Andrew Billings: Silversmith Silversmithing is the art of taking silver and other precious metals and making them into objects such as jewelry and serving wares. The golden age for silversmiths is said to be the 17th and 18th centuries. Elaborate pieces were handcrafted by some of the greatest artists the world has ever known. In the late 18th century, Andrew Billings was Poughkeepsie’s own silversmith, and while his name is not as well-known as Paul Revere’s, his story has some similarities. Andrew Billings was born in Stonington, Connecticut in 1743. By 1773, he had established himself as a silversmith in what was then known as the Village of Poughkeepsie. Right about the time he had set up shop, Billings (like Paul Revere) became concerned with King George’s treatment of his Countrymen, and decided to volunteer his services in the Revolution. Billings signed up as a private and worked his way up to be Captain in a 2nd New York Regiment commanded by General Peter Gansevoort. He served throughout the war and even corresponded with the likes of George Washington and Henry Knox. When the war was over, Billings returned to Poughkeepsie to continue his silversmith business. He had also married into [...]

Arnout Cannon, Jr. - Poughkeepsie’s Architect *Content warning-this post discusses an incident involving suicide. Several prominent architects got their starts here in Poughkeepsie, and we are fortunate to have benefited from their work. Notable figures like Percival Lloyd, William Beardsley, Jay A. Wood, and Arnout Cannon, Jr. left their marks all over the city of Poughkeepsie. Some of these buildings are long gone, some are standing, and others are being restored for future use. Arnout Cannon Jr. was one of the most well-known names in local architecture, and he created some beautiful pieces, even though his life was filled with pain. Arnout Cannon Jr. was born on August 3, 1839, in Poughkeepsie. He was one of five sons of the prominent builder Arnout Cannon Sr. He learned carpentry at a young age before heading off to New York City to study architecture under Frederick Draper. But before Cannon Jr. began his serious career in architecture, he served in the Civil War in the 128th NYS Volunteers. In 1862 he joined as a sergeant and two of his brothers also served in the 150th--also known as the Dutchess County Regiment. When he got back from the war, he was able to start [...]

Carving Out a Legacy: George Edmund Bissell Think about all of the monuments and statues you have seen in your life. Each one of those pieces had an artist that came up with a design and painstakingly sculpted it. Now ask yourself, how many of those artists can you name for those statues that you’ve seen? The City of Poughkeepsie had a resident artist who sculpted memorable pieces all over the world, and yet his name seems to be forgotten. His first statue is located at the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery, and today you can find his works at auction for thousands of dollars.  George Edmund Bissell was born on February 16th, 1839, in New Preston, Connecticut. As he was preparing to enter higher education, the Civil War broke out and he enlisted with the 23rd Regiment of Volunteers in Waterbury, Connecticut. He served as a private until 1863 when he assumed the role of assistant paymaster for the US Navy until the end of the war. After the war, he returned home and married Mary Elizabeth Welton, and together they started a family. They traveled to Poughkeepsie, along with George’s father Hiram and brother Henry, where the family began a marble [...]

Smead Mausoleum: The House That Delia Built...and Rebuilt  When we ask ourselves what we really want in this life, many of us can say we’d like to be independently wealthy (but let’s face it, that’s not going to happen). Unless you are lucky enough to have been born into a wealthy family, or marry into a wealthy family, or win the lottery, you’d better get used to working! For Delia Smead, she did manage to get this lucky, she got a job which led to a wealthy marriage and finally her own financial independence. However, she appears to have had a bit of a mental breakdown somewhere along the way because most of the articles that we can find about her concern her odd behaviors and brief stays in the asylum. Delia was born Delia Bridget Smith in Ireland on April 23rd, 1836. There doesn’t seem to be much information about her early life, and in later years it looks as if she changes her birth date on different passport applications and census records. It is difficult to say exactly when she was born and how she ended up here in Poughkeepsie. On her 1887 passport application, it says that she [...]

Helen Wilkinson Reynolds: Our Patron Saint of Local History It has occurred to our personnel here in the Local History Room that not everyone knows who Helen Wilkinson Reynolds is. We feel like we need to change that, so we’ll start with a little blog post. For anyone who delves into local history, whether it's searching for information on your Dutchess County ancestors, or admiring an old Dutch house here in the area, Helen Wilkinson Reynolds probably had something to do with whatever information is available to you. She was well known in the area for her passion for researching, writing, and sharing whatever history she could find. Afterall, acquiring knowledge is useless unless you are willing to share it with the community, and Helen did that for over 30 years.   Helen was born at 341 Mill Street on December 9th, 1875, the daughter of John Richardson Reynolds and Jane Hewitt Wilkinson Reynolds. The home where she was born has since been demolished, but it had served as the home of her grandfather, George Wilkinson, the second mayor of Poughkeepsie. Today her obituary seems more like a nod to all of the history that she uncovered rather than a history of [...]

Doctor Sara Josephine Baker: Fighting for Life In 1890, two men from the same household died from typhoid fever, only a few months apart. Sadly, this was not uncommon. What makes their deaths so special is that their loss of life inspired a young girl to change her goal of studying liberal arts at Vassar College, to going to medical school and becoming a doctor. In her mind she needed to do this as quickly as possible in order to financially take care of her remaining family, and to find a way to stop people from dying from useless diseases like the one that killed her father and brother. She was only 16 when she made this decision.  Orlando Baker was one of Poughkeepsie’s most prominent and respected lawyers. He had married Jenny Brown, one of the first students to enter Vassar College, and they lived at 31 South Clinton Street. Together they had three children, Mary, Sara Josephine (who everyone called Joe), and Robert. As Orlando’s practice was successful, life seemed to be going well for the family. The family was wealthy enough to have servants, and the children were all going to school. However, in March of 1890 the [...]

Murder on Main Street - Part One If you watch the nightly news you are probably aware that there is a lot of gun violence out there. It seems like a regular occurrence in major urban areas like New York City. However, violence can happen anywhere and at any time. If we look back in history there have been plenty of vicious crimes that have taken place even in our neck of the woods. One need only scan through the rolls of microfilm within our collections to find mentions of shootings, stabbings, and unsolved ax murders that go all the way back to the 18th century!  Fela Palick was a woman who couldn’t seem to get what she wanted in life. Historical records indicate that she appears to have been married-off around the age of 10 when she moved from Lithuania to Russia in 1911. In that marriage she had two children, though one died in infancy. When her family came to America they moved to Chicago, and it wasn’t long before she divorced her first husband and moved to the East Coast. She moved around in the years surrounding World War I with a series of jobs and partners. She [...]

More Long Lost Buildings of Poughkeepsie: The Reynolds Houses on Mill Street Thank you to all of the Local History Nerds who attended our program on the Long Lost Buildings of the City of Poughkeepsie, you were a lovely audience! In the presentation we discussed how much the city has changed over the years, and how many lovely buildings we have lost. Today, we are going to look at a couple of the ones we missed! You can find all sorts of great old photographs of Poughkeepsie’s buildings on our Main and Market Page, which is where we have two photos of the Reynolds family homes that once stood on Mill Street. Present day Columbus and Mill Streets would not be recognizable to the Reynolds family or anybody else who happened to be living in that neck of the woods over a century ago.  You may remember reading a little bit about the Reynolds family in a previous blog post, where we talked about the William T. Reynolds company. Well, it just so happens that we have a couple of photos of the homes where William and his family lived, which are now gone. Photo-01 shows two houses side by side. [...]

The Poet with the Annoying Husband Did you know that April is National Poetry month? It's a time to celebrate the great poets and poems that have left an impression on our minds. Did you also know that the woman who was once known as the “Poet Laureate” of Dutchess County, tried to have her husband removed from her farm for being an annoying squatter? (Seriously, we can’t make this stuff up) She wrote poems about America’s victory in World War I and about her very famous neighbors, the Roosevelt family, particularly President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Emma Victoria Pitkin Marshall was certainly a poet and a character worth remembering.  She was born Emma Victoria Pitkin in Brooklyn in 1866. She moved to Dutchess County in 1896 and purchased a farm in East Park with her uncle, Mr. Albert Simpson. They called their new homestead ‘Pinehenge’ and together they worked from the ground up on harvesting fresh vegetables and producing homemade cheese which was sold at the markets in Poughkeepsie. When she wasn’t working hard in the fields or milking cows, she somehow found time to write poetry. She produced her first pamphlet of poems in 1912 and was inspired to write [...]