Newburgh Heritage

No social distancing in 1896

By Mary McTamaney
Posted 3/26/20

One of the most iconic images of Newburgh is the one shown here. It has been seen in various publications – in print and online – but it always surprises those who encounter it.

Just …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in
Newburgh Heritage

No social distancing in 1896

Posted

One of the most iconic images of Newburgh is the one shown here. It has been seen in various publications – in print and online – but it always surprises those who encounter it.

Just how many people could squeeze into the city center back in the days when our central business district was narrow and tightly built? The answer is approximately 10,000. That is the figure local and regional newspapers estimate as the crowd size assembled for the dedication of a special monument.

On October 6, 1896, the statue of native son George Clinton was dedicated in a ceremony that the whole city turned out to witness. In the illustration here, taken by a photographer standing on a Water Street rooftop, citizens gather to see the unveiling of a statue they were proud to have purchased for the triangular intersection known until then as Colden Square. In that spot where Water, Colden and First Streets intersected, a small park marked the spot where Newburgh’s first roads crossed leading to the riverbank docks and wharves. Everyone passed this spot in the general commerce of the town.
At the dedication ceremony, one speaker reminded the crowd that the Colden Street gore (the 18th century name for a triangle of land surrounded by thoroughfares) should be revered as the ground over which our local militia and General Washington’s troops marched often during the Revolution to use the continental ferry docked just below that spot. In this picture, a large American flag drapes the statue and the gathered crowd would soon see the statue unveiled when George Clinton’s great-great-great grandson pulled the cord that held the flag in place.

The man posthumously honored that day in 1896 was born on a farm in Little Britain in 1739 and later owned his own farm on the Newburgh-New Windsor border. As history has called George Washington the father of our country, George Clinton has likewise been called the father of our state. Indeed, the two men were personal friends and had very parallel careers. George Clinton rode with Washington to his first inauguration as president. Clinton’s career began when he entered the army (then the British army) as a teen. Like George Washington, he fought in the French and Indian War. He worked briefly as a surveyor then a lawyer and became a leader in the Patriot Party before war broke out. Clinton was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention where he successfully advocated for the Bill of Rights to be added to the new U.S. Constitution.

Son of an Irish immigrant who fled to America to protect his religious rights (the Clintons were Presbyterian), George was commissioned a Brigadier General leading the militia from our region. He courageously defended his native Hudson Valley against British advances and was elected New York’s first governor. New Yorkers respected him enough to give him victory in six more elections and he remained governor of New York through 1795. His seven terms as governor are the longest in state history. In his years as governor of NY, he managed the positioning of New York as the major trading port for the new nation and he initiated action to build canals that would utilize New York’s rivers for trade with the central United States (a project realized by his nephew DeWitt Clinton two decades later). In 1804, George Clinton was elected Vice President of the United States under Thomas Jefferson and again under James Madison. He died in Washington, D.C. in 1812.

When the U.S. Congress expanded its facilities in 1873, they vacated the old House of Representatives chambers and decided to turn its elegant gallery into a place to honor national heroes. Each state was asked to contribute a statue of its favorite son and New York chose George Clinton. Newburgh sculptor Henry Kirk Brown created the bronze likeness of the General, Governor and Vice President that still stands in Statuary Hall under the capitol rotunda. Seeing that beautiful statue, a local Newburgh school girl, Mary Skeels, advocated for an exact copy to stand in Clinton’s hometown. She relentlessly lobbied until sufficient money was raised to carry the idea to reality and a second casting was done.

The 10,000 people gathered downtown for the unveiling worked their way into every possible vantage point, from sidewalks and windows up to rooftops and telephone poles. They had no caution for social distancing! This month, we can live together vicariously through them, imagining their joyful shouts of celebration, and dream of the times we can have when the world is cleared of today’s pandemic. When we are free to roam again, one place to walk might be this statue, still in Newburgh, although moved after urban renewal destroyed its original park. New Clinton Square, complete with this 1896 statue, is now on Fullerton Avenue at Third Street.

Go visit and ask George to tell you about his original “birthday.”