By Shannon Butler Studying history can be incredibly enlightening, while also full of holes and dead ends. Sometimes the records that we hope to come across in our research have actually been lost to time, and our questions go unanswered. Sometimes we need to look beyond the well known facts, and take the time to examine the little details that are often overlooked in order to get a better understanding of our past. If we do this, we discover that there is history in every detail and in every object. Nobody knew this better[...]

By Bill Kleppel Life on Poughkeepsie’s Main Street during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was frenetic and teeming with activity. The lifeblood of the city flowed through this arterial, transporting and distributing everything that was needed for Poughkeepsie to survive and thrive. It expanded exponentially during this period, developing its own culture that reverberated beyond its Hudson River banks to the rest of the World. It may seem hard to believe, but it really did. This era of Main Street has long since died. Yet, bits of its skeletal carcass remain. If you walk[...]

By Shannon Butler Poughkeepsie has always been a place of growth and change, and despite what some may believe, it's never really been the kind of place that stays entirely frozen in time. Here in the Local History Room, we are always working on research projects that we intend to turn into programs that showcase different aspects of Poughkeepsie’s history. My most recent dive into the past is taking me back to the beginning, when things were slow to grow, and are now hard to understand, mostly due to a lack of proper documentation.[...]

Hannah and Storm Coach & Saddlery Hardware, 427 Main St. (1860) By Bill Kleppel Like newspapers and maps, village and city directories were once vital references for everyday life. From a historical perspective, these relatively modern conveniences are now being erased, in real time, by the explosion of the Information Age. For some people, this is a sad state of affairs. These handy and ever-present tools from yesteryear are being pummeled out of existence by the evils of cyberspace. Here’s a special message for you boomers and other “olds” out there. The changeover is[...]

By Shannon Butler You’ve been asking for a new walking tour, and it’s in the works! When you open the July-August Rotunda you will find mention of a walking tour on Dwight Street and Hooker Avenue. This is another historic district in the south end of the City of Poughkeepsie, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. In this tour we will look at the homes that were constructed between the 1890’s and the early 20th century. One of the most common questions we get in the Local History[...]

By Shannon Butler If you walk down Academy Street, you will see some lovely houses that represent the Victorian era. Among the people who lived in these homes were the big names of Poughkeepsie business and culture, such as Adriance, Smith, and Hull. Another name comes to mind that might not be as familiar, though it's quite likely that you have played the game he invented; that name is Butts. The family had been in Dutchess County since the mid-18th century and moved to Poughkeepsie when the city was booming with life and opportunity. That[...]

by Bill Kleppel We left you at the end of Part I in November of 1859. The patriarch of the Bodey family had vanished in a blizzard close to where he had struck gold in the western hills of El Dorado, California… ….Meanwhile, Back In Poughkeepsie A flood of catastrophic events engulfed the rest of the Bodey’s. The Death of William A. O. Bodey William A. O. Bodey was born on November 5, 1843. On December 18, 1852, William and his friends went ice skating on Lent’s Pond in Poughkeepsie. Two of the friends[...]

Ogden Bodey While researching Civil War era veterans from the 150th New York Infantry Regiment, I stumbled across Ogden Bodey.  His family story is so incomprehensible and tragic that I felt the need to share it with you. It features war, the California Gold Rush, a sudden disappearance, a Wild West boomtown and its demise, and an unfortunate litany of random deaths within one brood that is brutal in its magnitude. Ogden Bodey was born in Poughkeepsie on June 1, 1846, to Waterman S. Bodey and Sarah Wolcock Bodey. In 1862, Ogden enlisted into the 150th[...]

by Bill Kleppel In 1824, John Bolding was born enslaved in South Carolina. On August 24, 1851, he was a free man working as a tailor in Poughkeepsie. On August 29, 1851, John Bolding was held before a Federal Law Commissioner in New York City. This commissioner would determine if Bolding was free to live his life with his family, or if he was the property of Robert C. Anderson of Columbia, South Carolina. The concept of time is occasionally confounding and unfathomable. The Emancipation Proclamation was enacted into law 160 years ago in 1863.[...]

By William Kleppel It’s a cold and stormy winter night. You’re carrying a candle up the flight of stairs to your second floor study. The flame flickers and you realize someone has left the window open beside your desk! You shut it quickly, grab a quilted blanket, and drop into your chair to read. Earlier in the day, you stopped by the local bookshop and happened upon a small world atlas. It was printed by the store’s owner, and the editor of the Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, Paraclete Potter. Flipping through the maps, you dream of far flung adventures to[...]

by Shannon Butler If you are interested in the American Civil War, like me, perhaps you have seen the 1989 film Glory, starring Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, and Matthew Broderick. The film takes a close look at the famous 54th Massachusetts Regiment; the first regiment of African American soldiers to fight in the Civil War. The regiment took heavy casualties as it tried and failed to take the confederate stronghold of Fort Wagner, just outside of Charleston, South Carolina, in July of 1863.  Even if you’re not a history nerd you should check out the movie just for the[...]

by Shannon Butler Adriance Memorial Library just celebrated our 125th anniversary and we wanted to wish a happy anniversary to our partners in local history, the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery! This week the cemetery is 170 years old and still looks as beautiful as ever. We thought it would be nice to share some of the details of its early history and inform you of a very special installation at the cemetery: a Día de los Muertos ofrenda (altar), on display until November 15th. The remembrance of life and the mourning of the dead is handled quite differently from culture to[...]

In this blog post, we decided to look at an interesting piece of dog history. Twenty twenty-three marks 215 years since the New York State Legislature decided that all dog owners must make sure that their dogs have collars and that their family name (meaning the owner’s) is visible on that collar. Is this a very random piece of history? Yes, it is. Did you know this random fact? Probably not.