Upon the Hudson River's "Long Reach" is the favorite locality of the
winter "ice-boat races," this exhilarating sport in boats on runners
speeding over the ice, before the wind, being much enjoyed. A few
miles above Poughkeepsie the reach comes to an abrupt termination, in
the bent and narrow pass, where the cliffs compress the channel and
form the crooked strait known as the Crom Elbow, the Dutch and English
words having the same meaning. Above, the western shore for a long
distance is lined with apple orchards and vineyards, while the eastern
bank for over thirty miles is a succession of villas interspersed with
hamlets. Moving northward, the noble Catskill range comes into full
view, gradually changing from distant gray to nearer blue, and then to
green with the closer approach. Along the river for many miles, where
these magnificent mountains give such a grand front outlook, there are
a series of old Knickerbocker estates, many occupied by the
descendants of the early settlers. Here was the princely home of the
late William B. Dinsmore of Adams Express Company, a business begun in
1840 with two men, a wheelbarrow and a boy, Dinsmore being one of the
men and the late John Hoey of Long Branch the boy. Dinsmore built his
gorgeous palace on the Hudson--and died. On the western shore is
Pell's great apple orchard, shipping the fruit from twenty-five
thousand trees all over the world. Some distance above, the Rondout
Creek comes out through a deep gorge, having the twin cities of
Rondout and Kingston nestling among its bordering hills. They have
together over twenty-five thousand people. This was the outlet of the
abandoned Delaware and Hudson Canal. Kingston Point, the mouth of the
creek, was the place of earliest Dutch settlement in this part of New
York, where they called it Wittwyck, or the "Wild Indian Town," and
for defense built a redoubt, whence come the name of Rondout.
The historic city of Kingston spreads back to Esopus Creek, a short
distance inland, and was the Esopus town of colonial times, the name
coming from the Indian dwellers here, meaning "the river." The old
"Senate House" of Kingston, built in 1676, was the first meeting-place
of the New York Legislature, and it now contains a collection of Dutch
and other relics. The Esopus Indians broke up the original
settlements with a terrible massacre, but Huguenot refugees came and
re-peopled the place, and during the Revolution Esopus was such a
"nest of rebels" that when the British came along in 1777 they burnt
it. This punishment was inflicted because it was made the capital and
the first New York State Constitution had been framed here during the
preceding February. The tale is told that the British landing to burn
the town scared a party of Dutch laborers, who briskly scampered off.
One of them stepped on a hay-rake, and the handle flying up gave him a
sharp rap on the head. Being frightened more than hurt, and sure that
a Britisher closely pursued him, he fell on his knees, and imploringly
exclaimed, "Mein Gott, I give up; hooray for King Shorge!" Kingston is
a great producer of flagstones and manufactory of Rosendale cements,
made from a fine-grained, hard, dark-blue stone, which is broken,
burnt in kilns with coal, ground, and then prepared for market. Mixed
with clean sharp sand, this cement becomes in time entirely impervious
to water, and has all the strength of the best natural building
stones.