Of the People, By the People, For the People: The Pursuit of Law, Self-Governance, and Liberty In Dutchess County Dutchess County Historical Society 2013 Yearbook • Volume 92 Roger Donway, Editor Publications Committee: Roger Donway, Editor Eleanor Charwat Eileen Hayden Melodye Moore Eugene Fleishman, Treasurer of the Board Candace J. Lewis, President of the Board Betsy Kopstein-Stuts, Executive Director Designer: Marla Neville, Main Printing www.mymainprinter.com Printer: NetPub, Inc. www.netpub.net Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook 2013 Volume 92 • Published annually since 1915 Copyright © by Dutchess County Historical Society ISSN: 0739-8565 ISBN: 978-0-944733-08-0 Cover: Symbols of Dutchess County: John Holwell’s map of 1689; page from census of 1714; image of the county courthouse from John Beadle’s map of 1804 Back Cover Photos (top to bottom): E. Stuart Hubbard, leader of the apple industry in Dutchess County during the early twentieth century. Ed Fitchett, Alson Fitchett, Ed Fitchett Sr.; Collection of Ed Fitchett. The Family Adams of Adams Fairacre Farms, in 1948; Collection of Ralph and Doris Adams. Dutchess County Historical Society P.O. Box 88 Poughkeepsie, NY 12602 845-471-1630 Email: [email protected] www.dutchesscountyhistoricalsociety.org Table of Contents Letter from the Editor ............................................................................ v FORUM: Of the People, By the People, For the People Introduction to the 2013 Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook ................................................................. 3 by Marcus J. Molinaro The Birth of a County: Establishing a Government in Dutchess, 1713–1721 .......................................................................................... 5 by William P. Tatum III Of Sufficient Number: The First 447 to Be Counted ........................ 17 by Melodye Moore Albert M. Rosenblatt: A Life in Law and Public Service ................. 31 Interviewed by Lou Lewis ARTICLES: Miscellaneous Topics in Dutchess County History Saint Francis Hospital at 100 ............................................................ 53 by Gail Jones “Apples, Apples, Try Them, Buy Them”: The Hart-Hubbard Collection at the Dutchess County Historical Society ..................... 69 by Melodye Moore DOCUMENTATION Doris and Ralph Adams of Adams Fairacre Farms, With Their Daughter Anabel Adams ................................................ 81 Interviewed by Candace J. Lewis Ed Fitchett of Fitchett Brothers Dairy ............................................. 101 Interviewed by Candace J. Lewis Law, Politics, and an Ordinary Farmer of Dutchess County ............ 115 by Margaret Duff The Civil War Collections of the Dutchess County Historical Society ............................................................................. 119 by Gregory Wiedeman ADDENDA Contributors ..................................................................................... 127 Letters to the Editor ........................................................................ 129 Call for Papers ................................................................................ 130 DCHS Trustees and Staff ................................................................. 131 DCHS: Review of the Year 2013 ...................................................... 132 Municipal Historians and Historical Societies of Dutchess County .............................................................................. 135 Dutchess County Historical Society Membership ........................... 139 Letter from the Editor We owe the theme of the Forum in this 2013 yearbook to a suggestion by County Executive Marc Molinaro, who proposed that we celebrate the tercentenary of Dutchess County’s birth as a self-governing polity. In addition to his suggestion, the County Executive very kindly provided the Forum with an Introduction. But neither his suggestion, his contribution, nor our yearbook cover should be taken as suggesting any sort of imprimatur. DCHS does not publish official histories. As for the Forum’s title, we have chosen a description of American gov- ernment that comes from precisely the mid-point of the last three hundred years: the 1863 Gettysburg Address. Sadly, Lincoln’s phrase has become so familiar as almost to have lost its meaning. Isn’t it just three ways of saying the same thing? And isn’t that one thing democracy? No and no. Because man is disposed to evil, a coercive control must be exercised over a nation’s citizens. That is government of the people. Yet, the West’s ideal has been that control should be carried out only in accordance with law. This issue of the yearbook honors that tradition of putting government power under law by interviewing one of the most prominent judges ever to come out of Dutchess County, the Honorable Albert M. Rosenblatt. “Government by the people” may refer to democracy—but it may not. After all, the Supreme Court was established by “we the people,” but we the people do not elect its justices. We do choose our principal executive offi- cers, however. And in this yearbook, County Historian William P. Tatum III tells the story of the democratic moment, in 1713, when New York judged Dutchess County ready to elect its own magistrates. “Government for the people” is nearly the opposite of democracy. “Govern- ments are instituted among men,” the Declaration of Independence says, to secure the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—against both criminals and democracies. Unfortunately, the original Constitution did not secure the rights of blacks from democratically imposed slavery—thus creating America’s “irrepressible conflict.” Gregory Wiedeman’s article in this issue describes the Civil War material that DCHS has recently made available to the public. In sum, Lincoln’s description of America’s triune government, so far from being a string of redundancies, possesses a complexity worthy of a theolog- ical formula. The 2013 DCHS yearbook celebrates those interwoven ideals, without speculating on whether they are compatible. — Roger Donway This issue of the Dutchesss County Historical Society’s yearbook has been generously underwritten by the following: Lou and Candace J. Lewis X Roger and Alisan Donway M Anonymous L 372 Fullerton Ave. Newburgh, NY 12550 845-565-1801 50 Main St., White Plains NY 10606 11 Market St., Suite 215 Toll Free: 866-282-0671 Poughkeepsie, NY 12601 15 North Mill St. t: 845-471-2511 f: 845-471-2822 Nyack, NY 10960 [email protected] Toll Free: 866-282-0671 Lou Lewis J. Scott Greer Veronica A. McMillan ATTORNEYS AT LAW Joan Quinn 510 Haight Avenue Paul E. Denbaum Poughkeepsie, NY 12603 845.454.1200 • lewisgreer.com Alana R. Bartley FOX HUNTING IN DUTCHESS COUNTY 1 FORUM M Q Introduction to the 2013 Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook By Marcus J. Molinaro This year marks Dutchess County’s 300th anniversary as an independent, self-governing polity. Though founded in 1683 as one of the original twelve counties of New York, Dutchess’s population was so small that the colonial assembly ordered the county to be administered by Ulster. After thirty years of growth, in October 1713, the assembly passed an act, signed into law by the royal governor, granting the inhabitants of Dutchess permission to elect their own supervisor, treasurer, tax assessors and collectors, and other officers. The county has maintained this tradition of home rule ever since those first elections. Three centuries later, as we look back on our community’s accomplish- ments, assess where we are today, and look towards the future, we face two simple, yet profound questions: “Who are we as a people and how do we hope to live?” The articles in this edition of the Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook, along with the programs planned around the 300th anniversary of democracy in Dutchess, are not merely exercises in nostal- gia. Instead, they offer a window into past centuries of our shared story, reminding us that Dutchess played an important role in the experience and development of American democracy. Dutchess County’s governmental milestones echo with those of the state and the nation as a whole. In the opening decades of the eighteenth century, as covered in the articles by William P. Tatum III and Melodye Moore, Dutchess experienced its own independent birth of democracy with the establishment of independent county government. During the Revolutionary War, patriotic fervor swept a new group of revolutionaries into power, men like Melancton Smith, who would go on to shape the nature of the new nation. In 1788, Poughkeepsie played host to New York’s Ratification Convention of the U.S. Constitution, where Smith stood out as the man who engineered the compromise that insured the state’s support of the new national charter. Over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Dutchess County government continued to adapt to the changing circumstances of life in 4 DCHS YEARBOOK 2013 America. Lou Lewis’s interview with Al Rosenblatt, a pivotal legal figure in New York, provides an excellent bookend for bringing that story to the present day. The creation of the Dutchess County Court of Common Pleas and General Sessions, the fore-runner of the modern county court, in 1721 completed the process of establishing home rule in the county. Rosen- blatt’s recounting of his experiences while serving in the Dutchess County District Attorney’s Office and as a judge of the county court reminds us that those deep roots of three