by Shannon Butler
Recently in the Local History Room we have been transcribing the ledgers of the Vail Photography Studios. These ledgers allow us to put names to faces in our collection of thousands of Vail photos that, until recently, have been unidentified. The ledgers are quite helpful with names and sometimes even addresses attached, but every once in a while, you come across something that makes you ponder. As seen in the image to the right, the ledger shows us mostly common names with the exception of one entry, #9577, simply marked “Boots.” At first, I thought perhaps this was the name of a pet, as Vail studios was known to photograph dogs and cats from time to time. So, being the animal lover that I am, I thought we would check the number and see who “Boots” was. As you can see from the photo, #9577 is no pet, but an oddly dressed man!
For those of you researchers out there, you will know that putting a common word like ‘Boots’ into any search engine will give you a ton of results and wear down your patience but nevertheless, I persisted. A search in Newspapers.com (narrowing my window to local newspapers and a time frame of 1865-1885) finally yielded something, a mention of “The Kingston Orator” named Boots Van Steenburgh. It mentioned how he was going to give his annual 4th of July speech and that the manuscript was 15 feet long! So with this new clue, I was able to do a search for Boots Van Steenburgh and discovered way more than I ever imagined. Tobias “Boots” Van Steenburgh was born in Kingston, in his family’s home somewhere around 1828, (one of the few houses to have survived the famous burning of Kingston by the British army in 1777). He apparently was “tall and good looking and fairly well-to-do” but that would all change in 1853.
Boots, (who earned that nickname because he always wore tall leather boots) had heard about the Swedish singing sensation, Jenny Lind and so he traveled down to New York City to see her perform. Poor Boots was transformed. He wanted to meet Jenny but was pulled away by security (didn’t know they had such problems in the 1850s). He came back up to this area a changed man. It would seem that if he couldn’t have Jenny, he didn’t want anything else either. Friends noticed he began to change, his words and clothing were different somehow. He was soon referred to as “friendly and harmless” but definitely an eccentric. He became famous for his long and oddly entertaining speeches, some papers clearly enjoyed making fun of him like the Buffalo Enquirer which called him “the famous Hermit Lover of Jenny Lind” and the Poughkeepsie Journal once named him “Rear Admiral Boots Van Steenburgh.”
He tramped his way around the area making speeches wherever he could. Local schools, court houses, festivals, and of course 4th of July celebrations. In 1883 he made his way down to a celebration in Newburgh where he wore ribbons of red, white, and blue, and apparently “he was quiet for the first few hours after his arrival but on reaching the vicinity of the reviewing stand on Grand Street, his patriotism bubbled over and he entertained the crowd with a patriotic and poetic glorification of the Star-spangled banner.” He proclaimed that he could not afford an American flag so he made one instead (sounds like a fun craft we can all try on this holiday weekend).
In 1894, the Poughkeepsie Eagle proclaimed “many of our residents imagine the eccentric Boots Van Steenburgh dead. Boots is still alive and delivered an oration to a large audience in Saugerties on July 4th.” There was even a postcard made of him (which can be found on eBay) which refers to him as “the old hermit of the Catskills.” He is mentioned in the book Teacup Tales by Pauline Hommell where she says that they found him dead in his cabin in May of 1898, lying in bed with a smile on his face as if he finally got to meet his beloved Jenny Lind.
It is funny what you discover just because something seems odd (and as it turns out, it was very odd indeed). We managed to uncover a local celebrity of sorts who went on to become famous just because he was weird and a patriot, and we managed to find this guy right before the 4th of July (good timing!).
Image of Jenny Lind – https://www.loc.gov/resource/pga.07285/
Resources:
Newburgh Centennial: The Peace Celebration of October 18, 1883. Newburgh Daily Journal’s Account of the Observances
Kingston and Ulster Townships by Susan Wick and Karl Wick
Teacup Tales : Folklore of the Hudson Valley by Pauline Hommel – Local History Archives 398.3 H
Poughkeepsie Journal Aug 1865
Buffalo Enquirer Oct 15 1900
Vail Photography Collection – Local History Archives, Poughkeepsie Public Library District
