Editor's Note: The following text is a verbatim transcription of an article written by George W. Murdock, for the Kingston (NY) Daily Freeman newspaper in the 1930s. Murdock, a veteran marine engineer, wrote a regular column. Articles transcribed by HRMM volunteer Adam Kaplan. ​

Built originally for a local concern, Romer & Tremper, with offices in Rondout, the steamboat “Jacob H. Tremper” was a familiar sight sailing in and out of the Rondout creek a few years ago. Today, the “Jacob H. Tremper” is no more as she was broken up in 1928, but memories of this graceful steamboat are not very dim in the minds of local residents, and the tone of her whistle still haunts the hillsides along the banks of the Rondout creek.
               
The wooden hull of the “Jacob H. Tremper” was built by Herbert Lawrence at Greenpoint, New York, in 1885, and her engine was constructed by W.A. Fletcher & Company of New York. She was 180 feet long, breadth of beam 30 feet, two inches. Her tonnage was listed as gross 572 and net 432, and her vertical beam engine had a cylinder diameter of 44 inches with a 10 foot stroke.
               
The “Jacob H. Tremper” was built for the firm of Romer & Tremper of Rondout to be used as a freight and passenger vessel on a daytime run between Newburgh and Albany. She ran in line with the steamboat “M. Martin.” In August of 1884 the steamboat “Eagle,” which had been running on the Newburgh route since 1856 and for several years before 1884 in line with the “M. Martin,” was destroyed by fire, and the “Jacob H. Tremper” was built to replace the “Eagle.”
               
The new steamboat proved to be an exceptionally fine vessel for the purpose for which she was built. She had a large freight capacity and fine accommodations for passengers, and these advantages soon made themselves evident by the appearance of the “Jacob H. Tremper” as one of the first vessels placed in service in the spring of the year and the last steamboat to be laid up in the fall.
               
In the winter of 1899 the Romer & Tremper fleet of river steamboats was purchased by the Central Hudson Steamboat Company of Newburgh. This transaction included the steamboats “Jacob H. Tremper, “M. Martin,” “James W. Baldwin,” and “William F. Romer.”
               
Another distinction which places the “Jacob H. Tremper” apart from many of the other Hudson river steamboats was her exceptionally clear record. In fact, only one accident to the “Jacob H. Tremper” was demed worthy of note in her history. This accident occurred on Monday morning, July 21, 1913. On this morning, the “Jacob H. Tremper” left Newburgh at her usual time for Albany. On her way up the river she struck an uncharted rock off Esopus Island. The captain immediately ordered her course set for the mud flats off Staatsburgh on the east side of the river, and at this place she sunk rapidly.
               
Following this experience, the “Jacob H. Tremper” was raised and repaired and again placed in service, and in 1916 she was plying her regular route under the command of Captain John Dearstyne.
               
The “Jacob H. Tremper” was also one of the last of the sidewheel steamboats of her class to continue in service on the waters of the Hudson river as a freight and passenger vessel. In the fall of 1928 the “Jacob H. Tremper” was deemed unfit for further service and was laid up at Newburgh, and in July of the following year she was sold to a junk dealer and broken up at Newburgh

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Human nature being what It is, we all have an odd quirk or two.  Boatmen were no exception. 

The foibles of two boatmen that come to mind were those of Staats Winnie and Ira Cooper, two of the better old time boatmen on the Hudson.  Staats Winnie's Whim was that he wore red flannel underwear the year round — Ira Cooper’s was a dislike for uniforms. 

Staats Winnie was an old time pilot for the Hudson River Day line and at the turn of the century was second pilot of the “Albany.”  When the “Hendrick Hudson” came out in 1906 he was to become her first pilot and served as her head helmsman during that steamboat’s early years on the Hudson.  Like many old time boatmen, he had previously been a pilot on towboats and tugboats of the Cornell Steamboat Company. 

With an impressive mustache and a stern gaze, Staats Winnie was a formidable looking man.  As my good friend Donald C. Ringwald observed in his book “Hudson River Day Line,” Pilot Winnie looked as if he could steer anything afloat. 

Like a number of old boatmen in his era, Staats Winnie wore red flannel underwear.  Only he wore his year round, summer and winter.  During the hot days in July and August, Pilot Winnie would frequently doff his uniform jacket and roll up his shirt jacket [sleeves?], exposing a pair of bright red shod forearms.

Steamboatmen were always known as great arm wavers.  Whenever two steamers passed each other, it was rare indeed if several crew members were not observed vigorously waving in the direction of the passing steamboat.  One would have thought the crew members of the two steamers hadn’t seen each other in months. 

As a matter of fact, in some instances this situation would have been true — as when a line had two steamers running between New York and Albany in daily service.  The two steamboats would leave New York and Albany on alternate days and the only time crew members would see each other for months on end would be on their daily passing in the middle part of the river.  Many crew members of a particular steamboat line came from the same community and were neighbors.  During the season they would get but a fleeting glance of each other as their steamboats passed in mid-Hudson and this, perhaps, was the probable reason for the vigorous arm waving. 

Staats Winnie was well known as one of the arm wavers.  During July and August in his years of piloting the Day Liners, boatmen on passing steamers became accustomed to seeing a red shod arm waving a greeting from his pilot house window.  It was said that passengers, however were frequently startled by the sight. 

Ira Cooper was captain of the steamer “Onteora” of the Catskill Evening Line.  During the early years of steamboating, officers of the steamers wore their usual civilian clothes in carrying out their jobs afloat.  During the 1880’s and 1890’s, the larger steamboat companies began to introduce the use of uniforms for their steamer's personnel, particularly the officers. 

The practice of wearing uniforms soon spread to all steamboat lines.  First, it was just a uniform cap.  Then it became a full fledged uniform with brass buttons and gold braid.  On some lines, the uniforms were provided by the companies outright, others granted a uniform allowance and the officers purchased their own uniforms, while on others a partial reimbursement for uniforms was given to officer personnel. 

Captain Cooper was an individualist of the old school.  He would have no truck [sic] with the new fangled idea of uniforms.  For him, what was good enough to wear ashore was good enough to wear afloat.  To the very end, he steadfastly refused to don either a uniform or even the traditional steamboatman's cap.  He undoubtedly was the last captain of one of the larger Hudson River passenger steamboats to command his steamer dressed in civilian garb. 
​
It was said Captain Cooper's ideas as to dress did not particularly please the owners and operators of the Catskill Evening Line.  It is my understanding, as a matter of fact, that a clash of wills ensued — and, since the owners held the trump cards, Captain Cooper left the “Onteora.”  He was later captain for many years of the big tugboat “J. C. Hartt” of the Cornell Steamboat Company — where he had no trouble dressing as he pleased.  The Catskill Evening Line’s loss, however, was the Cornell Steamboat Company's gain — for Captain Cooper was one of the best boatmen on the river.  

Editor's Note: This series of monthly blog posts by Justin Wexler recounts the dramatic story of the Esopus Indian Nation’s Revolutionary War exodus. The original inhabitants of Ulster County, the Esopus Indians successfully maintained their sovereignty and traditional way of life in the face of overwhelming odds for over a century.. These blog posts are summaries of a much fuller story that will be published in 2027.

Post 1: Setting the Scene (1770)
Five centuries ago, the hazy-blue peaks of the Catskill Mountains towered over a vast expanse of fertile, grassy flats and cornfields that stretched in swathes from Saugerties to Kingston and far to the westward. On these flats lay a mosaic of cornfields, lush bottoms of tall bluestem grass, and dense thickets of hazelnuts, blackberries and wild plums. Clusters of dome-shaped, bark-shingled houses were found here and there on the edges of the floodplains. The shimmering rivers that wound through these flats – the Esopus, the Rondout and others – were periodically crisscrossed with fence-like weirs and fish traps. The surrounding rocky uplands were cloaked in a forests of oaks and pitch pines and, in many cases, were barren at their tops due to frequent fires. This idyllic, park-like landscape was the result of centuries of careful management by the region’s human inhabitants: the Esopus Indians.

The Esopus Indians appear in the earliest colonial records under variations of the name Waranawankong, perhaps meaning ‘The Cove People.’ They spoke a dialect of what linguists today call the Munsee language.[1] The Esopus dialect survives today in the dozens of place names that still grace their ancestral homeland, including Ponckhockie, Ashokan, Shandaken, Wawarsing and, of course, Esopus. The Esopus Nation’s territory was divided among four matrilineal clans, and included the valleys of the Esopus, the Rondout, the Shawangunk, and the lower Wallkill Rivers as well as the headwaters of the Delaware River and lands across the Hudson River in the current towns of Red Hook and Rhinebeck. A chief sachem was elected to represent the four clans.

In the decades before and after the arrival of Dutch colonists in the early 17th century, the Esopus Indians lived in dispersed settlements that stretched along the terraces of land that border the fertile floodplain bottomlands. There, they grew their crops of maize, pole beans, squash, sunflowers and tobacco. They built stockaded strongholds in select elevated locations to retreat to during times of war. Theirs was a life built around the seasons: in the springtime, when the women were busy preparing their maize fields, most of the men could be found downstream in fishing camps where they took advantage of successive visits of spawning fish including alewives, shad, striped bass, sea lampreys, sturgeon, and eels. Summers were spent close to their cornfields. After the autumn crop harvest, younger and more mobile families visited hunting cabins in the uplands of the Shawangunk Ridge and in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains. There, they hunted numbers of white-tailed deer, Eastern elk, black bears and beavers in massive collective hunts. By early springtime, everyone returned to their villages in the bottomlands.

The 1660s were a time of major upheaval in the region. The Esopus Indians controlled the largest stretch of contiguous cleared arable farmland in the entire Hudson Valley. This was extremely attractive to settlers, creating friction that eventually led to the devastating First and Second Esopus Wars with the Dutch settlers. Concurrently, the Esopus Indians were involved in a massive intertribal war with the Five Nations or Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Between 1664 and 1669, the Esopus Indians had little other recourse than to make peace with the Haudenosaunee, with the Dutch and with the British. They would renew these treaties of peace regularly over the entire following century.

Over the 17th and 18th centuries, the Esopus Indians and other regional Native Peoples faced catastrophic population declines, largely due to Old World viruses to which they had little immunity. They soon found themselves to be a minority in their own land. And yet, the New York colonial government continued to treat with them as the sovereign indigenous nation that they were. As a strategy of survival, between the mid-17th century and the mid-18th century the Esopus Indians sold the vast majority of their territory in dozens of land sales, many preserved in deeds to this day. The deeds occasionally reserved their right to reside in or to use select areas. They soon held legal title to very little of their traditional territory.

Land sales, the growing colonial population, and environmental degradation made a traditional life difficult. By the 1750s, the majority of the Esopus Indian People had moved to the other side of the Catskill Mountains. There, they dwelled in communities along Delaware River’s East Branch, where they preserved the traditional spring fish camps for American shad and striped bass and the tradition of winter hunting camps. Over the preceding century, many had gained some level of fluency in the Dutch language. They had also adopted many customs from their colonial neighbors, including keeping of dairy cows, horses, hogs and chickens and growing of new crops including apples, peaches, cucumbers and turnips. Records from this period reveal Esopus Indian individuals who had adopted colonial skills including cider production, violin making, and blacksmithing. And yet, they tenaciously maintained their traditional religion: the Esopus Indians are the only Native group in the Hudson Valley who refused to join the Christian mission at Stockbridge, and only a handful of members joined the Moravian Missions.

By the early 1770s, it became clear that an influx of settlers was coming to the isolated valleys of the western Catskills and upper Susquehanna River, where they had a village called Ahlapeeng. Between the sales of the Hardenbergh Patent and the 1768 Fort Stanwix Treaty, land speculators and settlers were ready to pour over the mountains. Early in 1770, the Esopus Indians even met with British Indian Superintendent Sir William Johnson to try to find a solution. Ultimately, their destiny lay with that of the Haudenosaunee, now the Six Nations, whose lead they had followed since 1669. With the coming of the American Revolution, the consequences would be disastrous.
 
[1] The Munsee language, which belongs to the Eastern Algonquian language subfamily, is still spoken by a handful of descendants on the Moraviantown Reserve in Ontario, Canada.

TERRIBLE DISASTER!!
Steamer BERKSHIRE Burned. Many Lives Lost. Intrepidity of of the Pilot. Incidents of the Conflagration. Full Particulars. (BY OUR OWN REPORTER.)
​
The conflagration which was seen by our citizens illumining the horizon to northward, on Wednesday evening, proves to have been another of those awful steamboat disasters which now and then startle the community and plunge multitudes of men, woman and children unprepared into eternity. Our reporter went to the spot Thursday morning and he has furnished us thus far the following communication:
​
SCENE OF THE WRECK, TWO MILES ABOVE HYDE PARK, JUNE 9, 1864.
The steamer BERKSHIRE caught fire at a quarter before ten o'clock, P. M. on Wednesday, off Esopus Island, and was burned to the waters edge in a very few minutes, the flames spreading with such rapidity that many lives, and every article of property on board were lost.

The fire is supposed to have started in the lamp room, caused by the bursting of a kerosene lamp.

One of the owners, who was on board, when he discovered the fire ordered the pilot to run her ashore immediately, which was done. The BALDWIN passed, bound up a few minutes after, and rescued about 60 people, who were floating on chairs, life preservers, &c. A number who had escaped were distributed among the houses along shore.

The following are known to be lost thus far:
Wife and two children of Capt. Bullet, of a Harlem boat.
Three children of a lady named Mrs. Hanford, of Delaware county.
The manifest of the passengers was unfortunately lost, the clerk not being able to save his papers on account of the rapidity of the flames.

This morning Joel Beam of Hyde Park, had his leg and thigh broken by the falling of a smoke-stack. Also, a man named Andrew Soper was probably fatally injured by the same cause.  They were digging about the boat, endeavoring to find bodies.

The body of a female, name unknown, apparently about 30 years of age lies upon the shore.

The shore in front of the wreck is lined with people, and the water in the vicinity of the ill-fated steamer is filled with boats and men fishing for bodies. 

It is thought that between 25 and 30 lives were lost, although the facts cannot yet be ascertained. 

Coroner Norris, of Rhinebeck, is on the ground, attending to his duties. It is raining very hard and the work of finding bodies is slightly retarded thereby.

The appearance of the remains of the vessel from the shore is sad. Nothing is left of her but a small part of one wheel house, one smoke stack and the skeleton of her machinery. At this time (low water) her hull lies out of the water, five or six feet. Her guards are entirely destroyed and the smoke of the ruins still continues to ascend. 

The wind at present, not blowing very hard, the search for bodies will be continued with, probably, better success.

A passenger thinks that hardly one escaped from the ladies cabin. The statement of course needs confirmation.

Although the exact number of passengers on board at the time is unknown, yet Capt. Frederick Power, her commander, states that as near as he can estimate, there were about 130 all told.

The conduct of the pilot of the boat is spoken of in the highest terms. It is said that be did not leave his post until the vessel was run ashore, and nearly everything about him was consumed by the flames.

SECOND DISPATCH.   12 o'clock.
The body of a little boy, apparently about eight years of age, supposed to be the son of Mrs. Hanford, has just been picked up. His face and head are badly burned. The mother of this little boy jumped overboard with her two other children in her arms, leaving him standing on the stern of the boat awaiting her return. Her two children were drowned, and she was rescued by a gentleman, who in turn lost his own child while rescuing her.

The steamer W. CRANE, from Rondout, having on board Capt. Tremper, of the BALDWIN, and Capt. Cornell, of the THOMAS CORNELL, arrived here early this morning, and they are doing everything in their power. It is utterly impossible, as yet, to give a detained account of the loss of life.  All sorts of rumors are afloat.

Four bodies have been found thus far.

FURTHER PARTICULARS.
The BERKSHIRE was a new steamer, this being her first season, commanded by Capt. Frederick Power. She plied between Hudson and New York and was on her down trip when the fire broke out. The flames spread with inconceivable rapidity and in half an hour nothing was left but the smoking hull and the skeleton of her machinery.

We were unable to find either of the officers of the boat, or anyone who was on board of her at the time, as the former had gone to Hudson when we arrived at the scene of the disaster, and the passengers who were saved had all departed for their homes. We, however, conversed with the captain and other officers of the BALDWIN which reached the wreck just after she ran ashore, and from them obtained such of the particulars as they could give.

STATEMENT OF J. B. VAN ERTEN.
I am pilot of the steamboat JAMES W. BALDWIN. On the night in question Mr. Mosher, the other pilot, and myself, were in the pilot house of the BALDWIN we being bound up. When opposite the stone quarry two miles above New Paltz on the west side of the river saw a bright light and supposed it to be the reflection of the head light of a locomotive. It growing brighter and larger, supposed it to be the railroad depot at Hyde Park, knew the BERKSHIRE was behind time. On rounding Crum Elbow saw that the flames came from the burning of the BERKSHIRE as we could distinctly see the vessel from that point. Put on all steam and hurried to the spot, arriving there after the BERKSHIRE was ashore. At the same time the river was filled with human beings. We succeeded in rescuing a large number. The whole vessel was completely enveloped in flames. We laid by her about two hours doing all in our power to aid the passengers. We landed 60 or 70 at Rhinebeck, together with the body of a boy.

STATEMENT OF CHARLES D. JOHNSON, 1st mate of the Baldwin.
On arriving at the scene lowered a boat and shoved out towards the fire. Hadn't gone but a short distance before I picked up two men. Went on little further towards shore and took a woman off an island. —  (This was afterwards ascertained to be Mrs. Hanford, spoken of above.) Her little boy, when she jumped off stood on the stern of the burning steamer crying out “mother! save me!” The last seen of the little fellow, he was enveloped in flames. We rescued three from the river and proceeding to the shore took there from a large number who had reached the beach in safety. While looking for persons in the river, one man whom I picked up stated that just before I got him the river about him was filled with human beings, hanging to chairs, &c., but before I got to them they all disappeared. Everything that laid in our power was done to rescue the unfortunates.

THE DEAD BODIES.
The little steamer WALTER B. CRANE, of Rondout, having a number of steamboat men on board, including Capt. Tremper of the BALDWIN, and Capt. Cornell of the steamer CORNELL, left the wreck just before noon for Rondout, having on board six bodies, which, with the one left by the BALDWIN at Rhinebeck the night previous, made seven found up to that time.

The following is a list:
Miss Catharine Niles, Spencertown, Columbia County, drowned.
Three children belonging to Mrs. Hanford, of Davenport, Delaware County. One of them a little girl five years of age, and a baby about seven months old were found on the beach between Kelly's dock and the wreck. The other child, a beautiful little boy about eight years old, was found at the stern of the wreck, lying in the water with his head burned slightly.
A colored man, name unknown, supposed to be one of the waiters of the BERKSHIRE, was found on the beach about five hundred feet south of Kelly's dock. He had on a life preserver, but it was adjusted on his back, which was probably the cause of his losing his life.

SCENES AND INCIDENTS.
An eye witness describes the scene in the vicinity of the burning vessel as awful. As soon as it was ascertained that she was on fire, the pilot immediately headed her for shore, the engine at the time working at full speed, but before she struck the mud, all-the wood work was one vast sheet of flame. The scene that followed beggars [sic] description. Men frantic with fear, children crying, (and it in said that there were quite a number of little ones on board,) men shouting, the flames crackling, and the passengers jumping overboard, formed a sight terrible to behold. Furniture of every description was floating in the water, some of the pieces upholding a few of the unfortunate beings.

One little boy with his grandmother was in a state room, and when he heard the alarm he endeavored to open the door of his room, but could not. He then managed to get out of the window and tried to save his relative, but so close were the flames that he had to jump overboard to save his own life. The lady was probably suffocated.

One of the most heart-rending scenes in this terrible disaster was the case of Mrs. Hanford. On ascertaining her danger she seized her babe and her daughter, spoken of above, and jumped overboard, leaving her little son standing on the stern of the vessel. After she got in the water she was compelled to relinquish her hold on her little ones and they both went down. A man with his child-in his arms who was in the water close by her, seeing that the mother was in the act of sinking, seized hold of her and buoyed her up; but alas! in doing so he lost his own child.

The pilot of the BERKSHIRE, (we are sorry we could not learn his name. [Capt. Frederick Power]) receives the highest praise for his heroic bravery and endurance. With the prospect of almost certain death before him he remained at his post until nearly everything about him was consumed by fire and the boat was brought to land. The officers of the BERKSHIRE and her crew are said to have conducted themselves in the best possible manner.

Too much praise cannot be awarded to Capt. Tremper and all the attachees of the JAMES W. BALDWIN, for their untiring exertions in behalf of the sufferers. It will be impossible to ascertain full particulars of the loss short of three or four day, or  perhaps a week's time.
Whether anyone was to blame  at the commencement of  the conflagration we could not learn, nor can we, in view of the terrible result, hint at such a thing.

STILL LATER.
We learn that a Mr. French, of Saugerties, together with his two children, a boy and a girl, jumped from the promenade deck of the steamer into the river, and reached the shore in safety.

After the vessel ran on the mud, and in consequence of no one being able to reach the engine room to stop the engine, the wheels of the burning steamer continued to revolve, thereby washing those who had jumped overboard from the stern out into the river. Many persons undoubtedly lost their lives in this way.

It is supposed that were about 130 or 140 passengers on board the boat at the time. Probably about 30 or 40 of these were lost. The vessel had on board at the time a large quantity of butter, hay, stock and country produce generally. Her original cost was about $100,000. A vessel like her could not be built now short of $200,000.

Mrs. Hanford, who is at present stopping at the house of Capt. Tremper in Rondout, yesterday proceeded to the steamer WALTER B. CRANE in Rondout Creek, and identified the bodies of her three children. Her feelings can better be imagined than described.

We left the wreck at twelve o'clock yesterday morning and proceeded to Rondout by railroad and ferryboat. The excitement there was great. Returning for Poughkeepsie we left Rondout at 8 o'clock on board the steamer EAGLE, which vessel on her way down passed close to the wreck of the BERKSHIRE. Persons were yet engaged in dredging for bodies, but the distance from us to them was so great that we were unable to find out whether any more had been found.

Most of the passengers on the BERKSHIRE had retired or were about retiring for the night when the fire broke out, consequently those that were saved were shoeless, coatless and some of them almost entirely naked. Their wants were partially supplied by the country people in the vicinity of the disaster and by the proprietor of the Rhinecliff House at Rhinebeck. The calamity has cast a gloom over every community hearing of it.

Early yesterday morning one of the passengers, an elderly lady, was found roaming in the woods near where the calamity happened, in a state of mind  bordering on insanity.

The only possible way to get anything like a true statement of the number lost is to take the number already accounted for, and subtract it from what was thought to be the number on board at the time of the accident, which, as is stated above, was in the neighborhood of one hundred and thirty. The JAMES W. BALDWIN landed about seventy at Rhinebeck, who took the cars from thence to their respective homes up the river. The pilot of the boat left Hyde Park at 10 A. M. yesterday having two ladies in charge. It is also stated that a number walked to Staatsburgh and Hyde Park and took conveyance from there. The loss in drowned and burned will probably reach forty. A large number of the passengers were from Catskill and vicinity, and Hudson.

During the forenoon of yesterday a great ma[n]y country people visited the spot and remained nearly all day watching with in tense interest every movement made by parties engaged in dredging the river.

Both smoke pipes attached to the hulk of the vessel are now down, the last one having fallen yesterday afternoon.

The WALTER B. CRANE sailed some distance up and down the river yesterday close to the shore, each side of the wreck, in search of more dead bodies, arriving at Rondout about 3 P. M., without finding any.

STATEMENTS OF PASSENGERS.
Since writing the above we have been furnished by Mr. Shurter, our collector, with the statement of two passengers who were on board the BERKSHIRE at the time of the conflagration. One of them, Mr. Niles, who lost his wife and daughter, says when he first was made aware of the true state of things, he in company with his wife and daughter started to save themselves. By some means or other his wife got away, leaving his daughter with him, and with whom he jumped overboard. After reaching the water a woman seized his daughter, breaking his hold of her and both sank together. He was picked up by the BALDWIN's boat and landed on a ledge of rocks. He believes his wife was burned to death.

Another passenger, whose name we could not learn, states that he left Catskill in company with a friend and took passage on the BERKSHIRE for New York; after retiring to their berths in the cabin, he suddenly heard a cry of fire. Jumping from his berth he ran to the companion way and ascended the the steps, intending to go out on deck, but on opening the door, the smoke rushed through the aperture with such density and fury as to drive him back. Concluding in an instant that he had to get out of the cabin or be suffocated, he made another attempt to reach the deck and succeeded this time in getting one foot out, when he observed a huge wall of flame directly in his pathway, utterly doing away with all possibility of escape. He again retreated to the cabin, which by this time was so filled with smoke as to make it an imperative necessity for him to make another attempt to get out or die. Groping his way along he entered an ante room in which was a window through which he could see a dim sky light. Rushing to it he broke the sash, when he jostled against a boy who was also endeavoring to escape. Seizing him, the two crawled through the window and dropped into the water. His friend, he believes, was burned to death or suffocated in the cabin. He further more says that he was the first one that made any attempt to escape from the cabin; and he is positive that after he retreated from the companion way the second time nothing could get out of the cabin alive. There being quite a number in their berths in the cabin, it is feared that this gentleman’s statement is too true. 

We will probably get further reports today. 

Looks as If It Would Make an Exception This Year, However — Last Season’s Record Recalls the Great Flood of 1857, When Much Damage Was Caused in Albany.
If the Hudson river should skip a year in its record of spring freshets, Albanians would be agreeably surprised, for the years in which it has not overflowed its banks at this point when the ice went out or soon after have been few and far between. Forecaster Todd has compiled a record from many sources of the floods that have occurred at Albany extending back to 1645. Many early years since then are omitted, of course, no records
being available, but it makes a telling argument for the deepening of the upper Hudson and the clearing out of sandbars that facilitate the formation of ice gorges that serve as dams and back up the water until it overflows the docks and inundates a considerable section of the city.

Highest on Record.
The flood of last year is still fresh in the minds of Albanians. The water at this point reached the highest mark on record, 23 feet above mean low water level, even exceeding that of the great flood of 1857, which was until last year the greatest flood in the history of the Hudson. In 1867 the highest point reached was 21.25 feet above mean low water. There is no absolute surety that a freshet will not occur after the ice has passed out of the river. Last year the river began to rise rapidly on March 26, after the steamers of the Hudson River
Navigation company had resumed navigation and had been running some time. The flood was caused by heavy rains, helped by ice that came down from the Mohawk. The water continued to rise on the 27th and on the 30th reached its maximum height of 23 feet above mean low water. At midnight the river began slowly to recede and by March 31 had reached nearly normal conditions. In this flood bridges were washed away, barns, lumber and all sorts of debris floated past Albany and nearly every industry in this city. Rensselaer and Troy was suspended, about 100,000 in the three cities being temporarily thrown out of employment. There was great suffering in the South End, but perhaps the worst effect of this flood was the putting out of commission of the filtration plant and the pollution of the drinking water, which caused a good many cases of typhoid fever.

In these days, however, we are better able to cope with flood conditions and bring relief to those who are marooned in their houses than Albanians were in 1857. Although the water last spring rose to a higher point than it did in 1857, the flood of the latter year caused greater suffering and greater destruction of property. We have had floods as late as the first part of May, but this of 1857 occurred early in February and was succeeded by a smaller one in May, when the river was swollen by heavy rains and melting snow in the north and west, and the pier and docks were inundated.

Flood of 1857.
The flood of 1857 started on Monday, February 9, early in the morning. The mild weather which had prevailed all the previous week caused the great quantities of snow which had accumulated in the streets and upon the adjacent hills to melt with surprising rapidity. This was the case in the Mohawk as well as in the Hudson valley, the result being to pour down into the rivers an immense volume of water, the effect of which was first seen on the Hudson about noon on Saturday, February 7. Then it was first noticed that the heavy, solid mass of ice which had bridged the Hudson for upwards of two months was being gradually pressed upward by the swelling stream. In the course of the next 24 hours the river had raised six feet. Throughout the afternoon the pier, the docks and portions of the streets leading from the latter presented a scene of activity that was suggestive of a very busy day during the fall season. By sunset most of the merchants who had in previous years been visited by floods had removed all their goods from the first to the second floors, and retired feeling perfectly satisfied that they had saved their property and that it was beyond the reach of the rising water. Early Sunday morning, February 8, the ice in the Mohawk river broke up and came down, forcing its way into the Hudson, carrying away everything within its reach on the banks and producing a very disastrous flood at East and West Troy. It was this ice, together with a change of wind from southeast to northwest, which caused the fluctuations of the Hudson noticeable during Sunday afternoon and evening, the water at times advancing to the thresholds of some of the stores, and then receding suddenly off the docks. This fluctuation continued until about 11 p. m., when the heavy ice in front of the city was raised up in a moment, as quickly broke into millions of pieces and then went crashing along in the wildest and most terrific confusion, impelled by a torrent hitherto unknown to the ‘‘placid Hudson.”

Ice Gorge Formed.
The course of the ice was checked this side of Van Wie's Point, not more than three miles below the city, and to the fact that it blocked up there suddenly was due the rapid rise of the water that followed. The rapidity with which the water came up may be judged from the fact, that shortly after the ice broke up the rise was four feet in 10 minutes. Between 10:30 p. m. Sunday and 3:30 a. m. Monday, a period of six hours, the rise was about 11 feet. The rise continued until 8 o’clock, when it reached its highest point, being three feet higher than at any other period of which there then existed a record. A little after 10 o'clock Monday night, February 9, the water commenced falling and continued going down at the rate of an inch and a half an hour during the night and throughout Tuesday. The weather turned extremely cold and the river froze over so firmly that on Wednesday several teams crossed on the ice from Albany to Greenbush.

Great Damage.
The damage to property caused by this flood was estimated at not less than $1,500,000. The merchants on the docks and piers supposed that their property, having been removed from the first to the second floors, was entirely out of danger. Such, however, was not the case. The icy and muddy water entered on the second floors to the depth of from one to three feet. On these floors merchants had stored flour, grain and groceries and most of it was rendered useless. A man who had 278 head of cattle at East Albany (now Rensselaer)
awaiting shipment lost all but 28 of them in the flood. He visited them at 10 o’clock and found water in the yard, but was assured that it would not rise higher. He went again at 1 o’clock in the morning and found the animals in immediate danger of drowning. He begged the use of a boat from a person he saw near by and offered $50 for the favor, explaining that he wanted to go to the yard and open the gate, so as to let the animals out to swim ashore. He was refused, and the pent up creatures were nearly all drowned. Snowden & Charles, butchers, had upwards of 250 head of cattle at the distillery of Edson & Co., and 100 of them were drowned by daylight and some of the few that were saved died from cold and exhaustion shortly after being driven out of the water.

The greater part of the fleet wintering in the upper basin was sunk when the heavy ice crossed the pier into the basin, cutting the boats from their moorings. Columbia street bridge was carried away Sunday night upon the first moving of the ice, and upon the pier were stranded eight or 10 canal boats. The steam tug H. N. Dowd was sunk in the basin, and the R. J. Grant was turned keel up and lay with a lumber office on it. A sloop passed down the river soon after the ice started, was capsized and sank by the weight of the ice. The propeller Western World was on fire several times and was extinguished through the exertions of Assistant Engineer Coburn and some citizens with water thrown from buckets, but finally got beyond control and the boat was scuttled. Two Boston vessels loaded with merchandise were caught in the ice below the city in the fall. One was the packet Victor, which for 20 years had plied between Boston and this city, and the other was the John C. Calhoun. Both were lost. State street bridge was raised several feet above the iron columns and the east end of it broken off from the supports.

Fire Adds to Terror.
While this dreadful destruction was going on, the citizens were thrown into great excitement by repeated fire alarms. Some one was so frightened that he sent word to East and West Troy that what was left of Albany after the flood was being destroyed by fire, and towards noon of Monday fire engine companies from those places came to Albany to render assistance, which was not needed. There were five fires which started within a short
time of one another, the first one starting long before daylight in the lime kiln and plaster works of E. C. Warner & Son on South Broadway. The water reached the lime, slacking it, which set fire to whatever was combustible about the premises, and as all the streets for blocks around were inundated to a depth of two or or three feet, the fire engines could not reach the fire. Soon after a second alarm called the firemen to Gibson & Dalton’s plaster and planing mill in the north part of the city. This fire originated in the same way as that at Warner & Son’s, and as the premises were surrounded by water to a depth of six or seven feet, the engine companies were helpless until boats could be procured in which to extend their hose, and by that time nothing was left of the main building but its walls. All the costly machinery and finished material were destroyed, entailing a loss of about $100,000. The warehouse of W. R. Barrett, on the pier, also caught fire from the igniting of lime in the
second story, and the building and its contents were partially destroyed, among the latter being 4,000 bushels of corn. Two other fires followed, but were put out before much damage was done.

Relief Measures.
Both the the city officials and a committee of citizens took immediate steps to relieve the poor who were sufferers from the flood. The city hall was thrown open to those who had been driven from their homes and had no places to sleep. Food was distributed to those in the South End who were prisoners in their houses, and Very Rev. J. J. Conroy, pastor of St. Joseph’s church, opened the house at 798 Broadway for the distribution of soup and provisions for the poor of his parish, under the charge of Sisters of Charity. The poor of the northern part of the city of all creeds and sects were invited to apply for relief here.

Great Suffering.
The greatest suffering was in the First and Second wards. There more than 150 families were driven out of homes so suddenly that they had only time to dress and run for their lives. Most of these families were poor, but had managed to lay in their winter’s supply of provisions, which were ruined by the water. Officials and police went to their assistance. Some of those in the South End were still in their half submerged houses. Officers Clinton and Keefe, for instance, discovered a family in the second story of a dwelling unable to reach dry land and suffering severely from the cold. Near at hand was a man in a rowboat who refused to go to their succor unless paid an exorbitant price. The family had not as much as he asked and he was about to desert them when the officers seized the boat, ejected him and relieved the unfortunates.

In portions of the Sixth and Seventh wards the premises of many poor families were flooded and they lost nearly everything. An interesting anomaly was that in the inundated district in the North End, where many families were imprisoned in the second stories of their homes, one of their pressing wants was water. They had too much of it of a certain kind all around them, but none fit to drink, the water in the pipes being frozen.

Thrilling Escapes.
There were many thrilling escapes. A man named Moore who lived on the island just below the city (then called the & Vegetable Garden”) became aware that it was threatened with speedy inundation and removed his family and horses Sunday night, returning to the island to watch his property. In the morning he found, his house completely hemmed in, nearly up to the roof, and no possible chance of his escape at that time. He suffered much from exposure, but managed to survive until the waters receded and he could be rescued. A
man was carried down from somewhere up the river on a pile of lumber about noon on Monday. As it was nearing Greenbush the current carried it toward the ferry slip, when some persons on the dock threw a line, which he caught and tied around his body and he was drawn safely ashore. The bookkeeper of Gibson & Dalton, a Mr. Wetmore, also had a narrow escape. He, with two other men, remained in the building over night.

About 3 a. m. the water was rising so rapidly that he sent his companions to apprise his employers of that fact. While alone he thought it best to remove the books of the firm from the first to the second floor. After doing so he attempted to go down stairs again, when he discovered that the building was on fire and his course impeded by the smoke. He had no means of egree [sic, egress], and, wet to the skin, he was compelled to remain in the building. He was finally rescued by firemen, who found him completely exhausted. Three men went in a boat from near the house of Archibald Dunlop on the Troy road to bring off a family occupying a house on the island at that point, when the boat was capsized by a cake of ice and the three men were thrown into the water. Two of them managed to clamber into a tree, but the third was so cold that he could not raise himself from the water and was taken out in a dying state. The men on the island were rescued in a cart which was backed up to their relief.

Lola Montez’s Adventure.
An adventure in which Lola Montez, the famous (or infamous) dancer who later captivated the King of Belgium, figured at this time was chronicled by the Atlas and Argus of Feb. 11, 1857, as follows: "LOLA MONTEZ PLAYING THE DEUCE AGAIN. — Yesterday afternoon this notorious woman, who has had rooms at the Stanwix Hall during her engagement at the Green Street theatre, came to the conclusion that she could not remain in the city another day. She must go. The nearest, and the most perilous way for her to reach the other side of the river and take the cars was to cross over in a small skiff. No one had yet ventured to cross since the breaking up of the ice. Here was an adventure just suited to her daring spirit, and of course she was on nettles to embark.

“Ferrymen were procured and off they started, Lola accompanied by her sister, her agent (who was so unfortunate as to fall upon the ice and become damaged by water, thereby exciting the loud laughter of the danseuse) and another gentleman. They were ferried over in safety. The ferrymen then came back for Lola’s baggage, two heavy trunks. With that precious load they again shoved off for the opposite shore. The wind from the northwest was very strong and piercing cold. The men were somewhat exhausted by their previous
exertions and when in the centre of the stream the wind and rapid current drove their little boat into some drifting ice, and before they could extricate themselves their craft was firmly frozen to the moving mass.

“In this situation they were discovered by many of our citizens. Their peril was soon communicated throughout the city and much excitement ensued. All who could procured positions on the roofs of the higher buildings to obtain a view of the poor fellows. Away they floated, and when opposite Westerlo street the bell of the South Dutch church rang out an alarm. But it was impossible for anyone on this side to go to their assistance. Happily
the current tended to the Greenbush shore, and when they had nearly reached the ferry slip on that side they were floated against the solid ice.

"A dozen or more men out of Greenbush started for their relief and reached them by means of planks. Just then the ice gave way and the rescuers were compelled to retreat. They again essayed, and this time with more success, saving not only the men, but the trunks. The ferrymen have undoubtedly been severely frost bitten in return for indulging their adventurous spirit."

Breaking Ice Gorges.
Bars in the river have frequently afforded lodgment for the great cakes of ice piled one on top of the other as they floated down the stream and ice gorges have formed which rendered navigation impossible while other parts of the river were open. This was the case in 1857. On February 21 a committee of the Albany Board of Trade visited the ice barrier below the city and found it extend from Van Wie’s Point to Castleton, and so thick and solid as to defy any attempt to open a channel. As at this time river traffic was of large proportions, the ice embargo was severely felt by the commercial interests of this city. A man named Smith proposed to fill a box from four to six feet long with powder, to place this at an advantageous point in the ice gorge and to set off the powder by means of electricity. This plan, however, was rejected. The powder would probably have had about as much effect on the gorge as the kick of a grasshopper. However, late in the evening of the 21st the lower end of the barrier broke away and went down the river, and on the 25th the rest of the ice dam disappeared and the entire channel was found to be unobstructed except by floating masses of ice. The retiring water disclosed the unshapen mass which remained of the State street bridge. Navigation was at once resumed.

It was not until December, 1902, that the idea of smashing ice gorges on the Hudson by means of ramming them with powerful tugs was adopted. On the 22d of that month Captain Ulster Davis took the tug GEORGE C. VAN TUYL and attacked a gorge at the Livingston avenue bridge. The ice was jammed to the bottom of the river and piled up 10 feet high. The attempt was successful, after six days of “bucking.” Early in March, 1903, the
lower part of this city and Rensselaer was flooded by backwater from a gorge at Roah Hook. The old side- wheeler NORWICH and the tug BARIER [sic, BAVIER] were brought up from Rondout and attacked the gorge. The BARIER was a new steel hull steamer, and as it backed up 500 feet and then went at full speed into the gorge, it penetrated 25 or 30 feet. After several days the obstructions were cleared. Since then steamers have been employed with more or less success to break up the ice gorges in the river. In 1907 the powerful tug HERCULES got stuck hard and fast in an ice pack near Coxsackie and the big steamer POCAHONTAS and the tender HERCULES were sent to her rescue. The POCAHONTAS stove a plank in her bow and had to be beached at Catskill. 

The ROB got stuck in the ice alongside the Hercules, but after many hours, was pried loose. Then the ROB cut the HERCULES out of the floe and pulled her away with a stout hawser.

One of the greatest achievements of Captain Davis in breaking an ice gorge on the Hudson was in March, 1907. when he brought up the powerful tug CORNELL and the tender ROB from Rondout, a good part of the way cutting through ice two feet thick, and smashed upon the great barrier near Coeymans. It took four hours to make the trip of about two miles from Saugerties Light to Malden. Even after the gorge had been broken the immense cakes of floating ice jammed and formed other barriers, but were in turn rammed and dislodged, and after four days of strenuous work Captain Davis and his crews had the satisfaction of seeing the ice flowing freely and knew that the river was open to the ocean. The State now makes preparations for attacking ice gorges in the Hudson with steamers whenever necessary.

First Flood Record.
From the records compiled by Forecaster Todd we learn that in 1645 “a very high freshet, unequalled since 1639,” occurred, "which destroyed a number of horses in their stables, nearly carried away the fort and inflicted considerable other damage in the colonie.’’ In 1648 freshets nearly destroyed Fort Orange and in 1661 the country around Fort Orange for miles was under water and a few days later the heaviest flood the colonists had experienced up to that time forced them to quit their dwellings and flee with their cattle for safety to the woods on the adjoining hills. The “woods” at that time were where some of the finest residences of Albany are located now.

In 1818 the greatest freshet known in Albany in 40 years occurred. The river froze over that winter on December 7, 1817, and remained frozen until March 3, 1818, when the ice moved out in a body for some distance south and then remained stationary. On the night of March 3 the water rose to a great height in the river, so that several families in Church street would have perished if they had not been rescued. The water was two feet deep in the barroom of the Eagle tavern, at the southwest corner of South Market and Hamilton streets. Sloops were thrown upon the wharf and the horse ferry boat was driven about half way up to Pearl
street. A family that occupied a house on the island opposite the city were rescued by the people of Bath. The river was not clear this year until March 25.

Open Three Times.
The river was open to navigation three times between December, 1823, and February 11, 1824. On the latter date the breaking up was so sudden that sloops and other vessels moored for the season were carried away.

The worst freshet recorded before 1857 was on January 26, 1839, when the water at Albany rose to 17.28 feet above mean low water mark. Many citizens were driven from their houses and a soup house was opened at the city hall for their benefit. A late spring freshet was that of 1833, when the river began to rise on May 14 and two days later had reached its greatest height, causing much damage. South Market street was impassable below Hamilton street. Another was on May 2, 1841. The ice had gone out without making any trouble on March 24, but later heavy rains swelled the stream and when a great snow storm set in on May 2 the water overflowed the docks.

Freshets Not Only in Spring.
Occasionally the Hudson river goes on the rampage in the fall. In 1823, it even cut up on Christmas day, when the rain and mild weather conspired to break up the ice and considerable damage was done. The pier, which was nearly completed, was exposed for the first time to such a freshet. There was such a heavy rain during the first four days of September, 1828, when nearly as much fell as in the months of July and August, that the river rose and submerged the docks and pier. Heavy rain sent the water over the docks on September 3, 1849, and on October 28 of the same year heavy rain that had fallen for 36 hours caused the island at the lower end of the city to be inundated for the eighth time that season, entailing great damage to crops. On November 14, 1853, heavy rain of the previous two days caused a rise in the river, which overflowed the docks. A great freshet caused by rain of the previous 36 hours on August 21, 1856, carried away the bridge over the Normanskill on the Bethlehem turnpike and damaged several mills. On October 8, 1903, the river began to rise rapidly and by the 10th reached 16.3 feet above mean low water mark at Albany. The greatest rainfall ever recorded for 24 hours at Albany was on the 9th, when 4.75 inches fell.

Editor's note: This excerpt is from Benjamin Silliman. Remarks Made on A Short Tour between Hartford and Quebec in the Autumn of 1819.  Second Edition.  New Haven, 1824. 
Thank you to Contributing Scholar George A. Thompson for finding and cataloging  the article. The language, spelling and grammar of the article reflects the time period when it was written.

 Albany contains from ten to twelve thousand inhabitants, and is the second city in the state (we might almost say empire) of New-York.  . . . it is one hundred and sixty miles from New-York, and one hundred sixty-four from Boston.  It rises, for the most part, rapidly from the river, and exhibits a very handsome appearance from the Greenbush side.  The greater part of the population, however, is on the flat ground, immediately contiguous to the river, where the Dutch, who founded the town, first commenced building, agreeably to their established habits in Holland.  Instances are innumerable, where people continue from habit, what was at first begun from necessity, and this seems to have been the fact in the present case.  The town extends about two miles north and south, on the river, and in the widest part, nearly one mile east and west.  It is perfectly compact -- closely built, and as far as it extends, has the appearance of a great city.  It has numerous streets, lanes and alleys, and in all of them, there is the same closeness of building, and the same city-like appearance.
               
The principal streets, and especially Market, State and Pearl streets, are spacious, and the houses in general, are handsome and commodious; many are large, and a few are splendid.  State-street is very wide, and rises rapidly from the river, up a considerably steep hill.  The Capitol stands at the head of it.  This is a large and handsome building of stone* furnished with good rooms for the government (p. 60) and courts of law; in the decorations and furniture of some of these apartments, there is a good degree of elegance, and even some splendor. There is also a State Library, just begun; it does not yet contain one thousand volumes, but they are well selected, and a fund of five hundred dollars per annum is provided for its increase, besides three thousand dollars granted by the legislature to commence the collection.
  
I could not but regret that the tessellated marble pavement or the vestibule, otherwise very handsome, was shamefully dirtied by tobacco spittle; such a thing would not be suffered in Europe.  It is, however, only a sample of the too general treatment of public buildings, and places in the United States, and constitutes no peculiar topic of reproach, in this instance; but it is particularly offensive in so fine a building.  
               
The view from the Balcony of the Capitol is rich and magnificent: the mountains of Vermont and of the Catskill are the most distant objects, and the banks of the river are very beautiful, on account of the fine verdure and cultivation, and of the numerous pretty eminences, which bound its meadows.
               
The Academy of Albany, situated on the Capitol Hill, is a noble building of Jersey free stone.  Although it has (as stated to me by Dr. B----) cost ninety thousand dollars, only the lower rooms are finished.  Schools are, however, maintained, in it; for nearly two hundred children, and it is prosperous, under the able direction of Dr. T. R. Beck, and several assistant teachers.
               
This Institution was erected at the expense of the city of Albany, and is honorable to its munificence, although a plainer building, which, when completely finished, would have cost much less  money, would probably have been equally useful, and might have left them, out of their ninety thousand dollars, a handsome fund, in addition to what they now possess.

Among the interesting things of Albany is the seat of the late General Schuyler, situated quite in the country, at the south side of the town.  It is memorable, principally, from its historical associations.  It was the seat of vast hospitality and the resort of the great men of the revolution.
 
The house of the late Gen. Schuyler, is spacious and in its appearance venerable; it has long since passed away from the family, and is now possessed by a furrier.
               
At the opposite, or northern extremity of Albany, and almost equally in the country, is situated the seat of the patroon, Gen. Stephen Van Rensselaer.  It is well known, that he possesses a vast patrimonial estate of forty miles square, lying in the vicinity of Albany which has descended, unbroken, from his early American ancestors.  Such a phenomenon, in a republican country, is very remarkable, and cannot fail, in spite of our early prejudices, and the strong bias of national feelings, to excite a degree of admiration, if not of veneration.  We are still more disposed to indulge there feelings, when we find the hereditary possession of such wealth, associated with distinguished excellence, in public and private life, with the most amiable and unassuming manners, and with a princely although discriminating liberality.
               
The house, (which was built by the father of the present patroon,) is a palace.  It stands on the flat ground, by the river, and looks down Market street, which here terminates abruptly.  The house has in the rear, nothing but green fields and beautiful rural scenes.  It is embowered in groves, and shrubbery and reminded me powerfully, of some of the fine villas in Holland, to which, both in situation and appearance, it bears a strong resemblance.

Albany is the great thoroughfare and resort of the vast western regions of the State; its streets are very bustling; it is said that two thousand wagons sometimes pass up and down State street in a day; it must hereafter become a great inland city.
               
It stands near the head of sloop navigation and of tide water: sloops of eighty tons come up to the town, besides the steam-boats of vastly greater tonnage, but of a moderate draught of water.

The situation of Albany is salubrious, and eminently happy, in relation to the surrounding country, which is populous and fertile.  No one can estimate the importance of the regions west, which, in their progressive increase, and aided by the stupendous canal,* now in progress, must pour a great part of their treasures through this channel.

*  Already united to the waters of the Hudson, and beginning to verify the remark in the text.  1824.

Albany was the seat of the great convention, held in 1754, for the purpose of bringing about a confederation of the Colonies, for their mutual defense and general benefit, and it has been signalized, by not a few other meetings, for momentous public purposes.
               
We passed a part of three days in Albany, and were not without strong inducements to protract our stay.  The public houses are excellent, affording every accommodation and comfort with that quiet and retirement, and that prompt civility, so commonly found in English Inns, and which, until within a few years, were so rare in those of America.  Polished and enlightened society, and the courtesies of hospitality held out still stronger attractions, but our allotments of time did not permit us to remain any longer, and we hastened to set our faces towards the British dominions.
 
BANKS OF THE HUDSON, ABOVE ALBANY.
 
We determined to go by Whitehall, as we wished to avail ourselves, of the rapid and comfortable conveyance, to the confines of Canada, now established on Lake Champlain.  Being unwilling however, to pass rapidly by, or entirely to avoid, all the interesting objects on the road, we adopted such an arrangement, as might permits us to take the banks of the Hudson and Lake George in our route.  Indeed, from Albany, upon the course proposed, every part of our way was to be over classical ground.  History sheds a deeper interest over no portion of the North American States.  He who venerates the virtues and the valour, and commiserates the suffering of our fathers, and he, who views, with gratitude and reverence, the deliverancies which heaven has wrought for this land, will tread with awe, on every foot of ground between Albany and the northern lakes.

We were obliged, on this occasion, to deny ourselves a visit to Schenectady, and its rising literary institution, and to the waters of Ballston and Saratoga.  Leaving them therefore to the left, we proceeded along the banks of the Hudson, principally on the western shore.
               
This is a charming ride.  The road is very good and absolutely without a hill; the river often placid and smooth, but sometimes disturbed by a rocky bottom, is almost continually in sight, and flows through beautiful meadows, which are commonly bounded, at small distances from the Hudson, by verdant hills, of moderate height, and gentle declivity. 
    
SINGULAR HORSE FERRY-BOAT.
 
The ferry-boat is of a most singular construction.*  A platform covers a wide flat boat.  Underneath the platform, there is a large horizontal wheel, which extends to the sides of the boat; and there the platform, or deck, is cut through, and removed, so as to afford sufficient room for two horses to stand on the flat surface of the wheel, one horse on each side, and parallel to the gunwale of the boat.  The horses are harnessed, in the usual manner for teams -- the whiffle trees being attached to stout iron bars, fixed horizontally, at a proper height, in the posts, which are a part of the permanent structure of the boat.  The horses look in opposite directions, one to the bow, and the other to the stern; their feet take hold of the channels, or grooves, cut in the wheels, in the direction of radii; they press forward, and, although they advance not, any more than a squirrel in a revolving cage, or than a spit dog at his work, their feet cause the horizontal wheel to revolve, in a direction opposite to that of their own apparent motion; this, by a connexion of cogs, moves two vertical wheels, one on each wing of the boat, and these, being constructed like the paddle wheels of steam-boats, produce the same effect, and propel the boat forward.  The horses are covered by a roof, furnished with curtains, to protect them in bad weather; and do not appear to labor harder than common draft horses, with a heavy load.

* They have now become common, and are worked by four horses where the boat is large.  1824.

The inventor of this boat, is Mr. LANGDON, of Whitehall and it claims the important advantages of simplicity, cheapness, and effect.  At first view, the labour appears like a hardship upon the horses, but probably this is an illusion, as it seems very immaterial to their comfort, whether they advance with their load, or cause the basis, on which they labour, to recede.
 
TROY, LANSINGBURGH, AND WATERFORD.
 
Troy, six miles north of Albany, is a beautiful city, handsomely built, and regularly laid out; its appearance is very neat; it stands principally on the flat ground, by the Hudson -- contains five thousand inhabitants, a court-house, jail, market-house, and two banks, a public library, a Lancasterian school, and five places of public worship.  It has an intelligent and polished population, and a large share of wealth.  A number of its gentlemen have discovered their attachment to science, by the institution of a Lyceum of Natural History, which, fostered by the activity, zeal, and intelligence of its members, and of its lecturer, Mr. Eaton, promises to be a public benefit, and to elevate the character of the place.
               
Near it, on the opposite side of the river, are extensive and beautiful barracks, belonging to the United States, with a large park of artillery.  Below the town, are fine mill seats, on which are already established, several important manufactures, for which kind of employments Troy appears very favorably situated.  Small sloops come up to this town, which, for size, and importance, is the third, and fourth, in the state.
               
We had to regret that the arrangements of our journey did not permit us to pass as much time in Troy, as, under other circumstances, would have been both useful and agreeable.
               
Lansinghburgh, through which we passed, three miles north of Troy, is inferior ot it in the number and quality of its buildings.  Its population is not far from two thousand.  It is a large and handsome settlement, situated, principally, on one street, and has an academy, a bank, and four places of public worship.  Sloops come up to this place, and it enjoys a considerable trade.
               
It was formerly more flourishing than at present. Troy has, for a good many years, gained the preeminence, and seems likely to retain it.
               
Waterford is a pretty village, of one thousand inhabitants, and stands on the western bank of the Hudson, at its confluence with the Mohawk, where a number of islands, producing the appearance of several mouths, give diversity to a very beautiful scene.  It is ten miles north of Albany.  From the Lansingburgh side, we crossed into it, over a commodious bridge.  The name of this place, was formerly Half-Moon point. 

FORT EDWARD.
At this Fort, we first observed the canal, which is destined to connect the head waters of Lake Champlain with those of the Hudson.  It is now on the point of being united with this river, and they are constructing the walls of the Canal of a very handsome hewn stone: it is obtained, as I am informed, near Fort Anne, and presents to the eye, aided by a magnifier, very minute plates and veins, which feebly effervesce with acids. . . ; is it a peculiar kind of sand stone?  It is of a dark hue, and is shaped into handsome blocks, by the tools of the workmen.  I was gratified to see such firm and massy walls constructed of this stone; indeed, in point of solidity and beauty, they would do honor to the modern wet docks of Great Britain.
               
It is intended to have a lock at this place, where there is a considerable descent into the Hudson.
               
There is a village at Fort Edward, bearing the same name, and I ought to have remarked that there are villages, at Stillwater, Saratoga and Fort Miller; but there is nothing particularly interesting in any of them.  

Immediately after leaving this battle ground, we arrived on the banks of the canal, which is to connect the Hudson with Lake Champlain.  Being almost constantly in sight of it, and very often as near it as possible, we were seriously incommoded by deep gullies, and heaps of miry clay, thrown out by the canal diggers, through which we were compelled to drag our way; and when we were not in the mud, we found a road excessively rough and uncomfortable, from the united effect of much rain and much travelling, with occasional hot sunshine, in a country whose basis is a stiff clay.  We rode almost constantly in sight of Wood Creek, as well as of the canal.

​After a very fatiguing journey from Fort Anne, several miles of which I walked, we arrived safely at Whitehall, at the head of Lake Champlain, a little before night.

WHITEHALL -- THE CANAL.
The canal terminates twenty-two miles from Fort Edward, at Whitehall, where they are now (p. 181) constructing a lock, with handsome massy hewn stone.  There is a considerable descent to the surface of Lake Champlain, and Wood Creek, whose mouth and that of the canal are side by side, here rushes down a considerable rapid with some grandeur.  This is the place formerly called the falls of Wood Creek, at Skeensborough.
               
As Wood Creek is really a river, navigable by larger boats than those which will probably pass on the canal, and as the canal and river from Fort Anne, a distance of about ten or eleven miles, are often close together, so that a stone might be thrown from the one to the other, a traveller naturally inquires why the larger natural canal should, with vast expense, be deserted for the smaller artificial one.  The answer will probably be founded upon the shortening of distance, by avoiding the numerous windings of the creek -- the obtaining of a better horse road for dragging the boats -- security from the effects of floods and drought, in altering the quantity of water -- and the securing of a more adequate supply of water for that part of the route between Fort Anne an the Hudson; in either case, there must be locks at Whitehall.*

The immense utility of this canal is already sufficiently obvious in the vast quantities of lumber and other commodities which now find their way into the Hudson. -- March, 1824.

WHITEHALL PORT.
This is a well-built, and apparently thriving little place, situated on both branches of the muddy Wood Creek, which, on its way to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, sluggishly flows through the village, till it makes its escape into Lake Champlain; it then tumbles down a steep declivity, over a bed of rocks, and foams, and roars, as if in exultation, at making its escape from its own Lethean channel.
               
Whitehall, anciently called Skeensborough, was famous in General Burgoyne's campaign.  Here he destroyed the little American flotilla, in July, 1777, and the baggage and stores of the American army; and here he had his head quarters for some time, while preparing to pass his army and heavy artillery over land to Fort Edward.
               
Whitehall is situated at the bottom of a narrow defile in the mountains, and has the bustle and crowded aspect of a port, without the quiet and cleanliness of a village.  Some of the houses are situated on elevations and declivities, and some in the bottom of the vale -- some are of wood, and others of brick, but I was gratified to see many of them handsomely constructed of stone -- of the fine gneiss rock which abounds here -- the two parts of the town are connected by a bridge over Wood Creek.  The population of this town is between two and three thousand, and the village contains a Presbyterian meeting-house, four ware-houses, ten stores, and more than a hundred dwelling-houses.
               
The fever and ague is now very prevalent here, and many sallow faces, and feeble frames, are to be see about the streets.
               
The country, both up Wood Creek, and down the lake contiguous to the town, looks as if it might nourish fever and ague, but the inhabitants deny that it is their inheritance, and profess to consider the visitation of this summer as fortuitous.  I am afraid that their canal, with its stagnant waters, will not help them to more health.  A thick fog prevailed here, most of the time that we were in the place, and rendered it uncomfortable to move out of doors till the middle of the forenoon, when it blew away.
               
This will probably become a considerable place, situated as it is, at the head of lake navigation, and at the point of communication, between the Hudson and Lake Champlain.  it derived some ephemeral importance, from the local navy maintained on the lake, in time of war; there is a small naval arsenal here, and at present there are a few naval officers and men at this station.

PASSAGE DOWN LAKE CHAMPLAIN.
The carriage and horses were received on board the steam-boat at Whitehall, and accommodation which we had not expected; and thus we avoided the inconvenience of having them go around by land, to Burlington, in Vermont, to wait our return from Canada.  The steam-boat lay in a wild glen, immediately under a high, precipitous, rocky hill, and not far from the roaring outlet of Wood Creek; we almost drop down upon the port, all on a sudden, and it strikes one like an interesting discovery, in a country, so wild, and so far inland, as to present, in other respects, no nautical images or realities. 
               
We left Whitehall between two and three o'clock in the afternoon, in the Congress, a neat and rapid boat, and the only one remaining on the lake, since the late awful catastrophe of the "Phoenix".   
               
The lake, for many miles, after it receives Wood Creek, is, in fact, nothing more, than a narrow sluggish river, passing, without apparent motion, among high, rocky, and even mountainous ridges, between whose feet and the lake, there is, generally, a considerable extent of low, wet marshy ground, of a most unpromising appearance, for any purpose, but to produce fever and ague, unless by and by, it should by dyking and ditching, be rescued, like Holland, from the dominion of the water, and converted to the purposes of agriculture.
               
The channel, through which we passed, is, for miles, so narrow, that the steam-boat could scarcely put about in it, and there seemed hardly room for the passage of the little sloops, which we frequently met going up to Whitehall.  At the very head of this natural canal, lie moored, to the bank, stem and stern, the flotillas of McDonough and Downie, now, by the catastrophe of battle, united into one.
               
When I passed this place in June 1821, these vessels were lying a little way down the lake, mere wrecks, sunken, neglected and in ruins -- scarcely seven years from the time of the fierce contention, by which they were lost and won.

Editor's note: The following article is from the Commercial Advertiser, November 15, 1822. Thank you to Contributing Scholar George A. Thompson for finding, cataloging and transcribing this article. The language, spelling and grammar of the article reflects the time period when it was written.

FOR THE COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER.  The Catskill Mountains.
               
On the 18th of September, 1822, a large party of ladies and gentlemen visited the Pine Orchard, situated on one of the lofty summits of the Catskill mountains, and about twelve miles from the village of Catskill.
               
The road from Catskill to the base of the mountain, is tolerably good; and although it is over some considerable hills, the traveller feels little inconvenience, until he arrives at Lawrence's Tavern, near the foot of one of the cluster of mountains, and about seven miles from Catskill.
               
At this house, a large portion of the party halted, and partook of refreshments, and some proceeded up the mountain.  Immediately on leaving Lawrence's, the ascent becomes considerable, and often times difficult, passing over many rugged cliffs which continued almost without interruption, until we arrived at the Pine Orchard, which is distant about five miles.  As we approached the Pine Orchard, the views from the various openings of the woods near the road, become extremely interesting; occasionally, we ascended a very steep hill, and then winding on a course round some inaccessible cliff of rocks, again descended into a wild and lonely glen. At about 5 o'clock in the afternoon, we arrived at the Pine Orchard, so named from a small flat of land, on the summit of one of the mountains, on which grow a number of yellow pine trees.
               
The scene that here was presented to the eye, was uncommonly grand and sublime.  This point of the mountain is an elevation of 2800 feet, and the summit on which we stood is composed principally of granite rock, of an immense perpendicular height.

The sun was shedding his last declining rays over the world beneath us, and already the faint mists of the evening, partially obscured the far distant mountains that seemed to stretch their blue tops to the horizon. From the hasty contemplation of this delightful landscape, the company was early summoned to a cold collation, and soon afterwards to the Ball Room.  The building for the accommodation of the company, corresponded with the situation in which it was erected.  It was a temporary frame house, one story high, built with rough boards, consisting of two rooms for the ladies, a kitchen and supper-room adjoining.  Connected with this building, was another, built in a similar manner -- about sixty feet long and designed for a ball room.  The dining room presented a most singular and beautiful appearance; . . . the wild mountain had afforded every decoration; and the boughs of fir, the hemlock, and the spruce, were tastefully arranged along its walls.

 ***  The company, consisting of about seventy ladies and gentlemen from different parts of the state of New-York, assembled in the ball room; and at an early hour cotillions and country dances commenced, and were continued during the remainder of the night, except for the necessary intermission in partaking of an excellent supper, prepared in a very handsome style, by Mr. Bigelow.  All seemed to enjoy the festivities of the dance -- the music was well selected, and the party in fine spirits.  Indeed it was a most gratifying scene to behold so splendid a collection of youth and beauty . . . on the wild mountain's top, surrounded by the tall ever-green trees, and where, but as yesterday, the wild beasts of the forest roamed undisturbed!
               
At a seasonable hour the company separated and retired to rest; but at the dawn of day the music beat the reveille, and, according to a previous arrangement, the party again collected on the summit of the mountain's brow, to witness sun-rise.  Female beauty, renovated by refreshing sleep, appeared in all its loveliness, and the fresh morning air of the mountain, added lustre to many a fair cheek.  The grey mists of the morning, still rested on the immeasurable valleys below, and the distant mountains were but dimly seen.  ***  As the day-light increased, the vapours of the night gradually began to move, until the sun, proudly rising in his glory, shot his long and genial rays over the boundless landscape before us.  Who could survey such a scene, and not feel his soul regenerated from every selfish feeling!  The winds seemed pillowed in the valley, and as the sun majestically rose and dispelled the morning dews, the view became more and more extensive, until the eye had a boundless range over mountains, and forests, and fields, and towns!  Here and there lay the cultivated farm, and the blue smoke, gradually curling among the green trees of the valley, pointed to view the farm-house, and showed the early preparation of its rural tenant for breakfast.  Yonder rolled the Hudson, whitened by many a sail on its azure bosom. -- At a further distance, in the perspective were seen numerous cities and towns; and the roving eye, still wandering, fixes on objects that "distance scarcely bounds."  *
               
The traveller is richly compensated for his toil and trouble in climbing the Catskill mountain, if he can be there on a cloudless summer morning, at sun-rise.
               
The company, after partaking of an excellent breakfast, prepared by Mrs. Bigelow, descended the mountain, and again met and sociably dined together at Lawrence's.  Then they departed to their respective homes, and will long cherish in memory, the happy moments experienced in a visit to the Pine Orchard.  OCTAVIAN.
               
*  This summit of the mountain has a view extending at least one hundred miles.

Most of the cities along the Hudson River, and even some of the villages, at one time had steamboats named in their honor. The old colonial city of Kingston was no exception and for a six-year period in the late 1880's, Kingston was the home port of a sleek and graceful steamboat named “City of Kingston.”

During the post-Civil War years, the Cornell Steamboat Company and the Romer and Tremper Steamboat Company operated freight and passenger steamboats out of Rondout Creek for New York, each company operating a steamer on alternate nights so as to provide daily service.  On March 27, 1882, the Cornell steamboat “Thomas Cornell” was wrecked by running up on Danskammer Paint, north of Newburgh, in a fog.  The “City of Kingston” was built to replace her and was launched at Wilmington, Delaware on March 11, 1884. 

When she first appeared, the “City of Kingston” was a sharp departure from other steamboats of the day.  Almost all steamboats then were wooden hulled side wheelers with walking beam engines, but the “City of Kingston" had an iron hull and a screw propeller powered by a 750 h.p. compound engine.  She was also equipped with 165 electric lights, which in 1884 put her well ahead of almost anything afloat or ashore.  She is generally credited with being the first steamboat of a type that later became standard as overnight freight and passenger carriers out of almost every major city along the Atlantic coast. 

Her First Trip
The “City of Kingston” arrived in New York from her builder’s yard the latter part of May 1884 and on May 31 set out on her first trip to Kingston.  With a group of invited guests, she left New York at about 1:30 p.m. and was escorted through New York harbor by the Cornell tugboats “Hercules,” ‘‘S.L. Crosy” and “Edwin Terry,” all gaily decorated for the occasion with flags and with guests aboard.  She arrived at Rondout shortly after 6 p.m. where she was greeted by a large crowd, including many local dignitaries. 

The “City of Kingston" entered regular service on June 2, 1884.  Her schedule called for her to leave Rondout at 6 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday with landings at Esopus, Cornwall and Cranston's the later landing being named for the large hotel on the bluff south of the village of Highland Falls.  On Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday she would leave her pier at the foot of Harrison Street, New York at 4 p.m. for the up-river run. 

During the summer, on Saturdays she would leave New York at 1 p.m. and make connections at Rondout at 6 p.m. with a special train of the Ulster and Delaware Railroad for Catskill mountain resorts.  Sunday nights, the train would make connections with the “City of Kingston’’ at Rondout from where she would depart at 11 p.m. for New York.  Arriving in the metropolis at 6 a.m., the steamer would then run right back up river to resume her regular Monday night schedule.  Normally, the steamer would run from the latter part of March until about the middle of December. 

On June 23, 1886 the “City of Kingston” had her first serious accident.  She left her last up-river landing at Cranston’s at about 9:40 p.m. and being somewhat ahead of schedule was proceeding down through the Hudson Highlands at reduced speed.  She had a good passenger list and a large load of freight, the principal item of which was Hudson River Valley strawberries.  It was a hazy night of early summer, the kind when the smoke from passing trains used to lay over the water off Conns Hook, there being no breeze to carry it away. 

Loaded With Cement
All of a sudden off Manitou, directly ahead of the “City of Kingston,” lay schooner the “Mary Atwater,” drifting with the tide.  The “Mary Atwater” had left the James Cement Company, opposite Wilbur, that morning loaded with 550 barrels of cement.  The schooner was displaying no lights, it frequently being the habit of schooner men in those days on a still night to keep all lights out so as not to attract mosquitoes and bugs. 
​
They would have a lantern ready in the hold and when they heard the plop, plop, plop — plop, plop, plop of the side wheels of an approaching steamboat, they would then run the lantern up the mast.  On a quiet night, they would normally hear the pounding of steamer's side wheels up to two miles away.  The “City Kingston," however, having a propeller made no noise at all through the water.  Since she made no noise, the “City of Kingston” had become known to sloop and schooner men as ”The Sneak.”

In the haze, the “City of Kingston” was upon the darkened ‘‘Mary Atwater” too late to avoid a collision.  Her knife-like bow cut the schooner in two and the “Mary Atwater” immediately sank.  Although the schooner’s helmsman was saved, her owner and the cook asleep below decks were drowned.  The “City of Kingston" was undamaged. 

Many steamboatmen used to think nothing could surpass a sidewheeler for speed.  So on one of the “City of Kingston's” summer Saturday up-trips — July 2, 1887 — the crew of the smart sidewheeler ‘‘Kaaterskill” of the Catskill Line thought they would give a lesson to the new propeller steamer from Kingston.  The “City of Kingston” left her New York pier a few minutes after 1 p.m. and between there and Rondout was scheduled to make landings at Newburgh and Poughkeepsie.  The “Kaaterskill” got underway a few minutes later from her dock three piers below and was to go straight through to Catskill.

Accepted Challenge
On the “City of Kingston," they could tell by the smoke pouring from the ‘'Kaaterskill's’’ twin smoke stacks and by counting the strokes of walking beam, that her throttle was wide open and she was planning a race.  The “City of Kingston” accepted the challenge and, at the time, it was estimated she had a lead of nine minutes.

All the way up through Tappan Zee and Haverstraw Bay, if one was standing on the shore at Ossining, Rockland Lake or on the Haverstraw steamboat dock they could heard the heavy beating of the “Kaaterskill’s” paddle wheels pounding into the clear waters of the Hudson for more speed.  But try as she might, she could not shorten the distance.

The “City of Kingston" was cutting through the water like an eel and causing hardly any commotion in the water at her bow or stern, while the “Kaaterskill” was causing water fly in all directions from her large paddle wheels. 

The “City of Kingston” lost approximately nine minutes landing at Newburgh and Poughkeepsie which canceled her lead.  Leaving Poughkeepsie, the two steamers were almost abreast of each other, the "City of Kingston" slightly ahead.  Between there and Rondout Light, the "City of Kingston’’ steadily increased her lead and made the 10 mile run from Hyde Park to the mouth of Rondout Creek in exactly half an hour.  As she entered Rondout Creek, her rival, the "Kaaterskill’’ was below Port Ewen and the loser of the race by four minutes.  Many old boatmen told me the “City of Kingston’s” success was due in large measure to the skill of First Pilot William H. Mabie getting her in to her landings and on her way again in minimum time. 

Another Collision
The following year, on June 5, 1888, the “City of Kingston’’ was in a collision in New York harbor with the steam yacht ‘‘Meteor." The steamboat had just left her pier and the yacht was getting underway from her anchorage off 24th Street.  The yacht's bow sprit hit the “City of Kingston” on the starboard side and ripped out considerable joiner work before it broke off.  In the investigation that followed, the ‘‘City of Kingston” was held blameless and the captain of the yacht had his license suspended for 10 days. 
​
In 1889, after only six years of service on the Hudson River, the "City of Kingston'’ was sold and went to the Pacific coast.  To get there she had to go all the way around Cape Horn.  

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Editor's Note: The text is an announcement for an 1840 excursion on the steamer American Eagle to the dedication of the Thomas Paine Monument in New Rochelle, NY erected the previous fall on 28  November (Thanksgiving Day) of 1839. The monument was organized and raised through the efforts of Gilbert Vale (1789-1866) of New York City, a teacher of navigation, equal rights reformer, printer, publisher, author and Thomas Paine biographer. Well over 200 persons, mostly in NYC but throughout the country, donated towards the monument's creation. Vale and the New York Assemblyman Job Haskell were the keynote speakers for the 1840 event and the banquet following was held at the Mansion House in New Rochelle aka Captain Pelor's Hotel and The Cross Keys. ​

​NEW-YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE 27, 1840,
VISIT TO ROCHELLE AND THE PAINE MONUMENT ON THE 4th JULY, 1840. The steamboat American Eagle will leave the slip east of but adjoining the Fulton ferry, at precisely 9 A. M on the 4th of July and will return from Rochelle at 6. P. M. on the same day, at their usual prices 50 cents each way. Light waggons will convey passengers, who may not choose to walk, from the landing to the Monument, at 25 cents; as we are informed by a friend who has made the arrangement: and as the distance is at least two miles, we do not recommend any to walk, at least without an umbrella, if it should be a clear day. The waggons will stop at the Mansion House in the village, for a few minutes, and any person wishing to dine there at 50 cents, can leave their names. It is expected that several short addresses not exceeding twenty minutes each will be delivered at the monument or in the nearest shade. N. B. - The Captain will advertise the trip in the Sun two or three days previous to the excursion, and will there name other particulars, and as the party may possibly be large, we advise our friends to be on board the steamboat in time. Several private conveyances will go by land: these will leave the city between 7 and 8 A. M., and cali at Bradford's ("Here she goes," &c.) Harlem. No public land conveyance is engaged, but a stage runs daily at 2 P. M. from the Bowery, near Bayard street.
The Beacon. 1:32 New Series. 27 June 1840. p. 256

1878-12-12 Sun (NY) - GREAT DAMAGE BY FLOODS.
Railroad Bridges Swept Away, Passenger Trains Wrecked, Mill Property Destroyed, and Villages Inundated—The Highest Flood Known for Many Years in the Delaware.

Kingston, N. Y., Dec. 11.--The rainstorms of Monday and Tuesday [Dec. 9 and 10, 1878] have terribly affected Ulster County. The heavy mountain snow melted, and the result has been a freshet that has worked frightful damage. Bridges have been swept away on the Wallkill Valley and on the Ulster and Delaware Railroads. The roadbed of the latter is damaged to an extent that cannot be remedied for several days. At 3 o'clock this morning the canal barges on the Rondout broke adrift and went crushing one against the other downstream. Several of them, loaded with coal, were sunk. Nearly all of them had crew aboard, and some of them had entire families. Whether loss of life resulted is yet uncertain. The loss of property along the Rondout Creek will approximate $75,000, $10,000 of which is the value of cement barrelled [sic] and ready for delivery to New York markets. At Saugerties, on the Esopus Creek, the loss is not less than $50,000. Six boats of the steamer MARINA were carried away, and the MARINA left high on the flats. The bulkhead of the dam on the creek was carried away, and much coal, lumber, and wood were lost. From the back country come reports of loss of life. Several wrecked residences have passed down the Esopus. The white lead factory at Glen Erie [sic, Glenerie?] suffered to the extent of $10,000. The loss at Wilbur exceeds $3,000. The mouth of the Rondout was crowded this morning by a confused mass of boats and vessels of every kind, the majority of which were total wrecks.

A rumor was rife this morning that there had been great loss of life at Eddyville, a small village on Rondout Creek, in this county. THE SUN's representative visited that place to investigate. The route was difficult. The wagon wheels were hub deep in mud and water for half the distance. Within three feet of the roadway the current seethed and rushed with a terrible velocity. The creek was fairly crowded with household goods and wrecked buildings from up the stream. Within half a mile of the village the road was washed away. The bridge across the turbulent waters was standing, but the approach to it was cut off by a gulch fifty feet deep. There was but one way to reach Eddyville, and that was by crossing the rushing creek through the débris. It was with difficulty that a boatman was procured willing to risk such  a venture. The streets of Eddyville were still flooded. Not less than twenty houses have been swept away. The guard lock burst last night, and the village has since been at the mercy of the flood. The foundations of every building in the place have been weakened and there is scarcely an outbuilding remaining. The canal stables were flooded, and toward of 100 horses and mules were drowned. One large tenement house was washed from its foundations and carried some distance to the main road, where it is wrecked. The entire place is flooded below the hill. The stables, outhouses, &c. on the “fly" were carried down the creek with the current. The débris is strewn all the way from the lighthouse to Eddyville. The house of Hiram Davis was floated to the upper end of the Island pier, and there lodged, when the furniture drifted away. The barn belonging to Mr. Black was floated to the south dike, with a horse in it. The horse was saved. Stables with pigs, cows, and geese in them went down the creek and were lost. The stores are flooded and the goods damaged. The lumber for Lambert's new ice house was carried away. The steamers MARTIN and EAGLE, of the Newburgh and Albany line, could not enter the creek. After the guard lock broke[,] a boat went over the dam, loaded with upward of 1,000 barrels of cement. The boat parted in the middle, and her cargo went to the bottom. The crew were saved, though one young man is severely bruised. The report of lives lost was unfounded. One boat, however, went down the stream in which was the family of a canal boatman. They are missing. It is possible that they escaped drowning.

Rondout, Dec. 11.—The schooners KATE and MARY and the sloops JAMES GRANT, BEN AIKIN and CHARLES LYNCH, McCausland’s sectional docks. the barges C. R. WORDENDYKE, ScCHUYLER HONESDALE, MARVIN KING, and a large number of canal boats, laden and light, are either piled on the north and south dykes or sunk. The steamers W. B. CRANE, PITTSTON, and A. B. VALENTINE are damaged. The JAMES W. BALDWIN and WILLIAM COOK are uninjured, but cannot leave, owing to the freshet. The extent of the damage is not yet known and cannot be estimated. All the wharves are submerged and everything not secured has floated off.
​
Newburgh, Dec. 11.—Some small buildings have been swept away. The tide last night was the highest ever known, the river covering nearly every wharf in this city. The buildings in the lower streets were filled with water, and several serious washouts occurred on the short cut branches of the Erie Railroad. No trains have passed over it since noon yesterday, the trains to and from New York going by way of Newburgh branch. At Cornwall, yesterday, many houses near the river were flooded, and the people rowed over the wharves in boats. One or two small barns were carried away at Highland Falls. Sixty cords of wood floated off the wharf at Fort Montgomery. At Fishkill Landing the Duchess Hat Works were partially inundated. Brundage & Place's storehouse was flooded by the high tide, 300 barrels of lime slaked, and the building narrowly escaped destruction by fire. Loss, $500.
​
ALBANY, Dec, 11.—Many cellars and basements on the river front are full of water, and much damage has been done. Among other sufferers are Mr. McCabe, who loses $1,000 worth of lime; Robert Geer, who loses $800 worth of tobacco; Mr. Rork, who had a large amount of lumber swept away; and Messrs. Durant & Elmore, who lose a car load of flour.

1878-12-12 Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY) TORRENTS' TERRORS
Rondout, Dee. 11.—The freshet is the most damaging one in Rondout and Esopus creeks ever known. The schooners KATE, MARY and CANAL, with the sloops JAMES GRANT, BEN AKIN and CHARLES LYNCH, McCausland's sectional docks, the barges C. R. WORDENDIKES, SCHUYLER, HONESDALE, MARVIN, KING OF THE NORTH, and a large number of canal boats laden and light are either piled on the north or south side or sunk. The steamers W. B CRANE, PITTSTON, and A. B. VALENTINE are damaged. Some lives are supposed to be lost on the sunken boats. Tugs cannot assist the vessels on the dikes by reason of the strong current. Six boats and the steamer MARINA were carried away. The MARINA is high on the flats. The bulkhead of the dam on the creek was carried away. Much coal, lumber and wood have been lost. There are fears that there is loss of life on the boats carried out of Saugerties creek. The entire damage in Kingston, Wilbur, Eddyville, Rondout is roughly is estimated at half a million.

​At Eddyville, the water damaged the guard lock on the Delaware and Hudson canal. The water ran over and through it and has flooded what is known as the fly on which there were buildings, five of which are destroyed and many others damaged. One large tenement was washed from the foundations and carried a long distance to the main road, where it is wrecked. The entire place is flooded below the hill. The stables, outhouses, etc., on the fly were carried down the creek with the current. The debris was strewn all the way from the lighthouse to Eddyville. The house of Hiram Davis was floated to the upper end of the island dock and lodged, when the furniture drifted away. The barn of Mr. Black floated to the South Dike with a horse therein. The horse was saved. The stables with pigs, cows and geese therein went down the creek and were lost.  Stores were flooded and goods damaged. The lumber for Lambert’s new ice house was carried away. The steamers MARTIN and EAGLE of the Newburgh and Albany line could not enter the creek. The canal at Eddyville was much damaged.