The solid old German burgher William Beckman came over from his native
Rhine in 1647, and went sailing up the Hudson, his Fatherland memories
being delighted at the sight of a noble hill on the eastern bank,
opposite Rondout Creek. He settled there, building a house, and behind
the hill started the town of Rhinebeck, a combination of his own name
and that of his native river. This well-known Rhinecliff stands up
alongside the Hudson, much like a vine-clad slope bordering the great
German river, and is adorned with the ancient Beckman House, a stone
structure built for a fort and dwelling. Famous estates surround
Rhinebeck. Here is Ellerslie, the summer home of Levi P. Morton,
formerly Vice-President, fronting the river for a long distance. The
Astor estate of Rokeby, which was the home of William B. Astor and his
son William Astor, is north of Rhinebeck, the house, surmounted by a
tower, standing in a spacious park about a mile back from the river.
Rokeby was a noted place in Revolutionary days, the home of General
Armstrong, whose daughter married the elder Astor. Here is the
Fleetwood estate, with its old house, built in 1700, having the
"cannon-room" in front, with a port-hole facing the river. Here are
Wilderstein and Grasmere, the home of the Livingston descendants, also
Wildercliff, built by Rev. Freeborn Garrettson, one of the founders of
the Methodist Church in America, its name signifying the "wild
Indian's cliff." Garrettson was educated in Maryland for the Church of
England. As a matter of conscience he afterwards espoused the cause of
the Methodists, then in their infancy, entered their ministry, freed
his slaves, and preached the gospel of Methodism everywhere,
declaring his firm faith in a special Providence, and often proving it
in his own person. Once a mob seized him and was taking him to jail,
when a sudden and overpowering flash of lightning dispersed them, and
he was left unmolested. In 1788 he came to New York in missionary
work, and was made Presiding Elder of the district between Long Island
Sound and Lake Champlain. Coming to Clermont, among his converts was
the sister of Chancellor Livingston, and he married her in 1793,
shortly afterwards building his house at Wildercliff. This was long a
home for Methodist clergymen, his daughter continuing his hospitality.
Another historic estate, just above Rokeby, is Montgomery Place, the
home of another Livingston, the widow of General Montgomery, who was
in the colonial attack upon Quebec, by Wolfe, and afterwards, in the
early days of the Revolution, led a forlorn hope against Quebec, and
perished as Wolfe had before him. His young widow lived here a
half-century, and her brother's descendants now possess it.
Krueger's Island, on the eastern shore, discloses in a grove a
picturesque ruin, with broken arches, specially imported from Italy by
a former owner of the island to give it a flavor of antiquity. The
Catskills now rise in grander view, the Plattekill Clove comes down
out of them, and Esopus Creek from the south flows into the Hudson.
The Dutch called this Zaeger's Kill, which time corrupted into
Saugerties, a pleasant factory village built behind the flats at the
creek's mouth, and having the Catskills for a splendid background.
Opposite, on the eastern bank, is Tivoli, and near here is located the
parent estate of these historic homes. Robert Livingston came from
Scotland to America in 1672 and married a member of the Schuyler
family, who was the widow of a Van Rensselaer. He was a patrician of
high degree, of the family of the Earls of Linlithgow, and seeking a
home in the American wilderness, settled on the Hudson. He first lived
at Albany, and being Secretary to the Indian Commissioners, he
acquired extensive tracts of land fronting the river, which afterwards
became the basis of great wealth. In 1710 these lands were
consolidated under one English patent, giving him a princely domain of
one hundred and sixty-two thousand acres for an "annual rent of
twenty-eight shillings, lawful money of New York," equalling about
$3.50. This "Livingston Manor" gave him a seat in the Colonial
Legislature, and he built his manor-house upon a grassy point along
the Hudson River bank, at the mouth of "Roeleffe Jansen's Kill,"
flowing in a few miles north of Tivoli. The greater part of the manor
descended to his son Robert, who built a finer mansion there, known as
"Old Clermont," which the British burnt during the Revolution. In this
house was born the grandson, the famous Chancellor of New York, Robert
R. Livingston, who had so much to do with guiding the course of the
State in that momentous era. He built the present Clermont mansion on
the river bank above Tivoli. It is on a bluff shore, a grand estate
surrounding it, and sloping gradually up to the hill-tops stretching
to the horizon behind. This estate extended back originally to the
Berkshire hills. The full glory of the Catskills is spread out in
panorama before this noted mansion, with the distant hotels perched on
the mountain tops.
Chancellor Livingston was sent Minister to France, and when he
returned he brought over merino sheep, introducing them into this
country. His great honor as a man of science comes from his connection
with Fulton's steamboat experiments. He met Fulton in Paris, and was
closely connected with the first steamboat on the Hudson, which in
fact could not have been built without his aid. By the help of
Livingston's money, Fulton in 1807 built this steamboat in New York,
naming her the "Clermont" in his honor. The experiment was publicly
derided as "Fulton's Folly," but he persevered and succeeded. The
"Clermont" was one hundred feet long, twelve feet beam and seven feet
depth. In September, 1807, she made the first successful experimental
trip from New York to Albany in thirty-six hours, charging the
passengers $7.50 fare. She afterwards made regular trips, and on
October 5, 1807, the _Albany Gazette_ announced: "Mr. Fulton's new
steamboat left New York on the 2d, at ten o'clock A.M., against a
strong tide, very rough water, and a violent gale from the north. She
made a headway against the most sanguine expectations and without
being rocked by the waves." Chancellor Livingston in Jefferson's
Administration negotiated the cession of Louisiana by France to the
United States, and ripe with honors, he died at Clermont in 1813.