fbpx
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Print Edition
    • Get Home Delivery
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Customer Support
    • Submit A News Tip
    • Where’s My Paper?
  • Subscribe to Our Newsletters
    • Hey Kingston
    • New Paltz Times
    • Woodstock Times
    • Week in Review
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial
Hudson Valley One
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
Hudson Valley One
No Result
View All Result

Reading, writing & religion in West Saugerties

by Cynthia Werthamer
January 14, 2021
in Local History
0
Reading, writing & religion in West Saugerties
Bobby Miller (photos by Dion Ogust)
Bobby Miller (photos by Dion Ogust)
Jeanne Fellows with one of her old school books
Jeanne Fellows with one of her old school books

Note: Since this story was first published in 2014, four of those interviewed have passed away: Sally Ann Zollo, Bobby Miller, Charles “Bub” Bach and Marie Post. We’re thankful they were able to share their recollections of a Saugerties that is gradually receding into history.

West Saugerties was a place where children received a memorable education— both in school and in church. Like other hamlets, there was a one-room schoolhouse near a modestly sized church. It was an education both worldly and spiritual, conveniently situated.

“It was a good education because as a young student, you were learning your ABCs and at the same time you were watching the older children,” says Jeanne Marie Fellows, 71. She was a member of one of the last classes in the West Saugerties one-room schoolhouse on the corner of West Saugerties and what is now West Saugerties–Woodstock Road. “You were always aware of what they were doing. You were always looking ahead.”

Fellows and her family attended the Blue Mountain Reformed Church, down the road and around the corner from the schoolhouse. Sunday school, too — for Fellows, her two sisters and two brothers, it was as mandatory as Monday-through-Friday classes. “They were very similar kinds of education,” Fellows recalls.

Indeed, from the earliest days of Saugerties, education and religion went hand-in-hand. The Palatines — German-speaking Protestants who came to the Hudson Valley in the early 1700s to avoid religious persecution — built a school in 1710 “even before they built dwellings for themselves,” according to Benjamin Myer Brink’s 1902 Early History of Saugerties. “From the very first settlement of the town the education of the young was attended to,” and schoolhouses existed “in every settled locality” within town borders by 1763.

Rev. Henry Ostrander was a catalyst for both of these community pillars throughout Saugerties. The pastor at the Katsbaan Reformed Church on Old Kings Highway for 50 years, from 1812 to 1862, Ostrander also conducted services in the hamlets of Saxton, Malden, and elsewhere, including Blue Mountain Reformed Church, which served West Saugerties. According to Brink’s history, Ostrander “agitated” for a “classical” school for advanced education “almost as soon as he came into the town” in 1812. He started the town library with 700 volumes in 1814 and organized the first Sunday school in Saugerties in 1818.

The one-room schoolhouse districts defined the hamlets that now bear their names— Plattekill, Blue Mountain, Pine Grove, Katsbaan, and so on. The schoolhouse that housed the West Saugerties pupils, now located on private property, still has a large piece of slate that served as a blackboard and a few holes in the floor where the desks sat. The wooden walls bear the carved initials of long-ago students, and the coal bin storage has become a kitchen. The school had a deep, dependable well with very good water, says Post: “When our well went dry, the girls would walk down and get water from that schoolhouse well.”

Fellows recalls that, both in school and at church, “We learned from watching the older kids. That was the beauty of it.” Marie Post, Fellows’ mother, agrees with her daughter. “They all sat together around that old stove and the older kids would help the younger kids and watch out for ’em.”

Charles “Bub” Bach remembered of the West Saugerties schoolhouse (which was “the only school I ever went to”): “We got too big for the little seats. We had to teach the younger kids at tables in the back. We had one teacher. If there was snow, the janitor would come in and get the fire going, and if the teacher wasn’t there, she would tell us to get our books out and start reading. The janitor was my father’s aunt.”

Post and Fellows remember Grant D. Morse, superintendent of the Saugerties schools for nearly 40 years until his retirement in 1963, making annual visits to each of the one-room schoolhouses. “It was such a special event, and the children would dress in their Sunday best,” Post recalls. “He would sit and listen to classes, and the students would be so excited about his visit. It meant the world to them.”

When he retired, the Saugerties High School yearbook honored Morse “for his absolute integrity, his complete devotion to his work and the high standards which he always maintained. We feel that to dedicate The Sawyer to Dr. Morse is peculiarly suitable for he acted as its advisor for a great many years and was largely responsible for its continuous growth until it has become one of the outstanding yearbooks of the state.”

Page 1 of 2
12Next
Tags: egWest Saugerties Series
Join the family! Grab a free month of HV1 from the folks who have brought you substantive local news since 1972. We made it 50 years thanks to support from readers like you. Help us keep real journalism alive.
- Geddy Sveikauskas, Publisher
Previous Post

Hudson Valley Rail Trail Association to host moonlight walk on the trail

Next Post

The return of Woodstock Chamber Orchestra

Cynthia Werthamer

Related Posts

The Elena Letters: A 19th century portrait across three generations
Local History

The Elena Letters: A 19th century portrait across three generations

September 15, 2023
One of America’s oldest blacksmithing meetups is this weekend in Ulster County
Entertainment

One of America’s oldest blacksmithing meetups is this weekend in Ulster County

September 14, 2023
Sturgeon Pond Hydro-Electric Dam, Bartlett pears, the steamship Minnewaska and more from the headlines 100 years ago
Columns

Sturgeon Pond Hydro-Electric Dam, Bartlett pears, the steamship Minnewaska and more from the headlines 100 years ago

September 14, 2023
Warren G. Harding, a 3 ¼ pound bass and a coal strike were just a few of the topics in the news 100 years ago
Columns

Warren G. Harding, a 3 ¼ pound bass and a coal strike were just a few of the topics in the news 100 years ago

August 13, 2023
The last man to know Hervey White
Books

The last man to know Hervey White

August 10, 2023
Historical Society of Woodstock presents Goin’ to Town
Local History

Historical Society of Woodstock presents Goin’ to Town

August 4, 2023
Next Post

The return of Woodstock Chamber Orchestra

Trending News

  • Famous hairstylist taking appointments at mini-festival in Kingston this weekend 1k views
  • Smoking marijuana could become illegal again in many New York areas 0.9k views
  • Alleged overcrowding on a morning BOCES bus has Saugerties parents up in arms 880 views
  • Legendary rock royalty performs in Woodstock this weekend 724 views
  • Gilberto Nunez, Kingston dentist acquitted of murder but convicted on other charges, set loose 568 views
  • Woodstock seeks righteous zip-code annexation  556 views

Weather

Kingston
◉
54°
Cloudy
6:47 am6:47 pm EDT
Feels like: 52°F
Wind: 7mph NNE
Humidity: 82%
Pressure: 30.36"Hg
UV index: 0
WedThuFri
68/46°F
68/54°F
64/55°F
Weather forecast Kingston, New York ▸

Subscribe

Independent. Local. Substantive. Subscribe now.

×
You have free article(s) remaining. Subscribe for unlimited access.
View Subscription Offers Sign In
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Print Edition
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
  • Subscribe to Our Newsletters
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial

© 2022 Ulster Publishing

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Contact Us
    • Customer Support
    • Advertise
    • Submit A News Tip
  • Print Edition
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
    • Where’s My Paper
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Log In
  • Free HV1 Trial
  • Subscribe to Our Newsletters
    • Hey Kingston
    • New Paltz Times
    • Woodstock Times
    • Week in Review

© 2022 Ulster Publishing