The Ulster County Fair Agricultural Museum at the Ulster County Fairgrounds
The sign at the entrance of the museum
Display outside the entrance of the museum
The Ulster County Fair Agricultural Museum is one of the more interesting and detailed agricultural based museums I have seen. The museum houses an extensive collection of farm equipment that includes machinery for the fields, milking equipment including how to milk a cow properly and the progress on egg hatchery and production. The museum highlights these changes especially in the last hundred years.
The main gallery of the museum
The main part of the museum was dedicated to farm equipment from the early plows and hoes to the changes in the modern day tractor.
The early hoes both hand and horse drawn
The changes in tractors for farm use over the last century
All sorts of businesses were on the farms from egg hatcheries to dairy farming were shown in their early stages at the museum.
Early dairy farming and milking cows
Milk jugs for fresh milk
An early egg hatchery and sorters
The museum also displayed other business that farmers could make money from including ice cutting for ice boxes. All sorts of equipment was on display for this early money making industry.
The ice carving industry
Life on the farm was not so easy for women either as cooking, washing and cleaning were all chores left to women while the men worked in the fields. All foods were made from scratch from farm produce and water for cooking, washing and bathing came from wells and springs and sometimes needed to be boiled. Work in the household was never finished and took many hands to do.
The farmhouse kitchen
Life on the farm included travel to and from church, going to town and travel to the cities for visits to the markets. Carts and carriages were the mode of transportation back then before automobiles. Even today in some communities this is still a mode of transportation.
Carriages and wagons for transportation
Working in the fields and the yields produced kept changing as modern equipment became part of farm life. Gas powered and electric equipment changed the way the modern farmer produced crops.
Modern sorters and weights
The gas powered saw
The members who run the museum were working the gas run engines and were demonstrating equipment used over the years. Members were showing visitors how these machine work and there purpose on the farm.
The outdoor gas powered equipment
The gas powered equipment
The inside of the museum had all sorts of displays on working on the farm. There was the equipment to cut the law, sort the crops and maintenance on the farm.
Sickle mower
The gas powered machines for maintaining of the farm and fields
The Ulster County Historical Society at 2683 Route 209
I visited the Ulster County Historical Society in Kingston, New York recently and found it to be a very interesting packed with information on both county and New York State history. The historical Bevier House was set up into different galleries.
In the main gallery which must have served as the family’s living room and parlor room was the “Leaving Bishop Falls” exhibit by artist Kate McGloughlin, who shared the story of how her family either sold out or were forced off their land when New York State used the area as a reservoir for drinking water for New York City. Her art told the story of her family’s love/hate relationship with the situation and how some of the family still deal with the incident. I thought it was interesting that she was a 12th Generation New Yorker.
The Main Gallery
What was once the Dining Room is now the Portrait Room, with many family portraits and of local citizens from the Museum’s collection. This room is also used for lectures.
The Portrait Gallery and lecture space
The Portrait Gallery
The Portrait Gallery has period pieces to them with various tables, armours and pottery and china pieces of the time period. The portraits reflect that time period as well.
The back part of the house is the period Dutch Kitchen which was remodeled from the more modern kitchen it had become over time as the family moved into modern times back to the original kitchen. The fireplace is filled with tea kettles, pots and pans that would have been used for cooking, a bedwarmer and various items that cooks and housewives would have used to make the family meals. There is even a bed in the kitchen which I took as something that was needed in the colder months.
The Dutch Kitchen
The pewter and pottery in the Dutch Kitchen.
A folding bed in the kitchen.
The room to the back displayed farm equipment and materials needed in the Blacksmithing and Blue Stoning industries that were once part of Ulster County. The farm equipment reflects the rural past of the farm land that used to surround the house. This is where the family made their money.
The farm tools display
The Farm tool display
The Blacksmithing Display
The Blue Stoning tools for mine blue stone for homes.
Then to the back of the house are the stone gardens loaded with all sorts of wild flowers and colorful flowering plants. This path leads to the old family barn that is now on private property. The gardens are a nice place to relax and unwind on a sunny afternoon.
The Stone Gardens in the summer months.
The side of the house with the stone gardens.
The gardens on the side of the house.
The home is an example of life on a farm at that time period and the family who put a lot of care in their home for generations. The care that the historical society has brought to this house is reflected in the displays and exhibits. The volunteers do a good job telling this story.
The Special Exhibition at the museum:
LEAVING BISHOP FALLS — AN ASHOKAN STORY MAY 13 – OCT 29, 2023
The entrance of the exhibition “Leaving Bishop Falls”
Construction of the Ashokan Reservoir, part of New York City’s water system, flooded communities long established in the Esopus Valley. That action reverberates in our community today.
Artist Kate McGloughlin shares her family’s history in the area.
The work of artist Kate McGloughlin, a 12th– generation county resident, captures the sense of loss her family still carries from the seizure of Bishop Falls. Her kin, and many like them, were forcibly removed from their land at Bishop Falls.
The artist’s descendants
Kate’s painting and printmaking tell the story of her people, acknowledging their loss and finding solace in the beauty of the Ashokan landscape.
The main gallery with her works.
The exhibition asks us to reflect on our own family stories and how they resonate in our lives today.
The works of Kate McGloughlin
Map of the location of the family land and community lands taken away.
The History of the Ulster County Historical Society:
(from the museum’s website)
The Ulster County Historical Society is the oldest historical society in New York State. It was established in 1859, largely through the efforts of State Senator George C. Pratt, Commanding Colonel of the 20th Regiment, New York State Militia (80th NYSV). Col. Pratt was mortally wounded 1862 at the Second Battle of Bull Run. With his death, the Society became dormant until 1898, when an enthusiastic group led by Judge G.V.D. Hasbrouck revived it.
The Bevier House plaque
Throughout the history of the UCHS, the mission has been twofold. The society’s primary responsibility has been to act as curator and collector of significant Hudson Valley artifacts, documents, and cultural items. The donation of the Bevier House as museum space helped the UCHS to achieve this goal, and we currently house several fine collections of artwork, furniture, and culturally significant documents. Additionally, our library within the museum allows for researchers to access documents, land records, maps, town histories, letters, and diaries of interest to this area of the Hudson Valley. Please contact info@ulstercountyhs.org with any research queries.
The Bevier Family tree and patent
The second goal of the UCHS is to educate our community and the public on the very important role that the Hudson Valley, and particularly Ulster County, has played in the formation of our great nation. Through a variety of programs centered around our current exhibits, we encourage participants to engage with and explore their local and personal histories.
A copy of the permit to maintain and run the local highway.
The rate of the tolls on the road that the family collected.
The History of the Van Leuven/Bevier Homestead:
(from the museum website)
The sign that welcomes you.
The Ulster County Historical Society is proud to have the Bevier House as its headquarters. The Bevier Family donated the building in 1935 to serve as a meeting space and to house the collections of local historical artifacts stewarded by the UCHS.
The Bevier House in the summer of 2023.
The home site was first settled in the 1680s and began as a one room structure, constructed by Andries Van Leuven. It may have reflected the Dutch tradition of positioning the gable end toward the street. In 1715, Louis Bevier of the New Paltz Patent purchased the property for his third son Louis and wife Maria Hasbrouck.
The family barn (which is not part of the Historical Society property)
The site remained in the Bevier Family for the next 223 years and provided a successful income from farming. The home grew and was improved with most changes occurring between 1840 and 1890, when much of the U.S. was experiencing rebuilding and reconstruction after many years of turmoil.
The stone garden on the side of the house.
The house gardens and well in the summer of 2023.
The final major change that occurred in the house was the Dutch kitchen remodel in the 1970s, in conjunction with the Bicentennial.
The Dutch kitchen brought back to its original form.
The Ulster County Historical Society is a perfect way to understanding Dutch farming life at that time period in Ulster County, NY.
The Washington’s Headquarters State Historic Site in Newburgh, NY
I spent an afternoon exploring the Beacon/Newburgh area with all its historical sites and homes and my last stop was the Washington’s Headquarters State Historical Site in Newburgh, NY. Surrounded by a quickly gentrifying neighborhood it really showed me the progress this area has made and how the site keeps reinventing itself. It shows this site’s resilience.
The Hasbrouck family farmhouse was General George and his wife, Martha’s home for over sixteen months.
For sixteen and a half months, the site was used by General George Washington, along with his wife Martha, his aides, guards and free and enslaved servants. They used the Hasbrouck family’s Dutch-style farmhouse as their home and headquarters. It was the longest time they spend at any military headquarters beginning in April of 1782 and ending in August of 1783 as the Revolutionary War was drawing to a close (Palisade Interstate Park Commission).
I was able to take the last tour of the day at 4:00pm and our tour guide was excellent. She really knew the history of the site and gave us a comprehensive tour of the home and the time before and after the war. We went room by room in the Hasbrouck family farmhouse and she described how the family had utilized the house and then how General Washington and his wife and staff used the home during the war years.
I started the tour in the Museum Building, which is a Federal style building that was erected in 1910 to house the collection of artifacts from that period. The collection includes the only surviving section of the boom that stretched across the Hudson River at West Point (Palisade Interstate Park Commission).
The main gallery housing equipment and the surviving piece of the boom.
The Boom that protected the Hudson River
The piece of the boom that survived and was dredged from the river in the late 1800’s.
The second gallery had the video history of the site and how Washington’s troops advanced in the area. It also went over the last years of the war and the progress American troops made.
The Video Gallery at the Washington Headquarters site.
The sign of the historic site.
After the tour of the museum on my own, we started the tour of the Hasbrouck family homestead. When we approached the house, you could see where the house was added onto from the original footprint. At the top of the doorway, we could see the cornerstone where the family name and year of the building of the house was built.
The cornerstone to the home with the family name and date.
Jonathan and Tryntje Hasbrouck built this Dutch style farmhouse between 1750 and 1770. They raised their family and ran their business here. The property stretched from the banks of the Hudson River to about two miles inland for a total of almost 200 acres. After his passing in 1780, his wife ran the home and the business successfully for the rest of her life (Palisades Interstate Park Commission).
The outside of the Hasbrouck family home. Notice the addition to the home.
The house itself has none of the original family furnishings but many period pieces including General George Washington’s desk from another location.
George Washington’s desk from another location that was brought here.
We started off the tour in the family kitchen and dining room which was one big room with a walk-in fireplace. The room was broken into sections as the food would be cooked in the giant fireplace and served at the family table off to the side. As more people visited the home, an area off to the side was used for plating and serving.
The Hasbrouck’s and Washington’s Dining Room
The walk-in fireplace for cooking and the dining space.
The plating area of the dining room that would be used by the Washington’s.
We next entered the battle room, where all the enlisted men would be doing all the General’s office work, correspondence and paying bills. Everything was done by hand and if multiple copies needed to be made, it was more work for the men working there.
The War Room where the enlisted men did all their work and corresponded with the troops and other officers.
General Washington’s office was off to the back. This is where all the strategic work of the war was performed and where General Washington worked with his staff.
General Washington’s office during the end of the war.
Once you passed through the front foyer again is where the enlisted men slept, two per bed which the tour guide said was uncomfortable for the men. Only in the summer months when half the staff was on leave could they sleep one per bed.
The enlisted officers sleeping chambers during the war years.
The three rooms on the other side of the house were used as the Parlor, where the Washington’s would entertain visiting dignitaries and guests. This was right off the main kitchen area.
The Parlor where the Washington’s entertained visitors and dignitaries.
The next two rooms were used as the Washington’s bedroom where we all noticed that the bed was so short. The guide informed us that even though George Washington was over six feet, people slept sitting up at that time as they considered it healthier.
The Washington’s bedroom
The next room over was the servant’s room where the free and enslaved servants would sleep and attend to the needs of the Washington’s. It looked to me that Martha contributed more than just entertaining the troops. She must have been the ear that her husband needed at wartime.
The Servant’s room
What I thought was interesting is the stairs going up did not lead to a second floor. The tour guide said that this was in the Dutch tradition of not having a second floor considering the Hasbrouck’s had ten children. She said only later on did families finish the house and construct the upstairs. Once the house tour was over and the tour guide answered all our questions, we were able to tour the grounds for the last hour before the park closed.
The property looking down the Hudson River to Bannerman Castle.
On the property was the Tower of Victory, which President Lincoln’s son built in honor of the Hundredth anniversary of the war. It was closed for touring. The details of the tower were really beautiful with the eagles adorning the sides of the building and the beautiful stonework.
The Tower of Victory sign
The “Tower of Victory”
The views of the Hudson River were breathtaking. On this beautiful sunny afternoon, you can see all the way into Beacon across the river and look as far down river as Bannerman Castle. Everything was so clear and beautiful from this site and you could see all the surrounding area. You could see why they picked this spot as the strategic headquarters for this part of the war.
The Minuteman statue on the property.
Artist Henry Hudson Kitson sculpted this statue and the Minute Man statue on the town green in Lexington, MA. These monuments commemorate the citizen-soldiers whose selfless bravery and sacrifice made this country possible (Palisades Interstate Park Commission).
Artist Henry Hudson Kitson was a British born artist who was educated at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. He was known for his military statues (Wiki).
Visiting a Museum: The Unique, Unusual, Obscure and Historical 