Throwback 2019-2020 Lecture Series - Part 3

Board Member P. Thomas Carroll shared an informative presentation on the history associated with the Kate Mullany National Historic Site, and its plans for moving forward when he joined us for the museum’s February 2020 lecture at the Van Schaick Island Country Club. 

Kate Mullany was born in England around 1845 to Irish parents, coming to NYC in 1850 before moving to Troy in 1853. Kate and her siblings worked in the profitable factories that gave Troy its alias as Collar City. Women were 80% of the workforce in this industry, working as collar sewers and laundresses for up to 14 hours a day at a rate of $3 a week. Putting that salary into perspective, it was actually half an average household’s income in those days. In 1864, these workers held a strike, prompted by the greenback inflation from the Civil War. As part of this strike, Kate Mullany organized the Collar Laundry Union (CLU) in February 1864 – this was the first all-women’s union. 

The 1864 strike lasted 5 ½ days across 14 laundries, succeeding in winning a 25% wage increase and earning support from Troy Iron Molders Union No. 2 and the larger “Worker City” community, including William H. Sylvis, Iron Molders International Union President. That year, the family purchased the property at 350-352 Eighth Street. Kate was appointed Assistant Secretary of the National Labor Union - the first national female union officer. She led strikes in 1866, March 1869 and May 1869 to protest the level of workers’ wages. 

Manufacturers also organized after suffering from the inflation and continuous strikes, pressuring laundry owners to hold out, recruiting scabs, launching local advertising, and refusing to send collars and cuffs to organized laundry. Kate reported to her followers that as a result of negotiations, the employers were willing to offer a pay increase but it would be at the expense of union membership. Workers chose to take the extra pay, and the CLU established the Union Line Collar and Cuff Manufactory Cooperative in an attempt to continue their efforts. Ultimately the CLU dissolved in 1869. Kate moved to Buffalo around 1870, married John Fogarty, and owned a laundry named “Troy Laundry”.  In 1906, she died at Eighth Street and was buried in St. Peter’s Cemetery. A Celtic cross was erected at the formerly unmarked gravesite, dedicated September 1999.

The property was designated a National Historic Site by Congress in 2005, and was included in New York State’s Women Heritage Trail in 2007 (the only site representing working class women). The site has seen activity like an archaeological study, conducted by Hartgen Archaeological Associates in 2007. A historic Structure Report by John G. Waite Associates was completed in January 2010. The property adjacent to the house at the corner of Eighth and Hoosick streets was purchased in 2004 by the American Labor Studies Center to create a park to honor trade union women pioneers. The house acts as the home of the American Labor Studies Center on the second floor, the first serving as a museum and the third under restoration to become a recreation of the apartment on this floor that the Mullany family lived in while calling this building home.

Throwback 2019-2020 Lecture Series - Part 2

Hudson Mohawk Industrial Gateway Executive Director, Michael Barrett, shared a presentation on the Trans-Continental Railroad. A transportation feat that was a monumental undertaking in its time, it had some local names attached to its creation as these families expanded west with the country. Built between 1863 and 1869, it connected existing train lines to the Pacific Coast.  

Some familiar names tied to this project that have some local significance (or at least well recognized as influential in New York history) are Charles Crocker, Theodore Judah, Leland Stanford, Brigham Young  and Thomas C. Durant. Many others were involved in this venture, with fortunes made through investments - some more honest than others. Another local note: the engines used in the ceremonial opening of the lines had parts with iron from the Burden Iron Works. 

Thea brought several resources that attendees could look over
 before and after her presentation. There was a great level of
 audience engagement with her lecture as well!

Thea Hotaling, owner and historian of Brookwood Historic Building presented her extensive research on the history of the Peebles family for our lecture at the start of 2020. It was a full house - we even had to drag a few tables over to include everyone who wanted to hear about this prominent family with ties to Waterford, Halfmoon, and Albany. Of course, there is some obvious name recognition with Peebles Island State Park as well, as the family did own this island in the Mohawk River delta that now serves as a New York State Park and site of the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

The original owners of the property that is now referred to as Brookwood, were the Peebles family. It was a lucrative piece of property even its early days, being ~15,000 acres beside the Hudson River and having its own freshwater, as well as being situated alongside the Great Highway from Albany to Canada. Thomas Peebles married Elizabeth Bradt of Albany, from one of the early Dutch families of Albany - her father was Gerrit Bradt (son of Daniel Bradt and Elizabeth Lansing) and her mother was Maria ten Eyck. Those are all some recognizable local names- Oh, and her grandmother is Geeritjia Van Schaick...so essentially relatives were everywhere in the neighboring communities. Which might've influenced the decision to brave the then frontier-like area of this this estate. The Peebles manor was constructed in 1763, becoming one of the 12 founding families of the Waterford/Halfmoon (Halve Maen). 

Thomas had been  appointed by the royal authority in 1770 as a Justice of the Peace for "the territory consisting of Saratoga County". After he passed in 1774, he was buried on a small knoll on the property by "Brookwood Creek" that began the family cemetery. Elizabeth had five children to support, which she did by transforming her manor into an inn and tavern that became known as the Widow Peebles’ place. It was marked as such on maps like the 1779 Isaac Vrooman map commissioned by George Washington.  . 

In 1783, when notable figures like Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Governor Clinton were on route to see the battlefields at Bemis Heights, they stayed at this inn, referencing it in letters. This likely contributed to Elizabeth's mention in the 1788 list of innkeepers - the only woman to be included. The tavern continued to host notable figures, like James Madison and Thomas Jefferson who were also touring the revolutionary battlefields in 1791. The tavern was turned over in 1795 to her sons, being known as “The Child’ Place” before it eventually become known as Brookwood. The children became involved with the business, civic, political and religious development of the local area. 

Edward Lamson Henry's "Early Days of Rapid Transit". Albany Institute of History and Art

The property was well known locally but also was featured in “A Pocket Guide for the Tourist and Traveler along the line of the Canals and the interior Commerce of the state of New York”.  Tourism on the canal brought many to areas that otherwise would not have been traversed - Waterford had been at the height of sloop navigation on the Hudson River, but like today, many toured the route to see the engineering marvel and the sights of New York State. Packetboats like the one in this painting at the Albany Institute of History and Art were used frequently, waning in 1853 when railroads were completed around the state.

Hugh Peebles, the eldest child and to whom the inn's ownership and operation passed, served during the Revolutionary war in some significant positions, including as private secretary and Quartermaster for Colonel Jacobus Van Schoonhoven, the Saratoga Campaign, and likely one of the first companies to defend Bemis Heights under Gen. William Alexander.  In 1784, as the military representative, he signed the Treaty with the Six Nations at Fort Stanwix (and again in 1789 in Albany). He became an influential figure locally by serving as: Member of the Masonic Lodge in Albany (Master's Lodge No. 2), Queensbury Pay Master (military appointment 1786), an original board member of the first local public school system (1796), Justice of the Peace for Half-Moon (1797;1800), Halfmoon Commissioner of Taxes and Superintendents of Highways (1799) and even campaigned to become an Assemblyman for Saratoga County in 1799 (finished #7). Brookwood was passed along to his eldest child, Abbie, after his death in 1840.

His sister and the eldest daughter, Maria, married Abraham Livingston and settled in Stillwater. Livingston served in the 1st Canadian Regiment and was present at both battles of Saratoga, later serving as Captain in the New York Levies. The Peebles' third child, Rosanna(h) married John Welch, who also served in the Revolutionary Way in Col. Sheldon's Dragoons and was a part of the Burgoyne Campaign. They relocate to Welch's hometown of Litchfield, CT where they are buried. 

Peebles Island Cultural Resources Map 2000 depicting the boundary of the
NYS Park along with existing buildings and earthworks and the
 sites of former buildings and earthworks. 

Gerrit Peebles, was appointed Captain in the NY Militia in 1789 and married Elizabeth Survatt in 1799. He entered into the merchant business, becoming highly successful and influential in the local area. He moves to the growing Lansingburgh village in 1800 with his family, his wife and youngest son he tragically loses in 1811. He is elected Sheriff of Rensselaer ounty in 1813, remarrying in 1818 Maria Van Schaick (cousin to Maria Gansevoort Melville, mother of Herman Melville - again, some pretty recognizable names here). 

Gerrit purchased Haver (Oats) Island from the Van Schaick Family, after which the island took  the family name. By 1862, his son Anthony Augustus owns the entirety of the island. Gerrit died in 1841 and was buried on the family property, but later re-interred at Troy's Oakwood Cemetery.

The youngest, Gertrude Peebles, spent most of her childhood as her mother's right-hand person, sometimes being referenced in letters from travelers to the inn like Venezuelan Revolutionary, Fransico de Miranda . She married Benjamin Tibbits, the brother and partner of  the very successful mercantile firm G. & B. Tibbits Company, in 1793.  They had one son together before Benjamin met an untimely early death in 1802. She remarried in 1807 the widower Rev. Dr. Eliphalet Nott, clergyman, education, scientists/inventor of over 30 patents, and business (he also became nationally known in 1804 for his sermon on the "Death of Alexander Hamilton"). She moved to Schenectady with Nott and they have a son in 1809 - it is largely with Gertrude's assets that Nott buys substantial land here and laid the foundation for the expansion and growth of Union College, of which he was also president (and RPI too).

A connection to the White family: Gerrit Peebles, was a trustee of the Cohoes Manufacturing Company (incorporated 1811), which later sold the property to the Cohoes Company, which Hugh White was one of the incorporators and served as its president.

Photo from the Library of Congress taken 1969 by Jack Boucher. There are a few more worth checking out that show water still in the Cohoes Power Canal at this point, which is now the Power Canal Park by the Harmony Mill Lofts.

Lecture Series 2019-2020 Throwback - Part 1

 As everyone practices social distancing and staying at home, museums are also closed - or remain in "off-season" until things go back to normal. Some places are taking advantage of all the virtual and remote opporunties to enjoy their museums - Waterford Historical Museum and Cultural Center has an audio tour available on the UniGuide Audio Tour app available for FREE through Google Play. Depending on your location, you may be out of range - but you can always participate in the cell phone tour offered by the Mohawk Towpath Scenic Byway (your standard rates will apply for this one - check  out #18!). Both are options that you can take advantage of without having to step foot inside the museum. Also check out our website for pages on local history, exhibits like the Making Waterford Our Home immigrant heritage project,and explore our online database of artifacts! Our social media pages are also still active with posts on Facebook @waterfordhmcc and Instagram @waterford_museum. 

With programs on the backburner for the foreseeable future, here's a throwback to the 2019-2020 Annual Winter Lecture Series at the Van Schaick Island Country Club - which seems appropriate considering we had some wintry weather and icy roads this week.

Town Historian, Russ VanDervoort, shared the story of the brazen 1872 robbery of the Saratoga County Bank. Waterford’s prominence as a bustling canal terminal, riding off the business that came from sloop trade, prompted the Saratoga County Bank to open its first location in Waterford. As Russ also noted, there were several other businesses too, such as the 42 saloons, which moved the location of the bank around until it settled on the building still standing at the north corner of Second and Broad Street. Even before this robbery, the bank survived the financial Panic of 1837, burning in the 1841 Great Waterford Fire and hit by counterfeit $10 bills in 1868. 

An example from The Marysville Tribune, November 1872.

The other figures listed on this page are the varying totals
given in articles from other newspapers - the most
accepted figure is that of $625,000

But the theft of $625,000 in cash, bonds, and jewelry (or thereabouts since reports kept shifting the exact figure), made national news. The resulting trial was also newsworthy, as the suspects were noteworthy as well. The bank robber gang consisted of several big names in burglary as a profession, most of which had enough aliases that it makes keeping their stories straight particularly difficult (as they intended). The case was significant enough thanks to the high monetary figure to warrant the Saratoga County District Attorney, Isaac Ormsby, to be involved - who also happened to be a Waterford native. 

The case was full of intrigue as well, including a séance to discover the location of some of the stolen goods and scrutiny over the involvement of  bribery of Hudson police officers, Dyers and Best, to let the 2 gang members arrested "escape". Dyers eventually admitted on the stand that he had been paid to be a witness was currently under indictment for robbing a safe....and Best outrighted stated that he'd been given $60 and a revolver to let them escape, he'd later gone to NYC to receive some more, and that "Any  previous testimony that I have offered in Waterford and Ballston Spa has been false and I knew it was false when I gave it."

The Ballston Spa courthouse was packed with crowds, as it was the event and talk of the area - which the opening prosecutors took full advantage of since their opening statements took a full hour. The suspect, known as Peter Curly, was the focus of this trial. He was identified by Dyer and Best, with speculation by the servant girl of the Hovenburg family that lived in above the Waterford bank that he was there based on noticing that one of the masked men had large ears that Curly quite obviously also had. But, he made the news for another, more amusing reason: the local Waterford and Ballston Spa area ladies who clung to every detail of the suspects’ trial. It wasn’t for the brilliance of their plan, but for the fact that someone so good looking couldn’t possibly be responsible (or jailed away from their eyes even if he did the crime). 

Ultimately though, the suspects were acquitted, citing that the various other witnesses couldn't be totally certain that they recognized Curly. A celebratory evening was held at the Sans Souci Hotel in Ballston to thank the jury and their defenders, with the money that may – or may not – have been the product of the heist. A few bags of money were found later in NYC that were traced to this robbery and in other areas as time went on, but these suspects were never jailed- at least for this crime. The building also had other roles, such as serving as a funeral parlor, before becoming a private residence. 

Keep on the lookout for parts 2, 3, and 4 to cover this series!