MINOR TOPICS

ORIGINAL SETTLEMENT OF THE CITY OF HUDSON

[Errors usually travel with much greater celerity than the truth; but we have an instance, in the following clipping from the Hudson Gazette, of the correction of an error—a well rounded and carefully chiseled group of facts-that has made a swift tour of the local press in a manner that gives agreeable assurance of the rapidly increasing interest in the truth of American history, and is of sufficient importance for permanent record.—Editor.]

The careful historian of Hudson, to whom we are indebted for the interesting sketch of the settlement of that city published in the Centennial number of the Hudson Gazette, gives the credit of the founding of the place to "Thomas Jenkins and other wealthy residents and merchants of Providence."

While Thomas Jenkins was a prominent factor in the enterprise, his brother Seth, the first Mayor of the City of Hudson, was associated with him—a man equally distinguished for enterprise, daring, and those resolute qualities of head and heart which pre-eminently distinguished the pioneers of that period, drawing their first inspiration from old Nantucket.

In the historical sketch in the Gazette, it is related that "in the summer of 1783, Thomas Jenkins, Colton Gelston, with two others of whose names we have no record, sailed from Providence in a vessel belonging to Mr. Jenkins, seeking a site on the North River where they might establish for commercial purposes a new settlement." Later on, the writer says: "Early in the summer 1783, the brig Comet, of Providence, commanded by Captain Eleanor Jenkins, brought to the new purchase the families of Seth Jenkins and John Alsop, of Providence," etc.

The question now arises in the mind, when did Seth himself come? With his brother Thomas, in the summer of 1783, or the following fall with his family? Here is an important question to be settled, alike interesting to the students of history and the descendants of Seth, who claim that he came with his brother Thomas in the reconnoitering party in the summer of 1783, and is to be honored as one of the earliest founders of the city. There is on record a letter written by the granddaughter of Seth Jenkins, now deceased, in which this passage occurs: "While visiting Nantucket some years ago I found an old paper among the archives of that city giving this account of the pioneer enterprise to Hudson: Seth and Thomas Jenkins, of Nantucket, sailed from Providence for New York to find a place of settlement on the Hudson River. On their arrival at the city of New York they called upon Col. Rutgers, an old friend of my grandfather, to whom they unfolded their plans; whereupon Col. Rutgers proposed that they should buy his farm. They talked over the matter and finally concluded to make him an offer, which they did.

After some days' negotiation they came within two hundred dollars of striking a bargain, but at this point no concessions being made on either side (both were obstinate), and as neither would yield further, the trade fell through and they started up the Hudson reconnoitering all the way up until they came to Claverack Landing, where they finally purchased and settled.'"

This would seem to be sufficiently explicit, but further, in the "History of the United States," by W. Winterbotham, the first American edition with additions and corrections, Vol. II., printed in New York, 1795, after describing the city and its marvelous growth, the author says: "No longer ago than the Autumn of 1783, Messrs. Seth and Thomas Jenkins from Providence, in the State of Rhode Island, having first reconnoitered all the way up the river, fixed on this unsettled spot, where Hudson now stands, for a town. To this spot they found the River navigable for vessels of any size," etc.

This is the earliest printed record of the settlement of the city extant, and is conclusive evidence that Seth accompanied his brother Thomas on the pioneer trip; and this account is repeated in all the gazetteers published to the present day -viz.: Morse, published in 1804; Spofford, 1824; Gordan, 1836; and Disturnall, 1842.

That Seth is deserving of popular recognition as one of the earliest pioneers, it is only necessary to recall the honorable and important positions he filled in the early history of the town. Our historian tells us that on the 14th of May, 1784, the proprietors held their first meeting at the house of Seth Jenkins and proceeded at once to establish a government, and at a meeting of the proprietors on the 17th of February the following year, they voted that a petition be drafted to be laid before the Legislature of the state for the purpose of getting themselves incorporated with city privileges. Of this committee Seth was made chairman; and on the 22d of April of the same year (1785) an act was passed incorporating the city, and on the 3d of May the articles of incorporation were received from Governor Clinton, with the appointment of Seth as Mayor. He continued in the office of Mayor until his death in 1793, a period of eight years. We are also told that on the 4th of July, 1792, the Honorable John Jay, while on his way to make a visit to Kinderhook, stopped at Hudson, and at the banquet given to him, "his Honor, Seth Jenkins, Esq., presided, and Mr. Jay having drunk to the prosperity of Hudson, was felicitously responded to by the Mayor, concluding with a toast to 'The man of the day.'"

Besides these public positions, Seth occupied many other offices of usefulness in the new colony. He was elected Worshipful Master of the Lodge of Freemasons in 1787, and in the same year we find him building a factory for the manufacture of hemp and duck-thus, in connection with the vessels which he owned and partially controlled, and with his public service, we obtain an insight into his busy, useful, enterprising life. In a memorandum book belonging to a greatgrandaughter of Shubeal Worth, who joined the expedition at Nantucket in July,

1783 (known as Squire Worth), and still preserved in the family, this quaint account of the first Mayor's death finds entry :

"Tuesday afternoon of the 30th of July, 1793, Seth Jenkins, Esq., Mayor of this city, died after a short illness of six days. His age 58 years November next. The same night or near the morning of the 30th, died Jonathan Worth, aged 76 years and was with the Mayor interred in the burying ground in this town. Most of the inhabitants of the town, including many of the female sex, attended the funeral. The former (Seth Jenkins) was attended by a numerous and respectable body of ancient Masons in Masonic order at 4 P. M., the whole was concluded with that good order and solemnity proper to be observed on such solemn though common occasions."

Seth was succeeded in the mayoralty by his brother Thomas, who also held the position until his death-consecutively for fifteen years. Robert Jenkins, son of Seth, succeeded his uncle Thomas as Mayor of Hudson, receiving his appointment from Governor Tompkins on the 29th of February, 1808; and he continued in office ten years with a lapse of two years, 1813-1814 (when the mayoralty chair was filled by John Tallman), and continued to hold the office until his death on the 11th of November, 1819. Robert seems to have inherited in an eminent degree the same enterprising spirit that distinguished his predecessors, and left an indelible mark on the youthful colony. At an early age we find him the proprietor of a large cotton mill under the firm of Robert Jenkins & Co., the firm consisting of his brothers Seth and John F. Jenkins. The mill was located at Columbiaville, five miles from Hudson, and was the first manufactory of cotton fabrics in the state, and was very successful. The firm also owned and sailed a line of vessels to New York and other ports. These vessels carried their manufactured goods to the principal markets, and in return brought raw cotton and other supplies to the factory.

Besides these varied enterprises, which gave such commercial prestige to the city of Hudson, Robert Jenkins was no less distinguished as a citizen. On the 10th of April, 1802, we find him receiving a commission from Governor George Clinton as captain of an artillery company of Columbia County, and on the 27th of March, 1805, a commission from Governor Morgan Lewis as first major of the Fourth Regiment of Artillery of our state, and on the 10th of November, 1812, he was appointed a Presidential Elector by Daniel D. Tompkins, casting his vote for Madison in the acrimonious contest for President in 1813 between Madison and Clinton -the former espousing the cause of the war party in the contest with Great Britain in 1812, while Clinton was for peace.

Thus we find in this worthy son of the pioneer Seth Jenkins all those strong qualities of mind and body which pre-eminently distinguished this remarkable family. They came of a grand old race of merchants, as remarkable for their intelligence as their enterprise, their capability, and their correctness in every relation of life, and to these solid qualities may be traced much of the rapid growth of the city, which advanced it to that of the third city in the state up to the year 1820.

The premature death of Robert Jenkins at the early age of forty-seven years, on the 11th of November, 1819, was a public misfortune. The papers of the day published extensive obituaries at his decease, but we can only notice the concluding paragraph of one contained in the Bee, under date of 16th November, 1819:

"Thus early has fallen a man distinguished for his public usefulness and private virtues. As a husband and a father he was dutiful, affectionate and exemplary as a citizen no one was more deservedly esteemed and respected. The general sympathy felt and shown by all classes of society for his sudden loss is the best eulogium that can be bestowed on the worthy deceased. His funeral was attended on Sunday afternoon by the largest assemblage of persons ever before witnessed in this city on a similar occasion. He has left an amiable widow and young daughter (their only child) to bemoan this heavy affliction."

Thus this trio of early pioneers, Seth, Thomas and Robert Jenkins, to whose enterprise and public spirit the City of Hudson is indebted for so much of its prosperity, and whose high personal qualities shed such luster upon the infant settlement, should receive due honor and recognition at this centennial epoch from those now enjoying the fruit of their labor and genius. They were men who would have adorned any station in life-indeed were known in their day as "merchant princes." It is much to be regretted that no portraits of them are known to exist in the city they founded, as they ought to be preserved among its archives and honored and reverenced at each recurring centennial, as leading spirits in the settlement of a community to which they gave so much of their wealth, their enterprise, and their lives.

GRAMERCY PARK, NEW YORK

HISTORICUS

THE POST-OFFICE NINETY-FOUR YEARS AGO

On the resignation of Samuel Osgood in 1791, the office of Postmaster-General was bestowed upon Timothy Pickering. So insignificant was the place, and so light the duties that officer was to perform, that Washington did not think him worthy of a Cabinet seat, Yet there is now no other department of Government in which the people take so lively an interest as in that over which the PostmasterGeneral presides. The number of men who care whether the Indians get their blankets and their rations on the frontier, whether one company or two are stationed at Fort Dodge, whether there is a fleet of gun-boats in the Mediterranean Sea, is extremely small; but the sun never sets without millions upon millions of our citizens intrusting to the mails letters and postal-cards, money-orders and packages, in the safe and speedy delivery of which they are deeply concerned.

The growth of the post-office in the last ninety years is indeed amazing. In 1792 there were two hundred and sixty-four post-offices in the country; now there are forty-nine thousand. The yearly revenue which they yielded then was twenty-five thousand dollars. Now it is far above forty-five millions. More time was then consumed in carrying letters ninety miles than now suffices to carry them one thousand. The postage required to send a letter from New York to Savannah was precisely eighteen times as great as will now send one far beyond the Rocky Mountains, into regions of which our ancestors had never heard.

With newspapers the Postmaster-General would have nothing to do. The postmasters in the towns and villages did, indeed, receive them and send them on with the mails, but they were under no obligation to do so. It is, therefore, a common thing to read, in the papers printed at towns remote from the seaboard, complaints that the Pennsylvania packets or the New York journals were kept back, and civil requests to the postmasters to let them come on. When they did come it was usually in saddle-bags, and, as the riders never traveled by night, they were several days old. From the official post-office notices in the newspapers, it appears that letters which went out from Philadelphia at eight and a half in the morning of Monday were expected to reach New York at two in the afternoon of Tuesday. Precisely the same number of hours was spent on the road between Philadelphia and Baltimore. Under the confederation this pace was thought speedy enough; but times had changed. An attempt was made to hasten the mails, and Jefferson had a long conference with Pickering. The wish of the President was that letters should travel one hundred miles in twenty-four hours. The plan was to have the pouches carried by the riders in the day and by the coaches during the night; but the country was too poor. An attempt had, indeed, been made in New Jersey to run mail-coaches with seats for four passengers; but that state laid a yearly tax of four hundred dollars on stages and taverns, declared the Federal Government was no better than an individual, and demanded payment. When, therefore, the motion was made in Congress that all stage-wagons of the post-office should have the right to carry passengers too, a cry went up that such a law would be a violation of state rights, and the motion was lost.-McMasters' History of the People of the United States, Second Volume.