Bovina Community Hall

On Sunday, March 20, there will be an open house at the Bovina Community Hall to celebrate the renovation of the kitchen in the basement.  Bovina's Community Hall was built in the spring and summer of 1930, on land donated by the Hilson family.  Before there was a community hall, town meetings and other events took place wherever a venue big enough could be found.  In the town's early history, these meetings often took place in hotels or taverns.  Starting in 1880, meetings were held at "Hastings Hall," now Russell's store, but in 1893, the board voted to switch to Strangeway's Hall (later Thomas's garage, then Bovina Motor Works and now owned by Tom Hetterich).   Strangeway's was used for many years for town meetings and other public events.  In 1907, the Bovina Town Board expressed concern that the hall did not have a fire escape.  A.T. Strangeway appeared before the board in January 1907, explaining that he would need more rent if this improvement was to be made.  The board agreed to pay $45 a year for the hall if a sufficient exit and stairway five feet wide were built.  The last year the town paid for use of the old Strangeway's Hall, now owned by Kenneth Kaufman and called Kaufman's Hall, was in 1929. 

It took some effort to get the community hall constructed.  Two sites were considered.  One was offered by Carrie Doig and was across from the old Strangeway's Hall.  The other was across from the new home recently built by William Archibald (now owned by Gert Hall).  The plans for construction were approved in late 1927.  The town voted to raise $1000 by tax in the current year, with the balance of $4000 to be borrowed. In February of 1928, two bids were received for the construction of the Community Hall and both were considerably higher than the $5,000 budgeted - $9,850 and $14,500, so the issue was tabled.  In late 1929, Howard Currie met with Robert Doonan about building the community hall.  In March 1930, Doonan's bid of  $7,500 was accepted.  Actual construction started on April 14, with a crew of six men.  In July, John and Helena Hilson and James Hilson deeded over to the town the land across from William Archibald's for the new Community Hall.  At a meeting later that year, the town board designated the new community hall as the polling station.  At the same meeting, the supervisor was authorized to purchase 100 chairs for the hall. 


In October 1933, the Tunis Camp Fire Girls received a $975 bequest from the late Anna Scott specifically to make improvements to the Community Hall.  The town board passed a resolution allowing the group to contract with Robert Doonan to build two 10 x 24 dressing rooms, to put a concrete floor in the basement and to install two toilets in the basement, as well as have water piped into the community hall for said toilets. 

Some other activities in the early life of the community hall include:

• In January 1932, the board voted to set the salary of the "Janitor of the Town Hall" at $75 per annum.  In April, the board raised that to $100, deeming that $75 was insufficient for the work to be done.  
• The board voted to forbid smoking in the community hall at their April 12, 1935 meeting.  The janitor was to enforce this rule.
• Town accounts in 1936 include $3.50 for piano tuning and $125 to C.W. Hill for painting the hall.
• In November 1941, the board authorized the Recreation Club to make some needed improvements to the Community Hall.  The Town Clerk was instructed to post a notice in the hall with a fee structure.  Dances would be $5 and basketball would be $3.50 (but practicing for basketball would be only $1).  Town shows were set at $3.50 but out of town shows would be a dollar more.  All doings when admission is charged would be $2.  Town business would continue to be free, however.
• In June 1942, the board chose the Community Hall to serve as an airplane observatory 'for the duration.'  The town would provide a telephone and all needed appliances unless the county agreed to pay for these.

Stayed tuned for another entry about the Community Hall on March 31 - specifically, a poem written by David Currie and read by Vera Storie when the hall was dedicated in the fall of 1930. 

When the Trains Almost Came - III - Our Supposed Railroad is at a Standstill

In the late summer and early fall of 1898, citizens of Bovina were excited that their ability to travel to and from town was on the verge of being enhanced by the building of the Delaware Railroad Company.  Over 1000 Italian laborers had been digging the railroad bed, while local contractors were supplying materials, food for the workers and teams of horses.  There was talk in Bovina about extending the railroad beyond Bovina over to Arkville.  So imagine the disappointment when on October 17, all work on the railroad ceased.  Neither the laborers nor the contractors had been paid a dime since starting work September 7.   So the Italian workers went on strike.  The October 22, 1898 Stamford Mirror reported that the Italians shouted “Noa Mon, Noa Work.”  Now whether the paper was being sarcastic or reflecting the workers limited English is not clear.  But the facts were that these workers had done their work and they were not being paid.

The Mirror reported that the Knickbocker Trust Company would not take the bonds that had been sold to fund the railroad and provide the money.  They argued that the bonds were given securing completion of the railroad first.  The other problem appears to be related to the original contractor, Thomas Murray, sub-contracting the work.  The trust company claimed that the bonds are not backed by the responsible parties.  The Delaware Gazette was more inclined to blame the middleman, a Mr. Hillyer, who was working between Thomas Murray, the chief contractor and the trust company. 

Whatever the cause, the workers wanted to be paid.  Some of the workers went back home (mainly to New York City) but on October 22, about 150 workers tried to find the directors in Delhi, while another group did the same in Andes.  In Delhi, the sheriff, concerned about the safety of one director, Mr. Davie, took him to his home.  One of the workers then made “an apparently inflammatory speech” to the other workers.  While in Italian, those who could not speak it still understood the gist of it.  The workers tried to find another director, Mr. Youmans, without success.   In Andes, the workers missed director James F. Scott but found W.C. Oliver in his barn.  The workers surrounded it for over an hour but Oliver managed to talk his way out of the situation and left unharmed. 

Most of the Italian workers accepted an offer of train tickets back to New York City and left, but not before about 300 of them filed liens against the property of the company, averaging about $25 each.  Beyond the Italian laborers, there were others who also filed claims for having provided lumber, supplies and team work.  The Gazette understood that the amount of indebtedness was around $20,000.  (These lien filings still exist today.  Go to http://www.dcnyhistory.org/rr1898.html to see a list created by Shirley Houck of all the claimants against the company. )

The Gazette admitted when things settled down that “the conduct of the Italians was as good as could be expected under the circumstances.  They had done their work faithfully and needed their pay.  Many of them have families, it is said, who require their wages for their support.”

The Delhi paper continued to be optimistic that the railroad would continue, though their Bovina correspondent simply noted the departure of the workers and that “our supposed railroad is at a standstill at present.”  In early November, the paper noted that a lot of misinformation was being passed around that it would not publish, except to say that a meeting will be called in the near future of the directors, contractors and other parties.  The paper concluded this November 2 article with this paragraph:

Whatever difficulties now in the way the one fact remains.  Too much has been done to make it likely that the project will finally be abandoned as the road will be a paying institution.  It will unquestionably be built, and all claims paid.  It is conceded by all that neither the company nor any of its officers are to blame for the temporary set back. 

The Gazette’s continued optimism did not pan out.  Though there were some further efforts, the railroad never was built and no further construction ever took place.  The concluding installment will cover further efforts to bring the trains into Bovina.

Bovina in the Civil War - Those Who Served

I have been working on a database of all Bovina men who served in the Civil War. Creating a list is a challenge. In fact, it will be impossible to have a truly ‘definitive’ list. Right now, the list has 82 names. These include Bovina residents at the time of the war, soldiers from other towns buried in Bovina (such as brothers Thomas and James Elliott, who were from New Kingston), and soldiers who came from other towns but at some point lived in Bovina. I decided not to include those who simply enlisted in Bovina or were born in Bovina but left early in their lives.  For instance, I've included Samuel Bouton because he lived in Lake Delaware, though he was born in Roxbury and served in the war in a Pennsylvania regiment. Hiram Couse was from Otsego County but in 1865 was listed as boarding with William Dennis in Bovina, so he also is included. Robert Crawford, however, is not included.  Though born in Bovina, he was living in the Town of Middletown during and after the war.  Alexander Laidlaw (or Laidlow) enlisted in Bovina, but was from Andes and was included in the Andes census in 1865, so he is not on my list either.

The closest to being a definitive list comes from the 1865 New York State Census. That census flagged soldiers currently and formerly in service. A separate listing for each town was created of soldiers who had died in the war. Shirley Houck in the Delaware County Clerk’s office, along with Deb Lambrecht, has created a list of the soldiers from this census. The list of soldiers still in service in 1865 is on the Delaware County Genealogy website (http://www.dcnyhistory.org/milmenix.html), grouped by town. Unfortunately, I have found that the 1865 census is not a totally definitive source. Sometimes a soldier was missed.

Another source that was produced at around the same time is the Town and city registers of men who served in the Civil War. This was created at the end of the war by each town, with a set to stay in the town and a set to be sent to Albany. Not every town managed to create this listing. Bovina’s is among the missing. Town Clerk Michael Miller (my great great grandfather) was paid $24 to produce the register. It seems unlikely he would have been paid without producing it, but for some reason, both sets are missing. The registers that do exist are available at the New York State Archives. Another register from this same time period was created by the Adjutant General’s office and is also at the State Archives – Registers of officers and enlisted men mustered into federal military or naval service during the Civil War, 1861-1865. This has three sections – active soldiers, soldiers who mustered out and soldiers who died in the war.

Included in my list are all thirty Civil War veterans buried or memorialized in Bovina. Sinclair Burns, Thomas Elliott and James Oliver are the only casualties of the war to be actually buried there. Other soldiers who fell in the war, including Thomas’s brother, James are buried elsewhere, usually near where they fell or died.

As mentioned earlier, the Elliott brothers were not from Bovina but from New Kingston (and are listed as casualties of the war in the 1865 census for the Town of Middletown). I questioned an Elliott descendant as to why they were buried in Bovina. She noted that until New Kingston had its own Presbyterian church, the Elliotts went over the mountain to attend church in Bovina. Though there was a church in New Kingston by the time the two Elliott brothers perished in the war, the family already had a plot in the Bovina church cemetery.

James Oliver was from Delhi, and he has been proving to be somewhat elusive. He is not listed as a fatality in the 1865 census, but his headstone begs to differ, as do some other military records.   I continue to try to track down further information about him. 

James is the not the only conundrum. He shares a headstone with his brother Francis. In the current database of Bovina burials, Francis, who died in 1867, is included as a Civil War veteran. When I was unsuccessful in finding any record of his service, I began to wonder if the information in the database was wrong. Francis does appear on a list of soldiers drafted in 1863, but it is noted that he was ‘erroneously enrolled.’ He also appears on the 1862 and 1864 rolls of men liable for military duty – any male from 18 to 45 was on this list. In the 1865 NY Census for Delhi, Francis appears, but no mention is made of any military service. It appears he certainly was in Delhi in the fall of 1864, and not in military service, for he had to sign a document related to his late brother's estate in October. 

In looking at the headstone, I noted that while James has his regiment noted, no such notation appears for Francis. So I contacted Ed and Dick Davidson, who have documented all Bovina burials, to find out their source of information that says Francis was a veteran. It came from a 1920 inventory of the veterans buried in Bovina. Since the brothers share a stone, I wonder if the person doing the inventory got muddled and included both brothers on his list. An inventory of all burials in the cemetery taken four years earlier by Thomas Gordon, himself a Civil War veteran, does not include Francis as a Civil War soldier. I am going to be reviewing a couple of the sources mentioned above at the State Archives to see if Francis shows up. The Davidsons agree that if I find no evidence of his service the database will have to be corrected.

So those are just some of the challenges in developing this list. I will be posting this list (such as it is) on this blog in late March. And a project for 2012 will be to provide mini-biographies of most, if not all of the Bovina Civil War soldiers.

When the Trains Almost Came - II – The Dirt is Flying

By the end of August 1898, the construction of the shanties for the workers building the Delaware Railroad had started.   It was reported in the Delaware Gazette (Delhi) that about “1000 natives of sunny Italy will soon be scattered between Delhi and Andes, at work grading the route,” which was to be 15 miles, including a three mile spur to Bovina Center.  Contractors were working with local ‘grocerymen’ concerning the supplies needed for the workers.  Other local businesses also were benefiting from the work.  “Marshall Gladstone has the contract for erecting two depot buildings, four platforms for milk stations, and the cattle pens needed along the line.” 

On September 7, actual construction on the rail bed itself began, using the Italian laborers for this backbreaking work.  The work moved along quickly.  The Gazette noted that “the largest gang of men are employed at the summit between Bovina and Andes.”  The paper continued to be highly optimistic and reported that many were in agreement:  “Even those who have been building railroads on paper for these twenty years begin to feel that they have no longer any reason to feel ashamed.”

As September progressed, more workers were brought in.  One hundred more Italians laborers arrived on September 27 specifically to work on the Bovina spur, which came off the main line near the Burgin farm on present day Route 28.  Going through what is now the Clarence Burns farm, it ran about parallel to County Route 6 to the edge of the Bovina Center hamlet.  The site for the depot in Bovina was placed in Alexander Hilson’s orchard.  Where this was located is not totally clear, but it likely was somewhere above the site of the Bovina creamery building (though the creamery did not exist in 1898).  Cooke, Currie and Richardson were hired to do the stone work on the depot.  By now, Bovina citizens were getting excited about the project and were thinking of grander schemes.  There was discussion about having the railroad go from Bovina into Arkville. 

By early October, the first rails were being laid so that the materials needed to build the necessary bridges could be more easily transported.  Halfway through the month, it was reported that more than half of the dirt has been removed.  The lumber for the Bovina depot had arrived on the 11th and work was expected to start shortly. 

So with over 1000 Italian workmen, many teams of horses and wagons and numerous contractors and subcontractors all working away, the railroad was being built seemingly with lightning speed.  But on October 19, the Gazette, while reporting construction progress, also reported the first hints of trouble.  “Great anxiety has been felt by everybody because on Saturday [October 15] when the men expected their pay Mr. Davie and G.W. Youmans did not arrive from New York with the money.”  The problem was explained as a technicality with the filing of the papers.  This was possible.  There was an issue concerning at-grade crossings that had to be resolved – and it was on October 13.

On Monday, the 17th, the pay was not forthcoming.  At this point, the entire project fell apart.  This will be discussed in the next installment on March 16.

When the Trains Almost Came - I – Everything Looks Favorable

The first attempt to bring trains into Bovina was in the 1870s when the Delhi and Middletown Railroad was created. Though railroad wouldn’t have come into the hamlet of Bovina Center, the line would have passed through the town as it connected Andes with Delhi. Some construction started, but the project ultimately failed. Over twenty years later came the most serious effort ever to bring the railroad to Bovina. The Delaware Railroad Company was created 1898 and while the main goal of this railroad, as with the previous attempt, was to connect Andes and Delhi, it had the added feature of a three mile spur off the main line that would have come to Bovina Center. This attempt came amazingly close to succeeding, with actual construction taking place in the fall of 1898. The construction moved along quickly for a few weeks in September and October, but it stopped abruptly, leaving over 1000 Italian laborers and a number of local contractors unpaid for their services – and leaving citizens in Bovina very disappointed.

This is the first of four blog entries I will be doing over the next month about this most serious attempt to bring the trains to town.

In February 1898, the Delaware Gazette (Delhi) reported that “Everything Looks Favorable” for the railroad. The Gazette continued to provide progress reports almost weekly. During the winter and spring of 1898 and right into early summer, survey workers worked out the best route, making frequent changes to deal with some challenging terrain. A key element was getting the approval of Commodore Eldridge T. Gerry for the line to go through his property. He met with interested parties in early July and agreed to let the railroad run through his lands so long as there was no depot constructed at The Hook.

Meanwhile, the main contractor was chosen, Thomas Murray from Newark, N.J. who claimed that “he has capitalists who have the money ready.” On July 6, the Delaware Railroad Company was chartered. The New York Times reported that the railroad would run for a distance of about 15 miles. The company was capitalized at $200,000. Directors were Herbert Sewell of Walton, T.E. Hastings and Alexander Hilson of Bovina Centre; James F. Copp and W.C. Oliver of Andes; S.P. Wilbury, Henry Honeywell, Henry Davie, and G.W. Youmans of Delhi.

The Delaware Gazette continued to champion the railroad in frequent articles throughout the summer. On August 3, the paper included the following:

It has been from the beginning and continues to be a surprise to everybody, that there seems to be so much substantial progress in the enterprise that proposes to build a railroad to Andes and Bovina. It is but natural that the lack of confidence should be so general, for our people have so often been disappointed. One project after another has been exploited only to lengthen the list of failures. But from the start that was made only a few months ago there has been a steady advance, and it really looks now as if the people here were soon to see the work of construction actually commenced.

Some folks then, as now, may have wondered why such a short spur was being built to a town that had seen its population fall over the previous half century. David Murray, in arguing the case for the spur to Bovina before New York State Board of Railroad Commissioners, noted that while the town’s human population was smaller than earlier in the century, there were more cows. The object of the railroad would have been to get fresh milk down to New York City. Bovina farms at this stage were doing a booming business in milk and butter from which the Delaware Railroad Company would have benefited.

And by the end of August, construction was underway. That chapter of the story - "The Dirt is Flying" - will be the feature of this blog on March 9.

The Last Vet of the Great War

Frank Woodruff Buckles, the last surviving veteran of the First World War, died on February 28 at 110. I thought this was an appropriate moment to briefly talk about Bovina's veterans from the Great War. I haven't created a definitive list of these soldiers (I'm still plugging away on such a list for the Civil War) but there are 21 men buried in the Bovina Cemetery who served in the War. Two of the men died in the war. Clark G. Miller died in May 1918, killed in the defense of Paris. James Calhoun was killed in action October 1918 (see my blog entry of November 11, 2010 about James). Both men were originally buried in France but their bodies were shipped home in 1921 for burial in Bovina.

The 19 other soldiers in Bovina's cemetery survived the war, but two of them died in the 1920s. Frank Munson was drafted in the war and started basic training. He was friends with James Calhoun and is mentioned often in the letters he wrote home to his wife, Anna Bell (who was my grandmother). Some health related issue kept Frank from actually going overseas, much to James' relief. Munson was married in 1918 but he died two years later when a tree fell on him. Clarence C. Lee died in Mount Vision, NY in 1922. He was only 29 years old.

Bovina's last surviving World War I veteran appears to have been one of my predecessors as Town Historian, Fletcher Davidson. Fletcher died in 1987, age 92. See my blog entry of August 23, 2009 for more about Fletcher.

The idea for this blog entry came from a friend and former colleague at the State Archives from her blog at http://larchivista.blogspot.com/2011/02/frank-woodruff-buckles-2001-2011.html. She ends the entry thusly: "As an archivist, I would be the first to argue that the documentary record constitutes an essential, inextricable, vivid tie to the past. It is nonetheless sad and sobering to see the documentary record become the only thing that connects us to a given point in the past." Couldn't have said it better myself.

Some February news snippets from the Past

As I continue to review old newspapers, looking for historical tidbits about Bovina, I stumble across little news items about Bovina people. Here's what showed up in February over the past:

The Bloomville Mirror reported in its February 25, 1862 that a "new Post Office has been established near Davis' old stand on the Kingston Turnpike in the town of Bovina, be known as 'Bovina Valley.'" Andrew Strangeway was appointed the first postmaster there. This post office, located at "The Hook," existed until 1903.

The Catskill Mountain News of February 7, 1913 carried a report from the Andes Recorder that a new boiler for the Dry Milk Plant in Bovina had been delivered. The report noted that the new boiler "was unloaded from Delaware and Northern at Andes on to a truck Tuesday and Wednesday was hauled to Bovina. The boiler weighed
six tons and three teams were used. At the head of Delaware avenue the front axle of the truck broke but was fixed by the use of iron plates and the trip was made without further trouble."

The Stamford Mirror-Recorder for February 17, 1926, reported an accident that befell Mrs. Abigail Fuller. The Bovina Center correspondent reported that while Mrs. Fuller "was after coal she had the misfortune to fall and break her arm at the wrist." Fortunately, Dr. Thomson of Delhi was making a call at James Barnhart's and was called to check on Mrs. Fuller. The paper reported that "He took her to Delhi and used the X-ray and set the bone. The arm is doing nicely."

The following week, the same paper reported that: "C. A. McPherson sold his farm to the Gerrys and purchased the farm of Wm. Archibald. He will take possession of the Archibald farm not later than the middle of April." The Bovina Center correspondent also reported that "Mrs. Isaac Mitchell of upper Bovina was operated on for appendicitis in the Delhi Hospital on Thursday of last week."

Damage caused by high winds was reported by the Bovina correspondent for the Stamford Mirror-Recorder on February 8, 1928: "During the high wind last week one of the chimneys was blown off the village school house and on Thursday night an alarm went out that the school house was on fire. This was caused by an overheated pipe and the fire was put out by a fire extinguisher, which was very fortunate. There had been a meeting of the 4-H Club there that day."

Two years later, the Stamford paper of February 13, 1930 reported that "W. G. Coulter of Bovina Center has invented a machine for the spreading of crushed stone in the building of public highways, and he has received word that a patent for same has been granted." W.G. Coulter is Walt Coulter, who was the father of Ruth Coulter Parsons and Celia Coulter.

The following week, it was reported that town road crews "were clearing out the snow to F. F. Montgomery's on Saturday, getting the roads in readiness for the auction which was held on Tuesday."

So that's a small sample of what was happening in Bovina in February of years past.