the rugged, natural landscape located at the crest of the Shawangunk Mountain range, in order to offset the “softening effect of the modern city.” The woods, weathered cliffs, and mile-long shore provided the boys with a healthy life in the wilderness.

Traditional male characteristics such as physical strength, discipline, and teamwork were the characteristic building blocks for which camp activities, sports, and events were based.

As many boys came from affluent urban communities, summers at Awosting provided them with a more rustic environment at an age when testosterone ran free and competition reached an all-time high. Camp provided well-to-do, adolescent boys with the means for a healthy and physical upbringing. Parents sent their sons here to receive lessons that they believed could not be taught or learned in their own communities. The boys were given the chance to escape their everyday lives and the opportunity to live among their friends in the Hudson River Valley for two summer months under the guidance and supervision of counselors.

"For a Brief time, during the early years of the twentieth century, at the edge of the hamlet of Napanoch, in the Town of Wawarsing, in Ulster County, there existed a unique and improbable place -- Yama Farms Inn, known also as Yama-no-uchi, a Japanese phrase meaning 'Home in the Mountains.'  Founded in 1913 by Frank Seaman and his companion Olive Sarre, the Inn evolved from an experiment in Japanese architecture and landscaping into a famous resort.  Its guests were the artistic, political, intellectual, scientific, and business leaders of the era." 

From the prologue by Wendy E. Harris. Yama Farms, a Most Unusual Catskills Resort, by Harris, Harris and Wiebe, 2006, published by Cragsmoor Historical Society, Cragsmoor, NY.

This exhibit tells a story in pictures about one of the "Presidents Conferences" -- meetings of captains of industry -- which were held annually at Yama Farms.   

On an autumn day in 2008, Ellenville Public Library & Museum (EPL&M) received a phone call from an antiques dealer in Owl’s Head, Maine.   A client of his was offering for sale a unique photo album in which appeared the place names of Wawarsing, Napanoch and Yama Farms.  Our enthusiastic dealer called us to offer us right of first refusal for our local history collection.  Thanks to a private donation in memory of Marcia Resnick, EPL&M was able to purchase the album. What follows are excerpts, as well as information from research we performed on this particular conference.

If you are interested in viewing the photo album in its entirety, please visit our collection on the Hudson River Valley Heritage Site.