Birth of Hudson: The Quaker Model
Thomas Jenkins purchased a store and wharf property at Claverack Landing from Peter Hogeboom, Jr. on July 19, 1783. Three days later Jenkins made two additional purchases of land along the waterfront from Widow Hardick. In these transactions Jenkins was representing the association of proprietors formed in anticipation of the new settlement. They were predominantly Quakers and proprietary ownership was commonly used in Quaker communities, such as Nantucket. The Proprietors established rules, defined leadership roles, divided lots for business and home and formally signed articles of agreement.
After Thomas Jenkins made his purchase, a few of the Proprietors arrived in the fall of 1783. Seth Jenkins and his family as well as John Alsop arrived aboard the brig Comet, bringing with them their personal items as well as precut homes which were quickly framed. After Congress ratified the Treaty of Paris officially ending the war with England in January 1784, the British were forced to open the harbor in Manhattan which allowed easy access up the Hudson River. By the spring of 1784, the remaining Proprietors and their families began to arrive. Prominent and respected Nantucket families such as the Jenkins, Paddocks, Macys, Bunkers, Folgers and Coffins moved to Hudson and a new city was taking shape.
Thus begins the Minutes of the Proprietors:
We the subscribers being Joint Proprietors of a certain tract of land lying at Claverack landing on the banks of the River Hudson, purchased by Thomas Jenkins of Peter Hogeboom Jr. and others for the purpose of establishing a Commercial settlement on principles of equity, do enter in to the following articles of Agreement, to wit.
Proprietors Minutes, copied from original text of 1785 by Alec L. Robinson, 1883, page 25
City of Hudson Collection, Hudson Area Library History Room, Hudson, NY
The Minutes goes on to record that a committee was formed “to regulate streets, and to attend in a particular manner to the fixing of buildings uniformly.” As drawings in the Minutes book illustrate, the Proprietors gave thoughtful consideration to the layout of their new city. An elongated grid plan rose from the river between the two bays with forethought as to the location of all of the maritime related trades and markets. The lots for their individual homes were determined by a lottery. Between 1785 and 1786, 150 houses as well as wharves and stores were built. The first market place was established at the northeast corner of Main and Front Streets and Peter Hogeboom’s original wharf was expanded and became known as the Hudson Wharf.
In November of 1784, the proprietors voted to officially change the name from Claverack Landing to Hudson. In the same month, they purchased the land, wharf, and store of Colonel John Van Alen from his widow. The commercial success and prosperity in these early years attracted settlers to Hudson. On April 22, 1785, the New York State Legislature approved an act of incorporation and Hudson officially became the third city in the state. In 1786, a New York Journal article described Hudson:
The increase in population and business importance of the city has been unparalleled. It contains several fine wharves, four large warehouses, a covered ropewalk, spermaceti works, one hundred and fifty dwelling houses, shops, barns, one of the best distilleries in America, and fifteen hundred souls…Upwards of twelve hundred sleighs loaded with grain of various kinds, boards, shingles, staves, hoops, iron-ware, stone for building, firewood and sundry articles of provisions for the market, entered the city daily for several days together in the month of January of this year.
In Hudson’s Merchants and Whalers Margaret Schram disputes that 1,200 sleighs entered the city daily, as do we, but clearly from this description the growth of Hudson was robust and quite remarkable. Many of the Proprietors were Patriots and had been involved in the cause of independence, and they brought with them many of the progressive ideals of the new republic in its energy and ambition.
Map of the corporation of the City of Hudson and the Town of Claverack, in the County of Columbia. Surveyed January 1790, per Jonas Smith.
New York State Archives. New York (State). State Engineer and Surveyor. Survey maps of lands in New York State, ca. 1711-1913. Series A0273-78, Map #234.
Hudson, Sept. 3, 1839 by A. Doan, traced by Joel B. Ives, Feb. 3, 1903 Hudson Area Library
Historical Maps & Atlases Collection, Hudson Area Library History Room, Hudson NY.