1

SPRING 2009

President’s Letter
By Patrick Higgins

Another year has come to an end for the Egbert Benson Historical Society. June 16 will be the final meeting of
the year and the Historical Society will have its annual banquet on Tuesday May 19th.

Looking back over the year in spite of a minor shortcoming the Historical Society enjoyed a very successful
year. It purchased a display board and hopes to conduct a series of open house exhibitions at the Elmendorph
during the summer displaying some of its archival material. At the Christmas open house party the board received
a lot of favorable attention with a photographic history of Red Hook. During the year the archives received a
number of new acquisitions which the people in the archive rooms are very proud of. The shortcoming was that
the Historical Society had a problem filling a position on the board but Patsy Vogel who volunteers in the Ar-
chive Room offered her services and joined the board. I think it proper at this time to extend our condolences to
Patsy Vogel on the loss of her husband Craig. The Historical Society extends
its deepest sympathy to Patsy on her great loss.

This year we are celebrating the Quadricentennial of Henry Hudson’s explora-

tion of the Hudson River. This year’s banquet will be dedicated to that historic
event. I have been honored by being the guest speaker at this historic dinner. I
will discuss what we know about Henry Hudson and the Hudson family; Hud-
son’s other voyages and what brought him to the famous waterway that was
named after him. I will also discuss Hudson’s reception in England after his
return from the New World and his final voyage.

Next year the Historical Society will be looking for five new board members.
John Kennedy, Treasurer, Rose Rider and John Vincent are leaving the board
after filling two three year terms. Patrick Higgins, President and Beth Pascarel-
la are resigning from the board. The Egbert Benson Historical Society wishes
to thank its outgoing members for their service over the years.

Don’t Miss the Historical Society’s Annual Dinner on May 19, 2009.
see page 5 for more information and reservation form.

1
2

ARCHIVE ROOM Barbara Thompson

We often receive queries at the Archives Room. Men and women looking
for their properties on an old map or their ancestors and relatives that might have
lived in Red Hook An individual searching for pictures of an old lamp post or
the man who was looking for ferry crossings or just someone who wanted to
know more about Elmendorf and Red Hook.
But I was intrigued by the lady who was investigating a coronet. At first I
thought, oh we have a picture of that band. I retrieved it from the files and it was
a photo of a brass band in the nineteen twenties, surely there must be a coronet
player there. On the back there were some names, but no John Teal. Then I
looked at the query again and reading it more carefully, realized this woman,
Nancy Campbell, had found a coronet and a handwritten music book inscribed
“Red Hook Coronet Band, 2nd Eb soprano, John D. Teal”. There were Civil War
tunes in the music book. Well, that was the end of a beautiful picture of the
brass band
So I looked at the 1850 Census and found John Teal. He was born in
1847. His father was Jacob, mother was Annie. He is on the 1865 Census age 28.
He married Mary Rossman on 12 Feb 1867 and died at his residence Aug 1889
and buried in St. Peter’s Lutheran Cemetery. So, times of the Civil War, what
did I know about that. I remembered we had some letters from two soldiers that
served in that terrible war and so I retrieved them from the files and read all
through both of them. In a letter from Ed Curtis, 150th Regiment on Sept 22
1861 he writes, “Our Band cannot play as well as the Red Hook Band” and again
on Oct 2, 1861: “How does the Band get along? I wish we had it for our
Regiment. Our Band can not Play Yankee Doodle.”
This sketchy reply was sent to Nancy Campbell and we got wonderful
thanks for our research. So if anyone would like to research a lamp post or a
coronet or something else, we are here ready to help if we can.
The Archives Room is open most Tuesdays 10AM– 4PM.
To phone ahead please call 845-758-1920.

As a membership organization, our Society is dependent for its’ operation on

the funds donated by its’ members. If you have not already paid your member-
ship dues for 2009 and/or wish to make a donation to the Society, we request
that you consider so at this time. Dues for the last several years have remained
the same. They are: Individual $15; Family $25; Student (Under 18) $5; Con-
tributing $50; Sustaining $100 and Life (Individual) $200. Dues and donations
are fully tax deductible.
The membership form is on the last page of this newsletter.
2
Preserving History
3
Note: Many of us have collections of personal or business papers which shed light on community
as well as personal history. We are indeed fortunate that James and Peter Hardin are continuing
to preserve papers relating to the history of Red Hook. In our last newsletter we announced the
receipt of paper and digital copies of the Budd-Hardin Collection. In this issue we reproduce
James Hardin’s introduction to his family, and their important collection of papers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Digital and Paper Copies of Elmendorf Family Documents

James Hardin

The Budd-Hardin Collection of family papers spans two centuries of life in Red Hook, from the
1730s to the early 1900s. Many of the documents in the collection have now been scanned and
are available for study at EBHS. In addition, the historical society has received photo copies of
personal letters and the genealogical information (such as birth and death notices) contained in
two family bibles that belonged to Cornelius C. Elmendorph (with entries dating from 1751 to
1828) and Jacob C. Elmendorph (with entries and newspaper clippings dating from1786 to
1880). All original copies of this material are in the possession of James Hardin of Washington,
DC. The Budd-Hardin Collection includes approximately 144 items.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Downsizing to a smaller house is not a new idea. In 1947, when my father died, my
mother, my brother, Peter, and I moved into our little Cape Cod house on Linden Avenue, on
the site of the former Elmendorph School (District No. 1). Our Rhinebeck cousin Herb Decker
had built the house in 1940 as a retirement home for my parents. My brother, then age four,
watched the demolition of the school and the excavation of a new basement by men with picks
and shovels. All three of us (Pete, my mother, and I) had been born when our respective parents
lived at the big farmhouse across the street, on the corner of Linden Avenue (now Budds
Corners Road) and Whalesback Road. The farm has been owned successively by the
Elmendorfs, Eugene and Mina Budd, Warner and Mary Hardin, Gene and Edythe Budd, and
C. H. and Laura Baxter, and is currently known as the Steiner Farm.

My mother, Mary Budd Hardin, and my uncle, Eugene Elmendorf Budd, inherited
furniture, family portraits, farm implements, household goods, books, and papers from their
parents, Eugene P. and Mina Potts Budd, as well as from their grandparents Mary Jane
Elmendorf and Peter F. Potts, who had resided at another farmhouse, on Pitcher Lane. My
mother and uncle sold the Budds Corners farm to C. H. Baxter in 1946. Thus did the contents of
two large farmhouses and several barns have to be disposed of (alas) or accommodated by two
smaller and more “modern” abodes.

When I was growing up, selected items were on display and in everyday use at our
house and at my Uncle Gene’s house on Linden Avenue, just down the street. Others were
stored in our basements or packed away in boxes, out-of-sight. When my mother died in 1990,
my brother and I agreed that he would take charge of the albums of family photographs, and I
would take the papers. It was not until I retired a few years ago, however, that I begin to make
an inventory of the varied and interesting collection of papers, legal and personal, that had come
into my possession.

3
The Elmendorfs of Upper Red Hook
4
The Elmendorfs arrived in the Hudson Valley in the seventeenth century when Jacobus Conradt van
Elmendorf immigrated to Kingston from the Netherlands. Over the years, a number of Elmendorfs moved to Red
Hook and raised their families. Jacob Cornelius Elmendorf (1781-1851) was born in Upper Red Hook and married
his cousin, Garritje Elmendorf (1781-1824). Their son Cornelius Edmund Elmendorf (1804-1876) married Anna
Marie Pitcher (1799-1888), and their daughter, Mary Jane (1842-1928), eventually became the matriarch of Pitcher
Lane I learned about in stories from my mother and uncle. Mary Jane also appears as a character in Agnes Losee
Clark’s memoir Dutchess County Days (Fithian Press, 1996), in the chapter “Afternoon Calls with Mother.”

Mary Jane’s uncle Thomas Elmendorf (1812-1896) was a bachelor-farmer

who lived at the farm on Linden Avenue with his unmarried sisters, Rachel, Julia,
and Amelia. He was also a lawyer and appears to have taken charge of legal af-
fairs for his extended family. When Thomas died in 1896, that role fell to Mary
Jane’s husband, Peter F. Potts (1836-1910). The Elmendorfs were connected by
kinship, friendship, and business dealings with many local families, and legal
documents preserved and passed down by Thomas and Peter include such names
as Van Benthuysen, Vredenburg, Heermance, Van Ness, and Livingston.

Photo of Thomas Elmendorf courtesy of Thomas Budd

Indentures, Estates, and the Transfer of Property

Among the papers in my possession (and available in digital form at EBHS), there is a lease dated 1739
involving Captain Baunt Van Benthuysen and Simon Kool; a deed dated 179l involving Harman Hoffman,
Catherine his wife, and William Van Vredenburgh; an indenture dated 1792 between David Van Ness and William
Van Vredenburgh; a map of Troop Farm dated 1799, including part of William Pitchers Farm, William Van
Vredenburgh Farm, Part of Ant [sic] Hoffmans Farm, Cornelius I. Elmendorphs Farm, and Part of Mr. Van Allen
Lands. There are also two For Sale notices for farms in Red Hook dated 1818 and 1819.

Public documents of a more personal nature, dating from 1832 to 1876, include a number of wills and
documents pertaining to the settlement of estates for Jane Pitcher, Andrew Pitcher, Jacob C. Elmendorf, Cornelius
E. Elmendorf, and Augustus Elmendorf, as well as for Thomas Elmendorf and his sisters, Jane, Rachel, Julia, and
Amelia. As a former member of St. John’s Reformed Church in Upper Red Hook, I note that in 1876 the church re-
ceived a legacy of $500 from the estate of Julia Elmendorf.

There is also the military appointment, in1828, of Jacob L. Potts, Ensign, 15th Regiment of Infantry, State of
New York, signed by Enos T. Throop, Lieutenant-Governor. And there is a letter, dated September 13, 1864, from
Louis Livingston of Tivoli to E. Elmendorph Esq., Supervisor of the Town of Red Hook, regarding payment for a
substitute for military service.

These legal documents are visually beautiful and interesting. Although some are fading, some are in remark-
ably good condition. They are full of information but rather tedious to read, with references to parcels of land,
boundaries and landmarks, and sundry agreements between parties of the first part and parties of the second part. In
personal letters written between members of the family, however, the Elmendorfs, Pottses, and Budds come alive

James Hardin is a member of the Red Hook Central School class of 1958. He retired in 2004 from the Library of
Congress where he was a writer-editor.
4