Everyday Woodstock History
Richard Heppner, Woodstock Town Historian
I recently bought a new computer. My old Mac was two operating systems shy of being up-to-date and, of course, there were all those bright and shiny apps I was sure I needed. (Though my wife did ask, after seeing the charges,” how many photo apps do you really have to have?”) While sitting down to a new computer is nice experience (usually), cleaning out the old computer, as everyone knows, can be a chore. That said, as I undertook exploring the various nooks and crannies of my old hard drive, I began to reacquaint myself with several small files I had saved over the years that related to our town’s history. Much of what I found consisted of what I call “everyday history,” mostly small snippets about Woodstock that were found in old newspapers or stories I had heard over the years. Other files contained notes to myself concerning curious bits of information I had run across that might, some day, prove useful. And, while none of the files related directly to any earth-shattering event in Woodstock history, I dutifully gave each file a name I was sure to remember (and, of course, never would) and saved them in some soon to be forgotten digital cubbyhole.
As I began to review many of the files, however, I also began to see why I had saved them in the first place. Over the years I have come to appreciate the importance of “everyday history” and the role it plays in holding the chapters of Woodstock’s story together — and how seemingly unheralded events — the day-to-day, if you will — serve to move the calendar forward. From a distance, history can seem motionless. And yet, when examined more closely, there is much to be found within the daily life of a community. “Everyday History” is where real lives live. It’s the people we see each day trying to do the best they can for themselves, their families and, through some mystical process of osmosis, advancing our community at the same time – or at least trying to. Whatever the outcome, whatever results are created by such actions — no matter how insignificant they might seem within the grand scheme of things — the everyday history of the present becomes the daily substance that fills the void of time between our self-proclaimed milestones.
And so, in no real order of significance, what follows are some of the “everyday” stories I found squirreled away on my old hard drive. While it is more than likely that you may not have heard of every event or person referenced here, each, in their own way are examples of history as daily life. Of Woodstockers, if you will, making their own history.
– In 1906, according to a note I saved while researching and writing the history of the Woodstock Fire Department for its centennial celebration, the Kingston Daily Freeman took time to note that Woodstocker Louise Scully had 498 chickens ready to go to local markets. In August of that same year, it is more than likely that a few of those birds found themselves an integral part of a Lutheran Church chicken dinner that also included: baked beans, pot cheese, smoked beef and pickled tongue.
– In 1907, Woodstock - always ahead of our time - voted to go “dry,” some 13 years before the 18th amendment ushered in the era of prohibition. Voters reaffirmed that decision again in 1909 and 1911. While it is a little unclear who or what the main impetus behind the law was — though there was an active Prohibition Party in Ulster County at the time — what is clear is that while folks in the village itself were decidedly against going dry, those in the outlying hamlets held sway when it came to supplying the necessary votes to remove alcohol from Woodstock’s various inns, hotels and retail establishments
As a result of the decision to make Woodstock a dry town, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that bootlegging and the illegal sale of alcohol soon followed. Unfortunately, for the owner of the Woodstock Hotel (which was located on the corner of Mill Hill Rd and Rock City Rd.), agents from the “Citizens League” were a little better at sniffing out bootleggers than he was at disguising his activities. So it was in June 1910 that, according to the Kingston Daily Freeman, league agents conducted a search and seizure operation at the hotel and turned up “about one thousand bottles of beer, one hundred and fifty quarts of whiskey and several bottles of wine and gin.”
– In 1917, when the lithographer Clarence Bolton first arrived in town (and long before the advent of Short Term Rentals), the future proprietor of The Nook - which later became the Espresso - and publisher of The Clatterer - paid $4 a month to live over top of “Wash” Wilber’s garage.
– For those who might lie awake at night wondering what the early artists ate at Byrdcliffe when Ralph Whitehead presided over the colony, toss and turn no more. Within a file named “Byrdcliffe Food,” I found a note I had written regarding a ledger stored in the archives of the Historical Society of Woodstock. The original ledger documents sales at the Wolven & Shultis meat market, once located in the center of town. Within the ledger, are two pages dedicated to the account of Mr. Whitehead. A sampling of purchases made during the month of August, 1919, includes the following (and those of you of vegetarian persuasion might want to plug your ears): on August 1, 1919 the record shows the purchase of one leg of lamb; on 8/6 — one steak and one leg of lamb; 8/18 — one pot roast and one porterhouse steak; 8/19 — one leg of lamb, one roast beef and a steak; 8/26 — one porterhouse steak, one pot roast and one rib roast. And the record goes on in similar fashion. They seem to have eaten well up on the hill
– When there is an emergency in a small town it’s important to have good neighbors — and maybe a shotgun in the house. At least that is what Robert Johnson, and his family found out on the evening of July 8, 1935 when, following an extended period of heavy rain, they saw their small Bearsville home suddenly surrounded by the Sawkill Creek. When the foundation began to buckle and a bedroom started to sag, Mr. Johnson realized it was time to escape the flooding. Unfortunately, he had waited too long — and that’s where the shotgun came in. Firing successive shots into the air in the hopes that someone would hear it, Johnson’s wish came true when, out of the darkness of the night, the Schrader brothers (Gus, Victor and Hanno) appeared on the other side of the swollen creek. Recognizing there was little time to waste, the brothers, according to the Kingston Freeman, quickly returned with a 60 ft. rope and, after numerous attempts at throwing the line across the stream, Johnson was finally able to retrieve it and secure it on the other side. With their other end of the rope tied to Hanno Schrader’s car, the brothers, using the rope as a lifeline, preceded to wade into the chest high water and pass the three Johnson children — ages six months, two years, and four years old — across the stream to safety. Next, they managed to get Mrs. Johnson across. Then the family dog. And, finally, Mr. Johnson himself greeted and thanked the Schrader brothers on the other side.
– In 1937, Woodstock celebrated its 150th anniversary. A portion of the promotional material assembled in honor of the sesquicentennial included the following description of the town’s general make-up and its inhabitants, “It [Woodstock] includes men with beards, ballet dancers, farmers, flute players, business men, actors, poets, restaurateurs, potters, writers, weavers, painters, press agents, politicians, lawyers, historians, illustrators, cartoonists, philosophers, sculptors, remittance men, educators, theatrical producers, wine merchants. Its weekly Market Fair is more a social event than an occasion for making purchases. It supports a summer theatre and a winter sports association. It is as cosmopolitan in its thinking as it is in its social make up. It nurses Republicans and Democrats, Communists, Fascists, Socialists, Anarchists and Technocrats. It worships at seven separate and distinct churches.”
– In September 1949, and as a reminder of where we are today - Woodstockers went to the polls and approved the building of a new elementary school by a vote of 369-54, ending, once and for all, the era of one-room schoolhouses in Woodstock. The new school would include six classrooms, a teacher’s room, a library and a combination gymnasium/auditorium. The cost of the new facility was not to exceed $235,000.
– So it was, in that same combination gymnasium/cafeteria that the Woodstock boys’ varsity basketball team defeated a team from Esopus, 72-67 on a January night in 1952. At the time of their victory, the team, with such hardwood mavens as Bill Harder, Carl Van Wagenen, Herb Waterous and Joe Holdridge was having a pretty good year. Following their defeat of Esopus, Woodstock’s record stood at 15 and 3.
The arrival of the 1960s seems to have caught my attention for, among the files I found saved, were references to three separate events that took place during the first month of the new decade that would change so much.
- Apropos of this being election time I would note that in an the organizational meeting held by the Woodstock Town Board in January 1960, the following salaries were announced: Town Supervisor — $3,800, Town Councilmen — $480 each, Town Justices — $1,200 each, Town Clerk — $3,800 and Highway Superintendent — $4,200.
– Also in January 1960, approximately 1000 people jammed into the Woodstock School for the dedication of the new post office on Tinker Street. The dedication featured a performance by a fifty-piece band from the United States Military Academy. The newly constructed brick building was hailed by a representative of the Postal Service as, “the most beautiful of all the post offices built in the state in the last twelve months.” (I think that was a compliment.)
– Just two days after John Kennedy was inaugurated as President, the Woodstock Democratic Club hosted a talk by Gore Vidal at Deanie’s Restaurant. Described as a “new, brilliant young playwright” by the Kingston Freeman, Vidal proclaimed that the nation had entered the political age of “pious platitudes and creation of fake ‘public images’ through high priced Madison Avenue techniques.”
– And finally – as the Sixties moved on - a September 1964 story in the New York Times attempting to examine Woodstock’s cultural scene at the time, concluded with the following: "One more thing: The visitor who comes here to see the artsy craftsy-looking crowd will not be too disappointed. There are a few kooky characters left, and they can be viewed most any time on the outdoor terrace of the Cafe Espresso, perhaps they are legitimate artists, but they may also be I.B.M. people on their day off.”
And on it goes…
