Local History by Dede Terns-Thorpe - A Few Local Tidbits

A few interesting tidbits. We’ll start with the area’s mail routes back in 1837. (Kingston Freeman)

Six days a week the mail carrier left Catskill at 4 am and arrived in Stamford at 2 pm.

He left Stamford at 8 am and arrived back in Catskill by 6 pm. From Catskill he went through Irvingsville (Palenville), East Hunter (a village in the Kaaterskill Clove), Tannersville, Hunter, 

East Lexington, Lexington, to Prattsville, thirty-six miles and return.

From Catskill he went 48 miles to Leeds and Cairo before reaching Stamford, 48 miles and back, 6 times a week.  On Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays the carrier went to Acra, 

South Durham, Union Society, Osbornville, Windham, Scienceville (Ashland), Prattsville and Mooresville. An additional weekly mail run was required on the Windham route during 

the season of steamboat navigation on the Hudson River.

Tidbit 2

Marius Schoonmaker, in his “History of Kingston,” relates this incident about the passage of the first steamboat on the Hudson River.                                                                                         A little boy, seeing the boat come along, cried out in amazement to his mother. “Mama, come; come; come and see the wagon go through the River without horses.”

The magnitude of the proportions of the hotel and boarding house business in a favorite region is just beginning to be fully comprehended. In Hunter, which is situated in the very heart of the Catskills, alone, there are 125 summer resorts, the proprietors of which say that in the aggregate nearly 5,000 people can be accommodated. 1889

Tidbit 4

Where the attractions of the Catskill can be said to be the most thickly massed is at Kaaterskill Park. In this magnificent domain are the Hotel Kaaterskill, the Old Mountain House, the Laurel House,               Kaaterskill Falls, Bouler Rock, Palenville Overlook, the Rip Van Winkle House, North and South Lakes, and Inspiration Point. Daily Freeman. July 13, 1889.

Thanks so much for reading.

Stay well, be careful, and have a good week.

Dede Terns-Thorpe/Hunterhistorian@gmail.com