Susan B. Anthony & Battenkill Inspired

If you follow this blog, or are from Greenwich, NY & the surrounding area, you know that famed suffragist, Susan B. Anthony spent much of her early life here along the Battenkill river. I have mentioned her numerous times, but two of the more interesting posts are Happy Birthday Susan B from 2013 & Susan B. Anthony Memorabilia from 2015.

The Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library has created a bunch of 2 minute shorts about various aspects of the Battenkill. It couldn't be done without mentioning one of it's most famous daughters.

I hope you enjoy the video. Currently, all of the Battenkill Inspired videos can be seen at kiosks at Crandall Public Library, & Greenwich Free Library. Or you can view the videos on the Folklife Center's YouTube channel. There are currently 28 shorts, including films on Cliff Oliver, Bob Warren, Eddy Plow Works, & the Gill Room.



"Battenkill Inspired: The Flow of Creativity, Ingenuity, and the River" celebrates art and culture throughout the Battenkill watershed. Videos are released weekly as part of the celebration of the Folklife Center's 25th anniversary and Crandall Library's 125th year. . Filmed, Directed, and Edited by Kevin Rogan, Sara LaPell, Hannah DeGarmo & Todd DeGarmo Opening & closing music composed by Benjamin Phelps Closing image: "River Reflections" by George Van Hook www.georgevanhookartist.com Produced by Todd DeGarmo 2017 based on the exhibit, Battenkill Inspired Folklife Gallery January to June 2015 Funding for this project came from a 2017 Corridor of Commerce Grant from the Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership Additional support was provided by: New York State Council on the Arts - Folk Arts Program Alfred Z. Solomon Charitable Trust Helen & Michael Casper Fellowship for Internship Support

Susan B. Anthony Memorabilia

All historians have a focus. & many of them have a reason for that focus. My particular research focus is the Suffrage Movement, & one of the main reasons is because Susan B. Anthony lived, with her family, in Battenville here in the Town of Greenwich for a number of years.

Here is a look at some of my personal suffrage memorabilia collection, with a specific focus on Susan B. Anthony.

Post card of Susan B. Anthony's birthplace in Adams, MA

Post card of Susan B. Anthony's birthplace museum, Adams, MA

Flyer, sticker, and button from Susan B. Anthony Days, 1970

Susan B. Anthony finger puppet

The Susan B. Anthony finger puppet  can be purchased from The Unemployed Philosopher's Guild.

Susan B. Anthony Doll by Hallmark, 1979

Susan B. Anthony envelope and stamp postmarked 1936

This stamped & postmarked envelope was unopened & appear to contain something inside. Being curious, I used steam to loosen the glue & open the envelope without damaging any of the paper. This is what I found...

Found inside Susan B. Anthony envelope from 1936

I wonder what items will be created for the upcoming NY state Suffrage Centennial in 2017, or the US Suffrage Centennial in 2020! #ny4suffrage

*All items presented here are from the private collection of Patricia F. (Tisha) Dolton

The state of New York State historic markers in Greenwich

You've seen the blue & yellow roadside markers around the area. Greenwich even has a few brown & white ones. But we don't have very many.

The state started the historic marker program in 1926 to commemorate the sesquicentennial of the Declaration of Independence. The program continued, with state funding, through 1939. This explains why so many of the markers relate to the American Revolution, like the 2 below.

Located on Dix Bridge Rd in Clarks Mills

 

 

There are other historical markers around the town, but they were not put up by the state. State funding was removed from the program, but it was not abandoned. The state just decided that the municipalities should foot the bill for these expensive roadside sentinels. 

At the corner of Woodlawn Ave & Fisher St near the school

The Washington County Historical Society put up some markers, like the 2 below.

Near Dix Bridge at Hudson's Crossing in Clarks Mills

George Washington marker on US Rte 4 just before County Rte 77

Then we have some other markers. Like the plaque in Battneville put up by the Ondawa-Cambridge chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). It is inserted into a stone wall & is nearly impossible to read from the road. The sign is easier to see, but it is still not a historic marker. Susan B. Anthony & her family need a proper marker at their former home.

"EARLY HOME OF A GREAT WOMAN" the plaque reads

Sign outside the house on Route 29 in the hamlet of Battenville

& what about those brown & white markers? Aside from being ugly, they are harder to read than the blue & yellow ones. Who put these up, & when?

Not a very descriptive marker- along US Rte 4 near the Washington marker

Located at the intersection of County Rte 77 & Lick Springs Rd

The long & short of it is that we could erect some more historic markers in the town without shelling out our hard earned cash. The William G. Pomeroy Foundation has an historic roadside marker grant program. Starting on August 1, 2013 the grant application will be available for our region (APHNYS Region 5). If we choose a site or 2, & provide all of the necessary paperwork, we could receive the funding.

Any ideas? I was thinking the Anthony home in Battenville, the Main St. former site of the Free Church, founded in 1937 by Hiram Corliss, or the site of Union Village Academy.

 

Place Name Origin- Battenkill

Over the last couple of weeks I have been having an interesting e-mail exchange regarding the etymology of "Battenkill". I received a query from Rudy in MA asking if I knew where the word for the famous fly-fishing river came from. I did not, so I set out checking all of the resources in my office. Old histories by Mr. Gill, Mrs. Sharpe & Mr. Grant Tefft were not very helpful. New books like The Hudson: A History by Tom Lewis & the massive Encyclopedia of New York State barely mention the river. I was particularly disappointed that the encyclopedia didn't even have a separate listing for the Battenkill!

After a quick Internet search, because I assumed that Rudy was capable of that himself, since he composed a decent e-mail, I turned to local historian & newspaper man, Tim Tefft. (Yes, that is his ancestor is mentioned above.)

Tim's answer was... interesting. Basically it comes down to legend & conjecture that will require further research, but here are the hypotheses...

Rudy's: that the river is named after the bats found in a cave near Mt. Aeolus near Dorset, VT. This cave is near the headwaters of the Battenkill. Rudy admits that to be plausible it would take a combination of Dutch & English etymology. (Tim points out that very few rivers are named for points near the headwaters, but for where they flow into another body of water.)

Now, it should be recognized that the Dutch word for the flying mammal is 
not "bat," but "vleermuis," derived from the Germanic "fledermaus" (or 
literally, fluttering mouse). "Bat," on the other hand is from the Middle 
English word "bakke," which has a Scandinavian origin. Dutch Americans, in 
the years after the English took control of New York, naturally adopted 
English words into their vocabulary, and vice versa. In this regard, they 
might well have adopted the English word "bat."
 
Dutch formed their plurals in most cases by adding "en" to the end of the 
singular noun... Thus, the plural for "bat" would be "batten." And the 
river that formed at the Dorset bat cave that flowed all the way back to 
their homes in the Upper Hudson Valley would, of course, be the Batten 
Kill.

Tim sent a long e-mail with a couple of theories as well. One states that the river was named after Bartholomew Van Hogeboom, an early settler of the area. The nickname "Bat", plus the plural "en" & "kill" for river, give rise to the Battenkill name. However, Tim states

I can find no proof that Bart or Bat Van Hogeboom ever lived at the mouth of the
Battenkill, but genealogies list a number of Bartholomew/Bartholomus Van
Hogebooms who were born in towns along the Hudson from the early to mid 1700's,
one of them was baptised at Albany in 1702. 
There is a tradition of an early 1700's community along the Hudson near
the mouth of the Battenkill.  If it
existed, perhaps Bart Hogeboom was among the settlers.

Next Tim mentions our local Bottskill Baptist Church, & that is name seems to derive from "Bart's Kill."The local hamlet of Battenville (where Susan B. Anthony's father moved the family in 1826) is named after the river, right? Or is it named after the "battens" used in looms?

What about the native name for the river "Dionondehowe". Apparently the earliest this name shows in writing is 1709. & is loosely translated as "she opens the door for them".  Check out some amazing images of the Dionondehowa Falls here.

One thing is for sure. The Battenkill River is redundant & incorrect. Simply the Battenkill will do.

Susan B. will come home to Battenville for one night only...

I was going to write about something completely different tonight, but my love of all things Susan B. Anthony will usurp just about anything. (& I am completely bummed that I can't go!)

Actor, director, writer, and educator Sally Matson, will portray Susan B. Anthony at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at the Stoopes Hotel. The Stoopes Hotel is the old red building to the east of Susan B. Anthony's Childhood Home on Route 29 in Battenville. It is a great old building, recently restored. (Parking can be a problem so you may want to carpool & get there early.) The program is sponsored by the Washington County Historical Society and the NorthStar Historical Project.

I hope Claudia Blackler doesn't mind, but I am going to quote a bit from her article in The Greenwich Journal and Salem Press this week...

[Susan B. Anthony] used innovative methods to promote her message: the new platen jobber printer, the telegram, the typewriter, and her own newspaper. She and her colleagues worked to advance women. She put up the last necessary $2,000 from her own life insurance policy to be sure that women were admitted into the University of Rochester; she imagined what women could be. In 1905 she said, "I firmly believe that some day a woman will be elected President of the United States."^

Not in 2012 Susan. Sarah Palin just announced she will not run for president in 2012, and Michele Bachmann is currently tied for 5th place with Newt Gingrich.* Now back to Claudia...

Miss Anthony was an agent for the New York State Anti-Slavery Society and she worked in Kansas during the fight for abolition. As the foremost leader of the women's rights movement in the late 19th Century, she canvassed New York state petitioning for women's property rights and wage reform.

On behalf of woman suffrage, she spoke in one hundred cities a year, year after year, arranging all details by letter and telegram.^

I wanna go! Can someone record the performance for me? (I guess I'll stop whining now.)


^  Blackler, Claudia. "Susan B. Anthony- the Invincible: Famous Activist Will 'Come to Life' October 19." Greenwich Journal and Salem Press [Greenwich, NY] 6 October 2011, 1st edition: 1.

* http://www.mnstatenews.com/capitol-headlines/1-capitol/246-romney-leads-latest-poll-bachmann-falls-to-fifth.html



Song cycle of Susan B. to be performed

A few years ago, a local musician named Bob Warren was commissioned to write some music to commemorate one of Greenwich's most famous former residents... Susan B. Anthony. What Mr. Warren came up with was & is a beautiful, unpretentious song cycle that weaves Ms. Anthony's own words, her life & melodic phrasing into a wonderful tapestry. I have seen & heard it performed twice. I would have to say my favorite was the first time, along the Battenkill at the Greenwich Town Beach, a mile or two from where the Anthony family lived when they moved from North Adams, MA to Battenville in 1826.

c. 1979- Battenville home was built by Daniel Anthony in 1833

I am happy to announce that the song cycle Only the Message Mattered will be performed again this summer on the eastern shores of Lake George. The performance will take place on Thursday, August 4, 2011 from 6:00 to 8:30 pm at the Wiawaka Holiday House. There is a fee which includes dinner & the performance. The three signers will be Brittany Rivers, Barbara Skiff and Rebecca Rogers. Monica Roach will accompany on cello, and Warren will play piano.

For more information on this event visit http://www.wiawaka.org/

or call 877-468-8128.

To purchase songs from Only the Message Mattered visit Bob Warren's artist page on itunes

http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/bob-warren/id1499949

Susan B. On Trial

While I was sitting here re-reading a little article in NAHO published in the Spring of 1984, I realized that last week was the 138th anniversary of Susan B. Anthony's trial for illegal voting.

Susan B. (who lived with her family in Battenville & Center Falls here in the Town of Greenwich before becoming a teacher) decided to test the waters of the newly ratified 14th Amendment by voting in the interim elections of 1872. The 14th Amendment contains a citizenship clause that essentially overturned the Dred Scott decision of 1857 (which stated that slaves or decedents of slaves were not, nor could ever be citizens on the US). The citizenship clause says "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of the citizens of the United States." This amendment laid the groundwork for the 15th Amendment that states the right to vote cannot be denied based on race.

Nothing in the 14th or 15th Amendment said anything about sex. So, Anthony & some like-minded ladies of the suffrage movement decided to take a chance. They wanted to vote because they were citizens of the US. They were able to cast their ballots in the interim election of 1872, but were arrested. Would their votes be valid? A court would decide.

Susan B. Anthony in 1877

On June 17, 1873, after 2 days, Judge Ward Hunt instructed the jury to find Miss Anthony guilty. Judge Hunt's interpretation of the citizenship clause was that the right to vote was a State Constitutional issue & since NY did not allow women to vote, she could not vote. He fined her $100 which she refused to pay,  saying "May it please your Honor, I will never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty."

It would take another 44 years for New York (male) voters to grant equal suffrage to women. The nation would follow suit with the passage & ratification of the 19th Amendment (nicknamed the Susan B. Anthony Amendment) in 1920.


Little known fact- The last state to ratify the 19th Amendment was Mississippi in 1984!

Books to check out:
The Trial of Susan B. Anthony with an Introduction by Lynn Sherr- 9781591020998
An account of the proceedings on the trial of Susan B. Anthony at the Presidential election
in Nov. 1872- 9781425518288