The Hudson River and Matthew Vassar: Creating a College Art Collection...8 Candace J

Reflections on a River

he Hudson River has been a powerful force in shaping local history, Reflections with a presence both deeply inspiring and astonishingly complex. on a River TThis collection of essays by historians, re- The Hudson River in Dutchess County History searchers, curators, and writers examines the

Hudson’s central role in creating Dutchess e d i t e d b y Ho l l y Wa h l b e r g County’s unique cultural landscape.

In essays as diverse and wide-ranging as the Hudson itself, local scholars explore the river’s impact on art, architecture, landscape design, education, commerce, anthropology, transportation, tourism, mapmaking, fishing, engineering, sports, land use, and communi- ty development in this engaging celebration of the “river that flows both ways.”

$15.00

DC Dutchess County Historical Society P.O. Box 88, Poughkeepsie, NY 12602 HS www.dutchesscountyhistoricalsociety.org Reflections on a River The Hudson River in Dutchess County History

DCHS Year Book • Volume 88 (2009)

Du t c h e s s Co u n t y Hi s t o r i c a l So c i e t y Ye a r Bo o k 2009

Reflections on a River The Hudson River in Dutchess County History

Edited by Holly Wahlberg

Dutchess County Historical Society Du t c h e s s Co u n t y Hi s t o r i c a l So c i e t y Ye a r Bo o k 2009 Volume 88 • Published annually since 1915

Published by Dutchess County Historical Society Clinton House: 549 Main Street, Poughkeepsie, New York Mailing Address: DCHS, P.O. Box 88, Poughkeepsie, New York 12602 [email protected]; www.dutchesscountyhistoricalsociety.org

Individual copies may be purchased through the Historical Society. Selected earlier Year Books are also available for purchase.

ISSN 0739-8565 ISBN 978-0-944733-04-2

Manufactured in the United States of America

Call for Articles The 2010 Year Book will explore the oral history of Dutchess County. Arti- cles submitted should include an oral history transcript and an introduction by the author or interviewer analyzing how the oral history sheds new light on Dutchess County’s past.

Deadline for submission: May 1, 2010.

Articles should be in Microsoft Word format between 2,000 and 10,000 words in length. Authors are encouraged to provide illustrations with their text. Elec- tronic submissions of photos or other illustrations are welcome in JPEG format at a minimum of 300 dpi. Images should be accompanied by detailed captions. All permissions to publish images are the responsibility of the author. Please include 3-4 sentences of biographical information for the list of contributors. Acceptance for publication is at the discretion of the editor and the DCHS Pub- lications Committee.

Authors should send: 1 double spaced typescript paper copy (please remem- ber to also include photo captions and a 3-4 sentence author biography) and 1 CD-R containing article, captions and biographical information as a MS Word document (please also include JPEG’s of illustrations or photos at a minimum of 300 dpi). Please mail to: Year Book Editor, Dutchess County Historical So- ciety, P.O. Box 88, Poughkeepsie, NY 12602.

The Historical Society encourages accuracy but does not assume responsibility for statements of fact or opinion made by contributors. The Hudson River is like old October and tawny Indians in their camp- ing places long ago; it is like long pipes and old tobacco; it is like cool depths and opulence; it is like the shimmer of liquid green on summer days.

The Hudson River takes the thunder of fast trains and throws a handful of lost echoes at the hills...thick with the wastes of earth, dark with our stains, and heavied with our dumpings, rich, rank, beautiful, and un- ending as all life, all living, as it flows by us, by us, by us, to the sea!

thomas Wolfe from Of Time and the River (1935)

Co n t e n t s

Portrait of an Artist and a River...1 Wayne Lempka

The Hudson River and Matthew Vassar: Creating a College Art Collection...8 Candace J. Lewis

Whalers of the Hudson...28 Steven A. A. Mann

Getting to “The Point”...43 Christopher Pryslopski

Sepacots: Native Americans Near Rhinebeck’s Hudson Shore...53 Nancy V. Kelly

Last Days of the Newburgh-Beacon Ferry...69 Willa Skinner

Excursions up the Hudson to Mount Beacon’s Incline Railway...76 Robert J. Murphy

The Hudson River in Maps...86 Nan Fogel

Commercial Fishing in Dutchess County...103 Dan Shapley

Ralph Modjeski and the FDR Bridge...135 James Storrow

Rowing on the Hudson...146 John Mylod

Bowdoin Park: A History (1688-1975)...160 Annon Adams

Dutch Rhinecliff...182 Cynthia Owen Philip

Contributors...198 In t r o d u c t i o n

The Hudson River has been a powerful force in shaping local history, with a presence both deeply inspiring and astonishingly complex. This collection of essays by historians, curators, researchers, and writers explores the Hudson’s central role in creating Dutchess County’s unique cultural landscape.

Curator Wayne Lempka examines how one contemporary artist has found both independence and inspiration from the 19th century artistic traditions embodied in the Hudson River School of painting. Art historian Candace Lewis takes a fresh look at the way commerce brought college founder Matthew Vassar into close and affectionate contact with the Hudson River and how the originality and beauty of contemporary American art helped shape the creation of the Vassar College art collection.

The Hudson as a highway leading Dutchess County farm boys to bloody and daring adventures on the open sea is explored by Quaker historian Steven Mann who details the exotic story of Hudson River whalers. Writer Christopher Pryslopski takes us on a journey closer to home in his essay on “The Point,” a country villa estate that vividly illustrates how the Hudson’s spectacular scenery has inspired the very finest in both landscape and architectural design.

Rhinebeck historian Nancy Kelly calls our attention to Native American history along the Hudson and its tributaries in her study of the often overlooked Sepascot Indians of Rhinebeck; while Fishkill historian Wil- la Skinner takes a nostalgic look at the final days of the Newburgh-Bea- con Ferry and the bittersweet close of a 200-year-old chapter in Hudson River transportation history.

In his examination of the Mount Beacon Incline Railway and the glori- ous day trip adventure it provided for thousands of Hudson River tour- ists, Beacon historian Robert Murphy reminds us that not all of the Hud- son’s best beauty spots were on the private estates of the rich.

Writer Nan Fogel looks at how mapmaking has provided a vital visu- al strategy for unraveling the Hudson’s intricacies, while at the same time revealing the perceptions and motivations of the mapmakers them- selves. And in an essay that documents a special world on the brink of extinction, writer Dan Shapley and photographer Helanna Bratman tell the poignant story of the Hudson River’s commercial fishermen.

Researcher James Storrow offers a fresh look at a familiar Hudson River monument, the FDR Bridge in an essay celebrating a civil engineering marvel that goes well beyond mere functionality to achieve a stunning level of beauty. The Hudson also lays claim to a long tradition of rowing whose evolution from professional racing to college regattas to a new and welcoming era of public participa- tion is traced by writer John Mylod.

Researcher Annon Ad- ams explores the fascinating layers of history underlying one of the Hudson’s most popular riverfront parks lo