Back to Town of Glen Pagefrom The History of Montgomery and Fulton Counties, N.Y." by F.W. Beers & Co., 1878 |
The passages below include four articles touching upon general early history, some noted early citizens whose surnames frequently turn up on our queries board, a brief discussion of the all-important local hotels and taverns, and the listing of postmasters.
THE TOWN OF GLEN
The town of Glen was formed from the town of Charleston, on the 10th day of April, 1823. On the first Tuesday in the month, the town organization was formally completed by the election of the following board of officers: William Putman, supervisor; Ebenezer Green, clerk; James Voorhees, Thomas Van Derveer, and Jacob F. Starin, assessors; Jacob F. Lansing and Henry M. Gardenier, commissioners of highways; Elijah Mount and Christian Enders, overseers of the poor; John C. Van Alstine and Howland Fish, commissioners of schools; Cornelius C. Van Horne, inspector of schools; Abraham Aumack, collector; John C. Smith, William L. Hollady and Bement Sloan, constables. The name of Glen was chosen in honor of Jacob Saunders Glen, one of the principal residents, who had a land grant of ten thousand acres, comprising a considerable part of the town, and was also the proprietor of a large store, now occupied by J.V.S. Edwards, within the present village of Glen. Mr. Edwards is also the occupant of the old homestead which was erected by Mr. Glen, in the year 1818. The surface of the town is hilly, but the soil, a clayey loam, is very productive. Formerly the attention of the farmers was largely devoted to the raising of cattle for dairy purposes, and numerous cheese factories throughout the town attest the extent to which this industry was carried. Latterly, however on account of the high price obtainable for hay, the farmers have sold their cows, and the business of the cheese factories has shown a marked falling off.
Aurie's creek, which flows into the Mohawk, and Irish creek, a tributary of the Schoharie, are the principal streams of the town. Numerous attempts have been made to obtain iron, but these efforts have not been attended with any marked success. A chalybeate spring, a mile east of Glen village, is about the only natural curiosity to be found in the town. One other, however, should be mentioned, namely, the steep bank upon the west side of the Schoharie creek, a little below Mill Point. This bluff retains the name by which it was called by the Indians - Ca-daugh-ri-ty, or "perpendicular wall." The hill of which this is one face ends all round in similar steep banks, and is about fifty feet high, with a diamond-shaped area of some three acres. It is level on the top, and presents a very singular appearance as seen from the hills to the south-east. It is visible for many miles along the bank of the Schoharie.
The spring above mentioned furnishes a small but steady stream in all seasons and weathers, flavored with iron and sulphur. A succession of bubbles of gas rises with the water from the earth. The water is cool and refreshing. Animals are very fond of it, and at the settlement of the county, the resort of deer to this spot made the vicinity a famous hunting ground. The water is considered to have medicinal value in cutaneous diseases. Man and beast, however heated, may drink it freely without harm.
FORTUNES OF THE PIONEERS
In 1722 and 1725, Lieutenant John Scott and his son took patents for the lands between Aurie's creek and the Yates and Fonda line, near where Fultonville stands. Aurie's creek was so named by the Dutch, with whom Aaron is Aurie, after an old Indian warrior named Aaron, who lived many years in a hut standing on the flats on the east side of the creek. The adjoining village of Auriesville was named from the stream. Early in the last century, three brothers named Quackenboss emigated from Holland to the colony of New York. One of them remained at New York city; the other two went to Albany, and one of them, named Peter, removed to Scott's patent shortly after it was located. He settled near Aurie's creek, on the site of the Leslie Voorhees place of recent years. Mr. Quackenboss had several children grown up when he arrived in this country, and David, his elder son, after a courtship on the John Alden plan, married Miss Ann Scott, a daughter of the Lieutenant who commanded Fort Hunter, and also settled on Scott's patent. A young officer under the command of Lieutenant Scott had requested Quackenboss, then in the employ of his superior, to speak a good word for him to Miss Ann, which he readily promised to do. The fact of his own partiality for the maiden, however, came out more strongly in his interview with her than the suit of her military admirer. She was all the better pleased, for she preferred the agent to the principal. Learning this, he proposed, and was accepted, and in due time the twain were made one. Their son John, born about the year 1725, was, it is believed, the first white child born on the south side of the Mohawk, between Fort Hunter and the neighborhood of Canajoharie.
About the year 1740, a colony of sixteen Irish families was planted, under the patronage of Wm. Johnson, afterward baronet, on lands now owned by Henry Shelp, a few miles south-west of Fort Hunter, once a part of Corry's patent.
Several years after, when they had built huts and cleared some land, a disturbance arose between the Indians of New York and those of Canada, and the immigrants, fearing trouble, broke up their settlement and returned to Ireland.
Previous to the Revolution, Richard Hoff and Marcus Hand had erected dwellings and cleared land on the west side of the Schoharie, about four miles from Fort Hunter. During the war these houses were plundered and burned by the Indians. The family of Hoff made good their escape, and Hand was absent in Florida.
John Ostrum settled in the town in the latter part of the Revolution. His son Stephen, who still lives on the original homestead, was a colonel in the State militia in his younger days. Matthias Mount came into the town at the same time with John Ostrum from the State of New Jersey. At this time the country was all new, and they were obliged to cut their way through the woods.
Isaac Conover was born in 1759. He served through the Revolution, with four of his brothers, having moved into the town of Glen two years previous to the breaking out of the war. Cornelius Conover, the father, built a block house when he first settled, to protect himself from the Indians. His barns, filled with grain, were burnt during the Revolution, by a tory named Van Zuyler. Abraham, son of Isaac Conover, is still living on the farm, where his father died in 1846. Seth Conover, another of Glen's pioneers, came from New Jersey and settled in the town about the year 1785. John Hyner, Sr., who was born about the year 1789, should also be numbered among the pioneers.
Andrew Frank, another early resident of the town, was born in the year 1776. His death occurred in 1843. Adam Frank was one of the Revolutionary patriots, and in the party who killed George Cuck in the spring of 1780, in the house of John Van Zuyler, the tory mentioned above, and who lived just south of the house occupied, within thirty years, by Maj. James Winne. Cuck himself was a notorious tory, born in the neighborhood, who had fought with the British during the war, and was at the time lurking in the neighborhood to carry off the scalps of two prominent patriots, Capt. Jacob Gardiner and Lieut. Abraham D. Quackenboss, which he knew would sell at a high price to the British patrons of the traffic. A daughter of Van Zuyler having revealed to her whig beau the presence of Cuck at her father's house, a dozen patriots, under the lead of Lieut. Quackenboss, proceeded as soon as possible to the place, and forcing an entrance, demanded the scalper. Van Zuyler denied that he was in the house, but on searching it he was discovered, and undertaking to defend himself was shot dead. Van Zuyler was taken prisoner and thrown into the Johnstown jail, having been briefly suspended by the neck near the present village of Fultonville, on his way thither. Adam Frank's son, Frederick, was born in 1793, and was a soldier in the war of 1812.
J.R. Van Evera was one of the early settlers in Glen, and helped clear up the country. His son, Peter, born in the town in 1803, has been supervisor four terms.
John Van Derveer came from New Jersey and settled in the town in the year 1798, and served during the war of 1812. His father served his country in the war of the Revolution.
John Edwards settled in the town about eighty years ago. He came from Columbia county, and was eighty-six years old at the time of his death. Henry Silmser was born in the town of Johnstown in the year 1795. His son, Michael, now a resident of Fultonville, was born in the year 1818. John Vedder, born in Glen in 1787, was commissioner of highways for twenty years. John O. Vedder, his son, was also born in the town, and has resided in it all his life. He has been supervisor for two years and highway commissioner for a number of years.
Peter M. Vrooman settled in the town of Glen in 1837, coming from Schoharie county. He was a soldier in the war of 1812. Gilbert, a son of Peter, came into Glen with his father, and still lives on the old homestead. The barn on Gilbert Vrooman's place was the second barn built after the Revolution, for several miles along the valley.
John H. Voorhees settled in the town about the year 1789. Jacob Schuyler, born in 1791 in New Jersey, moved to the town of Florida when very young, and while still a young man came into Glen. He contributed much to the building up of the churches. Another who took interest in the churches and schools of the town was David Wood, who was born in the town of Root in the year 1804; moved into Glen in 1833, and started a hotel at Auriesville. He managed this tavern for forty years, and was justice of the peace for thirty years. Jacob Pruyn, who moved into the town in the year 1833, was supervisor for one term. Victor C. Putman and his son, Abraham V., were also early settlers.
Christian Enders, mentioned as one of the first overseers of the poor, brought the first piano into the town, for the use of his daughter, who went to New York to take lessons.
THE EARLIER AND LATER HOTELS
The full history of the hotels which have arisen, declined and fallen in the town of Glen, would of itself fill a volume.
One of the first taverns was kept by Wm. Quackenboss, at Auriesville, abuat the year 1797, but John Starin established one at Fultonville shortly after the Revolution. About 1795, the post road from Albany terminated here, and Starin's son Myndert carried the mail weekly from his father's tavern to Johnstown, horse-back or on foot. The public house kept by Starin was destroyed about ten years ago. It was situated upon the south bank of the river, a short distance east of the present location of the bridge. Another of the early landlords was Van Name Van Epps, who rented the building owned by Peter C. Yates, and kept a tavern for several years. This building is still standing on the south side of the Mohawk, almost directly north from the steam saw-mill. John Starin was succeeded by his son Myndert Starin. When the Erie Canal was in process of construction, almost every house near the line of the work was a "tavern". Most of these extemporized hotels only existed while the canal was building, although some of them were kept up thereafter, and did quite a thriving trade with travelers on the canal. Among others which came into being about this time, was one of which Richard Hughesen was the proprietor. The building, a small frame structure painted red, is still standing.
Peter Fonda kept a tavern about a quarter of a mile below that of John Starin, and John Gardiner one as much further down the river, while Rynier Gardiner kept one at the same distance still further east. Several other small places of entertainment for man and best were established along the south bank of the canal from 1825 to 1828, but those mentioned above were among the principal ones.
From this time on until the year 1868 the only hotels at Fultonville were those established along the bank of the canal for the accommodation of the boatmen. In that year John A. Perkins came on the site of the hotel now occupied by him. He remained here until the spring of 1875, when he sold out to William Lowry, who kept the place until the fall of 1876, when the hotel was destroyed by fire. After the old building had been burned, Mr. Perkins built the present brick edifice.
The Starin House was erected by the present owner, H.J. Donaldson, in 1875. The hotel forms part of the Donaldson Block, the most showy building in the village. The landlord is J.E. Marsden, and the hotel is handsomely fitted up in every part.
The Cottage Hotel at Glen, conducted by John E. Hubbs, has been established for a long time, and always has a full complement of guests.
POST OFFICES
The first post office in the town of Glen was established at Glen village, and Cornelius H. Putman appointed postmaster, May 19th, 1823. His successors, and the dates of their appointments, are as follows:
Jacob Burton, May 30th, 1828
Harmon P. Maybee, April 6th, 1833
William A. Kelley, April 15th, 1834
John Hanchet, January 19th, 1835
Adam Smith, September 17th, 1849
Alonzo Putman, March 4th, 1856
William H. Steinberg, May 16th, 1857
Phillip Pruyn, August 24th, 1857
John Visher, April 18th, 1862
John V. S. Edwards, January 8th, 1863
Joseph Noxon, November 12th, 1873
Tunis Van Derveer, December 4th, 1873
and Edward Edwards, March 31st, 1874.
The post office at Auriesville was established, and Allen H. Jackson appointed postmaster, January 26th, 1824. Since that time postmasters have been appointed as follows:
John Hand, May 31st, 1827
John Van Alstine, March 22d, 1831
William Irving, November 20th, 1852
David Wood, August 12th, 1856
William Irving, March 26th, 1862, and
John N. Putman, May 5th, 1873
The first postmaster at Fultonville was William M. Gardinier, and the office was established December 12th, 1832. The office has since then been filled as follows:
Cornelius Gardinier, August 2d, 1841
William Shuler, August 15th, 1843
John H. Starin, June 15th, 1849
William Shuler, July 14th, 1853, and
Giles H. Mount, May 16th, 1861
The post office at Mill Point was established, and James J. Faulkner appointed postmaster, February 13th, 1874, and he has held the office ever since.