Residents of Pleasantdale worked together to become a new voting district, get a new school, and try to get River Road repaired- the latter a hopeless task.
The final Pleasantdale community issue was the lack of fire protection. It took time for firemen to arrive from Lansingburgh. The February 18, 1924 Troy “Times” reported that 35 residents of Pleasantdale had organized the preceding fall to establish a fire company. They planned to erect a concrete firehouse at their own expense on a lot which had already been purchased, raising money from the taxpayers for a truck. The Schaghticoke Town Board formally created the fire department on June 13, 1924. The certificate of incorporation included David Neeson, James Tobin, George Blair, Knut Degraus, Herbert Simons, William VanArnum, William Henningsen, William Quackenbush, William J. Smith, and Allan Tibbits. Of course these men all lived in Pleasantdale. As of the 1925 NY Census, Neeson was an underwear cutter, Tobin was a boiler maker, DeGraus was a mechanic, VanArden was a machinist, Henningsen was an electrician, Quackenbush was a boiler maker, Smith a store keeper in Pleasantdale, and Tibbits, retired. They ranged in age from Henningsen, 23, to Tibbits, 73. In September, the fire department held a carnival at the Moose Club in Lansingburgh. 1000 people attended, raising $700 toward the new building.
On December 18, 1925, “Just at the close of the Christmas exercises at the Pleasantdale school, the summer home of John Mahoney at Cohoes, just at the rear of the school on River Bend Road, was discovered in flames. “ The fire company as yet had no truck or apparatus, so the Lansingburgh Fire Department had to come, but the Pleasantdale members at least helped.
Pleasantdale offers a great example of the development of a community from scratch, with the added and lovely complication of a combination of full-time and summer residents. The cost of lots seemed to have brought a very middle class clientele, perhaps attracted by the chance to build and own their own homes in a new community with access to the river. The full- and part- time people worked together on issues of interest to both, like the roads and sports, and the new full-time residents organized to attain their needs: a school, easier voting, and a fire department.
I would like to return to the architects of the Pleasantdale school. Louis Niles Milliman and Frank J. Morgan were both actually residents of Schaghticoke and Pittstown. Louis was born in 1879, son of Nathan and Agnes Milliman. In 1914 he won the competition to design the new headquarters of the Troy Gas Company, now the Pioneer Bank Building, at 19-23 Second Street in Troy. The building was the definition of “state of the art”, with modern steel “fire retardant” windows.
Louis married Jane Stewart of Schaghticoke in 1916. She was a teacher at the high school, the daughter of John and Elizabeth Stewart. John was a cooper. The Schaghticoke “Sun” of September 29, 1916 described their elaborate wedding. There were 200 guests at the Valley Falls Methodist Church, which was decorated with ferns, plants, and golden rod. The bride wore a gown of white duchess lace and pearls with a veil caught up by orange blossoms and pearls. She carried a large bouquet of roses. The reception was at the Odd Fellows Hall in the village of Schaghticoke, with dancing until a late hour with the Troy City Band Orchestra. The couple honeymooned in the Adirondacks.
On Louis’ World War I Draft Card in 1917, he reported he was tall and stout with blue eyes and brown hair, and an architect at the Watervliet Arsenal. As of the 1920 Census, he and Jane lived on Main Street in the village of Schaghticoke with her father, but they moved to Valley Falls shortly after. Milliman was the designer of the Valley Falls library, built about that time.
Frank J. Morgan in the Troy Times Record 1969
Louis became partners with Frank J. Morgan in 1920. Frank was also born in Pittstown in 1891, the son of Patrick and Elizabeth Morgan. He went to St. Augustine’s Academy and the Troy Business College, studying architecture at Columbia University and McGill University in Canada. His World War I Draft Card from 1917 described him as tall and slender, with blue eyes and brown hair. His obituary (Troy Times Record 5 Aug 1969) states that he worked at the Watervliet Arsenal during World War I. Undoubtedly, if he and Louis didn’t know each other before, they met then. Frank married Mary Weir in 1925. They lived in Melrose, where they had a “large dairy farm from 1925-1941, raising Holstein cattle as a hobby.”
the former Fred Volk store, just south of Melrose- one of the buildings of the Haughney, then Morgan property
Frank Morgan bought the farm of James F. Haughney for just over $6,000 at a mortgage foreclosure sale in April 1924. According to Pat Crandall in an article about Melrose in the Pittstown “Centinel”, it was located on the west side of Route 40 just south of the hamlet of Melrose, site of “Volk’s Bargains” in the 1960’s and ‘70’s (June 7, 1977). In August 1924 Morgan’s brother was tearing down a small wooden building over a well, part of renovations on the property, when he discovered a badly decomposed dead body stuffed into the well head-down. The victim turned out to be Merton Henry Welch, a 44-year-old traveling salesman born in Cambridge but well-known in Troy. He had not been seen for about two months at the time of the discovery of his body. He had bought a car fairly recently, and one theory of the crime was that a passenger had bashed him in the head. The car was not found, and as far as I can find, no one was ever arrested in connection with the murder. (Troy Times August 25, 1924 and other days) A very dramatic and upsetting way to begin a family’s tenure at a new home!
Together the architects Morgan and Milliman specialized in ecclesiastical, school, and institutional buildings. Morgan’s obituary noted he “designed numerous churches throughout the Albany Catholic Diocese” through the 1920’s and 1930’s, “devoted to carrying out Gothic detail.” In 1929 the partnership designed the Masonic Temple Building on 3rd Street in Troy. Louis also designed movie theaters and residences in Troy, Frank designed Albertus Hall, 432 Western Avenue, one of the major academic facilities at the College of St. Rose, in 1932.
Troy Masonic hall- 2017 photo by Paul Buchowski of the Albany Times Union
Louis died of diabetes in 1934 and was buried in Elmwood Cemetery. Frank carried on. Morgan’s obituary states “he was noted for his insistence on personally supervising all areas of construction and for his careful research into historical background..related to any construction project.” A national architectural publication featured his design for the chapel of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Troy due to its unique structure, “which made the main altar visible from a cloistered area as well as from the whole chapel.” He was also the architect for the shrine of Kateri Tekawitha, Church of the Holy Spirit in East Greenbush, Troy High School, and Hoosic Valley School in Schaghticoke. Frank died in 1969 and is buried in St. John’s Cemetery in Schaghticoke.
An article in the “Cohoes American” in March 1920 reported a horrific event for Pleasantdale. Supervisor Herbert Chase of Melrose said that “a gang of hoodlums” from either Troy or Watervliet “terrorized residents of Pleasantdale and Hemstreet Park on the river road.” (I am not sure why Hemstreet Park was included, as the places listed were in Pleasantdale.) “Last Sunday a gang of five “roysterers” in a car, armed with shotguns and revolvers drove “yelling and shooting” through the area. They stopped in front of the summer pavilion and restaurant of Alfred Sisson, riddling the place with bullets, then went inside and in a “wild west moving picture stunt” shot pictures off the walls and broke the mirrors, then in a move that is startlingly modern, used their “kodak” to take photos of what they had done. They moved on to the school house, shooting the lock off the door, then “wrecked the place,” totally vandalizing the library, “riddling” the desks and walls with bullets, “rifling” the desk of the teacher, Miss Douglass of Melrose. Residents said that the men were “foreigners” who then drove into Troy.
An article in the Troy “Daily Times” on May 21, 1920 may report the result of this action. It states that three young men from Watervliet had been arrested and fined for “depradations” in the village of Schaghticoke. I would say this was another incident, except that they had to repair the schoolhouse whose interior they had destroyed after shooting revolvers and yelling. This seems too specific to be a second incident. The criminals were Anthony Sorentine, Samuel Alexander, and Nicholas Juliano. Evidence of the unreliability of newspaper accounts is that I could find neither Anthony nor Nicholas in the 1920 US Census. Samuel Alexander was a 29-year old inmate in Dannemora State Prison. It’s tempting to say that this is the same man, but the story says they were fined, not jailed.
While the new school in Pleasantdale itself was not constructed until 1924, there was a one-room school house at the corner of Calhoun Drive and River Road. Mary Douglass would have had an easy commute to work there. There was another one-room schoolhouse at the corner of River and Allen Roads, almost to Hemstreet Park, which would also have been a possibility. From the Calhoun Drive location, the “roysterers” could have continued on up Calhoun to route 40, or turned around and headed back down River Road.
Theodore Douglass- tragic poisoning death
This article led me to learn about the lives of “Miss Douglass of Melrose” and her family. Theodore Douglass, son of Daniel and Emma Klein Douglass, was born in Pittstown in 1867. In 1897 he married Mary Leavens, daughter of Joseph and Mary Leavens of Melrose. Joseph’s father, Josephus, had been a partner in the Grant Cradle Mill in Grant Hollow, and I believe Joseph ran the general store connected with it. I also believe his home was the Hartnett home, just south of Grant Hollow on Route 40, and that Theodore and Mary lived and farmed there. The 1900 US Census listed the couple living with Mary’s father, a widower. The couple had three children: Dwight, born in 1899, Gertrude, born in 1901, and McClure, born in 1903. In 1911 Theodore was having digestive trouble and went to Dr. George Little. Little advised him to have nineteen rotten teeth removed. A few days later Theodore was treating potato bugs with Paris green, and “it was thought that in some way he became infected.” He died a couple of weeks later. What a ghastly death. Paris green was half arsenic.
Mary Douglass was left to raise her three young children. She became the teacher at District School # 10, which was on Mineral Springs Road in Melrose. The last I can find her in the census was in 1930. At 57, she lived alone, and was listed as a teacher at a private school. All of her children went to college. Dwight went to R.P.I., became an electrical engineer, and eventually was the Vice President of the Hartford Electric Company in Connecticut. McClure is listed as a doctor in the 1930 census, but as a hotel clerk in 1940, so I don’t know quite what happened to him. And Gertrude attended Oneonta Normal School and became a teacher. An article in the Troy “Daily Times” in 1919 lists Mary Douglass as the teacher at District #10 and Gertrude at District #2. Gertrude was the teacher at the school described in the incident above.
An article in the Troy “Times” on June 2, 1931 records that her children were at the bedside of Mary Douglass, who was very ill. I suspect that she died soon after, as I cannot find her again in the historical record. This article notes that Gertrude was Mrs Gurdon Brown of Amsterdam. There is some sort of typo there, as I cannot find a Gurdon Brown there, but can find too many Gertrude Browns. But my conclusion is that Mary Douglass did a fine job raising her children after the untimely death of their father.
Edward E. Pinkham was born in Massachusetts in December 1841. As of the 1850 US census the family lived in Maine: father James E. Pinkham, age 33, was a manufacturer, born in Maine, with wife Sarah, age 33, born in New Hampshire, and children future soldier Edward, 10; Helen, 7; and Nellie, 4. Edward and Helen had been born in Massachusetts, Nellie in Maine. Clearly James was moving for jobs. In the 1860 US Census the family was in Gilford, New Hampshire. They had added Herbert, then age 8, to the family.
Edward enlisted in the 15th New Hampshire Infantry Regiment in June, 1862. Though he was only 21, he enlisted as a Lieutenant. Perhaps this indicates that his father was a mill administrator, perhaps that Edward was well-educated or had had experience in a local militia regiment. I was delighted to find a photo of Edward as a Lieutenant online. He later became Adjutant of the Regiment. Each regiment of 1000 men had one Adjutant, usually a Lieutenant, who did the paperwork for the regiment.
Lieutenant Edward Pinkham- photo found in ancestry.com
The 15th New Hampshire enlisted for just nine months. It left for New York on November 13, 1862, then went on to New Orleans by ship, arriving December 26. The regiment was attached to General Sherman’s command and served in Louisiana through 1863. Following the siege and fall of Port Hudson from May through July 1863, the Regiment returned to Concord, New Hampshire and was mustered out on November 13, 1863. Most of its casualties were due to disease.
By the 1870 US Census, James and his family had moved on to Hart’s Falls, as the village of Schaghticoke was known at the time. In that census, James, now 51, was listed as the Superintendent of the woolen mill. Edward was a bookkeeper in the mill, and his brother Herbert was an overseer. The family joined the Schaghticoke Presbyterian Church bit by bit, Herbert in 1873, James and his mother in 1876. Interestingly, James was elected a trustee of the church in 1872, before he is listed as a member. His worth as a person must have been evident to the church right from the start.
As I knew that Edward died in Schaghticoke, I thought I could see the trajectory of his life. Much to my surprise, I found Edward and Herbert in the census for Abilene, Kansas in 1880! They lived on Buckeye Avenue. Herbert, age 29, was a grocer. He had married a woman named Alice, who was 28, and they had two children, James E., 6, who had been born in New York, and Sarah, just a month old. Edward, the veteran, now 35, was also listed as a grocer. So the brothers had gone into business together in Kansas. The family even had a servant, Elizabeth Watson, age 35. Father James and his wife Sarah remained in Schaghticoke, where he continued as Superintendent of the mill. Sarah died in September, 1880.
Though the brothers were definitely in Abilene in 1880, they had returned to Schaghticoke by 1881. Herbert began a store in the village of Schaghticoke, borrowing $2000 from his father to do so. He rented a space from E.S. Baucus for $25 per month. I do not think his brother Edward was in partnership with him, but I don’t know what Edward did do. Herbert died at age 29 on September 5, 1881. His brother Edward and his widow Alice handled his estate, selling the inventory of the store and two lots of land in Abilene.
Edward was one of the founders of the local G.A.R. post in 1882, and its first commander. His service was listed in the 1890 Veterans Schedule of the census. He served in various offices of the GAR through the next twenty years. He was the major insurance agent in the village of Schaghticoke. The “Schaghticoke Sun”, founded in 1894, had a weekly ad for his life, fire, and tornado insurance, with a list of the companies he represented. He was also town clerk in 1898.
1897 ad Schaghticoke Sun
In the 1900 US Census, father James, now 82, was still the head of the household. He and Edward, now 59, had no occupation listed. Herbert’s widow Alice, 47, lived with them, along with her son James, a 26-year -old accountant, and her daughter Sarah, 20. James the elder, died in 1903, aged 85, and the veteran Edward in September, 1905, aged 65. Edward had just applied for a veteran’s pension that January. James the younger continued to live in Schaghticoke until his death in 1958. He had various jobs for the railroad and married Jennie Viall. They are all buried in Elmwood Cemetery.
The Pinkham lot at Elmwood- the large shaft has fallen off. and individual stone for Edward
I finally got to read the diary of E.A. Hartshorn, who served in the 125th NY Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. It is is the collection of the NYS Military Museum in Saratoga- a great place to visit- Hartshorn went on to be the President of the Cable Flax Mill in Schaghticoke. I have added to my original post about him based on what I learned.
The biography of Charles E. Phillips is unfortunately short. He was born about 1844 in Saratoga. On August 15, 1862 he enlisted in Company K of the 77th New York Infantry Regiment. He gave his occupation as farmer, and had blue eyes and brown hair and was 5’9” tall. He was absent without leave for a while in the summer of 1863, but returned to duty, with no punishment recorded. He transferred to Company B of the 77th on November 19, 1864. He was sent to Harewood Hospital in Washington, D.C. on May 23, 1865, and was mustered out from there a month later.
Charles E. Phillips N.Y.S. muster card
The 77th Infantry Regiment was recruited primarily in Saratoga and Fulton Counties. It fought at Antietam and Fredericksburg in 1863, at the Wilderness, Petersburg, Spotsylvania Court House, and Fisher’s Hill, Virginia in 1864, and the Appomattox Campaign in 1865. Charles made it through a number of battles, only to be hospitalized just as the war was ending.
Charles was the son of John and Catherine Phillips, listed with them in the 1850 US Census for Northumberland as a 6-year-old. He was included with the family on the 1865 NY Census for Schuylerville, along with six younger children. Neither father nor son had an occupation in either census.
The only place I can find Charles in the 1890 Veterans Schedule for Schaghticoke, the only time I find him in the town. Charles applied for an invalid pension on March 26, 1891, based on lung troubles incurred while in service, later that year. I next found him for sure on the 1915 NY Census for Pittstown, where at age 71 he had a wife, Ida, 39, and two children, Isabell, 6; and William, 3. They were listed on the 1920 US Census in Berlin. He had no occupation listed in either census. Charles died of pneumonia at the Vermont Veterans’ Home in 1928 and is buried in their cemetery.
Tombstone of Charles E. Phillips in Bennington, Vt. Thanks to Find-a-grave
As the hamlet of Pleasantdale, the southwest corner of the town of Schaghticoke, developed after 1915, residents advocated for and became an election district, and a school district.
A third community issue was the repair of the almost impassable River Road. The former Hudson River Turnpike, it joined Pleasantdale to its northern suburban neighbor, Hemstreet Park, passing right next to the Hudson. The Town Board minutes have frequent references to groups from the two communities bringing petitions pleading for road improvement. River Road had been a problem for years, especially near the southern end, just north of Pleasantdale, at the site of the dam at Champlain Canal Lock #1. Its poor condition was the major reason the town of Schaghticoke had protested having to accept the Pleasantdale area back into the town when Lansingburgh became part of Greater Troy in 1900. In June of 1919 New York State told the Town Board that the only economical solution was to abandon the road. I will discuss this issue more a bit later.
a modern map of the area: Haughney/Irish Road crosses the Koolkill. The southern part of River road WAS finally abandoned in the 1980’s, but you can see the faint gray line by the bulge in the Hudson River in the middle. That is where it begins. The other faint gray line, just to its right, is Turner Road, which does NOT go to the river.
The summer colony at Pleasantdale actually extended several miles north along River Road and the Hudson, also inspiring more need for the road to be good. “Further along the river and around the turn on what is known as the River road are eight bungalows which overlook the river from a high bank. …..at Koolkill (where the Koolkill joins the Hudson), Harry Titcomb and Charles Converse have opened their places for the season.” The Coolkill or Koolkill is the stream which runs through the deep gorge to the south of Irish Road, eventually emptying into the Hudson River. An article in 1914 (Troy Times Nov. 14, 1914) quoted Frederick Filley as saying, “There is coming a day when ..the vicinity of Koolkill will become one of the most popular summer resorts in this section of the state.” “Every canoeist on a hot summer’s day must needs stop there and rest under the trees and no matter how hot the day, the water of this creek is always cold.” Filley, who was an attorney and Assistant DA in Rensselaer County, had renovated “Koolkill on the River Road”, a building which was originally a storehouse for a woolen mill. It was to become a temperance summer house operated by Charles Converse of Troy. Converse had been there for a while already, as he was listed as a hotel keeper in the 1905 NY Census, as having a restaurant in 1915, and an ice cream parlor in 1925. He died in 1933.
Photo from the Lansingburgh Historical- camp at the Coolkill, “Thieves Hollow”. A good image of the bridge, the state of the road, and the electric poles! so c. 1920
A bit further north, the owners of both the Turner and Schwartz farms had built summer cottages for rent or sale. “The River Road passes in front of all the bungalows on the Turner and Schwartz farms, with the river only a few feet beyond. The buildings are all built on high land, affording an excellent view up and down the river. The owners of these places travel to and from the city each day by way of the Hudson Valley Railway, crossing the river just below dam 1, while others travel by automobile.“ (Troy Times, May 22, 1918) Owners of the bungalows at Turner’s included Herbert Gifford, Robert Miter, William Howe, Clifford Flack, Harry Reece, the Moneta Campfire Girls, and J. Don Welch. Former Alderman Orville Bosca, George Davry, Charles Wood, and Josie Zeiser had bungalows at Schwartzes. Some of these folks I could not find in the 1920 US Census, but Robert Miter, 27, was a bookkeeper in Troy, living with his parents. William Howe, 29, was an auto salesman with a wife and two children. Clifford Flack, 33, was a collar cutter who lived with his parents.
Orville Bosca, from Hayner’s History of Rensselaer County
Orville Bosca (1868-1932) was born in Chazy, NY, coming to Lansingburgh at age 12. He began his working life in Troy as a grocer. In 1915 he co-founded the Troy 5th Avenue Bus Company. He was the last town clerk of Lansingburgh in 1900, when it joined Troy, then was a Troy Alderman for several terms and very involved in local social and civic organizations. He was a charter member of the Twinning Steamer Company, a fire department, and a founder of the Knights of Columbus of Lansingburgh. He was also President of the Troy Motorboat and Canoe Club for many years. He married Lillian Brayton in 1884. They had three sons, two of whom died in the influenza epidemic of 1919. They lived full-time at 855 4th Avenue, but their summer residence north of Pleasantdale -on –the-Hudson was certainly important to them. Orville was very involved in the push for a better-maintained River Road. (Hayner, p. 286-287) Orville was also the official starter for the horse races at the Schaghticoke Fair from about 1922 until his death. (Troy Times Sept 6, 1932)
As of the 1920 US Census, Sylvester Turner was 60, his wife Dora, 55. Son Stephen, 22, and his wife Miriam, 18, lived with them. Sylvester was listed as a farmer. Turner Road, which goes west from Route 40 south of Calhoun Drive and north of Irish Road, is named for the family. There had been a dirt road to the farm from Route 40 and from the farm south to Irish Road since at least the 1877 Beers Atlas. Born in 1860, Sylvester was first a farm laborer for Hiram and Sarah See. Hiram was a farmer and operated saw and flax mills on the Koolkill, the stream which runs to the Hudson just to the south of modern day Irish Road. So Sylvester knew the area. I have written about the Turners before as their son Arthur was killed in action in World War I in 1918. The Turner farm was certainly at the now dead-end of the road, overlooking the Hudson and the cottages would have been arrayed around it.
Ignatus and Theresa Swartz were next on the census to the Turners in the 1900-1920 censuses. As of the 1900 census, Ignatus or Ignatz, 61, was listed as a farmer/owner, who had come to the U.S. from Germany in 1865. His wife Theresa, 59, had come from Germany a few years later. They had had ten children, five of whom survived. In the 1910 census, just Ignatz, Theresa, and son Edward, 34, listed as a farmer, lived on the farm. As of the 1920 census, Ignatz had died, but sons John, then 53, and Edward, 46, plus daughter Elnora Ryan, 36, and her son Fred, 13, lived with widow Theresa. I would love to know how the Swartzes and the Turners decided to go into what was essentially the tourist business.
The Troy “Times” reported on May 6, 1918 that River road “has become dangerous and almost impassable…At the Koolkill a rope is drawn across the highway from which hangs a sign which announces that the road is closed.” Just north of the rope “almost to Sisson’s Pavilion” there have been six or seven upper slides and several underslides, and the road is only wide enough to allow the passage of one vehicle at a time. In one place two large trees slid down and stand in the middle of the highway. It has been necessary to cut away the roots in order to make a passageway. This road is extensively used by automobilists because of the fine river view and the beautiful scenery to the west.” Besides the detailed information on the road condition, this article uses the wonderful term “automobilist”, certainly a new coinage in the age of cars. Plus it mentions “Sisson’s Pavilion.”
Brothers Frederick and Theodore Sisson may have both been involved in the Pavilion. Frederick (1863-1922) was a farmer on New Turnpike Road-listed within the city limits of Troy on the census. Theodore (1875-1970) was an insurance man, living on Oil Mill Hill and in the city of Troy. I have not found any articles in the newspaper advertising the pavilion. On August 4, 1919 the paper did report that “thirty couples from Lansingburgh, Waterford, and Cohoes enjoyed a dance at Sisson’s Pavilion on River Road.” Two other articles are about accidents, however. On July 27, 1917 a horse fell down the embankment near Sisson’s Pavilion and was drowned. The accident happened “about 150 feet north of the bridge near Sisson’s pavilion”. The road “runs close to the shore of the Hudson River from the north end of the Horseshoe road (current River Bend Road) to the dam at Wood’s Point,” (Lock #1, just south of Calhoun Drive) sometimes more than 100 feet above the river. On August 31, a Ford automobile delivery van of the Imperial Ice Cream company was abandoned at Sisson’s Pavilion, 2 ½ miles north of the city, broken down due to the bad road. The summer pavilion and restaurant was also part of a criminal incident in 1920, though the owner was listed as A. Sisson. Perhaps Frederick was known as Fred and the newspaperman assumed it was short for “Alfred?” More about that incident later…
A long article in the Troy “Times” on January 17, 1920 reported that the “summer residents and farmers” had been protesting the road’s condition for three years without remedy. Petitions were to be sent to the NYS Commission of Highways. The article went on, “the highway is much used, especially in the summer time.” A few loads of gravel had been put along the road from Pleasantdale about three miles north, “twenty loads of gravel were dumped on the road at the clay bank just north of the Koolkill. At the Schwartz farm, 22 canal boats of large stones were placed along the shore by the state..to prevent the backwater from washing out the bank.” Sections of the road were often impassable.
The situation continued….In November 1924 the Schaghticoke Town Board met at the Pleasantdale schoolhouse with local residents. Orville Bosca, described above, presided at the meeting. The town board pledged to work on the road. Two weeks later they met in the offices of the Highway and Barge Canal Department in Albany. Town Supervisor W.E. Wiley, Justices Banker, Campbell, and Sherman, and Town Clerk Richards stated the biggest problem with the road was “wash from the Barge Canal, caused by a deflection of the Barge Canal dam.” The Commissioner of the Barge Canal, Mr Fuller, of course disagreed. There was a proposal to move the road to the hills to the East. At a January meeting with Mr Fuller again, he said that such a road would cost $45,000, and the town would have to submit a bill to the NYS Legislature, and he would write it for them. Of course that was a very long shot, and did not happen. (Schaghticoke town board minutes November 17, 1924 and January 26, 1925)
On April 17, 1925, “the River Road Improvement League” met at the schoolhouse in Pleasantdale, 100 persons “ ‘enthusiastically indignant’ at the inaction of the town board toward improving the hazardous condition of River Road.” Oliver Bosca was elected Permanent President. The group donated money and hired an attorney to represent them. Inspectors, all farmers, were named for each section of the road from Troy to Hemstreet Park. Of course farmers had a huge interest in having adequate roads to get their crops to market. Chris Johansen was in charge of District I, from the city line to “the Horseshoe.” Daniel Collins inspected District 2, from the Horseshoe to the current Lock 1 dam. Charles Snyder was in charge of District 3, from the dam to “Guest’s corners”. (I don’t know where that was for sure- perhaps where Calhoun Drive meets River Road?) W.R. Hasbrouck, who lived just south of the junction of River and Allen Roads, had from there to Hemstreet Park.
In May 1925, a Committee from Pleasantdale and Hemstreet Park again met with the board, led by Orville Bosca, who called for “immediate relief.” (Troy Times May 5, 1925) Other committee members were Christian Johansen, H.B. Simons, Charles Martin, Theodore Sisson, Edward Collins, Willard VanVeghten, W.R. Hasbrouck, James Connolly, and Fred King. VanVeghten, Martin, Hasbrouck, and Johansen were all farmers on River Road. Connolly was a carpenter in Hemstreet Park. Sisson was an insurance agent in Troy and owner of the pavilion. They were named a legal commission to study the road. In August 1925 the town began work on the road, using heavy equipment including a steam shovel, and Hudson River gravel. L.E. Gleason was the foreman on the job. I think that Louis Gleason (1874-1944) lived on 4th Avenue. He was both an electrician and worked in the water works, as well as being a summer resident of Pleasantdale. (Schaghticoke Town Board minutes) I find it so interesting that the committee was a combination of small businessmen, farmers, people from both ends of River Road, full-time and part-time residents.
Of course, the work the town did on the road, called “permanent”, was no such thing. Town Attorney John P. Taylor looked into the whole situation again a couple of years later, discussing solutions with the State Canal System, the County, and the State Highway Commissioner. In January 1929, he suggested that the board accept a proposal by the State to “rip-rap” 700-800 more feet of the banks near Champlain Lock No. 1 in a “good, substantial, and workmanlike manner.” The state would not be responsible for damage to the road caused by the banks on the east side of the road slipping. In July the NYS Highway Commissioner suggested that the town apply to make River Road a county road.
Pleasantdale is the southeastern section of the town of Schaghticoke- part of the town from 1788-1819, then part of Lansingburgh until 1900, when it was restored to Schaghticoke. It is a totally residential area today, with small homes. The town used federal money to improve the water and sewer systems of the area in the 1980’s.
Big changes came to what is now Pleasantdale after 1904. As I have written earlier, as of 1900, most of the area was the Lansing farm. Edward Lansing and his sister Alida Dickson owned a farm of about 110 acres, centered on their farmhouse at the corner of current River Road and Tampa and Marion Avenues. For at least fifty years, they had allowed social and civic groups to hold picnics in “Lansing’s Grove” along the Hudson River. People could take the trolley north through Troy to its terminus at the barn next to the bridge across to Waterford, where Hannaford is now, and walk about a half mile further north along the Hudson River to the grove. Edward, Alida, and her husband Alexander, elderly people, all died in 1904. None of them had children, and there was a controversy over their wills for some years.
In addition to having picnics in Lansing’s Grove, even while the Lansings owned the property, people had erected temporary and perhaps not-so-temporary summer camps along the river. Boaters created docking places, and had shacks to stay in on the shore, on both sides of the Hudson. “The Hudson River, from the federal dam at Bond Street (in Troy), to dam 1 of the Champlain Canal, a distance of more than six miles, ……(has) excellent boating facilities.” (Troy Times, May 22, 1918)
In 1915 the Lansing will was settled, and the farm was sold at public auction on February 10. The land had been divided into three parcels: the grove of 27 acres, and two other parcels of about 54 and 27 acres. The Troy “Times” reported that “a large crowd …attended the sale and the bidding was spirited and occupied an hour.” The bidders were Samuel A. Moody, a real estate speculator from Boston; and three Trojans: J.K.P. Pine, owner of a huge collar factory, now Standard Manufacturing in Lansingburgh and of a gentleman farm at the junction of River Road and New Turnpike Road; William Rochester, owner of a candy factory; and Francis H. Wager, owner of an insurance business and a brush factory. Moody was determined to win. At first he just bid on the grove parcel, Pine, Rochester, and Wager on the other two. The total of the bids was $6,750. As the men all began to bid again, Moody “stopped all bidding by loudly calling $7,000 and the entire property was knocked down to him.”
1915 map in the Rensselaer County Courthouse
By June, Mr. Moody had had the whole area surveyed and divided into lots. Ads in the Troy newspaper advertised “building lots, camp lots, river lots, bungalow lots”, ranging from $19 to $99. Purchasers could use a payment plan, with no interest for two years. One of the ads said “250 Lots sold in Three Days.” Moody had arranged for free trolley cars leaving from 3rd and Congress Streets in downtown Troy at 2 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, and gave out presents to those who came to look. The newspaper advertised many, many individual lots for sale over the next ten years, as purchasers bought and sold.
As the ad implied, purchasers were divided between those putting up simple summer cottages, and those building year-round residences. The Troy “Times” of May 1, 1918 stated, “Quite a building boom is on at Pleasantdale-on-Hudson [as it was called], formerly known as Lansing’s Grove…the place has developed into a fair-sized village and has about 75 buildings already built. Plenty of ground allows the making of gardens…”
Each year, the Troy newspaper noted that people were opening their camps for the season in May. In 1917, the “campers” formed the Pleasantdale Welfare/Community Association, which aimed “to beautify the property” and to control the public access to the boat landing. It also planned to arrange public entertainment, such as a patriotic field day, and to improve the bathing beach and the boat landings. The first President of the group, Samuel Taylor, was a machinist in Lansingburgh. The 1923 President was Louis Gleason, a foreman at the waterworks, who also lived in Lansingburgh.
An article in the Troy “Times” on July 12, 1924 announced that the new officers were John G. Rommell, President; Fred C. Waters, Secretary; Chris Johansen, Treasurer; Y.A. Kadura, Chair of the Entertainment Committee; and Mrs Joseph Faden, Chair of the Social Committee. The Treasury had $50. The next meeting would feature a social and entertainment in the auditorium, which was only for members of the association and their friends. All of these officers except for Chris Johansen, who was a farmer on the outskirts of Pleasantdale, were summer residents. Rommel had a painting and decorating company but was listed as a musician as of the 1925 census, when he was 52 years old. Waters and his family lived in Watervliet, where he was a railroad engineer. I believe that Y.A. Kadura was a member of a Japanese family which “camped” at Pleasantdale. And Lydia Faden and her husband Joseph lived in Watervliet.
A summer theatrical colony developed, which put on musical programs all summer, after 1923 in a new pavilion. Perhaps the pavilion was what was referred to as the “auditorium”, cited in the preceding paragraph. An article in 1923 implies that the performers were professionals on vacation, just keeping their hands in for the summer, and going back to the stage in the fall. Joseph Faden was the chair of a minstrel show in 1923. I believe he was a machinist at the Watervliet Arsenal, living in Watervliet, so not an actor himself. The show featured a Japanese family which had been camping at Pleasantdale for several summers. In fall 1923 there was a farewell party for the campers, a masquerade at the camp of Lewis J. Lyons and his wife, featuring Mrs Elsa Lyons Cook, “a former grand opera singer.”
Sporting events were also important to the summer entertainment. Young men, 18 and over, formed a baseball team, which played teams from Waterford, Melrose, and Schaghticoke, among other places. The members were mostly clerks who lived in Lansingburgh. Clearly there was a baseball field somewhere in the old grove. Beginning in 1917, there was a yearly 1000- yard swimming race in the Hudson River, based at Pleasantdale. The 1922 race advertised the participants were the “cream of swimmers of the Adirondack section,” who were in “keen competition.” (August 23, 1922) “To reach the landing, swimmers should board the red line car and alight at the Lansingburgh car barns, and walk half a mile to the bathing beach.” As I said earlier, the car barns were located at the current Hannaford Supermarket. Older readers may remember the original barns, which were converted into discount department store J.M. Fields. I shopped there c. 1980.
The North End Rod and Gun Club had been established near Lansing’s Grove in 1904, in what was called Coveville. It was still active in 1917. An article on May 7 reported that 25 members had gathered to open their camp, holding a chicken dinner and a program of music. Pleasantdale even hosted a boxers’ training site. In 1925 Solly Green trained Carl Courtney, a professional boxer known as “the Oklahoma Kid,” for a fight at the Troy Stadium. (August 24, 1925) There was also a YMCA camp there for several years. “There is a good place [in the Hudson River] just south of Pleasantdale with a sandy bottom and not deep where many learners go to bathe. Near the camps further up the river are swimming spots…at Weber’s, Campbell’s Island, and Collin’s Island.” (Troy Times May 22, 1918)
The new full-time residents of Pleasantdale also organized around a number of common issues. In 1920 they held a community meeting and petitioned the town of Schaghticoke to form a new school district for their children. The Schaghticoke “Sun” of July 16, 1920 reported that District 15 had been set off from District 6, and that the town had voted to spend $7,000 on the site and the school. The town did form the district and the school was built in 1923-1924. Ads in the newspaper in fall 1923 solicited bids for the septic tank and a waterproof concrete floor for the basement. The architects were Louis Niles Milliman and Frank J. Morgan, local men both. I will report more about them later.
Pleasantdale school in 2022
The residents formed a Parent Teacher Association at once. In November 1924 (Troy Times, Nov. 19, 1924) Mrs Samuel Allison and Mrs C. Campbell went to the NYS Education Building to find ways to improve conditions at the school. They learned about use of a projecting lantern and slides, among other innovations. They were also planning a Christmas party along with the firemen of Pleasantdale. As of the 1925 NY Census, Mrs. Allison, Adelaide, was 42. Husband Samuel, 48, was a carpenter, born in Ireland. Adelaide was a native of England. They had three children and lived on Hillcrest Street. Mrs. Campbell, Martha, 53, and her husband Harvey, 53, a gardener, lived on Campbell Street. Their only child was 28, so she must have been involved for the good of the community.
Mrs. Allison was also the President of the PTA in 1924. Other officers included Mrs. Lillian Blair, whom I believe was the wife of George, an air brakeman. They lived on Lansing Avenue. Miss Stella Muckle, 22, one of the teachers, was Treasurer. She lived on 1st Avenue in Lansingburgh. Members included Mrs. Bertha Remington, 34, the wife of Alpha, 33, a gardener, who lived on Campbell Road, and Mrs. Elizabeth Quackenbush, 44, the wife of William, 38, a boilermaker. They lived on Semple Street.
A second community issue, easier to solve, was the creation of a new election district for Pleasantdale. A delegation from Pleasantdale led by farmer Chris Johansen and L.E. Gleason attended the Town Board meeting of December 28, 1923 to ask for one. They said there were about 275 voters in the district. In 1900, when future Pleasantdale and Speigletown became part of the town of Schaghticoke, the combined areas had had just sixty voters. The Town Board passed a resolution at once, with the boundaries to be established as soon as possible, including the area of the new school district 15, except the part north of the highway leading from Thief’s Hollow to Speigletown- today’s Irish Road. Preliminary work on the new district was done at the July 1, 1924 Schaghticoke Town Board meeting.
History of the Town of Schaghticoke 